Chapter 20: Moment of Truth
Chapter 20: Moment of Truth
Perspective: Mike Britowski
Location: Southern United States
Date: October 28, 2025
7:45a.m.
“I’m sorry Twilight, but you really have to stay behind this time,” I said, trying to diffuse the situation before they started fighting again. You see, there are only eight seats in the car, and we need one for the Infected we will (hopefully) rescue. That means that between the four of us, Doc, Celestia, and Luna, there was no room left for Twilight. We thought having Eddy deliver the news would soften the blow, but…
“I’m not kidding around Twi, stop being so stubborn!”
…Since when does Eddy ever ‘soften the blow’? They had started going back and forth, making it a bit awkward for the rest of us. Even the ‘lover’s quarrel’ joke Jon cracked lost its humor. So we stepped in, hoping to resolve this peacefully.
“Look Twi, we’ve been doing this for years before you even knew we existed. We don’t ‘need’ you to come with us; we’ll be just fine on our own.”
But I guess it wasn’t meant to be. I could see the hurt clear as day on Twilight’s face. Before any of us could say anything else, she sighed in defeat, and voiced a quiet “just do whatever you want then” before turning for the house.
“And they were doing so well,” Celestia wistfully said, shaking her head.
“Well, that’s Eddy for you,” Jon replied. “Never was good with the ladies, cause he’s as blunt as a rock. About as dense as one too sometimes.”
“Oh, I’m sorry I wasn’t drowning in pussy like you were Jonathon,” Eddy snapped sarcastically.
“Is it really any wonder though? Twilight expressed concern for your well-being, and you just basically told her to fuck off.”
“Look, I don’t have time to deal with this shit right now. Just shut the fuck up and get in the car. We’re late as it is already.” As we followed Eddy to the car, we trailed slightly behind, so he wouldn’t hear. I addressed Jonathon and Celestia.
“Must you two antagonize him constantly?” I reprimanded silently. “He’s not in a good mood, don’t piss him off anymore. We need everyone’s heads in the game if we’re going to have a shot at this.” I received apologies from the both of them, albeit with Jon’s being half-hearted at best. I could understand though; he wasn’t technically wrong with his point.
With that taken care of, we climbed into the Model X and took off for the town. It was a short ride, one had in relative silence. The barren desert quickly gave way to the spotted building density of the town, and soon after we pulled up to the quaint little medical building.
Calling it a hospital was too generous; the building looked more like a two-story house. It, like a lot of the buildings in town, was well along in its years. Whatever paint the building had on it had long since worn away. Bricks were missing in several places, exposing the wooden skeleton underneath. The shutters on the top windows were practically glued shut, since the hinges had rusted to the point of sticking. Despite this though, Doc makes very good use of the old thing, keeping it presentable and sterile on the inside.
Speaking of the doctor, we pulled up to find him already waiting by the door. “Morning Tidwell,” Eddy greeted as he shook the older gentleman’s hand. We quickly loaded Tidwell’s gear, and climbed aboard, buckling in for the long haul. “Sorry for the slight delay, got a little held up this morning.” As the car began rolling, Tidwell cast a questioning glance my way. I shook my head, mouthing the word ‘later’.
“Not a problem Eddy,” he replied, brushing off the subject for now. “I’m absolutely floored you all managed to find a workaround to the magic problem so quickly though. If I may ask, how did you come up with the idea to use electricity? I’m afraid Phoenix never mentioned that part.”
“Believe it or not, pure chance,” I responded. “Or luck, fate, whatever you want to call it. Point is, Eddy let Celestia here hold an Ultracap, and she dumped energy into it without even realizing it. Proved that the two energies were kind of interchangeable, though only unicorns can convert them so far.”
“Fascinating. To think that such a complex spell that would save someone’s life would only require the energy of one Ultracapacitor.”
“Actually, Eddy over here dumped 140 Volts through Celestia for a little over two hours,” Edgar interjected. For a few moments, only the sound of wind whipping against the car could be heard.
