Stalled
"Max?"
The pony in the room stirred, while the one at the door sighed.
"Max."
"Nnngh," he responded not at all eloquently.
Hoofsteps came up to the couch Max was asleep on inside an office of the hospital.
"Gaaah," he blurted out, as a lit penlight was put up to his face, by way of being held in Kate's mouth.
"Sorry," she said plainly, moving the light away. "You weren't waking up."
"What is it?" he moaned, stretching. "Did he wake up?"
"Not yet," Kate said. "But it's after eight. Thought you might want some breakfast."
"Thanks," he murmured. Kate turned around and propped the door open on her departure. Max sat up, rubbing his eyes with his forehooves - then sniffing at his forelegs and recoiling. "Yeesh." I wonder if I can get some water moving in here to get a shower.
He stepped out of the office for the short trip down the hall to the emergency department. Eight o'clock in the morning? He'd slept solidly, then, at least twelve hours' worth. Guess I must have crashed hard when the adrenaline wore off.
In the waiting room of the hospital, Duncan and Kate sat, while a coffee table had been repurposed as a buffet. The earth pony they'd 'rescued' the afternoon before was doing something to the food on the table.
"Morning, sunshine," Duncan smiled. "Your patient's still out, before you ask."
"He already asked me," Kate said with a smile.
"Morning," Max said. "Is that coffee?" It took him a moment to realize the lights were on in the waiting room. "Wha...?"
"You're not the only one who can run the generator," Duncan said. "As a great man once said, you can observe a lot from watching. And yes, it's coffee; it's about 30 minutes old."
"Don't care," Max said, sitting down in an empty space at the table. "Coffee's coffee." He found a mug and began to pour, then looked up at the female earth pony - Andrea, if he remembered correctly. No, Angela.
"How do you want your powdered eggs? Scrambled or scrambled?" she said, fiddling with a pan on a hot plate.
"Wait, what? Eggs?" Max said, looking down at the pan.
"Angela showed us where there's a Costco," Kate said. "We should clean it out before we get back on the road. It's not far from here."
"Not going anywhere 'til the other guy's good to be moved," Max reiterated.
"Sorry for yesterday," Angela said, dishing out some eggs onto a plate for Max. "I was pretty desperate - I hope you understand."
Max watched the plate slide into position in front of him, gripped by a green hoof. "I just didn't want you to break the door," he admitted. "If you can kick like I can."
"I haven't seen you buck, but I presume it's a qualified 'yes'," she said, smiling and sitting down with her own coffee. "I seem to be a lot stronger than I was before all this."
She'd taken the tale of how humans came to be ponified fairly well, all things considered. Her stress and shock over having been alone for nearly six months may have actually had a benefit in allowing her to believe it, Max figured - something that unbelievable was the only thing worthy of being the explanation for such a traumatic affair.
"This isn't half bad," Max commented while chewing.
"Thanks," Angela smiled, putting down another plate for herself and sitting across from him. "It's what I do. Or did before all this went down. Not fake eggs, of course - I mean I was a head chef at a restaurant downtown."
"That explains your mark, I guess," Kate said.
Angela shifted a little and looked over her shoulder. Max could see that she had a knife and fork emblazoned on her hindquarters. "I figured this was some kind of branding by whoever or whatever did this to us," Angela said.
Max blinked and commented, "Didn't notice if the unicorn had a mark or not."
"Come to think of it, neither did I," Duncan mused. "If it hasn't been burnt off."
"I'm gonna check in on him after we eat," Max declared. He didn't expand further on the point, since Angela flinched when Duncan simply mentioned the pony's injuries.
"I'll go with Angela to her place and get her stuff," Kate said.
"I had decided to join you, if that's okay," Angela said to Max. He nodded in response.
"Can I take the tr-" Kate said, but was cut off by a firm shake of Max's head.
"I have a cart; it's fine," Angela smiled to Kate. "I didn't bring it last night because I was in a hurry. I was so surprised by your showing up."
"I'll stay here with you in case you need help," Duncan said. "But once they get back, I might venture out to see if there's anything on the list I can get here."
"Do you have this list written down?" Angela asked. "I could tell you if I know of anything that might be of use."
"Sort of," Duncan said, standing up and going over to his duffel to extract his tablet computer. "We can copy it down if that'll work for you."
"Fine by me," Angela nodded.
"Is there anything we can get for you? Either for the unicorn guy or for you yourself?" Kate asked of Max.
Max shook his head. "Anything that will help him, I can find someplace in here. Leave me some food and I'll be fine. Think about our route out of town for when we're ready to move - we'll need to hit a truck stop to pick up some diesel and stuff."
