Chapter 14: Outside Stable Four
Chapter 14: Outside Stable Four
"Though the road may be paved with... horrible squishy things that want to eat you..."
The smell of death... or not.
The stench was of the rotting remains of the undead. Ponies whose personalities and intelligence had long since died, leaving zombie ponies running on distorted instinct alone. The instincts were but a shadow of what they should have been too. Eating became the priority, because as odd as it seemed, their digestive system continued to function, despite there being no need for them to eat, their existence fueled by the necromantic magic of the balefire bombs. The herd mentality remained, so they tended to cluster into deadly hunting packs. It was hard to say if they possessed any sense of self preservation beyond herding, because they were always too busy attacking to defend themselves. More than likely they were just a form of berserker. In a one on one fight, they were not too hard to kill, if you had the right sort of weapon. A couple of well placed shots in the brain usually did the trick. Blowing off limbs or severing the head were also a valid tactics. Just shooting them in the body wasn't so effective. They would soak up a lot of damage before they fell. Of course, if they were Canterlot zombie ghouls, it was very different. Finding oneself dying in one of several very unpleasant ways was usually the result of such an encounter, as those things weren't just undead. They were self reviving dead things, and were nearly immortal. To deal with them, decapitation, disintegration, incineration, or even better, a combination of those, were your options. Trying to achieve any of those while the raging mad thing was chewing on your neck was where the plan usually fell apart.
Fortunately, we were a moderate distance from Canterlot and its deadly pink cloud, the source of those abominations.
"Anne? What is it?" Helvetica asked from the platform to my right. She had moved into the position I had vacated when I jumped the railings to the recessed section of the stable vestibule.
"Zombies," I responded.
"That isn't very funny, Anne. You have to be kidding us," Helvetica stated.
"No, zombie ponies are not very funny, and I really do wish I was kidding you." I replied. "Get ready to shut that door. I'm going out with Lee and Saffron, to scout out the area, and see what can be done. If you see, no, if you hear, or even just think you can hear them getting close, shut the door. It's slow, and you really don't want to give the zombies time to get into the stable."
"What if you are still out there?" Lana asked.
"Shut it anyway. I'm not good eating, being half metal, so I should survive. Same with Lee, and Saffron has a hard shell."
"Eating?" one of the other mares squealed.
"Yes, eating. Why they need to eat, I don't know, as their sane counterparts only eat recreationally. They are corpses partially preserved and kept alive by the necromantic magic of the balefire bombs that destroyed Equestria," I explained. "Fortunately, they are being killed at a rate faster than new ones are created, as most ponies have the sense to stay away from balefire radiation. Even then, the balefire radiation is more likely to kill than ghoulify a pony."
"Ghouliwhat?"
"Those that are subverted by the radiation are called ghouls," Demi took up the explanation. "They keep their personality and sanity, and can live like it for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, after a hundred or so years, they start going insane, turning into mindless zombies. Eventually there will be no old ghouls left, and the zombies will all be killed off. Oh, it's not like it's murder or anything. The zombies can't be considered to be ponies anymore. On the other hoof, anypony with a shred of decency will leave the sane ones, the ghouls, alone so they can live their lives. While the zombies will leave the sane ones alone, the sane ones usually have no problem with anyone bumping off the zombies."
"Damn, it sounds so complicated," one of the mares, Plummet, commented.
"I take it you haven't read the Wasteland Survival Guide yet? You could always stay down here, if you wanted," I responded, and not out of malice.
"Complicated, here we come," Plummet replied.
"At least you don't have to learn it all in one day," Demi added.
"And for the record, Ditzy Doo, the author of the Wasteland Survival Guide, is a ghoul herself. She's quite a lovely lady, and has even adopted a wasteland orphan."
I heard another distant gurgle.
"Okay girls, stay sharp. It's time to deal with this problem," I said, heading through the stable door. Lee and Saffron fell in behind me. It wasn't until we were all through the door that I realized there were four of us. Demi looked at me, her expression a mixture of defiance and determination.
"I'm coming too," she stated emphatically.
"You will get hurt," I insisted.
"So will you, but that doesn't stop you," Demi said. "I am coming with you."
"Apparently you are," I acquiesced. There was no point in arguing, and as painful as it is getting bitten or shot, participation is the only way to gain combat experience. "Just stay as hidden as possible, and try to pick them off from a distance. Use your new Pipbuck. It will help you a lot with aiming in this dark," I suggested. "And run if they come at you. Either run towards one of us, if we are in a better situation than you, or try to get back to the stable, and pray that they haven't shut the door yet."
