What It Means

by Dustchu

Tunnels n' Shit Arc - Noping My Way Downtown.

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Tyrid Forest

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"Nope nope nope nope!"

I think that was an appropriate reaction to the current situation I was in right now, if I do say so myself.

So, perhaps you recall the Grom? Yeah, basically a thick skinned rhino knockoff with tusks, a bigger pair of horns, and uglier then your mom after a porta potty party with some heavily bearded rednecks. Oh, and it's infected with whatever this forest is infected with, making it a sickly looking monster that was now out for our collective blood.

So, here we were... running for our lives heading back the way we came, because fuck this! I'm not navigating a diseased forest with no hazmat gear and no gun!

This was not fucking kosher!

No!

"Shit shit shit!" I yelled once more as we ran, with Dancer being somewhat further ahead of us and Sakura lagging slightly behind me, though I had my hand firmly grasped around hers and dragging her along. "This is not good!"

Captain Obvious! That's my fucking nickname!

We sprinted through the woods in an attempt to get back out into the open. Now, whether that was a good idea or not, I wouldn't know until we were out in the open. But chances are, given how heavy this thing is and how it seems every tree it's plowing down is currently keeping it at bay... perhaps being in the forest was a good thing. Cause if this thing did get out in the open, it'd probably fucking tear us all apart!

"Dancer! What do we do!?" I didn't know what the fuck to do, there was no way my weapons were going to pierce that thing's hide! And I already watched Dancer attempt to skewer it, somehow her sword didn't so much as cut the damn thing! So we were forced to run for our lives, lest we get rammed and die horribly.

No thank you!

"I don't know!" Dancer yelled back, managing to stay ahead of us as she led us through the forest. "Just keep running!"

Fuck! We can't go back to the town we passed, too far! "How far is it to the Avros Tunnels?!" That's our best bet, no way can we outrun this thing for very long, not at the rate it's moving.

"Bad idea! We'll have to lose it in the forest!" Dancer suddenly told me, her voice hard as we vaulted over a tree.

"I'm sorry, wut?!" I yelled out as a tree came crashing down nearby. "How is that even an option!?"

"It's the only option!" Dancer yelled back.

"That's a stupid idea! It's plowing through trees like nobody's business!" There's no way we could outrun it! The trees weren't even slowing it down, our best bet was to get to those tunnels and lose it there. "We gotta head to Avros!"

Dancer was silent as we ran, and it made me question what her deal was. "No!"

I growled as another tree was smashed into pieces behind us, crashing down into another one and startling birds into flying off.

This was going nowhere fast, we needed someplace to hide and Avros was the only place that might be nearby that could be the place!

"We either go to Avros or die! Your fucking choice!" I screamed, causing her head to snap around and glare back at me. If we kept this on, we'd run out of breath soon and get killed!

Her eyes were fierce, like daggers digging into my very soul and telling me she didn't want this. Why? Why not?!

With a near faint growl from the mare, she said, "Fine!"

Rrrroooooooar!

I heard the Grom behind us roar, slamming into yet another tree as we finally spotted the exit to this horrid forest. I was planning on thinking about what I'd do if I made it out of this, cause this shit was making my mind run a million miles an hour, and it was not fun!

But sadly that line of thinking was swiftly dashed when we came across the exit and it was blocked off, dozens of trees had fallen and splintered, creating jagged spears of wood that stuck out everywhere.

If we tried to get across that, we'd end up getting stuck and the Grom would catch up!

"Shit! To the left! The left!" I yelled and dashed past Dancer, we had to get around that!

I was cut off once more when I heard a snarl, and my body reacted faster then I could have done on my own. I shoved Sakura to the left, causing her to cry out as something shot out of the bushes and charged at me.

My eyes locked onto a pony, a stallion, maybe in his mid-twenties at most. His clothing was torn top to bottom, copious amounts of blood covered his body, and he hissed at me. I stumbled back as my hands gripped my kama, I panicked and almost froze up.

But Sakura's scream broke me out of it, "Sir Dee!"

I broke out of my freeze and swung my kama into the thing, the blade slicing into its chest and past its shirt, the blade sunk into the flesh before getting hung somehow. I tried yanking on it as the creature screeched at me, swiping with clawed fingers and almost hitting my face.

I panicked once more and ended up kicking the pony away, losing my kama in the process before running to the left.

I cursed, there went one of my weapons, fuck! I pulled out my knife and ran after Sakura, "Run run run!" I yelled at her before looking back, seeing the pony get up and dart after Dancer who roundhouse kicked him away, she turned and followed us shortly after.

More trees crashed down and a roar sounded, the Grom gave chase once more after us, forcing my already aching legs to cry out in pain.

