Dead Pony Rising 2

Chapter Eleven

A Familiar Face

Over a year ago, a zombie parasite was introduced to the population of Fillydelphia, Equestria as an act of vengeance for the unchecked experiments that devastated the Western Equestrian town of Appleloosa.

Since then, outbreaks have sprung up in cities all across the pony country, including Las Pegasus and the Celestial Sisters Adult Pony Playground located on the outskirts of Manehatten.

Buck Greene, the stallion framed for the Celestial Sisters incident, is fighting for his life….

Date: September 30, 2011 7:33 p.m.

Buck’s hooves were starting to get sore after beating all the zombies down. Even though there were only ten, it was still a nightmare to keep them down. It was as if as soon as one went down, another would pop right back up and try to sink its teeth into Buck’s hide.

Discord, the spirit of chaos, was helping Phenotrots with the outbreak and framed Buck so they could get away with their plans. But before Buck could tell the country, Ray, a pony who kidnapped Applejack, got away with all the important evidence, leaving Buck with Rebucka’s, now dead, camera.

As he was dealing with the zombies, the elevator doors started opening and another pony stepped in to help. He had a baseball bat in his mouth and he was swinging wildly, killing any zombies that tried to attack Buck.

In a matter of seconds, the two stallions stopped to catch their breath. After awhile, Buck looked over to his savior and noticed that he looked oddly familiar. His mane was scruffy and black and it seemed to be receding due to age or stress. He was wearing a black dress jacket and a white dress shirt that had to open buttons on the front revealing his, very fluffy, chest. He wore dark sunglasses that covered up his eyes and a silver medallion that had the etching of an apple orchard on the front. He also had a black camera around his neck.

“I think I’ve seen you somewhere before,” Buck said, “you must be…” The pony that helped him also noticed Buck’s face and pushed him down into a pool of running blood.

“Hey, you’re the one who’s all over the T.V.” He said. A gruffy voice that had a hint to age in it. “They’re saying you caused all of this.” Buck started to pull himself up off the floor.

“That’s a lie.” Buck said. He pushed past the pony and trotted onto the main rooftop of the bunker. He noticed that this pony came in on his own Channel Six chariot. “Phenotrots set me up.” Buck continued.

“You know, there’re vigilantes out for your head.” The gruff pony said. “You’re commanding a nice bounty.” Buck spun around stuck his nose in the other pony’s face.

“Is that why you came, huh?” Buck asked. After a few seconds of silence, the other pony spoke.

“Well,” he said, “maybe I don’t exactly believe everything I see on T.V.” Buck sighed heavily and started trotting over to the side of the rooftop. As he looked on at the green city, the other pony slowly trotted up behind him.

“Phenotrots are the ones who kill thousands in Celestial Sisters…thousands in Pegasus.” Buck said. “They’re the ones who killed my wife…and they’re the ones who killed Rebucka.” The other pony came to a quick stop behind Buck.

“Rebucka? Rebucka Hayes?” The other pony asked. “She’s…she’s dead?” Buck realized that this pony knew the late Rebucka.

“I’m sorry.” He said. “A Phenotrots agent shot her.” Buck looked towards the sky and saw another chariot, this time with a large container in the back, flying off in the distance. “Look, I need proof, now. I’ve got to clear my name.” Buck said as he trotted away from the edge.

“You don’t have time for that.” The other pony said, grabbing Buck’s foreleg. “The Wonderbolts are going to blow this place to the moon any second.”

“The report said that the bombers weren’t coming in until the morning.” Buck said.

“Celestia apparently pushed the order forward.” The other pony explained. “They’ll be here any moment now.”

“Then I’m screwed.” Buck said.

“Look,” the other pony said, “I’ve got an idea. I have a source that’s told me about some sort of Phenotrots facility…west of here.”

“What kind of facility?” Buck asked.

“I don’t know.” The other pony said as he turned to face his chariot. “I was going to find out…with Rebucka. And you might be able to find your evidence there. There might even be a connection to what happened here.” Buck then trotted up to the other pony. The two slowly made their way to the waiting chariot.

As Buck approached the chariot, the other pony turned around to talk to him.

“You can come,” he said, “but if I find out you had something to do with this.” He said pointing at the zombie-infested city. Buck sighed angrily, getting sick of all the blaming.

