Fallout: Metro - Heavy Breath

  • FALLOUT: METRO

    Chapter 1: Heavy Breath

     

    "Artyom?" a womens voice asked. "Where are you, my son?"

     

    A boy came from under the bed. "I'm here." he said.

     

    "What are you doing there?" she asked.

     

    "I thought you were a Molerat." the boy said.

     

    "Did Angelo tell you that there are Molerats here?" the women asked.

     

    "Maybe." Artyom said.

     

    The women kneeled down and gave a picture to the boy. "Well, I will have to have a word with his mother. But, enough of that. Here, I know you like the postcards."

     

    "Yay!" jumped Artyom. He looked at the picture. It was a postcard with the Golden Gate Bridge on it. "Thank you mom."

     

    "What do you want to do today?" asked the woman.

     

    She could see the smile widen on the boys face. "I want to go up. To the surface." he said.

     

    "Ugh, Artyom." she said as she sat down on the bed.

     

    "Oh come on, mom. I'm old enough." the boy begged.

     

    "You know what. On your birthday, we will go up. Okay?" she asked.

     

    "Okay." said Artyom.

     

    "But, there is something you have to do first." she said.

     

    "What's that?" said Artyom, willing to the anything to see the sun for the first time. He only saw the sun on the postcards his mother brought to him.

     

    "Well... you need to wake up." she said.

     

    "What?" the boy was confused.

     

    "WAKE UP?"

     

    Present Day - November 15th, 2287

     

    "WAKE UP!" a man yelled as he shaked Artyom out of sleep.

     

    "Ugh. Get the fuck off me!" Artyom yelled as he pushed the man away. "What do you want."

     

    "The boss wants to see you armed and ready in an hour. He has something for you." the man said while taking a small chocolate bar from one of drawers.

     

    "Leave that." said Artyom as he got up. "Almost got killed looking for that chocolate."

     

    "Yeah, I know." the man said. "The client sent you looking for it, and you kept it for yourself."

     

    "Still got the caps." said Artyom.

     

    "Before or after you blew his brains out, huh!? Come on, get ready. I'll wait for you outside." the man said.

     

    "Alright, Angelo." said Artyom.

     

    Artyom went up to the sink. He turned the water on and washed his face. He looked at himself in the mirror. The scar across his left cheek was still highly visible, which wasn't a surprise considering it was two weeks old. But it was too deep for him. But, he had to admit, it went well with the two other. He took out a pill from his mirror cabinet and swallowed it.

     

    He then walked up to his weapons cabinet. Altough he had several pre-war military made weapons, he always favored weapons that he personally crafted. He took his tactical rig and put it on himself. He took his pipe revolver, automatic high-caliber pipe rifle and a small pipe sniper rifle. He also took a hand crafted hunting rifle.

     

    He got out of his room. Angelo was waiting outside as promised. "Ready to go?" asked Artyom.

     

    Angelo nodded and they went towards the mess hall. "We should probably get something to eat." he said.

     

    "What do we have today?" Artyom asked.

     

    "Molerat." said Angelo.

     

    "Ugh. I hate Molerats." said Artyom.

     

    "I know." smiled Angelo.

     

    "That's your fault." said Artyom.

     

    "I know." said Angleo as his smile widened.

     

    They entered the mess hall and got their portions. They sat down at the corner table. "I don't like sitting here." said Angelo.

     

    "Because Dimitri used to sit here?" asked Artyom.

     

    "Yeah. It's been five years but I still blame myself. If only I could've held him tighter." said Angelo.

     

    "Let it go man. It was an accident." said Artyom.

     

    "I'll try, brother." said Angelo as he continued eating.

     

    Over the next 15 minutes, they finished their meal and went towards the office of the station leader. As they approached the office they were stopped by a guard.

     

    "I'm sorry Angelo, but you are not needed inside. Artyom, you can go on in." said the guard.

     

    "Go on in, special ass." Angelo said jokingly.

     

    "Fuck you man." said Artyom with a smile.

     

    Artyom entered the office. The office was small, it was a ticket booth with the windows boarded up. The room was filled with smoke after the excesive smoking of the station leader. The man himself was sitting in his chair, looking at field reports.

     

    "Colonel Heller, sir. You wanted to see me?" asked Artyom.

     

    "Sit down, son." Heller said. He took out the map of the Commonwealth. "We have a major problem.

