Chapter Five

“Bound”

He walked up. His weapon clattered to the ground. I couldn’t see it. I was on my side, and I felt something warm and wet- I managed to bring up a hoof. It was drenched in my own blood. I looked around, unsure of where I was. Small memories came back to me, the tearing of concrete coupled with the screeching of rebar. I looked at the stallion; he was dragging some kind of sled behind him, trotting towards me. I slowly turned my head, surveying the area. I saw a light blue hoof sticking out of the rubble of the building I was in.

“No…” I painfully whispered. It couldn’t be…

I slowly lapsed back into unconsciousness, and my mind began replaying what happened from the last time I could remember.

Damn. Damn. Damn.

CELESTIA DAMNIT THIS HURTS.

The pain in my broken was excruciating, and I really wanted a healing potion, but those seemed to be in short supply. The running from that fucking dog had really messed up my leg. I didn’t have to be a doctor to know that it wasn’t healing properly. At the next town we got to, I decided, I was going to try and barter the radio I had fixed for some proper doctoring. Or, depending on how I was feeling, a bottle or two of whiskey, or scotch, or some kind of mind and pain numbing alcohol. The cast was helping, and I am certain I would have no way of walking without it, but it wasn’t perfect. I looked up from my leg and surveyed the area. The only land mark I saw was a tower far off in the distance.

“What’s that?” I asked, gesturing towards the tower.

“That is Tennpony Tower,” Verma answered, “Hoity toidy kinda place. Wouldn’t let us in for sure.”

I nodded. I had expected as much, safe place where things are probably better, and they wouldn’t let anypony in. Then I realized I was being hypocritical. I came from a Stable, and back in it, we sure as hell didn’t let any living thing in. I thought back to the spells I had at my disposal, I figured I might need some more powerful ones. The stunning spell had only made the mutt blink. Of course, bullets seemed to do wonders, and they weren’t as hard to find as good spells.

“So how did you get that?” she said, pointing at my left ear, it had gotten about half of it sliced off years before. It brought back memories, and, as most of my memories are, they weren’t good ones. I snapped myself out of my thoughts, and turned to Very Merry

“Well, my ear got shredded when I was just a colt. Magical energy discharge in the reactor area, my dad worked there and he brought me in that day. One of the generators malfunctioned, and sent out a burst of power. My ear got singed but my dad blocked most of it. He…” I trailed off. It had been a long time since I had thought about my father. He wasn’t so different from me, black coat, light brown mane instead of my grey one, and his eyes were a light blue instead of my dark green.

“He… didn’t make it.” I said quietly.  

“Oh, I’m sorry about that.” She said.

“What’s done is done, no reason to be sorry, last thing I want is somepony pitying me.”

“Oh. I’m sorry for feeling sorry for you,” she said with a chuckle.

“Well, there’s no use dwelling on the past. What’s our goal?” I asked, putting a lot of fake cheer into my voice.

“Well, I know there’s a town east of here that probably would have some work available.” She answered, I nodded. As we began to walk (and my leg began to throb) my mind drifted back to that day. I had blocked the memory away, but I guess it wanted to come out.

‘It was your fault, after all’ the voice in my head snapped.

‘Bullshit it was,’ I thought back, once more having a fully fledged conversation in my head.

‘Oh but it’s true! He told you not to what all of the different selections on the terminal did, and you were a bit ahead of your classmates. You knew what it meant. He told you not to mess with them, but did you listen? Nooo, and now daddy’s gone. Because of you.’

‘No… it’s not true!’ I was fighting a losing battle.

‘Oh come one Vocal, you’re me! And I’m you! I know everything you know. Maybe more. Maybe…’ it paused, ‘Maybe you wanted to kill him. You didn’t trust him. He was always so mean to you,’ he chided, mimicking a colts voice, ‘And one day, you saw the perfect chance. You’re just a cold blooded murderer! Who’s next? More ‘raiders’ or maybe some innocent townponies who are just trying to survive by any means necessary?’  The voice quieted.

‘no,’ I whispered back to it.

‘Why not!? You’re obviously capable, why don’t you just kill that mare? Easy as anything else for you! Go on, kill her! It wouldn’t matter to you. After all, she is just slowing you down, who’s fault is it that your leg is busted. Hers. Get rid of her! You know you – we… want to.’ it cooed.

‘How about I get a lobotomy? Get you taken out for good! Sound like a plan?’ at this, the voice seemed to grow distant and quiet.

‘Oh, you think it would be THAT easy? Hey! I got an idea!’ the voice stopped. I pondered what it had meant, but my thoughts were interrupted, ‘look behind you!’ and, against my better judgment, I did. What I saw was probably scarier than any monster I would ever encounter. It was me. No, not me, but a… darker version, it looked at me with MY eyes, tinged red. He was smiling.

