Left 4 Derpy
Chapter 5: The Way of the Subway
Bill had found a dark corner and pulled a chair up, kicking it back before dozing off. Meanwhile Louis was waiting for his turn in the bathroom, but Zoey was resilient on coming out. Francis rummaged through the boxes he had found on the Safe house’s shelves while Ditzy watched from across the table. “Come on, come on! There’s gotta be some here!”
“Whatchya’ lookin’ for, Francis?”
“Hush! I’m trying to concentrate.”
Louis rolled his eyes and turned to Ditzy. “He’s looking for the one scrap of food that lasts the longest. Pen-”
“PEANUT BUTTER,” Francis shouted as he pulled out a jar of JIFF’s. “Oh man, it’s about time I get a break!”
He hurriedly unscrewed the lid and tossed it aside before he looked inside. The excited look on his face twisted into one of confusion and rage as he vigorously shook the jar upside down. He looked inside the jar again to make sure what he saw was true. “The damn thing is empty!” the biker paused when a thought crossed his mind. “Fucking karma!”
In a feat of rage, he threw the empty peanut butter jar as hard as he could. Ditzy managed to duck before the jar could hit her in-between the eyes. The jar bounced off the adjacent wall before flying across the room and smacking into one of Bill’s closed eyes. The veteran jumped out of his nap at the sudden pain and fell out of the chair. “SON-OF-A BITCH!”
Francis pushed the box he had been rummaging through in front of Ditzy. “She did it!”
Louis face-palmed as Bill staggered to his feet. The old veteran opened his good eye and looked around to gain his bearings before spotting Francis. “I’m gonna’ KILL you!” he shouted as he lunged for the biker.
Louis rushed over and stepped in front Bill to try and stop him from slugging Francis in the jaw. “Woa woa, take it easy!”
Francis stood up suddenly to face his attacker when Ditzy flew behind him and pulled back at his shoulders. The biker tried to shrug her off, but she remained steadfast. “Come on guys, it was just an accident! I know tensions are high, but that’s no reason to kill one another!”
“Get off me you damn talking horse!”
Louis turned his head around as he continued holding back Bill. “Ditzy is right, you two. Bill, I know he hit you in the eye with a peanut butter jar, but it was an accident.”
“What about shooting that boomer, or the car? Tell me Francis, were THOSE just ‘accidents’ as well?!”
“Hey! That damn hunter from the apartments was on the van! I was trying to shoot him.”
“Then I suggest you WORK ON YOUR AIM!”
“Ok then, in that case I suggest you work on NOT BEING SO DAMN OLD!”
“Would both of you just SHUT THE HELL UP?!” Ditzy screamed at the top of her lungs, letting go of Francis in the process. Everyone immediately stopped and turned to the Pegasus in surprise at her sudden outburst. “If we all don’t work together, none of us are going to survive out there! I don’t know why either of you are making this into such a big deal! Look, we can’t function as a group if trivial things like this send you guys into a HISSY FIT! So just drop the antics, get your shit together, and let’s get to the evacuation center!”
Ditzy took several deep breaths as the three stared at her in shock. The natural adrenaline began to fade away, and the realization of what she had said kicked in. She landed on the ground before taking a few steps back. The shocked expression on her face almost matched those of the other survivors. A tear trickled down her cheek as she backed into a corner. She turned away from the three humans, and began to sob quietly to herself. What was happening to her?
The silence was broken as Zoey exited the bathroom. “Ah, much better.” Bill, Louis, and Francis turned to her with looks of shock still plastered on their faces. “…Um, did I miss something?”
Francis was the first to shake the expression from his face. “Um… yea. Your friend over there just had a mental breakdown about peanut butter, or something like that. I totally had nothing to do with it,” he said before Louis punched him in the arm.
Zoey looked to where Ditzy was curled up in the corner. “Oh no…” She walked over and knelt down beside the grey pony. “Ditzy… What’s wrong? What happened?”
Ditzy turned her head and sniffled. “I-I don’t know… I just l-lost control. I don’t know what came over me.” She turned back to the corner and shut her eyes. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s alright Ditzy, really. People just lose control from time to time. It happens to everyone.”
“N-not in Equestria it doesn’t. Everypony is nice, kind, and supportive of each other… We almost never get truly angry.”
