Gleaner Chronicles: American Monsters

by sevenofeleven

Chapter Twenty-Four:Battle and Collapse

Dr Geist’s lab

Margot looked around again to find a good place to fight from. The small tech room was ruled out because somepony could throw a grenade in there and it’s game over. At least next to the strange black and silver pillar she could have some cover. She would have to share it with Mackie who looked like he was going to panic. His eyes kept darting all over the place.

“What are we going to do? The soldiers will be here soon!” Mackie said while again looking all over the room.

“We relax and hide behind the pillar. That’s our cover,” Margot said. She dispelled the camera hack spell. Every bit of power would be needed. The soldiers had a mage with them so she had to have some way to deal with the mage and the barrage of bullets too.

“When the door opens, kneel and face toward the wall,” Margot said.

Mackie nodded.

Then the door opened. Mackie and Margot barely had time before the flashbangs hit the floor. There were two clunks and a bright flash that lit up the wall. Right after that, two soldiers ran into the room firing away at Margot and Mackie.

Margot cast a ballistic spell to block bullets while Mackie popped up to fire at the soldiers. Sharp and cold attack spells slashed at Margot, and she knelt to make it harder for the soldiers to shoot her. For the next few moments it was just block and blast. The enemy unicorn was skilled, and knew how to adapt to Margot’s attacks. She had cast a lot of spells earlier and didn’t have enough power to just brute force her way through his protective spells. So she had to just block his attacks and wait for a moment where he left an opening for attack.

Mackie kept ducking and firing. For some reason, Margot glanced at the shifting darkness behind her to see a black and silver tendril gently place Scootaloo on the floor. She cast another ballistic shield to protect her. Like the saying, no good deed goes unpunished, the enemy mage hit Margot with a spell that made her vision go red. It took too long for Margot to recover and the next few attacks from the mage slipped in and had her lying on the floor panting with pain.

Even though the enemy mage had snuck in some good hits, Margot wasn’t out of the fight. She focused and struck back. Most of her attacks were blocked, but one got past his wards. Margot hit him again with an explosion, and was rewarded with the sound of something blowing up in the hallway with a dull CRUMP. She hoped that would be the last of that guy.

Again she scanned the hallway, there was one life sign that was fading. Inside, the two soldiers were still shooting away. Their bullets were weakening the shield. Once it faded, they would be in trouble. Margot focused and hit the soldiers with telekinetic bursts that crushed their heads. Their bodies slumped to the ground.

Mackie ran up to Scootaloo who was opening her eyes. “Are you okay?”

Scootaloo nodded and stood up.

She looked at the two dead soldiers. “What?”

Margot walked up to Scootaloo. “The Gleaners sent a squad. Are you okay?”

Scootaloo nodded again.”Yeah, I’m fine.”

Mackie looked up at the darkness. “What happened in there?”

Scootaloo cantered over to the dead soldiers. “I’ll tell you later, I have to give Grace now.”

Mackie checked out the two soldiers and took some ammo and one machine gun.

Margot looked over the bullet scarred room. “I only sensed one dying soldier, but we should be careful.”

Mackie nodded. Scootaloo walked up to Mackie.

Margot slowly opened the door.

A gruesome sight met her eyes. Right in front of the door was a steaming bloodstain about the size of a pony. Bits of metal were also embedded in the gore along with some camo colored rags. Next to the stain was a dead pony with a gunshot wound to the head. Margot looked to the right and saw a small group of dead ponies with cellphones over their eyes. On the right, her heart filled with dismay, it was Tibbs. He was lying on the floor while blood dribbled out his muzzle.

Margot opened the door and cantered over to Tibbs. Mackie and Scootaloo followed.

Mackie grabbed Tibbs. “Wake up wake up! This looks really bad!” He turned to Scootaloo. “You can fix this right?”

Scootaloo nodded.

Margot did a scan of Tibbs, he had been shot several times and was close to death.

Tibbs opened his eyes and coughed. “I was halfway to… Realized that you couldn’t survive…”

Tears poured out of Mackie’s eyes. “No problem. Scootaloo can heal you and you will be okay.”

Margot wished she could heal Tibbs but she didn’t have the training or the ability. Then a thought hit her. She wondered if Scootaloo could heal Tibbs. There’s always a cost to doing magic. Maybe something awful would happen to Scootaloo?

