Apocalypse

The dead of the night was abnormally cold for a late summer evening. It was quiet when it was supposed to be booming with activity. Where people used to crowd, cheer, and laugh together was now a baron wasteland with the occasional wandering corpse on the prowl.

Princess Luna could not feel any more uneasy and repulsed by the dead of the night. There were no stars in the sky, no moon. It was all clouded by the smoke and brimstone of burning buildings and homes. The beauty that once graced the hours after dusk was now ruined by this apocalypse of a deadly disease.

Princess Cadence saw no better. This city had little specs of love floating about like an aftertaste, something that once was. Wherever they were, either in the city, or passing by a neighborhood, it was the same. No one was around, but the love remained in small flakes. As Princess of Love, she couldn't help but shed a few tears for them. So many innocents robbed of their livelihood, of their loved ones, by this... raging pandemic. It showed her that there was no love here, not anymore.

Nate made the turn from Eddy Street onto 5th, heading down towards the only nearby gas station that was on the way towards the Museum. However, along the way, he began to slow. There was an inn three intersections away from the station. That alone didn't catch his eye. What did was the police car rammed into the side of it.

Roland spotted this as well, giving a side look to Nate, as if asking if he was sure. He nodded lightly back, stopping there and taking off the seat belt. Opening the door, he strode towards the police car, noticing that there was gas spilling from it.

'Shit... A risk that might not be worth taking, but...'

He shook his shotgun, feeling it clink in his grip.

'This is next to useless now, and I don't have any shells left...'

Steeling himself, he moved towards the car, opening up the back door and setting the shotgun inside. Looking around, he noticed the officer's body inside had no chance of coming back. His whole forehead was caved in by... something. Definitely something larger than what he could find around here. Picking through his holster, he blinked when he saw a familiar shine of something metallic and black. Taking the uniform away, he sighed in relief when he found the cop still had his Model 27 magnum on him.

'Thank god...'

He took the holster along with the gun as he scavenged the car for all the bullets he could get with it. Once he had all he could reach, which was the weapon, along with enough bullets to reload the gun six times or so, he shut the door, leaving the worn shotgun behind and jogging back to the car. Climbing back in, he grinned as he showed Roland what he found.

"Huh... Nice..."

Nate rolled his eyes at Roland's lackluster reaction, closing the door and continuing onwards towards the gas station known as Shell. Pulling in, he found himself a spot that wasn't occupied by an abandoned car. Getting out again, the others accompanied him this time, wanting to stretch their legs after a moderately long drive.

"Alright... This place seems to have self-service, but hopefully..."

Nate approached the pump, looking it over before hissing in irritation.

"Dammit, I knew it. No good. All these pumps are self-serve only. We won't get any gas unless we put some money into it."

Cadence tilted her head.

"Money?"

Roland hummed as he walked to Nate's side.

"It's currency in our world. It comes in many different forms, but here in America, it's centered around little slips of green paper that have been stamped with certain numbers. Thing is, though..."

He shook his head after finding no alternatives himself.

"The money that we have wouldn't fill the car up to even a quarter. I'd wager that we all left it behind in the hotel."

Nate gritted his teeth as he pulled out his new handgun.

"And I'll be damned if I'm gonna go back there. Stay here, Princesses. Keep yourselves by the car and if there are any of those things shambling nearby, do not make any noise. We'll be back before long."

Nate walked back around the car, leaving them as Roland glanced at the two Ponies, pointing at the gas station itself.

"We'll be right in there if you need anything. If everything goes smoothly, we should be in and out real quick."

The two nodded, leaving Roland to follow after Nate as they began to converse with each other about this world and its many marvels. The gas pump itself was revolutionary, as they've only began to make the basic pumps for extracting such a resource in their world. Even the car filled them with wonder, as it resembled that of a train, but without a set trail to follow. Standing up on her hind legs, Luna peeked at the screen that was showing various messages, her curiosity peaked when it asked about a Shell gift card, or if she were a member.

"Erm, no, silly machine. I am not a member of your establishment."

Cadence rose an eyebrow, watching her Auntie interact with the pump, even poking it a few times.

