9. Desperate Flight
With everyone’s help, Amaryllis and her ragtag group of fighters finished off the remaining undead that had ambushed them. She had no time to dwell on this minor victory, as there was a much bigger threat approaching them from the south. That strange pony along with the horde from the subway was catching up to them.
“How much time do we have?” Amaryllis demanded. She relaxed her arm briefly, the bloodied tip of the guardrail she held scraping along the cracked asphalt beneath her.
“I… I don’t know! Less than five minutes, maybe!” Jakob stammered from his vantage point. “They’re moving fast!”
“We have to move back into the city!” Jennifer called, pointing towards the eastern buildings.
“We can’t move back into the city! There’s a whole ‘nother horde back that way!” Amaryllis snapped back at Jennifer. She realized a moment later as panic started to set in that telling her that had been a poor decision.
“There’s no escape! We’re all going to die!” Rachel was the first to panic, the woman hunching down on the ground and covering her eyes.
William soon followed suit, his face pale and his body shaking. Unlike several of the others, he hadn’t tried to help them during the fight, nor had he even grabbed something to use as a weapon.
"We’ll have to swim for it!” Aven suggested, looking back towards the river separating Staten Island from Elizabeth.
“Are you kidding? We’ll never make it!” Avil shot back at her brother. Her reaction sparked another panicked argument, each of the survivors torn on what to do.
Samuel remained calm, the larger man panting and looking to Amaryllis for direction. She realized she needed to make another decision. They would listen to her, so it was up to her to get them out of here alive. However, there didn’t seem to be a clear way to do that; they were trapped between two hordes, and attempting to swim the river simply wasn’t a feasible alternative.
Amaryllis suddenly had an idea. “Jakob! Have they spotted us?” she demanded, approaching the man. She looked out across the field stretched out before them. It wasn’t long before she too spotted the incoming horde. There were countless Oppressed surging across Old Place like a raging flood, tearing up anything in their way, alive or not. Walking steadily and confidently across the grass beside the horde was the ice colored pony, a malicious grin stamped on his strangely expressive face.
Attempting to break through that horde would result in their deaths, plain and simple. Additionally, Amaryllis had no way of knowing what other magic that pony was capable of. If he had magic on a level similar to what Seth displayed, they would all be helpless before him.
“I don’t think so…but they’re definitely headed towards us,” Jakob responds, surprisingly working well with her now that his life was directly threatened.
“Of course they are. They knew we’d try to get out of the city,” Amaryllis returned. She felt as though ice were running through her veins, but she refused to let herself display her fear.
“What do we do?” Jakob asked anxiously. Amaryllis thought for a second, and then made a quick decision. She had no time to weigh the options in her head. There was only one way she could take them.
“Everyone group up on me! We’re going east into the city!” Amaryllis called, jogging away from the edge of the bridge and moving in the indicated direction. The sound of her commanding voice cut through the arguments of the others, causing them to fall silent.
“What about the monsters in the city?” Samuel questioned her. Amaryllis hated to admit it, but she had no answer for him.
“We’ll just have to find a way to avoid them. Now come on, those undead are gaining on us; we don’t have time to stand around whining!” Amaryllis answered, nearly tripping over her words in her attempt to get them out quickly. She turned and started to run down the bridge, the others moving to do as she said.
“Undead? They’re undead? I thought that was just a fantasy thing…” Jennifer responded to Amaryllis’ choice of words, her eyes wide. Amaryllis didn’t answer. Instead, after making sure to grab her gun from the road nearby, she lead the group down the ramp and back onto the main road.
“William! If you’re quite finished being useless, I need direction! What’s the most direct route to the Verrazano Bridge? Keep in mind we have to stay out of the open,” Amaryllis questioned. William didn’t answer at first. He was as white as a ghost, running wordlessly alongside her. She groaned and slapped him once. “Hey! Snap out of it!”
The sharp pain on his face seemed to do the trick. William shuddered and stuttered a bit as he attempted to get the words out. “I uh… I’m not entirely sure… I only know the main roads,” he answered.
“Well, that’s fucking useless. Tell me you have something more than that,” Amaryllis retorted. This time, it was Mary who answered.
“Well, I have an idea...but it’s a little crazy,” she offered.
“Can’t be crazier than New York being attacked by undead,” Amaryllis remarked. “Hurry up, we’ve almost reached the urban area.”
