Nightmare to Earth

by bobdat

Introduction: Nightmare to Earth

“Welcome to Fox News, this is bsssssszszssskkkkrrr New York City. We're reporting live on the new Brony phenomenon – a craze, a fad, or something more bssszkzzz...”

“Tonight on BBC News at Ten; the triumphant return of the space mission sent to the moon. Princess Luna has touched down on Earth and seems to be doing bsssssssszksssks...”

“Our investigative journalists have infiltrated deep into the Princess' secret cult, with shocking bbbsbssssssssssskkkrrr having difficulties resisting the mind control.”

“Hsssssssskskssssss ninth country has officially left the United Nations in favour of the now-infamous Moon League, concerns from the President zzzzzzkzkzzzzrrrr...”

“Only one story tonight; war in the east. China goes to war with the United kkkrkrkrkrkrkrkrkrkrkrkrkrkr Moon League, dangerous as ever.”

“And finally, the astronaut who rescued Nightmare zrtztttttttt prison has been assassinated at his family home in Texas. The culprits are thought to be rrrrrrrrrrrrrnnnnnnn...”

“I'm on the ground here in New England and I can hear planes passing overhead, the noise is incredible! They seem to be dropping bombs just rrrnrnrnrrkssssssssssssssssss...”

“Mass migration, it's really incredible to see so many mnnnnnnnnnnnnnrrrrrrrr...”

“Krsshshshshhhhhh we don't have long to get out krshshssshshshsssh...”

“Sssssssssss death toll rising, some say sssssssssssss...”

“Rrrrrrrrr and this is goodbye from us here, we can hear guns firing in the next street across llllrrrrrrrrrrr thank you for listening, sssssshhhhhhhh...”

“Winter wrap up, winter wrap up, let's finish our holiday cheer...”

“Learnt anything?”
The question made me jump. Once I'd regained my composure, I turned around to see whose voice it was.
Standing in the doorway to the shelter was the most impressive beard I'd ever seen. Long, scraggly and thick, it adorned the chin of Darius, possibly the beefiest man I'd ever seen.
“Oh, nothing new. Just the old news recordings.”

Darius nodded and put down his serrated sword.
“Just don't get too caught up in it. Stay alert.”
His words were friendly, but beneath them was a serious warning. Even our shelter was not safe, although I liked to think it was during my long, lonely days on guard. It was actually against protocol to watch the tapes during guard duty, but the gnawing frustration had got the better of me.

Since my first night in the shelter, I'd felt like I knew something, like something I'd forgotten was suddenly important. I watched the tapes to try and pull it out of my memory, but it was like lifting steel out of syrup.
“Okay, thanks.” My reply was short, but when you live in constant fear, you learn not to mince words. Darius, the man who was currently taking a drink directly from the tap, had saved my life more times than I could count.

I put the news tapes back on the shelf and yawned. Now that Darius was back, it was my turn to go out scavenging in the ruins that we called home.
“Get anything?”
“No.”
I went to my bunk and pulled out my sword from its resting place under the mattress. In case of ambush, I kept an aged Swiss army knife in my socks, but carrying a three foot sword around all day got tiring.

It was cloudy outside, dusty too. I put on a pair of sunglasses to shield my eyes from it, then made my way down the main street. For all that Darius said, the area around our shelter was actually fairly safe, especially during the day. But you could never be too careful. Being too careful was the reason Darius was resting in a shelter and not dead.

I said a silent prayer, hoping for none of the Moon people to come across me. They'd been more bold recently, probably because we were being more cautious. My scavenging trips were moving into safer areas, checking places we'd checked in the past, because I was too afraid to go into the wild zones. There could be anything hiding amongst the twisted wreckage.

I didn't know what I was looking for. Obviously weapons and food were worth picking up, but Mayumi seemed to be hell-bent on finding something particular. Mayumi was my other companion. She was the opposite of Darius, who was huge, muscular and careful. Mayumi was thin and the most vicious human I'd ever heard of. I would have been afraid of her, too, but for the fact that she seemed to be working to a master plan.

The reason we had to go out scavenging on Mayumi's orders was because she had lived in the city before it was razed. I have no idea how Darius got here, but I had been fleeing south and only just arrived when the attack began. So, we followed Mayumi. She knew how to escape the rubble, she just couldn't find the door. At least, so she told us.

Some crows flew overhead, heading east, so I went west. Where crows went was where there was fighting, so I just went in the opposite direction whenever I saw them. I had to climb over the exposed foundations of a thousand-foot skyscraper, long gone now of course, but treacherous still. Somewhere behind it was a shopping centre, one that we'd been to before but not fully explored.

