Part I - What is This Place?
Part I
You open your eyes noticing a blinding sunlight flash into your eyes. You quickly go to cover your eyes before rolling onto your side turning away from the sunlight. There you notice, you wasn’t in the same place as you was before. You lift yourself onto your hooves and look around the area. It looks like you’re in a building that was left to gather dust as you notice large piles of rubble in some of the corners and dust floating around the room. The sunlight reveals some graffiti on the wall to the right of you. You take a look at it and walk closer to it, attempting to read what the graffiti says. It seems to have been drawn with a white chalk stick. You finally notice what the text says.
Remember your sins. Remember your sins.
You’re shocked on how the graffiti artist knew what you did; perhaps it was a friend who did this. You turn yourself towards the gaping hole within the entrance, noticing a large city outside. You walk out of the building noticing the skyscrapers are all broken and shattered. The windows seem to have been smashed in, while bits of rubble hang from the tops of buildings. Highway roads completely split and the signs on them completely rusty and bent. You decide to continue, looking around yourself as you walk along the dying grass.
“Hello!?” You call out in attempt of getting an answer. Silence. You continue onwards, hoping to find somepony who knows something. The blinding sunlight shines down at you, creating large distinctive shadows from the skyscrapers around you. Abandoned and damaged vehicles lay in the roads, as if all the ponies were forcibly dragged out.
As you wander within this abandoned city, you still find no clues to where anypony is or could be. You began to trot towards what looks like a bank obviously thinking that somepony could be in there. As you reach the entrance, you notice the once incredibly clean room was filled with rubble and dust. Parts of the ceiling had collapsed in and the chandeliers had collapsed onto the floor and smashed. You trot up to the desk before tapping on it lightly.
“Hello? I just want to talk. I mean no harm.” You call out again, no answer. Something is not right here. At first there wasn’t, but surely there would be at least one pony here to talk to. You tap slightly harder, hearing the echoes bounce off of the cracked walls.
You finally hear some movement; it seems to be getting closer at a rapid pace. Somepony came into your vision, a stallion whose coat was a light orange color and his mane and tail a jet black color. He seemed to be wearing a torn, worn out jacket as it had stains all over it. He charges at you, jumping over the counter and pinning you down.
“What the-!?” He starts shoving a cloth down your mouth as if he was trying to suffocate you. You shoved him off, removing the cloth from your mouth. He went to tackle you again, he was successful, pinning you yet again. He levitates a knife from his holster into the air preparing to stab you.
“You have ten seconds to tell me what you’re doing here!” His voice was terrifying and loud, you attempt to roll him off but he holds all of your legs down onto the ground which makes it impossible to break out of it.
“I just woke up in this city, I have no idea. I’m just looking for other ponies, I swear!” You were close to tears, begging for mercy. He places the knife back into his holster and releases you from the pin; he helps you up and looks at you.
“Sorry about that, come this way I’ll tell you all that everything that has happened. I cannot tell you how you got here or who brought you here, but I can at least tell you what happened.” He walks back into the backroom. You follow this mysterious buck, still shaking from the sudden attack from him. You weren’t off to a very good start at all, either way you follow him into a long corridor that had the lights hanging from the ceiling. It was lit up brightly, but some entrances had been caved in from the ceiling.
You follow this buck into the safe where all the money was before all this happened. The only thing that remained in here was his bed, a table and a box of supplies. Other than that it was empty. He insists that you sit down and you refuse, you just want to know what happened.
“So what’s a pony like you, doing in a shithole like this?” He asks you, you look at him in a funny way as if to say you already know that I have no idea. He chuckles to himself, sitting on his chair. He stares at you, raising an eyebrow.
“Well, aren’t you going to tell me what happened?!” You seem to be demanding, your patience is wearing thin. All you want is answers to what has happened in this city. Maybe even to know who brought you here and why.
“Ah, I almost forgot. Well, I can’t tell you everything, all I can tell you is, is what happened here.” He responds with a calm tone to his voice, “are you sure you want to know, what I tell you cannot be unsaid.”
“Of course, now just tell me!” You demand an answer from him immediately, the longer he made you wait, the more you wanted to slap him for attacking you and for wasting your time.
“Okay. Calm down.” He leans forward on his chair, leaning on the desk in front of him. “About two weeks ago, scientists developed some sort of virus by accident. What they had to do was contain it until it died, but what they didn’t know was how dangerous it was. The virus grew stronger as the days went on before they accidentally released it. And by accidental I mean purposely.” He reaches into his desk, pulling out an alcoholic beverage.
“And this virus did all this?” You ask, leaning onto the desk. You look straight into his green eyes, still as demanding as you were before. “The virus destroyed the city?”
“Oh no, that was caused by the bomb that the military dropped on the city, although what they thought would work, didn’t work.” He took a sip of his drink and taps his hoof on his desk. “We’re now fighting for survival, everypony for him or herself. If you get infected, there isn’t any way to stop it.” He admits, sitting back in his chair.
“So, this infection. What does it do?” You ask yet again, wanting to know more. A small grin slides onto his face as he takes another sip. He removes the drink from his lips before pulling out a piece of paper from his pocket.
