Road Signs

Metro 2033: Road Signs is a novel by Russian writer Vladimir Berezin. The first book in the Metro 2033 Universe, it was released in December 2009.

The main characters find a broken Yak-18 training plane, fixes it, and heads north - to discover the fate of St. Petersburg and its subway. They find out if anyone has survived beyond the Moscow Ring Road and understand what the northern capital looks like after a nuclear war.

Story
The novel begins in the Moscow subway. The protagonist is a young farmer, Alexander, a native of pre-war St. Petersburg, and the novel unfolds on his behalf. He remembers his childhood, how his father - a former pilot, taught him to fly on the training aircraft. Alexander dreams of finding his father, whom he was separated from before the nuclear war and who remained in the city aboard the Neva. One day, a train with unexpected guests arrives at the Farms and Factories (Moscow) Sokol Station. Their commander, whom Alexander calls Mathematician, is looking for a replacement for one of his subordinates, a pilot who was accidentally shot by a station sentry. It becomes clear that they are going to fly somewhere. Alexander is called up to join the expedition as a pilot instead of the previous one. Together with his friend, Vladimir Pavlovich, he joins Mathematician and his bodyguard Mirzo. Having gathered their equipment and saying goodbye to their relatives, the friends make their way to the plane's anchorage together with their new masters. Alexander, who has been flying the plane for a very long time, with little help, manages to take off and get the crew to St. Petersburg in one piece. However, while landing on the Arsenalnaya Embankment, the plane lands unsuccessfully and gets its landing gear stuck in a giant breach.

Abandoning the transport, the squad searches for an entrance to the nearest subway station, which turns out to be Lenin Square, occupied by military medics. At the station, the Muscovites stay for three days. During this time, they learn about the mutants and structure of the St. Petersburg subway. Then, in full force, the heroes head toward Vyborgskaya, where they transfer to the unfinished Koltsevaya line and go into Gorkovskaya. In the tunnels, they run into a blockage, and have to travel through the drainage pipe. Suddenly, the pipe begins to flood, but at the last moment Alexander find a storm drain. They use it to get to the surface.

Walking on top of it, the travelers reach Gorkovskaya Station, which turns out to be flooded. In the dilapidated entrance hall, they meet the poet Semetski, who joins them as a guide. Semetsky leads the group of mathematicians to Petrogradskaya Station. There, Mathematician asks about a woman named Sukhova and her daughter. It turns out that Sukhova died years ago, and her daughter Lena was taken by mushroom hunters - local drug dealers. Mathematician decides to go find the girl. The ranger leads the Muscovites to the Queen of the Night - a mutated cactus in a botanical garden, and it showers pollen on Alexander, to which the ranger reacts with awe. From Petrogradskaya, the team sets off on the surface toward Austrian Square, where one of the houses has a shelter and a meeting place for mushroom hunters. Along the way, the group nearly falls prey to mutant orbs, an intelligent biomass capable of taking various forms. From one of these spheres, which took the form of a cook, they're saved only by chance, taking refuge inside a monument to the Bronze Horseman. After spending the night there, the squad reaches the right house, where they make a halt. After waiting for a couple of days, the squad reaches Admiralteyskaya Station, which takes them to the Technological Institute, where Mathematician and Mirzo release Alexander and Vladimir Pavlovich "to their free bread".

While resting on "Sennaya", Alexander asks the locals about his father, who is known here by the nickname "Pilot". With the help of a man nicknamed Killer Rabbit, Alexander finds himself at Narvskaya Station, where a certain Airman actually turns out to be in charge. It turns out that he and his detachment are under blockade in one of the dead-end tunnels by the bandits from the Kirov Brigade. For several days, Alexander lives at the "Flyer" station, until the Kirov gangsters decide to storm it. In the course of this siege, Killer Rabbit is killed, but the defenders manage to prevail. Alexander, who sees the escaped Aviator, realizes that it's not his father. He leaves the band of Flyers and, contrary to his expectations, meets Vladimir, Mathematician, and Mirzo again. The team stays at Tekhnologichesky for some time. It turns out that during Alexander's stay with the Flyers, Mathematician hasn't yet found the girl they're looking for, but he's already made progress in his search. Having received new coordinates, the group, which is rejoined by Semetsky, who left them, moves to Vasilyevsky Island. They find another apartment parking lot and wait near an abandoned factory. A few hours later, strangers arrive on the premises, among whom is a girl named Lena. After firing off her companions, Lena is subdued and Mirzo shaves her head, which turns out to have a tattoo of a subway map on it. The mathematician, having photographed and redrawn the scheme in his ledger, commands Lena to return to the subway.

The group takes the girl with them to the Institute of Technology, but because of heavy rains and wind, they have to go the other way. Having waited out the weather in the Kunstkamera building, the travelers observe the flooding of one of the city districts. To escape the water, the group finds bicycles, on which they rush to the subway. Halfway there, the men are spotted by a flock of seagulls, from which they escape, losing Semetsky. On his return to Tekhnologichesky, Mathematician hands the girl to Professor Usyskin, a friend of her father, and receives a small suitcase in return. Satisfied, Mathematician reports that he is ready to return to Moscow, but has no idea how to do this, since the only working transport - the plane - turns out to be broken. Vladimir Pavlovich suggests an idea: a rocket train, which stood at the Warsaw railway station and to which the Muscovites rush immediately. On the Obvodny Canal, they see the Conductor, a legendary and dangerous mutant, slowly walking toward them, whose target is the sacrificial Mirzo. The three of them, Vladimir, Alexander and the Mathematician get to the train station, where they start up a mothballed steam train. On it they leave the city.

