//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Logs // Story: The Last of My Kind // by Immortan Joe //------------------------------// Research Log #1 “Is this thing working? Ah, yes! Yes it is–ahem... As a few of you may know, my name is Dr. James Reynolds; I’m the chief epidemiologist for the SOL Virus, not only that I even dabbled a bit into pathology. The year is October 12th, 2038. Whomever is watching this you’re probably wondering why I’m not in my cocoon like everyone else, well, there’s a simple answer to that. There’s no point. My job, which was given to me by the President herself, is to find the cure for the SOL Virus, and God be damned I’m going to do it. Just because we lost communications with the White House doesn’t mean I’m going to huddle under my sheets and pray the monster goes away. People, that’s if I succeed there’ll be people watching this, you won’t be around if I don’t find a cure. Already I think I’m onto something–” “Dr. Reynolds, I advise you resort to your cocoon. I’ll be filtering out the air shortly.” “How soon are we talking here?” “Two minutes, sir.” “Ugh, alright. Reynolds out–” –– Research Log #2 “Alright, just reposition the camera.... and perfect! Ahem! Judging Glenn’s records the date seems to be January 1st, 10015... damn. That’s a pretty long time... I didn’t wake up till a few hours ago. Unlike the others I set my timer to only about ten thousand years or so–I forgot the exact date. So the others are still asleep and will remain that way for another eighty thousand years. So why am I awake? Again I vowed my entire life to solving the issue with the SOL Virus. Though judging by the fact I can’t get a bloody signal with the surface, humanity was either destroyed or they forgot about us... That’s not something I wish to think about. Reynolds out." –– Research Log #3 “Date today is June 15th, 12038. I went back down for another long nap after making no progress whatsoever with the project. No matter how many times I test it, the virus constantly seems to be evolving at a sporadic rate unlike anything I’ve seen before; it’s entirely alien. No pun intended. Every medicine ranging from Anthrax, Adenovirus, anything I can get my hands on. Even if it’s meant for it or not, I need results! And results I did receive, they were all negative, the SOL Strain wasn’t even phased. Quite honestly, after all this time I still don’t even know what the SOL Strain is. Yet it is a virus, or is it not? Honestly it isn’t even a virus! Reason why I say this is because, unlike all other viruses, it can reproduce itself sexually with other organisms of its breed. When you look at the books it really falls under the definition of bacteria or maybe even a protist–something that can reproduce without destroying other beings! I’m sorry... just frustrated that’s all. So why do people call it a virus? Well it started off with the general public and scared politicians. From what I recall we didn’t know what it was, and we still don’t. What a lot of people think when they hear ‘virus’ is a fast spreading disease, which is surely what this falls under. The virus replicates itself and spreads at a speed unlike anything I’ve seen, so fast in fact that it’s hard to track. Not only that, viruses are genetically programmed to usually attack one or more kind of cells specifically. Whereas with this disease... we don’t even know what it goes after. And without any form of test subject I’m unable to run any tests. Maybe I could wake up Chloe again? Nah, I’ll leave her be, she’s been through a lot. I’ll go check on Eva, perhaps she can help me. Reynolds out.” –– Research Log #4 pt. 1 “Oh fuck... oh sweet Jesus, what the hell happened? Fuck... just-just give me a minute... ... This is Chief Epidemiologist, James Reynolds... Over the past couple years something terrible has slipped under our radar: Dr. Osai and John Adams passed away due to dehydration during their rest. I don’t know when, and I don’t know how. Something must of malfunctioned with the cocoon or Glenn ‘forgot’–and I say that lightly–to activate the machine before pumping the serum into them. Ah fuck... I’m sorry. My mind as you can see is out of it today... Uh... the date... yeah. The date. Today’s the 14th of April, 12045, I haven’t slept that long... shit–I still can’t believe they’re gone. Eva, John... fuck man. I checked on Chloe, the poor girl is still fine and sound asleep. I can’t even begin to imagine how she’s going to react to this news, her and Eva... they l-loved each other s-so–m-my apologies... Excuse me–” Research Log #4 pt. 2 “......... I’m sorry about that... things should be better now. I went and shortened Chloe’s wake