Chapter One: Where are you now?
Chapter One: Where are you now?
“It was crazy! The pony had big glowing veins all over his body, and just…launched himself at the shoppers over there with a freakish scream! There was so much blood, and then the one he bit- I thought she was dead, but then she just got up and started trying to bite me, so I ran of course! The guards are now here thankfully….erm, is that what you guys wanted?”
“Thank you for your time sir, that’s perfect. This has been Film Reel with Prime Time Fillydelphia News reporting-“
“Wait a minute. You don’t even seem surprised-what is going on? Has this happened anywhere else?”
“Sir. We have to go. Thank you for your time.”
-Excerpt from PTFN on-street interview. One week post outbreak.-
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The dark alleyway was suffocating, smoke from the burning buildings wafting down the small stone-walled space. Flames lit the walls and cobblestones with sinister dancing shadows.
It was only a moment. A short glance behind to see if they were being followed, and then came the screams…
As they always did.
There was a spiked piece of metal at his hooves, why didn’t he pick it up?
Why didn’t he run?
Why didn’t he do anything but stand in horror?
Mouth still red with his family’s blood, one of the Corpses turned towards him, veins and heart pulsing a fiery orange and red. It let out a wet moan, dropping his brother’s body to the stones as it lumbered towards him.
Only as a magical grip yanked the young colt off his hooves did the nightmare end.
The unicorn gasped for breath, chest heaving as sweat dripped down his sides. The nightmare was ever present; and waking up only made it all the more real.
Checking the cracked crystal clock to his right, Rivet slid off the repurposed bunk onto the hastily- carpeted floor, stretching briefly. Sleeping in the engine control room wasn’t the most luxurious space, but it was the most heavily armored. On entering the room, a ladder led up to the roof through a steel plated hatch, and only thin slits near the two engineer stations indicated it was morning, sunlight streaming through at the front of the compartment. The rest of the space was chock full of metal dials, levers, wheels, and even a fancy crystal-screen in the front-center of the cramped area.
The yellow-tan stallion trotted over to the periscope section of the engine, slowly sweeping the surrounding area. With a toss of his head, rivet cleared the dark brown bangs that flopped over in front of his eyes to look in the viewfinder. Always the same routine; that’s what had kept him safe for these three months. That, and a couple buckets of luck.
A few Corpses shambling on the outside tracks dead ahead, but that was normal. Looks like no breaches to the rear at least. Then again, if there had been, he’d likely be dead.
Making sure to walk on the carefully-placed drab brown and tan carpets, the unicorn made his way to the third car, where supply crates of all shapes and sizes were stacked. The second car was the backup boiler and steam regulation area; not much room for anything other than maintenance causeways. For the most part, the fourth through tenth cars were for passengers and supplies; with exceptions for two turreted carriages, which also doubled as secondary maintenance cars. Steam pipes ran through the walls, on top of the ceiling, and through the floor, all culminating in the aforementioned cars. Maintaining a high-pressure vehicle required a delicate balance of force and precision, as well as a great deal of training.
Rivet slid on his usual protective equipment; two forelimb wood and cloth gauntlets, a thick brown cloth used for welding that covered from one’s shoulders to haunches, and four padded horseshoes. The key was stealth, rather than combat after all.
His only weapons were a long knife, which was levitated into a small holster on his shoulder, and two additional gauntlets he strapped on. He would love to say that they were his design, but that was only partly true. He wasn’t one to draw out blueprints or the sort, but more of cobbling things together into something unique. Very few measurements or exact figures were used, more of just plugging things together and seeing what worked.
Inventor or not, his tinkering hobby had saved his life, in a very literal sense. If he hadn’t been on his lunch break modifying these very gauntlets when the outbreak happened, Rivet wouldn’t have been able to save himself.
He shrugged, examining his gauntlets. They were one shot each; a short range version of the longer steam-guns held by the ex-inhabitants of the station. It was a tradeoff; limited firepower for not having to wear the bulky boiler and steam apparatus for the larger weapons.
