//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: The Plan/Meeting The Wives // Story: Sunset Over The Wasteland // by Thunder-Bolt //------------------------------// Chapter 4 Slash grunted as he grabbed ahold of Jaw’s unconscious body. He hoisted Jaw over his shoulder, and held him there. “You got someplace I could put ‘em in?” He asked, huffing slightly from the weight of the body. “Put him in?” Sunset gave him a skeptical look. “I tried getting a solo patrol, but he wanted to go with me again,” Slash explained, saying the word ‘again’ with added sourness. “I did what I could.” “Right... you can put him in the trunk of the Charger.” Thunder said, standing up from behind Sunset’s car and pointed a thumb behind his shoulder. He turned, leading Slash to the car, who was still hauling Jaw. Sunset followed closely behind, prepared to do anything in case the warboy was trying to pull a fast one. Thunder stopped at the trunk, Slash directly behind him, Sunset behind Slash. He reached down to just above where the license plate was supposed to be. Three switches lined up in a row were present. He flicked the left switch once, the right switch twice, and the center switch once. The trunk opened with an audible chunk, revealing the prized M-60, its bipod holding it up in the center of the storage space. Several knives were also stored in sheathes attached to the sides of the trunk. Just behind the M-60 was an extra gas tank, situated in the rear of the space. Thunder reached a hand into the trunk, and grabbed the machine gun. He threw the carry strap over his shoulder, securing the gun against his body. “You can put him in here.” Slash grunted as he tossed Jaw into the trunk. He double checked the handcuffs, before allowing Thunder to slam down the trunk’s lid. “Okay, let’s go over the plan.” Sunset said. She led to Slash to the space between the Charger and Mustang. She sat down on her car’s hood, while Thunder did the same for his own. Slash stood between them. “So, what exactly is the plan?” Slash inquired. The two wanderers went over it in detail. Thunder Bolt’s distraction. Slash and Sunset getting through the gate undetected. Getting the gas, and then making a break for it. “We meet back up at Bartertown.” Sunset finished. Slash’s face didn’t look pleased. “Ah, jeez…” Slash realized this plan had issues, issues that neither Sunset nor Thunder were aware of. “This plan isn’t going to work, at least not for another week.” “What do you mean?” Thunder asked. “Thing is… is that we warboys have a schedule when it comes to patrols,” He explained. “Me and Jaw weren’t supposed to be back until next week. We ended up finding someone in the desert, that’s why we just left the citadel.” Slash let that sink in for a moment. “If I suddenly come back with you in tow,” He motioned to Sunset. “without Jaw, it’ll look suspicious.” “That’s a bit of a problem.” Thunder sighed. “Relax, we don’t have to attack now, we can wait a few days.” Sunset suggested. “We have enough food and water to camp out here.” Slash’s face seemed to light up in realization. “That’s right, I have enough rations for another few days,” Slash added. “combine that with your stuff, we’ll be able to stay out here until the end of the patrol period.” “I don’t know, what about the other patrols?” Thunder didn’t like just sitting around for a few days. “Wouldn’t they be able to see us?” “Don’t worry about that, we’re standing on neutral ground between Immortan Sombra and the Buzzards, no one from either side gets to drive through” Slash explained. “Even if they did see us, they wouldn’t care to pursue us.” “Okay,” Thunder replied, still unsure. Slash looked him in the eye. “I’m getting something out of this too: my freedom, I’m telling the truth.” Thunder looked his face over. “Okay, alright.” Thunder answered. Suddenly Sunset got up, and got up in Slash’s face. “If I see you trying to pull any type of bullshit,” She whipped out a combat knife from her belt, forcefully pinned him against the Mustang, and held it up near his neck to prove her point. “This goes in your throat.” Slash put his hands up in surrender. Doing so in the warboy ranks was considered blasphemy, but he didn’t give a damn about the warboys any more. He only cared for his liberty now. “You got it.” He replied. “Jesus, Sunset!” Thunder shouted. He quickly got up, and grabbed her shoulder. “Hey, we need him! Pointing a knife in face isn’t gonna help anything!” “I’m just making sure he knows we aren’t to be fucked with.” She replied coldly, without looking back at her partner. She continued to hold the knife to Slash’s neck. Thunder Bolt sighed, and took his hand off her shoulder, but wasn’t done talking. “Did you not just hear him?! He getting something out of this just as much as we are.” Thunder stopped there however. He didn’t like starting an argument with her, he disliked personal conflict. He sighed “Look, if you feel like you need to intimidate him, fine. Just be careful to not slit his throat or something.” Sunset eased off of Slash, and put the knife back into its sheath. She gave him a final glare before saying “We should gather all