They say dreams mean something. If that's true, then what does seeing your parents get mauled by undead monsters mean? I've been having the same dream for the past month, and frankly I'm of sick of it.
When the horror of it finally made me jolt awake, I found that Vinyl was still clinging to my arm. Carefully moving one of her forelegs, I pried my arm loose and poked my head outside to look around. It was early morning, and the sun was barely poking over the horizon. Pulling my head back into the tent, I reached over and gently shook Vinyl's shoulder, trying to get her to wake up.
"Five more minutes," she groaned, turning over and pulling the blanket up.
"Come on Vinyl, wake up," I said, shaking her shoulder again.
"Fine." She yawned and opened her eyes, revealing them to be a bright red that I actually liked. Putting on her shades again, she started looking around.
"What do you need?" I asked, getting up and grabbing my boots from outside.
"Do you have a comb?" she asked. In response, I pointed to my coyote pack. Just because it was the apocalypse did not mean you should stop caring for yourself. Pulling my boots on, I crawled outside and stood up, popping my back and knuckles as I did so. I reached back in, grabbing my winchester and revolver while I waited for Vinyl to finish combing her mane and tail. When she was done, she levitated the comb back into the pack, then levitated the pack to me. I grabbed it from the air and made sure it had everything I would need. I put a few of the medical supplies I had gathered in there as well, just in case.Stashing a few cans of food and water bottles in it as well (you never know how long you're going to be gone), I made sure to leave room for anything useful we might find.
"So what are we going to do now?" Vinyl asked.
"We're going to head into Berezino again. Going to look for a vehicle and, if we can, repair it." I had gotten the idea from Dmitri, thinking of how easy it would be to drive back to camp rather than walk or jog the whole way.
"Okay, what do you need me to do?"
"You could levitate any replacement parts for the vehicle if I run out of room to carry them"
"Sounds like a good plan."
"Good. Now, while we're there, I want you to stick close to me at all times, understand?" I said.
"Got it." she replied, giving me a sarcastic salute that made me chuckle. Making sure my weapons were loaded and double checking my supplies to make sure I had enough, I started heading for Berezino again, Vinyl close on my heels now that she was well rested.
"Think you're rested enough to jog?" I asked. She smirked and ran ahead of me in reply. I took off after her, barely managing to keep up. "No fair!" I shouted. "You have four legs!"
"Should've thought about that before you asked!" she called back, laughing as she stayed ahead of me. At the pace we went, we cut the travel time from an hour to thirty minutes, though we were both breathing hard when we got there.
"Remind me," I gasped for air, "to never run the entire trip ever again."
"Gotcha," Vinyl replied, breathing a little easier than I was. When we caught our breath again, I started into my usual routine for going through towns, generally sticking close to buildings, walls, and any bushes or trees that I could find. Vinyl stuck close to me, just as I had asked, but I could see her tilt her head in the direction of the zeds that we passed.
Berezino was a large town, and the warehouses we would need to search for parts were located near the coast to the northeast, a good deal away from the hospital and supermarket that I had raided yesterday. We hadn't even gotten far into town when I spotted a set of tire tracks. I scanned the road, looking for any zeds that might spot me. I could only see a pair of them, but they were too interested with an unlucky corpse to notice me, so I stalked forward and inspected the tracks. They were fresh, and they seemed to point in the direction of the warehouses.
"Maybe we're in luck," I said, getting back into cover.
"What makes you say that?"
"Those tracks look like they're pointing up the road toward the warehouses. Maybe the driver needs new parts." Getting hopeful, I sped up our pace a bit, eager to get there before the vehicle's owner had time to get the parts, fix the car, and drive away. Judging by the tracks, I would say that they had driven through about ten minutes before we got here, so they'd likely be searching for parts or fuel. Our advance to the warehouses was only impeded once, but it was a road full of fucking zeds, and they were heading northeast.
"That can't be good," I muttered, finger near the trigger of my winchester. Seeing as how they were heading the same direction we were, I decided to follow them and see what alerted them. The going was slow, as zeds don't move very fast until they get pissed off. These guys were just investigating, looking for the source of some disturbance.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Vinyl asked, looking up at me as we moved along.
"Not one bit," I whispered. "I think these guys may have heard the car, and are going to investigate." One of the bastards must have heard me, because he paused and turned toward us with a groan. I quickly dropped to the ground and locked my sights on his chest, finger on the trigger. Vinyl dropped as well, though it looked kind of strange to see a pony with her legs splayed out like that. The zed looked around, groaning a bit before turning around and continuing with the horde.
