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

by aegishailstorm

Chapter 15: Words Overdue

Chapter 15: Words Overdue

"Oh, ohhh... Owww..." Speckles of light filled Nikolai's vision, he slowly put his hands on his forehead and groaned in pain.

"Am I dead?" He muttered to himself. He felt something brush up against his shoulder.

"You're awake!" He opened his eyes the rest of the way, the Stalker's entire body ached. He turned his head over, and was met with the matted fur of Flashpoint's face. The Zebra backed away, and examined him carefully. As Nikolai's eyes adjusted, he realized that he was no longer underneath the overpass. Instead, he was staring up at the crumbling wooden framework of a cabin. And laying on a a rough wooden bedframe which, while not by any means soft. Was still much of an improvement over hard, cold concrete.

"Wha-where am I?" The Zebra took another step towards him and smiled earnestly. " I half carried, half dragged you here once the alicorn patrols subsided. "

"Who-" He rubbed his head as his vision spun. "How long have I been out?"

"According to your watch, give or take two full days. I woke up about 6 hours after you collapsed, and carried you along the open valley floor in the middle of the night until I came to this abandoned shack. I broke the window with a rock and let myself in. We've been here ever since." Nikolai reached towards his belt.

"Where's my-"

"Right over there."
His AK 101, PM Makarov, rucksack, and boots sat neatly tucked against the wall beside him. A lantern flickered on a table near the door, casting an orangish glow across the room. The Zebra opened up Nikolai's canteen and passed it to him.

"Go on, you need it."

Nikolai took the canteen in his hands, and, after sitting up with difficulty, took a few sips. He bit his cracked lips, then set it down in his lap and looked back at the Zebra. Who hung his head, and mumbled something to himself.

"You... You saved me." Flashpoint finally stuttered. "I thought I was going to die in there! And then you went through all of that, you were nearly vaporized- just to save me, why?"

"I am new to this world. I have no companions. One man can only do so much. I needed another friends. Stalker's creed, we look after each other." Flashpoint sniffled back a tear, and the expression expression grew brighter.

"Well, thank you. I will never forget it."

"You are very much welcome-" Flashpoint pulled him into a hug and stared up at him with his eyes full of tears. Nikolai smiled back and patted him on the head. "There there, it's alright. There is no reason to cry." He sighed, and took another look back at Flashpoint.

"Your eyes are glowing." The Zebra pushed himself away from Nikolai and stumbled onto his hind legs.

"Oh, oh- Yes! That! I tried taking some Rad-away, and it got rid of it, but I cannot risk taking any more without overdosing. It does not seem detrimental, so I suppose I am stuck with it. I cannot complain, with the amount of radiation I absorbed in my time there, I am lucky to still be alive." Nikolai smiled, and shifted halfway off the bed.

"As am I. Do not worry about holding favors, it was all my pleasure."

Nikolai caught a whiff of the air, and nearly gagged. "Oi! We smell awful!"

Flashpoint raised an eyebrow in inquiry." I didn't notice anything." Nikolai frowned, and glanced around.

"It is probably because you are used to it from living in this place. I smell worse than my babushka's свиней!" He unstrapped his vest and unzipped his jacket. " Do you know of any place where I might be able to get a warm shower. Or, even just a cold one? Because this is terrible even for me." He redonned his jacket and vest, and slid back into his boots.

"Good luck getting that here." Flashpoint mumbled, his voice going flat with sarcasm. Which took Nikolai by suprise.

"Blin, was that sarcasm? From you? I must be hallucinating. This cannot be that good."

The Zebra raised an eyebrow, and stepped closer to Nikolai.

"How so?" The Stalker clenched his head with the palms of his hands.

"It is never this good. How did I even get out of there alive? Never before in all my time in this line of work have I had to do such things. And how did you wake up and carry me to this place? Ai ai ai..." The Zebra's smirk turned back into a smile.

"Maybe it's just luck. We'll never know." Flashpoint put a reassuring hoof on Nikolai's knee. "Well, what now?" The Zebra stood up and began to pace back and forth in front of him.

"Let's just focus on getting you out of bed first, ok?" Nikolai laughed.

"Bed, no my companion. This is mansion fit for king compared to where I have been staying the last few days." He laughed again. "Tell me, do I have any Vodka left in my rucksack?" Flashpoint checked inside.

"In fact, yes. You do have some left. But you really shouldn't be drinking-" Without saying another word, Nikolai unwrapped his last bottle, and took a swig from it. Coughing and laughing as he did. He screwed the cap back on and put it away, then stood up and promptly fell flat on his face.

"Oi, Nyet!" He groaned, rolling himself over and sitting up with some difficulty, rubbing his bruised face.

"I told you so." Flashpoint grumbled, crossing his hooves in disapproval as Nikolai pushed himself up to his feet.

"Woah." He wobbled and extended his arms. Trying to balance out, but after a few seconds. The weariness went away, and he began to walk again. "Heh, oh!" He gagged, and sighed.

"Please don't throw up." The Zebra insisted, putting a hoof on his leg and ushering him to sit back down.

"It's just stress. It's just stress. Oh blyat, my vision's going orange."

He sat back down and took another sip of water from his canteen.

" Wait it out, wait it out. Take some time to rest, I think you deserve it." He reached over and pulled his radio from his vest pocket, switching it on and turning up the volume. An energetic male voice came through voice came crackling through the static.

"Hello, this is DJ-Pon3, your voice in the Wasteland... Bringing you the truth, no matter how much it hurts. We've been getting reports coming out of central Equestria that our mystery Stable Dweller and their compatriots are alive and well in Talon Company-" The transmission cut out, and was replaced by Zone FM.

"Hello Stalkers! That was quite the emission, huh? Anyway, to celebrate the temporary recapture of the truck graveyard from Monolith forces... We've got you something special, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. Stay safe comrades!" The first notes of the song began to play out. Nikolai turned to Flashpoint.

"I recognize that voice, I've heard it before." Flashpoint mumbled." But it's been so long since I've been around a working radio that I could use of my own accord... That's it!" Nikolai raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Who is this, DJ pony?"

"I do not know." Flashpoint admitted. " And I don't know who that, 'Stable Dweller' is either." Nikolai chuckled, and pulled his gloves back on over his hands.

"I am sure it is nothing that will concern us. This is big world, and people are very little. We may never see them, or hear about them ever again." Flashpoint nodded in agreement. Nikolai paused, and came up with his next question.

"But 'Stable Dweller', sounds more like a title than a name. I would not know, because names are not like that where I am from. But even so, could you potentially elaborate?" The Zebra nodded, and pulled up a rickety chair to sit on. Nikolai turned the volume of his radio down a little bit.

"I do not know all of the story, and you may have heard some of it... But-" Nikolai reached into his rucksack, and fumbled around in it, he pushed his way past MRE's, spare munitions, survival gear, sleeping bag, Vodka, IFAK, extra canteens and, 'literary entertainment', until he had found what he was after. The Wasteland Survival Guide.

"Let's see... Stables, Stables, Stables... Ah! I found it!" He furrowed his brow, and began to read away.

"Stables are massive underground bunkers designed by the Prewar company, 'Stable Tech', to shield Equestria's population in the event of an all out Balefire war with Zebrica..."

It only took Nikolai about a minute and a half to finish the section. There wasn't actually all that much on these, 'Stables'. It just talked about their history and the dangers that might arise out of them. It didn't list anything specific, nor did it provide any maps. Because of course, the author of a widely read piece of informative literature wouldn't want anyone knowing where all their treasures were. But Ditzy, or Derpy, or whatever her name was seemed like a nice pegasus pony-ghoul thing. He doubted she would intentionally try to scam people for anything.

But then again, he had seen it happen before. He decided to take the guide with a grain of salt, he folded it up and stashed it into his rucksack. Then turned back to Flashpoint. But before that, he first fished around in his pocket for his PDA. Opening it up, he zoomed out, until he found his current position.

