S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Jumping the Gap

by Senseisteel

(2) Home away from home

Twilight awoke to a deep muffled voice that was quickly cut off by Sawdust

"Yea, yea Hawaiian. The new shipment of AK`s here yet?. Hawaiian`s voice had a thick accent that Twilight didn't recognize

"Yes, they arrived yesterday. You interested?” Twilight could feel Sawdust lean over the counter, she let out a small relieved groan beneath her respirator as her back clicked a few times. She had clearly been asleep for a while.

A little smile broke across Sawdust's face as he felt movement in his backpack. Hawaiian placed a pair of quite similar weapons on the counter, an AKM-74/2 and a AKM-74/2U, (the latter being a compact variant of the former) . Sawdust never really liked using large rifles, he much preferred something compact that he could swing around easily in close quarters. While Sawdust checked over his newly acquired weapon Hawaiian shot him a question.

"What ever happened to that fine piece of ass kickery I sold you a few days back?"

"It got busted up in Pripyat" he answered flatly.

As the conversation ended, Twilight could feel Sawdust start to walk along what sounded similar to the marble floors of the royal palace into a busy room filled with people talking in a language unknown to Twilight in deep, booming voices. She heard a door close and the voices fade into a murmur as she heard Sawdust breathe a sigh of relief.

"You okay?" She asked through the backpack, surprised by how much her voice was muffled by the device over her snout.

"Don`t worry yourself with my problems little one” Sawdust stated grimly as he loaded and cocked his new rifle. "Little bit of advice though. Watch yourself around anyone who works for a guy called the Sultan".

They were silent for the next twenty minutes as Twilight listened to Sawdust drag his feet through the long dry grass, eventually coming to a stop. Twilight could feel Sawdust sliding the backpack of his shoulders and onto the floor.

"Home sweet home" Sawdust chirped ushering twilight out of the backpack. She was met by grey clouds as far as the eye could see, red streaks waving around just below cloud level. They were standing on the side of an old railroad with a small brick hut a few meters down the line. Between them was a small metal hatch on a flat square of concrete tipped with a rusted metal wheel.

"You live here... in the middle of nowhere?" Asked twilight bewildered

"Never judge a book by its cover" chuckled Sawdust as he approached the hatch. He then grabbed the wheel with both hands and began to turn it anticlockwise with a light squeak each time rotated it more. Seconds later he lifted the hatch, stuck his head inside and shouted "Honey I’m home!" Sawdust climbed inside the hatch until only his head and shoulders stuck out. Reaching out with one of his arms he gestured for Twilight to approach.

She cantered over to him cautiously only to be swooped up under his right arm and carried down the hatch. She knew she would normally be more assertive in this sort of situation, but she was in a foreign land and had no idea of how to survive, so for now she was a student learning from what she assumed to be the master.

As they descended the atmosphere completely changed. The chamber was warm and was lit by several old lights in the ceiling; the floor was covered in a thick green carpet that looked like it was laid recently. Four bunks lined the edges of the room, two on each side supported by small chains screwed into the walls.

On the wall at the far end hung a large grey flag sporting a green bears head; underneath the flag was a large workbench with a powerful lamp sitting on one of the corners illuminating the entire work surface in a bright white light. A large figure loomed over the bench, fiddling with some kind of device while rhythmically bobbling his head.

Sawdust set Twilight down on the ground before pulling an iron bolt out of one of his pockets and hurling it across the room. The bolt skimmed the dancing mans shoulder and hit the wall in front of him. He swivelled on his heels, pulling a small double barrelled shotgun from under his workstation.

Recognizing Sawdust, the man lowered his weapon and pulled a pair of ear buds from his ears.

"Well you're back early" The stocky, thick bearded man said "things not go too well with the ecologists?"

"You have no idea" Sawdust ran his hand down the length of his face "Oh Bear. There is someone i would like you to meet"

"Oh? And who is tha..." Bear drew his eyes to the little purple unicorn standing beside Sawdust. He then placed both his hands behind his back, slowly walked up to Twilight looking her dead in the eyes. He went down on one knee, still maintaining eye contact. The silence was killing Twilight who was petrified by Bear`s stare. "She’s adorable!" Bear shouted as he grabbed Twilight with both arms and hugged her tightly.