"That was too close." I got back up to a crouching position and continued after them, staying a little farther back this time. Eventually, the zeds began to slow and disperse, going back to their usual routine of wandering aimlessly. They must have lost interest, which wasn't really surprising. I've gotten rid of zeds tailing me simply by running around a corner and hiding in a bush before.
A gap opened up in the horde, allowing Vinyl and I to slip past undetected. We were sneaking for what seemed like hours, dodging behind houses and into bushes whenever a zed got too close. It was worth it though, because we rounded a corner right into the vehicle I never expected to find. Sitting in front of us was a GAZ, and if it wasn't for the horde of zeds nearby, I would've shouted for joy. Instead, I hurried to the driver's door and pulled it open to take a look inside.
"This thing has been cleaned out, and recently," I said, finding not so much as a toothpick.
"Maybe whoever drove it here took it all," Vinyl suggested.
I shook my head, doubtful. "Why didn't they just keep driving?" I soon found the answer, in the form of a fucked up engine and no fuel. "We're going to need quite a few parts to fix the engine, then hopefully we can find some fuel nearby." I closed the door and looked around, checking for a clear path to the warehouses. A shape in the tower of the church caught my eye, followed by a flash of fire.
"FUCK! GET DOWN!" I shouted, tackling Vinyl to the ground. A rocket roared over our heads, barely missing the car and hitting the ground about fifteen yards away. The resulting explosion made my ears ring and sent shrapnel slicing through the air. Unfortunately, one of the pieces hit my leg, going in deep before stopping. I couldn't even yell, seeing as how it took all my willpower to avoid blacking out from the pain. I could see zeds turning toward us and running. Clenching my teeth, I moved into a sitting position and pulled out my winchester. Vinyl huddled next to me, frozen from the shock of the explosion.
My finger started tightening on the trigger when the closest zed's head exploded, sending a bit of blood and guts onto my shirt, shocking me into dropping the winchester. One by one, the zeds started dying, going out in bloody sprays as their heads exploded. When my ears stopped ringing, I began registering a loud crack that accompanied the exploding skulls. I stared in surprise as the number of zeds quickly thinned until there was nothing left but headless corpses. Gritting my teeth against the pain, I pulled myself up to a stand and looked at my leg.
The sight made my stomach churn. A piece of jagged metal was lodged in my thigh, and it was already bleeding like crazy. Reaching into my bag, I retrieved the roll of gauze that I had grabbed from my tent. Setting it on the hood of the GAZ, I gripped the piece of metal and pulled, struggling not to scream.
"David, are you okay?" I looked over to see Vinyl inspecting my leg, her expression hard to read with her shades covering her eyes.
"Yeah, I'll be fine if I can get this out of my leg and bandage myself up," I replied, putting on a fake smirk as I yanked again, managing to get it most of the way out. Hissing through my clenched teeth, I glanced up at the church tower, noticing the lack of the shape I had seen.
'Probably only had one rocket,' I though, pulling on the shard and finally getting it out. My vision was starting to fade, but a quick slap of the face woke me up long enough so I could wrap the injury in gauze.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Vinyl asked.
"Yeah, don't worry about it," I replied, though from the look on her face she could tell I was lying. With my leg bandaged and my head a little clearer, I picked up my winchester and scowled in the direction of the church, ready to give the rocket firing asshole a piece of my mind, and maybe a bullet to the forehead. Making sure my gun was loaded, I marched over to the church and took cover next to the door.
"You stay out here," I said, making sure Vinyl understood by pointing.
"But-" she said, taking a step forward.
"No! No buts." I snapped, startling her. "I don't want you getting hurt." Without waiting for a reply, I pulled a SWAT turn and stepped into the building. Taking careful steps, I maneuvered toward the ladder leading to the tower.
"Come out, asshole!" I shouted. I heard some shuffling, and a man stood from behind the front row of seats. His body was covered in a ghillie suit, and I could see an SVD Camo protruding above his head. His hands were raised, and his legs were shaking slightly. Eying him warily, I looked him over, noticing the slight way that his right leg shook less than his left, meaning that it bore more of his weight. When he made no moves, I edged forward a couple steps, still aiming at his forehead.
"Are you the bitch who shot that rocket?" I asked. He shook his head and reached down, stopping when I tensed up. Continuing, he pulled a corpse from behind the seats, a bandit with a rocket launcher slung across his back, a bullet hole painfully evident in his head.
"You were the one shooting the zeds, weren't you?" The man nodded. "Do you have a name?"
"Martin," he said, barely loud enough for me to hear him.
