Chapter 35: Hypersomnia
Thump, thump, thump, thump...
The faint sound of boots and hooves making their way over arid topsoil and gravel were canceled out by the faint noise emanating from Nikolai's radio.
"Have you ever been anyplace humid? Either of you?" Two equine heads shook in a resounding 'no'. The Equestrian Wasteland was devoid of anything of the sort. The one atmospheric constant across the whole of the continent was an ever present dryness.
With the exception of a few small locations and the Everfree forest, it was always the same, the only thing that ever wavered was the temperature. But even that wasn't much of an issue during most of the year. The perpetually overcast sky made sure of that. Ahead, a vast row of slender objects paved the horizon. Thousands and thousands of blackened trees, burned and cauterized by the massive forest fires that had raged in the days and weeks following the day the bombs had fallen.
It was an imposing sight, especially through the pale optics of The Stalkers night vision device. Nikolai raised his head set and checked his watch under a shielded flashlight.
"We have about six hours until daybreak. We can keep walking until we intersect road. Ok?" Willow and Flashpoint returned his question with a pair of obvious nods cast in his direction. Nikolai glanced at his watch one more time, then set his hands in his pockets and began whistling a muffled tune beneath his mask.
Hours passed, and then hours more. The vast expanse of blacken trunks came closer and closer until, at last, at last, the trio immersed themselves wholly in the mass of ominous charcoal. Most of the fallen logs had their tops pointed distinctly north, away from Cantertlot. That spoke for itself.
He could vaguely picture the sheer terror that would have come with it. It was like those videos of Mount Saint Helens over in America exploding, or the great Australian wildfires. The green flashes, the heat and thermal radiation-gamma rays or what constituted it in a magical sense. Then, the gust of searing hot wind, traveling at hundreds of kilometers per hour, gale force winds ripping up everything that wasn't already fused to the ground. Then, the massive wall of flames that had whisked in and out of his dreams all this time. It was one thing to learn about this stuff from a book, a classroom lecture, or a video online.
It was another thing entirely to experience it. Or to travel through the area after the fact. Even in the Zone, green was everywhere. Here, the only green present was the occasional sparks of balefire which flickered inside of the odd twisted and blackened trunk. Off on the horizon, thunder boomed. And a sudden flash of dry lightening lit up the whole world. A cold wind and a gradual whitening of the sky from almost black to a sort of silvery grey signaled the coming of the dawn. Nikolai's trigger finger danced across the cold surface of his rifles receiver, and he had to make a conscious thought to not continue toying with the safety.
More thunder boomed. He was uneasy. Another bolt of lightening and a wind which made Willow's cloak and his the loose folds of his own jacket ruffle and dance came after. He itched his neck through his hood and maneuvered around a patch of granite boulders as the first few water droplets from the incoming storm laid themselves to rest on his worn greenish coat. The speakers of his radio rang with sudden loudness. It was picking up bits of interference from the storm.
We need to find a road." Nikolai ordered his companions. "Unless you two would rather we walk through mud all the way to next town. Both of you might be able to attest to importance of this thing called dry ground." The sky began to cry in the wake of his words. The air turned misty as they picked up their pace northeastwards, and the stench of burnt wood and coarse dirt with a faint bit of copper from the little pockets of leftover balefire magic.
Kilometers, away another bolt of lighting struck the ground-Some ancient skyscraper. Then the world went black again, and thunder boomed soon after. Nikolai's boots began to make drawn out prints in the dirt. The faint sound of a pair of gunshots off to the south were hardly and cause for concern. More lightning arced across the sky, and Willow made out the snaking path of an old gravel road leading east to west. Fallen and standing alike, they were beginning to find more and more upright snags, most of them on the north sides of hills. Nikolai and his compatriots passed an old campsite, nothing of use to be found-of course. Everything was either burnt or melted to some degree or another.
In the ten minutes it took the trio to reach the top of the next hill and find the gravel road Willow had seen, it was very nearly pouring. He could smell his breath when he exhaled against his masks filter. He hadn't eaten since the day prior, and it was beginning to show. Nikolai could feel the black rings beginning to form under his eyes. The Stalker hurried up a few paces, and his friends followed suit.
"Something bothering you?" Willow inquired.
"No-no!" Nikolai replied, angling his head downwards to meet the thestral face to face.
"I am daydreaming-Is really no big dead-deal!" His vocal cords lurched. He had spent so much time in his head that he had very nearly forgotten how to carry on a normal conversation.
"Working so hard like a soldier-Can't afford a thing on tv...Good God-We gonna rock down to electric avenue..." Nikolai's eyes shot wide open.
