Metro 2034

CHAPTER 15 Only the Two

The old man cleared his throat angrily and made one step into the direction of the girl. “Sasha! I got to talk to you!”

Leonid was winking into Sasha’s direction and stepped back, giving Sasha free with over exaggerated humility and distanced himself. But Sasha couldn’t think about anything else. While the old man was trying to convince her that they could still break hunter, was trying to tell her something and to talk sense some into her the girl was looking over his shoulder at the musician. He didn’t look back but the slight smile on his face told her that he had felt it. She nodded her head and told Homer that she was ready for anything if he would just let her alone with Leonid for one more minute. She had to find out what he knew and had to start believing that there was a cure.

“I’ll be back soon.” She cut of the old man when he was in the middle of saying something. She passed him and ran to the musician.

“You’ve got to tell me!” She was sick of playing games. “How?”

“That is the complicated part of the question. I know that you can cure the disease. I know people that have won against it. I can get you to them”

“But you’ve said that you could fight it…”

He shrugged his shoulders. “You understood me wrong. How could I? I am just a flutist, a wandering musician”

“Who are those people?”

“If you want to meet them you can. But we have to take a small stroll first.”

“At which station are they?”

“Not far from here. You’re going to see them, if you want.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“But you would like too. And because I don’t believe you fully as well I can’t tell you everything.”

Sasha’s look darkened. “Why do you want me to come with you?”

“Me?” Leonid shook his head. “I don’t care. You want to. I don’t have to save anyone, I couldn’t even. At least not like that.”

She hesitated and then she asked: “Can you give me your word that you can bring me to those people? You’re word that they can help?”

“I’ll get you to them.” Said Leonid in a serious tone.

Again the angry Homer joined the conversation:

“What are you planning Sasha?”

“I am not going with you.” She said and turned to the musician. “He says that there is a cure.”

“He’s lying.” Said Homer unsure.

“You seem to know about viruses more than me.”

Leonid tried to keep hi tone respectful. “Have you explored them? Or gathered you’re on experience with them? So you think that mass murder is the best way to get rid of the epidemic?”

“Where do you know all this from?” Asked the old man surprised and looked at Sasha: “Did you…”

“And there is our new doctor.” Said the musician when he realized that hunter was approaching and made a step back, just to be sure. “Then the complete first aid team is ready and I can go.”

“Wait.” Plead the girl.

“He’s lying!” Whispered Homer. “He just wants to… With you… Even if he’s telling the truth you won’t make it. Hunter will be back with the men in 24 hours. When you stay with me you may still be able to change his mind. And that one…”

“I can’t do anything.” Said Sasha with a helpless voice. “I can’t change anything anymore, I feel it. I have only one choice: I have to make him choose. I’ve got to separate…”

“Separate?” Homer raised his eye brows.

“I won’t need twenty four hours.” She said and disappeared.

Why had he let her go? Why had he shown weakness and let it happened that that crazy wanderer stole his heroine, his muse, his daughter? The more the old man thought about Leonid, the less he liked him. Out of the big green eyes of the musician he could see his lusting looks and when he thought that no one was looking at him dark shadows came over his face of an angel…

What did he want from her? Best case scenario was that he just played the fan of her beauty so that she could be another mark on his list. The disappearing charm of her youth, something that you couldn’t photograph, it would fall of like flower dust.

The girl herself, lied to and used would shake it away and would take long time to get pure again but she would forget the betrayal of this Satan.

But why had he let her go? Out of cowardice.

Because Homer hadn’t just not argued with hunter but not even asked him the questions that

kept him from finding sleep. Sasha was in love so her courage and her not thinking about anything could

be forgiven. Would he have had as much patience with the brigadier if he would’ve asked him?

Homer kept calling him “brigadier” because he was used to it and it calmed him down: That name took the man his cruelty because he was just the commander of the northern guard post at the Sevastopolskaya… But no! The person who cut through the darkness of the tunnel next to him was no longer the same knight. The old man started to realize that his companion was starting to transform himself.

