Journey to another world in the subway

Chapter 191
Sasha and Leonid are being targeted by a spy who has been loitering 10 paces away from them.

The girl hurried forward, but Leonid stopped her.

"Not yet, we have to wait." He sat on the stone chair prepared for the guests and flicked the lock on the instrument box.

"why?"

"The door will only open at certain times." Leonid rolled his eyes.

"When?" Sasha found the dial. If the time displayed on the watch is correct, then less than half of her estimated time is left.

"I will tell you."

"You're procrastinating again!" She frowned and jumped up, "You promise to help, but you're trying your best to procrastinate!"

"That's right." He gathered up his courage and met her gaze.

"I want to hold you back."

"Why?! What is this for?"

"I'm not playing games with you. Believe me, if I want to do this, I can always find someone, and very few people will say no to me. I think I am in love. How can this be? How can I say that stiff……"

"Just think about it...you don't even think about what you're saying! You don't even think about it."

"There is a way of distinguishing play from love," he said gravely.

"So you cheat to get someone and that's love?"

"True love can ruin your life, it defies all objective conditions, but the game can be loaded with external conditions..."

"It doesn't make any difference to me." Sasha gave him a very unfriendly look. "I don't have any life to destroy. Take me to the entrance."

Leonid stared heavily at the girl, leaning against the pillar, keeping a distance from the girl with his arms folded.

He took a few deep breaths, as if he was going to scold her, but he gave up and didn't make a sound.

Then his whole body softened, his face darkened, and he finally admitted:

"I can't go in with you, they won't let me go back."

"What does this mean?" Sasha didn't believe his words very much.

"I can't go back to the ark. I'm banished."

"Evicted? Why?"

"For one thing." He turned around and said in a very small voice, Sasha was only a step away from him and couldn't fully hear what he was saying, "I... I was insulted by a person once."

"He was the librarian and defamed me in front of others. I got too drunk that night and set fire to his library. Two people died of suffocation and the librarian hanged himself."

"Unfortunately, we didn't have a sentencing... I deserved the death penalty. They just deported me, forever. There's no going back."

"Then why did you bring me here?!" Sasha clenched her fists, "Why waste my time?!"

Sasha couldn't figure out what Lefenide was thinking. At first, she coaxed herself here, and even killed Alcorn, but in the end he gave up.

Then after I found the ark, and then killed Lefenid, wouldn't the idea of ​​avenging Alcorn be realized?
"You can try to knock on the door." Leonid said vaguely, "In the auxiliary tunnel, there is a white mark 0 meters away from the gate Sasha."

"There is a rubber casing on the ground below the sign, and under this rubber is a door chime button."

"Three short beeps, three long beeps, and then three short beeps, this is the customary signal for returning observers..."

He really did stay at the station—he helped Sasha through three sentry boxes, and then turned back the way he came.

He even offered to give Sasha his old machine gun in parting, but Sasha didn't take it.

Three short beeps, three long beeps, three short beeps...that was the only thing she could use.

And of course, a flashlight.

The tunnels leading from the stadium began to darken and become deserted.

This station is considered to be the last inhabited station on the entire subway line, and the guard post that Leonid sent her past looked more and more like a small bunker, but Sasha was not afraid.

There was only one thought in her mind, and that was that in an hour or an hour and a half she would be in the Emerald City.

If the Emerald City didn't exist, there would be nothing to be afraid of.

The secondary tunnel was where Leonid described it, and it was enclosed by some deformed fences.

Sasha effortlessly found a gap that she could slip through, and a few hundred steps later, there was indeed a steel airtight door blocked there, solid and unshakable.

Sasha tried to count her steps carefully, searching for white marks in the dark, the walls were so damp that they seemed to sweat.

She quickly found the rubber pad, lifted it up, reached the button, and checked the watch Leonid had given her.

in time!
She waited for a few more minutes and closed her eyes...

Three short beeps.

Three long beeps.

Three short beeps.
-
Artyom put down the smoking barrel.

He tried to wipe away the sweat and tears with the back of his hand, but he couldn't even touch his cheek because of the gas mask.

Why don't you take off the damn mask?

What's the use?

In fact...

It seems that the roars of those patients overwhelmed the sound of flame-breathing machine guns. Otherwise, why did new patients keep pouring out of the car to face the hail of bullets?
Didn't they hear the gunfire?

Don't they understand that they are going to be shot straight away?
What are they counting on, or is it all over for them?

Bloated corpses lay for several meters around the open platform entrance.

Some people are even struggling, and there are still people moaning in the depths of the tomb.

The interior of the carriage shrouded in smoke must be even more frightening.

Artyom went to look at the other machine gunners:
Was it only his hands and knees that trembled?
No one said a word, not even the commander at first.

All that could be heard were the coughing of blood being stifled, and the cursing of the last dying man beneath the pile of dead.

"The villain...the heart of a wolf...I'm still alive..."

The commander spotted him, squatted beside him, and poured all the remaining bullets to the unfortunate man, the sound of the trigger being pulled endlessly.

The commander stood up, glanced at his pistol, stomped it on his trousers for some reason, and wiped it.

"Keep quiet!" He said hoarsely, "Anyone who dares to leave without authorization will be punished more seriously."

"What about the dead body?" they asked him.

"Get into the compartment. Ivanenko, Aksenov, you two are in charge!"

Order was restored.

Artyom could go back to his room, and he wanted to go back to sleep—there were still two hours before the reveille.

Even if I sleep for another hour, I will definitely be exhausted when I am on duty the next day...

But things are not that simple.

Ivanenko shook his head and stepped back, refusing to carry the rotting, falling apart corpses.

The commander pointed his pistol at him, forgetting that it was out of bullets.

