ooo000---000ooo
The building we had ended up taking refuge inside of was in fact, a pawn-shop, so my hopes at finding some decent stuff to help us get out of the city had grown. The immediate interior was pretty dark, a single light on the ceiling cast a dim light down on the shelves and counter where the cash register sat. I saw bins of second hand clothes, shelves filled with little trinkets, and the counter itself was made of solid oak wood, more or less destroying my hopes of finding ammunition for my handgun.
Sure I had only fired three shots so far, but it’d help to have some extra ammo on hand.
Before I could attempt to find anything worthwhile in here, Rainbow stopped me.
“Okay,” She started, glaring up at me with a hard stare, “Look, buddy... you gotta explain what’s going on, right now.” Her tone brokered no argument either, so I couldn’t worm my way out of this one.
“Mmm,” I sniffled and looked around before I could focus on her again, “Where do I even begin...?” I honestly didn’t know where to start with this. The undead? The city? Who I am?
She narrowed it down for me, thankfully, “What are those things?”
Whew... alright. “Those things outside, they’re zombies,” I told her bluntly. There really were not that many words I could use to accurately describe them, and ‘zombie’ was pretty much a universal term and I knew Rainbow would know what it meant.
I was right. Her eyes widened a little, and while I knew I told her earlier, now that we were in a safer location, the truth of it all was no doubt going to crash down hard on us both. “Z-zombies...” She mouthed, slowly sitting down onto her rump, front legs in between her hind ones. She looked almost like a dog on her haunches, tail wrapped around her legs, prismatic wings nestled firmly against her sides. Her expression was one that told me she couldn’t believe what I was saying, and as if to reinforce that, “No way.”
“Better believe it,” I sighed and looked down at my handgun, I noticed my hand was shaking. “They’re honest to god zombies, living dead, undead, take your pick.” I glanced back up at her, curious to see what she was thinking.
She shook her head, an adamant expression of lol nope etched into her features. “That’s insane! Zombies don’t exist!”
“They do here,” I countered, frowning a little bit, “I don’t know about where you come from but... zombies exist here.” Which is a very sad truth. The undead should remain fictional, but... it’s kind of sad either way, when you think about it. It’s fictional to use, but real life to them, this is their reality, not mine.
Now it’s my reality.
“They’re one hundred percent undead monsters,” I said with no small amount of fear in my voice, why hide it? I was scared right now! I was trapped in a fucking city filled with undead monsters and was slowly falling apart minute after minute!
Rainbow stared at me for the longest time, and she looked up past me at the window, which I saw was heavily fogged over and stained, so seeing through it was difficult. I just moved over to the counter, peeking behind it and starting to root around, “What’s wrong with them... is it magic?”
“Nope, not any magic I know of,” I told her, scouring behind the counter for anything of use. Sadly I didn’t find much, just some discarded stuff, a leather-bound journal, papers detailing purchases, old receipts and some photos, basically junk. The register was closed as well, and I got curious. “It’s a virus, kind of like the flu,” I heard a noise stop halfway up her throat, but she said nothing, “It’s not airborne or anything, so we’re safe from contracting it and shit.” I went over to the register and looked over the buttons, humming.
“Where are we?” She questioned.
I smacked a few buttons on the register and caused it to pop open, booyah! Looking inside, I found...
Nothing.
I fucking retract my ‘booyah’ statement.
“Raccoon City,” I muttered sourly. Heh, even saying the name made me shiver, though I’m sure it was more out of fear than anything else.
“Raccoon... where the heck is that?” She walked over to me and reared up before placing her hooves on the counter, standing up and almost getting at eye level with me. “Is it south of the Badlands?”
“Uuhh... no.” I faced her completely, studying her for a moment.
Being this close to her gave me a good look at her facial features, her eyes weren’t as big as they were depicted in the show but were more relative to her head shape and size. Her entire head was... it didn’t look like a full on horse’s head, obviously, in the show their heads and faces were a lot different and this was no different. Her face was almost human in a sense but had the characteristics of an Equestrian pony, a short snout, shiny magenta colored eyes, her mane was well kept and silky looking.