“I’m sorry, I think my ears deceived me for a moment; did you say Eddy purposely electrocuted someone?”
“Thanks a lot Edgar,” Eddy muttered quietly. “It’s not as bad as he makes it sound. We ramped the voltage slowly, and it all worked out alright.”
“That’s hardly the point!” Tidwell exclaimed. “Did they know electricity was lethal at sufficiently high currents? Did you take any precautions at all? These are visitors from another dimension Eddy; you can’t simply throw them in the metaphorical frying pan like that!”
“Dr. Tidwell,” Celestia stepped in, silencing the rambling man. “It’s alright, Eddy did warn us of the dangers, and they all took every precaution they could to ensure our safety.” Her smile grew a little more. “In fact, Eddy, Jonathon, Edgar, and Mike have done everything in their power so far to keep us safe; I think we’ll be alright in their care.” Tidwell acquiesced to her point, calming considerably.
“Very well,” Tidwell relented. He turned to look at us. “So, what is the plan gentlemen?”
“Well, we’ll need to find a spot with very little Infected, preferably on the outskirts of the city so we don’t trigger a flash mob like last time,” Eddy explained. “We were thinking the warehouse we collected our chemicals from the last time we were here. It’s on the outskirts, and there were only a few Infected there. Should be a good ‘hunting ground’.”
“Once we’ve found our target, the ‘fun’ part begins,” Jonathon added, sarcastically emphasizing ‘fun’. “Somehow, we need to isolate the target from the others, so we can pounce on it. We’ll use the pneumatic rifles to shoot it in the throat.”
“Seems a bit counter-productive,” Tidwell interjected.
“Not really; that’s not a lethal shot for an Infected, unless you completely sever the head,” I explained. “It will stop it from crying out and attracting unwanted attention, and while the spinal cord rebuilds, we can secure and gag it.”
“Finally, just after the target has fully recovered, Celestia will blast it, and we’ll hope that a healthy human comes out of it,” Edgar finished. Just in time too, as the city was drawing closer. The abandoned buildings loomed into the sky, and the angle of the early morning sun made the buildings cast shadows on many of the streets inside. The emptiness of it all elicited that same feeling of unease we felt the first time we were here.
Eddy slowed down as we approached, and I took the opportunity to reach around back and pull two cases from the trunk area. I motioned for Celestia and Luna to come closer, and opened the cases. Inside, the chrome and royal blue pistols gleamed in the sunlight.
I also withdrew two pistol belts, complete with a holster and magazine pouches. “I know I haven’t had any time to really show you how these work, but I’m afraid you’re going to have to learn quickly princesses,” I almost whispered, while handing them the belts to put on. “I really hope we don’t need these, but worst-case scenario, we might need your help fending off an attack, and magic energy is something you guys don’t have a lot of right now. I’ll give you the quick and dirty rundown on these. You hold them like this, you point the hole here at your target, and you pull this piece back to fire. After eight shots, hit this lever and save the mag that comes out, grab a new mag from your belt, insert it copper-side forward, and hit this other lever to shoot again.”
I presented them each with their weapon. Both, especially Luna, eyed them with trepidation. “Are…Are you sure this is safe?” Luna asked.
“I’m afraid we can’t, in good conscience, send you out into this Hellhole without some way to defend yourselves. Just keep them in your holsters with this lever, the safety, flicked up, and hope that we don’t need them. If we do, flick the lever down before shooting.”
Celestia and Luna nodded, before grabbing their respective pistols. Luna examined hers more so than Celestia, having never held a firearm. Both carefully flicked their safeties on, before holstering the weapon and spare magazines.
“Heads up guys,” Eddy said in a hushed voice. “We’re here.”
“Thank God we left the security gate open,” Edgar added. “It screeched like a banshee when we moved it the first time.” We pulled up to the entrance, disembarking as quietly as we could. All eyes scanned the surroundings nervously for any surprises. The silence was oppressive, only furthering the feeling of unease in the group. I loaded up the pneumatic rifle, checking air and magazine, before signaling to the others that I was ready.