More hisses and growls filled the forest around us, growls and snarls rising up from the bushes as Dancer made it to my side. I suddenly had flashbacks to old zombie flash games I played back when I was younger.

Bodies rose up out of the thick brush surrounding us. Sakura screamed and backpedaled from a body that rose up, covered in deep gashes that oozed brackish goo and growling. Other bodies were the same, resembling the undead in every sense of the word.

A tiny part of me screamed in terror... the terrified child within me tried to take control, but I beat him back and pushed on.

"We gotta get out of here! RUN!" I kicked away an undead that had charged at me with a howl, where my foot connected with its gut and sent it stumbling back.

Just as I started running, something grabbed onto my other kama and ripped it from my hands. I saw a pony, a little filly with no legs on the ground and trying to get at me. She had grabbed my kama instead, leaving me with only my knife. I would have gone for it, but the monsters were closing in and the Grom wasn't stopping!

Shit! Shit! Shit! I ran after Sakura and Dancer, my heart pounding in my chest and my mind sending me lovely thoughts. You're gonna die horribly! You're gonna die a horrible death! AAAAAH! I did my best to ignore the voice and continued running.

Shit, this was supposed to be a simple trip to the next town! Not us running for our lives against some fucking zombies, where did they even come from!? Dancer said this forest just had some faeries and shit in it, not undead and a giant mutant Rhino knockoff! Gah, this day has to be a Monday or something.

We kept running as far and as fast as we could. The trees grew thicker and thicker, and the undead began appearing on the right side, forcing us to veer left if we didn't want to end up getting grabbed or worse... bitten.

These things were terrifying to me, the gashes and cuts across their bodies disturbing with their ethereal blue glow, this wasn't some natural shit.

They were missing chunks of their faces, arms, legs, some weren't even able to walk, they just resorted to crawling! Stallions, mares, fillies and colts of all ages just lumbering after us!

Truly, a nightmare come true.

I didn't know what was going on and that scared me. What were these things? Were they undead? They certainly acted like it, and... smelled like it. The way they moved, the way they growled and snarled in their desperate chase after us, they had to be, that or they're all possessed by something.

"Rah! Hah!" One of them growled from my left, grabbing onto my arm with a snarl. It tried to pull me off the path I was blazing, its teeth snapping at me, blue eyes glowing with hungry malice.

I reacted appropriately, I think.

"AHHH FUCK!" I screamed, punching it straight in the face. A fierce sting of pain rushed through my fist from that, but I punched it again, getting another growl before bringing my knife around and sinking my knife into the temple. It gurgled, blood gushing from its mouth before falling, my knife slipping out as I turned and ran. Shit! I adjusted my hat as I heard a skree above, Snowdew must have taken flight while I was too busy being terrified for my life.

Good girl!

We rushed, running and running, panic no doubt filling all of us. Though I had a feeling Blade Dancer was perfectly fine, she had the body of one who's been on long journeys before, chances are she'd be able to outrun us no problem.

Sakura would collapse first, I was somewhat more built and had slightly better stamina, so I'd be the last to fall while Dancer sprinted off into the distance.

And just as I thought that I heard a body thump, and spotted Sakura sprawled out on the ground.

"Ahhh shit!" I rushed over to her and yanked her away from a few hands that sprouted out of the bush, grabbing at her legs and trying to pull her in. I just ripped her free, hefted her onto my back and did my best to run with Dancer, to hopefully get out of these woods and find some place to hide.

It wasn't looking good, however.

Further and further we ran, the monsters all around us trying to get closer as the Grom tore through trees and the other infected to tear a path straight to us, sending debris flying.

"This way!" Dancer cried suddenly, punching one of the taller ponies out of the way and leading us further left.

Damn it! Why left?! We should have headed right, not further into the forest! But I followed her regardless, if only because she may have known about a decent escape from these damned zombie pony things. Hell, being out in the open might end up being a death sentence for us, especially since that Grom is still on our ass.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck!

Our path eventually led to what looked like a wide and deep chasm, just a giant split in the middle of the ground. And wouldn't you know it?

Fucking rope bridge.

Dancer spun around once we reached the bridge, her blade conjured up as I eyed the old rickety thing with a very angry frown. We were supposed to cross this shit?!

"Sakura, can you move?" I slid her off my back and onto the ground, and she was able to wobbly stand beside me. She glanced behind us into the forest and gave me a shaky nod, "Look, you're the lightest so you cross first, got it?"

"B-but what about you?" A look of fear filled her eyes.

"Look, I'll cross after you do, now move it!" I whirled around and held my knife as Sakura crossed behind me. I gave a look to Dancer, who eyed one of the shambling freaks. "You ever seen anything like this before?" She was an adventurer, though there was a possibility she may have seen something like this in her travels... maybe?

