Chapter 4
"Ah think he was lien ta us," I heard a southern accent say. That would be Applejack if I have their voices and stuff down so I kept my breathing even and waited to hear more.
"What makes you say that Applejack," asked Twilight?
"Well ah can just tell when he's lien, ah can feel it," she responded and that right there was bullshit. I didn't outright lie about anything other than one thing. Everything else was edited so as to not make them afraid of me or things that they didn't deserve to know.
"Well he seems cool enough," said the cracking voice of Rainbow. So far they are backing me up against their friend which is weird. Apparently loyalties are not something that is strong here, well either that or they are just too trusting because the only ones to make me worried are the two princesses. I take a massive stretch and yawn before sitting up. I pretend that I didn't hear anything that they said and I then stand before grabbing my bag and going to Twilight's bathroom to change into something more fitting to fight in. I slip on a long sleeve shirt that while thick actually kept me quite cool same with the pants. The boots came next, too bad I hadn't gotten a new pair because these ones were getting old.
Next was a vest that against bullets or knives would protect my torso. Odd that when it comes to things trying to eat you vests are quite useless. I walk out of the bathroom feeling relatively relaxed mostly due to the fact that I was about to start my new job. Fuck. Fuck it all to hell. I am not happy, I am not relaxed but what I am is pissed, and depressed. I want to go home and I want to be with my people not with a bunch of fucking horses. I slip my arm through the sling on the rifle and get the duel holster belt around my waist and then turn toward the door. With a smile upon my face I walk out the door with-out glancing at the southern bitch and start making my way to their forest. On second thought I probably should not have walked through the center of town. I was getting a lot of stares.
When I was about a fourth of the way there a rather large chariot came down from the sky with Luna aboard. It landed and Luna stepped off the chariot and made her way over to me. I perform an exaggerated bow with much twirling of my arms and such. She gave me a small smile which I returned.
"So where is thou heading?" the way Luna talked was odd but also slightly sexy. God that's odd to think that.
"To the forest," I say, "I am going to go hunting for any more infected and whatnot."
Maybe find me a stalker and see if I can have a sit down conversation with it and send me home. I wish.
"I've sent my guards to watch over the forest today, so how about we go and see your homes location." I don't think she was used to speaking normal like.
"Alright, another day off is always appreciated." We start to walk down the road with her guards behind us about twenty feet, ten feet apart. It was a slow stroll and she asked me how I liked Ponyville as of right now and how much I liked the six that I had come with. "Well the reception was a bit overwhelming and I am pretty sure Applejack does not like me. She thinks I am a liar,"
"What would give her those thoughts," Luna asked with a somewhat confused face. At least I think it was confused. I mean their eyes show so much emotion but they are miniature horses.
"They wanted to know a bit about my past so I told them some and because I did leave out a few things she thinks that I lied."
"Well did the others notice?"
"No but she felt that it was in their best interests to think that I am a dishonest person." We walk for maybe another twenty or so minutes before we arrive at a good sized area right next to the woods. "Do creatures come out of the woods often?"
"The ones needing to be feared stay deep in the Forest," her answer brought some comfort to me but not much. So far the ponies had managed to get the foundation down and now it looked like the walls were going up next. The house was going to be fairly big. I looked over at the crew that was here and it was then that I noticed that they had a fucking crane. I shake my head not really wanting to bother with how that works and walk over.
"Hello, my name is Roderik," they look at me and the one I take to be the foreman walks over at sticks out his hoof. I look at it for a couple of seconds before reaching down and giving it a quick shake. There was a sensation of my hand being squeezed, another thing that I am not going to bother figuring out. He gives me a quick smile. "So how big is this going to be?"
"Well it'll be forty-four hundred feet and on top of that it'll have a second story slightly smaller than that," I think my brain froze for a few seconds. At most I only had a twenty by twenty room with the actual average being a ten by ten. Anything bigger than a twenty by twenty I had other people in the same room yet this forty-four hundred plus square feet of home was all mine. The thought of having so much room was slightly daunting. It also made me a quite happy as well, no more hearing noises of others. I turn back to Luna.
"Thank you so much. I do not think I have had so much room in my entire life to call my own," my voice came out slightly higher than usual and Luna gave a small chuckle.
