“Easy there, girl,” Solana said, gently cradling her beloved rifle. “You’ll get to play soon enough.”
Solana was lovingly nuzzling up to the barrel of her favorite rifle, running her fingers along the weather-worn wooden stock with the word ‘Vera’ carved into it, with one hand, and gently holding it near its receiver with the other. On its top, there sat a variable zoom scope, all but covered in dings and scratches. Despite the mild damage, it has never let her down, always ensuring her bullets struck true. Under its barrel hung a bi-pod used for propping her gun on, helping her to steady her aim.
She was sitting atop a hill surrounded by rotting logs, sand, rocks, and staring out over a lifeless wasteland filled with more of the same, humming a happy tune as a hiss sounded from her radio. “This is Headhunter. All units, Status update!”
“Reaper here, we’re in position.”
“Talon here, we’ve got your back.”
“Murder Inc. here, en route. We’ll be on-site in thirty sierra!”
With a sigh, Solana removed her left hand from her companions stock, and reached for her radio. “Nightshade here, ready when you are.”
After carefully extending the bi-pod, Solana lay down on the ground, placing her magenta eye behind the scope and taking aim. About a half a mile away, she could see a large camp, with fires dotted about and two dozen raiders happily drinking and kicking around severed heads as if it were a game. To the east, she saw a group of three men approaching the camp, crawling on their bellies towards a cargo truck that has long since ceased being useful for anything more than storage.
“That must be Murder Inc,” Solana whispered to herself. “About time they showed up.” Scanning the outskirts of the camp, she spotted two more groups, one composed of two men sitting patiently behind an old fallen billboard that she identified as Reaper, and a group of three around the corner of a mostly collapsed building that looked to have once served as a Pharmacy. Making a mental note to check that building for medical supplies later, she turned her attention back to the camp setting her crosshairs over a raider that appeared to be the one in charge, basing this assumption on nothing more than the fact that the other raiders seemed to stay out of his way, and never retaliated when he would strike one of them. It didn’t matter anyway. A raider was a raider.
“Murder Inc. in position!”
Instantly the sound of a single shot rang out over the camp, and the sight of one raider’s head popping like a melon, and the raider behind him crumpling over, falling to his knees, his hands desperately trying to keep his insides from becoming his outsides.
“DAMNIT, NIGHTSHADE!!! I DIDN’T GIVE THE ORDER TO ATTACK YET!”
“Too late now, Headhunter” Solana replied, centering her crosshairs over another raider. “Are you going to join the party now? Invitation is still open.” Exhaling half her breath, she let loose another shockwave of sound to echo across the battlefield, dropping another raider like the sack of shit he was.
“OH FOR… EVERYONE! MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!” Headhunter cried over his radio. Instantly gunfire roared from every direction of the camp, with raiders dropping like flies. Occasionally, a raider would get smart and try to sneak out of the camp and flank one of the other groups, only to be taken out by long range sniper fire. Solana would never let them succeed in doing so. Afterall, that was the exact reason she was there. While she had no doubt that without her, the other squads would have been victorious, they would not have walked away without casualties. And besides, they paid well. Two hundred caps up front, and five hundred more if everyone survived. She only had to agree that the battlefield was theirs to loot, not hers.
The battle hardly lasted more than two minutes before the raiders were reduced to corpses. “Nightshade here, no movement in sight,” she said as she scanned the corpse riddled camp ground through her scope.
“Alright men, move in, but be careful. Never know when one o’ these sum bitches are playin’ dead. And Nightshade, you an’ me gonna have words after this,” Headhunter replied over his radio.
“Oh, come off it. You paid me to make sure your people left this raid with no more holes than they had when they started. By my count, It looks like I did my job exactly as I was told. Now if you will be so kind as pay me, I can be on my way.”
“Fine, fine. You’ll find your payment in tha trunk o’ a car tagged ‘670-HZC’ near our camp. Take your earnings and be on your merry, but I wouldn’t look forward to us hiring ya again if’n I were you,” Headhunter replied, clearly unhappy with Solana starting the fight early. “Leave yer radio in the trunk, If it ain’t there when I get back-”
“Yea, yea, I know. You’ll ‘have my head on a pike before I can spit’. It’ll be there,” Solana said, cutting him off, having heard his threats several times before. Climbing back to her feet, she picked up her beloved bolt-action .308 and dusted it off. “Don’t worry baby, when we find a trader, I’ll make sure to buy you something nice. How does ammunition sound, hm?” she said, lovingly stroking her rifle before she slung it over her shoulder.
