Chapter Nineteen: Part of the Family

Artyom returned to his room in Sector Б3, it was one of the smaller divisions of the bunker in which there was an existing row of barracks rooms. The room he had been assigned was a small single-person room on the bottom level of a two-story enclosure. He stood in the doorway for a few moments, looking over his organized but cluttered space. His favorite pair of black combat boots was still drying on the radiator in the corner, and all his postcards and photos were hung on the back wall above his bed. All but one - the one of the large green statue with the pointy crown that Hunter had given him. That card rested on one of the shelves that hung above his desk, and now, he had another of the Ranger's tokens to add to it.

He took a step further inside and turned on the desk lamp, it had a dim yellow bulb but Artyom was of course grateful for such a luxury. Holding up the prized cartridge in his palm, he suddenly wondered if the small scrap of paper was still inside – the very message that Hunter had asked him to deliver to Melnik. Had the Colonel disposed of it after reading its contents?

Sinking down onto his narrow military cot, he scrutinized the cap of the cartridge and found that it unscrewed from the rest of the casing. Carefully winding it around so as not to drop the pieces once it separated, he opened the capsule and saw the paper inside. He drew in a deep breath, subconsciously holding in his anticipation as he wiggled it out into his hand. The slim strip of paper was folded lengthwise and rolled up to fit inside the cartridge. Artyom flattened it out carefully, knowing that the precious words inscribed upon it may have been the last ones that the noble Hunter had ever written.

"Colonel, I am to contend with the 'Dark Ones' at the Botanical Gardens alone. If I do not return, you know what to do. Take care of the kid who brings this to you – you will need him. – Hunter."

Artyom re-read the note several times, one reason being that the hasty scribbling was hard to make out but also because he was trying to determine exactly what Hunter had meant when saying that Melnik would need him. Did Hunter know something about Artyom's mental link with the Dark Ones or that it would serve some kind of purpose in the mission to destroy them? In Artyom's mind, all it had done was confuse him and make every step of that expedition more difficult, as he was always second guessing his reasoning. Had this been Hunter's way of saying that Artyom was to be his replacement? He was ashamed to admit that he didn't know the legendary Ranger as well as he thought he did – not well enough to understand the subtle meanings behind his short and cryptic sentences.

Letting out the held breath in a long exasperated sigh, he fell backwards onto the cot and closed his eyes. Without looking down at his hands he managed to stuff the note back inside and seal the capsule, tucking it into his breast pocket. Perhaps he might show it to Ulman later as see if he could determine any further meaning from it. Or, if he was able to see Aleks again, she might be willing to compare her note with his own. Besides the signatures, he wondered if there were any similar sayings written in her capsule. Had Melnik allowed her to keep it?

He sat up suddenly, wondering where she might be at this time and how long it had actually been since they had parted ways. What time was it now? He checked his watch; twenty minutes to midnight. It had been a lot longer than he thought it had been, since they had arrived at D6 just before five o'clock. Feeling his stomach rumble, he next understood that he hadn't eaten anything since breakfast at Kuznetsky Most. He recognized that he had quite the bad habit of getting caught up in arbitrary chaos for hours and days without a proper meal in between. Melnik had been right when he told him to get some food. He had almost a fatherly bearing over Artyom, and although the line between caring mentor and stern commander was blurred at times, he was appreciative of the concern.

Well, if going to get some dinner was an order, Artyom couldn't refuse it anyway. He smiled to himself at the entertaining thought and went to turn the light out before leaving his room again. At the last moment before turning the switch on the lamp, he noticed Aleks and Senya's pistols lying on his desk. He let his fingers slip over the surface of them both; Senya's pistol was a scratched up Tokarev, and might have been a family heirloom as that model hadn't been in service for a number of decades. Aleks' Makarov pistol was the same as what the military and police forces had been using before the end of the world, although upon closer inspection it looked as if the silencer she had attached to it had been made in the Metro. He gathered up her weapon and placed it in his own belt holster, mentally noting to return it to her when he saw her. He hoped that would be soon.

