"No." I replied to the question. I looked at the boy with a raised eyebrow and replied, "You? Do you have a family?"
I looked at him and smiled, "Only a father. He raised me and eventually trained me as a stalker. He was killed by some Fourth Reich bastard at Tverskaya station, but that was a few years ago." I readjusted myself into a more comfortable position, said goodnight to my new comrades, and drifted into sleep.
"What would I not do for a glass of some fresh wine at this very moment.." I muttered to myself, yet loud enough for everyone else to hear. "So what are your thoughts of tomorrows travel? Where do you think we should move next? Further south or to the east towards Lyublino?" I asked everyone who were still awake just so I could have a view of how many would vote for what. I did not feel big and threatening where I was lying beneath my coat with only my head sticking out, but I did not feel the need to be so either.
*as everyone was getting comfortable for the night, I got up and went away from the group. positioning myself by one of the platform's arches, were I had a good view of anything moving. Jet by my side, she knew it was time to patrol and simply started to pace around the platforms' edge* 'I'll take the first two hours' watch. Dima, you take the second turn? I'll wake you up, don't worry' I said to the group as I moved into position.
"Alright" i said to Odessa. I turned to Ben and said "if it were up to me I'd continue south, but with mister know it all (I looked over to the now sleeping Andrey) here who knows what our path will be." with those final words I put my head down and closed my eyes, of course with my right hand secretly gripping the revolver on my lower back. Just in case.
After agreeing with Dima's decision with a nod, I took the hood over my face, and leant back to sleep. It only took me a few minutes from hitting the concrete to falling in a deep sleep.
As pyotr and I were the only ones still awake besides from Odessa at guard post, I decided that there was nothing more to say. I gave Pyotr a short look that actually did not mean anything at all, or perhaps as if saying "Good night" before I turned over and lay down with my face against the wall. I kept all my belongings, equippment and weaponary within my reach. I did not feel very tired, but I decided to sleep anyway. I shut down by brain and went to sleep, just as easy as switching off the light in a room.
I watched Benjamin as he slept and nodded back a few seconds later. I was tired of the waiting. I wanted to go.
I woke up shortly after i fell asleep. I didnt want to sleep since i was too tired to. I got up and put on my jacket and hung my weapons next to me. And appraoched the fire and drank some liquor from a bottle next to the fire. I noticed Odessa walking around with her weapon. I approached her and standing next to a arch, leaning on it, i said, "What are you doing here? Its like 11 pm right now."
*I saw Andrey coming to rest by the archway, my concentration never leaving the entrances to the platform, my AKS ready and Jet slightly forward from my position* 'depends what you are refering to, what am I doing here, as in 'it is late, you should wake Dima up and rest', or as in 'who are you and what is it you are after'? I asked Andrey.
"What are you doing right now? I fell asleep so i didnt partake in anything. You patrolling or something?" i asked calmly rubbing my neck.
'I'm taking the first two hours' watch. I agreed with Dima he would take the next two, so I can get some shut eye. all seems ok, for now....' I said answering Andrey's question. 'so, how are we gonna do this? any ideas? and what do you think of Anatoly, the new guy? It makes me slightly nervous what he said earlier about 'delivering special goods' to those bastards. makes me wonder why they let him go' I said after rolling up another smoke.
"honestly i dont know. Wolf, the man we are getting out, is a dear friend of mine here in the metro. I dont really have many friedns. So hes like a brother to me. Hes the only reason i agreed to come here. We arent even getting paid for this. I dont really know why everybody else is doing it. Whats in it for them." i calmly stated. "Anatoly, well his buisness is his buisness and i dont intend to question him. I dont really know him.'' i finished off. The womans cat started to hiss at me. I looked at it and wondered what happened. " Your cat is very...interesting i should say. Where'd you get it?"
