13. Land of the Dead
Amaryllis rested against the edge of the roof, her body feeling as though it were filled with liquid lead. Her wounds steadily oozed blood, staining her clothes. Now that there were no longer any Oppressed climbing over the walls to attack their group, her adrenaline was spent, making it difficult for her to even move.
The survivors of their group, despite being in similar shape, were whooping and cheering as they watched the spectacle taking place in the parking lot below. The tank, which Samuel helpfully identified as an M60 Patton, remained at the head of the parking lot from which it had originally entered, using its two mounted machine guns to rip apart any Oppressed that dared get close. The main gun was no longer firing, suggesting to Amaryllis that the operators were wisely saving the ammunition.
The four other smaller vehicles, which Samuel identified as IAV Strykers, outmaneuvered the remaining Oppressed and surrounded them. From there, the undead were systematically targeted and destroyed in a deadly coordinated crossfire. The enemy never stood a chance.
Despite how much Amaryllis wanted to rest, she forced herself to watch the battle. As promising as this was to her survival, it also led to several questions. Firstly, there were thousands of undead assaulting the church, yet the number of fallen enemies numbered only in the hundreds. Despite this, no further undead were attacking. Amaryllis noticed the Oppressed retreating back into the streets. Their commander was smart; he knew he couldn’t touch heavy armor like this. Yet this raised the most important question of all: if humanity possessed this much of an edge on the Oppressed, how was the situation in the city this dire?
The hatch on the back of one of the Strykers opens up and several camouflage-clad soldiers clamber out from inside. Each one of them was armed to the teeth with weaponry designed for close-quarters combat. The last one to leave the vehicle directs the others wordlessly with simple hand-motions. The soldiers respond by spreading out and approaching the wall of the church, their movements swift and coordinated.
Now that the area was devoid of undead, the remaining Strykers drive into a wedge formation with the tank at the forefront, never once turning off their engines. As for the infantry, the one that Amaryllis assumed was their leader was the last to reach the wall. Once he did, he and the soldiers produced military grade grappling hooks.
Amaryllis winced as she heard the devices fire. The hooks latched onto the walls around her, the old stonework cracking under the sudden weight. Before long, the soldiers climbed onto the rooftop with them, causing the other survivors to limp towards them with relief.
The leader was next atop the wall. Something about him made him stand out from the other soldiers; perhaps it was the way his posture betrayed an odd sense of serenity and calm confidence. Like the rest of his men, he wore a sturdy set of camouflaged body armor adorned with spare ammunition. For weaponry, he carried a singular rifle, two sets of handguns, and what appeared to be a shotgun slung over his shoulder.
“There’s no time to dawdle! Those of you that can move, head to the edge of the roof!” the leader snapped out towards the survivors without any sense of delicacy or sympathy. Instead, his tone was forceful and urgent. Despite the edge they’d shown in combat, it was easy to tell that he was worried. “Men, grab one each and split them up among the Strykers. We’ve no time to waste!”
“Yes sir!”
“Are you the commander?” Even as the other survivors moved to do as they were told, Samuel walked up to the leader. “I’m Samuel. I’ve had some military training, but I’m not on active duty. If I can help in some way…”
“That’s excellent. We’re only one squad, and we’re not at full strength. I’ll take anyone who can hold a rifle,” the commander responded, his tone clipped and his words straightforward. Behind him, Jennifer and Kent were partnering up with some of the soldiers, who then zipped back down the side of the wall. After making sure things were going smoothly, the commander handed his rifle to Samuel, much to his surprise. “I’m Sergeant First Class Raul Pearson, of the Navy Seals. If you’re not on active duty, consider this your reassignment. You’ll be in the command vehicle with me, and I’ll expect you to follow orders. Am I understood?”
Samuel blinked, his eyes widening; Not only had he not been expecting such an unorthodox command that clearly wasn’t in line with standard operation procedures, but the man before him was also one of the Navy Seals, an elite subdivision of the American forces. His bemusement lasted only a moment before he snapped a salute to what was to be his new commanding officer.
“Yes sir! If I may make a suggestion; I believe that our ‘leader’ should be in the command vehicle as well,” Samuel responded smartly.