“I think it’s best that you find out yourself.” He shows what’s on the piece of paper; it is a photo of a swollen, rotten flesh looking pony. Its tongue hangs loose from its jaw as if it was to ensnare its victims with it before devouring them completely. “See that, that’s what you become.” You stare at it horrified. With this picture in your face, you gag horribly and feeling like you are going to be sick.
“How do I get out of here?” You look around frantically; you were not prepared for what was going to be thrown at you. You were scared and didn’t want to die; you were too scared to die. You were shaking in fright, before you notice the buck coming up to you and then holds you still, placing his hoof on your lips letting a shush noise.
“I am not going to lie to you, but right now there is no way out. The military have sealed this city off from the rest of Equestria, let alone removed it from the map.” He admits with a tone of guilt, he looks at you with his luminous green eyes with a frown upon his lips. “But we can get through this together, I promise you.”
“You Pinkie promise?” You use the common phrase that is used by the Element of Laughter, Pinkie Pie. You hope that he will agree to the promise so he won’t backstab you at the vital moment of actually finding a way out.
“Pinkie promise.” His lips quiver into a smile before he pats your back. He walks away and then glances back at you. “First things first, to survive you have to know three vital points.”
“I’m listening.” You walk closer to him, wanting to hear what he has to say. Hopefully it’s not bullshit. You stand beside him before he looks up at you; he has a serious look on his face before he starts talking.
“One, never stray too far. If you do, you’re more than likely to die.” He levitates a rifle to his side, then levitating you one along with a side arm. The side arm is a Desert Eagle; you levitate both of the weapons to your side. With that he levitates you a holster to help you carry the weapons. As you place it around your body, you place the rifle into the holster along your back and the pistol into the one on your right foreleg.
“Okay, got it!” You say in agreement, making sure everything is in place. “Then what?” You ask curiously as he levitates you a knife and two grenades. You place them into your holster, now you are ready for combat. Even though you are terrified.
“Second, don’t let them bite you. If they ensnare you, use the knife to cut yourself free. You’ll have about ten seconds to do so once they ensnare you.” He explains clearly and then looks at you. “And last but not least, aim for the fucking head.” He leads you out of the safe and back into the corridors of the solitary bank. He walks you down the corridor, with you expecting the city to mostly empty as it’s pretty large.
“How many are there normally in one zone?” You levitated your best weapon to your side, your rifle before leaving through a large entrance and back out onto the streets of the city. The skyscrapers stood over you, some on fire and some ready to crumble.
“It’s normally a mix.” He tells you the truth, before walking through another building. All the doorways for this building had all collapsed in as the sound of rubble cracking was heard. As if it was ready to fall.
“You never told me your name.” You admit as you follow him, he looks at you rolling his eyes. This shows the impression that he doesn’t care.
“Well, my name’s Sharpshot, and yours?” He stopped in his tracks. You can’t remember your name; you rub your head slightly as you think of what it could have been. You cannot seem to remember. “Never mind, I’ll give you my own nickname, Skipper sound good?”
“Yes, I like that.” You agree with a nod, he starts to walk ahead again, checking every corner in every building, every subway entrance in every street. Nothing yet. You are starting to enjoy the quiet streets of this city, yet you still are trembling when you think about surprise attacks.
Then. Movement is heard. Sharpshot quickly lifts his rifle to his side; you shakily levitate the rifle to your side, slowly walking closer to the sound that you heard. You notice something within the shadows of a building, eating from a bloody corpse, as each bit of flesh was torn off it made you cringe at the sight. Sharpshot aims his rifle at the creature eating the corpse, before walking closer to it. You try and stop him, but you fail.
The creature notices you and your friend, before charging out at you with a blood curdling screech. Sharpshot attempts to fire at the creature but misses. He pulls you out of its reach and whispers into your ear.
“Aim for the head.” His soft voice echoed into your eat, as you took aim and shot the creature into the head. It collapses as blood sprays from its head and the sound of it gargling its own blood was heard from his throat. Its long tongue sprawled across the rubble covered road as blood leaked from the bullet hole and onto the ground.
You stare at the creature as the noise of what sounds like a dozen more blood curdling screams are heard. You look around in terror; you knew there was one thing he didn’t tell you.
“I forgot to mention, that if others here that screech, others within a one mile radius will swarm us.” You look at him in anger because he didn’t tell you; he looks at you with a sorry expression, wishing he could have told you sooner.
One of the creatures hops onto a hump of rubble and metal down the street, letting out a screech as the others leap over and charge at you. You aim your rifle up as you take aim and fire, killing one of the dozen charging after you. Sharp runs ahead, shooting three in the head, before coming back around and giving one that chases him a powerful buck to the face. The buck he gives to the infected pony, takes its head clean off before it collapsed into a frenzy of blood. You feel Sharp dragging you along with his magic, as they chase you both.
