//------------------------------//
// 20 - On Her Own 
// Story: Without You 
// by Dustchu 
//------------------------------//




ooo000---000ooo




God, everything hurt.

Once inside of the college, George and the others began to look around for any stray items that may have been left behind by the previous occupants. It seemed no matter where any of us went, there was something laying about somewhere that could help us out somehow. The inside of the main entrance hall was abandoned as I had expected, not a soul in sight save for our group. Not a single sound to be heard except for our echoing footsteps, hushed whispers, and the wing flaps of Rainbow Dash.

I kept my shotgun close as I looked around, this was it... the 'final level' before shit got real. I knew this place intimately, top to bottom, the story, history, and the final boss we were no doubt going to face at some point. I could all but feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, I felt a wave of anxiousness wash over me, and my fingers gripped the shotgun tightly.

"You okay, Dee?" Rainbow had flown next to me, hovering at eye level while we moved onward.

"No."

I was doing better physically and mentally, because my head was in a better place. The anti-virus capsule George had given me was helping cope with the virus that was fucking me up so badly, slowing down its progress for a time before it rampaged through my system once again to turn me into a monster. Even now, I felt so strange; my body burned in places I didn't know existed and my limbs ached, I felt sticky and disgusting.

"Peter should be around here somewhere, I'm not sure where we were supposed to meet up." George muttered and cupped his chin, before glancing around the interior with a careful gaze. "Hmm."

As they roamed around, I did what I could to keep my mind focused on finding the damn cure to this stupid virus coursing through my body. I knew where to get everything for it, but it was a matter of not getting killed while retrieving them.

"Dash, come on." I started for one of the side doors off to the side. I had the map of the area in my head, everything was slowly coming back to me now that I could focus more. It was foggy, but the hallways, the doors, everything took shape inside my mind like a 3d image, helping me see where I knew we needed to go.

"Huh? Where're we going?" Dash caught up to me in a trot, her long legs easily keeping up with me.

"To find the things we need for the cure." I explained as I approached the door. I tried the knob and found it give, and I pushed open the door and into one of the many hallways inside of the building. I gave it a quick check for any undead, and upon finding it empty I would move start moving again. "Daylight isn't gonna be in a vial waiting for us somewhere, gift wrapped and ready. As much as I'd fucking love that. We're gonna have to make the damn thing." I think we still need to gather the ingredients for the vaccine, I don't know what all's changed since we've been here. So much is different already, for all I know the stuff we need isn't here, or it's already been made... who knows.

"Is it hard to get them?" Still trotting next to me, she followed me outside into the hall and kept her ears alert. God she was useful to have around, those big ears of hers would no doubt catch anything trying to sneak up on us. "I don't really much about uh... this geeky stuff."

"Two of the three components should be easy to get our hands on... er- my hands, your hooves... whatever." I shook my head and continued down the hallway. "We need to find V-Poison, T-Blood, and P-Base, V and P should be easy to find, though the V-Poison will be hard to get cause it's far underground."

"Underground? Like in a cave?" Rainbow perked up.

"It's an underground laboratory the university used to store and research some things, maybe Umbrella used it too, I'm not sure." I explained as we continued until we looped around another passageway, where I saw dangling cables sparking above pools of water. How convenient of the building to have something so dangerous hanging from above. "It's kept in an underground wasp hive, we need to get some of it to make the vaccine with."

"Wasps? No big deal, we might get stung bu-" Rainbow started to say and as much as i would have liked to agree, I shattered her hopes.

"Did I mention that they're mutated so they're about as big as you are and they can probably kill both of us with a few stings?"

I looked down and saw her face scrunch up. I let out a small chuckle and continued forward as my bite wound started to ache again, either the anti-virus wore off or something else, I wasn't sure.

"T-that's not something to laugh at!"

"Dash, I'm just so done right now." I told her as we approached a door. I kept my shotgun up and moved closer to it and steadied my breathing, I had to be ready for anything. "At this point I don't even care what happens, I just want this over with so I can finally rest."

We continued through the door and into another abandoned hallway that led down to the exit, which in turn led out into the university's yard near the pier, where there had to be boats. Shame none of them were in any usable shape, I'd steal one and we could sail out of this damn place. I don't know how to sail but I'm pretty sure I could figure it out.

Did any of the rivers even go out of city limits?

There was plenty of blood on the ground and walls, bullet casings nearby, a broken pipe. Evidence of a fight, but who and versus what. But more importantly, were they still around? I could see the blood continued down the hall where we were going, drag marks that turned into bloodied footprints with an odd gait; probably an undead by now.

I paused as Rainbow put a hoof on my leg. "I hear something outside." Her ears were perked up high, and moving around to focus on the noise outside. I kept quiet and listened carefully, and I could hear distant pops and cracks muffled by the concrete.

"Gunfire, close too." My mind wandered and I wondered if it was the UBCS team after Thanatos. It was a definite possibility, in which case, that meant he was out and about, hunting down everyone and everything in the university. An enraged monster ready to kill, perfected to be unstoppable. "I guess that means he's out."

