And now you've invited a whole lot of CRAZY into my life!

............

It was bad. Oh, it was so bad... It was horrible! I didn't sign up for this! Sweet fucking Celestia, I did NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS!

Hollow wasn't kidding about the streets being inaccessible!

And it didn't put my mind at ease that everyone's pipbucks started screaming at us!

A heavy tune began to play from the radio, along with a loud, metal banging. There was a singer, but I wasn't too focused on the lyrics. This place was a disaster! I didn't have time to focus on the music!

My team and I stood in a barricaded lobby on the first floor. Thunder roared, and lightning flashed outside as a heavy downpour bombarded the outdoors.

Several ferals laid dead around us. The moment we spawned into the apartment complex, Hollow was already on the ferals in the area. We hardly had time to react before they were getting obliterated by bone crunching blows from her hooves. She had the skill-set of a zebra with how she fought! It was starting to make me wonder...

The horn was certainly giving me mixed signals, though.

Everyone started downing their Rad-x pills and keeping their Rad-Away close and at hoof.

Petiole gave me a few pills and packed my saddle bag with a few packets of Rad-Away right then and there. He gave me an additional one to take that moment.

Ugh... Hurk! Blegh... I was hoping I never got that taste again... Para's 'rotten candy cane' just so happened to be the flavor of Rad-Away... What kind of sick joke was that?

All the windows had been shattered to the main lobby, but they were also heavily barricaded with furniture from other apartment units.

There were several skeletal remains of ponies leaned up against walls, or in the center of the room, along with rusted guns and spent shells. Their clothes were tattered and worn.

A vast army of feral ghouls stood outside of the building, reaching their hooves in, desperately trying to get to us. I couldn't see across the street. There were just too many. My EFS was filled with red, all around. I couldn't even see my allies on here!

I didn't know how long that barricade was going to hold, though. We were well fortified here, but they were going to break through eventually. There was a lot of force being applied. They were pushing the front lines against the structure, crushing them carelessly to get to us. We were on the dinner menu now.

Hollow stared ominously at the horde for a bit, until a cannon the likes of which I've never seen popped out from the armor of her right shoulder, aiming forward. It looked futuristic... More advanced than Para's pistol that he refused to use. There were slanted vents on the side, all of which glowed red on the inside.

Some laser weapon prototype, perhaps? It looked like something that the Ministry of Wartime Technology and the Ministry of Arcane Sciences could have been working on, but never saw the light of day.

It certainly didn't look like any piece of technology that I've ever seen. Not on Equus, anyways.

She looked at me, and as she turned, so did the cannon. Pointing at me... Yikes...

"Where's this thing you gotta get?" She asked simply.

"Tuner?" I asked, looking at Para's radio nervously.

"Unit X-34." His voice spoke through the music. The battery still glowed, thankfully.

All at once, everyone turned to the radio, with the exception of me, Petiole, and Para, who still seemed oblivious to the whole battery issue. Everyone else wore confused or intrigued looks.

One second, almost all eyes were on the radio. The next, they were on me.

It then came to my attention that wherever Hollow looked, the cannon pointed. Interesting...

I grinned sheepishly, adjusting my helmet. "I'll explain later..."

"This'll be a doozy..." Thunderwing replied, looking me over coolly, before turning to Hollow. "I'd like to be far above this floor when they break through that barrier. So can we hurry this up?"

Hollow nodded and started for the stairs at the far end of the room, down a short hall. I followed beside her, and Thunderwing took her other side. Destrier stayed behind her, his guns armed and ready. He was taller, so he could easily shoot over her without striking any friendlies.

Petiole took my rear, and Para trotted happily beside me, not a Goddess damned care in the world...

Damn it, Para...

Fluky rode on Petiole's back, holding her launcher over her shoulder, and beside his head.

Tezu being about as tall as Desty's armor, stayed beside him, while Blaze and Riot took everyone's six as we moved up the stairs.

Dust and rotted flesh filled the air. Not to mention the severe levels of radiation.

Looking over at Para, my ears wilted. "Why did you do that...?" I asked in an exasperated tone as we proceeded up to the second floor.

"Do what?" He smiled at me.

"Why did you use up all the grenades in one go? We could have really used those here..."

"You mean the rotten pineapples? Well, you told me to throw them earlier. So I threw them."

"Not all at once." I deadpanned. "Not... all at fucking once..." My hoof softly crackled.

"Well, you never specified that!" He beamed at me and nuzzled my neck... before tossing a pebble in my face.

My hoof crackled louder as I glared at him. Before I could say anything, I felt a hoof against my flank. I turned around to see Petiole shaking his head; his LED red.

"I'm not happy with it either..." He stated. "But there's nothing we can do about that now. We still have the lemons, anyways. They should do us some good."

I nodded back at him, feeling myself calm down a little more. The softened electrical currents helped verify that.

As we reached the second floor, we looked ahead at a corridor of doors, some left ajar, wide open, completely off their hinges, or closed. Dirt, dried blood, and litter was left along the walls, ceiling, and floor.

Straight ahead was a T-intersection. Two options. Left and right.

As we passed through the first couple units, Thunderwing and I peeked in, our weapons ready for anything that wanted to jump out at us.

My unit was clear, and evidently, so was hers. No gunfire, no shouting, no problem.

We continued on.

The units on this floor were listed in the A's. That meant... we had to climb 24 floors to get to the X's... great...

"Any chance you can teleport us to the right unit?" I asked, glancing at Hollow, before looking through the next door I passed by.

"Horn's burnt out, like I previously mentioned. Can't happen."

I sighed; my ears wilting. "Yeah, I was afraid you were gonna say that..." Why didn't I ask Tuner what unit it was before we teleported? Idiot! What was I thinking!? I glanced back at Riot. "What about you? Can you teleport us up there?"

He shook his head. "I have trouble just teleporting myself. No way I can take on any more bodies."

At once, Hollow stopped, and her cannon hummed softly as it glowed brighter. "Contact."

Everyone else came to an immediate stop, looking ahead while Blaze and Riot still kept our six covered.

"Where...?" Tezu asked in disappointment.

"Coming around the corner..." Hollow stated calmly.

For a while, there was nothing. All we could hear were the feral's snarls outsi...

Wait... that was a lot clearer than it should have been...

I cocked my rifle at the sudden realization that we had a horde coming our way. They must have heard us... Probably when we first came in with Hollow slamming the ferals on the first floor into the ground, as we weren't exactly talking that loud. Damn it...

All I had left were normal rounds, in terms of ammunition. My hoof began crackling again as my heart beat harder in my chest.

"This game begins..." Tuner muttered. No one else seemed to hear it... but I did.

Before I could say anything, ferals ran into view from the right side of the intersection. Far more than we could deal with...

We were fucked.

It was hard to tell who fired first. Almost simultaneously, a wave of lead, red beams of energy, and fire washed over them, dropping them like flies to a swatter. Hollow's beams seemed to cut through the ferals relatively easily, but the cooldown time was a big problem. Corpses slowly piled up along the floor, but they were gradually closing in, and there was more coming out from the right corridor.

We just barely held the line at the checkpoint. We didn't stand a chance here.

"We need to find an escape route!" I shouted behind the grip. "Blaze, Riot, start looking!"

"On it!" Riot shouted back.

A mortar launched ahead, and shortly after the brief whistling of a firework, came a multi-colored explosion of light that killed my ear drums.

The blast knocked the ferals back a bit, but they recovered hastily. Still, every second counted against that merciless demon known as Time.

Once the lightshow ended, and the ferals began coming through again, fire began its spread across the floor. It didn't help that Tezu's fire was also starting to spread from the corpses that had fallen.

Well, that was a problem...

There was a sudden crashing sound downstairs, and the choir of ferals grew louder behind us; the symphony of thunder and rain almost drowned them out completely. I had noticed after adjusting my ears to hear what was happening on our six. I couldn't turn and look. There was too much going on ahead of us.

"I found an exit!" Riot called out.

"And not a moment sooner! I'll hold 'em off, just go!" Blaze shouted soon after.

"Everyone, move!" Thunder blurted, glancing back.

The company behind us started to go into one of the units as Thunderwing, Hollow, and I held the front back as best we could. Blaze, Tezu, and Riot covered our rears as everyone ran in the unit. I had a strong feeling that Petiole was walking, though...

"Everyone else is through." Hollow stated in a surprisingly calm manner. "Let's move."

Thunderwing and I started to step back, still keeping our guns hot. Hollow joined us soon after. The ferals were about a door's length away from reaching us now.

"Everyone, IN!" Thunderwing shouted at the top of her lungs, behind her bit. Her guns finally clicked, and she spat. "I'm out!" She turned and ran for Blaze, Tezu, and Riot, who did what they could to hold off the ferals that broke through the bottom floor.

When Hollow and I turned to go through the unit everyone else was in, I found our six was now left bare. The ferals were pouring through both ends. I didn't see any of our party in the mix with the undead, so I assumed they made it in the unit.

But our route was about to be blocked off...

With no hesitation, the two of us charged for the door. She ran in first, and as I started to, one of the ferals behind me lunged, grabbing a hold of my metal hoof and gnawing on it aggressively.

Seeing as my electricity was flowing, it was immediately electrocuted and killed. I hastily dragged the body through the doorway as Hollow slammed it shut, locking it afterwards. Not even a second after, the other side was being pounded against violently.

She proceeded to turn to me with a short nod, before turning to everyone else. "That's not going to hold."

Everyone was reloading their guns for the small timeframe we had to recover. I flipped my mag, which, unfortunately, only had normal rounds as well. I really wish I had the premium stuff...

Afterwards, I started looking at our options. I didn't see any ways into the next unit over, or up to the next floor... or even down.

The emergency stairway that was built into the side of the outer walls was severely damaged and rusted. Rails had fallen apart, not to mention entire sections of the structure.

Where we were at right now, there was no way we could reach it. And to make matters worse... Ghoul pegasi... They were all over the place out there, but they didn't seem interested in us right now. So staying inside was the safest option. Safest... Yeah... right...

I looked back at Riot, frowning. "I thought you said there was an exit here."

He grinned and pointed a hoof up to the ceiling. "There is."

The wooden door started to crack and splinter. I could see the ferals through the gaps... Screaming... Growling... Biting... Glaring behind their pale eyes...

"We don't have enough ammo to waste on a ceiling." Thunderwing stated in clear annoyance towards Riot.

"Hey, we're still alive." He slammed two drums into his shotguns and cocked them, still smiling faintly. "I bought us time to argue more."

"Hey, enough!" I stepped in, glaring at both of them. I quickly turned to Hollow. "Can you make an exit for us?"

"I'll set a charge. Watch the door. Shouldn't be long." With that, she pulled off a few circular, metal disks from her chest, all of which looked out of this world. Just who was this pony...?

I hesitantly turned back to the door, pulled out a lemon, and waited.

Once everyone was done reloading, they joined me, giving the door their undivided attention as the ferals tore through. No one spoke. All was silent among the group...

Then, quite suddenly, Petiole's sniper roared. We all turned to him, and out came another shot.

I looked back at the door to see a feral drop with each successful shot to the head, through the gaps.

Everyone focused on the door again as he took them out, one shot at a time. Two, if he was lucky enough to get one in the right spot behind the first, which I saw happen a few times.

No one else was firing at the ghouls at the door.

It wouldn't have really mattered. There were far too many to make a difference. Plus, if we were all firing, it would have only damaged the door faster, allowing them in quicker. We needed every second time was willing to offer us...

There was an electric humming behind us, followed by something a lot like snapping branches... but louder, and more synthesized.

"Alright, it's done." Hollow stated, and some of us turned to look back at a triangular hole in the ceiling, leading up to another unit on the third floor.

"Where's the rubble?" I asked, looking at the empty flooring, where debris was to be expected from the blast.

