• Published 24th Jan 2018
  • 6,104 Views, 338 Comments

Without You - Dustchu



Without him, she'd be lost to the dead. Without her, he'd be lost to insanity. Together, a human and pony will come together to survive this monster filled hell known as Raccoon City.

  • ...
14
 338
 6,104

16 - New Threads


ooo000---000ooo


After getting patched up by the officer, I felt a little bit better, especially after he pulled out one of those First Aid spray cans that Resident Evil was known for having to heal wounds. The pain was alleviated after a few minutes and I could move around again. Rainbow was relieved to see me up again.

After resting for a little bit longer, I stood up and began wandering around the station with Rainbow by my side, who had some new bandages on her wounds. She was looking better as a result, especially after the last of the first aid spray was used on her gunshot wound. She visibly improved and was moving around a lot better. It's amazing what a lot of pain can do to a person.

Right now, I needed to find some new clothing.

My shirt had been ruined by the blood, rips and tears, and all I had to cover my upper body was my jacket. My pants were in decent enough shape, but the stress of fighting so many battles had begun to wear and tear at them until rips and tears appeared around the shins and knees.

I doubt anyone here would care if I snagged some spare clothing from the equipment room, wherever the hell it was.

"I told you to hold the line!" A yell reached my ears, prompting me to halt in the hallway.

Who was that?

"What's up?" Rainbow asked me.

"Sir, with all due respect, we would have died out there." I heard the captain's voice argue. "Main Street was completely overrun by those damn things, and I lost several good men because of this!"

I peeked out beyond the wall and saw the Police Chief's office, which was wide open and inside, Irons and the Captain were speaking.

"It doesn't matter!" I heard Irons yell. "I gave you a direct order, one you clearly disobeyed." Outside of the office, I saw a few other officers standing outside, listening in. "You were to fortify and hold Main Street!"

"There were too many openings!" The Captain slammed his fist on the table, "The alleyways, the streets, the buildings, there was no way we were going to hold out there let alone survive! I had no choice but to retreat back here."

I crouched down to make my profile less known, and listened to the two argue back and forth. He must have been banking on the hope that everyone would get killed, that was his plan to begin with. I glanced down at the handgun on my belt. Didn't expect an outside force to make them all see reason, so now how is that going to affect everything?

"He's mad." Rainbow muttered next to me, having leaned up and over me to peek out herself. I wasn't expecting her to get so close, let along climb on my back and over my head. "Real mad."

I wasn't complaining though.

"Get out of my office, Captain... you're dismissed." Irons grumbled and the captain left, but not without slamming the door behind him and storming down the hall with the other officers who followed him.

The hall now emptied, I saw the door to Irons' office open and swing back open slowly. Inside, I saw the chief himself pouring a rather generous serving of some kind of booze before downing it. The man looked worse for ware, his hair was ragged, his clothing was ill-kept, and his eyes were wide and wild.

No surprise, considering the current situation, but everyone else seemed to be handling it with varying levels of success. Irons looked ready to break... or was already broken.

Not wanting to get caught, I backed away and continued my search for some new threads.

"Why was he so angry?" Rainbow questioned, causing me to pause slightly. "A lot of people managed to survive, isn't that a good thing?"

You'd think. I looked ahead of us. Outside a thunderstorm brewed. Thunder rumbled across the skies, and lightning lit up the windows. "Holding Main Street wasn't a good idea, too many openings, too many blindspots, and more undead than there were officers. The whole idea was suicidal, and Irons should have known better." I turned to Rainbow and saw her perked up ears, and her eyes focused on me. "There were more disadvantages then advantages, and holding it would have completely drained law enforcement of resources they could be using elsewhere, like the station."

"Really?" Rainbow tilted her head and looked down, lips quirked out to one side.

"The police station is a defensive position, thick walls, iron wrought gates, on top of having what I hope is a fully stocked armory." Maybe I could find something in the armory?

"Are we going to stay here and wait for help?" Rainbow sounded curious. I saw her expression turn to a grimace at the question, was she not happy about the idea?

I wasn't happy about it either. The station — while it could be easily defended, it wasn't a place I wanted to stay long, especially considering we only had five days to get out of here before it was destroyed. "Probably not, no... we'd be better off trying to find a way out of this damn place. You saw Irons, the guy from earlier? He's the police chief here, he's just about lost it."

"Can't we help out?"

