Chapter the Eighth, or “In Which the Dead Rise”
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING TWO CHAPTERS CONTAIN SOME GORE AND VIOLENCE. IF THAT ISN’T YOUR CUP OF TEA, YOU MIGHT NOT REALLY LIKE THIS CHAPTER. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
I wake up in a cramped position, the smell of hot musk and grime around me. I push my hair out of my eyes and blink and the sun’s harsh rays, which were poking through the small holes in the wall. Looking around, I find that I’m in some rusty metal container, and nearly everything around me was filthy and broken. “Guys?” I call out. “Are you here?”
Sure enough, the girls start emerging from the rusty scenery. “Ugh… Where the hell are we this time?” Rainbow Dash groans, getting up from what looks like a pile of garbage. She’s wearing a filthy white tank top with some torn up jean and combat boots.
“Somewhere awful, obviously,” Rarity says with a shudder. Her normally elegant hair is completely disheveled, and she’s considerably dressed down from her usual self. “Oh, this place is probably infested with bugs!”
“Ah think that’s probably the least of our problems,” says Applejack as she peers out the window. “We’re in the middle of a desert!”
I rush to the window closest to me to find that she’s indeed correct: There was nothing but sand and cacti for miles around, and the sky was completely devoid of clouds. “Well, this’ll be fun,” I groan as I move towards the girls. “Look around and see if we can find a phone or something. Maybe this a survivor situation or something.”
Twilight raises her eyebrow. “Do you really think Discord would make it that easy?”
I pause before sighing in defeat. “I guess you’re right on that one… Alright, just try to grab anything useful and we’ll see what we can do with it.”
“Is this useful?” Pinkie asks. I turn to find that she had a rusty shot gun tucked under her arm, and about three other guns in her hands. “They’re all over the place!”
Everyone gasps in shock, and Fluttershy even passes out. “Don’t touch those things!” Twilight screeches, wrapping her aura around the guns and snatching them out of Pinkie’s grasp. “You’ll end up killing someone with these things!”
Pinkie lets out a huff. “You know, I’m starting to think that you guys don’t trust me with anything!”
“Look, maybe we overreacted, but you’ve got to be more careful with those things, Pinkie!” I say reprovingly as I try to revive Fluttershy. “You nearly scared the living daylights out of us!”
“Was it because I was holding the guns at you guys, or is it because I was the one holding them?” Pinkie asks, obviously insulted.
I’m spared from answering that awkward question by Rainbow Dash. “Hey guys, someone’s coming!” she cried.
We all rush to the windows to see a lone figure shambling towards our quarters, the sun blocking out his features. The guy seems dead on his feet, just by the way he practically drags himself towards our shelter. “Oh my goodness, we’ve got to help the poor dear!” Rarity cries. Grabbing a small canteen, she fills it with water from a nearby tank and runs towards the door.
“Hold on there, little lady!” says Applejack, blocking the door. “Y’all can’t just run out there and give water to a random stranger! What if he’s a maniac or something?”
“Oh, no need to be so paranoid!” Rarity scoffs. “If anything goes wrong, I can simply teleport back here. Besides, we can’t just let him wither away out there.”
Applejack narrows her eyes. “Fine, but we should send somebody with you in case that feller tries to pull a fast one… Ah think Ah can handle one of those puppies right there.”
I look at the pile of guns on the floor. “You sure you know how to work those things?” I ask cautiously.
She walks over and picks up a small revolver. “How hard could it be? Ya point the thing, ya pull the trigger, the guy’s dead.”
“Well, hopefully it won’t come to that,” Twilight says nervously. “Just go out there and see if he’d friendly.”
The two nod and walk out the door slowly. The group watches them intently, everyone on the edge of their seats.
Suddenly, it all goes wrong. Rarity begins to scream her head off, and Applejack’s shooting at the guy like crazy. For some reason, he just won’t quit, and he keeps running after them as they race to the shelter. Pinkie opens the door for them as they rush in, Rarity sobbing deeply and Applejack looking like she had just seen death itself. “What the hell happened?!” I ask, getting more and more freaked out.
