Unburied

Metro 2033: Unburied is the third novel by Sergei Antonov, written as part of the Metro 2033 universe and the Moscow Tunnels trilogy. The twenty-second book in the series, this novel serves as a direct sequel to Dark Tunnels and In the Interest of the Revolution.

Once again, Anatoly Tomsky, ex-anarchist, ex-citizen of Polis, and now - one of the leaders of the Che Guevara Station and in the near future - a happy father, cannot live peacefully. And again, not by choice. Well, or not really of his own free will. Although who else but him, who almost turned into a sinister mutant, should know: the worst enemy of man almost always lurks within himself, and the darkest tunnels always lie in our minds.

The Past
Summer at the Academlag Laboratories. After Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria's arrest, by order of the government, it was decided to remove all existence of the bunker. The entire staff of the Five, as well as several officers who were inside, are gassed. Only Professor Arkady Semyonovich, who was lucky enough to have a gas mask on in time, survived. With the last of his strength, he buried his comrades and colleagues. Having buried the last one, Arkady gropes into the storage room, finds a working gramophone, and dies to the sound of his favorite music.

"New Life"
December 2033. The Chegevarovs, together with Tomsky and survivors of the destroyed Berilag, rebuild their station, now called Comrade Che Guevara Station. However, supplies are running low. Rusakov put forward a decision to start trading with the Red Line and Polis.

Anatoly, after talking with Rover, sees Lumumba, communicating with another sentinel about an unknown infection on his face. Fearing for the rest of the station's population, Tomsky decides to kill the Trotskyist. At the very last moment, it turns out that this is all a seizure that occurred after Mikhail Korbut's experiment.

Then Mishka, a boy whom Anatoly once saved from starvation, comes up to him and says that he knows something he would like to tell him. Tomsky, citing fatigue, asks him to wait.

On the advice of Rover, who has returned from the Red Line, Anatoly goes with him into the tunnel at Cherkizovskaya, where he meets Yakov Berzin, whom Tomsky let go after taking over the station, and talks to him about his illness.

In his sleep, Tomsky strangles Mishka on the platform against his own will. In the morning, Rusakov offers to find the murderer. Anatoly, tormented by his conscience, confesses to the commissar and is taken to the only remaining punishment cell located on the tracks. The inhabitants of the station don't understand why Anatoly is placed in the cell, and only after some time, do they guess.

That night Klavdia, Mishka's mother, pays Anatoly a visit. She doesn't believe Tolya was responsible for her son's death. Eventually, Klavdia, leaning against the bars, dies unexpectedly.

Leaving the Station
After a short time, Anatoly, who was waiting for his fate, is rescued by Rover and Ensign Arshinov. Together with Weasel Six, they decide to head for Partizanskaya, which there is an entrance leading to the dungeons of the "Five" and where, according to Berzin, a mysterious man, Shaman, who knows the way to the Academlag lives.

On the surface, the squad is ambushed by a lone sniper. They manage to shoot him. The sniper turns out to be the mercenary Shooter, who, before he can tell the heroes about his employer, dies from his injuries.

Later, on his way to Partizanskaya, Tomsky sees the ghost of a boy who strongly resembles Mishka, whom he killed, and loses control of himself several times.

Shaman
Arriving at Partizanskaya, the squad notices a strange talking gnome creature who appears to be Hunter. When Arshinov demands an explanation, someone who can communicate with the mutant - a stalker nicknamed Schumacher - arrives. Having found out that this is the same Shaman, Tolya's squad, having arranged a halt at the station, go to the underground of Metro-2 through a secret passage of Partizanskaya. Upon reaching the right place, Shaman states that he will go no further. From Academlag, he asks that the heroes (if they get there) bring him back a mysterious book. Nevertheless, Tomsky's squad persuade Shaman to go with them. But, the heroes are prevented from going any further by a rather narrow passageway. The Ensign decides to blow it up with dynamite. Tolya, who regretted the consequences to the last, turns out to be right: the explosion seriously injures Rover, who wanted to save the runaway Shepherd.

Everyone takes the dwarf to Shaman's room, where he, asking Ensign and Tomsky not to disturb him, performs a ritual, thanks to which Rover recovers.

Tolya's squad begins moving through the tunnels, on their way stands a strange statement- bizzare predictions placed on the walls, which Shaman recognizes as the Proverbs of Solomon. Someone wrote them relatively recently. Finding a food warehouse in the dungeon and a skeleton inside, the heroes find themselves falling into a trap.

Digger
Out of the darkness appears the one who set the trap for Tomsky's squad - a hideous dwarf without a left hand, nicknamed Digger. He tells his story of the past before proposing a deal: someone from the squad tears off their own arm and Digger lets them out in return. No one agrees to this nonsense, of course. Shaman tries to negotiate with the dwarf, but Digger leaves after he begins talking even more nonsense about Mr. Chumbley. Later, coming to find out if they are willing to make a deal, Digger is shot by Tomsky, who has once again lost control of himself.