"Don't worry about it." She pointed up. "Thunderwing. I'm gonna need you to haul everyone up there."

She nodded. "On it. Destrier, eyes on the door."

"Done." He replied, not taking his eyes off the door for even a second.

"I'll stay here with him until everyone else is up." I stated, facing the door again.

"I second that." Tezu joined in.

Thunderwing nodded to the three of us, then spread her wings to fly up there first with no one but herself, presumably to check if the coast was clear. A few seconds later, she came back down. "Alright, let's do this. Who's going first?"

"Take Fluky." I said quickly. "Then it's dealer's choice from there."

Fluky reached out for her once she began to approach, then held her close with both hooves.

"My, you're heavy." Thunder chuckled softly.

"I'm not heavy. You're just weak."

"... And feisty. I like that."

One by one, she began to extract everyone to the third floor through the opening that Hollow had made. It turned out her charges were reusable, cause I saw her put them back in her chest compartment... THING. Slots. Whatever.

Everything about her was practically alien to me... Just glad she was working with us... for now.

She stayed with Destrier, Tezu, and I. Petiole was the last to go up, before it was just the four of us. The ferals were just about to get through now... We had mere seconds before they were in the unit.

Thunderwing was working a sweat as she rushed back and forth, hauling us all up individually. She went back for Tezu, and though he couldn't fly anymore, his one wing helped get him up there faster, therefore saving time, as well as Thunder's already exerted energy.

I wasn't too heavy, but Destrier was going to be a problem. Hollow too, maybe... Tezu probably would have been too, if he hadn't helped support his weight with his wing.

Splinters of wood flew off the door as it split in half. Ferals poured through, into the living room. Our guns roared from across the room, peppering the incoming horde with hot lead and lasers.

I felt Thunder's hooves wrapped around my barrel, but I quickly shook her off me, biting down on the bit harder as I kept my gun hot. "GET DESTRIER FIRST!" I blurted, drooling over the pressure-triggered handle I kept my teeth glued to all the while.

Immediately after, I chucked the lemon in my hoof at the horde. It burst upon impact, dousing the front lines and beyond in the acidic substance, while the rest of it pooled up in the carpet. It damaged the hooves of any who ran across, but it didn't do much on our behalf. It wasn't enough to cripple them.

Destrier was lifted up with great effort. Thunder was putting great strain to her muscles in both her arms and wings to get him to the third floor.

"Recharging." Hollow said calmly, raising up on her rear hooves... and staying upright.

What the hell...?

I backed up as the ferals resumed their push towards us. Come on, Thunder... get us out of here...

Hollow kept her ground as they advanced.

My gun went dry, and as I fished around for another double sided magazine, I called out to Hollow. "What are you doing!?"

She didn't reply, and as one of the ferals went to pounce on her, she spun around to her left, staying up on her two rear hooves, then wrapped a hoof around the ghoul's neck as it started to land where she once was. In one quick motion, she bent it completely backwards, bending the spinal column in a way that it was never supposed to bend. Even through the thunder, rain, and horde, I could still hear the bones cracking.

As I slammed a new mag home and cocked the rifle, the horde began to surround her. Before they could cover all exits, she retreated with a variety of back flips, coming to a landing next to me, still on her hind legs.

What the fuck did I just see...?

I quickly reached into my bag yet again and chucked another lemon at the incoming mob, blasting them with the acidic burst that sizzled as it burnt away at all it touched.

Before I knew it, Thunderwing swept down, wrapped her hooves around my barrel once more, and lifted me off the ground. Hollow disappeared in a black and red flash, and upon touching the ground to the third floor, I saw her reappear before my group and I.

Petiole's LEDs flared blue.

"Short distance teleportation." She stated calmly, looking at me primarily. "Doesn't take much energy, so long as it's just me."

"Great..." Riot muttered. His ears were folded back as he deadpanned in her direction. "So your horn is all but useful to us."

She slowly turned to him, replying in her still surprisingly calm state. "My horn is our only escape out of here. And I'd prefer not to do any teleporting, period. Not until we get what we came here for. I need to save the energy for all of us to get out. Alive, preferably."

The lot of us looked down the perfect triangle that was carved into the flooring to the second floor, where a seemingly endless horde of hungry ferals glared up at us behind their dead eyes, snarling and biting.

"Para..." I looked over at him to see he was smiling, as always. Damn it, Para... "Make yourself useful." I reached into my bag and carefully pulled out all the lemons I had left on me. There were a total of five left... It wasn't much, but it was something.

I handed them over to him. "When I say throw, I need you to throw one lemon. Just one. Don't hesitate. Don't eat it. Just. Throw. When I saw throw a second time, you throw another one. ONLY. ONE. Whenever I saw throw, what do you do?"

He rubbed his chin, thinking to himself for a few seconds. Damn it Para, if you don't get this, I'm gonna-

"Throw one?" He finally said with a puzzled look.

... Thank you, dear Celestia, or Luna, or whoever the fuck was looking down at us right now...

"Yes." I smiled faintly. "And... be careful with those. They're extremely temperamental."

"A lot like you." Petiole replied, looking directly at me. Some of the group chuckled a bit at that.

"Watch it, you moldy raisin." I frowned, and his LEDs flickered red for a bit, before going blue once more. Admittedly, my hoof kinda flared up a bit with electricity. Just a smidge.

I watched as Para put the lemons in his jacket pockets, away from his bunny, before beaming at me.

"We should keep moving." Hollow stated, looking down at the ferals below us, before turning to the door. "The clock is ticking."

Speaking of which...

I took a glance at my pipbuck to see my geigercounter was showing I was about halfway to reaching critical conditions with the radiation exposure...

I quickly took out some Rad-x and two packets of Rad-Away, downing both.

Blegh... T-tastes better than tentacles... but not by much... Yuck... Cigarettes tasted better than this...

Once the rest of the group saw my actions, they followed shortly after. Well, except for Hollow. She didn't seem to care much for the radiation. Now that I thought about it, I hadn't seen her take a single pill or packet of Rad-Away... Was she a ghoul? Like Petiole? A ghoul with a normal voice? Or did she have some audio thing in her helmet? Hm...

While the rest of the team was treating their radiation levels, she had opened the front door to the unit we were in, peeking her head out. It was hard to tell with the loud mob below us, and the storm outside, but I didn't think I heard anything hostile in the corridor, outside. I only hoped that was the case...

I noticed her peek her head around the corner for a few seconds, before looking back at us.

"I'll be back momentarily. Stay here."

Before any of us could ask what she was doing, she had left and closed the door behind her on the way out.

"This is insane..." Blaze chuckled softly. "Gotta admit, though... it's fun as hell."

"Everyone should check their inventory." I stated as I started to tamper with my pipbuck. I could have sworn there was an option to... ah, yes. There we are.

Everything that I had on me was organized neatly in my pipbuck. A sort of manifest of everything I had. Even the smallest megaspell tech was fascinating in so many levels.

"So..." Fluky started as she sorted through her ammo and mortar rounds. "You gonna finally tell us about this radio deal?"

Everyone turned to me silently, and I felt a nervous grin spread across my features. I took my helmet off and set it down before me, resting a forehoof atop it. "Yeah... I suppose I should..." I sat down and took a deep breath.

I noticed that the music I was hearing had started going quiet once we made it up here. I could still hear it, but it was quieter, and on a loop of a softer part of the song.

"So... I don't fully understand how or why, but there's a bunch of souls trapped in the radio's battery."

Everyone gave me their expected looks of disbelief and skepticism, to which I hastily resumed.

"I know... It doesn't really make sense. It's weird... but..." I rubbed the back of my head awkwardly. "When I was... allegedly dead, back at the weapons depot... I remember being in the battery. Seeing the souls for who they were."

"That's it." Tezu countered, looking at the rest of the party. "Charger's gone insane."

"I know it sounds crazy... But, I mean... I did come back from having my ribs and organs crushed, did I not? You all witnessed it. Yet here I stand. So what makes this crazy?"

Destrier nodded slowly. "So... these souls... They're watching us?"

I nodded back. "As startling as that may be, yes..."

"So..." Thunderwing frowned, looking at Para's radio. I just then noticed he was starting to look restless, and a little panicked... "The battery is the anomaly..."

I raised a brow, unsure of how I felt with how she was eyeing that blue glow... "I... figured you already knew. Omegas figured it out pretty easily."

"Omegas keeps to himself." Thunderwing stated, looking back at me with a blank expression.

"Is there any significance to the battery itself?" Riot asked.

Oof... apart from being a doomsday device?

"The UPC-07 acts as a luck charm." Tuner began immediately, as if he didn't want the whole doomsday topic coming up. "Keep the battery around, and it should keep things going well, for the most part. But don't get careless... It doesn't make you invincible."

A look of shock and horror grew on everyone but Para's face as they stared in ominous silence at the radio.

"Whoa..." Blaze muttered finally. "He's not kidding..."

Hollow came back in not long after. "Let's move."

Para backed up once he saw Hollow. His mouth hung open, but nothing came out. He began looking at everyone else and pointing at Hollow frantically, before curling up into a ball silently and covering his head with his hooves, as if he were about to be struck.

"What's up with him?" Destrier asked, looking down at Para. Hollow stared silently at him all the while.

Petiole kept his distance from Para. "Who knows with him..."

"Tuner." I regarded the radio in his pocket. "What's happening?"

"I'm sorry, Charger..." Tuner replied. "He was about to get out. I had to push Eight in the way, so that no one else got hurt..."

Eight... the one that was a bit late... Which one was that, though?

"Who?" Thunder asked, raising a brow. "He?"

Petiole turned to me silently; his LED still blue. I was surprised with how calm he was about Happy being around... It was kind of unsettling, actually. It made me wonder if he had his own secret agenda...

"Long story..." I muttered as I calmly approached Para, who glanced at me for a brief second before sloppily working his jaw with frightened eyes. Despite his obviously desperate attempts to cry out, nothing came out. He began to back up against the wall as much as he was able.

"Hey, hey..." I said softly, raising a hoof towards him. "It's okay... There's nothing to be afraid of..."

Para... or Eight, I guess... looked at my hoof, then hesitantly and cautiously moved closer, only to sniff it, then retreat back to the wall, looking back at me with a little more ease. I noticed his blinks were being done manually, as if he wasn't used to using that part of his muscle.

He looked down at his hooves, and his jaw dropped as he observed them from all angles. Only after he finished studying his hooves, did he touch them together. He looked back up at me in what I thought was confusion.

Eight...

He was the spider thing back in the battery... wasn't he? He seemed to be the only one I met there that fit the bill. He had no mouth or nose, and his eyelids were different. He had spikes instead of hooves...

Not to mention he was scared of pretty much everyone.

This had to be the spider pony creature in the battery...

I stepped a little closer, but he pressed his back firmly against the wall again. Anymore, and he may as well have phased through it.

"Hey... It's okay..." I whispered, holding out my hoof again. He looked down at it once more with another exaggerated blink, then up at me. "You can trust me... I'm a friend..."

Again, he hesitantly seemed to warm up to me, and reached out a hoof. He still seemed awe-struck with his new adopted body.

His hoof lightly bumped against mine, and I smiled faintly. He recoiled a bit upon contact, then went back and pressed it against my hoof a little more firmly than before.

"Someone's gonna have to explain to me what the fuck is going on right now..." Riot muttered to himself.

"Same..." Blaze stated.

"Quiet..." I whispered as Eight looked to them, tilting his head in confusion. He still seemed a little worried about Hollow's presence. But he also seemed to feel a little safer around me.

His hoof started to travel up my arm, and he pressed his muzzle against my raised forehoof, closing his eyes and taking my scent in.

I giggled softly, and he looked up at me, curious about the expression I was offering.

"Smiling is good." I said softly. "Laughing is better."

