Thief

by conTROLLER234

Chapter 23 Sacrifice

Thief

Chapter 23

Sacrifice

My consciousness slowly faded in and out in soft, calm waves. Everytime reality moved in, I could hear the violent, yet non-intimidating sounds of the nearby river. A light breeze, lightly moved the shelter every once in awhile, while an owl nearby communicated with something of the unknown. The sound was unpredictable, and it echoed off the mountains and through the forest, giving an eerie feeling of being watched. The sounds of crickets in the distance, creating a beautiful white noise that just topped off the experience of the outdoors. Something that just couldn’t be planned, or bought in stores. Right now, I was probably the only one hearing it.

Once I had gathered the main senses of my surroundings, I opened my eyes. I was met with extreme darkness, so the useless effort to see, was only met with the cold, crisp air. I tilted my head up, craneing it and looking around. The same outcome was a result, and I quietly sighed. It was early, very much so. Just as I had planned, I wanted to wake up earlier than anyone else to bathe without them watching. Now all I had to do, was get out of the shelter without waking my roommate.

With a speak of the devil, I felt Dash toss and turn with little effort, so she didn’t move much. But it was enough to tell me that she was cradled in my arms, and curled into a ball. If this were in any other situation, I would’ve been a bit more annoyed, but because we’re in a shelter it makes sense. Body heat, I get it.

I shook it off, falling back to the thought of getting out of the shelter without Dash waking up. Now it being even harder to do. With very slow, delicate movements, I began to pull away from her. She made it clear that she didn’t like it too much, as she grunted, and grabbed onto my arm tightly between her hooves.

“Fuck…” I quickly bit my tongue, whispering to myself. If I wanted to get out of this, I had to do it quick. If I take my time, this could only get worse.

So, I decided to make it seem natural, as if I were still asleep. With a lazy, sleepy-like movement, I turned over onto my other side. My arm got stuck between her hooves, but as it strained her grasp, she eventually let go with a yawn, turning away from me also as she remained in her slumber.

I grinned to myself, finally being able to move about. I took my time, trying not to split my skull open on any branches that were poking into the shelter. At last, I finally made it out of the shelter, giving me the freedom to stretch my arms and legs. Once out, the moonlight gave me some illumination to look around the camp. It appeared that everyone else was still asleep, so I felt more relaxed about taking a bath. I glanced to the river, though walked over to my equipment first.

If I make a spear, and take it in with me, I have the chance of catching myself some breakfast…

I thought internally, and without thinking I had already grabbed my knife and walked to the trees in search of a straight branch. After multiple quiet, peaceful minutes to myself, I had a sturdy spear, already shaven and sharpened to a pencil tip-like point. I sauntered over to the river, standing at the edge of the water. I took my shoes and socks off, and dipped a toe in.

“!!” I quickly pulled away as if I had just stubbed my toe on a piece of wooden furniture, biting my fingers so I didn’t yell. “Jesus fucking christ… This is gonna suck…”

I took off the rest of my clothes, turning back to the camp to make sure no one was spying on me. I clenched my teeth together tightly, and stepped in. A shiver immediately shot up my spine, feeling like I had just gotten out of a hot tub and stepped onto an ice cube.

Let’s just get this over with, I want to get this done before the others wake up.

- - - - -

Several hours later, I had a fire going, my clothes were hung up to dry after I had washed them, and at the moment I was busy cooking a fresh salmon that I had caught in the river. The dark, mystic sounds of the forest at night, had changed into the welcoming, warm sounds of the afternoon. Birds were singing, I could actually see, thanks to the warm glow of the sun. Beams of light shot through the branches of the spruce trees that stood tall all around the camp, littering the ground with tiny spruce needles. Honestly, even before shit hit the fan, I don’t understand how anyone couldn’t live like this. This is the life…

“John?”

My head spun to my shelter, and I quickly realized who had called from inside.

“I’m out here Dash.” I responded. Right after, I heard rustling emitting from the shelter, as the familiar, rainbow pegasus climbed out of the entrance. Her hair was messy, and her eyes were slightly baggy as she yawned, stretching out her wings at the same time. Once she was finished, she turned over to me, stumbling over as her eyes hung half shut. Once she was closer to me, a small grin grew on her face as she sat down next to me.