"Blin-Nevermind! You enjoy the 80's music and no talk anymore, yes?" More thunder boomed in the distance, Nikolai passed a collection of boulders, one littered with the bones of some kind of snake. The ground ahead of them turned to a slight incline, The Stalker marched his friends up to the embankment just below the summit, and took an eastward right. By now the thunderstorm had darkened the sky to the point of it's pre dawn state-Nikolai redonned his night vision, frowning slightly as the little droplets of rain blurred out portions of the bug eyed optics. Another bolt of white lightning struck the ground nearer to the mountains, and Willow ceased hovering-He didn't want his friends to see him charred by a flash of skyborne energy any more than he wanted to experience it himself, and his swaying tail signaled his discomfort with traveling in a storm. Not to even mention the worry in the back of his head that had to do with his consistent thinking about his next meal. Not too big of an issue for Nikolai or even Flashpoint, but Willow was a unique case.
He didn't have the luxury of eating preserved meals. The only things he could consume for genuine nutrition needed to be walking about and unirradiated.
"Cheer up friends!" Nikolai exclaimed, staring down at his PDA midstep, "We will be in sight of a cluster of solid structures within hour, is good thing-Yes? Only couple kilometer... Maybe less-Until we are out of rain!" He ran a gloved finger across the screen of his PDA.
"Flashpoint!" He barked, "Check PipBuck. As soon as we get indoors and warm-first we sleep, then we work out little complexities of that... Thing."
Nikolai kicked a rock underfoot, the dirt speckled gravel had turned to a gray and brown slurry by now- A slurry that Nikolai's pant legs were coated in up to almost knee level, he slid his mask up over his nose to take a short swig of water from a canteen, the water inside had made it's way here all the way from Canterlot, but it still tasted new. Those water talismans were really something. If it was going to just be him and two small equines against the whole world, then at least he'd have some magic to level the odds. If he could find his own water talisman, then he'd loose his dependence on external, potentially contaminated sources. Not to mention it would be exponentially more convenient. This left him wondering if there was some sort of magic device which could create food in an instant-The thought of infinite borscht left him shouting obscenities at himself.
The storm kept up through their whole trek-And they were all thoroughly drenched by the time they reached the outskirts of the next town. There was no sign to be found-given that they were on an informal gravel road. And frankly, Nikolai didn't care. He just wanted someplace to get out of the rain. He had walked through more than his fair share of thunderstorms before. And he had quietly grown to resent them more and more and more. The sparse bit of music from earlier had cut out, leaving only bits of occasional static. The Stalker had supposed that Flashpoint's PipBuck had access to FM radio, but not the station he was looking for. Zone FM was one of a kind, it seemed. It was confined to his radio and his radio only it was his only tie back to earth, and he wasn't going to dare to attempt to disassemble it.
This town-whatever it used to be called, marked the rough halfway point between the proper start of the Canterhorn mountain range and Cottage. Nikolai was confident that if they could rest here they could make it to the mountains by weeks end. From there, it would be a winding road through a dozen different cliffside highways and carved tunnels to the far side-From there he didn't know how long it would take him to reach the coast. They passed an old used car lot, and Willow's shining yellow eyes glinted off the last bits of paint on the hoods and bumpers.
It was standard practice by now that Nikolai would seek shelter in the first building he saw, not only would it get him out of the elements, but it would also hide him from any prying eyes if done with either stealth or rapidity depending on the situation. In this case, neither really held true. Unless, of course, someone or something out there had a thermal sight- Or the Enclave was out looking for him again. Unlikely, given they didn't know the slightest about him.
Nikolai knew people and ponies included could hold grudges for a very long time. He wasn't above it himself, but just like an idiot getting onto the wrong side of Duty or the Ukrainian Army back in The Zone, it was something he would rather avoid from here on out. Even with his brand new Energy Rifle and night vision, which when combined with Willow's incredibly attuned senses and Flashpoint's PipBuck put him on equal level with the Enclave-At least as far as the ability to see one another in the dark went, which meant that he could now move at night to his hearts content.
Nikolai crept up to the exterior wall just beyond the doorway, and gave the rusted handle a little tap with the tip of his rifle's suppressor. He wasn't met with any noise but another crash of thunder and lightning. He walked up to the door and gave the handle a firm tug. He was met with the crackle of iron oxide against a corroded lock. A more naïve person would have considered a lock pick. But Nikolai simply took his crowbar and knocked it right out of place, sending it tumbling to the floor on the opposite end.
"Nikolai, I'm hesitant to ask, but have you ever actually picked a lock before?" The Stalker nodded quietly, and threw the door open with a whining creak from the corroded hinges.
