Chapter 7: Over Hill And Dale
Nikolai was standing on a sidewalk in a suburban neighborhood. It looked like a typical American subdivision. But something was off. Strange equine creatures littered the streets. Going about life in the same fashion as humans. Some pushed carts with little foals along. Others chatted about life, one was throwing a sack of trash into a bin nearby, stange flags flew from the side of a few of the homes. He tried to call out to them. But got no response, it was as if they simply weren't aware of his presence. He looked off to his left, and saw the towering skyscrapers of a city.
"I would figure I am due explanation." He mused. But just as the words had left his mouth he began to hear a sound which he was all too familiar with.
It was the haunting drone of an air raid siren. All at once, the creatures in the street began to panic. Nikolai was completely bewildered as to what was happening. He himself was confused. But, just 30 seconds later. He got his answer. He spotted something flying over head. It flew towards the city, fading out of sight in an instant. He got a chilling feeling that he should turn away. Before he could make any other moves, a bright flash of light erupted from the city. Alongside a noise louder than anything he had ever heard.
"Oh God."
He whispered shakily, the flash subsided just enough for him to get a look at the enormous mushroom cloud blossoming from where the city had once stood. He could feel the heat and wind from the blast rush against his clothing, and, an instant later, the shockwave hit him. Knocking him off his feet, the shockwave was followed by a massive rolling wall of green flame.
" Где я! Where am I!?" Nikolai cried, stumbling to his feet from out of his sleeping bag. Everything from the past 2 days came flooding back into his mind. It was only a dream, just a dream. But was it?
He looked around and shrugged. A copy of the Wasteland Survival guide fell to the ground, he had falling asleep. It was only a dream, just a dream. But was it? He looked around and shrugged. The iritating pain of a hangover headache rocked the Stalkers brain.
"This is not problem! Tsar Bomba still bigger!" He touted.
But there was no one to hear him. He took another swig from his canteen, it was getting empty. He swished it around in his mouth. And spit the stale taste of vomit, MRE and morning out of his mouth. After that, he ate the remainder of the MRE, 'took care of business' behind a pile of rubble. Then geared up and headed out just 15 minutes after waking up. After taking another look at the digital map on his PDA. He determined that he should head north, out of Salt Cube city. After angering Mr. Salt, and fleeing from the Glow. He had no reason to be there. He didn't know where he was going. His plan was to travel northwards up the highway until he came to some new settlement. And which point he would possibly have an opportunity to replenish his supplies.
About an hour later, past the road sign from before. He came another one. It was made of wood, but it was still intact enough to let him read what the sign said.
'Salt Marshes Regional Park.'
There was a gravel parking lot, a small guard shack, and a few wrecked cars, none of which had anything useful within them. The location, as this sign said, was a salt lake. The water appeared to be only a few inches deep. But the clicking from his Geiger counter informed him that it would be best not to go wading. It was just off the highway, and he wasn't in a rush anyway.
"Ah, this reminds me of Dead Sea. Good place for make Pickles. " Nikolai resounded with vigor. He looked over the lake, and sat down on the gravel rise, just by the shore. As he sat down, he noticed that a a veil of fog was beginning to creep over the lake, as if on que with his presence.
Nikolai looked to a car which had been half flipped over, it was lying in the salt water. The word's, " Danger watch water." Had been hastily spray painted onto it. The body of yet a pony leaning up against the vehicles gave warrant to it's claims. It appeared to be quite old. Being that the lower half of the corpse seemed to have been chewed on by something and then dissolved away in the water.
"Huh, what happened down there?" He got up to investigate, and as he reached the water's edge, the fog closed in around him. Then, he saw a pair of glowing green eyes in the fog. Just below the water. And then another pair, and another. He counted 5 in all. As they drew closer, he was able to make out the rest of their bodies.
"Mutant crocodiles? Nyet, not a chance-" He swiftly jumped away from a set of giant seething teeth.