“Your ‘leader?’” Raul repeated uncertainly. He looked around for someone who would fit that description, but came up short. “You weren’t in charge?”
“No sir. That would be Amaryllis. She’s wounded and needs attention, but she possesses vital intelligence concerning the attack as a whole,” Samuel revealed. He turned and indicated the barely conscious girl resting against the edge of the roof. “She’s a hell of a lot tougher than she looks.”
“Very well. There’s no time to argue.” Raul acquiesced readily without questioning further. Amaryllis suddenly felt herself hoisted up off of the ground by Raul. Her eyes opened wide, but before she could comprehend what was happening, she was sprawled across his shoulders fireman style. “Let’s get moving. Behind me, Sam. I’d like to put as much distance between us and this place as possible. Those blasted pony things are too damn smart; they’ll probably have reinforcements with anti-armor weaponry here before long.”
“Put me...down....” Amaryllis grunted, wincing as Raul headed towards the edge of the roof. “I can walk…”
“Shut up and don’t struggle, or I’ll drop you,” Raul snapped back at her. Amaryllis blinked and then glared, but recognized that he could very easily carry out his threat. Her stomach plummeted as the two of them zipped down the line to the blacktop. Once they landed, the hatch on the tank opened to reveal a grizzled man with a scar down his cheek.
“Sergeant, we’ve checked our ammunition. We’ve got about 50 HE shells left,” the soldier alerted him. “There are too many of those things; we can’t stay here.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” Raul grumbled as he headed towards one of the Strykers. “Men, I want a status report on our ammunition and fuel reserves before we leave. Make it snappy! I don’t want to be here when the enemy returns!”
From here, the remaining survivors and soldiers were divided among the three Strykers. Jennifer, Mary, and Emma, being women and children, were directed to enter one of the vehicles along with five other soldiers.
Avil was also directed to enter that particular vehicle, but she wouldn’t hear of it. She insisted on being with her brother. Thus, it was decided that she, along with Aven and Kent, were to enter the Stryker with the grenade launcher along with six other soldiers.
Lastly, Raul managed to haul Amaryllis into the last Stryker, laying her down into two of the empty seats. Samuel and William were also herded inside along with five other soldiers.
“I’ve got better turning. I’ll take the wheel.” One of the soldiers rushed forward into the driver’s seat.
“Then I’ll take the gun.” Another hopped through a hatch in the roof to man the machine gun.
Raul sat beside Amaryllis and across from Samuel. He’d scarcely sat down before reports started coming in from the other vehicles through the series of shortwave radios he carried.
“Understood. Assume the standard formation; keep the women and children protected in the center. We’ll take the lead,” Raul ordered. He repeated this command to each of the radios he held. The quality of their communications was abnormally poor, such that he had to repeat his order more than once to a singular radio. Raul then smacked the back of the driver’s seat with his fist. “Get moving, Raps. Stick to the coastal roads and watch your peripherals.”
“Understood, sir!” The driver revved the engine and the vehicle roared to life. The Stryker rolled out onto the street next to the church, followed by the tank. The Stryker carrying the women and children went next, and the grenade launcher Stryker brought up the rear.
Once the vehicle was in motion, Raul brought down a first aid kit from the wall and ripped it open to reveal a variety of medical gear within. Setting it aside for now, he glanced over the recovering Amaryllis, noting the still bleeding wounds on her hips and shoulder. Samuel and William also moved closer, hoping to hear good news.
“You can stop hovering over me like mother ducklings. I’m fine,” Amaryllis grumbled, the woman quickly growing uncomfortable beneath the worried gazes of the three of them. She tried to rise, but quickly gave up the attempt when she felt her muscles scream in protest.
“So it seems. Your injuries look painful, but they aren’t serious. Your state likely comes from fatigue. No doubt you’ve been on the run ever since the attack began. Now hold still while I patch you up,” Raul responded. Amaryllis hissed in pain as Raul disinfected her wounds with a damp white cloth. “Are you also military? Those aren’t the muscles of a civilian.”
“Heh, not in the slightest. I have an issue with authority,” Amaryllis commented dryly, wincing as her injuries were tightly bound with bandages. “I just focus on improving my body and martial skills as a hobby. Have been my entire life.”