“Sheesh John, put on some clothes!” She mocked, glancing at my body. Since my other clothes were drying, my only choice was to only wear my pants, and roll them up into shorts. I rolled my eyes, staring at my food that was cooking upon a large rock that I had placed in the fire.

My breakfast caught her attention, and she immediately showed a face of disgust.

“What the- where’d you get that?!” She looked away from it.

I scoffed, relaxing as I sat against a tree. “I caught it this morning. I had to bathe in the middle of the night so you didn’t get to watch, and while I was at it I caught this bad boy.” I pointed to the fish, nearly finished cooking. “Sorry you didn’t get to see the show.”

“I don’t know if you’re talking about the hunting, or bathing. But I’m happy I didn’t see either.” She turned to look into the fire, ending the conversation.

There was a silence for a considerable amount of time, until I decided to break the ice. “Well,” I got up, walking over to the fire and picking up to poking sticks that were beside it. “I think it’s ready.” I steadily picked up the fish from the rock, having to somewhat scrape it off of the rock as it stuck slightly, then set it down on a cooler, same-sized rock.

“Well you have fun eating that.” Dash shivered. “You’re so weird man…”

“Oh come on, have you even tried fish before?” I asked, continuing to tend to the fish as I opened it up. I had gutted it earlier, instead of cutting it into filets, just so I got that little bit more meat on it.

Dash audibly shrugged, giving a quiet groan along with it. “...no.”

“Then how can you say it’s disgusting?” I asked, pulling out as many bones as I could find and placing them on the ground.

She grunted. “Come on, you sound like my mom! I haven’t tried it because ponies aren’t supposed to eat meat!”

I shrugged, over exaggerating it. “Well, I guess you’re too chicken to try it. You think it’ll hurt your precious little fragile body…” I looked up at her with my bottom lip out, and I saw her anger build.

She growled. “F-Fine! I’ll try it, just shut up already!” She got up and stomped over, sitting down next to me in an unhappy feat that just seemed adorable and extremely unintimidating. Though her expression quickly changed as the scent of the cooked salmon reached her nose. “...It, does smell pretty good.”

“There you go.” I finished plucking the majority of the bones out, and I cut a little piece off of it and held it out to Dash. “Here, I’ll even let you have the first bite.”

She hesitated, before taking the slice of cooked fish from my hand with her teeth, and then eating it from there. As soon as it entered her mouth, surprise breached her expression as her eyes widened. She chewed it a bit longer than she needed to, savouring the flavor before she swallowed. Silent the entire time, but making quiet little enjoyable moaning noises.

“That… Was, actually really, really good!” She grinned, looking up at me.

“Right? It’s not that bad once you try it. If you think that’s good, you should try bacon-”

“Dash!”

We both swiftly moved our attention over to the new voice, who as the owner was AppleJack. “What do ya think yer doin’?!”

“AJ! You have to try this, it’s aawweeessooommeee!” Dash’s eyes nearly rolled back into her sockets.

“Ah know, ah’ve had fish b’fore.” She replied normally, walking over.

“Wait, really?” Dash and I both asked, taken back.

“Yes, and as delicious as it is, it ain’t good fer ya.” She began. “What ah’m sayin’, is that you’re gonna have a real bad time goin’ to th’ washroom next time ya go.”

“W-What?!” Dash panicked, looking between me and AJ, then pointing her hoof at me. “That’s not fair! John lured me into trying it!”

AJ turned to me, glaring, and I just gave off a shrug. “I don’t know what she’s talking about, she just walked over and ate a piece without asking.”

“WHAT?!” Dash stomped her hoof on the ground, furious.

“What’s going on out here?” Twilight walked out of her shelter, Lyra following not far behind her.

“Breakfast.” I spoke with a grin, trying to not acknowledge Dash’s extreme hate towards me at the moment.