the food and water we have and ration it out, divide it up for every day.” “Alright,” Thunder responded before getting up and opening the door of the Charger,  and started gathering up said food from his own car. Slash walked to the Volkswagen, but Sunset followed right behind him. He glanced back and sighed. “Oh for the Immortan’s sake, don’t worry about me! I’m not dumb enough to try anything!” He put his hands up in the air in frustration. “How do I know that?” She asked, and crossed her arms. “Because I… you… ERGH!!” Slash grunted loudly. “Fine! Do whatever the bloody hell you want!” He turned around and stopped off back towards his car to grab the rations he (and Jawsnapper) had. He had to make two trips to grab them all. The three placed all of their food in a somewhat organized pile, that sat on the passenger seat and floor of Sunset’s Mustang. “Alright, like I said before,” Sunset reminded. “We need to split up the food for each day, let’s get on that.” “Okay,” Thunder agreed. It was funny, after all this time in the wasteland, Sunset had become the one to remind the two (or rather three in this situation) of the tasks they had to accomplish day-to-day. Being in the military, one would think Thunder Bolt would be the one to handle that. But after he had taken her under his wing all that time ago, she had evolved and adapted. Of course that didn’t mean she was necessarily the leader of the two. There wasn’t really a clear leader between them. It was really more of a mutual bond. Thunder almost thought of her as his little sister, after spending so much time with her. He liked to think of it as if… she was the one who pushed the two beyond their limits, which she did often, and he was the silent protector, watching over her. She could take care of herself, he knew that. But that didn’t mean he didn’t care. He’d go to the moon and back to make sure she stayed alive. Especially after seeing her alone and abandoned all that time ago. In fact, he figured Sunset deserved to live more than he did. *** Meanwhile, inside the citadel... Twilight’s pupils shrank as she stared at the giant door, which had just closed. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from it. What was she supposed to do now? “Hello?” A voice called out. Twilight quickly spun around, to see who was speaking to her. The voice come from a woman, older than she was. She had light purple skin, similar to Twilight. She also had frost white hair that had purple stripe running down it. The woman also had the clothes that Twilight was “given” to by the guards. For a moment neither said a word, just sized the other person up. Finally, the woman spoke first. She cleared her throat first. “I’m Violet Flower, what’s your name?” She gave off a warm disposition, so Twilight answered. “Twilight Sparkle.” Violet nodded. “I see, well… welcome.” “Welcome to hell.” Another voice came from behind Violet. In annoyance she turned to face the speaker, who leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. “Midnight-” Violet started to scold, but the other woman, who looked younger, held up a hand in dismissal. “Spare me the lecture alright? Don’t try to sugar coat it Violet, you know that this is basically hell.” As the two were arguing, Twilight had the opportunity to size up the room. It was dome shaped, with one door to the right and one door to the left. The entrance was behind her. Books scattered the ground. A pile here, a pile there, no real organization. The whole room was lit by kerosene lamps lining the circular walls. “It could be worse Midnight, we could be forced to drink the same water and food the villagers get.” Midnight rolled her eyes at Violet’s attempt to make her feel better. “Things could a lot better too,” She started to walk around Violet and to Twilight. “For one thing, we could not be forced to have sex with someone who only cares about his precious ‘heir to the throne’.” She retorted, making quotation marks. The younger woman glanced at Twilight. She held out a hand. “I’m Midnight Corsair, just so you know.” Twilight looked down at the hand and shook it. Midnight herself had dark blue skin, matching her dark blue hair, and dark blue eyes. Yep, she was all blue. She also wore the same clothes that Violet wore. Her voice sounded reminiscent of Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash… Her friends… Twilight suddenly felt a wave of yearning in her gut, yearning to see her friends. She had to sit down. The feeling in her stomach was becoming too much to bear. “I gotta sit down.” She suddenly said, plopping down on the stone ground. Violet and Midnight had concerned looks on their faces. “You okay.” Violet asked as she knelt down next to Twilight. “Mmm… I think so… it’s just…” Twilight paused and thought over her words. “My friends…” She started, but as soon as the words left her mouth, Violet responded. “Oh, I’m so sorry.” She rubbed her shoulder. “I know how that feels.” Twilight looked at her blankly, but realized what she was saying. Violet thought her friends had died. Of course, that’s not really what happened. But Twilight figured that her assuming her friends