Fallout: Equestria - Operation Killjoy
Chapter 8: Silence
Previous ChapterNext Chapter“Most ponies think that being quiet is to protect yourself. In reality it is a weapon. The zebras learned it during the war. Ponies are learning it now.”
Fade tried to avoid Midnight while they were searching the storage hall. It was reaching deep into the complex and made it difficult for them to truly grasp the intricacy of the installation. With every shelf it became clearer that during the last moments before the bombs fell the Hub was emptied of everything that was necessary for short- and long term survival. The best Fade found was some food bars; hard, stale and most importantly, practical.
With the frustration growing, so too did the pain in Fade’s muzzle. She stopped and let the others search for the needed suits and anything useful that was left behind in the hurry. Fade went to the hygiene section, searching for some medicine to dull the pain. She only found weak painkillers that would help her headache and took two. She drenched a towel in brown, but at least cold water from the tap and pressed it against the side of her face.
She contemplated taking a third pill when she finally noticed her reflection in the mirror. Fade couldn’t recall the last time when she saw her face that vividly. One half was swollen, her nose and lips covered in blood. She could barely make out the color of her coat and mane from all the dirt and grime in it. Fade asked herself why all of this had happened to her of all ponies.
A noise turned her attention away from the mirror. It was Key, who was now looting soap and toothpaste from the shelves.
“Don’t take this,” Fade said. “Look for healing potions and other things.”
Key nodded briefly and went to another shelf to keep searching with much less enthusiasm.
Fade left the bath, unable to bear her reflection. She only stopped and peeked inside to make sure Key was searching for proper medicine. Instead she found that Key was just filling her own pockets with toothpaste and other things. Fade didn’t stop her and thought to herself that ponies Key’s age were supposed to steal chocolate bars. It was one of the few pleasures Fade enjoyed until the bombs took that away too.
“Why are we not using that?” Key pointed to the Vertibuck. “I thought it could fly.”
Feather looked up from the heavy bags with the needed suits. They were nothing more than a plastic overall, probably worn under power armor. At least the bags weren’t too heavy. “No. It’s broken.”
“How do you know that?” Key asked.
“You know… One of the Shadowbolts was firing at Fade and hit the Vertibuck and destroyed the engine.”
Fade looked up as well. “I don’t recall anypony shooting at me. These fuckers wanted me alive. Won’t make any sense to dust me.” She looked at Feather and thought she saw something in her eyes. Something familiar like every time when she said her father would return soon. “You… hit it by accident, didn’t you?”
“No.”
“She did.” Midnight said. He just finished preparing his gear. The bag with the suit was weighing heavily on him. “Doesn’t matter anyway. We should leave before the Enclave returns and look for a shelter for the night on the way to the mine.” He didn’t wait for any answer and trudged through the dirty water to the entrance. Fade sighed and groaned when her tired body protested against the weight of her luggage.
“What about Tomcat’s engine?” Key asked.
“What engine?” Feather said.
Fade only shook her head. “We are not going to Orlov.”
“Is it because Brave was there?” Key asked. “I mean… Was he involved in what made Orlov so dangerous?”
“Of course not,” Feather said. “You know… After all, it is not known what caused the final destruction of Orlov. It got hit by a bomb, but that wasn’t what killed the city.”
“The terminals say that Brave was involved in a Shadowbolt operation, ordered by the O.I.A.—”
“Brave was not a Shadowbolt!”
“But—”
“No, Key.” Feather’s voice was stern. “The ponies were so paranoid of the zebras, that they obfuscated their own records to lead zebras on the wrong track! Anyway… Midnight is right. We have to leave.”
They left in silence. A small storm had picked up during the time they were scavenging the Hub. They all adjusted their clothes, yet Fade was both glad and worried about the weather. For one part, the Enclave won’t follow, but she couldn’t shake off the feeling of pegasi causing the weather on purpose to trap them inside.