Tibbs raised his head and coughed. “My wife and daughter… Soo bright and happy… Wait, I see …Mackie, you gotta... let Jezebel… she wants you to let...”

Mackie narrowed his eyes and faced Scootaloo. “Heal him now!”

Scootaloo raised her right fore hoof. A blue glow started to form.

Tibbs again raised his head and smacked Mackie on the back of the head. “Let me go! I know it’s my time.” Tibbs lowered his head and breathed his last.

The glow on Scootaloo’s fore hoof faded away.

Mackie placed his head on Tibb’s.

At that moment, the lights dimmed then went to half brightness.

Margot did a wide scan, she had a feeling what was going on. At the edge of her scan, the laboratory complex was fading as the dimension started to collapse. A darkness darker than the absence of light was dissolving the edges..

“Guys, we gotta go! The dimension is collapsing!” Margot said.

Mackie just held onto Tibbs tighter. “No! Leave me!”

She understood some of Mackie’s pain, but she couldn’t leave him there. “If you want to reunite with Jezebel in the afterlife, you have to go back to your home dimension. This is a not a real world.”

“What?” Mackie said as he tried to blink back more tears. A moment later, a determined look crossed his face. “Yeah, let’s go!” Mackie sighed and gave Tibb’s face a kiss before standing up.

Scootaloo gave Tibbs Grace then they went up the hallway. The floor vibrated slightly under their hooves like a small earthquake was happening. Finally, they reached the passageway to the home dimension. Margot looked back. It seemed that the hallway was a bit shorter than she thought, but then she saw the darkness moving in.

This was a different darkness than the silver and black creature in Dr. Geist’s lab. This was a pure blackness, cold and hungry. It lunged at them. Margot stopped watching and ran into the passageway. The smooth surface that they had walked on before was now cracked. She wondered how they would be able to open the doors when they got to the other end.

Scootaloo looked back and gulped. Her purple eyes widened.

Margot saw her reaction and looked back. The darkness of the collapsing dimension was now at the beginning of the passageway. It was getting hard to breathe as the void started draining the air.

Mackie reached the doors first. They didn’t open. “What the hell?”

Margot pushed past Scootaloo to to see if she could get the doors open. Every other breath was a struggle as the air was sucked away by the swiftly encroaching darkness.

It took her just a moment to access the spell she left to open the doors. Then she jumped through them with Mackie and Scootaloo following. Margot hit the floor, and rolled as the doors closed. A second later, the doors crumpled inward with a squeal of tortured metal.

Somepony screamed. “Why are you looking at them? Shoot them!”

Margot felt bullets punch her hard twice before she looked up at the four ponies shooting at her and Mackie. One went down before she focused and blasted the rest with a fire spell. Blood filled her mouth. The smell of burned fur and flesh filled her nose before she passed out.

Mackie poked Margot. “Sorry about the poking, but we need to get out of here. Who knows what the Gleaners will do next?”

She slowly got to her hooves. “What happened?”

“Scootaloo healed us. I’m carrying her.” Margot looked at the burnt lumps of flesh and metal on the floor. Looking at them reminded her how close she came to… Her mind shied from the idea.

“Don’t worry, Scootaloo has already given them Grace. I don’t know much about it though. Have to ask her when she wakes up. Let’s go,” Mackie said.

Other than a feeling of weariness, she felt ready to go. The only fear Margot had when they traveled to the main floor was the fear that more Gleaner soldiers were waiting for them somewhere. They made it outside the school without incident.

Margot looked around at the buildings that were covered in orange light as the sun set. Mackie screwed the bolts back on the metal plate that was on the door.

“They just left the plate next to the door. Strange.”

“Mackie, let’s just go.”

“Are you afraid that what we saw in Dr. Geist’s lab will escape?”

Margot shook her head. “I’m exhausted. Also the Gleaners might send another team to clean up.”

Mackie nodded. They cantered up the block. Unlike the trip coming to the school, there were no feelings of being watched or sensing that something was at the corners of her eyes. This area was truly deserted.

When they reached the fence around the neighborhood, Margot could hear helicopters in the distance.

Mackie raised the metal plate quickly and she ran through. When Mackie lowered the plate they ran through the darkening streets to another resistance safe house.

While Margot galloped, she hoped for a nice bed and some rest. When she awoke there would be plenty of time to mourn.