Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky (2010)
In the aftermath of a cataclysmic nuclear war in 2013, Moscow was left in ruins, its once-bustling streets reduced to desolate wastelands littered with ash and the scars of fire. The surface became uninhabitable, poisoned by radiation and prowled by mutated creatures. Those who managed to survive the initial devastation fled underground, finding refuge within the sprawling tunnels of the city’s metro system. Over time, this vast network of stations, originally built for commuters, transformed into humanity’s last bastion of life.
As the years passed, these survivors began to adapt, carving out communities in the dimly lit stations. What began as scattered groups of refugees slowly grew into distinct societies. Each station developed its own form of government, culture, and alliances, eventually becoming miniature city-states within the underground world. Out of this fractured humanity, powerful factions rose.
Among them were the Rangers of the Order, independent peacekeepers committed to protecting the metro’s people from both human and mutant threats. Opposing them were ideological powers such as the neo-Stalinist Red Line and the fascist Fourth Reich, who despised each other and sought to eradicate one another through constant war. Then there were factions defined by strength and resources rather than ideology: Polis, a coalition of stations near the city center, wielded the greatest military might and preserved fragments of pre-war knowledge. Meanwhile, Hansa established itself as an economic empire, dominating the crucial ring line and controlling trade routes that connected much of the metro.
These competing groups often clashed, dragging smaller stations into their orbit or destroying them outright. Those who resisted either became subsumed into larger powers or fell prey to lawless bandits. Still others were wiped out entirely, consumed by the terrifying mutant creatures that prowled the dark tunnels. For all their differences, the factions shared one reality: the surface was deadly, and the metro was humanity’s fragile lifeline.
It is within this world that Metro 2033 unfolds, centering on Artyom, a young man of twenty-four. Unlike many of his peers, Artyom was born before the bombs fell. His earliest memory is one of terror—his home station was overrun by a horde of carnivorous rats, which devoured nearly every inhabitant, including his mother. He was saved by Sukhoi, a military officer who became his adoptive father and raised him in the Exhibition station, better known as VDNKh. Now a grown man, Artyom spends his days patrolling tunnels and working in mushroom farms, all the while yearning for something greater.
One day, Artyom meets a man named Hunter, a hardened Ranger searching for Sukhoi. The three speak of the growing crisis at VDNKh: a new and mysterious threat has appeared in the form of creatures known only as the Dark Ones. These beings inspire terror and despair in all who encounter them, striking deep into the minds of humans. Hunter believes the creatures are probing for weakness, threatening the survival of the entire station. Before leaving to gather intelligence, Hunter entrusts Artyom with a dangerous mission. If he does not return, Artyom must travel to Polis and deliver news of the Dark Ones to a Ranger commander named Melnik.
Haunted by his role in the disaster—years earlier, he and a friend left a surface entrance near the Botanical Gardens unsealed, allowing the Dark Ones to infiltrate the tunnels—Artyom accepts the task. His journey into the heart of the metro begins.
Artyom’s travels are perilous. His first companion, a smuggler named Bourbon, dies under mysterious psychic influence within the tunnels. Artyom then falls in with Khan, a mystic wanderer who speaks of the supernatural and leads him through dangerous stations. Their paths diverge when Artyom is captured by the Fourth Reich, sentenced to execution for killing an officer. Salvation comes unexpectedly: a band of Red Line revolutionaries ambush the fascists, freeing him. Yet their war drags Artyom into further danger, and soon he is left stranded without identification papers, blocked by the Hansa faction’s tight border controls.
After a failed scheme to acquire forged papers through rat races, Artyom is imprisoned once again, only to escape and finally reach Polis. There, he meets Melnik and delivers Hunter’s warning. A council of Polis leaders convenes, but despite the severity of the threat, they refuse to act. Their decision leaves Artyom disillusioned, but hope arrives from another group: the Brahmins, scientists and scholars who salvage knowledge from the ruins above. Believing Artyom possesses a rare psychic sensitivity, they offer him a potential solution to the Dark One menace if he assists them in retrieving a book from the surface.
Accompanied by Melnik and a young Brahmin named Daniel, Artyom ventures into the ruins. The library they enter is infested with terrifying “librarians,” mutated beasts that stalk intruders with unnatural intelligence. In the chaos, Daniel is mortally wounded, but before dying, entrusts Artyom with an envelope. Inside are directions to a functioning missile silo, a weapon capable of obliterating the Dark Ones’ hive. Artyom and Melnik narrowly escape, returning to the metro with a grim new plan.
Their path takes them through Kievskaya station, where Melnik departs to gather reinforcements. Left behind, Artyom becomes entangled in another crisis: the search for a missing boy named Oleg. Tracing his trail, Artyom and Oleg’s father are captured by a tribe of cannibals who worship a monstrous entity called the Great Worm. Rescue comes just in time, with Melnik and his Rangers storming the lair and leading them to Metro-2, a hidden system of tunnels that provides a route to the missile site.
The journey grows deadlier still. Passing near the Kremlin, the group encounters a mutated bio-weapon that attempts to hypnotize and consume them. The cost is high—several Rangers die, including young Oleg—before they manage to destroy the creature with a fiery explosion. From there, the survivors split: most ascend to the surface to reach the missile silo, while Artyom and a small team return underground to reach Ostankino Tower, from which they can provide targeting coordinates.
At last, Artyom returns briefly to VDNKh, finding his home on the brink of destruction under relentless Dark One attacks. After reuniting with Sukhoi, he pushes on to the tower. From its peak, the coordinates are transmitted. Yet in that moment of triumph, Artyom experiences a shattering revelation. Through visions and dreams, he finally understands that the Dark Ones were not invaders but seekers of contact. Their attempts at communication, warped by psychic power and human fear, had been mistaken for aggression. To them, Artyom had been a bridge—the one mind capable of understanding.
But it is too late. As comprehension dawns, the missiles strike. The Dark Ones are annihilated, their voices silenced forever. Standing at the tower, Artyom realizes the full weight of what has been lost: a chance for cooperation, for something beyond endless conflict. Overcome with grief, he tears off his gas mask and collapses, consumed by regret as the world above burns.
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