Fighting wasn’t how he had survived though.
At that thought, Rivet let out a slight huff. It certainly wasn’t only by his skills either. No, luck or fate had decided to play a game with him, that much was certain. A perfect storm had let him live that day. The weeks after? Even more luck, with a smattering of his skills.
Rivet looked through another periscope, slowly turning left to right in a full circle-and then the stallion’s breath froze on his lips.
The device staying perfectly still, focused on the hooves of an infected pony, shambling along the roof. The Corpse looked down, bright magma-lit eyes peering into the periscope, but Rivet had ducked just in time.
His hooves shook for a few moments as the ‘thump-thump’ of the Corpse echoed off in the distance. That was close, far too close.
The unicorn took a moment to breath, calming what remained of his nerves. Going outside had to be done when he wasn’t a nervous mess.
Which was exactly why he had stayed in this train for a full two weeks at first.
Another ever-so-slow circle of the periscope showed the Corpse moving off outside, following the tracks away from the station. Coast clear, for now.
He finally ventured to open one of the thick side doors to the train. Halfway out of the station itself, the armored vehicle had almost made its escape when the station fell. Another few minutes or so, and there would have been more survivors.
But here it sat. All ten cars locked together and waiting, half inside the drawbridge waiting area, half outside. The bridge and tracks were already lowered, pointing to the main line. When the train occupants had turned, someone must have hit the emergency brakes, preventing the spread beyond the station.
Stop the spread; at least via the train that is. Nothing stopped the Corpses from wandering the lines endlessly.
The drawbridge building alone was a massive structure, steam pipes flaring from its roof like industrial hair, massive doors on the entrance and exit. The oval building was one of two entrances in and out of the circular station, tall walls and spikes surrounding the entire town otherwise. Even as stoutly built as it was, the walls were bent and buckled. The Corpses had thrown themselves so violently against the building, not even the iron walls could escape unscathed. It had taken a lot of luck and planning to get the infected out of the train and drawbridge building.
Namely, a very long fuse with some gunpowder several hundred feet away. The noise had drawn them all to it. That, and using a knife to toss some of his blood over the explosives. That’s what drew them more than anything; freshly spilled blood.
That had left the drawbridge area and train as his semi-safe sanctuary. The entrance and exit could double as a shelter, but it took more than one pony to completely secure it all. He had managed to close the massive door behind the train- but obviously Corpses could climb. Hence the visitor on the train no doubt. The front door was poised above the third and fourth car, no way to close it with the train in the way. The Corpses usually wandered out to the main rails at night, otherwise staying closer to the inner parts of the station during the day.
Rivet stopped to listen every thirty seconds as he traversed the train, otherwise checking for signs of distressed metal. Thankfully, most of the Corpses were either on the rail line dead ahead, or locked behind in the station, for the most part.
After clearing one side of the train, he slipped into the rearmost car, taking a break. Being on edge for so long was taking its toll. Day after day, week after week.
If only he knew how to run the train, he’d be able to just leave. But other than re-wiring some pipes and firing up the boiler, the unicorn was at a loss. Even the elusive master key, a device allowing the activation of the entire train, was in its slot. It was infuriating; to have all things in place, but lack the knowledge to operate it all.
And he dared not experiment with it. If he accidentally set off the train horn, or any other noise…..
Those thoughts had come and gone many times.
It should have been a normal day; helping clean and upgrade an arriving train before it was sent out again towards Canterlot. No more than a two day stop at this station.
Unfortunately, a Corpse had somehow gotten lodged on the undercarriage, and was missed in the inspection. It had crawled out of the loading docks, and set upon a group of farmers next to the loading area. From there….it spread in every direction.
Some survivors had tried to circle back behind the flood of Corpses to leave in the train, but that had obviously been a fatal mistake.
He sighed; no point on dwelling on it. But he was left alone to his thoughts, so they always went back to three months ago.