But soon she worried more about Midnight. He was walking much faster and didn’t wait as often. At times he disappeared amidst the cold snow. He only let them catch up if he wanted to consult Key’s PipBuck.
The storm got worse with every hour and soon the darkness of the night made it impossible for them to wander any further. Only through sheer luck they found an abandoned carriage. Feather checked the content on the loading bed, but only briefly. A soft shake of her head told them there was nothing desirable to be found.
“Push some snow together to build walls,” Midnight said, quite absently. “That will be our shelter for tonight.”
Fade and Key helped Midnight to turn the carriage into a provisoric shelter. Feather hesitated and looked back at what she found on the cart. Key crawled under the cart to dig a small pit for them to have more room. After some time the shelter was finished and the cold along with exhaustion took their toll.
They crawled into the narrow shelter and stood together to share the meager warmth. Only Midnight remained distant from them. He wrapped his clothes around his body and soon retreated into his mind to wait out the cold night. Key gave Fade a wary glance at Midnight’s quiet behavior, but all Fade could do was to give her a hug and help adjusting the bags, so she didn’t have to rest her head in the cold snow.
After they settled down, Feather tinkered with an energy cell.
“Where did you find that?” Fade asked. “Shouldn’t you keep these for your rifle?”
“The rifle is trash. It’s a miracle the shot made it through the armor. Here.” Feather gave Fade the energy cell, which radiated some heat now. Then she prepared a second one. “Midnight. Take this.”
“I’m fine.” He turned away and rested his body against the snow.
Feather just kept the cell and turned her back to Fade and Key.
Fade was slowly turning the cube shaped cell in her hooves. “Did you get them from the Enclave?”
“Yes. And enough plasma grenades to kill a dragon.”
Fade turned to Key so she could keep the cell between them, sharing the warmth. “And their armor was sealed as usual?”
“Yes. Sleep now.”
Hours before dawn they gave up on sleep. The storm calmed down, but they didn’t dare go out into the darkness. Fade was too concerned that Key’s flashlight could be seen by the Enclave. Like this they waited around the warm energy cells and took a few bites from the cold military rations. It was more the boredom than appetite, which made them snack every once in a while. None of them talked. Neither Fade nor Midnight knew what to say without causing an argument. The more both were trapped with nothing but their thoughts, the more they wondered why Feather brought them to this forsaken place.
Fade glanced over to Midnight who was covered in a thin layer of frost. He hadn’t moved one inch since he set down to rest. She wanted to know what he read on these terminals about her father and why her mother didn’t want to find out more. Fade didn’t even think to ask. The way Feather was looking at the energy cell told her she wasn’t bored. She was waiting. Waiting like they did in the pegasi camps; Watching and listening to pick out an Enclave loyalist or collaborateur who would snitch for food.
It was that watchful promise of violence Fade saw not only in Feather’s but Midnight’s eyes as well. She decided to stay quiet.
At dawn they left their shelter.
The clouds were still covering the sky and inked the snowy landscape in gray but the slight snowfall was a welcome change to the stormy weather of the last days. The wind was calm and for once they didn’t need to pull their clothes tighter to feel the illusion of warmth.
It was almost serene. The northern mountains were just visible in the far distance. Anything that reminded one of the wartime industry was covered in snow. The machines were quiet and for them it almost felt like this was what Equestria was supposed to be. Quiet and serene.
Soon Midnight forced his way through the snow to aim for a nearby highway. Like a scar it wound its way through the round and soft landscape. Even the wide roads between Stalliongrad and the heavy industry areas were elevated, to not lose valuable soil to grow potatoes. Fade wondered if there were still frozen potatoes worth digging for.
“Not there, Midnight!” Feather called. “The snow is not deep enough.”
He turned around, not hiding the annoyance in his eyes.
“It’s the corpses,” Feather said. “Above us was a settlement… The Enclave didn’t pick up the corpses.”
Midnight continued his way, but did no longer head for the next driveway.
“What’s wrong?” Key whispered to Fade. “What happened?”