“Okay. If you look a bit further north, there’s a railroad that stretches all the way from Elizabeth through West New Brighton… I’m not entirely sure, but I think it was meant to haul freight,” Mary informed her. “It’s set in a natural trench and it goes through a tunnel at one point and a forest at another.”
“Hm… so you’re suggesting we follow the rails,” Amaryllis mused. She glanced around at the traffic lights and other such fixtures, noting that none of them were working. That meant the outage was citywide, at least as far as Staten Island was concerned. If that was true, then the freight trains wouldn’t be running, and the rails would be safe. “I don’t know, we could very easily get trapped…”
As Amaryllis’ group neared the railroad, she realized that the eastern horde was way too close. By glancing through the gaps in the buildings ahead, she could see them swarming through the streets, tearing apart civilians and policemen alike, all of them helpless before the might of the Oppressed. There was a ridiculous amount of them. There had to be thousands… or even hundreds of thousands of Oppressed. They flowed through every street as far as she could see, promising a swift and painful death to anyone trying to punch through to the bridge.
As for the Verrazano, there hadn’t been a third explosion of the same magnitude as the ones that had destroyed the Goethals and Bayonne, so Amaryllis was relatively sure the bridge was still intact. Despite the fact that it was most likely a trap to catch any fleeing survivors, it was their only shot at getting out of Staten Island alive.
“Agh, to hell with it. It’s all we can do. Everyone, follow me!” Amaryllis redirected her path towards the railroad. Ahead of her, she could see a thin copse of trees between them and the main railroad. She looked for a way around, and found one in the form of a dirt path that skirted the railroad. As she turned to follow it, she called back to Aven. “Where’s the southern horde?”
“I don’t think they’ve seen us yet… they’ve just reached the Goethals!” Aven called back. Amaryllis smirked a bit. That was something at least. The Oppressed had thought to kill off any survivors attempting to head across that bridge, but they’d already escaped. Her satisfaction was then cut short by Aven’s next cry. “Hold on, they’re heading this way!”
“No doubt they’re headed for the Bayonne,” Samuel surmised. That made sense to Amaryllis, but the undead’s reasoning didn’t matter.
“Either way, they’ll see us if we don’t get a move on! We need to get to the railroad tunnel fast!” Amaryllis broke into a sprint once she reached the rails, glad once again of all of her physical training. The others weren’t as lucky; she could hear the ragged panting of some of the less physically fit.
Amaryllis gazed ahead of her as she ran. Just like she thought, there was a stalled freight train on one side of the tracks, though its inhabitants were nowhere to be seen. Considering how many undead were in the surrounding city, they were likely dead. She tsked and rubbed her forehead. This was just awful. She was grateful that she didn’t have the time to dwell on the massive amount of death occurring around her, as twisted as that made her feel.
The railroad took them right through the center of the industrial sector of Mariners Harbor, according to Mary. The trench in which they were running kept them hidden for the most part, but on occasion, the group had to pause and battle a small group of Oppressed that cascaded into the trench from above.
Amaryllis could tell the group was exhausted. Many of them weren’t built for this sort of exertion, and others were beginning to feel hints of encroaching despair. Night was falling, and the sky grew rapidly dark. The streetlights that once lit up the island failed to start as usual, telling her that it would soon be too dark to see. It would be bad if she couldn’t find them someplace to rest within the next few hours.
After running for about half a mile, the dark foreboding mouth of the railway tunnel opened up before them. Unlike the dim light of the setting sun they were receiving, it was completely pitch black inside.
Just before Amaryllis stepped inside, she took out her phone and flipped on the light. Just to make sure, she also checked her phone’s signal. As she thought, the signal was still dead. Whoever was in charge of this undead attack must have hit the cell towers...or perhaps it was a damping field. Either way, she wouldn’t be calling for help.
A few moments after the group had entered the darkness, there was a clicking sound, and a large floodlight illuminated the tunnel ahead. Amaryllis turned around to see Kent, the train’s conductor, still holding the floodlight he’d had before the attack.
“Huh, I forgot you had that,” Amaryllis commented. She gestured for him to join her. “Get up here and light the way. Wish you’d have said something sooner.”
“My apologies, miss,” Kent said, ambling up to join her. He was breathing heavily and his clothes were soaked with sweat. The running seemed to have hit the older man much harder than the rest due to his age, though the fact that he was still standing was a testament to his constitution. He gave her a smile. “You’ve been doing a fine job leading, by the way.”
