“Let’s keep Caltrop around, just to teach him a lesson.” I scrapped my hooves against the cold pavement in an attempt to get back to the other side of the hanger. “Lets go break him out of prison!” I wasn’t trying to do anything other than put the fact that Caltrop was dying in the other room out of my mind, and it wasn’t working. “Let’s just go and fucking fall in love with him!”

The wire spool ground against my horn. Without my magic, hanging it there was really my only option. The same couldn’t have been said about the bloody screwdriver though. I clutched it tightly in my fetlock and prayed to the goddesses that there was still a chance that I could save him.

However, the sound of approaching hoofsteps hammered any hope of that into the ground.

“Hey, Jerry Can.” The gravely voice of another stallion came from just past the next rusting hulk ahead of me. “You done with that bitch yet?” At this point, I’d really wished that I’d brought that rusty-ass revolver with me. “Because Cocoa is tryin to save the other…” He trotted around the corner and stopped as he saw me. Another unicorn ghoul in old military garb. Around his chest, hung a not-so shoddy looking hunting knife.

For a moment, he just stood there staring at me. Slowly, his eyes drifted back to the body of his friend. The knife lifted out of it’s leather sheath, and his expression of hatred had become just as sharp as the silver edge that he levitated toward me.

The knife wavered in the air. He lost control of it in his magic, and it clattered to the floor between us. I didn’t waste my chance. With a tired cry, I gave everything I could to crawl my way to the abandoned knife. Amazingly, I’d gotten to it before he even moved a step. With a flick, I tossed the screwdriver aside and grasped the knife in my fetlock.

“W-who are you?” The stallion stammered. His suddenly panicked voice drew my attention. He stood, wide eyed and shaking. It wasn’t me he was looking at however, and it definitely wasn’t my knife now at his throat.

“We work for Flint.” Null’s dulcet tones were a gift from the goddesses, even if this was all his fault. “And I am sorry to say that in attacking us, you have made a fatal mistake.”

“Wait!” He cried out. With a simple flick, Null drew the knife around, and shoved it up under his chin. With a sickening sound, the knife speared up and into the stallion's head, silencing him forever. His body slumped down to the floor, letting me breathe a small sigh of relief.

“Had I known that you were always getting into fights,” Null sighed. “I might have urged your stallion friend to bring you with me.” His bloody knife flicked through the air, splattering the black ghoul blood and brains onto the ground.

“Instead, you left me with a drunk who'll die if we don't get these things to him.” I snapped at him. I tossed the knife and frantically looked around for where I tossed the screwdriver. I spied it a few feet behind me, and tried to turn myself around. As I did, I felt Null’s magic wrap around me.

“Tell me what happened.” He sheathed his knife in his saddlebags and gave me a judgemental look that I didn’t fucking deserve.

“No, grab that screwdriver, and take me to Caltrop.” He didn’t have time for this shit, as I’d been slow enough as it was. “Get us to the office, now.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” He grumbled and lifted me onto his back. “I do not know what is so hard about explaining as we go.”

“You want the short version?” When he set me down, the last of my adrenalin drained out of me. I’d once again become fully aware of all of the injuries I’d acquired. “You abandoned us. Caltrop got drunk. Robots attacked, and Caltrop got hurt. Good enough?”

“Is there a long version?” He smirked and glanced back at me. It was enough that had I not needed him, I’d have stabbed his stupid smiling face with my horn. “I did not abandon you.” He moved to a slow gallop towards the other end of the hanger. “Your small companion's condition worsened, far beyond my abilities to help. I took her to a clinic a few hours from here.”

Even if he had a good enough reason to leave, he still knew about this place. With murderous ghouls and robots around, I could hardly even begin to fathom why he’d chosen for us to stay here. So long as he helped to save Caltrop, I guess it didn’t matter.

