“You get some rest,” Frank said to Burt as he sat him down on a green cushion in the monitor room.

Rolling his shoulders to subside the ach on his upper back, Frank stood up and turned towards the monitors, which were still reeling the playback in a poor quality black and white. Panning his eyes from screen to screen seeing nothing new from the sights of earlier, Frank tore his gaze from the monitors towards the vent in the other room. His mind flashed the images of rotting corpse and the sounds of people screaming as their guts were chewed and ripped right out echoed slowly…

“So what’s the plan now?” He heard Otis ask while coming up next to him.

“I’ve gotta find this guy, whoever he is,” Frank said bluntly knowing well of awaited him back inside the mall, “Only lead as of now and seemed more calm about the zombies before… this all started.”

“But he could be anywhere,” Otis commented while motioning to the monitors, “With the entirety of the mall, there are over a hundred places for him to hide.”

“Exactly why we need to find him,” Frank asked while turning towards Otis, “Why is he hiding...better yet…why is he still here if he caused this?”

“Well….” Otis began as if collecting his thoughts, “Won’t argue with you on that.”

“If yur going back out there,” Frank heard Applejack say while walking towards him, “I’m comin’ too. Might as well make myself useful while I wait for help…not much I can do at this point for that.”

“Wait for help?” Frank heard Otis ask as they both had confusion fall upon them.

“Yeah…only way home for me is for my friend Twilight to use a spell to...” Applejack began as Frank became even more confused.

“Wait…wait…spell?” Frank asked as a chuckle almost took over his voice, “Ok….where exactly did you come from?”

Frank knew it wasn’t priority at the moment, as the journalist part of his mind told him the man from the roof was the top thing to be concerned with, but another part having been aching with curiosity from his initial meeting with Applejack finally made its presence dominate in his mind.

“From mah hometown, Ponyville, in Equ--” Applejack began as Frank found himself even more confused.

He quickly recalled what he had been through earlier in the day and despite what his journalist said was saying….it probably wasn’t that farfetched to believe.

“Alright...alright… but somebody has to stay and watch over him,” Frank said while motioning towards Burt, “He’ll be alright but he can’t go back out there.”

“Alright” Applejack replied before walking over to the green cushions and sitting on her hunches, “I’ll keep watch of him.”

“We best get going,” Otis commented as he and Frank moved towards the door to head for the vent, “We’ll have some time of light in the mall after sunset, but the things are schedule to go out after a few hours.”

Frank, with Otis by his side, made his way over to the vents and proceeded to climb into them. Frank took point this time around with Otis close behind as they dove once again into the dark depths of the vents.

“Well shoot…” Applejack mumbled out as she sat on the cold floor.

After the sounds of Frank and Otis leaving through the vents, as the two had called them, fade from her ear shot, she sat in a dead silence only broken when Burt drew in a heavy but almost silent breath and exhaling it out. Part of her was kicking herself for not going back out there as she thought of all the other…

Humans. They do exist.

“Guess I owe her 10 bits….” Applejack mumbled out to herself.

Her thoughts revolved around the humans still left in the building to the zombies as part of her told her she should of went back in to help out and save any humans caught out there. However this side was calmed as she recalled how Frank and Otis had jumped in to save her and Burt. Telling her that though he wasn’t towards the idea in the beginning Frank would do something should he come across any human out there. As the calm setting to the room had started to set in, Applejack felt a wave of tiredness come over her as her eyes began to close. She forced them open but only for them to proceed to close again. It had been a long day and Applejack could tell Burt wouldn’t be waking up anytime soon. She titled her hat down to cover her eyes before they closed enveloping her sight in darkness.

Applejack….

APPLEJACK…

Wake up….please?

Wake up darling…

Wakey wakey…

Applejack let out a loud gasp as her eyes shot open to be greeted with her hat. She pushed her hat quickly up with a hoof. She looked around the room which still had its dead silence despite her awakening….that’s what worried her. Her head went left and right from an empty cushion to a door jarred open. She got herself up onto her hooves and ran through the open door towards the vents. There was a panel jarred open on the vents and the sound of echoes coming from the very insides of it. Applejack leaped up and into the vents greeted with the darkness. She listened carefully hoping to hear Burt moving around in the vents and that she had only dozed off for a little while...or just enough to be close behind Burt. Unfortunately, there was no sound she’d hope for. She began to make her way around inside the vents. There was absolutely no light to help her see causing her to resort to her sense of touch to make way through the darkness.

Consarnit, She thought to herself as she felt herself come to a fork in the vent, was it a left or a right we took to come here?

She cursed herself for letting her first trip through the vents become faded in her mind. She turned her head only facing the darkness covering the two ways before heading off to the left. She proceed further into vents not being able to see her own hoof if she held in front of her face. She hoped Burt hadn’t gotten far and….

She turned her head to look back into the darkness behind her as if she hadn’t gotten anywhere or was walking in place.