“Whatever. Wish you or Samuel would have done it. It’s a real pain in the ass…” Amaryllis grumbled. She turned back to look at the rest of the group. Now that they were safely in the tunnel, some of them were leaning against the walls. In Sawnee’s case, the teen was lying on the ground, practically sobbing from the exertion. “Come on, no time to rest. We can walk from here, but we have to keep moving.”
There was a chorus of groans and whines from her words.
“I feel like I’m dying…” Sawnee moaned as his father helped him to his feet.
“How much further do we have to go?” Avil panted, her brow coated with sweat.
“Mommy… it really hurts…” Emma whined, the poor girl rubbing her calves. Mary was whispering words of comfort and encouragement to her in response.
Amaryllis rolled her eyes at all of this. The stress of this whole situation was getting to her; her heart felt as though it was beating a mile a minute, and every decision she had to make felt as though it could be her last.
All of a sudden, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Amaryllis turned to see Kent again, the old man seemingly trying to comfort her.”Don’t worry, you’ve done much better than the rest of us could have,” he assured her.
“Right… sure,” Amaryllis uncomfortably moved away from Kent, starting to feel a little guilty. She figured she was essentially using them to get out of the city alive. It didn’t feel right for her to get complimented for that.
Amaryllis started to move again, using Kent’s floodlight to keep track of where she was going. The light revealed a seemingly endless expanse of tracks stretching away into the blackness. On the walls were what looked like strips of LED lighting. No doubt if there were power, there would be enough light to illuminate the whole tunnel.
“How long is this tunnel?” Amaryllis asked Mary again for clarification. So far it appeared peaceful and devoid of undead, but it was making her feel antsy. The last thing she wanted was to be trapped down here if the Oppressed were to find them.
“This tunnel is about a mile, I believe. However, there’s an open expanse after that, but it's up on an overpass,” Mary answered. “Then there’s a second tunnel. If we’re lucky, we can get to New Brighton.”
Amaryllis nodded gratefully. She didn’t like the idea of walking across an open expanse. The fact that it was on an overpass reassured her somewhat, but it had already been proven that bridges weren’t safe from the Oppressed.
Something then struck her as odd. “Mary, was it? You’re acting really calm all of a sudden,” Amaryllis pointed out, feeling curious.
“C-Calm?” Mary gave a humorless laugh. She wiped the sweat from her brow with her free hand, the other one holding onto the hand of her terrified daughter. “Do I look calm? I’m really not… I’m trying hard not to panic.”
“Huh… well, at least you’re doing better than this guy.” Amaryllis jerked a thumb over her shoulder to the white faced William. He winced as he was mentioned. “Guy’s been a useless coward since the whole thing started.”
“I guess, but I can’t really blame him. Nobody expected New York to come under attack by… what is it you called them? Undead?” Mary responded, looking a little uncomfortable at Amaryllis’ blatant insult to William. Amaryllis nodded, and Mary continued. “Y-Yeah… those things are horrific. I still don’t know what’s going on, but I have to stay strong for my daughter… or we’ll both… we’ll…”
“Yeah, I get it,” Amaryllis cut her off, understanding what she was trying to say. She looked down at Emma, noticing how the young girl was staying quiet and not crying, despite how dismal the situation was.
Amaryllis knew it was likely that they’d all die so she wanted to scoff at Mary’s words, but something about the way Mary was looking at her daughter rendered her silent. She couldn’t help but think of the way Adam would look at Maka, and her cynical response died in her throat.
“Still, I’m gonna be counting on you. Keep it together and I’ll try to get you out of this,” Amaryllis said instead. She was surprised at the words that came out of her mouth. That sounded a lot more reassuring than she’d ever thought she was capable of.
“Thank you.” Emma was actually the one to respond to that, the girl managing to put on a smile despite everything. Amaryllis met her gaze briefly, and then without another word, turned her gaze back towards the tunnel ahead.
It was difficult to judge distance down in the dark they were, so Amaryllis had no idea where along the line they were. The tunnel eventually swayed to the northeast and rose on a gradual incline. According to Amaryllis’ phone, it took them about ten minutes to reach the end of the tunnel.
Just like Mary had said, the tunnel opened out onto a railway overpass that crossed high above the suburbs of Elm Park. They were nearing Port Richmond, but dusk was rapidly falling. They needed to find someplace safe or risk running into the horde in the dark.
“Keep quiet,” Amaryllis hissed to everyone as they stepped out onto the railway trestle. She noticed Kent’s flashlight. “Lights off.”