up time to 3991 years after I checked on everything in her room. Something seems to be wrong with the filtration system, I don’t know exactly what but small amounts of oxygen is leaking in faster than Glenn is filtering it out. Hopefully Chloe will be able to wake up before any of the corrosion takes effect and kills her too. Speaking of which... Chloe, if you see this recording in the future. I’m sorry. I’m so terribly sorry... I can’t even begin to imagine what you’re going through. Believing that I abandoned you or left the others to die when I could’ve woken them up. And really... I can’t blame you. Of all the times you three were asleep and I was awake, I had plenty of opportunities to figure out that something wasn’t right. But I didn’t. Instead I was too focused on finding a damned cure for a species that is practically extinct... I apologize, I shouldn’t say that. What I’m trying to get at here is that... is that you shouldn’t blame yourself. Instead you should blame me for not realizing this sooner. I don’t blame you for getting angry or wanting to punch me in the face. I completely understand that. ..... Reynolds out.” –– Research Log #5 “Another thousand years have flown by and I’ve still found jack shit on the virus. To make matters worse I haven’t found out why Adam and Eva’s rooms rusted away. What’s leaking oxygen into the vault? Not only that, look at this! I’m losing my goddamn hair! I shouldn’t joke about that, Chloe. We have bigger problems, you’ve probably noticed it already too. The embryos are dying. The cooling vault is well... warming up, at a very slow rate. I don’t know who fucking designed this place, but whoever they are, they did a piss poor job. Over the past thirty years the temperature in the embryo chamber rose up about thirty degrees. This isn’t good at all, Chloe. I need to figure out what’s causing this, but unfortunately I’m not an engineer like Adams was so it may be a while till I find something. Reynolds out.” –– Research Log #6 Date is August 5th 14067 (Cough! Cough!) “Ugh, dammit... before you say anything, Chlo, yes I aged... a lot. Matter of fact, biologically I’ve just turned 73 today, I believe my last log I was 58 years old. Heh... I’m sorry it’s been awhile, Chlo. As you can see, I did a little moving. I’m no longer in our vault. Strange I know. I had moved about three hundred kilometers north to the Kenway Emergency Vault. It’s a lot smaller I’ll give you that, but at least the filtering system isn’t going haywire. Luckily I was able to save one of the population bombs. I transferred it here in one of the containment coolers, fucking bastard was heavy... no way an old man like myself now can carry that thing. As of now though I have them stored away in the freezer cooler a couple hundred feet below. Right now I don’t plan on activating it until I finish my research on the cure for the SOL ‘Pathogen’. I’ll no longer be calling it a virus due to it being a false title. Heh, speaking of which look at this. Come here buddy, come here, don’t be shy. Ahha! Look at this baby! I found me a rat outside and captured it, the little bastard was quick but I got em alright! Now I know what you’re thinking, PETA would be very upset with what I’m going to do with him. And you’re right! I’m sorry, Mickey, but I’m about to inject you with a disease that wiped out 99 percent of my species. Heh, that’s really fucked up. Anyhow, I’ll be injecting Mickey here and running multiple scans and MRIs on him. I’ll be doing this because rats biologically are really close to humans, and as you can see, Chlo. Ninety nine percent of our species is gone yet the rat population seems unphased, quite honestly a vast majority of species seem to be unphased. So why was it that only we humans and the marine life were affected? Well, that’s what I’m going to go find out now. Reynold’s out.” –– Research Log #7 “Holy fucking shit... I don’t even know where to begin. Two weeks have passed since my last log and the starting of my experiments and... shit. Chlo, we were wrong; this entire time you, I, everyone that lived on this goddamn planet! WE WERE WRONG! It’s not a virus, nor is it a bacteria. It’s a goddamn parasite! But it’s no ordinary parasite. It’s synthetic. After further analysis I was finally able to segregate a single one of these pests from the rest and shove it under my electron-microscope. And by God what I saw was truly astounding, Chloe, take a look at this. Looks just like a protist, right? Guess what? It isn’t. It’s a machine, or is the better word nanobot? Really it’s just a nanite that’s mainly made up of alien tissue, which is most likely a cover up and explains why we haven’t figured