“Nothing,” Fade said. She didn’t want to think of the times when she saw a dead pegasus slowly slipping through the clouds.
Key looked at her PipBuck and in fact it marked down a city. “Yakutograd,” she whispered. “How many ponies lived up there?”
“Too many for us to survive.”
“Do you hear that?” Fade asked and her ears were twitching. At first she thought it was her rattling breath but now she was sure that it was water. She trampled through the snow, away from the group to cross a small hill. When she reached the top, she stopped and her body froze like the first time she saw the wasteland with her own eyes.
A thin brook was squirming through the snow; The colors of a sick and infested rainbow permeating not only the liquid it was made of, but also spreading into the snow around them. It was nothing more than a trickle but its effect on the surroundings was repulsive. Fade returned to the others who were waiting.
“Nothing.” It was all she said. It was all she wished for.
But not too much later the others realized what Fade saw. They all slowed down at the sight of colorful veins, as if the snow wanted to become flesh. They remained as far away as they could, not sure what was hidden under the treacherous snow. But their path led them into rocky terrain and between high reaching ruins of long abandoned factories. Even with the chimneys no longer spewing smoke into the air, a rotten smell was permeating through it.
Feather soon took the lead, able to navigate them through the maze of factory halls. Even she stopped or slowed down when she noticed discolorations on the metal walls, which she couldn’t recall from an earlier visit. Key remained close to Fade and Midnight had his rifle ready, eyeing each crevice with worry.
After another hour, Feather stopped at the sight of a festering wound in the landscape. A massive pit stretched out in front of them, surrounded by rusty husks of factories. But not one single construction was at the bottom. None wanted to reclaim the land, even though an old advertisement board promised a bright future if one would buy.
The only future the pit promised was decay. Not even snow and ice was able to settle in the old mining pit. Instead of rock and frost, a sick lichen was covering every inch of naked rock. Any trace of liquid appeared to be soaked up by the tainted ground and replaced with a slowly swirling ooze. None of them could say if the constant movement was real or a trick of their eyes.
“This is the place?” Midnight asked. Even he wasn’t able to hide the worries in his voice. Fade found a trace of life returning to his eyes at the sight of the danger.
Feather only nodded. “Find a clean building to get into the suits.”
It was an order.
The suit was too tight to wear anything more than thin clothes to shield from the cold. Their only purpose was to be worn under power armor in case the Shadowbolts had to embark on a mission involving any kind of chemical or biological warfare. None of them knew under which category taint would fall.
All but Key were struggling to get into them for their trip down into the salt mine. Their bodies were already shivering from the ambient cold, making them feel exposed and naked. The suits took away their ability to fly without the lift of power armor to compensate for the heavy plastic. Key helped with her magic to seal the strange plastic zippers and helped tighten the straps of their masks. They tied their flashlights on their heads, certainly for the last time; There would be no decontaminating them from the taint.
When Fade took her mask, she found a plastic tag attached to it.
“Contaminants: Insecticides, Morphocide, Thaumacide; Cleansed.
Suit obsolete; Reason: No Balefire Radiation Protection.”
She removed it and found herself hoping that Princess Celestia would help.
“Are you alright, Fade?” Key asked, trying to swallow the worry.
“Yes.” Fade lied. “Be careful and try to find some wood to make a fire.” She put on the mask, biting on the rebreather, containing the magic air filtration talisman. She winced from the plastic taste and smell.
Feather gave her a pat on the shoulder. Fade only saw the eyes of a stranger. A brief glance to Midnight and she saw concern in his eyes as well. She took a deep breath, but found her breathing hindered by the filter. Feather was already on her way out, driven by something not even Midnight and Fade could guess.
“E.F.S.,” Fade mumbled to Key around the rebreather. She was the last to leave their small outpost. Midnight waited and gave Key a small nod, before both followed Feather.