"There's one right out on Highway 4 just as you leave town," Angela piped up. "What do you do, siphon the fuel out of the tanks?"
"Running the generator," Max said. "Just takes a little bit to power everything up and cheat the computers in the shop into believing we've paid for it."
Kate gasped. "You're stealing all this fuel?!" she blurted out, then grinned as Max began to retort.
"I know you were joking, but the truth is, the world is our oyster," Duncan said. "We take what we need to survive. Even when other people return, by then, all this stuff would be long past its best-before date."
Angela nodded. "If there was anybody else to offer my property to, what we're not taking with us, I'd be happy to share it. I'm leaving my shop unlocked for that reason."
Max finished his meal and stood up. "Don't forget we have plenty of room to stow stuff now, with the extra trailer. So we don't necessarily have to leave anything behind."
"Duly noted," Angela said, then smiled. "But I don't think my clothing or pocketbook will be coming along. No reason, right?"
Duncan piped up, "Obviously identification is useless, and so's money. If you have anything in, say, a safety deposit box, it'd be wise to try to go get it if you can. Otherwise, yes, there's no point." He looked at himself and the others. "As for clothes, we all seem to have come to the same realization that there's no benefit to wearing something over our own fur coats."
"Just gets in the way," Kate added with a flap of her wings.
"Fair enough," Angela smiled and nodded. "Soon's you get me that list, then, I'll be off."
"Just finishing it," Duncan said, taking up a pen in his mouth and scribbling on a notepad.
"Good luck," Max said to the women. "And be careful."
"See ya," Kate said, heading for the door.
Max left Duncan exchanging notes and words with Angela, and headed into the exam room to check on his patient. The crimson pony lay as he'd left him, on his side, covered in bandages and with an IV poked into one leg. The drip bag was not quite half empty, meaning the fluid replenishment had done its job, and the IV was now there just 'TKVO' in medical terms - to keep the vein open, in case Max decided to deliver some medication to the patient.
I don't even know if morphine is the right thing to give a horse, Max said to himself. Nor the correct dose. Fentanyl was probably closer to the right thing, but it was such a dangerous drug that he wanted to avoid its use if at all possible.
Max lapsed back into paramedic mode again and checked what vital signs he could. Heartbeat was measured with a stethoscope that didn't fit Max's head very well but did the job well enough to confirm a pulse. Respirations were good as indicated by the rise and fall of the pony's chest. Blood pressure, as mentioned before, was not detectable and Max didn't know what a 'normal' BP in a horse was anyway. Oxygen saturation percentage... who knows? O2 sats in humans were measured typically with an infrared sensor clipped to a finger. Max didn't have one large enough to fit over a hoof, and it probably wouldn't respond the same way anyway.
He lifted the eyelids and shined a flashlight at the orbs within, getting reaction from the pupils, which was good. The reactions were equal - even better.
"So, right now you're just sleeping it off," Max murmured, sitting on the edge of a chair, surveying the patient as a whole.
The pony didn't respond; he just lay there breathing deeply.
"So where are you from?" Angela asked, walking east along the road.
"Hinton," Kate said, hovering alongside the earth pony. "Max and Dunc almost ran me over."
"What??"
"Well, in all fairness, I tried to get their attention by flying at them."
Angela shook her head. "That still sounds a little crazy."
"Says the woman who was trying to kick over a tractor-trailer to get our attention," Kate smirked.
"I can't help it if I don't know my own strength!"
"I know, I'm just jokin' with ya," Kate smiled.
"Sorry," Angela said. "I'm still getting used to having people around me again. I was all like Tom Hanks in that movie."
"Talking to volleyballs?"
"Well, not that bad." Angela indicated to turn right as they neared a main road, and they did. "Did you have anybody with you in Hinton?"
"You mean, before everybody vanished? Yeah. My dad."
"I'm sorry."
Kate shrugged. "I was down about it before we left, but hearing that he will eventually be back lifts me a little. I'm still gonna miss him, and I hope he comes back sooner than later." She floated along in silence for the equivalent of a couple of steps, then said, "How about you?"
Angela shook her head. "Single, no kids, my parents would have been in a home in Burnaby when it happened, so either they vanished or they didn't and..." She winced a little "...probably wouldn't've gotten out of there. My mom had severe dementia and my dad stuck with her to watch over her."
Now it was Kate's turn to be sorry.
"Don't worry about it. If they're coming back, great. If not, they're in a good place together." They crossed an empty road via a dead crosswalk signal. "Costco is two more blocks down," Angela added.
"I can see it," Kate said. "Where's your place?"
"Over in the Tudors, near Scenic," Angela said, pointing almost due west. "I figured we can go back that way. That's where my cart is too."
