Trudge Runners

by ROBCakeran53

6: 4x4, Side by Side, and a Map

Bill walked outside the garage, Applejack standing there, right forehoof tapping on the concrete with a metallic click at each strike.

“What?” he asked.

She raised a brow at him.

“Oh come on, what sort of hurry are we really in?”

“Tha sooner we figure things out, the sooner we go home.”

“Yeah, but if you hurry too much, things can go wrong. If we were stranded in the middle of the woods with no supplies or shelter, that would be one thing.” He waved his hands towards the garage. “As you can see, we’re good on all of the above.”

Taking a deep breath, Applejack closed her eyes. “Fine. Good point, but I don’t wanna get too comfy here.”

“Yeah, I feel that. Okay, so what do we have?”

Bill walked past Applejack, looking at the vehicle.

“Well, this looks possibly military, but not U.S.”

“U.S?”

“The country I’m from. No, I’d say this looks Russian, probably, but my knowledge on foreign vehicles is limited. Now bikes, on the other hand…”

Looking back to the mare, Bill’s smile slowly disappeared at Applejack’s confused expression.

“Right, never mind. Okay, let’s take a look.”

This time, Applejack walked along with him as Bill inspected the exterior of the vehicle.

“Tires look good, spare too.” He kicked one of the tires.

“What’s this here?” Applejack pointed to some white painted numbers and letters above the wheel.

Bill ran his hand over the steel, wiping old mud off to see it more clearly.

“170 KPA? Oh, duh, that’s probably for the inflation pressure of the tires.”

“Never heard ‘o KPA.”

“It’s probably something foreign.”

“Right, and ya don’t know much fer foreign.”

“Right.” Bill walked away from that wheel, then tapped his hand on the canvas top. “Some sort of fabric top, feels weatherproof and still good. I can see a roll cage under it so that’s good.”

He peered inside through the back door window. “Oh hey, there’s some stuff in here.”

Opening the door, Bill reached inside, then instantly groaned. “Woah, this bag is fricking heavy.”

Pulling it out, he set it on the ground beside Applejack, then went back inside to investigate.

“Huh, the steering wheel is on the left, that’s good. It’s also a manual transmission, and… oh huh, differential lock? All wheel drive? Oh sweet, this thing is looking like a real off-road vehicle.”

“That’s good,” Applejack said between her teeth, fighting the zipper of the bag, “who had tha idear to use whatever this is instead of snaps ‘nd buckles?”

Bill looked to the mare. “Having trouble with our fancy human advancements in sports bags?”

Spitting out the zipper, and now open flap, Applejack glared at the human. “Watch it, buster.”

“Hey, equal rights, equal fights.”

She rolled her eyes, ignoring as Bill investigated the vehicle further, now moving to the front seats.

Sitting on the concrete, she began to pull items out. The first thing was a baseball style cap which had the mare grinning. Mostly red save for a white front, it had lettering on it, legible amazingly, but she had never heard of Sneed’s, and honestly didn’t care. She simply wove her ponytail through the back hole and slid it on over her head. Not the same as her cowpony hat, but for now it brought about some sense of comfort to her.

The next things out of the bag were two boxes, one more square, while the other was rectangular.

The square box opened easily, and was full of small plastic plugs, with brass caps on them. She set that one down, and after fighting to figure out the rectangular box with hooves, gave up and moved on.

This item, whatever it was, was inside of a leather case, but the black rubber like grip and some polished stainless steel, or maybe chrome, showed. Unlike the stupid bag, this did have a buckle and snap, as well as a loop on the other side. Undoing the small leather strap snap, she was able to remove the thing, gripping the rubber in her mouth to effortlessly slide it out.

Bill walked around the corner of the vehicle, right as Applejack did this, and now had the tubular end pointed right at him.

“HOLY SHIT!”

Bill dove back around the vehicle.

Applejack raised a brow, then through occupied mouth mumbled some form of the word “what?”

Slowly, he poked his head around the vehicle.

“Okay, do me a favor please, and put that thing down. I know we’re having fun at each other’s expense, but that’s a bit too much for me.”

She slid the device back into the leather holder. “Sorry, but what’s got you so spooked?”

