Out of the Slums

by A Crisp 20 Dollar Bill


Chapter 2: A Way

The headquarters lobby was very small, with an ugly shade yellow coating the walls; said walls were covered in stains that Kamili didn’t know, nor wanted to know, where they came from. There were no windows and the only source of light was coming from the stairs on the left and the single light bulb that hung from the low ceiling above. The room was slightly foggy and smelled of freshly-smoked clover. Adding to that was the lack of air conditioning or heating in the room, which made Kamili decide to leave his layers on. There was an open refrigerator in the right corner of the room, filled with frozen pizzas and a lot of chocolate ice cream.

In the center of the room was a table surrounded by three chairs; two of them were occupied at the moment. The first, on the left, was a large zebra, called Z, about twice as big as Kamili’s brother. He had been sitting with his forelegs flat on the table and listening to the other occupant as the brothers arrived. He was considered the muscle of the group, mostly paid for by his intimidation factor. Whenever a deal had ever started to go sour, Z always gave a glare that put the client into the right way of thinking, mainly the thought of “just buy the damn drugs”.

The second, in the center, was an earth pony, Maverick, the only pony that he knew of that Kofi associated with on any terms other than buyers. He was sitting back with his hind legs on the table, crossed. He was an average build for a stallion, with a light cyan coat and golden hair, green eyes, and a cutie mark: a wide smile with glistening white teeth. When Kamili first met him, he had thought his special talent was being friendly. However, as they worked together, he figured out its true meaning: persuasion and deception. The pony worked as the group’s “advertiser”, so to speak. He was the one that walked up to ponies and tried to convince them to take a visit down here, to buy something that could spice up their life. In the time that Kamili had known him, the stallion had been really successful at his work drawing in all kinds of buyers: rich ponies wanting a thrill, druggies needing a stronger hit.

“‘Sup, Kofi,” said the two, who had glanced up to see the brothers inside. Kofi tilted his muzzle up in greeting.

“You got the joke?” said Maverick in a smooth tone.

“Hell yeah, Mav,” Kofi said confidently, as he plopped down the duffel bag onto the table and unzipped it for everyone to see. Kamili and the door zebra walked over and stood around the table, looking at the pile of highly potent blue flowers that sat inside the bag.

Kofi looked up, grinning at everyone.  “Guess what? After the deal today, everyone is getting a big fuckin’ pound of three-leaf. On me!”

A small cheer went around the table, noticeably stopping at Kamili, who had begun staring at his brother, looking furious. Kofi’s gaze eventually turned to him, and he gave him a shit-eating grin.

The fucker, Kamili thought.  He knows exactly what he’s doing. He doesn’t care that he promised me at the house, he thinks he’ll just do whatever he damn well pleases.

Maverick glanced at him and shrugged, as if reading his thoughts.

Kofi looked away from Kamili and towards the whole group before him.

“Aight, we gotta set up, the boys gon’ be here in a bit, we don’t wanna keep em’ waiting, right?”

They nodded. Kofi zipped up the bag and tossed it to Kamili. He was instructed to take it upstairs and wait until Mav came up and told him to bring it down. Slowly nodding, Kamili moved towards the stairs to his left.

“We don’t wanna keep em’ waiting, yeah, sure, the only thing he doesn’t want to keep waiting is his next fuckin’ high…” Kamili muttered just out of earshot as he lightly dragged his hooves across the floor and took the first few steps up the staircase.

The upper floor he entered was a familiar sight to him; it was where he usually waited for when the drugs needed to be brought down. The room had two windows, both covered by thin black curtains, which his brother warned him to never open. To the right sat some unused synthesis equipment. It used to be used for minor experiments on the stash of poison joke; however, it hadn’t been used in moons, ever since Kofi struck it big on his specially modified strain of the drug. There were a few boxes shoved messily under the counter that the equipment laid on, filled with extra parts for experiments.

