Cryogen

"I said, who's there?" I ask, anger and fear in my voice as I approach the standing door.

No response. I inch closer to the door, and place my hand on the edge before flinging it open. The door flies off of it's rusty hinges, and it hits the ground with a loud metallic clanking sound. What I see standing there before me, causes me to stumble backwards into the lab, almost tripping over a fallen table.

"Who... What..." I mumble as I fall on my ass, not even noticing the pain from the fall.

"H-Hey there." A weird looking creature says to me. Whatever it is, its wearing a fucking pith hat, as well as a green shirt. It resembles a small horse, but that isn't the only odd thing about it's appearance. It has huge eyes, as well as a pair of wing's on it's side. It's hair looks like it is styled more like a normal girl's hair than some horse's mane. It even have some weird compass tattoo on it's butt.

"What the hell are you!?" I ask, pointing the gun back at the creature. "Why can you talk!?"

"Whoa, chill out man, I don't bite." She says with an obviously feminine voice. "I was just exploring and I found this lab area. What are you even doing down here? I thought I was the first archaeologist to explore this place!"

"Archaeologist? You're a fucking horse, you aren't an archaeologist, you shouldn't even be real! You're just some hallucination, a side effect of being in that godforsaken device for 3500 years!"

"Whoa whoa whoa, what did you just say?" She asks as she slowly approaches me. "You've been here for that long? How are you even alive?"

"I was frozen! Don't you know what this place is!? It's a lab! A science lab! I'm surprised you don't know this considering you were probably made here!"

"Made here? Dude, do you even know how life works? Just how old are you? Two? Ya see, when a mommy pony and a daddy pony love each other ver-"

"I don't want to hear it! I already major in anatomy, I know how this works! What I'm saying is, horses don't talk! They don't have wings, they don't wear clothes, they don't have tattoos, and they don't take the time to style their hair! Admit it, you're an experiment gone wrong!"

"You really gotta chill out, you sound like a crazy pony."

"I'm not a pony! I'm a human, don't you know what that is? A human?"

"Can't say I do. Why? Should I know this?"

"Yes! There's only seven billion of us, not to mention we are the only sentient species on the entire planet!"

"I've never heard about a... human? If there's that many of you, how come I've never heard about you huh?"

"I don't know, because you're living in an abandoned lab that's five hundred feet underground?" I say sarcastically.

"I don't live here dude, I live in an actual house. Seriously, are you okay? You don't look so good."

"I-I'm not okay." I say as I drop the gun, and cover my face with my hands. "Everything is gone! My family, my friends, and if you're telling the truth, the entire human race! I might as well just kill myself right now!"

"Hey hey, don't you dare say that!" She says as she approaches me and places a hoof on my shoulder. "I'm gonna help you whether you like it or not."

"Unless you can tell me what happened to my entire race, then no, I don't want your help." I say through my tears, my face pressed into my knees.

"Well, no, I can't. But I can help you find answers! I'm an archaeologist for Celestia sake! It's what I do!"

"C-Celestia?" I ask through a sniffle. "Who's that?"

"Wow, you really aren't from around here are you? Ah, I'll explain later. C'mon, lets get you out of here."

"And where exactly am I even going to go? Society as I know it is gone, and it is NOT coming back! I don't have anything to go back to!"

"Then find something new! I'm an author, trust me, I know about starting new adventures."

"I-I thought you were an archaeologist." I say with a small smirk.

"Well, yeah, but I also write about all my adventures. Wanna know what I learned?"

"I guess..." I say with a shrug.

"Well stand up and follow me. We'll walk and talk."

"Alright, fine, but let me pack my stuff up first." I go around the room, checking all of the guns in the room for ammo. Whenever I find some that will fit in the pistol, I place it into my back pocket. By the time I finish, I have a decent sized stash, and I head back towards the pony, who's name I still haven't learned.

"What's your name?" I ask as we start walking down the vacant hallways, the only sounds being the humming lights, our foot/hoofsteps, and my backpack smacking against my back with each step.

"I'm A.K. Yerling, but uh, you can call me Daring, I prefer that name when I'm out on expeditions like this."

"Is that a nickname or something?"

"Well, kind of. It is the name I give myself when I write my stories. In real life, I'm A.K. Yerling, but in my stories, I'm Daring Do, fearless archaeologist who goes on this crazy adventures trying to uncover the mysteries of the past!" She says excitedly as she flaps her wings next to me.

"Like Indiana Jones?" I ask with a chuckle. She just gives me a confused look. "No? I guess it's just something from a different time then." I say with a sigh.

"I... guess so. Anyway, what was that you learned Daring?"

"Oh, yeah, that. On my adventures, I learned that life doesn't always stay the same. Each day is different for me, so I really had to get used to the concept of change. You said your family and friends were gone, and that's not something I can just fix with words. However, I can try to comfort you by saying it'll only get better from here. The worst is over I think, and for your own good, I think you should try to move on. Don't get me wrong, I know it'll hurt for a long time knowing about everything that's happened to you, but honestly, if you never try to get past it, it'll only hurt you more." She explains in a somewhat sad tone. We walk in silence after that, just staring at the ground and walls around us.

"Zack." I mumble.

"What?"

"Zack Austin, that's my name." I say as I stare at a splotch of dried blood on the wall in front of us.