Rarity lets out some unintelligible sobs, covering her eyes with her hands. The stranger, having followed them, begins to bang on the door incessantly. Applejack stares at the door, obviously terrified. “Dear Sister’s, he’s here.”
The door burst open to reveal a terrible sight: A man, decaying and rotten, dragging its feet towards us. He’s wearing a filthy ripped shirt riddled with bullet holes, and his right arm looked like it was just barely attached.
Miraculously, nobody screams at the horrifying sight. Instead, we all clear the way, staring at the undead creature with disgust and fascination. “You’re one ugly motherfucker,” Rainbow Dash says softly.
The zombie turns towards her, apparently hearing what she said. With a low and deadly moan, he begins to shamble closer to her, effectively cornering the rainbow haired girl in between the water tank and the wall. This causes me to snap out of my stupor and grab a nearby baseball bat. With a desperate yell, I knock down the zombie and begin to bash in its head.
The zombie, taken by surprise, somehow manages to overpower me and rip the bat out of my hands. With an angry groan, he tries to force himself onto me, pushing me down to my back. I feel a sharp sting as one of his nails digs into my skin.
A loud gunshot rings through the room, the zombie slumps forward onto me. I look up to see that Fluttershy had killed the monster, and was now panting heavily as she held the gun. I push the zombie’s body off of me and try to wipe of some of the blood from my face. “Fluttershy… You just saved my life,” I said breathlessly.
This causes Fluttershy to collapse to her knees in exhaustion, dropping the gun by her side. “I didn’t know what to do,” she says, choking up a little. “He was going to kill you, and you couldn’t defend yourself, and-“
“Ya did the right thing, sugar-cube,” Applejack says comfortingly as she holds her close. “Just let it all out, alright?”
Fluttershy looks up, her grimy face stained with tears. She gives me a weak smile before looking at my arm. “Oh dear, you’ve been scratched!” she gasps.
I look down at my left arm to see a small gash close to my wrist, and a feeling of doom sinks into my stomach. “Oh God no, oh God no, oh God no,” I murmur madly as I realize the futility of it all. I run outside and vomit on the side of the trailer, the smell of death clinging closely to me. “Oh God WHY?!” I yell, smashing my hand against the trailer wall.
“You seems to be taking it well,” a voice says smugly. I turn to see Discord there, sitting in a beach chair and sipping on some chocolate milk. “Of course, this IS your fantasy…”
I run up to him and kick him out of his chair. “I’M GOING TO DIE, YOU BASTARD!” I bellow in anguish. “YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY?!”
Discord sighs and dusts himself off as he gets up. “Do you honestly think I’d let you out of it this easily?” he says in a droll voice. “Just think for a second: What would someone else do in this situation?”
I stare at him for a second before it dawns on me. “You don’t mean… THAT... Do you?!” I say in horror.
“Hey, either that or you get to walk around chomping on brains,” he shrugs. “I told you that you might be losing something soon, didn't I?” He slurps the last of his chocolate milk before shattering the glass and turning it into a vulture. “Either way, it’s not my call, is it?” he says with a slight smirk. With a snap of his fingers and a flash of white, he’s gone, leaving only the vulture to caw and fly away.
I stare at my hand, reluctant to what had to be done. Realizing it was the only way, I barge into the shelter and begin to look for the tools I needed. “Uh, what are you doing?” Rainbow Dash asked.
I ignore her as I pick up a gallon of gasoline and a small machete. Setting myself to the task, I stomp to the back of the trailer, where a rusty table is waiting conveniently.
I lay down my scratched hand onto the table, trying to will myself to go on with the grizzly task. Well… Here goes nothing… I raise the machete above my head, grit my teeth, and drive it down into the wrist.
The pain was absolutely excruciating, causing my vision to blur. I yell bloody murder to the sky, tears welling up in my eyes as I hold my arm. I look to the bloody stump I had made, and with my last drops of will power, I grab the gallon of gasoline and pour it over my wound, adding a torturous sting to the already unbearable pain. I fall to the ground, clutching my stump of an arm close to my chest and shuddering from the recoil. The last thing I see before passing out is the girls running out of the trailer.