"Not him... no." I wasn't ready to tell her why that was... not yet, I was hoping we could get out of here before that happened. "Our best bet is to get out when we're properly rested and geared up... well, geared up in my case, you can hold your own pretty well in a fight." I couldn't help but praise. I saw her fighting off the undead pretty well on her own.

i saw her face light up and she puffed out her chest, and smiled. "Well, not to toot my own horn or anything, but I took martial arts back in my hometown!" She chuckled, and gave a cursory look at her damaged wing, which was starting to look a bit better. "If I was able to fly, I could do a lot more damage."

Being a pony had its perks, I could only imagine what she would be able to do once she had the ability to fly again. And from the looks of her wings, she was slowly getting there.

The mare yawned after a moment and ruffled her wing and tail feathers. A shake of her head, and she sniffled, "Man, I'm beat." She looked a little relaxed now, maybe the healing factor of the spray was helping her out.

I shared her sentiment, I was starting to feel exhaustion creeping up on me as well. I had lost track of time during the whole escape from the hospital and the fight with the horde at Main Street. I could feel the burning in my legs. Sleepiness crept up in my mind shortly after, and it was then I figured we should probably sleep and rest if we were going to make any further attempts to escape.

"We should probably get some sleep." I told her and maneuvered towards one of the rooms we passed by.

I opened the door cautiously and peered inside, and saw it was an office of sorts, abandoned, and it seemed someone had rooted through it recently, as papers were tossed everywhere and one of the tables turned over, books thrown aside. Someone was looking for something in here, but what? Well, it didn't matter much to me, I wasn't here to solve a mystery.

I walked inside with Dash behind me and I closed the door behind us, throwing the lock on and letting out a tiny sigh as I took off my jacket. I sat down on the floor and against the wall.

Rainbow sat next to me, and it was again I noticed we were at eye level when sitting down.

The room we were in had a decent enough light so I could make out her face a lot better than I would have been able to before. And I think she said something, but I found myself getting lost in her face.

Rainbow's eyes were sharp, focused despite being exhausted from what happened today. The light from the lamp bounced off of her bright magenta irises, and accentuated the colorful lighter blue surrounding her eye, as well as the sharp pink lines behind her eyes. Under her chin and going down to her chest, and to her belly, with separate rings around her fetlocks, the same lighter blue fur color around her eyes added this pretty contrast to her normal cyan fur. Her wings were large and fluffy, full of this soft plumage that was a mixture of soft blues and purples that grew darker the further they went down to her feather tips.

She was relaxed and against the wall, and a soft smile touched her lips as we made eye contact.

Fuck, she's pretty.

I blinked when Rainbow's expression grew more visibly concerned, her lips moved and i finally heard, "-u alright?"

"Huh?" I blinked again and rubbed my head.

She shook her head and a light snicker left her. "You were staring at me for a bit dude, you okay?"

"U-uh, yeah." Fuck, was I staring? I wasn't, clearly she was delusional. "Just uh..."

"Being mesmerized by my awesomeness?" A smirk tugged at her lips and she sat up a bit taller, though not by much and puffed out her chest fluff a little.

I wasn't sure what the hell I was feeling right now, but mesmerized wasn't too far from what she was saying. Instead I smiled and poked her snoot with my finger. "You are pretty awesome." I winked.

Her face lit up and she laughed a little. Her shoulders slumped and she leaned against the wall next to me, still smiling and looking at me. "You know..."

I got comfortable and rested my back against the wall as I kept my eyes on her. "Hmm?"

Her head bobbed up and down, and she said, "You're alright... for a weird monkey guy."

I responded with a roll of my eyes and lightly punched her in the shoulder. "Human, for future reference. But yeah, you're alright yourself... for a midget horse."

She blinked and blew a raspberry before punching me back. I just snickered and she joined in right after with her own scratchy giggles. I could see the smile on her face, and it only made mine grow further. I wasn't expecting to feel this good during our escapades through Raccoon City, but it made me think that even in hard times like this, you can still find a precious moment to enjoy life and the company of a friend.

We settled into the room fairly easily. The light dimmed, and the storm outside only grew worse as time went on. I wasn't too worried about anything from it, but from the station itself? I was worried about what would happen while we were out.

I only had so much ammunition left for my pistol.

I wasn't able to sleep though, despite laying on the floor for a good few minutes. Rainbow nudged me back out of my stupor, and brought my attention to her.

I shot her a curious look and she just laid down next to me. "Sleeping on the floor is rough, dude, you sure you're cool with that?"

"I uh... I'm used to it." I chuckled and looked away for a brief moment. "i grew up sleeping on the floor back home in Arkansas, never had a bed, so..."

