The ground shook as multiple drills made their way through the ground, larger than the one that made way for the elevator, spaced evenly around the clearing. These drills were the main ones and was the only way to get all the vehicles that had been stored in the compound out of it. The people that had designed this place had really thought of everything. Drills had been fitted on top of every elevator, the size scaling with the elevator. The purpose of this was so that people could eventually leave the compound, as the main entrance would have surely been blocked off, and sure enough it was. They had really been lucky though, because of this clearing in between the forest and the mountain they could safely and cleanly make their way to the surface.

O'Malley gazed into the forest where he had seen the creature run into, frowning through his mask. No one was really sure what it was, however they weren't allowed to chase after. Yet, he was sure it looked like a human, that is if you ignored the cone on it's head.

"O'Malley! Get over here!" His officer suddenly called out, snapping O'Malley out of his thoughts.

Walking over, he was careful to avoid the other soldiers that were carrying equipment, the contents unknown, mainly due to the fact that you couldn't distinguish each container, always being the same dark grey, and the same design, with maybe some differences in scale. Making his way over to where he heard the voice, he spotted him speaking with another person, dressed up in the NERO scientist suits he had seen so much when going on missions. It had a single pipe moving from a small oxygen tank on it's back moving into the mask, a filter positioned on the right side of the mask. The visor went across the middle portion of the face, which remained hidden due to the dark tinting of the visor. The officers could only be identified by the stripes that were present on their left arms, yet they were basically identical to all the other soldiers that bustled around them.

Slinging his rifle over his back, he approached them before saluting, "Reporting for duty sir." He said, only gaining a quick nod from his officer before resuming his conversation.

"Just don't go too far alright. We still don't know what sort of threats could lie in those woods." He said, turning to briefly yell at some soldiers that had dropped a container.

"I will be fine. Besides, your soldier here patrolled it right? So he can just escort me around it." The scientist replied, her voice voice being feminine. He would much rather assume she was a girl then call her 'it' the entire time.

The officer hummed to himself for a minute before nodding, turning to O'Malley, "O'Malley, you are to escort Lieutenant Alinsky wherever she wishes to go. But under no circumstances are you to leave her alone. Am I understood Private."

O'Malley saluted once again, saying, "Yes sir!"

The officer nodded once again, "Alright then, I guess you should be off Lieutenant. Now if you'll excuse me I have some morons to reprimand." And sure enough, as soon as he turned around he began to yell at yet another pair of soldiers that had dropped a case.

"Alright then Private, let's get on with it shall we." Alinsky said, moving past O'Malley and towards the forest, causing him to follow close behind.

They continued their trek deeper into the forest, the sun quickly being snuffed out from the thick foliage, only a few rays of it piercing the trees. Alinsky still continued on, occasionally observing a tree, yet never stopping. Finally after a few minutes of this silent walking, she stopped and crouched down, whatever she was looking at being blocked by her body. Moving around he saw the object of her attention, surprising him greatly at just what it was.

Crap.

She was looking at crap.

"Say uh, what you got there lieutenant?" He inquired, watching as she took a pair of pincers from a small bag on her side, picking up a piece of it.

"Tell me private." She said, observing the shit that was currently held in the pincers. Wait, it was being held in the pincers? "Do you see anything unusual with this?" She continued, standing up to show it more clearly to O'Malley.

Leaning forward slightly he looked it over, unsure of what he was supposed to be looking for. He then noticed that there was multiple splinters imbued into the crap, the full colour of the crap now being much more clearer. It was a very dark and subdued green, in fact, it would have been very easily to mistake the colour for brown. Telling the lieutenant of his findings she nodded in agreement.

Before either of them could continue though, a rustling came from a bush about twenty feet in front of them, drawing both of their attention. The bush began to growl as a pair of glowing green eyes could be seen inside the bush. Unslinging his rifle he slowly raised it to aim at whatever was in the bush, motioning the lieutenant to back away slowly. A paw that was made of wood moved out of it's cover, shocking both O'Malley and Alinsky. Slowly but surely the creature fully emerged from the bush, every single bit of it being made out of wood, with thorns as claws, and sharp splinters as teeth. Moss also seemed to grow on it, as well as many small twigs that had little leaves on it.

"Lieutenant." He said, taking a step back as the beast before them took another step. "Get out of here. Slowly. Don't run unless it runs. Do you understand." He glanced back at Alinsky who stood dumbstruck, staring at the creature through her expressionless visor. "Alinsky!" He said, snapping her out of her stupor.

An ear piercing howl was suddenly sounded, coming from the beast, it's maw pointed to the sky as it continued to howl. As if by magic several more of the creatures jumped out of the trees, growling ferociously, surrounding them completely.

Reaching into his side holster, he drew the pistol, wordlessly handing it to Alinsky who nodded, trembling as she raised the pistol to take aim at the one closest to her. Still keeping his weapon raised he used one hand to activate the radio on his vest, yet didn't get the chance to use it as the creatures leapt at them, teeth bared.

Gunshots rang out from the forest, causing all the soldiers in the now assembled surface camp to stop what they were doing and ready their weapons in the direction of the gunshots. Officer Jenkins immediately drew his sidearm while going onto the radio. "This is Officer Jenkins, All patrols report in!" He yelled into the radio, getting replies from all the patrols in the area.Before he could demand to know what was going on another radio joined in, gunshots almost making the other voice impossible to hear.

"~zzrrt~This is Private O'Malley, we need backup now!~zzzrrt~Get to cover lieutenant!~zzzrrrt"

Looking in the direction of the gunshots, he immediately got back on the radio. "O'Malley! Hold on for a bit longer, I'm sending a patrol your way!" He said before looking at the soldiers who had assembled around him, now looking to him for orders.

Pointing at five of them he instructed them to go look for O'Malley and Alinsky, also getting on the radio to redirect several patrols in their direction. Looking at the rest he ordered them to secure the camp and make sure nothing can get through that wasn't NERO personnel. As they all scrambled away, he frowned worryingly through his mask in the direction of the still firing gunshots.

"Just hold on a little longer O'Malley."

Author's Note

I am aware that some of you are unhappy that it is not a zombie story. But there was no way I could find where I have NERO wake up to a zombie apocalypse with it still being related to MLP.

uniform of a NERO scientist