Shaman, stripped down to his underwear and doused in machine oil, decides to squeeze through the bars and open the cage with a lever. With difficulty, he succeeds and the heroes are freed. Following the corridors, they find a large room where important members of the project used to sit. There, Anatoly sees the gypsy Rada in a vision, who, with the help of Tarot cards, foretells Tomsky his future. Here, the anarchist again takes control of his dark side, but Shaman, with the help of an incantation, drives her away for a time.

Worms
After walking through a series of hallways, Tomsky's squad, led by Shaman, find themselves in the engine room. The entire compartment is filled with worms, unfamiliar to Anatoly from the Metro and which Arshinov almost becomes one of their victims. Thanks to concerted action and the "surprise" of such mutants, the worms are killed by frying them with the remaining fuel in the room.

In the next room, Tomsky and his companions stumble upon a kind of "swamp". Suddenly, a bizarre illness overcomes four of Tomsky's partners: they begin uttering nonsense, while Arshinov dances a waltz and sing lines from the song "Korobeiniki". After a short time, Tolya guesses the reason for all this - leeches, living in the same swamp, through which they passed. Only he and Shester are unharmed. When Rover, Shaman, and Alexei lose consciousness, Tomsky begins to tear the parasites off each of his partners' legs.

Deciding to leave his friends to recover in one of the rooms, Tomsky, hearing a strange growl, heads off to investigate. As it later turned out, it was the glowing dogs that live in these dungeons - Doyle's dogs. Anatoly finds the body of one of these creatures with its throat cut out. He concludes that there is someone else in these corridors besides him and his squad. And this "someone" is a man.

The Elixir
Looking for a way back to his partners, Tomsky gets lost in the maze of corridors. Even conversations with his mentor, Pathfinder, don't help Tomsky. At the last moment, he sees Sheshera and realizes that she was sent by the now recovered Shaman. The weasel leads the anarchist back to his friends, but an old threat has reappeared: Doyle's dogs. Tomsky lights himself a torch, and the light scares the creatures away. Along the way, while looking for firewood, Shaman decides to speak with Anatoly about "Yellow" - Tomsky's own dark entity. Tomsky asks for something which he could use in removing his spilt-personality, and Shaman agrees on creating an elixir for him. In the end, Shaman drains most of his strength, but his efforts are worth it- the dark half is removed.

When the fire is lit, Tomsky's squad hear a sound reminiscent of crying. Tomsky decides to see what it is and goes out onto the platform, which leads into a subway station. He notices a train car standing nearby. Once inside, Tomsky is overcome by another attack, and sees Yellow as one of the passengers. Gunfire soon erupts. Waking up, Tomsky realized that the crying was just an illusion of water dripping against a pipe. And it was Arshinov who fired the shot, mistaking his reflection in a mirror, hanging on the platform, for an adversary.

After looking around, everyone hears the voice again, clearly resembling German. Following the passages toward them and scaring off Doyle's dogs with the light, Tolya's squad emerge into the corridor leading to "The Five". But, on the way there, Shaman steps on a trip wire and triggers an explosion. Severely wounded, Shaman asks the heroes to leave him. However, Tomsky, picking up the injured dwarf, hides with everyone else in a back room, thinking that the "mined" passage will clear away some of the pursuing dogs. Later, Tolya and his men enter another back room, which turns out to be a real warehouse: rows of canned stew, polished machine guns, fresh vegetables, etc. But Anatoly, remembering the wounded Shaman, hurries back to retrieve him. He finds his missing knife stuck in the dwarf's back. Dying, Shaman asks that all his stolen books be returned to Polis, and the Guardians. The stalker's last words are about "Yellow" being behind everything.

Tomsky, who spoke with Arshinov, no longer has any doubts that someone is following them. Besides, the anarchist find a button that belonged to the late Mishka near one of the bodies in the subway cars.

Scientists of the "Five"
Once in the Academlag laboratories, Tomsky's squad pass through the pressure chambers and take cover. Right next to them, Anatoly hears live voices belonging to three men. After examining them from cover, Tomsky decides to be the first to break the silence. He and his partners come out of hiding and greet the scientists. They, of course, not expecting other people to show up quickly, begin to question them about the Party, about Stalin, and about what happened to the country during their cryo-stasis.

After a long explanation and prepared lunch, the scientists begin a tour of their laboratory. A short time later, Tomsky and company fall asleep from the sleeping pills in their tea. Waking up, now tied to a chair, Anatoly is asked about what happened to the CPSU in their absence. Not believing the words spoken by the anarchist, zoologist Taras Techenko decides to reprisal them and all three go into the next room. Tomsky manages to free himself and, quietly entering the visit, knocks out Techenko before ordering Otto and Isaiah to free his partners. Having straightened out all three of them, Tomsky leads them into the warehouse room, where Isaiah, seeing the skeleton of another scientist, recognizes him as Arkady Semyonovich Berg. After telling Isaiah, Taras, and Otto about the current situation in the Metro and in the world, Tomsky talks about his problem - the GMH project. Kunitsyn, assuring them that he can help, presents the "aliens" with a TDF unit - an upgrade of the one that stood in Korbut Senior's laboratory at Lubyanka.

