//------------------------------// // 6: A shadow of his former self. // Story: Honor the Dead // by BinaryTroll //------------------------------// Honor the Dead by BinaryTroll aka Onyx Bluemoon Pre-read by Honored Service Chapter 6: “A shadow of his former self.” -------------- And then the smell hit. These things smelt like death and decay that had been dropped into a sea. A sea of rotten eggs. I pulled my mask over my face, covering my nose, and rushed towards the red eyed monsters. My two bowie knives slashed through the shadows like they were, well, not even there. Within a second all the shadows lay on the floor in pools of black blood. “Well that was easy.” I said, looking at the blood on my knives. I heard a deep, maniacal laugh from behind me. The shadows from the edges of the basement began to move, fusing with the dead monsters. “You just had to open your mouth.” Joel muttered as the shadows stood back up, even more deformed than before. I sighed. “Just run.” We sprinted up the wall to get out of the basement and back outside. “Thank fuck for parkour.” Joel said nothing and just continued to run. I was hot on his heels. “Hey Joel.” “Yeah?” “Remember that sign you found?” “Yeaaah.” “I think It read Hum-gia, not hun-yic” “And the relevance of this is...?” I winced as the shadows behind us let out an ear shattering scream. “Hum-gia was the human city in Honored Service's fanfic. It was overrun by the nightmare.” “So that’s what all these are?” “Presumably, and that means that we are in Equestria, just a different version than the show.” “I think I don't like this version.” “No shit.” “So how do we kill these things?” “We don't, unless you have some dark magic.” “Nope, I'm fresh out.” We ran down a wide street, shadows popping up from everywhere. I thought Honored had cleaned this place out. So much for that. A shadow formed in front of me and I cleaved it in two, not even breaking stride. “LEFT!” Joel shouted, turning quickly. I pushed off from the ground with my right leg, diving after him. “Get in the mall, lots of light, less places for them to form.” “Good thinking.” I leaped over a pile of broken glass. “Jesus, you'd think this place had been hit by a nuke.” Joel commented, dodging around a large piece of fallen masonry. “It might as well have been, this place got destroyed when the humans detonated the lightbombs.” “You don't say.” Joel slid under a fallen support as I vaulted over one. I heard a small sound that stood out from the shrieking of the shadows. A voice. “Is that-” “When you need some help to get by, something to make you feel strong. Reach for Juggernog tonight, sugar seduction delight! When you need to feel big and strong, reach for Juggernog tonight!” “I'd know that anywhere.” We looked at each other and said “JUG!” We altered our course to head for the lifesaving drink, I didn't know how it got here, I didn't question it. All I needed to know was that it was there. I slid under another piece of masonry and slammed into the red drink dispenser. I shook my head and picked myself up. “Lets get me some jug.” Just as I was about to press the button, Joel slid under the fallen piece of debris and took my legs out from under me. “Mmmf mmf” “What?” “Get off” Joel groaned, shoving me to the ground. We stood up and I pressed the button. It beeped before saying. “Insufficient credit.” “Fuck you too.” I tore open the machine with Luna and Celestia, peeling pack the metal to reveal a stack of glass bottles filled with red liquid. I pulled two out and handed one to Joel. “Cheers.” “Heh, deja-vu.” Joel said, popping the cap of the dusty bottle. We sculled the red liquid. I winced. “Oh god, that was grim.” Joel shuddered. A scream pierced the air. “I think we forgot something.” I commented, looking at the horde of shadows that were slowly shambling toward us. “I don't know about you, but I feel like I could take on an army.” Joel said, spinning the Glocks around his fingers. “An army of things that can't die?” “Point taken.” “Let's ditch this place.” We flipped over the pillar and began our run again. I slipped on my brass knuckles and sheathed the two knives. I smiled at the huge number of shadows that had gathered. As I neared the wall of darkness and evil red I twisted so my left shoulder faced the crowd and drew my right fist back. CRACK I threw my right arm forward, the momentum behind the punch causing the first three lines of shadows to be obliterated instantly and the other lines behind them to be slammed onto the floor. The amount of force I put into it unbalanced me and I fell forward into a dive-and-roll back to my feet. I looked behind me to see Joel gracefully flipping over the wall of shadows, using one's head as a kick-board. “That was badass.” I remarked as Joel rolled to his feet beside me. We began to run from the hellish demons once again. “Well, despite being invincible, these things are pretty useless.” Joel panted, stabbing his knife into one of the shadows that had just formed. This constant running was taking its toll. I slide-kicked the knees of a shadow and gasped back. “They're like zombies, slow, stupid and hard to kill. Oh, and they shout random shit in a raspy voice.” “YESYESYESYEEEES!” “Just like that.” I smiled despite myself. “Yeah, just like that.” I glanced over my shoulder at the horde. Well shit. Some of the shadows broke away from the main group and began to run instead of shamble. “Oh for fuck's sake. We can't catch a goddamn break!” “Less talking, more running.” We sprinted towards the exit. The automatic doors began to open slowly. “I ain't got time for yo shit, door!” I shattered the glass with the brass knuckles. An alarm began to sound. “I... wow. That actually set off an alarm. The mall looks like it was hit with a nuke and breaking a door sets off an alarm.” I