“Think it’s still overrun?” Dee asked Limestone during the drive towards the first gas station next to the lighthouse. It would be a short drive down the road, past the bungalows and some minor crashes. He was hoping it would be a clear drive with no dead to run into.

They’d have to stop just short of driving straight into the station because of what the others said. If it was true, then the station was probably still overrun with the survivors trapped inside.

Limestone was in the backseat alongside Marble, arms crossed as they drove across the road. The occasional bump jostled the whole group, more noticeably with the mares. He noticed the extra movement immediately and had to force himself to focus on driving and not on the bouncing tit-flesh behind him and to his side.

“Maybe.” Limestone murmured and glanced out of her window at the world passing her by. “There was a massive… herd of those things when Rainbow and I were making our way back to the Tower. Too many for either of us to fight off alone.”

“Survivors were there too? I remember you guys mentioning that.” He knew who was there, but if that herd of undead was as big as they said it was, odds are they were dead. That door at the station or barred windows weren’t meant to hold off hundreds of bodies.

“We didn’t count how many, but there were some people inside.” Limestone confirmed. “I doubt they survived.”

“Maybe they did though!” Lyra turned around to peek at Limestone. “Don’t count them out so quickly!”

Limestone glared at the unicorn mare, forcing her to recoil. “Rainbow wanted to help them, but there were too many for us to fight off alone.” She looked out of the window again. “It’s been a few days since and they’re probably dead by now, there’s no way that door held with how many were pushing against it.”

“B-but...” Lyra’s ears fell back as she slowly realized just how right Limestone probably was.

Dee figured she didn’t want to believe it, but even he knew what Limestone was saying was accurate. If there were that many going after that station, and pounding away against that door, then no doubt they lost the fight and were long since dead.

That could have been us… he knew only too well. He counted their lucky stars they got out when they did at the tunnel station weeks ago, odds are if things had gone a different way then they had originally, they could easily have met the same fate.

They drove in silence for the next few minutes, lost in their own thoughts. Eventually, the turn he was looking for appeared; they saw a sandy path to the right leading down to the beaches below, and a road left heading up to the lighthouse.

Further along, a bus was parked with luggage spilled out onto the ground, and a few bodies. A little further? Nothing.

The gas station came into view, prompting Dee to slow to a halt next to some trees and bushes.

“Okay, best we go and check it out on foot.” He put the truck into park, turned it off, and pulled the keys from the ignition.

He pocketed them as an afterthought.

Lyra was the first to step out, with Dee and the others following. “So what’s our plan here?” She asked Dee, who pulled out his hammer and adjusted the handgun tucked into the waistband of his jeans.

“We scout out the station from here, see just what we’re dealing with.” Dee started for the bus nearby, his hammer held tight as Limestone followed close behind. Marble was right behind her, and Lyra was the last in line.

He crouched down and the others followed suit. Dee took cover near the pile of luggage at the back of the bus and cautiously peered out towards the station.

They were all able to see the state it was in, and it wasn’t good. There was a large snarl of vehicles that had parked around every pump, some had crashed around the front creating a sort of barrier to keep other cars from pulling in or escaping. Off to the far left where a road led down to the marina, there was a large tourist bus that had tipped over, having been hit by another bus. The wreck blocked off the road entirely.

In the middle of the crowded station, they could see a few dozen of the infected wandering around. All was silent, save for the shuffling of feet and the occasional moan from the undead.

“Doesn’t look much different from when we were last here.” Limestone commented from where she was standing over Dee’s crouched form.

Dee couldn’t help but notice she was leaning forward in such a way that her bust just barely grazed the top of his head.

He didn’t complain, wondering if all the Pie sisters were so well-endowed.

“Y-yeah,” He cleared his throat lightly and focused the best he could on the station. “Looks like we were right about the survivors as well; the door is smashed in… sorry, Lyra.” He took note of Lyra’s silence.

“Okay, so what are we supposed to do here?” Limestone grumbled. “There’s too many of them for us to take on alone.”

“Honestly? Not sure,” Dee admitted with a scratch of his head, though he briefly forgot Limestone’s breasts were almost resting atop it . His hand brushed against them; his fingers even tweaked a single soft and perky tit of one of the meanest Pie Sisters he knew of.

He froze and stared straight ahead, his fingers feeling paralyzed against her ample flesh. He saw Lyra shooting him a tiny smirk out of the corner of his eyes .

“Already going for Limestone?” She teased him. “You’re one brave stallion.”

Dee suddenly feared for his life when he felt a hand grab his own, firmly.

“Brave or stupid. How ‘bout you wait till we’re inside before grabbing my tits, yeah?” Limestone told him as she removed his hand and gently pushed it down. “You can grope me later, after we’ve done what we came to do.”

Dee’s cheeks warmed, suddenly having a vision of the meanest and most dangerous Pie sister dominating him, mounting him from above. “I uh… d-didn’t mean-”

He didn’t get to finish before Lyra spoke up, diverting their attention. “There’s too many of them, and I don’t think we can fight through them. Is there any way we can distract them?”

“Uh…” Dee made an attempt to compose himself before looking out ahead and tried ignoring what Limestone said. He didn’t even want to know what was going through Marble’s head in that moment, given the fierce blush on her cheeks.

“U-uhm… we probably could,” Dee said for distraction, trying to focus on the problem at hand. Still, he wasn’t sure how they would. He didn’t have anything on him that could draw any of their attention, save for the handgun. But wasting a valuable bullet just for that? No, he shook his head. There had to be another way.

There were so many of them crowded around the entrance, with a few stragglers off to the side. All of them were herded under the station’s canopy and blocked in by the cars and trucks, which was keeping them from wandering away easily. If they had something to chase after, that could get them to move and clear the way.

But were they really willing to risk that, for supplies that might not even be there?

But no matter how many times he turned it over his head, he kept coming back to the same conclusion—that there had to have been something there if the survivors held out; between the food, water, and the precious gasoline that was still underground. It had to be worth it, and more to the point, he was the leader of this little outing. He could get these ponies hurt or killed if he made a mistake. And he wasn’t sure he could live with himself if he did.

“Well?” Lyra murmured, breaking into his thoughts again.

He answered after releasing a single sigh, “Sound would be the most likely way of drawing them, either something real loud or someone deliberately drawing their attention. I don’t really want any of us risking their lives like that if we can help it, but other than my gun, we don’t have anything loud enough to draw their attention. And I’m not about to waste ammo like that.”

“You may not want us to, but what other choice do we have?” Limestone peered out further. Ahead, Dee followed her gaze and saw a few healthier looking infected running around, chasing something. “Maybe we should just give up on this place? Is there anywhere else we can go for supplies?”

Dee searched his memory of the game. He knew of only a few places they could go instead; the other gas station, a few warehouses. A grumble escaped him at the game’s limited playing field; there weren’t many places to go, save for the city of Moresby nearby, but the way there was blocked off by tunnels chock full of wreckage and the infected.

The resort area was small, with places few and far in between that would have any decent supplies. With how many survivor groups there were, the odds of the supplies lasting without moving to a new location were slim to none.

A murmur from Marble drew everyone’s immediate attention, given how was rare it was to hear her speak.

Dee turned to her. “Huh?”

Her cheeks were red, and she hummed nervously. A tap from Limestone caused her to speak up. “Something’s c-coming.”

Dee turned back towards the station and listened alongside the others, and they couldn’t hear anything, at first that is.

Suddenly the sound of tires peeling out on the road further ahead sounded, the air was filled with the loud horn blaring, and at the sharp turn, a large rust red bus swerved in from out of nowhere at full speed. Whatever was going on inside, he couldn’t tell.

The group watched the bus blazed a fiery path down the road, smashing through some of the scattered Walkers and Runners roaming around, crushing them underneath the immense weight of the vehicle. It made a sharp left turn, smashing into and throwing a small car out of the way before hitting another bus.

The impact was great enough to cause the vehicle to tip over sideways hard and fast, where it began to slide down the other hill heading down towards the docks to the north. The crash was obnoxiously loud. Metal crunching and warping from the force, before falling still.

The crash and the resulting sound of the blaring horn was enough to draw the attention of every creature surrounding the gas station. One began to move, followed by another, and another. It wasn’t long before most of the runners began sprinting towards the crashed bus, followed by their slower counterparts.

It opened up a clear path to the gas station's front entrance.

“Well…I guess we have an opening now.” Lyra commented.

Any distraction was a welcome one, especially if it cleared out the horde. He felt sorry for whoever was driving the bus, but there was nothing they could do against that many infected. Dee stood up and dusted off his pants. “Alright, let’s go while they’re distracted! Make it quick girls—we move in, move out, and then head for the next station.”

