The Zombie Chronicles: Road to Sanctuary

Kyle examined each elaborate invention on each table, each intricate tool or machine that filled any and all empty space in the large laboratory.

“Oh, wow...” He said out loud.

Utonium, however, was less thrilled.

“Sit tight, I’ll get your package in just a minute...” He sighed.

Kyle’s eyes widened as he turned to him.

“W-wait, what?”

Utonium turned to him.

“You’re here for her weekly delivery, yes? I had a feeling it was only a matter of time before she would send her lackies to pick them up for her. N-no offense, of course!”

Kyle opened his mouth to correct him, but the wheels in his brain began to turn...

“Yes... y-yeah! Sorry, it’s just that she never really told me why I’m here. She literally just pointed me this way and told me to talk to you...”

Utonium smiled a tad and slowly nodded.

“No foul. I’ll be back before you could say... ‘powerpuff’!” He said, snapping his fingers at Kyle who looked on in confusion.

Seeing the boy’s bewilderment, Utonium sighed.

“Can’t win them all...”

The professor made his way into an adjacent room as Kyle sat in silence, his body instinctually fidgeting after lying to the man’s face. As he sat and nervously waited, he noticed another lab coat-donning scientist much younger than Utonium. He had curly orange hair with rectangular eye-glasses with a light blue tint to them.

“So... you are the new delivery boy?” He asked Kyle with a thick accent.

Sitting back upright, Kyle nodded.

“Y-yeah...”

The new scientist slowly nodded, reading Kyle’s expression.

“I see. Well, then, I’ll stay out of your way.” He said, backing away and walking back down the corridor he visibly came from.

Kyle breathed a sigh of relief and turned, hearing footsteps.

“Here you are. Please make sure they get to her safely, it would be a shame if something were to happen to them...” Utonium handed Kyle a small wooden box labeled ‘fragile’.

Kyle took the box and nodded to the professor.

“You got it. Thank you... for understanding.”

Utonium smiled.

“Of course... now it would be smart not to keep you waiting.”

Kyle smiled back and went towards the exit of the lab. Once he was out of sight, he opened the box, seeing several vials filled with black fluid. On each vial was the same scripture...

“Chemical X?” Kyle read out loud.

Kyle heard quick footsteps from the house. Acting quickly, he closed the box. Waiting for whatever was waiting from, he was caught off-guard when he saw a familiar face...

“Buttercup?” He asked.

“Yo.”

From behind her, yet another familiar face.

“Hey, Kyle.” Blossom said.

Taking a step back, he chuckled.

“Hey.”

“Kyle, we need that box.” Blossom bluntly said.

Kyle gestured as best he could to stay quiet.

“Don’t worry, the X wears off by now. You wanted answers, I’m not faulting you for that. They won’t, either... but it’s very important that no-one else knows what she’s doing to herself... you understand?”

Kyle hesitated to respond, trying to form a proper answer.

“Y-yeah...” He said, handing her the box.

She gently clutched the container in her hands.

“Thanks, Kyle... it was good seeing you.” Blossom innocently smiled.

Instinctually smiling back, Kyle made his way out towards the door, keeping his hands in his pockets.

Clutching the single vial he managed to grab.

Brick and his brothers stood in the forefront, each of their eyes burning red. Sunset and Fluttershy trained rifles toward the incoming horde... Rainbow clenched her fists, ready to deliver speed-enhanced blows. Rarity prepared diamond shields and blades to pierce and bash with. Applejack clutched large nearby chunks of rock, ready to chuck them. Pinkie held several packages of opened cupcakes, tossing one in her hand like a frag grenade...

The side of the Humvee was opened, where several rifles remained untouched.

In moments, countless bloodied or wounded limbs began to show themselves from the small descent in the quarry separating the survivors from the infected.

“Open fire!” Brick shouted.

In an instant, Sunset and Fluttershy opened fire, with Sunset aiding Fluttershy with her aim.

“Don’t worry about headshots, just aim for their chests!” Sunset instructed.

Fluttershy’s compassion was overridden by sheer adreniline as she fired shot after shot, each hitting a zombie anywhere in the chest level.

Rarity shot various diamond spikes at the horde racing towards them.

“Rarity, use your fields to make a choke point!” Brick shouted.

“A what?!” Rarity asked.

“A chokepoint, give them as little space to advance as possible!”

Acting quickly, Rarity formed two massive walls with only an opening wide enough for five zombies at a time to push themselves through. Once the walls were up, Pinkie playfully pulled the cherry off a cupcake with her teeth like the pin to a grenade. With one quick throw and a hand wave, a splatter of icing and blood exploded outward, leaving several zombies a bloodied pile on the ground.

“Good! Applejack, you’re with me, we’re gonna try and break their way up!”