When I turned back towards her, she shook her head and moved up against me. Her good wing opened up, and despite there being a hint of pink to her cheeks, she nodded towards herself. "The floor's hard dude..."

My mouth moved to form a word, but I wasn't sure what to say.

She spoke before I could. "Just... don't tell anyone, okay?" She adopted a stern face, though it was ruined by one cheek being puffed out. "I still have a reputation as being super cool, ya know."

I couldn't help but chuckle a little and shrugged before laying down next to her. She moved her head and craned her neck up under mine, allowing me to lay on her in a rather comfortable if awkward position on the floor.

This was one of the few times I've been in physical contact with her. At least this time we weren't running for our lives, nor was I forced to carry her body somewhere because she blacked out, or was unable to move.

I liked it.

Needless to say, I managed to fall asleep fairly quickly, despite the worry about my bite.

It was nice knowing I had her next to me.

Almost like a dream come true...


ooo000---000ooo


When I woke up, I saw Rainbow had gone missing.

Naturally I grew concerned and wondered where she ran off to. Considering where we were, I didn't think it was prudent to split up, let alone without letting me know where she was going.

So I was in a panic, at least until I found a note she had hastily scribbled.

'Hey, in case you wake up before I get back, I needed to find the little filly's room real quick, a girl's got needs you know! I'll be back shortly!'

Huh, guess that answers... that question, they do go to the bathroom.

I relaxed, as much as I could given the circumstances of where we were. Instead I focused on my previous mission when we arrived here and I got fixed up.

I needed new clothes.

I got up and left the room. The hall was devoid of anyone, and I couldn't hear anything except for the AC system that kept air continuously moving throughout the building. To my left, the hall we came from which led back to the lobby and Irons' office, and to my right I spotted a directory which drew my attention.

After giving it a look over, I had a better idea of where everything was.

Specifically the station's armory.

I turned and began making my way there. I also did my best to ignore the burning pain in my shoulder and neck, the bite was still bothering me and only caused my concern to grow. How much time did I have before I turned? I wasn't sure what kind of rules I was being forced to operate under, but so far I was feeling fine and it was a new day.

Which also meant we only had four days left until Raccoon City was destroyed.

I hurried my pace along and scoped out the halls leading to the armory. I half hoped there would be something still left inside of there, alongside some clothing, or maybe even armor, some kind of gear. A lot of officers were probably killed before they could come in and get their equipment, or most of it was spread out amongst the survivors. Knowing Irons, he probably hid most of it with that stupid plan of his to try and confuse the people inside the station, and make fighting the undead harder.

We had more people now, the plan changed and not only did Swat and a good chunk of the force survive, but also a few UBCS teams were here as well.

Which meant Irons was outnumbered and wouldn't be able to effectively carry out his plan.

I made my way downstairs and down a hallway, one littered with papers and garbage. The walls looked shot up, like a firefight had gone down inside the building. I had no idea how long ago.

The door to the Armory was unguarded, with only a single camera above the door that hung uselessly by a few wires. Guess it was broken, but I doubt anyone was really keeping watch on the cameras. So I wasn't too nervous about being found out. I needed to scope out some gear, and with everything going on, I could probably snag some stuf-

"Going somewhere?"

I whirled around towards the voice, and spotted the Captain that I had spoken too last night, during the main street fight. He stood with his arms crossed, eyes zeroed in on me.

"Uh... y-yeah." I straightened up a little, which caused my duty belt to jostle slightly.

His eyes flicked down to my waist, and he said, "Where'd you get that?"

I briefly wondered if I should lie, say I got it from a pawn shop or something. But... I sighed. "I found a dead officer a while ago, had a gun and belt on him... looting's a bad thing to do, and against the law, I know, but during this kind of situation, and considering what he had saved my friend and I's life." I tapped the belt. "I owe that guy a debt I can't ever repay."

The captain never broke eye contact from me, but he did start walking towards me. My nerves only got worse, and I was half scared he was going to arrest me or something. I was surprised when he brushed by me and opened the door to the armory, and beckoned me inside.

I couldn't help myself and followed him.

Once we were inside, I got to see the insides of the armory. The walls used to be lined with several police issue rifles and shotguns, sub-machine guns and a dozen or so handguns and revolvers, but now it was devoid of most firearms save a few stray ones that looked to have been broken or stripped for parts. Boxes of varied ammunition was in small stacks off to the side, sitting above larger boxes that carried powerful higher caliber rounds for the bigger guns. Some body armor was also sitting off to the side, swat armor, and so on alongside emptied magazines. Just about everything you'd expect to be in an armory.

