It was a cold day… I believe in Mid-November.. It was just about time I send most of the RPWS members back to their houses.. Unless they choose to stay here with me. I know Angel and Chris will stay.. They feel bad for me, because I don’t well have any home to back too.
I could hear Deraj in my head saying, “Oh… Jared is being a baby about not having a family.”
“Just shut up Deraj” I would say.
“Aw is someone mad now… Good now release it!”
“No I rather I didn’t kill anyone today thanks..” I was nervous because before I could just say no and that was the end of it but today I actually caught myself contemplating what might happen if I let Deraj take over… I don’t know maybe I need to go get some help about this… It’s may be getting worse, but how can you hide your thoughts from something that is actually part of you. Just then Izzy and Emily burst through the door, both out of breath!
“OH MY GOD… YOU GUYS.. ZOMBIES… OUTSIDE!” they said.
I thought it was some kind of prank so I went over to the door and looked out. They were right! “OK everyone don’t panic go to your rooms and get all your weapons and things you need packed! Now!” I ordered.
“Does fanfics count?” Se’an asked.
“Do they keep you sane?”
“Well.. sort of”
“THEN BRING THEM!” I yelled. “GO GO GO.. Just get packed and meet back down here…” We all ran into the elevator and went to our specific floors. I got off at the 2nd floor along with Chris.. Angel had been moved to the floor above me so it felt weird to get off with just Chris. “Ok Chris go get packed… Bring every Explosive you have” I said with a smile.
“So wait this is like one of the times I get to blow stuff up and you won’t care?”
“Chris! Just get packed!” I found myself yell.
In my head again Deraj said, “Don’t forget Jared you need me!” “I can help you live.”
“I don’t need to live if I am a hindrance to my friends” I went over to my bag. I grabbed it.. The day before I packed it for the mission I was suppose to go one today, but a zombie infestation is more important right now. So I added the old version of the cure I had made last time this had occurred. I don’t even know why I even packed it.. If this is a new infection the old cure wouldn’t work. So I grabbed about 20 extra clips from my rifle and a bunch of extra bullets. I also grabbed my Old Mp7 even though my Silent Reaper(made by Gravity Cat) was in my bag. I put some pills, medicine and, also some ace bandage. I was finally ready. I ran out and took the elevator downstairs. Naturally I was first down. It felt good to be alone. I can relax when I am alone. There is no one for Deraj to hurt if he takes over. As soon as I had my peace and began to enjoy it Chris came out of the elevator.
“So.. Should I bring more C4 or should I bring TNT?”
“Which is more explosive?”
“TNT I think…”
“Then bring that!”
“OK then.”
In my head Deraj said “If we have to deal with him for more than 4 hours I am killing him.”
“Ok.” I laughed as I said it. Then I thought why did I just say!
“What do you mean ok?” Chris asked.
“Oh nothing.”
Next Se’an and Marissa came out of the elevator. Se’an was wearing a one strapped backpack due to him having one arm but Marissa was wearing some pink, My Little Pony bag. “Uhhh. Se’an… Don’t you think we would want to keep a low profile…” He just looked at me, confused.
“What?” He asked.
“Oh man how do I say this.. Her bag is all… Never mind.” I didn’t want to make Marissa or him mad.. This was not the time or the place to be arguing. Next I saw Angel come into the room. He looked like he was ready to go to war, which is good in this case. We couldn’t wait here anymore, so I radioed Izzy, Emily, Ella, and Fudge. “Guys the zombies are about to break the door we will meet you at the old town 2 miles to the south ok?”
“Ok” They said.
“Ok guys.. weapons hot! Let’s move out!” I yelled. We opened the door and used our small arms to take out all the zombies around the door area. I shut the door behind me because Izzy’s group is going to need all the time they could get to pack and get set up! We began running to the South! I will never forget that image. The RPWS Clubhouse fading in the background… My only place I felt at peace and I was leaving it. At least I am with my friends. I hope Izzy’s group will make it… I told myself as were running that we shouldn’t of left them.. We could have waited for them. It is too late now. It has been about 10 minute now since we started running.. There hasn’t been many zombies.. Just one here and there, so it wasn’t really worth stopping to shoot it.. Also no has complained yet I thought.
