Roleplay part 9

It felt like half an hour that I was pinned in this tight vent, looking through the microscopic cracks in the hatch to eavesdrop on the group. Eventually a young group of 3 boys, teens probably, emerged and had a small conversation with a few of the members.

Later, everybody began to slowly leave into the elevator that was visible to me, down the hallway. I slowly loosened the bolts and got ready to push the opening out. Slowly.

 

I had pitched in on Voskresshiy's tale, and it became clear that he was a survivor. A man who could shoot a kid like that was highly valued in these troubled times, and he was probably even rewarded. I understood him. In a world of rats, you need to have fangs. It's just the way it was.
During the war with the reds, I had killed innocent people and used them as sandbags. My thoughts were blurred with rage, as the Reds had killed many of my friends, and I didn't even consider letting them live. I remember hearing my buddy Aleksandr say: "May god have mercy on my enemies, because I sure as hell won't". I remember viewing those words as inquestionable truth, almost a creed to live by.

I fumbled a cigarette forward from my pocket and lit it, reading the text I had ingraved in it for the 100th time.
"And though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, because I am the evilest son of a bitch in the valley." was written crudely in the metal. I chuckled to myself. In a way, this text gave me comfort, gave me courage.

 

I chuckle at the different view points in this group. I notice the smell of the bitter tobacco, and notice the lack of aroma. Cheap cigarettes. There were many stalkers and rangers that had these, a sort of energy boost to make sure your attention didn't lapse.
"Hay que endurerserce pero sin perder la tenura jamas. You have to harden but without ever losing your tenderness. We have to prepare for the fight ahead but if we lose track of why we set out to do that, we become lost. Look at the Red Line. Us Revolutionaries don't associate ourselves with them as much as we can. Bunch of vanguardist police state. They forgot why they started. I hope you guys don't."

 

The boy Alek seemed to be very smart despite his age and upbringing speaking quotes in a language unknown to me and already living by a motto. But I suppose he was no much different then me.

"Sounds like you had a rough upbringing huh? Well I suppose it's become a kind of standard in the metro these days. I myself had to deal with such hardships growing up and I'm sure a thousand other kids in the metro are going through the same thing. It's sad, but unavoidable... When I was a child my mother taught me German while my father governed a station on the line. Well, before they died that is. But this language you speak, I've never heard it before. How did you come to learn it?".

"And be glad you were born in darkness. It makes the light that much brighter".

 

I squeezed into the elevator along the others, the old machinery starting without much trouble, leading me to think that it was more frequently used than it seemed.
Some of the guys had started a conversation, mostly centering about how one lived his life and such.
As I looked on the metal walls around us in the dark, Voskresshiy spoke of his childhood, and childhood in the metro in general. It was all a small digression, the main theme of the conversation was at this point a language, one that I had never heard before, the young revolutionary had spoken. Yet those were the words I took to mind, as I, mostly to myself, in a low voice said into the air: "It must be nice knowing one's childhood, huh?"

 

There was an interest to our conversation, which I enjoyed. Life in the metro was hard and to be able to have a few minutes to enjoy oneself, brought a smile to my face.

"It's Spanish. It's a European language from before the bombs fell. My parents worked as actors in the Bolshoi theatre, and all they fled to the metro were scripts of plays, in Russian, German, English and Spanish. So all I had were these scripts. Eventually I learnt them and the language." I take out a small red rag from deep within my pocket with the face of a serious and angry man.
"The quote was his. This is Che. He lived in a country far away called Cuba. He was a doctor and fought for the freedom of his people. Apparently Russia was friends with this Cuba before the bombs fell. He looks so serious. He was a soldier you know." I pass the rag to anyone who wishes to have a look. "He was a commanding officer of guerilla warfare and lead his comrades over a victory of an army with much better equipment." I sigh as I reveal more about my past. "All of us Revolutionaries take him as our hero. He gives us hope, that we will win."

I sigh again, perhaps my realism takes a toll on me, as I say to myself: "We'll win. Someday."

 

I opened the gate and slowly crept out of the vent and dropped onto the floor. I took out my silenced Scorpion and approached the elevator door. There was no point of using it. It was too obvious. I looked both ways and noticed a door leading to a stair case. I approached it and looked inside.

A man immediately popped out. Both of us jumped but I grabbed his neck and choked him out, and slowly dragged him under the stairs. He was alive, and he'd be okay though.

I continued down the stairs until I entered into another hallway. There was nobody there but I was way to open. I looked up and saw a number of thick pipes running just below the ceiling, hanging about 3 feet below it by suspenders. I jumped up onto them and climbed on my stomach. I then slowly crawled to the entrance of elevator, which was just below me. To my right was an opening. And just beyond that a tunnel.

"This group doesn't seem like a threat. They seem like normal mercenaries." I thought to myself.

I heard a thump. And the elevator below me opened.

