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

Where the sun goes down

(written by McCheesIdk)

Chapter I - The message

"Alright then Jonas, let's get searching". The voice of his coworker was far away, and his head was hurting. He felt like going to bed again, although Johann, his old cowrker, had just woken him up. The drinks from the night before weren't the best idea. He and his friend Max had celebrated the night before because he had just been promoted to a courier for the Union of Vienna stations. Max was a nice person, always cared to help. Just a bit taller than himself. His long hair was surprisingly well washed most of the time, even though clean water was a luxury in the metro. He lived in a train wagon, right next to Jonas and had worked as a guard previously for all his metro-life. "Jonas quit daydreaming now! We still have to work here." Johann gave him a little pat and sat down in one of the two chairs in the radio room. This room was kind of special. Not many metro stations had one. Luckily, his father had worked this job before him, and had shown him all the things to do with this machine. Being a radio operator wasn't the best paying job, but it was a hell lot better than working with the animals, or being a mushroom-farmer. "Yeah, I suppose you're right. I'll try to tune in Johann", he responded. Jonas pressed the start button on his radio device and put on the headphones. The static beeping and ringing in his ear was starting to make his headache a lot worse. Every day, the same job. No person ever contaced the metro, only the stalkers who wanted information about the safety of some locations, but that wasn't Jonas's job.

After trying to find a signal for a good hour the telephone suddenly rang, and Johann picked up. "Hello, Helm? What, right now? Why me? Yes, yes I'm on my way.", he could hear the boredom in Johanns voice. "And what is it now?", he asked his coworker. "Agh, just some paperwork for the Colonel again, i don't know why he needs my help so much the last days. No worries, I'll be back in a few minutes". He got up from his chair and headed out of the room. Jonas watched him leave before carefully resting his eyes a bit. He still left his headphones on, just in case something happened. While siting there with his eyes closed he started mindlessly tuning... "Hello?! Hello?!, i repeat! Can someone hear me?! I repeat! Can somebody hear me!?". He couldn't believe his ears. That was a voice he was hearing, a real voice out of the radio! In all his years of living in the metro of Vienna they had never recieved a radio signal. He immediately pressed the "record" button on his desk before answering with a shaking voice: "T-this is Vienna speaking. W-who am i talking too?".

"This is David Hölzel from the village of hope! Finally someone is answering the signal!", came from the other end. "Wait, village of hope? What is your location?", Jonas asked. "Lower Bavaria! There is no radiation here. We have a village of around 5000 people on the surface." Jonas nearly fell out of his chair. The surface! He only saw the surface once, when he was asked to protect the station from mutants, and that was the scariest thing he ever expierienced. Those mutated disgusting creatures were the only reason he hadn't dared to leave this darn place. "How? How is there no radiation in your town?", he asked confused. From what Jonas knew, all bigger citys had been bombed, and maybe Munich was hit too. "There were only some drops over bigger cities. Berlin got bombed, but Munich absorbed the blast! We can grow things here and we don't have to use gas masks and air filters, only when there's wind from the north.", David answered. Ah, Munich didn't get hit. "I-I can't belive it! Another city! I-I'm gonna make a group and then travel to you, can you give me your location?". "Yes, of course, we built this town right on an island of the Chiem-lake. We have another smaller one too, not on the island. We also have a boat transport, that's how we get food and resources . So, when will you leave Vienna?". "I-i can't give you a exact date, b-but I'll try to leave as soon as i can. A-any other things?", Jonas's voice was still shaking. Another city, he just couldn't belive it. "No, nothig else. I'm going to send you the coordinates." The printer right next to the radio device was starting up, and within minutes had printed a little map of what seemed like the Chiem-lake. On the bigger island titled "Herreninsel" was a little cross with the name "Village of Hope". "Wait a second, how did you get so good technic equipment?", now that he thought about it, it did seem a bit wierd that such a small village had so good things. "Oh, we fled from the Berlin metro, and we took many things from there with us. Radio equipment included.", David responded. "Ok then, i guess we'll see eachother someday, over and out!". Jonas put down the headphones, stopped the recording and sat on his chair, not able to comprehend what just had happened. After what seemed for an eternity, Johann came back and asked him what had happened. Without a word Jonas showed him the recording he had made.

"You need to show this to Mr. Helm now! He needs to know about all the remaining survivors outside of here. Let's go to his-" "No Johann, i won't show this to him! He'd never let me go outside of here after the incident with my father." Not many people knew the about the incident with Jonas's father. A few years after the war, maybe 5 or 6 years after, his dad wanted to try and find survivors. Mr. Helm agreed to let him go, but he wouldn't let him back into the metro if he left. So Jonas's father left him and his mother to find a safe place to live and never returned. Since this, Jonas hated this man with every cell of his body.

"Well, what now? Do we continue searching for signals now or what?" "Alright Johann, just... give me a minute. I'm gonna take a smoke break." He slowly stood up and walked out of the door. He was still trying to process the conversation between him and David. Jonas took a selfmade cigarette out of the cigarettebox and lit it on. Finally a thing he could look forward too. He tried to imagine the village like but quickly stopped. He couldn't even think how the surface at the Chiem-lake must've looked like by now. The one time he was up there, it was just snow and destroyed buildings, a dead city full with spawns of radiation. "Come back Jonas, how long are you gonna stand around more?", Johann shouted out of the room. "Smoke break doesn't take 20 minutes." He threw the cigarette on the ground and headed back inside the radio room and sat down on his chair again. The only thing he was concentrated on was the clock on the wall next to him. The static noises, only interrupted by some stalkers asking for permission to enter the station, were still not very good for his head.

to be coninued...