The Graveyard, Equestria
June 5, 5067
[iu]3:45 AM

Fire. Death. Decay.
The smells filled the nose of the earth pony, who was currently holding his breath, sweating and tearing up as he hid underneath a pile of pony and human corpses. Mud and dirt covered his fur coat, blood soaked patches of his fur, pain shot throughout his body and the fear of being discovered was prevalent. Flamers walked among these horrific and brutal lands, a small patch of land set out on the outskirts of everything.

A disease that was killing and bringing the dead back to life was spreading on both Earth and here in Equestria; So Celestia and the president of Earth had decided to dump the infected out into a place known now as the Graveyard; Where any creature that's been infected is sent to die, and then flamers; ponies and humans sent out to burn the corpses and anything deemed to be infected. Corpses were everywhere out here in the Graveyard; Miles can be traveled and you would still be seeing bodies, both burning or rotting.

Alas, this wasn't the case for the earth pony. He wasn't even infected; Not now, and sure as Hell not when he was dumped into the center of this awful place two days ago. He was left here to die by the very people he worked for; Octave Corporations. He saw them do awful things to ponies, dragons...and even their own humans. He nearly blew the whistle on them. But he was caught by them; And now he wad here, with a broken leg and various bruises on his body.

The earth pony froze up as he heard footsteps near him. Boots appeared in his line of sight, as a human flamer stood in his fire retardant gear, his mask muffling his voice as he radioed in something as he kicked one of the corpses that lay on top of the earth pony, using the corpses to hide from these fire spewing guards, who now were his enemy.

"Spaz here; Ain't nothin alive out here in my neck of the woods. What about you, Prancer?"
The man spoke, the gas mask distorting his voice to that of a muffled monstrosity. His flamethrower sparkled in the night, and the earth pony was using everything in his power to stay still.

Spaz's radio cackled.
"Well, yeah; Fuckers are usually dead or undead out here,"
Chuckled the creature on the other side of the radio.

"Oh, fuck you, smartass,"
Spaz continued, looking around now, chuckling. Dark humor was needed for this job; Helps you know you were still able to feel anything, when surrounded by mountains of bodies, and living creatures you'll have to burn alive before your very eyes.

"Ah, you wish. But for real; Ya checked everything? Check under the bodies; Virals tend to hide under them when we come 'round these parts,"
The static cackled. Spaz immediately looked over to the pile of bodies the earth pony was hiding under. The earth pony closed his eyes, praying that the fucker would miraculously not see him.

Spaz sighed, and turned back around.
"Yep. Checked under 'em all. We ain't paid by the hour, Milk. We oughtta head back to do switches."

"Agreed. Be sure to check. Kill and burn."
And with that, Milk clicked off, and Spaz was left alone. He took one last look at the pile of bodies, then turned to leave the scene. He decided that the odds of one of those bodies coming to life was extremely low; they would've done so by now anyways, right?

The earth pony nearly let out a shaky sigh of relief as he watched the flamer turn away. The adrenaline that was now coursing through his veins made him want to dance with glee. Both fatigue and common sense stopped him from doing so. He just had to wait until the flamer was gone; Then he'd be able to run free, run to find a way over the wall. But then the flamer stopped; and the earth pony nearly pissed himself.

Scratch that. He did.

Spaz stepped into a muddy puddle and then stopped, glancing back. Fuck...
He sighed, and made his way back to the pile of bodies. Better safe then sorry...
Spaz holstered his flamethrower; And reached out with gloved hands to move a few of the bodies.

But then he stopped when he smelled piss. Froze, when he saw piss leaking out from under one of the lower bodies. Slowly, Spaz reached for his sidearm; Infected weren't able to urinate or shit. Only virals were, if they're in the early stages of infection.

Freezing up was Spaz's mistake; the earth pony was fueled by dear and the will to live now. He exploded from the bodies, Spaz's eyes widening as he was tackled down by the pony. The pony rolled off, and Spaz was stunned by fear and shock. The pony panicked, and saw the knife Spaz had equipped was now inches away from his muzzle.

Quickly, the pony took the chance, grabbing the knife between his teeth and swinging back around to Spaz; Only to be met with a burning pain as flames suddenly engulfed him. Spaz had rolled over, using his smaller yet effective, one use wrist mounted flamethrower on the 'viral'. The earth pony screamed as he stumbled backwards, turning as he ran full sprint, his face melting and fur burning away as the flames began to soread from hus face to his mane. He managed to find that puddle of muddy water, falling face first into it, the burns and open wounds immediately being met with stinging, irritating pain. But the earth pony brushed it off for now, seeing Spaz only now getting up to his feet. The pony turned, and began to go into full sprint.

He saw the wall in the distance; He saw it, and sprinted faster, feeling his broken bone aching and breaking further, but not caring. He was close to making it back to his soon to be wife, and nothing was going to stop him-

Bang.

There was a loud gunshot, and then the pony felt half of his jaw get blown to bits, pain making him yelp and fall forward, into the rocks and mud, rolling a few feet, landing on his side. Spaz had drawn his revolver, and was shaking as he stood up, slowly, cautiously approaching the 'viral'. Spaz had no idea this pony wasn't infected; All Spaz knew was kill anything that even fucking breathed out here.

The pony was trading up, whining and moaning as pain shot through his skull, jaw hanging open and blood everywhere. He forced himself up as best he could, only getting his upper half off the ground, trying to crawl to the wall, crawling to Unity, his beloved fiance; But the footsteps of Spaz were quicker.

Spaz kept the gun trained on the 'viral', who was desperately trying to get to the wall. Not...uncommon for virals, but...this one was still going. Fueled by...emotion?

The pony turned around, shaking his head absentmindedly and facing the flamer, who stared back, gun trained right between the pony's eyes. Spaz felt something was off. This one was tearing up. Scared. Like the others; But...it didn't seem like this pony's mind or body was infected. No...Spaz was starting to realize that this pony may not even be infected at all-

Spaz froze up again. The pony saw this, and lunged up, trying to get Spaz away from him; trying to fight for the right to live.

Bang.

Bits of brain, bone fragments and blood were sent exploding from the pony's skull as the bullet's force cracked the head back, the pony's body falling into the mud, a hoof landing on the boot of Spaz, who was still shaking and shuddering, staring down at the creature he just shot.

Spaz kicked its hoof away, lowering his gun slowly. He sighed, putting it away, still shook from the whole experience.
Infected or not...it was dead now.

Spaz took a few breaths, before removing a small can of gasoline, dumping a bit of it onto the body of the pony.

"Rest in peace.
And may God have mercy on your soul."
Spaz prayed, setting the body on fire with match. He wasn't much of a religion man; But he felt like that one definitely needed some kind of prayers.

And with that, Spaz stood by and watched the body burn; Wanting nothing more but to end this fucking shift.

Author's Note

Welp. There it is. My first "Equestria 5k" Short Story. This isn't my first story, but it is my first ever official fanfic. Hopefully, y'all like it. If not, and plan to make that known; Comment fairly down below! If this gets any amount of likes, I will probably post another short chapter. Hope to see y'all again soon!