//------------------------------// // Improvising // Story: No Going Back // by Dwarf_Jesus //------------------------------// Great...What now? Gaige kept running through ways he could get out of his current situation, but he couldn't think of any. Dammit Gaige, you've spent five years in the wastes seeing unspeakable things, yet two technicoloured horses are making you shit your pants. Think dammit! Gaige kept the gun pointed shakily at the closest of the two small horses, the one with the cowboy hat. He locked eyes with it and it glared back in a complete stupor. He didn't think it understood the situation. Of course it doesn't know what you're doing it's a horse god dammit! Gaige thought to himself. He started to put himself at ease realizing that the two strange creature in front of him were probably simple minded wilder beasts, or someone's pet, until one of them opened its' mouth to speak. “Well that ain't exactly the way to treat a lady!” Exclaimed the orange horse. Gaige was about to reply, but then he came to the realization that a horse just spoke perfect english to him. His mind...wasn't very accepting of that idea. Oh what the hell...did that horse just talk?.Gaige thought to himself. No...no way I'm just imagining things, must be the blood loss. It wasn't until the orange horse turned and began talking to the mint horse that Gaige realized that, there were in fact two very real pastel talking horses in front of him. “You heard me...I said stay back! Or I'll shoot!” He hissed hoping to deter them from coming any closer. He knew he had to find a way to get away from them and fast, he had lost a lot of blood. Gaige began struggling to his feet while training his revolver on the two strange creatures. Come on Gaige get up dammit, you've been through worse than this! He thought in an attempt to coax his protesting muscles into cooperating. “Ah don't take too kindly to monsters threatening mah friends...I'd watch yer mouth if I were you” The orange horse menacingly said while glaring at Gaige. It looked like it was getting ready to charge straight though him. All of a sudden the orange horse whipped around and drew back its' hind legs. Gaige looked up from his half crouched position just in time to see a pair of hooves shooting out towards him. Aw crap. He thought just milliseconds before his body was sent soaring a good three feet behind where he stood. Gaige went limp and hit the ground with a sickening thud. He had the wind completely knocked out of him and he gasped for air. I think my ribcage has been turned into jello. Gaige thought between bouts of excruciating pain. My gun! I have to get my gun! Gaige began to panic until he noticed that his gun had wedged itself under his chest when he landed. He slowly grasped it as the two horses drew nearer and began slowly and painfully raising himself off the ground. “Don't..think I'm done yet...” Gaige sputtered out between gasps for air, “I'm just getting starte-” Gaige's speech was interrupted by him promptly losing consciousness and landing face first in the grass. * * * “What do you think it is Applejack” Asked Lyra, eying the motionless creature curiously and poking at it with her fore-hoof. “Ah don't know...or much less care but I don't think it's gettin' up anytime soon” Applejack glared cautiously at the strange monkey like thing that lay in front of her. “I don't know Applejack, I mean to me it looks kind of like a...human. I mean it has a helmet on, but it looks like its the right size...” Lyra stated as her eyes began to light up. “Oh come on Lyra, everypony knows humans are just an old fillies tail to keep ponies away from the everfree forest. Sweet Celestia when are you gonna stop with that nonsense” Applejack scolded. Everyone in Ponyville knew Lyra was a complete nut-job for believing in theses mystical “Humans”, but Applejack couldn't help but notice the similarities between the creature in front of her and Lyra's nonsensical drawings. Maybe she was right. No that's total nonsense, how could you even consider that. Applejack scolded herself for thinking something so foolish. Lyra, looking hurt, turned back to poking at the strange creature with a sight. She saw it had a some a thick pelt covering its' body with the exception of its' extremities and had a very metallic looking head with reflective orange eyes. She reached out to poke it again, except this time, it let out a low groan and Lyra took a great leap into the air, letting out a high pitched shriek and tumbling over backwards in fear. At the sight of this Applejack's attention snapped back to the creature in front of her. She noticed something red pooling under it. Is that...blood? She thought to herself. “Oh...oh my...Lyra get up we have to get this thing to a doctor and fast if we wanna know anything about him.” “Why? What's wrong?” Asked a suddenly panicked Lyra. “It's bleeding Lyra...It's bleeding a LOT!” Applejack became suddenly very nauseous from the sight of the creature's condition. “Fluttershy's cottage is just over this hill, if we can get him there she might be able to do somthin'!” Applejeack hollered as she bit down onto the creature's hood and began dragging it. Lyra soon joined in the frantic effort. I'm not losing my chance to meet a human now, I'm so close and I KNOW this