‘What are you?’ I thought, somehow remembering not to talk aloud and seem like a total nut.

‘Isn’t it obvious? I’m you!’ it said, laughing. I shook my head, backing up. It didn’t belong in this world. I knew that, and was repeating it in my head like a nursery rhyme. He- It looked injured, like this world was hurting him. But he still was grinning, from ear to ear.

“Uh, Vocal?” I heard a voice like it was miles away.

‘There’s no use hiding from the truth, Vocal! We both know it.’ I was still looking at it in horror.

“Vocal!” I heard someone shout. It snapped me out of my trance. I looked at Very Merry, then back to the spot. Nothing. Thank Celestia. “What the hell!?” Verma snapped, “Why didn’t you answer me? I called your name at least seven times!”

“Y-You didn’t s-see it?” I stuttered.

“See what?!” at this, I was startled. Okay, so I hadn’t really expected her to see it. I was pretty sure it was in my head. But still, the confirmation wasn’t something that calmed me.

“I-I don’t know…” I began. I was cut off, by the shuffling of weapons being raised. Very Merry turned around. What we saw were seven raiders, fully armed and each one pointing automatic weaponry at us. I uttered one word.

“Shit.”

And then, there was a bag over my head and I was being herded somewhere.

After what must have been an hour or so of walking, we arrived somewhere. Next thing I know. I was shoved in some dank cell. I got the bag off of my head and looked around. I was in a police station, in one of the barred cells. Next to me in the cell was Verma, who had just gotten the burlap sack off her head. In the one to my left was a reddish brown earth pony with shaggy black hair and a scar across the left of his muzzle. He was stirring from sleep.

“Looks like they dragged some more sons a’ bitches in, huh?” he asked. I only narrowed my eyes.

“And you are?” I asked.

“The name’s Ryder. You?” he responded.

“Vocal,” I said flatly.

“Where’d they catch you? That one gas station?” he asked.

“Where it happened doesn’t matter, what matters is getting the hell out of here.” Verma chimed in. I nodded my head.

“Ha, yeah right. I’ve been in here for at least a month, there’s no way out.” Ryder said.

“Oh yeah? Why are they keeping us here then?” Very Merry retorted.

“To sell, so I guess there is a way out, but it’s not without a slave collar attached. Course, for a mare like you…” He said, turning to Verma, chuckling, “They might ‘get acquainted’ with you, if you catch my drift.”

“Fuck you too, asshole” Verma said to him, he raised his hooves defensively.

“Not trying to be one, just saying facts here.” He responded, flatly, “Anyways, they probably are gonna sell us guys to the legion, I’m sure you’ve heard of them.”

“Just a bit, all I know is that they’re some violent tribe.” I said

“Yeah, they are a bunch of mares. They enslave any stallions, or kill them.” He told me.

I sighed. Great, I had been captured once before and got out through sheer luck. Now I was a captive again. And I was going to get sold to some legion bitches that were probably going to work us to death. Lovely day.

“There sure are a lot of slavers out here.” I mumbled.

“So Vocal?” Very Merry beckoned, “What the hell happened back there?” she asked. I had been worried about this, so, using my amazing bullshitting skills, I began,

“I think it was a dehydration hallucination,” which was partly true, and I had finished off the water in my flask before we arrived in the cells.

“Well alright, those are never fun,” she said, believing me. I inwardly let out a sigh of relief. I didn’t know what was happening to me, but I wasn’t ready to share it to the world. I looked over to the sounds of somepony walking down the hallway. I began thinking of a plan.

I was busting out of here… but it would take time.

I began to regain consciousness. I was on the sled, and I had no idea where my comrades were. At first, I remembered my co-workers from the security force, and wanted to find them, but then I remembered that was a life passed. Then I remembered my two – was it two? I think it was – friends. They were somewhere, but I couldn’t remember them. Everything was scrambled. I heard a voice.

‘Ohhh, you fucked up this time,’ chills went down my spine, ‘Looks like I was right, it wasn’t going to work.’ Wait, hold on a second, this meant we had some kind of conversation, me and the voice in my head, it seemed to pick up on this, being in my head and all, ‘Yes, we had a conversation, ahh, forgetful are we?.’

I fell into my memories again.

Footnote; Level up.

New perk: Purifier: You do extra damage towards any mutated creature.

Authors note;

Sorry for the delay, but i have a good explanation! I am very lazy. Anyways, expect the revisions to occur sometime very soon, I have gotten most of them done, but I want to release them at the same time. anyways, thank you for reading, and i hope to see you next time!