Feather poked her hoof briefly into the discolored snow. She waited, observed the thin plastic for a whole minute. Only when she was sure the toxic colors wouldn’t stick or penetrate the thin skin, she tried a second time. Then she took the first step into the strangely warm snow. Waiting… waiting…
Only then Fade and Midnight came closer. Both couldn’t hide the fear in their eyes. Midnight remembered the ghouls from Hippocratic Research. The cancerous growth took away their ability to walk. He didn’t want to imagine what the taint did with their internal organs.
While they hesitated, Feather kept walking slowly to the pit. Like a mouth it opened from the ground, ready to swallow them.
“Wait!” Midnight tried to shout through his mask. Luckily, it made Feather stop. Midnight began to search in the untainted healthy snow, looking into some of the closest buildings for rebar, wood or anything they could use to test the ground. But he only found a metal rod, covered in rust and one end terrifyingly sharp.
Feather took it anyway, balancing it awkwardly with her wrapped up wing and foreleg. She was the first to approach the wide ramps down into the hole. Their hooves were sinking into the rock, like it was a rubbery organ. Rainbow colored ooze pooled around the hooves, the warmth of bile. All around them was the sick swirling pattern of colors, making it impossible to guess the structure of the rocky walls.
At the bottom, Feather probed the knee high sludge with the pole. Only when she was sure that nothing was there, she stepped in. Moving one foot took them minutes. They couldn’t allow a mistake or an oversight. Even the smallest damage to their suit and they would suffer something they couldn’t even imagine.
Fade observed the small ripples of each and every one of their movements, holding her breath and tensing up whenever she saw an irregularity in the patterns. But with three ponies slowly wading, everything became irregular. Every other second she moved a hoof to where she would normally carry her knife. Even Midnight was restless, unable to focus, unable to say where danger could come from… unable to tell what was dangerous at all.
But Feather kept going and soon they reached the entrance to the cave.
“I lead…” Midnight mumbled. He turned on the flashlight and took the metal rod to step in first. Even though his lamp was growing weaker it was bright enough to reveal the interior of the cave.
The walls were covered in a growth of unknown color, sprinkled with organs of unknown purpose. A feverish warmth breathed out of the cavern. The consistency of the liquid became more like mud and reached up to their bellies by now.
As Midnight stepped in, he probed the ground just like Feather did. His eyes fell on metal barrels and crates, torn open by something and now covered with a thin layer of flesh, with teeth growing on it like tiny flowers.
“Feather! You sure?”
“Keep going.”
“Are you sure the disk is intact?” Midnight asked, fighting with the rebreather in his mouth.
“Keep going.”
“It eats metal!”
“Keep going or I go first!”
Midnight glared into Feather’s eyes. “Okay…” he whispered and continued. Slowly but surely they inched their way forward. They all warned each other of anything that looked sharp enough to damage the suits. They all stood away from the teeth. Even the filtered air began to stink and Fade realized that she was sweating. She already found it pooling around her hooves.
A path was splitting off to their right. Barrels, crates and more slimy growth made it almost impassable.
“Forward.” Feather said.
Midnight nodded and looked down the tunnel. The head of a dog, hairless with bulging eyes, was embedded in the growth. He noticed a hoof wrapped around the neck, choking the cadaver. But Midnight couldn’t find the pony it belonged to.
“Midnight?” Fade asked, worried why he stopped.
“Just a corpse.” He continued, prodding the way and piercing countless ulcers, which bled more unpleasant colors into the ooze. When Fade passed the tunnel, she looked down but couldn’t see what Midnight found.
Soon the tunnel widened, splitting up to the left and right. The ceiling was terrifyingly low, the ooze reaching up their chests. The tunnel to the left was almost fully flooded.
“Fade. Your light.” Feather demanded and stepped closer. With the slimy hooves she took the light away, making sure to not spread any filth on the lamp. After Feather mounted the light on her head, she headed to the left tunnel.
“Wait. Quiet!” Midnight said and raised the pole to reveal the sharp end.
When they looked in the same direction, they saw something breaking the liquid’s surface. Ears. They were nothing but hairless, skinny flaps, growing small tendrils and more teeth.
