Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead

Sunset stared at the half empty bottle of water in her hands and slowly shook it, watching the water slosh around inside.

She was hungry and she kept beating herself over the head for skipping lunch at school this day. Sunset wasn’t even sure why she didn’t go to the cafeteria, she simply didn’t feel like it.

They had been driving along the road for many hours and it was already dark outside. The roundabout road, along which they bypassed yet another small town, was illuminated by roadside lamps that swept past the bus window at regular intervals, creating a lulling effect.

Someone once told her, “If you are hungry - drink some water, if you are really hungry - go to sleep.” That, of course, was meant to be a joke, but now it seemed like a good idea. Except that was her one and only bottle of water and she most definitely needed to ration it. And as for sleep... She was sure that nothing but nightmares awaited her in the dream realm.

Combined Arms let out another painful groan. He was lying on two seats with his legs out in the aisle, and several layers of bandages on his torso and head made him look like a mummy. He held up quite well, given the circumstances, but the constant injections of painkillers kept him in a semi-conscious state for most of the time.

After Fluttershy and the private finished bandaging the lieutenant's burns, First Strike told them what happened at the camp.

When they entered, the camp seemed abandoned, but there were signs of struggle everywhere. The ground was littered with shell casings and splashes of blood, and there was a corpse of a flamethrower near the gate. Some buildings were barricaded from the outside, as if someone was trying to keep something inside. When they got to the communications center, they ran into a feral. He did not pose much of a threat on his own and was easily killed, but the sound of gunfire literally shook the hornets' nest. Whoever or whatever was closed in those buildings began to bash at the doors, destroying the barricades, and the two soldiers had to hurry. They entered the communications center and were able to contact the Refugee Center around which a Safe Zone was established and got their coordinates. When they were on their way back, the one of the barricades fell and one of those electric things staggered out.

“As soon as it saw us, it raised its arms and damn electricity began shooting all over the place! It fucking zapped me! We took one down, but there were more of them.” When others asked him about what those things were, he shrugged. “Hell if I know. Probably some poor sods had their power storage bionics malfunction or something.”

Sunset only read about the bionics online but never saw anyone actually augmented. Compact Bionic Modules, or CBMs for short, were the state of the art technology, an absolute cutting edge. They appeared on the market not so long ago and, naturally, cost a fortune and a half to install, so only the most wealthy people or military specialists could afford them. They were advertised to be able to help people with all aspects of their lives and work. Turned out they could also turn people into walking tasers.

“When we saw others breaking out, we just ran. And near the gate... That guy with the flamethrower... He was getting up!” Strike shouted. “But he was dead! I know that because I checked him as soon as we entered the camp! Shot right in the heart several hours ago.”

“So, what? We are dealing with the zombies now?” Asked Rover. He wanted it to sound like a joke, but his voice clearly lacked sarcasm.

“Looks like it.” Answered First Strike. “I heard rumors around the base, from the guys that were deployed in one of the riot zones, they told that the dead are not actually dead, that they were coming back.” Strike leaned back in his seat and covered his face with his hands. “Heh. I didn’t believe that shit. Man, do I feel stupid now!”

Everyone were shocked by this sudden revelation. Sunset didn’t want to believe that, she couldn’t believe that! This world didn’t have magic! There was no way that the undead could exist without magic! But... She saw that thing from the pit and it didn’t look alive...

And so Sunset had spent the last few hours trying to remember everything she knew about necromancy. Of course, everything about this dark art was forbidden in Equestria, but being a protégé of the Princess herself, Sunset had access to a bit more in-depth information. "To fight the dark magic, one needs to understand it." Celestia told her. But even this extended information was extremely limited. Moreover, the more Sunset thought about it, the more she became convinced that magic could not be the cause of what was happening. Which made all her meager knowledge of the undead completely useless. Not to mention that the hunger that began to settle in had made it increasingly harder to concentrate.

Sunset's belly rumbled loudly, she put her hand on it and pressed, trying to calm it down.

‘I hope this Refugee Center has something to eat, otherwise all the zombies from all around will come running to these sounds.’ She thought and glanced at the bottle once again. ‘Maybe just one sip? Simply to have at least something in my stomach.’

She was about to open the bottle when a white hand appeared in front of her holding a granola bar.

"Here, darling, take this." Said Rarity.

“Huh?” Sunset took the bar, eyeing it with suspicion that made Rarity roll her eyes.

“Oh, don’t be like that, Sunset. Think of it as an expression of my gratitude.”

“For what?” The amber girl raised her eyebrow.

“You were by my side and you comforted me when I needed it most. You risked your life to get fuel." Rarity looked into her eyes and put her hand on her shoulder. “Darling, I understand that you and I had our fair share of disagreements, but this is clearly not the time for school grudges. Now we need to rely on each other, don't you agree?"

‘I didn’t go outside for their sake.’ Sunset thought. ‘And comforting... Anyway, I am not going to argue.’ She looked back at the granola bar and opened it. “Yeah, you’re right. Thanks.” She muttered, taking a bite.