The Captain crossed his arms and was silent for a time. I grew worried about why he brought me in here, but it did give me a chance to scope out what all was inside the armory.

Despite the constant fighting going on around the city, it seemed they had a rather decent stockpile of ammunition and weapons lying around. At least for the time being. How long would these supplies last with the current infection growing out of anyone's control?

"Chief Irons has lost his mind." The captain muttered as he took a seat in one of the fold out chairs nearby. "I don't know what is going on inside his head right now, but he's lost it." He shook his head and looked down at his hand. "I heard nothing but good things about Irons when I joined the force, but now... with this outbreak, he's delusional with his plans, and short tempered."

I wasn't expecting this.

"I... yeah, I overheard the argument you two had last night..." I cautiously leaned against the wall. "Getting out of main street was a good idea, now ya'll can worry about evacuating what survivors there are somewhere else."

"We could evacuate them from here," The captain began, and pointed to the roof. "We have a chopper, we had two but the first one was destroyed in the mountains, some kind of incident... but with what's going on now, I think I have an idea why the chopper never came back." A scoff. "Flight complication my ass..."

"So wait," They did have another chopper! Maybe we could get out of here safe and sound after all! "Why not take the chopper and evacuate the survivors from here? It'd only take a dozen or so trips, maybe less if we put as many as we could onto the damn thing." If we could get that thing running...

"Irons won't permit it." The captain told me with a bitter tone, and my hopes fell. "We have to save the fuel we have for another 'operation' he's trying to plan right now."

I curled my fingers tight against my palm. "Damn it, we're so close to getting out of this damn city." So close for a lot of people, including Rainbow... It annoyed me that we were so close.

I was too eager to speak, as the captain said something that gave me hope. "I plan on changing that, but I may need your help... you and your friend." The captain leaned back in his chair and gave me the most serious look I'd ever seen on a man before. "Chief Irons is no longer suitable to lead the department... and I have to make sure he's stopped before he does something irrational and dangerous to my officers." He then looked around the armory, and I followed his gaze. "If it wasn't for you and your friend, we probably would have died on main street."

He then turned back to look at me and stood up, before he made his way to the door.

"Take whatever it is you can find from the armory, because if things go as sour as I think they will... we might need the firepower." He then opened the door and exited the room.

The door swung shut with a dull clack, and I was left alone in the armory.

I turned and faced what few armaments were at my disposal, and wondered if I had made a mistake.

I decided instead to focus on getting armed up. Because from the sound of things, the captain planned on starting a coup.

A few minutes passed as I went around and looked at what little the armory had to offer, which was a couple of things. I still had the browning in my duty belt, and a few magazines for it. I didn't find any more for it in the armory, unfortunately. But I was able to find a Beretta on the wall, probably the last one in the whole armory. I picked it up alongside a spare shoulder holster, which I sat to the side on a table nearby alongside my other gun.

Maybe it was time I took stock of what I had for the escape, just in case.

After some more searching, I discovered a shotgun on the wall. I plucked it down from the wall and gave the hefty gun a look over. The wooden furniture and the length of it gave me some ideas, and a further look told me it was an Remington 870, a decent enough shotgun to have in a situation like this. Crowd control would help me out in this situation. And luckily enough, I found a couple of shotgun shells in a box nearby. The shotgun even had a strap on it, which meant easy enough carry for me in case I needed to switch out for a backup.

I sat it to the side with my handguns and other stuff.

I took a look at the armor on the wall next, and the spare uniforms that were displayed on the table. Neatly folded duty shirts and pants, shoes even, most too big for someone of my size. The armor looked used as well, torn from claw markings, some even had bullet holes in them from high powered rounds.

A lot of it was useless.

Though out of the corner of my eye, I saw a locker was left open. I found myself drawn to it, and I decided to check it out. "Hmm... wonder what's in here."

I opened the door to the locker and peered inside.

I found something that brought back memories of the older days of playing Resident Evil. Inside of the locker I discovered a very familiar uniform with padded armor on top of it. The uniform was charcoal in color, a nicer color than the blue I was used to, with the armor on the chest and shoulders being a darker shade. It looked brand new, as if it was in here for a new officer that was going to join the force. A curious look on the outside didn't show a name attached to the locker, so I decided on taking the uniform out and giving it a look.

I checked the tags, and saw it was a medium, which was a perfect fit for someone my size.

After I made sure no one was going to come inside, I decided to strip down and wear it.