AJ sighed and shook her head, deciding it was best not to carry it on any further. “Don’t worry ‘bout it sugarcube. How’d y’all sleep?”

“Good, actually. I haven’t slept like that in a long time!” Twilight beamed, beginning to fix her mane with her magic. “It must have been the sounds of nature that helped.”

“You could say that again…” Lyra yawned, stepping out from behind Twilight as she held a hoof to her mouth for a brief moment, then lazily dropping it to the ground. The second she caught sight of me, her face exactly matched Dash’s reaction when she first woke up. “What are you doing?”

I rolled my eyes, waving my arms about. “Okay, should we wake everyone up so they can judge me for who I really am, and that I’m doing what’s necessary for me to survive?”

“Sorry John, it’s just that when you live in a town full of ponies, you don’t usually see that kind of thing.” Twilight admitted, walking over to me.

“Well, he isn’t wrong Twilight. Besides, even I have to do it from time to time.”

We turned our attention to A. K., who had just exited her shelter and slipped on her clothes. “You can’t always find what’s necessary to eat out here, so eating meat is our only option.”

“But, isn’t it bad for your digestive system?” Twilight carried on, losing my interest as I continued to polish off my caught breakfast.

“Of course, but it’s better than starving to death.” She shrugged, trotting over to sit by the fire. Twilight sighed quietly to herself, coming to the conclusion that this was a fight not worth fighting.

“Anyways, I’m going to go get everypony else. We should get moving as quickly as possible.” Twilight announced, walking to the next shelter that housed Luke.

“Good idea Twilight.” I awarded, not turning my attention away from my meal. “Besides, there’s nothing more satisfying than catching your own meal-”

“*SSCCRRRREEEAAAAAAMMMM*”

Everyone’s heart jumped as two, young, terrified screams came from one of the shelters. Everyone saw Scootaloo, and AppleBloom, sprint out of their shelter with tears streaming down their faces in horror.

“What in tarnation?!” AJ yelped, running to the fillies as they galloped towards us. “Whut's goin’ on?!”

“B..B-Big M-Mac..!” AppleBloom stuttered as she sobbed. “B-Big Mac attacked D-Derpy and Sweetie Belle! H-He bit them!”

“Shit…” I spoke through my sigh, running my hands through my hair. Out of all of the ponies… It was him.

Twilight ran back to the group, Luke in tow behind her with his rifle already out. “What happened?!”

“Big Mac turned and infected Derpy and Sweetie Belle.” I pulled out my Beretta, cocking it ready and turning off the safety. “AJ, check those two for bites. Follow me Luke.” I gave orders, and they did as they were told.

“AppleJack… Whut’s gonna happen tuh them?” AB sobbed, hugging tightly onto her sister with her eyes shut.

“Just… Just, cover yer ears AppleBloom…” Was all that AJ could reassure, already knowing what was coming.

Scootaloo instead ran past AJ, and straight to Dash. “D-Dash!”

Dash took her into her open hooves, trying to calm her down as Luke and I prepared for the worst.

When we were no closer than 5 feet away from the shelter, we heard a loud groan and a thump. Big Mac stood up, the shelter caving in on itself. All of the heavy branches and sticks seemed to do nothing to stun him, and once he was the only thing standing there, it revealed his form.

His body was completely normal, aside from his gunshot wound. The bandage was soaked red, and purple. Every vein in this body had seemed to double in side, and pop out of his skin slightly, and his eyes were completely bloodshot. His mouth was bloodied with gore, as he gave way for his two friends. Derpy and Sweetie Belle were not nearly as clean as Big Mac was. Derpy had an enormous chunk out of her neck, blood pooling down her chest and back. Sweetie Belle… The least that I could say, was that she had been gutted like the fish I had caught earlier. Intestines hung from her broken ribcage, while the rest pooled on the ground under her.

I heard AJ gag and turn away, covering AB’s eyes from the horror in front of them.

Luke and I took no hesitation before blasting them all to the afterlife, Luke firing one bullet at Derpy, and me firing two at Big Mac and Sweetie Belle.