“Damn, that’s pretty badass,” one of the soldiers sitting in the back with them commented, gazing appreciatively at Amaryllis.
“That’s respectable, if rather uncommon for someone of your gender. But that’s enough small talk. Here, take this. It should help with the pain.” Raul handed Amaryllis two small pills as well as a water canteen. Amaryllis downed them quickly and took a long drink. She couldn’t keep from drinking more than she needed; she’d been more thirsty than she’d realized. Raul then handed the three of them small boxes containing what appeared to be thick crackers. “No doubt you’re hungry. Unfortunately, all we’ve got are limited military rations.”
“That’s more than we had a moment ago,” William commented, accepting his gratefully. He chomped into it and grimaced, but didn’t complain. “This is all just one huge mess…”
“What’s the situation like in the city, Sergeant?” Samuel prompted Raul, and then he asked the question that had been at the forefront of Amaryllis’s mind. “Forgive me for asking, but considering how quickly you drove off an army of Oppressed, you’d think the situation wouldn’t be as dire as it appears to be.”
“Oppressed? That’s a rather curious name for what are clearly undead,” Raul questioned astutely. He regarded Amaryllis. “Does this have to do with the intel that you supposedly have?”
“Yeah. I’m one of the only people that know exactly what these things are, where they came from, and what they’re after,” Amaryllis revealed. Raul as well as the other soldiers looked at her with shock.
“Wait, you mean we’re finally going to get some answers?”
“Finally!” The other soldiers exulted.
“You realize that information could mean life or death for countless people? This means I can’t just help you escape; you have to come with us to the American brass,” Raul pointed out solemnly. Amaryllis let out a scornful laugh.
“You think I don’t know that? That was my plan to begin with. Honestly, I’ve succeeded just getting to you in the first place,” Amaryllis revealed. She felt the painkillers starting to kick in, so she forced herself to sit upright. “But before I explain anything to you, I want to hear the answer to Samuel’s question.”
“Very well. It’s true that we have a distinct technological edge on these ’Oppressed’ as you called them, such that in ordinary circumstances, there’d be no contest,” Raul began. A grim expression crossed his face. “That’s if we were able to use any of our technology.”
“What do you mean?” William asked, the man turning pale at the implications behind Raul’s words.
“Their leader is cunning and very knowledgeable about human technology. Before they attacked us, they jammed all of our communications and hit our fuel stations and power plants. Without power, our computer systems are down, and without fuel, we can’t use our vehicles for long,” Raul explained. Amaryllis nodded, finding that to fit with what she’d already seen thus far. “However, that’s not the worst of it.”
“It’s not?!” Samuel repeated incredulously. “There’s something worse than having our military nearly crippled in one fell swoop?”
“There is,” Raul shot back without hesitation. “You may have noticed that the enemy has mustered a ludicrous amount of undead in such a short time. That’s because they used our very own troops and civilians to create them.”
“What?” This much even Amaryllis didn’t know much about. Seth had mentioned that the Oppressed were made from humans, but not precisely how they were made or what conditions were necessary to make them.
“Immediately after power went out, a significant amount of our troops...changed. One moment they were fine, and the next they were...crumpling in on themselves to form those twisted creatures.” Even the hardened soldier couldn’t suppress a shudder as he recalled the horrific transformations that he’d seen. “It was chaos. The enemy were around and amongst us before we even knew we were under attack.”
“I still remember Pat’s face,” one of the other soldiers lamented, his head rested in hands. “We were just joking that somebody must have screwed up the electrical systems somehow...and then...and then he just…”
“I shot my best friend,” another soldier revealed, his hands shaking. “But that didn’t stop him. I just kept hitting him…”
“How were they able to do that?” Amaryllis suddenly became rather unsettled. She looked down at herself, and then at the others. If they could make Oppressed on the spot, then who’s to say that one of the others couldn’t change at random? Who’s to say that she couldn’t change? Even to someone as tough as her, that possibility caused her to break out in a cold sweat. “Is there any way to stop it?”
“You don’t know?” Raul returned, looking at her expectantly.
“I know a lot, but I don’t know everything. I don’t know how Oppressed are made, except through magic of some kind,” Amaryllis snapped back.
