Dead Pony Rising

Chapter Four

Bullets, Bombs, and Braeburn's Demise

Date: May 22, 2011 7:26 a.m.

As Flank slowly trotted down the road; he could hear to sounds of moaning zombies and shambling hooves. As he got closer, he saw dozens upon dozens of zombies trotting around…possibly even more than that.

“Zombies, darkness, and bombs.” Flank says as he continues trotting. “The trifecta of true unluckiness.” He pulls out the map from his jacket pocket and looks carefully at the road signs. “I’ll go left, then gallop back this way and go from there.” He then turned left and galloped as fast as he could through the crowds of zombies. The zombies kept trying to grab him; but to no avail. He pulled out the transceiver from his pocket and called for Applejack.

“Yeah?” She asks.

“What exactly am I looking for?” Flank asks. “Like, where exactly are the bombs?”

“Well, first tell me where y’all are.” Applejack says.

“Under the North Plaza.” Flank explains. “There’s a giant parking area and a door that leads up to the grocery store.” He says as he approaches the area he was talking about.

“It should be under a giant apple cart.” Applejack says. “It’ll be about ten yards left from the door you’re talkin’ ‘bout.” Flank put the transceiver away and looked around; he saw the cart and galloped over to it. He opened a small door near the bottom of the cart and found the time bomb sitting inside. He grabbed it, carefully put it in the shopping cart, and started galloping back to the tunnel entrance.

“One down, four more to go.” Flank said to himself as he galloped.

*** *** ***

Date: May 22, 7:32 a.m.

Brad slowly entered a giant storage room; filled with pony mannequins, boxes filled with unknown items, and a couple other zombies. Brad took to the zombies with basic hoof-to-hoof combat so he could save as much ammunition as possible. A gunshot is heard and Brad takes cover behind a giant wooden crate. He slowly looked around and saw Braeburn firing at him with a pistol.

“We’re getting rid of your bombs as we speak.” Brad says. “This is as far as you go today. Just give up and surrender.” Brad fires a couple more rounds as a zombie slowly shambles up to him. Brad turns around and blasts the zombie’s brains all over the floor. Brad checks his gun and sees that he only has one round left. Braeburn fires more shots.

“Ah ain’t surrenderin’ to nopony!” He shouted at Brad. Brad pulled himself and sighed heavily. He then came out from behind the crate and started galloping at full speed towards Braeburn. Braeburn came out from behind the shelf he was taking cover behind and aimed his gun at Brad.

Brad then jumped up and fired his lost shot into Braeburn’s gut; causing him to fall to the ground and drop his gun. Brad stood up and kicked the gun away from Braeburn.

“Your terrorist days are over, Braeburn.” Brad says. “You’re finished.” Braeburn slowly pulls a knife out of his vest and quickly slices Brad across the face. Brad tries disarming Braeburn, but Braeburn spins around and stabs Brad in the back. Braeburn starts twisting the knife and Brad shoves Braeburn back a few inches. Braeburn then bucks Brad through a door leading into the underground of the mall. Brad lands hard on his back and has difficulties pulling himself up. Braeburn slowly trots up; clutching his stomach and chuckling darkly.

“Have fun with your new friends.” He says as he closes the door. Brad pulls himself up and uses his magic to fill the area with light. He was completely surrounded by zombies; dozens upon dozens of zombies slowly shambling towards him. He sits down and prepares for his fate.

“So much for a retirement next week.” He says.

*** *** ***

Date: May 22, 2011 7:45 a.m.

Flank was loading up the final time bomb into the shopping cart and was now heading back to the entrance. As he was trotting down a dark area; he heard the sound of hooves dragging a body closer to him. As he got closer to the sound; he saw Brad pulling himself away from the darkness. A trail of blood behind him.

“Brad!” Flank yells as he gallops over.

“Stay away from me, Flank!” Brad yells back. “Don’t come any closer.” Flank stops dead in his tracks.

“Why?”

“I’ve been bitten…pretty badly too.” He keeps pulling himself away. Flank trots up to Brad anyway and sees some of his intestines dangling out from his body.

“By Celestia, you’re falling apart.” Flank says. Brad stops and props himself up against the wall.

“And the funny thing is…” Brad says. “It doesn’t even hurt.” Flank sits down in front of him.

