//------------------------------// // Chapter 12 // Story: Fallout Equestria: Equestrian Wanderings // by ed2481 //------------------------------// Chapter 12 Ethan groaned as consciousness began to flood back into his body. The first thing that he became aware of was the pain in his chest. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around for a moment to find that he was in darkly lit room, lying on a ratty mattress. “Oh god, it feels like I got attacked by a deathclaw alpha male in heat,” Ethan muttered to himself. “Well, you got shot by eight 50.caliber rounds and then got in a fist fight with a deadly killing machine, so depending on how you look at it,” Eddie’s voice said from Ethan’s wrist. Ethan looked down at his now naked chest and found that he could still see the scars from where the large bullets had shot into his torso. He held up an arm, and his eyebrows rose as he saw the scars from several dozen deep lacerations. “Oh yeah... thanks for reminding me,” the man said with a slight roll of his eyes. “Where am I by the way?” “We’re in an abandoned building about half a mile away from where we were ambushed,” Eddie informed him. “Okay,” Ethan said with a small nod as he began to stretch, his body aching with intense pain each time he did so. “Are Holly and Day alright?” “Yes, we’re fine,” Day Kicker announced as he entered the room. The blue pegasus looked tired and there was a large bandage on his side, but other than that he did indeed look perfectly fine. “I would advise not moving much, you’re still healing.” Ethan shrugged his shoulders, an action that set off another round of pain. “Fuck it, I’ve had worse,” he stated. The pegasus frowned at him. “That may be so, but your body stopped healing itself the moment that the sun went down,” he then shot Ethan an incredulous look. “The fact that it does it at all astounds me although in this case it was... problematic.” “Why?” Ethan asked, not used to having people find his slower healing factor ‘problematic’. “Because I had to fight a slow continuous battle against your skin in order to get the bullets out of your chest,” Day told him flatly. “Although I cannot say that it wasn’t helpful once I was done.” “Yeah, I’m sure,” Ethan agreed. “So, what time is it?” “7 PM,” Eddie answered helpfully. “It’s overcast with a slight chance of rain.” “Thanks Eddie,” the man said as he painfully got off of the mattress and began to go through a whole new group of stretches as Day Kicker watched in slight astonishment. “You, I don’t understand how you’re possible,” the pegasus grumbled. “Heh, you have no idea how many times I’ve heard that before,” the man said with a small smirk. “When do we hit the road again?” “Tomorrow morning,” Day Kicker said, clearly confused as to why Ethan was asking. “Why not tonight? I’m going to be able to fight in about an hour, and you and Holly have been resting most of the day. We should get back on the road soon!” Ethan told him, his voice hard and determined. “We can’t,” Day Kicker said, his voice just as hard. “Oh, and why not?” Ethan inquired, a bit of anger leaking into his voice. “Because, I don’t particularly want to be eaten by bloodwings,” Day Kicker replied flatly. Ethan paused for a moment, and then nodded. “Right... I’d forgotten about those... giant vampire bats right?” “Yes,” Day Kicker answered. There was a moment of slightly awkward silence between them as Ethan finished going through his stretches. “Where’s my armor?” Ethan asked, currently he was only wearing his underwear along with several bandages that covered what he assumed were the worst of his injuries. “I took the liberty of repairing it with some of the armor that the griffins who attacked us were wearing,” Day Kicker said. “It’s in the front of the shop where I was working.” “Holly on watch duty?” He inquired. “Yes,” Day said with a small nod. “I would recommend that you go back to sleep, your body is still in pain and sleep is usually one of the best ways to help recover from an injury.” Ethan chuckled. “Heh, don’t I know it,” he said with a grin. “But I just did all of my stretches, no point in going back to sleep now.” The pegasus snorted and shook his head. “Fine, have it your way.” Day Kicker led Ethan into the other room where a small fire was going using several old newspapers and bits of broken wooden desks as fuel. Holly sat away from the fire in the shadows, a large anti-material rifle gripped in her hooves. The rest of the room was pretty standard as far as the Wasteland went. Broken windows gazed out of the front of the shop and several clothes racks covered in fabric had been pushed in front of them to make it harder to see into the shop’s interior as well as providing additional cover. His gear was stacked next to the fire. “Good to see that you’ve woken up,” Holly said with a small smile from where she was sitting. “Thanks, it’s good to be awake,” he told her with a small chuckle as he found his armor in the pile and pulled it on. To Ethan’s critical eye the repairs didn’t look half bad, as if Day Kicker had been looking after Wasteland armor for a while now. The mare closed her eyes for a moment, seemingly thinking about what to say, and then she sighed. “There’s something that I’ve been meaning to ask you,” she stated. “Yeah?” Ethan asked, raising an eyebrow as he sat down next to the fire, pulling his shotgun out of the pile of gear and beginning to clean