Bloodied Hands

Bloodied Hands

Chapter three: Urban Exploration

It was dark and Alex stayed crouched, hidden behind a bush. He was at the edge of the woods and in front of him was a road with many houses lined along the opposite side that were mostly three stories high, the one exception was a two story bar directly across the street. There wasn’t anything unusual about the buildings; it was what was outside and inside them that was unusual.

Ponies, techni-coloured ponies. Just strolling down the street, a few going into the houses and a few making their way to the bar. They were all kinds of colours and they all had weird markings on their flanks, what really got Alex was that some had wings while others had horns.

After Alex had picked up his jaw he sat back on the ground and just stared for a moment, completely lost at how to react. He then raised his hand and formed a fist, then punched himself in the face. “Fuck, guess I’m not dreaming.” Alex exasperated in a hushed tone. He glanced back across the street and started to feel panic rise in his chest, ”Oh fuck, oh fuck oh fuck!” he swore, his breathing becoming more rapid. Reaching for his bag he pulled out a bag and began hyperventilating into it, and after a few breaths his breathing started to calm down.

“ok,ok. What do I do, what do I do?” Alex asked himself, beginning to feel the panic return “I know find Eclipse she’s human; she knows what’s going on. Ok”. With that plan in his mind he clung to it like a safety line.

Looking across the road he took a few breaths and calmed down enough to set out a plan. He couldn’t be seen by the pony things but he needed to travel and get around. His attention was turned towards the bar when the bouncer pulled out an already drunk stallion, “ Get out of here you drunken bum” the bouncer told the stallion before slamming the door shut and going back in. The stallion then stumbled towards the alley to the side of the bar, and then promptly vomited on the wall and pissed on the garbage before wandering off in a drunken stupor.

That’s when Alex’s eye caught something, in the alley the dumpster could be used to reach the bar’s fire escape and then get up onto the roof. It would be a start and from the roofs he wouldn’t be seen, now he just needed to cross a brightly lit road to the other side without being seen. Biting his lip Alex looked around for inspiration. He saw some of the streetlamps were shattered, probably vandals. Looking at the ground he saw some good sized rocks lying about, with a smile Alex picked one up and thought that no one would be to suspicious if a few more lights were to break.

After breaking the fourth light Alex had cleared a path of dark from one side to the other. He was about to move when the bar’s door opened again, and there stood the bouncer. “Fucking vandals! Get out of here you stupid cunts!” he shouted scanning the road for a reaction. When he received none he grunted and slammed the door closed.

With a sigh of relief Alex stood up and ran across the now empty street towards the alley. Without breaking pace he vaulted up onto the dumpster and jumped up and grabbed the edge of the fire escape. Straining his arms he managed to pull himself up and over the hand rail, and then proceeded to stop and take a few lungful’s of air. After half a minute of catching his breath he climbed up the fire escape and onto the roof of the bar. The roof was a simple gravel one and was devoid of any features apart from a skylight. Walking up to the skylight he looked in to see the living room of the apartment above the bar, probably lived in by the owner of the bar. There wasn’t anything special about the room and it was devoid of any living creatures, so Alex moved on. He continued across the roof to the other side from which he climbed up. On this side the next door building was attached to the bar and so its fire escape came down onto the roof of the bar, this made it all the more easier for Alex to get on top of the three story housing line.

Looking across the roofs he had a clear and simple path to take and so he got jogging down the length of houses. The houses stretched on for a good distance and stopped at another road, looking across Alex saw a large warehouse factory type of building that looked abandoned for a long time. It looked like the best place around for Alex to camp out in without raising the suspicions of the residents. Only problem would be getting across the road and into the building. The road below was wider than the last and was busy with carriages being pulled along regularly and other ponies walking along the pavements.

Again Alex bit his lip and looked around for inspiration, after about five minutes he only could think of one option and he didn’t like it. The only way he could see of getting across would be by swinging hand over hand along an old wire that stretched from a window to the roof he stood on. The wire looked like some sort of old communication system and ended at a metal box next to Alex, that had a wire come out of it and into the building he stood on, which was also abandoned. From what Alex could guess, he thought that the warehouse and building he stood on were part of some company that went bust, and that this building was their offices and the wires were some sort of short communication between the two buildings. Alex thought about maybe sleeping in the office building but a sign in front of the building showed that it was for sale, and Alex didn’t want to be woken up by some potential buyer.

