"Chapter 7- Emerald Paradise"
It was grey inside the forgotten university. They were in the main lobby. A half circle desk was in the middle of the room that was surrounded by chairs and bookshelves. The shelves were empty but that was of little concern to Dmitry at the moment. He took a deep breath through the mask and it was hard to get any air.
"I think it's time to replace our filters Vera." He said. "Take a deep breath and remove the filter."
She did and in a moment's notice another filter was secured tightly on her mask.
"My head." Vera said with grogginess "Dmitry would you mind if I sat down for a while?"
"Sure go ahead. I have to find a way down into the station anyway." He said finishing up putting on a new filter.
He helped her to a chair behind the half circle desk and she rested her head on the desk.
"I'll be back. Yell if anything happens." He said.
She grumbled.
Dmitry checked his ammo supply. He was out of Klash ammo but still had three clips for his Bastard. Normally one can use Metro made bullets on any weapon, but he lost all of his clips for the Klash when he was fighting the mutants on the surface. He pulled the gun to his chest and walked through a door behind the desk. A long hallway lead to another room, with many bookshelves but no books on them. He carefully walked through the maze of empty shelves to find himself in the center of the place, a long table and many chairs were in front of him. A lone paper was on the table. Dmitry went to see what it said.
Makarov Khrushchev
7-5-13
They said that we would be the first to fire. I need to say this before I am evacuated into the station below. Does anyone remember that old American song called "Russians"? Well we obviously love children more than anyone since we didn't fire ours first. Heck we weren't even involved with the war in the Middle East. Why did it have to happen to you my son? You were just born, not even given a chance to live a normal life. I miss you Artyom, you and your mother.
Dmitry glanced away. There was obviously a lot of sadness that happened when the world ended. The note said a station was nearby so the entrance had to be close.
BANG!
A bookshelf fell over and it made Dmitry ready his gun. A lot of dust filled the air so the visibility was next nothing. He to backed up a bit and waited for it to finally did and nothing was there.
"Vera?" He asked but with no answer.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Dmitry heard this melody over and over. It wasn't gunfire it was the sound of hitting against the wall, and something big to.
He went to the other side of the library and found a closed door. It was chained so something was definitely on the other side of it.
As quickly as he knew it was chained, a large black arm broke through the door and ripped off the chain and slowly pushed the door open.
A tall black creature stood there. It stared at Dmitry for a moment. He was looking at horror himself when it started moving at him one step at a time, each inch its breath got louder and smelled of blood. Dmitry fired a burst at the creature and it ripped a large hole though its chest. It was unfazed and still walking slowly at Dmitry the chest healed and regenerated.
"What the…?" Dmitry yelled and fired controllably at it.
The bullets ripped through the creature like tissue and it gave a loud hissing sound as Dmitry shot its arms and legs out. The thing fell face first into the ground but it still kept coming. It managed to spring itself up and lunge at Dmitry and tackling him.
It went for his neck, as Dmitry struggled to get it off of him. He managed to grab the head of the creature and twisted its neck. The head detached and the creature stopped moving. Dmitry pushed the body off of him and stood up in a blink of an eye. He stared at the thing for about ten seconds before he realized that Vera was alone with what could be more of them running around. Dmitry rushed back to the door he came from and went through the hallway back to Vera. When he got there it was empty.
"What!" He yelled aloud. "I left her right there! VERA! Where are you?"
He heard heavy footsteps coming his way and raised his gun at a door that he missed on his way in.
"Stupid!" He said to himself thinking how he could have missed that.
The doors handle twisted and it mover forward a little then stopped. It was quiet. Then a cylinder was thrown from the cracked open door and landed at his feet.
"Oh sh-!" He couldn't finish as a burst of light and ringing noise pierced his senses.
Dmitry fell on to his back. He couldn't move, see or hear for a while. He knew that he would be killed soon.
About two minutes passed when mind cleared and he could hear muffled voices talking to one another.
"We got him." A pause "O.K. we will take him with us."
He felt his gasmask being pulled off of him and knew he was struggling for air but couldn't do anything about it until he went unconscious once again.