The girls nodded and stood up, quickly following his lead across the road and through the foliage. They stuck to cover to minimize their profile and make sure the other nearby monsters didn’t spot them. Which was an easy enough task, given their distraction

The horde began to disperse. The faster ones were climbing over the slower ones, vaulting over vehicles and the short concrete walls to get to the crashed bus currently smoking. The walkers huddled together into a thick mass of rotting flesh, pushing forward until they began falling over the edge and hitting the ground, only to get back up and keep moving towards their prize.

Dee paid them no further mind as he led the group towards the station and one of the side walls bordering the property. Once he made it, he vaulted over and into the lot full of gas pumps and crashed cars. He couldn’t help but note that many of them were very old models of vehicles and not ones he was used to seeing in real life, let alone in Dead Island.

Half-eaten corpses were everywhere in the station’s lot, completely eviscerated by the horde that stood there prior. He could only guess they were either the bodies of those who had been hiding inside the building or people who came later in search of fuel and supplies like themselves, only to fall victim to the horde of undead.

The main difference between the bodies and Dee’s group though, was that he didn’t plan on letting anyone die today.

He leapt the low wall and crouched down on the other side of it with his hammer at the ready. Limestone wasn’t far behind him, she jumped over in a single leap and landed nearby as the other girls followed.

Several vehicles created a line leading from the road to the building, a barrier of hastily abandoned vehicles. There was no way they could get any cars out easily, even if any of them happened to be in working order. But that wasn’t something to focus on, for now, he focused on grabbing the potential supplies inside the building and its accompanying garage.

“So many bodies.” Lyra murmured as she knelt next to Dee.

“That’s what these things do,” Dee replied and crept up to the main door of the station. It had been beaten down easily, and the defenses on the windows warped from the sheer force of the undead mob. “They only leave behind chewed up bones and gristle.”

It was a morbid sight, to say nothing of the smell of it, but one he was starting to grow used to the longer he was on the island. The others? He wasn’t sure, though a quick glance at them told him all he needed to know. Lyra’s averted eyes, Limestone’s silence and steely focus, and the now-green tint to Marble’s cheeks.

Moving up to the door, he leaned forward and peered inside with the side of his eye.

The inside was an absolute mess, but still intact from the looks of things. Only one of the walkers remained inside, near the fenced up counter space. He wouldn’t know if any more were inside unless he went in.

Limestone beat him to the punch.

She stood up and strode inside with focused purpose, and he wasn’t given a chance to try and stop her before she ran up to the walking corpse. Limestone planted a foot forward and coiled her arm back, which drew the undead’s attention.

He lunged towards her just as she threw her fist. From his position outside, he watched it sink into the undead’s face. His skull caved in, bone warping and cracking under incredible force as he was sent flying backwards into the wall. Just a single punch was all it took to crush his head, leaving Dee no idea how much this world was affecting the mare’s own natural strength. If she was this strong even without the aid of earth pony magic, the idea of her original self was terrifying to think about, and he was suddenly very glad she had not retaliated for accidentally groping her earlier. For she could have crushed his hand in an instant!

After Limestone looked around and then nodded an all-clear to him, Dee stood and moved into the building, hammer raised. A quick scan of the inside revealed no other undead present, only a few devoured bodies in tattered clothing. He allowed himself to relax as Lyra and Marble entered the building, and carefully looked around.

“Alright, look around and be careful, gather up what you think is good and pack it up.” Dee ordered and quickly made his way around, scanning the shelves and tables for anything they could grab and bring back to the lighthouse.

“Anything we should keep an eye out for?” Lyra asked as Marble tentatively rifled through some shelves.

“Anything with a red cross on it, like medical supplies. Non-perishable foodstuffs; canned goods and the like. Water of course, maybe ammo for the guns we got if you remember what it looks like, and things we can use as weapons.” Dee listed as he ended up joining Limestone in her search. “I bet there are gas cans outside. We can fill them up from the pumps and use the fuel for the bank truck back at the compound and firebombs.”

“You sure do know a lot.” Lyra noticed.

“Yeah, well… when you grow up like I did, you pick up a thing or two.” Dee replied.

Dee found the vending machine nearby, next to shelves of fruits that had begun to sour. The power was still on across the island, but with no one to rotate the stock with fresh products, things were beginning to stale and rot. It didn’t stop him from attempting to pry open the vending machine; a swing of his hammer, and he buried the claws into the lock, wedged in tight to try and break it off with his strength.

But it wouldn’t give, and then he noticed Limestone leaning against the wall next to him, studying him. His eyes drifted to the mare briefly. She was taller than he was by a whole foot, bringing her height up to six feet solid. Her body was chiseled into pure toned muscle from what he could only guess were years of hard work on her family’s rock farm.

And that was to say nothing of that endlessly angry gaze of hers, giving her a strong and intimidating presence.

“You’re not like most of the males I’ve seen,” she reached in to grasp his makeshift prybar and the result was a loud POP that sent the lock that Dee had been struggling with to the floor with a clack.. Marveling again at her strength, and trying not to let his eyes drift downwards onto her two enormous breasts he’d already accidentally touched once, he swung open the door to reveal the relatively intact stock.

“Yeah, I’m a bit of a puzzle, aren’t I?” He proposed and began gathering up what was inside, most of it being various flavors of energy drinks. He eyed the lockbox full of coins and dollar bills for a moment, before making a grab for that as well. “Quite the character.”

“That’s one word for it ,” She helped him out and grabbed what she could after tucking the hatchet into her pants, handle first. “Most stallions I know are too scared to do anything violent. Too timid to take charge of things, or do anything like what we’ve been doing.”

Dee brought everything he gathered to the counter space, where Lyra and Marble had already placed a few items of interest; snack bars of varying flavors and sizes, candies, a few cases of juice and water. They amassed quite a pile of supplies already, and they weren’t even close to finishing looting the place. It was shaping up to be a good haul.

“Don’t mistake what I’m doing as being fearless.” Dee chuckled and looked up at Limestone. He straightened out and with a cock of his hip to the side, he said, “I’m absolutely terrified right now.”

“So you’re scared but still doing this? Then you’re really not like the stallions I know,” she notedly idly; for a moment, her gaze on him almost seemed to turn appraising.

“Thanks, I think…” Looking outside, at the bodies laying around, he fidgeted. “I’m nervous as all hell, shaky, and who knows when my next mistake may end up being my last, but… no point in laying around whining about things, ya know?”

“Yeah. I know,” she said, starting to stack the boxes they’d filled so they could carry them out.

After returning to grabbing canned drinks out of the machine, he also made it a purpose to try and break open the box that held the money in it.

Not necessary, but he was a greedy bastard.

He thought he saw Limestone’s lip quirk up into a half-smile before she wandered off. A smile from her? He must have said something she liked.

The group moved a little quicker to gather up what they could, storing most into bags and boxes near the counter. Before long, they had managed to accumulate a good amount of supplies, mostly snack foods, various fruit and energy drinks, and soda. Enough to last a week or more if they did it right, but with how many people they had? It wouldn’t last long.

“We got a lot here.” Limestone looked through some of it. “But it isn’t enough, is it?”

“No, not with how many people there are at the tower,” Lyra commented as Dee looted behind the counter, gathering what he could to add to the pile, but he was mostly pilfering from the register.

Looking up from the register - after finding it only full of coin - he said, “there’re still some other places to check for supplies; the other station we came from originally I know has supplies hidden in the storeroom, and the warehouses down by the docks to the north, there may be some supplies there we can snag for the group.”

Limestone and Lyra glanced at him. “Are you sure about that?” Limestone wondered.

“Would there be any boats there? At the docks I mean.” Lyra asked him. “Docks usually have boats.”

“I wouldn’t hold out any hope for boats,” Dee breathed quietly as he stuffed some supplies into his pack. “The military who quarantined the island probably made sure to eliminate any possibility of the infection escaping, which probably means no boats or ships we can use to escape.”

As much as he wished that wasn’t the case, it was probably true. The island was big, and there could be a boat or ship still hidden somewhere, but a decent seaworthy boat? They would need something big enough to carry them and their supplies until they reached the mainland, which would be a difficult task. Besides, he wasn’t sure how to even pilot a boat, but there was only one way to really find out.

“I think we’ve gathered up everything we can find inside, let’s go check the garage and gather up what fuel we can get before moving on.” Dee informed the group as he grabbed his pack and one of the bags. “But be careful, that bus probably won’t last forever for a distraction. Marble, Lyra, I want you two to take what we gathered and head back to the truck, Limestone, I’ll need you to stick with me.”