With a slight gulp Alex walked up to the edge of the building and took a grip of the wire, he had done things similar to this but it’s always scary to know that if the cable breaks its almost guaranteed death. With a final exhale he stepped off the building and hung there for a moment, feeling and listening for any sign of the cable being about to break. The metal block the cable was connected to let out a quiet creak but it stood fast and the cable held. With a sigh of relief Alex began swinging hand over hand across the gap. He felt awfully exposed but if anyone, or anypony, was to look up he would be hidden in the dark. He didn’t want to take any chances though and climbed as swiftly as he could.

He reached the end and swung from the cable and through the windor and into the warehouse. Looking back at the building across the road, Alex let out a quiet chuckle at the ridiculousness of his situation. Looking around the room he stood in he found himself in a small office with a balcony overlooking the floor of the warehouse. The warehouse floor was large and contained much machinery that Alex couldn’t recognise, what he could recognise though was a bottling machine at one end. Turning back into the office there was two doors, one opened out into a closet of some sorts that contained odd bits of equipment that hadn’t been taken when the factory was abandoned, and the machinery confirmed that it was a factory and not just a warehouse for storage. The other door opened onto a collapsed staircase down to the factory floor. On this side of the door there was a sign on the door that read ‘Forman’s office’.

With it getting late Alex pulled out his sleeping bag and some food collected in the forest. Munching on the berries and downing a bottle of water, Alex thought for a moment about what he would do. He knew he had to get to Eclipse at that place called ‘Wagon Wash’, but how he would find it was another question and a much harder one at that. After finishing his dinner Alex decided to worry about it tomorrow for the moment he would sleep.

Before climbing into his sleeping bag he got his combat knife and sheath out of his bag. Then he climbed into the bag and kept the sheath close to him as he drifted into an uncomfortable sleep.

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Alex woke with a start felling his heart beating against his chest and sweat on his brow. Using a hand to wipe away the sweat he calmed himself down. He’d had the dream again; the one that came every few days and the one that Alex feared would follow him to his grave. After gaining some bearings looked around him to find himself exactly where he left himself, in some old abandoned factory in a city inhabited by techni-coloured ponies. Alex rubbed his eyes half hoping that when he opened them he would be back home, but to no avail as he was greeted again by the derelict walls of the factory.

Getting out of his sleeping bag he edged his way closer to a window and looked out onto the street, which was busier than last night and carried large amounts of traffic. Alex let out a small chuckle when he saw a cart being pulled to a stop and the pony pulling swapped with the one sitting in the cart. There was just something amusing about a pony drawn cart being pulled for a pony passenger. The sun was also well up on its way to travel across the sky and Alex made a quick prediction of it being about 10 o’clock in the morning.

Alex turned back into the room before anyone or any pony, as Alex thought might be more fitting, saw him. He rolled up his sleeping bag and slipped it into the bag, of which continued to puzzle Alex but he was willing to suspend disbelief in return for the convenience it provided. Alex then pulled out some small supplies that he had gathered and made a small breakfast of water and berries, he would save the better food till later.

Alex lay back against a wall and thought about his predicament and what to do. He found himself strangely calm considering what situation he was in, to be fair though despite talking ponies being weird they weren’t particularly dangerous and Alex had been in many dangerous situations. Next he pulled on clean(ish) clothing that consisted of his craghoppers and a baggy black t-shirt. He then began putting on some equipment and started by putting on a shoulder sheath for his combat knife, the straps could also be used to attach a back holster for a firearm, but he didn’t need any large weapons. Next he put on a thigh holster for his pistol, which he attached a silencer to, and slipped some extra magazines into some holders on his thigh holster. Feeling less exposed Alex sat down and began thinking of a plan.

He still felt groggy from waking up and his mind felt clouded, which made it harder to think of what to do. With a sigh Alex rose again to his feet and wandered to the balcony. Looking at all the machinery that was everywhere Alex thought that he might as well get some practice in.