Something terrible was going on inside of him, it was foolish to not want to see it and without hope to tell himself otherwise.

Did Hunter move faster because he wanted to show him the bloody end of this drama earlier?

Now he wouldn’t just destroy the Tulskaya but also the sect that was in the other tunnel and the Serpuchovskaya with all its inhabitants and the stationed guards of Hanza. Only because some of them could have gotten sick. And the Sevastopolskaya could maybe have the same fate in front of them. The brigadier didn’t need any cause to kill anymore. He just needed a reason.

Homer wasn’t able to run behind hunter anymore and like a nightmare watch all his crimes and document them. He had a clean conscience that everything which had happened was in the name of rescue of the Tulskaya, had told himself that it had been a necessary evil. The merciless brigadier was like a Moloch and Homer was too much of a coward to fight against fate.

The girl did seem to want to fight it. While Homer had made peace with the Tulskaya and the Serpuchovskaya transforming into Sodom and Gomorrah, Sasha was reaching for straws. Homer could no longer tell himself that some pills or vaccine existed so that Hunter didn’t have to end the epidemic with fire and sword while Sasha seemed to look for a cure till the bitter end.

Homer was no warrior and no doctor and also to old to believe in miracles. A part of his heart dreamt passionately about a possible rescue and exactly that part he had ripped out of body and let go, with Sasha.

Everything he hadn’t dared to do, he had pushed onto the girl. And found peace in his helplessness. In 24 hours it would all be over. After that Homer would dessert and get himself a lonely cell to finish his book. Now he knew about what it would be.

How a smart animal would find a magical star which had fallen from the sky, how it had eaten it and transformed into a human.

How humanity stole fire but couldn’t tame it and how they did not just burn themselves but how they turned the entire world into ashes. How one hundredth years later the star would be taken away again and how that transformed it back into something terrible that had no name.

The guard let the handful of bullets slip into his pocket and shook the musicians hand strongly as the fulfillment of their bargain. “For a symbolic payment you can even come with us on the railcar.”

“I prefer romantic strolls in the tunnel.” Answered Leonid.

The guard didn’t give up and whispered to the musician: “Now look, just the two of you can’t go through this tunnel without an escort the tunnel. You get one, no argument. And your lady has no papers. But I could get you to where you want a lot faster, where you too could be alone.”

“We don’t need that,” said Sasha.

The musician bowed before her. “We should act like they are our guards. The prince and princess of Monaco are going for a walk.”

“Which princess?” Said Sasha.

“From Monaco. At the Cote d’ Azur…”

“Listen up.” Cut him off the guard. “If you really want to go on foot, then go now. Your magazine in all good faith but the boys got to go back to base. Hey crutch!” He yelled at one of the guards.

“Accompany those two to the Kievskaya. Tell the patrol it is a deportation. Get them to the radial line and then back home.” He turned to Leonid.

“Right?”

“Of course.” He answered and saluted jokingly.

The leader of the guard blinked with his eyes and said. “Any time”

How different Hanza was from the rest of the metro!

On the entire line from the Pavelezkaya to the Oktyabrskaya there wasn’t a single spot where it had been completely dark. Every fifty steps there was a cable that crawled along the wall, an electrical lamp which light reached to the next one. Yes even the secret and escape tunnels that separated themselves from the main tunnel from time to time were lit very well so that they lost their horrors.

If it would have been after Sasha they would have ran to save important minutes, but Leonid convinced her that there was no reason for haste. He refused to explain where he was leading her from the Kievskaya. He marched without any haste and was bored. It seemed that he was a common visitor to the tunnels through which normal mortals could pass to the ring line.

“I am glad that your friend always does what he thinks is right.” He said after a while.

Sasha’s forehead got wrinkles: “What are you talking about?”

“If civilians were as important to him as to you we would’ve had to take him with us. Now we’ve separated into groups of two and everybody does what he wants. He kills, you heal…”

“He doesn’t want to kill anybody!” She said sharp and a bit too loud.