As Marble grabbed a couple of the bags, Lyra asked, “Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

“I got her muscle, and the gun on me. We’ll be fine.” Dee reassured Lyra with a smile, before heading to the back door with Limestone.

The door leading outside was wide open, and a trail of blood led to a pair of bodies up against the fence that surrounded the small enclosure. From there, both survivors could see out to the bus, which was being torn apart by the horde of monsters.

Dee and Limestone could see the windows being smashed, and inside… the people being viciously torn apart by the hoard as they shrieked in fear and agony.

“Gods...” Limestone whispered to whatever deity she prayed to.

Dee backed away from the scene and turned around to face a ladder that led up to the roof of the garage. As he started for it, he paused briefly to turn and look at Limestone. “Horrible as it is… we can’t help them. And this is what we’re going to be seeing for a long while until we escape the island.”

Limestone just watched the chaos for a bit before following after Dee. She watched him climb up the ladder, then she started after him. “Is it always like this in this world?”

Halfway up the ladder, he paused and turned to look back down at Limestone again. “What do you mean?”

“Full of monsters like this.” She asked him as she climbed up the ladder. He moved further and climbed onto the roof before waiting for her. “Chaos, destruction...”

Once she reached the top, he held out a hand to her and shook his head. “No, this is something new for all of us I think. This virus or whatever it is is ransacking the island area by area… it won’t be long until it consumes everything unless someone stops it in its tracks.”

“May Celestia grant such a thing.” Limestone surprised him by taking his hand as the duo made their way onto the roof, trying to get a better look at the area around them.

Once there, they were able to get a good vantage point, though Dee half-wished they hadn’t. A single glance around him showed that much of the surrounding area was covered in half-devoured carcasses and many crashed cars he assumed belonged to said bodies. The road heading further north towards the marina was likewise littered with vehicles and roaming infected; a steadily moving wall of undead flesh that was closing in on the crashed bus full of surviving tourists and locals, with a few dozen running infected right behind them.

He quickly realized that the infected would make it there first.

Dee’s eyes scanned the area, before landing on Limestone, who was staring at the bus with wide and unmoving eyes. He followed her gaze to the bus, and he found what she was watching.

It was hard not to watch the carnage unfolding before them, it was almost… terrifyingly beautiful to watch; a shower of blood and cacophony of blood curdling screams and shrieks, the damned souls trapped within would either burn alive as the bus caught fire, or be torn apart as the undead and runners broke their way inside through the glass windows.

But like a train wreck in progress, he couldn’t look away. He sighed as he kept his eyes on the bus.

“I don’t like it, but this is something we’re going to have to get used to, Limestone.” He told her and slowly brought up a hand to rest on her shoulder. He was met with the firm muscle of an earth pony as a gentle wind blew in. “I hope we can get out of here before things get worse… but I don’t know when that will happen.”

If at all.

That last part went unsaid, because he knew that now was the time they needed to have some hope of discovery and rescue from this nightmare, lest they all become dinner for the walking dead that roamed the island.

Dee turned away from it and gently tugged on Limestone’s shoulder to pull her from the view; they had other things to focus on at the moment. Nodding, she bowed her head once in silent prayer, then followed him back below.

The duo scurried across the rooftop before reaching an opening in the garage attached to the main building. The opening led down inside, and even without going down below they could hear the sounds of the undead.

To make it even worse, the lights were off.

“Shit, dark as fuck down there.” Dee tried to angle himself better to look down below. He didn’t see anything… but he felt their eyes on him.

Like daggers in the darkness.

“We have to go down there?” Limestone glanced up at her human companion.

He nodded, patting the gun in his pocket. “The power to the pumps is in there. If we turn that on, we can fill up some jerry cans and stock the station up with fuel. We’ll need it in the coming days, I’m sure.” He didn’t know how many cans were in the building, but he hoped there was enough.

He had no clue how long they would be on the island for, but it wouldn’t be long before the fuel tanks were dried and the remaining supplies were used up. He shuddered to think of that situation; how difficult that would make survival for their crew.

Staying here for longer than we need to, what a terrible thought that is. If we have to stay here for a long time, how long would the supplies throughout the island last? They’re already stretched awful thin in the resort...

He was trying to think of how best to approach the situation when this time, Limestone laid on a hand on his shoulder. “Stay here,” she ordered him, and without another word or giving him time to protest, she suddenly dropped into the darkness with her hatchet in hand.

Dee caught the sound of a wet splat noise, followed by a pained yelp from one of the infected inside as Limestone dealt with them. There were a series of loud slams and thuds, and even some sickening cracks. She’d told him to stay put, but he couldn’t knowing she was down there facing the hoard alone. Maybe she was trying to protect him like one of her world’s stallions, but being human, his mindset was an entirely different one. “Here goes nothing…” he shuddered before deciding to drop down inside as well.

He landed on a few crates and then jumped down into the floor, and quickly twirled his hammer as he scanned for hostiles.

A body flew past him and slammed into the wall with a sickening splat before falling to the floor; a quick look behind him revealed it to be an undead with its head split open.

Ahead of him, Limestone had carved a swath straight through the undead with swift and deadly accuracy; there was no need for precision or even protection when it came to the earth pony mare’s brute strength. The toned rock farmer swung her hatchet with so much force she cleaved through flesh and bone like it was nothing!

But through it all, she made no sounds of victory; emitted not even a single grunt. It was an effortless job for her and she did it well, especially considering…

It made Dee wonder.

She’s taking them down without breaking a sweat… fuck, this is easy for her.

He watched her fight off the ones in front of her, easily breaking bones with one hand, or leg, and cleaving through them with her hatchet.

You know, the others aren’t so eager to kill, but Limestone…

He had no sooner finished the thought before the last undead fell before Limestone’s hatchet, blood crisscrossed the walls and floors in gorey patterns caused by her. She flunt the end of her weapon towards the ground, sending blood flying before letting out a small breath.

“You alright, Lime?” Dee couldn’t help but ask her as he approached.

The mare took a moment to herself, looking around at her work and verifying there were no further infected present. “I’m fine.”

Dee’s mouth scrunched up as the mare walked over to a large panel laden with switches, handles and buttons, and a single red light. She looked it over as he took a gander at the pickup on the inside, as well as the fuel canisters sitting on a shelf nearby, neatly organized.

Well, at least we can bring back a lot of fuel, not like it matters much at the moment.

“Limestone,” Dee walked over to the panel and looked it over, before examining the switches and buttons. He hit several and reached for the breaker switch to flip the power on, but paused to regard the earth pony. “A lot of people on this island are still trying to adjust… especially to the whole… killing these… things.” He gestured to the bodies, personally it didn’t bother him; at least not at the moment. “You adapted pretty quick and it just worries me-”

“Don’t.” Lime told him and looked away, focusing on the panel instead. “You said it yourself a while ago, it’s kill or be killed.” She turned and faced the door leading out of here, and crossed her arms. “Maybe it does come easy to me, but I also have motivation. My sister’s life is at stake every second we’re out here, and I’ll be damned if anything happens to her. Or you.”

He paused before flipping the switch. Did she just say she cared about me? He felt both flattered and frightened at the same time. But not knowing how to ask, he just nodded in response.

A rumbling sound shook the building before the lights inside flickered on, crackling and buzzing. The aftermath of Limestone’s fight was clear now; blood and guts splattered here and there like an artist’s rendition of a battlefield. But that wasn’t why they were here, he sharply reminded himself; they were here for fuel and supplies for the lifeguard tower which would hopefully put them in a far better position to survive long enough to be rescued.

After several moments of tense silence, Limestone and Dee grabbed the gas cans before heading outside through the previously blockaded door.

Marble and Lyra were crouched near one of the pumps, where several vehicles had piled into the station in hopes of getting fuel, only to be overrun. Blood pools stained the ground, but no bodies were to be found anywhere.

Upon spotting the two exiting the garage, the duo waved them over.

As Dee and Limestone approached with the cans in hand, Lyra’s eyes drifted to them and nodded. “Are those what we need? That stuff smells… well, bad.” She made a face.

“That’s because it’s very volatile and flammable. It’s what our vehicles burn to power their engines. Well, most of them anyway.” After setting down one of the cans next to the pump, Dee let out a breath and turned to the girls. “They are what we need, we just need to fill them up with fuel and make our way out of here, then head to the docks to find more supplies to bring back to the Tower…”

His eyes drifted to the bus crash nearby and grimaced, then turned to face the pump. He grabbed onto the handle itself and popped open the jerry can cap, and shoved the nozzle inside. He pulled the trigger, activating the pump to fill the can up.

“That’s all it takes. Do the same for the other cans, and hope we can get out of here without attracting attentio—”

A loud screech sounded, echoing through the air and causing all of them to freeze. They all whirled around towards another abandoned bus further up the road next to the Lighthouse road, and his guts clenched as he saw a small group of infected running towards them.