None of the machines made a move on us as we grew ever closer to the office area ahead. The lights inside had gone dark, and I couldn’t help but think that it was not a good sign. Each bobbing gallop was a symphony of pain, balanced on a single repeating beat of hope. With a flash of his horn, he threw the door to the office open...

…just in time to see a ghoul stab Caltrop in the chest. His eyes were bloodshot, and his face looked like it had lost all it’s color. Out of his chest, and still in the hooves of the lab coated mare, was a thin silver pipe.

“Wait!” The ghoul mare cried out with the most gravel filled, cringe inducing voice I’d heard in the wastes. Wided eyed and in fear, she recoiled Null’s blade slipped from his bag. “I let him breathe again!” The mare cringed and cowered as she stepped back from the light of the door. I hadn’t gotten a good look at her, but her retreat had bathed her in the darkness of one of the corners.

With a wet gasp, a bubbling spray of blood burbled up through the pipe, and Caltrop drew in a shallow ragged breath. He shut his eyes and gave out a low whine, but he was alive.

“He had a collapsed lung and had begun to suffocate. I had to open it up to help him breath.” The mare spoke in a scared tone. Something about the way she spoke though gave out that she knew what she was doing. That, or it was the fact that I’d just barely spotted the Ministry of Peace logo on her still marginally white lab coat.

“You saved him?” I asked, trying not to hold my breath. Knowing my luck, we weren’t past the danger yet. “Why? You don’t even know us.” Null’s knife wavered in the air, hanging for the decision to be made as to if this mare was a threat or not.

“I may not know you, but that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve help when it’s needed.” She said, sounding more resolute. That was enough for me, and I nudged Null in the side with my hoof. He hesitated, but lowered the knife.

“Before I left, he told me to find some things for him.” I hoofed the spool of wire off my horn and tossed it next to the battery. “This wire, that battery, and this screw driver.” There was something else he’d needed, and in the flurry, I’d forgotten what it was.

“His injuries, did it come from shrapnel of some sort?” Null perked up, gazing back at me. I gave him a simple nod, and he got to work. I don’t know how he knew what Caltrop had wanted, but he worked fast. He used his magic to unspool the wire, just to respool it around the length of the screwdriver. With his knife, he cut off a bit of the wire and frayed both ends of it.

“Yes, I see.” The ghoul spoke up. She stepped forward again, back into the light. She was a fairly worn ghoul if I’d ever seen one. More gaunt than some of the old corpses in the wastes, her near coatless brown skin looked as dry as paper. Bare patches of muscle coated most of her neck as well as her cheeks, and half of her muzzle had been scraped back to bone over time. Her eyes however, were still as vibrant and yellow as any still living pony. “A magnet to remove the debris.” She reached her hoof back and reached into her saddlebag.

“Yes.” Null simply replied, levitating the screwdriver over Caltrop’s chest. With a quick jerk, he pulled the silver breathing tube from his chest, and impaled the crude device through him. Caltrop gave out a whine and thrashed, but was silenced when Null touched the splayed wires to the battery.

A series of loud snaps pierced the room, and Caltrop convulsed sharply. As he did, Null slowly pulled the screwdriver out. The smell of cooking flesh and singed fur filled our nostrils, and the sight of the many metallic barbs sticking to the coiled wire made my stomach do flips inside me. The sheer amount of metal that Null pulled from his chest was something to behold, and something that burned into my mind. Caltrop had taken the brunt of the hit to save me, and I almost let him die.

“He’ll need this to close the wound.” In her hoof, she presented Null with a nearly empty potion. It was the last thing that he’d asked for, and though it wasn’t full, it would have to be enough.

Null used his magic to grab the bottle and float out a roll of what looked to be magical bandages from his bag. Quickly, he got down to work. As he did, a metallic hoof stretched out toward me. At first I thought it was one of my rear hooves, but this one moved with the Ghoul.

“That should stabilize him for now,” She rested her own cyber hoof on my shoulder, “but he’ll need proper treatment.”

