Pastel Meltdown

let thy own sin return and corrupt innocence

******Hours Later******

The ride to the castle was fairly quick, a lot of the guards were adamant about not letting the princess ride in the same carriage as the four humans, but her word was law.

The entire trip was silent. None of the four humans uttered more than a few words after the zombie went through that portal. Once arriving at the castle, a lot of the guards were worried for Celestia after they saw the four humans caked with blood across their clothes.

They followed the princess silently as they went through corridor after corridor. After a while, they ended up at a very huge doorway with engravings of the sun and moon. There were, of course, more guards standing watch. After a few whispers from Celestia, the guards opened the door and let everyone in before silently shutting it.

She turned to the four who stood facing her, she took a minute to compose her thoughts before speaking up.

“Now, explain everything from the beginning; leave nothing out, is this understood?” She looked over each of the survivors, for a moment there was silence, then, Bill walked a few steps ahead of the others and spoke up.

“Alright, you might want to sit down. This will take a while.” Nodding her head in agreement, Celestia took a seat on the floor. The other three survivors followed her action as he began his tale of the infection and it’s outbreak.

********** 5 hours before Outbreak, POV Bill **********

It was a sunny Pennsylvania day, birds were chirping, kids were playing out at the park across from my favorite coffee shop. The owners were good friends of mine, they knew what I wanted the second I walked through that door.

This day seemed to be going good, everyone was happy and it seemed the day was cheery enough to make Francis not hate it. Anyway, I walked into the coffee shop with the smell of decaf burning away in the machines of theirs. The tv was turned on for once and the news was being broadcasted.

I walked up to the counter and decided to greet the owner while he was on duty. “Hey, Marty.” At first, he seemed to not notice me even after I spoke right to him.

I tried again, hoping he would at least realize I was right there. “Marty, you there?” I snapped my fingers in front of him. “Marty!” I leaned in and snapped my fingers again, this time in his face, not even a blink. Then he pointed to the tv before grabbing the remote and turning the volume up.

“That’s right ladies and gentlemen, a disease has been identified by the CEDA corporation in the pennsylvania area. They call it the Green Flu, today we have a CEDA member to explain just what exactly this ‘Green Flu’ is.”

The screen changed from the news reporter to a scientist with a blank white wall behind him. “So, basically, this is a mutated strand of the mad cow disease. It has mutated into a flu form and is not deadly to the most of us. This is exactly what it is, a Flu. Nothing more, nothing less. If anyone is infected with the green flu please contact the CEDA corporation, and we shall take care of any infected with the green flu, I assure you. The CEDA corporation advises all viewers to go home, lock your doors, and stay inside until they can take care of the people who have the green flu. If someone is infected with the flu, do not approach them. Call the CEDA, and members will be in your city to take care of each individual appropriately and humanely. Thank you all for your time.”

The tv switched back again to the news reporter. “Thank you for your time, Mr. Garson. Well folks, you heard it from us, now back to our latest story about a boy who-” The tv flicked off and Marty turned to me, we were both worried about what the news had just said.

Marty decided to speak up finally. “So, venta cappuccino extra foam and two extra shots, am I right?” Marty started to smile warmly again, as if the broadcast had never happened.

I eyed him a bit, he didn’t seem to care “Uhm, yeah. That sounds good ‘bout now.”

He almost mechanically told me the price to which I paid for before sitting down at one of the tables. Staring out the giant window like walls, I saw what looked to be a sickly young man swiping at birds in the park. I started to feel a lump in my stomach when a bus passed in front of me, obscuring my vision of the man attacking the birds. When the bus stopped blocking my vision, the man was gone. Barely visible on the ground where the weird guy was, was a dead bird.

“-The fuck is going on?” I wondered before Marty called over to me.

“Hey Bill! Got your coffee right here.” he said, signaling for me to come over.

As soon as I got close enough to him, I decided to make some small talk. “So how have you and Samantha been, Marty? Doesn’t it get bothersome with her bad smoking habits?” I took a big gulp of my drink before he spoke up in response to my question. “We’ve been good. It’s a problem I’ll admit, but it’s a more likely chance she would burn me alive before giving up her smokes.”

“I heard that Marty!” Samantha’s voice was heard from the back room, to which Marty made a sort of god fearing face for a split second before it became his usual premiere smile.

After a few meaningless bits of chit chat, I finished the coffee and went home. It was a decent sized flat in the apartments; not the best, but it was home. It had been months since I kept in contact with some of my old friends. Last I heard, Wade’s daughter just got into college, so I would need to go see him for old times sake.

It was getting late and I decided to go to sleep, skipping dinner. I never really felt like eating tonight.

