Journey to another world in the subway

Chapter 168 Hope
Artyom was well aware of what this situation represented.

He'd been waiting for this moment, but when it happened, he just wasn't there.

He glanced at the door in fear—did anyone see it?
Artyom dialed quickly and picked up the handset to his ear.

I hope that I can hear a different voice than usual, and hope that this signal can bring hope to myself.

The machine clicked, and the "beep" sound returned to its original rhythm.

From that moment on, "Busy", never appeared again, and no one ever touched the phone again.

But Artyom still didn't put down the phone receiver, he just changed the receiver from the sweat-soaked ear to the frozen one, trying not to miss the number.

He didn't report the matter to the leader right away, but now that he was convinced, the frequency of the "beep" sound would change.

The order he accepted was to make this call, but a week had passed, and the meaning of his life every day was to work hard to complete this task.

If he violated the order, he would go to court, and any negligence would be indistinguishable from sabotage to the judge.

At the same time, the phone also reminded him how long the duty mission would be over.

Artyom didn't have a watch. When he was on patrol, he looked at the commander's watch. The receiver beeped every 5 seconds, 1 beeps per minute, 12 beeps per hour, and 72 beeps per shift.

Like a large hourglass, the sand flows from one glass with no dimensions into another without a bottom.

In the narrow throat between two invisible cups sat Artyom, and there he listened to the time.

Another reason why Artyom refused to put down the receiver was that at any moment the commander might surprise him to check on his work.

Well, what he's doing doesn't really make any sense.

There may not be a single person alive on the other end of the phone line.

Whenever Artyom closes his eyes, this image appears before his eyes...

He saw the station master sitting in his office, which was locked from the inside, with his face buried in the table and his hand clutching a Makarov pistol.

Apparently, the bullet-pierced ear couldn't hear the ringing phone.

The criminal at the door cannot pry open the door, but the keyhole and the door crack have been opened.

The desperate call of the old-fashioned telephone was not only heard by the people at the door, but also spread to the platform, lingering above the swollen corpse...

Once upon a time, the ringing of the telephone would be drowned out by the noise of the crowd, the sound of footsteps, and the cries of children, but now nothing disturbs the corpses here except the ringing of the telephone.

A blinking blinking light means the battery is dying.

ring.

The bell continued to ring.

1563. 1564.

No one picked up.

"guess!"

Commanders are best at taking people off guard.

There are many stories about the commander circulating in the barracks: It turned out that he was just a mercenary, but he was good at dealing with some cold weapons, and also good at disappearing in the dark.

Before settling at Sebastopol Station, the commander alone cut off a whole set of enemy signal posts, only to blame for the rashness of the local guards.

Artyom jumped up, held the receiver over his shoulder, saluted, and stopped counting with some regret.

The commander went to the watch, checked it, wrote a mark next to the date October 10: 3, signed it, and turned to Artyom.

"Quiet. That is to say, no one is there."

"Is there no response at all?" The commander pondered for a while, he frowned, and his neck creaked as he turned.

"I do not believe."

"What do you not believe in?" Artyom asked anxiously.

"I don't believe that Dubrynen Station has been infected with germs in such a short time. Could it be that the plague has spread to Hansa?
Can you imagine what would happen next if the loops were infected? "

"But we don't know the truth." Artyom was not very confident.

"Maybe it all happened because communications were down."

"What if it's just the phone line that's out of order?" The commander bowed and tapped his fingers on the table.

"Maybe, like that time at the base."

Artyom nodded towards the tunnel leading to Sebastopol, "I called, but there was no sound, but there is a busy tone here, and the machine is working normally."

"The base doesn't seem to need us. Since no one will go there, or the base has been destroyed now, Dubrynin has also been destroyed." Command Palace said flatly.

"Listen, Artyom... If there is no one left alive, we will soon die. No one will come to help us, then there is no point in quarantine. What do you think?" He shrugged again shrugged.

"Isolation is a must. Although we can only stand by at the moment, this is the only way to alleviate the current predicament. We don't have extra troops and bullets to support our proactive attack."

Artyom was terrified by the commander's words, crossed himself on his chest, and remembered what the commander had done by shooting deserters in the stomach and then punishing them.

"That's necessary. I can't wait for the signal to be connected. It can be said that the hope of the entire subway station lies in this signal." The commander pondered.

"Three more people are sick today. Two locals, one from us. Artyom. But Aksenov is dead."

"Aksenov is dead?" Artyom remembered the scene of fighting together before, choked up and narrowed his eyes.

"His head hit the steel rail, and he kept saying that it hurt badly." The commander continued his words calmly.

"He wasn't the first one. What's the point of Chertovsky's head hurting enough to get him on his knees for half an hour trying to smash it?"

"Yes." Artyom felt disgusted.

"Feeling sick? Feeling weak?" The commander looked very concerned, holding a flashlight in his face.

"Open your mouth. Say 'Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh'. That's great. I tell you, Artyom, you'd better make this call.

Get it through, Artyom, get through to Dubrynin, better let them tell you that Lufthansa has a vaccine for this disease.

Make them promise you that their medical team will be here soon.

Let them tell you that they can save all the healthy people here and cure all the sick people here.

Get us out, don't let us stay in this hell forever.

Let's go home to our wives.You return to Anna, and I return to Alena and Vera.Do you understand, Artem? "

"Yes." Artyom nodded vigorously.

"Take a break."

(End of this chapter)