Artyom's POV
I had no time to enjoy the scenery while running towards the town in the distance. Driven by a need to protect, I drew my revolver from my belt as I got closer to the town. Within a minute, I was on its outskirts. Once again, the houses looked like they were coloured by children. Bright colours that didn’t provide any kind of camouflage. Looking up, I counted at least two demons flying overhead. I steeled myself before beginning my walk into the town.
I walked by houses, fires, and the dead bodies of brightly coloured horses. Once again, the inhabitants of this town painted their houses oddly. What is stopping them from doing the same to their livestock? What was strange to me was that each of the horses had a tattoo on their ass. It must’ve had something to do with organisation, I had no other explanation.
I must’ve walked all the way to the center of town. Before me was a fountain surrounded by flowers and trees. In this park were more dead horses, their blood painting the grass red. Where the hell were the people? I hadn’t seen one in the time i've been here. Had they already abandoned the town? I clenched my fist. Can I at least meet something alive?
I heard clicks coming from my right. Turning towards the sound, I got my hopes up. Turns out it was just more horses running towards me. Sighing into my mask, I looked at them. There must’ve been about ten or so horses in the herd. about two had wings, and three had horns, and the rest were normal. Wings? Horns? What? I rubbed my visor before looking again. Sure enough they did have wings and horns! Thinking back, I almost facepalmed as I remembered seeing wings and horns on the horses I had passed before. As strange as that was, I just assumed it to be normal, and dismissed it.
The clicks stopped. snapping out of my daze, I noticed that the horses had stopped running. They were looking at me. absolutely terror rippled through the group as they look at me . I could see it in their eyes. Why they were scared of a person was beyond me. Didn’t they have people that rode them as well? They started backing up away from me, before remembering what they were running from. Two nosalises we a few yards behind them, catching up to the now stationary horses.
The horses seemed to be talking amongst themselves, looking between the rapidly approaching nosalises, and me. Raising my revolver towards the nosalises, I couldn’t get a good shot. The horses were in the way. Holding the revolver with my right hand, I tried to gesture to the horses to move over. The horses didn’t respond as they stared at my display, baffled.
During my display, the horses suddenly smiled at me. It was creepy, to say the least. Did they finally realize i’m actually trying to help them? Probably, now if they would just mo-
Ow! Something slammed into my back, sending me flying, and forcing me to the ground belly first. Getting to my knees, I looked behind me. A purple horse with a horn stood a few feet behind me. It looked somewhat mad at me! Getting to my feet, I just stared at the horse. It’s horn glowed a bright purple. Something inside me told me not to make any sudden moves.
The horse didn’t move, and neither did I. The herd of horses from before had fled down another part of town, taking the two nosalises with them. Now, with just the two of us, I tried to think of a way to negotiate. It didn’t look like it was in the mood to negotiate, so I just opted for silence. It did as well. We just stood there, I stared into its eyes, and it stared at my visor.
The standoff didn’t last. Behind her, a nosalis slowly made its way towards the horse. Bringing up my finger, I tried to point at it. The horse seemed to interpret this as a hostile act, and launched a wave of energy towards me. I hadn’t seen anything like it before in my life. In a second, I was once again in the air, and hitting the ground on my back. It didn’t hurt as much as it was just annoying. Getting up once more, I looked back at the horse. It was on its back, trying to fight the nosalis from before. Time to start saving lives Artyom. I raised my revolver.
Firing one shot, It went straight into the nosalis’ skull. It went limp on top of the purple horse. The horse struggled to get the corpse off of it. Blood started to drip onto the horse’s face, getting mixed into its mane. This prompted it to struggle even more frantically. Walking over to the horse, I stopped right above it, and bent down. The horse noticed me right away, and its horn charged up once again. It pointed its horn at me. Before it could shot, I grabbed its horn, and moved it away from me. The energy discharged into the sky above me. I didn’t let go of the horn as the horse struggled underneath my grip. It looked at me with anger and desperation.
With my left hand on the horn, I used my right hand to grab my gas mask. The horse stopped struggling as it watched my actions. I slid my gas mask off, and held it in my right hand. The horse’s eyes wandered over my entire face before resting on my eyes. I meant it no harm, and I hoped it showed on my face. It seemed to calm down as it continued to stare into my eyes. Letting go of its horn, I awaited its response.