Francis motioned like he was about to vomit, but nobody was paying attention. Zoey laid a hand on the pony, and gently began petting her. “It’s ok Ditzy; we’ll find a way to get you home.”
Ditzy sniffed as she turned back to Zoey. “Y-you promise?”
A comforting, and almost motherly smile spread across Zoey’s face. “I promise.”
Ditzy smiled and wiped a tear from her eye before she stood up. The two embraced each other in a warm hug. “…Thank you.”
The hunter leapt from rooftop to rooftop as he made his way across the vast city. He blended perfectly with his surroundings, appearing only as a deep-grey blur as he whooshed by. The only light in the skies above the city came from either the moon, or the mayhem from the streets below. He was the perfect predator.
The hunter came to a halt at the corner of a tall building that overlooked a large section of road. If his memories, which were painful to retrieve, were correct, then there was an entrance into the subway right about… there. He eyed a set of stairs leading below the city’s surface with a large red sign above it.
During his journey from the last encounter with the survivors, he had come to a discomforting conclusion. Considerably narrow tunnels were not the best place for his long-range attacks, and he knew full well that he was not going to be able to get close enough to them. But in any case, he needed to know what he had to work with before he could formulate a plan.
It didn’t take long for the Hunter to make his way down the stairs and through the station. Soon he found himself on the station’s abandoned platform, which was very dimly lit. The poor lighting did not bother the hunter, however. The infection had intensified his sight, hearing, and especially his smelling. It took him a moment to judge the direction in which the survivors were, and began moving down the tracks into the pitch-black tunnels.
The hunter stopped when he heard a familiar sobbing, and looked around him. Thanks in part to his heightened senses; he spotted the witch curled up in the middle of the tracks. An evil grin spread across his face as he thought about what the scrawny she-devil could do. After a moment of thought, he decided to wait here, near the witch, and see how well the survivors fared against her. He couldn’t make a plan, on account of there not being any zombies in the tunnels anyway.
The hunter leapt to the roof and dug his claws into the concrete. He looked down and watched the black tunnel before the witch, waiting for the survivors to fall into her trap.
It took more reassuring and some apologies from the others, except for Francis (of course), before Ditzy got over her panic-attack. After some final rummaging, they were able to find three flashlights, a fresh med-kit, and some M-60 ammunition. They decided not to bother with the ammunition, considering they didn’t even have the massive weapon it belonged to.
Once everyone was ready to go, they made their way for the door opposite from the one they had come in from. Francis gave the steel door a hard kick in an attempt to look cool, but he failed miserably as he stumbled backwards and onto the floor. “Shit!”
Zoey walked up to the door and stood above the biker as he picked himself up. “You know, it helps if you remove the brace first,” she said sarcastically as she removed a thick metal pipe that held the door shut.
“I didn’t see it there.”
“Right…”
Francis rolled his eyes as he kicked the door again out of spite from his injured pride. The door led into another empty storage room. The five of them exited the safe-house cautiously, keeping alert for any signs of zombies. Francis let out a moan as he hiked his shotgun on his shoulder. “So where the hell is the station?”
Bill continued peering into the dark room around them, not letting his guard down for an instant. “The subways should be below us. We just need to find a way down to them.”
The group was dead silent for a split second before a common infected charged out of the darkness behind them. Francis was quickest to react as he slung his shotty from his shoulder and blew the zombie in half with a well placed spread. However the shotgun’s recoil was more powerful than usual. Francis stumbled backwards for a second before he tripped over something in the dark, resulting in a loud thud as he landed on his back.
Before he could try and regain himself, the floor began cracking around him. Bill and the others watched as Francis and the section of floor he landed on collapsed into a room below them. Neon light and dust rose from the hole while Francis groaned loudly. Bill kept a steady footing as he walked over and peered down at the biker. “You ok?”
“Fucking karma,” Francis mumbled as he recovered from the wind getting knocked from him. “Does it look like I’m ok?”
“Well you’re not dead, so I’d say yes.”
“…I don’t think I can move.”
Bill rolled his eyes as the others gathered around the hole. “That’s just the shock, Francis. Walk it off.”
“I just fell through a floor! How am I supposed to walk that off?!”
“Well, first you stand up…”
“You know what? Just shut up, Bill.”
The old veteran chuckled to himself. “Well you asked.”
Ditzy leapt down the hole, flapping her wings a few times to hover in the air above the sprawled out biker. “Here, let me help you,” she said as she held out a hoof.