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I wake up in a cot, barely able to keep my eyes open. I try to wipe the hair out of my eyes, only to feel the stump on my forehead. I look down to see that it had been bandaged and cared for, but the sight was still extremely unsettling. I blink at it, almost as if I were expecting it to be all a joke. The sick feeling in my stomach grows, causing me to look over the side of my bunk and vomit.
“Sebastian!” Twilight’s voice cries. I look up blearily to see that my faithful secretary had been sitting by my bedside. “Oh Sisters, are you alright?!”
I smile weakly at her. “Hey, Twi,” I say, sounding tired and old. “Where am I?”
“Back at the shelter,” she replies. I feel her wiping my mouth with her magic. “You passed out right after you… Did that to yourself,” she finished lamely, looking at my stump.
I groan again, this time successfully preventing myself from vomiting. “Good to know I survived that,” I say half-heartedly, trying to forget the image. “Did you bandage me?”
“No, Fluttershy did that. She said it was really smart of you to use the gas as a disinfectant…” She suddenly breaks down and begins to sob. “Sister’s, why would you do that?!” she asks hysterically. “Why would you chop off your hand?!”
I feel a pang of guilt in my gut. “I had to stop the zombie infection,” I explain softly. “I would have turned into one if I didn’t.”
She looks up at me with a sniff. “Is that what that thing was called?” she asks.
I nod. “They roam around, looking for things to eat. They normally go after humans, so when they bite them, the humans become zombies in a few hours.” I laugh weakly. “Luckily for me, I was only scratched, so I have a chance at living.”
The loud rumble of a car engine interrupts our conversation. “I didn’t know we had a car,” I say to Twilight.
The purple-haired girl’s pupils shrink to the size of pinpricks. “We don’t,” she says quietly.
A large man with a scar across his face suddenly bursts through the window with a crowbar and climbs in. Spotting me and Twilight, he stomps up to us and pushes her out of the way, pointing a large pistol at my head. “Are you bitten, boy?” he snarls, his steel grey eyes boring into mine. When I don’t answer fast enough, he cocks his gun and jabs it to my forehead. “ANSWER ME!”
Struggling to speak, I show him my stump. He relaxes and puts his gun into his holster. “Sorry about that, kid,” he says gruffly, running his hand through his messy black hair. “You can never be too careful these days, you know?”
“Who the hell do you think you are?!” Twilight yells incredulously. “You can’t just break into someone’s house and point a gun at the person in the bed!”
“Listen honey, I didn’t know anyone was here!” he protested. “I thought this was an abandoned trailer park and I was just seeing if there was anything worth scavenging! I didn’t know you and your little boyfriend were here!”
Color rises to Twilight’s cheeks. “He’s not my boyfriend!” she says loudly.
The man rolls his eyes and pulls out a large cigar from his pocket. “Well, in any case, I’m sorry,” he smirks as he lights it up. Catching me staring at him, he says, “Oh, where are my manners! You want one too, buddy?”
“What? No thanks, I don’t smoke,” I say nervously.
“You sure?” he asks, pulling out a small packet of cigars from his coat pocket. He digs into his pants and pulls out an enormous dagger, casually opening the packet with it. “I’ve got tons, and Lord knows a guy needs something to relax nowadays!”
“No, it’s just… Who are you?” I ask.
The man grins wolfishly and drives his dagger into the wall. “The name’s Clancy. What’s yours?”
I stare at the knife that had been driven into the wall. “Well, my name’s Sebastian, and this is Twilight,” I say slowly. “Now, another question: Was there really any need to do that to the wall?”
“Huh?” Clancy, apparently just realizing that he had stuck an eleven inch bowie-knife into the wall, grinned sheepishly. “Sorry about that… Tend to lose control now and then…”
“Uh-huh... Well, I’m sure you’ve got plenty to do!” I say, trying to give the guy a hint. “You know, the dead never stop dying, so maybe you should be on your way…”
“Actually, that’s something I wanted to talk to you about,” he says, leaning against the wall. “I’ve got this place that me and a couple of other guys have been hanging out until this all blows over. I’ll be happy to show you there if you’re ok with it.”
I raise my eyebrow in suspicion. “What’s the catch?”
“No catch, man!” Clancy grins. “I mean, you guys would have to pull your own weight and all, but other than that, we’re always happy to have a few extra hands on board!”