"Well Martin, thanks for saving our asses."
"Not a problem. You wouldn't happen to have any food, would you?" I reached into my bag and tossed him a can of beans. I was reaching in to grab the spoon when I heard him pop the lid. When I looked back, he had the can turned upside down and was eating the beans as fast as he could.
"Jesus man, when was the last time you ate?" I asked, watching as he sighed and dropped the can.
"About five days ago."
"God, I'm surprised you can stand. Come on, we can give you a ride anywhere you want once we fix up the GAZ."
"Do you think I might be able to stay with you two?" he asked timidly, looking at me through a pair of glasses.
"Sure," I said, giving in to the helpless stare, "we could always use more help." Limping back outside, I had a bit of explaining to do when he spotted Vinyl. He didn't react as I thought he would, being only mildly surprised at her presence. Ignoring it, I introduced him to her and explained the situation. With that out of the way, I led the way to the warehouses. Martin was surprisingly helpful, albeit a little distant. The engine parts and fuel were relatively easy, but some of the rocket shrapnel had hit a tire, and it took Martin and I both to carry the replacement since we couldn't move it very far individually, what with my fucked up leg and his lack of energy. Together, along with a bit of Vinyl's magic, we managed to get the GAZ back into working condition with enough fuel to go a long way.
"Too bad this thing is total shit off road," I said, admiring our accomplishment.
"Yeah, but it's better than walking," Martin whispered, wiping sweat off his brow.
"What are we waiting for?" Vinyl asked. "Lets get out of this place!"
"Good idea," I replied, getting in the driver's seat and turning the key. The engine roared to life, and I smirked as I shifted it into gear and drove us back toward the camp site, making a lot of zed pancakes on the way.
"So, Martin, where you from?" I asked. "You're sure as hell not Russian."
"I could say the same to you," he replied.
"Touche, smartass. I was born here, but I don't have the accent. So where are you from?"
"I'd rather not say."
"Ah, brings up bad memories or something?"
"No, I just don't want to talk about it."
"Okay then."
We spent the rest of the drive , which ended up being around maybe half an hour, in a particularly awkward silence. It would've lasted longer had I not stuck to the roads until we had to drive through the grass and dirt. The reason I avoided off road driving as much as I could is because the GAZ is not exactly a tough vehicle. Anyway, we reached the camp with a good deal of daylight left, so we had an opportunity to just relax for once. Stashing the car in a few trees with a tarp thrown over it for good measure, I showed Martin our camp and sat down to take the weight off my leg. Martin, in the meantime, immediately pulled some supplies out of his own pack and began building a tent. Vinyl rested next to me, laying down with her legs bent inward so they rested underneath her chest.
"God, my leg hurts like a bitch," I said, reaching into the tent to grab a bottle of painkillers.
"Just change the gauze every so often and make sure the wound is clean," Martin said, pulling back the hood of his ghillie suit. "You should be fine."
"I'm just lucky it missed the artery." The artery was on the inside of the leg, and the piece of metal had hit me on the opposite side. I would lose a lot of blood, but I would survive as long as I took care of it. Popping one of the painkillers in my mouth, I swallowed it with the help of some water.
"I'm glad we got out of there alive," Vinyl said.
"Yeah, though we'd probably be dead if Martin hadn't been there."
"It was nothing, don't mention it." Martin said, still working on his tent and occasionally jerking his head back to get his long hair out of the way. My hair was cropped short, making it a lot harder to grab. If a zed managed to get hold of Martin's hair, he'd be done for.
"No, it wasn't nothing. You saved our lives," Vinyl insisted, making Martin's cheeks redden, though I don't think she noticed because she had tilted her head toward the sky.
"Where did you get the SVD anyway?" I asked.
"Found it around a month ago, along with a ton of ammo," Martin replied. "I think someone had been stockpiling it, but I never found any sign of a survivor."
"Maybe one of the soldiers left it there on accident. It's a good thing you're a crack shot with that thing."
"Yeah, I used to hunt a lot with scoped rifles. Turns out it came in handy."
"I can imagine. I'm a decent shot with a sniper, but I can't do long ranges worth shit, so I just stick with my winchester."
"Yeah, they're reliable guns. Pretty common around here too from what I've seen."
"It's rare that you'll find someone in Russia who doesn't own a gun," I said, chuckling as I remembered my parents, two perfect examples of gun nuts. I swear, they had more guns in one room than most people did in their whole house. When I first arrived at Berezino after the zeds showed up, the guns in my parents house were all gone, most likely taken by bandits. I never found any bodies, or blood for that matter.