"Well we thought of your size you would need a lot of room," the answer made sense but damn that was a lot of room to give me. "Did thou finish telling the tale," the sudden change of subject caught me off guard.
"No, I got a bit more to go on it," did she want to listen to it. I lift my chin hoping that she would get the message that I wanted space from the construction ponies. She did get it and we started to walk back to Ponyville. "If you want to listen than I am going to warn you that you are going to get a heavily edited version."
"That would be okay. I would like to learn about thou's past," oh joy, "and I'll respect thou's choice in keeping the past in secret." Well at least she would not been prying. We get to the road that I had taken through the town when the screams of ponies and the roars of something else reached us. Life is never easy. I start jogging while at the same time getting the butt of the rifle against my shoulder. The sounds were coming from the center of town and within in a couple of minutes I had reached the commotion.
Buildings were damaged though really it was only cosmetic and nothing structurally however I could not say the same for a few of the bodies lying around. One of the ponies was definitely dead with its head turned half way around but the others just looked badly hurt. The thing or rather two things causing the chaos were pretty much gargoyles. Looked like a lion, a scorpion tail, and it had wings. Great the fuckers can fly. The good news was that they were fighting and not just mindlessly killing the weak defenseless ponies.
"Thought you said creatures did not come in this far," I say turning to Luna. She had kept up with me while I jogged and did not use her wings. I thought for sure she would have. She merely shakes her head. I turn back only to notice that the freak that had been on top and gotten off the other one and was now staring at me. I guess it was female and was a feminist from the way it was looking at me. It was also foaming at the mouth and was twitchy all the while breathing hard and letting out little growling noises. The other one had been hurt and badly by the looks of it. It was still breathing and actually moving around a bit but considering that its wings were torn to bloody shreds and the blood pooling around it would not survive for long. The first started moving forward and then with a sudden burst of speed launched itself at us. I quickly rolled to the side and quickly got to my feet running for the nearest doorway. I do not know what the princess did but I was going somewhere that it would not be able to get me with ease.
I dive through the doorway just barely avoiding the thing. I turn and watch as it was slamming its shoulders into the doorframe. The walls were actually cracking under the beast's assault. Well time to put a couple of 5.56x45mm bullets into its face. The noise form the gun was loud but not too bad however the damage to the bitches face attacking me… well it was satisfying. The first bullet had gone through the left eye effectively popping it and destroying the brain the second round had hit about an inch and a half above that and to right of the eye causing the things forehead to cave in.
The body hit the ground with a thud and I put another couple of rounds into its head. After reading Cujo I was not going to take any chances with rabid animals. I walk over the body and head to the other one whom I saw was making some head way out of town I quickly get to within twenty feet of it before planting two rounds into the back of its head. It was suddenly very quiet which was a bit odd considering that not twenty seconds ago there was mass hysteria. Ponies are weird.
I walk over to the downed creature and nudge it with my foot and was satisfied that it was dead. Princess Luna walked up beside me and looked at the thing and she let out a small sigh and then I caught the sound of a whimper behind us so I turn and spot Fluttershy standing there. Great just fucking great. I take a couple of steps toward her only for her to turn and start running down the street presumably to home. Of course now the orange mare was walking in my direction with a scowl on her face. God do you hate me or somethin, seriously this is getting ridiculous.
"Do not even fucking start with me little miss pissy. Would you of liked me to just let these things tear apart the town," the venom in my voice makes her stop advancing.
"Well Fluttershy coulda calmed down these manticores," she said.
"You cannot reason with something that has rabies. They are mindless beasts and since that one got bit it would just turn into another mindless beast so do not go all high and mighty with me. I guess you did not see that one foaming at the mouth and shit," it really did not help that she was already on my bad side. I wonder how much trouble I would get into if I pistol whipped her. "Luna can fix this," with that I start heading toward Fluttershy's home. Within a few minutes I was at her door and I give a light knock. Nothing happened for close to a minute but then the door opened. I look down expecting to see a pink mane covering a face and instead I am greeted with what looks like a very angry rabbit.
