Sasha and Leonid were targeted by a spy who had been hanging out about 10 paces away from them.

The girl was in a hurry to move forward, but Leonid stopped her.

"Not yet, we'll have to wait." He sat down on the stone chair prepared for the guests and played the lock on the instrument case.

"Why?"

"The door only opens at certain moments." Leonid rolled his eyes.

"When?" Sasha finds the dial, and if the time shown on the watch is correct, then she has less than half of the time left in her budget.

"I'll tell you."

"You're procrastinating again!" She frowned and jumped to her feet, "You promised to help while you tried your best to delay!"

"That's right." He plucked up his courage and met her gaze.

"I'm trying to hold you back."

"Why?! What is this for?"

"I'm not playing with you. Trust me, if I want to do this, I can always find someone, and very few people will say no to me. I think I'm in love. How so? How blunt is that......

"Think about it...... You don't even think carefully about what you're saying! You don't even speak through your brain."

"There's a way to tell the difference between play and love." He said solemnly.

"So you get someone by cheating, and that's love?"

"True love can ruin your life, it defies all objective conditions, but the game can be loaded into external conditions......

"It doesn't make a difference to me." Sasha glared at him unkindly, "I don't have any life to destroy. Take me to the entrance."

Leonid stared at the girl heavily, leaning against the pillar, holding his distance from the girl with his hands on his chest.

He took a few deep breaths, as if he was about to reprimand her, but gave up without making a sound.

Then his whole body softened, and his face darkened, and finally admitted:

"I can't go in with you, they won't let me go."

"What does that mean?" Sasha didn't believe him.

"I can't go back to the Ark. I was expelled."

"Expelled? Why?"

"For one thing." He turned around and said in a very small voice, Sasha was one step away from him and couldn't quite hear what he was saying, "I...... I was insulted by a man."

"He's a librarian who slanders me in front of others. I drank too much that night, and I set fire to his library. Two people died of suffocation, and the Administrator hanged himself."

"Unfortunately, we don't have a sentence...... I should be sentenced to death. They just expelled me, forever. There is no turning back."

"Then why did you bring me here?!" Sasha clenched her fists, "Why waste my time?!"

Sasha couldn't figure out what Lemonid was thinking, and at first coaxed himself here, even going so far as to kill Alcohen, but in the end he gave up.

Wouldn't the idea of finding the ark and killing Lemonid to avenge Alcohen come true?

"You can try knocking on the door." Leonid said vaguely, "In the auxiliary tunnel, 0 meters from the gate Sasha, there is a white mark."

"There's a rubber casing on the ground under the mark, and underneath that rubber layer is a doorling button."

"Three short tones, three long tones, and then three short tones, this is the customary signal of the returning observer......

He literally stayed at the station - he helped Sasha through three sentry boxes and then went back the way he came.

When he said goodbye, he even wanted to give Sasha his old machine gun, but Sasha didn't take it.

Three short tones, three long tones, three short tones...... That's the only thing she can use.

And, of course, a flashlight.

The tunnel that extends from the stadium opens

It began to become dark and desolate.

The station is believed to be the last still inhabited station on the entire subway line, and the sentry post Leonid sends her through increasingly resembles a small bunker, but Sasha is undaunted.

She had only one thought in her mind, and that was that in an hour or an hour and a half she would be in Emerald City.

If Emerald City didn't exist, there was nothing to fear.

The auxiliary tunnel is in the place described by Leonid, and it is enclosed by some distorted fences.

Sasha had no trouble finding the gap that she could get through, and after a few hundred steps there was indeed a steel-sealed door that was hard and unshakable.

Sasha struggled to count her steps, searching the darkness for the white markers, the walls damp as if they were sweating.

She quickly found the rubber mat, lifted it, felt the button, and turned to the watch that Leonid had given her.

Make it!

She waited a few more minutes and closed her eyes......

Three short tones.

Three tones long.

Three short tones.