The shirt fit like a glove around my upper body — though it was a bit tight around my gut, the pants slid on comfortably and the pockets were easily accessible, and the boots easily replaced my beaten up tennis shoes by being sturdy and comfortable. After making sure everything was on tight and firmly in place, and it looked nice.

I looked up and into the mirror that the room had.

I couldn't stop the smile that grew on my face.

I never thought I'd find myself wearing this uniform, let alone standing in the very place where my journey into undead obsession began, yet, here I was.

I stared into the mirror in the locker room of the Raccoon City Police Department's cleaned out armory, where I had found a set of the R.P.D. armor and uniform in one of the lockers. The armor was something both Kevin and Leon wore when they were on duty, and it varied depending on the time the games were made, with different iterations of the same special armor design, one being black and the other blue respectively.

The armor fit me pretty well, a lot better then I had expected it to when I decided to throw it on, if only to see how it fit. I was too curious and it was in a locker with no name on it, so I assumed it was a brand new one, if only from the smell and feel of it alone. The uniform was around my size, and the armor was heavy but I liked how it fit on my body. It felt snug, wrapped around me just right, and I felt something... good, while wearing it.

A sense of pride, a sense of duty. It felt right somehow, wearing this uniform. I had cleaned myself up a tiny bit, so I wasn't as bloody or injured as before — luckily there was a small rag nearby for me to use. I looked like a pretty clean cut officer of the city, what with my handguns strapped to my belt and the shotgun lashed around my back.

I straightened it up the best I could, which included tucking the shirt into my belt and smoothing out wrinkles in the shirt and such. Call me OCD but eh, I wanted to look nice.

"Wow."

I whipped around to the sound of the voice and saw Rainbow standing in the doorway, her body still covered in the new bandages I got for her. Her pretty eyes looked me over, inspecting every detail of me from head to toe in what I could only guess was fascination? Curiosity, maybe? I wasn't sure, but it was enough to cause slight embarrassment to course through me.

I had completely zoned out and didn't expect her to pop up, let alone look at me like she was.

"H-huh?" I swallowed hard.

Her eyes roamed over the uniform I was wearing, going from my boots and slowly up to my face, and I couldn't help but stare right back at her until our eyes met and she moved into the room. I had never worn so many clothes in my life and yet I felt so naked as she looked me over, it made me feel so weird.

"That uh..." She gestured towards me as she entered the room in a slow walk, her eyes going back to dancing across the armor I wore. "That's a pretty cool looking uniform," She had the smallest of smiles on her face and there was something about her eyes that lit up when we locked eyes again. "Fits you pretty nicely."

I turned and looked back at the mirror for a moment as Rainbow stood next to me, admiring it as I was. I had to sit down after a moment, my leg was killing me after City Hall. "Heh, yeah... found it in one of the lockers and figured it'd suit me pretty well for defense, plus my other clothing was ruined so I needed something else."

I honestly liked how it looked on me, and with how my other clothing had been ripped to shreds by everything I came across. The undead, the Lickers... It was a good thing we made our way to the station when we did after Kendo's.

"I like it..." I felt Rainbow's hoof on my shoulder, drawing my attention back to her. I saw her run it down the sleeve, smoothing out some creases I had missed from earlier. It lingered for a moment on the patch for the police force, and I looked back up at her face. It was only then I realized how close she was to me, our bodies nearly touched. "It uh... it looks pretty cool on you, dude."

With the mare this close to me, and hearing her say that caused my heart to swell a little and I smiled. "You think so?"

Now that I thought about it, it had been a while since we had a proper conversation, at least one that wasn't in a place where the threat of death loomed around the corner.

Rainbow nodded her head and leaned back a little. "Yeah, you look super cool!"

I rubbed the back of my head and shook my head. "Ahh stop, you're making me blush."

"Just being honest~" The mare nudged me and kept that cute smile of hers going, and said, "You look good, dude..." After a moment I felt my face heat up again, and then she said, "B-but I mean that like... ya know," She held up her hooves and waved them around, "Like you look cool and stuff! I'm not saying you're like... hot or anything."

I couldn't help but let out a chuckle at that... but I'd have been lying if I said I didn't like that.

"Well, thanks, Dash." I turned back to the mirror and focused on myself for a moment as I put my jacket and hat back on.

I looked pretty damn good.

Author's Note:

Another update, going slow with this and it's mostly because of exhaustion and a convention coming up next week.

Hope you enjoyed this week's chapter, and stay tuned! :heart: