Surviving?

                     Jester hoped into the back of the ambulance, shutting the door behind him. He sat down next to the driver and turned to the white mare,"So, any word on this..."

                     "Bank holdup," the EMT turned the key, the sound of a engine signaled her to pull out of the parking lot and speed down the road,", some guy apparently was trying to hold up a bank with explosives, the cops are close to a breakthrough and I guess you know why we’re going there."

                     “Just in case." He looked out at the rapidly passing buildings and lights of the night in Las Pegasus. Gamblers and high rollers frequented this city every day, most leaving with their pockets emptied. Rose rounded another corner, rather quickly, forcing him up onto the car door. Within ten minutes, they were outside the bank, police cruisers lined the entire front of the glass building. They pulled up behind one of the many cars, Jester jumping over to the back, pulling out the gurney onto the street once they came to a stop.

                      Rose was the second to come out; she had a defibrillator strapped onto her side, checking out the situation.

“Look, you see the pony in there?" She pointed a hoof over the cars at the chestnut colt inside the bank, levitating a pistol at the hostages.

                      “Yeah."

                      “How do you think this is going to sort itself out?" The mare had been an EMT for about five years now; she was used to seeing death, so she hardened into a pony with virtually no personality. Jester was not really used to the the sight of death as he only recently became an EMT.

                      "I don't know honestly but I hope all ponies come out alive."  He leaned over onto the police cruiser to get a better look at the situation. There were at least six police cars lining the bank, four cops per car, all unicorns wielding rifles. There was one car up front, a brown sedan with a pegasus bent over it's hood, the pony wielding a megaphone.

                        Rose yawned and sat on the gurney, she was bored, her partner always picked up that she was bored when she began to braid her pink mane. "So you’re just going to sit there, not even going to keep an eye on the situation?"

                        "Why bother, that's what we’re for." The stallion rolled his eyes and was about to turn to the bank when a shot rang out. Everything else happened to quickly for Jester to analyze, first, his partner jumped, cowering on the gurney, and hooves overhead. Next he felt a horrid pain at his side, and then he felt his body weaken, within seconds he was on the ground staring blankly at the night sky. The world around began to fade when a white blur hovered over him, it seemed to be yelling but he didn’t know.

                         Inky blackness followed.

                         The teal stallion woke with a gasp; his mouth was dry, lips chapped. He then winced and leaned at his side, the agony originating from his stomach. He met pitiful resistance, he looked to a white blanket, his legs underneath it. Jester was in a white room, two doors were included, one on the far end and the other a few feet from him which was open to reveal a toilet.

                         He felt something weighted on his left fore leg, he looked at it to see an IV injector, the IV stand close by. What struck him as odd was that the IV bag was drained, empty. With further examination of the room he noticed a glass of water on a counter next to his bed, and he took it, gulping the life water to alleviate his dry throat. It took him about five minutes to piece together his whereabouts, a hospital, but which one?

                          Jester didn't recognize the look or feel of the hospital room, which he had frequented in his own workspace hundreds of times. He sluggishly got of the bed, careful not to inflict more pain on his injure. There was a window on the far side of the room, with his IV pole close behind the EMT went for the window and drew the blinds. What he saw he wasn't

prepared for.

                          He wasn't in Las Pegasus anymore, rather in one of many of the roadside towns leading to the city, this town he didn't recognize because it was a hellhole. Buildings surrounding the hospital were on fire, empty cars were left in the streets and intersections. The small town seemed abandoned, nothing other than trash blowing in the desert winds moved. What the hell happened out here, the pony took in, the scene even taking longer to register.

                         “Help!" He yelled at the open air, receiving no answer.”Nurse!”

                          He was in... well he didn't know what he was in, so he had to figure out what, starting with the rubber needle in his leg. He put a careful hoof on the plastic injector, and slid it out, a thin stream of blood trickled down his leg. Tossing it to the ground he trotted over to the door on the far end and turned the knob and was rewarded with the squeak of bed wheels. Jester pushed with greater force on the door swung open, the bed on the opposite side bouncing off the wall. The white hallway was quiet, nothing but a few hospital beds littered the corridor.

Some pony has to be here , He thought as he trotted down the hallway and turned a corner to a staircase. Looking through the stairway door window, the colt saw only darkness,Powers out, maybe I could find..., his green eyes wandered back toward the hallway, his opticals searching for a first aid kit, knowing a flashlight would be in its metal confines.

+

                          Jester began to explore the hospital with greater detail as he searched for a light source. The rooms were completely deserted; no doubt the rest of the hospital was too. He also noted there were numerous bloody hoof prints on the sterile white walls, accompanied with gunshot craters. There were also scorch marks near the receptionist’s desk, and obvious sign of fire. Within fifteen minutes he managed to secure a yellow flashlight, which he held in his mouth as he made his way back to the staircase.