-------------------------

Artyom lowered the smoking barrel of the gun.

He tried to wipe away sweat and tears with the back of his hand, but because of the gas mask, his hand couldn't even touch his cheek.

Why don't you take this damn mask off?

What's the use?

In fact......

It seems that the roar of those patients drowned out the sound of the fire-breathing machine guns, otherwise why would new patients keep pouring out of the carriage to face the rain of bullets?

Didn't they hear the gunshots?.

Don't they understand that they will be shot straight to death?

What are they still counting on, or is everything already indifferent to them?

Within a radius of several meters of the open platform entrance were swollen corpses.

Some of them are even struggling, and there are people moaning in the depths of the graves. Recite.

The smoke-shrouded carriage must have been even more terrifying.

Artyom then looked at the other Heavys:

Is he the only one whose hands and knees are shaking?

Not a single one spoke, and at first even the commander did not say a word.

All that could be heard was the sound of coughing up blood as he tried to restrain it, and the last dying man cursing under the pile of dead people.

"Villain...... Wolf's heart and dog's lungs...... I'm still alive......

The commander spotted him, crouched down next to him, and gave the unfortunate man all the remaining bullets, and the sound of pulling the trigger was incessant.

The commander stood up, glanced at his pistol, and somehow stepped on it on his pants and wiped it.

"Stay quiet!" His voice was hoarse, "Whoever dares to leave without permission will be punished more severely......

"What about corpses?" Everyone asked him.

"Get into the car. Ivanenko, Aksenov, you two are in charge!"

Order was restored.

Artyom was able to go back to his room, and he wanted to go back to sleep - there were still two hours before his wake-up call.

Even if you sleep for another hour, you will definitely be tired when you are on duty the next day......

But it won't be that simple.

Ivanenko shook his head and stepped back, refusing to carry the decomposed, scattered corpses.

The commander raised his pistol at him, he had already forgotten that the bullets were gone.

The commander lowered his voice and scolded him viciously, decisively pulling the trigger - in vain.

Ivanenko screamed and fled frantically.

At this moment, a man who coughed incessantly threw away his gun and clumsily stabbed a bayonet into the commander's back.

The commander didn't fall, his legs still braced, and slowly turned his head to look at the soldier who had attacked him from above his shoulder.

"What are you doing here,. Son?" He asked in a low voice, his tone full of surprise.

"You're running out of us one by one...... There are no more healthy people on this station! Today we do this to them, tomorrow you will drive us into the carriage......" The attacker yelled, trying to snatch the gun from the commander, but it is not known why he never fired.

No one intervened, not even Artyom, who was standing one step away from them, waited quietly.

Finally, the bayonet was pulled out of his back, and the commander, as if he wanted to tickle, reached for the wound in his back, then got down on his knees, propped his hands on the slippery floor, and shook his head.

Does he want to regain his senses, or does he want to regain his energy?

No one was able to make up their minds to kill the commander, not even the bayonet stabbed at him. The counter-actor also stepped back in fear, and then he tore off his mask and hysterically shouted to the whole station:

"Brethren! Don't torture them anymore! Let them go! They're going to die anyway! So do we! Aren't we human?!"

"You don't have the right to ......," the commander's hoarse voice was barely audible, still kneeling.

The machine gunners consulted with each other and complained.

The fence of the door of one compartment was torn off, and then another......

Suddenly, someone shot the perpetrator in the face, and he fell backwards on top of the other deceased.

It was too late: the infected rushed out of the carriage and into the platform hall with a roar of victory, their swollen legs not allowing them to run dexterously and quickly, and they ripped off the machine guns of the timid guards and scattered across the platform.

The guards were trembling with fear, some were still shooting at the patients, others were mixed with them, running from the platform to the tunnels - some went north, fled to Serpukhov; Some fled southward to Nagaqiano.

Artyom stood motionless, looking at the commander sluggishly.

The Commander didn't want to die, at first he crawled forward, then struggled to his feet, slowly moving his legs.