He woke to the feel the warmth of a blanket tucked around him and the comfort of a bed and pillow. This shook him awake as he has never felt the mattress before and has always slept on the cold floor of his station. He sat up with a head ache and tried to think of what happened. He remembered as far back as the library, that thing that attacked him. He noticed two tall glasses of water on the nightstand next to him and he gulped down one of them, not even caring if it was actually water. He looked around the room to only see the end of the bed, a door, a coat rack with his black trench coat, and a book shelf with a mirror over it and the walls, coated with dark green emeralds. Was he there, was he finally at his destination? He got out of bed and made his way to the door. He heard a sizzling sound and the sound of low talking. He put on his trench coat and opened the door to see Vera sitting at a table and eating cooked eggs and bacon that actually looked well done other that eating them over a weak fire once it got warm. There was another person there, a large woman in a long green jacket and skirt.
Vera saw him and stood up with a smile.
"Dmitry your awake!" she said.
"Where are we?" He replied
"Great to see you're alive to." She said with a smirk. "We made it. We are at emerald city!"
The large lady turned to Dmitry.
"You two were dragged from the library upstairs. Our scout team found your friend here to and she told them about you." She said.
It came back to Dmitry.
"I remember them blinding me with something, why did they do that?"
"Oh I told them you might put up a fight if they talked to you." Vera said.
"What?" Dmitry sighed.
"Now." The large lady said. "I'll go tell the council that you're awake. You two should talk about why you're here, they might throw you out. Hey eat your breakfast quickly."
She putted Dmitry's breakfast on the table and left the room.
"O, bacon!" Dmitry said to himself out loud and Vera gave a teasing smile.
He sat at the table and chewed through the bacon faster than anyone could blink an eye then went on to the eggs.
He looked at Vera who seemed bored out of her mind.
"Vera can I ask you something?" He said.
She looked confused as to what he wanted to know.
"I guess." She said.
"Back at Hansa before I met you and your father, I saw you leaving a tent with an angry man and you were crying. What was that all about?"
She sighed really heavily.
"Well I turned 18 recently and I really wanted a job to get out of my tent with my father. He told me that the fancy restaurant was hiring for a hostess and he told me that since I was the most beautiful thing in the entire Metro I was sure to get it. However, the man's daughter, Alexandria, well we never did like each other and when she heard I wanted the job she got it just because it was her dad who was hiring. So my friends told me that I should work with them and it was good money." She said.
"Oh I am sorry. You told your father you had the job at that restaurant?"
"Yes I did."
"Want to tell me what happened up there at the library?" Dmitry asked changing the subject.
"Well I dozed for about a minute, because of my headache, I thought you came from behind me. However when I turned to see three figures in old police riot gear stood behind me and asked if I need help." Vera said.
"Just like that?" Dmitry asked.
"Just like that." Vera said. "Dmitry, have some water you look dehydrated."
Knock! Knock! Knock!
Before the two could answer a tall man walked in. He was in a black and white camouflage and wearing a bullet proof vest that read Police on the chest. He looked ten years older than Dmitry and the side of his buzz cut hair was turning grey.
"I am Victor Karmin." He said "Vera, the council wants to see you and your friend now. Follow me."
Dmitry stood up from his chair and looked at Vera with a small smile.
"Why is it every time I get knocked you go and make friends with everybody in the Metro?' He asked.
She gave a little smile back and shrugged.
Dmitry turned to the man and followed him out the door.
At first Dmitry was concerned with the fact that two armed guards with those fancy AK-2012s standing walking with them, but the thought of them was quickly turned away by the glamorous city walls all coated with emeralds.
They walked down a hallway and in awe when Dmitry saw the station. They were on the second floor, which people lived on, but the real event was the main platform that was below them.
"Welcome to Emerald city!" Karmin said.
Dmitry or Vera had never seen anything like it. They had a first-hand view of the main platform from the second floor stair case.
It was like a hotel lobby covered in emerald walls. People in green robes sat in comfy looking chairs reading a book or browsing through one of the many book cases. The station was ten times as big as Dmitry's home station.
"Come now, they are waiting." Karmin said.
As much as Dmitry wanted to walk down those stairs and join the other people he followed the security guard down the hall of the second floor. There was a large door that was graded by two more solders, but it was the destination. Karmin whispered something into one of the door guard which made the guard nod and open the door.
The room through the door was like a conference room. However no one was present.
"Take a seat and wait for the counsel." Karmin said and left the room.
They sat next to each other both wondering what is going to happen.
"Let me do the talking Vera." Dmitry asked.
"O.K. but don't say anything to upset them." Vera said.