were dead, however morbid the thought, was better than explaining to her she was from another dimension. She would look like she belonged in the looney bin for sure. “No, no, it’s alright.” Twilight insisted. Midnight just stood there, watching the scene with her arms crossed. While Violet was tending to Twilight, she detected movement from the corner of her eye. She at the door to the right of the entrance, the entrance to their bunks. Standing just beyond the door frame, a girl who was even younger than Midnight. She had light pink skin, brown hair, and brown eyes. She had a confused look on her face, and looked up Midnight. “New girl.” Midnight mouthed. “Oh” The girl mouthed back. Violet was still looking after Twilight, so Midnight held out her hand, and made a motion for the girl to stand next to her. She hesitated for a moment, but obeyed. She walked up to Midnight, and silently stood beside her. Violet glanced up, and noticed that the only wife Twilight hadn't met was standing there. “Oh, Twilight?” Violet’s voice signaled Twilight to look up at her. “This is Sweet Breeze.” Twilight looked at the girl she was referring to. “Oh, hi.” She stood, despite the pit she still had in her stomach. She held out her hand. “Nice to meet you.” Sweet Breeze took the hand and shook it. “Hey.” She replied simply. Her voice was surprisingly deep. Midnight chuckled and put an arm around Breeze. “As you can probably tell, Breezie here doesn't talk a whole lot.” Midnight snickered. “Not that she isn't still cool.” Breeze smirked in embarrassment, and looked down at the floor. “Mmm… yeah…” She replied cutely. Midnight removed her arm from Breezes back. “So Violet, we gonna show the new girl around?” She inquired. “Oh yes, of course.” She got up, and looked down at Twilight. Violet held out a hand. “Can you stand?” Twilight still felt a little uneasy, the pit in her gut hadn't subsided. She really missed her Equestria friends, but she decided to just suck it up and stand. “Yeah, I’m good.” “Alright, well, this is the main chamber.” Violet said, as she made a sweeping motion with her hand. “We don’t really have any organization methods for all these books,” She referred to paperbacks lying on the floor in small piles. “We just kind of leave them around.” Twilight looked around at the floor. “I could probably fix that, I’m a pretty good organizer.” She offered. “Could you? That’d be great!” Violet accepted gladly. “Yeah, it’s getting to be a pain in the ass trying to get around in here.” Midnight added. Violet glanced down at the white clothes Twilight was still holding. “Oh, we still need to get you dressed in those.” “Huh?” Twilight looked down at arms, remembering about the garments. “Oh… yeah.” She replied, remembering the guard’s orders. “That’s alright. You can dressed in the bedroom, that was next thing I going to show you anyway.” Violet made a motion for Twilight to follow. Midnight and Breeze stepped aside so that the two get to the bedroom. The door was another submarine door, like the one in the garage. Violet pulled it, it was already open a Crack from when Breeze exited from it. Violet stepped inside, and beckoned Twilight to follow. She did, and once inside she found that the room was quite uninteresting. It was simply a rectangular space with six neatly made beds. There were three on each side. “I'll help you out, okay?” Violet said, holding out her hands for the clothes. Twilight gave them to her, as she closed the door. “Thanks.” Twilight said gratefully. She didn't know if she could've gotten the clothes on the way the other wives did. *** Violet twisted the submarine door wheel, opening it up. Twilight came after her, clad in white. Midnight and Breeze looked up from separate books they were reading. “Lookin’ good Twi.” Midnight complimented with a grin. Breeze nodded in agreement. “You do look nice.” Twilight smiled, but the smile suddenly turned upside down. She sighed. Violet took notice of her demeanor. “Are you alright?” She asked. “Yeah… well, no actually… I really miss my friends.” Twilight confessed. Her heart felt like it had literally shattered into a million pieces. It was likely she would never see them again. At least in her mind. The portal hadn't worked, so should she have hope for it to work now? She sighed heavily again. “Oh, Twilight.” Violet pulled her into a hug. At first, Twilight was startled at the sudden contact. But after a moment of processing what was happening, she returned the embrace. Violet broke the hug. “Don't worry, you're with friends now.” She reassured. “Absolutely!” Midnight exclaimed from behind Twilight, while patting her back. “Us wives gotta stick together!” She added with a smirk. Behind Midnight, Breeze agreed with a smile and a nod. The warm feeling that replaced Twilight's heavy heart was so overwhelming that it brought tears to her eyelids. Honestly, she could tell these girls shared an unbreakable bond. The fact they were letting her into this bond so quickly touched her deeply. She looked into the faces of the wives, each had accepting looks in their eyes. “Thank you…” She said, as the tears started to fall.