“I know a doctor who resides in a town named shell.” Null grunted as he unraveled the roll of bandages. “I just came from there. He’s not far, but it’s still dark out.” He glanced over at me and used his horn to gesture me toward the door. “Find your battery and get your things together. We leave in five minutes.”

“You really think he’ll help you again?” The ghoul asked hesitantly. Her name was Cocoa, and over the last five years, she’d been held prisoner to the two psychotic ghouls that had occupied the hanger. I expected that her time with them was unfathomably worse than my time at the prison.

“Years ago, he was attacked and I saved him.” Null grunted under the weight of Caltrop. “He owes me his life.”

After the fiasco in the mountain hanger, it felt good to be walking on my own again. The battery on my left chafed against one of my bigger bruises, but it was manageable. Even with that, I’d offered to carry Caltrop. It seemed ,however, that Null was even more stubborn than Grandma tonight.

“Oh, miss Cap?” Cocoa smiled and stared at me brightly. “In the hanger, when I helped you retrieve your power pack, I noticed that you had viewed one of my memory orbs.”

I glanced ahead of me to see Null try to hide his guilty gaze. “Not by choice.”

“Oh, by no means was it wrong. I was just curious if you wanted to view the others in the set.” She shrugged and waved her hoof in dismissal. “Some unicorns love watching orbs, so I thought I might offer the others.”

“Thanks, but I don’t care for them.” I sighed and recalled the orbs I’d seen. Mostly just boring talking with a bit of a twist at the end, that’s all.

“Well, I have them if you change your mind.” She went back to scanning the road ahead. “Ever since my recolector broke, they’ve just been collecting dust.”

“Funny. It is an accurate description of the world we live in.” Null gave a bit of a smirk. “Though, there is something more to be said about giving away unused things.”

Cocoa cantered up next to him and gave a puzzled look. “Well, if they help somepony…”

“Sometimes unused things are best left alone.” I chimed up, hoping this wouldn’t turn into a pity party for Null. I understand that what he went through was bad, but honestly? I think I’ve dragged us all down enough in dwelling on my mistakes.

In the soft light of Null’s horn, an odd shape took form in the darkness. It looked like a hill, but it was flat on the side facing us. The closer we got, the more this side resolved into the front of a concrete bunker. It sat tucked neatly into the hillside, hardly a ponys’ height in size. A rusted metal sign hung above the door. It used to read ‘Air Raid Shelter’, but like everything, it had been corrected to fit the wasteland. Air Raid had been painted over to say ‘No Raiders’ and the rest of shelter had worn away over time, leaving only Shel.

Sometimes part of me wondered why ponies can’t just name things on their own, instead of reusing the same shit they find in the wastes. The better question had been, why did I care at all? I pushed the useless thought from my mind as Null tapped his hoof on the sealed metal door. A slot in the top of the door slid open. Lantern light poured out at us and cut through the dark night. Annoyingly, I had to raise my hoof to avoid being blinded by it. Slowly, the silhouette of a pony peered out at us.

“Let us in, we have wounded.” Null grunted.

The slot shut, and a there was a quick clang as the door was unlocked. Slowly, it swung open, and we were bathed in the light pouring up from a stairway that led deeper into the ground. A mare darker than the night itself waved us in, looking quite annoyed that we seemed to have bothered her.

I could care less as we filed in and walked down into wherever Null was leading us. The hallway was only the width of a single pony, and the ceiling was low enough that I had to hold my head down or I’d scrape my horn against it. The lack of space was something I’d have traded away for the old shelter Sandy had literally stumbled into, anyday.

“You know, this place was built to house almost a thousand ponies from the town just to the north.” Null spoke to us as if either of us cared for a history lesson.

“How fascinating.” Cocoa chimed up cheerfully from behind me. “Do you know how many made it in on the last day?”

Well, at least I hadn’t cared to know this shit.

“They say that only three hundred managed to get in.” Null picked up the pace as we walked down a seemingly endless set of stairs. “They locked the door behind them, even though there had still been time for others to make it.” I didn’t want to know the entire history of the Wasteland before we reached the bottom.

