Fallout Equestria: Darkstar

By ValdimarGreen

Chapter 2: Death

–and so the Ceasar slammed his hooves into the magical support beam, breaking it with a crack. Darkstar stared at the Ceasar in shock, “YOU FOOL! You will bury us both under the mountain!”

The first leader among the zebra tribes looked at the black monster as it rushed up the tunnel. “If it is the only way to vanquish thee, then so be it!” the Ceasar declared. Then, ignoring all his wounds he reared up one final time and slammed his hooves into the last support beam. This one, with the weight of a mountain upon it did not merely crack, it exploded into a thousand crystal shards.

As the Ceasar was flung back, hundreds of shards buried themselves deep in his body. Through the pain, he could hear the monster scream, “Do not think you have won zebra! Even with a mountain upon my back I shall –” Whatever else the monster would have said, was drowned out by the mountain, crashing in.

The Ceasar smiled despite his agony, all of zebra kind would be safe once again.

Xingahar closed the book, “The end.”

Majina and the other two children started talking excitedly with each other about the story. I lay down, grumbling quietly. Finding out that you were named after some hideous space monster, who had come to Equus to devour all life, was not very flattering. I rolled up into a ball and tried to sleep.

When sleep finally came, It brought with it, dreams... nasty dreams. I saw myself standing in a cave tunnel looking up at Imhani, her tiny body covered in bloody wounds. She was hammering frantically at a crystalline support beam, her tiny hooves hitting it again and again. The pillar stood immaculate and as strong as ever. I approached slowly, my hoof-falls echoing in the tunnels.

Imhani started crying as her struggle turned into a desperate flounder. “Please, please, please, please, please, please!” she wailed, over and over again. When I finally reached her, she had slumped against the crystal pillar, her forelegs around it, holding on desperately. She looked up at me, her tears had formed lines in the dirt on her face. “Please,” she whispered feebly.

I grinned at her, “I win.” With those words I clamped down my maw around the back of her neck. Biting down hard, her spine and flesh came apart with ease, leaving her almost decapitated. I tore the head loose from the last strands of meat and smiled at it. Just then, Xingahar and Zevah came around a bend in the tunnel ahead, calling out for Imhani.

I saw myself lift Imhanis head and driving it down in top of my horn, then I turned to Xingahar and shouted, “I am over here dad!”

I awoke screaming, my lungs burning. The entire camp burst into movement as zebras hastily got to their hooves, looking around for the source of the commotion.

What the fuck was that?! I blinked a few times as I tried to get a grip on reality. After the initial shock faded somewhat, I realized that there were a lot of zebras looking at me. Xingahar wore a worried expression as he gazed at me. I forced out a sheepish grin, “Just a nightmare… sorry.”

“You have never had a nightmare before...” Xingahar said.

I lifted a hoof and scratched the back of my head as I looked away. “You know… must have been the… the –” My gaze fell on one of the dead radeeles “– the battle from before… I was fighting the radeele again, but this time it got me.”

Xingahar sighed, “ perhaps we shared the same dream.” He reached out a hoof and pulled me close, before lowering himself back to the dirty blankets.

Lying there next to him I looked down at my tiny forelegs, seeing the striped fur that covered them. I grimaced. Going back to sleep would not be possible. Growling softly, I bundled myself up next to the big zebra again. Damn you Xingahar for making me feel like this.

It took forever for dawn to arrive. Why do we even wait for it? All it does is turn the world from a dark gray to a not so dark gray. When it finally came, the zebras briskly bundled everything back into the two wagons. The three children and myself were placed in the rear wagon this time. That way, if there were any more radeeles, we would hopefully be out of range when they pounced.

As we made our way out from the plaza, Majina took the opportunity to search the new wagon for treasure. It wasn't long before she found one, in the form of a thick metal bracelet. This, I was informed, was the ‘PipBuck’ they had found back at the research center. And apparently it was enchanted, because after she fiddled with it for a while, it started to talk.

“–little ponies, it’s time for the news! Now you ponies remember when I told you ‘bout those two ponies who crawled themselves out of Stable Two? Well, I’ve been gettin’ reports that one of those little ponies took out the raider nest in the heart of Ponyville, and saved several pony captives – including the beloved author of The Wasteland Survival Guide, Ditzy Doo! Hey kid, thanks! From all of us! And now the weather: cloudy everywhere, with a chance of rain, gunfire and bloody dismemberment...”

