Run or Die

by Buckseed

Enter The Institute

Dash sat down near the gate, she watched people walk by, waiting for this A.J person to come and lead her to the Institute hub entrance. It didn’t help that she had no idea who this person was, and therefor couldn’t tell if they were around. Good thing everybody in the compound knew who Dash was. They didn’t always have the best impression of her, but they knew who she was, and that’s all that mattered for her.

It seemed like all she was doing lately was wait on other people. Wake up in the Docs office? Wait. Doc says he wants to talk to you? Wait. Need an escort to the entrance of an evil organization so you can fuck shit up? Wait. It was infuriating.

“You Rainbow?” a voice rang out from in front of her. She had been so lost in thought that she hadn’t even noticed anyone approach her. She looked up and saw a young woman, probably around the same age as her, wearing jeans and a faded orange shirt.

“It’s Dash, nobody calls me Rainbow,” she replied, then nodded her head at the girl. “You AJ?” she asked.

The woman leaned against the wall and crossed her arms. “Fair enough. The name’s Applejack, but nobody calls me that, so just stick to AJ.”

Dash nodded. “I can respect that,” she said as she stood up and resecured her bag on her back. “So are we getting out of here now?”

A.J stepped away from the wall and nodded once. “Yea, ain’t no use sitting here talking about it. Let’s go.” she said, walking up the gate that separated the compound from the rest of the world and scaling it with the ease that only an experienced runner would have.

Dash followed and, not being one to let anybody overshadow her, dismounted the top of the gate with a flip, landing crouched on the ground below.

A.J crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. “Was all that really necessary?” she asked.

“Hey, you do things your way, and I’ll do them my way,” Dash said with a shrug “Lead the way.”

A.J shook her head but pushed it behind her and turned around. “Alright, it’s this way. About a half-hour from here. Keep up.” she said before she took off at a steady jog, steadily picking up the pace.

It didn’t take long for Dash to catch up though, she was regarded as the fastest runner for a reason, though this girl wasn’t so bad herself.

“So,” Dash began as she ran next to her guide “you new to the compound? Can’t say I’ve ever seen you around before.”

“You think you could get your head out of your ass long enough to notice someone other than yourself?” A.J bit back.

Dash reeled back a little from that. “Woah, what’s all that about? What’d I ever do to you?”

A.J rolled her eyes and slowed to a jog, facing the girl running alongside her and giving her her full attention. “Don’t think that just because you don’t know me, that means I don’t know you.” she said with venom in her voice. “Us runners, we’re like a family. We look out for each other out there and do our damndest to make sure we all get back in one piece. But not you. Everyone knows that being chosen to go on a run with Rainbow Dash is a death sentence!”

Dash couldn’t hide the shock on her face and stopped running altogether. “W-what do you mean?” she asked in sincere wonder, not having heard about any of this before.

“What I mean is that you only look out for yourself. Like I said, we runners treat each other like family. Back before the virus hit, family was the most important thing in the world to me, and that ain’t changing now,” A.J continued to rant “But, if you’re out with a runner and get caught with a horde of zombies, the first thing you do is duck out and try to save your own ass. We’ve seen the reports and heard it first-hand from the few runners that survived an outing with you. Rainbow Dash is bad news, and I’m prepared for it.”

Dash clenched her fists. “Listen here you fucking hick, first thing’s first, the name is just Dash. Not Rainbow Dash, and definitely not just Rainbow. Second of all, it’s nice that you have a family with the others, but what I do is my own damned business. They wouldn’t hesitate to leave me behind in those same situations, so why should I try to help them? All they see is the Institute girl, that’s all they’ll ever see.” She grit her teeth and clenched her fists even harder, her nails began to dig into her palm and the pain did little to calm her rush of anger, she hated talking about this stuff. “Do you have any ideas how many solo missions I go on?” she asked, her eyes intensely staring into A.J’s own. “I do so much for that miserable place and what do I get in return? Absolutely nothing! The runs just keep getting longer and more dangerous. I get selected for the suicide runs that even the most veteran of runners turn down. I showed up with supplies the other day, after escaping a horde of zombies, and do you know what was the first thing I got when I came back? A concussion! So don’t stand here and lecture me about how I might treat others, when nobody has ever shown me even the smallest shred of decency.”

There was a brief moment of silence shared between the two girls, they stared each other in the eyes and let their animosity die down little by little. It didn’t last long though, as the smell of death began to fill the air and the sound of movement nearby alerted them to some unwanted guests.

Dash sucked her teeth. “C’mon, let’s get out of here.” she said, and A.J nodded in confirmation before she began to lead again.

****

The rest of the run had been quiet, the only noises being made by either girl were their respective footsteps. Soon enough though, they had entered the forest. This was new territory to Dash, she avoided this place like the plague, as did most runners. You never knew if there was a zombie just around the trunk of a tree, and all the vines made running that much harder. She decided to stick closer to A.J than she previously was, this was not a place she wanted to get lost in.

After a few more minutes, A.J stopped and looked around. “This is the place,” she said as she looked around, grabbing a mass of vines hanging from a tree and pulling on them, revealing the door to the bunker labeled with the name Institute.

Dash felt her skin crawl and her blood boil within her. It wasn’t the same place she had been kept, but it was unmistakeable. This was proof that the Institute had labs scattered all over, and who knows what they could be doing in them.

“Well, this here’s the place I saw that guy run into with his bag of zombie arm.” A.J said, gesturing to the door, pointing at the electronic lock that was on it. “Don’t suppose you have a way to get by this thing, do ya?” she asked.

Dash sighed. “I don’t want to talk about it, but yes.” she said, walking up the device and placing her hand on it. It whirred to life, and a light flashed from underneath her hand before she heard the door click open. “Guess they can’t be bothered to update the system.”

A.J stared at Dash, an inquisitive look on her face.

“I really don’t wanna talk about it.” Dash said, and A.J shrugged.

“Whatever, c’mon, let’s go.” A.J said as she began to walk into the bunker, but Dash grabbed by the shoulder and pulled her back.

“And where are you going?” Dash asked, a frown on her face. “This is my mission, you were supposed to show me where to go, and that’s it. I never agreed to let you come down there with me.”

A.J didn’t say anything for a moment, before she looked Dash in the eyes and spoke up. “Listen, remember how earlier I said I used to have a family, before all this zombie stuff went down?” she asked, not waiting for an answer before continuing. “Well, I saw my granny get bit, saw it happen to my brother too. They were all around us, and I was protecting my little sis the whole time. But, before they got to me, a group of people came in and started taking the zombies down like they were nothing.I thought they were military, all dressed in the same uniform with a buncha big guns. But then they took my sister, they took Applebloom right from my hands and left me to die. I didn’t live too far from here and, if it was the Institute that did it, they must have brought her to this lab.” She didn’t break eye contact the whole time she told her story. “I need to find my sister. She’s all I have left.”

Dash froze, and suddenly she was back home, at the park with Fluttershy. It was her fault that they had been captured by the Institute all those years ago, she couldn’t do anything then, but she sure as hell could do her best now.

Dash spoke. “And you’re not afraid of being abandoned by me if something goes wrong down there? Not afraid that I’ll choose to save my own ass?”

A.J shook her head. “I ain’t afraid of nothing”

Dash nodded, “Then let’s do this.” she said before walking ahead of A.J and into the bunker.

The two looked around. It was a small room, the walls lined with shelves full of hazmat suites and papers. There was one box in a corner that was full of glass bottles of alcohol.

“We could use some of these back at the compound.” Dash said, putting a few into her bag and giving the rest to A.J once she couldn’t fit any more.

Other than that, the room was empty, save for the small carpet right in the center of it.

“You don’t think they would, do you?” A.J asked as she looked down at the carpet.

“Only one way to find out.” replied Dash before they both kicked it out of the way.

Sure enough, the carpet hid a manhole. Together, they were able to lift the hunk of metal and move it aside, revealing a ladder that led down further than they could see.

“You ready?” Dash asked.

“Yea, but here, take this.” A.J replied, pulling a lighter from her pocket.

“You smoke, and you’re a runner?” Dash asked disapprovingly.

“No, ‘course not. It’s just, sometimes you need light and you don’t always have time to rummage through your bag for it. That there lighter has saved my hide a few times.” A.J replied as she handed the lighter to Dash.

“Alright, here goes nothing.” Dash said, and began her descent into the dark tunnel.

It was a long way down through the pitch darkness, but as soon as Dash felt her foot hit solid ground, she spun around and knelt against a wall. Flicking the flashlight on, she saw that they were in a circular room, with a single door right ahead of them. She waited until AJ was next to her, and then slowly reached out and opened the door.

Light flooded the small room and Dash paused for a moment, putting the lighter into her pocket and letting her eyes adjust to the new light coming from what she could only assume was the lab. There was no sounds that she could hear, aside from the telltale buzzing of lightbulbs, so she figured it was safe enough to walk out.

Easing herself out of the room was both the easiest and most nerve racking thing she had done in a while. She wanted almost nothing more than to never have to see an Institute lab again, the only thing she craved more than that was to see them all burned to the ground at her own hands.

“What do we do now?” AJ whispered from behind her, making Dash jump slightly.

“Now?” Dash repeated. “Now we do some hunting.”

Author's Note:

Hope you enjoy the chapter, more to come soon!