He studied my lips for a moment before standing straight and pressing his muzzle against mine, looking into my eyes.

Oh my... I wasn't expecting this...

"Shouldn't we be on the run or something?" Tezu asked impatiently. "You know... radiation poisoning doesn't wait..."

"You all start making your way up. I can track Petiole's tag on my pipbuck when we're back on the move."

There was silence among the crowd, and Eight brushed his muzzle with a hoof, after feeling my breath on his lips. He looked down at them for a few seconds before opening my mouth with his hooves and looking inside. He seemed more curious on where my voice was coming from. When he couldn't find what he was looking for, he looked back up into my eyes and tapped a hoof to my lips, then worked his jaw again.

I tapped my throat and smiled. "My voice is coming from here."

He put a hoof to my throat, tracing my voice box and feeling around with peaked curiosity.

"Riot, you stay with Charger and... uh..." Thunderwing paused. "Whatever Para turned into... Fuckin' hell... Let's get going, everyone."

"I closed off the stairs that lead down." Hollow began. "So don't worry about the horde coming up."

"Thanks, Hollow." I said softly. At once, Eight's hoof retreated from the vibration my throat offered, and he looked down at it in worry.

I smiled in response.

His lips began to curl into a faint half smile, and he started feeling around his lips with a hoof.

The rest of the group started to leave the room for the hallway. Riot stayed close to the exit, keeping an eye out as he waited on us.

Eight pressed a hoof against my chest as he regarded me. Soon after, he put that same hoof to his own chest, feeling his heartbeat. He smiled a little more, before nuzzling my chest and breathing in again.

I pressed my lips against the top of his head and placed a soft kiss before speaking softly, but loud enough that he could hear me.

"We're gonna have to leave soon, Eight."

He looked up at me, and I down at him, all while he stayed glued to my chest. He seemed mildly worried.

"It could get dangerous..." I brushed a hoof past his ear as he stayed there. "I need you to stay close to me... Can you do that?"

He didn't nod, nor did he shake his head. Instead, he wrapped both arms around me tight. I... think that was a yes?

Shortly after, he let go and stood rather close to my side, looking at me and smiling faintly. Occasionally, I caught him running a hoof across his lips, curious on how they felt.

Guess that was a yes.

"Riot." I looked back at my security. "Possible to teleport us to the rest of my group?"

He deadpanned. "What did I say earlier?"

"Right..." I nodded. "Well, I suppose we'll just have to hoof it then. They can't be too far from us." I waved a hoof at him as I approached the exit. "Lead the way. I'll keep an eye on Petiole's tag."

He nodded back, and together, the three of us left the room.

Turning right, the first thing I noticed was that Hollow didn't just block off the stairs to the lower floors... She destroyed them. There was nothing left! As if they never existed in the first place, much like the hole she carved into the ceiling of the second floor!

The music started to get louder again as we stepped out into the main hall. The beat was changing, as was the voice. It was a lot more distorted.

Eight looked around curiously.

I turned left and followed Riot down the empty corridor. Thankfully, I didn't see any ferals on this floor. It still reeked of decay, but it seemed the majority of the ones that were previously up here had gone down to the second floor. The few that lingered had crushed skulls.

I didn't hear any gunshots in the time Riot and I were in the apartment unit, so I naturally assumed Hollow put her zebra fighting skills to good use when she went to take care of the stairs...

Eight continuously sniffed at the air, and his face went sour as he looked at me.

"I know... Just try and ignore it..." I patted him on the head carefully, and he nuzzled my cheek, before looking ahead, still scrunching his muzzle in disgust for the scent. "Hey..." I looked over at him, and he glanced back at me. "There's some lemons in the pockets of the jacket you're wearing..." I pointed at the jacket, to which he looked down at his apparel. "I'm going to need you to throw them at whatever I tell you to, whenever I say. Can you do that?"

He reached into one of the pockets, pulled out a lemon, sniffed it curiously, then scrunched his muzzle again, shaking his head hard as he looked at me. He held it out to me after.

I gave a resigned sigh before emptying his pockets of the lemons. Of course he wasn't going to...

Guns started blazing from the floor above us. I caught a glimpse of our allies through all the red on my E.F.S., but it was much too difficult to keep track of them and stay on guard. The point was that they were in trouble again. We needed to catch up to them, and fast.

Eight seemed panicked. I put a hoof on his shoulder and looked into his eyes. "I'm gonna need you to run with me. Okay?"

He nodded hesitantly, then looked down at his hooves, still puzzled by their shape.

"You can't run...?"

He looked back up at me and tilted his head from side to side.

I released an exasperated sigh and shook my head hard. "Fine. Just... Just get on my back. We don't have time..."

He nodded before carefully climbing onto my back. Fuck, he was a lot heavier than I thought... But I was still able to carry his weight, only slightly slowed down from it. Riot and I moved for the stairs to the upper floors with haste, and at once, the music picked up to a much heavier, louder beat.

Upon reaching the fourth floor, we ran down the corridor to our group on the other end, blasting away at a few ferals that were running out of some of the apartment units that were left with no doors. On our way through the corpse-littered hallway, I noticed the bodies were starting to reanimate... and get back up...

Fuck... I forgot...

Radiation healed ghouls...

As I ran, I sprayed down the ferals ahead of us with lead, having them drop again, so that we weren't blocked off and overwhelmed. Riot began covering our six as the resurrected began chasing us.

Eight clung tight around my neck, but I paid him no mind. My primary focus was getting all of us out of here... alive. I wasn't going to have anyone die on my watch.

We caught up to the rest of the group, and at once, I spun around, assisting Riot in clearing our tail of the ferals. They weren't going to stay down with the amount of radiation here, but it stalled them, and every second we bought ourselves was worth it.

I spat the bit out and looked back at Hollow. "It would have been useful if Tuner told us which unit it was, before we showed up! At least we'd be up there and not here!"

"No." Hollow shook her head, looking back at me. "It wouldn't. My system doesn't respond well to lethal radiation levels. We would have glitched out and fell to our death, if I tried teleporting us to a higher level. Ground teleportation was the safest bet."

"Some bet." Petiole replied softly.

"Let's move!" Thunder shouted just as the last feral dropped ahead of them. Some of the others were already starting to reanimate...

Suddenly, the same beat started to get more electronic, and the song was a little faster now.

We all pushed up the next flight of stairs to the fifth floor which, thankfully, was clear of any hostiles. At least, in the corridor. I wasn't so sure about the units.

The team began reloading their guns, but I kept the old magazine in my gun. There was still quite a bit left inside, and it wasn't worth reloading.

"Five floors up, and I'm not finding anything worth of value..." Tezu muttered.

"We haven't really been looking... We don't really have the time..." I stated, then looked over my shoulder. "Tuner, give us the locations where the valuables are at. We don't have a whole lot of time to kill to go searching for it ourselves..." Our pipbucks constant reminder of the radiation dosage we were getting was only making me more and more worried by the second... And I was starting to get a warm, fuzzy feeling in my body... My brain felt fuzzy!

I took a quick glance at my geigercounter. I was about halfway there to reaching the first stage of radiation poisoning, according to the system.

"There's a jackpot of chems in P-21." Tuner began. "And there's a small stash in my unit. In the other building, there's a decent stash of canned food that might sell for a bit, not to mention the alcohol collection that the previous tenants made. That'd be in room X-2. Other than that, everything else is garbage."

"Wait, other building?" Blaze raised a brow. "We don't have time for another building!"

"Agreed." I filled in. "We have no choice but to leave the food and alcohol behind. With all the radiation here, chances are its value has dropped to nothing, now."

"This floor is clear." Hollow said after a short while of staring down the corridor, looking around from left to right. "No hostiles. Everyone should do an inventory check on themselves."

At once, we quickly began to check our ammo, Rad-Aways, Rad-x, and health potions. I was still down to one potion, which was stored in my pipbuck for immediate use later, should I ever have needed it.

As for magazines, I had about three and three quarters left. Rad-Away; a few pouches left. Same went for Rad-x.

As everyone checked their inventory, I quickly began loading some ammo into two empty mags, emptying my first box of bullets entirely. If it wasn't for the depot, I'd have been down to my hooves.

... And, well... I was no zebra when it came to hoof to hoof combat...

Not like Hollow...

Smoke was starting to rise from the lower floors, and a heat began to grow beneath.

"We need to get out of here fast..." Thunderwing muttered.

Once everyone else finished up their checks, we continued moving down the littered corridors of the D floor, before meeting the end and advancing up the stairs to the sixth level. The E floor.

On our way up, Petiole muttered to himself. "Whoever built these apartments had no idea what they were doing with the stairs..."

"Hope they got fired..." Riot muttered back.

"Tell me about it..." Tuner filled in through the radio.

The sixth floor was just as empty as the fifth, and so in a manner of maybe 20 seconds or so of us running down the corridor upon Hollow's verification, we were on the seventh.

Eighth.

And then ninth.

At least Petiole was running with us, for once. I guess the radiation was helping him move faster after all.

By the tenth floor, we ran into ferals again. Not like the horde downstairs, but enough to have us stop dead in our tracks and start unleashing a wave of lead, lasers, and fire upon them as they screamed and howled once they turned to see us.

More jumped out from units with doors that were left open or off their hinges, but they were soon dealt with, upon foolishly revealing themselves to us.

Thankfully, the noise of heavy rain, thunder, and the roar of ferals out on the streets helped cover our gunfire for those that we left behind downstairs. I wasn't hearing or seeing any of them come up after us, which allowed for all of us to focus on the front.

Even then, I did well to keep our six in check. I didn't completely trust leaving our back exposed like that.

By the eleventh floor, after disposing of the few ferals that staggered in the hallways, and disposed of the few more that ran out to the gunfire after, we quickly downed our next packet of Rad-Away, took some more Rad-x, disposed of them again once they tried regenerating, and kept up our marathon.

I was with Petiole, Riot, and Tuner on this one... Whoever built these stairs were a fucking dumbass! I wish I could have gone back in time, just to beat the hell out of them for this!

Hollow glanced up for a moment before stepping up on the stairs to the next floor. "Larger group of ferals are on the next floor. Prepare yourselves."

"How are you knowing this stuff?" Destrier asked, regarding her as we climbed.

"I can see through obstacles." She replied simply, before turning the corner and firing her cannon down the corridor of the 12th floor, cutting away at them.

There was a series of screams and howls down the hall, and at that moment, we all took Hollow's side, dropping the incoming horde like flies.

About half of this floor was covered in them. Why there were some larger contingents on certain floors was beyond my understanding. I didn't know much about ferals. Or regular ghouls, for that matter. Only what I was told by other ponies.

As we unleashed our firepower on the crowd, more ferals came out from the open units; as they had with many of the previous floors. The ones closest to us became top priority.

A few doors down from us, a few more ferals came out, dressed in riot gear. At once, everyone focused their attention on them, but their barding was helping keep them protected from the bullets and fire as they charged us.

Flame retardant, armored ferals were way ahead of the front lines!

Fluky fired a mortar at them, knocking them back momentarily upon the explosion of bright, multiple colored lights. But it wasn't keeping them down for good. That launcher was only good for staggering our opponents... Not much else.

Even then, it was still helping a lot.

As they began their hasty recovery, I reached into my pouch, pulled out a lemon, and chucked it between the three. In a splash of lethal citrus, their armor began to melt away, but it was taking time to eat through the barding. I peppered the armor of the closest one with my magazine, trying to weaken it faster.

The rest of the group was pushing forward, and with all of us focusing on the armored ghouls, we were only screwing ourselves over.

Some of the team redirected their fire at the regular ferals, while I stayed focused on the riot ponies. There were only three here, but there were probably more wandering the upper floors. This was a game changer...

By the time lead chewed through the sizzling riot gear ahead of me and dropped the wearer, the other two were face to face with me.