"Yes-A few times. You do not grow up where I do without learning trick or two-for fun, of course. Not survival, just for joyride in teachers car." The Stalker hawked up a laugh and paced inside, parting for a brief moment to allow Willow and Flashpoint to pass him by, they made their way into the lobby and past a a little office- the place where they finally stopped to rest. Nikolai cleared out an ancient skeleton and tipped aside the set of cubicles to make an impromptu bed frame. He removed his mask and the hood of his coat, followed immediately after by his rucksack and vest. Both of which he set off to the side to dry along with his jacket. Nikolai reclined back against the wall and wiped the sweat and muck off of his forehead as he neatly and gently set his night vision device back into it's padded pouch.
"Alright..." Nikolai groaned. "Let us see what remains of rations-If we have too little-Willow, I task you with discerning something edible." He took a swig from a bottle of Vodka. "Calories are calories, irregardless of where they come from. Not quite homemade pickles or bread loaves with potato salad-But it will have to do."
"I think I saw a vending machine in the hallway, wanna go check with me?" Willow questioned Nikolai. The Stalker groaned and pulled himself up to his feet and rubbed his roughly shaven face.
"Sure, I could go for bag of ancient potato chips." He picked up his AK 101 and sauntered out into the hallway, leaving Flashpoint alone in the dark room with the creaking ceiling, mildew stench, and the rattling of the storm against the shattered window frame. He removed his helmet and peered into the faintly glowing screen of his PipBuck.
"Ohoho!" Nikolai clasped his hands together with gusto as he laid his eyes came to rest on the sight of the old vending machine, only for that same enthusiasm to be replaced with an arched eyebrow and an disappointed:
"...What the hell is that?" What sat before him was the oddest collection of, 'healthy' snacks he had ever seen.
"Fried carrot chips... Ok." He shrugged-and, not wanting to pay a thing to the damned ancient machine, simply broke the glass with the butt of his rifle, dusting the glass off right after. Nikolai fished around inside, until his hand came to rest on a bag of pretzels. He snapped it open and bit into one. It was stale-to be sure, but it was edible. He had soon finished the entire bag, and returned with an armful filled with about a half dozen appetizing looking bags for his ravenous zebra companion.
The two devoured their ancient stale meals with delight. Willow didn't eat a thing though, he claimed he wasn't hungry. As much of a lie as he knew that to be. The thestral simply gave his friends a smile, took his hood off, and curled up in the darkest corner of the room. Even he was tired after the past day and a half of hard marching and evading. That was the best description he could come up with. Though personally, he thought that marching was too proper of a term to define it. The sharp-nearly glow-like glimmer in his eyes was gone in a moment as he drifted off to sleep to dream about... Whatever it was bat ponies dream about.
"Blood lakes, perhaps?" Nikolai mused. He was far to 'out of it' himself to ask any more questions, his mind and consciousness was away in an instant.
His own dreams were simply a blur. No longer was there any sort of clear, nigh prophetic structure to them. All that was left was a series of repeating, flashing glances of the past couple of weeks. Little bits of regrets and guilt- Worries, fun- Mistakes. He wondered about the zebras, all hidden away under that mansion. The strange ghoulish doctor that had woken up back at the chemical laboratory. He had nearly forgotten Potato Sack's family! Amber Reins was a strange sight he was sure would never leave his mind- Nor Flashpoint's either.
And most strangely of all, he thought about The Unity-That Goddess thing. All cooped up, seething with sentience in that swirling vat of death. What was it's life like? This naturally led him to wondering about the nature of this world before their massive nuclear-No, not nuclear, balefire holocausts.
Most intriguing of all was his thoughts about the Enclave. That group of power armor clad ponies who behaved with impressive coordination and discipline who had descended from the skies only to stumble upon him twice by now. If the stories he had heard of magical and industrious cities in the sky were true-Those small groups of what were either scouts or hit squads may very well only be the tip of a potentially very large spear. The best Nikolai knew he could do was stay off of their radar. Something he had to admit-was not very good at. More thunder boomed outside, and the image in his head turned to a thunderstorm in spring. He was standing in one of the potato fields just outside his grandmother's village. The crack of an old rifle he hadn't heard in ages punctuated the thunder and rolling winds.
"Пишайся хлопчик! Make me proud boy!" His grandfathers voice shouted. Nikolai sat up in his makeshift cot. He looked around, and his eyes met the glow of Flashpoint's PipBuck.
"Willow's already awake. This thing says that you have asleep for 9 hours." His friend gestured to the digital time display on his screen. Nikolai extended both of his arms out to full wingspan and stretched back and forth for a few moments before standing up with a sore grunt.
"Oh... Pain hitting now, pain hitting now-" He fumbled around in his rucksack for a drink of water and some ibuprofen to go along with it.
