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Post by Lawnmower Joe on Aug 6, 2013 7:29:35 GMT -5
"So", the portly trader said, "why are you heading North?"
Adder stopped counting her bullets and looked up, her pupils flashing in the dim light of the station. As she sat cross-legged on the dirty floor she reminded the trader of a rather large cat.
"There are things I want to know", she said before adding: "do you know if the Botanichesky Sad doors are still open?"
The trader passed a grimy hand over his smooth bald head, considering the mutant's question. "Hmm...I don't really know for sure, but our stalkers have reported that it was blocked up by rubble. There might be other ways to the surface though."
"There's always more than one way to the surface" said Adder with a small smile, "always more than one tunnel."
"Yeaaaaaah", said the trader uncertainly. He knew the woman's type: tunnel dwellers and wanderers, always strange, probably a few screws loose. "I'm just happy with Exhibition."
"Of course", said Adder, going back to her bullets. Twenty clips of "dirty" ammunition sat in her lap, and her SKS rifle lay on the station floor next to her thigh.
The trader looked down at her for a moment before returning to his counter. Adder counted the last clip, pocketed it and stood. Her gaze wandered over the neat rows of military tents and makeshift shacks that lined the station's platform. When her eyes fell upon the black and ominous opening of the Northern tunnel she held her gaze on it, almost as if she were trying to pierce the obscurity.
What lay now at the Botanical Gardens? Few had been there since the missiles fell, and those who had been there had spoken of a smouldering wasteland roamed by the vile offspring of the surface. The Dark Ones had been relegated to the Metro's legends and nobody had though much of it. Adder, though, wanted to know more. What secrets still lay up at the Gardens, buried beneath ash and death?
The snake-eyed woman slung her rifle over her shoulder and headed towards the Northern tunnel.
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Post by CaptainNips on Aug 7, 2013 2:50:03 GMT -5
It had been four weeks since Mikhail had retired from the Hansa. Five since his father had passed away.
Stricken by a wave of grief, he mourned the death. For he was alone. All family had disappeared from his life. No longer needing the extra pay to support his father, and not particularly liking the job either, Mikhail retired his position as a Hansa guard. Keeping his skull-chalked helmet as a memento, he traveled North to being life anew. He intended to continue life as his previous profession three years before. As a Stalker.
Mikhail sat idly on a crude bench on the VDNKh platform. Trying to quit his avid consumption of shroom vodka, he decided to drink the legendary tea of the Commonwealth instead. He enjoyed it... for it was also one of the few drinks he could get a hold of in the ever-suspicious station.
Life was not particularly easy here as he had at first thought. The officials let him through reluctantly, thanks to his veteran status as a retired Hansa soldier. Though the Commonwealth was easily the strongest net of independent stations, it's people were always cautious. Afraid any outsider would break or disrupt their easy lifestyle. They had few problems in the days after the Dark Ones, and they intended to keep it that way.
Sighing after sipping from his bottle of tea, Mikhail observed the passers and goers of the station. His eyes remained passive and slightly before. Until, he saw her.
He squinted and thought, Can it be...
The small, coated figure calmly passed him by, the familiar SKS Simonov over her shoulder. Although she was most likely hooded, he could easily make out her usual features.
The bulky man briskly stood up and picked up his Saiga, leaving his bottle of tea on the bench in his hurry. He was quite glad to have his new automatic shotgun, he had found it in a past expedition to the surface. Whether it was the trek he had gone on with Nadya... he couldn't remember.
"Hey! Nadya... is that you?" Mikhail would say as he strode to meet the woman. He wore his typical combat jacket and a bright grin on his face. He was surely glad to possibly meet the old comrade of his.
EDIT: Changed the gun which Mikhail possesses.
