Post by Lawnmower Joe on Jun 12, 2011 18:58:01 GMT -5
Nadya, who was walking as quietly as always, her light barely illuminating the area ahead of her, slowed down when she felt Charcoal's question enter her mind like a ribbon of thought falling softly into the land of her psyche.
"Sometimes it feels like I've lived here my entire life", said Nadya, her voice quiet, almost a murmur. "All I have left of my past life are memories, and even they seem unreal at times. I was born in Novosibirsk, in Siberia...it was a town in the Eastern half of the country, many kilometres away from this city. I was born in 1992...I came to this city, Moscow, to learn about journalism. I travelled a bit, went to Paris and London...and then...the War came."
Nadya paused, but kept on walking. After a short silence, she started talking again.
"I think I was 21 when it happened. I remember that day very clearly. The air raid sirens started to wail...three short times, three long times. Nuclear attack. I used to live near the Chekhovskaya station, so I was able to grab a few things and make a run for it...the entire Metropolitan had been built as a bomb and fallout shelter, so I went there immediately. I remember...while I was running to the station...I saw this object in the sky, like a missile. It burst, and released a kind of orange cloud that dissipated over us. I could feel it burning my lungs, my eyes and my skin, and when I got to the station's entrance, they tried to stop me entering. In the end, they let me go in...and just as they were shutting the doors I saw...I saw the Arrow of God. A long object coming down from the firmament...a nuclear warhead. Then the doors closed, and a few minutes later I felt the earth shake, and dust fall from the ceiling.
"And then, the metro years began. Back then, we all had to obey orders from a central authority that commanded all the metro. I did paperwork and ration distribution for a few years, and then things started to show up on the surface and in the metro. Our scouts kept reporting seeing monsters, and the surface still wasn't safe for us to go back up. Our station was attacked a few times through an old vent until we blocked it up with concrete and bricks. And then, my eyes began to hurt, and I became blind.
"I could not see for several days, and the doctor covered my eyes with some wet bandages. At first he thought my eyes had an infection, or had been damaged by radiation or chemicals somehow...but then he realised, and I realised, that they were changing. The change took a few weeks, and then my sight returned. I could see in the dark, but my eyes had become the eyes of a monster. People were terrified of the mutated creatures who prowled the surface and our tunnels, and they thought I'd become one of them, so they gave me an old hunting rifle, clean water, some food and ammo...and they banished me.
"After that I just wandered through the metro's tunnels. I went where no man or woman would dare tread. I was utterly alone, and I fought for survival day after day. I had absolutely no survival skills before. I was an aspiring journalist! I wanted to write a book...instead, I'm a vagrant, a scavenger. I can't go back to civilisation because of my...mutation, but civilisation needs my knowledge and skills every now and then. So we have a tacit agreement. I stick to these parts of the metro, they don't hunt me down. And it suits me."
As Nadya finished speaking the odd pair finally reached Profsoyuznaya. Ths station was utterly deserted, its marble columns and severe features oddly well preserved. Nadya climbed up onto the platform and headed towards one end of it.
"And you, Charcoal. What's your story? I bet it's interesting...", said Nadya with a chuckle.
"Sometimes it feels like I've lived here my entire life", said Nadya, her voice quiet, almost a murmur. "All I have left of my past life are memories, and even they seem unreal at times. I was born in Novosibirsk, in Siberia...it was a town in the Eastern half of the country, many kilometres away from this city. I was born in 1992...I came to this city, Moscow, to learn about journalism. I travelled a bit, went to Paris and London...and then...the War came."
Nadya paused, but kept on walking. After a short silence, she started talking again.
"I think I was 21 when it happened. I remember that day very clearly. The air raid sirens started to wail...three short times, three long times. Nuclear attack. I used to live near the Chekhovskaya station, so I was able to grab a few things and make a run for it...the entire Metropolitan had been built as a bomb and fallout shelter, so I went there immediately. I remember...while I was running to the station...I saw this object in the sky, like a missile. It burst, and released a kind of orange cloud that dissipated over us. I could feel it burning my lungs, my eyes and my skin, and when I got to the station's entrance, they tried to stop me entering. In the end, they let me go in...and just as they were shutting the doors I saw...I saw the Arrow of God. A long object coming down from the firmament...a nuclear warhead. Then the doors closed, and a few minutes later I felt the earth shake, and dust fall from the ceiling.
"And then, the metro years began. Back then, we all had to obey orders from a central authority that commanded all the metro. I did paperwork and ration distribution for a few years, and then things started to show up on the surface and in the metro. Our scouts kept reporting seeing monsters, and the surface still wasn't safe for us to go back up. Our station was attacked a few times through an old vent until we blocked it up with concrete and bricks. And then, my eyes began to hurt, and I became blind.
"I could not see for several days, and the doctor covered my eyes with some wet bandages. At first he thought my eyes had an infection, or had been damaged by radiation or chemicals somehow...but then he realised, and I realised, that they were changing. The change took a few weeks, and then my sight returned. I could see in the dark, but my eyes had become the eyes of a monster. People were terrified of the mutated creatures who prowled the surface and our tunnels, and they thought I'd become one of them, so they gave me an old hunting rifle, clean water, some food and ammo...and they banished me.
"After that I just wandered through the metro's tunnels. I went where no man or woman would dare tread. I was utterly alone, and I fought for survival day after day. I had absolutely no survival skills before. I was an aspiring journalist! I wanted to write a book...instead, I'm a vagrant, a scavenger. I can't go back to civilisation because of my...mutation, but civilisation needs my knowledge and skills every now and then. So we have a tacit agreement. I stick to these parts of the metro, they don't hunt me down. And it suits me."
As Nadya finished speaking the odd pair finally reached Profsoyuznaya. Ths station was utterly deserted, its marble columns and severe features oddly well preserved. Nadya climbed up onto the platform and headed towards one end of it.
"And you, Charcoal. What's your story? I bet it's interesting...", said Nadya with a chuckle.