"No more pain." He breathed a rushed sigh of relief. Willow poked his head in through the door and got a good look at Nikolai.
"Let me guess? You're hung over? You had at least a third of that bottle last night-not to mention everything on the walk over those hills. You've gotta be miserable Nikolai." The Stalker coughed down a heckled laugh.
"Me? Hung over? Do you recall supermarket? Or were you too busy become 'buddy old pal' with Flashpoint to notice?" Nikolai's English had just taken a strange and sudden dive off the deep end of a metaphorical pool- He noticed darkness beginning to creep up around the corners of his eyes, and in an instant, he was lying flat on his back- Asleep again.
"Oh blyat!" Nikolai rolled up and out of his cot again. This time to the giggles and hushed entertainment of his companions. He wasn't the type to disparage something like that-So he laughed along with them until they were looking at him strangely. The rain had stopped by now, and the thunderclouds had been replaced with the the monotonous grey wall as before. Uniform clouds upon uniform clouds. Regardless of their original intention, they were nigh creepy to stare at for long periods of time. Nikolai pried debris away from the window and looked out at the abandoned town.
"Let us get going. Come on-" He checked his watch, and rubbed his brow.
"I slept through whole day!?" Flashpoint and Willow turned to one another, and then back to Nikolai. Flashpoint held his PipBuck up to his face and stared into the screen, and then back at Nikolai. "We took turns scouting out the rest of the town while you were out- There were a few ghouls and radroaches here and there, but nothing too serious." Willow butted in for a moment.
"I looted the local gas station. We've got more snacks-but nothing too solid. The 'farmers market' was a mess." Nikolai rubbed his neck, it ached. "You passed out from fatigue, I've seen it happen to ponies all the time." The thestral admitted. "Though I don't know why it happened to you-and at this time." Nikolai breathed out a heavy sigh.
"Ah, no worry! Am fine now!" He boasted, pounded his chest as he did. Willow smiled politely and took a seat across from Nikolai. "I don't even believe it was radiation-I have never smelled a location that was quite that bad."
"I have." Flashpoint chimed in, his voice bordering on regret. "That wasn't all that bad compared to having to share a cage or...or a pen with three other stinking equines."
Nikolai busted out in another laugh, moving momentarily to clench his gut. "I can make assumption-But I also happen to know that horse crap does not smell half as bad as human crap. I save story for later- After all, I am certain that you would want to hear about my trip to bathroom in Bulgarian subway, yes?" Nikolai sat up again and scrambled for his canteen. He snatched up his belt and upholstered his Makarov out of habit, fiddling with the hammer for a few moments before running the belt through the loops on his pant legs. He wish he had had the time to wash his clothes back in Canterlot, but wasn't the kind to mind. He changed into one of his spare shirts, then donned his jacket and ballistic vest, followed then after by his boots. He buckled his rucksack to his back and stood upright, slinging his AK over his shoulder by it's sling as he did.
"Oh! By the way! Nikolai-" The Stalker ignored Flashpoint's attempt to rekindle the conversation and walked out the door without saying anything. In spite of having just slept a near consecutive 20 hours, he felt fine- More than fine, in fact. Aside from being a bit hungry and thirsty, he felt fantastic. The Stalker pulled his mask up and over his shaggy head and rough shaven face, exhaling lightly once it was secured in place to make sure the seal was perfect.
It was a compulsive habit left over from his time in The Exclusion Zone, the air outside was perfectly safe to breathe. But it just felt more... Normal. Filtered air was still filtered air, it wasn't paranoia, it was logic. And it was as much a part of The Stalker as any other piece of his equipment. Nikolai checked his PDA once more before they opened the front door and left their temporary residence.
The town square and main street was as creepy as ever. Rusting windchimes and rattled eerily in the distance along with radio antennas and bits of windswept fabric from umbrella's and banners. It wasn't quiet, far from it. It was simply empty.
"Nikolai, by the way-" The Stalker's head snapped to meet Willow's eyes. "Yes what is it?" His boots crumbled a piece of sheet metal underfoot. The feeling was somewhat pleasant-like popping bubble wrap.
"We found some bit's and pieces of equipment set up around an old communication dish about a 10 minute walk just out of town." Willow told him, "I figured you'd want to know about it before we went and looted it for ourselves. Some of the boxes have Enclave insignia on them-And it looks old."
"Alright-Next question." Nikolai held up his left index finger. "Have you gone through local liquor store yet? Because if you have not then I insist that we stop there first."
"Hammer in a nail... Stackin' them bales..."
