*TWO WEEKS AFTER FIRST INFECTION*
A dark alleyway, filled with bodies of ponies of all walks of life - most with bites on their necks or arms - sits quietly, waiting for someone to walk into it. Then, the once dark alley is suddenly flooded with light as four figures, wielding weapons, walk in from the darkened street. One of them, a unicorn with purple fur and mane, stops the other three by swiftly raising her hand into the air.
“HOLD UP!” she commanded. She bent down into the light from one of her companion’s flashlight. The light making her M-16 assault rifle glisten. She reached down to one of the bodies and lifted up a handful of green sludge.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
“Jeez, Twi, don’t let that stop you from smearing it all over yourself,” said a rainbow-maned mare wielding a pump shotgun.
Twilight stood, walked to Rainbow Dash, and rubbed the foul-smelling sludge onto her favorite Wonderbolts t-shirt.
“They’re changing!” she yelled
“SWEET CELE-- AW, THAT STINKS!!!” cried Rainbow Dash.
A pink-maned filly standing next to her chuckled quietly but was interrupted by loud wailing coming from inside the door to her right.
“Somepony’s still alive!” exclaimed a Stetson-wearing mare with a thick, southern accent.
Twilight and Applejack walked cautiously into the room.
“Lights on, guns drawn,” Applejack remembered Rainbow Dash saying 3 days ago when they were in a similar situation.
They finally reached where the young mare was sitting in the corner, bawling.
“It’s alright. We’re not gonna hurt you.” Applejack said soothingly as she raised her light up to the mare’s pale face. Her eyes were glowing red and she started to growl. Twilight quickly lowered Applejack’s pistol.
“Lights off!” she whispered through gritted teeth.
Outside, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie quietly waited for Applejack and Twilight to exit the building, when they suddenly heard angry, babbling and screaming coming from the alley entrance. More silhouettes appeared, but these were running straight towards them.
“SHIT! SHIT!” Pinkie screamed. She ran into the room Applejack and Twilight were in.
“THEY’RE COMING!!!” she cried, shining her flashlight directly into the eyes of the undead mare, making it scream like a banshee.
“RUN LIKE HELL!” cried Applejack.
Running as fast as they could they escaped the room. Pinkie closed the door behind Twilight in an attempt to trap the Witch in the room. Loud pounding was heard from inside as the door bulged outward with every hit. The Witch finally broke her clawed-fingered hand out of the door. Pinkie immediately started screaming and shooting through the gashed door with her Uzi submachine gun.
“DIE YOU BASTARD!!!” she yelled.
“STAY CLOSE!” yelled Twilight.
The four stood their ground for as long as they could, but not long after they had regrouped, an extremely tall infected stallion with a large growth on his face appeared in the fire escape above them, and grabbed Twilight with his long tongue.
“NOOOOOO!!” she cried.
“Hang on!” said Rainbow Dash as she aimed her shotgun. Moments later, the Smoker got a face full of buckshot.
Rainbow Dash helped up Twilight while halting incoming zombies with a blast from her shotgun.
“Happy Hearth's Warming Eve,” she said gruffly.
Applejack pulled a pipe bomb from her belt.
“FIRE IN THE HOLE!!!” she exclaimed as she hurled the explosive at the incoming onslaught of undead ponies. Friends. Family. The infection didn’t care who you were, if you were bitten, you weren’t going to live much longer than a few hours after.
Pinkie Pie perked her ears up to a rapid whipping sound coming from above them. A spotlight from the helicopter shown on them, but still, it passed.
“HEY!! DOWN HERE! WE’RE NOT INFECTED!!!” she cried to the helicopter as she ran out into the street. “Damnit!” she exclaimed as the helicopter flew off into the distance.
Although the helicopter didn’t see her, something else did. A short, skinny stallion, wearing a hooded sweatshirt which covered the top part of his face, was crawling on the wall behind her, staring. With a giant leap, he was on her in no time, his large claws ripping into shirt, then flesh. Applejack came up behind him and body checked him off of her friend, and with one fluid motion, once again raised her pistols and started firing. Pinkie, still on the ground, was firing with her pistol as well. The Hunter was backed into a car by now, as Pinkie Pie, this time, aimed for the head. She didn’t miss. The stallion’s body slumped backwards onto the car.
