Fallout Equestria: S.T.A.L.K.E.R

by aegishailstorm

Chapter 12: Splendidly Abandoned

Chapter 12: Splendidly Abandoned

The 2 Wastelanders walked in silence away from Dodge City. Nikolai kept glancing at his PDA. "The map shows that we are coming up on a place called Old Olneigh. Do you know anything of that place?" Flashpoint froze.
"Must we travel there?"

"Da. It is either that or the White Apples. And I like my body without several dozen additional holes in it." Flashpoint shook his head.

"No, that is not something that could possibly occur in this place that much. It's just that it's right next to Splendid Valley. Home of most of Equestria's illustrious toxic waste dumps, as well as a significant colony of hellhounds and all other manner of terrible things. Even Steel Rangers avoid it. Because most things that venture there, never return."

"It sounds like anywhere else in this hellhole of a world!" He exclaimed. Up in the distance, about a half kilometer away, he spotted something noteworthy. Blocking the road ahead of them was an old military checkpoint.

"But this place, I am telling you Nikolai. Is worth avoiding. The things there are... Wrong."

"How so?"

"Tell me, do you know what Taint is?"

"Nyet, я не знаю что это такое." Nikolai replied calmly. "I'll take that meant you don't know? Oh well, you've got to be one of the most oblivious people that I have met."

"Так так так... You cannot blame me for something that I did not know anything about!" The zebra sighed. "So goes the world we live in. Taint, is essentially leftover magical residue. The 'impurities' if you will. It takes the form of a sizzling multicolored sludge. It's fairly uncommon, but when you do stumble upon the damned stuff, it's usually within barrels or storage tanks. You can also find it pooling in small ponds. And surrounded by all sorts of disgusting mutated wildlife. Spawn of Tartarus. " Nikolai nodded in agreement.

"Da, I actually think I ran across one of those creatures a few days ago. It was this nasty flying thing. Munching on a dead bandit."

"That sounds disgusting. It's best to steer clear of them. They aren't worth the ammunition they take to kill. And their corpse's are poisoned." They walked in silence from there up until the Military Checkpoint.

"I would say we are far enough from Dodge City to be able to rest without worry. You take watch, I want to look through this place." Flashpoint shrugged apathetically. Nikolai was practically jittery with excitement.

"What has you so worked up?" The zebra asked curiously. "Looting-I mean... Scavenging, is my favorite part of my job."

"I wasn't aware you worked for anyone. Who?" Nikolai laughed.

" What do you mean? I am self employed. I take odd jobs for whoever is in need of my services. As you already know, my last employer tried to murder me when I had a disagreement with him."

"You punched him in the face. Right?"

"Da. I did. Now quiet. I wish to revel."

"You cannot be serious." Nikolai walked searched around, he walked past a sandbag barricade and threw aside dusty camouflage netting that obscured the checkpoints interior.

"You see, Flashpoint. Soldiers, convicts in particular, do not fare well when put in a 'retreat' situation. They tend to drop their things and run, as is the case with this place. Within a makeshift rest spot was a handful of tables, with rusty folding chairs all around them. As well as several crates of various sizes scattered about. Spewn out across them was all manner of valuable objects. From cans of preserved vegetables to firearm parts. Muzzle devices, foregrips, flashlights, handguards, pistol grips, as well as stocks, sights, barrels, and even a gas block or two. That wasn't even counting the handful of guns that were still in working order.

"These do not look Equestrian issue. Flashpoint responded. Nikolai threw a tarp off of a table, revealing a stash of first aid supplies as well as the painted insignia of a yellow talon.

"Griffons, I would suppose?"

"It looks like it." Nikolai clapped his hands together. "This, this is wonderful."

All told, Nikolai was in there, maybe half an hour. By the time he was through, his backpack weighed an additional 10 kilograms, and he was in the best mood he had been in all day.

"Are you through in there?" Flashpoint called.

"Almost, he checked by a bedroll, and found something that intruded him greatly. A Ironshod firearm's concealed carry pistol in .380 ACP. The gun itself was not in well enough condition to take. Given that the frame had cracked and withered from centuries of neglect. But, the important thing was that the barrel was still in good condition, he tore the slide away with a screwdriver and carefully removed the barrel. He had plans for it.

" It is getting late Nikolai, I would rather not make a snack for a hellhound!" Nikolai stuffed the barrel away in a separate pouch in his rucksack.