I stared at the bracelet. The spirit inside was clearly insane, not that I was an expert on spirits or anything. Still, listening to its mad ramblings proved entertaining as we rolled along the street, especially when it paused its babbel to bust out into song.

I learned a lot that day, listening to the spirit and to the animated discussions of my fellow wagon companions. Children, it turns out are ridiculously easy to get information out off. Even if your question is strange and the answer obvious, they still respond. I guess they enjoyed the feeling they get from patronizing somepony. All I had to do was huff a bit and seem upset, or simply yawn in response, and any suspicion would melt away.

From one heated argument in particular, I gleaned something very important. Majina and the colt had argued whether a shotgun was more awesome than a submachinegun. Majina had won the discussion with the line, “Shotgun? Ha! More like SNOT-gun!” She had danced around the colt repeating it, until he couldn't take it anymore and had subsequently climbed to the front of the wagon, where he spent the next hour sulking.

The pipe-thingies some of the zebras wore were called guns. If Majina were to be believed, a gun was an extremely dangerous version of a shepherd's sling. Projectiles punching right through a ponys body… ludicrous. Still, I eyed the guns all around, warily. I wonder if my carapace could handle it… Being the boundless optimist that I am, I decided that guns and their bullets would be no problem. I had killed a radeele all by myself, after all!

I looked over at the PipBuck, “Majina why won’t you put it on? Why have it on a string like that?” I asked.

Majina treated me with yet another of her smug know-it-all smiles, “Imhani did you hit your head when you fought that radeele? It’s pony-tech, so of course it won't work for us zebras. Too bad really, I heard these things have some wicked cool capabilities.” Majina held the bracelet up in the air, and peered at it with narrowed eyes, “Stupid pony magic!”

I grinned at her. “I bet you –” my words froze on my tongue as a disgusting reek assaulted my nose. I scrunched up my muzzle, “Uggh What is that stench?! It smells like rotten meat covered in shit.”

Majina grimaced and pointed at something behind me, “That's probably because... that’s what it is,” she said.

I turned around to look in the direction we were heading. My gaze was immediately drawn to the chain that had been strung up between the building ahead. From it hung several mutilated pony corpses. Their intestines had been dragged out and laced together, creating a macabre spiderweb of sun-dried flesh. I gaped at it, Wha ha. What... What the fuck?!

Zevah and Xingahar had both closed in around the wagon. “Raider territory,” Zevah said quietly.

Xingahar grimaced, “Can’t we go around it?”

Zevah shook her head. “Not if we want to use the bridge. I guess we could head further south and look for a ford in the river, outside of the city. But, I have no idea how long that would take, and with our supplies being what they are, I wouldn’t chance it.”

Xingahar closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. He turned to me, “Keep your head down, and no heroics this time.”

I put hoof to my chest in exaggerated outrage, “You can’t just quell the righteous fire that burn within me! Should battle come to pass, I shall be there to offer my support!”

Xingahar narrowed his eyes at me.

“Ugghee,” I cleared my throat, “Of course, what greater support could one offer but that of moral support! Hehehe,” I finished with a nervous gulp.

A corner of Xingahars mouth quirked upwards, “Good.”

Zevha spoke just loud enough to get everyzebras attention , “Everyzebra, grab a weapon, just in case.” Satisfied that everyzebra had heard, Zevah turned and dug around in her saddlebag, producing a small revolver. “Xingahar, take this,” she said holding out the weapon. “I know you don’t like it, but raiders are raiders. There is no reasoning with them.”

“I know” Xingahar said, sounding tired, as he took the proffered weapon. He moved the gun around in his mouth, trying to get a comfortable grip on it.“Ugghhuu beh chhaghul tooh” he said.

“Always,” Zevah replied with a smile.

The zebras closed in around the two wagons, arranging themselves in two circles around them. There were not enough guns to go around, but the zebras who had one placed themselves in the outer circle. The rest, armed with clubs or knifes, made up the inner circle. Majina and the colt were moved to the wagon in front, giving us all ample room to take cover in our respective carriages. Then we rolled forward.

As we passed under the spiderweb, one of the intestine slid against the side of the first wagon before getting stuck on a splinter. I watched as the fleshy tube stretched and then ripped, spraying us with brown sludge. I gagged at the smell, heaving out everything I had ever eaten, literally everything. Looking down at the pool of adhesive green slime, I froze. Oh fuck...