Stepping over the rabbit I make my way inside and I am almost immediately kicked in the shin by the little fur-ball of shit. I look down at the rabbit again only and he goes in for another kick I reach down and grab it by the ears. I then chuck the little creature out the door. It landed with a comical bounce on its behind and a chuckle escapes my throat. I quickly go up the stairs and greeted with soft crying. Oh goody. I push Fluttershy's door open slowly and I see her on top of the bed that had held me no less than a week and a half ago. The bed sinks a bit when I sit on it and put my arm around her shoulders and pull her close to my side.
"I bet your angry with me but let me explain please," my voice is quiet, "where I am from when an animal is acting like that and foaming at the mouth it means that it is very sick. We call it rabies. What I saw was an animal with rabies and the only way to even help them is to put them down otherwise they just live in pain. The other one, the other manticore got bit and that is how rabies are spread. I am very sorry if I over reacted. I do not know if you have some way to cure or prevent rabies but I acted in what I felt was the best way. I only try and protect the innocent and if that means I have to put down a violent animal than I will."
She cries for a little bit longer but eventually the sobs stop and she just lets the tears flow quietly and eventually they stop too. She looks up at me and puts on a small smile. "I forgive you," she says in what was now her trademark voice. I smile back really hoping that she meant it.
"Alright, let us go back to Twilight's home and I can finish that story if you think you're brave enough."
"Oh, I'm not sure if I am," a chuckle escapes my throat but she gets off her bed and we make our way to her friend's home.
Fluttershy and I got back to Twilight's home and we walked inside to see that the rest of her friends present and even Princess Luna herself. I tilted my head down at her and was greeted with a distasteful look from Applejack. I give her a smirk that I really hope made her blood boil.
"Twilight has informed me of what thou spoke of before," still not quite sure if that voice is sexy or not but it did not matter. I will never fuck a pony unless I am really, really drunk. Unfortunately that is a possibility considering I have a few bottles of wine and other alcoholic beverages in my bag. I am not an alcoholic but I cannot help myself once I am mildly buzzed. If it keeps flowing I keep drinking. Enough about that. We sit ourselves down and I make sure that I am not close to that jackass orange pony.
"Alright where did I leave off at," I ask looking at Twilight though she did not answer.
"You were leaving that atrocious sounding house," Rarity said to my left.
"Right, okay. So it was about four days later that we came across a small village and that is where the beginning of the end started." They sat quietly staring at me.
The town was maybe a mile or two away. "Race you," I say before taking off at a jog. The town was a mile and half and I lost the race but only because I tripped. The town was small and actually quite shabby but it also had a homey feel to it. People walked around the street and haggled with the various venders.
"Go to the bar. Find out what you can," ah those small sentences, how I love them. The bar was about half way down the street and looked just as shabby as the rest of the town. I walk up to the door and give it an experimental push and was happy to see that it swung open. The inside was actually well lite, which was a nice change from the other bars I had visited in the past and I immediately went to the counter to get a beer or two. I looked at the menu and saw a few good ones and a few bad ones.
"Wha can ah get ya," asked the bar keep while I pulled out ten or so .22 bullets.
"Sweetwater," he grabbed a bottle out from under the bar and took the bullets in his hand and dropped them into a bin that was underneath the counter. I looked around seeing if there might be anyone that could have information but I did not see anything. I stayed by the bar waiting for Jacob to come in or a fight to break out, it was only around six a 'clock or so but you never know when something interesting will happen. Soon enough a fight did break out, a big guy and another big guy. The first guy, he had a snake on his forearm threw a punch that landed with a crack causing quite a bit of blood to escape the other man's nose. The second man fell to the floor and snake started to beat him mercilessly and soon enough blood was pooling around a dead man's head. It was a sickening sight but not something that was uncommon in bars. I had seen my fair share of this bullshit before I met Jacob. Leaning back on the counter a man approached me. He looked well to do as in he was not covered head to foot in dirt and grim like most people, he also had a young girl on a leash right behind him.
"I am not interested in what you got to sell," I said before he even opened his mouth.
"But sir this young women," the girl could not have been older than seventeen if that, "is a virgin."
