Chapter 9: Flashpoint
Nikolai sat once again by the eerie glow of a campfire. This time, he was surrounded by complete strangers. He had just finished eating lunch-dinner. Using a half dozen caps, he had bought enough 5.56 to top off all of his rifle magazines. Quite a bargin. Though, he didn't know what he would do once he ran out of 9x18 for his Makarov. He had managed to sell off the .38 revolver from before, as well as a few odds and ends that were taking up valuable space and weight in his rucksack.
"So, tell us Nikolai, what's your story?" One of the ponies who was warming his hooves by the campfire asked.
"Well, would you like to hear about the mutant crocodiles or the pegasi with power armor?" A few of them gasped when he mentioned the pegasi.
"Are you sure they were pegasi?" A mare wearing a helmet with a visor comprised of ballistic glass asked concernedly. Nikolai nodded, judging by the reaction he had gotten from them. He assumed that it was a sore subject. But regardless, he pressed further.
"Well, spill the beans!" He demanded, a stallion on the other side of the campfire looked at his can of beans with a confused expression on his face. Nikolai groaned.
"Relax." Another one of them answered, " Not all of us are morons. If what you're saying is true. Then you are both very lucky, and very unlucky."
"How so?" He responded.
"You ran into a group called the Enclave. No one here really knows what they want, where they come from, or how many there are. But seeing them is a rare sight in the Wasteland. More so seeing them up close and living to tell the tale. They use extremely powerful weaponry that ponies on the ground could only dream of. I've never seen them myself, but I do know someone who has." Nikolai chuckled. He thought about mentioning the fact that he had gotten into a fight with them, and gotten out alive. But he decided against it. Hysteria is a powerful tool. Especially when it came to armored flying death machines. Instead, he decided to get up and go over to the bar, which appeared to have been constructed from the leftovers of a hardware store.
"Want anything pal?" The mare behind the counter asked him. Nikolai shook his head balanced his head on his gloved fist.
"Nyet."
"Hey, I got a glimpse of that Redtrotter pass you showed the guards at the gates. You from Salt Cube City?"
"I suppose you could say that." He replied, siding up on the bar stool.
"That's a pretty nice rifle you've got. Where'd ya get it?"
"Eh... Rifle I got from military surplus depot, scope I found while scavenging." The mare smiled. " It's been a while since I saw a rifle like that. Most ponies I see are walking around with old civilian stuff, bolt action rifles, shotguns, carbines or the occasional autoloading pistol or revolver. Most in pretty bad shape."
"Aye, is less challenge for rest of us, no?" He asked the bartender.
"You've got a pretty heavy accent mister. Were are you from?"
"Eh, very far from here. Yes, very, very far. You know what, I will have a shot of whiskey." The mare smiled and poured the Stalker a glass of something called 'Wild Pegasus'.
"Heh. Haha!" Nikolai coughed, wiping his mouth.
"How much do I owe you?"
"Eh, I'd really like to wave the fee, but I'm running a business here. It'll be one cap." Nikolai reached into his rucksack and pulled out a single bottle cap. He slammed it down on the table, then took a gulp from his canteen.
"Do you have any clean water? I'd like to fill up my canteen."
" Just past my bar off to the left, there's a tap. The water comes from an underground reservoir, it's unirradiated. A little bit murky, but it is unirradiated. Nikolai sighed in relief.
"I thank you for your assistance." He got up with a groan and walked out of sight.
"Alright, I think this is it." He knelt down by a spigot leading into the ground. He twisted the knop, then brought up his Geiger counter and waved it past the water.
"Huzah! ты правда!" Nikolai clasped his hands together out of success. He quickly proceeded to fill his canteen with the clean-looking water. He dropped a chlorine tablet into the water to kill any parasites which might have been living with, and stuffed it back into his rucksack. He did the same with his backup water bottle. Nikolai let both of them sit for a minute before taking a drink. His rucksack now weighed a comfortable 19 or so kilograms. Excluding the rest of his kit, his rifle and sidearm.
"Alright, just need to mark this place..." He pulled out his PDA and swapped to the 'map' function. He scrolled out until he found familiar terrain. Then marked his current location for a later date, and then stuffed the device away.
"Now I must find place to sleep for night." Nikolai cracked his neck. He went back around to the bar.
"Do you know good place to sleep for night? Preferably a place without radiation, or monsters, or unpleasant neighbors?" She sighed and shook her head.
"Well, I hope you weren't hanging your hopes on this dump. We're all booked up."
"Do you have a manger in the back by any chance?" Nikolai joked with a chuckle.
"No, no we don't." The bartender responded bluntly, "Look, you seem like a decent fellow. But... Policy is policy. You're welcome to come back once a spot opens up though."