Nikolai pried the lock off the local liquor store, and made a beeline for a shelf of 100 proof vodka, his eyes laid their amused and fevering gaze on the collection of bottles like they were the most valuable thing in the world. He tool two of the nicest looking bottles, stuffed them into the padded case towards the center of his rucksack that he had built specifically for this purpose, and geotagged the store's location with his PDA. As the device once more opened up to its orangish display, it began to sink into Nikolai just how far he had traveled in the past few weeks. He might as well have walked from Paris, through the French countryside, up and over the Alps, and clear into Italy with the distance he had gone. Farther that he had ever gone in his life. Had he have been any less fit his legs might as well have just turned to jelly. If not from bullets, then from the sheer physical exertion that came with trekking upwards of 10 to 20 kilometers per day. It reminded him from an old quote from an American movie, though he couldn't quite remember it's point of origin:
"After the first thousand miles a man gets limber on his feet."
Now, while Nikolai might have remembered the quote, he didn't quite think he had 'met it's mark' just yet. As his legs were still sore almost every time he stood up from a makeshift campsite to begin a new day.
The device in question that Willow had seen and the accompanying pieces of Enclave property were blatantly out in the open. It's as if whomever had abandoned it there had decided to do so in the most obvious fashion possible.
"It could be trap... I do not know know about this. It is on top of hill, in open. Perfect place to get shot in head." It was on the outskirts of town. Just beyond a small series of defoliated orchards and farmland. Nikolai examined the peek of the hill though his rifle scope, it's red chevron marking off various ranges all the way out to several hundred. There were no obvious sniper nests or trip wires to be seen. The clouds were as ordinary and uniform as always. The ground leading up to the post was hard- too hard for any planting of mines to have been done recently. The farmhouse nearby had been cauterized and charred fairly recently-given that Flashpoint claimed he could still smell the charcoal scent on the burnt wood.
"How recent?" Nikolai walked up behind his companion and took a knee beside him. "I don't know." Flashpoint replied, turning to Willow, who shook his head. "It could be a day old or it could be a year old. Like Flashpoint said, we don't know." He set his hands on his belt and looked away for a moment, then back up at the hill top and the radio dish up at the top.
"Ohoho..." He wagged his finger and tamped his left boot against the dirt. Then he looked back over at his friends and asked the obvious question, "How did you get up there first time around?"
"Well..." Willow's right ear twitched and folded backwards in the typical way of an equine. "I flew up there. Right up and right back down once I saw what it was." Nikolai shrugged and exhaled softly against his masks' lenses.
"Ok. No worry, we just... Go up side of hill- Run, run up side of hill." He changed his mind, "Perhaps we can race? I would say steaks-stakes!" He corrected himself. "Are fairly high. Prize is on top of hill, provided original owner not show up. Sound good? Willow? Flashpoint? This not race against each other-This is race against death-Yes?" Nikolai took the safety off his rifle.
"Race against death-But try to make it fun! Ready? Go!" He tapped Flashpoint on the shoulder and began to sprint up the hill as fast as his two legs could carry him, an instant later he heard the clamor of hooves against dirt and the pitter-patter of a pair of leathery wings, he ducked past a dead bush and jumped into a gully- narrowly avoiding slipping on a patch of slippery dead moss in the process. Nikolai didn't exactly know why he was risking his health like this when he wasn't presently getting shot at. He supposed that he just wanted to have a bit of fun. Off to his left, he heard a brisk 'whoosh' as Willow shot past him. Nikolai scrambled back up to his feet and speed hiked his way to the peek.
The scattered dead trees broke out into a flat hilltop with scattered boulders here and there. Far beyond it to the northeast lay the edge of the Canterhorn Range, and beyond it a clear shot via a series of expressways to the coastline. Willow was waiting for him at the top, and he almost ran straight into Flashpoint as the two made it to the summit at the same time. Nikolai laughed, and Flashpoint laughed back. Nikolai turned around and scanned the boxes and dish array. He glanced up at the clouds one more time, then got to work examining the containers and devices which had been left behind.
"This stuff looks old-There are bits of rust beginning to form on some of these containers, but nothing on the dish." Nikolai walked up to it and examined it. An expanding stand, sturdy and elegant design, and modern looking feed horn.
"I don't know how to work this. He traced the receiving cable to something that resembled a lockbox- or better yet, a laptop. Nikolai jogged up to it and pried the thing open, revealing a screen akin to a 90's TV display. It didn't activate upon opening. But the little tingling of electrical current along the exposed wires in it's underside made him presume that it was still powered and intact enough to manifest a display on it's screen. It's inner workings were a mystery to him-Not to mention that he had never seen a design quite like this.
Well... Not in the Equestrian Wasteland anyhow. Laptops were commonplace back on Earth. Even in the Exclusion Zone.
"I cannot afford to take this thing with me- We are going to be here for a while. Flashpoint!" He unslung his rucksack and passed the scrappy zebra his crowbar.