Francis sneered at first, but the look lightened a bit as he reluctantly grabbed the hoof. With a quick flap of wings and a gust of air, he found himself standing upright again. “I could have done it myself.”
“But you wouldn’t have to work so hard if you let someone else help out every once in a while,” Ditzy retorted with a kind tone of voice.
Francis opened his mouth as if to make a snappy comeback, but he suddenly couldn’t think of one. To his surprise, she was completely right. Why didn’t he let anyone help? But his gruff thinking kicked back in before he could question himself anymore. He didn’t let anyone help because he didn’t need help. Not getting help only made him more of a badass. He shut his mouth without a word, and glared at the grinning pony.
The silence was interrupted as Louis dropped down in-between the two. “Great goin’ Francis, you found the subway!”
“Huh?”
“Look,” Louis continued as he pointed down the hallway to a flight of stairs. “The platform is just down there! Come on you guys, let’s go!”
“Um, yea… I meant to do that.” Francis did his best to put on a triumphant face, despite his pain.
The others hopped through the hole one by one, making sure not to accidentally land on each other. Once everyone was ready, or recovered, in Francis’s case, they made their way cautiously towards the flight of stairs. Bill found the quiet very discomforting. He had been expecting many more zombies being down here…
The stairs turned to the left half way down, and the group stopped to look over the room before them. There were two rows of turnstiles that ran from where the stairs stopped, all the way to the adjacent wall. On the opposite sides of the turnstiles were stairs leading up to station platforms on both sides of the train tracks. The station to the right had collapsed into the lobby, leaving only a massive pile of rubble on the other side of its turntables. Luckily for the group the opposite station, the one they needed to take, had not collapsed.
…Oh and there were dozens of common infected wandering about the lobby and the stairs. The five companions gave one another a quick glance and nodded before readying each of their secondary weapons. Francis got his bat, Ditzy unsheathed her sword, Bill borrowed one of Zoey’s pistols, and Louis brought out a crowbar. Louis loved crowbars on account of all the Half Life he played.
With another silent nod to each other, the group rushed down the stairs into the unsuspecting mass of zombies. Francis was the first to strike, sending a zombie head flying across the room. Their attention drawn, several of the zombies turned to the attackers. Their slow wits took a bit to comprehend the enemy, and by that time several had been bashed, sliced, or shot.
Once the concept finally snapped into their brains, the remaining zombies began rushing towards the survivors. They did not think tactics, nor did they even think about their own harm as they ran mindlessly to their own demise.
After no more than five minutes of blood-splattering combat, the survivors had cleared the room of every single zombie. Just another easy killing spree, and one that didn’t leave them any worse for wear aside from a few fresh bloodstains either. With that obstacle out of the way, the group crossed the turnstiles and began making their way up to the station.
Ditzy sheathed her sword and looked back at the mess they had made. “You know… I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I’m getting the hang of this.”
Bill handed Zoey her pistol back. “That’s good, I suppose.” He mentally grimaced at what all this might be doing to the alleged innocence of the pony. “…At least your chances of surviving are increasing. Practice makes perfect, huh?”
“Yea, I suppose,” she continued. A worried expression began to spread on her face. “I hope my little muffin is alright…” She trailed off as the thought of her loving filly. Although she missed being with her daughter, she was glad Dinky wasn’t here. Celestia knows how something like this could affect the poor thing’s life.
“…your little muffin?” Bill looked down to her with a quizzical look on his face.
“Oh,” Ditzy began as her thoughts returned to the present. “She is my daughter. Her name is Dinky, but we like to have fun and play around with nicknames sometimes. …Someplace along the way I guess I got used to calling her ‘my little muffin’”
“Is that so…”
“What’s she like,” Zoey asked.
“Oh, she’s a sweet girl. Her magic lessons in school are going very well, and…” She paused, aware of the bewildered looks she was receiving. “…Oh right, I forgot to tell you she was a unicorn.”
Even Francis’s jaw dropped as the statement, though he regained his composure when his human version of logic kicked in. “Pfft, that’s ridiculous. Magic doesn’t exist, and unicorns are even less real. Besides, wouldn’t she be a pega-whatever like you? Unless…” he paused, thinking up a scenario. “Aw damn. I can’t even begin to imagine the party that happened at! Oh hey, does she have screwy eyes like you do?” He chuckled to himself.