The commander cursed him in a low voice, and pulled the trigger decisively—in vain.

Ivanenko screamed and ran away frantically.

At this moment a coughing man dropped his gun and awkwardly thrust a bayonet into the commander's back.

The commander didn't fall down, his legs still supported his body, and he slowly turned his head to look at the soldier who attacked him from above his shoulders.

"What are you doing, bitch?" He asked in a low voice, full of surprise in his tone.

"We're going to be used up by you one by one... There are no more healthy people on this station! Today we are doing this to them, tomorrow you will drive us into the carriage..." the attacker yelled, wanting to Took the gun away from the commander, but for some reason he never fired it.

No one intervened, even Artyom, who stood one step away from them, waited quietly.

Finally, the bayonet was pulled out from the back. The commander stretched out his hand towards the wound on the back as if wanting to tickle it, then knelt down on his knees, supported the slippery floor with his hands, and shook his head.

Does he want to regain his sanity, or does he want to regain his energy?

No one could make up his mind to kill the commander. Even the rebel who stabbed him with a bayonet backed away in fear. Then he tore off his mask and shouted hysterically to the whole station:
"Brothers! Stop torturing them! Let them go! They're going to die anyway! So are we! Aren't we human?!"

"You have no right..." The commander's hoarse voice was barely audible, and he was still kneeling there.

The machine gunners discussed and complained with each other.

The grating on the door of one car was ripped off, and then another...

Suddenly someone shot the initiator in the face, and he fell backward on top of the other dead.

It was too late: the infected rushed out of the carriages with roars of triumph and into the platform concourse, their swollen legs not allowing them to run nimbly and quickly, they tore off the machine guns of the timid guards, Run around the platform.

The guards were trembling with fear, some were still shooting at the patients, others mingled with them and ran from the platform into the tunnels - some went north, to Serpukhov, some went south, to Naga Qian Nuo.

Artyom stood motionless, looking dully at the commander.

The commander didn't want to die, at first he crawled forward, then struggled to stand up, slowly moving his legs.

"Now I have a surprise for you...you think I'm not prepared..." His words made people incomprehensible.

His wandering eyes finally settled on Artyom, and he froze for a few seconds, then suddenly he shouted in his usual voice, a voice that could not bear the disobedience of soldiers:

"Artyom! Take me to the radio room! Order the northern sentry to close the airtight door..."

Artyom supported the commander on his shoulders, and they struggled across the empty train, past the piles of dead bodies, and finally reached the communication room.

The commander's injury doesn't look fatal, but he did lose a lot of blood.

When they reached the communication room, he lost all strength and finally passed out.

Artyom pushed the desk against the door, picked up the receiver of the intercom and called the North Gate.

All he heard was a slight crackling sound, the same sound as heavy breathing, and then silence, a terrible silence.

If it was too late to cut off this road, he should have warned Dubrynin Station in advance!
Artyom threw himself on the phone, pressed one of the two buttons on the console, and waited for a few seconds
The machine is still running.

At first, there was only an echo from the receiver, then there was a short and dense rushing sound, and finally there was a busy "beep".

one two three four five six.
God, put them on the phone.

If they're still alive, if they haven't been infected so far, then answer the phone and let them give him a chance to answer him before the sick man runs to the border.

Now Artyom puts his whole heart on this, someone will appear at the other end of the tunnel and pick up the receiver!
Just when he was completely hopeless, an incredible thing happened suddenly—the seventh beep stopped abruptly, and a panting voice and distant scolding sounded from the other end of the phone. A trembling voice sounded:

"This is Dubrynin Station!"
-
"They brainwashed you!" Melnik said with difficulty.

"It's nothing, everything will pass." Hunter's hand left the scar, and his voice changed, becoming hoarse and stiff again.

"Almost everything will pass. This history has ended long ago, and what has been done is done. Now we are the only ones here, and we should break away from all shackles."

"I didn't come here to say this. The plague is rampant at Tula Station. It may spread to Sebastobol Station, and it may also reach the Ring Road. It is an airborne disease that is fatal."

"No one reported this to me." Melnik looked at him suspiciously.

"It wasn't reported to anyone. The disease was spreading rapidly, people were hiding it and they didn't know what to do about it."

"What do you want me to do?" Melnik sat up in the wheelchair.

"You know for yourself that we should go and clear the danger. Give me the number plate, the manpower, the flamethrower. We need to seal off the cleaning station of Tula. Serpukhov and Sebastopol don't have to do that. I hope the disease will not spread farther afield."

"Cut these three stations off the subway?" Melnyk asked.

"It's about saving other people."

"After such a massacre, everyone will hate the cavalry regiment..."

"No one will know about it. None of us will stay, and everyone who is infected will be killed...and anyone who saw it."

"Need such a price?!"

"Don't you understand? If we delay any longer, nobody will be saved. We know the plague is too late, and there is no other way to stop it. In two weeks the whole subway will be a whole plague chamber, and a month later—the tomb."

"I have to convince myself first..."

"You don't believe me, do you? Do you think I'm crazy? You didn't believe it then, and you still do. Never mind, I'll go alone, as usual, if only to defend my conscience."

He was about to act immediately, pushing away Homer who was standing there in a daze, and rushed to the exit.

But the words he dropped at the end gripped Melnick like a harpoon, dragging him behind Hunter.

"Stop! Take the number plate!" He fumbled in his uniform jacket frantically, and handed an inconspicuous sign to the motionless hunter, "I... have made up my mind."

The hunter took the number plate from his bony palm, put it in his pocket, nodded without saying a word, and stared at Melnik without blinking for a long time.

"Be sure to come back," Melnick said. "I'm tired."

"On the contrary, I am full of strength." The hunter coughed.

Then it disappeared from everyone's sight.

(End of this chapter)