Metro 2033 - Sanda's Story

3.Start

I want to thank everyone who are really interested in this story so far. I will appreciate any commentary given for the story, so do not hesitate to leave your opinion. :) Aside from that, enjoy the next part of this story and would love to see a few more votes on the story in general :D. The ", refer to speach. The ', refers to thoughts of our characters.

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It is so difficult to leave behind a place, one always called home. At some stage, everyone has to continue on fowards, to leave all bad experience and not look back. A new start is awaiting everyone, but it is up to us to choose the right time to begin again. We have to give up our precious moments to gain new ones. Adjusting is a part of our lifes, a challenge of survival.

****

I descend the stairs. I stand and stare at the folding darkness around me. My heartbeat quickens from the nothingness around me, aside from a light that hung from what looked like to be the roof of the mentioned tunel from Kaia. I get closer to it and inspect it. I grab the lantern and direct it around me to check my surroundings. The tunnel was quite long and the roof of it was supported by wooden barricades from falling. I take a step and proceed down the freezing scary looking pit. My steps echo and really are the only sound that this space might had heard in a while. The more steps I take , the more tighter seems the space to be for me.
'Could I be scared of tight spaces?'
I take a sharp breath and try not to distract myself with my roaming thoughts. I continue walking and come down to an dead end. I observe more carefully and drag my fingers down the surface of the wall.

'Wall... How am I supposed to get out of here?'
I look around and find a small booth with a panel and a few shelf cabinets. I enter the small room and observe the panel. There were quite a few buttons, for my bad luck, no indication as to what purpose they served. Drawing my attention from it, I turn towards the shelves and inspect them. By every passing second my eyes widen at what is in front of me. From bottom to top, the cabinet was full of food and clean water. By sheer curiousity I check the date.
'2030? Did they have connections that would get them this fresh food nowadays? More like, why wasn't it used for the people in our camp?'
Still confused I continue looking through the stuff there. There was frozen bread and I think vegetables. I has been so long since I saw food other than the meat we caught on hunts or canned sardines, salmon and other. As I start to put back the food to its place, I hear something fall. I look down to the floor and cast my lantern towards the fallen object. It was a paper pack and on it Olavi's name written with bold letters. Curious, I crouch and pick up the packet. I examine it thoroughly. I put my lantern down to the floor and sit right next to it.

I take out the knife that Borya gave to me just this morning. Only thinking about it makes me very sad and I stare into the object. Minutes pass and I am still in place. I feel my throat going dry and tears are forming in my eyes. In my head, today's events go through like a flash. Borya, Monica, Olavi, Kaia... And everyone else I knew and saw their dead bodies. I cry and start to tremble. The packet and my knife fall of my hands, while I lean forward and end up crying on the floor. I sob and mumble everyone's names. Once again, the people I hold dear have died. I was alone, once again. It takes me a while to bring myself together. I calm down and breath until I reach a steady pace. My thoughts continue to overwhelm me as I think about Revolution. I look at my weapon, my only defense, my only survival. I stare on the cold hard floor, recalling words that people have told me over the years, are coming back to life.
"Please, survive and live Sanda, dear. I love you."
"Defend yourself."
"Live to the fullest, we only have one life."
"Please do not forget me."
"See you on... the other side."


I stay quiet and then slap my cheeks. I feel the sting but do not mind it
'Wake up Sanda, people gave away their lives for you. All you can do now is do as they pleaded you. To live on without them.'
To be honest, being able to overcome grief and memorial is a very difficult thing, but at this moment I had no choice. Either I survive or all this was done for nothing. I straighten myself to pick up the knife once again and cut the ropes that hold the packet with more determination than before. I undress the pack of the paper and find myself with a few letters and a small suitcase of some sort. I put down the case next to me on the floor and focus on the letters. They were clearly written for Olavi but due to the lack of my education in writing and reading I was not able the understand everything. I briefly read the letters out loud trying to form words that would make sense for me.
"I can-not heip you? Help you! Ok got that one. Pleshe? No, that should be 'please', in this case..."
And I keep on figuring out the words slowly until I to a conclusion of the overall situation.
'So, that means Olavi was keeping this place in a case like this. He knew once he broke the relations with the other group, we would suffer and die from hunger and that would only worsen the situation as most definitely we could have turned. More like become mad and cannibals to our own kind.'
I sigh and continue going through the letters, ending up with the last one, which shows me a map of Belarus and Russia. I inspect it, by picking up the lantern and bringing it closer to the map. I stare at it and take out the papers Olavi told me to get from him. I quickly read through the and find the exact same map.