A particular thing about the changeling digestive system is that; it’s not used for nourishment, rather its sole purpose is converting mundane biological matter into the green changeling slime that we use for almost everything. Mostly it’s used for tunnel support, cocoons, furniture, armor, weapons and the like. Thats why builder-changelings were so important, with their heightened ability to generate and shape the stuff. Still, it comes with a risk, if a pony wants to know if another pony was actually a changeling in disguise, she could just have the other pony puke. If what comes up is green and sticky, the pony is a changeling.

Fortunately, I had not been the only one to empty my stomach and most of the zebras attention was focused on a particular zebra who was frantically rubbing at her face. “IT GOT IN MY EYE!” she wailed.

Sneeze was there in a flash, shoving a hoof over her mouth, “Be quiet you fool! Do you want to bring the raiders down on us?”

She just whimpered pitifully in response. Her left eye, red and wet.

Sneeze sighed, as he produced a small bottle of clear liquid, “Hold still, I will clean it.”

As he did, I took the opportunity to cover my ‘accident’ with a yellow box adorned with pink butterflies.

We headed out again, this time making sure not to disturb the remaining intensities. The stench lingered over our party as we moved forward, small brown stains marked where the sludge had landed. I noticed that a few drops had splashed the PipBuck. I quickly dried them off, hoping the spirit hadn’t noticed, who knew what DJPon3 would do if its home was defiled. I thought for a moment; DjPon3 had mentioned ‘raiders’ before, so the spirit might be useful to keep around. I turned my small satchel upside down, a few rocks, some metal scrap, two cans of food and my dagger clattered to the wagon-floor. I picked up the dagger, then disregarding Imhanis other treasures, I shoved the PipBuck into the now empty satchel, and hefted it.

As we headed further into raider territory, the smooth dust layer became more and more broken up by hoofprints, drag marks and bloodstains, a lot of bloodstains. Every street light had corpse hanging from it, not only ponies, but animals as well. I saw cats, dogs, a two headed cow and even a radeele. Their silent dark forms giving the street an otherworldly feeling. I rubbed at my legs trying to get rid of the goosebumps that were crawling up them. My gaze flickered between the empty black windows of the buildings on either side. I was not the only one, all the zebras seemed to feel it. Sneeze was sweating and his ears twitching as his head swung back and forth.

I jerked, my breath caught in my throat, as I felt something grab me. I looked down and saw that the remaining filly had crawled in under me. With her eyes firmly shut, she had wrapped her forelegs around one of mine, holding on tightly. “Please... I don’t like this,” she said, whimpering.

Strangely, with her trembling below me, I felt a lot better. Lifting a hoof, I patted her on the head, “It’s okay, I will protect you,” I said... or at least thats what I tried to say, was it not for the dagger clutched in my mouth. My words came out sounding something like: “Ith oheh Ibh pertectuhhu.” Still I think she understood, because her whimpering ceased.

Behind us, the sun had begun to set, peeking down below the cloud coverage far to the west. It actually became a bit brighter, knowing that the light wouldn't last long, we quickened our pace. Sneeze wanted everyzebra across the bridge before dark. Nopony argued.

Trotting along the now curving main road, it only took a few minutes for the bridge to come into view. And what a bridge it was! A hulking metal monstrosity, ten times the size of any dragon, it seemed to glow in the sunlight. In contrast, the gorge under the bridge was a pit of darkness, a black wound in the world.

With only two hundred paces to go, everyzebra breathed a sigh of relief. Naturally, that was when the screaming began.

Twelve sets of zebra eyes and ears swiveled in the direction of the sound, which happened to be the second story window of a building on our left. In that moment, when everyzebra was distracted, the raiders laying in ambush on the other side of the street, attacked.

Sneeze was the first one to die. His head exploded as a rifle round found its mark. Then there was chaos as several things happened at once. The three zebras closest to the incoming horde of laughing mad ponies, turned and opened fire with their own guns.The filly under me started screaming. On the rooftops above, several raiders began throwing metal disks. Both wagon pullers set off in a gallop for the bridge. I could see Majina and the colt hugging eachother, staring back at us with wide eyes from within their wagon.

One of the metal disks bounced off the forward wagon, before rolling to the ground directly in our path, a small red light blinking rapidly. That can’t be good… The zebra pulling the wagon apparently agreed with me, because she swerved hard to the side, but it was too little, too late. The metal disk exploded. She never even got the chance to scream, as metal shrapnel ripped her apart.

