They come at night... Mostly

Outside, warm breeze

Birds fly, thick as thieves

Sun shines through the leaves

I want to go outside.

~Outside - Marisa Lu Makil~

~Short Box~

They had been in the backrooms for at least an hour. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing, this guy was bloody from the top of his head to the tip of his hooves, but still… something was reeaaaally off with him. Killing those rotting, walking things like that, I only heard of stories from thestrals... uh, bat-ponies falling into a battle-trance like he was in. But… that ain’t right.

Getting hungry, I decided to look into the fridge in the kitchen. Of course I found ingredients for pizza and no pizza done. So I just sat down on a crate, waiting for something to happen.

The night eventually fell, and it became really dark outside.

~Black Olive~

Scrubbing down the grime and blood from Zephyr’s armor was more difficult than expected. Upon learning his name, I realised that I did know him. He’d ordered pizza from me a few times before… before all this.

His clothes were already washed and hung up, drying nicely. But him… he kept washing himself. If he was doing what I thought he was doing, then I would have to yell at him, or slap him to make him snap out of his state.

It nearly escaped my notice that it was dark outside. I considered telling Zephyr to hurry up.

~Zephyr Verve~

Red. Dirty with red. My mane. Red. No, it can’t be. My mane isn’t red. Must get it… out of it!

Red no more…

“O-Olive… do you have more soap?” I asked her. I needed it. I was still dirty with red.

“Zephyr…” se answered, coming up to me. “You… you are completely clean… you are just… just…” she stared at my mane, then her expression changed into an angry one.

“Snap out of it!” she yelled at me.

Blue.

“W-what… what happened?” I asked her. My mane returned to its original, royal blue color. My coat of fur was sandy brown again. Though wet. How long had I been showering? “Olive?” I asked again, looking in her eyes.

“Something is wrong with your head, Zephyr. You are… or were a soldier. Can you remember… weren’t you diagnosed with… PTSD?” she asked me.

Then it all came together, I realized what happened to me, I remembered killing over a hundred zombies, I felt tired and hungry, very-very hungry. “Y-yes… it… it returned. The screams… the blood…” I muttered and closed the water. “It took away my… mind…” I looked at her and tried to smile. “Thank you, Olive.”

She smiled back, I could see that she was calming down from her previous upset state probably made by me. “Aw, come on. You have nothing to thank me for. Well, maybe the shower.” she said and chuckled. “I’ll get you a towel.” she told me and left me there momentarily.

This left me to wonder: How will I control this… this madness in me?

I felt like a whole new pony. Well, as much as I could, with the given circumstances. After getting dry and my clothes back… I had to realize that all of them were still wet.

Just my luck. Olive was prepping the ovens to make us some pizzas, so she put my clothes in them while preheating, effectively drying every piece.

Spotless and warm, I was glad I could get back in them. Clothed and hungry, I went in the kitchen, seeing this pale blue and rather short stallion sitting on a crate.

“Evening. I see you’re feelin’ better now.” he greeted me, standing up to shake hands with me.

“Yeah… thanks to you, guys.” I replied, trying to put my thoughts together about the last minutes I spent outside. It was still a bit of a blur.

“Will you look at that! You look good, Zephyr, free of all that… blood!” Olive exclaimed as she appeared from another part of the building. “Are you guys hungry?” she asked then. I just noticed that she was bringing a cardboard box with her, there was probably food ingredients in it?

“Yeh, I would love me some pizza, if you don’t mind, Miss.” this shorty was quicker than me to answer. “Guess ya have the same idea… Zephyr? Was it?” he asked me then.

“Yes, I do.” I replied shortly, then began to think. “Where are you from, Shorty?” I asked him, raising an eyebrow.

He chuckled in response, shaking his head. “Haven’t hear anyone callin’ me ‘shorty’ for a long while. Just call me Box, a’right?” he asked back before answering my question. “I’m from Manehattan, I worked in her docks for a couple of decades. Then I just had to come to here two months ago. I could be on a ship by now, sailing to Zebrica…” He explained, sadly shaking his head.