Her body was similarly interesting. She had the body of an equine, but it more resembled the one from the show, and seeing how... weirdly realistic she looked, I was able to see how toned and athletic body was. She had a small amount of fluff covering her body; tiny little tufts on her shoulders, chest, and her ears. Her body was thin, aerodynamic, but strong with a tiny bit of curve to her belly leading up to the flanks.
Overall she had a very youthful and gorgeous appearance, making me wonder just how old she was.
I guess it was a little weird that I found myself attracted to her... hmm.
I shook my head and continued, trying not to get too side tracked by her looks, “Raccoon City isn’t exactly in your... world, methinks?” At her look, I clarified, “Uuuh, you know what earth is?”
Her pretty eyes blinked and she looked confused for a moment. “Uh... w-wait... earth?” She looked around, wings fluttering at her sides.
"Yeah, earth...?” I waved a hand around in a vague circle, "Planet, big blue marble, got a moon in the sky... ya know?"
"I..." She violently shook her head from side to side, eyes wide, "N-no! It should be Equis! Not E-Earth..."
Oh jeez. “Shit... well, I don’t think we’re on your world or whatever.” Man, this sucks for Dash... being stuck on a world like this? This had to be her first time as well, so this was a shitty way to start it off. “We’re somewhere in the Midwestern United States, on planet Earth... and if I had to add, in the year 1998.” Jeez, at this point in time I’d be around... three years old right now. I wonder if my alternate universe self is in Arkansas right now? I hummed as Rainbow’s eyes went wide.
“S-so... what, what are you saying...?” Rainbow’s face looked confused, her eyebrows were furrowed together. A flicker of something flashed in her eyes... fear?
“I’m saying, kid,” I put both hands on the counter, leaned down and said, “This isn’t Equestria, or anywhere near Equestria, sorry to say.” What else to say? Uhh... “We’re probably not on your world either, you know of any Raccoon City with my kind roaming around it?” She stared at me and seemed to be in thought, but after a few seconds she shook her head and I couldn't help but sigh. What could I even say to help make her feel better? Honestly... nothing. “We’re nowhere near your world, kid...”
I wish I didn’t have to break this kind of news to a person like Rainbow. For all her strength and courage, I have no doubts that if she did believe me...
Rainbow slid off of the counter, plopping down onto her rear and staring up past me like a lost puppy. Eyes wide, unfocused, her lips pulled back into a firm but small frown.
It was quiet, too quiet. Not a sound could be heard, no matter how hard I strained my hearing, I couldn’t hear a thing. It should have worried me to a great deal, but I didn’t listen to that part of my gut, which was automatically a bad thing.
She blinked again and finally mustered up the strength to use her voice; eyes narrowed and lips still in that little admittedly cute pout, she spoke, “So w-what... I’m trapped in some freaking zombie filled city?” The look she gave me was amusing, like she didn’t believe me. If I was in her position, I wouldn’t believe me either. “Monkey zombies?!”
My expression fell flat; an eyebrow shot up, “Really?”
“Isn’t that what you are?” She jumped back up onto the counter - actually jumping onto it with a loud clop and getting up past eye level with me, making me recoil a bit from how fast she moved. She looked me over, eyes sharp like an eagle’s as she sat down and then she...
Was she tugging on my ears?
“You even got the weird flat ears!” Rainbow’s hooves pushed my ears flat against the sides of my head, then tugged one of them outward, producing a light sting.
“Ow ow, hey!” I bapped her hoof away and rubbed my ear, wincing, “No touchie! And I’m not a monkey!”
She stuck out her tongue with a snicker, replying, “You sure do look like one,”
“I’m not a monkey, I’m a human,” I stressed to her, a wisp of a shadow whisked by the corner of my eye, but I didn’t pay it much attention to look over and see what it was. “Yeah, my kind look kinda similar, but we’re really not.” That made my mind go to certain fanfics where ponies would call humans monkeys, I guess I can sorta see the resemblance.
