Chapter 5: Rain Slick
“Just give it a minute and we’ll be able to go out in the yard,” I said over my shoulder as I deactivated the turret array. I bent down and grabbed a toolbox filled with random bits and pieces. “Alight, ish ohay to come outshide now,” I said around the handle in my mouth. I heard Canter follow me with an awkward hop-step-step noise.
I dropped the toolbox on the dusty walkway just outside and went to move the raider corpses stinking up the yard. In a couple minutes I had pushed them into a pile on the neighboring lot. My task done, I walked back to Canter. She was rummaging through the toolbox halfheartedly while she waited. At my approach she turned to me with a look of uncertainty, “are you sure you can figure something out?”
“I’m going to try,” I responded, forcing my face to show a look of confidence. The gesture seemed to help; she smiled a bit and nodded. “Alright, let’s see what we’ve got here,” I began a I started pulling items out of the container, “duct tape, pliers, a hammer, screwdriver, scrap, wonder glue, leg brace. Looks like that’s about it.”
We stared at the array of components laid out on the ground in silence for a few minutes. “well, I guess I could start with this…” I began as I picked up the leg brace. “Then I could take this…” I continued as a plan began to form in my mind.
Soon I had a makeshift prosthetic made out of the brace and scrap metal, liberally covered in duct tape. I stepped back, not quite proud of my work but not displeased either. “Alright, let me help you put it on. Be careful when you’re trying it out though, I don’t know how sturdy it’s going to be.
She nodded and held out the stump of her left foreleg as I gently fitted the contraption on. Gingerly she put some weight on the limb, causing me to jump to her side as she wobbled. “I’m okay,” she said quietly, “I just need to get used to it.”
“Alright,” I returned and backed off, letting her take some clumsy steps around the yard. Canter started to move a little faster as she became used to the replacement strapped to her leg. She smiled and turned to me, opening her mouth to speak. All that came out was a surprised bleat as she tripped and landed on the device with a frightening snapping noise.
“Canter!? Are you alright?” I shouted as I ran to her. She coughed a couple times, and then rolled over, waving her foreleg at me.
“I think I broke it,” she stated sheepishly. The brace was snapped down the middle and the pieces of scrap were bent and twisted.
“Did it cut you? Are you hurt?” I continued, quickly looking over her body for signs of trauma.
“No, no, I’m fine. I’m just-I’m sorry about the brace.” She answered as she pushed the broken device off her leg.
“That’s alright, those types of braces are everywhere. I’m just glad you weren’t injured.” I paused to help Canter to her hooves then continued, “I think I’m going to have to find a better solution though. I don’t think a brace like that can stand up to extended use from the look of it. I could try to get the help of one of the settlement doctors-“
“No doctors,” Canter interrupted very firmly as something dark passed behind her eyes. “No doctors.”
I hesitated briefly, debating whether to inquire as to her reasoning then decided against it. I had no right to pry when she didn’t even know my real name. I’ve definitely told her my name, a voice in the back of my head stated, but it was gone as fast as it happened. I shrugged it off and told Canter the other option, “the old county hospital is a hoof-full of blocks from here. I might be able to find something there.”
She frowned, thinking for a minute, and then nodded. “Alright, I’ll go with you.”
“What? You’re in no state to walk around this yard, much less an ancient building filled with who knows what.” I tried to say it as kindly as I could but I could tell it came out a bit harsh.
“Please,” she pleaded, looking into my eyes. I could see she was scared of something, “don’t leave me.” Oh, that something.
I sighed, as much as I would prefer her to stay sequestered inside the safe house, I knew I wasn’t going to tell her no. “Alright, but let me get you a set of barding. I’m not letting you come along unarmored.”
She smiled again and agreed to the deal. Fifteen minutes later I had donned my armor and was helping her into a heavy suit of metal and leather that was a bit too big for her. She accepted the burden without complaint.
We must have been a strange sight as we set off towards the hospital, a three-legged white mare leaning on a skull masked black colt.
I began to notice signs of raider activity on our way, and a block before we reached the hospital I asked Canter if she wanted to head back. She shook her head and said “No, I’m staying with you.”
“Alright then, we’re going into that building over there,” I said as I turned us towards a small house facing the massive hospital complex. I had forgotten how big it was, according to an old billboard I had once passed a few times on the Luna Line it covered 10,000 square meters. It was also covered in graffiti, corpses, and other indicators of raider occupancy.
