Virus

By Wubster2015

***

Day 3

Day came quickly, leaving many of the ponies unsatisfied with their rest, especially Love note. Her bright red eyes and dishveled mane made notice of that. As the sun rose and painted the sky with gold Love note yawned, while trying to blink the sleep away. As she rose to her hooves she noticed that everyone else was forming some kind of line in front of Azure and another guard. They seemed to be counting, maybe it was for taking roll...Or something like that.

Creasing her brow Love note inched behind someone already standing in line, peering from the side of them she saw, Azure and the stallion guard, direct one pony after another into two different sets of lines, which seemed to be managed by the last guard and Twilight. As Azure continued the line got shorter and shorter until finally she came up to Love note.

Azure looked down at her and said "You're in line number two." she then pointed at the group being managed by the guard. Love note nodded and began to briskly canter towards the line getting in the back.

"Alright everyone!" Azure said loudly getting everyone's undivided attention, "Now I know your all probably thinking, 'Why Are they waking us up this early, right?' " she said with a dumb comical voice as if to mock her audience. "Well I'll tell you why!" she yelled making Love note flinch in surprise. "There's been a report, if we ever want to get to the Crystal empire and get the appropriate supplies for you all then we need to get moving!"

Azure's expression hardened, her brows furrowed into a line across her forehead and her mouth formed into a tight-lipped frown.

"The infected, as you saw yesterday, are relentless and will stop at nothing. They will continue to kill and disrupt our once peaceful land and won't let anything stop them, that is why wemust move quickly!" she grit her teeth, her demeanor never faltering, "The guards posted at the Everfree forest have cleared a path for us. They warded off most of the infected and it should at least be safer for us to get through in one piece, we don't have much supplies so we might have to ask some of you to offer to others that are in worse condition."

Twilight then stepped into view and added in "We leave this evening, which gives us just about enough time to pack up maybe serve some breakfast and head out. But we'll need everyone's help, disabled not included."

Azure nodded firmly, "So...Everyone got that?" everyone nodded in unison, though there were some grumbles of anger, "Then lets get going."

"The supplies are in the kitchen, that's where we're getting everything prepared at, all your bags and possessions have been moved securely to the kitchen and have not been touched." Azure said, her expression stone hard. She was really serious about this, which only reminded Love note about how horrible the situation she was in was.

"So, chop chop everyone, let's get going!"

The dead silent hall was now filled with the loud Click, Clack and Cling, Clang of the group's heavy hooves, the harsh ragged breathing and low whispers only added to the noise. Love note stayed silent though until Lightning caught her attention, he was with the line following Azure.

What could he possibly want?, she thought while looking at him. The lines weren't even arms length apart due to how closed in the corridors were so it was easy for them to strike off a conversation.

"Hey Love note." Lightning whispered, "Do you think we'll run into more of those things?" Love note looked at him for a few moments before looking forward again and answering, "I don't know, probably. Azure said that the other guards got them away from our path so...I guess we might." Lightning nodded at that, looked forwards for a few seconds, then turned back towards her.

"Do you think that they found your knives in my saddle pack?'' he asked with a somewhat worried expression. Love note almost groaned with annoyance but didn't and answered, "I don't know Lightning bolt...I doubt it, but we'll find out soon enough though.''

Lightning stop talking after that and Love note sighed in slight relief.

The two groups stopped in the middle of the hallway as they reached an open door. Inside were very small piles of saddle packs, weapons, and supplies. They all stepped inside one by one, and Love note looked around the room seeing boxes on every side of it. Each one of them had a symbol of a cow head on it which probably meant they all came from the same place. She barely gave it a second thought though as they stopped near a lunch bench, much like the ones at her school.

"Alright everyone." Azure started, "What we're going to do here is, taking the supplies that you are assigned to and putting whatever can fit inside of a box," she pointed at the boxes around the room, "So we can get them into the wagons, which the other guards are preparing. " "So everyone got that?" she asked, "Yes." everyone said before the guards began assigning places.

Love note was placed to pack up medicine with some of the others, they had given them paper bags to put specific medicines in. It definitely wasn't a lot to pack and they only needed one box to put them all in. Since they were one of the first to finish packing, Love note and the group she was with were able to wait for a bit until they were needed to help loading.

Thirty minutes went by quickly, and soon everyone was finished packing up all the supplies. Everyone grabbed their saddle packs and whatever they could carry and began making their way outside after Twilight had cast her spell on the door for the last time.

The air outside was filled with dust, choking their lungs and scratching their throats. After walking a few feet away from the safe house five ponies were seen, three of them were lunar guards while the other two were celestial guards. The celestial guards were hooked up to traveling carts, ready for them to pack the boxes in them.