"Is that an electronic map?" Nikolai nodded. "Yes it is. Like I said before, where I come from these kinds of things are common place." Flashpoint smiled. "Sounds nice." Nikolai sighed, and picked up his rifle, extracting the magazine, switching the weapon off safe, ejecting and catching the round in the chamber, then switching it back to safe and pointing it away from him and Flashpoint and removing the dust cover.

"I wish it was." Flashpoint raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean, it's not nice?"

"Our world is very big place. You see, I grew up in grew up in ok small town on outskirts of capital city Kyiv. But I had to go into city for school, and for things not present in local convenience store. I learned very, very fast that world is dangerous place. I had a grandfather that fought in great Second World War, assisting the Soviet army in retaking countryside from Germans. He told my father, 'Xлопчик, the world is dangerous place. Nature can be bad, but people can be much worse. However, we can also be better. It just depends.' My father conveyed that to me after he went to help liquidate Chernobyl after the first disaster."

"He sounds like a wise man. "Nikolai smiled back at the little Zebra. "Da, but he also taught me how to make Vodka from raw potatoes, and how to loot fountains for spare change. " His smile expanded into another laugh. And Flashpoint grinned along with him.

"How about your family? If you still have any, that is?" His friend hung his head. "My mother perished giving birth to me. And my father-well, I do not know where he is. I have not seen him in over a year, and that was on a factory floor in Fillydelphia." Nikolai sighed, and beckoned Flashpoint to sit closer. The Zebra scrunched up his muzzle, and wiped his hooves on the rickety floorboards.

" It is really no worry. That is just the way things are in Equestria now, trust me. That was the least of my problems before you came across me." Nikolai nodded his head as he removed the spring and the AK 101's bolt, breaking out his cleaning kit from the side of his rucksack, he began to brush away the dirt and grime within.

"Do you perhaps have any stories to pass the time with?" Nikolai shook his head. "None that you would like to hear right now, but I do have a joke."

"What is it?" Nikolai took his hands away from his rifle to scratch his chin with a miniature screwdriver.

"What do Politicians and Atoms have in common?" The Zebra cocked his head to one side, his ears perking up as he thought about it.

"I don't know, tell me."

"They make up everything! And they cannot help it!" Nikolai slapped his knee and burst out laughing. Flashpoint laughed in unison with the Stalker, although somewhat awkwardly. It seemed to brighten his mood nonetheless.

"That was funny, would you like to hear one of mine?" Nikolai took his eyes off his rifle. "Sure."

"So... A Ghoul, a Raider, and a Pegasus walk into a bar. The Ghoul turns to the the barkeep and asks her, 'hey... I'm gonna need all the dirty water you've got." His face puffed up with joy. Nikolai scratched his head.

"That was not funny. You should stick to being informative. But good try, perhaps again later?" Flashpoint chuckled, and walked over to Nikolai's rucksack.

"Did you by any chance recover my armor and weapons?"

"No, I did not."

Flashpoint sighed. " Well, that is a shame. But I'm sure we will find you a new set." Nikolai put the cleaning kit away, and began to snap the rifle back together.

"Well, that's enough of that. Everything seems to be in order, so I suppose that we must be leaving now. After all, I did say that I had a cap empire to build, did I not?"

"Thinking of maybe going out and hunting down one of those Stables?" Nikolai shrugged. "If we come across one, then yes, perhaps. Otherwise we'll just keep on going north. There's nothing else for us here. " With that, the Stalker deactivated his PDA, and stuffed it back into a pouch on his belt. Flashpoint stood upright, and looked up at Nikolai.

"Well, I'm ready when you are."

Comments

[AmlpfanREADER]

Nice

[Madmadmad123]

[Daniels6323]

"Good luck getting that here." Flashpoint mumbled, his voice going flat with sarcasm. Which surprised William.

I think you meant to put Nikolai instead of William. Otherwise good chapter