“Of course. It just is his job after all.” He sighed.

“Who am I to judge?”

“So what do you want to do when you’re and adult?” Asked Sasha sarcastically. “Play?”

“I am just going to be near you. What else do I need to be happy?”

She shook her head. “You’re just saying that. You don’t even know me. How could I make you happy?”

“I know how. But it is already enough for me to look at a beautiful girl and I am happy. And what…”

“So you’re saying that you know beauty when you see it?” She looked at him.

He nodded his head. “The only thing that I’m good at”. Suddenly the wrinkles on her forehead smoothened.

“What’s so extraordinary about me?”

“You are shining.”

This time his voice had almost sounded serious. But at the next moment the musician took a step back and put his look on her. “Just to bad that you’re wearing those rough clothes.”

“What’s wrong with my clothes?” She moved slower.

It was irritating her that he was looking at her back.

“Your clothes don’t let any light through. And I am like a moth.” He moved his hands as if they were wings and made a stupid face. “Always flying to the fire.”

A slight smile was on her face for a moment. She took part in the game. “So you’re afraid of the dark?”

“Loneliness.” Leonid made a sad face and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

He shouldn’t have said that. While he had tuned his instrument, he had thought that the resistance had been weake, and the weakest and softest string had broken with an ugly noise.

The slight movement of the air in the tunnel had blown away all serious thoughts and had Sasha made play with the the musician. But now she had stopped. With one beat the happy feeling that Leonid’s words had created was gone. Now she was sober again and asked herself why she had given in.

Had she gone with him because of that and left the old man and hunter?

“Loneliness. You don’t even know about what you’re talking about.”

The Serpuchovskaya had sunken into darkness and fear. Soldiers with army issue gasmask blocked the entrance to the tunnel and the passageway to the ring line. The station was humming, with premonition of a catastrophe, like a stirred up bee hive. Hunter and Homer were brought through the hall under guard. Here the inhabitants of the Serpuchovskaya tried to find if they know their fate by looking at their eyes. Homer looked at the ground; he didn’t want to remember their faces.

The brigadier hadn’t told him where they were going but the old man was beginning to suspect.

To polis.

Connecting four metro lines it was a real city with thousands of inhabitants. The rest of this underground realm had split into warring stations long ago. Polis was a heaven for science and culture.

The holiest place in the metro that no one dared to attack.

Nobody but the old Homer, that half crazy rider of the apocalypse…

But in the last 24 hours he had felt better. His nausea had gone and the coughing that had forced him to clean his bloody gasmask had stopped as well. Maybe his organism was winning against the epidemic? Or maybe he hadn’t been infected in the first place? Maybe he had just imagined it. He had known that from the beginning but he had still been afraid…

The tunnel behind the Serpuchovskaya was dark and silent and had a bad reputation. Homer knew: Until polis they wouldn’t meet a single human soul, the station between the Serpuchovskaya and the Borovizkaya had always a surprise ready for its visitors. Over the Polyanka the only station on their journey, he knew a lot of legends.

Everybody who passed it generally didn’t have to fear for his life but his mind could be damaged.

Homer had been there a few times but never noticed anything out of the ordinary. He knew all legends and had an explanation for every single one of them. So he was hoping that the station would remain dead once more and lay abandoned like in better times. But around one hundredth meters in front of the Polyanka he noticed the electrical light and the first sounds echoed to him and he had a premonition.

He could clearly hear human voices but was that actually possible? Even worse: Hunter who could normally feel the presence of all living beings even a few hundred steps before they met them didn’t seem to hear anything.

He didn’t even take notice of Homers worried face.

He was totally beside himself and it seemed that he didn’t know what was happening here. The station was inhabited! Since when? Homer had asked a lot of times why the inhabitants of polis had never tried to get to the Polyanka.

They were already running out of space so why not just annex it? It was just legends that had stopped them! But had been enough for them to let this station in peace.