The wagon flipped over onto its side, coming to a crashing halt. Both me and the filly flew through the air before hitting the road, hard. Dazed, I forced myself to my hooves and looked around. In front I could see Majina, the colt and four other zebras rushing onto the bridge, none looking back. Behind me I could see Xingahar, Zevah and two other zebras limping towards us, all of them bloodied. The raiders had taken up the chase, guns discarded in favor of crude cudgels. Do they plan on taking us alive?

Despite his bullet wound, Xingahar reached me first, “Hurry Zevah! Grab the medical box and lets go!” he said, in between pained gasps.

“I am on it,” Zevah said, as she hurried up to the fallen wagon. “Huh?! What the... XIN, the box is stuck! I can’t budge it!” Zevah shouted, the beginnings of panic in her voice.

I felt a large weight settled in my stomach, Oh no, please don’t tell me...

“Thats not funny Zevah!” Xingahar shouted back.

“I can’t even open it, there's some green glue over the hinges,” Zevah responded.

Xingahar looked down at his wounded foreleg then his posture sagged, ears falling down. His despair only seemed to last for a moment however, as he turned to me, “Daughter you need to run for the bridge. I will be right behind you.”

I stared at him, then at his leg and back again. Does he think I’m stupid? There is no way he could outrun… Oh rotspawn! The fucker was planning on sacrificing himself to buy me time to escape. And when it had been my fault that they couldn't get to the medical supplies! “I wont leave you fathe –” my words were interrupted by the rock, crashing into the side of my head. The world tilted to the side before swirling into darkness.

This kind of unconsciousness was great, there was no pain, no guilt and no disturbing dreams. It was almost like being back in the cocoon again. Sadly, if I had learned anything from my short life it was that; great things never last. The world came back to me, and there was pain, so much pain! My legs, my side, and my head. MY HEAD! Oh rotspawn how it hurt.

With a groan, I forced my eyes open and was rewarded with a view of a dimly lit room. The light coming from a single small lantern on a table in corner, its light revealing moldy walls and a shitstained floor. I lay on a mattress, my tiny legs had been bound together with dirty rope. It had been wired so tightly that I had begun to bleed. I guess that explains the pain in my legs.

My ears perked at a muffled sound from the other side of the room. Rolling over on my side, I spotted another mattress with a limp form upon it. Squinting in the dim light, I could make out the tightly packed stripes of Zevah. She had been beaten badly, bruises and cuts all over her body.

“Hey Zevah! You okay?” I called.

Zevah jerked at the sound of my voice, her eyes fluttering open. “Imhani?” she said. Then tears filled her eyes and her jaw clenched, ”Imhani sweetie, you must wiggle over to me” – her voice broke as she continued – “and I will make sure they will never hurt you.”

For some reason I didn’t like the way she said that. Deciding to change the subject I asked, “What happened?”

“We need to be quiet” Zevah said, sounding both pained and desperate, “Come over here and I will tell you.” When I didn’t move, she started crying. “Please Imhani.”

Thats when the door was flung open and three raider ponies waked in. “My, my, my! You makin’ a bunch of noise in here. You miss me? You ready for round two?” said the one in front.

At the sound of his voice, Zevah rolled into a trembling ball, her sobbing growing worse.

I studied the raiders, DJPon3 had been right, they were the very definition of murderous psychos. Two stallions and one mare all with reddish coats and manes, but that might just be because they had smeared blood all over themselves. Their eyes were puffy and yellow, over their ...grins. I recoiled when I saw the mouth of the stallion who had spoken, he had filed his teeth down to points, which in turn had turned his mouth a scarred and bloody ruin. I was surprised he could talk at all.

Scar-mouth noticed my reaction, and turned towards me with an even wider grin. “Ha! The little cunt is up! My, my, my! It was about time we got this party started,” he said, before licking his lips.

“Don’t you dare touch her!” Zevah shouted, in a burst of defiance.

The three raiders just laughed. “What are you gonna do about it?” asked the mare, “Wiggle your ass at us?” She laughed uproariously.

Scar-mouth walked over to me, pressing me into the mattress with a hoof. “Hold still now little cunt or I will have to start breakin’ bones.”

I looked over at Zevah, her face full of agony. With my face an indifferent mask I spoke coolly, “Zevah, I am sorry for what happened to Imhani and for deceiving you,”

Her eyes grew wide and she blinked several times,“What?”

