Problems of a Dead World

Chapter 11: First... Second... Maybe Third Blood

"You put... a knife... on the end of your gun?" Shining asked, lowering his still-smoking Uzi.

Earl nodded and raised his forearm upwards, resting the top of the gun against his shoulder, looking like a complete badass.

"Damn. I want that now..." Macintosh replied, looking down to his M4.

Earl shrugged and walked forwards, examining the steel door in front of him. Painted on the wall in bullet-holes, was a crude looking Smiley Face. The human chuckled slightly and looked over his shoulder to Shining.

"Hey, don't look at me." The blue-haired man said with a smirk.

Earl paused and looked over his other shoulder, where Twilight was waving with a sheepish smile.

"Impressive..." He said, letting the weapon fall from his shoulder and taking it in both hands.

The shotgun wielding human took a deep breath and eyed the door to the armory.

"You guys ready?" He asked.

Shining, Macintosh, and Applejack nodded, readying their weapons. Twilight however, shook her head and raised an eyebrow at Earl.

"We can't just charge out there." Twilight said.

Earl paused for a moment. She was honestly right, a dozen gunmen versus their five was obviously a losing battle. He lowered the shotgun to his side and thought for a moment.

"You're right..." He whispered, looking around the room for a moment.

"Can we get a distraction?" Mac asked, lowering his rifle.

Earl turned around and scanned the shelves once more, before finding yet another thing that sparked his interest. He took a few steps in the direction of a small, bright-orange box hanging on a nearby wall, Shining following behind him. As Earl neared the small box, he handed his shotgun to Shining, who took it with his eyebrow raised.

"What do you see?" Shining asked, now juggling two guns.

Earl payed no attention to Shining and simply threw the box open, revealing a large amount of supplies labeled "emergency". With a determined expression, the human began fumbling through the box for a moment.

"One sec..." Earl said, searching.

After several moments, the human gave a silent cheer and pulled out a small orange tube with a handle on the bottom.

"What the hell is that?" Shining asked, his interest peaked.

"It's a distraction." Earl said, grabbing a few red pellets form the emergency kit as well.

"That little thing?" The blue-haired human continued.

"Trust me," Earl replied, retrieving his shotgun from Shining. "I've seen this in a video game."

As he came close to his friends once more, Earl pressed a small button on the handle of the device in his hands, and the orange tube flopped open. With a steady hand, he slowly placed a pellet inside of the tube and flipped it upwards, securing it in the handle. He gave a small nod at Twilight and took a few more steps towards the door.

"Now... are we ready?" Earl asked quietly.

The four humanized-ponies nodded, readying their weapons.

"I can't hear you..."

"We're ready, Earl." Shining said, the M4 placed firmly in his shoulder.

"I can't fucking hear you."

"He said we're ready." Shining replied, slightly louder than Mac.

Earl sighed.

"Get mad." He continued.

"Why...?" Shining asked, raising an eyebrow.

Earl paused and turned around slowly to face Shining.

"Because. These shit biscuits want to kill us." He said grimly.

"Did you just say shit biscuits?" Mac asked with a slight chuckle, lowering his M4.

Earl scowled.

"Mac. Would you like to hear what they said about your sister?" He asked.

Applejack raised an eyebrow.

"What?" The blonde-haired man asked.

Earl cleared his throat.

"'I can't wait to get my hands on that country bitch.'" Earl stated.

Macintosh's eyebrows quickly narrowed.

"Does that make you mad?" Earl asked.

Big Mac simply nodded, his weapon slowly making his way into his shoulder again.

"And Shining, I don't even have the heart to tell you what they said about Twilight." Earl said, looking to Shining Armor.

The blue-haired man gritted his teeth and raised his weapon to his shoulder as well.

"Girls. I'm assuming you'd like to shut those pigs up?" Earl said, looking between Applejack and Twilight.

Both gave no reply, their weapons already in position.

"Well," Earl said, turning back around and taking a few steps to the panel beside the door. "now that we're good and angry..."

The human reached for the panel as his four companions fell in line behind him as well. Shining's expression carrying a look of pure determination, while Applejack and Macintosh both wore scowls. Twilight was the only one who seemed remotely worried, but kept her gun steady nonetheless.

"Stay close." Earl said, flipping a switch on the panel under the light that read "secured".

A small beep sounded from the panel, causing a small amount of shuffling and shouting to be heard from the other side. Earl closed his eyes and pressed a small button under the switch that read "open". Instantly, a small latch sounded from inside the large metallic door. Very slowly, the large piece of metal began to part from the door frame, causing voices to sound on the other side. Shouting things like "get the fuck over here!" and "they're coming out!". A nervous fire sparked in Earl's stomach as the door began it's agonizingly slow process of opening. Each of the humanized-ponies tightened their grips on the deadly weapons in their hands, readying themselves for the fight that was lying ahead.