Kent obligingly shut the light off, and some of the others put their phones away. It was still dark, but the light would alert the Oppressed to their presence. Amaryllis didn’t know the Oppressed would be able to reach them up here, but she wasn’t about to tempt fate.
There was another derelict freight train sitting on the rails, abandoned by its inhabitants and its cargo left unattended. Amaryllis gave it a glance as she passed it. She couldn’t help but notice that the sounds of battle were dying down. All around the bridge, she could hear the snarls and howls of the Oppressed in the streets. Some buildings were even ablaze, the roiling orange flames a stark contrast against the darkening sky.
She could still hear the sounds of gunfire to the southeast. According to Samuel, she was hearing the sound of military grade equipment, such as 50 caliber machine guns and even tanks. At that, Amaryllis’ eyes had widened and she glanced towards the southeast. In the distance, she could see the city was burning in that direction, pillars of thick smoke rising into the air. It must be hell on earth over there. For better or worse, the military was engaging the Oppressed.
Getting to them meant getting through the horde, so that was out of the question. The rest of the island must already be overrun; there was no sign of any remaining civilians. Amaryllis wondered if they were the only civilians to survive.
One thing Amaryllis couldn’t help but notice was that occasionally, a fire blazed brightly down in the darkness. The flames moved in a generally straight line before colliding with a nearby building, catching it ablaze as well. Amaryllis realized with shock what was going on.
The path of the flames was too purposeful. If it had been a human on fire, they would flail about erratically before falling. Therefore, Amaryllis concluded that the Oppressed were setting themselves on fire somehow and spreading the blaze to other buildings. After putting this conclusion to Samuel, he informed her that it was likely to flush out any civilians hiding inside. Amaryllis cringed at the thought. Whoever was leading the Oppressed was a brutally sound tactician.
She couldn’t help them now. Instead, Amaryllis focused on the more immediate problem: she was hungry.
All this constant exertion had taken its toll on her. Her throat was dry and her stomach was grumbling with desire. Amaryllis exhaled in annoyance. This meant the others would be hungry too, and food would have to be on her list of priorities.
After traversing the length of the overpass, the group entered the next the tunnel. This one was slightly longer than the previous one. Amaryllis could feel her stamina waning. She hadn’t had any rest since all of this began. She was physically fit, but even she was exhausted from the constant running and fighting. She looked back at the ragged survivors following behind her, their shirts soaked with sweat and nearly all of them running out of breath.
“We need to rest,” Amaryllis finally determined, speaking her thoughts aloud. There was no way around it as far as she knew. When she noticed she had their attention, she kept talking. “Our only route out of the city is across the Verrazano and through Brooklyn, and that’s well over twenty miles, as the crow flies.”
“What?”
“That’s so far…”
“We’re never going to make it!” Amaryllis’ statement elicited despairing moans from the other survivors.
Amaryllis couldn’t blame them. She knew the chances of her getting out of this city were slim… but she refused to give up. She believed that if she just kept going, she’d find some way to get through this.
“You’re right, we’re not making it there tonight. I don’t know about you, but trying to take on the O… those monsters while hungry, thirsty, and exhausted is frankly a terrible idea,” Amaryllis affirmed. She noticed Samuel and Kent nodding; she hoped that meant they knew where she was going with this. “There’s really only one thing we can do. We’ve got to find someplace to hole up and rest.”
“Wouldn’t right here be good? We’re mostly safe in here, right?” Grant suggests, leaning against the wall of the tunnel.
“What, this tunnel? Hell no, this is the absolute last place I’d want to hole up,” Amaryllis retorted. She strode back up the incline of the tunnel for a moment to point back the way we came. “If that horde back there is smart enough to follow us in here, we’ll be caught between them and the horde outside, probably while we’re sleeping.”
“But you just said there’s a horde outside. It can’t be safe out there, right?” Jennifer joins in as she moves towards the front of the group.
Amaryllis groaned. “Okay, I’m just going to level with you here. This is a awful situation. One slip up and we’re all screwed. You all have to understand that there’s no course of action I can have us take that’ll result in no risk at all,” she points out, losing patience. “So as far as I see it, we either go back and die, stay here and die, or try to push forward and hope we don’t die. Which one looks like the best option to you?”
Jennifer didn’t answer, and neither did anyone else. Left in the place of any potential objections was a sullen silence; everyone knew just how bad of a situation they were in.
“That’s what I thought. Now then, I have no idea what’s outside, so I’m going go scout out our surroundings,” Amaryllis decided, heading towards the exit of the tunnel. “You all, stay here. Kent, you’re in charge when I’m gone. Samuel, Mary, you’re with me. Come on.”