Kamili slowly walked into the small room towards a pile of neatly stacked books in its far left corner. The top book was open-faced and laid cover-up. He took the book by its spine and sank down against the wall, picking up where he’d left off. Although he knew there wasn’t much time for reading, he thought he could knock out at least one chapter.

This one was a story about a knight and his princess, sometime in Medieval Equestria. There was a castle, a dragon, and an overly dramatic and comedic villain, the semi-powerful Nightstar the Hairless. Although the setting was familiar to him, he was always intrigued by the characters and loved them so much that he always came back to read the book again and again. He had always thought that any story could be carried by its characters alone.

Stories had always had a way of pulling Kamili out of the struggles that defined his current lifestyle. He had once thought that stories could be the rope he could use to climb his way out of the hole he had been slowly digging himself into throughout the years, but those dreams had died years ago, along with his momma.

He put his book down and stared across the room. The room was silent apart from the chatter of his brother and the gang that came from downstairs. Once again, he pondered his situation.

“I really went and fucked the whole thing up, didn’t I?” Kamili muttered out loud. He shook his head and tapped his forehead with the tip of his hoof. He slid farther down the wall and laid on his back, his head propped up. “No, I fucked myself over for thinking I had a chance.” Sliding some more, he let his head rest on the floor and stared up at the ceiling.

Loud knocks on the door triggered Kamili’s ear to flick towards the stairs. The group on the ground floor quickly went silent. There were a few whispers that he couldn’t make out, and a few seconds later, the door opened. He could hear a faint greeting given by Kofi, “Well, look who’s here. We got the best of the best for y’all here, don’t w-”

Kofi’s sentence was abruptly cut short. Kamili’s eyes widened as he heard his brother being audibly choked, and a few seconds later, a slam. He shot up from his resting position and ran to the stairs. He heard the door slam shut.

Someone shouted from downstairs and Kamili froze. “Alright mothafuckas, we carryin’ some dangerous shit wit us, so don’t be pullin’ no shit”, the deep voice commanded. Stepping as silently as he could, Kamili snuck down the stairs enough to get a peek at what was going on.

Three zebras had entered the headquarters, two normal-sized ones standing on opposite sides of a more bulky zebra. One of the zebra held Kofi by the neck, holding a knife to his throat. It shone yellow in the light of the sole bulb hanging in the room. The other held a small, cylindrical object in his hoof. It was short, fat, and orange, with a wick protruding out of its top. A small orange piece seemed to connect the string and the object. Kamili recognized it instantly: an explosive magical projectile.

EMPs were highly illegal, with a spell matrix designed only for the intent of harming living beings. With the power of a powerful unicorn’s attack spell and none of the drawbacks of explosive forces on surroundings, they were scarily efficient, making it easy to perform a quick murder and clean up the scene within minutes.

The door zebra and Mav stood, eyes wide with fear, looking at Z, who seemed to have been thrown violently against the refrigerator. He lied unconscious, crumpled on the ground; the refrigerator was tilted at an angle against the wall. The bulky zebra walked slowly towards the two still standing. Suddenly, he turned and looked directly at Kofi.

“So”, he continued, “where’s our shit, dog?”

Kofi gave a nervous smile. “W-w-what shit, homie?”, he stammered, gulping hard. His throat lightly scraped the edge of the knife.

“Our shit. Don’t tell me you don’t know what I’m talkin’ about, mothafucka. This shit’s like a family business, ain’t it?” At that, both Kofi and Kamili’s eyes widened. This ordeal went farther than he had ever expected.

“Woah, dude, dat shit ain’t got nothin’ to do with us. The mothafucka pulled shit way over his head!”, Kofi exclaimed, starting to struggle against the grip of his captor a little.

“Well, the mothafucka got some shit dat needs to be paid off. Yeah, he’s outta the picture, but you the one dat’s takin’ the responsibility now. And if y’all don’t, well, we got two problems we gotta take care of.” Kofi struggled a little harder.

Kamili snuck back upstairs and grabbed the bag of poison joke. He trotted down the stairs, making himself known to the three intruders. He threw it at the bulky zebra’s feet.

