Stars Below

As the train slowly but steadily carried me and Maksim toward our next destination, I found that I finally had time to process the last several hours in full. I opened my eyes after the first few minutes, and I slowly took in my surroundings in greater detail. Maksim and I shared the passenger car, bare as it was, with six others. Unlike Maksim, though, not all of these people were fighters. An older-looking man and woman sat beside one another at the back, likely married, and near them was a trio of young men. The last passenger was a lone woman, and I noticed that she had been keeping to herself thus far.

The very first problem I came to when I tried to sort out recent events was also the beginning - how did I end up here? I hadn't thought to check the area I woke up in for many clues, distracted by that fight and Alyosha's subsequent demise, though I wasn't confident I would have found much anyway. The first tunnel I explored seemed particularly desolate, with few signs of habitation besides the camp made by the guards.

Those mutants were another shock on their own, 'watch men' as they were apparently called. Large, four-legged beasts that operated in packs and lunged at their prey with claws and teeth. They did not seem particularly intelligent, at least the ones I faced, but they made up for it in sheer brutality. Even then, I felt I was very lucky indeed to have only fought the last one of that pack. My magic seemed less effective against them than I'd expected, but bullets did the trick rather nicely.

That thought made me wonder if my other spells were similarly weakened. My telekinesis worked fine enough, aside from the sense of 'wrongness' I'd discovered at Mendeleevskaya, but I had yet to try anything more complex. Teleportation would undoubtedly be useful, though the poor lighting in these tunnels would make it quite challenging to use it with any degree of confidence.

I resolved that I would need to find time to study how my magic interacts with this poisoned world sooner or later, if only to improve my own understanding and, thus, my chances of survival. At the moment, though, I could hardly start casting spells while seated amongst other passengers who assumed I was merely a particularly unique mutant. Speaking of passengers...

The trio was particularly talkative, and I couldn't help but pay attention - or at least, as much as I could with the poor lighting and lack of understanding. They wore mismatched uniforms and carried poorly-made guns that I didn't recognize, though they were clearly not part of the convoy's guard detail. They spoke quietly, and I picked up only a scarce few words that I thought I recognized. If my memory from the market back at Mendeleevskaya served me well, I was able to pick out a mention of money - or in this case, military-grade ammunition.

From what I gathered, those three men were mercenaries. That seemed fitting, given the gear and the way they carried themselves, and they were discussing something to do with Hanza - another word I was able to identify. It gave me an idea of how this massive 'Ring Line' might be keeping its stations protected, and I had to wonder if these men were an exception or if sellswords... or guns, in this case... were commonplace in Metro. Maksim had yet to divulge any information on the subject, but I couldn't imagine the people of Metro taking kindly to an attempt to profit off of division.

Of course, I knew there were bandits and other unreasonable individuals here just as there were criminals and villains in Equestria, but so far Metro seemed to be at least somewhat stable. That thought drew my attention to the elderly couple sitting behind me. I had no idea how old they really were, but I knew they had a great deal of experience with the pre-war world. To think that the world they knew for most of their lives was dead and gone, perhaps never to return, filled me with sadness. As I kept staring at the two of them, I realized that they were both asleep.

The woman leaned on her husband, and the two of them were huddled together amongst their meager belongings. If they said why they were boarding this convoy, I couldn't have understood it. They looked as though they were moving, though I had to wonder where to. Thus far, the stations I visited seemed quite similar. One was larger and more organized, but they followed the same form. Shacks, makeshift walls, back-breaking work to carve out a living with limited resources. It painted a bleak picture.

But then, there were people like Maksim. He found ways to smile and joke in a place like this, and I figured it was people like him that kept Metro going for as long as it has. Twenty years sealed away from the surface, from fresh air and moonlit skies, would be unthinkable for ponykind.

The Moon coming to mind turned my thoughts onto another path, and I cursed myself for neglecting it as long as I had. Celestia was surely worried about me back in Equestria, but what of my duties? Would my connection to the Moon and stars still work here? Would I even be able to enter the dreamscape? Those thoughts were troubling, and for the moment I pushed them away.

After all, they did nothing to serve my immediate goal. Rather than continuing to try and complete a puzzle that I lacked the pieces to, I decided to finally break the silence between me and Maksim. I nudged him, and he looked down at me with a grunt. "You must tell me more," I said, before clarifying. "I have been told of Hanza, Polis, and the Order... what other factions occupy Metro? I saw a great many symbols on the map you gave me, and I could not guess what most of them meant."