this out sooner. Not that discovering it would have helped us get any closer to a cure, but it would solve a lot of questions, yet raise new ones. Clearly, Chloe, whoever made this is not human. It also doesn’t explain why such a race would develop something like this and destroy us with it, that is if it was their intention to destroy. Let alone if it was, why aren’t they here? During my trip to the Kenway vault I have not seen a single soul, even the birds and bugs were quiet. It was quite unsettling. So the SOL Virus was never anything biological afterall. But I still can’t help but ask myself, why did it only target us humans and fish? Reynolds Out.” –– Research Log #8 “Three weeks later and boy, Chlo, do I have some interesting news for you. I’ve finally done it, I’ve actually figured out why the Human Race was wiped out! I know this is something I shouldn’t sound excited about, but for the past fourteen thousand years this has been eating away at me. We were never sick to begin with. This explains why medicine never worked, why vaccinations always failed. It’s because we weren't’ sick! I know this sounds weird and probably doesn’t make sense, but hear me out. I finally injected Mickey with the nanites! If you don’t remember Mickey’s my rat. And boy, hoho-boy! Things got interesting. I’m talking super interesting. During the time of injection I had Mickey in for an MRI, I recorded the entire process. Every ounce of information at the slowest speed I could get. The results were phenomenal. The nanites don’t attack anything, Chloe, they don’t. They’re like little construction workers is what they are. Immediately the nanites swam up Mickey’s blood stream and went directly into his brain where they began to take it apart piece by piece. I’m not a professional in neurology but I can tell you this isn’t natural, it was as if the nanites were deconstructing and then reconstructing the brain in their own image. The process took exactly two hours, the whole time Mickey acted as if he was dying of a flu. Sneezing, puking, panting like a hot dog, the rat just couldn't take it. When it was over though, he was still alive and the nanites perished. I was shocked, completely bewildered. An hour passed and Mickey finally got up–on two legs. The rat began to pace around like some sort of Bond villain... ugh, what the fuck am I saying. Here take a look. See his cage is right here–what the fuck? Why is the cage open?! Did I leave it open? Where did he go... ah shit! Sorry, Chloe, but I got to go. Reynolds Out.” :[-]: The screen on the monitor went black and I sat back in my chair. My eyes were bleary and damp with fresh tears, I reached up with a hand to dry them out. After doing so I leaned forward in my seat and rested my elbows on my knees and hung my head forward with my eyes clenched shut. “Dammit!” I groaned, I raised my head and glared at the monitor. “Why did you leave me here?!” I reached up and grasped the side of the screen and glared at myself through the reflection on the dark glass. My eyebrows were at a sharp angle and my eyes burned with rage. “Why?!” Off of the reflection I saw Quartz make her way up beside me. “Perhaps he didn’t want you to suffer through what he’s gone through?” “Like you’d know,” I mumbled. “I don’t know,” Quartz replied, “matter of fact I don’t know anything about you.” She cast her eyes to the break room walls, she looked over at the kitchen. “I don’t know what any of this is to be honest.” I sighed and slumped in my seat. “Then why do you care?” I grumbled. “Because you look hurt,” Crystal’s voice came from behind me, I poked my head out from behind the chair and looked over at the bandaged pony. “And if there’s anything I learned from Quartz, it’s to help ponies who look to be in distress.” “Thanks, but no thanks.” I brought my head back behind the chair and looked at the monitor. “You guys already helped me as it is, there’s nothing else you can do.” “Now don’t say that!” Quartz got even closer to me, like uncomfortably close, she was practically climbing onto the chair like an overly social dog. “There has to be something we can help you with.” “Yeah like keeping you company!” Crystal added. “Who else is going to stitch you up the next time you fall over?” I lowered my head and gently closed my eyes, I released a quiet breath. Though it didn't look like it, I was touched. These creatures didn’t even know who or what I was aside from the title “human” and the name “Chloe” yet they were devoting themselves to help me. In a way it was kind of creepy, yet also kind of cute, they reminded me of a child who really wanted to help their mother cook dinner. The mom knows that the second