 

*we kept going down until we reached our level. it led us out into a tunel and we trooped out of the lift. the guys had been talking about growing up in the metro and it made me remember my childhood, so diferent from theirs. I'd grown up in faraway lands, where the sun shone almost everyday and nature was as it best. it hadn't been that long ago, 30 years or so, but down here, in the metro, living in a post-apocaliptic word, it could as well been in another universe. so much things had changed since then. then one of the revolutionary kids said something in spanish, my mother tongue and it pricked my ears*

'ah yes, Che Guevara. 'es mejor morir de pie que vivir arrodillado'. 'it's better to die standing up than to live kneeling down', in other words, it is better to die fighting than to live as a slave. good motto good man' I said to the kid taking a roll up from my vest pocket and lighting it.

 

As I sat down to my meal of chopped rat and beans, I noticed something, the station seemed a bit dank and empty. It wasn't our definition of night, where could they be? I quickly wolfed down my food, and got up. I slung my AK-74SU over my shoulder, and walked down to the Merchant hallway. I walk down to the ammunition exchange, and grabbed my revolver cartridges I had found the other day. The man exclaimed "Special offer! Discounted exchange rates!" I say "How many dirties can I get for these fifteen revolver rounds? He says in a kind voice "You can get twenty five! Five short of a full magazine, lad!" I set down my bullets, and he pulls them into a bin. He then begins counting out Dirty ammunition, I look down to my magazine pouch, and pat it, one magazine lays inside, which I know is empty. I bring it out, and wait for my ammunition.

He finishes, I scoop them up, and walk over to a bench to load up, and leave to go scavenging.

After ten minutes of loading, and re loading out of boredom, I decide it was of the time to move out and head to the tunnels. I load my magazine into my pouch, and the other one into the rifle, and begin to walk to the gigantic door. The man says "Passport, and are you armed?" I hold up my 74 and bring up my passport. He inspects it, and then sends me on my way, into the dank tunnels.

One hour later

After making a stop in an abandoned hut for a rest, I keep moving only to find an elevator sitting in front of me, I look at the button, it looks operable. I press it and call for the elevator...

 

I stepped off the elevator, listening in part to the conversation behind me and in part to the tunnel ahead for any odd noises. The lead revolutionary kid seemed surprisingly well educated, able to talk in a language that got Odessa to perk up and respond in kind. Though there were now two people smoking, which was never a good idea in an unknown area due to the smoke, the smell, and the light.

I shook my head and glanced around, moving forward a little bit more. We were in another hallway, similar to the one above except cleaner. There was a tunnel going off to my left, and past that a door with a plack on the wall next to it, showing a stick figure climbing up a jagged line. Wait a second. Why did we not come down the stairs instead of announcing to anyone down here that we were coming with the elevator? That was a little suspicious.

Turning back to the group, I asked "Which way, Joe?"

 

Be more clear next time, thestalker. You wrote the place looked futuristic, I didn't assume you meant the elevator.

 

Just go with the flow. It'd be easier that way.

 

The key to good interp is supposed to be saying "Yes and blah ....". Roleplaying is basically interp, the way we are doing it. Boris didn't come in through the elevator and we don't know that the elevator salami called is the same one the group is on. Also, since the door from the tunnel was not keycarded (Benjamin opened it), someone could have gotten in at some point and gone into the stair well.

 

As the elevator went down I began to remember a time before the war when me and my mother were going down an elevator to a shopping center, it was a wonderful time and was the first time that I had bought a lego building. I needed it to complete my little lego town, I absolutely loved that town I had criminals that would steal the pizza from the pizza shop and a police officer that would catch the criminal.

The elevator came to a stop and opened up into a large hallway, many of the group walked down the hallway straight to the stairs. I stood there though and was awestruck from the look of the hallway, it reminded me of a hallway from my favourite movie "Star Wars".

I began to slowly walk through the hallway until I realised that someone was smoking, before even realising that I had done it I had knocked the cigars and cigarettes out of their mouths. "Please don't smoke in such a cramp space there is already not enough oxygen and I'm currently finding it hard to breath." I told them. After this everything went black.

I woke up to find my face being scanned by a futuristic machine, I jumped at first but then let it continue. I stepped away once it had finished and waited for "The Door" to open.

 

-=Moved=-

 

The doors of the elevator opened, revealing a high-tech underground research facility. Or at least the door of such. I realized it was probably not the time and place to have a smoke, and I was just about to ditch in when some guy knocked it out of my mouth. "Chill, dude. I was just about to ditch that" I said, looking at him in a blaming way, but he passed out too soon to hear it. "First aid it is, then" I though to myself as I rolled my eyes. But before I had even put my hand on top of each other on his chest, he had already woken up. "Whatever suits you" I mumbled before getting back on my feet, and having my eyes scanned by "The Door".

All of a sudden I heard someone asking "Friendly?" from behind a wall. I rolled my eyes. Another stranger. "Depends very much on who you are" I said. "Why the hell would anyone answer "no" to that question. If we were looking for trouble we could easily just say "yes" and then shoot him as he steps out." I though to myself as I aimed my AS Val at the wall wherefrom the question was asked.