Chapter 48: Just You, Me And The Dead
Feather watched with intrest as James pulled his head back in with a serious look on his face and the carriage shot forward, rapidly picking up speed.
"What's going on?"
"You remember that language I taught you?"
"Bale."
(Yes.)
"Manzelam dar aatash."
(My house is on fire.)
"Jedii!?"
(Really!?)
"Bale, aamaa iin chizi'e kei man nageraan niist."
(Yes, but that's not what I'm worried about.)
"Uh... why are you two speaking gibberish?" Dash asked quizzically.
"Sepass aankei dar aan'e?"
(Then what is it?)
"Garth." James said simply.
"Who's Garth?" Fluttershy asked.
"To fekr mekonei kei oo iin kar ra kard?"
(You think he did this?)
"Momken'e, vali ma bayad matma'an shaviid."
(Possibly, but we need to be sure.)
"To medaanei dokhtaraan momken'e dar piidar kardan dar moorad oo, dorost'e?"
(You know the girls might find out about him, right?)
"Gheraar bood diir yaa zood otefaagh me aaftad."
(It was going to happen sooner or later.)
"Ok, that's it! What the hay is going on!?" RD demanded angrily.
"Hopefully nothing." James said without emotion.
After a few more minutes, the carriage once again came to a stop, only this time, the door swung open, one of the carriage ponies breathing heavily and staring wide eyed.
"Sir, we're here, but we can't stay, there's a forest fire!"
James stood up, "A forest fire!?"
"Yes sir!"
James exited the carriage in a hurry and paid the stallion his due, "Here's your money, plus a little extra, take the two mares back to town where it's safe." The human turned back to the carriage door, "Feather, let's go!"
Feather Touch jumped out of the carriage and joined James as he ran towards the tree line. The buildings of the Fixers' HQ were untouched, however, deep in the forest, where Garth's hut was located, a column of under lit smoke was climbing into the dark sky.
"Hey Feather, these uniforms are made of wool, right?"
"Yeah, I thinks so, why?"
"'Cause wool is flame retardant." James stated, barreling into the under brush and stomping his way to the clearing.
"Aw fuck!" Feather swore before following after him.
Together they rushed to the site of the fire, flames springing around them as they drew near. They ducked low as the air began to fill with toxic smoke, choking their lungs and stinging their eyes. When they reached the spot, the hut was ablaze, and a burning tree had fallen across the middle. James scanned the burning clearing until he felt a tap on his arm. He looked down to see Feather pointing up into the forest canopy with a foreleg. James looked to his friend's direction. High up in a tree and tied tightly to a thick branch was Garth, cut up and burned.
Springing into action, James began to climb the tree. When he reached the branch Garth was affixed to, he balanced out on it, making his way to the ropes. Straddling the branch, James made a motion with his hands instructing Feather to get under Garth. The earth pony understood and positioned himself, ready to catch the large warrior. As the flames rose to the sky around them, James slipped his knife out from it's sheath and slashed the ropes, sending Garth tumbling down to the ground below.
Like a pro, Feather caught him on his back and took off back to the HQ. Instead of climbing down, James jumped from the branch, rolling as he hit the ground. As he completed his roll, James sprung to his feet and legged it for the tree line. Before he could reach it, a flaming branch dropped in his path, sending up a wall of flame. James buried his face in the crook of his elbow. And leaped through the inferno. With renewed motivation, he made it to the training grounds in record time. As he burst from the forest, greedily gulping down breaths of fresh air. He smelled burning hair and a painful sensation began to grow on his head. In a panic, he scooped up a double handful of dirt and furiously rubbed it on his head, smothering the embers that had caught in his hair.
In front of Feather and Myst's residence, the former barracks, Garth was laid out on his back, surrounded by three ponies, Feather, Fluttershy and Dash. James could see that Garth was still alive; un conscience, breathing shallowly and severely injured, but alive. He staggered over to the group, Dash looked up and saw his condition.
"JAMES! ARE YOU FRIGGIN' KIDDING ME!?"
"I know, I'm sorry, I should have told you about him earlier--"
Dash stomped wrathfully up to the human, "That's not what I'm mad about, YOU RAN INTO A FOREST FIRE! What if you got hurt, what if you didn't come back again, or even--"
James closed the gap and pulled her into a hug, "As long as I have you to return to, I'll always come back."
"You promise?" Came her muffled response as she buried her face into his shoulder, returning his hug and squeezing him tighter.
"I promise. Now tell me why you guys aren't in town getting help?"
"Oh. Sorry. Fluttershy saw you two go into the forest as we pulled away, I couldn't stop her."
"It's fine, we could actually use her medical expertise. Right now, I need you to fly into town and get some of the fire department over here to contain the fire, think you can do that for me?"
"You got it!" Dash gave him a short salute before kicking off her dress and taking to the air.
James walked over to where Garth was laying, Fluttershy had already produced bandages from somewhere and was treating his wounds. James studied Garth's body, taking in all the burns and lacerations that adorned it. The lacerations had been clearly made with some sort of edged weapon. On the Lotkin's brow, above his left eye, was a strangely shaped mark carved into his flesh.