"Do you know any other place?" Nikolai crossed his arms and gave a grim smile.
"Well... The only other large settlement near hear is Dodge City, and that's a near 20 mile walk in the dark.
Nikolai looked down at his watch, and then up at the sky.
"Ah, well... I don't mind a little darkness. Good concealment." The mare by the bar laughed as she lit a lamp which hung above the bar.
"You're joking, right?" Nikolai groaned.
"Nyet, I am not joking." He reached into his rucksack and proceeded to devour a pair of granola bars and beef jerky strips. The stalker was still hungry, especially after an entire day of eating nothing but the occasional snack to keep himself from passing out. But, nonetheless, he was determined to push forward. Rest could wait, money couldn't.
But then again, that didn't matter if you were self-employed. He redonned his GP-5 gas mask, waved to the bartender, and began walking north again along Highway 52.
An hour an a half later...
"The moon went hiddin'
the star's quit shinin'
rain was drivin', thunder lightin'..."
Nikolai's radio played faint tune as he walked along the dark highway. Distant sounds of industrial decay and gunfire echoed across the landscape, he was too scared to activate his improvised rifle light for fear that it might attract unwanted attention. He had seen firsthand what happened when that happened. A fellow Stalker had made the mistake back on Earth, he was tired, and he wanted to get back to base quickly. It proved quickly fatal for him. He wasn't two hundred meters from Nikolai when the woods around him lit up with gunfire, from 4 different directions! No, he would go by moonlight until he was safe. A road sign up ahead proved promising.
"Dodge City, 16 miles." Nikolai would've jumped for joy, but this was hardly a cause for celebration. He made a turn westward off the main road and continued along down a 2 lane road. About half a mile down the road, he began to see glimpses of orange light in the distance.
"що це? What is that?" Nikolai now had to choose between finding safe shelter for the night, and investigating the strange light.
He choose the later. Nikolai crept down into the drainage ditch that ran alongside the road, closer to the source of the light. Awkwardly shuffling forward at half height, he brought his rifle up in front of himself, the drain branched off towards the direction of the light after about 20 meters, he propped the AK 101 up on a berm and activated the optic's illuminator.
At a distance of about 300 meters away, his ability to figure this out was to almost entirely to the manual rangefinder down below the scopes crosshairs. It based itself off the average height of a human, 1.7 meters. And gradually went out all the way to 500 meters. In spite of the fact that Nikolai couldn't possibly hope to hold his rifle steady for a precise shot at that range, it was good to know that the option was there. He realized that the glow was coming from a campfire, and it was occupied. Eight ponies stood guard around a pair of caged wagons. Within said wagons were half a dozen more ponies... Captives perhaps?
"Da, this may present problem. But is neither time nor place for fight." He shimmied back to the main road, slightly concerned that the encampment he had seen might be an issue later on. As for now, he just turned his radio off and kept going forward.
After walking another half mile, he came to another crumbling, rusty roadsign, this one read: "Welcome to Withers Pass!"
In front of him stood a collection of scorched wood sided houses. Beyond them, the road continued through a forest of leafless snags and foreboding metal power line towers which ran parallel to the town on it's western side. The wind whistled through the valley, causing a little overturned tricycle next to him to rattle. In the distance, he could hear more creaking.
"Oh... SO scary." He muttered begrudgingly.
Nikolai was in no mood for the environment to play tricks on him. Quickly, he searched for a place to sleep. He found what is was looking for in a house which, while burned, was mostly intact. He jiggled the the door handle. But found it locked.
"How is this still locked after, what was it that they told me, 200 years? Blin these ponies knew what they were doing! After the incident at the Sunrise Airbase, he wasn't going to attempt kicking in any doors. Instead, he just looked around the house until he found a shattered window, and climbed in that way. As soon as he was inside, he activated his improvised rifle light and began to look around. Directly ahead of him was what looked to be a kitchen, with the skeleton of 2 ponies within.
"Ah, poor fellows. But, I am not here to mourn." Nikolai muttered, he went through the entire structure, the living room, the bathroom, and both of the bedrooms.
"Da, this is space fit for king!" He exclaimed as he shone his light over the king sized bed of the master bedroom. Quickly, he got to work shoving some pieces of furniture up against the window's and door. Once he was secure, took off his boot's mask, and rucksack, placing them by his side, and fell sound asleep in the scorched bed.
Approximately nine hours later...
"Ai! That went by fast! Oph!" Nikolai groaned as he sat up the bed and looked around the place he had decided to fall asleep. He reeked of burned cotton sheets. But he couldn't complain, it was his first real 'bed' in 4 days. Quickly, he redonned his boots, used the abandoned bathroom. Even though the plumbing had probably long since been damaged beyond repair. The bowl itself was still intact. After that, Nikolai made himself another MRE breakfast, fastened his mask back on his head, and headed outside.
