Surviving?

“DJ PON-3, the best DJ in all Equestria. Well, was."

“You know what happened to her?"

“Not really, we used to be roommates and we split a few months ago for our own reasons. Apparently she staged here, probably dead." Octavia stroked the creases on the banner with the name emblazoned onto it, it lies on the black marble floor, knocked down for some reason they'd never know.

It had been a couple of hours since they had trapped themselves inside the small club to shield them from the outside where the dead walk. The club had no windows and a metal door, so it was pretty dim inside its confines, the only illumination being the glow sticks that behind the DJ's podium there use now to shine light rather than brighten it. Both ponies sat close together, Octavia on her stomach and Jester sitting a few inches away, now concentrating on the muffled moans and groans of the ever present cadavers that were trying to get to their meal.

After a few minutes more, the stallion couldn't take it anymore, he got up and trotted right over to the door, bucking it hard ( luckily it pushed into the club and not out)," Keep fucking moaning your rotting shits, your gonna have ta fight for this colt!" There was an endless stream of profanities that poured out of the equines lips, his partner showing no objection, just looking at the banner, stroking it a bit too much. In his fit of rage, he uttered something he really wasn't supposed to, especially now," And you Octavia!" This got the musician attention, who looked up, puzzled but awaiting what the furious stallion had to say.

“You and Steven were going to leave me behind, let me be eaten alive by the walkers. After all Id done for-"

“You knew?" Now she was back on all fours, still reeling from this news.

“Well yeah, I’m not an idiot!" Jester was practically boiling right now; multiple problems and irritants had now culminated into the explosive confession.

“If you heard what we talking about, you should know that I never even gave an answer."

                “Well, how am I supposed to know you would have said yes?!" Jester was breathing heavily, glaring at the mare who stared back, unable to provide a response. Would have she said yes..., the teal pony contemplated, looking down, with a slight pang of guilt for yelling at the mare.

                “Dose that really matter now?" Jester looked up, his rage having died down and apparently transferred to Octavia," Were in some night club in a walker infested city surrounded by the corpses. You really think us leaving you behind matters that much right now? Steven is passed out in-" Her eyes narrowed," That was you, wasn’t it?"

                All Jester could do was look down in utter surprise and shame. He could hear the musician exhale with anger and walk away, going up the stairs to the roof, leaving the earth pony only with his thoughts.

Surviving?

              Octavia leaned over the yellow railing on the tarred roof, her mane now free of its ponytail and blowing gracefully in the wind. The scene below wasn’t pretty.

              The decomposing, groaning corpses below tried with the haste of its numbers to achieve both it objectives. The primary was obviously being her location, at least fifty former ponies trying to bust the door down. The second was the swaying ambulance, it bucked up and down as a lesser twenty or so zombies tried to get to its captive. She are knew that they never be able to get into the aluminum tomb, but she questioned it locking Steven in there was a better alternative to the primary. He had plenty of food in there, but that will eventually run out and he could succumb to madness.

No,The musician thought intently, he’s better than this, he'll get out of there, somehow.

             "Would you have said yes?" Resisting the urge to recoil out of shock, Octavia craned her neck to see Jester leaning over the railing, about a foot away. She sighed lightly, still a bit irked from the stallion’s outburst downstairs. And what kind of question was that? Would he even believe me if I said no?

            " Your still on this?" He let out his own sigh, scanning the city halfheartedly.

            " I just want to know." He replied," I don’t care if you said yes or no. Just tell me."

            " What’s the p-"

            " Octavia!" He shouted, but reverting back his calm state a second later," I’ve only been thrust into this world of undead for a little over three days. And I’m pretty sure there’s more dead ponies than living ones anymore, so I need to maintain some kind of trust with the ponies I actually know. So yes or no?" Octavia looked down at the dead below and back at Jester. Would ever even be able to cast him out like that. Not physically but...

            " No." When she said that word, it didn’t feel or sound forced, not a hint of distrust in that one word, it was sincere, true. Jester didn’t respond, he just shut his both of his eyes and let the warm winds caress him for a minute, letting the response sink in. There was a long silence as they both just scanned the city, looking at what was left of it.

             Anarchy seemed to have taken this place in a matter of days after the infection, graffiti was as numerous as the shattered glass that layered across the sidewalks, most reading  things such as "WHERES CELESTIA?","FUCK THE ELEMENTS!" and even, “DISCORDS SECOND COMING!". No one knew where the infection originated, many quickly assumed it was Discord secretly exacting revenge and chaos on Equestria again, but who knew.

