The door banged against the wall as Applejack burst through it, causing the small cluster of runners turn their rotting heads in her direction. Having gained their attention she charged into action!
One rose from where it sat and groggily turned towards the running mare. She reared her arm back and delivered a blow to his head, instantly splattering its grey matter in all directions and crushing its skull. It fell down dead at her feet. A few others began to awkwardly shuffle towards the ruckus, with two hitting the ground running with decaying maws ajar and spindly arms outstretched while one continued to gnaw at the remains of some unfortunate individual.
She brought up a leg and delivered a fierce roundhouse to the one at her left and followed up with a low sweeping kick to the one rushing to her right, making it fall onto its back with a grisly groan. Applejack approached the downed runner and stomped down on its head right between its dead eyes. The dead herd came alive then, springing at her from different directions as her presence was made known to their ears.
The rest of the group watched helplessly from the windows of the abandoned store they occupied, waiting for their cue to come from Applejack. They had long since exhausted the resources available to them from the shop and needed to press onward. However, in the state everyone was in, they wouldn't have made it very far had they chanced it. Everyone had come back the store either wounded or near the brink of collapse. The number of runners had been increasing since yesterday, and today was no exception.
An anxious Twilight strummed her fingers against the keys to the truck, making then clink slightly. Pinkie Pie gently closed her hand over hers in an attempt to help steady herself. She let out a breathy sigh and nodded a subtle "Thanks" to her friend.
"Ugh, this bites! Forget this waiting! I'm goin' out there to help!"
Rainbow Dash made for the door when a blue aura covered the knobs, stopping her from going outside.
"What the hell?!"
"Rainbow, you cannot just barge out there as Applejack did!", Rarity exclaimed. Rainbow Dash whirled on her and glared daggers.
"What the hell do you expect me to do, sit here with my thumb up my ass and wait while AJ takes out runners all by herself?!"
"She can handle this, Rainbow! We all feel the same here! But..."
Twilight looked towards the window where Fluttershy and Rarity were standing, grimacing as she saw Applejack kick the head off one of them. Her ears drooped as she sighed.
"If we go out there now, we'd be more of a liability to her. It makes us all sick to wait here, Rainbow Dash! But we have to! Once Applejack gives us the signal, I want everyone to move as fast as you can to the truck! The shopping arcade is nearly infested, so the sooner we do this, the better our chances of survivng are. I'm sorry, Rainbow."
With a harsh hiss of disgust Rainbow Dash turned away from the group and leaned over nearby checkout counter, muttering obsceneties and hitting the conveyer belt repeatedly. It was the truth, sure, but she hated being helpless. Seeing her injured wing made her even more angry, and chose to seethe in silence.
Twilight rubbed at her temples and looked to Rarity and Pinkie Pie.
"Can't you two give her some cover fire or something?"
"If we did that, darling, then they'd be drawn to the sound and surround us."
"Ooh! Ooh! I think AJ's almost near the truck, girls!"
Back outside, Applejack continued to pummel through the hellish nightmare of runners coming at her. It started out as a few handfuls of them, but the noise had drawn out more from the woodworks. She was nearly surrounded by them. Her gloved fists were completely covered with rotting flesh and black clotted blood, her clothes were spotted from the many sprays of black blood from each downed crawler. Having worked on a farm granted her some advantages besides her monstrous strength. Her sense of smell had been dulled by working the manure into freshly tilled earth, so she was able to ignore the stench of death and decay. Her fierce punches had caused hre gloves to split at some areas, the leather losing its integrity with every point of contact. From just beyond a group of crawlers Applejack could see the truck! She was nearly there! They'd be out of this hellhole soon, if she could just clear the path and make way for them to run across!
She spared a glance back at the entrance to the store and caught a glimpse of her friends standing there by the window, ready and waiting for her to give them the okay.
'Alright, Applejack. Time to wrap this up right quickly!'
Taking in a deep breath Applejack dropped down to bend at her knees as if to get into a squat. Instead, she began to sway her legs and move herself into a rhythmic, constant triangular movement. She had practiced this style once or twice with Pinkie, Dash and Rarity before. It was their way of getting the farmer to go to a dance. It backfired on all three of them of course, but the farmer kept up the practice in order to keep herself fit.
A row of crawlers closed were closing in on her. Applejack took the first four out in four strikes of her hooves, making their heads cave in and their rotted grey matter to splatter everywhere. She could feel the point of contact as if it were in slow motion; their skulls cracked loudly with a sickening crunch as the protein enriched material broke and scattered.
Three more came up from behind her. Dropping to a low-to-the-ground cartwheel Applejack dispatched those with the same ferocity given to the ones before them. From there on, each crawler and runner that came close to her was met with a quick and messy end. This way was much for effective. Due to the constant use of her arms and legs before, Applejack was beginning to lose momentum with her blunt approach. This way, however, allowed her to use momentum to fuel her strikes, saving a bit of energy as well as drawing power from said momentum.
Sweat was running down her forehead and sliding along her spine as she continued making way for her friends. The numbers of crawlers was thinning out at a fast pace, until none had been left standing. Applejack stood panting at the edge of the parking lot, sweat falling over her scarred face as if someone had poured water over her head.
Chuckling breathlessly, she turned towards the store and let out a sharp whistle while waving to her friends.
"There! The signal! Let's move!!"