But someone seemed to have gotten over their fear and built a city of tents. They had even installed new lights.

How they were wasting electricity! Still, in the tunnel Homer put his hand in front of his eyes, to keep them from looking into bright light that was coming out of the mercury lamps which were hanging from the ceiling.

Incredible! Even polis had never looked so clean and for. The walls weren’t covered in ashes and dirt of the last years. The marble tiles were shimmering and it looked like the ceiling had been renewed with white paint just yesterday.

Homer looked through the arc of the entrance into the station and he couldn’t see a single tent.

Hadn’t they gotten to that part, putting them up? Or did they want to turn it into a museum?

He could believe that, after all some strange people where in charge of polis. Gradually the train platform was filling with people. They didn’t care for the to the teeth armed mercenary with his titan helmet and the stumbling, dirty old man.

And still: Homer knew while he looked at them he couldn’t move even one bit, his legs were numb.

Every human who had gathered at the platform was dressed like if they were making a movie about the first year of 2000 at the Polyanka. Fine coats, colorful warm jackets; dark blue jeans… People had worn those clothes before the catastrophe. Where were the coats made from rough pig leather, where was the eternal brown of the metro, the graveyard of all color? Where had it gone?

Where did they get all this richness? And their faces!

That weren’t faces of people who had lost their families in one moment. Those people seemed to have seen the soon not a while ago, they looked like they had started their day, like always with a hot shower. Homer could have sworn… And then… He had the feeling that he knew those people from somewhere. More and more of these wonderful people gathered at the edge of the platform without stepping onto the tracks though. Soon the colorful crowd filled the entire station, from the beginning of the station to its end. It seemed that they had all stepped out of an old photos that had been made 30 years ago.

Still none of them were looking at homer directly, they looked everywhere, the walls, the newspapers, looked at each other in secret, out of envy or curiosity. But they didn’t look at the old man, as if he was a ghost.

Why had they gathered here? For what were they wafting? It took him some time until he had himself under control again. Where was the brigadier? Why hadn’t he said anything? Hunter had stopped a few steps behind him. He seemed to not be interested in the station full of people. With a heavy look he stared into the room, as if was standing in front of something that was blocking his way. A few steps in front of him something must have been hanging above his head. Homer stepped closer and looked carefully under his visor… And suddenly hunter started to punch. The fist went through the air, made a strange circle to the left and then to the right, as if the brigadier was trying to stab an invisible creature with an imaginary blade. He almost hit Homer but he jumped to the side. Hunter continued his fight. He punched, stepped back, defended himself and seemed to hold on to something with his iron hard fingers, groaned in the next moment as if something was squeezing his neck and choking him with its grip. The old man felt like he had seen something similar before, just a while ago. Where and when? And what the devil was going on with the brigadier? Homer yelled his name but he seemed to be possessed by something and didn’t react to his loud screams.

The people on the platform didn’t react to hunter; he didn’t exist for them and they didn’t exist for him. They reacted to something else, they looked at their watches, talked to their neighbors and exchanged the time with the red numbers on the electrical clock at the tunnel entrance.

Homer closed his eyes a bit and followed the looks of the people… The stations clock showed the time where the train had departed. But the display got bigger, it now had place for ten numbers: Eight before the blinking double point and another two for the seconds. Also small red dots surrounded the seconds and only the last number of this incredible long number; it was more than twelve million, changed…

A scream and crying.

Homer turned away from the strange clock. Hunter was laying face down on the tracks and wasn’t moving.

Homer ran to him and turned the heavy and lifeless body on its back. No, the brigadier was still breathing. He couldn’t see any injuries but his eyes were the ones of a dead man. His right hand was still a fist and now Homer realized that hunter hadn’t been unarmed in this strange duel. In his hand was the black knife.

Homer slapped the brigadier a few times and he started to moan like if he was drunk. He blinked with his eyes, leaned on his elbow and looked at the old man with an unclear look.