Rainbow just rolled her eyes, wings fluttering at her sides, “Whatever.” A kick of her hooves and she hopped back down, landing on the floor and huffing, “Great... how the heck do I get back to Equestria then?” She grumbled to herself, and I didn’t blame her.
I was in the same boat as she was! Both of us, souls from different worlds, who had normal lives, and now we’re trapped in this godforsaken hellhole called Raccoon City.
“This is just fantastic!” She whirled around, glaring at me, “I’m trapped here and I don’t even know how to get out of this place!”
“I mean... I’m kind of in the same boat as you are.” I couldn’t help but mention.
“How?” She snorted during her stare, “Isn’t there some way out of the city?”
That was a good question. “Uh... depends, I guess.”
“Depends? On what?” The mare waved her hoof in a vague direction, adding, “Just head towards the exit! Heck, we should both do that and get out of this freakshow!”
“Uh, I don’t think it’ll be that easy.” As much as I’d love to think it’d be easy to just pack up what we got and run for the city’s exits, there is no easy way out of this city. “All of the roads in and out of the city are probably blocked off to keep the virus from spreading out into the country.” I stared into her eyes, my hands propping myself up on the counter once I leaned forward. “You can fly out of the city no problem, obviously, but I can’t.”
Shame I can’t fly, I could just hop off the roof of this building and fly out, easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Rainbow scoffed, one eye narrowing, “So why’re we just standing here then? We should try and find a way out of this place!” Her look morphed from that slightly annoyed and scared look to a more determined one; eyes narrowed, lips firm and ears perked to attention, she looked ready and inspired a little bit of confidence in me.
“I’m not gonna argue with you, kid.” I snorted and pulled out my handgun, giving it a once over. I seriously needed to get some more ammo for this, the one magazine wasn’t going to last against a hundred-thousand plus monsters. “But if we’re gonna do that, we’re gonna need to move fast... those zombies we ran into? They’re just one kind of monster in this cit-”
CRASH
Our heads whipped over to the door near simultaneously, which had ended up getting knocked down by several rotting undead in torn clothing. Their moans filled the room, their graying eyes set upon the both of us.
“Fuck!” “Buck!”
We both yelped, backing up from the door.
“Shit shit shit, to the back!” I yelled to her and ran away from the front, praying that there was a back entrance to this damn pawn shop. If we ended up getting cornered...
Rainbow was close behind me, galloping across the hardwood floor as we weaved in and out of the shelves. The undead were super fucking slow, but that didn’t mean we were gonna slow down any. The sooner we lost them, the better!
My eyes scanned rapidly for any sort of way out, scanning the walls for the back exit. Most buildings had a fire exit, and if this one didn’t I am going to flipping rage!
“Ponyfeathers! How did we not hear them!?” Rainbow cried behind me, her hooves skidding along the floor whenever we made a sharp turn.
“No clue!” My eyes caught sight of a backdoor, the beautiful exit sign buzzing above. “There!” I sprinted towards it, closing in faster and faster.
I slammed into it shortly, grabbing onto the knob an-
Click click click
“Oh are you fuckin’ kidding me?!” I jiggled the knob, yanking and turning on it, pushing.
Rainbow’s panicked voice reached m years, and the moans were growing closer. “What? What is it?!”
I then growled out the words no one wants to hear in a hurry. “It’s locked!”
“What! Who locks a fire exit?!” Her terrified voice reached my ears.
“Fuck! Idiots in the nineties, that’s fuckin’ who!” I backed up and slammed into the door, but it barely budged, my weak frame doing fuck all against it. I whirled around, see the undead lumbering towards us before slamming into the door again, “It won’t budge!”
Shit, I was feeling no small amount of hysteria creeping up my spine and my mind was kicking into high gear. RUN! RUN AWAY! The fearful part of me screamed.
We were cornered like rats!
My gun held tight in my hand, I whirled around and aimed at the undead making their way towards us. I moved past Rainbow, and fired another round into the head of the closest one. Chunks of meat and blood went flying and Rainbow yelped. I thought I heard her yell something, but my ears were ringing; I had never fired a gun in a building with no ear protection, so I was paying the price.
Another target lined up, another pull of the trigger-
BANG
-he went down.