The creatures were all at least twice his size or larger. And he didn't want to waste ammunition on anything but the most dangerous targets. So he fled. He had managed to just make it up the gravel bank and back to the parking lot when he was faced head on with another mutant crocodile. This one was at least 4 times his size, and it's entire body pulsed with Balefire Radiation. He swiftly raised his AK 101 up and put 2 shots into it's right leg. It roared and charged at him. He walked backwards, being sure to keep his cool this time around. He fired into it's head straight on in a 3 round burst of suppressed automatic fire. But it only seemed to anger the creature more, the only result being the loss of a few scales. He needed to think smarter.
"Blyat, what was that about crocodiles? Ah, yes! That spot on their brain!" Nikolai drew his knife and scrambled up onto one of the nearby cars.
He waited for the creature to pounce, and then jumped onto it's back and drove the blade in between it's eyes. It collapsed on the spot. The glow faded from it's bodies. And, a moment later, the mutant creatures turned on one another. Nikolai didn't want to wait around for them to realize he was still there. And took off running.
Nikolai only stopped when he could no longer hear the sounds of the creatures fighting. He stopped for a breather. Pulling out his canteen, he took a sparse gulp. After spending a whole day and a half without refilling it. It was getting low. He had last had the opportunity back in Salt Cube city. And now, he needed a place to top off. To his northeast, there was a distant mountain range, and to his west stretched a combination of desolate plains and rolling hills. Surely, he was getting close to some settlement. He pulled out his PDA and began to look.
" A, De Там!" He had spotted an abnormality on his map. Just up ahead was what looked like an airfield of some kind. Which hopefully would allow him to replenish his food and water. Beyond that lay another sizeable city, and an old town. Alongside a river crossing.
About an hour and a half later, he stood an off shoot from the main highway. This one led west to a small valley, within it lay an air field. Surrounded by a barbed wire fence and lined with guard towers at roughly 150 meter intervals. A massive runway ran the length of the base, alongside half a dozen massive hangers, and various support structures. From a cursory glance, it appeared to be abandoned. As he drew closer, he spotted a road sign. ' Sunrise Valley Air force Base'. Nikolai made sure to mark the location on his map. As he drew close to the gates, he began to hear something odd.
"Is that fifle and drum?" The Stalker scratched his head in confusion.
It seemed greatly out of place. Then, it all made sense. Hovering just off the ground along the runway was one of the robots he had encountered in Salt Cube city. A, 'Spritebot'. With antennas and mechanical wings sticking out of it. Nikolai laughed. He headed towards the closest hanger. It's doors were already wide open. And it didn't look any different from an aircraft hanger back on earth. But that wasn't what he was interested in. Within the hanger were the wrecks of several strange craft. They possessed an insect like appearance, alongside a rotor on either side and one on the back. Likely meaning they were similar in nature to the American Osprey from Earth. But these appeared to sport heavier armor and pylons for weapons.
"This would be facinating... If I knew anything about aircraft." He pulled off his mask for better visibility. There really wasn't any reason to wear it, he had just kept it on out of habit. Outside of a slightly higher background count, there was no reason to wear it for now.
"Da, good fresh air. It smells of rust and motor oil. " Nikolai muttered to himself as he picked over the contents of the hanger. Alongside the old aircraft and mechanical components, pony skeletons in mechanic barding littered the ground. A few of them wore armored vests and sported sidearms, like a more uniform version of the White Apples he had encountered back in Salt Cube City. Unfortunately, he didn't have the space in his rucksack to stash the weapons. But he was able to fit a small pouch of gold coins which one of them had by their side. They all appeared to carry either 9 or 10 MM caliber pistols. With a few of them carrying small carbines or PDW's. These larger weapons were mounted to Battle saddles. Devices designed to allow the mounting of larger weapons to a pony's side for ease of use. He had read about them in the Wasteland Survival Guide.
"Blin, these thing's look valuable! To bad I can't take them with me." He walked up a flight of rusted stairs to an office overlooking the rest of the hanger. Filing cabinets lined either side of the sheet metal walls. At the center of it all was a desk, the plaque on it read 'Colonel Splendid.'