Thankfully, the horse didn’t try to blast me again. It only tried to push the corpse off itself. Grabbing the corpse, I gave it a hard shove. It slid off the horse and turned over, face up. The horse just looked at me, giving no indication of getting up. I offered it my hand. It looked at my hand before returning to my face. Slowly reaching for my hand, it eventually slid its hoof into the palm of my hand. My fingers closed around its hoof, opting a slight shiver from the horse. It’s hoof “Grabbed” onto my hand. I had never felt this sensation before. I felt like my hand was being attached into its hoof.
Setting that aside, I pulled it into a sitting position. Letting go of its hoof, it got back to its feet in a second. Staring at me, it slowly back away from me. Putting my gasmask back on , I looked back at the horse. Its face was a mess of emotions. It backed away from me, staring at me, probably prompting me to do something.
I couldn’t just keep calling it the purple horse over and over again. Looking over it, it had lavender fur, and a purple mane with a pink stripe going through the middle. Same with its tail. It invoked in me a sense of nostalgia. Once again I was a kid, with what must’ve been my parents. I was staring through the window of our apartment. I was watching the sunset, and the twilight as it crept across the sky. Twilight. That name sounded appropriate.
The staring contest didn’t last long as the same group of horses from before came back into the square. Their numbers had definitely dwindled from before. There were now six horses. one with wings, and two with horns. Twilight began towards them. I didn’t move an inch from before.
Twilight, and a white horse started to talk, or at least it looked like they were talking. I could hear sounds coming from their mouths. They both also had horns. The white horse then looked at me. I didn’t move from my spot. It stared at me while talking to Twilight. Sitting down, I looked around. I couldn’t see any mutants around, and the demons that had been overhead were now gone. where had they gone? Had they just found prey? or were they in hiding? How the hell had they gotten here? How the hell had I gotten here? All I remembered was that I opened a door and got ambushed by Dark Ones.
My thoughts were interrupted by Twilight. It poked me with its horn. Turning my head towards it, I listened in. It made sounds, probably in an attempt to communicate, but I couldn’t understand one word. Tilting my head, I just stared at the horse. It sighed before lifting one of its hooves and pointing to the herd of horses from before. Looking from the group back to Twilight, I shrugged. The horse walked around me, and started to push me towards the group. Did it want me to follow the herd? I got up and started walking towards the group. I paused to look behind me. Twilight nodded its head. I did as well.
A scream echoed throughout town. Both mine, and Twilight’s head snapped towards the sound. We Looked back to each other. She motioned for me to follow the group, and ran towards to origin of the scream. I started running towards the group of horses. In turn, they started to run away from me. I could tell they weren’t actually trying to outrun me, but they were just putting some distance between them and me. I was fine with this as I chased the group.
We ran hard, I was sweating as the horses came to a stop in front of a building. The White horse from before opened the door, and the horses streamed in. The white horse stayed at the door however, and seemed to be biting its lips. I just stared at it, while it stared at me. It must’ve been thinking something over as it motioned for me to come towards it. I did as I was expected. Once at the door, I stopped. It just looked me over. A look of disgust painted over its face.
After a few more seconds, It made room for me to enter the building. Once inside, the white horse locked the door. From there, I was guided by a series of pokes up a flight of stairs, and into a room. In the room was a bed, a window with curtains, a dresser, a chair, two end tables, and a lamp. Behind me, I could hear the door closing, and a lock clicking into place. Taking off my gas mask, I threw it onto the bed along with my AK and revolver. Walking towards the window, I separated the curtains, I saw nothing special. I pulled up the chair, and took out my journal.Recording the events of the day, I put it aside.
Crossing my arms, I put my chin on my hands and stared out the window. The sun was out in all its glory, yet I felt exhausted. When was the last time I had slept? I couldn’t remember. Dwellers of the metro were known to go long hours without sleep, We had too. A nap couldn’t hurt. As my eyes started closing, everything blurred. There was this dark spot in my vision. Dismissing it, I closed my eyes.