"I suppose we have nothing better to do, and you're due for another lesson," Maksim answered, sitting up straight but keeping his voice relatively low. "Aside from those three, the other major players are the Red Line and the Reich - at least in our neck of the woods. Pull out your map, I'll show them to you."

I obliged, levitating the crumpled piece of paper out of one of my jacket pockets. I saw out of the corner of my eye that one of the mercenaries was staring at me now, and the expression on his face was troubled. Like he didn't know whether to be afraid, disgusted, or amazed. I ignored him for now. Once my map was unfolded, Maksim gently took it from me and held it out where we could both see. Then, he indicated a long line of stations all marked with the same symbol - a hammer and a sickle.

"This is the Red Line - no other faction has as much raw manpower, and only Hanza has more stations or meters of tunnel. Hardcore communists, and bullies to boot. They make for bad neighbors," Maksim explained, taking on a casually critical tone, "but they're generally higher on everybody's list than their sworn enemy, the Reich. The Reds have been at war with the Reich since the two factions first got organized all those years ago, and it's been a balancing act between them. Aside from the boots on the ground, which they have plenty of, the Reds also like their spies. I'd be willing to bet a Red spy saw us at the last station, even, and is making a report to his boss right now."

"Will I be of interest to these 'Reds'?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow. "We are quite far from their established territory for now, assuming this map is accurate. And if I am, would they be able to help me in the same way you say the scientists at Polis can?"

Maksim shrugged, then considered his answer for a moment before finally speaking. "Hard to say. They'd need to justify the effort to track you down and 'collect', find some way to say that it serves the Party and the greater will of the people; the usual communist script." He spoke as if it were common knowledge, but the look on my face reminded him that I was an outsider. "Right, er... without delving too deep into history and politics, the Red Line's version of communism is this - one party, one leader, one ideology. On paper, it's about serving the people and their best interests, but it gets... muddy. They aren't 'real' communists, if that makes sense."

I nodded slowly, and I found my initial impressions of Metro being challenged already. This place and its people were not as unified in their struggle as I thought, though a more generous interpretation might mean that the Red Line was simply doing what they thought was best. Still, I needed to know about the other side of this apparent struggle. "And what of the Reich? They occupy far fewer stations than their enemy - how have they not been wiped out yet if they've been fighting as long as you say?"

Maksim sighed, then leaned in and lowered his voice even further. "The Reich, or the Fourth Reich, to use their full name, are Nazis," he explained in a whisper, as if even mentioning their name were a crime. At least this time he clarified without my asking, pointing to the stations marked with a strange, three-armed logo. "Race purists. They'll measure your skull, and if it's the 'wrong' size by a few millimeters, they'll kill you - or in your case, take you for a mutant at first glance and probably kill you anyway. They make up for their lack of numbers with better training and equipment, at least compared to the Reds. They're similar in some ways though - they also have one party, one leader, and one ideology. Most people don't like the Reds, but nobody likes the Reich."

In an instant, it made sense. The Reds were bullies, but they were not as evil as their enemy. I narrowed my eyes at the trio of Nazi stations, and it occurred to me that our destination was troublingly close to them. Suddenly feeling anxious, I pointed at them with one hoof. "Then we must be on guard. Belorusskaya is quite close to their territory. Should we expect to run into them when we arrive?"

Maksim hesitated once again, and this time he looked troubled. "Hopefully not. Hanza trades with them on occasion, since Hanza trades with everyone, but usually they go to the customer when it's an established route like that. Still... I suppose it isn't out of the realm of possibility that some Nazis might be visiting."

I took a deep breath and glanced down at the weapon resting beside me. I had seen the terrifying power of a rifle demonstrated shortly after I woke up, and I'd had the basics of how to use it to my benefit explained an hour after that, but the thought of actually wielding this weapon still frightened me. It was barbaric and loud, crude and unwieldy, but it was my best tool for protection. It was frightening, yes, but also intriguing. I had yet to see what any of my combat spells might do to a human target as opposed to a mutant, and I deeply hoped I would never have to find out.

Looking up at Maksim again, I decided to change subjects. "So we'll have to be vigilant. In the meantime... have you been paying attention to those men behind us? They seemed to be planning something, but I cannot understand them," I said, indicating who I was referring to with a tilt of my head.