BANG
My head turned so fast I swore I heard a pop, behind me I heard the loud bang and I saw Rainbow reared up on her front hooves. Her back legs were coiled up so tightly, I could make out the muscles in her legs before they shot out like a blur and impacting the door so hard, I saw her hoofprints on the wood and heard something break off on the other side.
A hand grabbed onto me, forcing me back around just in time to witness an undead trying to rip into my face. “Shit! Ahh!” I threw a left punch, but that just made it growl at me.
I was forced back, losing my footing and almost my gun in the tussle. He was stronger than I thought he’d be, hands wrapped firmly onto my shoulders like iron, jagged finger nails digging into my jacket. I moved back and moved with me, and it took nearly everything I had to keep his snapping drooling jaws from latching onto bare skin.
BANG
CRASH-SLAM
“It’s open!” I heard Rainbow scream, but I was backed up against the wall, and saw the other rotted faces closing in on me like missiles.
My head turned towards her and something inside me screamed out, “Go! Get out of here!” The undead pushed harder, and his face grew closer.
Rainbow...
She didn’t run.
She sprang into action; kicking off the floor like a springboard and diving towards the two of us, the mare landed on the floor and spun around rapidly. Her hind legs pulled back, tail swishing through the air like a brushstroke of prismatic colors, and her hind hooves shot out like cannonballs.
The undead was ripped from my body as her legs connected with the monster, one hitting the knee and the other the hip, a sharp and loud crack resonated throughout the enclosed space. The zombie groaned as he was sent flying into a shelf, crashing into the hard wood.
i felt teeth on my neck collar a brief moment of panic, but it was Rainbow yanking me forward towards the door.
“’et’s go!” She growled out, pulling me forward until we were both outside in the darkened alleyway behind the store.
“Shit, alright!” She let me go, and with her flying down the alley and me behind her, we left the pawn shop behind and ran away, undead in hot pursuit of us.
Thankfully for us...
We were too fast for them.
ooo000---000ooo
Soon enough, the pawn shop was a distant memory in the back of our minds. We had escaped the alleyway and found ourselves on Battery Street with a clear path east and west. The sun was just beginning to rise as well, signalling either...
Fuck, I forgot!
I had no idea when this entire fucking thing was taking place, it could be the very beginning of the infection or maybe the ass end of it before the bombs dropped and the city was wiped off the face of the earth at sunrise!
Sweat poured down from my forehead and the air grew hot for me. Rainbow didn’t seem phased as we huddled down next to a Raccoon City News Van to catch our breath and try to figure out where to go from here.
“Y-you okay?” Rainbow saw fit to ask me.
Truthfully? I had no idea. I was almost bitten by that damn thing, so the thought of losing my life to a fucking bite of all things didn’t sit well with me. “Physically? Oh sure. Emotionally? Not so hot.” I admitted with a tiny squeak at the end, my hands shaking and causing my gun to rattle. Two more shots fired for a total of five out of fifteen. Those numbers worried me greatly.
Rainbow’s hoof patted me on the arm and I found myself looking at her. Her body was trembling ever so slightly, her breathing was shaky, beads of sweat trailing down otherwise unsullied cyan fur. “Y-... you killed them... didn’t you?”
I was shaking as well in my crouched state, and it didn’t exactly do my back any justice. I got into a sitting position, leaning back against the van after taking a look around, if only to alleviate my back-pain “...Yeah, I did.” That was something that shouldn’t have unsettled me, but it did. Monsters, not people. Monsters, no people. I told myself over and over again, but the feeling in my gut continued.
Her eyes were so full of fear, but she was doing her damnedest to keep it buried under that bravado she built up. She swallowed hard, and I knew she had to have been incredibly uncomfortable right now. “C-couldn’t you have just... I don’t know...” She looked down at the ground, unsure of how to word what she had going on in her mind.
Was she seriously going the route I think she was? I mean, it’s perfectly understandable, I guess. There isn’t exactly death in her world, not explicitly mentioned. I certainly can’t remember.
“They were people... weren’t they?” She glanced up at me again, a frown marring her features.