One pounced on me before I could get a shot in, and the other went after Eight, who worked his mouth tirelessly as he struggled with his hooves to run away. He wasn't used to being in a pony body, evidently.

I felt the feral on top of me beat against my back, but my armor did well to protect me from the hits. It hurt, but I wouldn't have called it lethal at that point.

The song changed to a more heavy guitar shred again. I don't know what game Tuner was playing, but it was kinda helping motivate me... Each song he was playing was mixing with each other, so the music never really stopped.

Gritting my teeth, I rolled onto my back. In doing so, I knocked it off my back and got on top of it, tearing its helmet off.

However, in the process of doing so, I had ripped off all the wrinkly, bare hide that had been their face and scalp, revealing to me a big red, patch of coagulated blood and muscle. The hide I had accidentally ripped off was still inside the helmet, glued to the interior.

I shook myself from the surprise and slammed the head gear against its skinned face as it thrashed at me, not letting up without a fight. I did it again, screaming this time. It's muzzle started to cave in a little.

Again, with rage on my breath.

Again, with fire in my veins.

Again, with hate in my heart.

The music was growing muffled as I beat it mercilessly.

I threw the helmet to the side, and looking down, I saw him.

The one and only Bristle.

The anger inside boiled further, spilling over and flooding. The electricity of my hoof caused him to jolt around, losing control of his own nervous system as he was being fried alive.

I slammed a forehoof hard against his flattened muzzle, screaming again.

"DIE! JUST FUCKING DIE, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!"

I paid no mind to my surroundings. Nothing else mattered.

"YOU STUPID SHITHEAD! JUST FUCKING DIEEEEEee!" I felt my voice give out as hot, angry tears streamed down my face.

"CHARGER!" A female voice spoke beside me, and I looked over to see Thunderwing at my side, staring deep into my eyes.

The rest of the group, Hollow excluded, looked at me in concern and worry. No guns fired.

The corridor was littered with corpses of ferals. Soon, they were gonna get back up, and we were gonna be back at it with trying to hold the line.

I looked down at the ghoul I had gotten on top of to see their brain was now exposed to the open and mashed. Their face was no more.

I shuddered and hugged myself as I sat on my haunches, closing my eyes. "L-let's keep... keep moving..."

"Are you okay...?" I felt a wing caress my hoof, but I shrugged it away.

"I'm... I'm fine." I opened my red, teary eyes again, sobbing uncontrollably. "I'm fine. Let's just move."

Thunderwing stared silently in concern for a long while, before finally nodding. "Right..."

I looked back at Eight, who was shaking next to Petiole, looking at me in fear.

I scared him...

"Tuner..." I called out, wiping my eyes free of the tears... and getting irradiated blood on my face in the process...

"Yeah, boss?"

"Get him out here... We're gonna need him."

"A-Are you sure about that? Do you even know what you're-"

"I said do it." I snapped, glaring at the radio. "We need him."

"... As you wish..."

Thunderwing and Destrier looked me over, and the pegasus began.

"Who are we bringing out here?"

"It's best if you don't know..." Petiole muttered.

The body that Eight occupied dropped in an instant, and drool leaked onto the floor. Within a few seconds, he blinked, and Happy stood up, wiping the drool off his lip and grinning. His eyes were on mine.

"Hello again, Charger."

"Enough." I turned to the others. "All of you go on. I'll be right behind you."

Destrier nodded to me. "Don't be long."

I nodded back, then turned to Happy once more.

"I know why I'm here." He stated, refusing to turn away. "What makes you think I'd help you with this?"

"Because you want my help. You help us stay safe, and I'll help you. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. No tricks. I hate to say it, but I need you..." I looked down at his hooves, ashamed... But it was true. We couldn't take them all on, and Tuner said that taking Happy on was a death sentence. So if that were true, then we needed him on our side...

He gently laid a hoof under my chin to lift my head up, looking me in the eye once more with a soft smile. "When you put it like that, how could I refuse?" He started to walk past me, and as he did, nuzzled my neck. Shortly after, I received a smack from his tail to my face.

Plegh...

Damn it, he smelled nice...

I spun around and trotted up to his side, looking at him as he walked happily down the corridor with that dance in his movement, after the rest of the team.

"I need you to promise me that you won't harm any of them..." I made a gesture to my friends and allies ahead of us. "Or I'll have Tuner put you back in the battery, and bring someone else out instead."

I really hoped he was buying that bluff...

Some of the others in the battery might have been useful, but not on Happy's level. I got a small taste of what he could do, back at Virtue, when he snagged the radio from me. I needed someone with that skill for this mission, and I didn't think the others had that.

He looked back at me with that wicked grin of his. "I don't harm. I am a savior."

"Happy, I mean it." I started glaring as my hoof crackled. "Don't touch. Anyone. Only defend them from the ferals."

"Okay, cap-i-tan." He mockingly saluted me, but continued. "I promise."

He better have lived up to his word, too...

We started to climb the next flight of stairs, and he resumed once more, as if he had read my mind.

"My word is my bond."

Okay, that was a little more reassuring. But I still had my eye on him.

I didn't very much appreciate the idea of trusting a serial killer.

He reached into my pouch and pulled out a box of ammo and one of the dual sided mags. Curiosity on mind, I watched until I found him restocking it with the bullets. Quite fast, I might add.

Huh... That was incredibly helpful.

Thunderwing started to push forward up the stairs, stumbling a bit. Hollow stopped.

"Wait. Get back."

Thunder looked back at her for a moment, and at once, a feral rammed her into the wall, immediately tearing into one of her wings as she cried out.

Destrier quickly blasted the head off the target with a single shot from the caliber gun on his side, and the body fell.

Thunderwing panted, looking down at it as she flexed her wing a bit. She cried out from the pain in her open nerves and reached into her saddle bags, pulling out a health potion after. She bit the cork, ripped it off the neck of the bottle, spat it out, and started chugging until there was nothing left. Her wing regenerated, and once the bottle was emptied, she tossed it to the side, letting it shatter against the floor.

"Let's... keep moving..." She shook her head, as if she were in a daze, then kept pushing.

"The radiation is effecting your mind." Hollow stated. "Take some Rad-Away. You're at a dangerous level."

"I'm fine."

"I'm not asking."

She sighed as she hung her head, looked back, and pulled out a packet. "This is my last one." She stated, before gulping down the contents. She gagged a bit from the taste, but kept most of it down, regardless. She dropped the empty packet and looked back at me, smiling faintly. "Better than tentacles?"

"A little." I replied with a faint smirk. "Let's go."

She nodded back, and we continued to move as one unit.

There were two ferals at the end of the hall, but before they realized what hit them, Petiole and Hollow dropped them. From there, we began running once more. There weren't any ferals in the units on this floor, thankfully.

The next level had about ten roaming the hallway. I and the rest of the team with guns laid down a heavy fire at the incoming wave. There was only one with riot armor on here. But it was quickly disintegrated to red ash from Hollow's beam cannon. The rest was left to us.

"I'm dry!" Riot shouted as he raised the barrels of his shotguns to the ceiling. He pulled out some shells as he fell back from the front lines. "Need to reload!"

Everyone resumed firing at the horde before them, until Riot shouted once more. "Incoming on our six!"

I spun my head around to see more ferals climbing up the stairs after us.

Fuck!

I turned back toward the attention at the front lines for a second. Most of them were down at that point, but some were starting to get back up. The rest of the team had this under control.

I spun back around to our rear to find Happy was already beating them bloody against walls and spinning around their bodies like an acrobat, before throwing them to the ground, crushing skulls and crippling limbs. His hat landed on the floor beside the fight.

Riot and I both stared in awe as he jumped towards a wall, pushed himself off it, and flew over a feral that was on his tail with one backflip motion. He neatly landed behind them, pulled them back, and snapped their neck as they thrashed around.

Afterwards, he chucked the body down the stairs, knocking several others down that were about to come up.

Riot quickly shook himself from the astonishment that show brought, then resumed reloading his drums with shells, before slamming them into the bottom of his two shotguns and cocking them.

I wasn't hearing any more climb up the stairs, and he didn't seem too worried about it as he looked down at them.

Fucker was smiling...

From there, he grabbed his stetson off the ground, dusted it off, placed it atop his head and grinned as he tilted the brim of his hat to me a little.

Wow... That was... impressive. We had two Hollows here. Or two Happy's. Both were kinda terrifingly awesome... and could also prove as a problem later. I still didn't know much about Hollow. I didn't know anything about her.

The gunfire behind me stopped, and I turned around to see the ferals were down.

"Let's move!" I shouted, before charging ahead.

The beat slowly changed to a different, heavy melody. The voice was distorted and scratchy, but as all the other songs, it was a good means of motivation.

But looking back, the ferals... and my team... huh... that was odd...

Thunderwing and Hollow followed on both sides of me as we bolted down the corridor, stepping over the corpses that were going to get back up in less than a minute.

The next floor had a few stragglers. As we ran, Thunderwing vaporized a few heads before reloading. Some began to run out of the open units, but Happy flipped over Petiole and pinned the ghoul to the ground that was about to rip Fluky off his back, delivering a series of fast paced, bone shattering hits along the spine of the ghoul, therefore paralyzing its body and rendering it useless.

It was going to regenerate, but it might have taken a bit longer.

The others that ran out of the other units were quickly eliminated by Destrier's cannon as we continued our hasty push for the upper floors. We had wasted enough time as it was.

We were now on the N level of the tower. The 15th floor.

The corridor ahead was empty. But halfway across, we started to hear a variety of hooves running along the floor above us. Their shouts and howls were more distinct up here, due to how far we were from the ground.

The lot of us stopped, and I pushed Thunderwing into the open unit beside her, following after.

"Everyone, in!" I hissed as I looked over my shoulder.

One by one, they rushed in.

"Hurry, guys!" Blaze said quickly, standing next to me as we watched our team enter the unit.

Thunderwing was checking the place out for any hostiles, but the coast seemed clear.

As Hollow stepped inside in her calm, careless manner, she gently closed the door behind her and locked it, then turned to us, putting a hoof to her respirator.

I looked over at the glowing radio on Happy, snatched it from him, and worked the volume dial in desperate attempts to turn down the music. It wasn't working, fuck!

I got a few weird looks from the others, but no one said anything.

We all stayed quiet as the various sets of hooves ran down the corridor, and the snarling and growling grew in volume. Through the massive red patch on my E.F.S., I could still see a wave of even more red sway from left to right, across the bottom of my vision.

They were passing us. They didn't see us go in...

How were they not hearing this music!? It was loud!

Hollow quietly stepped away from the door and moved for the hall of this unit. As she passed me, she whispered in my ear.

"Follow."

She stood up on her hind legs again as she walked down the hall, and took the charges out of her chest once more, tossing them around from hoof to hoof.

I still couldn't understand how she was walking like that...

I followed her, and the rest of the team followed me.

We entered a master bedroom, and once everyone was inside, she closed the door behind us and pushed the bed in front of it, barricading us in.

"Just in case." She whispered, before reaching up and placing the three charges on the ceiling. "This gets loud."

The room was crowded to the point where we were pretty much pressed up against each other.

On my left, Happy was squeezed up against my side, grinning at me. His tail wrapped around mine.

To my right, Petiole was muttering to himself about personal space as he was pressed up against my side. Destrier was on his other side, squishing him against me. Fluky was the only one with the most room, and even then, that wasn't a whole lot.

The three charges that were displayed as a triangle on the ceiling began to light up, and yellow, glowing lines connected them to each other as the ceiling began to burn away into ash.

There was that electric hum from earlier, followed by the weird synthesized snapping sound.

Sure enough, I could hear ferals trying to tear through the front door of this unit.

"Shouldn't be too much longer." Hollow stated, keeping her eyes on the ceiling that began to slowly disintegrate before us.