"Get those containers open. Willow! Do you know how to use this thing?" The thestral shook his head.
"You've got this picture in your head of me being some kind of spell matrix-tech wizard, Nikolai. I'm not. But... I do know how to-" Nikolai held down a large button with the painting of a power plug emblazoned atop it, and the device whined online with a blue glow. Nikolai's curious gaze turned itself upwards in a big grin-and turned into a frown just as fast when he saw that a password was required. And he couldn't just bash his way into it this time either- He needed to think- or take it with him. And he truly didn't believe that it was worth the kilograms.
"We cannot take with us. Caps to weight ratio not worth it. Flashpoint! Willow! Any potential password suggestions?"
"Try: Enclave." Willow suggested. "Or pegasus! Or..."
"Magic pseudo shadow government? Melt you from sky and laugh-Use mutant as target practice- Too serious about jokes over secure communications?" Nikolai was beginning to rant. Evidently The Stalker still had quite a bone to pick with those flying power armor clad equines.
"Feather?" Flashpoint asked.
"Preening! Try preening!" Willow added quickly. Nikolai's gloved fingers pounded away at the keyboard, and the device logged into the account, displaying a pale Enclave logo and a set of file folders. The only colors present on the screen were blue, black, and white. Not much room for artistic creativity when your primary goal is military practicality. Nikolai fiddled around with the clunky equine attuned computer mouse and managed to open one of the folders.
"Atmospheric tests." Was the label displayed at the top of the screen, alongside a half dozen datasheets Nikolai couldn't understand. He tabbed out and opened the next folder. This one was encrypted. He let it be for the time, and tried the others. While he hacked and keyboard pounded his way through the devices digital realm, his compatriots methodically combed over the contents of the containers which were the easiest to open. Within they found energy cells, spare parts, some varied medical items, and a portable spell matrix powered respirator that fit perfectly over Willow's muzzle. No weapons or power armor unfortunately, but that was to be expected.
"Hey-Nikolai! What's that over there?"
The Stalker glanced up from the screen and noticed a flash of prismatic light in the gulch on the opposite side of the hill. Nikolai furrowed his brow and walked away from the device long enough to peer off into the edge of the ravine. It wasn't too deep, about two household stories. Was was particularly interesting was the plane which had crashed within it and split apart in the process.
"Willow! You had whole day in my unconscious absence to explore, why did you not mention that to me?" He facepalmed. "Ok, Willow-Guard this thing. Flashpoint you get to come with me. This thing needs to be investigated."
"What am I supposed to do in the meantime-" Nikolai patted both shins in quick succession. "Never mind-You are coming with me, Flashpoint-You get to stay behind. I would rather take both of you, if it is any consolation." The Stalker walked off and waved the bat pony down the eastward side of the hill with him. With his two compatriots temporarily gone, Willow decided to have a look at the computer for himself. With some trial and error, he too was able to figure out how to use it. He moved the cursor to the file Nikolai had skipped over, he struck the 'enter' key a few times.
"Password incorrect. Password incorrect." He was beginning to grow frustrated with it. So he stuck the enter key a few more times.
"Password incorrect: You are you attempting to access a restricted file: Enter valid identification or device shutdown will occur." The words spelled themselves out on the bottom of the screen in dramatic fashion.
"1.2.3.4." The file opened. All those years in captivity hadn't made Flashpoint the best reader. He could barely read street signs. Let alone paragraphs or entire books. In spite of his typically calm and measured manner of speech, he would likely fail a grade school level vocabulary exam. But what he could garner from from this was almost enough to make his stomach turn. The file detailed an examination of the wreckage of the plane about a half kilometer down the hill. And needless to say it swiftly became clear to him why the Enclave research outpost had been situated so far away from it.
Nikolai and Willow made their way down the rocky side of the hillside, forcing Nikolai to crouch lower and lower to the ground as the ground beneath his boots grew ever so gradually steeper, eventually forcing him into a partial glissade towards the bottom. He rose up to full height and looked across the ravine at the plane wreck.
"What's making it glow like that?" Willow asked him. "Nikolai furrowed his brow. "I think it might be Taint. What do you think it is?"
"I agree. It's probably Taint." Willow hovered over to the edge of the ravine and looked down into it, the aircraft had split in two upon crash landing, and the forward half of it was lodged in the bottom of the gulch.
"Willow-Think you can fly down there?" The thestral's slip pupils went from Nikolai, to the plane cockpit, and then back again. In the meanwhile Nikolai contemplated his potential side of the task-crossing the ravine. He remembered his rappelling gear stuffed away in his rucksack and realized that descending into the gulch was something he was much better suited to at the moment.