"I found something for you ungrateful zebra." He revealed what was in his left hand to Flashpoint. It was a brand new sub-machine gun. Roughly similar to what he was carrying, except for the polymer frame, picatinny rails, softer trigger, and tritium iron sights which had been made larger for convenience. A flashlight hung off the side of one of the rails, alongside a massive angled foregrip for ease of operation.

"For you. It is about time that you get rid of that ancient misshapen piece of trash. They are the same gun. It is just that this one is better." Flashpoint smiled. " Why thank you." Nikolai nodded in affirmation.

"You are welcome. Now, let us continue!"

The darkening of the cloudscape above him signified the coming of night. Whilst not quite as dark as his journey from Salt Cube city. It still had him wishing that he had bought himself a set of Night Vision, or found one at the Military Checkpoint. But it was no matter anyway, given that there wasn't really much natural light to work with anyway. And, as always, turning on the flashlight was too dangerous. As it would very obviously give away his position. And anything within a several kilometers would be able to see him with ease. So, just like before, they walked in darkness and in silence. After a while, the range of hills and low mountains in the distance came into focus. Revealing what Nikolai believed to be Splendid Valley and Old Olneigh.

"I cannot stress how bad of an idea this is Nikolai. You should NOT do this if you value your life." He was rebuffed with an insane laugh. "Do not humor me, I know what I want. Danger aside, I have faced much worse that what you have told me about."

"And besides, that is what everyone tells me! Have some cheer!" He laughed again. And was suddenly interrupted by the crack of a rifle round whizzing far over their heads. "Blyat! Давай, давай!"

About half an hour of walking later, and a few instances of stumbling across equally startled 'wildlife' in the dark, they finally made it to the quaint little suburb of 'Whinny Meadows." A small settlement just outside of Splendid Valley and part of the greater Old Olneigh area.

" Roar! Nikolai jumped at the sound of the inhuman screech." Ghoul!" Flashpoint brought his sub-gun up to meet the creature's path. But a bullet whizzed through it's rotting skull, and it fell dead in a heap at their feet. The two dashed over to a house, Nikolai kicked the door open and darted inside.

"I though you said that there were no bandits out this close to Splendid Valley?" He asked callously. "There shouldn't be, no sane pony would-these have to be raiders. They heard another scream from outside, followed by a string of curses and several more gunshots. Nikolai brought his gun up and set himself against an exposed metal support beam. within the house. He moved his thumb across his throat, and Flashpoint seemed to get the message.

"They must be the one's that were chasing us earlier? Or... What if they're more of the Slavers from Withers Pass?" He muttered to himself. The string of curses outside was silenced by another gunshot. An equine figure stepped within his field of view, but, before the trigger broke, the figure was torn to shreds by a flying ghoul. He had only encountered pegasi once before, in the airbase he had visited two days ago. This one was just like the armored 'Enclave' Pegasi he had been ambushed by. Only instead of power armor and a bad sense of humor, this one was a rotting, flying corpse. It wailed and screeched as it died in a barrage of gunfire. Followed by a roar in the distance one that sounded even louder the loud bangs of the the obviously poorly maintained and unsuppressed rifles and shotguns being used outside.

"Unless... Those ponies were after me!" Flashpoint froze, and facehoofed. Something that looked like a bad idea to Nikolai, considering all the awful things they had spent the better part of the day walking through, mud, mutant guts, and of course a not so healthy dose of ground laden balefire radiation. But he didn't seem to mind.

"You led them to us! You are almost as bad as my former captors!" He cried. Nikolai groaned unpleasantly and hefted his rifle.

" Теперь что ты- The door is right there. You can go if you want. Besides, I saved a bunch of your friends way back there."

"They would've traded me for a dozen bottle caps or a hot meal any day of the week! Do you honestly think they would value the life of some random zebra who they don not even know!? You should see the way some of them treat their foals!" Nikolai sighed, and waved it off. "If it is any consolation, you are a pretty good shot, and regardless of whatever suspicions you have about this place, you must put them aside. Did you not tell me that?"

Flashpoint smiled. " Why, indeed I did." Off to his side, he heard a window shatter follow by the grunt of Nikolai landing and slipping on broken glass outside.

"Blyat-hellhound hellhound hellhound!" They ran for the skyline of Old Olneigh.

