The Wanderer

Metro 2033: The Wanderer is the debut novel by Russian writer Suren Tsormudian, written as part of the Metro 2033 Universe. The seventh book of the series, this novel was released in 2010. In June 2012, a spin-off was published titled Heritage of the Ancestors.

The novel is set in the Moscow subway. After a long foray to the surface, stalker Sergei Malomalsky returns home to the station "Tulskaya", where unexpectedly strange events begin to happen. From one side of the abandoned stations come two people. One of them dies, the second, named Wanderer, follows a certain MOZZ. Together with his unexpected partner, Malomalsky has a long way to go to save humanity.

Unexpected Partner
In one of the October nights of 2033, a stalker from "Tulskaya", Sergei Malomalsky, makes a foray to the surface. Malomalsky is delayed and does not get to his home station in time, as dawn comes and Sergei, in order not to get under the sun, decides to hide in one of the apartments of an abandoned house. On the way there, the stalker kills a mutant with a crescent wrench and encounters some kind of living dead. Finally, having reached the apartment and placed a stretch, Malomalsky falls asleep in the bathroom. He wakes up only towards evening, when he realizes that he has got into the wichukha's lair and his mistress has now come to the apartment. Sergei, long deciding what to do, eventually runs out of the apartment, throwing a grenade at the mutant. Outside, the surviving creature begins chasing him. However, at the very entrance to Tulskaya Station, he is rescued by Los' group of stalkers, frying the wichukha with a flamethrower.

Returning to the station, Sergei learns that everyone thought he was missing. Malomalsky, coming to the tent of his mentor Casimir, shows him the books he obtained on the surface and, drinking tea brought from VDNKh, discusses with the cartographer the events taking place in Metro and warns him about the fact that the mutated gorgon trees have gained the ability to move. A few hours later, people arrive at the station from "Nagatinskaya": a small mute boy, who was immediately taken to the infirmary to the nurse Vera, and a longhaired fool, who begins to wander around the station. Sergei decides to follow him. Finding the strange man, who appears to be so, Malomalsky, deciding that in view of his mental abilities it is useless to communicate with the man, takes him to Casimir and asks him to feed him, and he goes to the infirmary - to look at the boy. There he finds him dead and notices Vera's absence. At the post leading to "Nagatinskaya" Sergei meets the missing Moose's group, and then, returning for the Wanderer, always talking about some "brain", goes to "Serpukhovskaya" - for the missing Vera.

New Victims
Upon arriving at the station, the partners see that there is a cordon outside the Serpukhovskaya infirmary. There, they find Vera dead and learn from Nikita Novikov, the commandant, that the sentinel Krivosheev, who brought Vera to the hospital, has left for "Polyanka. Sergei and the Wanderer set off after him. In a tunnel on the way to the station Sergei is attacked by a mutated cat. He is rescued by his partner, who, for all Sergei's disgust, eats the animal. On the Polyanka platform, they find Krivosheyev and the digger, who was sent for the sentinel along with the hunter, murdered. Failing to find the hunter's body, they hear mutants descend on the station. Together, they run to Borovitskaya. Having warned Viktor Thurmanz at the station post about the mutants at "Polyanka", Malomalsky goes to surrender the books to the Bramins. After that, at the request of the Wanderer, they ascend to the surface.

Having got out into the city, Sergei and the Wanderer run into the stigmata, who can smell the blood of murdered Reich terrorists from the cans that were thrown at them by the Fourth Reich's stormtrooper Hans, who has become a new victim of the brain. The Stalkers manage to hide from the mutants in the House of Composers. But the stigmata, keeping up, decide to take the building by storm, climbing the walls through the window. After killing a couple dozen of the creatures, the heroes still manage to escape from them, saddled on the roof of one of the whiplash and fly it to the Architectural Institute. While the Wanderer controlled the mutant, Sergei, almost mad with fear, stayed behind. Once on the ground again, Sergei leads Wanderer to one of the stalker's hiding places, an armored BTR-80 vehicle. On the way to the car, the stalker is ambushed by arachnid spiders. With the help of a partner, Malomalsky manages to free himself and get away from the creatures. Finally, having found a transport, Sergei, having started it, rides together with Wanderer to the "Tverskaya" station. But halfway to the fascist station, the APC is attacked by mutants and Sergei, maneuvering, crashes into the building. Having got out from behind the wrecked vehicle, having already predicted his expulsion from the stalker brotherhood for this, goes together with Strannik to "Pushkinskaya" station, near which they end up quite close.

The Fourth Reich and the Red Line
Descended to the station, Sergei and the Wanderer come to the platform, thanks to the stalker token and the book "Mein Kampf". At the "Pushkin" at the same time already performs Hans, having subjugated part of the population of the station and who had already escaped from the captivity of the Gestapo, where he for his rampage determines Gauleiter Volk. Malomalsky and the Wanderer are received by Wolf in his office, who, after a brief conversation, promises to assist Sergei and the Wanderer for the book and "out of old friendship". Through Bormann's stormtroopers, they manage to get close to Hans and examine whether he is under the influence of the mose. It turns out to be true. But the brain, seeing his longtime enemy, orders the hypnotized inhabitants of the station to kill the stalkers. While the stormtroopers cover their partners, they both run into the tunnel leading to the communist Lubyanka station. Behind them, the rioters, led by Hans, also run.