"So what's next?" Vinyl asked.
I shrugged. "I don't know. For now lets just relax."
It was quiet for a moment, then Martin stopped what he was doing and looked around. "Something smells like smoke," he said.
"Don't be paranoid, it's probably just the fire pit," I said, pointing at it, though now I was starting to smell it as well. What was odd was that the smell seemed to emanate from my tent. Taking a peek, I was surprised to find a pair of headphones and a roll of paper sitting on Vinyl's blanket.
"Hey Vinyl," I said, tapping her on the shoulder.
"Yeah?"
"You don't happen to own a pair of headphones, do you?"
"Of course I do, I'm a DJ. Why?"
"Would this happen to be them?" I knew they were, even before I handed them to her, because of the engravings that matched the mark on her flank.
"What the? How did you get these?" she asked, turning them around and looking them over. Lifting her shades to get a better look, I was surprised to see her eyes were magenta.
"What's wrong?" Apparently I had been staring.
"Your eyes changed color," I said. "They were crimson this morning."
"Oh, that's because of the spell I put on my shades. Keeps them from getting scratched or broken but the side effect messes with my eye color. It wears off after a few minutes of having them off."
"That explains it. As for how I got your headphones, they were in the tent, along with this." I tossed her the note, which she easily caught with her magic. Opening it, I could see her eyes scanning back and forth across the page.
"It's a letter from Twilight," she said, levitating it over to me. Stifling another chuckle at the absurd name, I grabbed the page and flipped it over to read it.
Dear Vinyl Scratch,
I'm so sorry for what I did. I should've known better than to start drinking like that, but Rainbow Dash convinced me to try it. I'm currently trying to trace the spell I cast to find where it sent you, but for now I'm only able to send you this message. If you get this, know that I am doing my best to fix my mistake and bring you back.
Your accidental teleporter,
Twilight Sparkle
PS: Sorry for the smell of smoke, I had to get a little help from Spike to send this.
PPS: Spike accidentally transported your headphones earlier, and they didn't appear to the princess. I hope they made it to you and not somewhere else.
"Well, she certainly knows when she fucked up," I said, handing the note over to Martin.
"Yeah, but at least now I can listen to my music," Vinyl replied. I was about to ask how, but she clamped the headphones over her ears and I could hear the faintly recognizable beat of techno music.
'Headphones powered by magic?' I thought, scratching my neck absently. With her music restored to her, Vinyl seemed a lot more relaxed, kicking back and closing her eyes while she bobbed her head to whatever song she was listening to. Shrugging it off, I hummed to myself to take my mind off the events that had transpired so far. My thoughts ended up turning back to the note. It was obvious that Twilight was distraught about what she had done, so she would be doing everything in her power to bring Vinyl back.
I found myself wondering what it was like where Vinyl lived. Wherever it was, it was probably far better than the hellhole she currently sat in, listening to music as if it was just a normal day. No one there had probably even heard of a zed, let alone killed one. Judging from Vinyl's reactions to the rocket and my Winchester, I figured that the ponies didn't even have guns or explosives. I envied them to be honest, being able to live their lives free of the kind of war and destruction that we humans go through.
My thoughts were interrupted by a tap on my leg.
"You wanna listen?" Vinyl asked, levitating her headphones in front of me.
I shrugged. "Sure, why not." Taking them, I adjusted them until they fit snugly over my ears. The instant I put them on, a song started playing. It started off slow, then got faster and louder. By the time the song was over, my ears seemed to vibrate from the bass.
"Real nice," I said, taking them off to let my ears return to normal.
"Thanks, I composed it myself," Vinyl replied, smiling as she readjusted the headphones and slipped them on again. Looking over, I noticed Martin had finished setting up his tent. When I didn't see Martin himself, I took another look around until I spotted him walking away through the trees.
"Where are you going?" I asked, catching his attention.
"Oh, I just thought I'd go for a little walk," he replied, turning to face me.
"Okay, try not to get yourself killed."
"I'll be fine." He turned back around and continued walking, eventually passing out of my sight.
I checked my injury, taking in the blood soaked gauze that covered it. Pulling out the roll again, I undid the bandages to replace them. Earlier, I didn't really have a good chance to look at the injury, but without the gauze, I'm kind of glad I didn't. Where the shrapnel had hit was a huge gash, as if someone had taken a swing at my leg with a sword. I gagged at the sight, but I had more important things to do than get sick. Taking out my hunting knife, I cut away the parts of my pants that clung to the bloody gash. Luckily Vinyl wasn't paying attention, so she didn't have to see it. When that was done, I splashed some water onto it (which, for the record, stung like a son of a BITCH) and waited for it to dry a little. By the time I had wrapped the injury back up, a little over twenty minutes had passed since Martin started his walk.