Amaryllis gave a sigh of relief when she walked away from the group, with the two she mentioned following close behind. Mary was smart enough to leave Emma behind with William, so at least they didn’t have to worry about her.
When the reached the exit of the tunnel, the first thing Amaryllis noticed was the significant amount of Oppressed in the streets. She winced and silently mouthed a curse; their numbers were so great, she could hardly see the streets at all. They appeared to be everywhere.
Amaryllis then realized something. The fact that she could see the Oppressed at all meant that there was a light source of some kind, as it was now the dead of night. She saw a few moving figures that were carrying torches present among the Oppressed. She noted with surprise that they were ponies. Not undead, but living, furry ponies like the one they’d seen in the subway.
The differences between these ponies and the one in the subway were that these were armored. They wore plate mail armor and possessed weapons of varying types, from swords to axes. Some carried the torch in their mouths, while others appeared to be using magic to carry them. The Oppressed weren’t attacking them; in fact, they were even following their whispered commands.
That made this situation more difficult. Outwitting the undead was one thing; outwitting their pony overseers could be a problem. Amaryllis wasn’t sure how smart these ponies were, but she felt it was safe to assume they were at least as smart as the average human.
She scanned the area before her. Attempting to go deeper in the city appeared to be tantamount to suicide, as the Oppressed were the thickest there. Towards the north, where the buildings and trees eventually thinned out, there weren’t as many. Amaryllis clicked her tongue. Things were just going from bad to worse.
Once the three of them retreated a safe distance away from the exit, they met to discuss their next course of action.
“Things are looking bad; monsters wherever you look,” Samuel expressed grimly. He glanced over at Amaryllis. “Any ideas? It seems that no matter where we go, we’ll have to fight.”
“Except if we make noise, won’t we be discovered?” Mary reminded him, shuddering at the thought. “It’ll be all over then… there’s just so many.”
“So what you’re basically telling me is; we have to get out of this tunnel, get through the horde of Oppressed, and find a place to hole up and rest … all without fighting a single one,” Amaryllis summarized, heaving a sigh of frustration. She glanced up when she realized that none of them were answering her. Instead, they were both giving her a strange expression. “What?”
“Oppressed?” Samuel repeated back to her. Amaryllis’ heart leapt up into her stomach when she realized what she’d done. A long string of curses ran through her mind. If Samuel had been suspicious of her before, there’s no way he’d let her go after this. “You know what they’re called?”
“I thought they were undead?” Mary questioned, neither one of the terms meaning much to her.
“Just forget I said that, it’s not that important.” Amaryllis hastily attempted to dismiss their questions, yet it had the opposite effect. Samuel narrowed his eyes and took a step closer to her.
“You were quite adamant that you knew nothing about these creatures, but I now hear you referring to them as something else,” Samuel pointed out. This was the first Mary has heard of this conversation; she was now looking at Amaryllis with an anxious expression. Amaryllis opened her mouth, but Samuel wouldn’t let her continue. “Don’t try to say it was a slip of the tongue’ you very clearly put emphasis on that word…’Oppressed.’”
Amaryllis gave a resigned and irritated huff. “Okay, fine, so I know something about them! It doesn’t matter!” she knew he had a good reason to be suspicious, but this was a waste of time to her; time they couldn’t really afford to lose. “It’s not like it changes anything!”
“It doesn’t change anything?” Samuel looked deadly serious. “It changes everything. We’re putting our lives in your hands, trusting you to lead us to safety in this crisis, and you’ve been holding back crucial information the whole time?”
“Okay, can we not do this right now? There’s still an…” Amaryllis started to protest. She took a step back when Samuel suddenly oriented his gun on her, the muzzle staring her right in the face.
“Samuel, what are you doing!?” Mary gasps, backing away from the scene. Amaryllis was lost for words; she had been facing death this whole time, but never from another human; one that was supposed to be her ally.
“How am I supposed to trust you now? Since the very beginning, you’ve acted very calm about this. You knew that the creatures wouldn’t stay down from what should be lethal wounds. You knew that breaking their legs would stop them, as well as smashing their heads in. You knew what they were called. Most damning is that every time we speculate on their origins, you remain quiet, even though you’re supposed to be our leader,” Samuel declared, the gun still pointed unerringly at her head. He gritted his teeth. “Did you know this was going to happen?”