"Da, это красиво." He muttered, taking a good look at his surroundings.
"What was place called? It was... Withers Pass! Yes, that was it." Nikolai took a look up and down the road which ran east to West though the town. The town, in spite of it's scenic location, could hardly be considered a town. Most of the houses were little more than scorched piles of rubble. The house which he had slept in was the most intact around, and even then, in the daylight he could see that it was half collapsed.
" Ah, whatever. Is not problem." He was especially interested in a few of the structures that were still standing. Towards the other side of the valley stood 2 buildings, one was a small dinner, and the other was an abandoned gun shop. Nikolai was particularly interested in the later one.
He calmly trekked towards the structure with his rifle at a low ready. The small rectangular building was built of brick, with a glass front, which was mostly shattered and a strange flag that he had seen before back in Salt Cube City. It flapped lazily in the morning crosswind. As well as familiar faded yellow flag which hung on a sperate pole, a coiled rattlesnake with the words, "Don't Trot On Me." Plastered across it in bold black font.
Stepping into the shop through the destroyed door. He saw nothing of interest at first, the skeleton on the ground was completely bare of anything useful, and at a first glance, there was nothing left inside but a handful of rusty shell casings and some faded and torn magazines. Although one thing caught his eye, a newspaper. He read the headline.
"Equestria to Make Superweapon Breakthrough: 'The War Will Be Over Soon!' say's Ministry of Peace."
He looked back out at the dusty highway, and the ruins of the town. "And how did that work out I wonder?"
Nikolai walked back behind the counter and began to scan the shelves for anything valuable.
"Ah, finally... It's- A box of .380. Darn!" Nikolai fumbled over his newfound treasure curiously. It was a sturdy cardboard box with the company logo of Iornshod firearms on the side as well as the content specifications. He broke the seal and found 2 dozen cartridges wrapped in wax paper. It was then when he realized just how similar they appeared to the 9x18 used by his Makarov, he wondered if might be able to find a barrel that he could use to replace the 9MM bore one in his sidearm. Unfortunately, it seemed as though there was nothing of the sort to be found here. He stuffed the box into his coat pocket.
"Blin. Well, the day is still young, I must set off for Dodge City. He left the ancient gun store though the front door and set off back down the road.
Nikolai walked until he had hit the edge of the valley, here. Just a quarter mile past the gun store, a small dirt road ran parallel to the mountain range, In the distance, he saw the distinct forms of ponies approaching him, and they were tugging carts behind them. Nikolai took a knee and looked through his scope to get a better look at them.
"Blyat! It's the ponies from last night! And they're still hauling the cages full of captives. Hmm... Maybe I should ask them about it?" Intrigued, he stood on the side of the road and waited for them to pass by.
"Hey, outta the way 'fore I put a bullet in ya!" Nikolai groaned and stepped out onto the road. One of the ponies shouted. Nikolai could see them clearly now, some of them were covered in dirt and grime, a few had spikey manes. And all were armed and had crazed looks on their faces.
"Nyet, nyet... Those are not just captives. Hey!" He shouted, waving them down, a unicorn in the back of the column turned back to him with an annoyed look on his face.
"What the fuck is your problem!?"They pony responded. Nikolai was on the verge of laughing, a part of him wasn't used to the thought of such harmless looking creatures using profanity.
"What is cage for?" He asked them.
"Caps! Sweet caps!" Nikolai facepalmed, he knew what that meant, they intended to sell their captives. This couldn't stand, his mind drifted to the fully loaded magazines in his vest pouches and rifle. And though back to the glowing chunk of deadly salt in his rucksack. A plan began to form in his mind.
"Ok, be seeing you!" He cried out, waving to the band of raiders with intentful ignorance.
He would be seeing them again. Though the scope on his rifle, that is.
Nikolai trailed the convoy to the other side of the valley, keeping close to the convoy, but not close enough to be heard nor obviously spotted.
The dirt road merged back with the regular road that led out of the western side of the valley at a bottleneck. Power cables swung overhead across the pass. The enormous electrical pylons on either side of the pass were a perfect place for an ambush. The presence of a few small rock outcroppings made it even better. Nikolai crept up to this place, then pulled the lead container which held the piece of the 'glow'. He set it off to the side, and posted up on one of the outcroppings with his AK 101.
Nikolai watched as the convoy entered into the bottleneck, then, taking aim at the first one from a range of just 90 meters, he put the red crosshair arc of his scope right onto the head of the first pony, and pulled the trigger.