The glass doors to the shopping centre were shattered, but still there. I pushed one open and looked around cautiously. Initially, it looked empty, but behind the defunct fountain something stirred. I knew it was too late to run as soon as I saw it, so I drew my sword and stepped forwards, freeing up space so I couldn't be cornered.
It advanced, its hooves making clip-clop noises on the marbled floor. Thankfully for me, despite the vicious fangs, my first swing found its target.

We had learned long, long ago that it was impossible to kill the things. If you got in a good sword blow, they disintegrated into a thick black dust. They didn't come back, but the ease with which they did it made them seem invincible; your sword never met any resistance, like hitting a ghost. Anyway, the depths of Nightmare Moon's magic were unknown, and she could simply be reviving them somewhere else.

I kicked my shoes through the dust. It was so thick that it clung to them, but did a good job of clearing dirt off when it fell off. My shoes were the only thing I was wearing that belonged to my past. I'd got myself new, thicker clothes to protect from the cold and the jaws of the things, and even had my hair cut when Mayumi was in a good mood. But for some reason, we'd never been able to find a shop that stocked shoes, apart from fashionable ones that were no better than the tattered black dancing shoes I was wearing.
Yes, dancing shoes. I'd bought them for quite a lot of money, so when I fled the north, I wore them rather than carried them. I didn't expect to be wearing them for years to follow.

All of the shops were either empty, too damaged to get into, or full of useless items like summer dresses. I had to return empty handed as the sun set through the dust, casing weird shadows that made me jump.
The shelter wasn't really too far, and I hoped Mayumi was back. She had a habit of staying out after sunset which made us wonder whether she was still alive. Irritating, really, but you never said anything. Mayumi knew what she was doing, she had the master plan.

The itch returned as I headed back along the main street. That horrible feeling of having forgotten something, but not knowing what. It was like missing the piece of a jigsaw puzzle that you need to see what the picture is, and searching endlessly under the table. I sheathed my sword and notched the handle with my knife. I didn't really like keeping track, but Mayumi insisted. She insisted on a lot of things. She knew a lot of things I didn't know, as well. Sometime I used to wonder where she learnt it all, being that she just seemed to be a survivor like the rest of us, but I stopped wondering after a while. It just wasn't worth it.

The shelter's entrance was familiar, as it should have been to anyone who had lived there for nearly two years. We didn't call it home, because we all had different homes that we planned to return to. Mayumi said she wanted to go back to Japan, and Darius wanted to get back to what was left of the Bronx. Me, well I knew there was nothing left of my home, so I just held onto the memory.

“Welcome back.”
Darius always had a kind word. I smiled in response and headed for my bunk.
“Get anything?”
“No. Mayumi?”
“Still out.”
I sat on the bunk and started washing my face and neck with cold water. “I got another one of the things in the shopping centre. Nothing there though, it was probably just resting.”
“Remember to tell Mayumi.”

Darius fell asleep before Mayumi got back, which was about an hour after sunset. She always wore a strange combination of leather and waterproof that made her look about twice her real size, but the finely balanced samurai sword she was sheathing suggested she was more than met the eye.
“Get anything?”
“No, but I killed a thing.”
“Just one?”
“Yes, in the shopping centre.”

She took off her multiple jackets and lit a lantern.
“You can get some sleep. Darius has the second watch.”
The watches were mind-numbingly boring. You had to sit by the entrance with a sword and stare aimlessly into the darkness, looking for an imminent ambush, for about four hours at a stretch. In over seven hundred nights, I'd never even seen a thing in the darkness. They didn't seem to be nocturnal.
Darius said he used the watches to think about the past and remember when things were happier. Mayumi used it to think about the next day. I just stared and wondered about all sorts of things.

I lay down on my bunk and closed my eyes. Little noises, like Mayumi moving her jackets, prevented me from falling asleep, but once she was settled down in the entranceway I could nod off. Mayumi knew how many nights we'd survived, but I could only remember it being over seven hundred. I was pretty sure I'd be waking up to day seven hundred and whatever plus one.

Comments

[Detective Chmilewsky]

Oh man, This was a huge jump from the first chapter. I really like it.

[wat]

Did not expect this far of a time-skip, but I like it!

[bobdat]

604853>>604883
I'm really glad you like it!

[clonezero]

should have seen this coming. Anyway keep it up!