*I listened to Andrey while keeping watch. Jet started hissing at something. I looked closely and could see something moving behind Andrey, but it was just a rat, and Jet didn't like rats* 'Jet, behave. don't worry, she's not hissing at you. there is just a rat behind you and she doesn't like them, that's all. I found her about five years ago in Savelovskaya Station Hall. I was coming back from a raiding trip on surface when I heard this pitiful meaow comeing from one of the corners. went to investigate and found Jet, shivering there, thin as anything. Took pitty on her and adopted her, or more like she adopted me. where she came from or how she survived I've no idea, but she's been with me ever since' having another puff of my smoke I continued talking 'friends, hard to come by, always to treasure. I had two very good friends, both died. one in the Zone, killed by a bandit bullet, the other....' *a look of sadness crossed my eyes and tears started to form, but I pushed them down once again* 'the other, Olga, my hunting buddy, we were more than just friends, she was my partner of four years. when I got word that the nazis had killed her, all the rage in the world was transformed in a single purpose, to met out the same suffering and agony I'm sure she went through before she died to the bastards that killed her, and to anyone bold enough or stupid enough to get on my way. I became bitter, selfish, mean even, but then I remebered what I had learned in the Zone. when I went there I was lost, I needed to find myself, and the Zone gave me back my soul. I was a selfish, ungreatful bitch before the Zone, went there seeking thrills, but instead I found myself. my mentor back then taught me about honour, and decency, he took a bullet for me and I decided there and then if I got out of it alive I would learn to be a decent human being, and so I did. now I try to help whomever I can, and can't stand injustice. my pistol, the Sigpro, was his. it was his parting gift' I said touching its butt gently 'I will help you get Wolf, and I don't expect anything in return. money is of no importance to me, not any more. only a clear conscience at the end of the day, knowing I've done the right thing and my damn best into whatever it is I'm doing, and this is no different. I do believe it is the right thing to do putting those bastards down. but I have already said too much, sorry Andrey, didn't mean to bore you. you can stay here with me and keep watch, or you can go back to sleep. up to you' I said while taking a flask of my ruckpack and pouring myself some coffe
"well life is hard out here thats for sure, Anyway i dont really wanna sleep. I dont think i can so ill go sit next to the other tunnel entrance to the south. Take a look at that." And just like that i left. I went across the entire station past the sleeping group and Dima moved slightly. I continued on until i reached the exit. And sat on the corner of the platform my feet hanging over the tracks. There was a long dark tunnel ahead of me. I kept watch with my VSV.
It didn't take long for me to fall asleep after that long hike. More like a swim. After what seemed like only a few seconds of darkness I found myself opening my eyes to see the bedroom roof. I looked around the room from my comfortable and snug position gliding my hands over the soft cotton sheets. Looking to my right I saw her staring back at me. She smiled at me. The same smile I fell in love with all those years ago. I stroked my hand threw her smooth brown hair and listen to her soft voice. "I love you" she whispers to me. I say nothing in return, instead I stretch my neck and give her a gentel kiss. I close my eyes and enjoy the quiet and peaceful atmosphere souronding us. Then I hear a quiet hum approaching from the distance. I try to ignore it but it kept getting louder and louder. Then all of a sudden it explodes into a deafening roar. My eyes shoot open only to find red sky and orange haze. I'm free falling. I start to scream at the top of my lungs when I feel an enormous jerk stop my decent. I quickly look up to see a parachute easing my fall, which brought only a slight moment of release. I looked left to right up and down. Below me I could see a city being ripped apart. To the right I saw what looked like missiles launching. I looked to my left and instantly saw a paratrooper transport falling from the sky in flames. It misses me by meters and impacts a tall building with a deep thud. I was in to much panic to think about anything at all. I looked down again but this time I saw a dark hole in the earth, I tried to steer away from it but it seemed useless. The hole got bigger and bigger until I was consumed by darkness. I couldn't see anything, but suddenly I hit the ground. And as soon as I did the whole world went silent. "huh, H-HELLO!" I nervously said. I tried to feel my way around getting nowhere. "HELLO!" I desspetly screamed. I waited for a reply. Then somewhere from the darkness I heard a deep growl. I held my breath in fear. I waited a few seconds "hel-AAAHH!" in a split second a gruesome face lunged towards me with an ear splitting scream. I yelled in fear throwing myself back. Then I felt myself twitch and opened my eyes to see the fire and the group sleeping. I notice Andrey walk by. I felt an enormous sigh of relif overtake my. "just a dream" I told myself. "just a dream".