"Okay," Kate nodded.
"So what's on your 'shopping list'?"
"Oh, not much that I expect to be able to get. The ponies we talked to in Illinois had a bunch of things on their wish lists that we might try to detour and find eventually, but they're for sure not things you can find in a store, even a Costco. But the stuff that we can get here, like food that's still good, bottled water and drinks, tools, first aid gear, I'm supposed to grab all kinds of stuff like that. Oh! That reminds me, is there a vet's office on the way?"
"Hmmm," Angela said, thinking it over. "I think I remember there being one out on Highway 4 near the south end of town. I don't have pets, so I never bothered to look."
"That's the route we're supposed to take out of town, so maybe we'll check it before we go," Kate said.
"Fine by me."
They started crossing the mostly-empty parking lot, heading for the front doors of the wholesale club store.
Max was jarred awake by a peculiar sound. After several moments, he realized he was in the chair in the exam room, and the sound was his patient's body thumping against the bed as he went into a full-body seizure.
"Dammit," he cursed quietly, jumping up and rushing to the pony's side. However, other than watch and make sure he didn't fall off or otherwise harm himself, there was little Max could do for the unicorn.
"Max? Is everything okay in th-" Duncan began, coming around the corner to find Max trying to keep the pony from falling off the bed. He hurried forward and assisted as best he could.
"He's gonna pull out this IV," Max grumbled. He was trying to decide if that was good or bad; the patient didn't need any more fluids, but it'd been such a lucky strike that he was loath to let it go to waste. In a flash, it was decided for him; the needle wiggled free and dropped down, landing on the floor at the end of the IV tubing.
"Gimme some gauze," Max asked of Duncan, clamping his hoof over the site temporarily. After he got some bandage material in his hoof, he put that in place instead, trying to staunch the seeping blood.
The seizure abated, and eventually Max and Duncan were left lying partially atop a restful pony again. They both backed off down to the floor and regarded the unicorn.
"Is that a bad si-" Duncan began, but was cut off when the red pony opened his mouth and let out a weak, pained groan.
The two of them stood and stared in silence as the pony writhed, moaning, and began to consciously move a limb, but before he could position it wherever he was planning to, he halted its movement and whimpered.
"Can you hear me?" Max said, inching closer. "You were in an explosion and you were burned. You're probably going to hurt for a while. We've done what we can to dress your injuries. If you can understand me, can you talk to us?"
The unicorn shivered and whimpered again. "Where... am I..." he said, eyes still squeezed shut.
"You're in a city called Lethbridge," Max said. "We were driving by and saw the explosion that hurt you. We brought you here, about 35 miles from where we found you."
"Where'd... you... come from?"
"A long way away. We're driving to a place where there are more..." Max paused, then used the word, even though it was technically incorrect. "Survivors."
The pony bared his teeth as he fought to move his legs under him. He ignored Max and Duncan's urgings to take it easy, and, trembling, got up to his hooves, standing on the hospital gurney. He opened his eyes and looked around.
"Hospital," he realized.
"Yes," Max said, stepping around so he was in front of the pony's face. "I'm Max, and this is Duncan. I was a paramedic, and Duncan a university professor. We're both from Alaska."
"Hello," Duncan said with a smile. "Do you want help down from there?" He started to move a chair closer to use as steps.
"Be careful," Max interjected. "You're bandaged up pretty much everywhere."
The pony took careful steps down from the stretcher to the seat of the chair, and then brought all four hooves onto the chair before venturing down to the floor. "Thanks," he grunted. "I'm Sean. Sean Gibson."
"Good to see you up and about, Sean," Duncan smiled. "We have two ladies that are part of our group, too, Kate and Angela. They're out-" He smirked when he realized what he was about to say. "They're out shopping, actually."
"Great, make them sound like stereotypical girls," Max said. "How do you feel, Sean?"
"I hurt everywhere," he said, wincing, but stretching nonetheless.
"Do you know what happened? Near as we can tell, a propane tank blew up in your face."
Sean's green eyes widened and then squeezed shut. "Idiot," he grumbled to himself. "I think I did that, actually."
"You blew up a propane tank?" Duncan said, blinking. "What for?"
"Not on purpose," Sean said, with a tone of aggravation in his voice. He looked at some of the bandages on his forelegs. "You said you were driving when you saw me? I guess I was trying to signal you." He touched a bandage with the other leg's hoof, and whimpered in pain on contact. "Guess I did that, but not the way I wanted to."
"Dude, what were you thinking?" Max asked.
"I was trying to send up a magical flare, like, shooting fireworks in your direction," Sean said. "Obviously I have bad aim."
