For a business venture I had to go to Russia, keep in mind this was long before the War in Ukraine, I was staying at a pretty high end hotel that was paid for by the company. The whole reason I was here was, the company’s headquarters was here and I was going to meet the CEO to discuss some boring business stuff but that doesn’t pertain to the story. On the day of the meeting I needed to take the Metro across the city so I walked to the nearest Metro station.
I headed down the stairs that looked like they hadn’t been walked on since the Soviet Union. As I walked it kicked up dust and I think a bit of soot. I walked down and made it to the platform to find a train already sitting there. I looked at where it was heading, realized I don’t speak Russian and stepped on the train. I sat down on the hard plastic seats. These were also covered in soot and dust. As I sat there the train car started moving, strangely enough, without an announcement. I sat there for what felt like hours for what should have been a few minutes. Suddenly the train came to a screeching halt, then it collided with something, throwing me to the ground. I stood up and dusted myself off. I fixed my jacket as I looked around. I saw the doors to outside were open and a man voice came over a shitty PA system;
“Excuse me all passengers, please make your way to an open door, and start walking down the way we were heading, it is closer than walking back.”
He said this in perfect English despite having a heavy accent. I thought nothing of it and walked to the nearest open door, and stepped out onto the cold, hard ground. I started walking down the way and sitting in front of the train was a working flashlight. There was also a stopblock, like the one you’d find at the end of a track, but the track kept going. I picked up the flashlight and continued to walk down the track. By this point I had accepted that I would be late for the meeting, I was also absolutely terrified. I was hearing all sorts of noises around me, a scratch here, a short shout there, it was a living hell.I kept walking on and on, I eventually started to see a light, so I started running towards it. As I ran the ground slowly went from hard stone to a squishy flesh-like texture. I stopped and looked down to see I was in fact standing on flesh, I looked up to see the rest of the tunnel had turned to flesh. In the walls were people who looked to still be breathing. I felt sick. The light I was walking towards was a bio-luminescent bulb. I stepped back and started to run backwards.
I was scared shitless and wasn’t about to end up like those people. As the ground started to turn back into stone, I’m guessing the tunnel realized its food was escaping because it started to close its maw. I jumped forward, and it caught my leg. I stood up and started to limp towards the station I came from when a bright light was shown down the tunnel, then a loud train horn blared and I dove for the maintenance cove and ducked in there as the train came rushing past and I heard it crash into something at speed in the distance. I sat there stunned and wanting to go home. I stood up and started limping towards the way I came. It took hours but I eventually made it to the station that sat just the way I left it. I climbed my way to the surface to be greeted by several vehicles. As soon as I got up there a group of people were on top of me and questioning me.
I simply told them that I don’t speak Russian and didn’t resist as they stuffed me in the back of one of the cars. I was bagged and taken to a solid concrete room with one table. They took the bag off my head, someone came in, and for the next 5 hours I was asked questions. They then told me to forget all that I had seen and to never return to Russia. I sent my boss a text about the meeting and he told me that it was handled and I would keep my job. I was sent home in a private jet and was sent on my way when I landed.
I don’t think I’ll ever recover from what I saw, it will stick with me and haunt me until I die. Take my warning, take it from someone who experienced this first hand, the Moscow Metro is alive and god forbid you ever come into contact with that thing.