It was the seventh day of spring. The little snow there had been, was now melted away, and the sanctuary was in full growth with fields of different wheats, bushes with flowers and other plants and mushrooms used for medications. The temperature was perfect. Not too warm, not too cold. The air was filled with every possible delightful smell, and yet it was refreshing for my lungs. It blew perfectly through my short brown hair. The wide, long and thin brown robes were hanging gently over my body. It did not take long before I could see a girl walking towards me. It was Kimii. I smiled at her and she smiled back. The sun shone in her Hazel colored tender eyes and her black hair blew away from her face in the breeze. "Good morning, Benji", she said as she smiled to me and slightly bowed in front of me. She sat down next to me on the intensively green and fresh grass. As we looked out over the mighty snowcovered mountains and the orange sun ascending in the horizon, turning the few clouds there were purple, she reached into her pocket and took something out before she held it up to me. "You have done a lot for me, Benjamin. I would not have been as joyful and I would not have been enjoying this place as much as I do without your help. I want to give you this as an appreciation of all you have done for me, and as a sign of acceptance of our bonds", she said passionately and almost romantically, but mostly thankfully. Without a word, as I was speechless, I recieved the shining silver ring and spectated every corner of it. "Look at the inside", she said eagerly. '~From Kimii to Benjamin. Always Faithful~' was carved into the inside of the ring. "I smithed it myself. I got some help from the smith of course, but I mainly did it myself", she stated even more eagerly. I was so touched that I closed my eyes to keep the tears from streaming out. "Benjamin?" she asked, but I kept them closed. "Benjamin?!" she suddenly yelled with a voice that was clearly filled with fear and insecureness. I opened my eyes and stared into a grey-blue seat. I could feel someone holding my left arm, so I looked to my left, seeing Kimii in the seat beside me. Her face expression tore through my soul. It was filled with fear, just like her voice was. It was first when I looked around to see other known faces, that I heard their desperate cries. Faces I had known for all my life, or most of my life. I looked back at Kimii as she pulled my arm. Beside her was Sung. He seemed to be in sorrow, but yet he seemed calm, as if he had accepted what was happening. We were inside the plane above Moscow. I could see further in the front of the plane that the pilots were struggling and yelling things about the machinery of the aircraft. A huge hole was blown into the side of the plane, and some seats were literally just gone. I only managed to catch a glimpse of the close ground outside the window of the aircraft before a loud crashing sound was heard, my body took off from the seat and everything went black. I woke up on the ground. Seats, wrecked metallic parts and injured people was everywhere. There was a large opening in the side of the aircraft, and I could see a familiar man lying on his side, looking around. "huh, H-HELLO!" he nervously said as he looked out through the hole in the wreck. He then looked directly at me and yelled "HELLO!". I could hear a terrifying growl, and I could see that he held his breath before he yelled again "hel-AAAHH!". Before he could say 'Hello' again, a gruesome beast appeared outside the hole, crawled in and attacked the familiar man as he screamed. I shut my eyes open and straightened myself up to a sitting position, and I somewhy looked directly at Dimitri. He said "Just a dream" twice and seemed relieved. I looked at him to make some sort of contact with him. I was slightly confused, and slightly in shock, but I somehow knew what had happened.