“Fuck, they must have been attracted to the power being turned on.” Dee grumbled as the pump itself was loud, no doubt attracting the undead. “Shit, we’re gonna have to-”

He stopped once Limestone stepped forward, walking past Marble and Lyra and pulling her hatchet out of her belt. She gave it a twirl before jumping up on top of one of the car hoods, causing it to groan under her weight before taking a defensive stance.

“Fill up as many of those as you can,” Limestone ordered the trio. “I’ll hold them off.”

Dee stood up, prepared to head towards her. “Wait, Limestone! We have to-”

Lyra stopped him with a hand on her arm and shook her head. “Let’s just fill these up and get out of here! She’s really strong, and she can handle them!” She pushed him back towards the cans before going to another of the empty ones and grabbing it. “S-show me how to use it!”

“Right.” Dee spat onto the ground before pulling out his hammer. He rushed over to the can he was filling up and adjusted the handle before clicking the trigger twice, forcing the fuel to keep going without having to hold down the switch. He rushed over to Lyra and took her over to the other pump.

“Take the cap off, shove this nozzle inside,” he explained to her as sweat ran down his face. She clumsily unscrewed the cap and grabbed the pump, mimicking what he did before he spoke again. “Pull this twice and let it sit inside the can, and we can help Limestone out!”

He jumped back from the pump and rushed over to where Limestone was standing just as the first infected rushed over the first car.

A cacophony of snarls from the four behind and clumsy sprinting allowed the beast to jump up and towards Limestone.

She responded with a swift and deadly movement; she brought her fist up from below and smashed it hard into the beast’s stomach. A sickening crunch and violent exhale of breath left the beast before it was sent flying through the air, far above and away from them to fall broken to the ground below.

Her first attacker dispatched, Limestone jumped off of the vehicle and onto the ground, quickly approaching the other infected as they rushed towards her, unimpeded by her violent attack on their own.

Dee slid off to the other side to protect the other path leading to the pumps and to Marble who was content hiding from the chaotic battle taking place. Lyra was nearby as well, holding onto an iron pipe she found for defense.

Two of the infected rushed for Limestone while the other deviated towards Dee, blasting through a bush as Limestone was forced to jump back to avoid a tackle.

Once she landed she had to dodge another swipe and grab before she retaliated with a swift left hook to the monster’s face, forcing it to stumble. The other jumped at her and she ducked under him, and tackled the infected she punched to the ground.

Her fist slammed into the monster’s face, caving it in with one violent motion and causing blood and brain matter to spew from the cracks and crevices, covering her fist, her arm, and parts of her clothing in blood.

The other infected tripped over her, falling onto the ground, and was swiftly attacked by Limestone who whirled around. She kicked off the ground and brought her leg around in a wide upward-arc, slamming a steel toed boot into his ribcage.

Several loud cracks sounded before he collapsed, wheezing and coughing up blood even as he still tried to crawl after her.

Limestone spun once to recover from her kick before bringing up her leg again, slamming her heel into his head.

Near the pumps, Dee was locked in combat with a burly but strong running infected. Dodging and weaving around the infected’s clumsy grabs and strikes, he was quick enough on his feet to avoid the attacks and retaliated; he swung his hammer into the creature’s upper arm and shoulder rapidly. A series of loud cracks signaled broken bones, and he quickly took advantage by rushing forward, slamming his upper body into its stomach.

His impact caused it to stumble, but not before grabbing onto him.

“Fuck!”

“Nng, Dee!” he heard Lyra cry and she rushed over when he looked. She swung her pipe hard into the back of the creature’s head, connecting with a violent crunching sound.

The body fell limp and Dee was released. He quickly wrenched himself from the arms of the infected and shot a grateful look at Lyra, giving her a thankful nod before a quick glance around revealed they were safe, at least for the time being. He then rushed back over to one of the gas cans to check it, making sure it didn’t spill over.

He heard Lyra approach from the side and he let out a sigh. “Okay… we’re good for now. If you can, try to grab the other cans, and let’s fill them up as full as we can before ditching this place.” he looked at Lyra and Marble as Limestone came over. “We need as much fuel as we can get our hands on before heading on to the next station.”

“Right, boss.” Dee’s eyes paused on Limestone’s muscular form for a moment; the confident stride in her step and the way she looked at everything with a cautious eye. Her strong yet feminine body was enough to make him realize he was staring before he turned his gaze elsewhere.

A sign nearby gave him pause again and he stared for a moment. Along the road was a sign that Lyra spotted, following her human friend’s gaze. She looked it over as Limestone gathered Marble’s attention, and the duo went back into the garage to grab the spare cans.

“Gas Shortage; limit of forty-five liters per customer.” Lyra read off and looked at Dee, as if looking for clarification.

He tilted his head. “Gas shortage?” He didn’t remember that either from the game. It was reasonable to assume that during the outbreak, a shortage of fuel was to be expected… but this didn’t seem normal, even for a tropical paradise like this. “Hopefully there’s enough in the station… we kind of need it right now.”

“What does the shortage mean? If there’s not that much fuel-”

Dee filled up the first jerry can before closing the cap with a thunk and pulling it aside. He looked to Marble and Limestone, the duo carrying out the rest of the can shortly. “It means we won’t be able to use vehicles for very much longer, if we run out of fuel we’ll have to move on foot.”

The idea wasn’t the best one, but when it came to survival… they would have little to no choice when the fuel finally ran dry on the island. Hopefully, that wouldn’t happen for some time, and until then, they could enjoy what luxuries they could.

“Let’s just gather up what we can and move on.”

In short order, the group filled up roughly seven twenty liter jerry cans full of fuel and given their size, that was a collective one-hundred and forty liters of fuel altogether. A good amount to store away and use for their vehicles, or Molotov use, depending.

After gathering up all of their supplies, Dee hurried the group along to carry everything back to the truck. The bags of food supplies were hauled out first by Dee and Limestone, while Lyra and Marble hauled as many of the cans as they could; for as heavy as they were, it proved a difficult task.

The massive hoard of monsters nearby served as a very effective reminder that they needed to hurry; the ravenous snarls and tearing of flesh from their most recent victims hastened their retrieval of supplies.

They worked quickly as the bed of the truck was loaded up with both the jerry cans and bags of food and other supplies; whatever they could carry and find that was useful. Upon finishing the loading, they piled back into the truck with Dee at the helm once again.

“Where to next?” Lyra asked as she filed in next to Dee, with Marble and Lime in the back.

“... back to where we first met, if you remember,” Dee answered as his mind drifted to the tunnel gas station down the road. “The tunnel gas station, where we found Liam and the others… there’s still supplies in the backroom that we left there when shit hit the fan.”
“Just so long as Liam’s not there…” Limestone mumbled. “If he doesn’t watch it, I’m going to throw him right over the fence.”

Though Dee didn’t disagree with the sentiment for how often he had been hurt and bullied by the burly lifeguard, he put it out of his mind, knowing that they weren’t going to find him there. It had been a long time since they had initially sought refuge there, and now they were headed back again. It was where they all first met — Dee meeting Lyra and the others, that is — and because the supplies they left there had to still be there, they would have to retrieve them, assuming someone hadn’t taken them already. No doubt they would prove valuable in the coming days, especially with the current situation.

Dee tried to steady his nerves before turning the key over and starting the truck up, and pulling out of the hiding area they were in, and down the road.

The Marina would have been a better option, but it was blocked off currently and they would have to take the long way around.

The station came first.

ooo000---000ooo

The drive to the station was quiet, save for searching radio channels for any kind of station still operating. Nothing came on the radio except static, and a few music stations that played an emergency broadcast signal that looped.

Nothing helpful, or even anything to pass the time as they drove.

A familiar sign told them they were approaching the station, showing the hiked-up gas prices in liters per. More signs above and below detailed gas shortages and a limitation on how much customers could purchase.

The parking lot and surrounding area were thankfully abandoned, save for the dozens of corpses, which allowed them to pull into the station properly.

A bell went off as they triggered the weight below, but there was not a soul around to help them.

Dee and Lyra knew that firsthand.

Dee stepped out first, and the first thing he took note of was the smashed in front doors of the station, and the immense amount of blood covering the frame, the ground, and walls around the entrance. Of the remains of the construction worker that was with Liam’s group, little was left but a few scraps of bloodied clothing… not even bones.

“Is that-”

“Yeah.”

Dee answered swiftly and took a breath before stepping over a piece of torn clothing fabric and into the building.

It was as abandoned and desolate as they had left it, and a quick look showed a lot of the food resources they gathered up were still in the backroom, stocked up nicely on the shelves.