'Does that mean, it was a marked route, that would directly lead to safety?'
I put the letters in a neat deck and turn my search towards Olavi's notes. I try to read them but the words that come out of them might either be wrong or not understandable at all. I take note of the repeated term 'Polis'. It stays on my mind until I realise it's meaning.
"Of course, it's the station Olavi was on about! How did I forget that one?"
I focus on sheets that were more complicated than what they actually looked like. There are schemes, drawings, spider grams and so on. The writing is quite familiar but I shove those thoughts at the back of my head, as I have no desire to get distracted anytime soon. The last pages are a summary of all the research overall. It is three pages long but I still go on ahead and read them slowly. Scratching the back of my neck from time to time, I take my time to cope on with the details of the research.

"My synopsis?, the chemicals used in the bomb-ing, mixed with mine-rals of earth, such as oil,copper and many others, they col-la-bo-rated together and created tox-ins, which do not af-af-fect the body at first, but the mind itself. The brain is di-divi-ded into the left and right hemisphere, but the front-al lo-be that is as-s-soci-ated with the self con-trol, planning, reason-ing of a human being, its cells are being put on hold, making the human or any being turn ber-serk and hurt without any thought. Si-mi-la-rly happens to the temporal lobe, which cor-re-correspods with our memory of things we have learned. The being loses its sa-ni-ty and forgets of its existence. At that point, the only functional lobes are the par-rietal,oc-cipital and limdic, no limbic, were the sense of touch and smell are becoming stronger and more aware. The frontal lobe usually is involved, as the insticts are still somehow intact and help the being behave in an aggressive but at the same time self-defensive."
I stop reading for a moment as it takes me a while to understand the written information. I grip the papers in my hand and a heavy sigh leaves my mouth. I keep reading until I go to the very end of the summary. There was something about a combined reaction that would be able to act as an 'antivirus' and get rid of the chemicals in the natural environment. I sit, still warily looking over the notes, as if something will happen if I overdo it.

"That's the solution"
I say and look in the direction of the suitcase that lays near me and I grab it by the handle. I lift it and place it on my lap. I unlock the safety clips on each side by the handle and slowly open it. The case is empty looking, aside from the three containers with some sort of liquid in them. I dare not touch them, as I fear that it could be dangerous if something happened by only touching them. I stare at them a few more and then securely close it. I sit up and look around me once more. I find an empty backpack and use it to stuff food, water and the papers inside. I decided, to get going on my journey and at least try save the world from an dead end. I put on the bag and I move to look at the panel once again. With a bit of fear filtering my body, I press the buttons and see which ones would help me. I flinch when I feel the earth tremble lightly and concentrate at the moving wall which I touched before. I take the source of only light with me and with quick steps head towards the moving surface. I wait and I am met with the dim light of the cloudy day. I take one look behind me and say as a mere whisper.
"Farewell, everyone."

****

I am outside. The gloomy atmosphere was perfect for the day. I stroll down the hill and follow the maps drawn by Olavi. I pass by the low levelled river and settle my sight at the small stream that flows slowly. I try to stay focused on what will I do rather than on what happened to me. I do not wish to have an emotional attack again in the middle of nowhere and where the mutants would roaming freely.
'I wish I had take an extra weapon with me.'
True. My knife was great for self-defense but only for a limited amount of enemies. I would be screwed if more than three people attacked me in my current position.
'I wish I could walk freely without having the gas mask on. To see people, to meet new people, to not fear for the possible.'
I sigh and shove those unnecessary thoughts out of my head and try to fix my attention on something that will make me daze and lose my focus. I sigh louder, this time not aware that there could be mutants that could attack me any given moment. I am confronted with silence, only sounds the water flowing and my footsteps. I start to get anxious, as if something is focusing its attention to me.

I feel goose bumps go down my spine and I swift to look behind me. I am left with nothing in sight but that does not ease my uneasy feeling. I get my knife at the ready and start running. As I swift by quickly, I can hear faint movements of something. I begin to sprint and start breathing rhythmically to my movements, to not run out of breath. My heart starts to thump hard and I am scared that everything that might be roaming around me will hear it. With my predators behind, I do not even consider an option of stopping. I am starting to get tired after quite some time and suddenly I trip over a loose root of one of the nearby trees. I fall and for even worse luck, my gas mask brakes, to the point were it is now useless to wear again. I grunt and can hear an approaching movement. Without looking up I strike with my knife upwards, sure that I must have had at least left a deep cut on the body. Now my body on the ground, laid flat and had difficulty in breathing. I start to choke as the air puts a painful pressure to my lungs and chest.

'The toxins!'
I am expecting to be met with death, but a pair of hands lifts me up and puts on a gas mask. I gasp as I feel relieved to be able to breath again. I take a few deep breaths and I ignore for a while the three pair of eyes looking at me. I slowly sit and stare back. I stay silent for the most part and do not break contact. From their body shape, I can clearly say they are men. Quite tall but not scary enough to make me run away or doubt my defensive skills. I stand up slowly, still keeping my gaze at them. One of them gets a few steps closer and I take a step back, reaching to my side for my knife.
"We will not hurt you. We were going to Revolution and trying to get in contact with Olavi. We saw many bodies and many mutants. Are you maybe one of them?"
I stay silent for a moment, remembering the code regarding unknown people.
"If you have not used our camps name and my leader's, I would had killed you right there and then. What possible business do you have here?"