Or five years.
That thought was promptly put into the ‘not-thinking-about-it’ box and shoved far away. It was still morning; no point in reliving a nightmare.
One could argue waking up was just that though.
Clearing the other side of the train, Rivet slipped back into the main engine; closing the door and letting out a long sigh.
He’d have to leave eventually. His supplies were down to a week, two at most. He didn’t dare go deeper into the town; but all the outlying areas had been scraped clean. Mostly going in daytime, moving at a snail’s pace to scavenge what little he could. He had mostly moved when the Corpses had become distracted by either a passing engine or some other noise in the destroyed station. Even so, it had taken a nerve-wracking few weeks to scrape the meager supplies together.
There was, however, one other option. Totally out of his control, but a chance nonetheless. Two weeks ago, a massive train had slowed as it passed by. He had started a signal fire; sending up white smoke, as well as lowering a crude flag up and down as it passed.
So, perhaps they had seen, or maybe not. Whatever the case, in about a week he either had to brave the inner town for supplies, or find some method of escape.
Carefully and quietly shedding his protective gear, Rivet trotted to the seventh car of the train; one that had been under construction as it had tried to leave. No doubt, the open turret mount on the roof had been a gateway for the horrors that flooded in.
It was meant to house a cannon; much like the fourth car had installed. Instead, just the swivel mount and part of the outer construction had been installed with the control panels. That was the primary upgrade the train had stopped in for; done within a day or two.
After clearing the train, Rivet had pulled a tarp over the exposed entrance, and locked the car doors. That was until he was able to weld some scrap metal over it. It was probably-no, it was still the weakest part of the train, but he couldn’t do more. Hauling more metal over from the loading dock was out of the question, so he used parts of the drawbridge enclosure.
His welding equipment was almost out of usable materials and fuel as well, while using the even-louder rivet gun was out of the question.
It had started as a frantic attempt to cover up the exposed area, but then turned into a pet project. What used to be a bare-bones turret outline was now a mess of cables, personal steam boilers, and twisted metal.
“….you’d probably not talk to me for an entire day if you saw this mess.” The stallion whispered, voice a tad rough from disuse. His few friends had left a week before the outbreak; and now…
His brown ears flattened, still seeing his best friend’s smile flitter through his mind. Perhaps things with her would have gone even better. But now? No point of thinking about that; but it was true, she’d give him quite the talking to for butchering so many pieces of equipment.
A shake of his shoulders, and the unicorn secured the seventh car; making his way back to the supplies. As Rivet walked, the stallion shook his head, fighting down the gloomy thoughts that were as ever-present as the Corpses outside.Giving up was always an option. In fact, that was how you ‘beat’ the infection.
A shaped charge, held tight against your chest, and a string pulled with your teeth. It pulverized your heart; making sure the virus wouldn’t have anywhere to take root. A container of said canvas containers, a ‘suicide bag’ was in every train car. He wasn’t about to become one of those creatures. A mindless, dead, Corpse. A zomb-pony? Hardly.
A mirthless huff left Rivet’s lips. Zomb-ponies would have been preferable. Slow, shambling hordes of undead from comic books? That might have actually been manageable. These lightning fast creatures who would throw themselves against solid metal without a thought? They had simply overwhelmed all defenses.
Sitting down on a worn cushion, Rivet gave the side of the train a gentle tap as he munched on some stale hay.
“The Iron Hope …, I have plenty of the first, but I really could use some of the second right now…” The stallion whispered, both to the train and to himself..
A grim truth for the world he lived in.
Author's Note
Hello all! This story takes place in the universe set in Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, (Kōtetsujō no Kabaneri).
Names for important creatures/ect have been changed/using the translation. (Corpses instead of Kabane, or may be referred to as 'Cinders' by some) and so forth. (based on feedback, may revert)
This is not a direct adaptation of the series; but a springboard using the existing universe. Feedback is greatly appreciated, as are any tips or corrections!
Rokkon shojo!