“I have my suspicions… in fact, I’m rather certain I know who their leader is,” Raul revealed, much to Amaryllis’s shock.
“You know about King Sombra?” Amaryllis questioned urgently, leaning forward.
“I don’t… but it seems you know a lot more than I was expecting. This king is their leader?” Raul expressed, raising an eyebrow. When Amaryllis nodded, he sighed. “This gets more complicated by the second. But to bring it back to my original point… have any of you been administered the HAED vaccine?”
“The Hades virus? I was planning to have it done when I got here, but I never had the chance,” William answered, looking confused. “But what does the virus have to do with anything?”
The implications behind Raul’s question were not lost on Amaryllis. Her eyes widened in horror. “You don’t mean… but that vaccine went out all over the country!” she exclaimed. It then dawned on William, who quickly went pale.
“I thought it was odd how only some people changed, and others didn’t. I started to suspect when I found out that none of the survivors had taken the vaccine; myself included,” Raul continued. “Which would mean that a certain Dr. Valeric Pallor, the scientist that no one seems to know anything about has something to do with all of this.”
“Dr. Pallor…” Amaryllis remembered the name that she’d read in the newspaper; the name of the man who was credited with curing the lethal disease. One minor detail then came to mind that caused her to curse loudly. “Shit! He’s Russian! Why didn’t that tip me off?!”
“What does his nationality have to do with it?” Samuel pressed.
“Because King Sombra and his Oppressed first appeared in Russia,” Amaryllis revealed. This revelation earned pointed looks from Raul and the other soldiers. “Why do you think the country’s slowly been going dark?”
“I do remember hearing about that from our intelligence network… and that would also explain why some of the ponies are equipped with Russian equipment,” Raul admitted darkly. “But this means that your King Sombra has not only declared war on the United States, but also on Russia.”
Amaryllis let out an ironic laugh. “Ha! You wish. No, Raul, the bastard’s declared war on the entire human race,” she revealed. That statement caused the soldiers to react with varying degrees of shock, one of them dropping his weapon.
Raul was silent for several seconds, and then he let out a long heavy sigh. “Looks like conventional reason won’t help us. Perhaps you’d best start at the beginning, miss Amaryllis.” His words made it very clear that he wasn’t giving her a choice in the matter. “Your information may mean the difference between victory and extermination.”
“We’ve covered most of it, but I’ll give you what I have.” Amaryllis realized that humanity’s chances of survival increased with every individual that knew, so she saw no reason to hold back. “This is all going to sound crazy, by the way.”
“Considering what we’ve faced up until now, I don’t think I’d be satisfied with anything less,” Raul remarked dryly. “Just tell us what you can.”
“Please, just give us something. Anything!”
“I’m with Fabian. I’d like to know what exactly I’m fighting against, and why all these people had to die.” The other soldiers in the vehicle leaned forward, each of them just as invested as Raul in hearing what she had to say.
“Alright then. Like I said, their leader is King Sombra, an ancient pony sorcerer king from the future,” Amaryllis decided to be as blunt as possible. She inwardly chuckled, realizing that she was now in the same situation Seth had been when he explained all this to her in the first place.
Raul and the other soldiers looked at one another. “That does sound crazy,” Fabian commented immediately.
“It sure does,” Raul commented. “But we know most of that to be true. Although they looked significantly different than those we know, those creatures certainly resembled ponies.”
“And what else could you call that… that transformation… if not magic? No chemical is that precise,” another soldier pointed out.
“You have a point, Travis. Not only is that transformation far-fetched on a scientific level, but we’ve also seen those ponies with horns emitting strange light and executing complex tasks without the use of their hooves,” Raul rejoined. “But you’re saying time travel is also involved?”
“Three thousand years into the future to be exact. I don’t know what their world is like or whatever,” Amaryllis pointed out. “I do know why they’re here. Apparently Sombra is facing defeat in his timeline, so he came back here to murder us all and turn us into an army with which to fight his enemy… as well as establish some kind of backup plan.”
“That’s it? We’re being culled just so this fucker can keep his position!?” Travis gripped his rifle with rage, his fingers turning white.
“What kind of back up plan?” Raul questioned calmly. It was difficult for Amaryllis to tell how he was feeling about what he was hearing.
