Chapter 11: A True Nightmare Night (Part 2)
Perspective: Eddy Culivin
Location: Southern United States, 15 miles from town
Date: March 7, 2023
There was darkness, an all-powerful all-consuming darkness that surrounded me. I would assume I was dead, but the agonizing pain was an all-too-real reminder that I was in fact, very much alive. A sudden burst of pain from my stomach brought me back to my senses, light blinding me as I rolled from the kick. When my eyes readjusted, I found myself up looking at the ugly, scarred face of Burt.
Burt (like his lackeys Kyle, Ben, and Gustavo) had no home, no family, no last name (at least he never told us). They showed up in town a while back, and we took them in. They pulled their weight, and became just another part of the town. Yesterday, they casually remarked that there was a large ammo depot here, but it was locked down. Edgar, Mike, Jon and I offered to help, and they eagerly accepted. Too bad we had no clue what they had planned for us. Despite his appearance, Burt can seem like a nice guy when he smiles. As I was dragged to my feet from behind though, I was assured that he, and his lackeys for that matter, was a terrible excuse for a human being as I beheld the sight before me.
Mike and Jon laid strewn about, appearance similar to lifeless ragdolls on the ground. Mike had a nasty bruise on the side of his head, while Jon sported a bleeding cut on the back of his. Jon laid face down, Mike to the side. Both were out cold, and had dropped their weapons out of reach.
Edgar meanwhile was somehow conscious still, though for his sake, I wish the poor guy wasn’t. He’s a stubborn idiot when it comes to his friends; it stems from his fierce loyalty. Said dedication however, caused him to try and pick a fight with our ‘friends’. The worst part was not being able to do anything about it; they still needed me, so they bound me, slammed me face-first into the ground, and lightly persuaded me into submission rather than straight-up beating me into unconsciousness.
Looking at Edgar now, I could tell the man refused to go down. Blood poured profusely from his (probably broken) nose, staining his bruised face and swollen lips and gums. He would probably have two black eyes later, assuming we would live that long anyways. His clothes were dirty and torn, evidence that he had been kicked around on the ground. Multiple cuts decorated his entire body, which he might have gotten from being dragged around on the ground, where shards of broken glass laid. He was slumped against the wall to my left and, despite his injuries, still attempting to stand, much to Kyle’s displeasure.
“You piece of shit! You just don’t know when to quit, do you?” Kyle spat out as he started walking towards Edgar, only to be stopped quickly.
“Relax my friend,” Burt almost sing-songed cheerfully. “Look at him, he can’t even get up. Ignore him; he will cause no further trouble. This one is the one we need.”
He spun around and practically beamed at me. Still unable to move properly, Gustavo ‘supported’ me (restrained is the better term) by placing the middle his arms at the base of mine, folding them up to lock my shoulders in his arms, and hoisting me up. Even in my dazed state, I managed a glare in his direction.
“Now Eddy, I need you to finish what you started,” said Burt, gesturing to the door. You see, this was a modern ammo depot; unlike the other storages which were simply clearings with the munitions stored outside, this was a proper building, with- unfortunately -a proper security system. The final door was solid metal, with a keypad to unlock the door. The only reason we were able to get in was because there was no power.
“You know, you’re not very smart,” I coughed out. His grin faltered just a bit. “You should’ve waited for me to have opened the door before betraying us. I ain’t doing jack shit for you!” Burt frowned, and I closed my eyes. Maybe the pain from the beating wouldn’t be as bad if I didn’t see it happen. An illogical thought, but one can hope, right? When the beating didn’t come, I allowed myself a small peek. Carefully, I opened my eyes just a hair. Burt was grinning again. Crap.
“My poor unfortunate fool,” he began while very slowly, step by agonizingly-slow step, walking away from me. “If I had waited, we would have had to have chased you four through the crates, and a nasty firefight would’ve occurred. This was the easier way to deal with you four. As for working…”
He spun around and withdrew a sharp and very nasty looking eight-inch blade. “…I have a few options when it comes to you.” I looked at him, terrified out of my mind. I kept a brave face on though.
“Hah! It’ll take a lot more than that to make me do your dirty work,” I sneered. “You can go ahead and cut me up; I’m not unlocking that door.”
