Disclaimer: The characters and story originally created by Dmitri Glukhovsky in the book and video game series "Metro: 2033" and its sequels do not belong to me. Those properties are owned by Glukhovsky, 4A Games, and Deep Silver. This work of fiction is intended for entertainment purposes and is not meant to be canonical, though I tried very hard to make it fit within the parameters. I do retain my rights for the creation of my own original characters and ideas. I do not make any money from writing this story.

Song Recommendation: "Absent" – Sylosis

Chapter Eighteen: The Colonel

Artyom organized the remainder of his effects, putting everything back in their proper places. Letting out a long-drawn breath, he had a feeling that he'd be gathering up these very same things again soon. There had been very little downtime now that he had become a part of the Order and perimeter defense and surface missions were becoming more frequent as they fought to secure their new base. He set about trying to write down some of his report in his journal but found himself too distracted by the dire thoughts that had worried him earlier. He had set the grey uniform that Aleks had given him aside to bring down to the laundry room and Ulman found him just as he was leaving his room to do so.

"Has the Colonel called for me?" Artyom stopped in the doorway and asked hopefully yet nervously.

"Not yet. I was just coming to check on how you were doing. Got everything squared away?" Ulman asked without a hint of humor.

"Yes, I just need to get this uniform washed so I can give it back to Aleks. They had me wear it on the way to Polis." Artyom rubbed his fingers over the faded material of the uniform appreciatively.

"They?" Ulman fell into step beside Artyom and cued him to continue the story as they walked.

"Aleks is part of a clan, well actually she's the leader. Or is she officially the station master there, too? But then Nikolai—"

"Artyomka, you're doing that thing again," Ulman chuckled and bumped Artyom's shoulder with his own. "Thinking and talking."

"Sorry." Artyom took a breath and began again, calmer now that Ulman was being cordial again. "At Avtozavodskaya, Aleks runs a group of people. They call themselves 'Die Roten Pfeil,' it's German for Red Arrow. Named after the—"

"The train to St. Petersburg, yeah… Interesting." Ulman nodded his head thoughtfully.

"Yeah?" Artyom wondered if Ulman had ever been on said train; judging by the man's pensive look, it was quite likely that he had. "Well, anyway, one of her people, Nikolai. She named him as her replacement, so I guess he runs the group now, or at least until she gets back."

"Oh? I thought she was staying for good," Ulman frowned.

"Why? Did Melnik say something about it?" Artyom asked with the same expectant tone in his voice, hoping Ulman had some knowledge about what he'd missed since he left Aleks with Melnik.

"No, but why else would the Colonel have let her down here? Why would Hunter have given her the cartridge?" Ulman brainstormed aloud.

"What is it about these cartridges, anyway?" Artyom tensed angrily, completely forgetting about the issue at hand. "Is that what you're supposed to give to someone if you think you're going to die? Do you have one, too?"

"No. And no." Ulman wasn't being very helpful and Artyom couldn't read anything from his tone of voice, either.

"What then? Hunter gave one to me back when, well, you know. But he gave one to Aleks too and it seemed like she knew exactly what it was for," Artyom still wondered what had been inside the capsule he was given. Aleks had told him that her cartridge had a paper with her and Hunter's signatures but Artyom had never signed anything. Nothing was ever said about him becoming some sort of replacement for Hunter if he didn't return, yet here he was doing exactly that.

Artyom still had no idea exactly why Hunter had chosen him to go to Polis with his message. It could have been just simple convenience: that Hunter was friends with his stepfather, or that Artyom happened to be on patrol that night when he arrived, or because he had confessed his childhood secret when nobody else at VDNKh would speak with the ominous visitor. Maybe Hunter had seen something in him that he was still not aware of himself. Or, as he'd said, Artyom was the only one left at VDNKh with any sense, everyone else had worm-eaten brains, or something to that effect. He couldn't remember it now.

"You should ask the Colonel about it. He can explain it to you better than I can." Ulman patted him on the shoulder with a kind but apologetic expression.

They had reached the area where the laundry was done. Artyom quickly went inside and handed in the grey uniform, wondering how much longer it would be until he was summoned to the office. There were just too many questions that needed answering and it seemed that every time he began to consider one, other possibilities would obstruct his thoughts until they had all piled up hopelessly onto one another and it was impossible to keep on track. Was it time, yet?

As he exited the room, he realized that Ulman was speaking to a friend and decided to wait. Hopefully there would be further company and distraction.

"So, what, were they… together?" The unknown Ranger with his back to Artyom said under his breath.

"I don't know. Sounds like it. I think— I have to go," Ulman replied in the same timbre, looking slightly alarmed by Artyom reappearing so suddenly. He quickly rejoined his company but Artyom wasn't ready to walk back just yet.