“Look, buddy, I didn’t do it, alright?” He said. “What are you looking for, a big story? Some way to get yourself back in the limelight?” That’s when a watch on the other pony’s hoof started beeping.

“Oh yeah? Is that what you think?” He asked as he pulled out a syringe full of Zombrex from his coat pocket. “There’s a hay of a lot more to it than that.” He said as he injected the needle into his neck and pushed down on the plunger.

“And the name’s Flank.” He said as he threw the syringe to the ground. “Flank West.”

*** *** ***

Date: September 30, 2011 8:49 p.m.

Flank and Buck were standing on a ledge that overlooked the wide-open desert of Equestria. But, in the middle of this tundra, was a massive facility with steam pouring from giant exhaust ports on the roof. Chariots, all with giant containers, were flying in and landing in a giant yard in the back of the building.

Flank was looking at everything through a set of binoculars and Buck just stood there, angered by what he was seeing. After a few moments, Flank handed Buck the binoculars and Buck started looking at the facility himself.

“Do you see anything?” Flank asked.

“Uh…yeah.” Buck said. “There’s an unguarded vent leading into the building. If we take that, we’re in, no problem.”

“Good, then let’s go.” Flank said as he slowly climbed down the side of the cliff.

*** *** ***

Date: September 30, 2011 9:11 p.m.

Flank and Buck were slowly making their way through the mass of tunnels that were the ventilation shafts. Flank was in front and Buck was heading up the rear. As they made a turn, Flank found himself at a dead end; Buck noticed the problem, too.

“Great,” Buck said, “A dead end, nice investigative work there, Flank.”

“Just drop it, Buck.” Flank said as he started backing up.

“Get your haunch out of my face!” Buck said angrily.

“Back up!”

“You’re too close!”

“I said drop it!” Suddenly, the floor supporting them gave and they fell forward into a tiled room. Buck and Flank started grabbing their bodies in agony from the shock of falling.

“Consider it dropped.” Buck said as he looked over to Flank.

“At least it was a soft landing.” Flank said as he started pulling himself up. But the ‘soft landing’ he was talking about, turned out to be a zombie lying on the floor. Buck and Flank started standing back-to-back as they realized the room they were in was filled with zombies.

They started panicking and tried to find a way out, but to no avail.

“You got any ideas, Flank?” Buck asked.

“No, you?” Flank replied.

“No.” Buck said. As the zombies got closer and closer to the pair, a set of doors started to lift up from the ground, revealing even more zombies on the other side. As Buck shook in fear, Flank looked through the crowd and saw that they were in one of the many containers that were brought in from Celestial Sisters.

“Buck, we need to go that way, through the back.” He said pointing past the crowd of zombies.

“You don’t have to tell me twice.” The two then started galloping at full speed through the zombies to the door. They both heaved it wide open and ran out into the safety of open space. Fortunately, they were the only two living ponies in the area.

“Okay, we’re alive, now where do we go?” Buck asked. Flank looked around as the zombies started pouring out of the container. He noticed, in giant red lettering, that there was a shipping office on the second floor.

“To the shipping office, we can go from there.” Flank said as he started galloping up to a metal stairwell; Buck quickly behind him.

*** *** ***

Date: September 30, 2011 9:32 p.m.

Flank slowly opened the door leading into the shipping office. He was crouched down to the floor, whereas Buck was standing tall on all four hooves. Flank, angrily, grabbed Buck by his jacket and yanked him down to his level.

“Stay down.” He said in a hushed yell. The room was very quiet, almost too quiet. There were many desks and many high-tech devices scattered about. File cabinets where against white and blue painted walls and some unknown files were scattered all about the blue-carpeted floor.

They silently made their way to a doorway leading into another room in the shipping office; Buck looked inside and saw two guards stationed at some security monitors, completely unaware of Buck and Flank’s presence.

“There are two guards.” Buck said silently to Flank. The two then quietly made their way into the room and up behind the two guards. Buck slammed his hoof against the first guard’s head, knocking him out, whereas Flank bucked the guard in the back and slammed his head against the table.

“So, what do we do with them?” Buck asked.