“Oh?” he said while chuckling.
“Who said this knife was for you?”
With that he slammed the blade in to the ground. The ground mere inches from Mike’s face. He glanced up mirthfully at my shocked face. I lost my shit.
“You fucking sick son of a bitch!” I roared, ignoring the burning sensation the effort of screaming in my current state caused. The fury that boiled the blood within me made me feel like I could punch a hole through his fucking chest if given the chance. Sadly, I was nowhere near full strength right now, and I’m not a very big guy to begin with. I’ll let you guess how much trouble Gustavo had in holding my temper tantrum back. “You leave him out of this! This is between you and me!” Ignoring me, he pivoted the knife on its tip until the blade was resting on Mike’s cheek, and pulled up, making a thin cut. A single drop of crimson blood began to seep out, growing at the base of the cut until it was large enough to roll down his cheek.
“Oh my,” he gasped, mockery dripping from every word. “It seems this knife is rather sharp! Your friend wouldn’t do to well if I used this on him.” He went in for another cut. I lashed out again, to no avail. “How about this?” he said, suddenly withdrawing the knife from Mike’s face. “You open that door and stay out of our way, and I’ll let you guys live. It’s a win-win situation, no? I get munitions, you and your friends get to scrape by in that miserable town you all call home for another couple of years, at least until it gets wiped out.” I didn’t really have much of a choice if I wanted to live, but I still needed to know…
“How do I know you won’t go back on your word?” I asked.
“Well, you’ll just have to trust me.”
“Oh yea, because that worked so great for us last time!” Without warning, Burt grabbed Mike by the face and roughly lifted his head a foot off the ground, pressing the knife against his throat.
“I could slit his throat if you prefer,” he growled.
“NO WAIT DON’T!… Alright, alright I’ll do it, just…don’t hurt him, please.” As quickly as the sudden anger flare had come, it had gone. Immediately, his trademark stupid grin returned, and he dropped Mike.
“Excellent!” he cried out. I motioned to Gustavo with a tilt of my head. “Right, can’t work like that. Release him, but watch him closely. Kyle, watch the door. Ben, go check for any ‘unwanted visitors’. *Turns to me* you see Eddy? Everything is so much easier if you play along.”
Deciding a smart-ass reply would do me no good, I chose to remain quiet and instead reached for my tool bag. I grabbed a nifty little tool I’ve had since it came out in 2018, an advanced portable logic analyzer. Using a series of inputs, the analyzer monitors the circuit and its output for changes, then reports the circuit behavior to the user. Using this, I can figure out which buttons trigger the unlock signal. Within 15 minutes, I was entering the final digits of the code.
“4, 9, and 6.”
“*BEEP* password accepted,” the computerized voice announced. With a whir, the bolts within the door retracted, and the large hunk of metal was swung open to reveal the brass and lead treasure contained inside. Upon completing my task, I was once again seized by Gustavo, much to my surprise. This was for my friends though, so I quickly stopped struggling.
“There. The door’s open and the ammo’s yours for the taking. Happy?” I said.
“Oh, very much so! Thank you kindly, good sir. Now, as a reward since you’ve been such a good boy, I think I’ll go ahead and kill you first so you don’t have to watch your friends die,” he replied cheerfully.
“AAAHH! You bastard, we had a deal!”
“Oh, but you forget…I’m not a nice guy! HAHAHAHA!” He withdrew his pistol from his belt, a .357 revolver. He angled it so it wouldn’t kill Gustavo along with me. I could feel the cold steel as it pressed against my forehead, the hollow cylinder poised to take my life. This was the end.
“Oh,” Burt said. “I almost forgot to ask. Any last words?”
“You’re a lying, manipulative motherfucker, and I wish I never met you,” I snarled. “How’s that for last wo-”
“Boss, help! *BANG BANG* Infected, they’re here!”
“What!?” Burt yelled, all traces of that jovial persona he had moments ago now gone. “Ah shit. Kyle! Go help Ben; we’ll take care of this trash.” Kyle nodded, before running towards the source of all the screaming and gunfire. Burt turned back towards me, an irritated look adorning his face. “Well, I wanted to take my time and play around a little, but it seems I’ll be killing you and the rest of those miserable pigs now. First you, then Edgar for all the trouble he’s…where did that pathetic little rat go!?” Sure enough, a quick glance to the left confirmed that Edgar had indeed disappeared.