"Is everyone talking about it?" Artyom said with annoyance as he gestured at the man Ulman had been speaking to.

"You thought you could keep her all to yourself or something?" Ulman began with scowl but then softened up and changed his tone. "Look, this is a big deal. It's not like Hunter opened up to many people in the first place. People want to know why."

"Why what?" Artyom threw his hands up, trying not to yell. "It's none of their business."

"It will be if she stays," Ulman replied almost in a whisper. He took Artyom firmly by the bicep and urged him to move on, possibly so that they could continue the conversation in private.

Artyom found himself thinking again that if Aleks were a man, nobody would think twice about the situation or what might happen because of it. There definitely didn't seem to be such a commotion when he'd become a Ranger and, if he was being honest with himself, he wasn't very good at it. Aleks, however, had been personally trained by Hunter. Her skills in combat and weaponry had been carefully honed by his experience, her mind tempered by his eternally ominous outlook. If it turned out to be true that Aleks was to become a Spartan, she deserved the job well more than he did.

As they were reaching the top level of the bunker, there seemed to be more activity going on near the main command hall than there had been earlier. Most of the men running back and forth weren't in full battle dress, so either they were late to an evacuation drill, or the soldiers were in the midst of rearranging supplies. It was common for an area to be established for one thing and then be switched to a different area as more of the massive bunker was being explored and cleared. They had found an entire sector to be a warehouse filled with several models of tanks and artillery equipment but those were much too big to use in the tunnels. Another sector had turned up innumerable crates of weapons dating all the way back to 1942 as well as more recent models. Sturdy bolt-action rifles, shiny sub machine guns, marksman carbines, shotguns, and several types of handguns. Nobody had yet gone through to see if any of those were in working order but whether D6 proved to be an armory or a museum, it was still an incredible find.

Artyom hadn't noticed that there wasn't any chatter on their way back upstairs until Ulman began saying that he would go and see if the Colonel was ready for him yet. Once again, he felt his stomach turn, wondering if he would see Aleks coming out from the hallway or if she was still in the office or not. He also began to hope that she was staying permanently, for more than a few reasons. Maybe she would teach him some of the things that Hunter had shown her and then he might feel more useful or worthy of his endorsement.

Ulman returned quickly and Artyom jumped to an uncomfortable position of attention, half expecting to see Melnik or Aleks behind him. He slackened after Ulman reached him and no one else followed.

"You can go in now," Ulman said flatly, giving him one last pat on the back. Again, the lack of humor in Ulman's voice made him nervous.

"Reporting as ordered, sir," Artyom said quietly, stepping tentatively into the small well-lit room and waiting for the Colonel to look up at him. Was he expecting him to be angry?

"Come in, Artyom. Have a seat and you can tell me your side of the story," Melnik gestured to a padded chair across from himself, then moved his paperwork to the side and folded his arms together on the desk.

Artyom did as he was told, although somewhat hesitantly. He wanted to ask how long it had been since Aleks had left before he had come in but the Colonel's intent stare forced him to file through his memories and start his report at the beginning. Back three days ago, maybe four now, to the outpost at the Church.

"I-I'm not sure exactly when the call came in about the car…" Artyom stammered, recalling his daydreams about the Dark Ones but not wanting to include such talk in discussions with the Colonel as of yet. "I was standing guard at the spotlight but I hadn't seen anything until Ulman came to get me. Six of us were going to head out towards the Black Station to help two guys who got the car stuck in the mud."

Melnik nodded his head slightly but gave no hint of any expression that told what he was thinking.

"It wasn't too far a trip but I didn't really know where we were. I, uh, stayed in the rear with Semyon Alekseyevich and Grigori Igorevich, we set up a forward position at the edge of the park. Ulman and the others were helping with the car and Senya seemed to sense the mutants getting agitated before any of the rest of us noticed. We started firing and Senya was tackled by one watchman and I shot at it until it retreated. Grigori spent all three of his magazines on a bunch of them but there were so many. Then a different one tackled me, I guess I was dazed for a bit, everyone spread out and they were still shooting. I was lying on the ground with my weapon but it was all going so fast. Next thing, a demon was screeching and Senya was telling me to run. We didn't look back, just ran. He said the others were pinned down by the car but neither of us was certain who was where."

"So, Semyon went with you?" Melnik said with surprise, sitting back and gesturing for Artyom to finish.

"Yes, but after a while he stopped. He gave me his pistol and told me how to get to Novokuznetskaya." Artyom paused, seeing in his mind the face of the rugged soldier coughing fitfully with sweat dripping into his eyes. "His mask was cracked, I think he had internal bleeding, I don't know what… how he…"

"It's alright, Artyom. We all know the risks. It's not your fault." Melnik was quick to comfort him for some reason. "What happened when you got to Novokuznetskaya?"