Flakes of ash from the ceiling snowed down on us as we waited quietly for our escape plan to come through.

The front door was smashed down into splinters, and the rapid hoofsteps grew closer.

"Shit..." Tezu muttered.

After a few seconds, the snarling was right outside the door, and hooves banged violently against the wooden structure, trying to break in.

The ceiling received a perfect triangle for a hole, and Hollow reached up once more, grabbing the charges that waited along the edges and inserting them into her chest again.

"Thunderwing." I called out. "You're up."

She quickly nodded, grabbed Fluky, and lifted her up through the hole with ease. She hastily came back down for the next one; Tezu.

One by one, she lifted us up to the 16th floor.

The ferals were already breaking through, but the bed was helping keep them at bay for the time being. Destrier and I lifted it on its side, offering more support and buying us a little more time. We pressed our weight against it, hoping it would hold for a bit longer. I felt a bit of a tug against my tail when I moved for the bed, but thankfully, Happy didn't tie us together.

This wasn't a time for jokes...

"An extra pair of wings would have been nice..." Thunderwing panted heavily as she came back down to lift Petiole up.

He shrugged her off before she could lift him off the ground. "No. I'm a ghoul. They won't attack me. I'll take the stairs once they get through."

She quickly nodded, then went for Destrier.

I was the last one here, apart from Petiole, who took my side at the door.

As Thunderwing lifted Destrier through the hole, the door was broken through, and ferals pushed against the bed, trying to get to me.

Petiole did all he could to keep the bed on its side, but there were too many for him to deal with, in terms of strength.

I backed away and began firing a fully automatic clip at them as they charged at me, climbing over, under, and around the bed to get to me.

Petiole fired what he had in his sniper, but there was no other way out of this but up, and my ride was still lifting Desty up.

I was quickly cornered.

They threw me to the ground, pinned me, beat me, and started tearing through my armor. The space between my helmet and my barding left my neck bare, so that was their first target.

I felt teeth sink into the hide of my neck from both sides, tearing and pulling. I couldn't scream. But I really wanted to...

I felt my blood spray out at them as I became their meal. They devoured relentlessly...

And the worst part?

I was still alive to feel it all.

I was still awake...

I felt the pain with every waking moment, yet I wasn't blacking out. I wasn't dying... There was no darkness coming to take me...

At this point, I wanted it to...

My throat was ripped out and consumed. My black blood poured from my wounds as I laid there, unable to move.

As time went on, more ferals came to join in the feast. Ripping through my armor and eating their fill.

My hoof. My side. My back. My flank.

And all the while, I lied there, tears streaming down my face as black dripped from my lips.

"Cha-" Petiole began his violent coughing.

"CHARGER!" Thunderwing shouted, before shooting at all the ghouls around me. Petiole joined her, and soon after, I heard gunfire from the others.

Once I felt a little less pressure around me, she swept in, lifted me off the ground by my hooves, and strained herself in bringing me to the 16th floor.

I kept my head down as my arms raised up.

One of the many remaining ferals latched onto my rear hoof, biting deep. Petiole drove a round through its head, causing it to fall to the bedroom floor.

"Get up here." Hollow said calmly, to which Petiole nodded and walked out of the feral-infested room.

I was laid down on my stomach of the 16th floor, and everyone gathered around me.

"Is he dead?" Blaze asked.

I shook my head slightly and rolled over on my side, looking up at them.

"Holy shit..." Everyone backed away from me as Riot muttered.

Happy threw a pebble at him, to which he scowled at the killer.

I felt something moving around in my neck. Something... that didn't belong.

And why was I starving, all of a sudden...?

"I'll be back." Hollow stated. "I have to get Petiole up here and destroy the stairs."

"Good idea." Thunder panted, looking down at me. She approached me warily and looked down at my neck. "He... he has..." She backed up again. "There's a tentacle in his throat..."

Was that what it was...? Ugh...

I felt my voicebox start to come back from the health potion in my pipbuck, but it was taking all of it just to restore a portion on my neck.

Finally, I gasped and spoke with great strain to my dry, dead voice. "Need... more... health... puh..."

Destrier quickly nodded and took out a potion. He pressed the opening to my blackened lips and tilted it carefully, allowing me to drink at my own pace.

By the time it was done, my entire neck was healed, and some of the openings in my body had closed up for good.

"I need... another..." I replied, looking back at the gaping hole torn into my flank... and my cutiemark... My... cutiemark...

I closed my eyes, laid my head back down, and began to sigh, but before I could exhale, I felt another bottle press against my lips. I spurted for a second out of surprise, but began drinking immediately after.

"Your armor is shredded..." Blaze said softly.

I nodded a little, still drinking.

"It's all he has." Destrier replied. "There's still some decent protection in some areas. He should keep it on. At least until we get out of here."

"I'm surprised you're still alive, after all that." Tezu stated. "You're one tough S.O.B."

"He's alive cause he's infected." Thunder snapped. "The infected don't die so easily..."

"Unfortunately..." I muttered after the bottle was finished up. The bottle was taken from my lips, and I felt my ass start healing.

I can't believe a bunch of ferals just ate my ass... and my Goddess damned cutiemark... At least I got everything back.

I groaned as I stood up and stretched my limbs. Happy was off to the side, restocking my mags.

"Ahh, fuck..." I arched my back and twisted it in both directions, hearing the satisfying pop of my bones. "Ah, that felt... great..." I sighed, still feeling the tentacle in my throat move around. Apparently it could be seen under my coat as a bulge, cause almost everyone was staring at my neck; most in disgust.

Fuck, I was hungry...

"I hate to say it..." Tezu smirked. "But it is kinda hot..."

Blaze chuckled, nudging him. "You ain't wrong..."

"Yeah, I'm sure yahhHHHHHHH!" At once, that tentacle in my throat slipped out of my mouth, hanging there, out in the open. Everyone quickly backed away, looking on in disgust as it felt around for anything. I stood there, hunched over as a black, oily tendril hung from my mouth, feeling around my muzzle, as it was the only thing it could touch. I could see wisps of shadow and smoke beaming off it.

"Uh, Charger...?" Tezu resumed. "I hate to say it, but it's still kinda hot."

I groaned in frustration as I glared at him. "Yah? Well mahbe ya oughta kiss meh den!" I started for him, and he quickly backed away, pushing Blaze toward me.

"Whoa, no no no! Hell no!" Blaze frantically did his best to escape as I approached.

"No infecting my team, Charger!" Thunderwing shouted, scowling at me.

I stopped and looking at her as the tendril felt around my lips.

At least this one didn't taste awful...

It didn't taste good, either. But it didn't taste bad, really. Not like the previous ones.

A few moments passed before I felt the tendril slide back down my throat and stay deep inside me.

I worked my jaw and looked at the others, finally able to close my mouth.

"Okay... That's the first time it did that. It didn't seem... hostile." I said, confused as to what just happened. I was just as baffled as everyone else!

Hollow came back with Petiole, looking at all of us.

"Good. You're alive."

"He's something..." Thunder murmured, walking past me. "Don't get any funny ideas with that tentacle of yours, Charger. There's only one pony allowed in my back door and mouth, and that's Destrier."

"I don't know what I missed, and I'd like to keep it that way." Hollow said, before turning around and making her way back outside. "The coast is clear."

Petiole took my side once more. "Tentacle...?" He whispered.

"Uh, yeah..." I replied, starting to walk with the team. "A sort of... um... tentacle slipped out of my mouth..."

"Fungal?"

I shook my head. "No... I think this one was that darkness you spoke of."

He nodded slowly, looking at me. "How did it act? Were you able to control it?"

I shook my head again. "I had no control, but it seemed friendly enough. Seemed more on the curious side..."

"Hm... Well... be careful with it. And I'll want a sample later."

I sighed and hung my head down. "Yeah..."

Like everything else I had seen in this tower so far, the living room was in shambles. But I caught a few canned carrots and cinnamon apples slices resting on the table next to an unopened bottle of vodka. Most of the label was torn off, but I saw some of the name. 'DeadHor-' followed by that one delicious word, 'Vodka.'

Fuck, I didn't care that the name started with death. This was worth something to me. Radiation poisoning? Fuck, sure!

I pocketed the bottle and the few canned goods, and proceeded with the rest of the team.

I spotted a magazine on the recliner I passed by along the way, which quickly caught my attention when I saw Happy's face smiling on the cover. I pocketed that too.

I noticed the music had faded. It was still there, just quieter.

I still felt that tentacle deep inside me, wriggling around. I didn't know when it had grown there, but it raised concern. It was a part of me...

"The drug stash is one floor up, right?" Tezu asked, looking around curiously.

I looked at the rusted 'O' on the door across from the one we left as we stepped into the corridor and nodded. "Yeah, I think so."

Hollow nodded calmly. "I made note of what this Tuner character said in regards to the stash. One floor up, room 21." She glanced up, then turned to me. "We won't have any trouble getting there. The next floor seems fine."

Well, that was a relief...

"Let's hoof it, then." I said quickly after taking a deep lungful of rotten air. "I want us out of here as fast as possible."

We began our marathon once more to the stairs that led to the next floor.

The 16th floor was a lot more different than the others, considering the floors that we had ascended prior to this one didn't have a nice, big, gaping hole in the side of the structure.

There was a view of another tower, through all the heavy rain. Lightning lit up the outside frequently, shortly followed by the massive boom of thunder.

The lot of us wasted no time getting to P-21 and stepping inside. There was no door to open, or close for that matter, but that wasn't really a problem.

There were a few suitcases displayed at a coffee table in the living room, and three skeletons around the old furniture; each with a pistol. There were bullet holes all along the two couches, followed by dried blood stains.

"Guessing a deal went south..." Thunder muttered, looking at the skeletons.

Petiole and I took our approach. He investigated one of the bodies as I worked on trying to open the suitcase. It became evident to me that they were locked, unfortunately.

"It needs a..." I started to say as I looked at Petiole, who held a small, metal object in his hoof to me. "... Key... Thanks."

I took the key from him and cracked open the first case to reveal it was filled to the brim with Med-x, Dash, Party Time Mentals, and even healing potions. All in an organized fashion.

Jackpot...

"Start loading this up..." I said as I moved on to the next suitcase, which had the same supply as the former.

As the team got to work on storing the supplies, I opened the third.

This one didn't have drugs.

This was the payment.

A suitcase filled entirely with pre-war bits.

"Petiole..." I glanced up at him. "You and I are carrying this one."

He stepped over to my side and nodded before we divvied it up.

I looked to the others. "I'll make sure we're all paid the same amount when we get out of here. It's only fair."

Thunderwing smiled with an assured nod. "No worries, man."

"We barely have any Rad-Aways, or Rad-x." Destrier stated. "We can't keep climbing floors like this and expect to make it out alive. We need a shortcut."

I nodded quietly as I looked down at my geigercounter. I was already starting to reach the halfway mark. Damn it...

"There's one." Hollow replied softly, looking at a wall. "The fire exit on the side of the building. The catwalk. We can easily climb up the rest of the way from there. But there's a catch."

"Spill." Blaze and Tezu said simultaneously.

"Feral pegasi have taken to the skies."

"We can handle them..." Thunder said quickly.

Hollow nodded slowly. "Very well."

Once everything was packed up, and the extra bullets in the guns from the skeletons were taken, we made a run for the hole in the side of the building.

As Hollow had predicted, there was the fire escape route, still intact... for the most part.

Way up, towards the top of both towers, was a broken radio tower that had fallen off one of the buildings and got wedged between the two structures, forming a bridge between the two.

As we stepped outside, I caught sight of several pegasi flying through the storm in random order, keeping to themselves all the while.

The clicking of our geigercounters began to accelerate, and dread grew on our faces.