“Feels weird being back here.” Lyra commented after walking in with him, boots crunching overtop broken glass.

The lights flickered and cast a dull orange light over the area, and he saw where Lyra, Dinky and himself had holed up alongside Vinyl and Rainbow when they first came here. He huffed out. “Aye, but we won’t be here long… just to gather what we can and head to the marina.”

He started for the backroom and knelt down. Hearing familiar bootfalls behind him, he paused before turning around, spotting Limestone staring at him.

“So what are we going to do about Liam?”

The silence that greeted her question was deafening.

The question was on everyone’s minds, Dee knew that much. Ever since they arrived here, he had been hot on their heels the entire time. Trying to turn people against them, hurt them, even kill them because of whatever hysteria had taken hold of him. He had injured many of them purposefully, tried taking control of their group, and now he was attempting something at the lifeguard tower.

He wanted to brush it off, say something reassuring, but he couldn’t. It was clear no one trusted any of them, especially the ponies. He was just in the middle of a stupid situation, and the only way out was to side with the rest of his own kind, betraying Rainbow and the others to a fate worse than death.

“He’s becoming a problem.” In the end, all he could think to do was state the obvious.

“Liam? What can we do?” Lyra entered the conversation, stepping into the backroom. “He’s out for blood… and hasn’t stopped since we ran into him.”

“That’s my point. It won’t be long until he does something that is going to screw us all over.” Limestone added and glanced down at Dee. “We can’t keep dancing around it… it’s on all of our minds.”

Dee found interest in the wall, staring at the fading cracked paint job as his mind ran circles around what she said. “You’re right, and I agree with you completely… but there isn’t much we can do about him.” He sighed and stood back up.

“There’s plenty we can do.” Limestone interjected and clenched her fists tight enough to pop her knuckles, one by one in rapid succession. “He’s attacked every single one of us, and he’s injured you.” She pointed out. Her eyes were furious, almost burning from a fury buried behind her green irises. “And when he goes after Marble, I swear I’ll-”

“Lime.” Dee held up his hand and locked eyes with the mare. He was almost shaking from how angry the mare looked, and it didn’t help she was tensed up head to toe; he could make out every muscle in her body flexing, solid like the stone she took her name from and ready to crush an unfortunate soul’s head. “I understand, trust me, I’d love nothing more than to beat his ass… but you have to understand we are outnumbered here.”

Limestone took a few deep breaths when Marble came up behind her, and she tried to relax. “What do you mean…?”

“The entire tower is against us, save for a couple of souls there.” Dee leaned back against the wall and recounted all who was on their side; it wasn’t many. Sinamoi, the doctor, maybe a couple of others like Sam B’s group. “If we started a fight to take out Liam, we’d be outnumbered really quickly. We can’t start a fight there, we’re on thin ice as it is… we have to win everyone over, and starting a fight with one of their more trusted people is not the way.”

Limestone’s angered grunt was the only response he got before Lyra spoke up next. “So we just… let him stay then? And keep trying to attack us or get others to do it?”

“So say we do what you want. We start a fight and then we kill Liam… then what? Do you think everything would just go back to normal?” Dee countered, causing Lyra’s ears to fold back. “At best, we’d be exiled out of our only sanctuary; at worst, we’d all be killed.”

“I-I don’t want to kill anyone…” she said.

“Speak for yourself, Lyra. I’ll gladly kill him. Especially if he goes after Marble. Or you again, Dee.” Limestone muttered angrily from where she was leaning against the opposite wall.

“Limestone!” Lyra gasped, turning to face the earth pony mare. “We can’t do that!”

“Why? Cause he’s a male? If he’s trying to get us all killed, then as far as I’m concerned, he deserves it.” She pushed off of the wall and stood in front of Lyra, towering a whole head over her. The other mare flinched at her display. “Make a distraction somewhere, draw the whole group away and I’ll pull him away… and kill him, no one will ever know.”

Lyra nearly recoiled from her words, even Marble looked disturbed. “L-Limestone… what’s gotten into you? W-we can’t do that, i-it’s wrong!”

Limestone clicked her tongue and leaned down to get into Lyra’s face, and said, “we’re not in Equestria anymore, Lyra… the Male Protection Laws don’t matter here.” Her voice was little more than a harsh whisper. “I give you my word that if he so much as looks at Marble wrong, I’ll snap his fucking neck.”

Dee’s legs nearly shook from her tone; from the way she said it and the piercing look in her eyes. She wasn’t making threats, this was a promise, and he knew she meant to keep it. Could they stop her if it came down to it? Keep themselves from getting kicked out of the Tower?

No chance in hell we could stop her, he now knew after seeing her in action; an utterly unstoppable and pitiless force of nature powered by earth pony strength and stamina. Not without shooting her…

He fought his terror-filled legs and managed to utter, “Look, uh… l-let’s just focus on getting these supplies. We can talk about Liam later… preferably while we’re not in danger of getting killed.”

There was a very tense silence before Lime backed off and walked out of the room. Marble stayed with Lyra and Dee, breathing heavily and hugging herself. It seemed she was not spared from her own sister’s frightening energy. Lyra was visibly sweating bullets before leaning back against the wall.

“Gods…” Lyra swallowed.

Dee turned around and let out a breath before gathering up what was abandoned, stuffing a few of the candy bars into his pockets before grabbing some other things. “Does she uh… hate males or something? I noticed what she said about… protective laws?”

He glanced back to see Marble shaking her head. Her mouth opened to say something, but she closed it soon after. Lyra opted to speak for her, saying, “the Male Protection Laws. I assume you humans don’t have something like that here?”

“No, nothing of the sort as far as I know.” Dee turned and faced her, curious now. “My world doesn’t have anything like that. What are they anyway? In fact… it seems like wherever you guys come from, you have some… strange views when it comes to the male population here, why is that?”

Lyra wiped her forehead and smiled briefly as her hand ran through her hair. “The Male Protective Laws are in place to-” She paused, glancing at Marble again. “-well, some history first I guess. The first thing you need to know is that Equestria has a very skewed male to female population where the mares outnumber the stallions five to one.” She began to explain, with Marble nodding along to her explanation. “Five mares to one stallion? There was actually a crisis a couple of centuries or so where the number of available studs had dropped substantially-”

Dee blinked hard, realizing that yet another fan belief about Equestria had proven true, covering his thoughts by grabbing a case of supplies nearby and jerking his head towards the door. “Let’s walk and talk, yeah?”

“-Right, sorry.” Lyra quickly gathered up what she could. Hurriedly she followed after him as Marble closed in behind. “Anyway; the number dropped really low to the point that monogamy had been outlawed. Polygamy took its place and herd-life had become commonplace to try and even out the numbers, even today there are still so few males. So the Male Protection Laws were put into place; basically, it's a series of laws that forbid any male from coming into harm, like being in active military service, construction, emergency services… if it could harm or kill a male, they were forbidden, but there are exceptions.”

A load of information to digest, Dee’s head nearly spun as they walked outside to the truck, and loaded up what they grabbed. As he set down some of the items and strapped them down, he turned to Lyra. “That explains why you guys are so protective of males…”

Lyra’s cheeks flushed and she uttered, “not any male though…” She cast a look his way and smiled. “You’re different from the others.”

He lifted a finger and scratched at his cheek absentmindedly as his mind drifted back to a certain event; the memory of what he, Rainbow, and Lyra, did brought a smile to his face and a sudden swelling of his loins. “Heh, maybe…” His cheeks turned a rosy tint before he looked back towards her. “So males are just heavily protected then?”

Lyra blinked and cleared her throat before nodding. “Yeah. Stallions are a… rare commodity back home, especially ones who have an open slot in their herd. There’s a limitation to how many mares one stallion can have in his herd, and it’s usually capped around five or six mares.” She chuckled and turned to lean her elbow on the truck. Lyra gazed out at the island as a wind blew over them, and continued, “The thought of even hurting a male is a crime, and to… kill a one? Even talking about it could land you in the dungeons and end up shunned for life.”

Her eyes flicked to Limestone who was pacing around, her arms crossed while keeping watch for any monsters. Lyra sighed and turned back to Dee, a sad look in her eyes.

“It’s an instant execution if you’re lucky. To murder a male is the highest criminal offense, and incurs the death penalty, even if they were in the wrong… they’re protected by the MPL, and some take advantage of it and are forgiven for whatever they do. It’s created a pretty rough dynamic back home, and it sucks but… when the population is so skewed, what can we do?”

