Author's Note

Surgeon Author here stitchin' up chapters again. And not just cause the first one was a measly 600 words, but also because I'd read through it and said "Fuck, this shit sucks, skippin' all this crap."

Absolute Chaos & Reunion

After the explosions, and the sound of a tree cracking, Dash regrouped with Twi.

"Where's the others?" Twi shouted.

"I don't know!" Dash replied, still firing her m4.

Guilt was filling her stomach rapidly, making her want to vomit. She was the reason everybody had been split up, and she'd never forgive herself if somebody died because of her. Now she had to stand back to back with Twi, gunning down the obnoxiously large swarms.

Where had Devan gone? Where was Trixie? They couldn't even see Jen and Abby in the crowd. As she thought, Celestia stumbled into view.

"Celestia!"

"I see an opening. Follow me," she told her and Twi.

Twi immediately accepted, trusting her decision. Dash turned around, and covered their backs as they followed Celestia away from the bushes and quiet trees behind them.

"What about the others?" Twi asked over their gunfire.

"We're gonna have to leave them."

"Brother! Damn it!" Blaze shouted. His legs were giving way. His whole side ached and writhed with pain. After the explosion, he'd been launched across the path, to the trees right of the human Devan had shot. He thought he'd caught a glimpse of him and Snow, but zombies blocked his view and forced him through the desolate trees.

Many explosions rumbled as he staggered farther into the trees, struggling to properly use his gun. He was moving slow, but thankfully his attackers were just as slow. He started to curve towards the way they had been walking, in hopes of losing the zombies and making his way to the hospital where he'd hopefully meet up with the others.

And hopefully they'd have Drift.

He was losing it though. The grenade had triggered his side pain and fired it up again. He was staggering dizzily through an oncoming horde that he was somehow managing to push through. He started seeing stars through his pain, and he struggled to stand any longer.

The unexpectedly enormous waves of zombie ponies were gaining on him. His clip drained, and he couldn't reload with his lack of strength. He dropped his gun and trembled. All of the years he'd spent at the academy to become a guard in the first place were being wasted.

Eventually, his legs could stand no more. He collapsed with the swarms closing in on him. He just made out the ones in front of him falling. The new girls, Jen and Abby, rushed towards him with their rifles blazing at the zombies he could hear moaning behind him.

"Blaze? Are you okay?" Abby's voice was quietly audible.

"I'm ... fine ..." he chalked up before succumbing to the dark.

"Blaze? Blaze?" Abby shook him. "He's unconscious."

"Well ... he's buff for a pony, but he shouldn't be too heavy for both of us to carry him," Jen said.

They reloaded their clips and let their rifles hang on the straps over their shoulders as they lifted Blaze to a standing position. His arms over their shoulders, they dragged his hooves along the ground. Jen used her available left hand to grab her rifle and clear out approaching zombie ponies. Abby threw a grenade to their left, which emitted enough smoke from the explosion to hide them momentarily. They continued on for quite some time before having to stop and drop Blaze. They cleared the next nearby wave of zombies, then reloaded and lifted him again.

"What about his brother?" Abby asked.

"We have to leave him. He's probably ... gone now."

Despite the hordes not a far distance away, a deadly quiet seemed to overcome them. The reality was scary, but true. The swarms of look-alike zombie ponies were horrifyingly large, yet it looked as though they could make it through mostly unharmed. They just had to prevent Blaze from getting bitten.

The hordes were softening. If I had to roll over another fallen zombie with the car, I'd probably lose my mind. For the most part though, Snow had cleared the path with her hooves, pushing away most of the dropped zombies. Their putrid scent lingered in my nostrils, and seeing their corpses was most unpleasant.

Fortunately though, a clear path was awaiting us. The horde coming from the hospital, where we were headed, was now evening out, and Snow was clearing out the attackers on their flanks.

We continued toward a clear pathway out for another minute or so, and a clear pathway out showcased itself. Snow and I saw it at the same time, and she exchanged a glance with me before we hustled through it. The opening led to a clear path - a field with no zombies or dropped zombies. It was beautiful, but we couldn't just stop. We were being pursued by a line of gallopers. Snow threw a grenade over her shoulder and turned to shoot at a few of them.