“It was twitching… When Feather moved,” Midnight barely dared to whisper.
“The disk is less than a few feet away,” Feather said, her body tensing up for a final rush.
“Mom! Wait!”
Feather didn’t wait. The moment she forced her way through the liquid, the strange ears were twitching again before erupting into an equally mad dash to her. Faster than they could ever move it slithered through the water, body already rising to reveal the head of a dog and a mare.
Midnight raised his makeshift spear, blocking its path. The creature, already in front of him, raised up to tower above him. The dog’s head was halfway devoured by the side of the mare’s face, which turned into a grotesque mouth, while leaving the muzzle intact and with a satisfied smile on her lips. The seam where the body of the dog and mare merged together, opened like a slit shaped pupil to reveal dozens upon dozens of tendrils and egg sacks. It leaned forward, Midnight tried to jump back, but his weak body couldn’t fight against the sludge. All he could do was pray when the creature pushed him down.
Fade couldn’t hear his screams but she knew he did.
She couldn’t see the struggle unfolding just a few steps away from her. The frantic squirming made the water boil and splash, but Midnight’s flashlight was now lost in the water.
“Mom!” Fade yelled, fighting with the rebreather to get her voice heard. She saw a tiny glimpse of light down one tunnel, but she couldn’t leave Midnight behind like this. Turning left and right, not knowing where to go, she had to decide. Fade decided to face the darkness. Stumbling towards the noise, she searched for the pole. There was nothing else she could do.
In her frantic search her hoof bumped against the sharp edge. She froze, stopped breathing, she couldn’t even hear her heartbeat anymore. The icky warmth made it impossible for Fade to know if the suit got pierced. There was no pain. No squirming feeling. She didn’t know if ponies felt anything at all.
A flash of light drew her attention back to the struggle. Feather was returning.
“Mom!” Fade yelled and picked up the pole. She sought help but her mother just… kept walking. Ignoring the creature, ignoring Midnight, ignoring her. “Mom!” She was leaving them. Leaving her. She couldn’t even shape her thoughts into words.
As the threat of being left behind in the dark became more apparent to her, Fade turned around. Midnight’s light was the only thing that would allow her to escape. She needed to save him. After all, he knew what was written on the terminals about Brave. After all, he saved her from the monster in Tall Tale.
Fade turned around, realizing she was already next to the monster. In the fading light she saw the bulging eyes of the dog’s head. Carried by the sludge, she reared up, holding the pole with her forelegs and a wing to align the tip with her target.
A sudden push forward, pressing her entire body’s weight into the thrust, the spear pierced the eye. She fell against the spongy body of the monster, driving the pole deeper into it.
The monster suddenly squirmed and yanked its body around, hitting Fade’s head with the metal rod. She slipped away and fell into the water, darkness surrounding her. She felt something wet and warm spreading all around her muzzle. She could barely tell the ground apart from the slimy water. She couldn’t breathe; The mask was filled with sweat and now blood.
Suddenly she felt hooves around her chest, pulling her up. She felt her head break through the surface, but she couldn’t see nor breathe. The sludge was blocking the mask’s intake and every attempt to take a breath was punished with slimy blood rushing down her throat. The hooves kept tugging. She heard Midnight’s voice faintly between the drumming of her heart.
He helped her get out. That’s all her mind could conjure up; A plea to not get lost in the darkness. She wished it was Feather’s hoof. Like twenty years ago when she led her out of that dark room in a house above the clouds, where they waited for the balefire storm to end.
But she knew it wasn’t Feather.
Midnight had to stop Fade from tearing the mask off her face. Her chest was hurting from the lack of air. All she managed to breathe in was the stench inside the suit. Key used her magic to clean the mask and suit with snow. The cold was piercing through Fade’s sweaty coat.
“I think it’s clean enough,” Key eventually said.