“Look, buddy, put the gun down before one of us gets hurt,” Amaryllis found her nerve again, meeting Samuel’s eyes and ignoring the gun. “We really don’t have the time…”
“Answer the goddamn question!” Samuel cut her off, cocking the gun. “Depending on your answer…”
“What, you’ll kill me?” Amaryllis moved towards Samuel until the muzzle of the gun was pressed against her forehead. She was furious now. “Yeah, I know a thing or two about these monsters. I may even know something about these ponies running around with them. That being said, doesn’t that make me the most valuable person on the planet right now?”
Samuel didn’t answer nor did he move, his finger resting on the trigger.
“Sure, by all means, pull that fucking trigger. Gun down the only person who knows enough about all of this to give us a fighting chance. I’m sure you’ll all get out of this city without me,” Amaryllis boldly dared him, her gaze as hard as Samuel’s.
“Please, both of you, just stop,” Mary begged, yet it was to no avail. Samuel and Amaryllis glared at one another unflinchingly for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, Samuel lowered the gun, seeing the sense in her words.
“What are they?” Samuel asked firmly.
“They’re called the Oppressed. They’re human, or they used to be. They’re just monsters now,” Amaryllis answered without missing a beat. Even as stubborn as she was, she knew that Samuel would never help her if she couldn’t give him something.
“Where did they come from?” Samuel pressed.
“Those ponies we saw created them. They’re led by a stronger one called King Sombra,” Amaryllis answered, crossing her arms.
“What are they after?” Samuel continued.
“I think you can answer that one yourself,” Amaryllis pointed out. After all, even he’d noticed that the Oppressed were trying to exterminate them, not just conquer them. “Look, we don’t have time for this. If we can find someplace to rest, I’ll play twenty questions with you all damn night.”
“Promise me one thing,” Samuel responded. “When we find a place to hole up, you’ll tell us everything you know. Not just me… all of us.”
Amaryllis groaned. If she had just kept her damn mouth shut, she wouldn’t be in this situation. “Fine...I still say it doesn’t make a difference, but whatever,” she relented with bad grace. She knew she was going to regret this; there was just no feasible way to tell someone that the end of days had arrived.
Samuel was quiet for a long time, and then he nodded. “I’ll be holding you to that. Now, do you have a plan on how to get out of this tunnel?”
Amaryllis felt relief to get back to the task at hand. She recalled what she’d seen outside, and quickly formulated a plan. “We don’t have much of a choice. We’ll push towards the streets where the Oppressed are less dense. There’s a copse of trees on the northern side of the railroad. If we’re lucky, we can avoid being seen inside. Mary, what’s nearby?”
“Um…” Mary stammered a bit. She clapped her hands to her face to snap herself back to her senses. “Okay. It’s mostly suburbs, but there should be a bar just outside. A little ways south from here is a middle school with multiple floors, and there’s a Heidi’s grocery store next to it… there’s also a two story church up north past the trees.”
“Right past the trees?” Amaryllis interrupted. When Mary nodded, Amaryllis pondered. “Okay, that might be our best shot. If we can cut through the forest and get in there without being seen, we might be able to hide out on the upper floors.”
“I suppose that’s as good an idea as any,” Samuel grunted. With that, the three of them returned to the rest of the group. When Amaryllis found them, she noticed that some of them were lying down next to the rails, while others were sitting with their backs against the walls.
“Everybody up. It’s time to get moving. We’re going to make for the nearby church and hole up there,” Amaryllis announced. She ignored the whines and complains of the exhausted group and waited until they were ready before she started to lead the group to the end of the tunnel.
It was nearly pitch black outside now, apart from the orange glow cast by the torches held by the enemy. There would have no way to coordinate with one another if it weren’t for Jennifer, who donated a low power laser pointer to Amaryllis.
Amaryllis stood at the exit to the tunnel, looking out at the large amount of Oppressed. She glanced over to the trees. Despite how dark it was, her eyes had mostly adjusted. She noted only a few Oppressed between here and there. It would be tough, but she figured she could make it.
“Don’t follow until I give the signal,” Amaryllis directed the others in a low whisper. She steeled herself and dashed out of the tunnel, leaping across the gravel and making for the nearest bush.
There was a growl from her left. Immediately, she shimmied to the left and ducked behind a bush on the other side of the rails. She planted her butt against the ground, doing her best to keep her breathing to a minimum. Despite that, she felt as though her heart was running a mile a minute.