“Well, thanks for the offer, man,” I begin, hoping to let him down respectfully, “but I think we-“
“Actually, I think we need a moment to talk,” Twilight interrupts. “Could you excuse us?”
“Sure, sure,” he says awkwardly, pulling his knife out and slipping it back into its sheath. “I’ll just… Wait in the other room…”
“There’s some other girls there,” Twilight called after him as he lumbered off. “They’ll probably say hello!”
“What the hell was that?!” I ask incredulously as soon as the guy’s out of the room. “You’re letting that psycho wait here?! He’ll end up killing somebody!”
“Oh, he didn’t seem that bad,” Twilight says dismissively. “Besides, even without their powers, the girls are all armed and outnumber him five to one!”
“So? We outnumbered the zombie seven to one, and I still had to chop off my hand!” I point out. “Besides, none of this would have happened if Rarity had just teleported here like she said she would!”
“What, and leave Applejack out to fend against the zombie?!”
“Well, why didn’t she just teleport the both of them? She can do that, right?”
“Yeah but- Well, she was under intense stress!” Twilight said defensively. “Teleportation itself requires at least some form of concentration, and who could concentrate when you’ve just seen a living corpse?!”
I open my mouth to say something, but close it quickly after realizing that she had me there. “Well… That’s still no excuse to let that knife-happy maniac in here!” I retort.
Twilight lets out a deep breath. “Look, Sebastian… We’re going to need a leader if we’re going to make it through this trail and, well… You aren’t exactly in shape to lead us right now…”
“Oh, come on! You guys can totally hold down the fort! I mean, you’ve got motherfucking magic on your side! Why not use that?!”
Twilight bites the bottom of her lip. “Well… It turns out that magic doesn’t work on zombies,” she confesses. “You see, while you were out, another zombie attacked the trailer. We ran out of ammo shooting at him, and I tried to use a spells on him, but nothing worked! I tried shields, telekinesis, even offensive curses, but he just passed through them like they were nothing!” By this time, there are tears running down her face. “We only barely managed to smash his head in,” she sobbed, burying her head in my chest. “We had to wipe the brain off of the shovel…”
I stare at her in shock, unable to believe what I was seeing. Sure, Twilight could be a bit whiny and moody, but on the whole she was normally a strong and independent woman. I’ve never seen her break down into tears without a good reason, so this simply showed me just how serious this situation was. “Dear God, how long have I been out?” I say breathlessly.
She sniffs loudly and looks up at me, her eyes still welling up in tears. “Three days,” she says softly, wiping her eyes.
The news hits me harder than I thought it would have. “Three days… Wow. It’s almost surreal,” I say, half laughing in disbelief. “You guys must have been worried sick…”
She nods wordlessly and puts her head on my shoulder. “We were. Rarity and Applejack especially, since… Well, they feel like it’s their fault that you got scratched…”
I stay silent for a moment and just decide to hold her close. We stay together for what seemed like hours until-
“Uh, is this a bad time?” a familiar voice asked. We look up to see Applejack, looking extremely awkward and unsure of what to do.
Twilight blushes deep red and leaps out of my arms. “No, it’s fine,” she says a little too quickly. “What do you need?”
“Well, Ah was just wondering what that Clancy guy was doin’ here,” the farmgirl explains, still looking unsure. “He hasn’t been causin’ any trouble or anythin’, but we ain’t sure if it’s a good idea to talk to him…”
“Oh, don’t worry about him,” I say. “Twilight and I were actually thinking of going with him to this place he’s talking about. He says it’ll be a lot safer than here, and that he already has a few more people living there.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” the blonde asks. “I mean, we hardly know the feller, and we don’t exactly know what he or his friends might do…”
“My reasoning is that if we get there and they try to pull something, we’ll surprise them. After all, we have magic on our side and they don’t, right?”
Thinking it over, Applejack finally nods. “Sounds like a plan. When do we leave?”
“Let’s bring in the other girls into this first, alright?” Twilight says. “After all, we should be doing this by the rules. After that, we can get Clancy to lead us to his place.”
I nod in agreement. “Alright Jackie, tell the girls to come down here and we’ll see if they agree. If so, we can head out by tomorrow.”