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Post by Lawnmower Joe on Aug 21, 2013 4:14:44 GMT -5
A group of children ran past Nadya shouting and laughing. The snake-eyed woman glanced after them, only to be met with wide childish stares of curiosity and fear. She turned away as if she'd been slapped in the face. A slap back to reality and her condition as a mutant. She hastily made her way to the tracks, avoiding the looks people gave her.
After jumping down onto the tracks, she looked back towards the Northern tunnel. Although armed guards were stationed there, she'd heard that the people of VDNKh had been steadily reclaiming that tunnel for growing mushrooms, and that they'd had no trouble whatsoever with mutants.
"Surprising how quickly they recovered, even after all the fear they went through..."
Nadya stopped. Was she talking to herself again? She was starting to have trouble differentiating thoughts from spoken words. In the old world that would have been grounds for psychiatric treatment, in the Metro, though...
"Hey! Nadya... is that you?"
A male voice. Familiar too. Nadya cautiously turned around to see who had spoken. It didn't take long for her to spot a man running towards her, a big friendly grin plastered over his face. It took only a second for her to recognise him.
"Mikhail?", she said, blinking, a flicker of a smile passing over her lips. "What are you doing here?"
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Post by CaptainNips on Aug 21, 2013 4:37:58 GMT -5
The man approached Nadya soon after the children scrambled off. He would frown a moment at the children... again disappointed at the social disltrust for Nadya.
"Mikhail? What are you doing here?"
He returned the smile with another smirk of his own. "Trying to get by of course... I finally quit the Hanseatic league."
The last words bring a short frown, but Mikhail soon returns with his grin and says, "But enough about me, what are you doing here? It's been so long."
He nodded and looked her over, seeing if she had changed in the time since they had first met. He, himself, would have looked nearly the same... except for a bit more rough facial hair and for the automatic shotgun he now slung along his shoulder.
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Post by Lawnmower Joe on Aug 21, 2013 5:05:13 GMT -5
Despite looking somewhat rougher, Mikhail hadn't changed much. Nadya raised an eyebrow when he told her that he'd left the Hansa.
"Why did you leave?", she asked, surprised, "you had good pay and good food. A lot of people would kill to have those."
She reached up and absently scratched at a spot on her neck. Her usually short hair had grown a little and was as unkempt and dirty as ever, and she looked hungry, pale and tired. Nothing unusual there.
"I know I'd exchange life in the tunnels for a life in a Hansa station...or Polis", she said whistfully, "Believe it or not I've never been to Polis. None of the Ring stations will let me go there and the surface trip's too dangerous. But anyway, I'm here on 'personal' business of sorts..."
The snake-eyed woman shifted uncomfortably, unsure whether to tell Mikhail about her destination. Eventually she leaned closer to him and whispered:
"I'm going to Botanichesky Sad."
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Post by CaptainNips on Aug 21, 2013 5:29:59 GMT -5
Mikhail goes oddly silent at her asking why he left. He doesn't answer as she remarks on her wishes of somehow living in the more civilized area of the Metro. Old thoughts crept into his mind once again, mourning thoughts of his passing father. His eyes lowered, his inner self wishing he could somehow bring his father back... to have that one person again that required his loving care. Mikhail shook his head of such thoughts, reminding himself that the tragic event had also allowed him no reason to continue working for the Hansa... those capitalistic and tyrannical louts... trying to earn money whenever they can.
Her statement brought him out of his trance.
"I'm going to Botanichesky Sad." Mikhail's frown deepened and his brows furrowed. He spoke softly back.
"The Botanical Gardens? What ever gave you the idea to go there? It's a wasteland over there... nothing but the remains of the missile strike that eradicated... Them," he looked around uneasily and added, taking two looks around them, "Some people even say it's haunted..."
The man paused. He had spoken rather hastily in his response. Mikhail looked back into her eyes, waiting worriedly for an explanation.
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Post by Lawnmower Joe on Aug 21, 2013 7:26:27 GMT -5
Nadya thought she noticed her friend's expression grow darker, if only for a moment. Maybe his departure from the Hansa was a sensitive subject. His mood changed instantly when she told him about her planned trip to the Gardens.