Amaryllis kept her eye on the horde, noting their positions around her. They were everywhere; just a few quick glances revealed five of them ambling around near a smouldering convenience store just across the street from where she was hiding. She counted seven more in the street itself. Twelve more were crossing the rails nearby.
She cursed; she couldn’t find any openings to take advantage of. It didn’t help that she couldn’t see much of anything. Amaryllis noted the position of the woods just beyond the buildings to her right. There were three Oppressed in the nearest alleyway between them, along with a flickering torch that hinted at the presence of a living pony.
The moment the opportunity revealed itself, Amaryllis broke cover and sprinted to the nearest buildings, which appeared to be two ordinary residential houses, each one surrounded by a white picket fence. She heard the snarl of a nearby Oppressed, so she ducked behind the separating fence to take cover.
Amaryllis sighed in relief and turned her head back forward… only to see an Oppressed crossing the field right in front of her. She froze, watching the twisting creature amble in her direction. Much to her surprise, however, it walked right past her as though it didn’t even see her.
She blinked. It was night time and nearly pitch black, but her eyes had adjusted well enough to see in the dark due to the distant torchlight. She glanced between the seemingly blind Oppressed and the live ponies carrying torches, beginning to put two and two together.
She grinned; she could take advantage of this. She broke cover once more and sneaked past the Oppressed, keeping to the darkness and moving into the nearby alley. This one didn’t have any Oppressed in it, so she had a clear shot to the forest from here. She glanced back as she walked, noticing how the openings she took to get here were now completely filled with Oppressed.
Amaryllis racked her brain, trying to find a way to get everyone else over here without getting seen. However, while she was thinking, she neglected to look down at the ground. Her foot caught against a large embedded rock in the gravel, causing her to stumble. Instinctively, she used her other foot to stabilize herself, her shoe skidding in the gravel and sending a few rocks scattering forward.
She froze, breaking out into a cold sweat. There was dead silence at first, making her believe that perhaps her stupid mistake had gone unnoticed. However, she then noticed a light drawing closer from the side of the alley closer to the woods. She could hear steadily approaching hooves clopping along the gravel.
“What in the hay?” the pony reacted, his voice growing steadily closer as he neared Amaryllis’ hiding spot. “I thought we exterminated all the apes in this area already… I swear to Sombra, if this is another raccoon…”
Amaryllis gripped her guardrail tightly, seeing only one way to get out of this. She would only have one shot at this. If she missed by even an inch, she would be dead in an instant.
The pony turned the corner. It wasn’t a unicorn, judging by the lack of wings or a horn and the torch clasped in his hoof. He was wearing the same suit of armor as the other soldiers; his head, the sides of his neck, his hooves, and his lengthy back were all coated in a sheet of engraved black steel. Around his neck was a glimmering ruby pendant that pulsed gently with an ethereal glow.
The pony’s eyes shot wide when Amaryllis shot out of the darkness like a wraith, her teeth gritted and her hands grasping the jagged guardrail. Before he could finish opening his mouth to yell, Amaryllis leapt forward and jammed the tip of the guardrail right into his larynx with a wet thump. Blood spurted from the wound, coating the guardrail and splattering onto Amaryllis’ hands as she shoved the improvised weapon all the way through his neck.
The torch dropped to the ground as the pony lifted his hooves to the rail in a vain attempt to remove it. He attempted to speak, but all that came out was a wet gurgling. Finally, the pony fell to the ground limply, dead.
Amaryllis looked at what she’d done and she nearly threw up. She was a tough girl; she’d seen blood before and she’d certainly killed Oppressed, but this was the first time she’d ever killed a living creature. However, her determination won through; she couldn’t afford to linger here.
She removed the guardrail from the pony’s neck and left the torch where it lay. She couldn’t put it out, or she’d draw the attention of the other living ponies. She was about to press forward when she noticed the pendant on the body.
Amaryllis guessed it was magic from the way it glowed, but she had no idea what it was capable of. On a hunch, she removed the necklace from the pony and clasped it around her own neck, where it lie beside her own necklace that she always wore. She figured the soldier wouldn’t have been wearing it if it was harmful to him; if anything, it was likely beneficial.
A strange sensation came over her. She didn’t understand what she was feeling; she could sense various pinpricks of fiery light in her mind. She closed her eyes, trying to focus on the feeling. While she did her best to visualize them, she could feel that the lights were coming from different directions, and varied in intensity depending on distance.