I quickly checked over my Cybercorn carbine, and made sure it was fully prepared. It would be the best weapon for zombie hunting. It was quiet, had a reasonable rate of fire, and the half inch ball bearings would make great projectiles against these soft (and squishy) targets.
"Lee, Saffron, hang back and cover me please," I requested. "Feel free to shoot over my head." With that I dropped down into my sneaking stance, and began to quietly move towards the not so distant gurgles the zombies were making.
As I sneaked forward, checking behind each rocky outcrop in the tunnel, it became very apparent that the tunnel was indeed made by ponies, though not to the standards of the stable itself. After all, it wasn't meant to see constant traffic. When the natural rock structure was adequate, it was left as it was. When it wasn't, it had been carted away, and bracing and steel panels substituted. The panels were distinctly rusty now, and beginning to collapse in places. What I also noticed was that the corridor was not angled towards the surface. The ground above had undulated a little, with small hillocks and gullies, but I couldn't recall seeing any nearby cliff or mountain like structure, or even a building into which the entry door could be set. Of course, an apple cellar door had been used as the entry to Stable Two at Sweet Apple Acres, and that had simply been set in the ground at the top of a set of stairs. And thinking of Stable Two brought up another thought: skeletons. There hadn't been any piled up around the Stable Four door. There had been no protest signs begging for those inside to open up and let the stragglers in, and no skeletons with hooves and legs shattered from fruitlessly banging on the locked stable door, all suggesting that those that wanted to get inside had managed. Yet I knew from the Overmare's logs, many had not made it here on the day the stable closed. Good grief. Perhaps those that hadn't made it were the very same ponies that were now wandering around down here as zombies!
"Click!" said my Pipgirl. I glanced at the reading. Plus one rads. Yes, there were traces of radiation down here. I would have been a lot more surprised if there were not.
I returned the short distance to the others. "It's irradiated down there. No surprise really," I commented. "Keep an eye on your radiation level, Demi. Your Pipbuck will alert you if you go into an area that is too irradiated, and it will let you know if you need to take some Rad-Away. If radiation persists for more than a few meters here, I'd suggest downing a Rad-X to be safe."
Returning my attention to zombie hunting, I moved forward again. Despite the irregularities of the walls, the passage was basically straight, yet I had some red marks flickering on and off to the right of my E.F.S. and that could only mean there was a room or a deviation of some sort ahead. After a few more careful paces forward, I detected a hint of light entering the corridor ahead and to the right, exactly where the E.F.S. was suggesting it would be. I carefully moved over to the left side of the corridor, and crept up to the edge of the faintly lit area. Looking down it, I could see the intersecting passage led to an open area with curved walls, and at least one other smaller room leading from it. Ah, a rest and recreational area with little fillies and little colts rooms leading from it, not unlike you would find at many subway stations. I guess that made sense. That would allow for visitors and those registering to join the stable a place to freshen up before embarking on orientation.
I could see a few of the zombie ponies standing there, heads down, their whole being at rest. They almost seemed peaceful and harmless, and the idea of simply killing them sort of went against my inner feelings, but experience told me that the moment they were disturbed, they'd turn into mindless killing machines. Ideally, a grenade tossed into the room would make short work of them, or at least severely injure them. Too bad I didn't have a grenade. Calling Saffron over would cost us the element of surprise. Even if I managed to get him over here without calling him, he wasn't exactly quiet when he walked, and his head mounted lamp was hard to miss, so again the zombies would scatter and attack, and any grenade lobbed at them would probably bounce back in our faces. I guess there was no choice then, but to try to shoot as many as I could before all hell broke loose.
Concentrating my magic on the Cybercorn carbine, I loaded the first ball bearing, and blasted it down the corridor at the nearest of the zombies. A quiet "fwoosh" marked the ball bearing's exit from the barrel. The zombie pony coughed, wheezed, then tipped forward, collapsing onto its face. The E.F.S. indicated it was no longer a threat, so I selected the next zombie and fired again. This one jerked as it was hit, looking left and right for what had disturbed it. Damn. I ramped up my magic effort and sent another ball bearing at it, relieved when its head parted company with its body. Unfortunately, the flying head hit another zombie, disturbing it. The hissing and gurgling increased. I rapidly sent several more ball bearings down the corridor at the others I could see while they were still milling around, but I knew the surprise attack was over as they started down the corridor towards me. My E.F.S. indicated that I had not been detected, but with them running towards me, it was only a matter of time. Even if they failed to notice me, they would see the others. I emptied half a dozen shotgun rounds down the corridor, blowing my cover, then turned and ran back towards my team. It wasn't that I was running away from the zombies; I simply needed to give Saffron the chance to use his grenades, and let the others shoot without fear of hitting me.