“My… contact… was rather vague on that prospect, but apparently he wanted to store some of his power in certain people and send them to the future to retrieve later,” Amaryllis answered.
“Hold on a minute.” As Raul pondered over that piece of information, William spoke up. “We both saw Sombra… is… is that what happened to… to…”
“Seth? Yes,” Amaryllis cut him off, her voice clipped. “Apparently, I was also Sombra’s original target, but Seth got in his way. But that’s beside the point.”
“True. Considering our situation, it’s best we know more about our direct enemy. What can you tell us about their capabilities?” Raul interrogated, joining the conversation again. William seemed like he wanted to say more, but he remained silent, a pensive expression forming on his face. “These Oppressed. Do they have some sort of weakness?”
“They’re undead, so no. Whatever works on flesh will work on them, but only if you smash their head,” Amaryllis explained. “You’ve probably already figured that out. As for the unicorns, they...”
“Sergeant! We’ve got incoming!” The conversation came to an abrupt end as Raps called back from the driver’s seat. “Scattered remnants on the road; five hundred meters!”
“Damn. I knew that icy bastard wouldn’t leave us alone for long,” Raul grumbled. He quickly moved up to the front where he could gaze out the window as well. “How much further to the bridge? Are they in our way?”
“Yes sir, but if that’s all of their number, we can take them out and keep going.” Raps illustrated his words with small movements of his right hand. “Shall we get into formation?”
“Not yet. I don’t want to pick a fight with them if we don’t have to. I don’t like not knowing what kind of magic those ponies can use,” Raul decided. He used his hand to direct Raps. “They’re blocking our path east, but if we take the northern road, can we get around them?”
“That’ll take us to the waterfront, sir. We may get boxed in against the river,” Raps pointed out.
“That’s a chance we’ll have to take. We both know the Oppressed don’t travel in small groups. Drive to the waterfront and cut east.” Raul ordered. With a grunt of confirmation, Raps pressed down on the gas and spurred the vehicle forward.
The vehicle hadn’t progressed more than two hundred and fifty meters before an entire horde of Oppressed surged around the corner from the waterfront, flowing down the northern road in a flood of rotten flesh and sharp claws.
Everyone in the vehicle shivered upon hearing the bloodcurdling cries of the undead. Raul cursed as his chosen direction was cut off. “Dammit! We’ve no choice. Raps, take the eastern path! I’ll coordinate the formation with the others!”
“Is there anything we can do?” Samuel asked nervously as the sergeant stormed back to the shortwave radios.
“Sit still and keep quiet,” Raul snapped back, causing the darker skinned man to flinch. He lifted the radios and addressed the other vehicles in a clear straightforward voice. “Undead horde spotted; assume the standard formation and head east! We’re pushing right through them! Lenny, open fire!”
The command vehicle slowed down just enough to allow the tank to move up alongside it, creating a wall of steel between the undead and the aid vehicle containing the women and children.
The command vehicle veered to the right, plowing right into the straggling undead that blocked the way forward. Lenny, the soldier manning the machine gun, fed a belt of HE rounds into the weapon and showered the undead with streams of molten metal. On impact, the bullets burst apart and exploded, tearing through the Oppressed’s limbs and heads.
As the tank turned, it swung its turret towards the north, where the incoming horde was swiftly closing the distance between them. The barrel roared to life, and a clump of undead in the north disappeared in a maelstrom of fire and steel. When the tank turned to follow the command vehicle, Oppressed broke against its hull in a useless attempt to pierce its armor. The Oppressed only had the chance to attack once before being crushed beneath the tank’s mighty treads.
The stragglers were easily taken care of, but once the formation turned into the narrow street, their numbers thickened greatly, taking them into the midst of another horde.
“Sergeant!” Raps cried out in fear and alarm.
“There’s no turning back now! Crush them!” Raul commanded firmly.
The command vehicle swerved to the side, giving the tank just enough room to fire another shell at the massing undead flesh before them. The resulting explosion showered them all with smoke and debris, but it gave the command vehicle an opening. Raps shouted wordlessly from within and drove the Stryker directly into the gap, knocking Oppressed every which way.