I worried about the others. My mind kept showing Twi or Jen getting overrun by the zombies I had seen. I could hear some distant gunshots. I could see the hospital in the distance, past a few more lone standing trees. The cart and Trixie combined were heavy as well, and my arms began aching shortly after. It was a mad dash as Snow backpedaled next to me. I turned to see the line of gallopers diminishing quickly. I stopped, let the cart go, and grabbed hold of my m4.

"Should we stay and clear out the crowd?" I asked.

"We might hit the others," Snow warned.

"Oh ..."

I grabbed onto the cart again.

How did I not think of that?

After a rough five minutes of half-running/half-walking, we slowed. The hospital was in our view partially. Trees covered the side, but the front jutted out.

Snow had stopped shooting, because most of the zombies had lost interest. We were in a rather open field, so I looked around to see if anybody else was nearby. Unexpectedly, I caught a glance of Luna walking parallel to us on our left.

"Look," I said. "Luna."

“Oh yeah.”

“Luna!" I repeated, yelling to get her attention.

She swiveled her head to see me waving. A smile appeared on her face, and I could see it clearly, even at this distance.

"Let her come to us." Snow continued firing. I also fired a clip into them before reloading.

Luna, throwing her rifle over her shoulders, came sprinting towards us. Not able to predict her movements, I was unable to dodge a hug that very nearly knocked me over.

"Do you know where anybody else is?" she asked me.
"No, do you?" I replied.

"No." She saw Trixie in the cart. I looked down as well, to see that she had stopped breathing entirely.

"Snow!"

She spun around.

"Trixie isn't breathing!"

She looked down, then dropped her gun gasping. She dove down with a towel in her hoof, wrapping it around Trixie in an instant. She then put one hoof over the other and started pushing. I watched, unaware of the approaching mob until Luna shook me.

"Okay. Sorry."

Her and I grabbed hold of our rifles and fired away as Snow worked ferociously on Trixie. The swarms weren't visibly shrinking, but it was probably due to the fact that they were falling over each other when they died. It still didn't make sense how the swarm was so large.

Granted, I haven't been to Canterlot and Manehattan in a while, but this was ridiculous. We finished our clips with good results, despite the odds. The swarm had been stopped in their tracks. No more zombies we could see were determined enough to walk over the half -wall of dead zombies.

I looked back down at Snow. She was still pushing, then gave her mouth to mouth. My heart froze when I saw the severity. Blood oozed out of her chest, onto the cart, and trickled down to the grass. Her breathing was unlikely at this point. Snow knew it as well.

I let my m4 hang on its strap as I bent over Trixie.

"Trixie? Come on. Stay with us."

Snow pushed some more. Luna stood over my shoulder, watching Snow work. Hadn't we been through enough misfortune already? Snow waited a second. Before she could push again, Trixie's eyes twitched. Optimism filled my veins. Her chest moved up and down slowly, and she coughed up a little blood. Without approval from Snow, I lifted her head. Snow didn't mind as she swam through her bag to pull out some gauze.

"Trixie?"

I grabbed a washcloth laying over her leg and used it to wipe away the blood. Snow hoofed me a water bottle. "Only give her a few swigs."

I did. The water must have helped, because her breaths were faster and her eyes opened to a squint.

"Trixie? You alright?"

She grunted and stretched her legs. Snow finished wrapping up her chest. Our happiness was quickly interrupted by unwanted moans. I glanced over to see another galloping line hurdle the half-wall of zombie ponies and come charging towards us. Within just a second, they'd gained a good few yards.

They were practically breathing on us before we even pulled up our weapons. I quickly jumped off the cart and lined up a few inches closer than Luna, in case things got ugly. A clip solved the nearest attackers, but more piled on. I stepped forwards again to prepare myself to be a shield for Luna. I couldn't let her get bitten.

One pounced on me too quickly for my peripheral vision to relay its information to my brain. He sunk his teeth in my firing arm, causing me to lose control of the rifle. Instinctively, I took my finger off the trigger when my arm was forcibly pulled by the zombie. I felt a whoosh of air, and my shoulder exploded in pain. More gunfire blared to the right of us.

As the zombies fell, I sliced my attacker off of me. He was shot dead by Luna, who stood unharmed behind me. Through the mist of the herd, I saw Celestia running with Twi and Dash. Filled with joy, I fell on my ass before they reached us. My shoulder hurt bad, and my legs weren't up to holding me.

"Devan?" Twi ran up to me.