If the lack of bullet holes in the rusty signs outside of the city weren't a dead give away as to what was wrong with the city, other than the usual post apocalyptic ruins, then the eerie silence was a metaphorical blast of buckshot to the face.

"I told you this was a bad idea!" Flashpoint whispered. Nikolai shushed him. Off to their side was a parking lot, just outside of an abandoned strip mall. Roaming in between the wrecked cars was a hellhound. It seemed to be interested in a mannequin in one of the store fronts, and as such hadn't noticed either of them yet.

"That's odd. Usually they act pretty oblivious of inanimate objects. Of course, until today I have never seen one this close up."

"This is what you call close up? We must be over a hundred meters away. Let me tell you, I once had this creature called a chimera jump me while I was delivering a package for an employer. The damn thing jumped at me from 10 meters away and barreled past me faster than I could react. Thank god it missed. I dumped half a magazine of ammunition into it and scared it off. But I never took that route again. This, is nothing." They began to hear more growls and ruffling noises, a half dozen more hellhounds rambled into the parking lot, and dumped a mutilated corpse at the grimy paws of the others, than began to feast.

"Ugh. A fellow Stalker once joked that perhaps if these monsters had better eating habits, they might 'get along with us better'. Of course, he had just consumed a large amount of hard drugs and completely out of his mind." He snickered in remembrance.

"Question, now that we're here... What are we supposed to do? You dragged me here, what is it about this o-cursed place that interests you so much?"

"Money. "

"So what do you want to do? Find and old bank and loot its vault?"

"Nope, too heavy. I am after technology. Information. Information, where I am from, can mean the difference between a person in need of urgent care living or dying. Or winning of losing an entire war. And, because this place is considered off limits for nearly everyone else because of the dangers that inhabit this place. I can be certain-" He momentarily stopped and ducked inside a department store. A roaming hellhound trudged past, it's red eyes casting a glow over the abandoned and desecrated store shelves. Like a feral spotlight. They waited until it was beyond earshot.

"I am certain that this place is overflowing with valuable items. I have a cap empire to build."

"If you wish to build a 'empire', then why do you insist on shooting everyone you come upon?" Nikolai rolled his eyes under his mask. And translated that by by waving his gloved hand around his earlobe to signify that it was crazy.

"Nyet, not everyone. I am actually quite amicable. I just have a hard time agreeing with those who try to kill me on sight."

"High vocabulary for a gun for hire." Flashpoint responded lightly. Nikolai gave him the finger, then motioned for him to leave his hiding spot and go along with him. They walked down the store isles, disturbing a few radroaches in the process. Flashpoint leaned into some of the shelves with his mouth almost watering.

"Don't bother, this stuff looks like it would kill you faster than the monsters outside would." Nikolai picked up a rusty can of tomato soup and waved his Geiger counter over it.

"My parents grew up in a village that was down river from a nuclear power plant. They knew a thing or two about this stuff." Flashpoint angrily tossed the cans he had gathered back down. They hit the linoleum floor with a loud 'clang!'

"What the hell are you doing?" Nikolai sneered. Almost jumping at the noise. "Those hellhounds out there will kill both of us if we keep that up. Lets work in silence, yes?" Flashpoint hurriedly nodded.

"There must be a safe behind the counter here, I would like to check it. You can go take stock of the back halls. Зрозумів?Got that?"

"Why is it that- Nevermind." He hung his head and trotted off to survey any possible valuables. Nikolai smiled. "Self employment is wonderful." He walked down the dark and dusty isle to the pharmacy. He slid over the counter and almost impaled himself on a set of brand new hypodermic needles. He crept around until he found the cash register and safe. But then thought it over.

"Unless this happens to be a pile of gold. I'm not taking it after what they said about my rubles back in Salt Cube City!" He broke the lock with the butt end of his bayonet, and was taken off guard when he actually found what seemed to be genuine gold coins within it. Alongside slips of paper that looked like a phesdo version of the American dollar. With various equine figures displayed about them. He sighed, pocketing some of the gold and turning to the assortment of medical items on the shelves. Mostly common medicines, more or less what you would find back on Earth. But, piled up alongside them were an assortment of various magical concoctions. Most too fragile to take with him, but a few were in sturdy containers, he had now acquired himself a half dozen of the 'healing potions' which he had utilized back in Wither's Pass as well as more Rad-away. Only these were contained within small polymer bottles rather than the dirty glass ones he had previously seen. After stuffing the items into his rucksack, he hobbled over to the back rooms and began searching for Flashpoint.