"The Botanical Gardens? What ever gave you the idea to go there? It's a wasteland over there... nothing but the remains of the missile strike that eradicated... Them."
Them. A simple, almost banal expletive uttered with man's ancestral fear of the unknown. There was only one "Them" in the Metro, and Nadya knew perfectly well who They were.
Mikhail looked uneasily around him before adding: "Some people even say it's haunted..."
"That's exactly why I'm going there", whispered Nadya, "ever since I heard of Them and everything that happened here I've been dying to find out more. It all seems too simple: evil mutants attack an outer station and are defeated by a heroic loner. It just doesn't seem right. In fact, I'm convinced that there's something out there of great importance for us all..."
With that she turned and nodded towards the Northern tunnel, which was now closer than ever.
"Some things don't wait for Man's fickle thinking. I want to leave now."
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Post by CaptainNips on Aug 21, 2013 7:44:21 GMT -5
He listened intently to her answer.
"That's exactly why I'm going there", whispered Nadya, "ever since I heard of Them and everything that happened here I've been dying to find out more. It all seems too simple: evil mutants attack an outer station and are defeated by a heroic loner. It just doesn't seem right. In fact, I'm convinced that there's something out there of great importance for us all..."
Mikhail bit his lip, considering her explanation carefully. The Myth of the heroic loner was widespread throughout the Metro... and now that he thought about it... the myth did indeed sound too good to be true. Something had to be left there... a remnant of the mass extermination of Them.
His friend turned and nodded to the tunnel over yonder, "Some things don't wait for Man's fickle thinking. I want to leave now."
The ex-Hansa soldier clicked his tongue against his teeth and spoke, "Well then... I guess I'm going with you then. You ain't going to that hell-hole with me watching your back."
He grinned broadly to her, patting his Saiga at his side. It was true... Mikhail couldn't pass up a good adventure, but he was also suddenly overcome with a new-found feeling. A subtle feeling of warmth for his companion which he couldn't place. An aura of attraction that caused him to want to be by her side, no matter the circumstances. The man truly didn't wish to lose yet another of his only friends.
In this short moment of revelation, Mikhail merely maintained his bright grin and looked kindly to Nadya.
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Post by Lawnmower Joe on Aug 21, 2013 17:44:52 GMT -5
"Well then... I guess I'm going with you then. You ain't going to that hell-hole with me watching your back", said Mikhail with a grin. Nadya found herself wishing she hadn't mentioned her objective. In her world, this was the kind of thing she did alone. When people followed terrible things happened, lives were lost...
But this is Mikhail, he isn't your usual station-dweller. He's tough.
Reluctantly Nadya accepted the idea that a second gun and pair of eyes would be a good addition to this little expedition. Mikhail would just have to be warned and prepared for whatever they may encounter on the surface.
"Okay then", she said, clapping him on the shoulder in an attempt at joviality. Unfortunately the gesture was offset by the sickly, uncertain smile she gave him. Tunnel life didn't do much for social skills...
"Come", she said before setting off down the track. The Northern tunnel grew closer and wider until it swallowed both stalkers up entirely. It soon turned out that the obscurity wasn't total: small lightbulbs had been set up along the ceiling, providing weak but sufficient light. The air became damp and musky, a smell any metro-dweller would know.
"Mushroom farms", said Nadya. Almost on cue a whole section of tunnel carpeted with large cave mushrooms came into view. A path made of old planks and sheets of metal lead over the mushrooms. They covered several hundred metres of reconverted tunnel before reaching the end of it. A crude concrete wall blocked the whole tunnel there, preventing anyone from going further North. Nadya approached the bored guard stationed there and spoke to him in a soft voice:
"Priviet", she said, "is there any way for a couple of stalkers to go beyond this limit?"