"Take another Rad-x." Petiole advised as he stepped up onto the catwalk that led to the stairs carefully. Fluky hopped off his back to stay with us once he gave her a cold, silent look through his visor.

The catwalk went down one level, but after that, it dropped off into a thin cloud of pink that swept along the surface. I could see a pool filled with black water in between the two towers.

Petiole continued. "I'll lead the way."

The lower floors were also set ablaze, and making their way up.

Some of us had a little more to spare in terms of radiation treatment and exposure delay. Some of us were using the last of our supplies.

And some of us had nothing to use, period.

Those of us that had a little more to spare offered what we could to the ones that didn't have anything left to protect them from the relentless bombardment of radiation seeping into their skin and bones.

We were all going to get out of here alive.

But we needed to act fast.

The music started to change as it got louder again.

With all the Rad-x we used this round, we were left with nothing. We had just enough to take care of everyone one last time. And we only had a few packets of Rad-Away left, total.

Petiole began running up the metal stairs with his red LED active. One by one, we followed close behind, charging up the stairs with haste.

Thunderwing flew up with ease, but chose to stay with the rest of the team instead of pushing ahead, like an idiot. Safety in numbers was the best option, after all.

Three floors up, through the heavy gusts of wind at high elevation and the curtain of heavy rain pounding against our frames, I began to notice the airborne pegasi flying straight for us.

"Contact!" I shouted as we pushed up. It was evident we wanted to cover as much ground as we could before they arrived.

"Keep going." Petiole said in a rushed, coughing fit as he stopped and took aim; scoping them out and firing well placed shots to their wings. They began dropping like flies with each individual shot. "I'll be right behind you."

I took lead as we ascended to the 21st floor. My E.F.S. was still covered in red, which really threw me off. There was too much to focus on there. My E.F.S. was useless here. I had to rely on my natural senses.

By the 23rd floor, the remaining ferals that hadn't been shot down had caught up and swept in. One of them had slammed into me and smashed me through a cracked window pane that led into a corridor with a few stumbling ghouls.

It snarled and bit at me, trying to get a meal, before the back of its head was blasted open upon the boom of thunder. It collapsed atop me almost instantly, but the rhythmic blast continued all the same.

I quickly rolled the corpse off of me and looked up to see Destrier, Thunderwing, and Riot side by side as the rest of the team pushed up the emergency stairs, running and gunning the ferals that ran after them. Meanwhile, the three released a storm of bulky lead, buckshot, and laser at the ferals that roamed the hall.

I pulled a lemon out from my satchel and without hesitation, chucked it at the incoming group. There weren't very many, thankfully, so they all went down without any real trouble.

The three of them stopped firing and looked down at me once the threats were eliminated. Riot grinned as he pointed both of his combat shotguns to the ceiling and cocked them. Smoke blew out from both barrels. Destrier's guns started reloading themselves, and Thunderwing nodded to me.

"You good?"

I nodded back before rolling onto my hooves. "Let's dip."

The four of us ran up after our team, which made a pretty great distance in such a short time frame.

They had already made it up to the 25th floor. Where our primary objective sat. Floor X.

They had made it inside safely. I caught a glimpse of Tezu charging back inside the building after the others.

I could still hear Petiole's rifle going off below us, and as we ascended the stairs, I saw incoming pegasi get their wings chewed through, dropping them instantly as they attempted to get to us.

As we climbed the creaking, metal stairs to the 24th floor, one of the ferals had made it to the catwalk and tackled Riot. Ironically, riot armor wrapped around their undead form.

Riot shouted as he toppled back down the stairs and struck the railing, which groaned and rattled the structure we all stood on.

The pegasus pinned his back against the railing and began beating into his gut and chest rampantly, growling and snarling behind the cloth mask that seemed to be a part of it now.

The telekinetic grip on Riot's guns slipped and fell. One of them landed on the stairs, but the other dropped down into the abyss.

Another ghoul rammed against Thunder and I before we could react to anything, and another attempted getting to Destrier. Before he could drive a hole through its skull, the stairs beneath him gave way, causing the two to fall.

Before I was being bitten and pummeled, I saw his hooves hanging desperately onto the next step.

The pegasus tore into my chest, allowing it to ooze more black. Shortly after, tendrils launched out from me, wrapping around its head and pulling it in.

"AGGGHHHHHHHHH!" I screamed in horror and agony as I felt its head get devoured into my chest, pulling the rest of its body inside me. I could feel it thrash around, eating away at my insides!

... Until it didn't anymore.

Movement ceased from the feral inside me, and as it got pulled further into my body, I felt it start to deteriorate... as if my body was in the process of consumption... Breaking it down.

I felt oily and sick on the inside... Like there was something inside me that didn't belong. There was a lot inside me that didn't belong! Fuck, what just happened!?

Despite the horror and shock... I wasn't starving anymore... I actually felt... stronger.

But I didn't feel right...

My stomach lurched, and I rolled over on my side as its rear hoof disappeared into the oozing black of my chest, only to puke up more black. I gasped and shuddered as I felt the tentacles move around inside me... like they were exploring more of this new territory that was my body.

I got back up on my hooves and looked over at Thunderwing, who was doing her best to keep the feral off of her. More were starting to target her as time went on.

I slipped into SATS and targeted the first ghoul's head, before executing the freak on my friend. It dropped instantly; its rotted brain spilling out the other side of its head.

I switched to full auto and disposed of the others around her, which had begun tearing into her flesh. Once they were downed, I quickly pulled them off her and tossed them over the railing.

She began digging through her saddle bag, shaking and whimpering softly to herself as blood gushed out from her wounds. She started chugging a healing potion from there.

The stair that Destrier had been hanging onto had failed to support his heavy weight, as he wasn't there anymore. Nor was the step. The floor below us had also gone out, it seemed. But I didn't see him anywhere.

"Riot!" Thunder shouted as the ghoul continued beating at him. She aimed her rifles at the feral, but he shouted back.

"I got this one!"

A combat knife swung out of a sheath on his forehoof, wrapped in the aura of his magic. It spun around and dug into the back of the feral's neck, before twisting. The feral dropped, and he took the knife out before shoving it off him. He looked bruised and in pain, but he was alive. He got up and smiled at us, keeping his knife close.

Thunder nodded and tossed his shotgun down to him, which he enveloped in his magic before it could hit the ground.

"Need me to lift you up?" She called out through Petiole's gunfire.

He quickly looked behind us and shook his head; his eyes going wide. "No! Get out of here!" He pointed behind us, before running down to the 22nd floor. Probably to go back for Destrier. Safety in numbers, after all.

Thunderwing and I looked back to see more ferals closing in. We were down to two.

"Come on!" I shouted as I ran inside the 24th floor.

She followed close behind, and I slammed the door shut behind her. The glass pane wasn't going to hold them off, for sure.

Thankfully, this floor was clear of any hostilities, and the stairs up to the next floor were right there. That was convenient.

We climbed up the stairs with haste, and as we made it to the top step, we heard the window shatter behind us.

The two of us spun around at once to see pegasi flying in, coming after us. We began blasting at them.

My magazine went dry after a few seconds, however...

"Fuck, I'm dry!" I shouted as I spat the bit out, looking at Thunderwing. I was starting to reach into my saddle bag for a lemon, until I heard a deep, scratchy voice from behind.

"MOVE."

Thunder and I backed away from the stairs as Tezu and Blaze pressed forward, raining hellfire down on the ferals that ran or flew their way up.

"Get to the unit, so we can get out of here!" Blaze shouted as pillars of fire swept down the stairs. Flesh sizzled, melted, and popped, and the scent was there to prove it...

Thunderwing and I both hoofed it down the corridor, until we came across the rest of our team, waiting at an open door with the label, 'X-2.'

Happy held the radio out to me, grinning all the while. "You'll need Tuner there with you."

"Let's just get this over with." I said sternly as I snatched the radio from him and trotted in. The music started to grow quiet.

"Wait!"

I stopped and looked back at the serial killer, who trotted up to me, ejected the magazine from my gun, and took the box of ammo from my pouch.

"You need a top-off."

I smiled faintly, nodded to him, turned around once more, and continued on my way.

There was a hallway to the left, across the living room, and on the other side was the kitchen.

"It's in my room. Just down the hall." Tuner stated, to which I made my way in that direction. "Last door on the right."

I gently pushed the door open and peeked my head through to find it was empty, save for the same furniture and layout I saw in the room, back in the battery.

Better safe than sorry.

I pushed it open the rest of the way and trotted in, feeling anxious to get out of here. The radiation was piling up into our bodies. I could feel it more and more, and we didn't have enough Rad-Away for everyone...

It was sending my head spinning. I could feel a tingling sensation in my brain and behind my eyes. Fuck...

"Under the bed, in the wall." Tuner instructed.

I pushed the bed aside, groaning softly to myself. My body still ached from being devoured... That hole was still in my chest, but no tentacles were coming out of it, at least. Despite feeling them in my gut...

The wall was left bare, and I looked around curiously. "There's... nothing here, Tuner."

"I built over it. The point was to hide this thing. I didn't want anyone knowing. If it got in the wrong hooves... Anyways, break open the lower wall."

I nodded, then quickly slammed my forehooves against the lower wall, cracking it open with one hit.

"Just like a white boy and his dry wall..." Tuner muttered with a dry chuckle.

I didn't know what that meant, but that wasn't important right now. I didn't have time for inside jokes.

Inside was a small safe with a number pad, and a red light on the top.

"Password?" I raised a brow as I regarded it cooly.

"890152."

I typed it in as he read it to me, and upon hitting enter, the red light flashed to green, the safe clicked, and the door cracked open. I swung it open to find a healing potion, a small metal cube, and some Med-x.

Ah, fuck yeah...

I looked around warily to find I was alone, before snatching the syringe and jamming it into my arm; my eyelids fluttered closed as I injected myself with the medicine. The pain in my body started to cease to sweet nothings.

I sighed with relief and pressed my cheek against the wall, taking in its cold surface against my coat.

"Charger, pull yourself together." Tuner snapped. "I didn't bring you up here to get high."

"Fuckin' junkie..." Four filled in.

I shook my head hard and opened my eyes, looking back down at the safe. "Right... Alright... Am I looking for something in particular?"

"The metal cube. Take it."

I quietly slid it out and held it close, examining each side. "Seriously...? What the hell is this, Tuner? I thought I was getting a weapon. Not a puzzle!"

"I'll explain later, when everyone is safe. But right now you need to move."

I nodded quickly, snatched the health potion, gulped it down to patch the gaping hole in my chest, then pocketed the cube and charged out of the room, running through the living room and back into the corridor.

"Did you get it?" Thunderwing asked quickly.

"Yeah, let's get out of he-" I started to say as Happy gave me a full double-sided magazine and a half empty box of spare bullets.

"SHIT!" Blaze shouted as they stopped burning away at the corpses.

"RUN!" Destrier shouted as heavy hooffalls made their way up the stairs... Followed by what sounded like...

The music started to pick up again, and with a new beat.

With haste, I slammed the mag into my gun and cocked my rifle, before turning to Hollow. "Any chance you can destroy another set of stairs?" I shoved the box of ammo back in my pouch.

"Not with the time we have." She pushed me down the corridor to the right side, where the stairs ascended. "Climb."

Blaze and Tezu had both taken Destrier's advice on the running, as they had quickly bolted past us. Destrier and Riot followed shortly after.

As we all ran for the stairs, a heavy guitar blasted. One glance behind us, and I knew right then we didn't stand a chance. We were low on ammo, potions, and things to keep us safe from the radiation.

A stampede of ferals pushed down the corridor after us, snarling and growling hungrily for their next meal.

We hastily ascended to the next floor, charging down the corridor, back to the right side of the building. On the other end was the radio tower that had been lodged between the two structures.

Ferals stumbled in the hallway before we made an appearance. One of them was glowing green. Shit!