Then he jumped off the balcony and towards a tall piece of machinery. Landing on the side Alex gripped onto the various handholds it provided. Shimmying around the machine he made a small leap and landed onto an elevated conveyor and broke into a downhill run. Before reaching the end of the conveyor he jumped off the side and swung on a pipe before performing a backflip and landing into a roll. Looking back at his path through the machinery Alex couldn’t help but smile from his feat of acrobatics. That short burst of exercise got his blood pumping and adrenaline flowing, helping to wake him up.

Alex continued to explore around the factory and only found bits of scrap machinery and litter.  Near the bottling machine though he did find some crates containing old glass bottles, most of which were shattered and all of which were empty. The bottles were unlabelled but the crate had a logo on it, which consisted of a brown coated stallion with a blonde mane raising a mug of cider with his hoof hooked through the handle. Below the image of the stallion was a blue banner with the name of the company on it which read ‘Strong-Buck cider’. ‘Well that solves the mystery of what this factory made’ thought Alex as he then understood what the machinery was for.

“still need to find that place called ‘Wagon Wash’ though” he said aloud to himself realising he still had no plan. Alex wandered out of a fire door and into the midday light of the outside world. He stood in a covered loading bay of some sort which had a lone derelict wooden cart that was missing its wheels and falling apart. The road of stone led from the bay to a chained up solid metal gate that was part of a wooden fence that ran around the factory and was about a metre higher than Alex. The awning covering the bay meant that he couldn’t be seen by anyone, or as Alex had to keep reminding himself ‘anypony’, who was in the top floors of the buildings across the road. The fence kept the gaze of pedestrians at bay, although it did have some holes and small gaps between the planks, but nothing that would seriously compromise Alex.

Sitting at the edge of the bay Alex allowed himself to relax a bit in a shadow. He was sitting for a while thinking of a way to find the location of Wagon Wash, but then after 20 minutes or so he got the lucky break he needed. Across the fence he heard the sound of a cart mounting onto the side of a curb and a small amount of commotion.

“Well damn it!” shouted out a gruff loud voice from over the fence

“What’s wrong with it?” queried a quieter but intelligent voice.

“The wheel’s come loose and been damaged. Gonna have to head over to Wagon Wash and get a replacement one” with that Alex’s curiousness rose and he carefully sped over the open area and pressed himself up against the fence. Peeking through the fence he saw a cart, which had a badly damaged and loose wheel, up on the pavement. Besides that there stood two ponies, one a pegasus and one a unicorn. The pegasus was male, had a black coat and a grey mane, he looked a bit old but his voice carried power and strength. The unicorn was also male, had an orange coat and a purple mane, his voice was younger but didn’t have the grizzled strong sound of the pegasus’s. “Well come on get off the cart and help me push” the Pegasus grunted at the unicorn, who obliged and helped push the cart down the street. “Well only got to go one block, so put your back into it and let’s get there quickly” he said to the unicorn in encouragement.

Alex watched the cart go down the street and then turned with his back against the fence, he couldn’t believe his luck. Being wary of being seen Alex sped back to the loading bay and the cover of the awning. In cover Alex reflected on what he had heard, he now knew that his location was only a block down the road, just that the convenience of the broken down cart bothered him. Still it was the only plan he had and it would have to wait until night when he can move through the city without alerting the citizens.

With that Alex jogged to the back of the factory where the office was and climbed up the collapsed stairwell. The rest of the afternoon he spent running maintenance on his armoury, and yes it would be described as an armoury. The crate he kept all this kit in was very large and could only fit in a van, he usually had it dropped off at a safe-house and took what he needed for a job. Never before had he been able to take all his equipment at once, and he was carrying it in a hiking backpack that when fully packed only weighed about 10kg. By the time that it was time to move he hadn’t even gotten a quarter of way through his kit. Looking at the clock on his iPod he watched it as it reached midnight. It was dark enough to move; Alex lifted his bag and got ready to leave.