Applejack jogged towards Brick, and they both looked over the cliff and over hundreds of zombies all trying to get through Rarity’s chokepoint.

“Uh... I don’t think we’re going to--”

Brick’s eyes grew red and two intense beams shot out, singeing the rock and burning through various zombies... Despite shredding some of the horde, nothing was destroying the trail carved into the side of the quarry. Applejack took a step back out of shock at what she was witnessing.

Sighing in defeat, Brick looked around for anything he or Applejack can use. He quickly spotted two trucks in the distance.

“Applejack, can you pick up those trucks?” He pointed.

She blinked for a moment, still caught off-guard from Brick’s laser display.

“Y-yeah...”

“Okay, let’s see what throwing them down here would do. Butch, you help her.” Brick instructed the two of them.

Rainbow was on her knees, still distraught over what she had just witnessed with Scootaloo. Brick turned to her and saw her in shock.

“Rainbow! Hey!” He made his way over to her.

He glanced at the other four, seeing them holding the line.

“Rainbow, we need you here... Please.” He knelt down to her level.

Rainbow collected herself, rapidly nodding.

“W-what can I do?”

Brick smiled.

“I need you to help with the horde... can you shoot?”

She nodded.

“Y-yeah, went with my dad as a kid...”

“Good. We could use some of that aim right now...” Brick smiled, pointing toward the Humvee.

Rainbow’s senses slowly returned as she saw her friends holding the line, but the pile of corpses was beginning to stretch outward...

“Got it.” She said, her Geode glowing as she sped and grabbed an assault rifle from the Humvee.

As Applejack and Butch reached for two run-down trucks, Rainbow raced into the horde, opening fire and racing off before they could get close to her.

Seeing their chance, Applejack and Boomer made their way to the ledge together...

“Okay, here’s what I’m thinkin’! We use these to try and block off that path or take it down! After that, we--”

Butch ignored her as he flew up and chucked the truck directly at the horde, resulting in a portion of zombies becoming nothing more than crushed meat. But there was just enough space for them to either climb over or crawl under the wreck.

“Damn it!” Applejack shouted, setting down the truck and turning towards the older boy.

Seeing her anger, he simply shrugged.

“Sorry!”

Applejack bit her tongue as she grabbed her truck.

“Just hope I make this shot!”

With a careful and precise throw, Applejack blocked the rest of the path with the second truck. Several zombies attempted to climb, with many in the front being smushed against the truck thanks to the sudden impact of the horde behind them. However, their struggle was fruitless, and the remaining zombies found their fate waiting for them whether it was a bullet, explosive cupcake, or diamond blade.

Once the dust settled, the group all took a moment to catch their breath... but not Rainbow.

“Okay, okay, we’re good, let’s go!” Rainbow shouted.

Brick looked down at the horde, many of them still trying to find a way to escape.

“Butch, you take Rainbow back. The rest of you are with me, we need to take the rest of them out.”

Rainbow turned to Butch and gestured to the road ahead.

“You better keep up!” She shouted, speeding off...

Butch smiled and sped off after her.

The rest looked down at the quarry, seeing that despite the pile of bodies up top, they barely put a dent in the horde...

“Okay, what do we do?” Sunset asked.

Brick thought for a moment, and turned towards Pinkie.

“Pinkie, how many cupcakes do we have left?”

Pinkie jogged toward the Humvee, pulling out three more boxes containing a dozen each...

“Okay... Sunset, unload your weapon and hand me your ammo.”

Nodding, she did just that, handing Brick her magazine. Brick gestured for Pinkie to hand him the cupcakes and once they were in front of him, he ejected bullet after bullet, crushing each and filling the boxes with gunpowder...

“Oh, I’m liking this...” Pinkie excitedly scurried.

By the time Brick went through the last bullet, each box had a fair layer of gunpowder. He grabbed all three and flew above the horde, dropping each box down into the quarry at an equal distance apart.

“Okay... now!” Brick gestured.

Pinkie giddily waved a hand, concentrating as down below, each cupcake swelled...

“Brace yourselves!” Sunset shouted, quickly crouching and covering her ears.

BOOM!

Three massive explosions rung out from the ground level of the quarry, sending several limbs upward towards the team. The air quickly filled with the smell of sulfur as smoke obstructed any view of the horde...

The girls all looked and saw what had just happened with varying reactions.

“Well, I’ll be damned—nicely done, sugarcube!” Applejack held a thumbs-up for Pinkie.

“That was... a display. Not sure what kind, but it was most certainly a display.” Rarity said, awkwardly stepping back from the pile of bodies.

“Not bad. Not bad at all...” Sunset said, wiping her dirt-covered hands on her jeans.