They turned and looked, screeching as they began to charge us.

Before one of them could get very far, the back of their skull was burst open from the round of a sniper. As it dropped, I caught a familiar suit of armor lined with a red LED in the distance, standing along the edge of the other tower, on the other end of the bridge.

Hollow's cannon fired its red beam forward, cutting through the necks of several of the ghouls ahead of us, while making its way to the glowing one. The beam started to eat away at its head, but it didn't get very far before disappearing for a cool down. A fraction of the ghoul's head was entirely missing, exposing a green, half chewed through brain, and bare, undead muscle. Yet it was still coming at us.

I directed my attention to the glowing one, as did a few others around me, while the rest of us focused on our front and rear. Petiole was dropping one with each shot, but the time between them almost made it meaningless.

Fluky launched a mortar at the ferals ahead of us, and upon impact with the glowing one, it burst into a variety of blinding, bright, flashing colors and explosions that made my ears ring. The ghouls were knocked over from the shockwave, but they only started getting up mere seconds after the fact.

Fire began dancing around the room. Growing, as it had been on the lower floors. The smoke had managed to make its way up here in short notice, making it harder to breathe.

Fluky began loading another mortar into the tube, then snapped it shut as she spun around, only to launch the projectile at the feral mob behind us.

Hopefully that stalled them for a little while.

I noticed that Riot hadn't fired his shotgun ever since he came back up with us. In fact, his combat knife was attached to the end, like a bayonet.

The glowing one got up first, and at once, looked up at the ceiling, howling as the green glow emanating off it grew brighter. My pipbuck clicked rapidly, and I felt my insides killing themselves.

All the ferals that had been dropped began getting up again.

At once...

"We don't have time for this!" Thunderwing shouted as she thankfully disintegrated one of them with her laser rifles. She stopped for a quick reload. "We need to get out of here!" She spun towards Hollow. "How long till we can teleport!?"

"Not yet." Hollow stated simply. "Another fifteen minutes, top."

"Fuck!"

Pebble.

"We don't have fifteen minutes!" Riot blurted as he lodged the knife into the skull of a feral, digging into its brain. He jolted the shotgun back shortly after, readying himself for the next one to get close.

Fluky began using the pistol I gave her finally. Most of her shots were complete misses, unfortunately. But she managed to place a few shots to the heads of her targets.

Hollow's beam cut through the majority of the ferals that had gotten back up, leaving them in twos as we charged forward again. She and Happy both proceeded to take the remaining few out through bone shattering hits with their uncanny skill in close quarter combat. Seeing them move like that was just... surreal. I couldn't get over it.

With the path ahead now cleared, the lot of us pushed forward, before the fire could block us in.

We stopped at the makeshift bridge, and Petiole began focusing his attention on the skies, lowering our threat from the pegasi that remained outside.

The bridge creaked and groaned in protest from the gusts of wind and pounding of rain... and what seemed to now be hail.

Destrier assisted Petiole in neutralizing some threats that started to swoop down to take us, but after some carefully placed shots to the head or wings - some of which were complete misses anyways - he turned to Thunder. "After this belt, I'm down to my ho-" He was suddenly interrupted with the roll of thunder.

Riot was out of shotgun shells, and Destrier was on his last belt.

"I'll go first." I said, stepping onto the unstable structure as Destrier and Thunder fired up at the pegasi that started to close in. I carefully balanced on the biggest metal bar that the broken radio tower had to offer, which, thankfully, meant walking one straight line. Looking down, I saw the fires were getting dangerously close to our floor. There were even some explosions here and there that I must have shrugged off as rolls of thunder, before this moment.

About a quarter way across, I glanced back to see Blaze and Tezu start making their way on.

Destrier's gun went dry, and Thunderwing just loaded a new set of microfusion cells within her rifles. Hollow offered some backup with her cannon whenever she could, but it wasn't too often. It wasn't enough.

The ferals that had chased us up to this floor kept running through the fires that spread along the corridor, burning themselves to a crisp and having them fall to their death, but they were going to be getting back up shortly...

I kept pushing forward, but the pegasi were getting a lot closer now. I occasionally made a brief stop, lined up my shots, and fired at the closest ones until they dropped, then continued on my way until another got too close.

Blaze and Tezu stayed close by each other as they followed behind me. Riot was behind them from a distance, as we didn't want too much weight in one area of the bridge, in fear of it collapsing.

Lightning flashed the sky to white, casting the feral pegasi in dark silhoettes as they bolted for us.

I began peppering the attackers for a short moment, before my gun clicked on dry. From that moment on, I ejected the mag and, in a state of panic, dropped it. My heart pounded in my chest as it clattered along the metal bar I stood on.

With a short sigh of relief, I went to retrieve it, but only kicked it off the bar instead, watching it plummet down into the pink cloud below.

FUCK!

There was still a full thing of ammo in the other mag! DAMN IT!

I desperately sought for a fresh mag from my saddle bag as the horde grew closer. Rifle fire roared from Petiole's position, and laser fire from behind.

Before I knew it, Thunder had taken to the skies, providing aerial support. Many of the ferals had diverted their attention to her as she soared through the strong wings, maintaining balance to her flight all the while. She made it look easy.

She charged for the ferals that went after me and the others on the bridge, blasting red beams of disintegrating death at our invaders.

If her guns didn't do the trick, she'd dash to the left or right just before hitting them. Even then, her guns seemed to catch their attention, as they began going after her, among the vast flock of pegasi on her tail.

I finally managed to find a fresh magazine in my pouch, pulled it out, and slammed it home before cocking my rifle and switching the semi-auto to help preserve ammo.

"AHHH, NOOO!" Blaze screamed from behind desperately.

I swung my head back just in time to see Tezu falling off the bridge, knocked off by a feral that tried digging into his scales with their teeth. Blaze caught his claw with a hoof just in time, but in doing so, slipped and fell. His mid-section stayed glued to the bar as he hung on tight to Tezu, who remained quiet.

He calmly knocked the feral off and watched as it plummeted down to the pink. Looking back up into his lover's eyes, he smiled faintly and began to flap his wing, but as he did, more latched onto him and began ripping into it. He groaned and winced, before shouting.

"BRING IT ON, FUCKERS!"

I started to hastily make my way back to them, but the bridge creaked and groaned in protest, just before shifting to one side.

I slipped and fell, but my flailing arms managed to grab a hold of the bar I was once standing on. The wet, slippery bar that I couldn't hold on to much longer.

I tried to pull myself up, but the armor and inventory that I carried on me made it much more difficult. I was being pulled down...

In these final moments, where time struck once more, all I could do was watch.

Thunderwing flew past, eyeing the situation between Blaze and Tezu. Blaze sent two torrents of flame over the dragon, burning off the ferals that tried getting through his scales.

As he did, some of the other pegasi took notice to their helplessness and swept in.

"BLAZE, LOOK OU-" I shouted before the bridge shifted again. I nearly lost my grasp on the metal bar.

He had still heard me, even though most of my voice had been drowned out by the thunder, cause he stopped burning at Tezu's body to look behind him, still clinging tight to his lover.

At once, several pegasi pushed him off the bar in an attempt to tackle, causing them both to plummet to their untimely demise.

"FUCK, NOOO!" Thunderwing shouted as she swept in for both.

Before she could reach Blaze, a few ferals had intercepted her, knocking her against the catwalk we had been on earlier. The entire structure rattled and shook as they tried gnawing at her.

As they both plummeted, a few ferals swept in and grabbed Blaze, just before hitting the water in the pool, almost getting a taste of the pink. Tezu, however, went in.

And I wasn't seeing him come back up...

Blaze screamed as the ferals pulled and tugged in opposite directions. Within a matter of seconds, blood pooled out from his lips as his torso stretched.

Just as Tezu burst from the surface of the pink and black water, crying out in agony as his eyes were glued shut, and pink emerged from his muzzle, Blaze was ripped apart along the torso, spilling blood and guts over his lover. His blood and intestines coated Tezu as he roared; the innards of Blaze fusing into his body. Some of it had even went down his throat as he screamed, trying to get out of the pool.

His body began to swell from the mixture of radiation and the pink, making it harder for him to move... or live.

Other ferals jumped out from the water and pulled him under. Upon contact, they began melding into him, unable to pull away.

His throat swelled, and his voice grew short into choking sounds. Desperate for air to get into his now poisoned lungs. But the ferals continued to pull him under the tainted water, joining him and gluing to his body.

That was the last I saw of him...

Blaze's two halves were being consumed by the ferals that had ripped him apart, all the while.

The bridge jolted again, causing me to lose more grip on the bar I clung to.

Fuck...

I had just gotten them both killed... Damn it, no! FUCK, WHY!?

I looked up at the stormy skies, tears burning at my eyes and mixing in with the heavy rain droplets that soaked my coat. "WHY!?" I screamed as thunder rolled across the flashing, raging skies. "WHY THEM!? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS!?" I bawled as my grip loosened on the bar. "Fuck..." I muttered, before closing my eyes and hanging my head down.

I let go, on my own accord...

The isolation of physical contact with anything was welcoming... Peaceful...

So this was what being a pegasus was like...

Suddenly, I was forcefully pulled back into reality of the situation when I felt a hoof wrap around mine. I looked up to see Happy and Fluky looking back down at me. The filly was on his back as he grinned down at me, holding my hoof in his. And then he whispered behind the storm...

"Because they were suffering..."

His voice... that wasn't auditory. His lips moved, but there was no way I could hear that with the thunder, and the several thousand ferals in the area screaming.

That voice was in my mind...

I looked back at where Thunderwing had fallen, but I didn't see her anymore. The ferals that had tackled her, however, were just now starting to get back up. Which meant she had taken care of them. Where she took off to was beyond me.

Happy lifted me back up onto the bar, standing upright on his rear hooves and balancing perfectly as he did. Fluky clung tight around his neck as he regarded me with that stupid grin.

"Let's go..." I muttered as I began trotting carefully along the bar. Happy followed close behind, and along the way, I saw Thunderwing again, holding Destrier with both hooves, struggling to keep him in the air all the while.

Hollow ran and jumped along the bridge, occasionally swinging from one bar to another and flipping through the air, before running again. A feral tried going in for the kill, but she flipped forward, bucked the pegasus in the face, wrapped her rear hooves around its neck, twisted around, snapped said neck in the process, and appearing behind it, she continued to pick the corpse up and throw it at another incoming feral. I needed to learn how she did that...

Petiole provided cover fire, and soon after we resumed moving across the bridge, Hollow joined his side. Her assaults weren't as frequent as his were, considering the cooldown rate on her weapon.

Several ferals began chasing after Thunderwing as she hauled Destrier across the gap between the towers.

I slipped into SATS and targeted the closest one to Thunder and Destrier. In the corner of my vision, I caught Fluky aiming towards the ferals with her pistol, as well. I noticed the rain had washed off her coat dye, giving her her original look once more.

I went for the head, but the first few shots were a miss. The fourth drove through its temple, knocking them down for a little bit. But it wasn't enough. I guess I didn't hit the brain hard enough or something... Fuck.

Fluky fired at the others blindly before her gun clicked empty. She frantically began reloading a fresh clip in from her saddle bag, but now all the ferals that were on Thunder's tail had their attention diverted to us.

I quickly switched to full-auto and released a stream of lead at them, trying to maintain my balance on the failing bridge all the while.

However, far before they could reach us, a nice big beam of red death cut through them in one go.

I watched as they slammed against the side of the broken radio tower we stood on, then looked over at Hollow. Smoke hissed from her shoulder cannon, and upon making eye contact with her, she calmly nodded to me.

I continued on my way hastily.

Riot stepped off last, and what remained of us looked back as the ferals on the other side had already regenerated from the radiation exposure. They came at us, but were completely oblivious to the massive gap between the two towers. They all ran for us, but the result in that was them all falling off the bridge, until it finally had enough and started collapsing from the building weight.