~Black Olive~

Listening the boys talking about their backstories was quite interesting and took my mind off the horrors that were around us. Putting together a good, spiced up margherita pizza helped too. I created these cheesy circular disks of love with passion, this was what I lived for.

“Shit happens, pal.” Zephyr commented on Box’s story, patting his shoulder, then just like his short companion did, he found himself a couple of crates to sit on.

“How about you, Guard friend?” Box asked him, scratching the top of his head. “What were you doing till the apocalypse hit?”

“I was… I was working in the Trottingham Weather Control Office. I was the supervisor of weekly weather projects. Just paperwork. Mind numbing, if you ask me. But it paid well and kept my mind off of my past.” he explained. “Which found its way back to me, as you saw.”

“I’m sure you can keep it under control, Zephyr.” I told him, trying to reassure him. It didn’t really work.

“Wish that would be true. At one point I started taking meds to help it but even those didn’t do much.” he said, slowly shaking his head.

We continued to quietly chat about life and how this whole zombie apocalypse destroyed normality for us. We finished off our dinner and went on to chat before a noise caught our attention.

It was like a strange growl… a low screech? A howl? I couldn’t really place it.

“What was that?” Box asked worriedly, a terrified expression appearing on his face, even his ears drooped down in fear.

“Could be a zombie.” Zephyr answered his question, looking around, trying to locate the origin of the sound.

“We have been sitting in here for more than half a day, save for you, Zephyr. That didn’t sound like a zombie… they just growl.” I told him, frowning deeply.

“B-but what else could it be then?!” Box asked again, starting to panic.

“I don’t want to upset you even further, but I did hear of rumors about some kind of… things that came along with the zombies. Though they only moved at night. Which is even more upsetting, given that it’s night right now.” I explained, making my way to a small window above the ovens, climbing up on them to peek out.

“She’s right, I read about those… things too. Nopony seems to know what they are.” Zephyr supported me, standing up. He quickly grabbed his sword and put it on. “But I don’t want to get surprised by them.” he said as he armed himself.

“Oh, we are fucked, we are fucked!” Box began to panic, jumping up from where he was, pacing around like a trapped animal. Which he was, as it seemed. “I don’t wanna die, I don’t wanna die!” he half-yelled, losing control.

“You! Shut up!” Zeph yelled at him, making him stop for a few seconds.

But the thing that followed turned everything to the worse.

I saw something approaching the pizzeria. Then we heard it growl. It was a blood-curdling sound, and in fact, I was so frightened, I fell back, off the ovens…

Lucky for me, Zephyr had the reflexes to catch me.

“Gotcha. What did you see… Olive?” he asked me as he helped me on my hooves. Though I couldn’t help but notice a faint blush on his face.

“It was something black, it is very close, but whatever it is, it’s not a zombie!” I hurriedly explained. He could probably read my expression because even Zephyr began to slightly panic.

“O-okay, it can’t get in here, so we are safe. As long as we keep it quiet and… wait… where is Shorty?” we both began to panic as we realised that Short Box had become very quiet all of a sudden.

“Uhm…” I looked around, not really finding his pale blue hide anywhere.

Then we heard the tables and chairs that made up the barricade of the front door being moved, along with the noise of crying.

“Mother of Celestia, tell me he is not trying to escape!” Zephyr whispered wide-eyed, running to the lobby a moment later. But it was all too late.

“I don’t wanna- *sniff* -die, I don’t wanna!” Box cried as he unlocked the door and ran outside.

“Come back you fool!” Zephyr shouted after him, I was able to catch up with him, just to see… that… happening.

~Short Box~

I heard of those things, too. I read a newspaper with a photo of one of those things in it. they named it a ‘Shade’ for whatever reason. I knew what was coming for us! I had to escape!

