//------------------------------//
// 183 - Dark, Still, and Silent 
// Story: Lateral Movement 
// by Alzrius 
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“We have to keep moving!” yelled Turbo as he ducked under another wild blow from the ghoul in front of him, stabbing upward with the knife in his hooves. The blade sank into the creature’s chest, but its only response was to leer at him – running its tongue over its decayed lips in a gesture of hunger – before it lunged forward, trying to sink its teeth into his neck.

Its reward for its effort was to have its head bashed in by Sandbar, the monster unable to utter so much as a grunt as the heavy base of the stanchion he’d grabbed upstairs caved its skull in. “We are NOT leaving the captain behind!” he panted, glaring at Turbo. 

“I didn’t say we should leave her behind,” shot back the other stallion. “I said we need to keep moving! Just drag her along until she recovers!”

“I’ve got her!” Drafty’s words were strained as she picked up C. Shell’s rigid body. “Let’s go!”

“We should be getting close to the vault,” panted Cloudbank, managing to speak clearly despite her teeth gripping Severance’s handle tightly. “Once we’re there, we’ll have a chance to regroup.” Or at least, I hope we will.

They’d been beset by ghouls almost from the moment they’d entered the bank. They had pushed their way past the sagging front doors and into the dimly-lit interior of the place only for nearly a half-dozen ghouls to rush them as soon as they’d moved away from the entrance. Heedless of the light spilling in from the nearby windows, the undead ponies had poured out from around corners and behind the teller counter, shrieking and gibbering as they’d charged them. Fortunately the living ponies had been prepared, staying in a tight formation and fighting defensively as they’d fought off the sudden onslaught, but the ensuing melee had still been horribly chaotic. Both Drafty and Sandbar had lost their weapons in the initial rush, the latter grabbing a nearby stanchion and wielding it like a club to make up for the loss. Drafty had simply made do with a nearby chair, awkwardly using it as a shield to keep the ghouls away from her.

The fight had lasted less than a minute, but it had driven home how perilous their mission was. Several of them had sustained minor injuries, and Sandbar had been briefly paralyzed at one point. Fortunately Cloudbank had been able to cover him until he’d shaken it off…though she knew that the real credit went to Severance. The weapon was the major reason they’d come through so well; although Cloudbank wasn’t able to wield it well enough to score a hit with every stroke, the two that had connected had killed an undead pony each time.

Despite that, Cloudbank hadn’t been able to bring herself to think of the fight as a victory. Even though three of the ghouls had been destroyed, the other two had retreated deeper into the bank, no doubt to find a place to prepare for another ambush. Worse, they’d all heard the distant sounds of scrabbling and hurried clopping that indicated even more ghouls waiting for them. But that hadn’t been what had bothered her the most. They seem different, she’d thought to herself as they’d hurried toward the entrance to the basement. More feral, almost like they’re desperate. These ghouls hadn’t bothered to taunt them with wicked rhymes or dark promises about what they’d do to them. Instead, they’d simply hissed and snarled at them, using words only to spew curses and snatches of phrases at them in the midst of battle. Even their appearance had seemed different to her, with their skin stretched taut and their stomachs being recessed to an unnatural degree. It’s as if they’re starving.

By the time they’d managed to find the entrance to the basement, they’d been attacked twice more. These had been different from the initial massive push, however. Each time had seen a ghoul leap out from a place of concealment – out of a nearby office the first time and from behind a small kitchenette the second – and, screeching hideously, had lashed out at them, trying to land only a hit or two before falling back. The first time had cost Cloudbank a blow to the face but hadn’t paralyzed her. The second one had occurred only moments ago and had left C. Shells stiff as a board. The ghoul had immediately tried to grab her by the mane and pull her away, and probably would have succeeded if Turbo and Sandbar hadn’t intervened when they did. 

All that, and they hadn’t even made it to the basement yet.

“That’s it,” pointed Drafty. “The green door, just like Piggy said. That should take us down to the basement, and the vault should be dead ahead.”

“You just had to phrase it that way, didn’t you?” quipped Sandbar dryly.

“Go shiver a timber, pirate,” she shot back, though the corners of her lips turned up slightly as she said it.

But Turbo was in no mood for their banter, holding his knife at the ready as they approached the door. “There’s going to be more down there,” he warned them. “Someplace that’s dark and cramped is perfect for them.”

Anything else he was going to say was cut off as C. Shells gave a grunt, climbing to her hooves as her paralysis wore off. “That was awful,” she groaned as she stood up. The feeling of being trapped in her own body, aware but completely helpless, had been horrifying.

“Can you still fight?” asked Cloudbank, keeping Severance in a ready position. She’d asked the weapon a moment ago to keep her apprised if it was aware of any movement around them, but while Severance had been amenable to doing so it had let it slip that it couldn’t see through walls, meaning that in the tight confines of the bank’s hallways it was just as blind as they were.