In the town of Kolpino, the travelers meet a group of Buddhists making an exodus to Tula. Vladimir Pavlovich decides to take them with him. Stopping in the village of Chudovo in the Novgorod region to cool the circuit, the heroes see One-Eye, a lonely resident of the village. Everyone, with the exception of Mathematician, who decided to stay on the train, goes to the hermit's bunker to eat and rest. At night it becomes clear that the One-Eyed Man, who lured the travelers to him, turns out to be a cannibal. Sasha, who blinded the ogre with a slingshot, along with Vladimir manages to escape from One-Eyed's captivity by climbing through the hangar.

Back on the train, the remaining trio continues their journey. They make one more stop in the abandoned village of Yablonovy, where explorers Alexander and Vladimir find a preserved minefield, working windmills, and skeletons in one of the houses, and then - go back on the train and continue to the capital. Passing the Zavidovsky forest, Mathematician and Vladimir Pavlovich begin to lose consciousness, and Alexander, having tied his partners so they do not fall out of the train, has to drive the train himself, eventually bypassing the dangerous section. The next day there is snowfall and, because of the snow drifts, it becomes impossible to continue: the tracks are covered with a huge layer of snow. The mathematician, who has given up a lot lately, falls ill.

The heroes, stopping at the outskirts of the Tver region, are met by peaceful locals - the "elves". They invite the Muscovites to their village, where the guests live throughout the winter. This stretch of time is most enjoyable for Alexander: he falls in love with the local resident Larissa. However, at the same time, he realizes that he cannot stay here and must return to his subway, to his real girlfriend Katya. The mathematician, who has spent all his time in bed before, gradually recovers. When the trio leave the hospitable inhabitants and go down to the porch, the Mathematician loses his balance and dies, hitting the corner of the stairs with the back of his head. Having buried his superior, Alexander and Vladimir, staying in the village for a few more days, eventually leave it for good. Having reached the steam train, the friends leave Tver. Having reached Povarovo Station near Moscow, Vladimir sees an automatic arrow blocking their way. Due to further rail breakage, he decides to take a different route, but first he gets out of the train to de-energize the arrow. The train under Alexander's control passes, but Vladimir Pavlovich, who remained in place, is swallowed up by a lilac fog that came out of the excavation.

Left alone, Sasha learns that all this time - ever since the Buddhists joined them - three boys from their group have been living on the train, who managed to hide in one of the carriages and survive the winter, feeding on food supplies. Alexander, after getting the children to wash up in the local river, notices a fresh wheel track that leads them to the state farm Solnechny. Without meeting any people, Sasha and the Buddhists settle down for the night at an abandoned church. While Alexander is asleep, the Buddhists catch a sheep grazing nearby and roast it without realizing the danger. Sasha, who has become a man, drives the children towards the train, noticing the inhabitants of the state farm chasing them. Two of the boys are instantly killed by machine-gun fire. The third, mortally wounded, dies in the arms of the rescued Alexander. Having buried the Buddhist and returned to the train, Alexander continues on his way until, eventually, the rails to keep going run out. At Leningradskaya Station, he discovers a stunted motocar, on which he successfully reaches his home station. Leaving his physical evidence of the journey in a hiding place, he enters the subway through a bomb shelter.

When Alexander meets the inhabitants of his station, he realizes that none of his old acquaintances recognize him - bald from the pollen of the Queen of the Night, thin and tanned - and generally consider him an alien from the surface. His beloved Katya is one of those people. After talking to the head of the station, Butov, and showing him the evidence of the expedition, Sasha, having washed up, finds himself in the society of the pigs. While Alexander and the pigs didn't like each other very much before, now the relationship heats up for good. The pigs start a fight with Sasha, but they are separated by the guard who arrives.

Left alone, Alexander sees his girlfriend's pet rat, who takes the farmer to his beloved's apartment. It turns out that while he was away in St. Petersburg, Katya's daughter Nadia is born. A happy Alexander tells his fiancée of his future plans and wishes - to get out of the subway to the surface.

The next moment, in a neighbouring apartment, Sasha peeks out at his childhood shelter of Baba Toma, which brings a man from "Voykovskaya" who introduced himself to Alexander as a relative. Looking at the guest, the boy realizes that this man is his father.

Main Characters

 * Alexander is the main character, a 30 year-old farmer from Sokol Station. A native of St. Petersburg. In September 2032, as part of an expedition with Mathematican, he travels to the northern capital to find his father.
 * Vladimir Pavlovich is a former railroader. He travels with Alexander to St. Petersburg.
 * Mathematician - scientist, presumably from the stations of Moscow State University. Organizer of the expedition into St. Petersburg.

Secondary Characters

 * Mirzo is Math's bodyguard.
 * Semetsky is the Mathematician group's guide around St. Petersburg.
 * Killer Rabbit is a drug addict in the Flyers' squad, who arrived in St. Petersburg from Kharkiv.
 * Hammer - Rabbit's partner in the mushroom business.
 * Vladimir Gubailovsky - military doctor on "Lenin Square".
 * One-Eye - the hermit cannibal from Chudovo.
 * Larissa - ex-girlfriend of Alexander.
 * Nikolai - Alexander's father, anarchist.
 * Sasha - teenaged boy who joins Alexander on his expedition to St. Petersburg.

Interesting Facts

 * The first book of the Metro 2033 extended universe.
 * The Muscovites travel by plane to reach St. Petersburg.
 * On the way back they also travel by steam train, introducing the reader to the areas lying between the two capitals.
 * There is an amateur translation of the novel into Polish, published in July 2015.
 * On April 1, 2017, a sequel to the novel entitled Yellow Bricks was announced in the project's official VKontakte group, and a synopsis and possible release date were attached. Of course, this turned out to be nothing more than an April Fools joke.

Путевые знаки