The waited for about twenty minutes till the door behind them opened. A man in a green robe and bald head came first. Then a woman, in a green jacket and sweat pants. Her face was as pretty as Vera's but with short and dark brown hair, and she looked a little older. Then a man who was dressed just like Karmin entered the room. He looked older than anyone else with grey hair and a white beard.
They all sat across from Dmitry and Vera and all three had a concerned look. The bald headed man then smiled and said.
"Welcome to Emerald City. I am called Boris Gluzhwinsky. This is Miriam Redwing and Arkady Petrovich. Now may I ask what you outsiders are doing here?"
"Oh." Dmitry coughed "I come from the station of Voikovskaya. Our water system has been tainted. We have tried to make repairs but it seems that the parts we need are unavailable in the Metro. One of our traders had heard a rumor that one exists in the legendary Emerald City."
"Voikovskaya?" Arkady said. "The station with the water plant above it?"
"Yes that's the one." Dmitry said.
"Son, it's not your stations equipment problem. It's the plant's itself."
"We figured that already. Back then no one was ready to go to the surface to find out." Dmitry said.
"Ah. However you and your friend go up to the surface alone and manage to find our city!" Boris said.
"Well we had help from friends, they didn't make it." Dmitry said.
"I am sorry to hear that." Boris said. 'Now we should discuss your stations problem."
About two hours of endless talking and questions had Vera barley awake. She admired Dmitry's commitment to helping his station. If she was him, she would have walked out of here even though they could have helped her. She couldn't help but to notice that the woman across from Dmitry kept eyeing him. She hadn't said a word yet and looked as bored as Vera was, but whenever Dmitry talked she was fully paying attention. For some reason Vera hated her.
"Arkady, these two have shown incredible feat. Do you wish to send your team to Voikovskaya." Boris said.
"I will have to inform them." He said, stood up and walked out the door.
"Wait!" Vera objected to Boris. "You guys are willing to help us when we barley trust one another?"
"Ma'am we are peacekeepers. We do not want to be stuck in the station forever. I see that in helping Voikovskaya, we will be helping the entire Metro." Boris said. "And soon we will be able to restart on the surface."
He and Dmitry stood up and shook hands.
"Thank you for helping me." Dmitry asked.
"It is our pleasure. While Arkady rounds up his men you should talk to Miriam. She can tell you the history of the city." Boris said and walked out.
Vera noticed a big smile on Miriam's face when he said and Vera casually rolled her eyes. Dmitry sat back down.
"Tell me Dmitry, what is Voikovskay like?" she asked.
"Well it's my home. I lived there since I could remember. It's really nice. We mostly farm for ourselves and trade with the rest of the Metro only when we need to."
"How is the rest of the Metro like?"
"Well I can't really say. This is my first trip out of my station. Actually Miriam could you tell me a little about yourself and Emerald City." Dmitry asked.
"Well. Back when the bombs fell I was about 5. My father was a professor and that day he brought me in to work for some sort of project he was teaching. It was the day the bombs fell, oh sometime in October if you know your months. So we went into the stations below with the others. He was happy that he brought me here with such luck. If he scheduled the project tomorrow he I would have died with my mother at home."
"So you got lucky because your dad was an egg head?" Vera interrupted.
Miriam gave her a frown and continued ignoring Vera.
"He and the other professors brought order and makeshift Government to the stations."
"It can't be as simple as that, there has to be conflict some were in the system. Did everyone just obey to the teachers running everything?" Dmitry asked.
"Yes they did. The young people attending the University was ready to start a new life, but to have it taken away in a blink of an eye, really stunts them. We did have conflicts before, but it's over now with the Council in charge. The council has three representatives. Boris who is in charge of education. Arkady is in charge of protection. He was a former police, as most of his team is. Then me I organize the farming and food so we can eat."
"Why farming?" Dmitry asked.
"Can't I just leave it at, I love food? No, well my father use to be a famer for a company that is long gone by now. It was a lot of hard work but we managed to use soil from some of the classes that focused on agriculture to organize our third station into farming only." Miriam responded.
"So your father taught farming before the war?" Dmitry asked.
"Yes." Miriam replied.
"Where is he now?"
"He died about two years ago."
"Oh, I am sorry." Dmitry said.
"It's o.k. He had a long life." Miriam said.
"So one station is for farming, what are the other stations for?