“I think that did it... We’re done here, let’s radio this in and pack up.” Brick said.

They each made their way to the Humvee, with Sunset and Fluttershy putting their rifles back on the rack. Pinkie ran toward the edge, excited to see the damage of her explosions.

Brick made sure he was out of earshot from the others as he radioed in.

“Princess, do you copy? What the hell was that?! A vehicle of recruits was sent right into a hot-zone! Two recruits are dead, one of them severely injured... do you copy?!”

Static was his response for but a moment.

“Did the girl survive?”

Brick tilted his head.

“What?”

“The girl. Scootaloo? Did. She. Survive?”

Brick sighed.

“Yes, but she’s severely burned and might be suffering brain damage... I had Boomer take her to the infirmary back home.”

Another moment of silence.

“Good. Well done, Brick.”

His outrage was quickly beginning to boil at that response.

As Fluttershy and Sunset surrendered their weapons, they stopped with Applejack and Rarity.

“So, this is our life, now? Kill zombies every day with these guys?” Sunset asked.

Rarity shrugged.

“It does feel nice using our powers, but at this rate, we’re gonna get overworked again... we should see about taking it easy for the next few days. I can’t imagine hordes like this are common.” She spoke.

From the pile of zombies, a hand began to twitch...

“Holy shit! Guys, check out how many zombies I killed!” Pinkie cheered.

Slowly, a corpse with a bullet wound straight through its heart began to rise.

“That has to be at least a thousand!” Pinkie giggled.

Hearing her cheers, the now-proper zombie shambled toward its potential prey... Moments passed as it grew closer and closer.

“We’re coming, Pinkie, just give us a minute to--” Sunset started, stopping when she was the zombie marching towards her.

“Pinkie! Watch out!” She shouted, quickly sprinting toward her.

Before Pinkie could turn to see the commotion, she was grabbed and pinned to the ground by the zombie.

“What the heck?!” Pinkie shouted, trying to kick the zombie off of her.

Brick turned toward the shouts, but it was too late...

Sunset kicked the zombie off and down the cliff. As it hit the bottom, Sunset turned to Pinkie.

“That was close... come on, let’s go...” She stopped, seeing blood from Pinkie’s hand.

Stunned, Pinkie nervously chuckled.

“Uh... Sunset? What’s wrong? I’m fine...” She uttered.

Her breathing slowly picked up speed as Sunset nervously backed away.

“I-I’m fine! I’m fine!” Pinkie shouted, giggling in terror as she rose to her feet.

“Pinkie... stay right there.” Sunset instructed.

“I’m fine! I’m fine! I’m FINE!” Pinkie screamed, her eyes turning bloodshot.

Sunset’s throat began to burn as she took another step back.

“Pinkie...” She whimpered, her voice high with terror and grief.

“I’M FINE! I’M FINE! I’M FIN.... I’N FIOAN... I’M FINNEEE!” Her voice became less recognizable as she roared and sprinted toward Sunset.

Her sprinting was cut short by a laser putting a hole in her head.

Sunset turned and saw Brick, staring at the sight in confusion.

“What the hell... was that?”

From the pile, another corpse began to rise back to life...

“Uh... guys?!” Applejack shouted, quickly grabbing a rifle from the rack.

She opened fire into the zombie’s upper body, but with little results, save for the zombie being knocked back a tad...

“Get in the car, now!” Brick shouted.

Sunset turned to them and quickly ran after them, hopping inside as Brick almost drove off, but stopped and ran out toward Pinkie’s body. He held her Geode and pulled the straps off her body. With it secured, he ran back inside the Humvee and sped off down the road, leaving the pile of slowly-resurrecting corpses.

At the café, Kyle studied the vial in his hand, keeping it out of sight under the table. He looked back up at the clock—5:35. No sign of the girls... He was the only one inside the café save for the one worker closing up for the night.

Maybe they got caught up with work? Kyle thought to himself.

The bell attached to the door rung, and Kyle turned. He saw Sunset making her way toward Kyle. Her face was distraught as she took a seat.

“Sunset, hey! I was thinking you wouldn’t show up... okay, so it turns out that Princess is taking this Chemical X stuff that I think gives her super powers, and--”

“Pinkie’s dead.”

Kyle’s rant immediately stopped as his eyes widened in shock.

“W-what...?”

Sunset looked up toward him, her eyes dried and her voice cracked.

“Pinkie’s dead...” She repeated.

Kyle froze, having no idea what to say or do to that.

Another round of tears ran down Sunset’s face as Kyle pocked the vial and held her in an embrace.

“Pinkie’s dead!” Sunset wailed, holding Kyle tightly.

Kyle held her as she continued to sob. The girl working the café watched on and considered talking to the two. However, she shrugged, getting back to her work.