The picture of his dream had disappeared: The people in their colorful coats had disappeared without a trace, the bright light was gone and the dust of centuries was on the walls. The station was black and lifeless as always, like Homer had been used to on his earlier expeditions.

Till the Oktyabrskaya the two didn’t exchange a single word. She could only hear how their guards exchanged a few whispers and breathed in sharp when they stumbled over a threshold. Sasha was angry, not so much at the musician but at herself. This… Well what? He had acted like she had thought of him. Now everything he was doing was embarrassing her a bit, but hadn’t she been too strict with him?

At the Oktyabrskaya the wind changed and when Sasha saw the station she forgot everything else. In the last days she had been at many places which she hadn’t thought could even exist. But the glory of the Oktyabrskaya overshadowed everything. On the granite floor were rugs and you could still see their original pattern even though they were very old. The burning heads for torches, polished chandeliers plunged the room into a steady and milky light.

Here and there were tables were people with bright faces where sitting, talking to each other tiered and exchanging papers. Sasha stretched her neck to see more of it.

Then she said shy:” Everything here is so… luxurious”

“The ring stations are like pork on stick over a fire.”

Whispered Leonid. “They are just dripping because of the fat… Oh and before I forget, how about a snack?”

“No time.” She shook her head and hoped that he couldn’t hear her growling stomach.

“Come on.” The musician pulled her hand. “There’s a place here, everything you’ve eaten before doesn’t even come close to it… Boys, you don’t have anything against a good meal, or do you?” He asked their guards. “Don’t worry Sasha, in two hours we’re there. And I didn’t just mention that with the pork on the stick out of fun. Because here they are making…”

He talked about the meat until Sasha agreed. If it was just two hours to their goal, then there was enough time for an half hour meal. They still had the entire day and who knew when she would get something to eat again?

The stew had earned all its praise. But it hadn’t been enough, Leonid had ordered a whole bottle of sweet wine.

Sasha was curious and drank a small glass, the guards and the musicians shared the rest.

Suddenly she rose of her chair and ordered Leonid to do the same thing. The hardness of her voice came from her being angry at herself. Angry that she, exhausted from the food and the hot alcohol, had pushed away his hand from her knee a little bit too late. His fingers had been soft and sinful. Outrageous!

Leonid raised his hands immediately as if he wanted to say: “I give up!” But she could still feel his touch on her skin. Why did I push it away so fast, she asked herself confused? She wanted to get this sticky sweet scene out of her memory as fast as possible, to cover it up with a conversation.

“The people here are strange.” She said to Leonid.

“Why?” He emptied the glass with one sip and came slowly forth from behind the table. “There is something missing in their eyes…”

“Hunger?”

“No, not just… They don’t seem to need anything”

“That’s because they do not need anything.” Leonid smiled. “They are full. Queen Hanza feeds them. And the eyes? Normal, dull eyes…”

Sasha was serious again. “What we left over today could have fed me and my father for three days. Shouldn’t we have taken it with us, to give it to someone else?”

“No.” Answered the musician. “They give it to their dogs. There are no poor people here.”

“But they could give it to the neighboring stations! There were people are hungry…”

“Hanza is no charity.” Said one of the guards they called crutch. ”They can see how they get their own food. That’s the last thing… feeding all those no goods.”

“Are you from Hanza?” Asked Leonid.

“I’ve always lived here. As long as I can think.”

“You won’t believe it put past the ring line people need to eat too.”

“They can eat themselves for all I care!” Answered the guard angrily. “Or should we let it happen that in the end they divide everything like the reds?”

“Well if all happens like it has happened before…,” started Leonid.

“Then what? Shut up boy! What you’re talking here is enough for a deportation!”

“I’ve already earned my deportation.” Said the musician. “But I’m willing to work on it a bit more.”

“I can deport you to somewhere else.” Thundered the guard. “Because you’re spy of the reds!”

“And I you because you’re drinking while on duty…”

“Well you… You did too… Come here you…”

“No! Sorry, please excuse him. It’s all just a misunderstanding.” Said Sasha, pulled the musician away from crutch on his sleeve. Crutch was breathing heavily.