Once they were dead for good, everyone stood in silence for a long time. The sound of the river being the only source of sound for miles, other than the echo of the gunshots. Even the birds had evacuated.

I barely broke the silence by turning my Beretta back onto safety, and sliding it back into my holster. “Great… That’s three more… Gone.”

“Oh… Celestia.” A. K. Held a hoof to her mouth, being a witness to such a horrific event. “I-I’m...I’m, so sorry…”

“...He was a good guy, it would’ve been best if we still had him around… Dammit…”I rested my hands on my hips, looking down at the ground with my eyes shut.

“This went to shit, real fast.” Luke spoke, turning on the safety to his rifle and pointing it to the ground.”

There was another short silence, and the birds seemed to slowly return over a period of time. The same, soothing singing of different types of birds. But it didn’t help in this situation.

“Come on Luke,” I walked over to the cart, and grabbed a shovel. “Help me with this.”

Once the other ponies knew what we had to do, they directed their attention away from us. “Let’s get you washed up.” Dash spoke quietly to Scootaloo, her voice filled with sorrow, as if she were just on the verge of tears.

Scootaloo followed Dash, but took a look behind her at the heap of dead corpses that she used to call her friends. That just like that, they were gone. To think how close she was to being a part of that corpse party. She sniffled, then turned away.

- - - - -

We had been on the road for a few hours already, and everyone was quiet for most of the ride. Without those three ponies here, it just wasn’t the same. AppleBloom and Scootaloo talked for a little bit, but they seemed much more used to having that other, voice-cracking filly alongside them. Twilight had taken Derpy’s place in pulling the cart, and everyone else that was able to walk, did. It made moving the cart a hell of alot easier, but I just couldn’t feel happy about it.

“...Guys,”

Everyone turned to Scootaloo, who had suddenly stopped walking. Everyone did the same, and I let out a quiet, yet irritated grunt as we stopped pushing the cart. “What is it Scoots?” Dash questioned, a bit concerned by the look on Scootaloo’s face.

“...What’s the point?” She asked, her voice cutting in and out slightly between a whisper and voice. She didn’t look up, and no one replied. No one knew how to reply to such a question. “What’s the point in going on? More ponies are just going to die, and it’s only a matter of time before-”

“We keep going, because we have something that’s giving us motivation.” I cut her off, and she looked up at me, the others doing the same. “We don’t think about ourselves in situations like this. Because it’s made obvious that when someone close to us dies, it damages the ones around them more than themselves.”

She turned her gaze back to the ground, letting me speak. “I know that this seems stupid. And to be honest, it really is. But that’s not the point, because when we’re in a group together, we live by the others, not by yourself.”

I saw a warm smile grow on Twilight face as I continued on.

“I have motivation. I want to find Fluttershy, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do dammit… But that isn’t the only reason I’m going on. If I really wanted to find her for the sole purpose of saving her for myself, I would have left you all a long time ago.”

Scootaloo turned to look up at me with teary eyes, just taking it in.

“But I didn’t leave, because I knew you all wanted her back as much as I do. I didn’t leave, for the other reason of you all having motivation, too. To survive something as horrible as this, we need to stay strong together, and we can’t let something like emotion, or doubt weigh us down.” I looked up at Twilight. “Maybe that will answer your question of why I acted the way I did when I first showed up. Because I didn’t let emotions take control of me. I worked along with reality, because I didn’t have friends to work alongside. But now because I have all of you, there is a lot more that we can do than you realize.”

“What I’m trying to say, is that there is no point. But there isn’t a point, when you go by what you want for yourself. But selfishness gets you killed out here, and it’s most likely to be by your own hand. We have to think about others, and be selfless. Otherwise we’re all going to die.” I turned back to Scootaloo, who was wiping her eyes. “Do you understand me?”

She didn’t reply, but only gave a small nod.

“Good. Then let’s keep going.”

As soon as I began to push the cart once again, the others continued to move the cart too. Everyone was silent, probably processing what I had just said.

“That was quite the speech John.” Twilight admitted, still pulling the cart.

“I’m just speaking from experience…” I replied, my voice strained as I pushed.