"James, over here!"
James looked up and saw Feather standing at the door to the readyroom. On it was a long knife, impaling a note to the thick wooden door. James snatched it and opened it up. It simply read: 'Tag, you're it.' James crumpled it up and let it fall to the ground.
"What's it say?" Feather asked him.
James didn't answer and instead barged into the readyroom, storming over to his locker. He began stripping off his smoldering dress uniform and replacing it with a set of the dark green digitals. He then removed the bullets from his dress uniform's breast pocket ant deposited them in one of his pockets before pulling on his belt. Before he did, he removed the sword and replaced it with his knife. He checked to make sure the revolver was still snugly seated in the holster. Reaching back into his locker, he pulled out some grease paint in differently hued earth tones and began smearing it all over his face.
Feather walked over to him, "What are you doing?"
"Those fires couldn't have been started much more than an hour ago, who ever set them can't have gotten far."
"You're going after them? Now?"
"I'm not going after them, I'm hunting their sorry asses down." He replaced the tin of grease paint, wiping his hands off on a rag.
"Then I'm going with you."
"No. I need you to stay here. Get Garth and Fluttershy in here, don't let anyone inside until I get back except for the rest of the team and Twilight. They'll be sure to come here once they return from Canterlot."
"Fine, but as soon as they do, I'm coming in after you."
"If you can find me, you're welcome to join." James hefted his rifle and began threading on the suppressor.
Once that was done, he grabbed a few full mags from Sparks' workshop and his new pair of NVGs which the engineer had painstakingly reconstructed some weeks earlier. The last thing he put on was his boonie hat. Determined, James marched out of the building and to the tree line, inserting a mag into the mag well and racking the charging lever to chamber a round. Garth had become somewhat of a friend over the past month, and nobody fucked with James' friends without paying a steep price.
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For the next two hours, James tracked a group of hostiles through the dense forest. A broken twig here, a foot print there, he was also a bit saddened when he sometimes found hoof prints mixed in with the clawed foot prints. Every so often, he would stop, sit still and listen for any sounds that might not belong to the forest. Usually he would only hear the sounds of crickets and small animals foraging for food in the night. This time, however, he thought he heard a faint cough. James waited for another few minutes before he heard the sound of wood tumbling to the ground, like it had been dumped in a pile.
James homed in on the sound, silently creeping forward, rifle at the ready. As he drew closer, he could see flickers of orange light, a campfire. He could hear grumbles of a harsh language, hostiles. He closed in on a small clearing, dropping low to the ground and slowly low crawling in the dirt. James came up between two bushes and peered into the campsite. He counted seven hostiles. Five limas, two papas. One of the limas was sitting on a small log next to the fire, poking it with a stick. James raised his rifle to his shoulder and flipped the safety off, training the sight on the back of the lima's head. He pulled the trigger and with a muffled snap, his rifle discharged a slug of metal directly into the cranial vault, blood and brain matter spraying over the fire, making the logs hiss and steam, dropping the hostile like a sack of potatoes.
James waited, in case any of the others had been disturbed from their sleep. When nothing happened after a few minutes, James cautiously stood up. Weapon still at the ready, he entered the campsite and looked around. Still four more sleeping limas and two papas. One of the papas James recognized. It was a brown pegasus with a bright yellow streak running through his mane. Robotically, James safetied his weapon and drew his knife, then proceeding to silently slit the throats of every Lotkin warrior and the other pony. A couple of them woke up while he did it, including the pony, the last thing they saw, the cold blank eyes of a trained killer as he muffled their screams with one hand and used the other to draw his blade across their throats just below their voice boxes, cutting off the supply of air to their vocal cords and silencing them forever.
When he finished, James dragged the log from the fire and placed it in front of Lightning, who was still sleeping. With a thunk, he stabbed his knife into the log and sat down, picking up a stick, the one that had been used to stoke the fire, as he did. James began poking the stallion awake, speaking softly in an emotionless tone.
"Wakie wakie sunshine." He stuck the still glowing tip of the stick into the stallion's shoulder.
Lightning awoke with a start, "Ow! What the hay was that fo--" He stopped and looked up to see the human staring at him with soulless eyes. "You! What the hay are you doing here!?" He swiveled his head around the camp to his cohorts, "hey! Get up, he's here! Hey! WAKE UP!"
None of the bodies even twitched.
"Oh, I think you'll find us both quite secluded out here. Just you, me and the dead." James stated flatly.
"The...." Lightning sat up and looked around at the unmoving, prone forms surrounding them.
James unhosltered the revolver, causing the pegasus to go stiff with fright. James saw this and grinned devilishly.
"Don't worry," the human reassured, "it's not loaded. Yet." With a flick of the wrist, he opened the pistol's cylinder before pulling a large caliber round from his pocket.
"What are you gonna do?" Lightning asked him, the pony's voice quivering in fear.
