ARKTIKA.1 (Short Story)

Book excerpt: An immersive introduction to the dystopian world of ARKTIKA.1, the upcoming VR videogame from the developers of Metro 2033, Metro: Last Light, Metro Redux, and the upcoming Metro Exodus. Viktoria can barely remember life before 2081. It’s painful to think of the time before the Great Freeze, when humanity finally paid its due for plundering the earth, plunging the world into frigid cold, scarcity, and decay. Yet humanity has found a way to carry on. The remnants of civilization persist in settlements like ARKTIKA.1, where Vika tends to survivors with her Mamochka and Papochka, protecting their fledgling colony from the threat that lurks in the snows. The yaga—vicious, deformed cannibals made monstrous by disease—prey on the surviving communities, spreading their affliction as they go. And Vika’s parents are the only scientists left who can stop the contagion. Called upon by the Citadel Security defense corporation, Vika’s family makes their way to a research facility near the Equator. Only there, with mercenary protection and superior laboratory equipment, can the two scientists hope to make the discoveries that might protect ARKTIKA.1. But when shots ring out through the cold, their research expedition becomes a mad dash for survival. Because saving the world means nothing if they can’t save their daughter.