Green fire rolled over my body. Scar-mouth jerked away from the sudden burst of light. And I rose in all my glory, black carapace plates shifting against each other, unmoving insectoid eyes gleaming, powerful jawbones cracking as I gave Scar-mouth a true sharp toothed grin. The ropes around my legs had torn, like paper.

I had never actually tried to estimate my true size before, but looking down at Scar-mouth. I realized I had to be at least as large as Xingahar, if not even larger!

“What the fuck” Scar-mouth said, staring up at me, his eyes wide.

I lunged for him, my maw closing over his face, upper jaw digging into his right temple, the lower into his left. He screamed as I bit down. His skull cracked like an eggshell under the pressure and with surprising ease, I ripped a Darkstar sized chunk out of his head. Scar-mouths corpse fell to the ground, missing both its eyes and some of its brains.

I turned to the remaining raiders. I opened my mouth and let the gory mush splatter to the floor. “Ta-Daa!” I said.

The female raider was the first of the two to recover, pulling out a gun, that had probably belonged to a zebra a day ago. With a manic grin, she began firing BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM. She got off six shots before the gun clicked empty. Three of the bullets hit me, all ricocheting off my carapace. Still I wasn’t in the mood to celebrate, they had hurt... a lot, especially the shot to my throat.

Hiding both my pain and surprise, I smiled at the mare. She gaped at me, the gun falling from her slack jaw and unto the floor.

Seeing my opportunity, I charged. I was still accelerating when my horn punched into her barrel, spearing both her lungs. Straining my muscles to their limit, I heaved the writhing body up above my head. Then, moving my head in an arc, I flung the dying pony at the remaining stallion. They both slammed into the wall together, releasing a cloud of old plaster. The stallion crawled out from underneath his companion, coughing. I stomped on his head, and kept stomping until there was only mush left.

I didn’t even think about the brutality of my attack. It just felt right, besides putting a sick animal out of it misery, is the moral thing to do. Feeling decidedly smug, I turned to Zevah who was staring at me in horror.

“A changeling...” Zevah whispered, “That is impossible!” Her expression darkened and with a rising anger, “Your kind are not supposed to exist!”

Losing some of my smugness at her tone, I replied, ”Well… here I am anyway, Darkstar at your service.”

“HOW LONG?” Zevah suddenly roared, “HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN PRETENDING TO BE IMHANI?”

“This is not really the time,” I replied hesitantly.

“TELL ME! Or I swear by the sun; I will see you dead.” she growled.

I sighed, “About two days.”

Zevah let out a heavy breath,“Where is she now?”

“Bright Shoe medical research center” I replied.

“Is she alive?” Zevah asked, the faintest tremors of hope in her voice.

I grimaced, “Sorry”.

Zevah sagged back onto the mattress. “I knew something was off, but I ignored it. Changelings only exist in legends, made up legends, just a fiction of some random zebras imagination.” Her voice trailed off towards the end, then she went silent for a minute. “So what now? Are you going to kill me?”

I blinked at her, “No? Why would I do that? My plan was to cut you lose and then we could go save Xingahar together.”

“He is dead.” she said coldly.

I gaped at her, feeling numb, “But… they took us prisoner”

“He bled out on the way here, so they hanged him from a streetlight.” she replied harshly, “All because of that stupid fucking medical box.”

I flinched. There was that weight again, in the pit of my stomach. “Well… ” I said, trying to hide how badly the news had rattled me, “I suppose I could just help you out then.”

She glared at me, “I don’t want your help, monster.” She jerked at her bonds, to no avail.

“Don’t be a foal, at least let me cut your ropes,” I said, stepping closer. She wiggled away from me. I rolled my eyes and growled; “We don’t have time for this.” Making my decision, I closed the distance between us and pinned her to the ground with my body.

“Don’t touch me!” she screamed while thrashing as hard as she could.

Ignoring her struggles, I placed my horn on the inside of her leg and followed it down to the ropes, before slicing through them. Immediately her hooves struck at me, aiming for my eyes. Hastily, I rolled off her and backed off a few steps.

Zevah got shakily to her hooves and snarled at me, “I hate you.” Then, glancing at the dead raiders, she added “But you did aid me” – the words seemed to cause her physical pain – “so I won’t kill you... for now.”

I snorted, “As if you could.”