"Hey Twi."

She noticed how I was clenching my shoulder with my left, unbandaged hand. "Oh no ... did we hit you?"

"Well, I don't think my gun was backwards." I joked. "I'll be fine." I pulled my hand off of my shoulder. It was wet and fully covered in blood. I trembled.

"Snow!" Twi yelled. "Can you help Devan?"

"No," I interrupted. "Just give me a towel."

Dash scurried through her bag and tossed Twi a towel, who applied pressure herself. "Lay back."

"But ..."

"Just do it," she barked. I did. "You're more stubborn than Dash."

"Hey!" Dash exclaimed.

We all laughed timidly for the first time in weeks, but Twi stopped when she realized how much blood was on the towel already.

"Luna," Celestia called. "Do you know where the girls are?"

"I haven't seen them."

"What about Blaze?"

"Him neither."

I closed my eyes while the others started shooting again. Blood pulsated on the towel. Twi pushed even harder.
"Ow ..."

"I'm sorry. I have to stop this blood."

"I know ... but ow."

I peeped at the clouds. I couldn't tell if they were moving or if my eyes were growing dizzy. I closed them slowly, wanting to blink but deciding to keep them closed.

"Devan? Stay with me please."

"I am ... my eyelids are heavy."

"Okay."

I felt like sleeping, but I'd fallen conscious enough. I was tired of falling to the darkness when the others needed me, so I made the effort to open my eyes.

"Look!" Dash shouted. After elevating my neck, I glanced to where she was pointing to see two blurry figures running towards us. After another second, I could timidly see something in between them.

"It's the girls," Twi said.

I squinted to see them clearer, and observed Blaze, who was being carried limply by them. The gunfire softened as the others greeted the girls back, but it turned out Blaze was in critical condition. He was unconscious as Trixie had been, who was now surprisingly fast with recovering.

"Snow ... what do I do besides push?" Twi asked.

"Observe. The bullet may still be in there. Dig it out and we'll see if he needs stitches."

Twi was reluctant to following through, but eventually she removed the towel. She pulled my shirt up to see the gash clearly.

"Geez. I could've done that if you asked." I took my shirt off entirely, and balled it up beside me.

"I know." Twi wiped away forming blood and leaned in for a closer look. Jen left Blaze with the others to come sit next to me.

"Are you feeling light-headed?" she asked.

"I feel a little queasy. Can't see straight."

"What hurts?"

"Just my shoulder ... and my loyalty."

Jen snickered. The guns stopped.

"Twi ... we can't see any more zombies still standing," Dash proclaimed.

Twi, stunned, turned around and looked out. She stood up to see better, looking for live zombies. I laid back. There were too many dropped zombie ponies in the way to see from this height anyway.

Jen placed her left hand on my abs to 'lean' in for a closer look at the gash, but it was clear that wasn't the only reason.

"I don't see anything in there."

"Okay. Well don't push out my organs now."

She couldn't resist a smirk before letting go. I still couldn't figure her out. Why did she have such interest in my all of a sudden? It had literally gone from her trying to kill me to her eager to touch me within a matter of just a few days.

"Your blood is aggressive," Jen said, taking me from thought. She grabbed the towel and applied pressure with the least bloodiest end.

"Probably cause it's used to coming out in the first place."

"You should stop getting shot."

"That's in my control?"

"It is! Usually when people have a gun to their head, they listen."

"I'm stubborn."

"Obviously," Twi cut in.

Snow let Dash and Luna watch over Trixie while she came to aid me.

"No. Help Blaze."

"Devan!" Twi shouted in the way a mother would if her kids did something bad.

"I'm conscious!" I urged.

But she did have a point. The clouds were wiggling around in small loops now. My heart rate was unexpectedly slow, and my chest throbbed.

"Blaze only passed out from side pains. He wasn't shot or bit," Jen informed.

"Oh."

Snow came and sat by my right side, replacing Jen.

"I can't keep my eyes open." They closed, my eyelids too heavy. Annoyingly, I couldn't open them up to a slit.

"It's okay to sleep," Snow said, "It'll help me put on your stitches, if needed."

I opened them. "But I've fallen asleep enough on ya'."

Dash replied, "It's fine. We're fine. There's almost ten of us here."

"But ..."

My hearing faded. I fell to the dark again.

Again.

How? Was I weaker than I seemed?