Twilight used her magic to burst open the door, allowing everyone to rush out and follow the path Applejack had made for them. The farmer waited for them to catch up to her, rolling her neck and shoulders and rotating her arms to try and ward off the agonizing aches.....until her eyes caught a glimpse of something clumsily clamoring out from behind the store.
"CRUSHER!!!!", she called out with an outstretched arm.
Everyone looked over their shoulders to where AJ was pointing to and let out a collective gasp of alarm at seeing the large rotting corpse of a behemoth! It growled a crude belch-like gurgle and advanced on the group, swaying its dead arms as it approached.
"EVERYONE, DOUBLE-TIME!", Twilight called out.
They broke out into a run as the crusher lumbered towards them, stopping now and then to lap up a corpse in one gross chomp after another. A small cry is heard from behind. Rainbow and Fluttershy turn to see Scoot struggling to free her hoof from an arm belonging to a partially devoured corpse, screaming hysterically as it snapped its infested maw at her in an attempt to take a bite out of her leg.
Rainbow Dash swooped in and gathered the frightened filly in her arms, slamming her hoof down in such brutality that it made the crawer's skull cave in with its putrid insides oozing out of its empty eye sockets and ears.
A bellowing groan erupted and the two looked up to see the Crusher peering down at them with its dead eyes, rolling its disjointed jaw and gnarling its yellowing teeth at them.
"Rainbow, Run!!", Twilight had called to her.
They were all so close to getting to that truck, close to peeling out of this nightmare and getting a slightly safer distance away! She couldn't move. The Pegasus was frozen in place as the crusher towered over her and Scoot. The child cried into Rainbow's chest as she clung to her. Time seemed to slow down as the crusher surged its head down and opened its mouth to bite off Rainbow's head. Just as its teeth was a hair's breadth away from her face, a fierce shout could be heard from overhead. The shout was followed by a fierce hoof sinking into the crusher's face, making the disgusting thing stumble away from them while letting out a sickening gurgle.
"Rainbow Dash! Snap out of it and git yer ass over to the truck! NOW!"
It was a furious Applejack that was yelling at her, fresh entrails sprayed over her grime covered clothes and hooves. Her eyes were steeled and her voice brokered no room for rebuttal. With shaking legs Rainbow Dash ran over to the group and placed a scared Scoot in the back seat beside Fluttershy.
Applejack turned and made for the truck, only for a crawler to rise out from beneath another body and latching onto her ankle, tripping the farmer and causing her to fall onto her knees.
"Damn it all! Git offa me, ya bastard!"
With a strong kick of her leg Applejack tore her limb out of its nasty grip and punched through its head. It was then that Applejack saw it. From beyond where the crusher lay, she saw a huge wave of crawlers and runners come into view. It was a whole army of undead just within the immediate vicinity, with no end in sight.
"Applejack! Hurry up! We have to go now!"
Twilight was standing inside the ajar door of the passenger side with one leg partially in already. Fluttershy was in the backseat with Scoot while Rainbow Dash and Rarity sat in the open bed of the pick-up. AJ was more closer to the encroaching mob of undead then to the truck, which was a good sprint away. Pinkie turned the key in the ignition as Twilight called out to her, making the engine turn and roar to life.
Applejack darted her head from the monsters to the truck and back to the mob. There wasn't any time left. If she made a run for the truck they wouldn't have enough time to floor the engine before the runners can get ahold of them.
No time.....
"Go!"
"WHAT?!?!", came a squawk from an alarmed Rarity.
"Ya'll heard me! GO!!!"
Applejack was practically roaring at them due to the distance.
"Applejack! I gave you an order to come back!"
"And Ah. Said!... GO!!!!"
Grabbing a nearby stop sign and plucking it from the asphalt like it was a mere stick, Applejack chucked it at the waiting Truck, making Pinkie yelp out and move the truck upward to avoid the stop sign.
"Applejack!! Darling, we haven't the time for this! Please!"
"C'mon, farm girl! Move your ass already!"
"Y'all are wastin' good gas! Pinkie!"
The pink haired mare yelped again at the sound of AJ barking her name out.
"H-Huh??"
"FLOOR IT!!!!!"
Her ear perked up at the command. She knew she would regret shifting the gears, would regret slamming her hoof down on the gas peddle and gunning it while hearing the startled cries of the two passengers in the bed of the truck. She knew she would regret leaving her friend Applejack behind, but she wouldn't regret the next words she screamed out a tearful:
"SHOW THOSE MEANIES WHAT FER, APPLEJACK!!!!"
She even said it in Applejack's southern accent and sped away down the dirt road, the sounds of protest fading with the continually increasing distance of the speeding truck.
"Ah'm sorry, everyone.", she spoke to herself in a low whisper as the mob began to close in on her.
"But....Ah can't let these disgustin' varmints get to ya. There wasn't time for me....."
With teary, steeled green eyes the farmer took on her previous stance once again, balling her fists and steeling her nerves. A fire lit in her belly, rekindling her resolve to protect her friends at any cost! She rooted her hooves to the ground and stood with her might at the ready.
"......But Ah'll sure as Hell buy you some extra time!"
The grisly crowd drawing near snapped and gnarled their maws at her, reaching out with mangled limbs and peering at her with death glazed eyes. It would've been nice to have her hat right about now.
She then let out a proud roar of:
"YEEEE-HAAAWWW!!!"
-End
Author's Note
Done for Earthsong9405. Sleep deprivation strikes again!
