Applejack’s heart raced uncontrollably as she stared into her reflection’s frightened eyes for a brief moment while she watched the elderly human raise the sword up. The green face crowd kept chanting, quickly getting louder as the human held the sword over his head. The chanting was getting faster and faster coming closer to a climax of noise. She tried once more at escaping but immediately found herself restricted. The world around her began to spin as she found herself shaking and unable to control her breathing…the thoughts of home coming back to her…

“ERAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Applejack found her breathing suddenly back under her control as the world came back into focus. She saw the elderly human begin to sport a look of slight confusion and start to turn away while lowering the sword. She heard the yell continue, drowning out the chanting as she saw the elderly human take a step back coming ever so closer.

“Seize him!” She heard him shout to the crowd as she felt her heart beat faster.

She looked to where his legs were underneath the robe, now taking in slow breathes as she lowered her eyebrows, just as everything seemed to slow down. Looking past the human, she saw the crowd begin to direct its attention of somewhere else. She pulled her attention back, seeing the elderly human take another step back into some sort of fighting stance as the sounds of a struggle filled her ears. Applejack found herself focusing on the bent knees as she clenched her teeth and her breathing slowly becoming deep.

Drawing in a breath and holding it, Applejack turned with a jump and landed on her front legs drawing her hind legs back keeping them close together. She thrust them out finding her hoofs quickly make contact before hearing the elderly human let out a yelp. She turned quickly to see the elderly human falling over as the sword dropped onto the ground with a loud clang. She let out the breath she held as she saw him start to blindly reach for the sword.

“You dare…defy the...” The human muttered with the pain obvious in his voice, “the loving arms of…”

Applejack quickly drew in another breath and leaped forward within her available range. She raised her right front leg and brought her hoof down hard. She was greeted with the sound of snapping bone and a loud scream erupting in the room. She looked up to see Frank with a face full of rage coming through the crowd as she brought her hoof up momentarily.

“HETHEN!”

Applejack suddenly felt something press against her chest and begin to push her off her hooves. In that moment, she found herself flying back, right into the held up fabric behind her, causing it to come off its support and fall on top of her. She dropped to floor but quickly tried to get up, pushing the fabric off her head. She came from under to see the elderly human, holding a hand close to its body, picking up the sword, now steaming mad. She backed up letting him come closer before crouching, ready to move.

“My soul will not rest till every damn sinful creature is exiled from this earth!” The human yelled while moving forward, “And you will not stand in my wa-”

“REEAHH!”

Applejack looked to see Frank barrel right into the elderly human from behind. She saw the human stumble forward and quickly delivered another kick sending the human off in the other direction. She turned around to see him fall onto the ground past the light posts by the fabric and collide with one of the nearby candle posts, causing the lit candle to topple over. Applejack saw the hot liquid wax fall onto the human’s face and robe as the rest of the candle landed on the ground and rolled away. She watched as the human let out a cry in agony before dropping the sword and frantically ripping the wax droplets off. She saw him begin to crawl away letting out a ‘gah’ before collapsing to the ground…now breathing heavily. Applejack turned her attention away for a moment, seeing the crowd of green faces…just standing there…

“Salvation,” The elderly human finally muttered, bringing Applejack’s attention back. “will always...triumph over sin.”

Applejack kept her breathing silent as she watched along with Frank while the elderly human looked back at her and him before slowly reaching for the sword. She watched as his body stretched out further…part of his robe coming ever so close to…

“It awaits you….all of you…” The elderly human growled, starting to rise as the flames followed in suit, “With open…. arms…”

Then the human was standing once again, Applejack felt her anger lift for a moment as she went wide eyed. She watched him bring up the sword, managing to use his broken hand and not registering at once the flames that were slowly creeping up the robe. She turned to look at Frank, who had a look of shock start to come over him, before turning back and readying herself as the elderly human began to let out a yell at the top of his lungs, before charging forward with the sword raised high above his head.

“APPLEJACK!”