Maksim opened his mouth to respond, glancing up at the same men I was referring to, but he was interrupted. Apparently, the one who had been staring at me finally got the hint I was talking about him, and he was not pleased. He stood up halfway and pointed an accusing finger at me, then spouted off something that sounded like an insult, an accusation, or both. I could do nothing but glare right back at him, brow furrowed, and hope that Maksim came to my defense.

Of course, he did, pointing right back at the man and raising his voice at him in kind. The other man kept pointing at me as he spoke, and Maksim always had something to throw back at him. The argument continued for several moments, and I was beginning to grow anxious. Thankfully, one of the guards stepped in before things got too heated. He moved away from his post at the back of the train and stood between Maksim and the angry mercenary, one hand on his rifle and the other held out in a gesture for them both to be silent alongside - presumably - ordering them to do so out loud.

Maksim and the mercenary backed down when they were both in trouble, and I was just about to whisper to Maksim to ask him what the argument was about. That was when the guard screamed.

A deafening bang sounded off somewhere up ahead and to my right, accompanied by a muzzle flash that was blinding in the gloom, and the guard who had just finished chastizing Maksim and the other man took a bullet to the stomach. He fell and tumbled off the side of the moving train, clutching his wound, and the tunnel fell into chaos all at once.

My ears were still ringing and my head was still aching from the first gunshot when more rang out, the remaining guards trading fire with unseen attackers. Heart pounding in my chest, I had to fight the instinct to spread my wings and take to the air. They couldn't do much anyway, restrained by my jacket as they were. Instead, I floundered in panic, falling out of my seat and lying flat on the floor. Maksim followed suit, and I realized that was the best course of action at the moment.

Spotlights switched on to further blind and disorient me, and I clenched my eyes shut as bullets passed overhead. Long ago I'd learned what a near-miss from a crossbow bolt or an arrow sounded like, but they paled in comparison to this new sound. Supersonic projectiles whipped, zipped, and cracked over my head like lightning, and each one seemed as though it was closer than the last. I was just beginning to lose my grip when I felt Maksim's hand on my side, tugging me closer to him.

"They stopped the train," he shouted, his voice nearly totally lost in the battle around us. I had barely even noticed the change in momentum, the screeching of the brakes drowned out by the gunfire. The last few train guards were fighting valiantly, but they were outnumbered and stuck in a kill zone. They didn't stand a chance. "We have to get out of the open! We'll get underneath!"

Unable to speak with my jaw locked in fear, I merely nodded and scrambled along on my belly as best I could. The uneven floor scraped at my underside and caught on my equipment, but we managed to flop down into the dirt beside the train tracks just when a burst of gunfire tore up the seats we'd been sitting in. I also managed to levitate our backpacks with us as we made it to relative safety, dropping them beside Maksim and finally raising my head.

The train car we were hiding under was thankfully thick enough to stop bullets, another flurry of shots drumming against it but failing to find us beneath. I took several deep breaths and found my rifle and my wits, chambering a round and turning off the safety just as Maksim had instructed. He did the same with his RPK, only adding an extra step to check that his magazine was full.

The spotlights provided enough illumination to see some of the features of our surroundings, and I realized that our ambushers had set their trap in what looked to be the remains of a maintenance stop - that, or a very minor station. "They were waiting for us," I announced, torn between trying to speak over the shooting and simultaneously not wanting to give away our hiding spot. All my years of combat experience from ages past felt useless then, utterly irrelevant when faced with these new weapons; my thoughts being scattered by my initial panic did not make things any easier. "And we are outnumbered! What do we do now?!"

"Shoot back, and move!" Maksim ordered, before raising his rifle to his shoulder and leaning out from under the train. He fired a short burst in the general direction of our enemy, and I leaned out behind him to add pressure. Without a clear target, though, I did not want to waste ammunition. Before I pulled the trigger for the first time, I had an idea.

I took aim at one of the large spotlights, lining up the bright bulb in the middle of my sights as I had been taught whilst holding my rifle aloft in my magic. It was heavy, and I hoped the weight would absorb some of the recoil; nonetheless, I kept a solid grip on it just in case. I squinted one eye closed, then squeezed the trigger. My rifle barked three times before I let go, jumping in my telekinetic grip each time, and three shell casings bounced off of the train's undercarriage and landed beside me.

I felt a rush unlike anything I'd ever felt before. Sheer terror mixed with a perverse excitement at wielding an unfamiliar yet powerful weapon, adrenaline rushing through my veins as I saw my bullets strike true. The light exploded in a shower of sparks and broken glass, plunging half of the killing field back into total darkness. I adjusted my aim and repeated the process on the second light, putting two bullets into it and removing them from the equation entirely. I was just about to try and find another target when Maksim jerked me to the side.