While Otto and Taras are studying Berg's notes, along with Tomsky's blood sample, Isaiah Alexandrovich presents Anatoly with his invention - a spring-loaded crossbow pistol, which he presents to the anarchist and even asks him to test it.

Meanwhile, Korbut's serum, obtained from Tomsky's blood, is tested on some rats, one of which begins to behave aggressively and take out the other two. When Techenko says the setup is ready, Tomsky stands on it and, after receiving a needle in his vein, passes out.

Upon awakening, Tomsky begins to feel better, but Arshinov reports that while Tolya was passed out, some sort of "earthquake" occurred.

An Old Acquaintance
Having recovered from the jolt, they all return to the platform, where they find the entrance to Academlag. There, Arshinov sees an unextinguished bonfire and thinks he has already captured the one who has been chasing them for so long.

A familiar voice makes the scientists and Tomsky's detachment drop their weapons and, throwing their hands behind their heads, stand back. Thinking at first that the voice belongs to "Yellow", Anatoly recognizes him as Czeslav Korbut. Korbut speaks to Tomsky, holding him at gunpoint. It turns out that it was the former commandant of Berilag who strangled Misha. While Korbut Jr. suggests that Tomsky surrender, Anatoly, remembering the Spring Crossbow in his hand, shoots the commandant in the throat with it. With a last effort, Korbut pulls the ring of one of his grenades and it is at the last moment the ensign notices and, falling with his body on Czeslav, manages to save everyone, at the cost of his own life.

Eveyones decides on burying Alexei in the armory. Tomsky, hoping that Kunitsyn, Techenko, and Lutz will go with them to Che Guevara's station to help with their knowledge, is mistaken: the scientists decide to return to "theirs" stations - the Russian and the Ukrainian to the Red Line and the German to the Reich, although Anatoly warned them of the consequences. Before leaving Metro-2, Sheshera returns to the squad, from whom Tomsky learns that he has a son. Anatoly decides to name him Alexei, in honor of his dead friend.

Epilogue
Back at the station, Anatoly, who has explained everything to Rusakov, is forgiven. Some time later, Anatoly, sitting on the platform, learns the news from Rover: Techenko and Kunitsyn were shot on the Line, and Otto is shot in the Reich. The former for Trotskyist propaganda, and the German allegedly for espionage. Saying goodbye to Nosov, Tomsky returns to his family.

Main Characters

 * Anatoly Tomsky is an anarchist gamechecker with a split personality; he goes to Academlag in the hope of finding a cure for his illness there.
 * Alexei Arshinov is an ensign, Tomsky's friend, who helps Anatoly in his search for Academlag.
 * Rover - a dwarf, friend of Tomsky and Arshinov, who helps them in their search for Academlag.
 * Sheshera - a weasel of Rover, helping the squad in their search for the Academlag.
 * Shaman - a former Valdai member and Polis brahmin, who knows the dungeons of Metro-2.
 * Isaiah Aleksandrovich Kunitsyn - Academlag scientist who froze himself in a cryo-chamber.
 * Taras Arsenievich Techenko - zoologist, scientist of Academlag, who froze himself in a cryo-chamber.
 * Otto Lutz - a German, former worker of "Auschwitz" camp; an Academlag scientist, who froze himself in a cryo-chamber.
 * Czeslav Korbut - former commandant of Berilag, dreaming of revenge on Anatoly for his expulsion from the Red Line.

Secondary Characters

 * Rusakov - commissar of the First International; friend of Tomsky, chief of Che Guevara's station.
 * Lumumba - member of Rusakov's brigade; sentinel of Che Guevara's station.
 * Klavdia Igorevna - former prisoner of Berilag; Mishka's mother.
 * Mishka - former prisoner of Berilag; son of Klavdia Igorevna.
 * Elena Tomskaya - Tomsky's pregnant wife; former prisoner of Berilag.
 * Grigory Nosov - brother of Rover; one of Che Guevara's station chiefs.
 * Digger - old man living in Metro-2.
 * Arkady Semyonovich Berg - Academlag scientist.

Other Characters

 * Yakov Berzin is the former head of security at Berilag.
 * Hunter - a mutant dwarf who visits Partizanskaya.
 * Rada - a gypsy woman who appears to Anatoly in Metro-2.

Interesting Facts
Непогребённые
 * The first book of the universe which concludes the trilogy.
 * The first cover of the novel features a view of the "Dungeons" (Academlag Laboratories).
 * The action of the prologue is set in July 1953.
 * The title of the novel refers to the three Academlag scientists who were frozen ("buried") in the bunker itself.