“Girls, I think I see something up ahead!”

Everyone perked up as we heard Lyra call out. Sure enough, when I peeked over the side of the cart, I saw what looked to be like…

“Is that a train station?” Twilight asked aloud.

“Maybe there’s a train there that we can use!” AppleBloom added in, and I smiled to myself. Already getting a little bit excited, before it dropped immediately as my reality-side of my brain kicked in.

“Don’t get your hopes up. Besides, if there really was a train there, I doubt anyone knows how to drive the thing.” I told them, though it didn’t seem to do anything.

“I can see a train!” Dash called out, already flying ahead.

“Dash, wait here! We don’t know what’s up there, we don’t want to get caught in another horde.” I explained, and I heard her groan as she floated back.

As we neared the station, we realized the station was placed in a very small town, might as well be a neighborhood. Heh… NEIGHborhood… Because they’re horses?

There were a couple of walkers nearby, but I was able to take them out with my bow and knife with ease. We didn’t bother to check the town, because we didn’t think they would have much of anything to be useful to us. Once we cleared out all of the walkers in a radius that we would be attacked in, we split up half and half.

Luke, AJ, AppleBloom and Scootaloo all went to find a place to put the cart onto the train, while Twilight, Dash, Lyra and I went to check out the engine. When we got to the engine, there were all different types of switches, pulleys, buttons, and latches.

“...So, anyone know what to do with this?” Dash rubbed her head, looking around the room.

“It’s probably not too hard to figure it out.” Twilight examined the switches, reaching out to one.

“Whoa, hang on! Wait for everyone to be ready to go, we don’t want to start moving if someone isn’t on or something like that.” I pulled her hoof away, and she blushed lightly.

“R-Right, sorry. Let’s go check on everyone else.” She turned around, walking out of the engine room.

I sighed, hesitating before following her, Dash trailing behind me. “Really hope this works. It’ll save a lot of time and effort.”

She nodded, hovering past me and after Twilight. We ended up meeting the others halfway through the train, saying that they had everything ready to go.

“Did y’all figure out how tuh work the thing?” AJ wondered, as we headed back up towards the engine.

“Not yet, but we should be able to get it to work. Hopefully…” Twilight mentioned, already trying to imagine how it should work in her mind. We made it back to the engine, the overwhelming switches complicating us once again. I looked in the middle of the room, seeing a pedal, and a hatch which seemed to be covered in a black powder.

“Well, it looks like it runs on coal,” I stepped on the pedal, and the latch sprung open. There was a shovel next to it, and a large box full of charcoal at the back of the room. “Bingo.”

“Okay, but what about the rest of this stuff?-” Dash pulled a handle, which was attached to a rope that hung from the ceiling.

*TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT*

Everyone covered their ears from the sudden, ear-shattering noise.

“Dash, what the hell?! You can’t just start pulling random things like that!” Luke blamed, wincing from the sound.

Dash’s face immediately filled with regret. “S-Sorry, I didn’t think that was going to happen!”

“Well now we had better hope this thing can get going, that sound probably attracted those things for miles.” I reminded, grabbing the shovel and scooping up some coal, then tossing a fair amount into the open hatch. “Now we have to find a way to turn this thing on.”

We looked carefully around the room, everyone becoming stressed from the pressure that began to build, knowing that a horde could be approaching any second.

“Hey!” Everyone’s head turned to Lyra, who had seemed to be reading a small piece of paper attached to a button. “‘Cherry, this is the button that turns on the engine. Learn to remember this, otherwise you’re gonna get fired.’” She leaned away from it, turning her head to everyone else. “Do you think this is it?”

“Only one way to find out, I guess.” I shrugged, biting my tongue as I press a button. Immediately, everyone could hear a ‘hissing’ noise, coming from the coal hatch. “Well, that didn’t seem to do much.”

“Hang on, I think that’s the gas flowing. It must need a spark to start the flame!” Twilight thought, her face lighting up as her horn did the same. Her horn flashed, as a large spark flickered in the hatch, a flame springing to life. “Yes!”