I slid to a stop as I passed Lee, pivoted, and started unloading more shells at the zombies as they poured into the main corridor. The darkness was pierced by the flashes of Saffron's grenades, the beam of his head lamp, muzzle flashes from my shotgun and the energy discharges caused by Lee's gauss rifle slugs disintegrating when they hit something they could not penetrate, usually the floor or walls behind the zombies through which they had passed. I could even hear the quiet sounds of Demi's silenced pistol spitting out its little slugs. It would be impossible for any of us to claim individual kills, but that did not matter, as long as the zombies died. With the floor between us and the side passage littered with the reeking remains of a dozen or more zombie ponies, it fell quiet and dark again. Was it that easy? Had we killed them all without taking a scratch? We must have missed something. The wasteland was never that kind. Nonetheless, I could see no flickering red lights in the E.F.S. Without bothering about stealth, I activated my Pipgirl mounted light, and moved forward, weaving my way between the disfigured bodies of the formerly un-dead, now just plain old dead, and totally smelling that way. Swinging down the side passage, I found no more red lights on the E.F.S., so I walked the rest of the way down the passage into the dimly lit rest area. The disgusting mess showed that it was a common gathering place for these zombies. I did a quick circuit of the room, kicking open the doors into the rest-rooms, heading in and checking the cubicles were empty. Apart from the skeleton of a pony that had died while trying to do his business (I was in the colts room, so it had to be a he, didn't it?) there was nothing of interest. The previously closed cubicles were actually cleaner than anywhere outside them. The mess of hoof prints on the floor suggested that the zombies had been using the open ones as drink troughs.
I left the room, walking back towards the others, surprised when I found Demi had followed me down and was waiting in the main rest area. She was getting good at sneaking too. Her earlier way of life, specifically, her tendency to want to get about without being noticed, had no doubt given her a good grounding in the skill. Together we walked back to Lee and Saffron through the field of corpses. The stinking mess would be best cleared before our migration began, even before we let the youngsters out to experience their first few moments of the outside world. The trauma of walking through that lot would not be the greatest first impression. I could shove them all back into the rest area, but for the moment, I decided to preserve my horn for more immediate concerns.
"I've let the stable ponies know that we are fine so far, but told them to stay put," Saffron announced when Demi and I joined them.
"Thanks, Saffron," I said. "They don't need to see this mess."
"The mess probably wouldn't bother them after life in that stable. All the same, the area isn't secured yet," Saffron stated.
"I know that," I responded. "Just because we killed the obvious threat doesn't mean there are no more dangers. Come on, let's find whatever nasty surprises are further along the corridor."
Together we advanced down the remainder of the rough hewn corridor. Again, the mess on the floor indicated that the zombie ponies frequented the area, implying that we were likely to find more down the other end. Nonetheless, my E.F.S. remained surprisingly dark, just the yellow marks of my companions on its display. I checked the integrated mapper, and was surprised to find that the passage was open ended, not terminating in any sort of door. We continued down the passage for another couple of minutes, and it finally opened out into a larger area. A couple of old emergency lights detected our presence and came to life, hinting at the size of the area.
"This is a platform," Demi suddenly stated. "We are in an underground railway station."
She was quite correct. We walked forward until we reached the edge of the platform, and looked down at the rails below. It wasn't a regular metro station though. There was a much smaller platform on the other side, with no exits, other than a ramp down to rail level, facing an identical ramp on this side. It lacked any of the amenities usually associated with a station. Apart from the passage we had just come down, and the rails leading left and right, there were no other ways out of the station. Under one of the emergency lamps there was a single sign on the wall, stating simply "Stable 4". There were the almost-mandatory ministry posters too. Apparently Pinkie Pie was watching me forever. If that was true, she'd have learned to keep her bloody sprite bots away from me by now. At last count, I had shot and destroyed eleven of the accursed things. It was annoying enough when they played that awful music, but I simply could not abide the sneaky ones, drifting up to you without so much as a whisper. Pinkie Pie was most likely nothing more than bones now. While I had heard rumors that Fluttershy was still alive and had been turned into a tree, as hard as that was to believe, I had heard nothing of Pinkie Pie whatsoever. Dashie was missing in action, hated by those she once inspired for doing the right thing. I had heard one of the other ministry mares had made it into a stable, although I couldn't remember which one it was. None, as far as I knew had become ghouls.