the gun with a rag he pulled out of one of his pockets. “Why did you send out that message over the radio?” Holly asked him slowly. “I mean, we’ve lost the element of surprise, and we’re going to be hunted the entire way to Fillydelphia... so why did you do it?” Ethan looked into the fire in silence for a moment before he lifted his head up to look at the mare. “I did it because the woman I love most of all in the world is in the grasp of a psychopathic slaver and I wanted to give her hope that rescue was coming,” he told her in a soft voice. “I wanted to make sure that Sarah knew that no matter what happened, I was coming for her, and that regardless of the threat I would get her out.” The man’s voice was somber and determined. “My Sarah Lyons will not quit, she will not lay down and die, and now she will not lose hope.” The two ponies regarded him for a moment and Holly broke the silence first. “That’s really sweet... but pretty fucking stupid.” “Yes, I’d prefer us to have the element of surprise when we take on an army of slavers,” Day Kicker agreed. Ethan snorted. “Thanks guys, real supportive.” Holly rolled her eyes. “Yeah, and this is the Wasteland Ethan, hope doesn’t really go that far here.” The man glowered at her for a moment before shaking his head. “Whatever,” he then looked back into the fire and returned to cleaning his gun. “If it makes you feel any better Ethan; I think what you did was very kind,” Eddie informed him happily. “Really? Thanks Eddie!” Ethan told the AI with a grin. “You’re welcome,” Eddie chirped. “Although I’ve got to say... I agree with the other two, you’ve statistically decreased the likelihood of mission success by about 40%,” he added in a much glummer tone. Ethan scowled. “Look, Sarah’s most likely here because of me, so I’m trying my best to keep her spirits up while I find a way to get her out.” “You do realize that Redeye’s probably moved her somewhere more secure because of your little message, right?” Day Kicker asked him with a raised eyebrow as he took a seat across from Ethan at the fire. “No... I hadn’t actually,” the man answered slowly. “Well he probably has,” the pegasus said. “It’s the smart thing to do.” “Hmm... well I’ll just have to find a way through his defenses then,” Ethan informed them, a small sly smile appearing on his face. “I mean it’s not like I was planning on sneaking in.” “Ethan, that’s a really bad smile,” Holly told him worriedly. “Relax Holly, I’ve got it covered.” Ethan stated. “Why does this sound like it’ll go awfully for everyone involved?” Holly asked, turning to Day Kicker. “Because you have a degree of common sense that he lacks?” The pegasus asked her rhetorically. “Oh right, that.” Holly agreed shaking her head. “Eh, you two just wait, I’ve got a plan.” Ethan told them, grinning wildly. “I believe that that’s exactly what they’re worried about,” Eddie said simply. Sarah was having trouble breathing at the moment. The ironhard set of talons that were pressed against her throat left much to be desired in terms of allowing air into her body. “Because of your friend my best friend died!” the griffin who was currently shoving Sarah into the stone wall exclaimed angrily. “Sorry, can’t help you,” Sarah wheezed out. The woman would’ve liked nothing more than to punch the enraged griffin in the face, or perhaps kick him in the genitals. Unfortunately he was wearing combat armor and he was holding her at an angle that made it all but impossible to get the proper amount of leverage to deliver a kick or a punch strong enough to do anything other than annoy him. So focused on what she could do, namely breath. “Oh no, I think that you can help me,” the griffin informed her with a sadistic smile. “You see I’ve always agreed with the old saying an eye for an eye. And while I’m not allowed to kill you because you’re Redeye’s special little pet, I am allowed to brutalize you to the point that you wish you were dead,” he said with a sneer. Sarah had by this time tuned out the griffin, instead she was focusing on preparing herself for what was about to happen. The griffin seemed to have noticed because he glared at her. “So you’re going to try and ignore me? I’ll teach you some manners you freak!” He shouted, drawing one of his talons away from her throat and preparing to slash her across the face. The woman stared into the griffin’s predatory eyes and a savage smile appeared on her face. Now that he was only holding her with one taloned hand Sarah was able to wrench her way out of his grip, although his talons dug into the thin skin of her throat. Ignoring the pain she used the griffin’s surprise at suddenly losing his grip on her to move forward and punched the griffin in the face. He reeled back but quickly recovered before Sarah could press her advantage and retaliated with a punch to the woman’s chest. With reflexes honed during years of combat Sarah caught the griffin’s wrist and stepped inside his guard before delivering a suckerpunch to his lightly armored stomach. The griffin crumbled forward and Sarah’s metal tipped boot caught him in the beak. The griffin dropped to the ground with a thump and a pained groan, then Sarah kicked him three times in the ribs. “Next time you feel like taking out your anger on someone, make sure that they’re not a highly trained soldier,” she snarled before delivering a fourth kick and walked out of the alley. It was only when her adrenaline