Bill blinked. “That,” he pointed down at it, “is a gun. You know, a hole plugger as Flint termed it.”

“What kind ‘o holes does it plug?”

Staring at her like she’d grown another head, Bill slapped his own cheek.

“Oh. You really don’t know what that is, do you?”

“No, I don’t.”

“Well, okay, so for sake of simplicity and not causing bodily harm, that is a weapon, and if misused can and will hurt or kill you or someone else.”

Applejack blinked, looking down at the gun again.

“That thing? Sure it’s heavy, but I doubt it could do much than give a pony a headache.”

Bill opened his mouth to retort, then seeming to think differently, marched over towards her. Picking up the holstered gun, he withdrew it, pulled back a small slide and flicked the whole gun so a cylinder popped to the left side. Satisfied with seeing six little brass circles, he flicked it back, rocked the gun so it clicked, then looked around.

“See that small rotten fence over there?”

“Yeah?”

“Watch the first post on the right.”

Curious, Applejack watched the human face in the direction of the fence, shifted his body, shoulders forward, right leg sliding back a few inches, pulled the weapon up so it was level with his head, arms extended but not fully with some bend in the elbows still.

Then, suddenly Applejack’s world was a loud ringing in her ears as she clutched them over her head with her hooves.

At the same time, her eyes had watched the top section of the wooden post positively explode, the rotten wood crumbling down to the ground, causing the highest connecting board to lean down, dislodge from the next post in line, and fall to the ground.

Bill turned back to her, then pointed the gun at the ground, finger off the trigger.

“This is a gun. A weapon. It is also a tool. So, if you ever see something like this? Use caution.”

Applejack worked her still ringing ears, massaging her head.

“Right, I kinda forgot about… the safety practice of that. My bad, I’m just so used to shooting.” He began to pick at his ear with a pinkie finger.

“What… what the hay just happened?” Applejack finally asked, watching as Bill holstered the gun once more, securing the snap.

“Guns like this shoot bullets, inside of a brass or steel tube, full of gunpowder and a primer cap at the base. It’s usually how we protect ourselves, others, or do crime.”

“That was like no sound I ever heard b’fore. Gosh my ears hurt.” I guess I were sorta right, did give me a good headache.

“Honestly you get used to it after a while. You’ll also be deaf by the time you’re forty like my father.”

As he was about to replace the gun on the ground, he stopped, staring at the mare. “Found a hat? What’s Sneed’s Seed and Feed?”

“Don’t know, don’t care.”

“Alright, can’t fault that logic. So now what else is in this bag?”

Kneeling down, he set the revolver to the side with the boxes, then reached in and withdrew the last thing in the bag.

“Oh, wow this is… weird.”

Applejack, no longer deaf (although ears still lightly ringing), looked at the long item in his hands. “That another gun?”

“Yeah,” he turned it in his hands, “but someone’s heavily modified it.”

He looked at Applejack, then down at her hooves, and back to the gun. “Oh, that makes sense.”

“What?”

“Well, this is a shotgun, which is designed to shoot multiple smaller pellets out of a shell, instead of one single bullet per casing. This is also a double barrel, so you have two shots, then reload. It’s also an exposed hammer, which is kind of old technology. But seeing how they cut off the trigger guard, lengthened both triggers and off set them to the side slightly, maybe they hoped for an added sense of security? Anyway, someone heavily modified this.”

“Fer what reason?”

“Well, you’re not gonna get your hooves in a small area like a trigger guard, and having external hammers acts like a secondary safety, although not really but whatever. Mix all of that with a cut down barrel, I’d say someone took a gun meant for us humans, and made it so a pony could wield this thing.”

Applejack looked at the shotgun closer, noting how the modifications he mentioned didn’t look at all normal, clear welding marks on the triggers and rough edges at the barrel end.

Bill flicked a lever on the back, and cracked open the gun. Seeing no shells, he closed it, then handed it to the mare.

Cautiously, she took it in her hooves. It felt weird, like she should be carrying it like a club.

“Uh, how do I…?”

Rolling his eyes, he asked for it back.