"We are in the first station that connects to the sealed off tunnel. We just call it Emerald. The next station over is called Vernandosko. Arkady trains future guards there."
The door opened and Arkady entered the room. He was holding a large bag.
"Dmitry step outside please." He asked.
Dmitry got up and went with him. When he left the room, about four guards stood in a neat line side to side. They were completely covered head to toe in black and white camouflaged bullet proof protection and a gasmask that's filter was at the side of the face. Only one didn't wear his mask and it was Karmin who walked up to them.
"Dmitry, with a unanimous decision, we all agree to help your station." Karmin said.
Arkady dropped the bag at Dmitry's feet.
"Your gear is in there, gasmask, armor, helmet and boots. You can pick up a gun when we are heading out." Arkady said. "Now go back to your room and get ready."
The heavy bag dropped to the floor and Dmitry unzipped it. Everything was in there, and the first thing he wanted to do was change is nasty boots that had been torn up during his travels and replace them with the colored patterned fresh ones. Twenty minutes passed until he was ready. His old black leather clothes were placed into the bag and as he wore his new equipment. He still wore the black trench coat, for pride or because the modifications made to toughen it and it saved his life during the encounter with the Reds. Someone knocked on the door.
"Come in." He said.
Vera came into the room with another large bag.
"You're going to." Dmitry said.
"You are not going to get rid of me that easily Dmitry!' She said. "Now get out so I can get ready."
Dmitry left the room and headed back to the council room.
When he got there Karmin was handing out weapons to his men. They all got Kalashnikovs 2012s, which were brand new weapons that were made about a year before the war and were very expensive in the Metro. Dmitry walked up to Karmin to see if he could get one.
"Sorry, but your original weapon that you came in with is being studied." Karmin said referring to the Bastard Submachine gun. "Instead, I am sure you will like this better." and gave him fully loaded along with an ammo belt with about six more clips.
"You can have that gun." Dmitry said.
He noticed that Karmin had an unusual weapon. It was long, and had mant wires attaching to what seemed to be a pump gauge. The barrel was wooden and some electrical wires were attached to it.
"What is that?" Dmitry asked.
"This old thing? Karmin said. "It's a railgun. It's very hard to make and explain that is. Only about twelve of them were made by some of the students a long time ago, before the war. In our early days we even traded some away to people in the Metro, only about five so I am not surprised you haven't seen one before."
"How does it work?"
"Well I have to keep this thing charged with electricity by cranking it up once in a while. I also have to load it up with Ball Bearing to."
"Is it powerful?"
'Yes it is. It will instantly kill a regenerator with one hit."
"A regenerator?"
"Oh. In the University above, there are a lot of mutants that were scavengers from our early days. They mutated horribly from all that radiation. You haven't seen one? Well let's stop talking about them. You won't see one now."
Dmitry kept his experience with the mutant on the surface to himself.
"Hey Dmitry!" A familiar voice said behind him.
Miriam was walking toward him dressed in a similar outfit as the rest of the solders.
"I convinced Boris and Arkady to let me go with you guys." She said.
"Don't you have crops to look after?" Dmitry asked.
"They have plenty of people looking after them. I would never pass up an opportunity to visit the rest of the Metro." She said and grabbed a weapon from Karmin.
Just as she wanted to say something else, Vera came and Miriam gave a clueless look.
"She is coming to?" Miriam asked.
"Vera can handle herself." Dmitry said.
"Let's hope so."
Dmitry turned around to Vera who seemed to be struggling with clipping on her helmet.
"This stuff is heavy." She said. "I don't see how you can be wearing that heavy coat along with it."
"Well I can see that the gear hasn't spoiled your personality." Dmitry said and clipped her helmet.
She gave Dmitry a little smile and wink as Karmin came and gave her a Klash 2012 and the ammo belt.
"You two ready?" He asked.
"Yes we are." Dmitry answered.
"Karmin." Vera asked. "How are we supposed to get to Voikovskay?"
"We are going to use an old train that heads north through a tunnel. We believe it could lead us to Voikovskay or a station around it." Karmin said.
"A train that heads north, are you sure? The tunnel isn't on the map and I have never heard of it." Dmitry asked.
"It's an old Government tunnel that connects into Metro-2. Would not be on any map and since you never heard of it that means it must connect to a station that your people don't occupy."
"O.k. then lets head out."
"Alright follow me."