I yelped in surprise, nearly dropped my rifle, and cursed under my breath as the tip of my horn gouged a small trench in the wooden panel above me. Maksim's roughness was forgivable, however, when a quartet of bullets chewed up the ground where I had been sitting a fraction of a second ago.

"Good thinking! We need to retreat while they're still blind," Maksim shouted, just in time for the last guard on our side to finally meet his end. The shooting abruptly slowed to a stop, but I knew it would not last. Our attackers, wherever they were and however many they were, knew exactly where we took cover.

"Where? They did not choose to ambush us in this tunnel because it would be easy to escape," I argued in a whisper, tucking my rifle in against my side and turning the safety back on for the moment. "If we move away from the train, we will surely be spotted and killed!"

"So we confuse them," Maksim whispered back, before dropping to his stomach and crawling underneath the train. I followed suit, moving between the rails toward the rear of the line of cars. Our enemy resumed firing a moment later, suppressing our last position and giving away that they didn't know we were moving. I heard them shouting back and forth, or perhaps taunting any surviving victims, and the pounding of boots on concrete as they repositioned. Maksim looked over his shoulder at me and pointed up at the train. "They're moving in for the kill - they're gonna capture the civvies left up top, if they're alive, and then keep looking for us. We have to be quick if we want to save them!"

I nodded and scurried along as quickly as I could, relieved when we finally came out from underneath the train at the rear. Maksim crouched beside me while I squatted low, peeking over the edge of the rear car and between the stacks of crates. I saw the silhouettes of men moving, grabbing the elderly couple and the lone woman before hauling them off. The three mercenaries were nowhere to be seen, dead or otherwise, and I forgot about them for the moment.

Instead, I made note of the series of flashlights that had turned on in the absence of the spotlights. Four lights, all attached to the ends of rifles, waved and bobbed around as their owners moved up and down both station platforms. I heard additional sets of footsteps, however, and I knew more attackers were hiding in the shadows somewhere.

Maksim risked a peek on the other side of the train car, crouching low and poking his head out to see from a different angle. I didn't imagine he saw much more than I already did, but I didn't dare raise my voice enough to ask with an enemy soldier so close. He was standing halfway down the last train car, mere meters away, facing toward the front. I glanced over at Maksim, then nodded my head toward the soldier. Maksim nodded in turn, and I slowly crept out of cover.

The gap between the train car and the side of the platform was narrow, but I could fit with relative ease. I let my rifle dangle off my side by its strap, not risking holding it in my magic and giving myself away with the glow of my horn, and eased forward until I had a clearer line of sight on the soldier. He was several meters away from his nearest comrade, and all of them were busy checking the front of the train for our whereabouts...

Shouts further down the tunnel confirmed that the civilians we had been riding with were indeed captured, but I would have to worry about them later. At that moment, Maksim and I were cornered. I narrowed my eyes, watching the soldier as he loitered, and pieced together my plan. A lethal spell would be too noisy if it didn't work instantly, and I had no idea if it would be as quick and elegant of a takedown as I would like - for that matter, I didn't know if my alternative would work either. I'd mastered a spell to help ponies sleep many years ago, a way of instantly putting them out for a good night's rest if discomfort or insomnia prevented it. It was something I always used for benevolent purposes, of course, but I knew it could have other applications.

I just didn't think this would be one of them.

I raised a forehoof and tapped on the side of the train car, the clonk of keratin on wood got his attention in a heartbeat, and I was ready for him when he turned my way. The man gasped and raised his rifle clumsily, but he was too slow. My horn flashed, and a tiny ball of energy shot forward and impacted him squarely in the forehead. The man resisted the spell for but a fraction of a second before collapsing, and I caught him and his weapon before either could make noise clattering to the ground.

I eased the man down and dragged him off the train, laid him in the dirt, and double-checked to see that he was still breathing. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding then, my entire body tense like a coiled spring, and set his rifle down nearby. I was quite confident he would not wake up, at least not without help, for several hours. Still, I removed the magazine from his weapon and added it to my own collection to make sure he would not be able to shoot me in the back later.

He was clad in a dirty grey uniform and wore a steel helmet, and aside from his weapon, he did not seem to be carrying very much equipment at all. The man's face was partially covered by a mask of some sort - thin black cloth that did not offer much protection. He was not much to look at, but he reminded me of Alyosha. He was a young man, judging by his stature, and his panicked response told me he was not very experienced. Still, I did not allow myself to ponder him too much or for too long; he was a threat, and he had been dealt with for the time being.