"Senya said it was a free station and that they had a radio I could make contact with Polis. Did the message ever come through?" Artyom found himself questioning the purity of that man Valya that he'd met there at Novokuznetskaya. He was a solid member of the Red Arrow, and seemed to be their main intelligence officer but Artyom hadn't had much time to judge his character.

"Of course, but we were worried when you didn't come back for three days after that. So, what next?" Melnik said gruffly but then relaxed and leaned back in his chair. He seemed genuinely interested in how Artyom had wound up at Avtozavodskaya. Perhaps Aleks wasn't so willing to give up her secrets of how she managed to capture a Ranger.

"They gave me a room for the night and in the morning the guy who'd let me in had two friends with him. I guess they were traders, refugees from the Red Line, and they told me they were going to Avtozavodskaya and needed help carrying some stuff back to their station. It wasn't that far past the Ring, so I helped them go by. You pass by Paveletskaya too and it's all patched up there now."

"I see. I'd never known what was beyond the marked stations on that line," Melnik made a small note on a paper to his left. Had Aleks really told him nothing of her station?

"Well, when we got there, they led me into a room right before the station. Aleks, Aleksandrya Dmitriyev was standing there. She said she had a few questions but then I could go. She had a cartridge, the same as the one Hunter gave to me to give to you." Artyom leaned forward in his seat, engrossed in his own story as the memory of each moment played like a cinema film in his mind while he talked. But upon mention of the cartridges, he got side-tracked again. "What are these cartridges for? Are you supposed to give one to someone you trust if you think you're going to die? For them to be your replacement?"

"No." Melnik replied shortly and Artyom felt his heart sink the same as it did when Ulman didn't answer him on the subject. "Really, it's just an old communications system. Radio messages can be intercepted, letters too… but I suppose with Hunter it was a little bit different."

Artyom fell silent, his head swirling with this new information. After all this time with Aleks and her cartridge he was beginning to think it was some significant token when it was really nothing more than another avenue of communication. But the Colonel just said it was a different case with Hunter, so was he perhaps some kind of a recruiter for the Spartans?

"You said she had questions for you? How did she know who you were?" Melnik led Artyom to continue his story with his own questions.

"I don't think she was looking for me specifically," Artyom entertained the notion for a few seconds but remembered her genuine shock to learn of his story with the Dark Ones. "No, I think she just had her people looking out for Spartans by our uniforms, any of us might have known about Hunter."

Melnik nodded his head, trying to hide a wry smirk, apparently impressed with Aleks' tactics, and then gave a grunt to spur Artyom to continue.

"Well, she asked me if I had seen him and I only told her because of the cartridge. I knew it was something important because… and the mission is over now so…" Artyom paused, searching the Colonel's face for a reaction, still waiting for the moment he would say something that would earn him a reprimand. "I told her he'd gone to the Gardens and disappeared. They had heard about the Dark Ones, too. Do you think Hunter told her where he was going?"

"It's quite possible. It seems he may have visited her before his patrol and subsequent visit to your station." Melnik put a hand to his stubbly chin thoughtfully. "Go on."

"Well, the next day they had said they would escort me back to Polis but it seems everything went wrong as soon as we left. We were going to go through Hansa of course but then one of her men said he spotted a spy there named Sturmann – a Nazi. He was, or is, looking for Aleks."

"Yes, unfortunate, but that is how they run things in their stations. Did she ever say why he was after her?" Melnik continued to reveal that there were still many things he didn't know about her background although he had assumedly talked to her for a few hours.

"No, just that she had escaped from them and Nikolai said her family is important. It seems they have a 'no tolerance' policy, sort of like the Reds." Artyom also considered the possibilities to that question, what exactly was she running from?

"What next?" Melnik asked harshly, pulling out a sheet of paper from the short stack of them on the desk and searching for a pen.

"We, uh, we ran to Novokuznetskaya and were going to get to the Red Line from the Teatr but the tunnel collapsed and it was all closed off. So, we went over to Venice and there some bandits started a fight with her man Andrei Ivanovich. Aleks and I had gone the other way to avoid it but then there were gunshots. There was a panic, and a fire, and everyone was running."

"You're telling me that you caused the Venice incident?" Melnik actually looked amused for a moment as he shook his head incredulously.

"Uh, yeah, I… we did. Sorry," Artyom scratched at the back of his head. Why wasn't he getting yelled at for all this? He looked back up at the Colonel who was still staring at him, so he got back on track again. "Another of her guys Semyon put us on a boat, I think he lives there. She didn't want to leave her men behind but we had to. We were heading to Revolution Square initially but the boat wouldn't go that way so they dropped us at Kitai Gorod. The passage into the station was locked up and there were mutants in the tunnel, we fought them off and went up over the surface to Kuznetsky Most."