On the outside of the slow-opening door, more footsteps were heard, along with voices shouting the same things. Earl could tell that they were building up outside of the door, readying their weapons, and finding cover. The barrage of gunfire from inside the armory must have scared most of them, because the shouting was desperate and shaky.

The door slowly reached it's halfway point of opening, the survivors in the armory still out of the view of the doorway. It continued, inch by inch until it finally reached the wall revealing the inside of the armory. For a moment, everything remained quiet, the tension building between both the two enemies. Earl's breathing was heavy, and nervous as he tried to process the amount of destruction he and his group were about to cause. He had killed massive amounts of zombies... but humans? They can think, feel, shoot back...

With one final deep breath, Earl emerged from behind the wall and raised the orange tube, extending his arm and revealing himself to the crowd on the other side, which consisted of roughly eight armed soldiers. Before any of them could react, Earl pulled the trigger of the small device in his hands. Instantly, a high-pitched whine screeched throughout the walls of the narrow hallway in front of the armory, followed by a bright, nearly blinding red light. The light quickly made it's way through the air and planted itself in the stomach of one of the soldiers. Needless to say, the flare caught the attention of every soldier in the hallway, allowing Earl to ready his shotgun.

"GIVE EM' HELL!" Earl shouted, sending his first shotgun blast into a nearby soldier.

The soldier's flesh instantly gave way to the shell and his flesh tore, sending a ghastly scream from his throat and a considerable amount of blood to the floor.

Macintosh and Shining came out from behind the wall next and began their barrage of fire. Despite their previous practice, neither were a very impressive shot, and only ended up hitting two of the soldiers, sending them to the floor. As his comrades fell, the soldier hit with the flare gun screamed in searing pain as the flare burnt away at his stomach, causing his flesh to bubble and give way to the intense heat.

"Bursts!" Earl shouted, re-chambering his shotgun and preparing for the next shot.

A nearby soldier had readied his rifle and was ready to open fire, but Earl quickly beat him to it, sending another shell flying towards the guard. A splatter of blood appeared on the wall behind the soldier as he fell backwards and onto the floor without a sound. Macintosh quickly snapped his arms upwards, allowing himself to look down the sights of the weapon. Another soldier was crouching over the screaming man, the flare still burning away at his flesh. Mac wasted no time in dispatching the soldier, and unleashed a barrage of bullets that collided with his torso. With a pained groan, the soldier fell to the ground, bleeding profusely.

Macintosh, Earl, and Shining glanced around the hallway frantically, searching for the soldiers that remained. Footsteps were heard making their way down the hallway rapidly, signalling that some had retreated. Before victory could be claimed however, one of the guards reached his head out from behind a small piece of cover and shot a small burst at the three. The three were spared a gunshot, but Macintosh and Shining were shocked immensely. As his two companions froze in fear, Earl rechambered his shotgun once more and charged forwards. Before the soldier could make any movement, Earl reached his weapon over the small cover and stabbed the make-shift bayonet into his stomach with as much force as he could muster. Instantly, the flesh gave way to the cold steel of the knife as it dug inside the soldier's midsection, eliciting a cry of pain and terror from the soldier. Not letting up, Earl fired his shotgun, the barrel dug halfway into the screaming guards stomach. Causing blood to explode out of both his front and back, painting Earl's shirt in another fresh coat of blood.

Earl quickly pulled the end of his now bloodied shotgun out of the dead soldier and shoved his body to the ground, then turned and examined the damage of the situation. Blood was pooling around each of the dead soldiers and the ghastly screams form the burning man still continued. With a scowl, Earl walked over to the screaming soldier and examined the wound in his stomach. Slowly, he inched the end of his shotgun closer to the wound and pressed the cold knife against the burning flesh, causing the soldier to scream even louder. With one thrust of his arm, he dug the bayonet into the soldier's stomach as far as he could, and gave it a sharp twist. Seconds later, the man dropped his arms and let his head fall to the side.

"Clear..." Earl said, breathing heavily.

Macintosh and Shining looked up and around at the carnage. Shining gagged slightly at the exposed flesh and bits of human littering the floor, but was able to hold it down. He looked back to the armory and swallowed nervously.

"T-Twilight... you can come out... just... close your eyes..." Shining said shakily.

As Twilight and Applejack exited the armory, their eyes shut tightly, Earl examined the solider he had just killed. After a moment, he reached down and felt around the soldier's chest for a moment. Within a matter of seconds, he found exactly what he was looking for, and with one brisk pull, broke a chain that was resting on the fallen man's neck. Waiting in Earl's hand was a small piece of metal, imprinted with various information. He raised the tag up to his eyes and examined the name imprinted on it.

"Valka... Weird name..." He said.

The human simply shrugged and stuffed the small piece of metal in his pocket, then turned to his waiting friends.

Click-Click

"Let's go..."

End of Part 2