“Are there Infected inside?” Tidwell whispered. “It’s a bit quiet.” As a response, I picked up a tiny pebble, no bigger than maybe half a fingernail, and tossed it up onto the roof. It impacted right in the middle, a very quiet metallic ping echoed softly from the metal roof. The sensitive ears of the Infected inside must have heard this however, as a loud clank followed by a low moan and slow shuffling emanated from within the building’s walls. The shuffling got quieter, as the Infected moved to the center of the building to investigate the noise.
“Yea, they’re in there all right.”
Perspective: ???
Location: ???
Date: ???
Daytime
I trudged through the empty streets, lost in my thoughts once again. There wasn’t anything else to do really, nothing left to feel, to experience, to live for. Heh, can this even be considered living? Sure my heart beats, but…
“Turn around.”
I obey without thought, spinning on my heels and heading elsewhere. They don’t let me wander much further than city limits, and I can’t exactly ignore Them. They’re always there, watching, listening; I think They can make my muscles contract the way They want them to. When I’m with Them, I’m nothing. A floating voice without a body, a stream of conscience without a purpose.
But it’s not all bad. They’re nice to me…usually. When there’s nothing to do, nothing to gather, report on, fix, They let me wander. My body listens to me, and I feel in control again. I know it’s a lie, pseudo-control at best, but anything that helps me cling to the fraying string of sanity I retain helps.
I encounter many people in my wanderings, friendly faces I can talk to. I usually don’t, because They listen in on everything, but They give us the option. I’ve come to the conclusion that we talk to Them first, and They translate whatever we say for us. I can only speak small shreds of English. Despite this, I can understand everything everyone says and they can understand me, as if it’s being translated in my head before it goes to or from my conscience.
It’s one of those things that took a lot of getting used to. I’m sure everyone in my position went through the same thing. Fear, disbelief, refusal, despair…acceptance. Honestly, it’s quite useful at this point.
*Clink*…”Investigate.”
With no other choice, I walked slowly in the direction of the noise until I could make out a little guard shack even in the blinding sunlight. If I still could, my heart would’ve started beating faster, my hands clamming up. If I still could, I would’ve turned around and ran away, not bothered investigating, not risked someone’s life. I prayed the noise didn’t come from someone being careless. They knew I strongly disagreed with Them, most people did, but I didn’t care.
My hands grabbed the door handle and ripped the door open before I even knew it. Inside, there was nothing. I looked again…nothing. I let out a breath I didn’t even know I was holding. But then, if someone wasn’t here, what made the noise?
I received my answer immediately, as the wind gusted and picked up some small stones. I heard the same sound again, coming from the gate. So that’s what it was. I turned to leave, noticing that the chain that pulled the gate was cut. Interesting, someone broke in.
My conscience stopped cold. Wait! I didn’t mean that! It was-
“Oh? So you think a survivor is in there? Or could possibly come back?”
No, I-
“Well we’ll just have a look around then. Shouldn’t be a problem.”
What have I done? If anyone comes back, or worse, is in there right now, I’ve just doomed them. I’m sure that They will enjoy placing me here, waiting for anyone foolish enough to come. They’re going to trap me in there. No. I want to wander! Don’t take the only thing I have left, please!
“Get inside.”
I turned and sprinted in the opposite direction, hoping against hope that I could get away. My legs pumped as fast as their twisted forms could carry me, and the gate disappeared behind the blinding wall of sunlight. I did it. I got away-
“Did you really think that would work?”
My body stopped, turned around, and ran for the gate. No matter how hard I tried, I never felt my body resist, my input to it was never heard. They’re in my head, They have my brain hostage, and They will never leave. Always there, always watching, listening, controlling. I will never be free.
“What the, who did this? My lovelies, no!”
Like a beacon of light, Their surprise called me back from my downward-spiraling thoughts. They are never surprised. They are rarely angry. But as I gazed upon the insides of the warehouse I found myself in, I could see what caused Them so much distress.