Suddenly, something hit the windshield and the bus swerved from side to side, waking the few survivors who managed to fall asleep and alarming the rest.

"Damn bird!" The driver swore and rose slightly from the seat. “What did it... W-what the?”

Sunset and Rarity shared a glance and peered from the window, trying to see what could elicit such a reaction from the driver.

At first they could see nothing unusual in the light of the roadside lamps. They still rushed past the window at regular intervals, and everything behind them was hidden in darkness. Only flashes of lightning were visible in the sky, illuminating the heavy clouds above them. Sunset looked back to the road, but something didn’t feel right. She again raised her eyes to the sky and again saw lightnings...

The same lightnings...

They slowly crawled through the blackness of the night, parting like thick pulsating veins on the body and piercing the clouds, which began to quickly dissipate, revealing a strange dark-crimson sky.

"Oh my God." Rarity whispered. "What's happening?"

Sunset said nothing. She just stared at this phenomenon with wide eyes. She had never seen anything like it in her life. Not even in Equestria, where the weather has long obeyed the magic of the pegasi. It was beautiful in a way, but deep down, Sunset knew that something terrible was happening.

A primal animalistic terror crept into her soul, shaking her entire body. Somehow she was sure that she was witnessing the end of the world.

‘I... I... I must go back!’ She thought. ‘Oh, Celestia, I want to live, I must...’

There was a blinding flash of light.

Sunset hissed, covered her face with her hands, and fell to the floor as the bus swerved violently from side to side. She rubbed her eyes, blinking away the spots left by the flash, and looked around.

Some passengers also rubbed their eyes, but most just looked out the windows on the right side. Many had expressions of shock and fear on their faces, as their tears glittered in the dark-crimson light of the sky.

Sunset rose from the floor with a groan, the bruises that she had received that day made themselves felt with a dull ache in her arms and chest. When she looked out the window, her jaw dropped.

There, near the horizon, stood a huge mushroom cloud.

It felt like the time has completely stopped in its tracks, and no one uttered a word, only the growing roar of the explosion was heard in the distance.

‘A nuke... They are dropping nukes... Oh, Celestia, this really IS the end!’ Sunset thought, looking at the mushroom cloud.

Sunset didn’t know much about the humanity’s ultimate weapon, but the fact that they were still alive gave her some semblance of hope. The explosion was far away, they were not blown away by the blast wave. As for the radiation... Sunset knew about radiation only what they taught in school, but she was sure that they should have enough time to get away from the hot spot. They should be fine as long as they could drive away from the explosion.

Suddenly, Sunset felt like she was being doused with boiling and ice cold water at the same time. The feeling sounded vaguely familiar to her, but she didn't have time to figure out exactly how. This feeling rolled over her like a wave and she definitely felt that it came from her left.

Sunset turned her head to look at the road in front of the bus.

Something that looked like a tear in reality itself was spreading right in front of them. The jagged hole in space twitched and widened, emitting a crimson glow.

‘That’s an unstable portal!’ Sunset thought with her mouth agape. She read about them back at the Celestia’s school. It was theoretically possible to open a portal without any enchanted stabilizing elements like the mirror, but the amount of power one would have to use to keep it open for any meaningful time would be absolutely colossal, beyond even the might of The Princess. But here it was! Right on front of them!

And it was getting closer.

“Oh no.” Sunset muttered and looked at the driver.

He, like everyone else, was looking at the explosion, but his foot was still pushing the pedal, accelerating the bus towards the portal.

“Watch out!” She screamed, pointing forward.

Driver’s eyes darted at her and he turned back to look at the road. As soon as he saw the tear in reality he swore and slammed on the brakes, sending everyone who wasn’t holding on to something flying forward.

But he was too late.

A moment later Sunset felt a familiar tug and pull as she, the bus and everyone in it were pulled into the portal.

For a moment everything was bathed in the kaleidoscope of lights as they flew through the space-time.

When they returned to the real space the bus was spewed out of the portal onto a side of a steep hill. The bus, accelerated by the exit from the portal, drove down the slope at an alarming speed. The driver tried to stop it by pulling the hand brake lever, first there was a prolonged squeal of the brakes, then the crackle and clang of metal when the brake pads were ripped off. The driver had no choice but to grab onto the steering wheel to prevent the speeding bus from toppling over or crashing into something on its way downhill.

Sunset, who was thrown over the back of the seat in front of her by sudden braking, lifted her head and the first thing she saw was a crimson glow. The light that had previously emanated from the portal was now everywhere. Then she saw the islands. Huge stone islands just floated in the red sky. Some were empty, some had things on them, that looked like some sort of organic growth, some had whole lakes of lava, which in places flowed over the edges of the islands and fell down like waterfalls.

‘Where the Tartarus are we?’ Sunset thought, dumbfounded by the view.

There was a scream from behind. Turning around, Sunset saw Fluttershy close to the back end of the bus, she was on the floor, desperate to crawl away from something she was staring at. Sunset followed her gaze and at first she saw just a shadow at the back of the bus, but then it started to move.