Maksim saw my work from the far side of the train car, apparently moving forward when I did, and I saw his silhouette creeping low to the ground. We would be more difficult to pin down if we separated, I knew, even if the prospect of being caught alone frightened me. I couldn't sit idly though, so I stepped over the sleeping ambusher and silently climbed onto the platform.

It was still dark, only illuminated in small shafts of white light from the occasional flashlight as more soldiers searched the immediate area. They still seemed to think we were near the front of the train, but they were slowly working their way back as they searched everything. I moved carefully and quietly, finding my way over to a corner and hugging the concrete wall. I lacked any solid cover there, but the darkness did a good enough job of concealing me. I stood and waited there for several moments, watching my surroundings, and pieced together my next move.

There were three soldiers on my side of the tunnel at an absolute minimum, but I was fairly certain I could hear one or two more. Maksim's side, assuming he climbed up when I did, seemed less populated. If I was caught I would at least have support from across the tunnel, but that was assuming Maksim wasn't occupied as well. The men searching near me were getting closer, and I knew I would have to make my move sooner rather than later. Still, I didn't like how much of my plan ended up hinging on assumptions rather than facts.

It felt strange, bringing up instincts and techniques I hadn't used in hundreds of years. Before waking up in Metro, I occasionally wondered if I was going soft - if my martial prowess was slipping away from me. I worried that the lack of practice was making me weak, and that one day I would not be able to protect my subjects. It was troubling enough to see my older sister forced to rely on outside assistance, even if the element bearers were powerful in their own right, and I knew I was not as strong as she was at her best.

Strangest of all, then, was how much I enjoyed the rush. The adrenaline coursing through my veins once more, my senses on high alert while my heart thundered in my chest. My hooves were shaking when the ambush began, bullets flying and my enemy unseen, but I had managed to bring myself under control. Now, I moved with grace; I was turning the tide of this engagement, precarious as it was.

With the enemy still unaware of my location, I crept forward along the wall and squinted as my eyes continued to adjust to the darkness. Eventually, shapes began to resolve themselves in greater detail. Crates and barrels were stacked up in seemingly random positions, giving me ample cover once I moved away from the edge of the platform, and my sharp hearing could detect the noisy footsteps of my adversaries before they were close enough to see me.

If I could reach the far end of the station without being detected, I knew I'd effectively be behind my remaining foes. It was risky, but an undeniable advantage if I could secure it. Just as I made to move toward my new goal, however, my plan fell apart before it even began.

There was a scuffle on the other platform, and before it ended I heard a man shout in Russian before a gunshot cut him off. Just like the first shot minutes ago, it was deafening in the silence, and I saw the flash as clearly as the midday sun. All the flashlights in the area snapped to the source, and I heard more shouting as the men moved in for the kill.

The men on my platform turned and used the train as a bridge to cross over quickly, and the ones down on the tracks climbed up onto Maksim's side with the cover of their allies. I froze where I was, hidden from view for the moment, and held my breath. A few seconds passed in agonizing anticipation, but I soon heard what I needed to hear.

"Luna! They're onto us, go loud!" Maksim yelled, just before the men storming his last position opened fire and drowned him out. The repeated gunfire and muzzle flashes made them easy targets for me, with men standing among the crates on the train and the debris on the far side of the tunnel to take cover from Maksim's return fire while fully exposing their backs to me.

I crouched low beside the box I had been using as concealment, readied my rifle, and flipped the safety lever down to the semi-automatic position. I took a deep breath once again, realizing what I was about to do. Subduing an opponent was one thing, but killing one was something I hadn't done in a long, long time. I would have hesitated longer were it not for the fact that they were out to kill my friend, but as it was I knew I had no time to waste.

I lined up my sights on the back of the nearest man's torso, aiming roughly at his center of mass, and squeezed the trigger. My rifle boomed, briefly joining the cacophony of seven or eight others, and another shell casing flew across my peripheral vision. I watched as the man I was aiming at, one crouching below a box and firing haphazardly in Maksim's general direction, flinched at the impact of my bullet before keeling over to the side and going limp.

It occurred to me then that I had no clue about human anatomy; I was essentially shooting blindly, hoping I would hit something vital. Of course, my own intuition filled in a lot of the blanks, and I could gather that I had been lucky in hitting that man in the heart and killing him quickly rather than leaving him to bleed to death. Still, aside from the obvious option of aiming for the head for a clean kill, I was left to do guesswork.

