Children of Oonte

by sevenofeleven

Chapter 3

Children of Oonte: Chapter 3
Guns, Battle, Death.

Ashley paused at the shadowy doorway of Capitol Guns. The sun had not yet risen over the buildings on the east side of the block yet. It was fortunate that they found it after an hour and half of walking. Six guns did not seem very useful against who knows how many CC foes. Now at least some more folks could have guns. Ashley scanned for any life signs in the area, other than the group, that was it. There were life signs two blocks away, no problem, the CC patrols were more of a concern. There was one several blocks away.

Thank goodness telekinesis is a pretty cheap magical ability.
Ashley's magical reserves were almost empty. Now lets focus and sense what I can do to the door to get it open. The door had a lock and a bolt halfway up the door but it was barely a challenge and Ashley unlocked them both. The electricity blocking field would stop the alarms from going off.

The shop smelled of gunmetal, leather and several people, their scents lingered like ghosts in the still air. Fluttershy walked into the "gun shop" to see what was inside. During the walk from the house she had been talking to several members of the group. The woman who shared a bedroom with, her name was Lisa Hammond and her son's name was Douglas or Doug. Lisa did not like guns and stayed outside with Doug. Rita's last name was Spano and she did enter the store. Rita entered the store with a scowl, someone was going to pay.

Fluttershy eyed the shiny guns in their cases warily, Rich had explained to her what guns were used for. Rich longed to bust a cap in some CC ass. She was not comfortable with the idea of looking at so many objects made for killing. Some of the t shirts looked interesting with pictures of deer and other wildlife. Some of the other t shirts had Human lettering and she could not read what they said. There was also food in packets but nothing that looked like pony food except for the "Trail mix".

The shopping spree slowly wound down, people could only carry so much and it came down to some people carrying two guns and one or two boxes of ammo. Ashley had two guns, a hunting rifle for sniping and an assault rifle for closer work. Sherman gave Ashley a funny look when she grabbed the assault rifle and was checking its status. She could tell he wanted to say something but he did not say anything. He probably did not think she had weapons training.

Sherman made sure everyone got some of the snacks in the shop. It would give them a change from the food bars. Ashley followed everyone out and used her telekinesis to lock the door. Then they resumed their walk north. Around 1pm Ashley called a halt for lunch and everyone moved towards a small food court.

It was a nice day, the sun shone brightly but it was not too warm. Could have been like an outing with friends but things were a bit different. Fluttershy noticed that there were no birds, no insects or even any animals. Even in the city there are some animals and birds. Could feel that the air was not totally clean, just a little bit tainted. The Combine had left this area alone, there were no bombed buildings. Then there were the new people that they added to the group.

Two of the new people had been rude to Fluttershy when she was offering food and water and some of the original members had intervened. Also some of the new people were not comfortable having a pony as a leader. Ashley did not really want to be a leader anyway but she knew where to go and how to get there.

Sherman went through the hand signals again when everyone had finished eating. The new folks that they had found were gang bangers but they had enough sense to not cause trouble.
Cocky and sullen, yeah, I love those qualities. That will be annoying. Hope they listen and try not to get killed. Do not like hearing that we will be fighting soon. That patrol that Ashley keeps sensing will be moving close enough to be a threat. These and other thoughts filled Sherman's mind. He checked his guns again. Then he told the group members with guns to check the status of their own guns too.

Two hours later Fluttershy found herself crouched behind a "car", straining her ears to hear what was going on. She could smell the rust on the rear bumper. Someone had given the scatter and hide hand signal and Fluttershy found the nearest car to hide behind. The wind shifted to blow up the block and Fluttershy could smell wolf, bear and dog. Dogs were OK but wolf and bear made her crouch lower. Wolves and Bears kill and eat ponies. She had not heard or seen anyone get hurt or killed but pony instincts told her to fear those animals.

Ashley peeked around the rear fender and took a quick look at the Claw Combine patrol. There were four creatures riding slowly on a red and black platform with a lot of sharp angles and it was the size of a small car. Think of a small open jeep from the wheels up. Then erase the wheels and you have an idea what the platform looked like. The platform just floated above the ground silently.