time it's an actual human. I'm not letting a little blood loss take away MY DREAM! Lyra thought to herself as she began pulling with more and more frantically. Great, first a mutant attack, then a bus crash and now I'm being kidnapped by tiny coloured horses...Could my day get ANY better? Gaige thought to himself sarcastically as he lay half conscious being dragged over a ground. Gaige slowly felt himself slipping away from consciousness once more. The darkness came quickly, spilling in from the corner of his vision, only this time he welcomed it and drifted away from reality. * * * Gaige was slowly rummaging through an old refrigerator in a ruined farmhouse, doing his best to avoid making any noise. Damn, only three cans of tuna...that's not enough for everyone. Gauge thought to himself as he looked at his meagre scavenged supplies and frowned. Hopefully the rest of the group found more than this, otherwise we aren't going to make it much longer. It didn't take Gaige long to deduce that the few cans of meat they had wouldn't feed all sixteen people. He had to move on and keep looking. Gaige exited the farmhouse out into the ashen wastes stealthily only to be jerked onto the ground suddenly. He landed on his face and quickly flipped around to face his would be assailant, only it was Patrick pinning him down and motioning for him to be quiet. Gaige looked around quickly and noticed that their group was huddled behind the low wall near the farmhouse watching something. Wait...there's only thirteen of us. Gaige suddenly thought. Patrick got off his chest and repositioned himself against an old wrecked truck and Gaige followed suit. Gaige kept looking around for his other two group members, but they were nowhere in sight. Until he looked over the top of the truck he was behind, there they were, being held up by a group of at least seven heavily armed bandits, both of them on their knees with guns pressed to their heads. Well shit...Gaige thought. This complicates things a little. He looked around for any way that the bandits could be eliminated without killing both his group members. Damn...the rest of the group would get shot at the minute they poked their heads out. He thought, then he deduced that him and Patrick were the only ones far enough away to set up a shot without being seen. Then he came to the grim realization that he was the only one of the two with a gun “Gaige...” Patrick urgently whispered, “We don't have a hope in hell of taking these guys on.” “I noticed,” Gaige hissed back “Look around maybe there's something we can use to our advantage.” . He wasn't going to lose anybody else, he'd already lost four people just last week. “Alright NOBODY...and I mean NOBODY steals from us you sons of bitches!” Hollered who must've been the bandit group's leader, “Now I know y'all are in our farmhouse so you better come out now or were gonna kill each and every one of you! Starting with these two! You have ten seconds to get your asses out of that house or these two's brains are gonna be all over the concrete! Ten!” Counted the bandit leader. “Now would be a good a time as any to use that last grenade.” Patrick whispered. “Have you lost it? It'll kill Maisie and Trevor!” Gaige retorted. “We don't have the time Gaige, it's the only way.” Patrick pleaded, “Its either we lose them or we lose everything!”. He was right and Gaige knew it. “Nine!” Yelled the bandit leader. Gaige could now see his two captured group members; Carol and her husband Eb. Dammit why'd you both have to wander off! Gaige silently cursed himself for not keeping track of them “Eight!” Continued the Bandit. “Shit,” murmured Gaige as he fumbled to pull the pin of the grenade. “Seven!” The leader urged the other bandits to ready their weapons. Gaige attempted to steady his aim but he was shaking uncontrollably. When the time comes...will I be able to do it, Gaige asked himself. “Six! Times running out!” Taunted the bandit leader. Gaige began to slowly raise himself to a crouch “Five. Ya'll can come on out anytime!” Now! Gaige shot up from behind the stone wall he had been behind and tossed the grenade towards the center of the group of bandits. Gaige stayed hunkered behind the wall for a few seconds, he heard a loud concussion, screaming, and the sickening sound of meat landing on the hard ground. After the shooting died down he then slowly made his way down to the pile of corpses that was once a bandit group, Maisie and Trevor among them, their faces twisted in agony, stared up at him accusingly. Gaige felt an immense sense of guilt. This blood's on my hands. He noticed Maisie was still breathing, but based on her current state not for long. Gaige slowly approached her. How could he comfort a woman from whom he had just robbed everything from. Gaige cleared his throat and finally spoke to her. “I'm sorry I couldn't protect you both....I had to-” “No Gaige..” Maisie said between choked sobs, “You couldn't protect him...” She clutched onto his hooding, drawing him near, he could smell the stench of death on her breath. “You couldn't protect me, you couldn't protect Carson. You couldn’t protect Ben. You couldn't protect ANYONE” Masie yelled as her eyes glazed over and she began sounding more and more malevolent. Finally she brandished a hunting knife and plunged