The guard grunted in surprise and tossed his cigarette away. "No. Tunnel's completely blocked."
"Blocked?", said Nadya, "but if it is blocked why are you here?"
The guard tensed and pushed his helmet upwards.
"Well err..."
"Let us through", said Nadya. Her voice softer than ever yet strangely commanding. The guard hesitated for a moment before stepping aside, revealing a rusted door in the side of the tunnel.
"Okay", he said, "but I want a share of whatever loot you find up there."
"Of course", said Nadya, eyes fixed on the door. The guard took hold of the heavy metallic handle and twisted it. With a low groan the door swung open and dust puffed out. Without switching her headlamp on, Nadya strode right into the pitch black doorway without a moment's hesitation. She waited for her companion to follow, the door closing heavily behind him. The pair were then engulfed in complete darkness.
"There's always a way", she said, her voice a low whisper that seemed to slip over the walls. "Stations are like living organisms. Shutting off certain parts will only suffocate them..."
She took a few steps forward, boots going softly over moldy earth. There was no concrete in this tunnel, only earth and metallic ribbing.
"From now on do not be surprised by anything and do not let your mind and senses wander. You would only leave yourself open to things worse than the most viscous and deformed mutants", she told Mikhail in a strangely calm voice.
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Post by CaptainNips on Aug 23, 2013 23:30:51 GMT -5
"Okay then," she said, clapping him on the shoulder.
Mikhail smirked wanly in return, slightly embarrassed at the attempt at joviality and of his odd thoughts of her. What was he thinking anyway... the Metro was no place for any feelings of attraction. It was no place for-
He shook his head as he followed Nadya into the Northern tunnel, hoping to clear his head. He said nothing as they passed the mushroom farms, though quietly nodding at her statements. They reached the tunnel guard, his meagre fears lowered at seeing a chance of them not going to the surface. Mikhail stood a few feet behind his companion as she conversed with the guard.
"Priviet", she said, "is there any way for a couple of stalkers to go beyond this limit?"
"No. Tunnel's completely blocked."
"Blocked?", said Nadya, "but if it is blocked why are you here?"
The guard tensed.
"Well err..."
As she demanded to be let through and promised him a share of the loot, the ex-Hansa soldier followed her through the open metal door... deeper into the Northern tunnel. Mikhail raised his Saiga a bit and turned on his headlamp... for there were now now station fires to light their way.
"There's always a way", she whispered. "Stations are like living organisms. Shutting off certain parts will only suffocate them..."
"Hmmm, Never thought of it that way..." he said.
She continued calmly, "From now on do not be surprised by anything and do not let your mind and senses wander. You would only leave yourself open to things worse than the most viscous and deformed mutants."
He nodded to her warning, "Understood."
The pair walked on through the tunnel, their footsteps muffled by the soft ground. For a while there was little light and little obstacles, aside from a ruined maintenance shaft here and there. Mikhail remained silent for a few minutes, trying to concentrate on what Nadya had told him to do... and not on his warm thoughts from earlier.
At an attempt to start conversation, he cleared his throat softly and said, "Look, Nadya, I know this is no time for conversing but... You never told me your story. How you ended up in this shit-hole of a Metro system. Everyone has one. I fear I shall die more quickly if I don't have anything to hear in this deathly silence..." He chuckled faintly, trying to sneak some humor into his request.
His sights remained secure on the tunnel ahead, only looking to her once as he spoke. His finger was calmly stroking the trigger guard of his Saiga-12.
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Post by Lawnmower Joe on Aug 24, 2013 5:31:11 GMT -5
The pair went on for a bit, Nadya slowly relaxing as she began to hear the squeaking and scrabbling of rats. After a few minutes she smiled to herself and spoke, although she was speaking more to herself than Mikhail:
"This tunnel's quite safe", she said.