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Alex promised himself that he would never try to cross an elevated cable again, he would probably break that promise later but it made him feel better. The wire, the same he climbed across yesterday, was not holding his weight as well as before. The large metal block at the office building groaned and creaked, threatening to give way at any moment. Alex sped up his climb trying to reach the building before the ground got to him first.

He was nearly there, only a couple feet was between him and solid roofing. Then, of course, the block began to slide. The bolts keeping it to the roof had gone loose with Alex’s weight and the box slid towards the edge, once it reached the edge it would not end pleasantly for Alex. Reacting quickly Alex swung from the cable and let go, propelling himself at one of the buildings windows. Alex smashed through just as the box tipped over the edge and surrendered to gravity, falling to the ground. He heard a scream from the street and with a groan of pain Alex lifted himself to his feet to take a look at the street.

Looking out the window he could see the smashed remains of the metal box and a terrified young mare, well she looked young to Alex. The box had thankfully not hit anypony but had missed the young mare by a couple of feet. A stallion tried to console her as she screamed in shock, it took about half a minute to get her to calm down completely and take a few deep breaths.

“They should tear this place down, it’s a bloody death trap” said a stallion in the crowd that had formed. Some of the others in the crowd nodded their heads in agreement but no one else said anything. The crowd began to disperse and the mare recovered and went on her way.

Alex gave a sigh of relief and turned back towards the interior of the office. The office was small and the furnishings had all been removed, leaving a barren slightly decrepit room. Crossing the threshold and entering the corridor Alex looked about for the roof access and saw the door down at the end of hall.

Standing on the roof Alex took a deep breath of the cold air and looked about him. He would need to go down the length of the road and at some point cross the road. He saw that he would need to go past the point of which ‘Wagon Wash’ was to cross over, because further down was an elevated train-track which he could use to cross the road. The train-track came close enough to the roof to be able to climb up and use the supports to monkey his way across.

Breaking into a jog Alex began to move in that direction. The bag may have been very light considering its contents, but it stilled weighed him down, and Alex was grateful that the roofs were flat. The journey was short and across the road he could see a small two story building with a windowed front with a closed shutter for a garage next to it. The second floor had a sign on the front announcing the name of the store. Alex noticed the alley round the back and guessed that was his point of entry.

Continuing along the rooftops Alex reached the crossover point at the train-tracks and began looking for a way to reach the supports. From the street a support rose up and connected to the struts of the train-tracks, and it provided a plethora of handholds. Alex took a run-up and without looking down made the leap from the roof to the support.  Alex clinged to the support and took a firm grip of the handholds that he managed to scrabble for. Once he got a good handhold he shimmied his way up the support and into the struts under the train-tracks. Once he was in the struts he jumped and clambered his way across, and at one point he had to stop and clutch for support as a train thundered overhead. Once over the roof of the building across the road Alex dropped down and landed into a crouch.

‘Not too far to go now’ thought Alex with a smile, once he got there he could get some answers from Eclipse. Feeling the end of his journey being nigh he broke into a run along the rooftops in the direction of Wagon Wash. Without breaking a stride Alex jumped the gap from the top of the three story building and onto the roof of the two story Wagon Wash. Turning to face the back end of the roof, where there was an alley below, he sprinted at the gap. Making the jump he grabbed a drain pipe on the opposite building and used it to slide down into the alley. Taking a couple breaths Alex prepared himself for meeting Eclipse again, and whoever else she worked with.

Alex felt a bit nervous as he stood in front of the door, he didn’t know what he should ask. He had thought about getting answers, but answers to what? Knocking on the door he heard some shuffling noises within the building and the door was opened to reveal a unicorn mare that came to about the top of Alex’s chest. She had a light grey coat with a long curly brown mane, also she had bright blue eyes that gave an air of friendliness. She didn’t look surprised to see Alex and smiled in greeting. “Alex you made it, well done” she spoke, her voice sounded familiar to Alex but he didn’t dwell on it.

Alex didn’t know what to say, this was the first time he had spoken to one of these ponies, so he asked the first thing he thought of. “Where the hell am I?”