When this happened, the alarm of the car suddenly went off. Blaring and blaring to alert an owner who would never come.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” Twilight said as shadows of hundreds of zombies were cast onto buildings all around them.
They got into a tight circle formation, knowing all too well that they were going to be surrounded very quickly.
It didn’t take long for their predictions to become reality as the infected approached from all sides. The sound of garbled screaming and babbling filled the air, but one sound stood out for Rainbow Dash. A deep, bellowing roar was coming from the direction she was facing. She didn’t know what it was, but she certainly knew it wasn’t friendly.
A car came hurtling violently at them, crushing some zombies underneath the mangled wreck, but came to a stop twenty yards away. By now, the other three had turned around to see what had just happened. What they saw was an eight foot tall infected pony with biceps measuring about two feet in diameter running straight at them.
Pinkie began backing away slowly, gun raised.
“Run or shoot?” she asked. No answer.
“RUN OR SHOOT!?” she said again, voice raised as high as her weapon.
“Both!” answered Twilight.
All four ran from the lumbering beast charging towards them. They ran back into the alley from which they came. Applejack noticed the fire escape where the Smoker’s lifeless body lay and started to climb the ladder.
She reached the top, Pinkie started next. The Tank came around the corner and hurled a rock at Rainbow Dash, knocking her onto her hands and knees. Twilight came to her aid, shooting the Tank before it could crush her friend with it’s fists that were the size of microwave ovens.
But her bravery would come at a price, as she was smacked into a wall by the beasts’ beefy hands. Before it could smash her into juice, Applejack fired five rounds into the Tank’s chest.
“Come on!” she yelled to Twilight. By now, Rainbow Dash had already staggered her way to the top and was waiting for Twilight.
Twilight began climbing the ladder as Applejack covered her. The Tank also started climbing. It’s arms were so big however, it used the multiple levels of the fire escape as a ladder. Twilight just barely made it to the top when the fire escape started creaking and warping from the Tank’s weight. Applejack continued shooting at it, attempting to halt it’s climb. Finally, the fire escape gave out. Applejack tried running and jumping onto the roof, where everyone else was, but didn’t have the height.
“Rainbow!” she cried, fortunately, Rainbow Dash was there just in time to grab her hand before she fell five stories to an untimely death. The rest of the fire escape fell and crushed the Tank. It groaned in pain and gave a death gurgle before succumbing to his wounds.
“We made it! I can’t believe we made it!” Pinkie said in awe.
“Pinkie, we just crossed the street. Let’s not throw a party until we’re out of the city.” Twilight interrupted coldly.
The end of pony kind is just the beginning. The struggle to maintain it is where this story begins. Little do our heroes know, that only fifty feet below them, an army of the undead awaits.
TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 1...
1.1 No Mercy - The Apartments
The roof would have seemed outlandish to anyone not yet affiliated with the apocalyptic nightmare that now stands before our four femme fatales. To the right was a small shed-looking structure where the stairs were. On the left were two tables side to side against the west side of the building. On the first table were two pump shotguns, a bucket full of an array of ammo types that ranged from as big as 12-gauge shotgun shells and 5.56 rifle ammo to small 9mm bullets and .45 caliber pistol rounds, and two Uzi submachine guns. On the other, four small, bright red backpacks with red crosses on them. Magical bandages were a rare find in the zombie apocalypse, yet extremely useful.
"That was some crazy stuff back there." exclaimed Rainbow Dash.
"Just another day in the apocalypse." giggled Pinkie. Her laughter once again being interrupted, this time by the sound of helicopter blades.
A filtered, muffled voice came from the helicopter.
"To anyone who can hear this: proceed to Mercy Hospital for evacuation. Repeat: proceed to Mercy Hospital for evacuation."
The four exchanged looks of what appeared to be a mixture of exhaustion and excitement. Their ears perked up and yet they showed almost no emotion (except for Pinkie, who was already bouncing prior to the pilot's message).
"Evacuation?" said Applejack.