Fade tore the mask off her face, taking a greedy gasp for air, only to cough the blood and snot into the snow. Her throat protested from the cold air, still saturated with the smell from the salt mine.
“Fade?” Key was worried and stepped closer.
Midnight signaled her to stay away. “We are still covered in taint. Keep your distance.”
Still worried, Key moved away, while Midnight took up the task to clean Fade’s suit with snow. She began to shiver, first from the cold but then from something else when she saw Feather cleaning herself not too far away.
Fade growled and made her way to Feather with furious steps. “Mom!” She yelled. “Why the fuck did you abandon us?”
Feather gave her daughter a dismissive look and removed the mask. “Have you forgotten what I taught you about being quiet? Or do you want to lure in what lives here on purpose?”
Fade’s body shook more. She wanted to hit something. “Stop this bullshit, Mom! We needed you back in there!”
“There was nothing I could have done. I didn’t have any weapons.”
“You had the fucking light!”
Feather glared at Fade and without answering she continued cleaning the suit with snow.
Fade didn’t know what to say about Feather’s indifference. “You… you could at least apologize.”
“For what? Doing the smart thing?”
“Smart? What is smart about leaving your own daughter behind?”
“I didn’t say it’s right.”
Again, Fade was silent. She looked at Midnight who was now taking care of his own suit. Key was sitting nearby, being lost while Fade and Feather were arguing.
Fade sighed until her chest heaved and she coughed again. “So… you got the disk?”
Feather nodded and clumsily opened her wing. The disk was covered in thick sludge. “Key? Can you clean this for us? But don’t put it into your PipBuck. There could be a protective spell on it.”
From the distance she took the disk with her levitation magic. “Feels strangely heavy…”
“So… this is Killjoy?” Fade asked after her coughing stopped.
Feather shook her head. “You know… It’s only the coordinates where Killjoy is located.”
Fade’s glare returned. Even Midnight stopped cleaning and his eyes pierced Feather.
“Beg pardon? What did you say?” Fade asked.
“I said it’s the coordinates where Killjoy is located.”
“Coordinates…” Fade whispered. “For a fucking set of longitudes and latitudes you were willing to let us die in a shitehole?” Her voice raised again, echoing from the dead factory buildings. “They could have told you! Simply, fucking told you!”
“And risk it being discovered? Ask Midnight how great his brain feels years after the Ministry was done with him.”
“Midnight is not even involved in Killjoy!” Feather yelled back.
“But I am! One wrong word, one slip up and Pinkie’s ponies would go through my mind. And maybe check yours after they didn’t find anything in mine!”
“You were a courier, for fuck’s sake! You can’t be that involved in Killjoy, can you?”
Feather was quiet and only looked at the ground.
“Mom! Were you part of Killjoy?”
Feather looked at Midnight, studying his eyes for a long while. She nodded. “Yes. I was a significant part of Killjoy.”
“When did you plan to tell us that?”
“About now…”
“About now?” Fade yelled and stomped the ground. “Why didn’t you tell us about it in Tall Tale? Why the fuck didn’t you tell me after the stupid bombs fell? Any other time but now!”
“And jeopardize everything? Do you think Shib would have come with us, if she knew I am the top priority pony on Everlast’s list?”
Midnight removed his mask. “Everlast is searching for you?”
“Maybe he is. Maybe he isn’t. We have no idea from where he learned about Killjoy. If he got it from an O.I.A. source, it may contain my name.”
“He would be stupid searching for a pony, who died most likely twenty years ago,” Midnight said.
“Like you?” Feather answered.
Midnight huffed and made his way back to their shelter. When he walked past Fade, she saw the disgust in his eyes.
“You are stupid, Mom. Fucking stupid.” Fade sighed. “Did you keep Dad’s identity secret as well? For some stupid Killjoy reason?”
“Leave Brave out of this,” Feather growled.
“Oh… Is that so? What about Key and Shib? Do they have to die before they get to be left out of this?” Fade didn’t wait for a response. “Key, let’s go back. It’s too cold here.”