*I ckecked my watch once again and saw it was nearing one in the morning. carefully I approached Andrey* 'Andrey, I'm gonna wake Dima up for his watch. you ok keeping an eye both sides of the tunnel?' *with this I went back to the fire and shook Dima awake gently* 'Dima, your turn. I'll see you in the morning.' *with this I made myself comfortable with Jet by my side and closed my eyes*
"Yeah im fine, get some sleep. Im not tired anymore." i said as Odessa slowly returned to the fire. The tunnel ahead of me was the southern tunnel and it was suprisingly dry, dry and calm. With nothing to do i sat there. Looking for any signs of trouble. Then after a while i began to think about my past. Something triggered this. Maybe the calm atmosphere? After the bombs fell and life as we knew it vanished i was sealed in the metro. My family died, my home was destroyed, and i had no friends of any sort. I had nothing to live for and that was the reason i decided to join the Rnagers when they came for recruitment purposes. I had hoped for them to change me. To give me a reason to live. I was looking for some good in this work. But it all turned out to be one big bluff that came out of the recruiters mouth. It happened 7 years ago when the war with the reds and fascists raged. I was with the Rangers at the time and was with a high security clearnece. Meaning i did things that others were not willing to do. Our jobs went from extermination mutants in station to repopulate them to killing innocent civilians for their ideologies. I was at a Red Station far up north near the outskirts of the Dead City. We were disguised as Merchants but were actually far from that. Me and two other men were ordered to stay in a tunnel 200 meters away from a station and keep watch. Ironically i was a captain and was ordered by a rankless skumbag who sat in a office all day and gave orders. Hoping to change the world but not knowing what he is actually causing. We had 3 men including me with snipers equiped with silencers and night vision optics. We stayed for a couple days until we got hte order to kill anybody who left the station. Why? I had no idea. But if i didnt do this then id be seen as a traitor for polis. And possible killed. So i followed the orders. And the next thing i knew i was shooting innocent women, men, and children. Leaving the station just to get to the next. We were captured by some scouts and tortured by the Reds for a week. Until a group of Rangers attacked the station and killed every living soul in it. They took us in. And we returned to Polis. Only to be greeted as traitors for not "doing" what they asked for. When in reality we did everything that we were asked to do. They imprisoned us 3 and locked us up in a jail. A week later i escaped with them and quit the Rangers. The 2 other guys later parted ways and i havent seen them since. I left Polis scarred for life. And no place to live and nothing to live for. And ended up being a mercenary. Searching the tunnels for something. Something i dont know. I opened my eyes and relized that i was day dreaming this whole time. Though it seemed like a few minutes. I took a deep breath and looked in the tunnel. And kept watching.
I had hoped that after a long and stressful day I could at least get a good sleep. But my wish was not granted as I sloched back on my pack and looked around. I saw Ben looking at me kind of weird. "I had the worst dream" I said to him kind of imbarest. Closing my eyes again I tried once more to catch some good shut eye. Once again I saw blackness and heard silence as my brain entered it's dream state and too went to rest. Then from the darkness emereged a bright light. I seemed to levitate towards it as if hovering off the ground. As I approached two figures appered, both sitting on what I could now see as grass. A man and a woman. At first I didn't recognize them but as I ot closer a knew it was Ben though the woman still puzzled me. I tried to say hello but my mouth yielded no voice. Trying to get there attention I grabbed bens shoulder with my hand, but the second I did a blinding light flashed in my eyes. When it subsided a looked around puzzled by our new surroundings. It was a plane. I tried to speak again but couldn't produce any sound. Just as I went to stand up a massive explosion ripped threw the plane and all hell broke lose. There were people screaming everywhere and seats being sucked out of the plane. Suddenly the plane dipped downward and began to produce a high pitched howl. Once again I reached out to grab benjamin but the plane impacted the ground and we were sent flying. Everything went black and silent again. Just then I felt a hand on my shoulder, my eyes shot open and I grabbed my revolver. I was relieved to see it was only Odessa. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. Odessa gave me a nod and walked off, most likely to bed so I sat up grabbed my gear and walked to the same arch Odessa had been patrolling at. I couldn't help but give a quick look at Ben as i was still thinking about my crazy dreams. I also gave Andrey a nod as I walked past him during my patrol. After a half hour though I stopped and decided to just stand watch under an archway. I put my rucksack down and lit a cigarette as I stared deep into the dark cold tunnel. There wasn't a sound. It reminded me of the silence and dark nature of my recent dreams. I shivered at the thought.