Bodies. Their former bodies everywhere. They all had caked-on blood from multiple wounds. One thing was common though; on every body, at least one wound was fatal. Whoever got here, they took a lot of these monsters with them. Ha! It was small, puny compared to the number of Them alive, but anything that causes Them pain was good in my books.
Without warning my body picked up a crowbar and swung at myself with it. The unmistakable sound of a bone snapping graced my ears, and I wasn’t even able to scream at the excruciating pain that shot up my leg.
“You think this is funny!? You will shut up, or I will break you as many times as it takes for you to do so! After all, these wounds won’t kill you.”
They were right after all. As I watched on, my leg righted itself, and the pain subsided as the bone set at unnatural speeds. They didn’t even flinch, likely not feeling the pain of my body. They never did, as if They could detach themselves from my nerves at will. My body raised the crowbar again. Wait, please no! I’ll be good, I promise-
*Ting*
They stopped. Something, a noise deeper inside, from the center of the room. Could whoever did this still be here? I dropped the crowbar, making it clatter loudly against the floor. My body let out a groan, before heading to the source of the noise.
I started panicking. Why are we making so much noise? The person responsible obviously knew what he was doing, if the bodies everywhere were any indication. We should be sneaking up on them, not alerting them! I’m going to die for real; I’m going to end up like them.
“Ha! Do you really think I care about this body? I’m in another vessel, safe from whoever this is. If you die, I’ll just send a bunch of my pawns this way to kill the bastard.”
I reached the corridor formed by two shelves, but couldn’t see much in there due to the skylight letting in a flood of bright sunlight in. Great, now I don’t even get to see my attacker when he shoots me in the face.
Trudging slowly, I entered, feeling my way around in the bright light. No matter how hard I looked though, I couldn’t find anything, or anyone.
“Guess it really was a false alarm. Looks like luck was on your side today. Guess you get to live.”
I felt a pang of despair at those words. I had been so scared initially of dying, but is it really that bad? Is it any worse than this?
“Yes it is! You don’t want to die, trust me.”
Why should I!? Hell, dying would finally grant me peace; I wouldn’t have to kill anymore!
“…How about this? I’ll let you take the rest of the day off. Wander to your heart’s content.”
Oh, so now you care? Why would you be nice to me? It’s not like I can disobey you anyway.
“Because I need you.”
You told me I was disposable literally minutes ago!
“I was mad. As long as you’re alive, I can use you, and it’s easier on me if you don’t resist. I know telling you this will only make you resist harder, but it’s futile no matter how hard you try. In time, you’ll see things my way. Besides, you’ve only got two options at this point. You can stay in here, or wander around.”
Whatever. Turning around I walked to the end of the corridor. The blinding light was no longer in my eyes, and I could see perfectly in the darkened warehouse. I rounded the corner at the end of the corridor…
…and found myself confronted by a shiny steel cylinder.
“Shit.”
*PSST!*
My body went numb as the world spun wildly. With a thump, I found myself staring at the ceiling of the warehouse, unable to move. Considering my body wasn’t moving at all, They had lost control over my body as well, if only temporarily.
He was here. The man that finished off all of Them. I couldn’t feel anything below the neck, which is probably where I got hit. I didn’t notice him come in at all, and I didn’t hear his silenced weapon very well, but I heard him approach perfectly. He was coming quickly.
So this is where I die. Somehow, I can’t find it in myself to be scared anymore. I was almost glad; at least now, I can do whatever I wanted to, I could be free. A throbbing pain started burning in my neck, as They tried desperately to repair my broken body. But he was already upon me now. If he had stayed alive this long, then he was smart. He knew that a shot to the neck wasn’t fatal, and he had come to finish the job. He smiled excitedly at me. I know, you’re happy to kill another ‘monster’, don’t rub it in. I know what I’ve become, what I’ve done, and I’m ashamed of all of it. He knelt down beside me, but rather than stab me, or shoot me, he called for his team to ‘hurry up’, then said the last words I ever expected to hear.
