Chapter Twenty: Rumors of My Demise Are Exaggerated
Artyom took his time even after finishing his meal, as it gave him the chance to regain hold of his thoughts. As soon as Aleks had walked into the next room he instantly felt more at ease but somehow also enervated. It was almost as if time had been skipped forward for him; he remembered only short blotches of having come down into the mess hall and nothing of the uncomfortable feelings that hindered the interaction that he had been so looking forward to.
Glancing over his shoulder, he quickly assessed the state of the room and who was left in it. Two soldiers still sat four tables over, where they had been listening to the engrossing history of Aleks' upbringing in Reich. They were periodically looking over at Artyom and whispering to each other. Although he had initially been the one feeling aggrieved about missing out on hearing her stories, it seemed that now these two Rangers felt that way about him. They must have noticed when Aleks had come over to talk to him alone and were left wondering what made him so special. It seemed that the news which heralded the arrival of the clandestine acquaintance of the missing Hunter had been conveniently stripped of Artyom's involvement.
Upon further consideration, Artyom was almost thankful for it. He didn't particularly want to be the name on everyone's lips, and preferred to be left out of whatever extra rumors were circulating about the exact nature of her relationship with Hunter and why he had never mentioned her to anyone before. The last thing he needed was for anyone to think that he had somehow taken up the veteran Stalker's role in the affair. No, the thought of having such things in common with her was to be his thought and his alone. 'Let them talk.' He thought, hiding a wry smile from the two soldiers who were still eyeing him suspiciously. None of them would ever know the minute details and intricate conversations that he had already shared with her. With that comforting reflection, he took his empty bowl and headed for the kitchen.
"No, believe me, she's always like that." Spoke a high feminine voice with disgust.
"Ugh," Aleks groaned, "Does she think she's so special just because she's Melnik's daughter? Or what, she doesn't get enough attention from him or something?"
"Who knows? The Colonel keeps his private life, well… private." The girl at the back of the room spoke quietly; she had short bright blonde hair and wore a pair of threadbare jeans with the usual striped undershirt, although Artyom knew that she was also a Ranger under Melnik's command. The Order continued the Soviet tradition of training women to be snipers; women were less physically capable of front-line assaults but were highly intuitive and patient with calculating the complex figures involved in long-range shooting.
So that must be Katya talking with Aleks, thought Artyom to himself as he slipped into the room silently, not wanting to interrupt their gossiping or make them think he was eavesdropping. Although, the few words he had just heard spun his mind into creating the rest of the tale in its own chronicle. It sounded as if something had happened between Aleks and Anna – the latter was the highest-ranking female in the company of the Order and also its best sniper.
"Hello Artyom." Katya said with a smile, turning in his direction and putting a hand on one hip. Apparently she had known he was there the whole time.
"Hello." Artyom said quietly. He had seen Katya in D6 before, but hadn't ever formally introduced himself.
"Aleks told me about how you saved her from the anomaly in the service passage." Katya beamed, turning back to stir whatever next batch of chow was in the large pot on the stove.
"Katya!" Aleks scolded and her cheeks flushed bright red. "It wasn't like that."
"Not really like that, no." Artyom confirmed, still watching the adorably discomfited face of Aleks and trying to imagine just how she had recounted the tale to her friend. "I didn't even see it, actually."
"Still, she said you carried her out before it came back again." Katya winked at Aleks; it seemed she was trying to instigate something or make fun of her somehow but Artyom wasn't very in tune with understanding the subtleties of feminine connotation.
"I mean yeah, I guess?" Artyom shrugged and wrinkled up his nose in confusion.
Katya laughed haughtily and turned back to the pot on the stove.
"Are you ready to go to the armory?" Aleks asked uneasily, not looking directly at him. Her arms crossed tightly over her chest and her face was still a deep pink.
Artyom nodded energetically, as it seemed that he and Aleks both wanted to escape from the curious insinuations of Katya. Not wasting another second, Aleks tore out of the room without saying goodbye to her and Artyom followed quickly after her. Even after exiting the mess hall he could hear Katya's giggling faintly behind them.
It seemed that just as soon as he'd regained himself from his earlier ineptitude, the air had become tense again and Katya's words echoed in his ears. What exactly was she trying to suggest? Had Aleks really described their encounter with the anomaly to her in such a way as to make her think that Artyom had acted like some story book hero? Aleks was certainly no damsel in distress type needing to be rescued. Then again, he was starting to understand how his carrying her limp body out from that disturbing hallway could be seen in a different light.
"Katya likes to play jokes," Aleks began to make excuses for the strange behavior, once again reading his mind and answering questions he had never asked aloud. But then she seemed to forget what she wanted to say next.
"It's alright." Artyom attempted to show a comforting smile, but Aleks didn't look at him and so it was lost on her. Maybe changing the subject would relieve her and then the atmosphere might return to normal between them. "Did something happen with Anna?"
"Oh, that."Aleks let out a huff as if trying to vent out her annoyance. "No, nothing bad happened. I just don't like her attitude. She seems entitled, kind of a know-it-all type. I mean, I already know how to use a Dragunov and she's treating me like a child."
"Did Hunter teach you about it?" Artyom spoke before he had meant to, but Aleks didn't seem to mind the question this time.
"Of course. What else, I told you he taught me a lot of things." Aleks held up a hand as if she could physically hold all the individual things that Hunter had shown her.
"Sorry, I just…" Artyom set about apologizing; trying to get his mouth to catch up to where his mind was a hundred meters ahead of him asking its own questions.