wore off on the walk back that she noticed the wetness around her throat. With a sinking feeling she held up her hand to gently poke at it and drew her fingers back covered in blood. “Great,” she muttered, hoping that Winter was back from his errand or barring that, that she could find some of his supplies at their ‘home’ in the abandoned shop. As she walked down the street she attracted the attention of many of the slaves, it had only been a few days since she’d gotten there and she was still a curiosity to them. The woman scowled, hoping that none of the raiders would get the idea that just because she was alone and bleeding that she was easy prey. Luckily, none of them seemed to feel like testing again after the first time and she made it home without further incident. She walked into the shop, carefully scanning it to see if there was anything out of place. When nothing appeared wrong she stepped inside and sat down on the floor next to the box that Winter had hidden the medical supplies in. Sarah quickly grabbed the bottle of whisky along with a bit of cotton as well as a bandage. The woman soaked the cotton in the alcohol and pressed it against the wound, wincing as the alcohol sent a burning pain into her receptors. Once she had made reasonably sure that she’d cleaned the wound to the best of her ability she placed the bandage on the gash and then leaned back against the wall. She stayed there for a moment, relaxing-if such a word could be used to describe anyone’s time in Fillydelphia- before she got back to her feet and walked over to where they were keeping the food. She pulled out a packet of snack cakes and began to slowly eat the pastry. The fruity filling rolled over her tongue but she barely tasted it, the flavor long since lost its appeal. Winter arrived a few minutes later, his blue fur looking slightly slicker than normal. His normally orderly mane also seemed a bit messier and Sarah smelled something odd in the air around him. “Back from you errand?” Sarah asked. “Yes I was performing my obligation for Master Dove,” Winter replied shortly. “The usual.” “You know, you still haven’t told me what it is that you do for her,” Sarah stated. “I know,” Winter said with a nod. “And you’re not going to tell me are you,” Sarah stated more than asked. “No, I hadn’t planned on it,” Winter told her with a shrug. “Mostly because it doesn’t really matter.” “Hmm... whatever it is it must get you pretty sweaty,” Sarah observed. Winter frowned for a moment and then nodded. “Yeah, I suppose you could say that.” Then he noticed the bandage at her throat. “What happened to you while I was out?” Sarah scowled. “I got ambushed by some stupid griffin who was looking for revenge because Ethan killed one of his buddies and I was the nearest punching bag he could find,” the blonde told him. “I think I broke some of his ribs.” The unicorn sighed and shook his head. “You really shouldn’t go out by yourself Sarah, you’re going to get hurt,” he said as he carefully removed the bandage from her throat with a small magical glow and quickly examined the wound. “Hmm, you’re lucky this was shallow.” He replaced the bandage. “An inch or two deeper and you would’ve bled out.” “I’m not going to let these assholes keep me hiding all the time,” Sarah replied with a slight growl. “I’m locked up in one cage already, I don’t feel like being locked up in any more,” she told him angrily before her expression turned a bit more somber. “And I know I got lucky.” A worried look entered Winter’s eyes. “Sarah, seriously you need to be more careful. Well trained soldier or not, you can still die,” he told her, concern leaking into his voice. She frowned and sighed. “Yeah, trust me I know, I’ve seen enough good soldiers die to know that.” “Then stop putting yourself in harm’s way,” Winter told her strictly, like a doctor addressing a particularly stupid patient. “In fact, instead of wandering off in the Mall, why not try and make friends with some of the ponies here?” Sarah snorted. “In case you haven’t noticed they kind of stare at me whenever I go anywhere.” “That’s because you’re something completely different from what they know. Not to mention that you’re scary” Winter countered with a slight chuckle. “Just try and talk to somepony, make some friends. Even in here, ponies are pretty friendly as long as you don’t threaten them.” “Fine, tomorrow I’ll try and make some new pony friends,” Sarah grumbled. “Although I can’t promise you much.” “Good. It’ll be nice not worry about you getting attacked. Now would you like the first watch or should I take it?” Winter asked. “To tell you the truth I’m not all that tired yet.” “Even after your errand that got you all sweaty?” Sarah asked with a raised eyebrow. Winter blushed and shook his head. “It wasn’t very tiring, I have a lot of endurance.” He told her shrugging as he sat down beside her. Sarah eyed him for a moment before she sighed. “I’m feeling pretty worn out after that fight. So I’ll let you take the first one if you really want too.” “Alright. I’ll wake you at oneish” Winter said with a small nod. “Okay, I’ll make sure to wake you in time to report for roll call,” the woman said with a slight shrug. “Thanks Sarah,” Winter told her with a grin. “Sweet dreams,” the unicorn added. Sarah nodded and then curled up in the nest of blankets that they’d managed to cobble together, closing her eyes and quickly falling to sleep.