"A magical flare," Max said flatly.
"Yeah. You know, a burst of magic from my horn." He looked up at them, and a ribbon of green energy rippled along the protrusion atop his forehead, dissipating into sparks as it reached the tip.
Max blinked and turned to Duncan, who was staring wide-eyed. "Wow. We can do that, huh?" He tried to look up at his own horn, and looked as if he was concentrating, but nothing happened. "Sorry, I got nothin'," he sighed.
"How did you learn to do that?" Max wanted to know.
Sean looked away and might have reddened more if it was possible. "You wouldn't believe me," he said.
"Dude. We're all ponies. Try me."
"I saw it in a dream," Sean blurted out, staring at Max pointedly for a reaction.
Max shrugged and nodded. "'Kay," he said, gesturing with a hoof at Duncan. "You need to teach him what you dreamt about."
Sean tilted his head a little. "You don't find that odd?"
"Sure I do," Max said. "But the 'odd' column's gettin' kinda full. Just throw it in with the other 'odd' stuff."
Sean didn't know what to say to that.
"I wonder," Duncan said. "Have you ever seen a pegasus?"
"A pe...?" Sean said, turning to Duncan. "You mean a real one?"
"Yeah, one of the girls is a pegasus," Max cut in. He turned to Duncan again and said, "Come to think of it, I don't know if we ever asked her how she learned to fly."
"Sounds like I have a lot to learn," Sean observed. His legs, the other two stallions noticed, were starting to tremble.
"How 'bout you lie down and have something to eat?" Max suggested. "You've been out for the best part of 24 hours and got nothing but fluids in you."
"Good plan," he nodded, and allowed himself to be led to a couch near the food table.
"We're not gonna feed you like an Egyptian prince," Duncan joked. "Having said that, do you see anything you want? I'll make up a plate."
Sean boggled a little over the choices available, but eventually decided on some items and had them delivered to him on the couch. "Thanks," he said.
"No problem," Duncan nodded, retiring to a seat of his own.
"Don't feel you have to stop eating to answer," Max said, "but can you tell us your story? Tell you what, while you're eating, we'll go first. I'm a firefighter-paramedic from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. I woke up like this in the middle of the month, with nobody else around. I decided to start driving south, figuring I would find more people where there's more population."
"I'm a professor of engineering at UAF - University of Alaska at Fairbanks," Duncan said. "Or I was. Now I'm a passenger on a crazy ride to Paris."
"Paris?" Sean asked.
"Illinois," Max said. "We discovered another group of survivors, kind of by accident, by contacting them on the satellite phone. They had all the details on what happened to us. They have a colony underway down there, and that's where we're heading."
"They know what happened?" Sean echoed. "Do tell."
Max looked to Duncan. "Your turn, I think."
Duncan nodded, smiling a little at Max. "Fair enough," he said, then turned to Sean and began the tale.
"Hey guys!" Kate called out a couple of hours later as she came in the door. "We're back-"
Angela nearly bumped into Kate, who froze in midair as she spotted the three stallions conversing in the waiting room.
"Oh! He's awake!" Kate said happily, flying forward and coming into the room. "Good news, I hope?"
"So far," Max smiled. "Kate and Angela, this is Sean. Sean, Kate's the pegasus, and Angela we found here in Lethbridge."
"Hello," the red unicorn nodded. "Excuse the bandages; I'm told you're the reason I'm around to wear them, though."
"Me? Nahhh," Kate said, waving a hoof dismissively and looking away. "Max is the one who got you to safety."
"I was able to do that because you found him," Max pointed out.
"Anyway," Duncan interjected. "Sean is from Granum, the town where we found him. He's a farmer."
"Was," Sean commented. "If what you told me is true, my farm is destroyed."
"Sorry," Max said to him. "There wasn't anything we could do - it was all over before we got there."
"It was over long before that," Sean said. "I had no stock left, no way to get them food, no way to get me food, no way to plant, tend, or harvest, and no way to get that to market... a market that you say doesn't exist any more." He looked up at Max. "Your showing up when you did probably saved my life."
"You guys up there had a bad couple of years for harvest, didn't you?" Angela spoke up. "What with the fire in '13 and the early snow in '14."
Sean looked to her quizzically, then nodded as he remembered that they'd said she was local. "I've been tempted to eat straight grain, but there's not even much of that left in my silos."
Angela nodded back. "Seen your guys' trucks a lot less lately. Before all this went down, I mean. Oh, by the way, I ran the Third Street Café."
Sean pointed a hoof at her. "I've been in there before! I recognize your voice now."