"I'm pretty sure I can hear something down to our left," Lee announced, returning my thoughts to zombies.
"Then left we shall go, if for no other reason than to exterminate any zombies that may be down there," I stated.
The whole place was quite eerie, illuminated only by ancient emergency lamps powered by failing spark batteries, the glow of our Pipbuck/Pipgirls and the wandering beam of Saffron's head lamp as he looked around. That was probably the most annoying, as Saffron kept looking away from what I was trying to see, taking the beam with his gaze. The concrete of the railway tunnel was showing signs of war damage, as well as centuries of neglect. Cracks laced their way through the structure, but its semi-cylindrical shape kept it together for the most part. Occasionally a section had fallen and dropped a mound of rubble and earth onto the rails, or the walkways up each side. Pipes and conduits that shared the tunnel in the name of economy, clung to the walls and ceiling in places, pulling away and hanging freely in others, or in some cases they had broken free and were lying on the floor. Water dribbled from some of the pipes, probably seeping through the ground above, eventually finding the pipes as an easy way to continue down. There were bubbles of calcium that had been leached from the concrete by water seepage, and stains and wet trails lacing down the walls. Foul smelling pools of liquid were the result, as the water mixed with whatever waste the zombies left down here, as well as minerals and plain old mud from the soil above. I doubted any of these pipes or cables were still connected to their proper source, and at the moment I had no inclination whatsoever to use my magic to find out, let alone repair any of them.
Not much changed as we progressed along the dimly lit rail tunnel, apart from the increase in the click rate of the radiation meter in my Pipgirl. I paused to down a Rad-X.
"Demi," I said, "Pop some Rad-X if you haven't already, or head back to a lower radiation area and wait for us.
"Wait alone down here? No thanks. Even if I didn't have any Rad-X, I'd stay with you," she assured me, before rummaging in her own saddle bags for the drug.
Lee snorted. "Good idea, I guess," she added, before pulling out some of her own, knocking her little blue-rimmed spectacles crooked in the process.
"I've been meaning to ask, Lee, but why are you wearing glasses?" I enquired. This was a more recent habit. She must have found a pair while exploring Stable Four. She had cybernetic eyes like I did. There was no way that glasses would actually be helping her eyesight in any way.
"I always wear them. I feel naked without them," she responded.
"Always for how long? three or four days?" I asked sarcastically. "There is nothing wrong with your eyes."
"Quite so. My vision is perfect. I just like wearing them, and always have, since I was a youngster. I have fitted these frames with plain glass," she responded.
Oh, great. Loopy Lee the stranger had an affectation. I also wondered where she found plain glass in good condition. Some stable machine or another was probably missing the glass off some of its gauges!
That was when the gurgled scream, if I could call it that, drew our attention. So far, my E.F.S. had failed to alert me to any immediate danger, but suddenly there was the red marker, with the corresponding zombie, coming out of a hidden alcove to our left. It slid to a stop in front of Lee, its stance going from one of aggression to surprise. It leaned forward and sniffed at her, though how it could detect anything over its own stench, I didn't know. The decayed state of its nose was another thing that countered that theory. Nonetheless, zombies saw through eyes with heavy cataracts, moved about on muscles that were shriveled and rotten, flew with wings that had lost their feathers, and generally did things that a near-corpse simply should not be able to do, so them having a sense of smell must be another aspect of the necromantic magic that kept them functional. So here was this thing, sniffing at Lee as if she was an old friend, showing her no signs of hostility at all, yet the marker on my E.F.S. remained red. I didn't want to kill a friendly ghoul, so I held my fire, despite the fact that my eyes were informing me that this particular pony was well past the ghoul stage, and was very definitely a mindless killer.
Demi made the slightest noise, attracting the attention of the zombie, and that was when I was sure we were still dealing with a hostile. Its demeanor changed, and in a flash, it was rushing Demi. It hit her, knocking her to the floor before I could target it, forcing me to do something I almost never did: fire up S.A.T.S. I hated the parallel data dump the system did to my mind, how the targeting knowledge was presented and processed in such a way as to make the user think time was standing still, while no such thing was happening. I selected my target, the zombies torso, as its head was already attached to Demi, and I didn't wish to shoot her, and queued up as many shots with the Cybercorn carbine as the magic would allow, then hit the commit function. That's when the part I really hated began, the S.A.T.S. spell taking over my motor functions, forcing my body to aim and fire round after round at the creature. Fortunately the spell was equipped with an early-out function, stopping when the target died. It wasn't smart enough to abandon firing when something else got in the way though, which would on occasion lead to you shooting whatever came between your gun and your selected target.