More pegasi were still coming in, but Petiole and Hollow both dismissed them accordingly.

Panting, Thunder looked over at me, shook her head as she bit her lip in frustration, then to Hollow. "How much longer until we can get the hell out of here?"

Pebble.

"Not much longer." Hollow stated, looking at her after the cannon began another venting process. She looked down for a second, then back up at us. "We need to push up. Horde of ferals are attracted to the gunfire. Coming up." She turned around and started hoofing it to the stairs.

"I-I can't see." Destrier waved a hoof in front of his face. "Fuck, I can't see!"

Pebble.

"Too much radiation." Petiole stated.

"I'm not losing you, too!" Thunder glared. "Get out of the armor. I'm carrying you."

With no hesitation, his armor opened up from the rear, much like mine, and he stumbled out, feeling around frantically. Thunder moved closer to him, and his forehoof pressed against her cheek. She quickly took it and wrapped it around her shoulder. "Get on me."

I could hear the ferals below getting closer as Destrier got on top of her.

The lot of us ran after Hollow, proceeding up the stairs to the 27th floor.

Z.

Some of the ferals had already been making their way to the stairs that led down to us, but by the time we reached the final floor, Hollow had already snapped the neck of the last one that was still up. She proceeded to twist its head off completely and toss it to the side, before running down the corridor. We followed close behind, but she stopped at a unit with a missing door, keeping close to the entrance.

A few moments passed, and a feral ran out. At once, she grabbed a hold of it from behind and supluxed it, crushing its head into pulp in the process. She flipped back calmly, lowering one of her hind legs slowly as she regained her posture, as if it was a dance, and dropped the limp corpse, before turning to us. More specifically, Thunder.

"I'm sorry for your loss."

"Yeah..." She hung her head down, reloading her rifles. "But life goes on, right?"

Hollow stared silently for a moment, before turning ahead and trotting forward. "We'll hold off up here, at the end. This is our choke point. Last resort, we go up on the roof. It's not the best idea, but it's all we have left."

We ventured with her to the end of the corridor, stopping at the stairs on our left that led up to the roof access; a much thinner stairwell than the others. We'd have to form a single file line for us to get through.

I could hear the horde of ferals below us, charging for the stairs to our floor, growling and snarling hungrily.

Thunderwing set Destrier down against the wall, who leaned against it, sighing as he closed his eyes.

"I'm sorry I can't help in our final moments." He muttered, gritting his teeth. "This isn't how I wanted to go out."

"I'm not gonna let you die." Thunder snapped, aiming her rifle forward. "I'll die before that happens..." She tossed a Rad-Away packet to him.

Destrier chuckled and shook his head. "This is why I love you... You're one tough S.O.B."

"L-love...?" Thunderwing raised a brow. "Well... sounds like someone's gettin' soft on me."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." Petiole began. "Enough of the cute shit. Nobody cares."

Pebble.

"Para, I swear..."

As the music continued to play, I looked around briefly, taking notice in something... In our final moments.

"Hey, does anyone else hear that music...?"

Everyone except Happy gave me a weird look, before Riot spoke up. "Charger really has lost it, everypony."

The group looked back ahead as the ferals began climbing up the stairs to our floor. Hollow turned away from me last in silence.

Destrier curled up on his side and vomited. At that exact moment, the undying horde of ferals charged up the stairs and down the corridor, toward us. Among the crowd, I spotted quite a few ferals covered head to hoof in riot gear. Even some Enclave armor!

"Thunder, target the Enclave!" I shouted, aiming at the riot geared ferals. "Petiole, you and I are on security! Everyone else, fair game!"

As the music blasted, so did our guns. We were using all the lasers and lead we had left on us.

Riot was still very much out of ammo, Fluky was bad at using a pistol, Destrier was blind and dying, Hollow was cooling down, and Blaze and Tezu were brutally killed...

The ferals were closing in fast. We were short on supplies, firepower, and ponies, and we were vastly outnumbered.

When they were about one unit down from getting to us, Riot began using the blade on his shotgun as a sword. He used his magic to swing at them from a distance, doing his best to get to their brain for efficiency. He seemed more focused on getting the former security forces. While they were a big threat, they weren't what we needed to fear most.

The Enclave ferals were covered in steel, with the tails of scorpions. My gun had no effect on them. Or if it did, it wasn't doing much. Thunder and Hollow's seemed to be doing the trick on them, but that was about it.

"Rotten apple cores!" Fluky shouted as her gun clicked to an empty chamber. She spat it out. "This thing sucks!" From there, she loaded in one final mortar to her launcher, slapped it shut, aimed forward, and pulled the trigger.

A ball of flickering light rushed forward and struck the front lines of the horde, before bursting and knocking everyone back from the shockwave as lights of various colors danced around the room. Fire began to spread along the walls, floors, and ceiling of the corridor between us and the ferals.

Our group recovered, but so did the ferals.

"Bad news, everypony!" Fluky shouted, rubbing her ears. "That was my last one!"

Hollow's beam started cutting through the crowd for a few seconds, before shutting down for another cooldown. When she wasn't disintegrating and splitting ferals in half with her cannon, she was by Happy's side, getting up, close, and personal with the ferals that were getting too close for comfort.

Throughout the fight, behind us, I could just barely hear Destrier muttering to himself.

Suddenly, I heard the door behind us burst open. Glancing at the stairs to the roof, I saw more ferals coming down for us.

"MORE ON OUR SIX!" I blurted, spinning around and focusing my attention on the newcomers.

I quickly reached in my pouch and chucked a lemon up the stairs, before jumping behind the wall, almost tripping over Destrier in the process. He flinched and squirmed beneath me, still muttering as he rocked back and forth.

A wave of acid burst out from the stairwell, sizzling at flesh and old, worn wooden tiles. Hopefully that kept them at bay for a while.

I turned back to the front and continued laying down support. We weren't going to last much longer! We had mere seconds before they overwhelmed us!

Fluky had gone back to using her pistol. She still wasn't doing the best with headshots, but they were more frequent at this close range. Bodies dropped to her actions.

With little to no time left, I slipped into SATS. I needed to think of a way out of this for all of us... C'mon, Charger... think... Lemons were a no go. They were too close for that. I was risking it just using one on the stairs behind us.

I didn't have much else that I could do...

I aimed my rifle forward and targeted the closest one on full-auto.

Click!

...

There was nothing left I could do but resort to hoof to hoof combat. And I wasn't too skilled there...

I didn't have enough time to swap out a mag.

But I had a hoof that had been holding an electric, Tungstian charge ever since we arrived. A charge built on survival.

I ran forward and joined Hollow and Happy at neutralizing the threat. My strikes weren't as powerful or as quick as theirs, but it was all I could do.

One of the Enclave ferals tackled me, beating me down with their hooves as they growled viciously behind their respirator. As black emerged from my coat, I bucked my hoof against them, frying them from within the armor. Smoke emerged from their respirator, and fire flickered behind the visor as my electricity became music to their nervous system.

Moments passed as I stared at them atop me. Once my charge was drained, their body fell limp on me. I pushed them off.

Who's next!?

"CHARGER!" Happy shouted, looking back at me in worry.

Then past me. He started to rush to the rear. I turned to look.

The ferals that were behind us had made it through the acidic explosion, and one of them was close to ripping into Fluky, catching her completely unaware.

"FLUKY, RUN!" I shouted as I joined Happy in the run to her aid.

Before she could process what we said, the feral knocked her down, just about to rip into her skull. She cried out in fear as she struggled to get away.

"NO!" Happy lunged forward, knocking the feral off her and beating it down. Others went after him, overwhelming his odds of surviving as they surrounded him and pushed him down to the ground, ripping into him.

I helped Fluky up, but just as I did and turned around, I saw the front was looking even worse than the rear. Thunder was backed up into a corner, flapping her wings desperately as she held on to a half torn-through Destrier, staying as high up as she could and knocking the ferals back with her rear hooves. She was more focused on the pegasi that flew after her.

Hollow and Riot were looking a lot like Happy right now. Surrounded. Vastly overwhelmed. Pinned and beaten against. Still, the two of them did what they could to put up a fight. To not give in.

Riot didn't last long before his neck was ripped open, causing him to choke and gag on his own blood as flesh was torn away and consumed.

Petiole used the last of his ammo to help fend off the ferals that went after Thunderwing and Destrier. When his ammo was depleted, he started stomping down the ferals on the ground. It was all he could do.

This was it...

We were going to die...

I looked at Fluky and shook my head. "I'm so sorry... Stay still... Please..."

And from there, I laid her down on her back and got on top of her, sheltering her from the ferals... Hoping that they would have forgotten about her. This was all I had left. All I could do left was protect... Or try to...

This was all my fault we were here...

She struggled for a bit beneath me, groaning softly in worry.

"Shh... I need you to stay alive..." I whispered.

I felt a feral slam its hooves down on my lower spine from behind, pulling on me shortly after it sank its teeth down into my hide. Another grabbed me from the front, ripping into my ear, and then my scalp. I cried out in pain as they both tore into me, pulling opposite directions...

Just like with Blaze.

I felt my hide start to tear around my barrel as they tugged, ripped, and tore. I screamed as black spewed from my lips and gushed from my wounds. Tentacles inside me writhed in my pain.

And before I knew it, I was in two. Split along my mid-section. My blackened guts spilled out over Fluky like candy from a pinata. Only... my guts... weren't guts...

My supposed intestines wrapped around Fluky's limbs, holding her tight and whipping around viciously along her body. She screamed in horror as black ooze covered her body and tentacles that represented my bowels explored her, pulling her into my body further...

Trying to absorb her.

Fuck, no! Not her! Not Fluky!

More ferals rushed in, digging into both me and the filly. Ripping into her. Red mixing with black.

Her fearful cries were mixed with agony as more tendrils wrapped around her neck and head, pulling her into my chest.

I cried out, desperate for it all to stop...

Not like this... Not like this!

As ferals ripped into her and chewed on her entrails, and her screams got louder as she tried desperately to get away, her eyes flashed white, and her screams became one with the thunder outside. Her horn lit up as the end was upon us all.

And then... silence and darkness... as the feeling of both my halves being warped washed over me.

Author's Notes:

Long chapter. Long. I spent way too much time on this one.
This chapter is special, because I wanted to make a challenge out of this. To make one chapter run smoothly. No scene transitions. Where everything is seen. But I also had to keep it entertaining. I didn't want it to get boring for even a second. I hope I did good with that.
Another challenge was having music play from beginning to end. And one song artist.
3TEETH.

In chronological order, these are the songs that played in this chapter.
3TEETH - Atrophy
3TEETH - Nihil
3TEETH - Nihil (Myrrh Ka Ba Remix)
3TEETH - Divine Weapon
3TEETH - Dissolve
3TEETH - Tower of Disease
3TEETH - X-Day

I made a playlist on Youtube just for chapter 19, so you'll find all the songs here.

I really hope you all like this chapter. As hectic as it was getting through, it was definitely worth it. I had a lot of fun with this one. Please let me know what you think. Hopefully it didn't get boring. I worked really hard on this one. The effects of radiation that happened in this, were based off things I knew about the effects of radiation, and based off my experiences with radiation (long story, not fun).
Also, I know Fluky is a fan favorite, so I'm sorry for how I left things. Please don't hate me.

Anyways, special thanks to Kkat for FoE, Somber for PH, all the other various writers that help contribute to this beautiful sandbox o' death, Nylten for the amazing artwork she keeps supplying me, Alchestbreach for killing the radios, 3TEETH and all the other various music artists, and my fans who have stuck with me this long.
I hope you all had fun.

... Poor Blaze... Poor Tezu... Poor... Fluky...