she hands the girl the mixer, things were about to get messy, and that’s exactly how I felt. If I let these guys stay, things might not turn out so well. However, I was afraid that if I let them go, I myself won’t last long. “Thank you,” I said quietly. “What?” Quartz tilted her head at me. I raised my head and smiled lightly at her. I reached out with a hand and ruffled her long mane, the pony yelped and clenched her eyes close. Her nose wrinkled back and she frowned as a red blush seeped through her coat. “What are you deaf?” I chuckled and scratched behind her ears, Quartz squeaked and bit her bottom lip. “I said thank you.” I looked back at Crystal. “I’m happy you’re both here.” I took my hand off the Quartz’s head she opened her eyes, blinked, and looked at me with a confused face. I grinned. “What? Never been petted befo–” “Ah, yes. This is quite fascinating.” A posh feminine voice came from the monitor in front of me. Looking back at it I saw that another video had started playing. On screen I saw a very old man with in a lab coat, he had an eye patch over one eye, and a beard at a length that’d put Rapunzel's hair to shame. His body took up much of the webcam’s footage, while his hand rested on a computer mouse clicking a few things and muttering to himself. “It’s alright.” Reynold’s deep raspy voice replied to the unseen woman. “How long has this been down here?” An equally posh girl yet much younger sounding asked. “Over fourteen thousand years, maybe slightly longer than I have.” Reynolds stepped back from the webcam and sat down, allowing me a full sight of him. Compared to the last video he has aged even more since then, possibly another fifteen years, the man looked as if he was in his late eighties early nineties. “Thou hath lived longer than our mother?!” the unseen girl exclaimed. Reynolds looked at the camera, grinned, and winked at it with his one eye. ‘I wonder what happened to his other eye?’ The old man spun around in his chair, allowing us to only see the back side of his seat. “You’re talking about that white alicorn with the red hair right?” “You met her?” the older woman asked. I saw Reynolds arms raise up from behind the chair in a shrug. “We spoke a few times and had some tea together, about it.” My eyebrows knitted and I leaned towards the screen with a frown. ‘What the hell are they talking about?’ “Is that guy in the box talking about who I think he’s talking about?” Crystal hovered in the air behind me, she leaned over my shoulder and looked at the screen. “I think he’s talking to the princesses,” Quartz mumbled she too was getting up right next to me and leaning towards the screen. “But they sound so young.” I took my confusion away from the screen and towards the ponies. “What are you guys talking about?” “Really? You had spoken with our mother?” “Of course I have; even immortal goddesses get curious when they hear there’s something older than them.” Reynolds laughed. “Wait a second,” I said, “are you guys implying he’s talking to other ponies?” Quartz’s head tilted slightly. “Well who else could he be talking to. I heard him mention the princess’s mother so he has to be.” “Is there anymore of your kind?” the older voice asked. “Yes.” I raised an eyebrow at that. “Though there aren't many of us left. Sergeant Rockwell and his men are out on a mission as of now. So it’ll be awhile till you hear from them.” My heart rammed against my chest. ‘Sergeant Rockwell? His men? There were other people who made it besides me and Reynolds?!’ “However,” Reynolds continued, “We do have a breeding center down stairs if you’d like to check out the young ones.” “Oh, Tia, could we?” The young one asked excitedly. A light chuckle admitted from off screen. “Of course we can, Luna.” Reynolds clapped his hands together. “Alright then, if you two could please head out the door. I’ll be right with you in a minute.” I could hear the distinct sound of clopping hooves followed by a sliding door, when I heard it close Reynolds spun to face the camera. “Sorry about that, Chloe,” He said, “I wasn’t expecting the Queen’s daughters to come waltzing in here.” He Rolled his eyes. “Well like last week, I’ve learned nothing about how the nanites control ‘magic’–” “Whoa, what?!” I rose up from my chair, my left shoulder nearly clocked Crystal in her chin. “Last week? I don’t have anything from–did we miss something?” I paused the video and opened up my inbox, nope this was it. The last one that was sent. “Wait, what’s going on?” Crystal asked. My mind raced a million miles an hour.”I-I don’t know, apparently I’m missing out on a lot more messages. When did he ever state that the SOL Strain controls ‘magic’?” “Perhaps he forgot to send the others?” Quartz suggested. “Or the mail pony hasn’t delivered them yet,” Crystal added. I blew out a wave of hot air and sat back down. “Goddammit.” “Maybe if we just wait–” “No.” I said and turned off the monitor. I got up from my chair and went over to the kitchen, my stomach had started to rumble once again. I opened the fridge, everything was gone. ‘Reynolds must’ve dumped everything after he woke up and saw they were all bad.’ However, there were a few things that still remained, a ton of packed MREs the U.S. Government left for us, just in case. I reached in for the nearest one and dragged it out along with a stack of others that slid out and fell onto the floor. I didn’t bother to pick them up. I tossed the bag on the counter and tore a knife out of a nearby kitchen drawer and sliced the top of the bag open. Meanwhile the two ponies by the computer gave me odd looks. “You mean we aren’t waiting?” Crystal asked. “Exactly,” I said tipping, the MRE belongings onto the counter. ‘Lucky me, an omelet.’ It wasn’t the first time I’ve eaten an MRE. Before being tossed up down here during the epidemic, I took refuge in a military camp on the outskirts of Philadelphia. I won’t talk much about my experience except for this: don’t ever chew the gum. “There’s no way in hell I’m going to sit around here waiting for a damn message.” I glanced at the heat pack and tossed it aside. I felt there wasn’t enough time to eat warm food. I opened the omelet package, thankfully it wasn’t a frozen brick. “After I’m done here I’m heading to the surface and finding out where Reynolds is.” “Hold on a second?” Quartz walked over to the counter right as I took a bite out of my cold omelet. It tasted awful but that was the least of my worries. “We don’t even know where he is.” “I do,” I said with a mouth full of egg, I swallowed. “The Kenway vault is a couple hundred kilometers north of here. It’ll take a while, but we’ll get there.” At the sound of the last part Crysta’s ears perked up and immediately hopped on board with me. “Even then,” The pegasus took flight and landed on top of the counter, knocking a few of the MRE’s condiment supply onto the floor, “he was talking to the Princesses, if worse comes to worse we can always ask them.” Quartz’s jaw nearly struck the floor. “Like that’ll ever happen! Do you know how hard it is to make an audience with them?” Crystal rolled her eyes and stuck both of her forelegs out to me. “Look at her, Quartz, she’s an alien! The second we take her into town we’ll be drawing attention from everypony!” Quartz closed her eyes and shook her head. “I don’t know if that’s good or bad.” I took another large bite out of my omelet and chewed it. “Even then.” I swallowed. “You heard the recording, if Reynolds being fourteen thousand years old caught the attention of a Queen.” A large smile came to my face and I leaned towards the ponies. “Wait till they hear my age.” :[-]: “SIXTEEN THOUSAND?!” Crystal nearly fainted at the number I had given her, she fell off the counter. I blinked, then frowned. “He-hey! I’m not that old!” “Like tartarus you aren’t!” She clambered back onto the metal surface and jammed a hoof in my direction. “You’re older than both princesses combined!” I rolled my eyes and bent back over. Grabbing another MRE, I straightened myself out and tossed it into a trash bag. For the record, I’m not throwing out the food, the trash bag was the first thing I could think of in terms of lugging around my belongings. Originally when I first came to the vault I did have few cases and a book bag. Unfortunately I had left those items in Eva’s room after our last night together when we slept together. If you haven’t guessed it yet, they decomposed with her. “Here you go.” Quartz said as she placed a large bag full of clothing and food beside me. “I gathered whatever I thought of that could be useful to you.” I smiled and gave her a small nod. “Thanks.” I grabbed the bag and hoisted it up, the bottom of it ripped open and tons of shoes, wrenches, MRE packs, and nails spilled onto the floor. “Jesus, what the?!” My eyes widened and I stared down at the mess at my feet. “S-sorry!” Quartz blurted, Crystal fell back off the counter, this time out of laughter. “I said anything that could be useful!” I shouted, groaning I got onto one knee and started to carefully pick out the useful bits while trying to avoid pricking myself on the nails. “I’m sorry,” Quartz grumbled and got down beside me to help, “it’s just that I don’t know exactly what you need.” “It’s fine,” I said, “I’ll try and be more specific next time.” Quartz nodded her head and used her magic to levitate a few MREs over