Metro 2033: Dying Hope

Entry One

I stirred in my dreams, before the nightmare began in 2013 that fateful year. No one expected the world to go to hell literally when the first missiles were fired. No one remembers who did, but they destroyed the surface world. A few thousand of us gathered survived by escaping into the Moscow Metro and tried to form a government. But distance between stations and the arrival of mutants destroyed all hope we had of surviving together.

We've slaughtered each other in the name of Communism, Nazism, and other sorts of governments. But peace was finally brokered and it's been uneasy ever since. Tension between the Fourth Reich stations and the Red Line is unbearable and war is whispered by the traveling traders and caravans.

My name is Oleksandr, and I am getting on in years. I have reached the age of fifty and I know my time will be up soon. When I die I will pass this journal into the hands of my adopted daughter, Sophia. She is working the evening shift at the Tea Factory, sweating up a storm to make some tea to ship out to the other stations. We make some decent tea, and grow some aquedate mushrooms. Our station, Paveletskaya was making ends meet. Dealing with the Hanse was uncertain and even worse was the Tolstoy station to the southeast. We hoped that they wouldn't make a push into our territory, but instead explore southward.

It is now 8:55 pm and I'm ready for patrol at 2200 hours, wearing my former Russian police uniform with the rank of Corporal still barely there. Once I served in the Russian military police, protecting the military rails in Moscow. But when the missiles struck we had little choice and took refuge in the stations underneath. How I ended up here is a story I'll get to later.

Besides the uniform, everything else was made in the metro: the steel-plated kneecaps, elbow pads, helmet, and body armor. The weapons were made with spare parts and bought with fresh ammo.

Sophia is unique in every from, from sleep to work, she's always got a smile on her face and a joke in her heart. She'll keep you laughing, even when the enemy's got you by the throat with a knife. When life's got you down she's always got some tea sitting there waiting for you to spill your problems like a hunter skins a wolf for its pelt. She's reliable, friendly and has an ear for information. The only thing I don't trust her is with liquor, she goes drunk-mad and rears up to bite someone's head off.

Found her at a station southwest of here, at a station called Sevastopolskaya during one of my stalker runs on the surface. I thought I was above ours but I was above a station that had been overrun by mutants. I killed several and took shelter in one of the old medical wards when I heard a crying sound come from in the chests. Opening it, I found a young girl, maybe 3 at the time. I picked her up and took her the long way, using up most of my pistol rounds to protect her.

When I brought her home I told her that I would take care of her, protect her and even teach her how to fire weapons in self-defense. Little martial arts go a long way and my back felt the pain of her roundhouse kicks. I gave her my .38 revolver with a stable kick out and scope to give her better stability and accuracy. Sophia wants a VSV with a silencer and a scope, but those are used by snipers high up in the Fourth Reich, Red line, Hanza and Polis. Also she's not getting my Tihar until she proves herself worthy enough to use it.

With steel pellets of a 7.92 caliber, the Tihar silent enough not to draw the attention of any mutants in a 900 meter radius. But the only problem is that it's air-pressured so I have to pump it up to get it to take down an enemy with one pellet.

Besides it's my only rifle and without it, I would be useless with the shotgun they gave me. Though it's durable in a close-quarter situation, it's useless in a long-range gunfight. I like the fact that it's double-barreled, giving it the punch needed to stop a group of mutants.

Sophia's here with tea, guess I'll stop now and drink some. Chat up a story with her.