“That bad, huh?” Dee clicked his tongue and looked off towards the beach nearby, the crashing waves, and the city that lay beyond it. “We don’t have anything like that here. Our gender ratios are nearly perfectly even. People will kill for no other reason than to just kill. Men, women, children even… it doesn’t matter who you are, or what you are, they’ll even kill over the color of your skin, it’s ridiculous.”

He kicked off of the ground and looked back towards the station before rolling his shoulders.

“Interesting to learn a bit more… maybe we can talk some more when we’re in a safer place, Lyra?” He offered as he made his way back to the building.

He didn’t even notice her bright smile.

“Actually… I think I’d like that.”

ooo000---000ooo

After picking the station clean of whatever paltry supplies it had to offer the group, they quickly left the station after a few infected showed up. Their route back took them back to the tunnel entrance into the mountainside which had been blocked off, between collapsed rubble and crushed vehicles, there was no way through to the inner island.

They paused at the hilltop before heading back down towards the hotel, but instead of going straight, they turned left just before the hotel entrance.

“Why is the marina next?” Limestone was amusing to see in the back seat, a six-foot-tall mare covered in muscle hunched forward in the small four-person cab. “What would we need to get there?”

Trying his best to not focus on it that much, he instead focused on the drive down the incline headed towards the ocean. “The marina is sure to have some tools we can use, either as makeshift weapons or something to fortify the Tower with. The walls and the gate will hold off the infected, but for how long? I don’t know, plus we’ll need to defend ourselves.”

The truck rumbled down the incline before reaching the T-Crossing in the road. Ahead of them, a large bus had run off the road and onto the beach, half-buried in the sand. Next to it was a burning pickup truck carrying barrels, crashed onto its side with a sedan beside it, evidence of a bad crash.

The gnarled corpses of the drivers told them all they needed to know.

Dee angled the steering wheel to turn right towards the marina, but the route to the left caught his attention. The congested traffic that blocked off the road called to him, usually a dangerous sort of area to peruse, but the promise of unclaimed luggage and loot beckoned.

“Actually, change of plans.”

Dee turned the truck to the left and quickly drove towards the snarl.

“Holy-”

“What happened here?”

The truck pulled to a stop on the sidebar, and after a moment, Dee put the truck in reverse and angled the front end so that in the event of something going wrong, they could make a quick escape.

He nodded and climbed out of the truck with the girls. A glance up ahead showed collapsed boulders on the road ahead, along with a blockade. “If I had to guess… someone blew the passage further inland to cut off the infection.” I know that’s the case, the BIDF had to blow the passage, but it didn’t work. Derpy told us about Moresby… it was a failed effort and only got more people killed.

Glancing back revealed Lyra had stepped out of the truck with Lime and Marble being next in line. “What happened to the people?” Lyra asked as she and the others looked at the vehicles, all of the cars stuck bumper to bumper as they headed further down the road before stopping at a checkpoint.

“Same thing that happened to everyone else. Devoured, or turned into the walking dead.” Dee told them grimly before approaching one of the station wagons and glancing inside and finding the seats covered in abandoned luggage and bloodstains, and in the front seat… a gnarled corpse of a man. “Ripped to shreds like this poor fucker.”

He sighed and tore his gaze from the body before looking further ahead, spotting all manner of older vehicles, trucks, even a couple of buses and an RV nearby, though further up ahead he saw something else that caught his attention.

Something that shouldn’t have been there.

He almost forgot about the mares as he made his way through the vehicles. Ahead of many cars that looked like they all belonged in a museum of seventies and eighties vehicles, he spotted what appeared to be an old military truck near the blockade. His mind searched and searched before coming to the conclusion it was a Russian truck, an older model that — at least in his world — was being phased out for more modern vehicles, and to top it all off it still bore the Red Star of the USSR.

Why would Banoi have such an old truck still bearing the USSR star?

In fact, why were all of the vehicles he was seeing older cars?

His questions stopped when he felt someone grab his arm, and it nearly startled him into swinging his hammer. His heart nearly shot out of his chest until he whirled around to face Lyra, and realized he was safe.

“Dee, are you okay?”

He swallowed as sweat trailed down his brow, and he wiped it away. He was sweating? Heat’s starting to get to me, I think. “Yeah, it’s nothing. Just… that truck might have supplies in i-” He pointed towards the truck before he heard a crunch beside him.

His body froze and Lyra mimicked him. The two turned to face the camper truck and its torn open doors, and it was then neither had noticed the blood trail leading inside, the handprints, nor the smell that suddenly appeared.

Two bodies were strewn about on the floor of the vehicle, a man and a woman, their entrails pulled out and spread around like clumps of wet confetti. A small humanoid completely covered in bright crimson knelt beside either corpse, arms buried elbow deep inside of the rotten carcasses and shoveling handfuls of putrid excrement and gore into his maw.

Milky white pupils shot up from the bodies as the child glared at Lyra and Dee. The duo returned the glare, and there was silence between them all.

The child’s cheeks split apart as his jaw slowly dropped to reveal jagged broken teeth, and his chest began to rapidly expand.

It took a brief second for Dee to realize what he was witnessing.

“Fuck.”

The infected child reared back and let loose a shriek the likes of which sent Dee and the others stumbling back. The volume was incredibly loud and made their ears ring, forcing them to drop and cover their ears lest they lose their hearing, or bust an eardrum.

Even with their hands over their sensitive organs, they could still hear the shriek.

The wind was knocked out of Dee as the child sprinted out of the camper and knocked him over, and started sprinting wildly down the highway, still screaming like a banshee.

Picking himself up off the ground, Dee shook his head and moved his jaw. “God…” He rubbed his sore ears, ringing persisting for some time.

Lyra groaned and kept her ears pinned down before glaring at the runaway child. “What in the heck was t-that?!”

“No idea…” Dee muttered and spat onto the ground, before watching the child disappear. His eyes turned to the hillsides behind the camper when he heard moans, those of the undead. Shortly after, screeching and snarls joined the cacophony and alerted the group of survivors.

It was then Dee understood what the infected child did, it wasn’t some random screaming monster…

“Son of a bitch, you little inbred fuck!” Dee pulled out his handgun and hammer before backing up. “Fuck, back to the truck!”

He aimed his handgun at the approaching swarm as it descended from the surrounding hillside, a mixture of running infected and walkers stumbling and sprinting out of the foliage and jumping down from the cliff face.

The runners landed easily, the walkers slammed into the ground hard before crawling back up.

There were close to a dozen walkers and perhaps a dozen runners, and with how far they were in the snarl, they would have to fight their way back to the truck.

“There’s too many!”

“They’re surrounding us!”

Dee panicked, they fucked up. He aimed his handgun at the closest runner and pulled the trigger, firing a round and piercing its chest. Blood flew from its new wound and it stumbled forward, smashing into the front end of a car.

“We gotta fight!” He swiftly cursed after and spun his hammer as the runners closed in all around.

“Into the camper!” Lime yelled, and drawing Dee’s attention he saw she was ushering her sister inside.

Marble’s panicked and sickened visage told him all he needed to know.

She had to hide amongst the bodies.

“I don’t care, get inside and hide, now!” She bellowed and shoved her sister forward, and with no other option left, Marble ran inside.

A runner jumped over the top of the camper, shaking it before leaping down at Limestone. The mare was almost brought down and she just barely managed to bring her arm up in time to keep it from getting a good hold of her.

Backing away from another runner, Dee opened fire on the next infected running towards him. Three rounds he fired busted out the kneecaps of two infected and pierced the skull of the third.

Four shots were fired, four less to use.

Around the front end of the camper, a walker appeared and sprang towards Dee with a growl.

“Fuck-” he pulled back his hammer, and swung it forward with all his might, slamming it right into the creature’s skull, sinking the front end of the hammer into the skull. “-off!” He whirled around to fight another walker, only to find his hammer stuck.

A curse and he slammed his boot into the dead walker, trying to wrench his hammer free.

Sweat rushed down his brow as the other walker closed in, and the hammer still would not come free no matter how hard he tugged and pulled.

“Goddamn it!” He kicked the zombie away, hammer still inside of its skull before turning around just in time for the undead to close in.

A quick pull of the trigger sent another round directly into the skull of the walker, snapping its head back and causing it to collapse onto the ground.

He backed away before bumping into Lyra, who was covered in blood and wielding a steel pipe she had acquired from somewhere. “We need to get back to the truck.”

Lyra nodded and kept her back to Dee as they turned to face the other walkers closing in, but mostly the runners who were oddly enough… keeping their distance.

Limestone had killed her assailant and was currently protecting the camper’s torn open entrance as Marble hid in the back.

The infected surrounding them as the walkers closed in watched the group as they fended off one walker after another; gunshots ringing out from Dee’s handgun, Lyra’s pipe crushing skulls and Limestone hacking off heads, they were able to hold their ground as the ground around them became littered in bodies.