“We’ll deal with them later.” Flank said. “My source said that he’ll talk us through when we arrive at the shipping office.” That’s when the loudspeaker came on, a soothing and loving voice talking.

“Warning!” She said. “There has been an unscheduled release of the zombie supply out of the containment area.”

“Wait, look!” Buck said as he looked down into the container room. “The zombies have gotten out of their pens.”

“Please take precautions as to not harmfully damage the supply.” The mare on the loudspeaker said.

“Supply?” Flank asked. That’s when a computer monitor in front of the two blinked to life and started typing as if they were in an instant messaging room on the Ponynet.

Remote Host: Welcome Flank West…and friend.

“I think this may be my source.” Flank said. “As I told you, he’s expecting me.”

“Your source works for Phenotrots,” Buck said, “are you sure you know what you’re doing here, Flank?”

“Use your head.” Flank said bitterly. “He started the outbreak to distract security and unlock the doors.”

“Look, for all you know, this could be a big setup.” Buck said. That’s when a printer near the back of the room started printing out a blue sheet of paper. Buck started trotting over to the page as Flank continued his conversation.

Remote Host: Welcome Flank West…and friend.

Local Host: Hello?

Remote Host: I’ve hacked the doors to set off an outbreak and distract security.

Remote Host: I’ve sent a map for you to use when you’re ready to go.

“It’s a map.” Flank said. “Check it out.” Buck grabbed the piece of paper and brought it over to Flank so the two of them could look at it together.

“Harvesting Room…Refrigerated Containment…Biowaste Disposal…what in the..?” Buck said as he looked over the map.

“Look,” Flank said, “he says he can hack into the secure networks if we can enter these access codes.” Flank said pointing to series of number located next to doors leading into the different rooms. “Then, he’ll download information about this place: security footage, facility designs, and things of that general nature.” Buck folded up the map and put it in his back pocket.

“We don’t have much time.” Flank said. “The codes change every few hours.”

“Then let’s get the hay out of here.” Buck grabbed one of the guns the security guards was using and made his way to the door leading back into the giant storage room. “Where do we go first?”

Flank looked at the map with the attached codes. “There are two places we need to enter these codes: one is in another security outpost like this one and the other is just beyond the…’Living Quarters’, that’s located on the other side of this place.”

“Well, let’s get started now.” Buck said. “Get back in time so we can get our evidence.” And with that, the two ponies exited the building and back into the Phenotrots facility.

*** *** ***

Date: September 30, 2011 11:09 p.m.

Buck and Flank galloped back into the security room they first entered at the start of this journey. Both were panting heavily and covered in blood.

“What in Equestria were those things?” Flank asked as he wiped blood from his forehead.

“I’ve come to call them ‘gas zombies’.” Buck explained. “Phenotrots unleashed this green gas in Celestial Sisters and it mutated the zombies and turned them into those monstrosities.” They both continued catching their breath. Flank took his sunglasses off and started wiping them down with his white dress shirt. Buck slowly trotted into the main room of the security office, with Flank close behind.

“So,” Buck said, “what’s this evidence, Flank? Huh?” Flank sat down in front of Buck and put his sunglasses back on. “What does it show and when are we going to get it?” Buck asked.

“It must show what’s going on in this place,” Flank said, “but my source needs time to download it. Let’s just get the hay outta’ here and meet up with him later.” He said as he motioned Buck to the door.

“I still need proof that I was set up in Celestial Sisters.” Buck said. “You might have your big story now, Flank, but I’m a dead pony if we don’t find some evidence that clears my name.” Flank stood up until he was eye-to-eye with Buck and patted his shoulder.

“Okay,” Flank said, “just…calm your nerves. You’ve been under a lot of stress this whole week.” Flank made his way back over to the computer and started chatting with his source again. Buck slowly trotted up behind him and watched as the two had their conversation.

Local Host: Buck is looking for information to clear his name. This won’t be enough. He says he was framed for the Celestial Sisters outbreak and that Phenotrots is responsible.

Remote Host: I’ll look around and see what I can find for him.

“He says that he’ll try to figure something out.” Flank said. That just seemed to make Buck angrier.

“Try, huh?” Buck said. “Yeah, that’s great. I’ll figure it out myself then.” As Buck started trotting back to the door, Flank’s source started typing on the computer again.

