Author's Note

This Chapter was written by Zephyr, edited by myself. Give him some love when you get the chance.

Enjoy!

12. The Fall

This is a story of the day of the dead
The day they rose from their boxed-up beds
There was fire and smoke
And blood and corpses

~Melissa Cantrell~

~Zephyr Verve~

~two months ago~

I woke up to the sound of sirens blaring on several different places around my flat.
Honestly, it was everything but unexpected. I had read the news, I had seen the photos, I had seen the zombies they captured.

After a quick train of thoughts departing from my brain station, with a tired sigh, I sat up and slid out of my bed, shakily standing on my legs. “What am I going to do now?” I asked myself pointlessly, knowing the answer.

My idle thoughts were broken away from me when I heard an agonizing scream. The thing that scared me was that it originated from a stallion. He screamed in pain, very close to my house! Shaking myself out of a stupor, I ran to the closest window and saw what I hoped I could’ve avoided seeing.

Outside in the street was the very same stallion lying on the ground, a pale and withered bloodied pony munching on his innards. They’d reached us; they’d reached Trottingham. Other ponies were running around in panic, trying to get home or get away: into safety, that was the only thing they wanted. Oh, if they knew how much they attracted the zombies…

“To the braided beard of Celestia… no…” I whispered, images of my comrades flashed up before my eyes as they were lying on the ground, dead, in a puddle of their own blood....
I froze for a solid minute.

A mare’s scream snapped me out of my PTSD induced pause. I blinked and saw how she was bitten in the lower arm by one of these countless rotting corpses. To my relief she had enough instinct in herself to use her magic - she was a small framed unicorn mare - and fired a bolt of magical electricity into the zombie, effectively frying its brain and every organ still within it.

Releasing the mare, it fell on the ground, dead once more. I could only hope that she would be alright. But who knew what a bite like that could cause?... I certainly didn’t.

I had to hurry. I was retired, sure. But I had been allowed to keep my military equipment. I’d been honorably discharged, allowed to keep my rank. Nevertheless, I quickly got my old armor and clothes out of the drawers and threw them on.

Ever since I moved to Trottingham, into this one-story flat with a small rose garden I took care of with passion, I knew I could use some muscles. Not like I was a bodybuilder at any point in time, no… but the everyday work in the Weather Control Office just made me want to keep myself in shape.

Lucky me.

Belt fastened, straps locked, shoelaces on my boots tied, I took a look at myself in the mirror. Staring into it I saw a semi tall pegasus stallion of a sandy brown colored coat of fur, royal blue mane and light green eyes staring back at me. The old, camouflaged, light scout armor I had the luck to keep was a perfect fit for me, it would hide me in the late summer bushery very nicely. Right now I had other things to worry about however, namely what to bring with me and what to do once I was out of my home.

I will miss my roses…

My wings opened up to their full width, reaching both ends of my bedroom. I stretched them, making sure to not get a cramp once I had to use them. One last look around the room and I was in the hallway, quickly opening a wardrobe. There I kept my real equipment. The good old magic operated Electric Shock Blade for offense, and a Personal Shield Generator for defense… I hoped they were still charged.

Grabbing everything I needed, I scavenged through the kitchen for a few cans of food and a bottle of water, then I was out.

I was so engrossed with getting ready that I didn’t realize that the sirens went silent - but the screams did not, coming from every way around the house. “Shit!” I cussed, hearing one from the house next to mine. I knew that guy.

“Celestia bless his soul…” I muttered as I opened the window of the living room and hopped outside into my rose garden. “Better close this…” I said and did so. Getting the attention of a specific dead pony.

It growled at me, announcing its presence. A poor girl. Not older than twenty. Her once purple mane now bloodied and ruffled, her foggy yellow eyes staring at me as she fell through the short fence that surrounded my garden.

“N-no…” I whispered. A flashback. A dead figure lying on the ground. Her purple mane is bloodied and ruffled. Her foggy yellow eyes stare into the starry night sky, forever blinded.
“Hn-hhhgaaah!” I cried up, grabbing at my sword, shaking my head violently.

The zombie managed to crawl right to my hooves, I snapped out of my shock in the last second. But it only took me that long to stab her in the head. The sickening crunch of her skull being pierced by the tempered steel blade, followed by the electric buzz of the electromagic capacitor giving off one charge, it shook my body and mind.

This was the end of the world and I had to survive.

“I have to… I have to save them… I have to save them!” I yelled, withdrawing my blade before flying up, leaving my home behind.

Immediately I was met with the scene of dozens of ponies ripped apart and eaten alive by the hordes of the undead, some were still trying to hide in their homes, on the roofs. The pegasi who could actually fly away were already either high up, hiding in fear, or flying anywhere away from Trottingham.

In the distance I saw fighting. Closer to the city center, where the skyscrapers were, the local Guards fought back… which made me realize that I lived in the suburbs.
My eyes met with a stallion’s who was cowering atop his house, next to the chimney. His expression that of pure fear, the tears rolling down his cheeks. It made me cringe.

So many innocent ponies, so many of them....
“Stay calm!” I shouted and flew towards him. He frantically nodded and stood up.
The last mistake he ever made. His right hoof slipped on the tile roof, he fell back and rolled down, onto the grassy ground next to his house, right next to one of those rotters.

“NOOOO!!!” I cried, seeing the first of many I could have saved.
“No… no-no-no-no-no-no-no! NOOO!” But it was futile. He was gone. Grabbing at my head, I paused for a moment. If I hadn’t been flying, I would have frozen completely, again. My PTSD was returning.

“H-help! Please help us!” I heard a yell from behind. On the roof of an other house I saw an earth pony mare, holding onto her bitten and bleeding out husband, she was the textbook definition of desperate. I steeled myself and flew for her.

Just as I was about to land on the edge of the roof, her husband, an otherwise friendly looking unicorn stallion, spit out a mouthful of blood and let out an animalistic growl.
“The fuck?...” I asked out loud as I took a step closer. The mare’s expression mirrored her confusion. Right until her husband lunged himself at her, biting into her throat.

He turned into one of them right before my eyes and…
She couldn’t even scream as a large chunk of her throat was bitten out, she could only make a sickening gargle of agony....
Her blood painted both her torso and her now undead husband red.

“N-no…” I whispered, staring at the zombie gnawing at her throat. “Oh Celestia, WHY?!” I yelled, swinging my sword at the zombie, chopping his head off with one clean cut.
“Too late… too fucking late…” I said, witnessing the life from the mare’s eyes slipping away.
The first tear I shed in months, it left my right eye.

With shaking hands, I placed the tip of my sword at her forehead and pushed the blade forward. “Must… kill them… must save the people… must… must…” My eyes went wide as I felt reality slipping away from me. I cried out once more, a cry of a hurt animal, a predator, a howl calling for vengeance.

Wings flared, I flew up. A bird of prey I became.
I felt something crawling inside my head. I remembered the doctors talking to me about my condition. I remembered how they explained the effects of PTSD. I remembered my comrades, my friends lying dead on the cold ground.

Everything went red, then.
All I saw was only targets to be eliminated.
All I heard was the last breaths of my closest friend dying as she was stabbed from behind by that coward.
All I knew was pain.

It didn’t end. They were there. Swarming. And I couldn’t stop.