Canter gave me a questioning look so I motioned towards the rifle slung on my back. She gave me a look of confusion for a second before nodding in understanding.
I led her slowly into the building, attempting to be as quiet as possible. We reached a room in the top floor facing the hospital without incident. “Canter, please go sit in that corner by the window and listen for anypony coming up the stairs, all right?” She nodded, and turned to limp over. “hold up, take this,” I said as I moved over to her and drew my pistol. She hesitated briefly before taking the gun. “You know how to use it, right?”
“Yes,” she answered quietly as she sat down and laid the pistol in her lap.
I unslung my rifle and leaned it against the wall. I walked over to the room’s single piece of furniture, a small table, and pushed it over to the window so that its long side projected into the room’s center. I took my rifle and placed it on the surface, then sat on the floor at its end and sighted down the weapon’s scope.
I panned my sight across the building, studying the layout. Its center was around five stories tall, and two large wings coming out from it reached two stories. Most of the windows were shattered, and I could see traces of movement in some of them. I focused on the building’s main entrance, immediately noticing a group of five ponies in various positions watching the grounds from barricades in front of the hospital. If we had walked another 20 meters they would have spotted us immediately.
I pushed the gun’s stirrup and chambered a round and settled the gun sight on the closest raider. I took few deep breathes to calm my breathing and squeezed the trigger. Nothing happened. I hadn’t pulled the trigger. Something about the thought of killing another pony, even a raider, was throwing me off. It was strange; I had killed a horrifying amount of ponies in my life. My left foreleg was almost completely a mass of scars, a mark for each soul I had taken. Yet I wasn’t able to bring myself to end another life.
They’re in your way, a familiar voice whispered from deep inside me, kill them.
I nodded and fired the massive rifle, causing Canter to squeak at the sudden loud noise, but I didn’t notice. I was working.
The first raider dropped to the ground screaming in pain as my shot tore her foreleg off in a spray of blood. I quickly retargeted as the raiders began to panic at the sudden attack. The second and third raiders dropped with a thud as my rounds tore through their chests. I clipped the fourth in the leg just as he entered the hospital atrium, sending him howling and limping for reinforcements. I turned to look for the fifth. I noticed a pony shaped shadow cast by something hiding behind part of the barricade. I made a quick estimate of where the raider was and fired once again. The shot punched through the scrap metal construction and the pony’s neck.
I quickly popped out the rifle’s empty clip and inserted a fresh one, then racked the stirrup. Shouts of alarm were now joining the screams of the wounded mare crawling behind the raider barricades. I settled and waited for one of the mare’s companions to try and help her. Soon enough a dark green stallion peaked around the hospital’s entrance, trying to find me. I held my fire and was rewarded a short time later as he darted over to the mare and began helping her back towards the entrance. Through the clarity of my scope I could see he was trying to calm the mare down. I dropped him with a shot to the gut. The mare’s screams of pain were replaced by one of grief. I chambered another round and focused my sight on the mare. She was holding the stallion in her remaining arm and kissing him as hard as she could as his life faded.
Something inside me tried to fight its way to the surface but I pushed it down, I didn’t have time for whatever it was. I waited a while longer as the mare’s scream of grief turned into curses and accusations directed at her tormentor. She slowly grew quieter until she finally passed from blood loss.
No more raiders were leaving the shelter of the hospital so I packed up my rifle and brushed myself off. I turned to get Canter. Her eyes were wide, frightened, so I lifted my mask and smiled to reassure her. She slowly got to her hooves and limped over to me, but she seemed strangely tentative and nervous.
“All right, we’re moving up to the main entrance now,” I instructed as I led Canter down the stairs and out of the house, “try to stay low, I won’t be able to prop you up when we’re in there.”
“I…I think I’m going to wait for you out here,” she said quietly.
“Are you sure?” I asked, confused. She nodded in response. “Alright, well take the rest of the ammo for my pistol and try to stay hidden,” I directed as I pulled a hoof-full of clips from my saddlebag and placed them into her barding’s own bags. She nodded and stumbled over to a small alcove on the side of the hospital. Her eyes seemed focused on the dead raider couple lying on each other.
I walked over to the bodies and rolled them over, grabbing a sawed off shotgun and a bunch of shells from the colt’s saddlebags and a few frag grenades from the mare.
I checked the shotgun’s load to make sure it was full. The shotgun was a curious design, four short barrels with the T shaped grip of a pistol. It was going to have punishing recoil.