Letting instinct kick in, Applejack quickly dodged to the left in her available range as she heard the sword strike the floor. She turned back to see the elderly human falling onto the ground towards the fabric with the flames quickly rising up the robe. She stood there, frozen stiff and wide eyed as she felt the heat radiating from the flames just as the yell turned into an equally loud scream. Applejack watched the flames begin to engulf the flailing human, as the fabric began to catch as well. She looked up over the flames to see Frank pulling a piece of the fabric that hadn't caught yet and tossing it over the flames. The fabric lowered and smothered part of it, but the ones not covered began to catch on the fresh piece of fabric. She watched Frank back away still staring at the blaze as the flames continued raging…

The screaming eventually stopped abruptly…as did the flaying… Applejack watched as the flames engulfed the entirety of the fabric causing it to curl in on itself. She remained silent just staring at the burning pile taking a bit of the accumulating smoke in with each breath…

The sound of something shuffling of to her left caught her attention. She turned and saw Frank rummaging through a few items on a shelf by a corner of the room. She saw him pick up what looked like a red cylinder with a white stripe on it before seeing him pull something off and fling it away. She backed up a bit as he advanced towards the flames. She then saw him direct a funnel towards the fire before a stream of white smoke came rushing out along with a gushing sound.

Applejack watched as the fire was smothered by the invasion of the smoke as the radiating heat began to fade away. She saw Frank hold the smoke trail on the flames before directing it upwards and spraying at the accumulating smoke overhead. The flames were soon gone before Frank set the red cylinder down as Applejack got a good look. Most of the fabric was now ash as well as the robe. The human’s body was severely burned… with large portions of the skin was swelling red or charred black... piled together boils with some popped…white and black swollen blisters… some with large open gashes showing the insides just below or other pieces of dead skin. She could see the human’s face…or what was left of it…the lifeless look embedded on it… the lights gone from his eyes.

“Applejack…”

Applejack tore her gaze from the body to see Frank looking off towards the green face crowd...there was a barely audible murmur going through the crowd and after a while…one of them slowly walked forward. She got herself ready for anything but saw the green faced figure stop and look at the body in front of her. She lowered her gaze for a moment further imprinting the image of the body in her mind before looking back up at the figure. She saw two more approaching as well but…they were carrying a box that they set down near the body before returning to the crowd.

“Thank...you…” The lone green face whispered with a bit of anguish, before turning and walking away.

Applejack looked to Frank only to see him return a confused look before focusing their attention on the box. She tried to walk forward, but quickly remembered the collar just as Frank took notice. Soon she felt the collar come off her neck, before walking around the burnt body and coming up to the box with Frank by her side. She took a step back as Frank moved forward and threw open the top lid before taking a look inside. She saw him start to rummage through it and begin to pull something out. Applejack walked forward to have a look for herself, but the sound of something suddenly smashing caught her attention. She looked and saw the crowd starting to leave however several members were tossing some sort of equipment onto the floor that shattered to pieces when it made contact.

“Hey!”

Applejack saw the group be startled for a moment before turning tail and running for the door to leave along with the others. She abandoned the box and ran after them just as they had all exited. She caught the door right before it closed only to see the few she had been chasing mix back into their identical comrades ultimately losing sight of them. She watched the group scatter into the park past the zombies, with a few rounding a corner visible from the doorway and some heading off towards the other side of the park.

“Drat,” Applejack muttered to herself as she watched the crowd disappear from view.

She retreated from the door and walked back over to Frank to see him tossing various pieces of clothing out of the box. She stood waiting patiently as Frank soon pulled out his clothing which appeared to be in decent condition. She saw him look at her sporting a look of minor concern as he began to dress himself.

“You alright?” He asked, breaking his silence as he finished putting on his pants and started on his shirt, “Applejack?”

APPLEJACK…!

Applejack felt her heart sink in an instant as a cold chill run over her. She remembered clearly her name being yelled during the confrontation with the elderly human…but also remembered…not hearing Frank’s voice…

“Who the hell are these guys?”