"This is quite the trip. No wonder it took you so long," Melnik furrowed his brow, making a scribble on the paper beside him, then sighed and seemed to relax. "Well, at least it's a good story. Go on."

"We heard a squad of Red soldiers come out from Revolution Square, led by a Comrade Major. I don't know where they were going but they said that they had to go around because of Venice." Artyom struggled to recall any further important details from that encounter, he wished he had more information for the Colonel but they hadn't been cavalier enough to speak openly about their plans or where they were heading to.

Melnik made another note along with a grunt.

"At Kuznetsky Most there was a cordon, so we had to wait overnight, and then passed to Lubyanka in the morning. After there, two of Aleks' men found us and that's when she named Nikolai as her successor until she got back. I don't remember his other names but he has a twin brother named Dmitri, those two traders who I walked with the first time. They went back to Avtozavodskaya and Aleks and I crossed through this eerie tunnel from Prospekt Marx. There was the aftermath of a big fight there, strange dead lurkers with black fur and blood everywhere," Artyom was gesticulating the size and shape of the monsters.

"This is where the anomaly attacked you?" Melnik had his pen poised, not looking up from the paper at all as Artyom had been talking.

"I didn't see it," Artyom admitted with some form of regret. "But it did something to Aleks. She said she heard music, and she collapsed. I got her into a little outpost room nearby, I think it's one of ours. When she recovered, we went the rest of the way to Polis."

Melnik nodded slowly as he finished writing down what Artyom had reported.

For a minute, Artyom debated whether he should tell the Colonel about Aleks' mention of her plans to go to Emerald City, about her father, and her supposed vision of Hunter. He felt so special to be trusted with the vision of her 'true mission' but he wasn't sure if she had mentioned it to Melnik and didn't want to betray that trust. He decided, for now, to keep it a secret just between the two of them.

"Where is Aleks now?" Artyom spoke tentatively, as Melnik had finished writing but hadn't looked up.

"I sent her with Anna for a tour and to the women's barracks for some rest. I was thinking to have her in sniper training with Anna and Katya after a full evaluation and merit mission." Melnik paused and put a hand to his scruffy chin thoughtfully. "It seems that Hunter taught her more than I might have guessed unless the Reich gives military training to all their citizens. I'm not sure exactly what their relationship entailed but here she is, as promised. The question is, what does it mean now that he isn't here?"

Artyom didn't want to explore the question. He recalled the night at Kuznetsky Most when both he and Aleks had told some of their deeper secrets and stories. She had said she was in love with Hunter but didn't make it sound as if anything was official. Still, it didn't answer his side of the equation and Melnik had a point. Could it have been that Hunter was also in love with her and just never said so? Maybe he'd been afraid to be open with her for fear that someone would hurt her while he was away. Artyom could identify with such reasoning.

"Can I speak to her again?" Artyom dared, hoping the Colonel wouldn't read anything into his request. He wasn't even sure at that moment precisely what he wanted to speak with her about, just that he wanted to see her again before anything happened. What if she didn't want to stay? Would she go back to Avtozavodskaya alone?

"You'll see her around." Melnik gave the same knowing grin that Ulman had given him earlier. "As it is, I haven't anything for you to do right now. Have yourself some rest and then come by the armory tomorrow afternoon. We're going to start testing some of the equipment we found."

"Yes, sir." Artyom stood and turned to leave but something forced him to turn back. "About the cartridges again… do you still have the one I brought?"

Melnik said nothing in reply but began to rummage in the top drawer of his desk. After a moment, he pulled the dulled brass casing from the pile, still attached to the black string that had hung around Artyom's neck for so long. He held it out to him, and Artyom accepted it with reverence, clutching it tightly in his fist and then examining it closely.

"Am I to find my own replacement, too?" Artyom didn't immediately realize that he'd spoken aloud.

"There is no replacement for you, so don't go giving it to anyone else." Melnik stood up and came around in front of Artyom. Putting both of his large, calloused hands on his shoulders, the old Stalker gave a warm but sympathetic smile. "No Ranger is more dear to our cause than our Savior."

Artyom nodded his head but only because it was expected of him at times when his detested title was mentioned. In any case, Melnik was proud of him for carrying out the despicable attack against the Dark Ones and he could at the very least enjoy the benefits that afforded him before the Commander recognized his utter worthlessness. Though he didn't believe that Melnik actually thought of him as this prophetic savior, just that it was useful propaganda and bolstered morale for everyone. Turning around stiffly, trapped in his thoughts, he managed to leave the room.