I stepped into the gloom of the hospital atrium and darted behind a reception desk as a hail of gunfire tore up the floor where I had entered. “Come on out fuck-face!” one of the raiders shouted gleefully. I briefly popped out of cover and fired towards the noise, getting a shout of pain in return. More gunfire spattered against my cover, making it shiver against my back. Most of it seemed to be coming from the hallway leading into the left wing of the hospital. I took one of the frag grenades and flung it towards the passage. “Oh shit! Grenade!” another raider shouted as the group scattered. I popped up again and fired the rest of the barrels, taking down three of the raiders running from the grenade. The last one dropped a smoking submachine gun and pulled out a hatchet as he charged me. I ducked his swing and head-butted the bottom of his jaw, feeling his teeth shatter on the hatchet’s handle even through my mask. He stumbled back into the reception desk, spitting out blood and teeth. I pulped his head against it before he regained his senses.
I took a couple breathes and looked around as I reloaded the shotgun. The right wing of the hospital was apparently blocked off; large sections of the floors above it had collapsed and clogged that passage. I turned and walked down the hallway leading left, passing the charred floor where my grenade had exploded. I hadn’t noticed it in the chaos. I paused briefly to grab a couple more grenades from one of the bloody corpses. I flitted down the hall, checking each room as I went for raiders and something Canter could use to move around.
I went on for a good hundred meters before a couple raiders tried to ambush me. As soon as I saw the faint glow of magic energy I ducked into the room to my right and slammed the door shut. The hall behind me exploded as the unicorn dumped half a dozen grenades into it. I waited silently for a minute for movement from my enemies. “Do you think you got him?” I heard a rough female voice ask. “I dunno, I ain’t seeing none of his body,” came a masculine response on the other side of the door. I reared up and bucked hard, splintering the door and sending the unicorn raider flying back. I was right behind him, putting a load of buckshot into the surprised mare before stomping on the unicorn’s neck. I quickly reloaded the shotgun and continued down the hall.
After another hundred meters I approached another atrium, this one appearing to be at the end of the left wing. I slipped into the shadows behind one of the columns encircling the open area and scanned the room. I could count at least five more raiders behind various pieces of cover, from overturned tables to an ancient plant urn. I started to pull out one of my grenades when one of the raiders spotted me, “He’s over there!” immediately gunfire started to chew up the column’s intricate stonework. I could hear a couple heavier weapons amongst them. I tossed the grenade out into the group of raiders and sprinted towards the next column in line. I almost tripped as something punched into my flank. Behind me the grenade’s explosion was accompanied by a pained howl. I slid in behind the column and waited as sustained gunfire continued to shatter the air. I heard a chorus of clicks as the raiders emptied their weapons in their fire-frenzy. “Shit, reload, reload!” one of them shouted frantically. I sprinted out from behind the column, tossing a grenade into a cluster of three raiders and pouring shotgun shells into the rest. I kept running, angling towards a heavyset unicorn hurriedly attempting to reload the pair of machineguns she was wearing as a saddle. She began to back up in a panic as I leaped at her. I hit the raider hard, knocking her to the ground with a yelp. I stomped the joint on her leg as she attempted to stand, releasing a sickening crunch and a scream of pain. “Pleasepleasepleaseplease…” she begged with tear filled eyes as I raised a hoof to bring down on her head. I cracked open her skull on the sixth strike.
I turned and surveyed the room as I swallowed a potion, checking to make sure I had finished off the raiders. Bodies were scattered about, limbless and cut up from my grenades, or torn up from buckshot. I reloaded the shotgun and turned to find a way to get to the second floor when I saw something glint next to a table in the corner of the room. I trotted over and found what I had been looking for. A skeleton lay curled up with its prosthetic leg still attached. The paint had worn off over the years, but it otherwise seemed intact. I picked it up and moved it a bit, it squeaked a little, but some grease would fix that easily enough. Satisfied that I had completed my job I placed the replacement appendage in my saddlebag and headed back to the hospital’s entrance.
“Canter, I found one!” I called out towards her hiding spot, motioning towards the leg currently poking out of my bag. I frowned a bit as she failed to emerge, but was quickly reassured when her quiet voice came from behind me.
“Thank you,” she said as I turned to face her. She wasn’t smiling but she didn’t look nervous anymore either.
“Want to try it on now?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Let’s head back to the safe house first,” she replied as she moved up and leaned into me. I nodded and began to lead her down the road towards safety.
As we left I noticed the bodies of the raider couple had been placed in a loving embrace.