"Yeah, it means "to get out"." jeered Rainbow.
"Ah' know whut it means! B'sides, when did you become such an 'egghead'?" she said mockingly.
"Girls, if we want to be evacuated we should stop talking and suit up." said Twilight sternly, motioning towards the tables, "It would appear someone was kind enough to leave behind some of their gear, let's not make them waste it. What do you say?"
Rainbow Dash walked over to the table and picked up a shotgun.
"I say, 'let's go on a killing spree'!" she exclaimed, cocking the shotgun dramatically.
They all grabbed their weapons of choice. Rainbow Dash and Applejack grabbed shotguns, while Twilight and Pinkie went with the Uzis.
Rainbow positioned herself at the door, waiting to kick it in. Pinkie gave the signal, and Rainbow--
"WAIT!" yelled Twilight. "We don't know what's in there!"
"Uh, yeah, that's why I'm kicking it in. Y'know to surprise attack? Didn't you read Sun Tzu?" she asked jokingly.
"Funny. But I still don't think this is a good idea."
"What would you rather us do, Twi? Sit here and tell stories until those flesh-eating freaks figure out we're up here and break down the door? Your call, 'boss'." she said, this time in an intentionally hurtful tone of voice.
"Rainbow!" yelled Applejack sternly. "She may not make decisions that go along with yer logic, but she's still yer friend. And, Twilight has been a good leader all through this fer us, she stayed behind fer you, after all! Now, unless y'all wanna die with no friends, Ah' suggest you say yer sorry."
Rainbow Dash looked solemnly at the ground. Her fist clenched up, as if she was struggling not to cry.
"S-s-sorry." she blurted quietly. "What was your plan going to be?"
"Apology accepted. You may kick the door, but be careful."
A look of pure, blood-lusted joy swooped over Rainbow's face as she gleefully (but carefully) kicked the door in. Guns drawn, the four proceeded down the stairs cautiously with Applejack taking point and Rainbow bringing up the rear. At the bottom of the stairs was a large pile of dead bodies. To the left was a door that led into a small kitchen/dining area, which Applejack promptly stopped at. She held up a hand to tell the others to halt as well as she slowly peeked her head around the corner. Three infected in the kitchen, five in the dining room. They weren't sneaking past this, it was going to be loud. Applejack once again held up her hand, this time for a countdown.
Three... two... one...
"Now!" shouted AJ, rushing in and taking out the first two in the kitchen with two well-placed headshots and finishing the other with a knife to the snout.
While this happened, Pinkie and Twilight sprayed the room with lead, bringing down the rest in the dining room. Rainbow Dash nonchalantly walked into the room to the fridge in the kitchen and looked inside.
"Damn. Some ponies just don't wanna share food." she said, dissapointed as there wasn't a single morsel to be found.
"We have bigger problems than your stomach, Rainbow. You take point." said Twilight, pointing to a hallway.
"Hmph." grunted Rainbow stubbornly, but did as she was told.
She mumbled to herself as she walked cooly to the hallway, looked inside, and shot two shells into something the rest couldn't see from where they were standing.
"There y'go! All clear! Can we go now?" she said with mock enthusiasm.
Pinkie chuckled and wasted no time to go down the next set of stairs in the hallway. The rest followed loosely behind, looking as though these zombies presented a slim to none chance of harming them. Twilight, being last in line, began going down the stairs but something in the bathroom to her right caught her eye. She did a double-take and rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things. A white pill bottle sat untouched on the sink. She went to retrieve it, but instead found herself face to face with a grotesquely bloated zombiepony with bubbles of what looked like bodily fluids protruding from his lower left jaw. She recoiled at the unnerving sight as the horrid thing belched and vomited a gooey green filth all over her body.
"AAAH!!" she yelled in a tone so high-pitched, every dog in a mile radius started barking. "BLECH!! IT'S ALL OVER ME!!" she screeched as her friends came up the stairs just as the Boomer began brutally beating her snout with a terribly bloated fist.
"What in Equestria--" yelled Rainbow. She barely got to finish her statement as Applejack shot the creature at point blank range. The Boomer exploded, spraying the disgusting bile all over the room and onto everypony in it.