“Hey buddy. You’re gonna be alright.”
I’m not sure I heard that right, but in the next moment, he backed off quickly. The world spun again, and my face met the ground. They held me there for a moment, as they did…whatever it was they were doing. I couldn’t feel my body yet, so I had no clue what they were up to.
“Make sure he’s secure, then stand clear! Celestia, charge the spell!”
“I’m on it. Twenty seconds.”
“Are you sure these ropes will hold?” Like flipping a light switch, the motion of being rotated was accompanied by the gift of sight again. There was a whole group of people, I could see that now.
“They should hold out for long enough, hopefully.”
“Ha ha ha ha! Did they tie me up? Did they really think a rope would hold me down? These fools are stupider than I thought! How did they survive so long?"
Loathe as I am to do so, I had to agree with Them on this one; how did they survive so long if they think they can just tie all of Them up?
“No matter, let’s have a little fun.”
My body started struggling against the restraints. The rope was strong, but my mutated muscles were stronger. I could feel the fibers stretching to their limit.
“Oh shit, he’s up again!”
“Celestia, how long!?”
“Five more seconds, let me concentrate!”
“Oh no you don’t!” *SNAP!*
With a feral roar, my arms swung upwards, having torn right through the rope. They made me spin around, ready to tackle the foolish survivor that had taken too long to use his weapon…but I froze.
What greeted my sight wasn’t human at all. A coat of pristine white, a muzzle, ears on the top of its head, for just a fraction of a second I thought I was talking to a horse. But that was quickly dispelled when I noticed it was standing on two legs. It had hands, which were now outstretched and pointed palms-out towards me. An unnatural yellow light was coming from its hands, and…a horn? Further crumbling my illusion of a person, long feathered wings sprouted from behind the creature, as the glow reached a climax. Even its eyes were glowing at this point, and it was all I could do to keep from turning away.
I could swear I heard it utter the words ‘please work’, before the glow came racing at me at a speed that I had no hope of dodging in time. I think They knew that as well.
“What the fuck is that!? Wait. S-stay back! NOOO-”
The brilliant ball of light slammed into me, knocking me down to the floor. I didn’t feel the impact, nor did I feel any pain. Their final cry was strangled short as the light collided.
The last thing I felt was a strange warmth, before it all faded away.
Perspective: Edgar Worthington
Location: Southern United States, 25 miles from home
Date: October 28, 2025
We watched as the glow was absorbed by the Infected body. Slowly the deformities receded, the body on the floor taking on a much more normal human shape.
“It’s…it’s working,” I breathed out, awe struck by the sight before me. But it seemed like the Infection wasn’t giving up without a fight. The man was unconscious, but his body started going into spasms, convulsing madly as the last of the Infection signs disappeared. All at once the glow faded, and his body flopped unceremoniously into the concrete floor. Everyone waited with bated breath, Mike with the rifle at the ready, but the body didn’t move.
Tidwell slowly approached, with Mike behind him, sights trained on the corpse. If the body was still an Infected, Mike would take care of it before it could hurt the doctor. Very cautiously, Tidwell reached forward, before quickly slapping on the heart monitor probes and stepping back. He’s not taking any chances with this one. He switched on the monitor.
Against all odds, a steady string of beeps sounded from the machine. “My God, he’s alive!” Tidwell exclaimed. Tidwell quickly checked over the body. Infected are still technically ‘alive’ after all, so a beating heart didn’t mean much. “Eyes look normal, teeth normal, skin normal, muscle tone, growths; physically, all signs of the Infection are gone.”
“But will he wake up?” Mike asked grimly.
“I don’t know. I don’t have the equipment to measure brain activity. He could be unconscious, or in a coma. The magical blast could have permanently damaged his brain in ways I can’t even begin to fathom.”
“I’m sorry doctor,” Luna said as she approached the elder man. “We were worried this would happen. Blasting a creature that has never experienced magic with a spell of that caliber, it might have been too much for him.” All eyes gazed at the unmoving body, which did little more than breathe. “I’m sorry.”