"Nikolai!" The voice sounded desperate, he jogged down the hall and rounded a corner, there he saw what Flashpoint was fussing over. It was the corpse of a pony, long dead, but, heavily mutilated. Taint, the magical poison seeped off the bones.

"Blyat! This does not look like the work of a hellhound. We should keep going. God knows where the thing that did this is now." They decided to leave out a back entrance. Outside, they saw more skeletons.

"This is deeply unsettling." Flashpoint murmured. "In all my years of captivity, I had never seen this many corpses."

"Ah, this is nothing." Nikolai chuckled lightly. "The damned things that haunt the underground of the Zone's abandoned labs concoct horror's far worse than this!" He regretted his words in a near instant.

There is a certain creek that people sometimes find themselves up without a paddle. When Nikolai was caught off guard by a hellhound youngling on the far side of the lot, he suddenly found himself up that very creek. He raised his rifle and panic sprayed until it died. This, was a very, very bad idea. The death screech let out by it alerted what was likely every hellhound for blocks around. The roars echoed off the buildings around them.

" Run. Post office, up there. " An eerie calmness settled over his voice, he knew what was coming. The two took off running. They sprinted across the road and into a brick post office. Dodging right past the rows of chairs and bolting up the staircase. Nikolai broke a rusty door knob off its hinges with the stock of his rifle, and then shut the door inside. One of the creatures had broken into a full charge, and was trying to go though a solid brick wall with it's skull. Nikolai grabbed Flashpoints submachine gun and canted it over the window frame, he sprayed until he heard the body collapse. Only to find 2 more patrolling the street in front.

"I have a road flare. And it's near pitch black outside. If I light it and throw it over there, it might give us time to reposition."

"I'm sorry, why do you have a road flare?"

"Молчи и смотри! Shut up and look!" He cracked the top, leaned out the window, and threw it as far down the road as he could. It landed about 10 meters away. "Go!" They bolted back down the staircase and out another backdoor. They crossed the street again and continued to head northwest through the city. Passing many ruined buildings with locked doors and blown out windows which they could have easily stopped in and looted. The only problem is that they were all ringed by hellhounds, and the occasional glowing ghoul. Nikolai wanted none of that. And Flashpoint was absolutely speechless through it all.

"This place has not lived up to my expectations. " Nikolai told him suddenly as they climbed to the roof of a 6 story building using a rickety fire escape in the dark. They climbed to the top and looked out over the city skylines.

"I do hope you are joking?"

"Nyet. Not scary enough. Ominous yes, but not comparable to Pripyat." He gave his rifle a tap to make sure the illuminator was active. Then peered through it and surveyed the streets and intersections below.

"Monsters, more monsters... Wait, what is that over there?" He pointed to a cluster of glowing craters on the western side of the city. "Let me see." Flashpont demanded. The stalker reluctantly canted the rifle over, allowing Flashpoint to peer through the low magnification optic.

"Wow, I can see how you are such a good shot now. " He said, sounding genuinely impressed at the hunk of soviet era glass and carbon steel mounted to the side of his rifle. "Those look to be balefire craters. Remember the stuff we trudged through on our way through those sewers back in Dodge City?"

"Боже мій! Do I ever! By the way, the fur around your hooves is starting to fall out. " He looked down in surprise, lifting his hooves and examining them.

"You really should treat those." He pointed to them. "I have a surplus Rad-away if you would like it. Please, I implore you, that really does not look healthy."

"Just like your drinking problem is unhealthy?" Nikolai facepalmed. "I do not have a drinking problem! all Slavic folk come with naturally higher tolerance for the stuff. I just prefer Vodka."

"Yes, you've made that quite apparent." Nikolai reached into his rucksack to take out one of the spare packets, and was into he process of handing it to Flashpoint when they suddenly heard a screeching noise.

"Bloodwings." Nikolai ran over to the rooftop access door and tried to force it open. The damned thing had been fused shut by the flash of heat and radiation that had washed over the city. It would've taken a pallet of C-4 to knock it down. So instead Nikolai whipped around and, with almost pin point accuracy, put a round through the creature's wing. It fell to the ground, screaming and wailing in pain.