James inserted the round into the cylinder and spun it, flipping it shut, "The two of us are going to have a little talk. Now, this particular weapon has about six chambers in which to load a bullet. I have just loaded one, which leaves five empty ones. This means that if I were to put the end of the barrel to your head and pull the trigger, you'd have about a sixteen point five percent chance of getting this bullet in your head. Not bad odds if you ask me. Of course, we don't know the position of the round in the cylinder. I might have to pull the trigger five times before your brains get blown out. Or just once."
To emphasize his point, James put the gun to Lightning's head and pulled the trigger.
*click*
"AHH, WHAT THE HAY!"
"Shit. You got lucky. Let's tweak that a little." James flipped the cylinder back open and inserted another round in a random spot, spun it and flipped it closed. "Alright, now you have about a thirty-three percent chance of buying the farm." He cocked the hammer.
"Wha-what do you want!?"
"I want to know, where the hell, Kraster is planning on landing." James said slowly and menacingly, "When would also be nice."
"I uh, I- I don't.."
James mimicked a buzzer sound with his mouth, "EEENNHHHH! Wrong answer." He put the gun back to Lightning's head and pulled the trigger again.
*click*
"AHHH!"
"Goddamn, Madam Fortune sure does love you for some reason, let's see if we can sway her." James loaded another round, spun it, flipped it closed. "Forty-nine point five percent. Boy, your chance of survival sure is shrinking fast." His voice still devoid of emotion.
"You're crazy!"
*click*
Lightning flinched and started whimpering.
"Holy shit, does some one love you!" James inserted another round, and closed the cylinder once more. "Your chance of taking a bullet to the brain just jumped to about sixty-six percent, that's majority. You know, I really don't think you'll survive this one." James said non-chalantly as be put the pistol back to the stallion's head and cocked the hammer. "Gee, I wish there was something you could tell me that would get my mind off of how badly I want to kill you."
"Ok ok ok! Please, just... put the gun down! I did hear Kraster talking about the invasion."
James un cocked his pistol and lowered it slightly, "Go on..."
"He was saying something about a river near Los Pegasus and doing something before winter hits again, but that's all I know, I swear! He never tells us anything, and when he does, it's to do stuff like like what we did to your house and that deserter"
"Now was that so hard?"
Lightning shook his head no.
"See, I'm not so bad. Now, I just have one more question, and this one should be especially easy for you to answer."
"I'll tell you anything!"
"What did I tell you back in the badlands?"
"D-Don't ever fuck with your friends or--"
*BLAM*
Lightning's head jerked back and his body toppled over backwards, dark crimson blood beginning to gather in a puddle.
"Yup."
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Back at the Fixers' HQ, the Ponyville Fire Department was wrapping up, having put out the forest fire already. Golden light began to grow in the east, heralding a new day. Fluttershy was passing out water to the tired Firefighters and treating those that had sustained burns. Applejack and Twilight had since returned and were currently holding back a very irate Rainbow Dash who was bucking flapping her wings in an attempt break their hold and fly into the forest.
"THAT SON OF A NAG, HE RAN OFF SOMEWHERE TO GET HURT AGAIN! WHEN I GET MY HOOVES ON HIM--"
Twilight was futily trying to calm her furious friend, "RD, I'm sure he's fine, he's trained to do what he does! I'll bet you that any minute now, he'll--"
"THERE HE IS!"
James came stumbling out of the charred tree trunks, covered in soot and visibly tired, the expression on his face blank and showing no sign coherence. With a mighty buck, Dash shoved off her friends and tore across the grass at the human in a fit of rage. James showed no sign of reacting until she had just about reached him when he ducked her tackle, allowing her to pass cleanly over him and through a stand of brittle burned saplings, the trunks snapping and collapsing in puffs of gray clouds as she bowled into them. She came to rest in a pile of ash, where she lay, dazed.
Twilight and Applejack galloped over to James, becoming a little unnerved at the gaze he was exhibiting. He was staring off into the distance, like he was intently focused on something and nothing at all at the same time.
"James, what happened!? James?" Twilight failed to attract his attention, "James? What's wrong with you, are you hurt?"
"Watch out sugarcube, comin' through!"
Applejack galloped up with a bucket of water gripped in her teeth and tossed the cool liquid the the unresponsive human. The water splashed onto his face, freeing him from whatever had a hold of his mind. James shook the water from his grime streaked face and looked around.
"Huh, what?"
Twilight tried to get his attention again, "James, I was asking you what happened."
"Huh? Twilight? Oh, yeah. Don't worry I'm fine, everything's fine."
Dash had recovered by now and trotted over, covered in a coating of black and gray ash, "What the hay did you think you were doing!"
James turned around and saw the look of anger on her face, "Oh shit."
She flew up and smacked him upside the head with her hoof causing him to wince in pain. Then she pulled him into a tight hug.
"You promised!"
"Yeah, I did and I came back again, right?"
"If you say so..."
Dash refused to break the hug, so James looked over her shoulder to the purple unicorn still standing before him, "Twilight, I need to write a letter."