"Who's he?" Rainbow looked to me as we kept moving, at a more brisk pace than before, all too eager to get things over with.

"He would be Thanatos," the thought of encountering that fucker gave me shivers. We had managed to avoid any big boss like battles since we got here, but fighting Thanatos, especially in his mutated form would take everything we had, if it was even enough. In the game its easy! but this was now real life, shit had consequences, we didn't have save points in this shit. If we died, we died. "He's a specially engineered Tyrant, a big fucking mutant monster, a super soldier. He's impervious to most damage we can do, from what I remember, he's fast, lethal, and can kill us in a good enough hit."

I could already see Rainbow's face turning white from the thought. "W-why? Why would anyone..."

"Money, Rainbow... money and power," I kept my eyes on the windows, remembering how the mutant jumped through them to get at the survivors. If we weren't careful, he could get the drop on both of us. "Umbrella Corporation is led by a man who wants nothing more than pure unfiltered power, to control the world! To do that he has to twist and maim those standing in his way to suit his needs and his desires. So end up dying a lot, but that's just how this world works, its how most worlds work and won't change anytime soon."

"M-mine isn't like this..." Rainbow murmured as we entered yet another hallway, finally approaching the exit to the building. "Friendship, magic... ponies l-live in harmony! We get monsters and stuff but... n-nothing like this!" She folded her ears back and held a hoof to the side of her head. She looked tired. "There's no murder, death... I can't... I don't understand any of this, how anyone can do things like this and not..."

"You will, soon... but if things go right for us, you'll be able to go home and get away from this shit." I approached the final door and took hold of the handle. "We're almost through this... just a little further, okay?" I turned it and opened up the door.

A cold wind greeted us as we exited out into the yard outside of the college. I saw the sky above choked in clouds, both from nature and the fires burning down the city around us. Not much was left, I imagined, some buildings were already starting to crumble from what I could see. Some vehicles sat out in the parking lot, abandoned by long dead college faculty and students. I could see the APC nearby, blocking off the exit to the road, inoperable from what I know.

As we walked out into the lot, Rainbow murmured. "The city... so much fire."

I followed her gaze and nodded. It was really bad, thousands of people were murdered and for what? The pursuit of immortality and endless power, it was so fucking twisted the things we've witnessed in this city, everything was violence, a massacre that ended so many lives. We were almost out of here and I couldn't be more happy.

I couldn't believe that a younger me would have wanted this... to come to this place in some sort of wish fulfillment filled adventure, to save the day? Yeah right... I only got people killed, I murdered a man for what he had done and I only felt hollow.

Jesus Christ, everything I had done... was so fucked up.

"Dee, you keep spacing out..." Rainbow flew in front of me, snapping me back to reality.

I offered her a pained smile, my eyes locked with her own. "Just thinking... about what happened up to this point." I turned to look at her, then out into the water before wandering over to it. I stayed a fair distance away, cause I knew those mutant sharks were dwelling under the surface, waiting to snap their jaws at anyone unlucky enough. "All of the people, the monsters, everything is just deciding to hit me all at once. Can't believe we've come this far already... we're almost home free."

After hovering for a tiny bit, she plopped down onto the ground and sighed. her body turned towards the waterfront, and she watched the waves gently lapping at the docks. "I want out of here already... I wish I had never come here."

I clicked my tongue and made my way over to the docks, wary of the water for previously mentioned reasons. "Like I said, you'll get out of here soon enough, hopefully by the end of this we'll find a way for you to go back home."

"I know..." Rainbow flapped her wings again, taking off into the air above me. She stayed a good distance above and kept an eye out all around us with those sharp eyes of hers as I made my way across the docks, heading around to the other side.

Needed to get those samples, so we could cure my ass and get out of this damn place alive.




ooo000---000ooo




It wasn't long until we found the parking lot where Thanatos had been, and the corpses of the UBCS were laying everywhere, guns left behind and gear abandoned.

I couldn't really help myself and ended up pilfering them for ammo and firearms, which ended up with me getting my hands on an MP5 with some spare magazines to go with my shotgun, and my other handguns.

"Robbing the dead..." Rainbow commented as she landed on top of a car next to me. "I still can't believe..."

"Kill or be killed, Dashie." I told her, reloading my guns and making sure I was ready for whatever fight was to come. "These guys lost that fight, so their gear is as good as min-"

"Wait..." My head shot up to her, and I saw her ears twitching. She craned her head backwards and started looking around, wings rigid and tail flicking to the left and right. She was stock still except for those movements, listening.

What the fuck is she hearing?

I stuffed my handguns away, slung the MP5 over my shoulder and pulled out the shotgun. I scanned the buildings around us, and did what I could to ignore the pain in my abdomen and chest, especially my shoulder. The burning was flaring back up, the pain kicking in as the virus was slowly returning to its original state of tearing through my body.

Nearby, a loud roar sounded, followed by gunshots and a scream. Something shook, crashed, and slammed into something else followed by others screaming to run. I heard thudding falls every couple of seconds, and it didn't take a genius to tell that was Thanatos, probably after some survivors, or maybe more UBCS.

"What is..." Rainbow started as the thudding was closing in on us.

"Thanatos, the God of Death." I groaned and readied my shotgun. "The 'perfect tyrant' bioweapon, a fucking monstrosity that I don't really have high hopes of fighting against and winning."

I didn't expect him to be out this early, guess things decided to go a different route then canon, lucky me I guess.

Rainbow Dash had taken flight and hovered above me, flying up just a bit higher and scanning the area with her keen eyesight. I just kept a lookout on the ground, eyeing up the few zombies roaming the premises, waiting for people like me to stumble into their line of sight. I instead focused on the noise of the Tyrant stomping around nearby, and hoped it wasn't coming our way.

"What do we do about it?" I looked up to Rainbow as she asked, and she craned her head down to look at me.

The burning in my abdomen and shoulder was getting worse, second by second I felt it eating away at me. I didn't have much time left. "Nothing." I told her and looked towards the "It hasn't noticed us, so I suggest we keep moving."

We had to make our way to first of the ingredients used to make Daylight.

To make that damn cure, heal me, and we can finally get-

Everything in my vision suddenly started getting dark around the edges, my body grew hot and I felt weightless. Before I knew it, I had dropped to my knees, pain flooded my body.

S-shit, what the hell?!

"Hey, Dee, what's wrong?" Like an echo through my head, I heard her voice.

I'm getting tired of this blacking out shit. I struggled against everything fighting to bring me down, and I turned to look at Rainbow who had landed next to me.

The look in her eyes told me everything, the worry, the fear... of what was to come.

I was going to tell her... tell her to run.

But I couldn't.




ooo000---000ooo




I watched Dee collapse onto the ground without a word.

I rushed to his side, "Dee!" I tried to wake him up, tried shaking him to get him to get up and moving, but he wasn't responding. I shook him again and again. "Dee wake up, come on! We gotta move!"

I saw those monsters had heard us and were moving in, shambling towards us with outstretched arms and opens jaws, ready to tear us limb from limb!

"Dang it, no no no! Dee you can't die here!" I grabbed onto his jacket with my mouth and dragged him away, flapping my wings to give me the extra pull I needed! "I told you you're not dying here! I'm going to save you!"

I needed to save him, I had to save him!

I pushed against the ground and flapped my wings hard, almost lifting Dee up off the ground. I had to him get away from these things!

I heard a door nearby slam open and I almost dropped Dee to look, but I held firmly onto him and flicked my eyes over.

I saw it was those other humans Dee had mentioned before, George and the others!

Him and the others rushed outside as the monsters closed in, two rushing in with pipes as the other; the police human aimed his gun, and with a pull of the trigger had sent a few bullets flying.

George ran over to where I was and grabbed onto Dee's arm. He hoisted him up off the ground and headed back for the college door, "let's get back inside, it's not safe out here!"

I'm not gonna argue with that.

I helped him how I could and made sure to keep an eye and ear out for those undead monsters, I had to make sure they didn't try and follow us. Kevin and the others were doing a decent enough job at that, killing the ones who got too close before we headed back inside, hauling Dee down the hallway and back to the lobby.

I was worried... he told me the virus was going to turn him into one of those things, were we too late? Was I too late to save him?

"The Anti-Virus must have worn off." George's voice reached my ears as we made it into the main hall, empty and silent like the rest of the city at this point. "He doesn't have much time left, I'm afraid." I watched as George laid him down on one of the couches nearby and knelt beside him, and grabbed his wrist. "We still don't have the vaccine yet, and it will take some time-"

"I'll get it." I told him, stepping forward and drawing his attention. "Dee told me the thing needs like... three things for it to work, right?" I asked George, "just tell me where they are and I can go grab them in a flash!"

"I... I don't know where they are," he told me, "we found some documents detailing the Daylight vaccine, and what the components are, but getting them all in time before your friend here turns? That will take too much time."

I spread my wings and took flight, hovering in the air. "I'm the fastest pegasus alive." I told the human and looked over to Dee, who was still out. "The stuff is here in the college, isn't it? All I gotta do is just fly super fast to find everything, and we're golden!"

George let Dee's hand go and focused on me. "Do you even know what the components look like?" He stood up. "There are three hidden throughout this area, the group I'm with have split up but we've found nothing so far, and the only clues lead to the underground areas."

"The underground?" I rose an eyebrow. "One of them is underground?"

"From what I've discovered, two of the base components are underground, but I've no clue wher-"

That's all I need to know!

"Thanks!" I flapped my wings, and in a burst of flight I shot off towards the door leading outside.

I heard George's shout, but I didn't really listen to him. I had to get underground, that's where two of the things I needed were at? No problem, I'll just... look for whatever looks important! I'll bring them back up here, find the third one, then I can save Dee's life!

I have to!

Sadly it wasn't going to be that easy...