“You shoot; I’m getting you somewhere safe.” He levitates you off of the ground as he runs ahead. However, he is not fast enough to get far ahead of them. You take aim and kill yet another, this one falls over, causing the other ones to trip over and clash with each other. This doesn’t kill them, but it buys you both some time to get somewhere safe. You notice yourself get pulled into a dark, claustrophobic alleyway, as he keeps running hoping it’s not a dead end. Unfortunately, the infected found you both yet again and start to chase you down the alleyway.
“We’ve got a problem!” You exclaim, taking aim and firing. You hit ones leg, but it doesn’t seem to do any damage. You place another magazine into the rifle, before taking aim again and firing. You miss and let out a huff before you feel a slippery, slimy, gooey, slick and smooth tongue wrap around you, it starts to tug at you. Sharp’s levitation prevents it slightly, but also prevents him from continuing. The ponies begin to get closer, which means they’re getting closer to what they have caught. You.
Sharpshot tries to trot ahead, but it’s no good. He can’t move. He pushes harder, as you hear many curse words leave his mouth, his sweat dripping down his head as he begins to sprint. With this he manages to tug along slightly.
“The knife, use the knife!” He groans the words that leave his mouth. You nod and levitate the knife to your side, slicing the tongue in half. It sends the tongue back, bleeding black, infected blood. The rest tongue around you however remains there; you slide it off slightly and shiver at the gooey touch it gives.
He sprints ahead, carrying you. He makes sure that none are following you both, and makes sure that there is a safe place ahead to where he can lay you down. The blinding sunlight started to get covered by some thick clouds. With the sun blocked out, he enters a building and places you down onto the floor.
“Are you hurt?” He asks you, looking at every inch of your body. He was really concerned about what happens to you. The room we were in was a small hotel lobby, where there was only one light in the entire room and the reception desk had the ceiling above it collapsed in with a shattered bath tub upon it.
“No I’m fine.” You push him away gently, “see, do you see any injuries?” You notice that your fur has some slime on it from the infected ponies tongue, before letting out a deep sigh. He noticed the goo and chuckled slightly.
“It’s only tongue slime; I’ve had it in my mouth before.” That made you gag. Just thinking about it was disgusting; you felt pity for the pony as you let out a few sickly coughs. He levitated you off of the ground and carried you up the dusty staircase. There were corpses among you both, you notice that the hallway at the top of the stairs was strangely quiet and also not as dirty or damaged as any other room within the building. The carpet was a maroon and yellow color, horrible color mix and the doors had scratches on them, also some had blood splats on them.
“What are we doing here?” You ask, “And put me down.” He releases you from the levitation grip. You follow him down the corridor as he reaches a door marked with 32 upon it. He gives a few knocks onto it.
“Seeing a friend.” He knocked yet again, placing his ear against the splintered door. “Blaze, open up!” He knocks again, but louder. “It’s me, Sharpy.” The sound of the door unlocking is heard, the door opens slightly. A blue eye is seen peeking out at you both, and then the eyes attention goes to you.
“Sharpy, what are you doing here?” The pony asked bluntly, “you can’t just come and go like this.” The pony didn’t reveal her face, as she was shaking slightly. You could tell by the sound of her voice.
“Blaze open up, now.” Sharpshot sounded demanding now. You stayed behind him just in case anything violet was going to start. Luckily the pony, Blaze, opens the door and reveals her full body. Her mane was brown and so was her tail, her coat was a white color. She was also a Pegasus, but both of her wings were broken. They were bent in cringing ways, ways you wouldn’t want if you were a Pegasus. She allowed you both to enter before shutting the door after you.
“You’ve got a lot of balls coming here Sharpy. Who’s this?” She points to you, still cringing in pain from her broken wings. Sharpshot looks at you with a small smile.
“This is my assistant, Skipper. They have helped me get this far.” He looks back at Blaze. Blaze rolls her eyes slightly before walking to the window that leads onto her collapsed balcony.
“I see, you do know that our gang want nothing to do with you now. You know what you did, and you can’t come back. You know it’s a death sentence just coming close to one of us.” You sit down, looking at the conversation between Sharpshot and Blaze happen. She walks up to him showing a glare at him.
“I know, I don’t want to come back. I just need help. That’s all.” Sharp admitted, showing a slight frown. “Skipper and I need a place to stay, that’s all. We won’t be able to make it without one.” Blaze sighs and facehoofs. She couldn’t refuse, even though she wanted to.
“Okay, you can stay. But for one night only and then you’re both out of here, and next time don’t ever come back.” She seems to be angry with Sharp. Sharpshot nods in agreement. You look around the small room, seeing one double bed, a smashed TV and a claustrophobic bathroom next to you. The ceiling has cracks in it and the wallpaper slightly torn away and also parts of it fading away.
“What was that about?” You mumble to Sharpshot. He sighs deeply as you walk over to him, showing deep concern about him. “Come on Sharp, tell me.” You beg for an answer from him. But the stallion remains silent and just walks over to the bed, laying down on it and closing his eyes. You frown and join the stallion on the bed, getting close to him.
As the sun begins to set outside, sending an orange tint up into the sky, you begin to doze off, hoping everything will be okay. You find yourself falling asleep sooner than expected before falling into a sleep, hoping that you won’t get woken up by an infected pony. This is only the beginning.