“Did you get Braeburn?” Flank asks.

“No,” Brad says, “he threw me out here and got away. But he couldn’t have gotten very far.”

“Why’s that?” Flank asks.

“I shot him in the stomach.” Brad says. “He’ll probably succumb to his wounds before he makes it back to his hideout.” He starts slouching against the wall. “Can you do something for me?”

“Anything, Brad, what do you need?” Flank asks.

“Kill me.” He says. “I don’t want to end up like one of those things. And when I die, don’t tell Jessie.” Flank nods his head in solemn agreement.

“How?” Flank asks. “What would you prefer?” Brad looks over at the time bombs and the back at Flank.

“How much time do we have left on the bombs?” Brad asks. Flank gets up and gallops over to them.

“Less than seven minutes. Why?” Flank asks as he trots back over.

“I want to die with them.” He says.

“Why?” Flank asks astonished. “That sounds incredibly painful.”

“It’ll be over in a flash, besides,” Brad pulls himself up and limps to the cart, “I’ve always wanted a cremation over a burial.” Brad pulls himself into the cart and sits down next to the bombs. Flank gets behind the cart and starts pushing towards the entrance. Flank turns a corner and continues trotting to the entrance.

“Flank…” Brad says.

“Yeah?” Flank asks.

“There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you,” he says with heavy breaths, “I’m glad you showed up here.”

“Just trying to do my job.” Flank says as he turns another corner and heads up to the entrance.

“Let me finish,” Brad says, “if you hadn’t shown up…I’d probably be dead right now. I just wanted to thank you for helping to extend my final days.” Flank starts to tear up as they near the entrance.

“Who knows?” Flank says, “Maybe we’ll run into each other in the afterlife.” Brad chuckles a bit and leans back in the cart. Flank looks at the bombs and notices he’s got less than five minutes. He starts galloping faster.

“Where do you want me to go?” Flank asks Brad.

“Go into the center of the park…” Brad says fading in and out of consciousness, “That way the blast won’t damage any walls…”

“So we don’t risk letting the zombies out by accident.” Flank says.

“Exactly.” Flank starts galloping down the street towards the park. As they approached, they saw three earth ponies in a giant chariot, galloping around the park.

“What’s going on here?” Flank asks. Brad looks at the earth ponies and starts to cringe.

“Those are prison escapees.” He says. “And from the looks of it, that’s a stolen Royal Guardian chariot.”

“What do we do?” Flank asks.

“Take me to the center anyway.” Brad says. “You’re running out of escape time.” Flank starts galloping towards the center of the park. The convicts in the chariot spot him and start chasing after him; Flank starts galloping faster.

“Goodbye, Flank.” Brad says.

“See ya’, buddy.” Flank says. Flank then dives out of the way as the convicts ram into the shopping cart. One of the time bomb’s wires disconnects and all of them go off. Brad, along with the three convicts, is consumed in a giant fireball. Flank looks on with tears swelling in his eyes; he wipes the tears away with the sleeve of his jacket. He pulls himself up and starts trotting back to the security room.

“I need a nice, long nap.” He says. “I’m getting sick of all this garbage.” He gets on the transceiver and gets a hold of Applejack.

“I got the bombs disposed of.” He says.

“Ah know, we heard the explosion from here. Are you heading back?” She asks.

“Yeah,” Flank says, “and make sure that bed is clear.”

*** *** ***

Date: May 22, 2011 8:02 p.m.

Later that evening, Flank started waking up from his power nap. Jessie was still on her laptop and Applejack was at the edge of the bed. Jessie noticed Flank and turned around to talk to him.

“As soon as Brad gets his hooves on that terrorist,” she says, “I guess it’ll be case closed, huh?” Flank looks over at Applejack and slowly shifts himself over to talk to her.

“Do you know of anything else he could be planning?” Flank asks.

“No,” Applejack says, “Nothing whatsoever, but the bombs.” Flank lies down next to her and starts to fall asleep.

“He’s got a computer hidden away,” Applejack says; breaking Flank concentration, “Ah’m sure there’s plenty of information on that thing.” Flank sighs and pulls himself up.

“Can you take me there?” He asks.”To his hideout?”

“I thought you wanted to take a nap.” Jessie says.