The creature exploded as multiple ball bearings tore its rotting body apart, throwing its limbs and torso about. Saffron launched a grenade straight into the alcove, and Lee muttered something about being too slow to fire, as she had been facing away from Demi. I moved almost as fast as the slugs I had just fired, sliding to a stop by my fallen companion.
"Demi's got a booboo," the filly said, looking up at me from where she lay.
If she could joke about it, the injury could not be too bad. Using my magic I tossed the zombie's head away from Demi, and bent to take a closer look. There were a set of rotten teeth marks in her barding above her shoulder. They hadn't penetrated the two layers of material I had used. Unfastening the strap that held the barding on, I lifted it, checking below for damage. There was a hint of blood, from where some of Demi's flesh had been pinched between the layers of barding as the zombie's teeth clamped down, but that was all. I tugged the barding back down and refastened the strap.
"You'll have a doozie of a bruise, and a tiny amount of blood to get out of your coat," I informed her.
"No biggie," Demi replied, scrambling to her hooves. "You make great barding Anne!"
"Are you okay otherwise? Do you want to go back to the stable?"
"I'm fine. Let's go clear the rest of these disgusting things out of the tunnel," Demi replied.
"Way to go, girl," Saffron voiced his approval.
The alcove, recently redecorated by Saffron's grenade, was nothing more than a dead-end service nook, giving access to some ancient piece of equipment long since corroded to nothing. My guess was it had been part of the tunnel ventilation system. Any zombies that may have been hiding in here were now nothing more than an unidentifiable mess adding to the other gunk that had been thrown about by the explosion. I poked around for a few moments to see if there was any hint that it may lead to an exit. The only thing of interest I discovered was a brass information plate that had fallen from where it had been mounted. Wiping the muck off it, I was able to read some of what had been written there.
"Hey, guys," I called, "according to this, these rail lines lead to Canterlot."
"Canterlot? We really don't want to go there!" Saffron stated emphatically.
"I would hope that there would be an exit long before then!" I replied. "And if we don't find one, there is always the other direction to try."
"Come on, let's get this direction scoped out," he replied.
"Okay," I answered, leaving the alcove.
Again we headed down the subway tunnel in the direction of Canterlot, this time making sure we took account of any alcoves along the way. Ahead the emergency lights had failed, so the tunnel appeared to close in around us, though in a way, this made the alcoves easier to see before we arrived at them. Saffron shone his head mounted lamp along the walls, and each alcove announced itself with a comparatively bright strip as the light of the head lamp was reflected back towards us from its far wall. The next one we discovered looked like it wasn't frequented by any of the living dead, as there were lengths of rebar protruding into it. The following two were also empty. By now we were well and truly into the darkened area of the subway.
"I think the zombie must have got me," Demi suddenly announced, "I'm feeling really nauseous."
I froze. Can't be. Zombieism doesn't pass that way. It had to be radiation. We were practically swimming in it.
"Demi, check your status on your E.F.S. Does it say 'RAD' in the left bottom corner?" I asked.
"Um, no," Demi answered.
"Okay, using your Pipbuck, bring up your status menu and select 'RAD'. What's the number it shows?"
"It says one hundred and eighty nine," she answered.
"Phew. That's a relief, and a worry at the same time. You are just a bit too irradiated. The Pipbuck recognizes it at two hundred rads, but it doesn't mean you won't feel rotten before that. Drink a dose of RadAway. Another dose of Rad-X wouldn't hurt either."
Demi nosed around in her saddlebags and extracted containers of the aforementioned, cracked the RadAway, and started sucking on the integral straw. "Bleagh! This stuff tastes awful!" she immediately announced. It couldn’t be her first dose of it, surely?
"Ah, the wonderful orange flavor," I chuckled. Why the manufacturers bothered to flavor the vile stuff I didn't know. The 'refreshing orange flavor' only made it taste worse. Well, I assumed it made it taste worse, because it certainly didn't seem to help. It was rather like that last pack of mane-dye I had tried, with its 'delightful fruity aroma', which in fact smelled like the worst imaginable combination of cough inducing bleaches and solvents, with a very faint hint of citric acid. "Don't worry Demi, the flavor isn't refreshing, but the magic in the potion is. Give it a couple of minutes and the spell within it will have cured your radiation damaged cells."