Solana sighed to herself, knowing there was no way she would be able to investigate the old pharmacy now, Headhunter didn’t seem to be in the mood to see her anywhere near him or his men for the foreseeable future. It was probably long empty anyway, so no use risking a try. Turning, she started to make her way through the dead forest, if you could even call it that, and begun making way to Headhunter’s camp, and the car with her promised caps. As she walked, she turned on the radio on her pip-boy, met immediately by the lyrics to ‘Atom bomb baby’.
“Well, Vera, looks like today turned out to be pretty good after all…”
It was high noon now, the sun beat down on the land, and Solana had long since emerged from what little shade the dead trees in the forest provided. As she walked, she occasionally glanced down to her pip-boy, checking to see if it detected any enemies nearby. So far, it had been an uneventful trip, and she was nearing her destination. In the distance, she could see what used to be a small town, now abandoned save for Headhunter and his crew. On the roof of one of the buildings, she could see one of them keeping watch, while others were below tending to their weapons, shuffling equipment around, or just sitting in any patch of shade they could find.
“Back already?” she heard the man on the roof call out to her. “Where’s the boss?”
“He and the boys hung back to loot the camp. They shouldn’t be long. Don’t think he’s too happy with me. Told me to get my caps and go, so I plan to be gone before he gets back. Wouldn’t want another incident like last time.”
“HA! Tell me you didn’t pop a raiders skull two feet away from him again. That shit’s hard to wash off,” he said, barely able to contain himself.
“Nah, I just started the fight a bit early. Gotta keep everyone on their toes. Well, take care, and TRY to cut back on the cider. One of these days you’re gonna stumble off that roof!”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” he said, waving at her dismissively. “You better get your caps and get out of here before he gets back. As pretty as your head would look on a pike, I’d rather keep your body attached to it.”
Chuckling to herself, Solana made her way to the car with her caps stashed inside. Sure enough, in the trunk was a pouch with five hundred caps. Removing the pouch, she replaced it with the two way radio she borrowed for the mission and slammed the trunk shut. Bringing up her map, she selected her destination; Appletown. It would be a two day walk, and half of that trip would be scattered with radiation pockets, within what she liked to call the ‘radiation zone’, a general term for the whole area containing the pockets, but she had made the trip enough times to memorize their location, and the safest path between them. Still, that meant the odds of her crossing the path of Radscorpions or Ghouls would be very high indeed. Despite this, Appletown was the nearest place she could hope to find a trader, or at least one that wouldn’t try to blow her head off once the trade was complete. Trying to trade with anyone near THIS place carried that risk. With a destination in mind, and caps to spend, she began her trip to Appletown.
Humming along to herself as she walked, she began thinking of what she would do once she got to Appletown. “First, I need to take care of you, baby,” she cooed to her rifle. “We’re down to our last eight rounds of .308, and I REALLY need to find you a friend. I love you and all, but you don’t do me a whole lot of good up close, no offense. And I suppose I need to look into getting more Regen-stims. And water. And food… I really need to start writing all of this down,” she said, furrowing her brow as she went over her mental shopping list. “OOOH! Maybe I’ll get lucky with that Big Mac fellow! What do you think, Vera?” she asked, almost as if she actually expected her gun to reply. “No, you’re probably right. But a girl can dream, can’t she?”
As she walked along, she brought her rifle from its place on her back. She was near one of the radiation pockets, and while she knew how to avoid the radiation, she also knew that this was where some rather nasty creatures liked to call home. Creeping along, she tried her best to avoid any unwanted attention. She knew the path well enough, and was familiar with the terrain, which is why she mentally cursed herself for not keeping up with her ammo better.
“Eight shots… Looks like we’re really pushing our luck this time. If a family of mole rats show up, I’ll be down to swinging sticks in no time… Oh for the love of-” she exclaimed. As though fate itself was having fun at her expense, she spotted six feral ghouls in the distance. “SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!” she exclaimed, barely above a whisper. “Okay, they haven’t seen us yet. Let’s just sneak by and, FUCK!!!”
The ghouls spotted her, and she wasted no time bringing her sights down on the nearest howling monstrosity, and pulled the trigger. Instantly, the ghouls head blew into chunks, dropping it where it stood, but the other five ceased their howling and were now charging.
“FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!” she shouted as she pulled back on the bolt of her rifle, ejecting the spent shell, and slamming it forward to shove the next one in the barrel. Bringing it up once more, she aimed at the next ghoul, being made much more difficult by its erratic movements. Pulling the trigger once more, a hole was created in the ghouls chest about the size of an apple, severing its spine. “Two down,” she said to herself as she slammed another round into the chamber and took aim. Pulling the trigger again, the third ghoul screamed as its left arm fell to the ground. “SHIT!” she swore at herself, knowing that unlike people, a missing limb not only wouldn’t stop a ghoul, it barely slowed them down. Lining up her fourth shot, she selected another ghoul.
They were closing in on her, too close for the scope to do her any good now, yet too far for hip firing to work. Preparing for the worst, she reached down to her hip, grasping the handle of a knife, praying to whatever deity that happened to be listening to help her make it through this. The ghouls were closer now, close enough she could hit them without sights, so without wasting any more time, she yanked on the trigger, and was rewarded by a third fallen ghoul, most of its neck now missing. Swapping magazines as quickly as she could, she slammed home her fifth shell. Three more feet and they would be within melee range. Quickly bringing her rifle up, she pointed at the nearest ghoul and fired, taking out its right leg. Cursing herself, she flipped the rifle around, grabbing it by its scalding hot barrel, and swung it, the heavy wooden stock connecting with the head of, and dropping, her fourth ghoul.
Immediately dropping her rifle, she grasped her knife in her right hand, and slammed it hilt deep under the chin of the one-armed ghoul, killing it, but not before she felt something grab at her leg. Looking down, it was the ghoul she had blown the leg off of, and before she could react, it bit.
Letting out a scream that would be the pride of any banshee, Solana kicked the ghoul as hard as she could. It wasn’t enough to kill it, but it did get it’s teeth out of her leg, and buy her a moment to back away and retrieve her knife. Wasting no more time, she lunged down at the ghoul, screaming every profane word she could think of as she jabbed the knife repeatedly through the final ghouls skull.
“Well… Vera... we survived,” Solana said between pants. She picked up her dropped rifle and dusted it off before placing it’s sling over her shoulder, allowing it to hang over her back. Kneeling down, she opened up her rucksack and pulled out a roll of old bandages for her burnt hands and wounded leg. “We REALLY need to find you another playmate, Vera,” Solana said, painfully aware that as much as she loved her rifle, it was not good for these types of situations. Once finished, she placed what remained of the bandages back in her rucksack, and picked up her discarded, empty magazine. As she finished packing it away, she once more began her trek across the wasteland. “Three shots left… We can do this, we just need to stay quiet. Only a few more hours and we are out of this place. Once we get out of the radiation zone, we can…
"Oh, you have GOT to be fucking kidding me…”
Dear Diary,
It's been a year since I came to this country, and I STILL can't seem to find work. From everything I had heard, Equestria was supposed to still be a land of plenty, had a strong economy, and nobody was ever left needing for anything. It's why a lot of people were angry with them for hoarding the wealth and leaving the rest of the world to waste away. But it seems the situation isn't much better here afterall. Granted, I suppose some of my hardships are because of where I'm from; nobody wants to hire a woman from one of the very nations that the news broadcasts continuously slander. And here I am, stuck in a foreign country without a bit to my name, forced to sleep in a box. A BOX! Seriously, I wondered why I ever bothered listening to anyone back home. I wish I had stayed. At least there I still had a proper roof over my head and a soft mattress. Oh well... Tomorrow I suppose I'll try to make my way to a different town. Eighth time is the charm, right? It's a long shot, but maybe Ponyville has need for help in one of their orchards. It's not much, but it's something. At this point, I just want to eat something that wasn't found in a waste bin...
"Almost... There... Need to... Keep... Walking..." Solana said between pants. What would have normally been a two day trip had already taken six hours longer than expected, being slowed by an aching leg, brought on by the bite of a ghoul, and treated by nothing more than a bandage, as well as the radscorpion venom she took on when the noise of that battle attracted a few of the creature's attention. Her whole body felt like it was on fire, and she knew it was only a matter of time before she would succumb to its final effects. Her vision swam and spun, her head felt like it was splitting open, and her mind couldn't tell if the things she saw were real or fantasy. Once she thought she found a trader caravan she could purchase medication from, only to discover it was a rock. Once she thought she found a small town, only to discover it was nothing but her venom filled mind playing tricks on her. By this point she had given up making sense of what she saw. Fields of radroaches as far as the eye could see, tall tree-like creatures hurling bright red objects at her and laughing, even the stars in the sky seemed to be mocking her.