           The formally glorious casinos was now in ruin which pained the native Jester, not that gambling was his favorite pass time but he lived in this city his entire life, seeing as the casinos as what defined the city’s grander. They seemed to be just broken, looted, burned, looted, vandalized, anything that can harm these constructs had already been done.

            But something made Jester double take, shake his head and squint at the small figures below, two seemed to be clad in camouflage. There were three standing next to a military grade Humvee and located outside of a casino, located a few blocks north of the club, their area void of undead. One of the however, seemed to be wearing an officers uniform, an all black suit with navy blue trim, him wearing a dark blue beret. With this news, he tapped Octavia, who cocked her head in question, " What?"

           " Hey, you see that?" Jester pointed toward the abandoned casino.

           " And? It's just..." Octavia gave the scene better inspection," there's military down there. They could help us!"

           " Maybe." Jester looked around for a minute, departing from the railing. There was a small stage atop the roof, along with a few deck chairs and some lights the were strung up on some wire between the two buildings it was sandwiched between, none were lit. His partner also pushed of the rail and trotted a bit toward him, stopping, looking confused as he dug into small green bin.

           " What are you doing?" As an answer, he tossed a large white board beside him, digging into bin even further.

           " Trying to get their attention." The earth pony grunted as his hind legs practically dangled, the rest of his body submerged in the container. With a quick push, the colt popped out with a green marker clenched between his teeth, which he placed on the white board he had recovered and walked back over the railing, observing the trio of solider, who conversed blindly, confident the dead wouldn't find them.

             Octavia walked up to the busy stallion," You really think a white board is going to get their attention?"

             " No. Hm." He continued to look down below, noting seemed to satisfy his search. What could get them to look this way?

             With a sudden realization he pushed of the railing and spun around looking into the sky, making his mare companion follow his line of sight and realize he was looking at the lights that seemed suspended in the air only a few feet above them.

                                                                                               *******

             " What makes you think there might still be power in this place?" The mare questioned  as the descended carefully back down in the club, only a single glow stick illuminating the way. Jester had proposed that they might be a power generator some where, already knowing that the entirety of Las Pegasus was out.

             " Well, clubs run tons of lights and music twenty four seven," He replied, taking a cautious step down, slowing his pace a tad," Simple outlets aren't going to power each one, so there has to be some generator around." Finally reaching the bottom, they both got a better feel for the small club.

            A small stage similar to the one on the roof, complete with a podium. There was also two hall ways on either side of the stage, all wrapped in inky blackness. Not much populated the room other than a single, old looking wooden chair and the pile of glow sticks the clubs new inhabitants placed there.

           " Lets check the hallways," he trotted over and picked up a glowing purple rod from the pile," I got right, you left." Octavia nodded sharply," And, be careful, we don't know whats in here." With another reassuring nod, the both set of on there assignments.

           Jester was the first to venture down his passage, clenching the rod tightly in his mouth. It was obvious, he was nervous, he didn't know what could lie in the void of the hallway. There could be a walker trapped behind a door, anything he could imagine could exist behind any door. As it happens there were three doors in the surprising short hallway, each of a dark wood construction, fitted with a brass doorknob.

            He walked to the nearest door, taking a deep breath, he placed a hoof on the knob, twisted and pushed it open, quickly jumping backward in the case of danger. But there was none, in fact, when the wary colt neared the room again, it was just a simple dressing room with nothing useful in the terms of power.

           With a sigh, he continued onto the next door, which when opened, was just a bathroom, the toilet just out right disgusting, making the EMT gag and shut the door as quickly as possible. With the breath of fresh air he ventured over to the last door, praying this would be the room.

          Hope in check, he opened the door with a quick push but immediately recoiled and nearly vomited at the scene inside, swallowing what came up with great disdain. There was a generator in that room, along with a few other card boxes, but what made  him gag was the stench emanating off the corpse that lie face down on the ground, multiple bite marks covered what he assumed to be a mare unicorn. The body was slick with blood, making it almost impossible to distinguish what her coat color was. But her mane was easily able to identify, a rough blue mane with light blue stripes. This body had to have been here a few  days, maybe even weeks as it emitted the smell of manure, the blood pooling around the body had coagulated and cracked.