….she let out a gulp hoping to Celestia that she wouldn’t get lost.

“We’ve gotta keep moving,”

Frank and Otis were making their way across the darkening park as their eye sight was slowly adjusting. Heading in the direction of the food court once again, they kept on their path only taking time to shove zombies out of the way. Frank and Otis had agreed to start searching around the food court given it was the first scene of the man from the roof attacking. Frank figured there had to be some place the man escaped to or a passageway around there leading to who knows where. Using the flash light to light the ground in front of them, they were just past the pond when they heard it.

“SOMBODY HELP!”

Frank’s eyes darted towards the direction he heard the scream come from as he made a snap decision. He ran off towards the cry for help with Otis right behind him as they weaved between zombies occasionally pushing them away. They kept their ears open hoping to get a better point of direction with another scream but it didn’t come. They traversed the park in limited light coming up on no innocent person being attack, but….the wrecked Humvee from earlier in the day. Still turned upside down against a tree, it was void of life as it had been just before. Frank and Otis approached the Humvee keeping the flash light trained on it. The blood had corroded staining the seats however….they saw something that hadn’t been there before. A corroded trail of blood… in a large mass... meaning… someone... or something…

“FUCKERS!”

Frank and Otis turned around quickly causing the flashlight to go from the Humvee to a man...dressed in orange holding a young woman in a pink shirt and blue shorts with her hands behind her back. The woman had no visible sign of injury but the man however was in poor condition. He appeared to have a broken lower leg that he was managing to stand up on despite the obvious pain. He had a tear in the skin on his forward head that appeared to have been bleeding for a while. He appeared to have a broken rib protruding out his torso alongside with his shoulder appearing to be dislocated. Frank questioned how any man had the will power to even move with his injuries but reality was playing out as it was.

“You two…fuckers…are gonna….” The man mumbled out drawing in breaths while wincing in pain every time he did as his already pale face was getting slowly paler…and paler, “get me…a ride…out….or the bitch…dies….”

Frank and Otis stood silent as both tried to think of a way around the situation as the moaning around them go louder and louder. In the distant faded light over the man and woman, a pair of decayed arms shot out and wrapped around the man pull him back as he let out a scream in pain while pulling the woman with him, who also let out loud scream. Frank and Otis dashed forward towards the attack keeping the light trained on the three in front of them. Frank shot a hand forward grabbing the shoulder of the man before planting his foot against the zombie and shoving it away with a strong push. He turned to help Otis wrench the woman from the man’s grip before letting the man fall to the ground. The man let out a yelp in pain as he slammed down right on his back. Frank found the woman hugging him while crying and repeatedly thanking him. Frank had his view trained on the man who was making no effort to get up as the zombies came right up on him. One single zombie lowered itself right down to the man before taking a large bite…right at his throat. His screams were replaced with a loud gurgle that muffled any attempts of words just as the other zombies began to feast on him. Clawing at him and biting chunks of flesh right off just a loud ring was heard throughout the park. Just as the ringing continued to sound out in a distinct one by one pattern, the zombies had torn open the man’s torso and began ripping at the muscles lying underneath. Frank could feel the urge to vomit rising but he kept the feeling at bay. Just then the first zombie to feast on the man raised itself showing its face to the light just as the last ring sounded. Its eyes were now a glowing red much like a demon’s eyes. It let out a loud moan, lounder than previous zombies, almost like a growl as Frank got the sudden feeling of being surrounded…

He, Otis, and the woman looked around themselves with wide eyes at the sight of zombies all around... slowly lumbering towards them...

“Frank…” Otis said with fear reeling in him.

“Way ahead of you, Otis,” Frank replied.

All three of them made a run for their lives weaving between zombies in their way; however the zombies seemed more…aggressive now. Frank could now feel the wind rushing when a zombie would take a swipe at him and the moment to weave out of danger's way seemed more rapid. They made their way back past the pond and towards the entrance to the paradise plaza. It was still teeming with light like a light house to sailors at sea. They managed to get back to the entrance and proceeded through the doors leaving the dark park behind them. Frank took in a deep breath as his attention fell onto the zombies in the plaza…they too were sporting the red glowing eyes…like their undead comrades outside.

“Tomorrow will be best for searching around,” Otis said as he scanned the now red eyed zombies, “Let’s get her back to the monitor room.”

Frank nodded while the woman was shaking in fear at the sight of the zombies before them.

“Don’t worry. We’ve gotten past these things before,” Otis told her, “You’ll be safe back at the…”

In that same moment, there was a flash of the lights in the plaza growing brighter for a split second before fading quickly and leaving nothing but darkness.

Author's Note

The beginning of this chapter took a while. Mostly due to writer's block but strange thing...writing this chapter got easier not just for Frank or Applejack's parts, but the entirety. It all became easier to write once I started listening to Creepypasta readers like MrCreepyPasta. Either way, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please leave your feedback in the comments below.