Journey to another world in the subway

Chapter 60 Similar
They walked into the station. The pale marble covering the walls was no different from the ones on the walls of Turgenev Station, but there were so many smoke and oil stains on the walls and ceiling that the original color of the stone could not be seen.

The marble here is unblemished, and it's hard not to appreciate it.

People left this place long ago, and there is little trace of their life here.

The station is in good condition and, contrary to expectations, it doesn't appear to have been flooded or caught fire.

If it hadn't been for the darkness and the dust on the floor, benches and walls, you would have thought that within a minute a stream of passengers would start pouring in, or a train would come in after a melodious signal bell.

Conditions here have remained virtually unchanged over the years, and Khan describes it all with bewilderment and awe.

There is not a single column in Seta Yehu Station.

The low arches are cut at wide intervals by thick marble.

The convoy's flashlights didn't have enough light to dispel the darkness of the hall and illuminate the opposite wall, so it looked as if there was nothing beyond the arch, as if that was the end of the universe.

They passed the station fairly quickly, and contrary to Khan's fears, none of them expressed a desire to stop and rest for a while.

People seem restless, and more and more people are talking about the need to get out of here as soon as possible, to somewhere they can live.

"Did you feel it? People's moods are changing." Khan observed quietly, raising a finger as if trying to sense the direction of the wind.

"We do have to go faster, and their skin will feel this, and no less than I feel it with my mystic powers. But, here's what's stopping us from going any further. Wait a little here Son……"

Khan carefully took out the map he called the "Navigation Map" from his pocket, and after making everyone stand still, he turned off the flashlight, took a few big steps forward, and disappeared into the darkness middle.

As he walked away, a man in the crowd, slowly, as if with great effort, walked up to Su Mengfan.

He was so timid that at first Su Mengfan didn't recognize that this was the bearded man who had threatened him at Sukharev Station.

"Listen...we've stopped here and it's not good. Tell him we're scared.

There are a lot of us, but anything goes... damn tunnels, damn stations.

Tell him we have to go.Did you hear that?Tell him... sure. After finishing speaking, he turned his head and hurried back into the crowd.

The last "must" made Su Mengfan tremble.

This word made Su Mengfan feel very uneasy.

He took a few steps forward, closer to the crowd, and could hear their conversation, when he suddenly realized that the previous good mood was gone.

Just now there was a small band playing a passionate march in his head, but now it was empty and silent, and he could only hear the howling wind echoing dejectedly in the tunnel ahead.

Su Mengfan calmed down.He seemed to be frozen, nervously waiting for something.

He sensed an inevitable change in plans—and he was right.

For a moment, it was as if an invisible shadow rushed over them, making people feel cold and uncomfortable, and the peace and confidence that had accumulated in their hearts when they walked through the tunnel were now swept away.

Now Su Mengfan remembered Khan's words - this is not his mood alone, the mood is changed by the environment, not by him.

He turned his flashlight nervously on the crowd around him: a sense of foreboding oppressed him.

The pale, dusty marble glowed faintly before him, and though his lamp flickered a gleam, the dark curtain under the archway did not recede at all.

This confirmed their conjecture that the world seemed to end behind the arch.

Su Mengfan couldn't control himself, he almost ran back into the crowd.

"Come to us, brother," said a man he had never met before.

Apparently, they're also trying to save the batteries for their flashlights.

"Don't be afraid, you're human, we're the same kind, and when things like this happen, people stick together. Don't you think?"

Su Mengfan willingly admitted that something happened, and because of his fear, he became very talkative, and he began to discuss his concerns with the people in the team, but his mind was always on Khan's whereabouts.

He disappeared more than ten minutes ago and there is no news about him.

He himself knew that a person could not walk into this tunnel alone, he had to go in with the crowd.

How could he just go in like this, how dare he ignore the unwritten rules of this place?
He didn't simply forget these things, he just decided to believe in his own wolf's sense of smell, but Su Mengfan couldn't believe it.

Although Khan had spent three years studying the tunnel, it didn't take that long to know the basic rules here:
Never walk into a tunnel alone.

But before the Khan silently appeared beside him, before the people were saved, Su Mengfan had no time to think about what his protector might encounter ahead.