Azure met up with one of the lunar guards and they began discussing something, while the other two helped put up all the supplies. "The way through the Everfree is still very dangerous though, especially at night time." Love note happened to overhear the lunar guard say as she helped place smaller boxes in the traveling cart, "We know that but hopefully they won't trouble us. And it's not any safer in that building we were in either, there was a bunch of infected inside of the basement down there, and it didn't seem like those doors were going to hold them back any longer." Azure remarked. The Lunar stallion sighed uneasily, "How did this even happen? Its only been three damn days since the outbreak and it seems that already half the population are...infected..." he said only above a whisper, Azure sighed and nodded in agreement.

"We should hurry up and meet with the other three in the forest and set up camp there." the lunar guard said quickly, as if the whole conversation hadn't started, and Azure nodded. Turning back to the group Azure spoke, "Alright everyone, its time to get moving."

The group and the five extra guards walked through the forest, it was already past noon, but they weren't able tell due to the thick parcel of trees. The wind whistled through their leaves and blew the dying ones from the branch they used to live on.

The whole trip had been mainly quiet besides the constant squeak of the carts as they rode over rocks. Love note sighed, her body undulated to the wobbling of the unsteady cart she rode in.

Twilight, had allowed foals and very weak to ride in the carts, and most of the riders had fallen asleep already...but Love note couldn't, despite how exhausted she was herself. Looking around she observed her surroundings, the eerie rustling of the trees and the squeaking of the carts disturbed her. She was just expecting something, anything, to jump out and attack them when they least expected it.

But alas, none of that did happen, which surprised her. Surely something would've happened, especially from what she had heard from the guard's conversation. Her eyes narrowed to a barely noticeable squint as she surveyed the landscape, but she sighed and shook her head. Maybe it was just the paranoia getting to her, but her mind disagreed with that thought. She even began to wonder why she thought that.

"Whoa!, she let out an unexpected yelp as the cart stopped suddenly.

Getting back up she peered over the side of the cart to see if everything was alright and saw that three other celestial guards were standing in front of the carts.Twilight and Azure headed over towards them, while the other guards began unpacking the tents and sleeping bags, which they managed to find back at the safe house in one of the rooms. Love note was helped out of the cart and stood at the sides near everyone else.

Twilight turned to face them and said, "Alright everyone, we're going to be setting up camp here. Night time will come soon so we should hurry up and get settled in." she then called over some ponies to help set up things while Azure instructed the rest to just sit tight and wait until they were done. Then she and the lunar guard she was talking to earlier set out to find firewood in the meantime.

Love note chewed her inner cheek as she waited for everyone to finish up, she was jaded, and out of boredom began trying to straighten out her messy mane, she sighed gently. She defiantly couldn't wait until she got to the Crystal Empire, then maybe finally she could take a bath.

She smiled at that thought and looked around, everyone working or resting looked just as miserable as her, maybe even more so. "How did things end up this way?" she thought and groaned silently. Blinking tiredly she saw little specks, of barely even noticeable, splinters of sunlight cascade down onto the forest floor, lighting up small parts of the grassy forest floor.

Sitting upwards she saw that the tents were done, they looked very big, maybe enough to fit at least six ponies in one of them. Love note almost sighed happily but was interrupted as Azure said, "Alright everyone, before we go on to sleep, we're going to eat. Its not much though, so be grateful you got anything." Love note's stomach rumbled loudly just then, and she noticed just how hungry she actually was.

Standing up and dusting herself off she made her way towards Azure. She and another celestial guard, had began unpacking a few boxes with packed grass, energy bars, and water bottles. It definitely wasn't the best food but it was what they could manage to get their hooves on. They portioned the food so everyone would have the same amounts and gave everyone half a bottle of water.

Love note sat down and looked the mound of grass she had received, it was at least cleaned and free of dirt. She chugged the water first, being as parched as she was, and then begrudgingly began to eat her grass. It tasted bitter, sour, and earthy, all at the same time. It was a bit tougher than most foods she had eaten so it had taken her longer than she would have liked to get it down. Finishing the rest of her grass she watched as they placed a bunch of big rocks in a circle around the firewood and then someone began the fire with a lighter.

Smoldering, the fire licked the bottom of the wood, like a hungry kitten with a bowl of milk, crackling, and playful at first. Then soon enough the fire rose, leaped and twirled in a golden dance. The glowing embers popped and shimmered like stars in the hot swirling air before cascading back into the flames. Love note watched the fire, mesmerized by its dance, grey and black puffs of smoke rose from the fire as the flames licked at the air.

Love note sat by the fire with many others, enjoying the warmth it gave, but it wasn't much. After about ten minutes of sitting there she finally felt all the fatigue of the day wash right over her, exhaustion got the best of her and she felt as if she could collapse right then and there. Standing up onto tired legs she made her way to a random tent, it was a bit smaller than the other ones, and inside of it she found that everyone had to share a sleeping bag with someone. It didn't matter if you knew them or not, all of the other ones were occupied except for one that was taken by that stallion she met the other day, Bright eyes.