“Take it. It’s full of specially synthesized joke. Stop struggling, you dumbass.” He looked over to Kofi, whose face was in a mix of shock and horror. The bulky zebra glanced down at the bag and back up to Kamili. Kamili stood his ground with a stern face, staring.

“You think I want this shit?”

Kamili caught his breath and looked at the zebra in confusion. He eyes shot over to Kofi, who was starting to hyperventilate. He turned his head back to the zebra.

“The fuck? What’s going on?”

“Oh? Hasn’t dat little bitch-ass told you? Dat shit’s fucked up. Be fryin’ mothafuckas out of all they mothafuckin’  heads. They can’t think straight no more. So don’ try and trick me wit that shit, kid; I know his lil’ secret.”

Kamili stood in place, the anger inside slowly growing to its boiling point. When it finally poured over, he knew just who to direct all of it on. Turning to Kofi, breathing heavily, he verbally unleashed his rage.

“You… have got to be… fuckin’… kidding me. You think this is the best way to spend all your fuckin’ time, do you?! You go out and poison people’s minds and fuck with them and you’re all happy about it? Is this really what you are? Just selling some clover on the street is one thing, but… this…”

Kamili slowly sat down on his haunches. His rage had subsided, and now all he felt was fear. Fear for the people that bought their joke. Fear for his gang. But most of all, fear for…

“They don’ have what we want,” the bulky zebra said, turning to his goons. He motioned to the zebra on his right, who took the blade from Kofi’s neck and shoved him to the ground. While still looking at the defenseless group spread across the room, he tapped the left zebra’s shoulder.

“Let’s get outta here. We’ll clean up later.”

Both zebras nodded and the bulky zebra turned towards the door. Kamili tilted his head down and let out a small sigh of relief, but when he looked up again, his face morphed into one of horror. The zebra with the EMP had gripped the small piece on the fuse.

They’re gonna blow us up and leave us for dead!, Kamili realized. Fuck this!

Kamili shot up and ran straight at the goon. But it was too late. The goon had ripped the piece off, lighting the fuse, which began to glow a sickly yellow as it sparked alive. Kamili tackled the goon, grabbing the attention of the bulky zebra and his other goon. The bulky zebra looked on in surprise.

“The fuck you think you’re do-”

His sentence was cut shot with a yell. Kofi had ran, jumped on the back of the bulky zebra, and dug his teeth into the back of his neck. Mav and the door zebra had ran at the other goon and attacked him, immobilizing him.

The goon flipped Kamili over onto his back and started punching. Kamili’s vision went black for a few seconds from a punch straight to the head. Kamili regained his vision and shoved the goon as hard as he could, launching him and the EMP over near the others. Getting up quickly, he looked in fear at the explosive. The fuse had almost reached the blasting cap. He threw himself at the door and opened it, taking a step out.

By then, the bulky zebra had subdued Kofi, catching him by the neck and slamming him into the wall next to the door multiple times. He noticed Kamili trying to escape and grabbed him by the back of his coat. Kamili could feel the zebra’s breathing on the back of his neck. Blood started to obscure his vision.

“You ain’t gettin’ away from me, mothafucka.”

Suddenly, They were both blasted into the air. Kamili flew half the length of the alleyway before landing hard on his left shoulder. Looking back, all he saw was the open door and the bulky zebra laying near him within hoof’s reach. To his utter terror, the zebra stirred. In pain, he got up and ran with a slight limp to the light at the end of the alley. He took one more look behind him and saw the zebra’s yellow eyes glaring at him from the shade. He took a right and ran.

He ran, and he ran, and he ran. Away, and away, and away. There was all but one thought in his mind that mattered in those few seconds: he wanted to run. And that’s what he did. It was long before other questions popped into his head, about the lives of his brother and the gang, about his level of fucked, about the cold, about where, and how long. However, the most prominent problem was how he was going to outrun whoever would be trying to find him.