The group stopped and looked back at him with very unamused expressions. Francis just began laughing. All of a sudden a breeze came out of nowhere, causing him to lose his balance and tumble down the stairs. He landed face-first on the floor at the bottom as everyone else burst into laughter.
“Fuck you karma,” he muttered to himself as he tried to pick himself up. No sooner had he finished standing up, a ceiling tile came loose and shattered across his head. It did no real damage, but it did fuel the bikers growing hatred of this invisible force working against him.
Francis pointed up to the group and gritted his teeth, trying his best not to lose his cool. “Not a fucking word.”
The others shrugged simultaneously before turning back around with grins on their faces. Francis began trudging back up the stairs to catch up. Maybe he really should just keep his mouth shut?
Once they all reached the top of the stairs, they beheld a very grim sight. A subway train had somehow lost control and derailed. They could see crashed train cars for a long distance down the tunnel; some overturned, and others still upright, but not on their designated tracks. Aside from the light of burning sections of train, the tunnel was completely pitch black.
“Let me guess,” Louis began, “That’s the way we need to go.”
“You got it,” Bill responded as he clicked on the light attached to his rifle.
“Who knows how many of em’ might be down there!”
“True… but it’s not like we have much of a choice, is it?”
“…I suppose not. But still, we can’t know what to expect in there.”
“Then be on your upmost guard and stay alert.”
Everyone else nodded and clicked on their lights, except for Ditzy. She searched herself for any kind of light, but to no avail. She wouldn’t have this kind of problem if she had been a unicorn. “Um… Can anyone spare a light?”
The others thought for a second before Zoey pulled out one of the flashlights from the safe-house. She tried turning it on, but nothing happened. It didn’t take her long to change out the batteries though, and it lit up the second time she turned it on.
Zoey was about to hand it to Ditzy, but paused when a thought hit her. The pony couldn’t hold a flashlight AND a sword in her mouth at the same time, should they run into trouble. Zoey thought for a second before getting an idea. “I have an idea. I could strap it to your side, so you wouldn’t have to worry about holding it. All you would have to do is turn it on.”
“Sounds good to me,” Ditzy replied with a grin. Zoey knelt down beside the pony, and taped the flashlight to the outside of the sword’s strap. Once finished, Ditzy rotated her shoulder to make sure it wasn’t irritating. She gave Zoey another big grin in acknowledgment of her helpful act.
“You ready,” Bill asked.
“Eeyup,” Ditzy replied, trying her best to mimic Applejack’s big brother.
Bill gave her a nod. “Everyone else ready?”
“Um…” Francis rubbed the back of his neck. “…You sure it’s a good idea to go in there?”
“Don’t tell me you’re afraid of the dark!”
“Well no, it’s just… I don’t feel comfortable not being able to see when there is an invisible force trying to kill you.”
“Well if it’s already invisible, then it doesn’t matter whether or not its light or dark, does it?”
“…Good point.”
“So I’ll say again, are we all ready?”
Everyone nodded and readied their weapons in case any unseen enemies pop out from the wreckage. The group hopped down onto the destroyed track, following the first car that was lying on its side across the opposite set of tracks. They continued making their way around the wreckage as they progressed down the wide tunnel. The last car was still on the tracks, resting inside the next section of tunnel which was considerably narrower. The sudden shrink in width made it impossible to squeeze around the train car. As they approached, they noticed an armor plated door that had been attached to the car’s frame.
“Strange,” Bill began, “Never would have expected a subway car to be a safe-house. Well, we don’t exactly need to stop, so let’s grab what we can and keep moving.”
What the group found inside the train car was a surprise to say the least. There was enough weapons and ammunition lying on the car’s seats to supply an army squad. In fact, most of the weaponry was military-grade equipment.
Francis picked up an M-60 and eyed the huge gun. “Damn, impressive! Shame you decided not to bring that ammunition along from the last safe-house, eh Bill?”
“Well we can’t go back now. How much ammo does it have?”
“An entire clip; 160 shots.”
“That’ll sure come in handy, should the need arise.”
“You’re tellin’ me…” Francis strapped the massive weapon to his back as the others gathered what ammo fit their weapons.