Almost violent she dragged Leonid to the tracks, looked at the clock and sighed. Because of the meal and them arguing two hours had passed, Hunter on the other hand had probably not stood still for one second.

The musician was laughing behind her drunkenly.

The whole way to the Park Kultury both guards were complaining heavily. Leonid had wanted to answer them but Sasha had talked him out of it every time. He was still drunk, with his arrogance his insolence grew and the girl turned away to escape his intrusive hands.

“Don’t you think I look good at all?” He said hurt. “I am not your type, yes? You don’t like the likes of me, I would need muscles and sc-a-a-rs… Why did you even come with me?”

“Because you promised!” She pushed him away.

“Not because…”

“That old song: I am not like that.” He sighed.

“If I would’ve know that you’re such a mimosa…”

“How dare you? There are still people alive there.”

“They are all going to die if we don’t make it!”

“And what can I do to prevent that? I almost can’t lift my feet. Do you know how heavy they are? Here see…”

Leonid tried to raise his foot and knee while he was walking. It looked very absurd. “And the people are going to die anyways. Tomorrow or in ten years. Just like you and I. So what’s the hurry?”

“So you lied to me? Yes, you lied to me! Homer knew immediately… He had warned me…. Where are we going?”

“No I didn’t lie to you! Should I swear again? You’ll see! You’re going to tell me that you’re sorry! Embarrassed you’re going to say: Leonid! I was wr-o-ng…”

“Where are we going?”

“We’re going, till we no longer can… To the emerald city… La-la, taram-tam-tam… It isn’t an easy way.”

Sang Leonid and was giving instructions to an invisible orchestra with his fingers. Suddenly his flute box fell down, he cursed and almost fell down himself.

“Hey you drunk! Can you even make it to the Kievskaya?” Yelled one of the guards behind him.

“If you pray for us!” The musician bowed before them. “Elli is coming back.” He continued the song. “And Elli is coming back… With totoschka… Back home…”

Homer had never believed the legends about the Polyanka, but he had learnt that they were true the hard way.

There were people who called it “the station of fate” and some looked at it as some kind of oracle. Some believed that if you made a pilgrimage to it your life would change and the curtain that had been in front of your future would be lifted, giving them insight on what was waiting for them at the end their journey.

Some… But everybody who still had common sense knew that from the station from time to time toxic gas came out of the ground. It created fantasies and brought forth hallucinations. But to the devil with the skeptics! What could that vision have meant? Homer seemed that he was just one step away from solving it and every time his thoughts turned around. In front of his eyes hunter appeared again, stabbing the air with his blade. Homer would have given much to find out which vision the brigadier had seen, had tried to fight and which duel had brought his defeat and yes, his death.

“What are you thinking about?”

Homers inners got cramped. Hunter had never said anything to him without good reason. A barked order, an unwillingly growled answer… How should you talk about a soul with somebody who had none?

“Just… Nothing special.” Stuttered Homer.

“No I can hear it.” Said Hunter calm.”You were thinking about me. Are you afraid?”

“Not at the moment.” Lied the old man.

“You don’t need to be afraid. I am going to leave you in peace. You remind me of…”

Half a minute later Homer asked carefully: “Of whom?”

“A part of me. I’ve forgotten that something like that is still in me. You remind me of that” While he struggled to say those heavy words Hunter continued to stare to what was in front of him. Darkness.

“That’s why you took me with you?”

The brigadier answered: “It’s important for me to keep that in my head. Very important. And for others it is important, that I… Pr it could be like… It was before.”

“It’s about your memory?” Homer felt like he was crawling over a minefield. “Has something happened to you?”

“I remember everything!” Answered hunter sharp.

“I only forget myself sometimes. And I’m afraid to forget myself forever. You’re going to remind me of it, yes?”

“Ok.” Homer nodded his head even though Hunter wasn’t looking at him.