"Well Zack, glad to be your friend!" She says as she holds out a hoof towards me.

"I never said we were friends. I'm still not even sure if you're real. Hell, for all I know, you're just a hallucination that my brain made up to keep me somewhat sane.

"Well, I consider you a friend." She says as she nudges my shoulder.

"Whatever makes you comfortable." I say with a shrug.

"You think there might be any files around here? Maybe they'll have some historical records about what happened and why this place looks like... well, this." She says as she waves a hoof around, pointing at all the gore and bones in the hallway. The lights flickering on and off doesn't make it any less eerie.

"Not really. This place has been around for centuries and from what I know about paper, it decays rather quickly. I doubt there are any actualy physical files left here. However, since that C.F.D.'s computer still worked, I'd bet my ass the central mainframe is still up."

"What's a computer?" I sigh and begin my explanation about what computers are for the next fifteen minutes before we reach the end of a hallway where a door is labeled, letting us know we found the main computer.

"So, what's so special about this thing?"

"This is the central computer of the entire facility. It can control every other computer in the entire building. It's essentially the heart of this place, and you can access every file on every computer from here!"

"This is so interesting! I've never seen technology so advanced, let alone working!"

"Wait wait wait, you guys don't have advanced technology?"

"We have projectors, those are pretty neat." She says with a sheepish grin. I just roll my eyes an facepalm.

"Seriously? Let me get this straight. You guys have MAGIC, and yet you can't create basic technology?"

"What can I say? We rely so much on magic that technology isn't really thought about all that much. In fact, technology is still a pretty recent idea. I had no idea that there was an entire other race before us that created something this advanced!"

"Well believe it Daring, because this is real." I say as I browse through the files on the old, dusty computer. "Well well well, what do we have here?" I say to myself as I locate the last file uploaded to the system. It is labeled as being saved in 2145, and isn't labeled with a name. I hit play, and the image of a man in a white lab coat pops up. He's holding his hand over a red stain on his torso, and he grunts every few words.

"I-I'm Professor Burns. This is my final entry. The military just found us, so I don't have much time. They discovered that the PT Virus originated from this very lab, and they're attacking us mercilessly. I can't believe that bastard tricked us into actually helping him create it. HE is the reason that most of the world has already fallen victim to the virus, and it is only getting worse! Our only hope to continue the human legacy is Subject Z-56. He is the only one who has been able to survive living in the C.F.D. for more than fifty years. His body seems to be able to sustain itself far longer than any other test subject. He started out as a test subject, but now, he's our last hope. God help him. God help you Subject Z-56. Whatever you do, don't let HIM find you."

The screen snaps back to a blank black screen, only showing my reflection with Daring standing behind me. She places a hoof on my lap, but I don't even feel it as the professor's words bounce around in my head. Subject Z-56? I-Is that me? And even if it is, what am I supposed to even do? Whatever this PT virus is, it killed off the entire human race except for me. Who is He? Who tricked this company into creating such a virus.

"Zack? Are you okay?" Daring asks. I quickly throw off my backpack, and open it to reveal my laptop. The battery is dead, but when I hook it up to the main computer, it comes to life. Once it has fully loaded up, I transfer every remaining file from the hard drive of the central mainframe, and transfer it to my laptop. I let it sit for a minute, letting the battery charge up.

"I'm fine. I just need to know more about what happened, but I can't stay here. I'm transferring the files over to my laptop through this cable. Please don't ask how that works, because I don't want to explain it right now."

"O-Okay, well we should probably get out of here, this place is starting to give me the creeps."

"I thought you were fearless." I say, a small smirk growing on my face.

"I-I am, but this place... the blood and all is just too much for me."

"I'm just kidding. Yeah, I need to get out of here too. Lets get the fuck out."

The sun nearly blinds me as I look up at it. I look back at the small entrance that leads back into the top floor of the building. All it is now is basically a hole in the ground that leans down to what used to be the roof of the building.

"Haven't seen this for 3500 years." I mumble as we begin to walk through a dense forest. "Where are we going exactly?"

"My home, duh. Then there's this town I wanna bring you to. There's some... interesting ponies I want you to meet there."

"Whatever you say Daring, its not like I have anything else to do." I say with a sigh.

"Trust me, once you make some friends, you'll love it here, I guarantee it."

"I don't think I'll ever love anything again... I had a girlfriend y'know." I say as I pull out my wallet to show her a picture of us.

"She's pretty." Daring says simply as she stares at the picture while somehow still flying.

"You bet she was... She was probably manlier than me to be honest." I say with a light chuckle. "She loved sports and action, not to say that I didn't, but it was her passion. She wanted to join the airforce, a branch of our military, and she wasn't gonna let anything get in her way."

"She sounds amazing. I'd love to meet her..."

"Wish you could, I wish you could... Daring, can you make me a promise?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Promise me I'm going to be okay." I say with a tear forming in my eye and my voice begins to crack as it weakens. "Promise me I'll find a reason to keep living. Promise me that I'll be able to overcome all of this. Promise me... that maybe, somehow, I'll be happy again."

No response. I look over at Daring, who looks back at me with sadness in her eyes which glisten in the sun. She suddenly pressing into my side, wrapping one of her forelegs around me.

"I promise."