"Cough. That's good. I don't want to turn into a zombie!" Demi responded.
I glanced at the radiation meter on my E.F.S. and noticed it had climbed to three rads. "Actually, I don't think you should come any further down this tunnel."
"I'm not staying here by myself!" Demi complained.
"No, you aren't!" I agreed. "Saffron, could you please take Demi back to a less irradiated area. Lee and I will check out what is up ahead."
"My armor helps protect me from radiation, and automatically deals with my medical needs," Saffron responded. "It would make more sense if I scouted ahead while you three retreat."
"Actually, Lee and I both need to go bathe in radiation,” I admitted. “Like you guys, it doesn't do our flesh any good, so I still need Rad-X and RadAway, but our cyberframes collect the radiation and use it to recharge our internal spark batteries. It's the easiest way for us to recharge since we can't get any decent sunlight," I explained.
"Oh, so that's how it works? Wow," Lee commented.
"You'd be so dead if I weren't here," I muttered. "So Saffron, and Demi, please head back down the subway."
"What happens if you need my help?" Saffron asked.
"We'll scream," I responded, "if we live long enough."
With that, and assorted well wishing, Lee and I parted with Demi and Saffron, each pair heading in the opposite direction, them towards the relative safety of Stable Four, the only area that we knew wasn't irradiated down here, while Lee and I tackled the blackness of the Subway leading towards Canterlot, and more radiation, our way illuminated by only our Pipgirls, as I preferred to keep my magic available for my weapons, so wasn't going to light up my horn.
I sure hoped we found a way out soon.
Footnote: Maximum Level. Perk revealed: Solar Powered. Your cyberframe recharges under various forms of radiation, including sunlight. While directly exposed to the radiation, you are able to channel the excess power to your actuators, giving you a +2 strength benefit.
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341592
Read the story and love it(not that part but the better moments)
slow chapter.
I always wanted to modify fallout. Add more vaults , more varied vaults, and in different places/environments (like how you had this one attached to a subway line). And I wanted to make the pipboy modular/upgradable, have it start as just inventory, notepad,and basic status (HP gauge and maybe a rad detector) and have to earn all the others get radio attachment from 3dog get V.A.T.S. from some military base get med assistance (the "paper doll") from a hospital etc.Then add more new ones like a weak recharging stealth boy, a sprint or high jump function,etc(maybe an attachment for recharging AP or even power cells from radiation exposure like you have here). Limiting how many attachments could be active at once would drastically change the game play.
Nice, nice. Needs some spell checking though. Too many occurrences of "it's" that should be "its".
"I've fine. Lets go clear the rest of these disgusting things out of the tunnel," Demi replied.* I'm fine.
The only thing I interest I discovered was a brass information plate that had fallen from where it had been mounted.* of interest.
We must have missed something. The wasteland was never that kind. * Ah, the pessimist's creed. Also called the law of the wastes.
422926 vats is based off the original fallout game engine and many oldschool fans wouldn't like the idea. but your idea about attachments was also in the originals in the form of motion detector that put red dots on the automap(im reading so many mlp fanfic i forgot what the eyes forward sparkle is called, ya know that bar on the hud that shows the red dots) and a geiger counter for radiation detection both of which unfortunately took up weapon slots. and no radio
"What if you need help?"
"We'll scream."
I suppose that works.
Few notes though. I find it interesting how the narrative is expressing Anne's technical personality, explaining everything in detail, from ghouls to terminals. it can get a bit wordy at times, but i find it quite fun.
Anne seems to have more knowledge of the wasteland than she really should - like Fluttertree. i'd usually chalk it up to crusading the wasteland for years, but in this case, it's deep within the no-pony land of Everfree, and even then it was only a theory of Velvet Remedy's, and not general knowledge at all. Highly unlikely even Anne could know about it.
Also, watch the it's/its. its is possessive, it's is the contraction. Just a little pet peeve of mine.
And the comment system is being a pain right now, insisting every "i""b" and "u" is a bbCode shortcut. be waiting for the next chapter!
Hey, they gave you the Guide. Should've read the "About The Author" part
Pffhaahaha! Looks like Watcher had some bad luck trying to contact this one