The Ones who were Left Behind

by weirdjed

Puzzle Pieces

I slammed the door shut behind us. I fumbled with the doorknob and finally managed to find the lock and with a twist the door was locked. I backed away and bumped into Shadow. Not surprisingly, he was puking on the floor of his apartment. He looked at me when he stopped heaving. "what was that......thing?" he muttered weakly.

I stared at him and tried to find the words to answer him. Monster? No she was something else. Something about her seemed off, like she was....dead. His mind filled in the word and it the world became a whole new shade of confusing. More questions filled his brain. Did this have anything to do with the mine? If so what did we stumble upon that could cause that? We had left somewhere around 2 in the afternoon and as far as I remember, nothing was found besides iron and the occasional ruby which was fought over by the local miners like moths to a light.

I mustered up some strength and delivered the truth to shadow. " shadow, i dont think we are safe. That mare was dead! There was no way she could have survived with that amount of damage. The only thing that makes sense is that we found something that caused corpses to reanimate or something. Like in those comics we read!"

"you mean zomponies? Come on pixel do you take me for a filly?" he said rolling his eyes.

"yeah. I guess your right. But what could keep a mare living after sustaining injury like that?"

"i don't know pixel but im scared. Ever since this morning when that explosion went off I havent been able to shake the feeling like something is off in the air. For now i guess we can only sit and wait." shadow said as he walked around the mess he made and pulled a chain from a lamp. The warm orange glow from the lamp filled the room and melted into the farthest reaches of the apartment. His apartment was pretty nice considering he didnt make the best of paychecks. A couch and a coffee table sat in the main living room while a shag carpet covered the space between the door and the kitchen. The light fell on a single door that was open a bit. It sat near the end of the hallway and it was most likely his living quarters but from what I saw. I think he used it as a show off room. Multiple CONAN the barbarian posters showed through the gap. As i looked around some more I walked into the kitchen. "hey shadow is it ok if i ate something? Im famished!"

He looked over from where he was and nodded. Meanwhile he seemed to be grimacing at the puke that was currently all over his shag carpet. From inside the fridge I grabbed a hay sandwich (wrapped in a ziploc bag of course) and closed the door. The room suddenly got a bit brighter and I turned to see a second lamp was on. "hey if it isnt too much can I offer to clean up that mess for you?" I said motioning towards it.

"Oh yes please!" Shadow said nodding his head violently. Any faster and i swear it would've come off. I focused and with a bit of effort I floated the puddle up and into the trash bin. With the puke gone shadow ran into the kitchen and grabbed a rag and what looked like bleach. Then he went to the spot and proceeded to sterilize it to oblivion with a crazed look. I found it a bit odd since I was sure I got everything off but Shadow was always a bit on the clean side. In fact now that i think about it this place practically seems sparkling. Boy if he sees my apartment he would probably have a heart attack. I chuckled under my breath and started stuffing my face with the sandwich. Man shadow knows how to make a mean sandwich. The bitter herbs of oregano and tomato filled his mouth, and in the background was something tangy but he couldn't place his finger on it. I finished the sandwich i plopped onto the couch. He didn't own a tv but instead had multiple board games that im assuming he played by himself. Looking around though i spotted a book. It was huge but it managed to fit into the crevice between the wall and the couch. I picked it up and turned it towards its cover. "The fall of the changeling empire" was spelled out in a greenish gold border. I guess this is wear his fascination with those rocks came from. I don't blame him, I mean it's like finding parts of roam or atlantis. We talked for awhile and the sun eventually sat on the sill of his apartment window. "Well, i think it's time to head to bed. Do you have a spare blanket that i can use tonight?"

"Yeah let me go get it." he said as he went to a door. He opened it and brought out a blanket with red an green patches on it. It looked pretty thick and when he handed it to me i smelled a fragrant scent of flowers. Probably a lily or something, i thought and i said thank you. We parted ways and I snuggled up for the night. Soon darkness enclosed me and I was fast alseep.

I usually don't have dreams besides the occasional nightmare about suffocating inside a giant donut (don't ask me, its weird) however this time was different. I had control of my body and it felt very real, almost like i was actually there. Looking around i recognized the area known as sector F. It was a salt deposit that we had found awhile back and some bigshot company saw oppurtunity and bought it out. I got moved to a different sector but i still remember it by the smell of raw salt and other minerals. I wandered inside and found it abandoned, save for a mining drill that was lodged into the wall. It looked like it had broken into a chamber or pocket in the earth. My mining squad occasionally ran into them and had to run for the hills quickly. They were usually filled with gases that were toxic if you breathed them in. I was curious why I was being showed this but decided to have some fun with the dream and explore the interior. Afterall its only a dream. I squeezed in between the massive drill and the rock and stumbled inside.

