Zombie Chronicles: New World Order

I stood by the entrance to the cellar, preparing my first few questions for Jet Set, who we still had locked away after his betrayal...

“How many people do you have...? How big is your compound...?” I whispered the questions to myself as I ultimately knew what I might wind up doing...

The last time I interrogated someone was all the way back in Sanctuary. Yeah, Frank was an asshole, but did he really deserve what I gave him?

I almost killed him, and over what? Yeah, he beat Scootaloo, and that was something I couldn’t forgive... that was why I beat him to a pulp, even after I got my answers...

But Jet Set helped get her killed... what if I lose myself again?

“Open the gate!” I heard Kyle shout from outside the walls.

I turned to see Kyle, that guy from earlier, Jason, Autumn, and Aria bring... someone in. He was shaking, hesitating to take a few steps, and he was wearing... some kind of armor.

“Nicholas! We need to get this guy looked at!”

I ran over towards them, and as I did, I was able to hear the stranger whisper to himself... what he was saying, I couldn’t make out entirely, I just heard ‘Marker’, and ‘Necro’... whatever that meant.

“What the hell happened?” I asked them.

Kyle didn’t respond for a minute, and took his breath.

“Call for a town meeting... there’s something we need to discuss.”

“So... let me get this straight—aside from zombies, witches, and sirens, we now have to worry about aliens?” Celestia asked at the council table.

“I don’t know how else to explain what that... thing was. We need to be concerned that there could be more of them around us, and according to what Aria told me, these incidents are happening everywhere...” I said.

Aria then stood up and pulled a map from her pocket, setting it on the table and rolling it out, showing the entire country, marked and labelled with safe-zones and threats.

The earliest count of these flashes were last month—down south, a form of fungus started growing, it must’ve crossed over with the zombie virus because if you inhale this stuff, you die and then you turn... but not as your average zombie.” She then pulled out pictures of the fungus sprouting over old buildings, with spores pumping out and contaminating the inside.

A second photo was of one of these zombies, and the fungus was sprouting out of it, its eyes bulging out of its sockets, and sections of its skin torn open and spores being visible.

“Jesus...” I heard Rainbow whisper.

“There’s more... over in Pennsylvania, the other colonies reported sightings of a new group of survivors with... unique abilities.” Aria said a she set down more photos, consisting of survivors in robes seemingly manipulating the elements around them to fight a horde of the dead—water, earth, fire, and air...

“Incredible...” I whispered.

“Wait, what do you mean by other colonies?” Twilight asked.

Autumn took a moment before chuckling.

“Yeah-- they’re called the New World Order for a reason...” Autumn said as he pointed to the map.

“Excluding us, California’s mostly empty. Nevada has some small towns that have been secured, along with Georgia and Alabama. Farther to the north, Montana has a few safe-zones, but we haven't communicated in the last few weeks... Like we said, Pennsylvania’s pretty secure—most of the locals managed to clear the dead out, so the state’s mostly functioning. Texas is the same, as well—in fact, it’s not much different down there than how it was before...” Autumn laughed.

I just stared at the map, stunned over how little we knew about the country outside of California...

“And how about other nations? Do we know how they’re doing?” I asked, curious for more.

Autumn sighed and shook his head.

“Sorry, Kyle—but all we know is that the border to Mexico’s empty, and there’ve been more than a few zombies found washed up at Niagra Falls... we’ve heard nothing from anywhere besides from the U.S... as far as we know, we’re all there is. Not a bad start, though.” He said, with a small smile on his face.

Sonata, who until this moment stayed silent, let out a scoff.

“Gee, if only Adagio could be here to see it...”

The room fell silent as Aria started to get up from her seat, but Autumn stopped her.

“...I promise you, once this is all over, I will answer for what I’ve done. Not just Adagio, but... all of it.” He said.

I decided to step in and add my say.

“You didn’t have a choice, the Trix made you do it--”

“They just told me to kill someone... and she wasn’t the one I had in mind.” He said, while slightly glancing at Sunset in shame before glancing back at me.

We didn’t say anything as Autumn then went on.

“I didn’t know who exactly I was gonna hit... hell, part of me hoped I didn’t hit anyone, but what’s done is done, and I’m just the guy who murdered his own sister-and-law who had no reason to save him from the personal hell he was living...”

Sugarcoat hung her head at that statement as I heard Autumn’s voice start to crack.

“She could’ve just gone on with her plan with someone else—anyone else... I don’t know why she picked me, but she did... and I finally had a family... a better one. And now... I tore it apart. I need to pay for that...”

Before any of us could add our input, we felt the all-too-familiar cold in the air...

“Shit, they’re here...” Autumn said as he got up from his seat and backed away from the table.