Twilight let out a little “squee” as the pressure of Bear`s hug hit her.

"Nice...to...meet...you too" She managed to wheeze

"She came through a teleportation anomaly in Pripyat" Sawdust explained as Bear released Twilight from his grasp

"Well, if you haven't got anywhere to go you're welcome to stay here" happily stated Bear gesturing with his arms towards one of the empty bunks.

"My sentiments exactly" Agreed Sawdust as they both turned to Twilight who was sitting on her haunches still trying to get her breath back from Bear`s hug

"She will need a suit" Said Bear

"Way ahead of ya" Scoffed Sawdust as he marched over to a bunk covered in what looked like dozens of different outfits. After a couple of minutes of rummaging he lifted a dark green jumpsuit out "Perfect!" he chirped.

"Why do I feel like I have another Rarity here?" Thought Twilight as she watched Sawdust jump around assembling different parts of Stalker suits he had hoarded. Bear trudged back to his workstation as Sawdust walked up to Twilight brandishing something she knew all too well, a tape measure.

The whole measuring process was quite awkward for Twilight. She had been subjected to this many times by Rarity in her boutique, but this was different. Sawdust measured almost every inch of her body, he even checked the width of her hoofs.

"Why exactly do I need one of these suits?" Twilight questioned curiously, as she saw the complexity of Sawdust's Sunrise suit

"Protection" he answered flatly.

"From?" Twilight pushed. Sawdust sat back and counted on his fingers

"Let’s see. You have Impacts, open wounds, explosions, firearms, burns, chemical damage, electrocution, radiation, psy damage, the list goes on."

"I get the point" Twilight rolled her eyes. Sawdust felt her stomach rumble as he held the tape measure to her side.

"How long has it been since you last ate?" He asked

"Um..." Twilight remembered that she hadn't eaten for around two days before her experiment and her gut felt like a void of emptiness, crying out to be fed. "A while"

"You must be starving" gasped Sawdust as he placed his bandaged hand on her underside, feeling the massive depression behind her ribs. "What have we got?" He called to Bear who crouched and began fiddling through some boxes under his workbench.

"Tourists delight... Allot of it" Grunted Bear.

"Pick and mix, oh yay" whined Sawdust sarcastically. Three rounded ration containers rolled across the floor, stopping a few feet short of Twilight and Sawdust. "You first or me?" Sawdust asked twilight, who was looking on at both him and the food in complete confusion."Guess me first then." he said as he drove his knife through the side of one of the containers and popped the lid off, revealing small white chunks floating in a thick yellow liquid. "Chicken curry!" he squealed in delight to the horror of Twilight, who backpedaled into a corner as Sawdust poured the curry down his throat.

"What’s wrong little one? non satisfactory table manners?" Chuckled Bear as he tucked into his own meal.

"You...Eat meat?" Asked twilight shocked.

"Yea. Don`t you?" inquired Bear. Twilight shook her head in detestation.

"NO! Ponies are vegetarians!" She shouted. Sawdust proceeded to spray curry sauce into a small mist, coughing and sputtering

"Ponies?" he managed through a coughing fit.

"Yes ponies!" She barked back, still pressing herself into the corner.

"Relax little one" Bear chuckled as he slapped his gut. "Omnivores". Sawdust popped open another can and slid it over to Twilight. It was filled with a mixture of pasta and vegetables, preheated and compressed; an experimental sniff revealed that it was all floating in a thick cheese paste.

"Dig in" urged Sawdust. Twilight nervously dipped her head inside the open container and began to eat, she recognized the familiar tastes of cheese, veg and pasta but she could tell that the process it was prepared had changed it somehow.

"There is something... wrong with this" she pondered aloud.

"Military rations" Sawdust said, yellow liquid still dripping from his lips. "Pump it full of chemicals to give it the effect of a meal five times as big"

"How did you get these?" she questioned.