The voice of Mikhail brought her back to the fact she wasn't alone in this expedition. "Look, Nadya, I know this is no time for conversing but... You never told me your story. How you ended up in this shit-hole of a Metro system. Everyone has one. I fear I shall die more quickly if I don't have anything to hear in this deathly silence..."
Some distant and dusty memory from her time at university came back. Humans are afraid of silence. Silence to a normal human meant danger, and thus needed to be filled with reassuring noise. The snake-eyed woman eyed Mikhail like a scientist would an interesting insect trapped in a jam jar.
"Ah, silence", she said, "I'm afraid silence has become a friend of sorts to me. It is much easier to hear what the tunnels are trying to tell me when it is silent."
Although such words were perfectly reasonable to Nadya, a part of her that hadn't forgotten the world of humans and society pointed out that they would also make her sound completely and utterly mad to most Metro-dwellers. She didn't know how Mikhail would react to her "oddities", though, so she decided to play the safe card.
"Well uh," she began, digging into her memory, mind working to construct a satisfactory story for her companion. As soon as she did so, sights, sounds and smells she thought she had long forgotten came flooding back, almost overwhelming in their quantity and intensity.
"Well I was still at university when it happened", she started, "I was young and shone like the Sun, as Pink Floyd would put it. I must have been 21 or so. One day in July, I think, I was in my apartment. I'd just finished calling my sister, who was in the army. Suddenly I heard my neighbour come crashing down the stairs outside shouting about frequencies and 'everyone get to the Metro!'. I just thought he'd been at the vodka again, but that's when the sirens started howling."
Nadya stopped walking. She had omitted several elements from her story, such as the reason she was calling her sister. Such things were simply not needed. They were too painful.
"So without thinking I ran. I was one of the first to run. Everyone was starting to realise something was wrong by the time I hit the streets, but it only dawned on them when they saw..."
She paused as she remembered the terrible sight: plumes of smoke headed by dots of burning light. Shooting stars of death leaving the ground. Missiles. Hundreds of them.
"Missiles. Our country's missiles that had been sitting around since the Cold War ended, finally being put to use. It was a nightmare. I didn't stop running till I reached the nearest Metro station, and by then the entrance was starting to become clogged with hundreds of screaming frightened people trying to reach safety underground. Thankfully I was one of the first in. After letting about a hundred people in they shut the doors and welded them shut. I could still hear them screaming outside, screaming until the bombs drowned out all noises."
Nadya looked at Mikhail and suddenly felt terribly old. He was easily ten years younger than her. Perhaps he didn't even remember the days before the End.
"I was in Chekhovskaya", she said with a sigh, "the station was hopelessly overcrowded and those in charge were desperately trying to contact the government. One day there was an epidemic...typhus or dysentery, I think. Many people died. It thinned our numbers. And then one day this happened."
Nadya indicated her eyes with two of her fingers. Her irises shone like a cat's in the light of Mikhail's torch.
"Back then the Nazis were gaining followers. All the new creatures our rangers had seen on the surface, the first Nosalises, the first cases of radiation poisoning and mutation...people were scared of anything non-human. They kicked me out of the station and forced me to live in the tunnels. It was easier back then. Most of the tunnels still had electric lighting, all the stations were united. I decided to go to the central administration in Polis to lodge a complaint, but travel was already becoming difficult. I arrived on the Red Line just as the revolution started. The Commies imprisoned me, I escaped...and let's just say I never reached Polis. The old days of pen-pushers, lit tunnels and central government were over. It was dog eat dog. I spent the rest of my life in the tunnels outside the Ring Line and voilĂ , that's my story."
She looked around her, taking in the damp rotting walls, the mold, the rusted steel beams...eventually they reached a small metal door, its surface covered in rust. With a sharp kick Nadya forced it open, revealing the main tunnel between VDNKh and Botanichesky Sad.
"We've still got some distance to cover", she said before putting herself in the middle of the tunnel and standing there in complete silence, head cocked. Finally she nodded and muttered something to herself before remembering Mikhail was still with her.