"SON OF A--" cried Rainbow Dash as she went to vomit in the corner. "OH GODDESS!! IT'S IN MY MOUTH!!" she said, tearfully.
"AH! I CAN'T SEE!! IT'S IN MY EYES!!!" moaned Applejack rubbing her eyes.
"FOR CELESTIA'S SAKE, APPLEJACK! WHY THE HELL DID YOU SHOOT IT!?" asked Rainbow, seething with rage (and vomit)
"I-I didn't know--" she replied. Her sentence was cut short as the infected began breaking down the door below them.
"Ready up, everypony." said Twilight, blood gushing from the wound on her face.
"I would if I could see!" said Rainbow, glaring coldly at Applejack.
At that moment, the infected broke down the door downstairs and began running up the stairs at them. They were met with an array of death. Knives, bullets, falling down the stairs. They began being picked off up to three at a time.
By the time it was over, blood splattered the walls and, miraculously, no one living was injured.
"So, this shit ATTRACTS those things?" asked Rainbow to Twilight.
"It must be some sort of pheromone, like bees." she replied.
"Note to self: don't shoot the big guys!" said Pinkie, still shaking.
"You mean note to APPLEJACK! You frickin' IDIOT!" said Rainbow coldly.
"Ah' said Ah' was sorry! Fer crying out loud, Rainbow, y'all sure do whine a lot." she rebuttled.
"I whine a lot!? ME!? Why, you little.." she went to take a swing at Applejack, but was stopped by a suckerpunch to the stomach from Twilight. She fell over on the floor, writhing in pain and clutching her stomach.
"I'm sorry, Rainbow Dash, but you need to learn how to treat your friends." said Twilight.
"Twilight... you didn't need to do that. This whole mess has taken a toll on all of us, and we all cope in different ways." said AJ solemnly.
"No, Applejack. I wasn't going to let her beat you up. I'm fully aware we all have ways of coping, but if her way to cope is beating her best friends half to death, then she needs to be left for dead." replied Twilight angrily.
Rainbow Dash still writhed on the floor, now groaning and foaming at the mouth.
"No!" she cried. "Don't leave me! Please! I'll behave! I'll be good, just please don't leave me!"
Seeing her misunderstood friend sobbing was too much for Pinkie. She ran out of the room and down the stairs.
"NO!" yelled Twilight, running after her.
Applejack was about to run to her as well, but remembered her "friend" that sat on the ground with a hand up to Applejack.
"I'm sorry. Really. I know you've heard my talk about how we've all been through a lot, but I don't think that does this situation any good. I'll just be procrastinating." said Rainbow sorrowful."Will ya forgive me?"
Applejack thought it over for a few seconds, then picked up her friend.
"Y'all remember this, y'hear? I could'a left ya here, like some monster, but I didn't!" whispered Applejack angrily in her friend's face, turning her soft grip on Rainbow's hand into a crushing vice.
"AH! OW! OKAY, OKAY! I'll remember this! I will!" Rainbow yelped. Applejack released her hand.
"Good." she said, still in Rainbow's face. She then turned and began down the stairs. Rainbow Dash solemnly, yet enthusiastically followed closely behind.
Downstairs, Pinkie had somehow made it all the way into the alley, dodging through every zombie she came across. She made it into the street and took a left turn straight into a fence -- with fifty infected behind it, growling and grabbing at her through the obstacle.
"AAAAAH!!! NOOOO!!!" she cried as they began climbing over the fence. A greenish stallion with a DJ Pon-3 tee made it over first, but couldn't get to Pinkie before Twilight pulled her to her feet and blew his head to bits with her Colt .45.
"Gee, thanks Twi!" Pinkie said, gasping for breath.
"No time for thanks! Here they come!" she replied, pointing to the fence that was now overflowing with the living dead. "RUN!"
Her and Pinkie ran down the street and took a right.
"There!" said Twilight, directing a shaking finger towards the entrance to the subway tunnel. "Go, go! Keep running!"
They finally made it to the tunnel, the bottom of the tunnel looked like a car had run through it and it had caved in, but there was a large hole in the right-hand side wall that led into what appeared to be a storage room. The two ran inside.