"Well I do not like virgins, they make quite a mess the first time," I lowered my voice just a bit trying to get my point across that I was not interested. I felt bad for the girl though, this obviously was not by choice. Some women did it, hell some even made a good living off it but not this girl. She was abused, could see it from the bruises on her arms and face, the make-up not even covering it up.
"I don't think you know what you're talking about sir, a young man like yourself. A hundred and fifty high caliber rounds and she is yours," he had the biggest shit-eating grin on his face when he said that it was hard to keep from punching him but I did not want to attract a scene. Of course that was kind of going to shit any way thanks to him. He took another couple of steps closer to me, close enough that I could smell stale smoke on his clothing and that he had yellow decaying teeth. The man was in his forties but looked older. He may have been cleaner than everyone else but not healthier. I leaned harder against the bar when I felt a small pinprick against my stomach. I take a quick glance down and see that he had managed to pull a knife on me. Honestly I was stunned that he managed to do this and I was very angry with myself that I had not noticed the movements. I was too focused on his teeth. I look back up.
"What do you want, bullets fine you can have the .22s," my voice was steady so it hid my anger not that it was directed at him, well a little bit was but mostly at myself.
"No I want the bullets for that revolver and that other big gun on your hip. NOW!" He shouted when I did not move right away. I start taking bullets out of the gun-belt and soon enough eighteen rounds of .375 were in his hands. I look past him at the other people in the bar not that I expected them to help me I just wanted to maybe see if they would help him. "The big gun too," the man was on something, he had to be by the amount of sweat coming off him. I pull the .45 up and bring it up to eye level while holding it by the barrel. His seemed to brighten a little bit then it was gone and replaced by agony as I blew his knee out with my revolver. He crumpled to the ground screaming and holding his now crippled leg. I look at every one else in the bar daring them to do something but none did. I was about to replace both guns back to their places when the crack and bangs of guns filled the air. The man lying on the floor in front of me jerked and twisted as bullets ripped him to pieces, blood, bits of bone, and chunks of meat were blown out of him.
A lot of it splattered my boots but kept still until the noise stopped and the body went still. I look over at the men responsible for the over kill and saw the man that Jacob and I had been hunting for over a long time. Joseph "Cide" stood there with four of his men. When the rest of the people took notice of the men they got up in fled knowing who he is and the rest followed trusting in the others reactions. The five men, the bar keep, the girl with the leash around her throat, and myself were now alone. The five men holstered their weapons and moved over to the bar while Cide walked up to me the man was a giant, easily over six five, at least two hundred and thirty pounds if not more and mid-thirties. I would like to think that no one scares me but Cide did scare me and I could not but help shake a little in his presence. This man was a mass murder yet just being in the same room it was like the walls demanded me to show respect to him.
"Why you shakin boy, if I wanted ya dead you would be," his voice was haughty and filled with happiness yet it was deep and powerful demanding that you listen to it. I calm myself before looking up and into his face, his eyes. His face spoke of being happy and carefree while his eyes held a maniac hate and coldness. We had this small staring contest which ended when he started laughing and this was also filled with happiness and it chilled me to the bone. He slapped his hand onto my shoulder and turned me around so that I was facing the bar. "Anythin you want boy." The bar keep instantly brought out another bottle of Sweetwater and placed in my hand. I give him a small smile and he returns it before it is wiped off his face and replaced with worry. The bar keep knew who Cide was and was afraid though he did a good job of keeping it off his face.
"So where ya comin from boy," he asked, his men were quiet and were keeping a watchful eye on me. Not that I could blame them after all they watched me knee-cap a man.
"I came in from the East, just been trying to find some where to rest up for a few days until I can make my way up to Northern California, maybe even go up into Oregon or Washington," I had rehearsed this particular lie many times, even before I had met Jacob and it seemed that they bought it which was nice. I took a large swallow of the Sweetwater. It was not sweet but it was smooth so that was something and after setting the bottle back onto the scarred counter the door swung open with three men walking in. I look at them and was happy to see that one of them was Jacob. The other two must have been the authority of the shabby town. They did not look like much and as far as I could tell were scared to even be in the same room with Cide.