to me. I plucked them out of the air and set them aside. Looking back at her, I reached out and scratched her behind the ear. The ponies eyes widened at the sudden touch and I noticed a deep crimson bleeding through her coat. She recoiled back. “What are you doing?” she asked. My gut wrenched and I blushed. “Oh uhm, sorry... just some kind of side habit.” I turned back to the work at hand. “I’ll try not to do it.” Quartz looked at me, her cheeks still flushed, it was pretty adorable. I glanced at her to which she quickly looked away. “Next time,” she said, “just give me a heads up.” I sat there for a few seconds, then smiled. “Will do.” “Ugh, what’s taking you guys so long?” Crystal asked, looking down on us from up on the counter. “I dunno,” I muttered, “blame your friend, she’s the reason for the mess.” “Wh-what?!” Quartz glared at me, her once cute features gone. “You’re the one who picked the bag up.” “But you’re the one who treated it like Santa’s sack!” I retorted. Both ponies looked at me confused. “What?” I curled my lips back. “Uh...” I started working again. “It’s a human thing.” Both ponies shared a look with one another and shrugged. “Anyhow, Crystal, why don’t you come down here and help?” Crystal laid her barrel on the countertop and let her fore legs dangle over the edge. “Well I would and all, but... you see I have a problem. You have magic, she has those finger things, I on the other hoof have, well.... hooves.” Just to emphasize her point she raised her fore legs up. I then added; “There’s also no way in Hell I’m letting her mouth touch any of my stuff.” Quartz rolled her eyes then. “Okay, could you at least bring the wagon closer to the entrance so we can load this stuff up?” Crystal pursed her lips and tilted her head. “Well you see, I don’t know my way out of–” “Glenn,” I said. “Yes, M’lady?” “Could you please help guide this pony out of the vault.” “Certainly, Pony, if you could please make your way out the nearest entrance to the hall that’d be most valuable.” Crystal frowned and let off a deep breath. “Alright, I’ll go.” “Thank you.” Quartz said turning her head to smile at me. “Nice thinking.” I shrugged. “What can I say, she was kinda getting on my nerves too.” The unicorn chuckled. “She has that effect on ponies.” “And humans alike...” I trailed off. “Well I should really say ‘human’.” “I bet there’s another one of your kind out there who’ll just, if not equally, be annoyed of her as we are.” Quartz giggled. “But that’s what makes her so likeable in my respect.” I finished bagging the last MRE and stood up, I tied the bag and slung it over my shoulders. It had a decent weight to it, nothing I couldn’t handle. That is if my right leg wasn’t in a state of agony. I gritted my teeth. “You ready?” I asked the mare. She nodded and levitated two full bags into the air. “Whenever you are.” I smirked. “Let's get going then.” :[-]: Quartz and I tossed my luggage into the back of the wagon. With a small amount of help from the unicorn, I climbed into the back with my things. The ponies hopped up next to me. All three of us now sat in the back of the wagon with no one up front to pull it. I glanced around genuinely confused. “Okay what?” Crystal raised her one visible eyebrow to me. “What?” She asked. “Who’s going to pull the wagon?” I gestured to the front of the wagon. “Do you guys have like horses or something?” Crystal’s eyebrow looked as if it was raising even higher. “You mean like a pair of stallions?” “Something like that, yeah.” Quartz sighed. “Would you two just give me a second, I’m in the middle of preparing the spell.” I looked over at her. “Spell? What spell is this?” “This one.” She smiled wide and her horn flashed a bright green. Seconds later a wind picked up around us as leaves and twigs began to assemble themselves before us. Like glue, I could see tree sap coming from all angles, latching itself between and around what looked like forming joints, hardening itself so that the pieces would mend together. I watched this magical construction with utter disbelief and a small bit of horror. Seconds later all of my apprehension was turned entirely into fear as two really large wolves, that were made entirely out of wood, stood before us. Their eyes glowed an ominous green, their jowls leaked tree sap, their teeth were crooked splinters, and their fur was made of moss. “Y-you cr-created a-a-a literal timber wolf,” I stammered, beginning to push myself towards the rear of the wagon. “Indeed I did.” Quartz got up and placed the tip of her hoof in her mouth, she then whistled into it and both sets of ears on the wolves perked up. “Alright, boys! Next stop is Ponyville, now git moving!”