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

In the shadows

(written by Schlaefriger)

Chapter I - Not from this world

Elias did not know how long he had been wandering the snow-covered streets blocked by cars. He felt icicles on his eyelashes and snow under the hood of his white camouflage suit. His hand was frozen to the Kalashnikov. He had kept them even though he was out of cartridges. After all, it could still be pounded on a mutant's head. His feet smacked as they furrowed through the wet, fresh snow and flung small piles of snow in front of them. Elias stomach growled. He hadn't eaten for days and his bottle was empty too. He knew himself that he didn't have much longer to live. Even if he unexpectedly found food supplies, he would still die of radiation sickness. At these thoughts a shiver ran down his spine and the hair on the back of his neck stood up. To top it all off, there was the exhaustion that plagued him. He hadn't slept since leaving the cathedral and now that his comrades were dead he couldn't sleep any more. Panting, Elias dropped to his knees. Just a few minutes, he thought. Something answered him with a squint. Kind. Moment. What? Was he hallucinating already? Again he heard something. This time a purr just as deep as that of a cat. Was he really imagining it? He wanted to know. He dug his fingers, almost frozen from the cold, into the snow and lifted a handful of the white, cold-killing devil's stuff into his hand. For a brief moment he pulled down his breathing mask and threw the snow on his face.

A shock ran through his body, penetrating every cell and surrounding him with the uncomfortable pain of the freezing cold. He quickly wiped all the snow off his face and put the mask back in its correct place. Elias was wide awake now. He listened, tried not to make a peep. A small cloud formed in front of the filter on his mask, which danced and twitched to the rhythm of his breathing. And there it was again. A purr. It didn't sound like a vicious animal. Elias got up, tightened his grip on his almost useless weapon and went into the house from which the sound was coming. The house was a simple apartment building, like any other in Cologne. A black mass stuck to the foot of the stairs, which rose up the stairs and pulsed slowly. Another growl. It came from the first floor. The AK hissing their fists Elias walked slowly and carefully up the stairs while trying not to step on the unknown mass. What he saw when he looked through one of the detached doors made his blood freeze. A crouched figure sat in front of him. Their size was hard to tell. It had deep black, leathery skin that stretched across its bones. Her eyes were also filled with impenetrable blackness. Arms and legs were disproportionately long and simply didn't want to match the rest of the body. Everything about this figure looked threatening to Elias. Yet he did not attack the creature. There was an enormous strength and willpower emanating from him. As if some force was stopping him. A power that didnt come out of this world.

Chapter II - Contact

Contact In front of him, now erect to his full height, was the black man. Yes, the name fitted well. Everything on his body was black, even his eyes. The black was surprisingly tall, at least six feet, but didn't look strong. Actually, Elias should have retreated or tried to knock the mutant down with his Kalashnikov, but he didn't even think about it. The creature had shown him his past, his mother, his friend and the end of the world. But it stopped where the bad started. Anton remembered that later people pounded on the door from outside. They wanted to be saved, but it was already too late. At some point, a voice very familiar to Elias called over from the other side. "LEAVE ME TO MY SON! LET ME IN! ELIAS!" she had called. It had been his mother. On his first foray to the surface as a collector, her burned corpse was the first thing that caught his eye. The black was sensitive. He had saved Elias from the worst. "I didn't want to show you," he heard in his head. "Thank you" Elias said in a shaky voice. He missed his mother. Crying, he sank onto the cold, icy concrete arch of the apartment building. The black dropped his head and looked at him. Through his eyes he looked into a long-lost and irradiated world that everyone at the cathedral longed for. Elias averted his gaze. Then he asked, "Why are you here?" "I had to hide," his head told him in reply. "To whom?" he demanded. "Before you. Before you and your people." Anton turned his head back to the mutant; or the mutant? "Are you a man or a woman?" asked Elias. The answer surprised him. "We have no gender. We don't reproduce like you do. So we have the opportunity to continue our way under almost any condition. "And where do you come from? Are there more of your kind?" he wanted to know. In answer to the question, the world around Elias blurred and reshaped itself.

Part 3 - Memories of a Monster

The transformation was complete. Elias was again in a different environment, but only in front of his inner eye.

He was standing in front of the entrance to a subway station. By looking at the sign above the gate, he found out that it was the Cologne/Bonn Airport station.

All around him was pure chaos.

Desperate screams could be heard everywhere and a gigantic mass of people tried to get to the underground.