In total, she could feel fifty of these pinpricks in her mind; it was nearly overwhelming for her. Amaryllis noted the presence of the nearest light, and thought about finding out what it was. If she could just get up close to one…
There was suddenly a snarl, and an Oppressed lumbered around the corner, approaching her. Amaryllis took a step back and hunched down into a defensive position, but the creature didn’t attack her. She blinked, realizing that it was just standing there, gazing at her. She realized with shock that one of the pinpricks she could feel was directly in front of her.
“Is… this how they’re controlling them?” Amaryllis whispered, looking down at the necklace. She decided to test her theory. “Hey, ugly. Roll over.”
The Oppressed obediently threw itself to the ground and rolled over once, just as she’d told it to. Amaryllis slowly let a grin cross her face. She now had the perfect idea on how to get the horde out of the way long enough for her group to catch up with her.
If she was understanding how this worked, she had access to fifty Oppressed. That was a small army, but compared to the hordes of Oppressed out there, it was nothing. She quickly determined she couldn’t keep them. Their group was large enough as it is; with fifty Oppressed, they’d drawn no end of attention.
“Let’s not put them to waste then,” she decided. She willed for all of the Oppressed she could sense to congregate on her. They responded to her mental orders immediately, shuffling through the streets to fill up the alleys around the house with a horde. She couldn’t help but shudder. Even though they were presently under her control, seeing them walking around her made her uneasy.
She wordlessly glanced at the Oppressed, noting that each one of them was different and still looked somewhat human despite the twisted transformation that they had underwent. She couldn’t tell who any of them used to be. “Still, if you’re going to die, it might as well be on our side, rather than theirs,” Amaryllis whispered, and then she grimaced at her own dark humor.
She fixed her eyes on the horde of Oppressed that didn’t currently belong to her. Her eyes narrowed, and then she grinned. “You lot… buy me time!” Amaryllis ordered her Oppressed, indicating the horde.
Her Oppressed roared viciously and swarmed across the rails back towards the other monsters, responding to her will. The other Oppressed had no warning before Amaryllis’ forces slammed into their ranks, enamel claws ripping and tearing at their undead flesh.
“What the hay!?” one of the living ponies gasped, shocked at the sudden betrayal. The streets quickly turned into chaos as the traitorous Oppressed battled their former allies. Amaryllis couldn’t help but let a twisted grin cross her face. They wouldn’t last long, but she’d take what she could get.
Amaryllis took out the laser pointer and aimed it back towards the railroad tunnel where the others of her group should be waiting. She quickly located Samuel, who was at the head of the group. Once the soldier noticed the pinprick of red light on his shirt, he took a glance around and then broke into a run, heading right for her.
“Amaryllis? What the hell is going on?” Samuel demanded in a harsh whisper once he reached her. He was no doubt referring to the cacophony created by the battling Oppressed. “Who are they attacking?”
“Each other. No time to explain. Into the trees, now!” Amaryllis ordered. She could already feel some of the Oppressed she controlled dying. Samuel looked uncertain, but he did what she told him. More members of the group approached as Amaryllis signalled them over. Each of them went undetected by the distracted horde.
As more Oppressed died, Amaryllis noticed the pendant around her neck losing its glow. As she expected, this only allowed the wearer to control a set amount of Oppressed. Once they were all dead, it would be useless.
“Go, go!” Amaryllis directed, gesturing to each person that followed. Once she’d counted everyone present in the group, she followed swiftly behind them.
Just beyond the trees, the church lay waiting.
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woo!
Death and destruction! Yay!
This is a damn good series. Cool to see the darker side of pony society.
This necklace tactic Is certainly interesting... I wonder if Amaryllis can pull it off again.
Holy throne....
Now that i think about it, if humanity was wiped out by Oppressed and there is about 7 billions of people on earth, lets say about half of them were transformed into Oppressed and the others were simply ripped to shred, with Hawkes having 3 thousand years to collect undeads...Knowing oppressed survived all this 3 thousand years, wouldn't it make Sombra's army like, in the 4 billions at least?
Humanity surely put up a fight, for them to fight for 80 years or so it surely diminished the numbers of oppressed but even then, wouldn't it make Sombra's army way too big?
Even if the Oppressed army was reduced at 1 billion, it is a gigantic number compared to what was described in 'Tales of the oppressed' war
Which also makes me wonder how Hawke was able to hide that shit for so long but i'll just use the magic excuse considering he was able to hide from Celestia's detection.
Think what you want of what i just said,really, i just felt analytics as fuck this morning. Doesn't stop me from enjoying this story but it makes you wonder