Local Host: Buck is looking for information to clear his name. This won’t be enough. He says he was framed for the Celestial Sisters outbreak and that Phenotrots is responsible.

Remote Host: I’ll look around and see what I can find for him.

Remote Host: I want to take them down just as much as you do. You must believe me.

“ ‘I want to take them down just as much as you do…you must believe me’.” Flank repeated back. Buck sighed and trotted back over to Flank. That’s when somepony outside in the storage bay started screaming. Buck and Flank galloped over to the window and saw a stallion Clydesdale, dressed in a scientist uniform, galloping away from a group of gas zombies that had made their way to the other side of the facility.

“Should we go help him?” Buck asked.

“It’d be wrong if we didn’t.” Flank said. “It’s weird.”

“What is?” Buck asked.

“Well, it’s like every time there’s an outbreak, there’s always that one or more pony that can’t help or defend themselves and it’s up to some heroic pony to save their sorry flank.” Buck stood there and thought for a moment of what was just said.

“Well, aside from that, let’s go see what we can do for him.” Flank nodded his head and the two galloped out of the security room and into the main storage bay. Besides the onslaught of zombie ponies and gas zombie ponies, there were also unicorn ponies in hazmat suits using electric cattle prods to subdue any undead creature that came within their area. Buck and Flank just ignored them as they made their way to the stranded pony, who had managed to climb on top of one of the metal containers that brought the zombies in.

“Help me get rid of these things so I can get out of here!” He shouted when he noticed Buck and Flank galloping up to him. Buck grabbed his gun and started firing into the crowds of zombies, blood and brains spraying all over the walls around them. Once the last one fell down, Flank pulled himself up to the scientist pony and told him everything was going to be okay.

“I’ve never seen you two here before.” He said. “This must be your fault.”

“Sir, we actually…” Flank began to say.

“Save it,” the pony said, “if you really didn’t start this, why don’t you be a good ponytarian and look for others who got caught up in this mess!”

“We’ll see what we can do.” Buck said from below.

“And, while you’re looking for other survivors, can you try to find my fillyfriend Lisa? I last saw her in the cafeteria at breakfast.” He said as he jumped down to Buck’s level.

“As I said, we’ll see what we can do.” Buck said again.

“Thanks, now, if you’ll excuse me.” The scientist pony then galloped at full speed to an emergency exit and left the building. Flank hopped down to Buck’s level as well and stood next to him.

“Well, that’s a first.” Buck said.

“I know…a survivor that actually didn’t need much assistance.” Flank said.

*** *** ***

Date: October 1, 2011 2:03 a.m.

Many hours later, Buck and Flank were resting in the security outpost, waiting patiently for Flank’s source to return with any important information. After witnessing everything in the facility, Flank was starting to have doubts about that company that saves even his own life.

“I just can’t believe it.” He said. “They’re collecting Queens from the zombies…with that gas.”

“And those zombies are from Celestial Sisters.” Buck said as he trotted over to Flank. “Do you get it now?”

“I…” The computer started back up again, interrupting Flank. The two ponies started trotting over to the computer to see what the source was talking about this time.

“It’s for you, Flank.” Buck said as Flank sat down at the chair and started typing away.

Remote Host: Hello, Flank.

Remote Host: The Director’s Observatory should have information on the outbreak – what Buck will need to clear his name. To get access, you’ll have to get the key card from one of the labs. But be very careful in there – it’s rigged with alarms. She’ll be out of there for a few hours, so you better hurry.

“He says the Director’s office should have the evidence to clear your name.” Flank said, paraphrasing the source’s information. “We’ll need to get a key card to get in there, but it’s rigged up with alarms…” Buck pushed Flank aside and started typing into the computer.

Remote Host: Hello, Flank.

Remote Host: The Director’s Observatory should have information on the outbreak – what Buck will need to clear his name. To get access, you’ll have to get the key card from one of the labs. But be very careful in there – it’s rigged with alarms. She’ll be out of there for a few hours, so you better hurry.

Local Host: Who are you?

After a few brief seconds, the screen went black with the words CONNECTION DISCONTINUED across the front. Buck slammed his hoof against the desk.

“Great!” He said. “Well, let’s get out of here.”