Finally giving up, Solana stopped and collapsed onto the ground. "Well... Vera... It's been a good run..." Solana said, closing her eyes, deciding to embrace the comfort death would bring. The fiery pain she had been feeling began to fade to a soft warmth, the pain in her leg softened to a dull throb, and slowly, her world began to fade to black.
Before she could drift off, she could sense a bright light on the other side of her eyelids. Opening them, she immediately regretted letting in the blinding light and snapped them shut immediately. She lay there for a few moments longer before trying to open them again, slowly this time. As she did, the sharpness of the light receded as her eyes adjusted to the unwanted disturbance.
"Good mornin' sunshine! I was startin' ta think I was gonna need to fit ya fer a box," she heard someone say.
Groaning, she turned her head to see a man seated next to her bed. 'A bed?!? What happened? Is this another hallucination?' she thought to herself. She tried to sit up, only to be met with one of the worst headaches she has ever felt, instantly sucking all desire to move out of her, and leaving her to collapse back on the mattress she found herself lying on. "Ugh... My head feels like it made sweet, sweet love, to a rock."
"Easy there darlin'. Ya ought not be tryin' ta move right yet. Ya know where ya are?"
Opening her eyes again, she began to take in her surroundings. On the walls were shelves filled with books. From the names on them, they seemed to be medical. Most of them pre-war, but there were a few that looked to be handwritten post-war books mixed with them. On other shelves and tables around the room there seemed to be bits of old medical equipment. At the foot of her bed, she could see the top of a footlocker with her beloved rifle laying on top. She could smell the faint hint of apples, and looking through the window, she could see apple trees in the distance. "A-apple... town? H-how? When?"
"Well..." The man replied. "Ya arrived here three days ago. Stumbled right through town ya did, mutterin' somethin' ta yerself. Everyone thought ya were drunk an' just let ya be. Didn't think nothin' TOO odd til ya started wanderin' figure eights through tha orchard an' collapsed. One o' tha boys checked on ya, said your were "burnin' up" an' drug ya to mah office. Been here e'er since. From what I could tell, you'd been stung by one o' them scorpions, nasty critters those, an' it looks like I was right. Ya also looked ta have a bite mark that became infected. Should be good now."
Closing her eyes again, she took a moment to process this. Somehow, she had managed to make it to Appletown, and nearly walked right by it. Radscorpion venom is a bitch. Apparently, she passed out in the orchard, and was taken to the clinic, and had been sleeping for "THREE DAYS?!?" Solana shouted, Immediately being reminded of her throbbing headache in the process. "Ooowwww... Remind me to NOT do that anymore..."
"More or less. Ya were quite tha sight. I give ya some anti-venom, an' ya spent tha rest o' tha night either talkin' to yerself, or screamin'. Had to strap ya down to tha bed after ya fell out fer tha second time. Last couple o' days ya been pretty quiet. Ya seemed to wake up a couple o' times, but ya would just mumble things I couldn't understand, and would pass back out just as quick as ya woke up. Gotta admit, ya had me wonderin' if'n ya were gonna make it."
"Hope you enjoyed the show. How long am I gonna be cooped up in here, Doc?"
"Well, I s'pose you can leave whenever ya want. Might be a bit 'fore you're up ta a hundred percent, but the venom should be out o' yer system now."
Hearing this, Solana began to sit up to gather her belongings, once again being reminded of her head splitting migraine, and collapsed back down on the bed. "Ya know what? I think I'll just lay here for a while longer," Solana groaned, clenching her eyelids together and clutching her head.
Early the next morning, Solana collected her belongings and stepped out of the makeshift clinic. All around her, she saw people going about their daily chores. In the orchards, there were people tending the apple trees that were the towns livelihood. In town, shopkeepers were opening their businesses, and others were milling about, repairing and reinforcing various buildings. On the outskirts of town, she spotted a trader, one whom she recognized as 'Cap Collector', doing business with a few locals.
"Bingo!" Solana whispered to herself, knowing this would be her best chance to re-stock at a decent price. "Come along, Vera. We've got some shopping to do!" she said