"Hello, Flashpoint... Are you alright-" It was a sound he hadn't heard in quite some time, the sound of a jet engine whining up. He looked southward and up at about a 30 degree angle, up in the sky... Just barely visible, was the shape of a power armor clad pegasus. Seemingly ignorant of Nikolai and his Zebra companion. It was frozen in place, it it seemed to be almost floating atop a cloud, with just the whine of a pair of jet engines keeping it afloat, observing it's surroundings.

"Blyat! They must have followed me!" He kicked a loose brick off the roof. A growl rose up from below. "Agh!" He snapped to Flashpoint's cry of panic. "Nikolai, something grabbed me!"

"I can see that!" A green magical aurora had enveloped the Zebra, and was now dragging him off the rooftop.

"Help!"

Nikolai shrugged and threw up his hands. "Дурню, що ти хочеш, щоб я зробив!? [Idiot, what do you want me to do!?" He yelled, peering over the roof's parapet.

"What is doing this? Blyat, show yourself coward!" He exclaimed.

Flashpoint continued screaming as he was dragged around a corner and out of sight. The sound of his sub-gun letting off a burst echoed down the street. Nikolai's radio began to play 'Bandit Radio' again. He let of a string of profanity filled gibberish off over the airwaves. Then turned to find that the Enclave pegasus which had been quietly observing at a distance was now moving in.

"Ah, I am sorry Flashpoint!" He snatched onto a gutter and began to side down. The the rusty metal bruising his arms and legs even through his jacket and NBC pants. About 10 meters from the ground, the pipe snapped just above him. Sending him crashing to the ground.

"Oww!!!" He fell into a pile of rubble, hearing a loud crack in his leg as he did. He painfully crawled behind a ways behind a large chunk of rebar laden concrete, and clumsily downed a painkiller, followed by a healing potion in his trembling hands.

"Nikolai ty Идиот." He laughed gimly, feeling around to make sure nothing was broken. " Need a real doctor." He winced, and began to limp down the alleyway. He pulled out his PDA, and scrolled through the map of Old Olneigh.

"Incomplete would be good word to describe this. It does look like there is a hospital nearby." His limping stopped as the effect of the drugs began to take hold. He was soon walking normally, albeit slightly dazed and dehydrated. A half kilometer of agony later, and he was in the front parking lot of the hospital. He wheezed through his mask.

"Still not scary enough. A bolt of lightning cracked across the sky in the distance. Illuminating the entire lot. Including the shadows of some hellhounds down the road brawling with one another. And another being attacked by a weird flying plant looking creature. He decided it would be best to let them kill each other.

"This is so unbelievably stupid. "

"You could say that again." He jumped at the sudden remark behind his back, the suppressor on the end of his gun brushed up against the metal mesh speaker of one of those 'Sprite-Bot' things.

"How did you sneak up on- ow!"

"Your left leg appears broken. A hairline fracture, perhaps?"

"I would not know, I think it is worse. " Nikolai responded harshly. "I took enough painkillers to sedate a tiger. And a healing potion to wash them down. And why would you care anyhow? "

"You need a magical splint to set the bone and heal it. Whatever you do, don't go-" The robot's transmission was cut off at the most inconvenient point, it shuttered and fell to the ground.

"You useless heap of scrap!" He kicked it with his good leg. But regretted it when when he lost his balance and fell to the ground. He looked at the hospital as though it was a goldmine. "That was probably something important!"

"Better than nothing. I just might find one of those magic splints the flying metal bug thing was talking about!" He got back up to his feet and, pausing only to dust himself off and avoid the gaze of a hellhound.

Nikolai speedily limped his way into the hospital's lobby. Everything was quiet now except for the eerie noise of wind and the distant cries of mutants.

"Heh, This place still has not met expectations. But, has all good parts of abandoned city, radiation, mutants, free stuff, toxic waste, and ruins, lots of ruins! " He wore a crooked smile on his face one of delirious insanity which would soon pass.

"Crack!" His boots met shattered glass. Causing him to shutter.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

11484294
Alex Warlorn called it Chernobull... Does that work?

[Starlight Nova]

Did the Chernobyl disaster really happen and was it really that bad?

[aegishailstorm]

11565527
Yes, yes it was.

[Edgeblackstar]

11565527
It real and the biggest tell of mismanagement and cautionary tale of incompetence and nuclear together. They’re more to it. But it up there as one biggest known event in mankind history.