//------------------------------// // Chapter Eleven- Alexandria // Story: Peregrination to the Promised Land // by Alden MacManx //------------------------------// Joe drove west on 36, knowing that tonight, they will either be in Alexandria or real close. There were still times when they had to stop and clear debris off the road, but the work seemed to go faster, knowing they were getting close to their destination. By two, they had cleared the Indiana-Illinois line, and an hour later, they made it to route 150, where they found someone waiting for them. A gray unicorn stallion with a white and purple mane and tail was at the intersection, with a mark of red dots and blue lines on his flanks. He walked up to the stopped Patrol. When Joe rolled down the window, the first thing the strange unicorn said was “I never thought I would ever see Chief Nannewitt again.” “You must be Dominic Capobianco. I’m Joe Velloti, Eight-Nine,” Joe said. “That WAS me. I’m now named Rapid Transit, or Artie. You and me have got a lot ta talk about, once you gets settled,” Artie told Joe. “Now, I’m gonna speeds you on your way. All you needs ta do is drive through the disc, get your nose even with the stop sign, then STOP. I’ll catch up with ya, then we’ll see abouts getting ya settled. Deal?” “Artie, after the drive we’ve had, you better believe it’s a deal!” Joe said with a big smile. Artie pointed with his horn, and a silver disc appeared about ten feet in front of the Patrol. “Get movin, I’ll be right behind ya.” Joe drove through, finding himself somewhere else. Confused, he pulled up even with the stop sign and stopped. Artie trotted up beside the driver’s door. “Okay, engine off and everyone out for health and safety inspection!” he shouted. Once everyone had piled out, Artie introduced himself to everyone, and got everyone’s names in return. Trixie meowed at him, jumped on his back, kneaded for a few seconds, then jumped back to Linz. “Trixie likes you, Artie!” Linz exclaimed. “She says you’re already claimed by another cat, one she would like to meet.” “She’ll get da chance, Lindsay. Your temporary house is just behind my house, so we’ll be seein a lot of each other for da next few days at least. Now, follow me to da doctors, where you’ll get checked over. After that, a debriefing, so we can find out what happened ta youse ponies. Tonight, after dinner, there will be time for us all to chill out and relax, but the relaxin’ don’t start until da paypahwoik’s did,” Artie told the group. “Speaking of dinner, Artie, we have some supplies we would like to share out, from our last stop. Linz, Ben, get the stuff out of the trailer, okay?” Joe said with a big smile as the two named went to work, opening the trailer and hauling out three full bushel baskets of apples and one basket of mixed garden veggies. Artie’s eyes damn near bugged out of his head. “Holy schnike! When you guys go somewhere, you ain’t kiddin’ around! Where ya get this stuff?” he asked as he looked at the offerings, taking an apple in his glow and crunching it down in one bite. Joe grinned. “That will come out at your debriefing. Now, shall we get checked out?” Artie blinked, snapping out of whatever rapture the fresh, crisp apple had put him in. “Yeah, yeah. Let me get a woikin’ party out here foist,” he said before pulling out a radio and calling in to get some help. When that was done, he opened another telegate. “Okay, ponies and others, through there. Quick time, please. Door don’t stay open for long!” The group went through, followed by Artie, coming out at the hospital, where Doctor Oliver, an orange earth pony, checked them over with the help of his apprentice, Coppertop, another orange earth pony with a coppery mane between his ears, while Artie took a break in the waiting area, chatting with the foals first before their examination. After the exam, Artie brought the party to the meal area, where the group was served a decent dinner, which included some of the goods they had brought from the orchard. The debriefing took place at the same time, with Alex, Cloudy Skies, Adrian, Artie and Soaring Heart doing the questioning. The question time was held short, just a quick overview before more detailed questioning in the future. Artie then brought the crew back to the Patrol, where he guided them to their temporary housing, which was but a hundred yards from his own. “Now, I lives in that house over there,” he told them, pointing with his horn. “You have ANY issues that crop up during the night, you just come over and knock, and one of us will helps you out. This house has been refitted with all the working amenities, but don’t think every house is like this one. Over at mine, I got power, but not water. Soon, I’s told. Permanent housing, well, I’ll leaves that up to you to decide. Welcome home, everypony! Settle in and sleep with both eyes shut for once.” “Artie, thank you for helping us get settled here,” Joe told the gray unicorn. “Hey, youse folks got yourselves here. Might as well welcome youse with open forelegs, right?” Artie said with a smile. “Night, kids! See ya all tomorrow!” “Night, Uncle Artie!” the kids chorused, all of them swarming around Artie for hugs happily given and returned. After Artie trotted back to his house, Joe led everyone to the living room. “Okay, everyone. I want first feelings. What do you think of Alexandria?” he asked. Mary was the first to speak up. “Uncle Artie is nice! He cares about every pony!” she said, Danny and Sara nodding in agreement. “Why do you call him ‘Uncle Artie’?” Joe asked. “He said we could!” Danny said. “He wants us not to worry, that we will find good homes here, one way or another. He cares!” “He does!” Sara added. “He said Miss Soaring Heart will help me learn to fly better!” “She will, eh? I’ll help too, you know,” Joe told the little pegasus. “I know that! Now we not having to drive all the time, you should have more time for flying lessons, right?” Sara asked. Joe hugged Sara with a wing. “All depends on what they have us doing, Sara. You bet I’ll try, but there are more pegasi here than just you and me. Maybe I can learn some more that I don’t know yet.” “Speaking of which,” Ben spoke up, “There is a school here, which us kids are expected to attend, starting next Monday. I was talking with that one pony, Coppertop. He’s about my age, and he says school is classroom work in the morning, and working after lunch, doing what we can do to help. I’m looking forward to that. It will keep us busy.” “Busy we will be, once we learn all the where’s, what’s and whys,” Marsha said. “Now that we’re here, we’re all expected to pitch in and help get the community working. I’m looking forward to that.’ “Me, too,” Linz added, skritching Trixie with her glow. “I want to learn a lot more about magic than what I can do now. When I told Artie about how I can look through walls, he got very interested.” “He’s also a fire officer here, and he wants me to train in the use of the fire gear. Not that they have had to USE any yet, but better to know and not need than the other way around.,” Joe said. “Before, he wasn’t an officer, just a junior fireman, and he hasn’t fought a fire in years.” “That’s a rough idea of what we will be doing, then,” Linz said. “Alex said she wants to get in touch with the Lundquists and set up some sort of trade. If it wasn’t for Artie these last few months, Alexandria would be far worse off. The winter was hard, and they needed supplies. Good thing he could get some.” “That subway tunnel thing is freaky!” Danny exclaimed. “It made me all tingly when we went through that one time!” “Yeah! Walking into a mirror is creepy!” Sara added, her wings fluttering a little. Joe smiled at the kids. “How do you think I felt, when I had to drive into it?” he said with a laugh. “I thought I was going to crash into something, but I put as much faith in Artie as I do in flying, and it saved us some traveling, right?” “It did, Joe,” Marsha said. “Too bad he could not have come for us earlier.” “But, if he did, you would not have found me, or Mary, Sara and Danny,” Ben pointed out. “Artie said he can only go to where he has been. He could have picked us all up at the firehouse in Nanuet, but he was busy at the time, visiting Sudden Storm and her folk in Toronto,” Linz said. “If he wants to go to the orchard, we’ll have to take him there first, before he can make a gateway there.” “We’ll probably do that, in a couple of days,” Joe said. “We have to bring the Lundquists a satphone and a charger system when we do.” “One good thing about being here is that they will give me the chance to bake some more bread, and of different types, too,” Linz added. “Baking bread keeps me sane.” “And you make GOOD bread, Miss Linz!” Sara said gleefully. The next day, the crew were met by Artie in the morning and brought to breakfast, showing the crew the way to and from the chow hall. After that, the group broke up for more interviews, the foals going with the schoolteacher for quizzing, Ben to the security department for firearms safety instruction (not that he needed it, but Alex wanted their firearms secured), Marsha to the farming detail, Linz to Mystic Rune for magic testing, and Joe paired with Artie, to get the Patrol in the service bay, then to the firehouse for some talk. “You were at the tanker rollover in seventy-seven?” Joe asked. “My father told me about that!” “Oh, I was there, all right. Twelve departments, twenty trucks, six hours, three big tow trucks and two mini-cranes later, we got the tanker uprighted. I was less than fifty feet away from the ass end when they rolled it up on its tires,” Artie said, with the faraway look of someone recalling old memories. “I haven’t been to anything like that, but I have been to some signal twelves I would rather forget about,” Joe said, referring to the fire code for a major fire. “Do you remember my father?” Artie shook his head. “No, can’t say I do. If he was a freshman when I was a senior, we may have met, but I didn’t know him. The name doesn’t ring a bell. Town Clerk, you said?” “Ever since I was in elementary school,” Joe confirmed. “He may know my cousin, then. He was town attorney, then a county judge.” “Victor Capobianco? I’ve met him. In a good way, of course!” Joe hastily added. “I’ve never been to court, not even traffic court.” “Good for you. Keep it that way, kid. Now, tell me about this mad dog vet you found in Ohio,” Artie said bluntly. Joe proceeded to give Artie chapter and verse about their meeting with Doctor Petermann. After the recital, Artie nodded. “Got word this morning from your prep team. They encountered the mad dog where you did and had a rather violent confrontation. Safe to say, the mad dog will not be a problem to anyone anymore.” “What happened?” Joe asked. “He was found alive but battered from your encounter with him. When your prep team tried to help, he whipped out a pistol and started shooting. One injury on the good guys team, and Doctor Mad Dog was promptly stomped to a bloody pulp,” Artie reported. Joe sighed and closed his eyes, bowing his head. “I regret the necessity of it, but it could not have happened to a nicer mutt.” “Keep up that attitude, kid. There ain’t enough of us left to keep repeatin’ the mistakes of the old world. We gots to live in da new. Let’s do it right,” Artie said in as soothing a voice as he could manage. “Nicely said, Artie. Now, where can we take the Patrol for a tune up?” Joe asked. Artie brought Joe back to the Patrol and guided him to the town’s garage, introducing him to Amy, one of the mechanics. Amy looked over the vehicle and told them it would be ready in two days, if they cleared the possessions from it. That took Joe and Artie an hour to do, making more than one trip back and forth from the garage to the housing district.