"Nevermind-nevermind. Willow, fly on across to aft section." Nikolai ran some paracord and carabiners around a well planted boulder and cruised to the bottom in just 15 seconds of clumsy mountaineering skills. As soon as his boots touched the ground his Geiger counter began to emit a droning noise-a telltale sign of ambient Balefire radiation. Not a great oddity to him- But what drew him in was the soft whine of his Anomaly detector. He advanced across the murky and dwindling creek, speckled with bits of multi colored liquid that warmed the air around itself- He activated his rifle light and shined it through the cracked and shattered bits of the cockpits windshield. A dark shape lay slumped over the controls, Nikolai crawled up onto the torn nose of the craft and peered inside. He flinched and changed his posture once he felt the aluminum shell buckle and give way under his weight. He moved around towards the copilot side door, reached up, and gave it a hard twist and a tug.
Rust and corrosion fell away from the door and it swung open. Almost instantly a shallow growl rose up from somewhere within the craft. A ghoul with vibrant red and purple eyes pulled itself up towards The Stalker's shadow. Needless to say it didn't make it half the distance. It's torn guard uniform signaled something of potential importance deeper within the wreck. Nikolai crawled inside.
His radio crackled to life, it was Flashpoint.
"Nikolai! Can you hear me?" The Stalker tapped the transmit button on his radio and leaned into the microphone. "Yes, I can. What is it?"
"That plane was transporting Taint. And-"
"Hey Nikolai!" Willow's cried from far above. "Find anything yet?" His friend's voice asked impatiently. The Stalker backed up out of the door, dodging a corpse and black blood stains in the process.
"Two-three bodies now, and a lot of blood!"
"And something else! But the rest of the file is re-da-redacted!" He enunciated the final portion of his sentence. It was only after Nikolai had fully emerged from within the fuselage in the craft that he began to realize the glowing red mist that had begun to rise off the gulch floor. It was hardly even past his bootline, but it felt warm against his pant legs. The mist floated up towards the plane's fuselage, and the corpse of the pilot began to stir.
"Grugh?" A crackling, bent-out-of-shape voice asked.
"Yes?" Nikolai inquired, backing up away from the wreckage.
"Hugh-Ow..." The voice was obviously male, but it was so...Distorted to the point that even that wasn't immediately clear.
"Yes?" Nikolai repeated. He slowly backed up away from the plane and began to scale the rock wall back up the surface when he saw something within the craft move-Just before he heard a terrified shriek, and whimpering moments after that faded out of earshot as he came up over the top of the cliff. By then his arms were sore and he didn't particularly feel like climbing back down, he unlooped his paracord from the boulder and looped and coiled it back into his pack.
"Willow! Find anything on your side?" The Stalker called out, squinting to get a better look as his friend.
"Scattered barrels of Taint! And... Nikolai, this thing's been leaking fuel for a long time! I don't really wanna hang around here for too much longer." Nikolai tapped his radio;
"Flashpoint, are there any bridges I can use to cross gap nearby?"
"Yes there is Nikolai, about... I'm not a good judge of distance, but it's north." And thus, Nikolai went northwards. A five minute walk was all that was needed to make it to the eastern side of the gulch. He broke into a light, paced jog and finally came upon the wreckage.
"I'd go look inside, but... Eh... You've got the full face mask-You go look in there." Nikolai nodded slowly and ruffled his hood.
"Not big fan of Taint, yes? Do me favor and go look in gulch-I think there is ghoul who I woke up by accident. Non feral kind of ghoul, будь ласка please. Do it quick. I have seen flamethrower before, jet fuel no different. Sticks like grape jelly... Eh-Not quite as tasty though-Spicy maybe?" He laughed to himself and walked over to the sheered off section of the craft.
"Nikolai, one more thing..." Nikolai realized that Flashpoint had stopped himself by a winged skeleton wearing the remains of a tattered hazmat suit. Neither said a word about it.
"You're gonna need to go deeper." A yellow barrel in near pristine shape aside from the tear in it's side leaked a steady stream of rainbowish liquid down the floor of the craft and over the edge of the cliff in a tiny mutagenic waterfall that had burned little holes into the framework and floor. A delightful little canal of death that Nikolai had no problem avoiding as he boarded the wreck and began to look around inside. He had been inside of helicopter wrecks before in his life, as well as plenty of airplanes-Mostly flying around Europe on odd jobs for a variety of different employers. Not to mention the short time he spent visiting America. He broke open a a lockbox and found three AR pattern automatic carbines and a bandolier of ammunition to go along with each of them. He only saw one thing wrong, though there were four whole loaded magazines for each weapon-They were all twenty rounders. He damned the 'paratrooper' design and its painful wire stocks before casually taking two of the bandoliers for himself. He didn't figure that either of his friends would want a rifle-He turned his eyes away from the locker, then growled to himself in frustration and grabbed one just so he wouldn't end up kicking himself over it later on.