"Ah ya three are here. Yeah this man was going to urt this young boy here so me and my men stepped in. I'll have my men clean up the mess," he had a small friendly smile which after the things that this man had done seemed strange to me. I look back at Jacob and saw that he was reaching for the pistol on his side and then he thought differently about it because he just nodded his head and turned on his heel and left. The others followed without saying another word. I take another large swig out of the bottle and then take a closer look at the girl that the dead man had been trying to force me to buy. She was about five eight with mid-back long brown hair and gorgeous green eyes. I pull out my knife and she flinches but I ignore it and instead pull her forward and cut the leash off. I tip my knife to the door and she bolts for it. Thankfully no one shoots her and I turn back to Cide and he gives me a small smirk. "How bout ya join us boy, you got nothing here if you're passin through." I give him a hard look but I was seriously thinking about it, I mean this would be a perfect chance to get near him, drive a blade into his back I would just have to hope that Jacob kept following.
"So know ya joinin the stallion yer suppose ta kill," said Applejack with a look that spoke about how she thought about me in at this moment.
"It is called deceit Applejack," I say, "something that wins wars, wins battles, wins fights and that is what it takes a lot of the time to get stuff done. I get it you are some kind of honesty freak but lying does have its place in the world or at least in mine." I glance at Luna and she nods her head just slightly to my unspoken question.
"Alright, is there something I will need to do," I ask my voice not the steadiest.
"Nah, we aint some gang that beats the shit out a ya," he says this as if I am stupid and maybe the question was stupid but this man is a psychopath. I give him a nod and he and his men stand then a motion from his hands send me in front and out the back of the bar. There was a large group of men there, about thirty or so which of course this would just make things so much harder, I have no intentions of dying at the hands of this fuck or any of his men.
"Where we heading to," I ask.
"Outa town, we got a camp set up bout a mile or so," Cide says and I cannot but help grimace a little at his voice. "They got us supplies." They did get supplies, about two wagons worth. We start walking and I am introduced to all of the men and even though I try to remember all of their names I cannot. The four that had gone into the bar with him though, I remembered their names because they were in charge when Cide has gone somewhere to be without company. Eric, Jason, Shane, and Lorenzo. They were all big men and had the biggest guns with Eric holding a shotgun along with Shane and Lorenzo had an LMG and Jason had an SMG but he also had about four grenades on him too. We walk the mile and there was quite a bit of talking and asking questions about myself. I bullshited them on the majority of them with rehearsed lies, that is what my life became after I lost everything, lies.
We stopped and Shane guided me over to a tent and told me I would be bunking with him. I did not mind I just hope that maybe Jacob would come in the middle of the night and cut at least half of the throats here. The night passed away and the sun came up in the East again and we set off toward a forest about two miles out of our camp. It was an easy hike but then we had to distribute all of the food and gear they picked up. I would have to guess that we all had to carry about thirty pounds worth of goods. It was not too much of a hassle but still it was not something that I really wanted to do especially because I was not planning on staying with them long. I did not let that show though. It was mid-day when we stopped and had lunch and then it was back to hiking. It was around six when we noticed that the sounds in the forest had died down to nothing
We moved ahead cautiously but some of them men were not like me or Cide and his main group. We did not make a sound while walking over the ground but they did, every few feet a small crack or the crinkle of leaves would be heard. I could tell that Cide was getting agitated with the sounds but he kept his mouth shut figuring that it would be best to be quiet. Half an hour passed when they came running or walking out. The infected, and the damned with their shrieks and yells chilling us all to the bone. The men in front did not stand a chance and within seconds five were down and everyone else was opening fire. I pulled the .45 out of its holster but I did not join in the reckless shooting but started running back and away from the fighting as did Cide and his four. We ran for close to an hour and I had been forced to turn and shoot a couple of runners that were getting to close for comfort. We came to a small dell and then we turned and watched as twenty-three men came running out with hells dogs following. I emptied the .45 and then switched to the .357 and every bullet dropped one, sometimes two if the bullet went through.
The fire fight raged for almost ten minutes but I had ran out of ammo by the five minute mark. I pulled my knife and stood ready for one to come at me and eventually one did. It was simple really, just step to the side at the last second and plunge the knife into its heart. The force from the thrust and the momentum from the running it was lifted off its feet. Then another and another. I was lucky that I got them one at a time. Three more men went down in the dell, torn apart into shreds and hunks of bloody meat, but we came out on top. Cide was beside himself in anger and everyone stood well away from him.