“Are you sure this doctor will help?” I sped up until I was nearly on his flank. My legs whined under the odd pace and heavy steps down, but they felt like they were holding out. “You said you saved him, but adding another favor on would make any pony angry.”

“Cast will help.” He simply threw back at me. “He has an agreement with Flint.”

“Of course he does.” I sighed. A hidden villa in the mountains, a half dozen private assassins, and nearly an army of slaves and grunts? Who doesn’t this guy own in the wastes?

“Flint pays a number of various doctors around the wastes to patch us up in the field if we need it.” He slowed his steps down slightly, forcing me to slow down in turn. It was hard to see past both him and Caltrop, but it looked like the way down opened up soon. “Funny, because it is rare that we ever need to visit any of them.”

“With my luck, you might as well get used to it.” I grunted. If things didn’t turn around soon for us, it wouldn’t be long before one of us went down for good.

We’d reached the bottom of the stairs in another few steps, and we met with a much larger passage, with a much larger metal door sealing it off. As we walked, I kept my eyes on Caltrop. His coat was matted with both his own dry blood, and the dry sick that he’d spewed all over himself. He was a mess, but he was my mess, and we’d have him fixed once we got through that door.

There was a short and alarming ring from a bell that I hadn’t noticed drooped from the ceiling above us. A heavy metallic thunk greeted our ears before the door started to slowly open. With as much time as any wastelander had spent in ruins, it’s really easy to miss things like that. Difference was while this was a door alarm, out in the wasteland if you missed something like that, you were dead.

Coming out of that thought, I looked at the large door in front of us. It crept open slower than any other door I’d seen in my life. We’d been standing around for all of ten seconds and it looked only almost a hoof’s width open.

“You’ve got to be shitting me.” I sighed and rubbed at the base of my horn in annoyance. “Can’t this thing open any faster?”

“No.” Null retorted with another of his assholish grins that I wanted to slap off his face. “But you can try pulling if it will make you feel better.”

“Smart ass bastard.” Yup, it certainly was just about on par for my luck. Maybe one day down the road my luck will change up and I’ll have a perfect day. Then again, I’d probably die the day right after that. At the very least I’d fucking die happy.

After another grueling minute, the door was finally wide enough for us to get through. The room on the other side actually gave me pause from it’s size. The half cylinder shape that arched above us was a good forty feet high at it’s peak. It had been painted a fairly light blue, and had splotches of white that I guess were supposed to emulate clouds. Overall, it did give the impression that this space was even larger than it already was.

The floor of the place had been split into two sections. The half we’d just walked into looked to be some sort of market. Sheet metal shacks that had crudely painted signs hanging on them stood closed up in rows. It wasn’t at all out of place to see this sort of trading set up at any settlement in the wastes. What did stand out, was what filled the other half of the floor space.

Corn.

Row after row of stalks that stood two and a half ponies high sat in the light that filtered down from a line of heat lamps hung from the lower half of the ceiling. This wasn’t the same, sickly crops that I’d seen farmers struggle to grow on the surface. This was honest to Celestia, corn.

“This way.” Null trotted along without waiting. “Cast’s clinic isn’t far, just one level below.”

I tore myself from the golden crop and focused on Caltrop’s limp body. He was more important. So long that he got the help he needed, the corn could wait.

Cocoa and I followed Null to a brightly lit stairwell that sat halfway down the rows of trader shacks. To my great relief, it wasn’t another near endless stairwell. The wide stairway looked well worn, and doubled back around on each side as it descended. The next level had several illuminated signs on the wall that flickered as we walked past.

One of them had a red cross next to the word Infirmary, which is where I assumed we were headed. Another had the shape of a shield and Administrative and Security Offices next to it. The last two signs read Dorms and Maintenance. They were of little interest to me as they had arrows pointing down, but I really doubted that we’d be in and out with Caltrop and Sandy.