“Back then it all made sense.” Said the brigadier tired. “Everything I did. To protect the metro. The people. My orders were clear: Eliminate all dangers. Destroy. It made sense, yes it did!”

“But now it makes sense too…”

“Now? I don’t know what now is. I want that everything is like back then. I don’t do this just because I feel like it. I’m no bandit and no murderer! I do it for the people. I’ve tried to live without the people, to keep them save. But it was too horrible. I couldn’t forget. I had to get back to the people. To protect. To help. To remember. And there was the Sevastopolskaya. They took me in. The station had to be saved, needed help. At all costs. It seems like when I do… When I eliminated a threat… That there is something important, a big thing. Maybe then I can remember. I just have to remember. That’s why I have to get as fast as possible… It’s turning faster and faster. I have to make it in 24 hours at all costs. I have to make it: Reach polis, form a unit and go back… Keep reminding me until then, alright?”

Homer nodded his head cramped. Even the thought about what would happen if the brigadier would forget who he was completely scared him. Who would remain in the body when the real Hunter fell asleep? But not the one… against he had lost the illusionary fight?

The Polyanka was now far behind them. Hunter stormed to polis like a guard dog that had been let loose from its chain and had smelled the trace of its prey. Or a wolf fleeing from its hunters?

It got bright at the end of the tunnel.

Finally they reached Park Kultury. Leonid tried to get on the good side of the guards again through inviting them to a “very wonderful restaurant.” But the two men were suspicious. Even when he went to the restroom they only let him go after a long discussion.

While the guards waited at the door, he asked the musician: “You still got money left?”

“Not much.” Leonid left the restroom and gave him five bullets.

“Give them to me! Crutch wants money for you two.

He thinks you’re a provocateur from the reds. When he is right, here is the passage to your line.

You already know. If not you can wait here until the police is coming to get you. You’re going to have to barter with them on your own though.”

Leonid tried to keep his hiccup under control.

“So you’ve found out, yes? Of course… We will see us again. Many thanks!” He raised his hand for a strange greeting. “Listen… To the devil with the passage way! Get us to the tunnel, mhm?” The musician took Sasha’s hand and stumbled on a bit faster. “That one was good.” He mumbled.

“There is the passage to your line… maybe you want to get up there too? Forty meters deep. As if he didn’t know that it was already full of mines…”

Sasha realized. “Where are we going?”

“Where?” Groaned Leonid. “To the red line! You’ve heard it yourself: I’m a provocateur and they got me, uncovered my true intentions…”

“You’re a red?”

“My dear girl! Don’t ask anything now! I can’t think and walk at the same time at the moment.

And running is more important. It won’t be long until our friend go on full alert. And they’re even going to arrest us. Money alone isn’t enough for him, he wants a medal!”

They dove into the tunnel and let the guards behind them. Pressed themselves against the wall and ran into the direction of the Kievskaya. Sasha realized that they wouldn’t make it to the station.

When the musician was right and the second guard would show up they would pursue them…

Suddenly Leonid went to his left into a bright side tunnel, like out of routine, as if he was going home. A few minutes later she could see flags, grids and sandbags in the distance, machine gun nests and she heard barking of dogs. A border post? Did they already know of their escape? How could they have come from? And what territory was behind those barracks?

“I work for Albert Michailovitsch.” Leonid put a strange document under the guard’s nose. “I had to get to the other shore.”

The guard looked at the documents and said: “The usual tariff. And where are the papers of the lady?”

“I pay double.” He was searching his pockets and scrapped his last bullets together. “And you didn’t see her, ok?”

“Nothing is ok. ” Said the border guard strict. “This is a state with laws and not some kind of bazaar!”

“Oh no!” Acted the musician startled. “I thought because we now have a market economy we could barter a bit. I didn’t know that there was a difference in…”

A few minutes later Sasha and Leonid were thrown into a small room with tiled walls. The musician’s clothes were tousled, he had a scratch on his cheek and was bleeding from his noose.

The iron door closed.

It got dark.