“You hold it like this,” he braced the wooden stock in his right shoulder, “place a hand, or hoof for you, on this forward grip,” he did so, grasping the wood. “Be mindful not to touch the steel, because repeated shooting makes heat, and it will get hot. Then, normally this hand grabs the stock here, and you have your finger at the trigger.

“There’s a bunch of safety practices I’m skipping, but we’ll go over those later, I’ll show you. Anyway, line up the shot, aim down the barrel, then shoot.”

He handed the gun to her again, and this time she tried as he’d shown.

She had it almost figured out, but she wouldn’t be able to hold it standing, that was for sure. Or at least not without some practice and experimenting.

Shaking her head, she placed it beside the other gun. “Don’t know why I’d need use for such a thing.”

“Got no clue, but one of those two ponies before us did.”

That was an excellent point, Applejack mused, and I’ll have to figure that one out when the time arises.

“Well, now that that’s done, the only other things I’ve figured out about this vehicle is that the data tag calls it a UAZ-469, and most everything else I can’t read.” Bill walked over, opening the front right door. “There is a radio and mic, but the battery’s dead, so maybe tonight if I can find a charger, or a spare new battery, I can have that going so it’s ready for tomorrow. It’s otherwise pretty clean, some old dried muddy prints, but it’s empty-”

Suddenly the passenger side visor fell down, and a folded piece of paper fell onto the seat.

Applejack looked at the paper, then to Bill, brow raised.

“Okay, when I saw the key in the ignition, I didn’t even think to check the visors.”

Applejack’s brow rose slightly higher.

“Stop that.”

Now she was smirking.

“And that, look okay let’s see what it is,” Bill said with a huff, reaching in and grabbing the folded paper, then showing it to Applejack. “This looks a lot like a map.”

Opening it, sure enough it was a map, and Bill looked at it curiously.

“Well, this is interesting.”

Stepping beside the taller figure, he squatted down low so Applejack could also see.

“Oh hey, look, there’s the garage.”

“Yeah, but the rest of this map is just blank. I don’t… wait, hang on…”

Bill placed a finger on the map where the garage was, then started dragging it along a small line, and then tapped the map.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s the path I took walking here, cause there’s the river. Wild, it… shows where I traveled?”

Applejack looked on the opposite side of the garage, and blinked in surprise.

“Well I’ll be, there’s mine too.”

Flipping the map backwards, Bill examined it. “I don’t get it, it’s like, it’s showing us specific areas we’ve seen.”

“And the rest is all covered up? I’ve read in stories where unicorn’s made maps like this fer hidin’ treasure.”

Bill hummed, then started pointing to other notes on the map. “Well, there are a few spots marked here. Fuel? Huh, must be a storage place for gas. Sawmill? There’s three of them.”

“Lookie here, Lumberyard. And there be two of those.”

“Oh, oh! Watchtowers! There’s… wow several of those, but look, here, between us and the mountain!”

“That’s gotta be where Flint is!” Applejack said excitedly.

“Okay, so we actually have something to work off of. Great.”

They looked the map over for another few minutes, then once confident there was nothing else to learn, Bill folded it and placed it in the bag, and started to add the other items back inside.

“So we now have a plan for Flint,” Applejack began, then looking at the building she continued, “I say, before we make any decisions on the loggin’ stuff, we get his input. Might have something to add, or argue with us.”

“Can’t hurt to ask him,” Bill stretched and yawned. “But man, tomorrow. I’m going to bed early, and maybe we can get an early start tomorrow.

Applejack agreed heartedly with an enthusiastic nod. “Fer sure! Early ta bed, early ta rise!”

He shook his head with mirth, and grabbing the bag he and the mare began walking back towards the garage.

Comments

[Venerable Ro]

Ah yes, gun safety with Applejack. Glad to see she's found herself a replacement hat, not quite a Stetson, but very fetching all the same.

Neat way to fold in a game-style map by the way, I like it!

[ROBCakeran53]

11349907
Thanks! And yes, while not a Stetson, at least she's got something.

[Teraunce]

Nice chapter and now they have defense and AJ has her hat.

[ROBCakeran53]

11353551
Yes! But now the real question is, defense from what?

[Silentwoodfire]

11353597
Squirrels