Dmitry Glukhovsky - Metro 2034 English fan translation (v1.0) (docx) Read Online Free PDF Page A

what was going to await him on this expedition. But when he stepped on the train station he saw that hunter had already left with big steps. It was pointless to try to catch up to him. Homer looked after him and shook his head.
    Against his habit the brigadier hadn’t put on his helmet. Maybe he was in thoughts or he needed more air. He
passed a few young girls that sat on the train platform. They were pig shepherds on a break. Suddenly one of them whispered: ”Look girls, what a zombie.”
     
     
     
     
    “Where did you dig him up?” Asked Istomin. Relieved he sank into his chair and reached for a package of papirosso-paper.
    The weed that was smoked at this station with joy had been allegedly found by a stalker near the Bitzewski Place .
    One time the colonel had held a Geiger-counter at the package of “tobacco” and it really started to tick.
    After that he decided to stop smoking immediately and the coughing that had haunted his nights with the possibility of lung cancer became less frequent. Istomin on the other hand refused to give the story about the radiation to much credit. And he wasn’t that wrong – in the entire Metro there was almost nothing that didn’t radiate more or less.
    “We’ve known us forever.” Replied the colonel unwillingly. After a short break he added: ”Back then he was different. Something must have happened to him”
    “According to his face something has happened to him for sure”
    Istomin coughed and looked nervous to the entrance as if he feared hunter could hear his words.
    The commander of the outer guard posts didn’t want to complain that the brigadier had emerged out of the mist of the past so suddenly; ultimately he had transformed himself into the most important support of the southern guard post in no time. But Denis Michailovitsch still couldn’t entirely believe the return of his old friend.
    The news of hunter’s terrible and strange death had spread like an echo through the tunnels last year. And when he appeared in front of the colonel’s door without warning he had made a cross with his hand. How he had passed the guard posts without being noticed – as if he had walked right through the fighters – which had increased his doubts that everything was happening without something supernatural intervening.
    The silhouette, which he saw through the peephole had been familiar to him: Broad shoulders, the shaved head and the slightly dented nose. But the nightly guest remained where he was; had his head, oddly, slightly turned to the side and didn’t try to break the tense silence. The colonel looked
at the bottle of sweet wine on his table with regret, sighed deeply and unlocked the door. His codex demanded that he helped everyone of his own kind – regardless if they were alive or dead.
    Hunter looked up only when he had stepped through the door. Now it became apparent why he had turned away the other side of his face. He had probably feared that the colonel wouldn’t have recognized him otherwise. Denis Michailovitsch had seen much while commanding the garrison – unlike in his wild years – it seemed to him like an honorably pension now but hunters wound still got to him.
    Then he laughed insecure, like if he wanted to excuse his undisciplined behavior.
    The guest didn’t even show a hint of a smile. In this night he didn’t smile a single time. His terrible wounds had healed in the last months, but this man had nothing in common with the Hunter that Denis Michailovitsch remembered.
    He didn’t lose a single word about his miraculous rescue, his long absence and he didn’t seem to hear the amazed questions from the colonel as well. Rather he asked Denis Michailovitsch to tell nobody of his return. Would have the colonel followed his commons sense he would have
informed the elders right away – but there was an old debt which he had to repay to hunter and so he let him in peace.
    Nonetheless Denis Michailovitsch started to research in secret. Truly,