What could have possibly happened here?, the teal stallion questioned as he neared the staircase.Was there some kind of accident? Why were there gunshots on the wall? Why's the power out...,as all these questions swam in the colt’s head, so he half noticed he'd reached the door. Taking the flashlight in hoof and flicking the switch, he opened the blue door, guiding the white light down the staircase. On careful step at a time, he made his way down, casting the electric torches light forward.

                          Within a slow five minutes he was on the third floor, about to travel down further until he heard a voice, distant but it was defiantly a voice. Jester cocked his head in the direction of the speaker, looking at the third floor door.

                          "Is anyone there, help!”  He yelled, his voice ragged and unused going toward the door. Once he placed a hoof on the door, he could tell he voices were getting closer.Finally I could get some answers. The hopeful stallion opened the metal door, it revealed a brown blur followed by the void.

                          “Look he's bit, we can't trust him."

                          “We don't know that, it could just be, wait, he's waking up."

                          Jesters eyes opened to find himself tied to an all to familiar hospital bed. He strained on his binds and looked up to see two ponies staring down on him. One was a gray earth pony mare, her black mane tied back into a ponytail, the other was a maroon unicorn, his orange mane in a loose fashion. They both held weapons, the mare an axe, the colt levitating a pistol to the captives temple.

                           "W-w-what the fuck?!" The bound Jester stuttered as he tried to edge away from the gun at his head. His eyes wide he stared at the his captors.

                            "Were you bitten?" The colt asked, putting more force to the captives temple.

                            "Bitten?" Jester questioned," What the hell are you talking about?" The gray mare pointed her axe head at the dressing on his wound." No, I wasn't," The teal colt tried to recollect what had happened to him,", I think I was shot."

                             "See," the formal sounding earth pony remarked,", he just got hurt. Let him go." The pistol on Jesters forehead floated away and into a holster on the unicorn’s side. His partner slung her weapon over her head into a bag, jumping down from the bed, back on all fours.

                             The unicorn summoned a small knife to Jesters binds and cut them, effectively freeing the EMT. He put the knife back in his pack and looked at the former captive, who was just lying there,"I swear on Celestia’s life if you give me one reason not to trust you, I'll paint this room with your brains. Understood?" Jester nodded and stared at the ceiling.

                             The unicorn trotted out the room, the mare going over to the bed,"We got some food ready, you come over if your hungry." She left. Jester was beyond confused as he tried to piece together what happened in this room to rational thought and was unsuccessful.Bitten, why dose that even matter., he thought solemnly.She said there was food...

                              With the thought alleviating his hunger, he climbed out of the bed and to the next room.

                           Jester slowly walked into the next room, unsure about his captors intentions. Once he actually entered the room, he was greatest by the two ponies, sitting at a small plastic table in a hospital room, slowly eating what looked like vegetable chowder. At the sound of his hoof steps, they both turned to Jester, who was standing there rather awkwardly in one place.

                           The unicorn sighed and shrugged at the empty spot on the table with a full bowl. The other colt quickly took a seat and practically guzzled down his portion," Hey, take easy on the rations. Eat it slowly now, it's all we got to eat for now. “ Jester wiped his lips, savoring the creamy soup.

                            "What is this place?" He asked, receiving a confused look from the unicorn.

                            "Hoofston."

                             It took about five minutes for the gray pony to pipe up," Why?"

                            "I... honestly don’t know where I am or what's going on." Now, at his raised tone, the maroon colt’s horn glowed but the mare put a hoof on his shoulder, the glow fading.

                            “Where were you these last couple days, sleeping?" His former captor slurped some chowder,"You don't

know about the dead?"

                            “The dead?" Jester was now intrigued.

                            “Well, I should really be saying the undead. Ponies just started coming back, from the dead of course, and sinking their teeth into any being, who ever was bitten was bound to come back as one of them, well, what was left of them anyways." The teal stallion was now scared, dead ponies eating ponies? How the hell is that possible?

                            Every pony was quiet except the unicorn.

                            "It all started a few days ago, reports of ponies eating each other. It kept escalating to a point where the dead roamed the streets; ponies that were alive were snuffed out and eaten. We were just lucky we weren't in Pegasus."

                            "Wait," Jester piped up, putting two and two together,", so Las Pegasus is full of, those undead?" The unicorn nodded.

                             "Might I ask for your name?" The gray mare asked.

                            “Jester." He replied in monotone," You?"

                            "Octavia." Replied the earth pony and she nodded at the maroon unicorn," He's Steven."

                                                                                             ********

On the next Surviving?

                            "Push!" Steven stressed as he applied ample strength to the car along with Jester.

                            "Their coming!" Octavia panicked from inside the truck, turning the ignition. The dead lumbered toward the ponies as they made a futile attempt to move the blockage.

                            "Push-"

                            " AAAHHH!"