“Should’ve killed me while you had the chance,” a voice declared to the right of me.
“What the-”
*BANG!*
The gunshot was very quickly followed by the relieving of the metal cylinder from my forehead. Burt jerked back to face the attacker, gripping his hand (or what was left of it) and trying to control the heavy bleeding. He had a wild look on his face, a whole mix of emotions: anger, shock, and my favorite, fear. ‘Payback time Burt.’
“IT HURTS!” he screamed uncontrollably. “IT HURTS YOU FUCKER! KILL HIM! KILL HIM RIGHT NO-”
*BANG BANG BANG!*
Burt’s chest exploded open in a shower of red chunks and blood. The bullets ripped mercilessly through him, bringing ol’ Burt to his knees, then to the ground. The Infected can have his rotting corpse for all I care.
I decided to capitalize on the shock Edgar induced. Remembering the shotgun slung over Gustavo’s shoulder, I formulated a plan and took action. Adrenaline coursed through my veins, allowing me to ignore enough pain to function again. Digging my feet in, I propelled myself, and by consequence Gustavo, backwards until he slammed against the wall. I used the top of my head to force his chin up, pinning his head against the wall. At the same time, I reached behind him and grabbed ahold of the nylon fiber pistol grip of the shotgun, angling the weapon straight up.
“This is for fucking with my friends!”
*BOOM!*
A feeling of freedom rushed over me as the body that once held me captive was now dropping down. Shortly after, a few skull fragments and bits of organic tissue came down, but I paid them no mind. My attention was drawn elsewhere.
Infected were beginning to storm the room we were in. Leading the pack were none other than Infected Ben and Kyle themselves.
“Edgar, we gotta keep them off of Mike and Jon!” I called out.
“One step ahead of you, here!” he replied as he tossed me a pistol. Upon closer examination, I realized it was mine, the one these goons made me surrender. I had a better idea though. I kicked over the headless corpse, and removed Mr. Boomstick from his back.
*Cha-chick!* Come on, who doesn’t love the sound of a 12-gauge racking?
Edgar and I split, each taking a side and making sure not to shoot each other as we fired into the horde. The first to go were, of course, Ben and Kyle. I made sure Edgar got Kyle, just for a little revenge. Beyond that, it was keeping the horde from consuming us and our downed friends.
Explosions rang out in the room, bouncing off the walls and echoing before quickly getting replaced by another, then another. ‘Clinks’ and “thumps’ could be heard between the explosions, as the spent brass or shells were ejected. Walls were stained and broken. Piles of corpses littered the ground, as the horde fell before us.
But they just kept coming, with seemingly no end in sight.
“Eddy!” Edgar yelled over the gunfire. “Mike and Jon; they’re up!” ‘Finally, some good news!’ Blowing a hole in the Infected crowd, I quickly made my way to Edgar’s side. Along the way, I made sure to pick up two important items we would need very soon.
“About time you joined in!” I joked, still having to yell over Edgar’s gunfire. “You alright?” I asked as I handed them each their pistols.
“Yea we’re still kicking!” Jonathon replied.
“Well then hurry and get up! We need all the help we can-”
“Eddy behind you!” I spun around to come almost face to face with a group of 5 Infected. Reacting quickly, I brought the shotgun up.
*BOOM! Cha-chick! BOOM! Cha-chick! BOOM!*
*Cha…*
“What the hell!” I screamed in a combination of frustration and fear as the pump refused to close. A quick look through the breech confirmed it; there was a shell stuck in the chamber while the shotgun was trying to feed another into it. The extraction of the spent shell had failed, and the shotgun had jammed. I reached for my pistol. I wasn’t fast enough.
*BANG!* *Crunch.*
“AAHHH!”
“No! Eddy!” The agony was excruciating. I could almost feel the individual teeth as they dug into my lower forearm, near the wrist. The background around me faded for a few seconds, as the shock of what happened got to me. Is this it? Is it really over for me?