Leaving the room in darkness, he closed the door and headed for the central hall. The route downstairs to the mess hall was already engrained in his head, although he had to wait a few minutes for the lift to stop at his floor. It seemed that the commotion from upstairs still hadn't ceased as the elevator car had gone past his stop a few times loaded with boxes. He had never found out what all the movement was about but perhaps someone in the mess hall would be gossiping about it, then he wouldn't have to ask.

When the elevator finally stopped to let him on, he rode it up one story to the Alpha level, one deck below the station platforms of Metro-2. From there, one had to walk around to the other side of the cylindrical hall, in the center of which a great spiraling lift curled around itself with two entwined sets of rails that could take you to the central switchboard or to the lowest level before reaching the reactor at the very bottom. You couldn't see or access the reactor level from the center of the bunker, but there was a sealed grate lying flat between the two sections, and he had been told that the square recesses in the floor there could be opened on the occasion that the reactor began to overheat in order to ventilate it.

As he entered the mess hall, he noticed a small crowd of soldiers huddled together at a table on the right side. It seemed they were gathered around a particular person; perhaps someone had just come back from a patrol and had begun to tell some embellished half-true tale of what happened on their watch. Drawing closer, he could begin to make out the main voice amongst the murmurs of the other listeners and to his surprise it was Aleks speaking. At first, he felt a halting tightness in his chest, and couldn't help but feel slightly jealous that she had been here casually telling stories when he'd been wasting time wandering around waiting to see her again. But now that he was here it felt awkward, and it was obvious that what Ulman had said to her rang true – she seemed to fit right in with these soldiers and be 'a part of the family' as he had said.

Artyom ventured a little closer, trying to catch the topic of conversation before he could feel comfortable enough in the room to actually get himself something to eat.

"…real electric sewing machines, although there were ones with a foot pedal too. I can never forget the sound of the motors. Anyway, it wasn't so bad there, although sometimes the foreman would take on a 'favorite' girl for a while…" Aleks' voice faded as she noticed Artyom walking up to the group. Her face looked tired, and somehow her eyes were apologizing to him, although her lips were drawn up into a permanent smile as she had been telling her story about what it was like in the Reich.

"And, were you…?" A soldier Artyom didn't know asked tentatively, leaning so far forward in his chair that Artyom thought he might tip it over at any second.

"Not me, no." Aleks confirmed and Artyom felt a little more at ease. "I suppose you could say that is when I learned the value of remaining unnoticed. Most of the girls tried to comb their hair nice, or have their clothes ironed so that they might be chosen next… but if you ask me the extra rations were not worth one's self-respect." She concluded with an indignant huff.

"Wow! So how did you get away from there?" Another young man with short blonde hair asked.

"Ah, that is a story for another time I think. It is getting to be late after all. And you have a watch in fifteen minutes, Yevgeniy!" She scolded the blonde soldier with a finger and the group of soldiers groaned in disappointment.

"Alright, alright." The soldier conceded, and as he got up to leave the hall, the rest of the group started to disperse as well.

"We're holding you to that!" Another Ranger teased as he exited the hall with a friend.

Artyom quickly went over to the serving table and got himself a bowl of whatever stew had been brewing that day, not caring exactly what it was, just that it was warm and nourishing. He chose a place to sit on the opposite side of the room where nobody had been at all.

On the inside, he was a jumbled mess of half-finished questions. Now that he was in her presence again, he wasn't sure at all what to say to her. It would be too casual and forward to just begin speaking about the cartridges or to give her the pistol back without any prior conversation – or was it? And if he began by asking her what she had been doing in the last six hours he risked sounding too inquisitive or even aloof. As soon as he had begun to narrow down the first thing he might say to her, he noticed her coming over towards him and everything flew out of his mind at once. He shut his eyes, hoping somehow that time would pause until he had gotten that thought back into his head and sorted out how to respond to what she might say.

"Hello Artyom." She said softly, putting one foot up on the bench beside him and leaning both arms over her knee.

"Hi." He squeaked, quickly taking a spoonful of stew into his mouth as an excuse not to speak.

"Did you talk to the Colonel?" Her voice was flat, with no hint as to any emotions or further thoughts.

Artyom nodded his head, keeping his eyes somewhere between her boot and his supper, afraid to look into her eyes and lose what small power he had regained over his mind.