it deep into his abdomen, “You deserve this more than anyone!” She hissed as Gaige slowly drifted into the arms of death. * * * Gaige woke with a start and took in a sharp gasp of air. “No!” he croaked, not being able to take in enough air to scream. His eyes darted furiously around the room he had been put in, it was a small bright coloured room in what appeared to be a cottage. Gaige noticed he was curled up in a fetal position as the bed he was in was much too small for him, which seemed peculiar to him, that was until he remembered he was in a land of waist high talking equines. Thank god...just another dream. Gaige thought, the night terrors like that were frequent for him, but still, even after five years, he was still shaken by each and every one of them. Gaige could make out some faint voices on the floor below him and assumed it was the two creature who were dragging him across the field. I need to get out of here before they come back. Gaige couldn't shake the feeling that something bad would happen if he didn't. He tried to raise himself out of the bed and after a few minutes, and quite a few popped stitches, he succeeded in getting to his feet. Gaige scanned the room for his things and noticed that they were all piled in a corner of the room. He immediately hobbled over to his bag and pulled out his BioFixer and suturing kit. He stared at the long needle that contained the sweet pain healing stimulant he needed. I hate needles. He thought to himself before he jabbed the needly into a vein on his bicep using a hand to stifle a yelp of pain. He then looked down at his body it had been bandaged and the lacerations on his chest had been partially stitched. Damn, looks like I'm gonna need to really be careful if I wanna stay alive. He could feel the BioFixer starting to take effect as he regained some of his pain diminished and he began to regain some mobility. Gaige noticed that his clothing had been left mostly untouched and his hazardous environment mask was still on his head. Good that means I can stay anonymous. Or rather as anonymous as a large bipedal ape like creature can be in a society of talking horses. He strapped his pack onto his back and was about to make his way out of the second story window, when he remembered he was missing one thing; his revolver. He figured it would be best to bring his revolver with him, just in case, so he began scanning the room for it, only the revolver was nowhere to be found. Gaige crept close to the staircase down the the first floor to see if he could spot his possession on the first floor, when he heard a voice coming from downstairs. “...And he pointed this here metal thing at Lyra and I and threatened us! Can you believe that?” it was the voice of the orange horse from the field. Shit, well I can't say I didn't see this coming. Gaige cursed silently and began slowly backing away from the staircase. He figured he could come back for the gun another time. Suddenly Gaige felt his foot snag on something that was left lying on the floor and he tumbled over backwards with a large crash. Gaige grunted and looked up from the ground to see small white rabbit smiling smugly at him. “Oh you little son of a bitch!” Gaige hissed, “I will turn you into a fucking hat, get back here!” he growled as he lunged for the rabbit that was much too quick for him. Gaige again landed on the floor face down and proceeded to slowly raise himself with a defeated sigh. Gaige suddenly noticed a eerie silence. The voices downstairs had stopped, and slow deliberate clopping of hooves could be heard, approaching the staircase. Well...time to go. Gaige figured and he made a mad dash for the open window and slid out onto the roof. Within seconds he had slid off the roof and had hit the ground running, or rather half hobbling, for the closest bushes he could get to. Gaige burst through the bushes and onto a stone path and then stopped to catch his breath for a second. It was only when he raised his head to look around that he realized that he was now on a path populated by at least fifty brightly coloured equines all gawking at the sight of a giant monkey wearing a metal mask that just came barreling out of a bush. “Um...Hello...there's absolutely no reason to panic I'm just passing-” Gaige was not able to finish his sentence as the crowd of pastel equines immediately began panicking, all of them fled in each and every direction, alerting more of the horses to his presence Well shit...this just got a lot harder! Gaige could now hear his pursuers drawing near, he didn't have much time to figure out where he would go, just that he had to go. He limped over to the nearest tree and fell to the ground, knees weak. Dammit, not now. The tree was right on top of a knoll, so Gaige simply rolled until he passed over it and onto the other side, and lay still, where he wouldn't be seen, for now. He chucked a rock into some faraway bushes, just to ensure the horses had a false lead. This bought him precious seconds. He heard his pursuers shouting something about encircling him, and then promptly moving towards where he had thrown the decoy rock. Gaige poised himself in way so that at any given moment he would be able to take off running if need be. His mind raced, contemplating escape strategies, but it was too