They were busy talking, in each other's arms… pfah, and I thought I wanted to date this mare… but this was my window of escape! Unnoticed by them, I slipped out of the kitchen and made my way to the front door of the pizzeria.

“I won’t die here, nah, nope, I will live, I won’t die, I don’t wanna die!” I said to myself as I undid the barricade. The world became a bit blurry as I did it, I was really sweating, too.

The keys of the door, in my hand. I unlocked it and stepped outside just to hear this soldier guy yelling at me. But… something else was also there, making a noise.

I turned my head and saw a tall, black figure with disproportioned sized limbs. It saw me too.

I wanted to scream, but it jumped at me and-

~Black Olive~

IT RIPPED HIS HEAD OFF!

It ripped his head off, blood was all over everything! Zephyr… Zephyr locked the door and rebuilt the barricade as fast as he could…

I couldn’t do anything… I was just…. kneeling on the floor, unable to look away…

~Zephyr Verve~

I was too late. I couldn’t do anything. He doomed himself. But he bought me precious time to barricade away the entrance. That thing… whatever it was, it was doing something with the corpse of this coward for just long enough for me to finish my work.

I heard Olive scream when the shorty died. It took me some time to get used to see ponies die in such a manner. She was on the floor by the time I finished the barricade, just staring outside, her otherwise beautiful face now wet with her tears.

I quickly grabbed her and brought her in the back, closing, locking and blocking away all doors behind us. That thing seemed to follow us - or at least try - based on the sound of the front door being crashed and the barricade creaking under the big force the assaults of that thing made.

It lasted for about two minutes for it to break through. Then I heard it trash around the lobby. It probably wrecked everything there, trying to find us. Around five minutes passed until it lost interest… and just simply left from where it entered. I was able to tell because there was a peephole on the door to the kitchen.

All the while, I held Olive close to me. At one point she switched to tightly hug me. I didn’t blame her. Seeing someone being killed in such brutal way, it is traumatizing. When that thing left, I turned my head to look at her. She was still keeping her head on my chest, quietly sobbing.

“H-hey.. Olive? It’s gone. We’re safe.” I told her. “Y-you don’t have to… uh.. cry.” I said. Yes, I’m quite bad with comforting others. Nonetheless, it worked.

“You saved me.” she whispered, slowly moving her head to look up into my eyes. Oh, those heartbreakingly sad eyes.

“I did. But I couldn’t save… him.” I replied, sadly shaking my head.

“You did your best.” she whispered, hugging me tighter. We remained in each other's embrace for a while.

~Black Olive~

It was six hours since the death of Box. In this time, we were just… sitting around in the kitchen. Zephyr decided to clean and fix his equipment. He was working on some small device. When I asked him he told me that it can help us survive. I didn’t want to bother him anymore, so I just sat down next to him, trying to not think about how Box was beheaded.

Soon I found myself dozing off. It was late at night and I hadn’t slept since before the zombies came. But we heard the weird sounds of… more of those things roaming around the pizzeria. We heard some zombies too. But based on the lack of fighting noises, Zeph theorized that the zombies and the things ignored each other.

“Hey… Olive?” I heard him and felt him lightly shake me. Apparently I fell asleep on his shoulder.

“Hmm? Yeah?” was all I could say, rubbing my eyes from the sleepiness.

“The sun is coming up. You were asleep for a few hours.” he told me, running his fingers through my mane. “Those things went quiet since a while. Guess they don’t like the sun. It’s a good thing, I think.” he said, putting away his sword which was on his lap all along. He probably finished sharpening it a while ago.

“Oh. That’s… good for us. What should we do?” I asked him, standing up from our makeshift chairs, stretching my limbs. As I heard the satisfying little pops, Zephyr answered.

“I say we gather anything useful, then leave. I can cut through large amounts of zombies and even lift you up and away if need be.” he explained, standing up too. “This place isn’t safe anymore.”

So we moved.