She could smell what type of creatures were on the platform. There was a big gun in the back that was being handled by a bear. two wolves in the back seat and a dog in the front driving. All of the creatures looked like they walked on their hind legs like people and they wore some sort of flexible black mesh armor with a bit of dark magic in the armor. The creature's heads were covered by dark shiny helmets that were big enough to hide their muzzles. She could sense that the big gun was an energy based weapon as well as the other rifles the creatures had in their hand like paws. Each creature was alert and wary, they could sense prey was near.

Ashley was glad the wind was blowing up the block so the CC creatures could not smell the group. The platform stopped and the two wolves got out on opposite sides and crouched along the side of the platform and then the bear fired the big gun. A beam darker than midnight came out of the barrel of the gun and flew down the block. There was a "Bang". Ashley did not wait to see what happened behind her and quickly slid out from behind the car and fired two shots at the bear's head and slid back behind the car. The bear fell behind the platform, then the enemies started firing. The group returned fire from behind cars.

The dog quickly rolled out of its seat on the platform and slowly started to advance up the block using the cars for cover while the other wolf tried to get to the big gun. Ashley shot the wolf. It went down with a yelp. The other creatures got taken down quickly too. They did not make any sounds other than their bodies hitting the ground. Even though the fight seemed to take minutes, it was really was a few seconds.

Fluttershy had been watching the fight from the rear crouched behind a car and it was pretty scary. A black beam had hit one of the cars and burned a large hole in it and make the car rock from side to side. Someone had been behind the car but Fluttershy did not know what happened to that person. The gunshots were pretty loud. It seemed to be over now, she could smell blood from further down the block, it made her feel queasy and a little scared. Then she heard Ashley scream, "Its going to explode, move away from the cars and find cover away from the street!"

Ashley had been walking towards the CC platform to scan it but she sensed it starting to charge up. She yelled a warning and started running back up the street. Thank goodness for the time she spent jogging and her pony legs. Human legs would not move fast enough. Once she had put some distance from the platform, Ashley crouched and laid down on the ground and covered her head.

The platform exploded and it took some cars with it. it was a chain reaction as several cars blew up and the explosions traveled up the block. It was so loud, Ashley passed out.

Sherman looked around at the damage, there were pieces of flaming metal all over the place. He wondered where was Ashley? Is everyone OK? Rich volunteered to go down the block and get Ashley and anyone else that was down there. Sherman did a headcount of the folks nearby, everyone was OK but where was Steve? Sherman asked Fluttershy to look for Steve.

Rich came back with some fighters and Ashley. She looked dazed and talked too loud. "We have to move over a few blocks, can't just head up, the CC will send patrols straight down to this area," Ashley yelled. Fluttershy gave a shout, she had been looking for Steve and had found him.

Ashley's ears had been ringing but the ringing was slowly going away. Her exhaustion was trying to pull her down to sleep but she fought it back. Too bad about Steve, she did not know his last name and no one knew it either. It seemed like a piece of wreckage had cut him in half. There was not enough time to bury his body and the CC patrols would be coming soon.

Ashley gave Fluttershy a big hug. Ashley figured that Fluttershy had not seen too many dead bodies, this was probably her first. Someone had closed Steve's eyes and covered him with a blanket. There was no priest or rabbi but some folks had a Bibles so they picked some passages and said them over Steve's covered body.

Ashley decided to cremate Steve's body but she was having problems getting the immolation spell to work. Rita stepped up and touched Ashley's horn with her own to give Ashley more power. There was enough power in the immolation spell to burn the body to ashes instantly. After that Rita collected Steve's ashes in a can so they can bury it later. Ashley was hoping to make an urn for Steve's ashes later but first they have to avoid the Claw Combine.

They packed up and moved across town and then north. Ashley could barely keep her eyes open, she was so tired. Several hours later, they found a small apartment building that was big enough for the whole group. Rita was able to unlock the doors and they put Ashley and Fluttershy in the same room on the same bed. Both of them were dead to the world.

Sherman had Rich handle distributing the food and water and Sherman kept the extra guns in his room. He did not trust the gang bangers. Hopefully tomorrow, we will be at the DC Herd. He looked out the window at the dark buildings and thought about sleep but that was as reachable as the moon.