I do not let go of my knife's handle and wait for their reply. They seem to notice my untrusting posture but comment none about it. They exchange looks and that makes me more wary of them.
"We came to get any remaining survivors. Judging from our encounter you must be the only survivor, as from the direction you came from, you must have had, passed the tunnel. That means you found the information about our group. I am Darius, the one who leads our group from Sparta. I am sure Olavi gave you his dogtag with the symbol on it. "
"Indeed."
I take it out of my pocket of my coat and show it to him. His eyes light up and gets closer to grab it. In the last second, I snatch it away.
'Now... That is weird.'
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Not so quickly. You see, I need to get to Polis and meet a certain someone there, someone who Olavi knows well. Would you kind gentlemen get me there?"
I switch my pose slightly and show off my curves, getting all three their attention.
'Please, be morons and fall for it!'
I wait and see them exchange some sort of looks and turn towards me.
"Sure, why not? We might need some help along the way. Right?"

They nod and he motions for me to go after them. They are walking in front of me, while I walk behind them, cautious of their movements. Honestly, I never encountered that many people out of the camp, that would not try to kill me. I sigh as I start feeling very tired and know I do not have a place to sleep like I usually did. I am grateful, that for the past ten years, I had at least a roof over me and a place to go rest to. I notice, as we pass by the forest and there is an automobile waiting there, with a person on it. He makes a confused hand motion as he spots me coming along with the group. All of them, fix their gaze at me. I freeze in my place and look at them. The one who sits on the vehicle, talks.
"Just get on, we do not have the whole day to sit. Except, if you up to act as prey for these ugly monsters, I won't stop you."
I stay still for a few more moments, but hesitantly move towards the front seats of the auto. I grip the standing out metal bar and sit next to the driver. I feel the vehicle shake as the others take a sit themselves. The guy to my left, starts the engine and we took off.

Not used to riding this kind of a machine before, I find it difficult to relax. They guy next to me chuckles. I turn towards him with a quizzical look and he snorts.
"You are the first person, who is anxious just like going on her first date. Just keep calm and try not to move too much."
I nod and keep quiet for most of the trip, until we get to some sort of bunker near the borders.
'Time can go by really quick."
I think and follow the men. They let me in and get down the ladder, in to their hideout. I observe my surroundings and quietly put my bag on the floor. I crouch and find myself a comfortable place on the floor. I look as the others lock their hideout and lit up some of the candles around the big rooms. I take off my gas mask and feel human again. They do the same and take a few minutes before one of them asks me.
"Would you like something to eat?"
I look up to him and think for a moment before I nod. He nods me back in understatement and went off to get food, in a small storage room.
'Must be the guy who controlled the vehicle.'
I still sit on the floor while the others, get comfortable on their hanging beds.

The guy named Darius deverts my thoughts.
"Are you gonna sleep on the floor, girl?"
I look at him and nod once again. He sighs but lets me be, just like the rest of them.
"Well, everyone, get some rest, eat. Tomorrow we will be going out early and we need to be halfway to Moscow, before the University. That is all for now. Goodnight."
'Such hurry? Question is: What for?'
Everyone else replies back and goes off to their own place. It is strange. To be in a group that doesn't talk much. The guy from before, stands before me and crouches to my eyelevel and says.
"Here, hope these will help you get some energy."
He smiles and lets me eat on my own. I look at the canned fruits and eat them slowly. I only eat half of the can before I stand up and say.
"Anyone want some? Cannot eat the whole thing."
They all stare at me and one of the guys who did not look like a type to talk, approaches me and takes the can of me. I smile and he does the same.

I return to my place and curl up as much as I can. I take off my coat and cover myself with it. I lean on my bag to my right and sigh. Before I manage to fall asleep, I take out a burned leather wallet. Inside of it, a photo of my old family. I keep staring at it until the driver, once again comes to me. This time, he takes a sit next to me bag and I can feel his stare. I try to ignore it, but find it difficult to bear being looked at.
"Can you please stop staring at me?"
I hear him shift and say a quiet sorry. I put my photo aside and try to go to sleep. The guy next to me once again bothers my so long awaited sleep.
"The name is Alex. What is yours.?"
"Sanda."
"Nice."
Without giving a care for him anymore, I close my eyes. Today's events flash through my mind and before I realise, I fall asleep as my precious memories, become my dreams for the upcoming night.

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Well that is the end of the third part. Next part coming up next Monday/ Tuesday so stay tuned till then.