“They were once... but no anymore,” I told her carefully, “The virus destroyed all that made them human, they’re nothing but stone cold monsters now, intent on eating us both alive.” Her shakes got a bit worse, “I know this has got to be scary b-”
“I’m not scared!” She barked and stood up sharply, ears perked up and facing forward.
I recoiled back a little from it when her wings fanned outward, showing me those pretty rainbow hued feathers of hers. I held up my free hand, the other holding the sweaty grip of my handgun. “R-regardless, we can’t hesitate to fight those things if it comes down to i-it.”
She made a face and folded her wings back up, nestling them at her sides and sitting back down on her haunches. The mare turned and looked down an alleyway, her eyes narrowed and face scrunched up. I could only wonder what was whirling around behind those eyes of hers.
We need to find a way out of this city, but where do we go? Was my main question.
There were only three ways out in the Outbreak games I played; through the college from the firefighter helicopter, by the Raccoon City highway through the mountain side, and the Chinook helicopter at main street.
The helicopters were probably going to be a no go for the both of us. I didn’t trust the Umbrella mercenary who was flying the chopper, and I doubt the firefighters would let Rainbow on their chopper. Maybe she could fly out and we’d meet back up, but where could I tell her to go? I didn’t know of any locations outside that we’d both remember to meet up at.
As for the highway...
That might be our best bet, it was abandoned save for perhaps a few dozen stray undead and some vehicles. We could appropriate one, and drive out and away from this hellhole before the bombs dropped and Raccoon was burned away in atomic fire.
If not any of those? Then I honestly had no clue how the hell we were gonna get out of here.
Rainbow finally spoke up after my thoughts were finished, asking, “Where’re gonna go?” She turned to me, eyes zeroing in on my own. “Like... what’s our gameplan?”
I found it very hard not to stare into them.
A lick of my lips and I gathered my thoughts. Thankfully for both of us I felt calmed down enough to keep myself from flipping my shit and think properly. “Raccoon City’s a big place, but if I recall... there’s a highway that leads out of the city we could use, several, actually.” I shakily stood up and looked around, sadly I didn’t see any sign of it nearby. “But I’m not sure where exactly to go from here to get to it. If we can find one of them, we can get out of the city, and hopefully to safety,”
A nod of her head, sending rainbow bangs flipping about and Rainbow stood up with me. “Alright, so... what’s it look like? Maybe I can fly up and find it?”
That... that was a good plan, actually, huh.
“Uh, hmm... how best to describe it,” I pictured the highway in my mind, standing high, built out of concrete, “Imagine a sort of really big bridge made out of stone, might have some metal fences on it and a buncha these-” I hit my fist against the News Van, “-things on it.”
“Stone bridge, got it!” She flared out her wings, once again taking my breath away and blasting up off the ground.
I was forced back by the gust of wind she kicked up, but I was able to watch her fly up into the sky, leaving behind an after-image of herself in the wake.
She flapped her wings and hovered really high above me, maybe seven to eight stories high in the air if I had to guess. I had to strain my neck to see her as the blood red color of the sun washed over the city, bathing it in a sickly red hue. The sun’s rising in the east, alrighty. A shake of my head and I kept a look out.
Just cause the area looked abandoned didn’t necessarily mean that it was.
I was paranoid enough as it is.
The roads everywhere were littered in garbage, cars sat abandoned on the streets, and the blood...
“Hey! I think I see it!” Rainbow’s cry from above sounded.
I looked up, and saw her pointing south. Okay, south of here, that didn’t seem so bad. “Okay! Good job!” I gave her a thumbs up, shooting her a grin.
“Yep! I’m awesome~” She struck a pose in mid-air, and I had to fight back the laugh.
Silly sill-
I blinked and squinted up at Dash.
Despite my eyes being absolute gobshite, I saw something appear on Rainbow’s chest...
Was that a red dot?
Years of playing first person shooters came flooding back, the laser sights, the guns, the bullets!
My eyes shot open wide and I screamed out, “RAINBOW, MOVE!”
She looked down at me.
BOOM
But it was too late...