Dancer twirled her sword about and glared at the dozens of glowing blue eyes peering through the trees at us. "I believe them to be rotten."

"...Rotten?" Wait what? "I uh... yeah, they're rotten, they certainly smell rotten." I had to admit, they had the distinct air of... dead around them, like zombies.

"No, I do not mean rotten in that sense, I mean they are The Rotten," She emphasized the words for me as one of the aforementioned 'Rotten' stumbled up, and she rushed over with her sword, swinging it in diagonally and cutting into the creature, her blade slashing through its skull before she gave it a swift kick into the chest. "They are a deadly creature, infected with a sickness that turns them into monsters like these."

After a moment, I sheathed my knife and pulled out my bow. I gave the strings a test pull, hearing a nice sproing noise before nocking an arrow in it and aiming forward into the forest.

"Do you know how to use a longbow?" Dancer asked as more of those things lumbered towards us.

I thought of the times playing video games with archery in them. "Eh, more or less." It was all I had, because I sure as hell wasn't gonna go toe to toe with these things with my knife.

I like keeping my enemies as far away from me as possible.

But if it comes down to it... I could feel my arms beginning to ache from holding the nocked arrow, waiting for one of them to come into view.

"I'm across! Hurry!" Sakura cried from behind me, and I backed up a tiny bit.

One of the monsters stumbled into my life of sight. A stallion wearing a ripped blood red robe and clutching an iron hand axe dripping with crimson. He croaked and stumbled for me, arms outstretched.

I aimed my arrow and finger, moving back a few more steps before letting it loose with a sharp twang noise. My arm shook from the force of the arrow flying forward and I could barely make out the sound of it cutting through the air.

Thump

It impacted the stallion's neck, slicing through the soft flesh and exiting out through the back, lodging itself and sticking out of both ends and causing him to stumble and gurgle up brackish ooze.

I grimaced, least my aim isn't completely horrible.

"Dee! Come!" I heard Dancer cry out next.

I glanced behind me across the bridge and I saw Dancer had already crossed.

That was my cue to gtfo!

I dashed for the bridge as more of the Rotten cam stumbling out of the woods, their ghastly moans filling my ears along with the stampeding Grom.

My feet hit the first board of the bridge, causing it to creak and give slightly causing me to dip down lower than I would have liked. But I kept moving across, almost sprinting in my haste to get across.

Ashamed as I am to admit it... my fear of getting killed and eaten alive had taken control of me, and that cause me to panic.

CREAK

And that panic clouded my mind.

CREAK-SNAP

And it caused me to fuck up... bad.

SNAP SNAP SNAP

"Sir Dee!" Sakura's cry reached me just as the ropes snapped.

I lost my footing and fell down onto the boards. The bridge fell along with me, and all I could do was hold on for dear life.

"Holy fuck!" I screamed, the panicked noises of Dancer and Sakura above me.

I impacted the side of the rocky crevice—shock waves of pain rushed through me causing me to lose my grip. I scrambled against the wood, the rocks, trying to find a hand or foothold, but gravity had other plans for me.

"No no no no no no, shit!" I slid down the rope bridge, trying desperately to grab onto something, anything to keep me from falling down, but it was pointless.

I felt weightless as I fell down, my head snapping up to catch the sight of Dancer jumping down after me, but she ended up getting tackled by a few of those damned rotters, forcing her back up to fight them off. Sakura screamed as I plummeted into the dark abyss out of sight.

Was this seriously it? I die from a damn rope bridge collapsing under my weight, because of my own panic?

I grimaced, my entire body felt incredibly cold all of a sudden.

This was seriously it fo-

Thump

Comments

[AvidSeason]

Glad you updated man. It's been awhile, but that cliffhanger though. Literally *ba-dum tish*

[Salty Milk]

that's it boys, stories over - pack up.

[rikusorasephiroth]

Why zombies?
Why ruin a good thing with zombies?
Zombies are one of the laziest means of adding tension, especially when it was already a difficult situation to begin with.

[Dustchu]

9298252
Yee, I'm gonna try updating more, no promises though.

9298500
Yep, that's it, no more, pack up friends! That was the whole story

9298647
Grew up obsessed with zombies, wrote about zombies in my early fanfiction days, kinda hard to not include them somehow If it makes you feel any better, this isn't going to last much longer.

[Bronycommander]

GAME OVER

Not yet! Its Not over yet!

[Tontonco]

Oh well fuck thats one way to end it

[Derpy_DragonV1]

Ight the main character has died let's move on boys.

[Dustchu]

9522117
Well, this guy gets it.

*Changes story to Complete*

[Derpy_DragonV1]

9522786
Lmao. Just the reaction I was hoping for.

[Starlight Nova]

Why was this cancelled?

[Dustchu]

9849768
*Hiatus

it's on a Hiatus :P