******************

I awoke to the annoying buzzer, slapping the off button. I stumbled out of bed, grabbing my wallet; I managed to get dressed in my favorite army green pants, white shirt and green jacket. I decided to get myself a quick breakfast before heading out again. Just a fairly simple one, eggs and toast.

I got a call once I was finished. Picking it up,I found Marty on the other end.

“Hey, Bill. You there?” his voice was hoarse and scared.

I started to clench my fist nervously when I spoke up. “Yeah? What’s wrong Marty?” He started to pant heavily now, he didn’t respond for a long while, each second felt like a minute.

“The, the flu. I don’t know what the fucks going on man!” He paused and took a breath before speaking up again in his whisper like tone “This can’t be a flu man, we got cannibal people with sickly grey skin running around eating anything that moves!” I felt my stomach clench up in fear at where he was going with this. “I-I was opening the shop when....Oh god why!” The line went silent for a long while.

Eventually, I found the will to speak again. “Marty? You still there?” I heard heavy breathing on the other line, signifying he was indeed still alive.

“Y-Yeah I’m still here. One of those t-things bit me when I was opening up the shop. I managed to barricade myself and Samantha in but I’m not feeling too well. Do you know wha-” The line went silent for another long while. I heard Marty’s phone drop to the ground, quickly followed by agonizing screams from the owner of the phone “AUgh, AAAHHH, waugh!” After a few sporadic sounds his screams, the screams turned into wails, after that, they became high pitched hungry sounds that to me didn’t sound human.

Then I heard it. I heard Samantha in the background. “Marty? Is everythi-” then the sound of the phone shattering was heard. I started to lose it mentally and I looked outside to see some random grey people stumbling around the early hours of the morning.

I started to think Marty was just pulling a joke on me for the time I accidentally burnt him,but there was no luck in that, I saw a few of the grey people start dashing for a woman who was on her cellphone on the sidewalk adjacent from my apartment.

I rushed over to my gun closet. ‘Thank god they license automatic guns in Pennsylvania.’ I thought as I pulled out an m16 and two desert eagle pistols. Grabbing a few extra clips and my lucky beret I kicked open my door, gun at the ready. It was silent, too silent.

I started carefully making my way through the halls, looking around the corners before making my way through them.

‘Empty, empty, empty..’ Something didn’t feel right, as I passed through the hallways and made my way to the stairs, everything continued to remain silent. No crying babies, no screaming people, what was going on? ‘Do they still think its only a flu?’ I wondered to myself as I made my way to the staircase. I got closer and spied a large quantity of blood caked on the ground, the few bodies there were lying against walls without heads or in the middle of the hallway as guts, ‘Hey look, I think that guy just stole a spleen.’ Dammit those jokes were getting to me.

Facepalming myself, I carefully started my descent to the first floor of the apartment complex. I peered outside, none of those sickly grey bastards were in sight so, of course, I snuck outside and, like a paranoid moron, looked in all directions multiple times before continuing.

I was about halfway to the shop when I heard some inhuman moans from behind me, I turned around in time to see a grey female dart towards me. I quickly pulled up my m16, but I wasn’t fast enough and the woman smacked it away from me. She stopped for a second before trying again, this pause gave me enough time to pull out my pistol and shoot her directly in the face. She fell down immediately and didn’t get back up.

I started hearing more moans heading in my direction, so instead of face them I decided to pick up my m16 and make a dash for the shop. I was about a block away anyway.

…..Big mistake assuming I could avoid the undead running towards there. Now I was inside the shop with about twelve of those Green Flu bastards outside banging on the boarded up windows. The lights to the shop were burnt out so I had to use the flashlight attachment for my m16. ‘Gotta love paranoia and its force of habit to prepare for anything and everything.’ I thought as I turned the corner into the backroom. I was greeted by the site of a grey Marty devouring the head of Samantha. I managed to not be noticed by it as I hopped immediately behind a corner as soon as I caught sight of what was before me.

I started mumbling to myself. “Shit shit shit! C’mon think Bill! Shoot him or let yourself die. Okay you know two things: one, This alleged ‘Green Flu’ ain’t a goddamn flu. Two, your best friend is eating his wife.” I thought over what I just said again. “Well fuck me..” I turned back around to see that both bodies were gone, I started getting nervous wondering where they went.

I looked down to see the blood trails leading off into the open backdoor.

I sighed in relief thinking that the ‘thing’ must’ve taken Samantha’s body out of here and won’t be coming back soon.

...I sighed too early, the sound of crashing in the front windows came loud and clear, prompting me to run like hell.

A/N: Alright guys! The next chapter will continue this story of ours!