第一章：世界末日（3）
(阿尔乔姆听得大气都不敢喘一下，看到老滑头彼得对待此事都如此害怕，他更加深信有一股不可预测的力量和黑幕正从未知的角落蔓延开来。)
“那贝戈瓦亚后来发生什么了？”阿尔乔姆说话的声音都开始不对劲了。
'And what happened to Begovaya?' Artyom's voice sounded unusual, unlike him.
“他们倒没有发生什么。在见证了这一切之后，贝方决定爆破，炸断了通往波列扎耶夫的隧道。我听说有四十多米的隧道因此倒塌；不用特殊机械挖掘的话是不可能再次打通的，就算有机会能用得上，我打赌你也坚持不下去。再说了，这种机器你上哪儿找去？我们车站的那一台十五年前就已经锈得不成样子了。”
'Nothing happened to them. They saw what the deal was, and exploded the tunnel that led to Polezhaevskaya. I hear forty metres' worth of tunnel is collapsed; there's no digging through it without spcial machinery, and even with machinery, I bet you wouldn't get very far...And where are you going to find tht kind of machinery, anyway? Our machinery rotted away fifteen years ago already...'
彼得·安德烈维奇凝视着火堆，陷入了沉默。阿尔乔姆大声清了清嗓子，说到：“唉......我确实该向刚刚那东西开枪，我真是个笨蛋。”
Pyotr Andreevich fell silent, gazing into the fire. Artyom gave a loud cough and said, 'Yeah...I should've shot the thing, of course...I was an idiot.'
忽然一声大喊从南边，车站方向传来：“嘿~那儿的，四百米那儿的！一切正常吗？”
A shout came from the south, from the direction of the station: 'Hey there, at the four-hundredth metre! Everything OK there?'
彼得·安德烈维奇从火光中缓过神，将双手环成喇叭模样，大声回应道：“过来点儿！我们这儿有情况！”
Pyotre Andreevich folded his hands into the shape of a megaphone and shouted in reply: 'Come closer! We've got a situation here!'
从车站隧道方向缓缓出现了三个人影，他们的手电筒晃动着，似乎是三百米处的巡逻队成员。直到完全被篝火的火光照射到，他们才关闭手电，随意地坐了下来。
Three figures approached in the tunnel, from the station, their flashlights shining - probably patrol members from the three-hundredth metre. Stepping into the light of the fire, they put out their flashlights and sat down.
“哇哦，彼得，原来是你在这儿。我刚还在想呢，今天会是谁被派来值守边境呢？”一个高阶巡逻军官一边笑，一边从他的战术背包中甩出一根烟。
'Hi there, Pyotr! So it's you here. And I'm thinking to myself - who'd they send off to the edge of the earth today?' said the senior patrolman, smiling and shaking a cigarette from his pack.
“听着，安德烈，我的人刚刚看见上面有什么东西。但是这小崽子没开枪...那东西躲进了隧道。他说那东西不像人类。”
'Listen, Andryukha! One of my guys saw someone up here. But he didn't get to shoot...It hid in the tunnel. He says it didn't look human.'
“不像人类？那它看起来是什么样子的？”安德烈转身面向阿尔乔姆。
'Didn't look human? What did it look like, then?' Andrey turned to Artyom.
“我，我其实都没看清它，只是向它询问了暗号，它却直接往北面跑了。但是脚步声不像人类，听起来很快，很轻盈，像是有四条腿而不是两条......”
（阿尔乔姆尽可能地回想着所有的细节，想用足够多的情报换来前辈对自己刚刚渎职的谅解。）
'I didn't even see it...I just asked for the password, and it ran right off, heading north. But the footsteps weren't human - they were light, and very quick, as if it had four legs instead of two...'
“噢~或许是三个！”安德烈眨了眨眼，做了一个鬼脸。
'Or three!' winked Andrey, making a scary face.
阿尔乔姆顿时屏住了呼吸，回想起通往地面的菲利耶夫轨道线，那里流传着的三腿怪人的故事，那儿的隧道挖得并不算深，所以他们没有办法抵御来自地面的核辐射伤害。传闻那里有着三条腿、两个头以及各种怪异的生物在站点内外四处爬行。
Artyom choked, remembering the stories about three-legged people from Filevskaya line where some of the stations went up to the surface, and the tunnel didn't run very deep at all, so they had alomost no protection from the radiation. There were three-legged things, two-headed things and all kinds of weird shit crawling all over the metro from those parts.
安德烈猛吸一口烟，从嘴中扯了出来，对他的队员说到：“行吧，伙计们，来都来了，为什么不多坐会儿呢？如果有三条腿的坏家伙又来骚扰我们的小兄弟，我们来帮他们一把，嗯？嘿~阿尔乔姆，这儿还有热水吗？”
Andrey took a drag of his cigarette and said to his men, 'All right, guys, since we're already here why don't we sit down for a while? If any three-legged things crawl up on these guys again, we'll lend a hand. Hey, Artyom! Got a kettle?'
彼得·安德烈维奇起身将罐子里的水倒入一个破旧且满是灰尘的水壶中，并把它挂在篝火的架子上。几分钟后，随着逐渐响起的呜呜声，壶中的水沸腾了起来。这充满生活气息的旋律，抚慰着周边的人，阿尔乔姆感受到了一丝温暖和平静。他环视四周，火堆旁围坐着坚强可靠的队友们，都曾经历过充满挑战和危险的日子。感觉永远都可以相信和依赖这样的人。他们所处的站台，在整个地铁线中是最享有声誉的安全营地，这都归功于此刻聚在火堆旁的这帮猛汉以及车站中他们的同伴。他们之间的羁绊火热似血，更胜手足。
Pyotr Andreevich got up and poured some water from a canister into a beat-up, soot-covered kettle, and hung it over the flame. In a few minutes, the kettle began to whistle as it came to a boil. The sound, so domestic and comforting, made Artyom feel warmer and calmer. He looked around at the men who were sitting at the fire: all of them strong dependable people, hardened by the challenging life they led here. You could trust men like these; you could count on them. Their station always had the reputation for being the most successful along the entire line - and that was all thanks to the men gathered here, and to others like them. They were all connected to each other with warm, almost brotherly bonds.
而阿尔乔姆只是个才过二十岁的小伙子，他出生于地表，那时候人们还在室外生活。阿尔乔姆和出生于地下的孩子们不同，他身板健壮，血气方刚，且敢于冒着地面的强烈辐射和太阳的灼人热浪的风险前往上层探索，那里对地下居民而言就是废墟一片，无可留恋。
Artyom was just over twenty years old and had come into the world when life was still up there, on the surface. He wasn't as thin and pale as the others who'd been born in the metro, who wouldn't dare go up to the surface for fear of radiation and the searing rays of the sun, which are so ruinous for underground dwellers. True, even Artyom, as far as he could remember, had been on the surface only once, and then it was only for a moment - the background radiation there had been so bad that anyone who got a bit too curious would be completely fried within a couple of hours, before he'd even managed to enjoy a good stoll, and see his fill of the bizarre world that lay on the surface.