The halls that Null walked down were simple, grey hallways. Each of the rooms in this place had doors that looked exactly the same. I wasn’t sure why, but the sheer amount of ‘sameness’ that existed on this level was disturbing. Maybe it was the contrast to the crops above that threw me off, but I was no longer comfortable enough to spend more time than we needed to in here. Thankfully, we walked up to one of the doors that sat along the far wall from where we’d come in. Null didn’t even knock, he simply turned the door and walked in.

Inside was a room that felt oddly similar to the waiting area in Novocaines’ clinic. The waiting room was quite spacious, and had false windows along the back wall. The light that came through them shimmered and flickered as if there were trees blocking them, and the sounds of birds chirping came from behind the windows. Coming from the wasteland, it was a very convincing, albeit futile attempt to convey the old world.

“Just one moment!” The scratchy voice of a mare called out from an open door behind the reception desk. It lead to another room that I assumed had been like the store room that also existed in Novacaines’ clinic. Part of me feared that I was unprepared to pay for our service, but Null had mentioned that Flint covered everything.

Another part of me itched to trick Caltrop into the same situation he’d dumped on me, but I didn’t think that it would be of much concern. I just wanted him alive at the end of today.

“Now, what can I help you with?” The mare from the other room sighed as she trotted in. The scratchy voice had been a giveaway, but I tensed up when I saw her. The light teal earth pony mare was in much better shape than Cocoa was. However, most of her coat had fallen out, and her skin sagged unnaturally off most her body. I never expect to see ghouls who aren’t trying to gnaw my face off, but if that’s how I looked, I’d want to gnaw my own eyes out.

“Spring?” Cocoa squeaked from behind me. “Spring Jamboree, is that you?”

The ghoul blinked and stared at Cocoa for a second before a smile crept across her flabby jowls. “Cocoa?” She let out a wheezing giggle. “Small world, huh? Been a long time since I’ve seen you.”

“Yeah, since the camp outside Whitetail Wood, right?” Cocoa pushed past me and walked over to the mare. She threw her cyber leg around her and pulled her into a hug so tight I could hear their flesh squish together. “It’s good to run into a familiar face after so long.” She raised her other hoof to her own muzzle with a smile. “Or half of one in my case.”

“Yeah, it is.” Spring sighed and gave her a pat on the back. “But, I assume you all came here for a reason.” She looked over to Null, and then down at Caltrop. Cocoa released her friend and took a step back, letting Spring walk over and transfer Caltrop to her back carefully. “Give me a moment to get this patient situated with the other one and have Doc Cast prep for his work.”

“Take all the time you need.” Cocoa sighed and nodded. “Tend to them. Knowing you’re here, I don’t plan to go anywhere anytime soon. Might be good to catch up a bit.”

Spring nodded and headed off into a set of doors across the room from us. The second she disappeared through it, I breathed a small sigh of relief. Caltrop was going to be alright. We were going to be alright.

We’d been run ragged, and it showed with how we all stood there. For what must have been minutes, we all just stood around in the lobby in silence. Null had his eyes closed, breathing in and out rhythmically and in a way that if I listened much longer, it would put me to sleep. Thankfully, Cocoa broke the quiet.

“Thank you for saving me at the hangar.” Cocoa spoke softly. “I’m not much of a fighter, and I only wanted to help those poor souls.” She locked onto my eyes as I looked up at her. “I don’t know how, or when, but I will repay you for bringing me here.” She squeaked once again before digging through her saddlebags. From it, she drew out a small rectangular wooden box. “I know you didn’t particularly want them, but you should have those memory orbs. At the very least, you might figure out the puzzle in them.”

Before I could do anything, Null floated them over to his saddlebags and dropped them in. Whatever, he could keep them for all I cared. That is, so long as he didn’t force me into any more of them without my consent.