He promised himself one thing that afternoon, whether it was by those dealers or cops or whatever at all, he would not get caught.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hours later, the night-time had caught up with him. His wandering had taken him to a deserted sidestreet. He knew that he had left his assailants behind, but he couldn’t think of where to go now. Hell, he couldn’t even think straight at all. The cold throughout the evening had really started to mess with his body, especially without his coat. But what he did know was that he wouldn’t be walking for much longer. He staggered, taking only a few more steps before collapsing onto the pavement. He backed himself up against the wall of the building behind him, glancing to his left and right to spot any passers-by, but no one was there. The only noises he could hear were his own shallow breathing and a faint chorus of laughter in the distance.

The not-so-open wound on his left shoulder, as well as his head, were throbbing painfully. His legs and hooves hurt like hell from traveling all that way on foot, but it wasn’t like he had the money for the subway, or anyplace else to go to at all, now that he thought about it. His vision was getting fuzzy, and he felt drowsy. The cold of the night cut through the hair on his body, making him regret his decision of leaving his lighter inside his coat; all he had now was his blanket. It might be thin, but at least it’s better than nothing, right?, he thought, as he started nodding off slowly.

“M-maybe tomorrow I’ll f-f-find a sleeping b-bag in the dumpster or s-s-some shit, that would be f-funny, ...huh...” he said, succumbing more and more to the freezing temperatures that racked his body. The laughter in the distance grew louder, as if amused by his attempt at a joke in his dire situation. His hooves felt numb. “I sh-shoulda brought m-my f-f-fuckin’ lighter, heh heh…” he mused, closing his eyes.

He waited to hear the sound of laughter again in the distance, but it didn’t come. Instead, his commentary was greeted with the sound of multiple sets of hooves clopping against the sidewalk, accompanied by the worried tones of voices, which slowly grew louder and louder.

Opening his eyes slowly, what he saw standing there was no less than surprising. Surrounding him in a semicircle were the horrified faces of six pony mares. The colors of the mares, ranging from pure white to pink to a full rainbow, added to his already throbbing headache.

“Wh-who…?”

“Oh my goodness, are you ok?” said the pegasus mare on his very left in a very timid voice; she had a pale yellow coat with a light pink mane.

“Are you kidding me, Fluttershy? He looks pretty far from ok!” the rainbow-haired pegasus to her right exclaimed.

A white unicorn mare kneeled down in front of him. “Excuse me, sir, can you hear me?” she asked. He nodded slowly, slightly entranced by her radiance. She looked familiar. It seemed as though her coat shined through the darkness, and her eyes? He felt like he could stare into those blue eyes forever…

“He’s going to get hypothermia. For Celestia’s sake, he’s not even wearing anything warm but that blanket!” said the lavender pony to the unicorn’s left. She was also obviously a unicorn, but, it kind of looked like there were a pair of wings on her back as well… Must be my brain messing with me, He thought. There’s only four alicorns in Equestria, right?

“Rarity, how far do ya reckon yer boutique is from here?” said the orange earth-pony. “‘Cause Ah think we need to get this zebra fella there as soon as possible.”

“It’s about two or three blocks down that way, Applejack. And yes, we should hurry. I’d say he needs a cup of hot tea and a lot more layers of covering.”

By then, Kamili had almost run out of strength to stay awake. To the shock of the ponies around him, his eyelids drooped and he slumped over onto his side. They let out a simultaneous gasp.

“What are we waiting for?” shouted rainbow-mane. “Let’s go!”

He felt himself being heaved onto someone’s back, and then being covered by his blanket. He was laying belly-first, with his legs dangling off of the sides and his head facing the right. He had to hold on to his ride when the mares began to trot down the street. He opened his eyes, and saw the white unicorn walking to his side. He weakly raised a hoof and pointed it at her.

“Y-y-you’s a… a p-pretty l-lady.”

She turned her head slightly in his direction and smirked. He looked up to her and smiled back with the little strength he had left. To her right, the pink pony with the poofy hair giggle-snorted. “Hee hee! I like him, Rarity!”

He rested his head against his carrier’s side, and fell asleep.