“Can we stop I am tired?” asked Marissa.
“When well I learn to stop Jinxing myself!” I yelled.
“She is only a child Jared come on…” Se’an said.
“Ya… Fine…” I said. I was still didn’t want to stop but I felt bad.
“So why are we stopping… What Jared did you hurt yourself” Deraj mocked.
“I didn’t hurt myself… If you were paying attention you would have seen that we stopped because Marissa needs a small rest!” I yelled!
“Jared, are you ok?” Angel and Se’an asked.
“I don’t know anymore… It is getting worse.” I replied. I don’t want them to have to worry about me, but I have to let them know. I hope I can get Deraj under control or I will have to go into exile for my friend’s protection. Never thought that Deraj would one day be this close to taking my soul over, I always thought that I could just suppress him over and over again till he just stopped trying. Now look at me. He is causing me too look like I am yelling at air. Soon my friends will think I am crazy and then they wi-. I was interrupted by a hand on my shoulder. It was Angel’s hand.
“You sure you’re alright?” he asked me.
“I don’t know Angel…” I was ashamed.
“How about this.. After we reach the town we will try and deal with whatever is the matter with you. Sound good?”
“Ya.. That sounds perfect.” I felt comforted by his compassion towards my problem.
“Alright Everypony LETS GO!” Se’an Yelled.
“Ok” we all replied and began running again.
“Hey Jared.. Isn’t the town that is 2 miles south your old hometown?” Chris asked?
I thought about it… Oh man it was the my hometown.. I had vowed long ago I would never go back and here I am running home.. How could I forget that the clubhouse was 2 miles north of the town!
“So, I get to see where you grew up?” Deraj asked me.
“Yes…” I whispered. It was too late to turn back now.. It looks like I am going home…
Chapter 2: Jared’s/Angel’s Hometown
It had been about 2 hours of running when we finally reached the town. Well I bet we would have gotten here sooner if we didn’t take so many breaks on the way here. Man it felt good being home… I also felt depressed; this is where my life took a turn for the worst. It was about 11 years back, so I was about 7 years old when this happened. I came home one day from school to see my house’s front door open.. I went inside to find my Parents at gunpoint up against the wall claiming that they didn’t have a son. I just remember yelling at this man! “You leave them alone!” This was a bad idea. He turned to me and just smiled.
“So you must be Jared… Nice to meet you” He said.
All I remember after that is me on the ground watching him shoot my family and taking me around town and making me watch as he kill all of the town. It was horrible. I snapped out of my trance with a thought. “Hey Angel… How did you survive?.. You know the town incident.” I was very nervous because I don’t like to talk about this.
“Well my family and I were on vacation that week so when we came back the rest of the town was dead.” Angel explained.
“So.. Let me get this straight this town has been empty for 11 years?” Chris asked.
“I guess so.” I answered. Then I heard a familiar sound. “That sounded like that TV show that Se’an and Marissa watch…” I said to myself… “Oh.. Damn what was that sho-” I was interrupted by Se’an.
“THAT IS MY LITTLE PONY!!” Se’an Exclaimed!
We all ran towards the noise because to me at least that meant a survivor.. The house seemed normal.. The door was even unlocked. “Weapons drawn just in case,” I told the group. We all took out our weapons.. I could hear a voice… It was saying “Fluttershy is the best pony!” This voice was slightly familiar. I knew that voice… I thought about it.. It was my old friend Tristen! I thought about it, but he is dead… It couldn’t be Tristen. I turned the corner and there Tristen was sitting on the couch with 6 different colored pistols next to him.
“OH MY CELESTIA, ANOTHER BRONY!!!” Se’an yelled as he ran towards Tristen.
Tristen turned just in time to see Se’an running over to him.. I just watched as Tristen pulled out a Purple pistol with five stars on it and shot Se’an in the arm. Se’an fell over and just laid there for a second then he jumped up!
“Why did you do that?” Se’an interrogated.
“You ran at me screaming you looked like a zombie!” Tristen said defensively.
“Sorry. I guess I didn’t think about that..” Se’an said. “Hey I noticed you have 6 pistols with the Main 6 ponies’ cutie marks.”