"Loads of ways, Stolen, grabbed off a dead guy and sometimes I even buy them" Twilight was blown back a bit when he mentioned he stole food from another`s corpse. "Anyway, I suppose it’s time I got to work on your suit" he said wiping his lips. Sawdust stood and walked over to his bunk, where he began cutting through the stitching of the jumpsuit using his knife.

After finishing her food Twilight trotted over to Bear, who was once again busy fiddling with a large device consisting of metal plates held together with thick rubber pipes and electrical wiring, small rusted tools scattered on and around the bench. A small spark caused Twilight and Bear to jump back.

“Fuck!” Cursed Bear as he clutched his hand, smoke began floating in steady streams from both the wires and his fingertips.

“Oh goodness, you alright!?” gasped Twilight, Bear fell to his knees and was rapidly waving his scorched hand back and forth trying to dull the pain. Bear waved Twilight away calmly as he displayed the multiple burns that covered his palms and fingers.
“Happens all the time” He said in a soft deep voice, the burning flesh turning the same sickly black as his previous burns that seemed to scatter across every inch of his skin. “Hazard of the job” Bear chuckled weakly.
“And what job is that?” Twilight mused bringing her attention to Bears bunk, which sported a large set of heavy metal plates, a very intimidating machinegun and a wielding mask.

“Being the bear” He puffed himself up slightly, and then let out a big sigh looking down on the contraption that had delivered his burns... “Hopefully not for much longer” he grumbled. Bear locked eyes with Twilight who was still busy examining his blistered flesh from a short distance, a single tear rolled down his scarred cheek as he closed and opened his fists splitting some of the fresher burns.

Twilight could see this one had been through allot of pain and was expecting to go through more in coming events. Her heart went out to him. She had not seen such disregard for somepony’s own torment since Applejack`s whole “I’m going to harvest an entire apple orchard by myself” episode.

Bear placed his weathered hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t worry about me friend. You will have your own problems to be facing soon enough” He tilted his head toward the empty bunk closest to the exit hatch. “Go make yourself at home”

Twilight cantered over to the plain bunk. It was a large piece of metal covered in thick green fabric, a footlocker sat in the shadows beneath, key sitting on top.

“Whatever`s inside is yours and yours alone” Called Sawdust from his bunk. Inside was a newer looking re-breather, a six pack of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. energy drink and an unloaded Viper 5 SMG. Taking the small weapon out of its case Twilight began to closely examine its exposed mechanisms. Underneath it laid several fully loaded magazines and a small cylinder with the words “Sleepy Time” etched into its side.

“That beauty there belonged to an old friend of ours” Said Bear. “Isn’t doing him any good sitting in here so you might as well have it”

“I um, thanks” Nervously responded twilight as she pulled out the telescopic stock.

“We will teach you how to use it in the morning after I’m done with this” Sawdust lifted up what looked like a hood with room for a horn through an indent running along the centre stitching.

Twilight spent the rest of the afternoon on her bunk, quietly observing her two new friends busy at their separate tasks, making mental notes on their behaviour. Sawdust seemed to be in his own little world (much like Rarity) as he hand stitched and spliced the multiple fabrics to create her “Sparkle Suit” as he called it.

Bear remained at his workbench and continued to tinker with his abusive device that continued to periodically give him large electrical shocks through the exposed circuitry. His response was to lift his fist to smash it to pieces, but he would always take a deep breath, rub his bloodied hands together and get back to work.

They were Friends... But something inside her gave the impression that this world they live in had twisted and possibly corrupted who they once were. She came to the conclusion that she would need to find out more about them in the future. Her psychological examinations kept her mind busy until she eventually slipped into sleeps warm embrace.

And that’s when the dreams began...

Comments

[Material Defender]

Interesting, but no mention of artifacts yet?

They also seem to be taking the fact that there's a colorful talking pony around them pretty well.

[LawnmowerJoe]

Stalkers are now bronies.

[Stormy Sunrise]

need moar to satisfy my Sci-equestria addiction

[Hikarou]

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