“Huh, nice thinking.” I raised my eyebrows at Twilight, and she beamed with pride. It took a second, before the entire train jolted, all of the cars behind the engine moving and clashing with each other, as the engine slowly began to move.

“Alright! Sweet!” Dash jumped up, pumping a fist in the air. “No more pushing the cart!”

“Yeah, you really needed a break from pulling that thing all day...” I sneered at her, and she just stuck her tongue out at me.

“I don’t think we should be celebrating just yet, guys.” Luke spoke in a low tone, peaking out the window. “We’re barely moving, and we’ve got some serious company.

I walked up beside him, also taking a glance outside, and gasping without control. For a small town, there were a shit-ton of walkers out there. Hell, only half of them were walkers, most of them were running towards the train. They were getting close to us, and fast.

“Guys, we need to lock every door and window now! Spread out through the train, don’t let anything in or out!” I ordered, pulling my head out of the window and slamming it shut, quickly running out of the engine room.

Everyone complied, following after me. Every car we passed through, we closed every window, leaving the doors unlocked as we passed through, but shutting them behind us. We hadn’t even made it to the furthest car, before the walkers had gotten to the train. Smacking and banging on the side of the cars, and I knew from experience, that if these fuckers worked together they could easily push one of these cars off the track.

We stood inside one of the cars, the entire thing shaking us off our feet/hooves as they began to lightly rock the car.

“Guys, what do we do?! They’re gonna knock us off the rails if we don’t do something!” Dash panicked, and I was starting to do the same thing. I grabbed my head, trying to think but being under this much pressure wasn’t making it easy.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck… W-We need some sort of distraction!” I explained, still trying to think as a mini earthquake unfolded in the room.

“How?! We need to draw them away from the train, but how?!” Dash hovered in the air, avoiding the shaking.

“Guys, we’re running out of time!” Luke reminded, still closing windows, but a hoof smashed through it nonetheless. He backed away in panic, turning to me.

“...Twilight?”

Twilight turned to Lyra, who was in the previous cart away from them. “W-What is it Lyra?”

“...Promise me, that you’ll find a way to stop this… Please.” Lyra slammed the door, and hopped out of an open window.

Twilight immediately ran after her, getting to the door and attempting to open it, realizing it was locked. “N-No! Lyra, come back!”

Everyone who had just witnessed what had happened, also realized the car had stopped shaking. As we looked out of the windows, we saw the horde lose interest in us, and chase after her instead.

“W-What the hay is she doing?! Is she crazy?-”

“No…” I cut Dash off, watching her sprint away from the crowd. “...She’s saving us.”

Everyone sat there in silence as the train slowly began to move faster and faster.

“Luke, do her a favor and shoot her now before it’s too late.” I sighed, resting my hands on a restaurant table, as the car was littered with them.

“W-Whut?! How is that doin’ ‘er a favor?!” AJ raged, stomping her hoof on the ground.

“That way she won’t suffer!” I yelled back at her. “...She deserves it. Wouldn’t you rather go out quick oppose to slowly being ripped apart limb by limb as you’re eaten alive by a horde of fucked up mutants?”

She gulped, dropping her head slowly. “...Yeah, a-ah understand.”

Immediately after, a gunshot was heard from Luke’s rifle as he ended Lyra’s life like that. We watched in horror as her innocent corpse completely disappeared while the horde engulfed her body, every single one of them wanting a piece of her. We all turned away from the terrifying scene, though Luke and I didn’t. All I could do, was salute to her.

I stood there, with my hand flat, and index finger of my right hand pressed to my forehead until she was out of sight.

“Rest in peace… Godspeed.”

Author's Note:

Interesting recent episode, huh? I definitely liked it, I bet John would've too!

By the way, I just want to say thanks and also apologize for anyone who is actually still sticking around for this story to finish. I don't know how you've put up with my inconveniences, but I'm not leaving you guys, I promise.

Comments

[verypeeved]

No more pushing the cart!

aw, but payload is the best gamemode!

[Draskos]

You are by far the cruelist author of a zombie fic I've ever seen. I both love and despise it.

[Element of Power]

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