muddled by the pain and adrenaline to function properly. He needed air, the filter on his helmet must have clogged, the visor was beginning to fog up. He threw off the helmet and his long, greasy hair fell into his eyes, he pushed it back over his forehead. His reflection in his visor caught his attention, he was dirty, bloody, unkempt and wild. He looked like an animal, something he would have found in a pre war alleyway. He could see something else in his visor too, one of the horses was coming over the knoll, seemingly all on its own. It was looking the other way, its' long hair blocked its peripheral vision to Gaige's side. Gaige covered his mouth to muffle his breathing and raised himself to a crouch. As soon as the horse crested the knoll he pounced on it, pinning it to the ground. The horse looked to be a mix of bewildered and terrified, its emerald eyes wide. He covered its mouth with one hand. “Be quiet.” He hissed. Gaige reached back for his knife with his free hand. A sudden pain shot through his hand covering the horse's mouth. It had bit him, it's yellow fur and pink mane now slightly stained with droplets of his blood. Gaige grunted in pain “You bitch!” He brought his knife up to the horse's throat and locked eyes with it. “Let...go.” he whispered, doing his best not to put too much pressure on the knife. Needless to say the horse let go. The yellow horse's emerald eyes were wide and soft, they stared up at Gaige, tears welling up in them. The horse managed a feeble whimper, before closing its eyes tightly and tensing up, preparing for what Gaige would do. “Aw shit...” sighed Gaige as he began feeling a certain sympathy for the horse. It was scared and alone, he couldn't detect a hint of malice in it. It reminded him of a small child. He began re-sheathing the knife. Suddenly, the world was a blur, Gaige was knocked clean off the horse by a flash of light blue fur and a rainbow colouring. He was rolling down the knoll, he could feel his wounds tearing open again, he screamed in agony. Gaige grabbed onto whatever had knocked him over, it felt like he grabbed it by a wing of sorts. He twisted hard and it pulled whatever was that bowled him over under him. They both crashed to the ground, Gaige driving the thing into the dirt. Gaige realized that what had hit him was another horse, this one a light blue and with a rainbow mane. Its' piercing wine coloured eyes glared up at him. Adrenaline coursing through his veins, he began hitting it, again and again, ignoring the pain, driven by fear. He could feel his hands becoming sticky, he wasn't sure who's blood was on them anymore. Gaige gave a final strike to the abdomen of the blue horse, knocking the wind out of it and buying him enough time to get up and run away. Gaige took a step down the knoll, then took another hit, this time to the small of his back, it was sharp, a kick rather than a tackle. Gaige rolled ungracefully down to the bottom of the knoll and landed in a heap. He lay still for a long while, he couldn't will himself to move, he was bleeding heavily. The pain was unbearable. Dear god, just let me die, let it be quick. He slowly rose to his knees. Before him stood three horses, the orange one, the blue one and the yellow one. The blue one looked particulairly agressive, bloodied, its' nostrils flaring. The orange one was holding it back. “Let me go Applejack,” it screeched, absolutely livid. “Do it,” croaked Gaige. “Just get it over with.” The horses looked on, confused. “Kill me, come on, what are you waiting for.” They almost seemed to be astonished by what he was saying, “I'm not gonna beg. I'm not-” Gaige trailed off, looking towards the ground. He heard a muffled conversation between the three horses, he didn't much care about what they were saying, he just waited for the inevitable, only it never came. “He's not dangerous he's just scared, look at him,” he heard a softer voice say. Upon hearing this, Gaige realized that perhaps he was not in immediate danger. The horses all seemed occupied arguing amongst each other. He slowly reached for his pack and got another BioFixer kit, injecting it into his torso. With his free hand he covered his mouth to stifle the grunt of pain. He coughed and tasted blood. The horses didn't appear to notice, still preoccupied by their argument. Gaige shakily brought himself to his feet, teeth gritted. He could feel the pain dissipating, but far too slowly, if he was going to move, he wouldn't be moving very far. Come on, just one foot in front of the other. You can move, let's go. Gaige plodded slowly forwards, his steps were uneven and sporadic. He was breathing heavily, he could feel the blood dripping from his mouth. His head grew light and his eyes heavy. His feet faltered and he began falling forwards, but he never hit the ground. Instead he felt to pairs of arms grab him from under his arms, barely keeping him up. They guided him back over the knoll and towards the cottage from which he had escaped. He did little to protest, he simply hung his head and plodded onward. Five years in the wastes and ol' Gaige meets his grisly end after being taken prisoner by a couple of colourful horses, he chuckled to himself at the circumstances. He had a bad feeling that this was a situation he would not soon free himself from.