…
‘No, I will not wallow in self-misery. If I’m going out, might as well go down kicking and screaming all the way!’ The world rushed back like a torrent, all senses going into overdrive. I was acutely aware of teeth still in my arm; time to fix that. Hot steel met its forehead. “Fucking let go already!”
*BANG!*
The upper part of its head erupted into a mess of bone and tissue as the bullet tore through it, its grip on my arm slackening enough for me to yank it free. I wheeled around and spinning-kicked (rather poorly, but still) the corpse away from me.
“Don’t worry about me, shoot!” I yelled at my concerned friends. They snapped out of their daze, quickly returning to clearing the room. There were only stragglers remaining, and now with the help of Mike and Jon, they were quickly dealt with. While the others took a more conservative approach to eliminating Infected, I was already bitten, so I figured ‘why not’, ran up to them, and blasted them in the face. My arm started going numb, but I ignored it and pushed on. I had to. When the last Infected dropped though, my legs gave out suddenly, and I dropped right with it. My friends were upon me in an instant.
“Guys,” I coughed out pathetically. “I’m not…feeling like a hundred percent here.”
“Oh shit, Oh shit, Oh shit,” was Edgar’s mantra as he helplessly stared down at me. “We can’t shoot him, he can’t die like this!”
“Edgar,” Mike said, trying to grab Edgar’s attention. The poor guy was hyperventilating and in full panic mode though, I’m not surprised he didn’t hear his name.
"He’s our best friend, there has to be a way to save him!"
“Edgar!”
"We have to save him guys, we-”
“EDGAR!” This finally silenced him. At this point my vision was beginning to slightly blur, before returning to normal, only for it to blur again moments later. “Pull your shit together, and maybe we can save him! Listen up. The Infection can only take him if he’s dead, so it’s trying to kill him right now. The Infection’s vulnerable at this point; if we can get him proper medical care fast enough, they can hold off the Infection, and it will die due to lack of host. We have some time since he was only bitten once and not ripped apart or injured repeatedly, but we gotta move now, so enough with the mental breakdowns!”
Edgar took a deep breath, and nodded while exhaling. “OK, let’s do it,” he said. “Jon! Make sure our path is clear, we’ve got Eddy!” I was picked up and assisted out of the building. There were a few remaining Infected, so I raised my arm…with considerable effort? Why was my body not responding to me? I tried shooting a few of them, but I may as well have been trying to hit an apple at 50 yards while drunk. I actually got three. I had 18 rounds.
“Ineea new mag,” I slurred. ‘Damn, not even my mouth is working correctly!’
“Eddy,” Edgar said, taking my pistol, reloading it, but holstering it rather than handing it to me. “That’s enough, just focus on staying conscious.” The old, beat-up suburban we rode in on came into view. Well, sorta. As soon as we exited the building, the sun blinded the hell out of me, which was strange since it wasn’t even that dark in there.
I was gently put in the middle row, Edgar staying back with me. Now able to see better with a roof over my head, I noticed my vision was constantly blurred now, and was getting worse.
“Eddy, you alright?” Edgar, at least I think it was Edgar, asked. It sounded like I was at one end of a tunnel, and the rest of the world was at the other end. Every sound had a ringing echo to it, and without sight, it was hard to tell what was what. I opened my mouth to respond, but my lips refused to move. Too weak to talk, I could only nod my head as the world around me started growing quieter and darker. ‘Well, at least I gave it my all. Only one thing left to do now.’
Putting in a final burst of strength, I withdrew my pistol with one hand, while flailing around with the other till I found Edgar’s hand. I pushed the pistol into his hand, nodding once. I’m sure he’d understand. I could tell it would tear at his heart to do this, but I’ll be damned if I turn into one of those things!
I could see the blurry silhouette of Edgar violently shaking his head, and screaming ‘No, no, stay with me you idiot!’. My lips tugged upwards into a broken smile for perhaps the last time, trying to let him know that it was alright; he did his best. I didn’t want to die, I really didn’t. But as much as I tried to cling to consciousness, I was too weak to hold on to it any longer.
The last thing I heard was ‘Eddy? Eddy!? Mike, floor it!’. Then everything went dark.