Guesswork or not, it appeared my first kill had gone unnoticed while the rest of the soldiers focused on Maksim. He returned fire less and less often, pinned down behind cover and unable to risk exposing even his arms to fire blindly, and some of our foes were taking the opportunity to close in and attempt to encircle him. They were not spread out much, likely feeling quite confident that they wouldn't be targets, but I intended to show them their mistake.

I leveled my rifle again, lined up the sights on another soldier taking potshots in Maksim's direction, and squeezed the trigger. Another bang, another sharp kick of recoil, and this time I managed to put a bullet through the man's head. His helmet jerked forward but didn't leave his head, held on by a chin strap, and his body slumped over and fell off the side of the train car he'd been standing on.

I shifted my aim and found the next enemy soldier in line, going for the center of his back just like the first one I'd killed moments ago. My eyes were narrowed and my brow was set, and I kept low to the floor while levitating my rifle slightly in front of myself to minimize my profile. I spread my wings slightly, prepared to swiftly move to either side in case I was spotted, but so far the enemy was none the wiser while they focused down on Maksim. My heartbeat had slowed over the last few moments, but adrenaline still coursed through my veins and left my hooves trembling.

I had been able to push aside my reservations about killing shockingly fast, even by my own reckoning, but I did not have the time to mull that over just then. These men were out to kill my friend, not to mention what they'd do if they found me, and I could not allow either to happen.

I fired at my third target, hitting him just a little to the left of the center of his back, but I was not as lucky this time. Instead of dying instantly, the man fell with a wail and got the attention of his comrades. They seemed to assume Maksim got a lucky shot in, slowing their advance but not yet looking back to see me crouched in the shadows. I felt a grim satisfaction watching them fail to realize what was happening, but that dried up in an instant when I tried to fire again.

I pulled the trigger, sights lined up on another target, but nothing happened. Looking down at my rifle, I saw the cause. I hadn't been watching for the shell casing flying across my field of view that time, but if I had I would have noticed that it failed to extract. The dirty, slightly misshapen casing was caught in the action, sticking out the side of the rifle like a stovepipe.

Cursing under my breath, I levitated my rifle closer and turned it sideways. I fought with the bolt to pull it back all the way and extract the caught casing, but I had no luck. The entire mechanism felt as though it had seized, and even pushing against the charging handle with my hoof didn't yield results at first. I was so focused on unjamming my rifle that I failed to notice the sound of footsteps approaching from my side, and my sense of hearing being temporarily dulled by the ringing in my ears did not help either.

I had just managed to free the partially crushed casing and chamber a new round when I was caught off guard by a soldier rushing me from the right. I yelped in surprise as he bellowed a battle cry, attempting to jump on top of me and pin me down. I reacted in a fraction of a second, thankful for having had the forethought to make myself ready to move moments ago. With one swift beat of my wings, I dodged to the side, rolling along the dirty concrete floor and leaving the diving man to land on his stomach.

Heart pounding once more, I kept rolling until I was on my hooves again. I stood up and glanced around, only to realize I had been surrounded while I focused on protecting Maksim. The man on the ground hadn't even recovered before one of his comrades opened fire, and I just barely managed to duck behind another crate to avoid a trio of bullets whizzing past my head.

Strangely, he didn't continue shooting to try and suppress me. I peeked out of cover and saw another man holding the end of his fellow's gun and pointing it toward the ground. He shouted something in Russian, and the other man nodded. For one reason or another, they did not want to risk shooting at me where I was. I couldn't fathom why, but I knew I had to take advantage of the situation.

Unfortunately for me, it became clear why they held their fire only a second later. I had just turned around to flee, hoping to run back the way I came and drop down onto the train tracks like before, when I ran face-first into another soldier. Instead of shooting me, however, he held his rifle like a club and swung for me.

Panicked as I was and with my mind left reeling, I could not react as swiftly as before. Instead, I merely gasped and stared dumbly before the solid wooden stock of the rifle connected with the side of my head. My entire world exploded into agony, and all of a sudden the headache that welcomed me into this place felt like a tender massage in comparison.

Dazed and off balance, I stumbled back until my rear bumped against the crate I had taken cover behind before. My vision spun, my limbs refused to cooperate, and before I knew it I had collapsed onto my side. The last thing I saw before the abyss claimed me was the same man stepping forward and sneering down at me before finishing me off with a swift kick to the face.