Between the combined fire from the tank and the command vehicle, the undead fell before them like nine pins, littering the streets with their fallen bodies. Not even the horde coming at them from behind could reach them; the GL Stryker in the rear of the formation spat grenades at their feet, searing away several Oppressed with every blast. The aid vehicle supported them with machine gun fire from behind them whenever they saw an opening.
Despite how the group seemed to be pushing their way through the horde unopposed, something seemed odd. It seemed as though the horde were abnormally thin in this area, which was the only reason this crazy maneuver was working in the first place. However, the horde was as thick as ever in other areas as well, which discouraged the group from taking those roads.
“We’re kicking ass!” Raps exulted. Yet Raul didn’t seem as excited as his comrade.
“Something’s wrong. We’ve seen their true numbers, yet they’re only concentrating in certain areas, and not others,” Raul observed. His eyes widened briefly, and then he sighed. “We’re being herded. This is a trap.”
High above the charging vehicles, a lone unicorn traversed the rooftops, keeping pace with the vehicles through a series of well-timed leaps and teleports. At the same time, his ice blue eyes darted from here and there, the Oppressed moving at his whim.
Rage at both himself and at the humans below was the only thing on his mind. He couldn’t believe that these humans would dare have the audacity to ruin his experiments and his enjoyment. At the same time, the fact that the humans had the intelligence to hide away some of their vehicles where Sombra’s forces couldn’t sabotage them had earned a small inkling of respect from him. He wanted to be the one to kill them himself.
“Frozen Soul.” A cold, reedy voice suddenly addressed him. When he looked, Frozen saw a dark furred unicorn keeping pace alongside him. There was no mistaking him. The pony’s features had long since been etched into Frozen’s memories.
The unicorn’s fur was a distinct shade of dark grey, complemented by a bone white mane that was neatly cropped to avoid falling in front of his violet eyes. On his flank was a single dull purple blossom that possessed five distinct petals. For clothing, the unicorn wore a short white lab coat and a pair of rounded glasses sat atop his muzzle.
“Your Excellency! I wasn’t expecting you.” Frozen Soul addressed the new arrival with the utmost respect in his voice. Compared to the personality he’d shown to his subordinates, Frozen appeared like an entirely different pony. “How goes the battle?”
“The city is all but ours,” the other pony responded with triumph. Frozen inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. “These humans never knew what hit them. It appears our informants in Russia were correct; these ‘Americans’ seemed rather complacent in their self-proclaimed superiority.”
“Even better, New York possesses near eight and a half million citizens alone. Should everything go according to plan, the infection will have spread to the remainder of the northeast megalopolis, which contains a total of fifty two million. That’s nearly a fifth of America’s population,” the dark furred pony exulted proudly, briefly pressing a hoof to his chest. “We’ve already won. Without their superpowers to protect them, the Asia and the Middle East will fall easily.”
“Hah! These humans will know of our superiority and despair,” Frozen couldn’t help but get swept up in his superior’s joy. However, that feeling soon disappeared when he noticed the darker pony gazing down at him with scrutiny.
“But enough about that. You appear to be trying particularly hard,” the dark furred pony observed. It seemed as though his struggles with the human stragglers below had not gone unnoticed. “Tell me; how did those vehicles escape from their encampments? I thought my instructions had been quite clear…”
“They were, your Excellency! The humans must have stowed away a small group of vehicles in the event of an emergency,” Frozen hastily explained. He gathered the rest of his confidence and put on a smile. “I’m taking care of them as we speak. In fact, as long as you’re here, why don’t you sit back and watch? I’ll have quite the show prepared for you once these humans have run my little obstacle course.”
“Oh?” The darker pony ‘s eyebrow lifted with interest. “Well then, I suppose I’ve exterminated enough mice for now. I’ll watch your little show. Pray you do not disappoint me.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Frozen Soul turned his attention back to the humans below and grinned.
“Are they trying to surround us?” Amaryllis demanded, standing up and moving towards the front herself. “Where could they possibly be taking us?”
“We’re still heading towards the bridge, which is our escape from the island. If this is a trap, I’m not sure what they’re trying to achieve,” Raps revealed. The people in the vehicle looked to Raul for answers.