"Look!" said Pinkie. "A safe room!" The two fillies ran to the safe room and locked the door behind them. Twilight slid down the wall in exhaustion.
"Wait! Where's Applejack and Rainbow!?" cried Twi. "Oh, no! We left them out there, Pinkie! What do we do!?"
When AJ and RD got to the alley everything was eerily quiet.
"You sure they went this way?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"If not, which other way would they have gone? Both alleys thataway are blocked!" replied Applejack. "B'sides, the footprints lead this way."
"How can you even see those?"
"How can you not?"
"What do you mean?"
"Ah'm jus' sayin' Ah' can see 'em fine. Looks like somepony needs sum' spectacles!"
"What?"
"Y'know, eyeglasses?"
"No way! I'm not THAT much of an egghead!"
"Meh, just makin' an observation. It would seem you can't." Applejack said with the smuggest face she could conjure
"Hey! That's not funny!"
Applejack let out a small chuckle. A quiet, deep groaning noise rang through the alley
"Wait! Did you hear that?" asked Rainbow Dash quietly, eyes shifting left to right.
"Hear whut'?
"That noise! You didn't hear it? I may need glasses, but you definitely need a hearing aid!" she said, suddenly looking scared.
"Aw, c'mon now. There ain't nuthin' out here. Pretty sure Twi and Pinkie cleaned up the area."
"Then why didn't they come back?" Rainbow Dash's voice was now reduced to a shivering whisper. "I bet they're dead!"
"Hey!" said Applejack soothingly, holding Dashie to her bosom much like a mother would to a child who was scared of something under his bed. "There, there. Don't think like that. Ah'm sure they're just sitting over there waiting for us in the street. Do you hear any biters out there now? 'Cuz Ah' sure don't."
At that moment, a nearby AC unit fell from the second story of the apartment building onto a car, making the two young mares jump and scream. Rainbow Dash shot at it, thinking it was something trying to kill them. When they finally found out what it was, the stagnant and smelly air was filled with sighs of relief and nervous chuckles. Rainbow Dash blushed and clutched her chest.
"Holy CRAP! That almost gave me a heart attack!" she said
"Yea, gave me quite a start, too!"
"What the hell would cause that?"
"Ah'm sure it was jus' dangling on the wall and we didn't notice. The wind must've knocked it down."
"I hate nature so much. That's probably what I heard before."
"T's a possibility."
"Well, hell. Let's get going, yea?"
"Ah'm with ya there!"
Back in the safe room, Twilight was having a nervous breakdown (again).
"What do we DO!? Look at all those things out there!" she said.
Bloody, multcolored arms clawed at them through the bars in the safe room door.
"What if AJ and Rainbow get here and get mauled or killed by them?"
"Why don't we just murder all of them?" Pinkie said, oddly amused at the whole situation.
"You know.... that just might work!"
And so, the two in the safe room spent about three minutes and nearly 150 rounds of ammunition to clear out fifty zombies. When they were done, Twilight, once again, slid down the wall in exhaustion.
"There! Done!" she exclaimed, out of breath and panting. "Whoo!" she fell onto the ground and closed her eyes as if she were about to fall asleep. "They should be clear now, wake me up when they're here."
It didn't take long for Pinkie to start yelling "THEY'RE HERE! THEY'RE HERE!" Twi shot awake (although she wasn't fully asleep in the first place). By the time AJ and Rainbow Dash got down the stairs, Pinkie was holding the door open and smiling, bodies strewn around her.
"Whoa, whut' happened here?" asked AJ.
"Oh, me and Twily just redecorated the place for you guys!" she giggled.
"Uhhh, yea, looks.... great." said Rainbow Dash, nervously rubbing the back of her neck.
"Awww thanks! Well, don't just stand there! C'mon in, silly fillies!" she said, holding the door wider.
The two anxiously, but happily, walked inside the gloomy safe room. Pinkie smiled at them, looking straight into their eyes as they walked in. Even when they were inside, she held her stare and the door until a Smoker scream snapped her out of her trance and she hastily shut the door.