“What do we do now?” I asked, still staring dejectedly at the body. “We only gave Celestia enough juice for one shot, plus a little extra so she wouldn’t pass out. We can’t exactly try again.”
“Would it even be worth it?” Mike questioned. “If all we get are brain-dead people, perhaps…perhaps killing them off is granting them a mercy. I know I for one wouldn’t want to be unresponsive for the rest of my days.”
“We can’t give up yet Mike,” said Celestia. “We’ve only tried once; there’s no way to get accurate data from one trial run. Everyone reacts a little different to magic.”
Mike opened his mouth to respond, when a groan silenced the group. Quickly, everyone’s attention was pulled to the body, which was starting to move. The man slowly sat up, rubbing his head as he did so. “Ugh…mi cabeza me esta matando (my head’s killing me),” he said. Opening his eyes, the first thing he saw was, unfortunately, Celestia.
Immediately, he pressed against the furthest wall. “Q-que carajo es eso (w-what the fuck is that)!?” he shouted, pointing a trembling finger at her.
“Shit, anyone remember tenth grade Spanish?” Mike asked.
“Eddy slept through that class, Jon cheated his way to victory, and I almost failed,” I reminded him. We turned to Tidwell.
“I’m afraid I took an interest in the Germanic language,” Tidwell told us. “Perhaps it may be of use later?”
“But it’s not gonna help us now,” Mike finished. He ended up approaching the panicking man, and pointed a finger at Celestia. “Amigo (friend),” he said uncertainly. “Story uhh, largo (long). Explicar (explain)…later.” He moved one hand in front of the other to gesticulate the meaning of later.
“Yea, I’m pretty sure you got most of that wrong,” Eddy commented. It seemed though, that Mike didn’t mess up as bad as he thought. The man looked at Mike, and pointed to Celestia again.
“F-friend?” he asked.
“Yes,” Mike said excitedly. “Know English?”
“Little.”
“Ok. They are friends. Saved your life.” The man looked up to the sisters now, albeit much calmer. He tentatively approached.
“Thank you,” he said, with a small smile forming on his face. “Thank you a lot.” Celestia and Luna smiled in return.
“You’re welcome,” Celestia replied. I could barely contain myself. It worked! It freaking worked! The implications for this were staggering. ‘Just wait until everyone hears about this. They are going to be so ecstatic-’
My thoughts were interrupted by Jonathon sprinting into the room.
“Jon, you’ll never guess what just happened. It worked, the guy’s alive!” Jonathon opened his mouth, then stopped. He turned to face the man.
“My God. Celestia, Luna…you did it.” He suddenly shook his head. “I’m afraid celebrations will have to wait. There’s a massive group of Infected sprinting over here as we speak. Luckily, we’re on a hill so I saw them coming from far away, but I still figure we’ve got about three minutes before they reach us. I have no idea what set them off but we’ve gotta move.”
Mike turned to the man. “Tenemos que ir (We have to go),” He told him urgently. Mike pointed to one of the Infected corpses lying on the floor. “Infected ven-vine… viniendo (coming).” The man stared at the fallen Infected for only a second, before his eye grew wide. His gaze shot up to meet Mike’s, and he uttered a single word.
“Vamonos.”
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I'm glad this is back
although, it's a bit unfortunate that barely anyone reads this
6646953 i do and i think about 1000+ people
Hook Celestia and Luna up to the output cables of a Nuclear Power Plant. That'll get them the Power they need, and more (likely), allowing them to just blast a large area, like a hoard of the infected, with that same spell. Maybe mix it with a short-term paralysis spell, to keep the infected from moving while the spell does its own thing.
Your characters personalities are kind of blurring together since I last read, as well as their physical descriptions. If you could add little details that give us a visual on the characters, I think it would be easier to visualize the scene.
Aside from that, I'm really enjoying the way the plot is heading and the interaction between the two races.
6647076 the previous chapter still only has about 90 views... and it was posted in July mate
Good chapter, while the story is slow, is good.