Shell Casings

Shell Casings CH.1

Guns ‘n Trees

I slowly woke up on what I thought was a patch of dirt, realizing I wasn’t in my bed. I shot up onto my feet and looked around scared out of my mind. I see that I am in a forest clearing of some sort and all i saw around me were trees. My mind began to race, “where the fuck am I? Oh god, what happened? Why can’t I remember what happened!?!”. I began to panic. “Oh shit, shit, shit, shit!” ,my inner monologue screamed, “I’m so fucked! I’ll be stuck here forever and probably starve to death!” Suddenly another more stern voice barged in, “Shut the fuck up! You’ll be fine! Just calm down and take a chance to look around, you might be able to find a path of some sort.” I did as my subconscious told me and looked around in a calmer manner. I didn’t find any paths but i found something equally as good. On the ground were three weapons, A KABAR knife, A Savage Mark II FSS rifle and a USP. Immediately, I pounced upon them. Holding up the rifle i checked the magazine and it was full of .22 Long Rifle rounds. Feeling a bit more confident than before I checked the USP. The magazine for the handgun was also full. Sighing with relief, I looked up at the sky to see how much daylight I had left. The sun was still low in the eastern sky, just barely showing itself above the treetops. “Early morning”, i thought, “so i have a good amount of time for travel”. Slinging the rifle over my shoulder, I walked to the east, making my way through the thick woods.

After some time I managed to emerge from the woods onto a dirt path, with dead leaves and twigs crunching beneath my feet. I stopped to take a look at myself. I was wearing a black long sleeve shirt and dark colored jeans as well as a belt with a holster and sheath attached and black sneakers, I sheathed my knife and holstered my pistol before continuing on. “Hmm... i like it." I took a few steps forward onto the path and looked around and here the trees seemed to block out the sun, making the path dark, and the surrounding woods made the area more menacing and because of the shade from the trees everything seemed to have a blue tinge to it. The trees gave the illusion of weeping as their branches sagged down to the ground, making me feel even more uneasy then I already was. Some trees had vines that hung down almost all the way to the ground. I slowly began to walk down the path heading south. As I walked, the tree coverage slowly thinned out which calmed me a bit because I knew I was making my way out the forest. Suddenly I heard a deep growling noise come from a bush behind me and this kicked me into “RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!” mode and I ran as fast I could.

I kept running and running. My lungs were screaming for me to stop, they burned like hell but i kept running and running. Eventually I stopped and turned around panting heavily, looking to see if i was still in any danger. But all i saw were trees and that’s all I saw at that moment. Trees and guns. Shakily I took my USP out of its holster and looked at it with more scrutiny. The handgun was a standard variant made by Heckler and Koch there seemed to be no modifications at all. I unloaded the magazine and looked at the rounds, they were .40 Smith and Wesson jacketed hollow points. I reloaded the magazine and made the weapon safe. I holstered the pistol, still shaking, hoping I wouldn’t need to use it. I took a moment to calm myself before beginning to walk down the path again. After walking for some time, I saw a house. It was a small house with two floors and white vinyl siding. I almost jumped for joy when I saw that house. I ran towards the building feeling like I had been saved by God Himself. On my way over I saw a small brown rat crawling along a branch and it made its way down the tree. Thinking nothing of it, I ran up to the door and opened it up. Upon walking inside I took a blunt object to the gut. As it turns out, walking into a house with a gun on your back doesn’t leave a good first impression. Falling to the ground keeled over, I had my guns almost immediately stripped, leaving me with nothing but the concealed knife to fight off my attackers. But I couldn’t reach for my knife fast enough, before I had a rope tied around my arms. Now tied up and defenceless, I started squirming around in a vain attempt to escape. After a minute I had given up and laid there while my attackers conversed in whispers. After another five minutes, I heard one of them approach me and they rolled me over. Staring back down at me was an orange earth pony with a Stetson and a blonde mane that was tied back in a ponytail. My eyes widened and I opened my mouth to speak but was too shocked to say anything. The pony began to speak, “Alright, let’s get yah outta here, maybe Twilight knows what hay you are.” and she lifted me up onto her back. From that position I was able to look around a bit more and saw a pegasus with a pale yellow coat and long pink mane that was shying away from me and hiding behind a chair. The earth pony carrying me turned to her and said, “Come on Fluttershy grab this thing’s uh... things... and let’s get out of here.” The pegasus timidly grabbed my weapons and trotted over to the door. The two of them walked out the house and onto the path.