"They don't want to stay here for a moment, they are afraid. Let's go on, hurry up!" Su Mengfan suggested, "I also feel that there is something wrong here..."

"They are not afraid yet," Khan assured him. Looking from behind him, Su Mengfan suddenly realized that his firm but hoarse voice was trembling.

Khan continued, "You weren't scared, and I was. Remember I don't say this lightly. I was scared because I was caught up in the haze of the station.

'Navigation Graph' doesn't let me go to the next step, otherwise I must have disappeared.We cannot move forward.There must be something ahead...but it's too dark, I can't see it, I don't know what is waiting for us there.look! "

He deftly held up the map for them to see.

"Did you see that? Shine your flashlights on it. Look for the route from here to Chinatown Station! Don't tell me you didn't see anything."

Su Mengfan carefully inspected the small part of the picture, and his eyes hurt from anxiety, but he still didn't understand what was abnormal, but he didn't have the courage to admit it to Khan.

"Are you blind? You really can't see anything? The route below is all black! Go any further and you'll be dead!" Khan said in a low voice, pulling back the map abruptly.

Su Mengfan stared at him cautiously, feeling that Khan looked like a madman again.

Zhenya had told him about walking into the tunnel alone, about the fact that anyone who survived the tunnel would go mad with fear—had this already happened to the Khan?

"We can't turn back either!" Khan whispered.

"We made it through when there was a good mood there, but now darkness is coming from there and a storm is brewing.

Now the only thing we bears do is move forward, but not through this tunnel, but through the one parallel to it.Hey! "

He shouted to the crowd, "You are right, we must move forward, but we cannot follow this route, otherwise destruction and death await us!"

"So, how do we move forward?" one of them asked suspiciously.

"We have to go across the station and take another parallel tunnel - we have to. ASAP!"

"Oh no!" someone in the crowd yelled. "Everybody knows we wouldn't go in the other direction if the tunnel we're going to go in is clear - that's a bad sign and sure death! We wouldn't go in the tunnel on the left."

People walked up and down anxiously, and a few agreed.

"What did he say?" Su Mengfan asked Khan.

"Obviously local folklore," he said, frowning.

"Damn it! I don't have time to convince them and I don't have the strength to...Listen!"

He said to them: "I want to take that parallel tunnel, those who believe in me follow me. Others, goodbye, forever... let's go!" He nodded to Su Mengfan and picked up his heavy backpack , climbed to the edge of the platform.

Su Mengfan hesitated and was stunned.

On the one hand, Khan knows far more about these tunnels and subways than humans can comprehend, and you can rely on him. On the other hand, there are eternal laws in this cursed tunnel, and you can only go in with the crowd. , for this is the only hope of success...

"What's going on? The bag is too heavy? Give me your hand!" Khan stretched out his palm to him and knelt on the ground.

Su Mengfan really didn't want to see his gaze at that moment. Several times before, he was very afraid of seeing the twinkle in this man's eyes. He was afraid of seeing Khan's crazy eyes.Did Khan know that he was rejecting not only the warnings of the people, but the warnings of the tunnel itself?

Is it enough to just feel the essence of the tunnel?

The "navigation map" he was referring to—the place on the map with a charred corner—was not black either.

Su Mengfan would have sworn it was a faded orange, the same color as the rest of the thread.So the question is, who is blind?
"What are you waiting for? Don't you know that if we delay any longer, we will all die? Your hand! For God's sake, find your hand!" Khan shouted loudly, but Su Mengfan walked slowly. Taking small steps away from Khan, with his head down, he approached the complaining crowd.

"Come here, brother, come to us, there's no need to talk to that idiot! You're safer here!" he heard people say.

"Fool! You will perish with them! If you don't care about your life, then at least think about your mission!"

Summoning up her courage, Su Mengfan finally raised her head and stared into Khan's wide-open eyes, but there was no madman's light inside, only despair and fatigue.

Su Mengfan began to doubt himself, and he stopped - at that moment, someone quietly walked up to him and gently pulled him.

"Let's go! Let him die alone, he just wants to drag you into the grave together!" Su Mengfan listened to the man say.

He felt the meaning of this sentence heavily, and he slowly understood them. After resisting for a while, he let the person lead him and walked towards the crowd.

(End of this chapter)