Now with two rifles slung over either shoulder and one in hand, he edged his way deeper into the craft. The whole tail section along with one of the wings had managed to not split away upon crash landing.
"Let's see... Blin, there really is nothing useful in here. Enclave must have cleaned it out." Nikolai thought to himself. "But then... Why would they leave these rifles behind? No-I would say pegasus skeleton outside is close as they got." He clasped his lips together and itched the back of his neck. The main payload, it seemed-Was the waste, but there was something further back in the craft. It was a translucent cage, like a zoo enclosure.
"..Or like ballistic glass containers that Ecologists use to shuttle around mutants." The glass had been shattered in several places. Nikolai swapped his rifle's fire selector to full auto. He peered in through one of the large cracks in the glass, shinning a light independent of his rifle's mounted flashlight through the hole. A pulsating dark figure lurked just beyond the glass, the ray from his flashlight glanced off of something gelatinous, and The Stalker took a step backwards. If whatever was behind that glass could shatter said glass, it would likely also have no trouble chewing or mauling it's way through the hull-Or Nikolai, for that matter.
In all his 'all mighty wisdom'. Nikolai decided to rap on the glass out of some less than innocent curiosity.
"Привіт? Хто там?" He backed up. and a massive dark mass smashed itself against the edge of the enclosure, ruining it wholesale. The whole plane rocked back and forth as the glass gave way.
Nikolai pounced back and shielded himself with a piece of a metal crate as the enclosure quite literally exploded. He stumbled back up against the wall and rushed back to the entrance. Beyond the enclose stood the horribly bloated figure of what...Looked like a pony, except for the fact that it had been modified with cybernetics and stood at nearly Nikolai's height and seemed awfully murderous.
The abomination barely had the time to pull itself from it's place of captivity before a storm of suppressed gunfire tore up the southern side of the wreck, sending tumbling to one side in a roar of pain. Nikolai raised his rifle and sent a five round burst into it's center of mass-This sent the thing into a fit of anger, and it charged Nikolai-crashing through barrels of Taint in the process. Nikolai reached for his Plasma Rifle and sent a bolt of emerald green magical energy careening into the cargo hold, the splashback of plasma sent arcs of magic through the whole of the framework, setting the jet fuel and Taint ablaze.
"Nikolai, I'd say I work here is done! C'mon!" Willow tugged on his shoulder. But The Stalker had spotted something odd in the moments before the creature had gone up in flames, and he wanted to investigate- he looked over at Willow, then back at the flaming wreckage.
"Willow- Is there a pair of eyes back in there?" Willow's black pupils widened. "There is!" Without another word Nikolai bolted into the wreckage just as bits of the exterior were beginning to melt away. He made his way though the black smoke and heat, all the way to the destroyed enclosure, there, huddled up in the very, very back of the cargo hold, was a pony. Pale grey and white eyes, a tarnished and dirty white mane, and tail, and a white fur coat that sparkled with little dried bits of Taint, she seemed almost completely oblivious to what was going on around her, she bore no mark on her flank-It was like she was completely devoid of any unique character whatsoever. However odd she may have been, she certainly didn't reject Nikolai's offer to save her from the blaze. The Stalker emerged from the wreck with wisps of the tips of his jacket singed, cradling the mare in his arms.
"Look who I found!" He insisted! Showing her off to Willow.
"And you're sure that isn't also a mutant?" His voice was muffled by the respirator he had found in the supply crate earlier, a small price when it came to keeping the caustic fumes of burning Taint and jet fuel out of his lungs.
"Just look at her!" Nikolai held her out ecstatically. "Is she not precious?" The Thestral rolled his eyes under his goggles.
"Yeah, yeah, I suppose she is-Now let's get out of here before this wreck adds another crater to the Wasteland." Nikolai and Willow broke into a dead sprint away from the wreck as it burned to a metallic crisp. The stream of burning jet fuel and Taint set the strange red mist in the bottom of the canyon ablaze, resulting in a loud boom and a flash that must have been visible for kilometers around, let alone the hundred meters from ground zero that Nikolai had been.
"Wait... Didn't-wasn't-Holy shit! Willow!" He pulled the mare closer to himself and gestured down the hill.
"What now?" The bat pony inquired. " I may have left ghoul at bottom of gulch. Please go and grab him." Willow Lamp face hoofed and flew back down the hill while Nikolai struggled to the top with the mare on his back-trying to keep her from nibbling on his AK 101's suppressor-much to the amusement and bewilderment of Flashpoint.