---
1 hour later
I looked around, still waiting for Martin to get back.
"Where is that bastard?" I asked myself, checking every direction possible. I was about to give up when I heard a bell. Looking in the direction of the noise, I spotted Martin. He was riding a bicycle and laughing like a maniac.
"What the fuck has gotten into him!?" I said, taking a few steps in his direction. It was then that I noticed the horde of zeds chasing after him, around ten to fifteen of the freaks. He was a good deal ahead of them, so they didn't pose a real threat. I lost sight of him as he led the zeds over a hill.
"Is he gonna be okay?" Vinyl asked, standing next to me with her headphones around her neck.
The characteristic crack of a sniper rifle sounded. "Yeah, he'll be fine." A couple minutes later, Martin rode back over the hill and headed toward us.
"You're crazy, you know that?" I asked, chuckling slightly.
"Hey," he replied, panting slightly, "it's not my fault. A zed jumped me when I found this mountain bike, so I had to push him off and ride like hell. Good thing there were some bushes over that hill. All I had to do was hide in one then pick them off as they reached the top."
"You're just lucky that you had enough energy to go faster than them."
"Yeah, and they had some good stuff on them." He pulled out an item that made my eyes widen. "One of them used to be a soldier," he said. "I found this strapped to his belt." He handed me a PDW, along with ten clips to go with it.
"Wow," I said, "I haven't seen one of these in a long time."
"Me neither, though I saw something else that I need to go back and get."
"What could that be?"
"Oh, you'll see." Martin rode back the way he came, disappearing from sight again.
"He's funny," Vinyl said, walking over to the fire pit.
"Funny in the head maybe," I whispered, following her. Looking up at the sky, I was a bit alarmed to see that it was getting dark, but then I remembered it was getting close to winter, so there wasn't much daylight anymore. Walking around to the back of my tent, I retrieved a couple logs and carried them to the fire pit. Luckily I had some tinder leftover, so pretty soon a fire blazed to life, giving off much welcome heat. Cooking some pasta for Vinyl and beans for myself, we waited for Martin to return.
After about five minutes of sitting around and eating my meager dinner of beans, I saw one of Vinyl's ears twitch. A moment later, her horn glowed and I heard a thump.
"OW!" Martin stepped out from behind a tree, rubbing the back of his head. In the light of the fire, I could see a vague shape sticking out above his head.
"You're not sneaky," Vinyl replied, sticking her tongue out.
"How the hell did you know?"
"I could hear you." Martin looked at her in disbelief before grumbling and sitting down next to his own tent.
"So what was so important that you just had to have?" I asked, pointing my spoon at him.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot." He reached around and pulled out a guitar.
"Where did you get that?"
"Uh, lets just say that a zed didn't really need it anymore." When he said that, I noticed the blood on the strap. I groaned and facepalmed.
"What? It will be of a lot more use to me than some undead freak."
"Can you even play?"
"Well DUH! Why else would I have taken it?" To prove his point, he played a piece that I recognized from one of my own favorite songs.
"Breaking Benjamin," I said, "Dance with the Devil."
"Yeah, how did you know?"
"I used to listen to it a lot."
"Breaking Benjamin?" Vinyl said, cocking her head. "I've never heard of them."
"I'm not surprised. Breaking Benjamin probably doesn't exist in your world." Martin continued to strum his guitar, playing different bits from different songs and throwing an occasional bit of his own flare into it.
"You hungry or anything?" I asked him when he finished.
"Nah, I had a can of beans while I was gone." Nodding, I grabbed the pots and stowed them back into the tent before crawling inside myself.
"I don't know about you two, but I'm tired as hell," I said, kicking off my boots.
"Yeah, I think I better get to sleep too," Martin said, setting his guitar down and taking off his ghillie suit. His normal clothes turned out to be a plain black hoodie and brown pants. Stomping out the fire, he picked his guitar back up and placed it in his tent. Kicking off his own boots, he crawled in himself, and soon I heard a light snoring sound coming from his tent.
Vinyl yawned and stepped into the tent, using her magic to take off her shades and get her blanket.
"Night David," she said, wrapping herself up and falling asleep. I sat there a few moments longer, thinking about the events of the day.
"I hope Twilight figures it out soon," I whispered. "This is no place for a pony." Yawning, I laid my head down and closed my eyes.