Perspective: Edgar Worthington
Location: Town Square, Ponyville, Equestria
Date: October 31, 2025
Silently watching the disk of light collapse, I brought my hand to my face; there was something on it. Pulling my hand back, I realized it was wet. Can you blame me though? That had been one of, if not the scariest day of my life. We were told he survived by sheer force of will to live, and perfect timing. It was so close, the doctors didn’t even know if he turned or not. He woke up with a pistol in his face. Words can never describe the relief I felt that day when he swatted the pistol away and yelled at the guy holding it.
It took a bit, but my brain finally remembered that it wasn’t rehashing bad memories; we were watching this memory happen, quite literally. And perhaps most importantly, 60-80 ponies, including one of the princesses, had watched that with us. I didn’t want to, but eventually we’d need to face the ponies. I turned slowly. Didn’t look too good out there.
In a world full of peaceful, fun-loving humanoid ponies, the scene on the screen was quite the shocker, to say the least. For a large portion of them, the events were simply too much for them. Quite a few passed out, most of their bodies rejecting the contents of their stomachs before dropping. A few lucky ones didn’t have regurgitated food next to them. The children had long since run away; Burt’s chest bursting open was the end of the story for them. Even the adults had backed away from the human on stage.
But out of all the ponies, Luna looked the most terrified of all. She was visibly trembling, and her pupils had somehow shrunken to pinpoints, which in and of itself was kind of disturbing to see (just imagine that happening on a human, and you’ll see what I mean). The damp fur that clung to her forehead was evidence of heavy sweating. She was staring at Eddy, all the while slowly shaking her head. Eddy met her terrified gaze.
“And that my dear, is why you can’t scare me, no matter what you do,” he said with a grin, oddly similar to Burt. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I believe there were apple pies around here somewhere, and I’m starving!”
“Human, w-wait!” Luna called after him, but his back was already turned, and he was heading away from her.
“Nope. Hungry,” was his only reply. Just like that he left everyone, scarred and disturbed, left them to figure out how to heal that mental wound to their sanity. For fucking apple pie. He stopped in front of a special mare though, a certain unicorn with a purple coat. Guess who.
“Aww, what’s wrong Twilight?” he mocked. He reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, but the poor frightened mare would have none of that. She flinched and jumped backwards, nearly losing her balance. Rather than upset Eddy, his wicked grin only seemed to grow. “But Twilight,” he gasped, acting sarcastically surprised. “If you’re too afraid to be near me, how will you ever collect those all-too-important notes on your test subjects for Celestia?” When she didn’t respond, he chuckled, and disappeared down the road in search of that food stand.
Slowly, I trekked towards the stage. No one (the few left and conscious anyways) got in the way; in fact, they did just the opposite. A wooden ‘thunk’ sounded as I hopped up on the raised stage. The sound quickly caught Luna’s attention.
“Princess Luna,” I started kind of awkwardly. “I’m…terribly sorry for what you had to see. Eddy’s imagination is certainly wild isn’t it?” I tried a chuckle, but Luna didn’t really find it all that funny. “…Ahem, so, uhh, I noticed you were trying to tell Eddy something. Was it, you know, something one of us could answer?”
At this she looked around, though for what purpose, I had no clue. “Human, please follow me,” she said. She took my hand, leading me to a corner of town not being used by the celebration. I could still feel her trembling a bit through the hand that gripped my own. Eddy must’ve shaken her up something awful. It’ll be a miracle if we can ever show up in this town again without being run away from.
She stopped suddenly and released her grip on my hand. We stopped right under the Equestrian equivalent of a streetlight. The cast iron construction was ornate and very old-looking, and the glowing crystal inside bathed us in a white light. Something tells me however, that we didn’t come here to admire the local lamplights. Call it a hunch…
“Human, I must know,” Luna began. “Were…were any of those images real?”
“No,” I lied through my teeth. “Luna, Infected? Come on, that’s ridiculous!”
“DO NOT TRIFLE WITH ME HUMAN!” she boomed. The anger quickly dissipated, and was replaced by anxiety once again. Breathing deeply, she continued. “Human, I read his mind to pull those images; I do know where those images are coming from. They were…not imagined. They…they came from his memories.” ‘Crap, Eddy didn’t think this through all the way!’ “I will ask once more, and please, do not lie again. Were the images real?”
‘…well shit.’