“I’ll put it on hold until I get my hooves on that computer.” Flank says. “I just want this to end! Can you take me?” He asks Applejack.

“Leave it all to me.” She says as she starts trotting out of the room.

“I’ll wait here,” Jessie says, “in case Brad shows up.” Flank nods; trying to hold back the truth. He follows Applejack out of the security room and into the air ducts.

*** *** ***

Date: May 22, 2011 8:40 p.m.

Flank and Applejack were trotting through entrance of the North Plaza. Applejack turns to Flank and asks him a question.

“So,” she says, “you looked nervous when Jessie brought up Brad. Did somethin’ happen to him?”

“I’ll be honest with you,” Flank says, “and this stays between us.”

“Sure thing, Sugarcube.” Applejack says.

“Okay, Brad was attacked by a group of zombies and he wanted me to kill him.” Flank says. Applejack turns a corner and they continue trotting down a hallway. “But he didn’t want a bullet to the brain or anything like that.”

“Well, how did you kill him?” Applejack asks as she leads him into an unfinished jewelry store.

“I had all the time bombs in a shopping cart,” Flank continues, “Brad hopped in and asked me to leave him with the bombs.” Applejack starts climbing some stacked cardboard boxes leading up to the ceiling.

“Vaporized in the explosion, Ah take it?” Applejack asks as she pulls Flank up.

“Pretty much.” Flank says. “Where are we going? I thought you were taking me to Braeburn’s hideout.”

“Ah am.” Applejack says. “His hideout is up here.” She says as she pushes back a ceiling tile; revealing a large lit room filled with days of supplies. Applejack hauls herself up and helps Flank inside.

“You two really had it made.” Flank says as Applejack leads him to their sleeping area.

“Yeah,” Applejack says, “he had all of this set up a week before he released the wasps.” She goes over to a desk and pulls out a laptop computer from one of the drawers. Flank trots around to see everything they had stored.

“Shoot!” Applejack says.

“What?” Flank asks as he trots over to her. “What’s wrong?”

“He’s got this thing password protected.” Applejack says.

“Well, just enter it in and find out anything.” Flank says.

“That’s the thing,” Applejack continues, “Ah don’t know his password. There’s nothin’ Ah can do.”

“Could it be ‘Appleloosa’?” Flank asks. Applejack types it into the computer; the computer keeps blocking her out.

“I’ll try words we both might know,” Applejack says, “Family stuff and things like that.” Applejack starts typing more phrases and words into the computer; each time with no success. Flank looks at the laptop and notices a blue cord plugged into it; leading somewhere else.

“What’s this cable?” He asks. Applejack looks at it too and they both notice it leads up to a strange looking metal device on the top of a shelf.

“It looks like part of a jamming device.” She says. “Ah won’t be able to disable it until Ah’m able to log in.” Flank lies down next to Applejack.

“Great.” He says. Suddenly, the transceiver starts acting up; Flank answers it.

“Hello?” He asks.

“Flank,” Jessie says, “can you hear me?”

“Yeah, what’s wrong?”

“I found something interesting on a security feed from inside a store.” She says. “Could you come back here? I need you to check it out.”

“Alright,” Flank says, “I’m heading back now.” He pulls himself up and trots over to the hatch leading back into the mall. He climbs down and starts galloping back through the North Plaza.

*** *** ***

Date: May 22, 9:04 p.m.

Flank trots though the door and goes over to Jessie.

“What is it?” He asks. “What did you see?”

“Look at that monitor.” She says pointing to one near the ceiling. Flank sees a huge fat cow dragging a struggling earth pony into a room labeled ‘Bakery Main Area’.

“Who are they?” He asks.

“The man being dragged?” Jessie asks. “I think its Braeburn.” Flank looks closer at the monitor and notices the brown leather vest he usually wears.

“I think you’re right.” He says. “Where is this?”

“In the underground tunnels,” Jessie says, “underneath the North Plaza; in front of the bakery in the grocery store.”

“Alright.” Flank says. “I’m going in. Only because there’s a chance I can save him.” He grabs his gun and trots out the security room door.

“Flank.” Jessie says.

“Yeah?” Flank asks.

“If you find Brad down there, could you let me know?” She asks.

“Yeah,” Flank lies, “I’ll let you know the moment I find him.” He continues out the door.