"Tunnel's clear", she said, embarrassed.
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Post by CaptainNips on Aug 24, 2013 8:42:24 GMT -5
Mikhail listened closely to her tale. He had always loved hearing nostalgic stories of old Moscow, but the immediate details of the missile strikes put them back in their place. He too clearly remembered the burning missiles in the sky... if there were any memories he kept of the Old World, then those may have been the clearest. At one of the softest ages of his life, the whole world had changed suddenly and rapidly. His parents no longer had bright plans of the future for him. Get good grades, go to college, get married, have kids. All of that disappeared. As was most definitely the same with Adder, if not worse.
Survival was your life. The Metro was no place for plans or for a future. The Future was the Present. It was the few minutes ahead in which you could have to fight for your life, or take another. That was the Metro as it stood at that age... and anyone who couldn't accept that, was dead. Simple as that.
He was broken out of his trance by Adder.
"We've still got some distance to cover", she said.
He nodded and saw that she had forced open yet another door, revealing yet another tunnel. Sniffling as dust congregated at the removal of the door, Mikhail stepped through with his Saiga still levered. There, his companion stood... seeming to get a feel for the new tunnel. She turned back to him.
"Tunnel's clear".
He nodded once more and stepped forward to follow her. The new tunnel they now sauntered through was little different than the last, except perhaps a bit wider. Right as the two stalkers began to get into a balanced position and march, Mikhail spoke.
"That is... quite a story," he started, "I am truly jealous that you have more memory of the old world than I do. Hell, I was just a boy when the world went to shit... 11 years old. How should I have known about the growing international tensions and political quarrels. All of it didn't matter concern me at all... until it finally did. It took me little time to realize that that conflict concerned all of us."
He paused then continued shakily, "I never told you... why I left the Hansa. My Father had passed away. For good. He was always so important to me... gave him more than half of my pay I did... more than half. But did that keep him from dying? No, it didn't. I guess nothing can."
Biting back tears, he cleared his throat as he stared more alertly into the tunnel ahead. Nonetheless, he kept speaking, "He was all I had left since my Mother died. Ever since that first fucking mutant attack hit Komsomolskaya. I remember my Father comforting me... saying it was going to be all right, though even he was sobbing profusely. The stations officials didn't compensate my Father and I for shit, burning my Mother's corpse to ash. No apologies for the lowered border guard... no payment for the hours she spent working for the station heads. Nothing. That's when I really realized this world had truly gone to hell."
Slowing in his pace, his voice lowered as he spoke softly back to her, "I don't even know why I'm telling you all this. It just makes me question all of what 'civilization' has become... what we as a race have become.'
He looked back to her with his green and slightly red eyes, "What those people did to you to in Chekhovskaya... what everyone has done to you, is unforgivable. If anything they are the mutants, they are the non-humans. For nearly all have lost, of all things, their own humanity. And you, Nadya... you need not worry about all those fanatics. For you, yourself, may be the most Human person left in these tunnels. I mean it."
The tall man sighed, his head turning down to look at the mossy and cracked flooring. The tunnel still greedily absorbed the beams of their flashlights. Mikhail paused for a few seconds and then finally managed to get out a forced chuckle.
"Who am I kidding... when did I decide to make you my counselor."
He sighed, "Maybe because you're the only one I know who may listen..."
Mikhail finally ceased in speaking, letting the fall of their boots return to dominate the noise of the tunnel. He fell silent, his automatic shotgun lowered... and his senses alert. He was aware of any exit that may appear ahead, or for any reply from his companion.
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Post by Lawnmower Joe on Aug 24, 2013 18:23:27 GMT -5
Adder froze. To say that she was taken aback by Mikhail's sudden confession was an understatement, in fact, she had absolutely no idea how to react to it. She could even hear tears in the man's voice. Mikhail, who had never, as far as she knew, shed a tear in someone's presence.