         A pair of broken sunglasses rested only a few inches from the corpse, crimson smeared onto its lens. Jester regained his composure and looked at the current location of the generator, it was further into the small store room, the body nearly at the front of the entrance. Is she... Concerned for his future endeavor, he set the glow stick down and replaced it with a mop that rested near the end of the hallway and put it to bear, extending the cleaning end toward the bloody mess, it shaking erratically as it neared.

        He felt as if he couldn't breath, the mop now only inches firm the head of the dead mare. Finally, the mops extension stopped and its user was rewarded with a unmoving, non responsive equine. Realizing he was about to suffocate, he let out a loud exhale, dropping the cleaning instrument in turn, breathing heavily. Jeez, felt like I going to ha-

        A shallow groan announced itself from the room, petrifying Jester stiff. The corpse lifted its face from the checkered floor, which was covered in blood, eyes milky white, lifeless. The shuddering colt watched as the walker slowly rose from the floor, its growls intensifying, black bile dripping from its lips. Close the door.

       He didn't even move, to shocked by the now risen mare, it began making its slow walk toward its prey, exposing teeth of grey. Close the DAMN DOOR! Finally snapped back into reality, without a moments hesitation, he quickly grabbed and shut the door, too late for the walker to kick the pair of sun glasses into the hall, them bouncing off the back wall.

       The corpse on the side slammed on the door, making it shutter as Jester did when he heard the deep throated howling from the cadaver. The stallion cold hardly breath, he jut sat, trying to reciprocate from what he just saw. The blood covered corpse, those eyes, no life, no soul just...dead.

        He picked up the pair of glasses, examining the blood smeared on its lens, one missing.

        The traumatized colt heard some hoof falls from the beginning of the his hall, refusing to move," Jester, I found some-" She was looking over Jester, still holding the them, staring at it intently. She noticed the muffled growls and groans from the door in front of him and gasped quietly, piecing together who was being that door,"Vinyl..."

                                                                                              ********

        Gagging, Jester pulled his head out of the vomit filled trash bin, wiping the khaki bile from his lips, tasting the nearly vomit inducing liquid. Octavia sat next to him, who coaxed him as he threw up.

         “You alright now?" With a quick, jarring cough he nodded, pressing the back of his head against the black wall, looking at the ceiling. All him and the mare next to him could focus on was the snarling and growling from down the hallway, it digging into their very souls.

           “What did you find?" He asked, hoping that she found what he had found in the undead's room.

           The questioned sighed, " A few boxes of bar snacks and an old radio." First the stallion was going to question why were there bar snacks when a bar was absent, but  that radio surfaced first.

            “Where’s that radio?" Jester now felt a surge of possibility, getting up and about to go down the hallway, green rod between his teeth.

            “Third door on your right." And with that, following her instructions, he returned with an old CV radio, fitted with a walkie-talkie, the radio itself had a worn wood finish. He set it down across from Octavia, who scooted a bit closer to, the retriever siting himself down. He took the walkie-talkie and gave it to Octavia, " I’m going to work the frequency you send out a distress signal." The radio operators nodded in unison and began, the distress putting the walkie-talkie inches from her lips.

              "If you are hearing this, we are in distress. There are two of us trapped in a club in downtown Las Pegasus. Please help us." She put the black box to her ear and received only static, so she repeated the message. She repeated the message over and over again, static there only answer. Within a half an hour, Octavia signaled him to stop and rubbed her temples, beginning to get a headache.

              "This isn’t working," the mare stated the obvious, ", what was in your rooms?" Jester just kept turning the dials on the radio, his eyes grown large. No there has to be something on this thing, someone, please don’t make me-

              "Jester!" Is what Octavia yelled to snap the broken colt back to Equestria as the radio crackled and became silent, breathing being heard on the other end.

             There was a moment of silence, both paralyzed by the possible receiver on the other end. Octavia acted first, "Hello?"

             “How many of you are there?" Was the question given by a heavy country accent on the other end.

             “Two, were both in a small club in downtown Pegasus."

             “Okay, were going to go look for you guys, whats your name and your friend?"

             “I’m Octavia and my partner is Jester, who are you?"

             “Colonel Macintosh of the EMC."

                                                                                              *********

On the next Surviving

             With a metal clang, the delivery truck backed up into the front entrance of the club, and anxious Jester and Octavia taking no longer than a second to open the metal door and climb into the metal tube behind it. Once in, a large red stallion clad in a tattered black officers uniform brought the  metal sheet behind them down.

             The stallion looked back at both of his new guests, his greying blond mane draped over his forehead, a gin plastered across his face," Well its nice to meet you guys person."