At the Red Line outpost near the station, Malomalsky asks to be let through and prepare to attack the Nazis. But the Red Commissar, assuring them that they have an armistice with the Reich, arrests the stalkers because of the Mein Kampf, planted on Sergei by Wolf to bid him farewell. Because the Communists did not believe Malomalsky, a massacre begins at the station. The soldiers led by Sergei's friend, Commissar Kuznetsov, manage to beat the rebels. Nikita Kollontai, commander of the Red Pathfinders and another of Malomalsky's acquaintances, frees Sergei and Wanderer from the tribunal and solitary confinement. After talking to him and learning that the fascist they want is not among the dead, seeing a locomotive loaded with napalm on the tracks, steals it together with the Stranger, threatening the Reds with a grenade and assuring Nikita that he is doing this to save humanity.

The Wanderer
The two of them drive back behind Hans, who has left behind and has also stolen the train. As they pass by Pushkinskaya, the Nazis that Hans had shot start shooting at Sergei and Wanderer. Malomalsky, seeing the murdered rioters brutally hanged above the station, throws them a grenade clutched in his hand. Having already left Reich territory, Sergei notices that the Wanderer has been hit.

For some reason, once in the tunnel leading to Metro-2, Sergey sees that their way is blocked by a creature sprawled all over the tunnel, which he called the "shaitan-mole" out of horror. The monster, roaring, begins to chase his friends, and Sergei manages to destroy the mutant with one of the barrels of napalm. After driving a little farther, they finally reach an unknown station. Sergei, giving the Wanderer a submachine gun, asks him to sit in the car and not come out. Malomalsky himself goes on a reconnaissance. On the platform, Sergey meets with Hans, the brain inside which orders the Paperboy to join him.

The parasite, realizing that the stalker refuses, leaves the body of Hans, thereby killing him. The substance was already ready to flow into Malomalsky as well, but suddenly the Wanderer appears and catches the mutant in a jar and closes it.

Having told Sergey his story of the past, the Wanderer warns that he cannot go on living, as he too is infected with some kind of brain. To all of Malomalsky's requests and pleas to stay and with an offer to find another way out, he refuses. At parting, telling him that Sergey will always be his friend, the Wanderer leaves with the brain and napalm even deeper into the tunnel. The depressed stalker leaves the station. A minute later there is an explosion, the flames of which nearly devour Malomalsky. Sergey realizes that the Wanderer has died, saving the entire population of the Metropolitan.

Having decided not to return to his native "Tulskaya", Sergey, who no longer believes in fear, thanks to his heroically dead friend, decides to go to St. Petersburg, singing his favorite song "And I'm going, walking through Moscow."

Characters
Main characters


 * Sergey Malomalsky - the protagonist of the novel; a lone stalker from "Tulskaya". Goes together with the Wanderer to the Metro to destroy the "brain.
 * Wanderer - the second protagonist; a mutant man who came from St. Petersburg to Moscow in search of "brains".
 * Hans is a young stormtrooper of the Fourth Reich. 27 years old. While on an ambush outside a former military store, he became a carrier of the MOZZ. Obeying his will, he initiated an extremely reactionary mutiny in the Fourth Reich, which collapsed under the spontaneous attack of the Red Line. Killed by the MOZZ in the finale.
 * Wolf is the gauleiter of Pushkinskaya Station. Helped Sergey and the Wanderer in his search for the Mozz.

Secondary Characters

 * Eugene Petrovich - the Führer of the Fourth Reich.
 * Kazimir Gzhel - disabled cartographer from Tulskaya station. Rita's father.
 * Moose - old stalker from Tulskaya, a colleague Malomalsky.
 * Kemper - a member of Los's unit.
 * Vera Taborovskaya - a nurse from Tulskaya. Became the second host of the MOZZ. Died after MOZZ left her body.
 * Shumakov - vice-mayor of Tulskaya station.
 * Nikita Novikov - Commandant of Serpukhovskaya.
 * Viktor Thurmanz - former special forces officer. An employee of the guard of Borovitskaya station.
 * Bormann - commander of the Fourth Reich's storm troopers.
 * Heydrich is the commander of the Stormtroopers of the Fourth Reich.
 * Nikita Kollontai - commander of the Red Pathfinders.

Episodic Characters

 * Petukhov is the authorized representative of Hansa at Tulskaya.
 * Kachurinets - doctor from "Tulskaya".
 * Pavel - sentry on the "Serpukhovskaya".
 * Matveyevich - doctor from "Serpukhovskaya".
 * Baklukha - sentry of "Borovitskaya".
 * Ivashov - Major, commandant of "Borovitskaya".
 * Krivosheev is a resident of the Serpukhovskaya station. He became the third carrier of the MOZZ. Died after the MOZZ left his body.
 * Rudel - the commander of a group of stormtroopers.
 * Ulrich is a stalker in Rudel's group.
 * Hess - the commander of the Pushkin post.
 * Stoltz - a member of Bormann's squad.
 * Axe - one-eyed executioner from the Gestapo.
 * Kuznetsov - the People's Commissar of the Red Line.
 * Mazur - the commander of the Reds at Lubyanka.

Mentioned Characters

 * Rita is Sergey Malomalsky's ex-girlfriend, the daughter of Casimir. She survived the Cataclysm in Kaliningrad. The main character of the spin-off novel Heritage of the Ancestors.
 * Senka Kubrick - the dead stalker who lived at Tulskaya station. He took the form of a Wanderer, in order to go down to the subway.
 * Hunter - stalker, a member of the "Sparta" order.
 * Agafia - an old resident of "Borovitskaya".
 * Miller - Colonel, head of the "Sparta" order.
 * Mishka - the Evil One - a stalker from "Tulskaya".
 * Mute Kid - the first carrier of the MOZZ. died after the MOZZ left his body.

Interesting Facts
Странник_(роман)
 * One of the funniest and at the same time serious novels in the series.
 * Sergey Malomalsky is one of the most beloved characters by readers.
 * Mozz is a reference to the title of the series.
 * The ending of the novel refers to the ending of Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
 * The first book where the hero is saddled with a mutant.