"We goin back, stayin at the ah, ah the fuckin farm house we came across and then we're, we're goin to get more supplies and then we're goin through again," he could not even speak properly because of his anger. We did as he said and started walking back out of the woods. We lost a lot of the gear, most of the men had dropped the stuff so that it would not slow them down. All in all only Cide's group had kept their packs. I had dropped mine after the first mile of running away, about five and half minutes from when they came out from behind the trees. It was well after dark when we got this farm house that he had mentioned and I, along with just about everyone else fell asleep almost immediately when we got inside.
"It must have been very scary," said Fluttershy during a pause in my story.
"Yeah, it was but there have been worse times, there are always worse times," the last part more to myself than to any of them.
"How can ya just talk about them stallions getting killed like that, like it's nothing," always Applejack.
"There comes a point where you let it break you, and you die, or you get used to it and live," she had nothing to say to my answer and Luna seemed to know exactly what I meant. Why does it seem like she is more comfortable around this, the concept of killing then the smaller ponies?
Afternoon sun hit my eyelids and woke me up. I blinked a few times and was momentarily shocked to see that over half of the remaining men that had fought yesterday were gone. "They left, back to that asshole of a town," answered one of the six guys still here when I asked him. I started to explore figuring that it was better than nothing. It had an upstairs, a large kitchen and living room. One odd thing that I found though was that there were boards on all of the windows. I went up the stairs and looked into the various bedrooms and decided that they had a teenage son, two daughters. Well actually I do not think parents were here. The final room housed something that an old person would have their room be like. I left the upstairs and found stairs going down into the cellar. I did not bother going down there and instead strike up conversations with the others and found things that made me think that killing Cide would be very easy emotionally. I know the man is a monster but the shit he has done that never got out, the man was a sadist of the highest degree and I just smiled and laughed with the guys about how the remembered how Cide rapped and then cut a girl apart in front of her parents. How Cide made a man eat his wife by forcing pieces of her down his throat and then fucked the headless, limbless, gutless corpse. The men were no better, some participated in the acts against nature or they did their own thing. Every single one of them deserved to burn in hell.
Soon night fell and the guys lit lanterns to give us light. The fire flickered. They used a slow burning, yet extremely hot, oil and they figured that they could last till morning if they burned just one at a time. Cide and the others still had not gotten back. It was three in the morning that I awoke and I decided that now was when I should do it. I took one of the unlit lanterns upstairs and let the oil leak out of it and then I splashed it against the walls and ceiling. I walked back down and got another unlit lantern and started to let the oil leak around the sleeping men getting some of it on their blankets. Finally when that one was done I grabbed the lit lantern and then smashed against on one of the sleeping men and instantly he was ablaze and screaming. The other men woke up at the same time only now they were starting to burn I backed out of that room and left out the front door but I did not leave its porch. I grabbed a bench and wedged it underneath the fancy door handles making sure none of them would get out that way and hopefully they would be too panic to leave out the back.
I took a step back from the doors when a flaming body slammed against the glass and he did so repeatedly. It was the third hit that shattered the pane of glass. He still did not get out but he did cut the living hell out of his arms, face and sides trying to. I walked off the porch and turned back around watching the fire spread to the second story and soon enough the windows up there turned black and then shattered from the heat. I was about to walk away when the barrel of something was thrust into my lower back and I froze. The man holding it came around to my side and the Cide walked in front of me facing the house, his shoulders heaving and then he started to yell and scream at what he was seeing. I heard footsteps to my left letting me know that another man was present.