“I could, if I had a weapon.” C. Shell’s voice was frustrated as she glanced around, trying to find anything that she could use in the next attack.

“Here.” Turbo’s flung a wing out towards her, tossing a knife lightly in her direction. When she caught it, he did the same thing for Drafty. “One for you, too.”

Fumbling for hers, Drafty gave him a questioning look. “You picked these up after we dropped them?” She hadn’t seen him do that.

But Turbo shook his head. “I just made sure to take a couple extras from the banquet tables. You can’t afford to be caught empty-hooved in Vanhoover. Just be careful. Those are my last two.”

Both mares nodded their thanks to him, readying their weapons as Cloudbank moved to the door. “Okay, on three…” She glanced around to make sure everypony was ready, then turned her attention to the door. 

“One.” She lifted Severance high, ready to slash anything that came out from the door.

“Two.” Drafty and Turbo got on either side of the door, knives at the ready, as C. Shells and Sandbar covered their backs, watching for any ghouls trying to come up from behind.

“Three!” She kicked the door, which immediately swung open. When nothing leapt out at her, she moved toward the lightless entrance-

-and immediately fell back, covering her nose as a fetid stench filled her nostrils. “Ugh! What is that?” she gagged, her eyes watering.

Drafty glanced in the doorway, but immediately yanked her head back as she inhaled the awful scent. “I dunno,” she croaked, her face screwed up in disgust. “I can’t see anything down there.”

“Do we have a light?” asked C. Shells, wrinkling her nose. “Preferably something we can toss down there to see what that is?”

“I saw some oil lamps a few rooms back,” ventured Turbo, “but I have no idea if they’re full or not, and we’d need some way to light them.”

“We’re not going back.” Cloudbank had stepped back from the door in order to get some fresh air, but now moved toward it again, her face determined as her weapon whispered a solution into her mind. “Severance can light the way.”

Sure enough, as she stepped through the doorway, the blade began to glow with a soft fluorescent light. The light didn’t shine as brightly as Cloudbank would have liked, but it managed to push back the darkness enough to show her a single flight of wooden steps leading down, ending at… “What the heck?”

Turbo moved after her. “What’s…? Oh.”

At the bottom of the stairs, the floor couldn’t be seen, hidden under a layer of scummy water that looked pitch black under Severance’s dull light. As still as glass, it stretched from the one corner of the room that was illuminated off into darkness, with no easy way to tell how deep it was. The odor of stagnation was overpowering, and Cloudbank tried to take shallow breaths as she surveyed the scene. This is not good at all, she knew.

“Everything okay?” called Drafty.

“The place is partially submerged,” replied Cloudbank. Despite wanting quite badly to turn and leave – only partially because of the smell – she made herself start down the steps. “It must have been like this ever since the beginning of the flood.”

From behind her, Cloudbank could hear the others starting to follow her. “Oh wow,” muttered C. Shells. “This place needs to be bilged really badly.”

“At least we’ll hear any ghouls splashing around before they get to us,” pointed out Sandbar, trying to be optimistic.

Cloudbank stood on the lowest step that was still above the water level. “Not necessarily,” she replied, her voice ominous. “Undead ponies don’t need to breathe, so they could swim through and attack us without ever breaching the surface if this is deep enough.” There’d be some ripples if the ghouls did that, she knew, but those would be almost impossible to see due to their own traipsing through the water.

“It’s worse than that.” Turbo let out a slow breath as he considered the scene in front of him. “Imagine being paralyzed and then knocked off your hooves while you’re down here. Even if their paralysis doesn’t last very long, you can bet they’ll try and pounce on you to make sure you don’t get up before they use it again.”

“Okay, I’m going to nominate this place as having officially become too dangerous,” interjected Sandbar. “I say we fall back and try a different bank. There’s got to be others that aren’t this bad off.”

C. Shells nodded. “I agree. In this sort of environment, hauling out bags of bits while also having to fight for our lives is going to be impossible. We should try somewhere else.”

“No.” Cloudbank shook her head, dipping the end of Severance’s blade into the water, causing light ripples to radiate out as she felt its tip strike the floor. “Everypony back at the camp is counting on us, and we’ve already come this far. Besides, it’s not very deep, see?” She withdrew Severance and showed them how far the water came up on the curved blade. “A little over a foot. We can handle that.”

“I don’t know, Cloudy.” A worried frown creased Drafty’s features. “We know there’s still more ghouls upstairs. If they corner us down h-”

“All the more reason to hurry up.” Cloudbank strode forward as she spoke, splashing as she entered the knee-deep water. This is how the earth ponies will have to go through it, so I need to do the same. “C’mon. The sooner we reach the vault the sooner we can get out of here.” Wanting to look fearless, she strode forward, knowing that’s what Lex would have done if he were there. The other four shared doubtful looks, but slowly fell in behind Cloudbank, weapons ready and trying not to breathe in too much as they headed towards their goal. 

Behind them, the door at the top of the stairs slowly swung shut…