"Who am I kidding... when did I decide to make you my counselor", he finally said before adding, with a sigh: "maybe because you're the only one I know who may listen..."
"I honestly don't know what to say, but I am truly sorry for your loss", said Adder, "I'm not going to lie to you and say that everything is okay and that I understand, because nothing's okay and I'm having more and more trouble understanding people by the day...as for the people of Chekhovskaya they reaped what they sowed. They chose to follow madmen and are now living in their own little version of hell."
With that, Adder turned back to the darkness of the tunnel, plunging her gaze into its obscurity.
"I'm finding it harder and harder to care about humanity. Sometimes I feel barely human...but anyway, let us continue. The station shouldn't be much further."
Adder set off into the darkness and she soon found herself walking into the Botanichesky Sad station. Despite the inferno that had engulfed the surface above it, the station was untouched and silent. A thick layer of grey dust covered the platform, and a few dismal cobwebs hung from the arches.
"And here we are", said Nadya before climbing up onto the platform.
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Post by CaptainNips on Sept 3, 2013 17:37:48 GMT -5
Mikhail nodded, blinking his eyes and ridding himself of pointless emotion. He followed his companion further down the tunnel, where she said they were not far from their destination. Soon enough, they reached the ominous arches and platform of the Botanical Gardens.
The station was silent, unmoving... completely devoid of life. But he couldn't shake the feeling of at least some presence at the ruined station... whether it was present at that moment or the memory of Them, he could not say. Not even small rats were scurrying about the area. Tensing his hands on his AK, Mikhail followed adder and slowly climbed up onto the platform. He surveyed the area, but his head lamp only caught dusty walls or cracked floors.
"I don't like this place... and nor do the rats," he said, looking sideways to her, "We're looking for the escalators I take it? The exit?"
He pointed not far off, where cob-webbed archway stood over a small entrance seeming to go upward. Though there was no wall or barrier in the way.
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Post by Lawnmower Joe on Sept 24, 2013 3:44:58 GMT -5
Nadya scanned the dark station like an owl in the night, noting the absence of rats.
"We're looking for the escalators I take it? The exit?" asked Mikhail. Nadya could hear the nervous edge that his voice had.
"No", she said quietly, "the main exit has been blocked by rubble. We're looking for another exit..."
With that, the snake-eyed woman headed to the other end of the station, unphased by the darkness that enveloped her. Despite her calm appearance the station's suffocating silence was making her nervous. Suddenly, the silence was broken by the hollow clang of a metal pipe. Nadya froze instantly. Didn't the locals say this station was haunted?
After a few minutes spent in silence, Nadya took off again but with a softer tread. She had the unpleasant feeling that the station was listening to her every move like some gigantic blind entity. Even her breaths were soft and controlled. Eventually the pair came upon a small service door set in one of the station's walls.
"This is it", she whispered before tugging on it. The door's hinged squealed as she pulled it open, and the strident sound made Nadya grind her teeth.
"We must hurry", she whispered urgently, "something is watching us."
Her last sentence had been pushed out by a horrible sensation in the back of her mind. Something huge was bearing down on them. No. The whole darkness was bearing down on them with the screech of a thousand metal pipes, yet also without a sound. Nadya hurled herself into the dark opening, dragging her companion along.
"Hurry! We can't stay here!", she said. Her instinct took over and propelled her through the narrow corridor. Were those clawing hands she could feel behind her? Were those chittering voices she could hear? Suddenly she saw a dot of sickly green light ahead, and she came upon a large hole in the ground lined with luminescent mushrooms.
"Down here!" she hissed before jumping down. The hole lead into a narrow tunnel, the walls of which were slick with some putrid black slime. Despite the smell and the narrow confines of the tunnel Nadya felt her body and mind relax, her instincts retreating back to the darkness.
"We're safe here", she said, panting. "Whatever was up there...it would have consumed us."
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