“Ya I call them the pistols of harmony..” Tristen responded.
I walked up to greet my old friend. “Hey Tristen long time no see..”
“Jared? Is that you? I thought you were dead…” Tristen was very confused.
“I thought you were dead. So how ya be-” There was thumping on the wall. “Let’s finish our reunion later.. There is a zombie infestation.. Tristen welcome to group Alpha!”
“Ok” Tristen was so calm about it.
I guess that is what happens when you play zombie video games and have six pistols in your house. There was a large crash and I turned to see that zombies had broken the glass and we staggering towards us. I could see their faces. They were all bloody and some had parts of their faces missing. I could tell that the infection had started recently in this area because these bodies weren’t fully decayed yet. I reached into my bag and with one hand; I shot a zombie with my military rifle. The kick back was intense but I quickly recovered from it.
Then Deraj said “The zombies are way too close to shoot them with the sniper. Use the SMG, you dumbstuff”
Good idea. I had to admit it was a good idea. I switched my rifle to my old MP7. I wasn’t even sure if this thing would fire. I was surprised when not only did it fire, but it fired as fast as it used to. I quickly mowed down all 30 zombies and we all ran out of the house. Tristen came up next to me. He was holding a yellow pistol with 3 butterflies on it in one hand and a cyan pistol with a rainbow thunderbolt in the other. “Ready?” I asked.
“Ya. When you took out those zombies it proved to me that I am not crazy.” Tristen said.”So you lived. That is amazing”
I radioed Izzy’s group. I was really worried about them. “Hey Izzy?.. You guys there… Why aren’t you here yet?”
“Um.. We um…. To be honest we got stuck in a tree…. We are alright” I heard over the Radio.
“So how are they?” Chris asked.
“They are um.. Stuck in a tree…” I replied. Damn they are embarrassing sometimes. I mean how the forget did they get stuck in a tree anyway! That isn’t important.. “Izzy! We are going to take a look around the town and head south.. Your team better haul ass to catch up!” I yelled through the radio.
“Will do Jared, We will see you guy as soon as w-” I heard a loud thud. “OW What the Hell Shanny! You could have gave us a countdown.. You know like on three.. One.. Two.. Three” The radio cut out.
I thought “at least they have Shanny.. So they should be just fine.. I hope.” Then in my head I could hear Deraj saying, “I bet she isn’t having as much fun as we are though… Just think about it Jared… Fudge and Izzy as so accident prone and Emily and Ella are new to the job.” I just responded with a smile. “Ya I guess she has her hands full.”
“Alright everyone go look for supplies and meet by city hall!” I ordered. We all spread out and started looking for supplies. I came upon my old house, I was scared at first not wanting to go in but I eventually walked inside. This was it, I was truly home… There was still blood in the corner and my own blood on the floor. I couldn’t stop staring at it. I fell to me knees. It was all my fault, if I was just brave I would be having a normal childhood and never would have had to go through the torture of the sectors and my parents would still be alive!
Deraj saw this as a sign of weakness and he was right. He took his chance and took over. My feather that was in my black hat turned a blood red and my backpack turned from the navy blue to a dark red. Now I was the one on the inside weak and helpless. Deraj looked though the house and found no supplies. I just then notice what had just happened. I had to overpower Deraj. I used my mind to think of every positive memory I had and slowly regained control over myself. My feather was normal and my backpack was again a navy blue.
“Aww Jared I only had like 1 minute of freedom…” Deraj complained.
“At least in that minute you didn’t hurt anyone..” I sighed. I needed to get help for this. After we regrouped as planned Chris wasn’t there. “Oh man.. Where is Chris?” I asked but with no response. Then as if on cue there was a giant explosion except this leveled the whole town and there was no sign of Chris. “Chris! Man I am not sure even he could survive that” I thought. “Do scans of the area and look for Chris. I think he would actually feel that explosion.” I ordered. Just like that we all spread out taking scans looking for a living life form but to no avail. All we found was his Mini-gun, he named it *Purple Dino* “Chris is dead…” I said as I held his gun in my hands.
“At least he went out with a bang..” Deraj said.