While everyone else was busy with their weapons, Ditzy was left to sit and watch. She sat in front of a broken window at the back of the car, looking out into the blackness they were going to venture into. As she stared into the darkness, she suddenly heard a soft moaning coming from down the tunnel. Her ears perked up to try and hear the sound better. It sounded like… crying? In the middle of a dark subway tunnel with nobody else around?
…Although, when she thought about it, the idea was quite scary. She could easily understand why someone would be scared and crying if they found themselves in these tunnels, especially if they were alone. After all, she knew what that felt like at times. A knot formed in her stomach as she grew worried about the crying person. Ditzy hopped into the dark tunnel, feelings of concern and worry filling her mind. Not only did she forget the group, but Bill’s advice on special infected as well…
Surprisingly, Francis was the first one to notice Ditzy’s absence from the train car. He noticed the broken window at the back of the train and stuck his head out, listening for any signs of the pony. He did not hear Ditzy. Instead, he heard the cries of a witch off in the distance. His eyes widened at his discovery of one of the most dangerous special infected. Then a thought crossed his mind. Ditzy wouldn’t have gone off to see if it was a survivor, right? Didn’t Bill explain the witch to her in that hour long pep-talk back at the apartments?
Francis looked back out into the blackness, trying desperately to see any signs of Ditzy. Suddenly, very far down the tunnel, a flashlight clicked on and began bobbing up and down. This was his chance… Knowing the door’s noise would alert the others, Francis climbed silently out the window after Ditzy.
Ditzy had almost forgotten her flashlight too, but the pitch-blackness had reminded her. It bobbed up and down slightly as she walked, it being attached to her shoulder, but it still did its job just as well. She had been walking for what felt like an hour now, though it was most likely mere minutes. The crying was growing louder as she approached a turn in the tunnel. Whoever was crying should be just around the corner…
As she rounded the turn, Ditzy saw a scrawny figure sitting in the middle of the tracks. It was hunched over and leaned back and forth as it cried out into the empty tunnel. Ditzy gulped before taking another cautious step towards the figure. “H-hello? A-… Are you alright?”
The witch stopped swaying instantly and let out a surprised gasp. Ditzy froze at the figure’s sudden movement, pausing before she tried speaking again. “I… I’m here to help…”
The figure turned its head to the pony, revealing a set of demonic red eyes and a bony face. Ditzy’s blood ran cold as her gaze met its. Suddenly, Bill’s ‘friendly advice’ from earlier popped back into her head. This thing was a witch, and it would attack if you shined a light on it. …And Ditzy’s flashlight was shining right in its eyes.
The witch outstretched an arm to the ground, propping the infected as it stood up slowly. Ditzy looked away from the demon’s eyes and to its long, sharp claws. She gulped again as she looked back to the rest of its body, which was not in a pre-sprint stance. The two found themselves at a standoff.
Ditzy didn’t want to turn tail and dash, fearing it was too fast and would catch her. Then again, there was no way she could possibly fight it. Maybe if she- Without warning, it lashed forward at the pony. Ditzy didn’t have enough time to react, barely managing to turn away before it could slice her face open. She sharpened claws did not slice her face, but they did not miss her entirely.
The claws cut through the duck taped flashlight before slicing into her flesh. They cut deep into her side, just below her wings. The claws went so deep they scraped against her ribcage, however they did not damage the bones or the precious organs concealed inside them. Pain unlike anything Ditzy had ever felt, or even imagined possible, cut into her sharper than the claws themselves.
She collapsed, crippled from incomprehensible pain. Her mind panicked, overloading itself beyond comprehension. She was barely able to look up to the witch as it raised its second claw. This time, it was aiming directly for her jugular. Ditzy couldn’t run away, she couldn’t defend herself, she couldn’t do anything.
Suddenly, a light flashed on, making the witch recoil. It let out a shrill shriek as it turned its gaze to whoever was behind Ditzy before what sounded like a chain of explosions echoed from behind her. The loud noises pounded her eardrums, adding onto the already intense pain of her bleeding out.
She watched as the witch was cut apart by dozens of invisible bullets, spraying blood everywhere. The witch’s head exploded as a bullet cut through it. The explosive gunfire ceased as the witch’s remains fell backwards to the ground. Ditzy craned her head back as best she could to see who had rescued her. She saw a blurred outline of a person standing above her as her vision began to fade into blackness. The last thing she heard before the blackness enclosed around her was “We’re even.”