“Don’t worry about it.” I sighed, suddenly feeling very tired. “You saved Caltrop’s life and got him stable enough to bring here.” My cybernetic legs shook as I tried to get them to sit down, not cooperating as fluidly as I’d like. After a quick adjustment with my forelegs however, I managed to get my ass on the floor like I’d wanted. “As far as I’m concerned, we’re even.”

“Yeah, but we aren’t even close to even.” An annoyed stallion snorted from the doors Caltrop went through. The shit brown unicorn that stood before us walked in wearing a bloody apron and a stained paper muzzle mask. He used his magic to float it down, revealing his grimace as he approached. “I've stabilized the both of them for now. I also gave the stallion some chems to fight whatever the hell he's addicted too. But I'm not doing anything more until I get paid.”

“You know Flint will replace your supplies and repay you for your time.” Null replied calmly without even shifting his stance or opening his eyes. “What more do you require, Doctor Cast?”

“Lets just say that the rates for helping folks like you have... gone up.” He snorted and shifted himself on his hooves, leaning forward as he smirked. “Flint only sends enough every month to treat one of you, and yet, I have two patients to treat. I’m going to need more to cover my losses this month.” He paused and glanced at me, giving me just the hint of a snarl. “Unless that is, you don't mind only saving one of them.”

“And you call yourself a doctor!” Cocoa hissed in a tone of pure loathing. “He said he saved your life! How can you justify asking for more before you help? Refusing to save a life is the worst kind of extortion.”

“Hold your tongue, bitch.” Cast snapped back. “Yeah, he saved my life, so what? Most days, I still wish he hadn't.” He reached up and tore the paper mask from around his neck, throwing it on the floor. “I lost my wife. I lost my home.” He trembled as he glared at Null. “I lost my little girl…”

“And I’m sorry,” Cocoa’s tone swapped to a softer one. “But that is no excuse to take the lives of others and hold them for ransom.”

“I’m sorry.” Doc Cast sighed, his rage bleeding off. “Things the last few months have been tight, and some of our regular shipments of supplies haven’t been coming through.” He sat down hard and hoofed across his face. “We just need a little bit more to cover the gaps in care for our own population.” He looked up between Null and I, remorse plastered across his muzzle. “I’m sorry, but we need more.”

“The rate stays the same,” Null didn’t even seem phased by the exchange of words. He opened his eyes and gave a hard glare at Doc Cast. “You will keep your normal payment and treat the patients as required, or face the consequences of breaking a contract with Flint.”

“You know what?” Any sense that Cocoa had forced into Cast went out the window. He turned positively red with anger and shot back up to his hooves. “Fuck Flint! Take 'em and find somewhere else to patch them up.” He reached over and hooked his magic around a chair that sat next to him. With a great heave, he threw it against the wall and shattered it into tinder. “If you aren't going to pay my prices, then you can find yourselves another doctor.”

“Then it is decided.” Null stretched himself as he looked back to me. “Retrieve our companions and get ready to leave.”

“You’re damn right you’re leaving.” Cast shouted. “After tonight, I’ll make sure none of Flint’s goons are ever allowed back in Shel again!”

“Know this however,” Null turned and shot his hoof out toward Cast. “Flint does not take kindly to those who go back on their word. There will be a cost to your actions tonight, and for your own sake, you best pray that they aren’t too harsh.” This was another side of Null that I’d yet to have seen. I have to say, he was pretty damn scary like this. Doc Cast had to have balls of steel to not flinch at that.

“Take your friends and get the fuck out of my clinic.” He spat on the floor and gave us both a glare that could melt steel. “Take your threats and shove them where the sun don’t shine. I ain’t afraid of you, or Flint.”

Null nodded for me to head for the door to the back room, slowly walking forward. Treading lightly, I followed along with him.

He gave a devilish chuckle as we reached the door. “That is where you are wrong. You should be afraid, Rough Cast.” He looked back at the doctor with a gleam in his eye that I hadn’t seen since Ash back in Timber. “You should be.”