"Not so Splendid now, eh?" He laughed and slapped the desk, that was when he noticed the computer terminal, still intact. Curious, he walked over to the other side and poked at it.
"Heh, I didn't have much luck with other one. Maybe this time? " Nikolai cracked his knuckles and went to work. This time around, it was as simple as pressing the start button and waiting for it to boot up. He glanced up on the branding on the side of the computer. What looked like a partial version of the New Mexico state flag, as well as the words:
"Stable Tech? Well, their logo is spelled, 'Stable Tec'. What secrets are you hiding?"
Nikolai soon had access to the device. Whilst it didn't have a mouse, he was still able to use it. He was now presented with several file choices.
" Old Olneigh Energy Weapons facility."
"Splendid Valley Rock Farms Manifest."
" Reveille at 0800 Hours and Guard shift rotation."
"Sky Guard joint sorties Report."
Of all of these, the 'Energy weapons part interested him the most. He dragged the manual guide ball to the file and clicked on it.
"Command tells me that we're overdue for a shipment of new fangled energy weapons. Damn things are supposed to be able to use glowing crystals as ammunition. They're supposed to work like sorta like a unicorn horn. Those folks from the sky guard can't wait to get their hooves on them. Oh well, good for them I suppose. "
"End Entry." Nikolai nodded silently.
" This, this is interesting. I heard stories of laser space guns and what not being used by the Monolith. I may have to check out this, 'Old Olneigh' place for myself." He said to himself out loud. He had already lost interest in the other files on the terminal. And had begun to rummage though the desks drawers. He found a couple of multi colored crystals, all dull. Nikolai assumed that these were the crystals that the log talked about. Except that they were now dull. But even now, they might fetch some value. He stuffed them into a pant leg pocket for later. The rest of the place offered nothing of value. Except a cool beret, and a magazine titled, ' Equestrian Army Today'. Which he stuffed into his rucksack. As he was descending down the steps, he heard groaning. And then hooves galloping on concrete. It was another ghoul. This one wore a mechanics uniform. It snarled at him as it closed the distance.
"Blyat, Оставь меня!" He raised his rifle and shot it once.
The impact of the 5.56 FMJ round tore off pieces of the creatures head and exposing it's putrid brain. It kept up. And so he shot it again, this time, it's corpse skidded to a stop on the ground. He headed down, and left the hanger. As he walked back onto the runway, he began to look for other points of interest on the base grounds. And he found one, an old open air shooting range located behind the hangers.
"Finally, a place to zero my scope!" Nikolai was ecstatic, the only problem with it was that all the targets were ranged using yards, not meters. Regardless, it would still work. He drew the optic from his rucksack and snapped onto the side mount on the left side of the rifle. He took the rifle off safe, and looked to the first distance that he wanted to set the optic to, 150 meters. That wouldn't compromise his accuracy up close, but it would also allow him to 'reach' out further without having to use the iron sights.
"Crack!" He set his rifle on some sandbags and fired once, setting the reticle right on the dead center of the target. His shot went leftwards a ways. He calmly adjusted the sight and fired again. This time, his shot landed upwards a little bit. He adjusted the optic a little bit more. And, on the 3rd shot, the round sailed right through the center of the target.
"Yра! Yра! Huzzah! Huzzah! It works!" His celebration was short lived, as he began to hear a ferocious growling coming from one of the hangers. And if he could hear it from all the way on the other side of the compound, it was sure to be dangerous. He swapped to a new magazine, stuffing the other one back into it's pouch. And, after redonning his GP 5 gas mask, went to investigate.
"де тебе?" He murmured, looking around.
On the far side of the runway. About 200-odd meters away, was a massive canine-like creature. About the size of a polar bear. It wore a crude vest make from rags, it was behaving in a feral manner, and even from the distance he was at, he could see that it's eyes glowed red. It didn't appear to have noticed him yet. This was a problem. A very big problem.