This was some form of eldritch monstrosity! A black being with smooth, oily skin and a pair of horns that curve inward toward each other. Tall and thin, the shadows clung unnaturally to its vaguely defined humanoid form as it shuffled along, its hands twitching and spasming so rapidly as to appear a little more than a black blur of claws. Its mere presence filled Sunset with terror.

One of the students, still disoriented after the teleportation and clearly not noticing the shadow monster nearby, got up from the seat to help Fluttershy and found himself in the path of the creature. The monster moved its hand so quickly that it seemed as if it did not move at all but just jerked in the direction of the guy in front of it, but a moment later the teenager fell to the side with a gurgling sound, clutching the lacerated wound on his neck and dousing the frightened girl on the floor with a fountain of his blood.

“Fluttershy! Get away from that thing!” Shouted Rarity, who also saw what happened, but her shout was practically unheard among the terrified screams of others.

Three shots rang out from the side and the creature staggered back. First Strike entered the aisle holding his sidearm. During the teleportation, his assault rifle flew off his shoulder and ended up somewhere on the floor. He pulled the trigger two more times, but only one bullet hit the target, the shaking of the bus made aiming extremely difficult. On the third pull of the trigger, the pistol made only a dull click.

"Fuck!" Private cursed looking at the opened slide of the pistol. After everything that happened in the FEMA camp, after bandaging the lieutenant and telling everyone that they are in the middle of a God damn zombie apocalypse, he simply forgot to reload his side arm. Such a stupid mistake...

The creature quickly recovered from the hit and, forgetting about Fluttershy, who had managed to huddle between the seats, rushed forward. Strike released the pistol from his hands, letting it fall to the floor, drew his combat knife and rushed to attack the creature. It again waved its hand, aiming at the private's neck, but Strike, who was expecting such a blow, managed to block it and counterattacked by slashing with a knife on the monster's shoulder. He tried to stab the monster in the chest, but it recoiled, swinging its arm up and slashing Strike's arm with its claws. He cried out in pain, but did not drop the knife.

The soldier and the monster stood in front of each other, waiting for the right moment to attack, and trying to maintain balance as the bus bounced on bumps and wobbled from side to side.

And during the next skid, Strike was the first to staggered to the side. The shadow monster immediately took the opportunity to slash Strike across his chest, leaving claw marks on his body armor. The private pushed away from the seat and threw himself at the monster, hitting it in the chest with his shoulder and stabbing it in the stomach. The monster didn’t make a sound, it just threw its hand and thrust its claws deep into Strike’s right shoulder. He screamed and released the knife. Realizing that things were bad, the private hit the monster in the stomach with his knee, right next to the wound, forcing him to take a couple of steps back.

At that moment, deafening shots rang out to the right of Sunset. Lieutenant Arms, who fell to the floor during the commotion, fired at the creature from his pistol with little aim.

Seeing how the shots pierced holes in the walls of the bus, Strike dived between the seats so that he himself would not be accidentally shot.

The monster rushed forward, but one of the shots still hit the target, punching a large hole in its neck. It took a couple more hesitant steps and fell forward, face down.

Sunset was about to cheer, but then some movement at the end of the bus caught her attention. She looked there and blinked in surprise. There was nothing there a moment ago, but now she could see the faintest outline of another creature approaching them with jittery motions.

It was crawling on the ceiling!

Remembering the basics of the illusion magic, she tried to focus on that thing and it revealed a pointed beak dripping translucent fluid and rows upon rows of bladed legs, but after a few moments of staring at it, her eyes began to burn and her head started to spin.

“There’s another one! Shoot it!” Sunset screamed, pointing at seemingly empty spot on the ceiling.

Arms glanced at her then wherever she was pointing. Even the bandages on his face could not hide the look of horror when he, too, saw the semi-invisible thing.

He raised his pistol, but it was too late.

It leaped down and straight onto the lieutenant. He screamed, but this scream was cut off almost instantly, when he and the creature simply disappeared without a trace.

"Lieutenant!?" Strike yelled, “What the fuck!? Where did he go!?"

Sunset and Rarity simply stared silently at the place where the Combine Arms had been a moment ago, trying to comprehend what had happened.

The driver, who all this time did everything in his power to prevent the bus from overturning, saw something, that made his blood froze in his veins. All this time they were on one of the flying islands, and, having circled another huge boulder on the way, he saw the edge of this island.

"Everyone, quickly grab onto something and hold on with all your might!" He shouted without turning around.

A moment later, the bus flew over the edge.

Sunset, clinging to her seat, felt her heart stop as she saw the myriad islands spinning in a giant vortex stretching into infinity.

Then a huge gaping hole in reality blocked the view.

Again there was the familiar pull forward and the kaleidoscope of colors.

Then there was darkness and a strange feeling of weightlessness, but soon the ground appeared in the light of the headlights of the bus.

The last thing Sunset heard was the crashing and grinding of metal, then her face flew into the back of the seat in front of her and she was knocked out.