"No, I know. He left you completely unprepared. I mean, I'm sure you knew already how to use a rifle before you got here…" Aleks stammered, seemingly also detached from her actual thoughts. Then she spoke in a softer tone. "There's a way he has about his mind, how he looks at things, processes them. It's a sort of meditation, and he can sense things that you can't see or hear."
Artyom couldn't nail down a specific question to add to the conversation, but he was delighted to hear Aleks speak of the man who had constructed his current life path. She had known Hunter much more intimately and Artyom was finally learning to be appreciative of the fact as it afforded him more information about the man he only thought he understood.
"I can't do that like he can, but it was always fascinating to watch him. Sometimes we would go into the tunnels towards Turganevskaya, just to see how quiet we could be."
Artyom examined her face as she reminisced, her mind transported to those very tunnels on the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya Line which he used to call home. He scoffed internally, trying to imagine why anyone would go into that cursed tunnel just for fun. Sometimes he still couldn't decide if Hunter was boldly reckless because he was so sure of himself or just plain mad.
"Once we got stuck overnight near Marksistskaya—" Aleks' voice had gotten higher.
Looking over at her again, he just noticed she was dabbing at her eyes with one hand, trying to wipe away tears before they fell. Her happy recollections of the veteran Stalker had only instigated her guilt and grief. Without a second thought, he stopped and reached over her shoulders and pulled her closer until she was tucked under his arm. They were only a few steps from the lift, so he thought it was better to help her compose herself before heading into the usually busy armory where Melnik and Ulman were probably already waiting for him.
"Do you really think he was killed, Artyom?" Aleks' eyes pleaded, the silvery blue shades of grey reminding him of the gloomy sky over the city far above them.
"I don't know." His head sunk and he had to look away from her sorrowful eyes before they consumed him. "It's just strange that he would completely disappear. If he had gone down fighting, there would be a trace of him somewhere."
"Didn't anyone go after him?" She grasped at the sleeve on his other arm, trying to steady herself as she breathed sharply.
"I don't even know how long it took me to get to Polis after he left." Artyom speedily flipped through the memories of all the misfortune he'd encountered on what seemed like such a simple journey. "Two weeks? A month? When I finally found Colonel Melnik, the task was to find D6 and use the missiles to destroy the Dark Ones."
Aleks shook her head in disbelief and sniffed back another wave of tears, now gripping at both of his sleeves as he had loosened his embrace. He suddenly felt as if he had personally failed her, and regretted that no one had gone to look for Hunter at any time they were on the surface, even as they had gone to Ostankino Tower.
"I'm sorry. I wish I knew." Artyom's voice cracked at the end, as it seemed he had been swept under by the current of her sorrow - dragged into the limitless depths beneath the unstable platform he'd built up in his mind to stand on which made his worthless life just barely tolerable enough to go on with.
There was a long time spent standing there with Aleks clutching his sleeves and Artyom remaining as still as a statue, lost in the torrent of disappointment and regret that flowed around them both. The elevator passed their floor several times without stopping, and Aleks had become completely still and silent. He could barely tell from his angle above her that her eyes were shut as if she were intensely concentrating on something but he couldn't be sure what she was thinking at the moment. After another minute of watching her, he decided to take her hands with his own. If she wanted to hold on to him, then he wanted to be there for her.
"Aleks?" Artyom said softly after several more minutes had passed in silence. He almost wanted to lift her head the way he had seen Nikolai do earlier, but didn't want to let go of her hand.
She stirred slowly, her brows twitched and then relaxed. Her eyelids fluttered and then opened fully, and she looked up at him with a bewildered appearance as if she were seeing him for the first time.
"Are you alright?" He asked tentatively, wondering if she even noticed that he had been holding on to her hands all this time.
"I was trying to meditate, like he used to, to see if I could sense him… or something like that." She looked around them, as if expecting to see Hunter's ghostly apparition floating nearby somewhere. "I couldn't see anything, but I heard his voice."
"What was he saying?" Artyom indulged her fantasy if only to keep her calm, as she seemed to be now.
"I don't know… it was sort of jumbled." Her voice wavered, and she looked up at him again and shook her head. "I'm sorry. It's probably just old memories."
"Maybe you should get some rest. Have you slept?" Artyom convinced himself to let one of his hands go from hers, at least to see if she noticed the sensation or not.
"Not very much. When Anna brought me to the barracks I had a few hours, but this place is so big I just couldn't settle down." Aleks released his other hand and Artyom was regretful that he had brought her attention to it.
"After this, you should try to sleep. It's late and I don't know what might happen in the next few days." Artyom pressed hard on the button that summoned the elevator.
Aleks simply nodded her head in agreement; it seemed her head was still wrapped up in her aural imaginings of Hunter.
Artyom wanted to know more about what she had heard, but worried that asking about it might bring her to tears again. He wondered if her being able to hear such things was some leftover side effect from the encounter with the anomaly, when she had heard music and saw her father, and supposedly Hunter as well. Had it bestowed some kind of special gift unto her? Khan had mentioned that it 'took a liking to her,' could that be what he had actually meant? Artyom had never taken notice of this kind of meditation before, although it had also been a practice that Khan had talked about vaguely. Could one simply close their eyes and connect to some higher level of consciousness? A level which spoke unknowable things to you and gave advice on which tunnels were dangerous or safe? He intended to try it for himself at a later time; perhaps Aleks would be willing to show him how.