"And? Are you in any trouble?" Aleks shifted on her other foot, trying to lean down to see his expression. "I told him that the delay wasn't your fault, so I hope he didn't lecture you or anything."

"No, he didn't." Artyom answered, setting down his spoon as he had finally decided to tell her about the cartridge; at least then he would be in control of the conversation topic. "I asked him for the cartridge that Hunter gave me."

"Yeah?" Aleks said with a smile, taking her foot down and sitting sideways on the bench beside him.

"It even still has the note inside." Artyom pulled the string with the capsule from his pocket and held it out to her.

Aleks grasped the cartridge with the same level of reverent care with which she handled her own, and Artyom was humbled by it. He just now understood how close they were, symbolically bonded together by their mutual connection to the missing Ranger. So it wouldn't really matter what he said to her, because that bond would always be in place no matter where they were. Whether Hunter proved to be alive or dead – she would still be a part of him and, hopefully, she would remember him in the same way as well.

"So I suppose it was the same thing, only he never told you what to expect. He must have been really worried about going up to the surface to have written this." Aleks dropped her shoulders and her excited smile faded. "I can't think of any other time that he thought he wouldn't succeed. Perhaps he knew what fate would meet him in the Gardens. The way he said goodbye to me…" Her voice trailed off sharply.

"Did he tell you that's where he was going?" Artyom asked, wondering if she would think it rude if he continued to eat while they talked.

"He knew about those beings coming to your station and wanted to figure them out, assess the threat, you know? That's what he does. I think somehow their existence bothered him, who knows why, but I know he felt that it was his duty to go after them." Her eyes remained on his cartridge cradled in her hands.

"Really, it was mine." Artyom admitted with a melancholy sigh, trying not to think about the tower and everything that led up to it. "I shouldn't have let him go off alone. It was all my fault anyway. It was too dangerous, even for him."

"As if you could have stopped him!" Aleks snorted, and then fell silent as she realized that her joke hadn't lifted Artyom's spirits. She began speaking again in a softer tone. "Listen, of course it isn't your fault. About the hermetic door, maybe. But Hunter was determined to go and find out where those creatures were living. I couldn't stop him from going and neither could you if you tried. When he decides on something, nothing can hold him back."

Artyom noticed how she had shifted to speaking of Hunter as if he were still present.

"Anyway, I haven't even gone to open the box he left behind. I feel like, if I open it, then he really is never going to come back…" her voice had lowered nearly to a whisper by the end of her solemn statement. Artyom could feel her tension and rising grief.

"He wanted you to have those things." Artyom finally looked at her face and put a hand on her arm to comfort her. "It's best if you have them, no doubt there are some weapons and other gear he left. He would want you to be safe."

"Would you come with me?" Aleks wasted no time in asking, placing her hand over his to prevent him from letting go of her arm.

Artyom only nodded, finding he had no voice to reply to her with. All he could focus on was the warmth of her touch. With his other hand he took her pistol from his holster and offered the grip to her.

"We'll have to get your ammunition back at the armory." He said softly, already feeling a chill on his hand after she'd taken hers away to grab the pistol.

"Thank you." She exchanged her pistol with his cartridge, placing it on the table and accepting the weapon into both hands. "This was the first weapon I ever owned. Andrei Ivanovich gave it to me as we were leaving Reich. I'd never even shot a gun before!"

"Well, you're very good at it now." Artyom said awkwardly, then turned back to his stew, which was getting cold, and taking in another mouthful to distract from the strange compliment.

Aleks simply giggled and shook her head slightly to agree with him.

"The box he left is down in the armory, do you want to meet me there?" She said as she rose from her seat and combed at her hair with her fingers.

"Actually, I should be heading there anyway. Melnik said that we are going to start testing some of the old weapons from the store room." Artyom tucked the cartridge into his pocket, already preparing to leave.

"Okay then, I'll go have a chat with Katya and then we'll go when you're ready. She's on kitchen duty right now." Aleks gestured towards the room set behind this one where the actual cooking and dish washing was done. She smiled brightly at him and gave a small wave as she walked off, leaving him to his meal.