"You fuckin cunt," Cide yelled as he turned around and then I noticed that he was missing an eye, a couple of teeth, and there many cuts on his body. His shirt was crisscrossed with them and blood covered most of it. "You know what happened when we got back to that shithole of a town? They tuned on us. The whole lot just started killing us, like we were animals. No they are the animals. I'm a savior of men. I let them be what they are suppose to be. We taught them a lesson though, but as you can see," he gestures to his face and body, "one of them didn't want to go quietly." It was weird. His speech was different then it had been at the bar and in the forest. Did Cide have different personalities or something? "I killed him though, made em suffer for what he did." My stomach felt like it dropped and I felt tears spring to my eyes. Only one man could get that close and do that damage to him. "Three of us got out. Me, Shane, and Lorenzo but Lorenzo lost his arm. Oh you goin to cry now boy. Did you lie to me, did you have friends in that shitty little place? I caught that girl, I took some of my frustrations out on her. I let her live but she won't have arms." He erupted into laughter and then it fell into a coughing fit. Tears streamed down my face at feeling another close person die. One more person that I considered a family member. Jacob was all I had. "Kill him."
I felt the barrel of the gun against the side of my head and then, faster than I thought I could I reached up and bent backwards as a shotgun went off. The sudden flash blinded me and the noise deafened me, and I could feel the sudden heat but I did not let go and instead dove at Shane. We fell to the ground with the barrel still in my grasp and began to slam my fist down bringing the barrel with me. It made a sickening crunch against something but then I was lifted off him and on to my back. I blink a few times clearing my sight and I turn and I see the dark figure of Cide standing over Shane. I look at him too and see that I must have him in the throat. I pull out my knife since I did not have any more ammo for my pistols and then I remembered Lorenzo. I look at his body which was still and assumed that the shotgun blast had struck him. Then I was lifted off my feet and onto my back he grabbed my wrist making me drop the blade and then he landed to vicious blows to my face. I felt my nose break and blood flow from. The dark sky suddenly brightened as the sun came up allowing me a better sight at the man throttling me. His hands moved to my throat and slowly started to squeeze. He was going to make this slow and soon enough the world started to fade just a little bit and then some more and then more. I struggled but it was really pointless.
Come on, come on do something, anything. Really this is how you are going to die. On your back and not on your feet. Not on your terms. You killed seven, eight, in less than an hour and you are going to allow this piece of shit strangle you to death. Come on, come on, COME ON
The world suddenly snapped back into view and crystal clear at that except the colors were faded, dull as if they were old and the sounds were the same. They were simple background noise like in a bar when you are not paying attention to the conversations around you. My right hand curled into a fist and I slammed it into his elbow pushing it further than it should go. His arm now useless he let me go and screamed except it did not seem loud. I grabbed his torn shirt and pulled him close tearing it further and slammed my fist into his head shattering something, I could feel his face give under my hand. His jaw also looked wrong, it was way too far to the right. I bring my knees up to my chest causing his body to be pushed up onto them and then I kicked out launching him away from me. His body landing at least two yards away. I get to my feet I walk the over to my knife and I pick it up and walk toward the downed man.
"So what did you do to him," asked Dash bringing me out of the silence that I had fallen into.
"What," I ask still not all there.
"What did you do to him," she asks again.
"Nothing, just so happened a group of men came along and killed him for me," I answer.
"Now that right there is horse apples. You aint that strong and no group of men," she says men like it is a curse, "came along and killed him."
"Our brains do not let us use everything that we have. We would just end up damaging our own bodies. Many of my race have suddenly gotten a spurt of strength or speed because the brain decided to fight for life. If we had full access to our muscles we would be tearing them off our bones and doing only God knows what kind of other damage. Do not act like you know anything about humans or what we are capable of," my voice had risen at the end but I could see that she was just not getting it.
"Well I don't believe ya when ya say the fire was an accident. Ah think you did that," she yelled at me.
"You know what you are right. I have not been honest with you. I lit that fire and then I laughed while those six men burned to death in that house and then when I picked my knife up I walked over to Cide and slowly and very painfully cut his heart out. He did not even die right away. Is that what you want to hear Applejack that I am some sadistic monster?"
"No, ah want the truth and that wasn't it either, at least not all of it. Ah, ah couldn't really tell on that one," she said looking slightly worried now at her confession and I jumped on the chance presented to me.
"So you really do not know. You do not know because I am not some fucking pony. You for whatever stupid ass reason decided that you did not like me and anything that comes out of my mouth is a lie," she looked confused and slightly ashamed now.