Sighing loudly she walked over to him, looking over him she saw he was already sound asleep, much to her relief.

Tiredly she made her way to inside the sleeping bag, awkwardly sliding her body inside next to his. Their bodies weren't close together due to how big the sleeping bag was, but Love note could still feel the heat radiating off of Bright eyes as he slept beside her. Closing her eyes Love note sighed as she began to fall asleep.

Four guards were sent on watch, each positioned out of sight of each other. As the wind blew and rustled through the dead leaves on the forest floor the guards stood at attention with readied weapons. They stood a good two feet away from the camp, and after two hours was over another guard would come running from the camp to swap places with them. A pegasus celestial guard with, charcoal grey fur and amber yellow eyes, stood alone in the dark Everfree forest. His spear was pointed and ready by his side as he waited and watched. His eyes never once left his surroundings, his ears perked though as he heard heavy hoof steps behind him coming towards him, turning around he sighed softly as he saw a unicorn royal guard approach him through the darkness. The other guard's armor shimmered dully in the pale moonlight, "Captain..." the other guard panted out, "Captain, your shift is over." he approached his superior, who placed a hoof on his armored shoulder and sighed.

"What the hell has Equestria fallen into?" asked the captain, the other soldier looked up at him then sighed shortly after. "I-I really don't know." The two shared a sigh before the captain began making his way back, leaving the younger in the dark forest. His pale green eyes scanned the terrain, looking over every rock and tree.

He swallowed the lump in his throat and swiveled his perked ears. Rustle, rustle... His breath cut, and he suddenly snapped his whole body backwards. Frantically his eyes looked around for the sign of a possible threat, Rustle, rustle, rustle, rustel, rustel..., the sound of leaves being shaken was getting louder. The young guard's heart began to race, pounding against his chest as he began to slowly walk forwards towards the noise. His blue magic held his pointed sword above him as he walked, his golden armor clanking softly against the ground. "W-who's out here?" he asked through grit teeth,...nothing..., he thought with a short sigh. His whole body relaxed, "Damn this blasted forest, and damn this stupid outbreak!" He suddenly yelled loudly in frustration as he rubbed his temples. His ears perked again as the same rustling sound returned, sending cold shivers down his spine. Crinkling his features he grasped his sword tighter with his magic, "Damnit, if anybody's out here just come the hell out already!" He hollered out. A sharp gasp escaped his mouth as he heard a loud groan or two, finally out of the bushes that surrounded him two undead ponies crawled out. One, a large bulky stallion with his belly torn wide open and ribs protruding through rotting flesh, while the second was a young filly, her face was a mangled bloody mess, and from her stomach and lower was torn and shredded, her intestines were the only things keeping her body from splitting.

The unsuspecting guard was now stricken with horror and disgust as the foul stench of blood and death entered his nostrils. He hacked and sputtered at the putrid smell, staggering backwards a little bit. His eyes watered slightly as his stomach tried to retch up whatever it could. But there was nothing for him to throw up, stomach acid burned in the back of his throat and its disgusting taste was left to burn in his mouth. The two undead ponies snarled as they saw the retching stallion guard, the stallion was the first to charge, hunger filling his dull eyes. The stallion guard looked up in just enough time to jump away from the charging, flesh eating, monster. Looking through his blurry, watery eyes, the guard readied his sword, coughing heavily.

The undead stallion stumbled a bit but regained its footing as it charged at the guard again. The guard, with sword ready, swung at the stallion, striking its chest. The cut bled dark red, almost black looking, blood but the undead stallion showed not a bit of pain. It just snarled showing its yellow fangs as it growled. The guard stumbled backwards again, coughing roughly, his hoof covered his muzzle at an attempt to block out the smell of rotting corpses but it didn't work a bit. The undead stallion charged again this time grabbing the guard's armored shoulder and knocking him down. "Ahh!" The guard wailed as he was suddenly shoved onto the dirt. The sharp pain of his armor digging into him, as he landed on his back, distracted him from the foul stench for a split second. The undead stallion let out a growl-like roar as it snapped it teeth together and began biting the guard's armor. The stallion guard yelled, struggling under the undead ponies grip, the bite force of the stallion making his armor dent and cut his skin under it.

Tears filled the guards eyes again, mainly from the smell but also from the pain as well. Screaming and wiggling in pain the guard activated his magic again and grabbed his sword. Grunting he brought it over to him and began to randomly strike the undead stallion, but nothing worked, it only seemed to get the undead stallion angrier. Suddenly the guard felt something tug on his hind leg, and to his horror it was the undead filly, it steadied itself over the un-armored part of his leg and vigorously began biting into it. It was the most horrible, most excruciating pain he had ever experienced in his entire life. The guard yelled into the night. Wailing for anyone to help him as the two undead beasts began to tear and eat him up alive.