“They likely intend to spring something on us when we reach the bridge. It’s the only place that they know we intend to go,” Raul reasoned.
“But if they knew we were headed to the bridge anyway, why bother with all this herding?” the soldier in the passenger seat shot back, the man looking anything but calm.
“Perhaps they don’t want us linking up with reinforcements or providing aid to the rest of the military,” Raul continued. “If that’s the case, it works in our favor. They don’t know our mission.”
“Mission?” Amaryllis questioned curiously.
“I’ll tell you when we get out of this,” Raul waved her off, keeping his focus on the road ahead. “Push ahead, Raps. We’ll spring this trap of theirs. We’ll show them just who they’re messing with.”
Yet not everything was so easy. The thicker the horde before them became, the harder it was to push through them. Even as Lenny gritted his teeth and perforated the undead ahead, the Oppressed piled atop one another and one managed to climb aboard the vehicle, swiftly diving within the effective range of the machine gun.
“I need help up here!” Lenny screamed as he was forced to abandon the machine gun in favor of his standard rifle.
“Samuel!” Travis yelled.
“Right!” Samuel confirmed. Together, the two of them stood atop the seats and poked their rifles through the hatch at Lenny’s feet and added their fire to his. With their concentrated fire, the Oppressed fell quickly… only to reveal the several others that had climbed on behind it. Without the machine gun firing, the Oppressed now had an opening they could exploit.
Lenny howled with pain as the Oppressed reached him and sunk their teeth into his legs. Samuel and Travis could only watch and fire in vain as the soldier was torn from his perch and hurled back into the seething mass of undead, where he was quickly torn to bloody shreds.
“Somebody get that gun firing!” Raul commanded, pointedly turning his gaze away from the dying soldier.
“Cover me, Samuel!” Travis yelled. The soldier tangled with one of the Oppressed, slamming the butt of his rifle into its head to little effect. The Oppressed roared and swiped forward, cutting into the soldier’s body armor. “Goddammit!”
Samuel hoisted himself up and grabbed a grenade from Travis’s belt. Pulling the pin, he shoved it into the mouth of the Oppressed assailing him and kicked it down into the horde below. A split second later, the grenade detonated, tearing the Oppressed apart.
“Thanks!” Travis grabbed onto the machine gun and opened fire. With Samuel’s help, they drove the Oppressed off of their vehicle.
“I feel so useless!” Amaryllis growled, slamming her fist against the seat. Fighting the Oppressed was so much easier when she could be out fighting them directly. In here, she was just a passenger, and there was nothing she could do.
“Hang in there. That’s the highway just ahead!” Raul called back to the passengers. “Hold tight!”
The command vehicle broke through the horde and drifted onto the circular ramp that led onto the highway, where there would be nothing between them and the Verrazano bridge. With no more Oppressed before them, Raps pressed the pedal all the way to the floor of the vehicle, causing their momentum to soar.
A collective sigh of relief passed through the group as the formation ascended the ramp and drove onto the bridge proper. The bridge was littered with the wrecks of cars and trucks, and the guardrails were torn in numerous places, suggesting that cars had driven off the bridge entirely into the harbor.
“Hah! We’ve made it! Take that, you undead sons of bitches!” Travis exulted from his position on the gun. For some reason, Amaryllis shivered, goosebumps forming on her skin. It was as though the air in the vehicle had become much colder.
“They ain’t so tough. I guess there wasn’t a trap after all,” Fabian commented, the soldier shivering as well. He looked up with confusion, noticing that his breath was now visible. “Wh-What the hell? Why is it so cold in here?”
The drop in temperature was the only warning they received. From the waters below, a bright pale blue light burst into existence. The light slowly spread outwards in slender lines to form an immense magical rune encompassing the center of the bridge. The light intensified greatly, blinding Raps as well as anyone else looking outside.
In a single instant, the water below the bridge surged upwards, surrounding the formation of vehicles on either side with a dark blue wall of water. The water rained down on the bridge and the vehicles, coating the asphalt and rendering it slick. Before anyone could make sense of what they were seeing, the world seemed to freeze all at once.
The cold suddenly spiked, growing almost unbearable for a split second. Raps promptly lost control of the vehicle as the tires grew rigid and brittle, disintegrating from the very act of driving.