Yet no ground was gained in their desperation to get back to the truck.

Lyra and Dee were forced to separate when an infected sprinted at them out of the blue, jumping at the duo. Dee went one way and Lyra was forced towards Limestone, nearly getting hacked by her hatchet mid-swing from another she had killed.

Dee stumbled forward and grabbed onto the camper to stabilize himself, recovering shortly after before turning around. The infected forced him away from the camper despite how close he was, leaving him no choice but to back away and aim his handgun before pulling the trigger.

The round penetrated the infected’s chest, spewing blood as it went through and hit another walker behind him. Blood flowed freely down its chest as the infected kept its eyes locked on the survivor, teeth bared before it collapsed.

He took a breath before getting ready to rejoin the fight, but then a violent-sounding screech from behind him stopped him.

Turning to face the infected threat behind him, he saw there was a creature on top of the military truck. It was crouched on all fours, clad in tropical shorts and its eyes… its face even had been clawed off, and its eyes were missing entirely.

It snarled and hissed before it crouched even lower, and then launched itself from the top of the truck and through the air.

Ignoring its lack of vision, it soared through the air right towards him!

He backpedaled and angled his gun up, but he was too slow. The leaping infected slammed into him and knocked him right into the ground, knocking the gun from his hand, causing it to slide a short distance away, just out of reach.

“Hyug!” Dee coughed out before the infected straddled him, screeching in his face and disorienting him further. He held up his arms as the infected grabbed at his shirt, tearing into the fabric easily.

He felt claws scratch against his skin and screamed.

“Get the fuck off me! Son of a-!”

But his screams were for nothing as he felt the sharpened digits sink into his flesh and tear across his chest. They inflicted almost unimaginable pain as the infected clawed at him, tearing and swiping away at his skin and the sinew beneath!

“AAAAH!”

Dee tried fighting back but found his strength was feeble compared to the monster before him, leaving him helpless before it.

But just when he thought he was dead, a gray hand shot out of his peripheral vision and grabbed onto the infected by his neck, wrenching him away.

His vision cleared to see Limestone holding up the infected by its neck with a low growl. She wrangled him up before winding up, almost like a baseball player, and then chucked him bodily across the road with contemptuous ease, right into a pile of walkers condensed together, bowling them all over with the body thrown.

Dee scrambled away from the camper while the walkers closed in, driven into a frenzy at the scent of fresh blood. “W-we gotta go, now!” Dee sputtered out as his hand came to clutch his chest.

“Dee!” Lyra cried as Limestone stood in front of them, wielding her hatchet and a metal pipe in either hand. Using her as a shield, Lyra grabbed onto Dee and pulled him away and helped him up onto his feet. “I got you!”

The creature that Limestone had thrown into the crowd recovered rather quickly, and another piercing howl escaped its lungs before it leaped off of the corpse it landed upon and towards Lime!

But Limestone was prepared. She dropped her weapons and stood her ground, and when the infected closed in from above, she quickly backstepped and grabbed onto its outstretched arms. With a yell, she quickly planted her foot down and spun hard, still holding onto the monster’s arms.

She spun as hard as she could before finally releasing her foe, sending him hurling like a ragdoll into the nearby mountainous wall beside the road.

The sound of a full-grown man’s body slamming into the stone at such speeds was sickening to hear; Dee could hear the crunching and snapping of bones against stone, the disgusting squelching of soft fleshy organs being demolished and penetrated by jagged bone fragments, all destroyed by the immense force of the throw.

The display of raw strength and power left him with his mouth agape.

“Get the fuck in the truck! Now!” Limestone bellowed and retrieved her weapons before banging on the camper. “Marble! Come outside now! Go!” Marble was quick to move after that, nearly slipping on blood and gore inside the RV before running outside.

She rushed past Lyra who was aiding Dee towards the truck, while Limestone brought up the rear and swung her weapons at any infected closing in, easily decapitating the runners in one fell swing as the group piled into the truck.

Their enemies slain or at least too damaged to pursue quickly, Limestone was the last in and she slammed the door shut, allowing them to drive off finally.

Despite his injuries and haze of pain, Dee stayed at the wheel and steered them clear of any incoming monsters before driving back up the hill towards the hotel.

Forget the Marina, he decided, it was time to head back to the tower.

ooo000---000ooo

During the drive to the tower, Dee’s wounds were tended to by an angsty Lyra wielding a first-aid kit. Awkward as it was, they didn’t stop to mend his wounds, instead opting to do it mid-drive. He couldn’t bring himself to fight Lyra on the matter.

His mind was occupied on the way back, mostly with two very important things he noticed during their fight. The first being the Soviet truck that just so happened to be in the middle of the snarl, acting as if it was a part of the blockade and the reason why people were unable to move further inland. The second part was the two new infected that attacked them.

The screaming child that alerted the other nearby infected, and the leaping monster so similar to another he knew of, one that shouldn’t exist in this timeline. Yet, both of them did, and the latter almost killed him because he froze.

It’s gonna get me killed. He sighed as Lyra finished taping up his bandages around his wound, stopping the bleeding.

“It’s not the best but it’ll help… at least for now.” Lyra wiped the sweat away as she turned to look out of the windshield as they came to the winding trails leading back to the tower, past all of the bungalows and crashed cars.

“I appreciate it, thank you.” He looked in the mirror, back at the Pie sisters and he said, “Limestone… you saved my life! There’s not much I can do to repay you for that, but thank you.” He bowed his head to her.

As expected, she snorted and avoided his gaze. “Just don’t let those things get the drop on you next time, and we’ll call it even.”

He let out a small huff, smiling a bit before he nodded. “I’ll do my best.”

The truck angled around the turn, and Dee was unable to turn in time to avoid running over a dead body, crushing it under the tire. He winced as he noticed a few dead bodies on the road, ones that were not there hours prior.

An attack? He saw a few smoke plumes from above, and outside of the walls was a crowd of walkers surrounding something… or rather, someone and feasting on them.

He swallowed as they approached the gate.

Survivors on the other side pulled the gate open, allowing them to pull inside. A lot of them were wielding bloodied paddles, pipes and tools as the truck came to a stop near the bank truck. Dee turned the engine off before opening the door as one of the survivors walked over.

“Bit late to help.” He muttered, covered in blood and holding onto a pole. He gestured to a pile of bodies near the overlook of the Tower and said, “we just got attacked by a swarm of those things.”

Dee’s eyes followed until landing on the line of corpses nearby, and a lot of the bodies… those were survivors, at least five or killed during the attack. He winced. “Christ… how many did we-?”

“Seven, two got chased outside the walls.” The man explained and crossed his arms. “We lost some good people today, probably would have been less if we had more fighters here…”

Another wince from Dee, that was directed at them. He looked in the man’s eyes and saw it, the underlying anger of them leaving unannounced, and finally returning after a battle had been waged. They had lost seven people as well, and one of them was being torn apart outside the walls as they were talking.

“Are they…” Lyra started as she had exited the car, with Limestone and Marble leaving right after. “Uhm…”

The man snorted and turned around before he walked away.

“Looks like everyone’s pissed…” Lyra noted as it seemed many of the people around were tired, aching, and glaring at the bodies. “This… this isn’t our fault, is it?”

“No.” Dee shook his head and walked over to the truck’s bed and looked inside at the fuel cans and other supplies. “There’s no way we could have known this would happen. I’m sure Liam will try spinning some story, but this is not our fault.” He shook his head and reached into the back before pulling out some of the food and water. “I’m going to bring this to Sinamoi, tell him we brought some supplies…”

Making sure his supplies were gathered up properly, he headed into the lifeguard tower to find Sinamoi.

While he was gone, Lyra sighed and looked at Limestone and Marble. “I’m going to check up on the others.” With that, she made her to the door leading inside.

Lyra made a bee-line through the garage as Dee walked upstairs. Lyra herself went inside the hall leading past the bathrooms, and made a left to the medical office.

To her relief, she spotted Vinyl still on guard. The unicorn smiled upon Lyra’s arrival and waved, to which Lyra responded with a nod. She held up a hand and quickly signed, “Are Derpy and Dinky okay?”

Vinyl replied with a nod, allowing Lyra to feel even more relieved.

“Rainbow?” Lyra asked next only for Vinyl to avoid her gaze, and Lyra’s heart dropped. “I-is Rainbow…?”

Vinyl sighed and signed, “she went missing during the attack. No one knows where she went, but no one seems to care either.”

Lyra’s hand went up to her forehead and horn, and she ran it past that and through her hair with a frustrated growl. Missing was better than dead, but knowing no one seems to care made her even more frustrated. Of course, no one was going to start looking for her, because of what she was.