Kay awoke from her nap at the sound of Burt’s voice and looked up to see him still observing the monitors, but now was standing up from his chair focusing on one screen in particular. Kay sat up from her lying position and sat on the edge of the green cushions.

“What is it?” She asked as she watched Burt continue to scan the monitor.

Her only response was Burt pointing to the monitor holding his attention as her eyes followed in suit. She got up from the cushion and walk over to have a better look. At first, she saw nothing but zombies in an area she recognized as the food court. However… upon taking a better look, she noticed a group of figures that were bunched together and standing completely amongst the undead. Looking for a bit longer, she noticed they seem to be wearing the same clothes, despite the quality of the feed.

“Zombies are just walking past them,” Burt commented as Kay looked once more.

Upon giving it another look, she saw he was right. Multiple zombies were stumbling past the group of figures as if they weren't even there.

“Why would they be out there like that?” Kay asked as she kept her eyes on the monitor.

“Not sure,” She heard Burt reply, before he pausing for a moment, “huh, but they’re now running for their lives apparently,”

Kay turned to Burt and then back to the monitor trying to process what he had said, before seeing him point to a different monitor. She was greeted with overhead view of the Paradise Plaza and its assortment of zombies. However, she took notice to familiar figures running through the area in a panic and this time, the zombies were taking notice. Kay then took notice to a man suddenly coming from the lower left of the screen. She watched him walk towards the incoming figures and zombies with what looked like a jar and…a gun in hand.

“Who is that?” Kay asked pointing to the monitor…

The only response she got was hearing Burt's breathing become slow and deep...

“That's him...son of a bitch who nicked,”

Kay looked at Burt and then back to the monitor to see the figures passing the man as the zombies began to focus on him. She saw the man raise the gun and begin to fire at the undead crowd. The zombies closing in on the man fell to the ground as the next wave was slowly moving to take their place. Kay saw the man fiddle with the jar as the zombies closed in before swatting at the air while turning in a circle for a moment. She saw him stop swatting quickly put the lid back on the jar before raising the gun and firing at the zombies once more.

“Where the fuck is Frank? The bastard's right here...”

Frank stood silent in the candle lit room as he examined the broken piece of film equipment in his hand. After having found and put his clothes back on while securing his camera, he had tried to see if anything could be salvageable from the mess of broken equipment, but the bits of microchips, shattered lens, and overall broken component he now held said otherwise. He turned to look at Applejack and let out a sigh before tossing the now piece of junk away while shaking his head.

Almost as if…everyone’s already dead…

Frank drew in a breath as the voice echoed in his head. He looked towards the doors to leave before looking back at Applejack. He let out the breath he held and gave her a small nod as she gave one in return before turning around and walking towards the door just as he recalled…

“Hold on,”

Frank turned towards the open box hearing Applejack stop in her tracks as he did. He reached into the almost empty box and rummaged around a few other pieces of clothing before pulling out a brown cowboy hat. He walked over and crouched in front of Applejack before handing her the hat.

“Thanks, partner,” She said with a small smile, before taking the hat in her mouth and flipping it onto her head.

Frank returned the smile with a nod before the two of them began to walk away, but… He stopped for a moment and found himself turning to look at the burnt corpse once again. He walked forward bringing the camera up to his face as he heard the doors to the room begin to open. He zoomed in focusing on the area of the corpse, the light posts, and where the fabric was once held up. He snapped a picture before zooming up on just the corpse and snapping another picture.

“Ya’ll ready to go..?"

Frank brought the camera away from his face before turning and giving a nod to Applejack before taking one last look and turning away towards the door.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

Author's Note

Hello everyone, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and are enjoying the story so far. First off, I want to apologize for the chapter taking a while. I also want to clear up why the chapter changed from 4-1 to 3-5 on my user page. That was a title mistake on my part which I noticed when this chapter was being finished up. 4-1 will be the next chapter. Anyway, be sure to leave your feedback in the comments below and once again. Have a great day everyone