"Machine? What is this... PIN you speak of?"

The pink Alicorn let out a small giggle as she walked around the car, looking around at the surroundings to see what kinds of shops were nearby.

Little did they know they weren't alone.

As for Nate and Roland, they entered the shop quietly, not even hearing a bell ring upon entry. Keeping their guns trained forward, they moved on towards the counter. Nate, keeping Roland covered, stood in the front as the younger Seraph went around and pressed the button for the drawer to eject. As expected, nothing happened.

"Shit. The power's out."

Nate gave him an incredulous look.

"The fuck you talking about? The lights outside are on."

"There's no electricity going into the register. I can't get it open without a key."

Nate rolled his eyes as he reeled back and hit the back of the register, popping the drawer out as the keypad's buttons went flying into Roland's face. The latter of the two boys flinched back.

"J-Jesus, Nate!"

"Oh, quit your fucking bitching. Just grab the money so we can-"

"GAAAAAHHH!!!"

Both boys perked up at the sound of a feminine cry of alarm. Rushing out before Roland, Nate shoved the door open and ran for the Ponies. Roland lagged behind, grabbing a few twenties from the register before following after them. Nate turned the corner to the pumps, only to stop when he spotted the source of alarm.

"What the HELL is that?!"

Standing before the two Princesses, lumbering slowly towards them, was a taller infected woman. She held every key detail that a normal zombie would have, but her head... her BODY; it all covered in blisters. Surrounding her head was a miss-mash of molded skin hardened by age. It only grew around the head, indicating that this was some sort of mutation meant to conceal it from attacks. Two eye holes allowed the thing to see, though its only purpose was to show the purple eyes. It had no visible mouth, but its blistered body was so big that it could pull anything apart, anyways.

Nate took a step towards it with the Model 27 aimed at its shielded head, but stopped when he noticed the fresh corpse in its grip. It looked as if the body was just recently bitten into, and by recently, he figured literal seconds ago. The blood was fresh, and so was the wound.

Dropping the body as it began to twitch, the large infected continued to slowly storm towards the Princesses as they moved around to the other side of the car. Aiming his pistol at it, Nate fired a shot at its back, getting its attention as the body the thing threw down began to writhe. The behemoth of molded blisters turned around, letting Nate see its front side. The woman's jaw was split open, and forced down towards her chest as the infection that covered her head was coming OUT of her mouth.

'Wait... Is all that mold... vomit?'

"K-Krrrreeee...!!"

Nate looked down at the body the larger infected dropped, seeing it melt and dissolve both skin and clothing. Looking back up at the taller zombie, the thing began gurgling on itself, vomiting out more mold that seemed to push the existing hardened bile towards the back of its head. With the wound being recovered by another blister caused by the vomit, Nate began to realize what's happening.

'Is it... regenerating...? Can that thing REGENERATE?!'

"Hhhhaaaaiiiiuuuk--!!!"

He looked back down at the bitten victim as it now began to sit up, sliding out of its skin as if it were a cocoon. The new 'thing' that stood up between him and the taller infected was now some skinless abomination. It had no arms, and its intestines were splattering onto the concrete around it. Its eyeless face looked around before giving off a sound, as if it were... smelling the air.

'Oh, fuck...'

"KRRRRAAAAAHHH-!!!"

Nate gasped as the skinless zombie dashed for him, moving faster than the normal freakshow wanderer. Lunging through the air with its jaws open, Nate barely had time to react. Luckily, he was saved from protecting himself, as the skinless beast was shot out of the air by Roland, who finally caught up.

"Roland! This thing! It's some kind of regenerating super-zombie!"

"Regenerating?! How are we going to kill it, then?!"

The two of them stepped back as the large zombie took a greater step forward.

"We're NOT! Up against this thing, our pistols are more useless than a broken condom! It'll regenerate the shots too quickly!"

Nate pointed to the gas pump.

"You got the money! I'll keep this thing distracted long enough for you to pump the gas. Hurry up, because those shots were pretty damn loud!"