"Pst!" The lead raider dropped dead in a pool of blood. He quickly moved to the next.
"Pst! Pst!" 2 more raiders dropped dead, the remaining 5 galloped for cover, some took up positions behind their wagons, whilst the other's made for rock outcroppings on the other side of the road. One of Nikolai's bullets found the front leg of another, sending the raider tumbling behind the cart, and a shrill scream of pain up into the sky. Bullets began to fly back at him, he heard sonic cracks, followed by impacts lower down the hill. That meant they hadn't zeroed in on him yet.
He turned his rifle to the outcroppings and found the a pony wearing improvised leather armor and wielding a submachine gun which he manipulated using his forehooves. Nikolai squeezed off 2 more shots, and the pony went down. At the same time, fire from behind the carts ceased.
"They're reloading." Nikolai thought to himself. Quickly, he got up from behind the rock and began to move towards the convoy, he swapped from his scope to his iron sights. He saw a bit of fur poke it's way out from behind cover. Nikolai flipped the selector lever on his rifle up to full auto and let a 3 round burst fly.
The fur retreated, more rounds flew back at him, the ponies behind the rocks had reloaded. Nikolai felt a round smack him in the stomach, making a loud crack as it shattered against his armor. He nearly doubled over, but he kept going, now consumed with adrenaline. One of the ponies, a unicorn, leapt out from behind cover and began shooting at him with 2 pistols at once which it had levitated above itself. He snapped to this new threat and gunned the new creature down. Putting 6 more rounds of 5.56 full metal jackets into it. He was now about 20 meters away. He ran parallel to the carts and came up behind them. A pony turned a shotgun to him, and a load of buckshot flew past him on his right side and rattled against the end cart. The ponies within the cage screamed out in terror.
"Bagh! Haha! HAHAA!" An insane laugh rose up from the first cart, Nikolai turned his gun towards the noise, one of the with a spiked mane charged at him with a spear. Nikolai brought him down with 5 round burst of chaotic gunfire. Too caught up in the moment to count shots, Nikolai quickly grabbed a new magazine from a pouch, and slung the other out with a flick of the charging handle, he franticly locked it into place, and raised the gun up, just then, the remaining 2 ponies ran out from behind cover, likely trying to retreat from what was clearly a losing battle. One of them took potshots at Nikolai with a carbine, and another tossed something towards Nikolai with it's magic. Nikolai both of them down with 2 more well placed shots though his scope. He brought his gun up away from the cage corner and ran as a blast rocked the first cart.
Nikolai was breathing heavily, he hastily looked around to insure that there were no more hostiles before letting his rifle fall to chest. He made a circle around the wagons, insuring that there were no raiders remaining.
A great cheer rose up from a few of the ponies, this was silenced by cries of pain from a few others who had caught stray rounds.
"Oi blyat! That was a poor choice!" Nikolai chuckled nervously, then looked to the ponies in the carts.
"Alright, if I free you, do you promise not to attack me?" He put his hands on his belt. They all franticly nodded.
"Oh, yes, yes, please help us! Some of us are hurt real bad!" One of them cried, this one was a mare. Nikolai grimaced beneath his mask and went around to the back, the lock was a flimsy piece of rusted metal by his standards. He took his rifle, aimed right at the keyhole, and blew it apart. He was immediately faced with a pony that was white and possessed black stripes.
"A zebra?" He looked down at the creatures leg wound. "Yes! I am a zebra! Now quick, fetch us some healing potions before we bleed out!" Nikolai scratched his head, "Healing potions! No, do not be silly, this is not video game. " He unslung his rucksack and pulled a spare tourniquet from it.
"Give me your fore leg." Nikolai reached out, and placed the tourniquet onto the highest point of his leg, then tightened the thing down until the flow of blood was just a trickle. Nikolai threw him a pack of gauze. He saw that 3 other's had also sustained wounds, the others had huddled around the wounded, attempting to keep their spirits up.
"What do these healing potions look like!?" He shouted, he was met with a flurry of responses. None helpful, he turned back to the zebra.
"Purple liquid in glasses, you shall know it when you see it-" Nikolai began to rummage through the dead raiders, and found 2 of the vials. Which he gently handed to the wounded.
The Stalker watched in awe as they drank them down, and their wounds began to close up on their own. Flesh and fur reappearing as though it had never been lost in the first place. He didn't find any for the third though. He had to resort to tying a strip of leather around the back leg of a stallion that had caught a pistol round meant for him. A few bandages later and they were all stable and good to walk.
"I cannot thank you enough, stranger." The zebra said to him in earnest. Nikolai nodded.
"What is name?"
" Flashpoint. My name, is Flashpoint."