"Now for a surprise for you...... You think I'm not prepared......" His words are confusing.

His wandering gaze finally fixed on Artyom, froze for a few seconds, and then he suddenly shouted in his usual voice, a voice that could not stand the disobedience of the soldiers:

"Artyom! Take me to the radio communication room! Order the northern guard to close the sealed door......

Artyom supported the commander on his shoulders, and they struggled through empty trains, past mountains of dead bodies, and finally reached the communications room.

The commander's wounds, which did not seem fatal, did cause him to bleed profusely.

When they reached the communication room, he had lost any strength and finally passed out.

Artyom pressed the table against the door and grabbed the receiver of the internal phone to call the North Gate.

All he heard was a slight crackling, like a heavy breath, followed by silence, a terrible silence.

If it was too late to cut off the road, he should have warned Dubreinin in advance!

Artyom pounced on the phone, pressed one of the two buttons on the console, and waited a few seconds......

The machine is still running.

At first, there was only an echo in the earpiece, then there was a short, dense and rapid sound, and finally there was a "beep" sound of the busy line.

One...... Two...... Three...... Four...... Five...... Six......

God, let them answer the phone.

If they're alive, if they've not been infected so far, then answer the phone and let them give him a chance to answer the patient before he runs to the border.

Now that Artyom has put his whole heart on it, a man will soon appear at the other end of the tunnel and pick up the earpiece!

Just when he was completely hopeless, something unthinkable happened suddenly - the seventh beep came to an abrupt end,

On the other end of the line rang out a panting voice, a distant scolding, and through the cacophony, a voice trembling with excitement rang:

"This is Dubreinin Station!"

-------------------------

"They've brainwashed you!" Melnik said with difficulty.

"Nothing, everything will pass." Hunter's hand left the scar, and his voice changed, becoming hoarse and stiff again.

"Almost everything passes. This history has long since ended, and what has been done is done. Now we are the only ones here, and we should shake off all our bonds."

"I'm not here to say this, the plague is rampant at Tula station, and it is possible that it will spread to Sevasdopol station, and it may also reach the Ring Line. An airborne disease, and this disease is deadly."

"No one reported it to me." Melnik looked at him suspiciously.

"I haven't reported it to anyone. The disease is spreading rapidly, people are deliberately hiding it, and they don't know what to do."

"What do you want me to do?" Melnick sat upright in his wheelchair.

"You know for yourself, we should go and remove the danger. Give me the number plate, give me the manpower, the flamethrower. We need to blockade and purge Tula Station. Serpukhov and Sevasdopol don't have to do this. I hope it doesn't spread farther."

"Cut these three stations out of the subway?" Melnick asked.

"It's to save the others."

"In such a slaughter. After the killing, everyone will hate the cavalry regiment......

"No one will know about it. We will not leave any of us, and we will kill all those who are infected...... and those who see."

"Need such a price?!"

"Don't you understand? If we delay any longer, no one will be able to save us. We know that the plague is too late, and there is no other way to stop it. In two weeks, the entire subway will be a whole plague quarantine room, and in a month - the grave."

"I have to convince myself first......

"You don't believe me, do you? Do you think I'm crazy? You didn't believe it then, and you still doubt it. It doesn't matter, I'll go alone, as usual, if only to defend my conscience."

He was about to act immediately, pushing away Homer, who was standing there in a daze, and rushing to the exit.

But the last words he dropped gripped Melnick like a big harpoon, dragging him after Hunter.

"Stop! Take the number plate!" He fumbled his way through his uniform jacket and handed the motionless hunter a nondescript sign, "I...... It's decided."

The hunter picked up the number plate from his bony palm, tucked it into his pocket, nodded without saying a word, and stared at Melnik for a moment.

"I'll be back." Melnick said, "I'm tired."

"And I'm the opposite...... Full of strength." Hunter coughs.

Then it disappeared from view.