Botanicheskiy Sad

Botanicheskiy Sad (Russian: Ботанический сад), the Botanical Garden, is the home of the Dark Ones.

Overview
The Botanical Garden is the former home of the Dark Ones. Not much is known of the garden, as its only intact appearance is in the distance, near the end of Metro 2033. Regardless of the Artyom's choice in Metro 2033, the location's canon fate in Metro: Last Light (and thus Exodus) is destruction at the hands of a nuclear bomb.

Looking from the tower, the garden has mutated severely, either from the Dark Ones' presence or simple radiation. The landscape appears to be scorched black, with some orange glowing growths on huge, black vine-like plants which grow across the garden and surrounding city blocks. From observation with a scoped weapon on top of the tower, it can be seen that there are two distinct areas in the Botanical Garden, one being a spire-like structure, and the other a cluster of vines to its right.

Little remains of Botanichesksi Sad in Metro: Last Light besides the hollowed roots of Dark One towers, and a massive impact crater, made by BM-30 Smerch launcher fired from D6. Grown grassy and lush with sickly plants, the area is slowly being overrun with tertiary regeneration. Despite the devastation, a young Dark One survived and lived within Botanichesksi Sad until the events of the Metro: Last Light.

Artyom's Interaction
When Artyom was a boy, he was challenged by two of his friends, Vitali and Eugine, to go with them to the neighboring Botanical Garden station which was already abandoned. When they arrived to the station, equipped with just a flashlight and an old double barrel shotgun one boy stole from his father, they found a rusted escalator leading up and climbed it. There Artyom and his friends discovered the sealed hermetic door, which Artyom located the controls for. They opened the door and saw something amazing — the sky. Luckily for them it was dark so their eyes were not blinded. The boys stared at the sky for some minutes and then heard a horrible scream coming from nearby ruins, and panicked and rushed back through the Botanical Garden to VDNKh, leaving the door open, allowing the Dark Ones to enter the Metro years later.