Maybe if it was a human.

Lyra looked around the inside of the lifeguard tower, the posters, the machines. She left Vinyl behind before heading outside, ready to tell Lime and Marble.

Only to run into Dee in the garage.

Spotting Lyra, Dee walked over. “I can’t find Sinamoi.” He told her, a worried glance in his eyes. “And I can’t find Liam either.”

Lyra’s eyebrow raised. “They’re missing?”

“Either that… or one of the two is the body being devoured outside the wall right now, and the other missing in action.” Dee theorized, and he glanced around the garage momentarily. “If Liam is dead and Sinamoi missing…”

“Dee, before you say anything else…” Lyra swallowed and let out a sigh. “Rainbow is missing too.”

He stiffened at that information; his eyes slowly widening. “Rainbow’s…”

Lyra nodded, fear and worry in her gaze. “I don’t know where she’s at… Vinyl hasn’t seen her, and no one else cares enough to look because she’s a pony.” Lyra bit her lip and shook her head. “She isn’t dead, I know that… she can’t be.”

Losing one of their own, missing or not.

Dee swallowed a lump in his throat before turning to head outside, past Lyra. “Son of a bitch…”

“Dee-”

“No, no… it’s fine.” It wasn’t fine and he knew it, but he lied regardless. “You’re right, she’s not dead. We’ll find her.”

A rumbling in the skies any further conversation as Limestone hurried over, and dark clouds moved in. “Storm is moving in, we need to get these supplies inside.”

Dee fought back her fears and nodded, looking back over to Lyra. “She’ll be alright, Lyra. She’s a tough girl.”

Lyra bit her lip but nodded, and tried to smile. “Y-yeah, she is.”

She tightened her chest and swallowed any doubts she may have had, helping Dee, Limestone and Marble gather up the supplies.

It took some time and the help of a few other people, who offered at least some grudging thanks for the windfall of precious wares, but they gathered everything into the garage before the downpour of rain from the approaching storm. The news broke between the whole group of what happened; between Rainbow going missing and the supplies gathered, and there wasn’t much they could do except rest.

And yet, for as tired as they all were, no one slept easy that night. How could they, knowing one of their friends was missing in action?

ooo000---000ooo

The morning sun was blocked out by the storm clouds surrounding the island, and no one really wanted to wake up to face the day, but they had to.

By force.

Namely with Dee being rudely woken up and grabbed by several people, dragged out of the room he was sleeping in, violently and across the floor kicking and screaming.

“H-hey! Let me go!” He immediately started throwing punches, flailing to try and get free of their grasp, but they either further restrained him or jostled him around to make his efforts futile. Their strength proved too much for his smaller and weakened frame caught off guard.

He was dragged like an animal through the hall of the building and taken outside, in the storm and rain and it wasn’t long before he was thrown out and onto the pavement near the bank truck. He hit the ground hard, knocking the breath out of him and further worsening his injuries from the day before.

“Goddamn it!” He yelled and scrambled back, finding himself in the sudden company of his only friends on this island.

Lyra sat beside him, Limestone guarded a Marble with a bloody nose, and Derpy was holding onto a still wounded Dinky who was still knocked out. Vinyl was next to Lyra, holding a wrench in her hand. Everyone looked roughed up, beaten, and bruised up from a fight, and they were all surrounded by the survivors of the lighthouse.

“What the hell is your problem?!” Dee jumped to his feet and found one of the men pointing a baseball bat at him. It was enough to intimidate him into not moving any closer, but he still yelled, “what the fuck is going o-”

The survivors were fidgeting in place as Dee yelled at them, holding onto makeshift weapons and keeping their guard up. None of the girls made any sudden moves save for Lyra, who jumped to Dee’s side. The crowd began to part as a familiar lifeguard approached…

It wasn’t Sinamoi.

Even worse was the very loaded handgun he was holding in his hand.

“Shit.”

Liam held up his handgun proudly and smiled at the survivors. “Things are changing around here, folks!” The man announced to the whole crowd of survivors. “I’m the new leader of this place, and I’m done housing these fucking mutants.” He gestured vaguely to Lyra and the other ponies, quickly drawing their ire.

“We’re not mutants!” Lyra cried. “We’re survivors, just like all of you!”

“P-please, don’t do this!” Derpy was still holding the injured Dinky in her arms, the latter of whom was breathing shakily.

“What the hell is going on?! Liam!” Dee screamed at the man, who returned the younger man’s look with a very smug look. He tore his gaze away from the lifeguard and looked around the assembled crowd, but he didn’t see their only savior amidst them. “What are you doing? Where the hell is Sinamoi?!”

“He was too weak to protect us,” Liam started and began walking around the crowd. “He wanted us to contact help and wait for them to arrive. He was too scared! So scared-” Liam looked towards Dee and his group, “-that he couldn’t defend himself from the zombies outside our walls.”

There was silence among the crowd for a while, but with what he said it suddenly struck the group, Dee’s in particular. The horde of zombies outside the Lifeguard Tower’s walls, the ‘survivor’ the guards were unable to rescue that they had found, devoured outside. They didn’t know, they figured it was just another unlucky victim or perhaps Liam himself.

Fists clenched, he looked at the girls, then to the man and he growled, “You son of a bitch...”

“Ahh ahh ah! Now now.” The gun was pointed directly at him now, causing his anxiety to flare up. “I wouldn’t piss off the guy with the gun, kid… things are changing around here, starting with the eviction of our mutant residents!” He sounded so cheerful, it made Dee sick.

The ones who were obviously on Liam’s side began to move in, and Dee shouted, “You can’t do this! You’re insane!”

“My b-baby, she can’t move like t-this! She’s still hurt!” Derpy pleaded with them, tears pouring down her cheeks. “Please!”

A few of the people in the crowd were looking uneasy, many averting their gazes as if that would help avoid what they were doing. “She’s infected!” Liam shouted to them after noticing their unease. “She will turn into one of them sooner or later! We can’t risk what we have here because of their mistakes! We have walls, we have food, water, safety!”

“Don’t listen to him! Please, you can’t throw us out! We’ve done nothing but help you!” Lyra started next, standing by Dee’s side. “We risked our lives to get food and water! Why would we do anything to hurt yo-!”

“Quiet!” Liam bellowed and turned to face the group, handgun aimed at them. His finger was gently grazing the trigger, and the man looked seconds away from pulling it. “I should kill the whole lot of you right here, right now! But… I’m benevolent, and I’ll allow you to live…” He smiled.

The groaning outside of the gates told them of his real plan.

Dee’s face turned to horror as he realized Liam’s thugs had blocked off any escape and armed with heavy melee weapons and another one holding the only other handgun they had, they didn’t have any choice.

“Liam, you can’t do this.” Dee started as they were forced to back up to the gate. Derpy was sobbing hysterically and begging amidst Dee’s own pleading, as Limestone and Lyra tried to keep the thugs away from Marble and Dinky. “We won’t last ten minutes out there.”

As the gates opened and the thugs moved in, Liam pointed his gun at Dee and said, “I missed the part where that’s my problem.”

Derpy was grabbed by two of the thugs roughly, and she was kicked out by the men. Someone had grabbed Dinky and to the shock of the mother and several of Dee’s group, threw her unconscious body outside.

“DINKY!”

“You fucking bastards!”

Dee had had enough, and he swung at Liam despite the gun as Limestone charged in. Lyra tried holding her back, but the earth pony mare had charged past the other men and right for Liam.

A flash of light and an earth-shattering boom caused his ears to ring and his vision to go white, and he felt weightless. His vision returned quickly enough though, and a burning hot pain made itself known in his shoulder as another boom sounded, followed by a scream.

“LIMESTONE!”

Dee fell on his ass, clutching his shoulder as blood poured from the wound. He felt dizzy, unable to get his footing back as he looked behind him at the body of Limestone laying on the ground, she had been shot… Marble had collapsed next to her and was sobbing, as Derpy pulled Dinky away as several walkers closed in.

She was screaming wildly as Lyra sprang into action alongside Vinyl, the only two left able to fight properly.

Dee felt himself being picked up before he was thrown out of the Lifeguard Tower and onto the hard pavement, the storm raged on as a downpour of rain threatened to drown them out, but he couldn’t find it in him to get back up as the gates to the tower closed, and the undead surrounded them.

Screams and shouts, and the sounds of fighting and pleading were all Dee heard before blacking out, and he accepted his fate.

I’m sorry everyone.

Author's Note

And thus ends the first arc of Vacation! Ima take a little break from this and work on something else for a bit.

This story is officially the longest one I’ve ever written! I hope you all enjoyed the story do far!

Stay tuned for the next arc!