"Metro 2033 - Voices of the survivors" a post apocalyptic Anthology

Elbflorenz

(written by Artikel)

Chapter I – Humble

Anjas eyes were fixed on the tall, metallic contruction, coted in a faint blue taint. Two large
triangles, their arms hanging across the river like lovers holding hands, filled with thin steel
beams, criss-crossing each other like spider webs. There are still other bridges in Dresden, but
this one is special. "Blue Wonder" everyone calls it. Folk say, that was its name even before the
great war. When Anja inquired why, most said because of its blue colour. But one time, a grey old
man explained that long ago, there was another war, and planes dropped many bombs on
Dresden, completely destroying it. Every bridge was kaput, except for Blue Wonder.
[IMP]
„Look Anja!" Paul exclaimed, shaking her out of her trance. As Anja turned, he had already
disappeared over the ridge.
"Paul!" she exclaimed, but she received nothing back except blunt stumps echoing from the
riverbank. Reafirming the holster of her spear, she made after her little brother
She found him hunched down, examining a little piece of plastic, with a stick.
"What is this?" Pauls head shot up to his sister. Despite the foggy glasses of his Gasmask, the
light of the clouded sun reflectd in his bright green eyes.
"I don't know, but it seems to have holes." Anja croutched next to him, the flotsam of rusty
scrap and debris crunching under her boots. The object was of a bizarre shape; smooth, although
brittled black surface ending in two bulgy sides, covered in potrusions of different colours. One
grey lumpy one, sticking out like a mushroom, on another a plateu of four holes, three of them
filled with coloured buttons.
Her borther pulled out a dirty cloth, grasping the plastic and pulling it from its resting place,
using the stick to free it from vegetation still holding on to it. The young boy pulled down his
gasmask, revealing puffy cheecks red from the tight masks grip. As he held it close to his nose,
wrinkles formed along its stem as his head retreated.
"And it smells." His grousing nearly drowned as he pulled the mask back on.
Cool wet air tickling her breath-moist cheeks and chin as she pulled down her facemask,
dropping both her bag and spear. The latter being a long metal rod with a sharpened end, which
gave off a hollow metal thudd.
"Yep, it smells."
From the worn brown canvas emerged a small metal tube, half the size of her underarm. Strings
of wires connected its lower end back in between the zipper, reminiscent of an umbilical cord.
Paul reached out and grabbed the wires and, before Anja could react, yanked them with childish
force, lifting the bag along.
"Paul careful!" Anja snapped at her brother, slapping his arm away, "don't do that, we just got
it..."
As the boy bashfully stepped away, Anja widened the zipper, giving space for the rest of the
device...