On a road...

"Shit!" Ellis said as he slammed on the brakes of the car.

He was driving the stock car at full speed along the road, but when he saw the mass of abandoned cars up ahead, he stomped his full foot on the brake pedal. Applejack was asleep in the back until the loss in force launched her forewords, slamming her into the back of Ellis' seat. The car continued to screech forewords until stopping behind some old cars.

"Oh, no. This is not good." Ellis groaned and rested his head on the wheel.

"Ugh...did somepony catch the number on that carriage?" Applejack said, half asleep.

"Well, I should've expected this."

"Expected what?"

"Look."

"That's a lot of cars."

"Yeah, but they're abandoned. Can't go any further."

They exit the car and check the trunk for anything useful. All they found was a little bit of ammo and an adrenaline shot. Ellis took the ammunition and placed the shot in his pocket. Then, they tried to decide what to do next.

"Sorry, Applejack. This car is capable a' miracles, but it can't drive over forty miles of parked cars. I think we're walkin'." Ellis said.

"At least we're outta that mall. That place was freaky." Applejack said, remembering the tank.

"Hey, look at that! Whispering Oaks Amusement Park! I loved goin there as a child."

"Let's go and see where the road will take us."

"I'll agree with you there. Let's go."

Ellis jumped on top of an obscuring car and helps AJ up. The cars all looked like people just left them on the spot. when they got to a somewhat clear area, they saw beams shine into the sky.

"Searchlights! That's the first sign of light we've seen in a hundred miles." Ellis observed.

"I wonder what was with all those cars." Applejack wondered.

"Maybe people left them when they got rescued."

"I can only hope that they escaped."

They climb up a hill and jump onto a billboard. The duo then scans the surrounding area with their eyes. They see that the property that they were standing on was a motel. Or, at least, what was left of it. Ellis jumped off the roof of the motel building and held his arms out to catch Applejack. She jumped down and landed right on top of him. She may have been smaller than he was, but she wasn't lighter than him. Anyways, after they got up, they noticed a weird smell. Like if something was cooking, but the meat was rotting. They traced the odor all the way to the swimming pool nearby. When they arrived, a horrifying sight was before them: there were charred corpses of people in the deep end, and they even had a little bit of smoke still coming off of them.

"Sweet Celestia!" Applejack said weakly as she unloaded the contents of her stomach onto the cement.

"Those poor people. All they wanted to do was go for a swim." Ellis said.

Ellis helped AJ get up and they tried looking for a way out. A coughing sound was heard in the distance. Suddenly, a large, thick tongue wrapped around Applejack and dragged her backwards. Ellis located the smoker and shot it in the chest a few times. It released AJ, but it ran off before Ellis could finish the job. He then focused his attention on Applejack. She was still wrapped up in that slimy tongue.

"Ugh, now I know how you felt back at that hotel." Applejack said.

"Yeah, but he got you pretty good." Ellis responded.

He then unraveled his friend. Every time he touched the tongue, it would make a sickening juicy sound. When that was over, they kept their eyes open for not only a way out, but for any more infected. After snooping through some of the rooms, they find one with a hole busted in the wall. When they enter the next room, they jump out of the window and exit the motel completely. The road to Whispering Oaks was blocked by a chain link fence, so they needed to find an alternative route. Behind the motel was a little landslide leading to a small swamp-like area.

"Looks pretty steep. Careful." Ellis warned.

Ellis went down first. He slid on his feet down towards the swamp, landing in a puddle of water.

"Woah, that was crazy." Ellis said.

"Incomin!" Applejack shouted as she herself slid down on her hooves, sliding onto a mini-ledge like a ramp and flying forward, again landing on Ellis. However, this time, they were face-to-face. In fact, their faces were so close, Ellis' nose and AJ's muzzle almost touched.

Ellis was staring right into Applejack's eyes, as she did the same. Applejack then began to blush, either by the sheer awkwardness, or something else...

"Opps, sorry." AJ apologized.

"Um, it's alright. Erm..." Ellis couldn't find the rest of the words in the sentence.

They got up, and walked through the swamp, trying to act like nothing had happened. While they were walking, there were 3 different noises going on: They could hear a charger, spitter, and a witch. Now, that may seem like not much. However, when you're in a swamp at night with limited vision, you should be worried. They spotted a ledge leading up, so they climbed it. When they reached the top, there was a safe house up ahead, and behind it was Whispering Oaks.

"Whispering Oaks! We made it." Ellis said happily.

However, there was a sitting witch in the middle of the parking lot, so they needed to sneak past her to get to the safe room in one piece. Seemed simple enough. Without warning, a honking noise was heard from behind, and sure enough, a charger was coming right for Applejack. Ellis pushed her out of the way, but then he was the one who ended up getting rammed into. While he was getting carried by the zombie, the charger also rammed right into the witch, flinging her to the side. The charger then began to repeatedly slam Ellis into the ground.

"Help! Applejack, it's crushing me into shit!" Ellis yelled.

Before she could save him, the witch let out an ear-piercing scream. It ran straight to the charger and slashed it to death, surprising both Ellis and Applejack. The relief was short-lived when it then started to slash at Ellis, adding long cuts to his arms.

"DON'T YOU DARE!!!" Applejack screamed as she took out her anger on the witch. It was a lot stronger than all the other infected, with the only exception being the tank. Anyways, she stopped beating it when the witch's femur started to stick out of it's leg.

"You okay?" Applejack asked.

"A little scraped up, but yeah." Ellis said, looking at the now bleeding cuts on his arms.

"Let's just go."

They make their way into the safe room, this time Applejack shut and locked the door. When she did, Ellis said:

"Let's call that one a tie."

Author's Note

Sorry for the chapter being so short. Well, the highway segment is a short level right? Anyways, thanks for reading the chapter and for all your support. It really means a lot that you people like this story, because I enjoy making it!

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