     

    Artyom closed the door and sat down in front of the desk. "What is it sir?" he asked as he noticed several red crosses on the map.

     

    "What do you think these crosses represent, Artyom?" Heller asked.

     

    "I can guess that they are abandoned stations." answered Artyom.

     

    "Correct. But there is a problem. This station is Fens Way Station as you know. Seeing as we are mostly in the middle of Boston area, this station is connected to 95% of the subway. That means that the raiders and mutants that have swarmed most of our home have now making their way straight towards us." explained Heller.

     

    "Which means it's time." said Artyom.

     

    "Unfortunatly, yes. We have to find another home. Listen, we have enough soldiers left to hold of the threat for a max of month and a half. Maybe two, maybe. But we need another place to live in. A subway station, underground bunker system large enough for us or a Vault, anything like that." said Heller.

     

    "Alright, I'll set off tommorow morning. Can I take Angleo with me?" asked Artyom.

     

    "Artyom. We can't spare more then one. If we had that choice I even wouldn't let you leave. We would fight. But we need a back up plan. Just in case. If you go alone, you will travel faster and work faster. You'll be safer alone, if you don't go looking for trouble." explained Heller.

     

    "Alright." said Artyom.

     

    "Son, you are the best among us, the best Metro. You are our last chance." said Heller.

     

    Artyom stood up and went outside. As he closed the door behind him, he felt an arm on his shoulder. He truned around and saw the guard. "You can do it, Artyom. I know you can." he said.

     

    "You've been listening?" asked Artyom.

     

    "Don't know if you noticed but there are holes in the boards." said the guard.

     

    Artyom smiled. "Yeah, I guess. What's your name?" Artyom asked.

     

    "Mikail." the guard said.

     

    "Which station? I haven't seen you before." asked Artyom.

     

    "Park Street." Mikail answered. "It was overrun by those Goodneighbour bandits recently."

     

    "I'm sorry." said Artyom.

     

    "It's okay. I've learned to cope with lose." said Mikail.

     

    Artyom nodded and continued towards his room. It's going to be a long day tommorow.

     

    January 1st, 2271.

     

    "Happy new year, Artyom!" said mom.

     

    "Thank you. You as well." said Artyom as he hugged his mother. It was the first time in more then three years that he celebrated new year with his mother. She would always be away before.

     

    "Soon, it will be your birthday. You'll be going to the surface for the first time." said Mom.

     

    "Just like you promised." said Artyom.

     

    "Just like I promised." said Mom.

     

    "What are we gonna do next?" asked Artyom.

     

    Mom smiled. "Why don't we... WAKE UP!"

     

    Present Day - November 16th, 2287

     

    Artyom was getting ready for his trip to the surface. He checked his gear one more time. His weapons were ready and loaded. He had enough food for three days, enough to get to Diamond City and have some left for emergencies. He took out his Pip-Boy. He found it once in a Vault he explorered once. It had a geiger counter so it was handy, plus a map. He examined his mask. It was a new design with double layer bulletproof plastic glass and extended layer filter that lasted a lot longer then standard filters.

     

    He saw Angelo as he exited his room. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

     

    "Boss wants you in station center before you leave. He... has a speech." said Angelo.

     

    "I'll be there shortly." said Artyom.

     

    He arrived at station center were most citizens of the station have gatered. Heller stood on a small pedestal.

     

    "I had a paper with the speech written on it." he said as everyone smiled. "But, I guess I'll improvise. You all know what kind of threat is coming to us from those tunnels. We used to rule those tunnels, but now they bring us our doom. Artyom will go out there to look for our home as we keep the ones that bring us harm away until we can move. We will suffer losses. We will be hurt. But we WILL NOT BE BROKEN."

     

    He pointed his finger at on of the guards. "What will you do when the mutants arrive?" he asked.

     

    "I will fight." the guard asked.

     

    "And what will you do?"he asked, pointing at Angelo.

     

    "I will fight." said Angelo.

     

    "And you?" he said as he pointed at Artyom.

     

    Artyom took a heavy breath. "I will fight!" he said.

     

    "WE WILL FIGHT! For two hundred years we have survived. When we were driven underground, we survived! When we had to go above to scavenge for food and medicine, we survived! And now that we face our death, we will spit into it's face and WE WILL SURVIVE!"

     

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Comments

1 Comment   |   Sotek likes this.
  • Sotek
    Sotek   ·  January 9, 2020
    Loved the intro. You switched scenes nicely.