Angela smiled. "I'd play the good restaurant owner and say I remembered you, but it's been so long since I heard any voice..." She shrugged.
"Not you," Sean said, shaking his head. "I don't mean this in a creepy stalker way, but I knew I recognized your voice. It was always a pleasure to come in and hear you talk about your day."
Angela blushed. "Well, I'm glad I could put a smile on your face, sir."
"Anyway," Kate spoke up, "We got some good haul down at Costco. We left a lot of it down there - we'll need to pick it up with the truck. And Angela says there's a vet on the way out of town, we can probably raid it while you're filling up at the truck stop."
"Good," Max said.
"Is he 'ready'?" Kate asked.
"I think so, but he hasn't been asked," Max said, then he faced Sean. "How do you feel? Health-wise."
"I hurt everywhere," he said, holding out his forelegs to indicate the bandages. "And they itch. The burns, that is."
"That hopefully means they're healing," Max said. "The next question: Do you want to come with us?"
"There's nothing here," Sean said immediately. "No reason to stay. And if those ponies in Illinois have a colony started, that sounds like the place to be. If you've got room for me, I'm in."
"I agree," Angela nodded. "That there's nothing here. Except us. We take everything we can and get going."
Duncan nodded.
Max looked to Kate. "Did you line up enough medical supplies to replenish what we used? We'll need to keep enough to change Sean's dressings and bring the stock back up in the truck."
"There's a medical clinic in the Costco," she said. "I think you can top off in there and then some."
"The vet place you're talking about will have a lot of stuff we can use, too," Sean said.
"Are you feeling good enough to travel in the morning?" Max asked.
Sean nodded. "I don't got any more lying-around left in me."
"Truck cab's gonna be crowded," Duncan observed.
"We're not gonna turn anyone away on that account, ever," Max insisted. "If we have to have people hanging off the sides like an Indian commuter train, so be it. We can move stuff out of the rescue box and put it on the flatbed trailer to make room - we need to do that anyway, to put weight over the flatbed's wheels."
"I can help with that," Angela said. "Plus I have my cart to unload."
"Fair enough," Max said. "We'll rearrange stuff tonight, and if there's time, go hit up the Costco. Then we'll get on the road at first light. Okay?"
Everyone nodded and affirmed.
Max smiled. Things were looking up again.
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The road trip group is steadily increasing. We just need one more pegasus to be a pair of each kind. And no Sean, don't practice magic around tanks of explosives... It has flare in it's name. The same safety principles apply.
Just read this while listening to slow jazz and coffeehouse/fireplace background... damn that fit well. Not much to comment on this time other than this break and slow day was very enjoyable to read. Well, guess they needed the rest anyway, also Max still needs a shower. Just find a pond, really. As you said, you're all ponies now *smiles a little*. A chef and a cooked farmer to go with her, nice. Well done. (heh)
6498608 In a prison cell would suck indeed. Like in this story here (in case you haven't found it yourself yet).
And then it's never mentioned again. Guess it must have been burned after all...
Short, but good.
I await the next installment of the Pony Express. 
Apparently Pirate Mares isn't the only pirate story you have. Yohoho we be Land Pirates sailing the good train Pony Express!
Those soft ponies in the lower 48 won't know what hit them when Kate's Crew rolls across the border.
6508814 I was trying to decide yesterday whether or not to bring it up. I think at this point it's maybe partially covered with a bandage. Probably get discussed next chapter.
I tend to subscribe to the Somber theory that (at least as I interpreted it) harm of a CM will cause damage to the soul.
Yay! BBQ pony isn't dead
6509153
Yikes, that doesn't sound good for Sean. I hope souls can grow back...
WILSON! NO!
6509076
And almost get hit by a train along the way!
6509247 I just tried to look it up and failed. I was sure that somewhere in PH, Somber had a scene where someone's CM was burnt off (or partially off) and depicted it as way more traumatic than just getting burnt. Come to think of it, maybe Kkat was the one who wrote it, about Littlepip, in the original FO:E. Anyway, it's not going to be that drastic or dramatic in Highway. I just haven't had time to reveal Sean's just yet
6514014 In FO:E, Calamity has his cutiemark branded over with Rainbow Dash's. Wouldn't that be equal to have it burnt off? At least it's irrevocably gone. Compared to the rest of the population he doesn't feel especially unhinged... but then that's not saying much. Little Pip and Arbu come to mind. Maybe the damage would be more noticeable in the 'sane' PaP setting.
6514014
It was in PH, when Morning Glory is branded a Dashite by Lighthooves while broadcasting a fake confession from her. To me, the whole thing reminded me a little of the near rape of Athena by the Battlestar Pegasus crew in Battlestar Galactica.