I felt really bad. Why couldn’t I see that he was going to accidentally blow the sewer system up… It made me feel really depressed.
“Chris will never be forgotten but we need to move on…” Se’an broke the silence.
“Okay let’s move out.” I responded. I clipped is mini-gun to my backpack and we ran to the south. We needed to contain this infection and not let it reach the urban environment, but I couldn’t stop thinking what would have happened if I had him check some different part of the town. Then I just felt angry at myself and the world. After about 8 hours of walking in silence down the road Se’an finally spoke.
“SOMEPONY SAY SOMETHING BEFORE I GO INSANE!!!!”
“What is there to talk about?” Angel asked.
“I DON’T CARE JUST SOMEPONY TALK”
“I will talk with you Oniichan” Marissa tried to comfort Se’an.
“JUST SHUT UP!” I yelled.
“Jared, calm the forget down!” Angel and Se’an said as Marissa teared up.
Marissa began to cry and I didn’t feel sorry at all. I felt just anger.. Why was she always complaining and crying!
“NOW SEE WHAT YOU’VE DONE!” Se’an yelled as he tried to make Marissa stop.
“he is…. so mean…. to me…” Marissa said while sniffling.
“Jared is just mad about Chris.” Se’an reassured her.
“well.. it.. was.. his.. fault..” Marissa whispered.
“JUST SHUT UP!” I yelled again.
“Jared, do you need a break?” Angel asked. He was really concerned.
“NO! I DON’T I JUST NEED SOME PEACE!!” I yelled. “I JUST WANT TO GET THIS MISSION OVER WITH SO I CAN GO INTO EXILE FOR A YEAR OR SO!” I ran ahead, being one of the faster members of the clan I easily outrun them after I got a few miles ahead of them. I began to punch the ground for a couple hours while I waited for them to catch up. After 2 hours they finally caught up. I was still punching the ground, my knuckles were bleeding and there was a small crater where I had been punching.
“I swear Jared you have issues…” Se’an said awkwardly.
“Ya.. I feel better now at least.. That is good right?” I said with a fake smile. ”Should we camp here for the night? That will give Izzy’s group time to catch up..”
“That sounds like a good idea.” Angel responded.
After about 1 hour Jared, Se’an, and Angel had set up a full camp. It had 5 tents, a campfire, and rock seats.
“Jared maybe you should sleep tonight and Angel and I will keep guard” Se’an offered.
“But.. I always keep guard.” I complained. It was true I always kept guard for personal reasons. Also it keeps Deraj under control.
“You need your rest.. Especially after what happened today.” Se’an insisted
“Fine…” I gave in.
As night fell there were still no sign of Izzy’s group.”I hope they’re alright” I thought as I went into my tent. I wasn’t used to being able to sleep at night so it felt weird that I was relaxing. After a few hours I finally fell asleep. While I slept all I could think about is all the people that have gotten hurt because of my negligence. As I woke up I saw Marissa sitting in front of me.
“Something wrong Jerry?” Marissa asked.
“The hell are you doing in my room!” I questioned. “Also no I am fine.” I got up and went outside. Angel and Se’an were sleeping on the job… I thought “Sleeping on the job, well I guess we all had a long day.” I took out a bucket and dumped it on both of them. “HEY! WAKE UP!!!”
“THE HELL DUDE!” They both yelled. They were soaked with cold water. Marissa giggled a bit.
“I can see your feeling better Jared” Se’an said.
“Ya I feel loads better.” I responded. I took out some supplies to make some food. I took out some meat from a ziplock in my bag and placed it over the fire. After it was all cooked I split it up giving a portion to each person. Just as we finished eating I saw a dot in the distance. I took out my sniper to use the scope to zoom in. It was Izzy’s group! They made it! I saw Shanny was dragging Izzy and Fudge by their shirts and she didn’t seem very thrilled. I used my short range radio. “HEY WELCOME LOOKS LIKE YOU MADE IT”
“forget YOU” I heard Shanny shout.
“How was the trip” I mocked.
“Horrible” Emily and Ella responded.
“Oh come on it couldn’t have been that bad..”
“Trust me it was” Shanny said.
Poll