Bloom and I got up, glanced at each other, and walked to the door, ready to face their demands again.

“You should leave your amulet here...” Bloom said.

I nodded and slowly took it off, before immediately feeling weak and tired, my legs giving as Bloom grabbed me.

“Probably... not...” I managed as I put it back on and my strength returned.

We made our way to the door and swung it open, the light blinding us for a moment before we saw the gates in the distance, and the three familiar silhouettes stood there, our guards visibly trembling in fear.

“Ky-le! Let’s have a chat...” The freezing, sinister voice of Icy sang out.

We made our way towards the gates as I kept the radio Apple Bloom gave me in my pocket, ready to broadcast our talk to her if need-be.

“You’re early... what do you want?” I asked them.

Icy stared me down and glanced at my amulet.

“You’re looking dull, Kyle... you’re going to have to keep your strength up.” She said as I glanced at my amulet and noticed that it was losing its color.

“I don’t think he knows what that means, sister...” Darcy said from her side, evilly smirking as she spoke.

I simply stood there confused while Icy set her hand on the bars of our gate, a strong layer of ice covering a singular bar.

“Your amulet feeds negative energy—you need it if you want all of those powers you’ve had lately, and furthermore, we need it, as well. I’d suggest feeding off of the girl whose friends we killed—what was her name, Kat?” She cackled as I tightened my fist in rage.

They took a moment to sadistically laugh for about a minute until Bloom cut them off.

“What do you want?” She asked them.

Her voice almost cuts their laughter entirely as their gleeful faces quickly shaped into disgust. After a moment of uncomfortable silence and staring, Icy spoke.

“Jet Set—you're keeping him as a prisoner, which violates the treaty.”

I glanced over to Bloom and back to the Trix, ready to make my move.

“You left him for dead, we’re keeping him somewhere safe, away from others who might to hurt him—he's not a prisoner, but we can’t just let him walk after what he did.” I lied...

Obviously, we were going to question him—we were going to squeeze out every ounce of information that traitor had on the Trix.

“Careful, Kyle... lying to us is a very bad idea.” Icy smiled as she shattered the frozen bar in her hand.

I stood in silence as my hand remained in my pocket.

“So, here’s what going to happen.. Either you give us Jet Set, or we’ll tear your little settlement apart and make it look like a work of nature... am I understood?” Icy asked, leaning into the space she made in between the bars...

I glanced at her, and back at Bloom once again.

“Did you get that?” I asked the open air as my finger went off of the walkie.

A moment passed as Icy simply tilted her head in confusion... until--

“Loud and clear, Ky...” Apple Bloom’s angered voice said as Icy’s proud smirk faded, and her eyes widened as she realized what I just did.

“You... you...” Icy struggled to say something, but Apple Bloom kept going.

“If you three ain’t back here by the time I’m done with who I’m doin’, so help me, I will force y’all back into that damned book I got y’all from, is that understood?!” She screamed in outrage.

I held out the walkie, and after a moment, Darcy rose her voice.

“Understood...” She scowled while I pulled the radio back as I felt Icy’s cold aura start enveloping me.

“Good, and y’all better hurry, cause you’re runnin’ out of ti—oh, fuck... no, no,you're doing great...” She said as I realized what she was doing and quickly shut the walkie off.

“Didn’t need to hear that...” I mumbled as I pocketed it and looked back up, only to see that they were gone...

“Well-- that could’ve gone worse.” I said as I started heading back towards the warehouse, ready to continue our discussion...

Hack...

“Fall back, find Dainn, he'll protect us!”

Rip...

“No, no, don’t--”

Tear...

“You can’t take us all--”

Slash...

“Oh, God, oh God--”

Smash...

“Please... I beg you—show mercy!”

Step... the room shook as I grabbed him by his hair and lifted him to my face...

“Where was yours?”

I then lowered him, clenched my fist, and punched him in the face. Blood shot out of his nose and went on my torn shirt...

And I punched him again.

And again...

And again...

And again, and again, and again, and again...

My eyes once again shot open as I hear Applejack let out a gasp as I sat up on the bed and panted for breath...

“Jason, are you okay?” She asked, setting her hand on my shoulder.

I turned to her, realizing that I must’ve been sweating, and I couldn’t answer.

“Jason... you haven’t slept for weeks... it’s okay—you can tell me what happened.” She said as she held me in an embrace, one that I returned with tears starting to run down my face...

“Are you sure?” I asked her, knowing that she wasn’t ready to hear it...

“I’m sure— I wanna hear it, all of it.” She sternly said, tightening her embrace.

After a deep breath and a sigh, I prepared myself.

“Okay... but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”