This wasnt an ordinary pocket thats for sure. As I looked around in the dim light I revealed that the chamber was made entirely of hive. A tunnel ran out in both directions and without me knowing personally my dream had teleported me down one of them. A green light blinked at the end of the darkness. I trotted slowly towards it unsure of what was going to happen. The light grew in intensity and soon i was overcome by it. Everything was green and that was the only thing that I saw. It was almost blinding but as quickly as it grew it retreated back. Weird, I thought as I wandered into a section that was lit. A lamp was on its side and supplied light in an angle. There, near the edge of the beam a hoof appeared and a deep resonating gurgle filled the tunnel.

I woke up with a gasp. I was drenched in sweat and the blanket was strangling me. I fumbled with the blanket in frustration and managed to kick it off with my hooves. Man what a dream, I could've sworn it was real! I looked around to make sure there was no danger. If you count the whirring sound of Shadow's fan as terrifying, everything looked fine. My mouth was parched and I got off the couch. I wandered into the kitchen which was tranquil in the night. I looked down at my hoof and clicked the LED on my watch on. 3:29 glowed dimly on the watch. Odd time to wake up I thought. I opened the freezer door and a hiss escaped it. I floated out 2 ice cubes and closed the door again. You know, I wonder if ice cubes can melt while in stasis? I wondered while i searched for a glass. I eventually found one and i filled it with sink water. I dropped the ice cubes in with a plink and pulled it up to my mouth.

Thump........thump,thump.........thunp,thump,thump.........thump. I nearly choked on the water so I set the glass down finding myself no longer thirsty. Who in celestia's name is up this late at night? I found myself wondering as I trotted nervously towards the door. I pulled myself up to the peephole and almost let out a scream as I stared in disgust and shock at what I saw.

In front of the door was a pony so disfigured i wasn't sure if it was a mare or colt. It's face was missing parts of it's cranium and bits of flesh hung to the side by strings of flesh. Along his body were numerous bite marks that seemed to be from other ponies. The sound came from his broken hoof as it swung it bluntly against the door. It's single dead eye stared blankly at the door like it had nothing better to do. Then it stopped. In horror I watched as backed up and galloped into the door. The door shuddered but stayed intact. The pony wasnt so lucky as it's had snapped his head clean off and the body slid down the door. Unfortunetly it didn't seem to care as it pushed itself back up and sarted hitting the door again but this time with it's head limply hung onto the side of his neck by some nerves and muscles.

I couldn't watch anymore and i backed away in fear and disgust. I had to barricade the door and wake up Shadow I thought. I dragged the two seat couch with my horn and pushed it in front of the door with some effort. With a final shove I wedged it into place in time to block another slam. I galloped into Shadow's room and shook his sleepless form awake. "What do you want pixel. I'm trying to sleep." he said lazily as he reached for the lamp. The glow filled the room and his expression changed as he saw fear in my eyes. "what happened? Did you break something?"

I shook my head in exasperation. "No it's worse. There is something at the door."

"mhm, is that all? It's probably old man jonhson that sleepwalks out of his apartment occasionally. Just tell him to bugger off" he said rolling his eyes,

"No! well, maybe it's him but I dont know! It's one of those things we ran into. It's torn apart and yet its still moving! It's trying to break in-" i found myself cut off by a sound so bone chilling it cut into my very soul. The sound of desperation or pain shreiked into the room and eventually died out. His eyes widened and got out of bed quickly. He grabbed his knife and exited the room with me.

'

We crept into the living room and made our way to the door. Silence seemed painful as I listened for anything, anything at all, that would reveal that it was coming back. I relaxed after a few minutes and let out a small laugh. It was short lived as a loud crash came from the door. I jumped and wrapped my magic around the coffee table. I threw it towards the door and glass shattered everywhere. I lodged it further into the couch and embedded it in as part of the barrier. Another thump resounded from the door and I desperately looked around for something else I could throw into the barricade. Nothing, besides the lamp which I had knocked over and a small circle pedestal that supported the other lamp. I grabbed all of them and Shadow pushed them into place. He backed up and we watched in horror as the door shuddered violently. There was probably 4 or 5 of those things by the amount of sounds they were making. Between the shudders from the door, groaning and grumbling came from behind it. It was like the sound of hungry pirrahnas waiting for something to fall into their pool. We were trapped, and Shadow knew it too.

"Shadow, is this there another way out?" he shook his head frantically as he looked at the door in fear. I looked around and noticed a window. I opened it and looked out. It was positioned over an alleyway and a garbage bin sat below it. Form what it looked like it was about 2 stories down. I didn't want to do it but this may be the only option we had. I brought my head back in and the sound of splintering wood came from the door. I looked over and a purple hoof was poking out of the hole that it had made. I galloped into Shadow's room and grabbed his blanket. Then i ran back to the window and started tying it to an iron post outside the window. As i finished tying it I heard more splintering and a whine as the hinges started to buckle. Shadow stared at it in terror and when i shouted to him he didn't answer. So I wrapped his legs in magic and yanked him out the window and jumped after him. As we went down I pulled him close and put a barrier spell over us. We hit the bin with a heavy bang and managed to dent it. My horn screamed in pain and everything went black.

Comments

[weirdjed]

Fixed! Im new to this so thank you for helping me out.