“Maybe you should come inside before somepony sees you” she led Alex inside and up some stairs just inside the doorway. The stairs opened onto a Living room of sorts which already occupied two others. A familiar Pegasus and unicorn sat on the couch drinking beer.

“Wait you’re the ones I saw break down by the factory” Alex said pointing at the two of them.

“You didn’t think we would just completely abandon you in Manehatten” grunted the Pegasus.

“Manhattan, I’m in Manhattan. Err last time I checked Manhattan wasn’t occupied by ponies.” Alex stated confused by the information.

“Manehattan, not Manhattan.” Said the mare, “it’s a lot like the city in your world except we live in this one and in many other cities across Equestria”

“Wait, Equestria? My world?” Alex began to feel panic rise but managed to hold it back. “Ok can I please speak to Eclipse” he asked as calmly as he could.

The mare looked a bit sheepish and rubbed the back of her head with a foreleg. “Um, Alex I am Eclipse”

The panic came at Alex again and his heart thudded against his chest painfully. “No, no. You can’t be Eclipse” Alex almost pleaded, “She’s a human about my height, good looking, nice butt”

“Sorry Alex but that was me, it was a spell to disguise myself” Eclipse said nervously, afraid to cause Alex more panic.

“SPELL? SO NOW THERE’S MAGIC!” Alex shouted his panic causing him to lose control of his voice.

“well actually it was both a spell and a potion” she said backing off and moving her mane in front of her as to protect her from Alex’s anger, he had every right to be angry and she thought it better to let him let it out.

Alex took an inhale and looked about ready to explode into another spout of shouting, and then he let out a weary sigh. “Fuck it, just fuck it” he sighed before collapsing onto a couch that was empty.

“Wait, fuck it?”

“Yes. Fuck it” Alex said before leaning over and grabbing a beer from the table and popping the cap off using his combat knife.

“So what you don’t care about what we did?” she said with a hoof gesture towards the other two on the other couch, who were also looking pretty uncomfortable at that moment. “Also isn’t it illegal in for you to drink until you’re eighteen?”

“Killing is illegal to, and at any age mind you” Alex said looking over the bottle as he downed half the bottle in one go. “And what’s the point of getting angry, I came here to work for you and I’m just going to have to stick by my word”

“Oh ok. I guess we can talk about everything tomorrow, I think going to sleep will be a good idea for the moment. Here I’ll show you your room” she said before trotting down the corridor. With a sigh of regret at having to move after just sitting down Alex rose to his feet and lifted his bag, which was noticeably getting heavier.

“Just to let you know, we put a spell on the bag to make it capable of carrying large amounts of equipment and not weigh much, except the spell is temporary and runs out midday tomorrow.” The unicorn on the couch said “So unless you want the bag exploding you might want to empty it by midday”

“Thanks for the heads up” Alex thanked the unicorn. “Well see you tomorrow, night.” He said before turning away and following after Eclipse.

Eclipse led Alex to a fairly large bedroom with a single bed and a lone window facing out into the back alley. The bed was against the left hand wall and against the right stood a wardrobe, cupboards and a desk and chair. The room didn’t have any fancy decoration besides the slightly off white colour of the walls. Compared to some places Alex had slept in before it was a palace, and was also pretty good by normal standards.

“That window seems like a bit of a problem. won’t people, sorry ponies, be freaked out if they were to see me at the window” Alex said pointing a finger at the window at the back of the room.

“Don’t worry a fairly simple spell was put on it to make the room look like it’s just used for storage  from the outside” she said with a reassuring smile. “We have a few other safe-houses spread through the city and in the rest of the country but this, so to speak, will be your base of operations”

Alex walked over to the bed and rested his bag against the side of it before sitting down on it; the mattress was soft and inviting after days of sleeping it rough in a sleeping bag. “Well guess I’ll catch some sleep and we can talk about what we’re gonna do tomorrow” Alex said with a yawn and a stretch of his limbs.

“Goodnight Alex” said Eclipse before walking towards the door and stopping in the frame, “Oh and happy birthday”

Alex felt himself tense up and his mind flooded with the memories from his past. Looking back up towards Eclipse with an expressionless face he muttered the words “There’s nothing happy about it”