"Well maybe," she finally said after a few minutes. I give a snort then get to my feet and walk outside. It was now nighttime and then the library door opened. I did not want to talk to any of them and was about to say as much.
"What did thou do to Cide," asked Luna. I turn to look at her and then I started walking down the street and then stopped about a hundred yards. She followed and then her horn glowed a dark color. "They won't be able to hear us."
I walked over to the prone body of Cide and then straddled his waist. He tried to say something but his broken jaw did not allow speech, only pain. I brought the knife to his stomach and then slowly stuck it in feeling only a little bit of resistance. I jerked it up violently cutting him open and exposing his organs to the night sky and his stomach acid. I stood up and then kicked him hard making his intestines and blood spill out onto the dirt. The colors and sounds began to fade back in and I started to feel sick then I was vomiting mixing it with the dirt. It was some time before the dry heaves stopped and then I shakily got to my feet and started walking back to the town. The very act of breathing was hard because of the strangulation that I had endured. It was mostly a daze during the journey but that was gone when I got back to the town.
The place was littered with corpses, a mix of the people and Cide's men. The ground was still wet in some places and my boots left bloody footprints. I got to a slightly larger building than the rest and pushed the double doors in and then fell to my knees as the hanging body of Jacob came into view. The scream that escaped my throat was louder than anything that Cide had let out. It had been a church at one time and now it was a place of sorrow and death. I found the rope that was holding Jacob up and cut it. I tried to catch him but was not fast enough and his body made a wet smacking sound against the flagstones. I crouched over him and then pulled the cross out from around his neck. No God had saved him, no God had saved the piled bodies that laid beneath the cross that held Christ. I do not know how long I sat there, in that church of the dead. I struggled to my feet and began to walk out when the sun broke out from behind the clouds that had appeared. Behind me there was a multicolored glow which made me turn. The light was coming through the stained-glass at the end of church, shining down upon the pile of bodies, the bodies of the young, the old, men, women, and children. I was about to turn back to the exit when a small sound caught my attention, it was the sound of a baby crying.
I practically ran to the pile and started to pull them off and eventually I found a small pocket where there sat a baby no more than a year old. I picked it up and pressed its small frame against my chest and I quickly left that place without looking back and entered the first building that did not have a door on it. The place reeked but I ignored that and went to the sink. I let the water run hoping that it would become warm and it did and then I began to clean the baby's body being gentle. Then I looked for something that I could feed it so I went to the cupboards to and saw baby food. I could not believe my luck and I proceeded to feed the poor thing, the orphan. The baby eventually fell asleep and I set it in the sink so that it would not fall and hurt itself. I went to the other rooms of the home and in the last room I entered I stopped and just stared. The girl that I had helped in the bar and the girl that Cide had said that he cut the arms off of was laying on the floor. She had been brutalized but she still had her arms, though the cuts along them had been cauterized.
Despite the trauma that she must have sustained it looked like it did not kill her. Instead it looked like some kind of animal had come in after the fact and, and it had torn into her stomach, there was nothing left inside. I was about to leave when a white piece of something caught my attention. It was lying near where her head was and I walked over trying to keep from steeping in her blood or anything really. I picked up the blood-stained thing only to realize that it was a photo of the girl and she…. I left the room and went over to the baby and took a long look at the birthmark on the baby's chest. It looked a little bit like a sword. I look back at the photo and saw that it was the same baby. I do not think the girl was a virgin. She was too happy in the photo for the baby to be anything but hers.
"What happened to the foal," asked Luna.
"I took him to a small survivor camp in Montana, it was north of where we were," I answer my voice barley coming out. "I joined the military afterward and from then on I had someone telling me what to do and eventually I was the one telling men to burn down houses in the name of the masses, of survival." A dark chuckle comes out of my mouth. I look up and shake my head then I wipe the tear streaks from my cheeks. "We did a lot of things because we felt that they endangered survival somehow. After all of that, with Cide, I told myself that I would only die on my terms, only when I was ready."
"Well I believe that this is a new beginning for thou, one where thou need not worry about such things," she gives me a warm smile but I just could not bring myself to return it. We make our way back to the library, so few times has my head been lower than it is now. I did not realize how hard those memories would be to remember.