laughed a little. “I think my sanity is breaking.” “What sanity?” We looked at each other and burst into laughter. “We're about to be mauled by hundreds of shadow creatures and we're laughing? What's wrong with us?” I said, clutching the stitch that was beginning to form. Note to self: don't laugh whilst running for your life. “We're about to be mauled by hundreds of shadow creatures in a land of magical ponies. That’s what's wrong with us.” Joel said back. “Lets get on some buildings, I hope these things can't climb too well.” We wall ran up the side of a small house, the bricks giving us good purchase, and crawled onto the roof. I looked back at the running shadows. “What now fuckers?” I taunted, resting my hands on my knees. One of the shadows reached the edge of the building and looked up at me. He then proceeded to grow four more limbs that were tipped with spikes and scuttle up the side of the building like a spider. Well shit. “Fuck this shit!” I ran in the opposite direction and leaped to the next roof. Joel took one look at this new horror and quickly followed suit. “What is with this world and denying everything I say?” I yelled to the sky, flipping to the next building. “Watch out!” “Huh?” I slammed my face into a streetlight, fell ten meters to the ground and then the street light fell on top of me. “Fuck me that hurt.” I looked up at Joel, who's chin had dropped to the ground. And then I realized what I had just done. I'd fallen ten meters and been crushed by a streetlamp, and I shrugged it off like it was nothing. Not a scratch. “I think the Jug worked.” Joel called down. “No shit.” I swiftly climbed my way up to the roof of the next ruined building and continued to run. Joel shook his head and followed. I took a quick glance over my shoulder. Look at that, the fucking things had grown wings now. “Alright, new plan. Stay inside.” I dived off the edge of the building, my new found durability saving me from hurting myself. Joel was slightly more hesitant, but he followed quickly once he looked back. I kicked the door down and we ran inside the building. The only light was from a small yellow drinks machine. “I. am. so. Fucking. Sick. of. Running.” I panted, using the wall for support. I began to hear some jazz music. I'm going even more insane now. Great. “Stamina-min-up. Stamina-min-up. Stamina-min-up. When you need some extra runnin', when you need some extra time, when you want to keep on gunnin', when you like a twist of lime. When you need to keep on moving, when you need to get away. When you need to keep on groovin', when you need that vitamin K. Babe, you know you want me! Let's run the extra mile! I'll open your eyes and I'll make you see! I'll make it worth your while! (Stamin-Up-Up-Up!) Sounds like it's Staaaaamin-Up time! Oh yeah, drink it baby. Drink it." "Well that was unexpected." I looked at the drinks machine and noticed the iconic running symbol. "This should be useful." Joel held out his hand. "Scalpel." I tossed him Celestia. “Thank you.” He began to cut through the metal exterior of the perk-a-cola machine with the precision knife (that was sarcasm). He extracted two of the bottles and handed one to me. “Bottoms up.” We sculled the soda. It tasted a bit like a lemon/lime squash. Watered down with petrol. And warheads. I gagged. “Fuck me, that's sour.” “Thank you for that wonderful piece of insight Wards.” Joel replied, his left eye twitching. “And fuck you too.” The wonderful drink quickly reinvigorated me and we began to run once again. As we got outside I looked to the sky. The sun was almost overhead. We'd been running from these monstrosities for close to six hours. Time flies when you're scared shitless. We dodged from building to building, making it difficult for the shadows to stay locked on us. More of them were running now and there were quite a few that could fly too. “Honored, why you no clean this place out properly?” I said, running across the wall of of a house. The ground was on fire below me. Why? Hell if I know. The screams of the shadows followed me across the chasm of fire. Looks like they don't like fire. That could be useful. “Joel! Over here! Across the fire, they don't like it!” I yelled through the flames. Joel ran diagonally up the wall and pushed off from it when he could go no further. He landed safely on the other side of the wall of fire. “That should slow them down.” I turned and began to walk away from the fire. That’s when I noticed the shadows. Joel noticed them too. “The brighter the light, the darker the shadow.” The shadows began to converge on a single point and an even larger beast began to form. I didn't stick around to find out what. A deeper scream sounded and I ran faster. Somehow. Guess staminup doesn't just give you more endurance. The wind was cutting across my face. Damn I was running fast. That doesn't usually happen unless I'm on a bike. I glanced over my shoulder. Oh shit. A shadow dog the size of an elephant was running towards us. Oh, and it was on fire. “This just gets better and better, doesn't it?” The dog howled in response. “Where are the bikes?” Joel shouted back to me. “Over there.” I pointed towards the building that we had first come from. “Almost there.” We rounded the corner and came face to face with another horde of shadows. “Fuck my life.” They all had shadowy riot shields. A growl from behind told us that the dog had caught up. “Joel listen carefully. On my mark, run. Run like hell and don't look back. I'm about to do something incredibly stupid.” “Wards...” “No, don't worry about me. Just run.” I pulled out my blood soaked knives and the brass knuckles. “Mark!” Joel ran towards the bikes and grabbed one, gunning it and zooming off. Good, he listened. I ran my tongue across the blood coated brass knuckles. “Bring it, fuckers.”