Roland nodded, running around the tall zombie as it took a swing at him. Nate smacked it upside the arm.

"Hey! Focus on me, vomit head! Over here!"

He ducked back from the lady beast's second swing as Roland jumped and slid his way over the hood. Putting in the money, he punched at the buttons, glancing back at Nate every so often to ensure he was still alive, and keeping that giant undead freak busy.

Nate himself had ducked under the large zombie's swipe forward, something akin to trying to viciously grapple something. Rolling to the side, he aimed the Model 27 at it, firing at its face three times before hearing his gun click.

"Shit!!"

He bent himself to slip past a swinging arm, but gagged as the arm came back around and clobbered him in the side, forcing him to drop his small police magnum. Recklessly charging forward, he slammed into the bigger body, tackling it backwards with enough force to put it on the ground. Holding down the large monster's arm, he punched at the vomit that covered its face, chipping it away and tearing enough of it off to see her face. He reached for his gun and grabbed it just as a hand grabbed his neck, throwing him off the vomit-covered woman.

What Nate found interesting in the midst of this fight was the behavior of this new infected mutation. It wasn't trying to eat him. Sure, it was attempting to kill him, but it wasn't going for bites.

'If it isn't trying to eat me, how did that other guy get bit...?'

He didn't have the time to finish his thoughts, as the same hand that threw him off grabbed his head and tossed him into the side of the station's store.

Grunting, Nate pushed himself up, feeling the bruises under his clothing. Looking up at the dead woman, he spotted Roland putting the pump up. He jumped in the car and started it up just as he got Luna and Cadence inside. Turning the wheel, he aimed the back bumper at Nate and the vomit zombie, hitting the gas and speeding towards them.

Nate had managed to get away in time, if only by mere centimetres. The car they got from Hertz slammed into the tall monstrosity, crushing her up against the brick wall and busting off enough vomit to uncover its head again. Nate, seizing the opportunity, reloaded his pistol and fired all five bullets into the exposed head. Once the fifth and final bullet made its mark, the special infected finally dropped, the glowing purple eyes dying out as the head went limp.

Roland kept his eyes on the zombie, awaiting another move. When it didn't show signs of getting back up, he pulled forward, parking in one of the spots outside the store and getting back out. Raising a hand to let the Princesses know to stay, he eyed the body as he approached it, grimacing at its horrid appearance.

"Dear mother of god..."

"Yeah..."

Nate knelt down in front of it, poking at it with a twig.

"Poor girl... This must've been hell when she first changed."

"Changed? What even IS this?"

Nate circled the vomit casing around the head.

"A mutation, I'm sure. See all this? It was protecting the head. Every time we shot at it, the infected would throw up more, and seal the hole. I'd say a single bullet wound took about ten seconds to heal."

"I see... What caused this mutation? We haven't ever seen something like this."

"Hmm..."

Nate poked at the stomach, pressing on the matted flesh till he reached the stomach and upper intestines.

"It seems like the upper intestines and stomach is where most of this bile is coming from... If I had to take a gamble at it, I'd say this is the result of eating infected masses."

"Masses?"

He stood back, ushering down to the body as he turned to Roland.

"Contaminated food, it seems. This person must have had a meal that was tainted, somehow. That would explain the bile, and if the stomach is bloated, I wouldn't be surprised if that infected mass shifted the organ structure of the body, making it taller and stronger than the others."

Roland looked over at the other body.

"And that one?"

"Can't say. He was definitely bitten, but by what, I'm not sure."

"... Are you saying there are more mutations out there?"

Nate shook his head as he walked around to the driver side door, catching the keys when they were thrown to him.

"I'm saying ANYTHING could be out there, and most of it wants to eat US."

He opened the door, sitting behind the wheel and starting up the car again. Roland got in the passenger seat as Nate finally was able to turn the ignition.

"So you'd best buckle the fuck up, Roland."

Hitting the pedal to the floor, he mowed over some zombies that straggled their way over to the gas station from the noise alone. Getting back out onto the street, he turned northeast on Folsom, running the car to its safest limit down the road.

"Things are about to turn from bad to worse..."