Zevah ground her teeth at that, then with a visible effort, she reigned herself in, “I guess, I could use your help to save Kizhaka.

I tilted my head to the side, “Who?”

Zevah let out a deep sigh, “The filly that rode in the wagon with you. They grabbed her as she tried to hide behind some trash bins.”

So that was her name; Kizhaka. I gave Zevah my widest grin, displaying my bloody teeth. “Let’s go vanquish evil and save the fair maiden”

Zevah armed and geared herself with the raiders weapons and bardings. I didn’t bother, my carapace provided far better protection than any barding. And when it came to guns; I would rather rely on my natural weapons. Besides, killing form afar just seemed so… boring. Still, I did take a pair of shabby saddlebags, blackened from old blood. Too my pleasure, I found Imhanis old satchel, with the PipBuck still inside. I shoved them both into my new bags. Finally we were both ready, and we left the room with me leading the way.

Being almost half again as wide and a head taller than Zevah, in addition to my toughness, I would rush in and attract the raiders attention , while Zevah picked them off from afar. It was a good plan, it had style.

We stepped out into a corridor with numbered doors running down its sides. At the far end two raiders were having an argument. I immediately set off in a gallop towards them. They both stopped surprised. I accelerated to my top speed. One of them began laughing despite the rapidly approaching threat. The other raider frowned, “What the–” and that was all he got out before Zevah shot him in the head.

His companions laughter dwindled as he watched his companion fall. “You okay?” he asked the corpse.

And that was when I slammed into him. Since he was wearing a thick metal plate over his throat and chest, I opted for my shoulder rather than my horn. We flew through the air and landed on the musty carpet, the raider on his back and me on top. I ripped into his face with my teeth, and kept at it until he stopped moving.

Zevah trotted up, and looked down at me from the corner of her eye, “...”

“What?” I asked.

She ignored me, indicated the stairs with a hoof. “Lets keep on moving.”

The building was a hotel complex, every level holding about a hundred rooms, it would have taken days to search them all. Luckily for us, we found Kizhaka in the hotel lobby. She hung from the high ceiling with a rope around one of her hindlegs. A stallion wearing a blindfold was swinging a baseball bat at her. Three other raiders were laughing and egging him on. The little zebra filly was flailing franticly trying to keep out of the bats way.

Zevahs eyes grew wide as she saw the bruised and battered filly take a blow to the stomach, sending her swaying back and forth. Gritting her teeth, Zevah aimed her rifle at the blindfolded raider and fired, sending three shots into his side.

As she did this, I flew up to the ceiling, pushing off it and launching myself down towards the three onlookers. Going down, I wrapped myself in green flames, the spell coming easily to me. Two of the three raiders simply exploded, I can’t think of a better word to describe it. Their remains splattered everywhere. The one remaining raider tried to run, but I caught him by a hindleg with my mouth. As he turned to strike at me, I snipped the leg of. Yes, you heard me. I snipped it off.

The raider fell to the ground, screaming and clutching at his bleeding stump. I jumped on him until he stopped. At this point I was so covered in gore that my carapace looked more red than black.

“So only nine in all?” I asked, “I expected there to be more.”

Having cut Kizhaka down and pulled the filly up on her back. Zevah replied, “There are more, and thats why we should get out of here as soon as we can.”

We headed outside through the big double doors, and was greeted by a cold breeze and the darkness of midnight.

Suddenly Zevah turned to me, “The basement, what happened?” She spoke quickly, as if she really didn’t want to know.

Maybe I could have made some excuses, ‘I was newborn and confused’, ‘She attacked first’, or something. However, It wouldn’t change anything, it would just be pitiful. I glanced a Zevah before looking away into the darkness. “I ripped her throat out.”

Zevah stared at me for a moment then said in a quiet voice, “I will kill you for that.” Then she turned and trotted off into the darkness, Kizhakas holding on tightly to her back, still looking like she couldn't believe that she had been rescued.

Walking into that same darkness, It struck me that now, for the first time, I was completely alone. No hive, no zebras, no father, no nothing. I felt the beginnings of panic within me, starvation had just become a very real possibility.

I forced my mouth into a weak grin, I still had the spirit ‘DJPon3’ to keep me company, that was better than nothing... right?

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk: Bloody Art - Your victims could be considered; funky modern art. You gain +10% overall damage and more violent death animations.

Author's Note

And here it is chapter 2. I apologize for it taking so long, you know how it is with finals.