A yell echoing in the midst of night awoke Azure as she slept standing up, leaning on the side of one of the carts. The flutter of birds flying off filled her ears and she automatically brought up her spear, her wings shifting on her sides. "What the...hell..." she whispered quietly, slightly disoriented from just waking up, she scanned the campsite. There was no danger to be spotted, but that yell certainly sounded like whoever made it was in pain. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "Somethings not right..." she mumbled, furrow in her eyebrows. There was nothing to see except the leaves fluttering down from the trees, and the dying campfire licking at the air. Her ears swiveled and so did her head as she heard heavy, short, pants and gasps for air. Running from the bushes a unicorn guard, bleeding and bruised, approached her. He collapsed into a heap, making Azure catch him before he hit the ground. "Whoa, what the hell happened to you?!" She yelled with raised eyebrows. The shivering heap in her hooves looked up into her eyes, "They...at-tack...ed...m-" The stallion guard tried to say but was interrupted by a coughing fit, blood bubbled up and Azure crinkled her eyebrows in frustration. Her mouth twisted into a an angry snarl,"Dammit, their here too?!" She looked back down at the dying stallion and set him down on the grass. "Let me end your suffering quickly." She whispered to him. The stallion guard nodded, understanding what she meant. Taking out her spear she swiftly cut his head clean off. Sighing quietly she backed away before taking off a in a full sprint to began waking everyone up.

"EVERYONE, WAKE UP! THERE'S AN EMERGENCY, WAKE UP!!!" Azure yelled at the stop of her lungs as she ran towards the tents. The guards sleeping were the first to wake up, disturbed from their slumber as Azure shouted. Some of the guards approached her asking what was the matter, and just as she told them three or four undead ponies snuck out of the bushes, groaning and growling with hunger. Azure grit her teeth with frustration, her features darkening as she readied her spear. "Celestia dammit, there here already!" one of the guards yelled, and the sound of multiple swords being pulled out filled the air along with the frightened screams of the ponies waking up.

Azure grunted, snorting angrily, as she squinted her eyes through the darkness, trying to see where the undead where. Some had already began to enter the campsite, and now the other ponies had began to run around trying to avoid getting their life taken away. The fleeing of ponies and undead did not help any of the guards, and only worked as more confusion. Azure's head shot up though as she heard a growl from behind her and immediately turned around to see and undead pony bite at her.

She quickly jumped away, found her footing, and went for the jugular. The undead freak of nature dropped within seconds, and Azure was already back into a fighting stance. Running over to a group of ponies cowering near a few bushes she fought of another zombie before instructing them to head over to the carts. Just as Azure turned to run back to the fight two undead ponies jumped her, growling and snapping their jaws at her. Their gnarled faces holding sunken milky white, lifeless eyes, and their gaping mouths holding rows of meat tearing canines. Azure gagged at the smell of fresh blood and dying corpses as the two ganged up on her. They both aimlessly attacked her, one of them being able to knock off her helmet. Azure grunted angrily as her helmet was knocked off, pink and light orange hair spilled into her face as she grabbed her spear and attacked.

Swiftly she stabbed one in the chest, a wet ripping noise echoed as its rotting flesh tore, the undead pony snarled growling wetly as blood gurgled up to it's mouth, yet it still wouldn't die. It struggled on the end of her spear, and Azure grunted as she pulled it out, the other undead pony coming up behind her. Before Azure even had a chance to struggle the rotting corpse knocked her down, both toppling clumsily on the grassy floor. The spear still held by her mouth stabbed the corpse through the neck as it fell over her. Thick blackish red blood dripped from the opening in the opening bin it's rotten flesh, and dripped down onto her armor. She didn't have time to waste though, so ignoring her minor disgust she rolled back onto her hooves. The other undead pony lay on the ground, weakly trying to bite her. Azure's features darkened as she narrowed her eyes, "Fuck off, ankle biter." She said coldly before jabbing the head of her spear through its skull. Brains and bone matter splattered across the forest floor, and Azure quickly pulled her weapon out from the corpse's head. Looking back towards the campsite she quickly ran back, and it was complete chaos.

The living were being killed off by the undead faster than light itself. And guards were trying their best to fight them all off, but too many were coming in too fast. Loud bangs of a gun going off rang out through the night, louder than the bloodcurdling screams, and whimpers of innocent lives being taken away.

"What the hell am I gonna do..."

Author's Note

Laziness & School...That's my excuse. And sorry about that ending line, it's 1:24 in the morning, and my brain is farting. I hope there aren't any major mistakes in there, but if there are I'll fix it up later. Srry.