“I can’t control her! We’re…” was all Raps could get out before the vehicle veered sharply to the right and flipped end over end. Amaryllis cried out in pain as she was slammed against the walls of the vehicle as well as the other passengers. Travis was thrown completely from his perch onto the frozen road below, where he quickly rose and sprinted to avoid the similarly out of control vehicles in the rest of the formation.
The formation quickly fell apart, each of the Stryker’s skidding across the ice and losing their tires.The unlucky gunner in the GL vehicle was promptly crushed as their vehicle flipped and landed on its roof. The aid vehicle rammed into the tank, its front crumpling in with a screech of tortured metal, killing the two soldiers in the front instantly. The tank wobbled, but managed to turn around to face the rear direction, its barrel turning to match.
When the command vehicle came to a stop, it was lying on its side. Amaryllis coughed and looked around. Everyone inside looked bruised, but were otherwise alive. Wanting to get a look at their surroundings, Amaryllis crawled out of the hatch and attempted to stand. As she helped Raul out of the vehicle, she gaped at the world around them.
The waters of the harbor had flash frozen, and completely surrounded this small area on the bridge in walls of sheer ice. Everything was coated in a layer of frigid ice, from the road to the cables to the vehicles themselves. There was no way out… and they weren’t alone.
A small number of Oppressed had made it into the icy circle and were making their way across the bridge towards them at a threatening speed. Amaryllis quickly alerted Raul, who cursed.
“Kristoff, can you fire!?” Raul snapped at the tank even as he produced a rifle and leveled it towards the approaching Oppressed. “I need covering fire on the double!”
The hatch of the tank popped open to reveal the grizzled man within. “No good, Sergeant. The vehicle is too cold; we’ll self-destruct if we try to…” Kristoff began. He cut off instantly when he spotted something hurtling towards the vehicle at a breakneck speed. “Oh shit. Take cover!”
Raul grabbed Amaryllis and bore her roughly to the ground, while Kristoff leapt from the top of the tank and rolled hard on the icy road. No sooner had they done so than a rocket hissed through the air in a spiral fashion and slammed into the turret of the tank. The resulting explosion tore through the tank’s armor and incinerated any members of the crew still inside. A plume of dark smoke rose from the wreckage of what had once been their strongest asset.
All eyes turned towards the source of the rocket. Amaryllis’s brow contorted with rage, the woman immediately recognizing the pale blue pony who was walking with the Oppressed.
“The Kornet, I believe it was called. What a unique piece of equipment,” the unicorn commented, an anti-tank missile launcher hanging in the air beside him, clutched in his magic. He threw it aside callously, the weapon skittering across the ice.
“Now then. It’s time to end this little chase.”
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Pity the bridge steel isnt the standard stuff which in itself becmes brittle in extreme cold and can shatter with a big enough explosion. Maybe like tank rounds going off. the again, that rovket round shouldve done that?
Can Travis get Flanking, or Back Stab?
Hot damn, this is back!
Did not see that coming.
YES! NEW CHAPTER, NEW CHAPTER, NEW CHAPTER-NEW CHAPTER, NEW CHAPTERRRRRRR! *dances around like an excited Twilight* Straight to top of my to-read list!
*giggles uncontrollably*
Given that Seth told his military dad the whole story, as well as the evidence of the Oppressed, the Russian, British, Chinese, US, and other governments are not stupid. I would expect SEVERAL of those governments to start building human DNA arks stocked with frozen sperm and donated eggs, and artificial wombs (powered by plutonium derived batteries (like those used in the Pioneer spacecraft), with timers to activate a cellphone antenna to call Seth's phone number in 3000 years so the the human race can get restarted with the help of the ponies. Not all the arks would survive, but with several dozen in place around the world, at least one might make it.
Just finished TOTO, and paused in horror at an incomplete tag. Then I read your latest author's note, and I'm glad you made it back!
This was really well done! I like these types of stories, kind of seems like a version of 28 Weeks Later, and with characters that I have some history with
I'm dying with curiosity about the bunker, and looking forward to seeing the connection with this cliffhanger!
HYPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sergeant First Class Raul Pearson, of the Navy Seals.
(Sigh)