Twilight sat against cold wooden doors of the church. A deep pool of grief in her chest, the heat building up in her leg from whatever virus that coarsed through her bloodstream as she forced to accept that this was it. This was the end. She gave herself until the end of tomorrow at most, until she would finally... well, until she would finally pass away.
The tears hadn't stopped ever since she had been bitten. Dying wasn't the worst part, it was the fact that her friends would have to find a way to live without her that hurt so bad. To come to terms with what was going to happen.
Twilight couldn't bring herself to get up. Not because of the infection but because of the lack of courage in doing so. To have to tell her friends that she had been bitten, that they would have to live on without her.
Her thoughts were interrupted as another wave of sadness mixed with grief washed over her. The tearful faces, the cries of her friends begging her not to go, flashing through her mind. Her eyes clutched tightly as if a pair of weights were piling on them, her teeth gritted as a pack of sobs ripped their way through her.
As Lee called out to Vernon, Pinkie took the time to observe her surroundings. Her eyes landing on a set of peculiar things. The group had just passed through a sewer that not only wreaked of a foul smelling odor but also was infested with walkers they dealt with.
The room was completely vacant of Vernon and his group. A set of small windows that embodied a rectangular shape was on the top left side of the room, where sun rays seeped through them.
On the same side, were large trays of some kind that seemed to be able to go in the wall. Pinkie walked over to them, getting a closer look.
"Lee?" A soft feminine voice brought the mare out of her little inspection and she looked at the walkie-talkie attached to the hem of Lee's pants.
The man snatched the walkie-talkie. "Clementine! A-are you alright? Where are you?" He paused, a moment later his tone turned bitter. "Vernon you son of a bitch!"
"Hello, Lee," came the ominous voice on the other side. Pinkie frowned then glanced at the others who looked troubled.
"Who is this?"
"This isn't Vernon and you should really watch your tone. Clementine's fine but if I were you, I'd choose my next words very carefully."
Pinkie growled inwardly. He wouldn't be saying that if she and him were face to face. She wasn't as afraid or worried as she would've been back in Equestria, when her and her friends were forced to deal with a pony or creature who had villainous intent.
But then again, Clementine's life was in danger.
Growls from walkers brought the mare out of her thoughts. She glanced behind her from where they came in, to the hole in the wall that had been covered prior the them coming in.
"Please don't hurt her," Lee begged.
There was a pause. "Hurt her? I'm not the one who hurts people."
I'm not the one who hurts people. Yes, because going around abducting little foals isn't "hurting anyone". Pinkie shook her head with a scowl before her eyes aimlessly fell to the floor. A moment later, she heard Lee mutter something and she lifted her head up to look at him.
The group was met with silence and Pinkie spoke up a few moments after. "Okay, what are we gonna do now? How are we gonna catch this filthy-foalnapper?" Lee glanced toward the others who all had solemn looks on their faces. "Seriously, no idea? Nothing? Na-da?"
"Well, what do you suggest?" Omid asked.
"Uhh demand!? Threaten him!?" Pinkie ran over to Lee, snatched the device out of his hands and began yelling into the speaker. Demanding to know where Clementine was, while simultaneously screaming insults.
"Pinkie!" Lee snatched the device out of her hooves.
"What?" Pinkie shrugged. "I'm just tryna figure out where Clementine is."
"He probably wasn't gonna tell us anyway," Ben said.
"Oh, shut up Ben! What would you know, you aren't doing anything!"
Christa's eyes trailed toward the bite on Lee's wrist, noticing the faint redness that was building up around it. "How's that feel?"
It took a second to realize what the woman was referring to until Pinkie's eyes landed on the bite. As morbid as it sounded, she wanted to know what it felt like, not being bitten obviously but what it felt like after. The sickness, other symptoms.
"It doesn't matter-"
"Wha-what!? Whatdoyamean it doesn't matter!? But it does! What happens if you turn?" Everybody fell silent at her grim statement. Christa glared at the pony, Omid and Ben merely stood awkwardly.
"Then you continue to search for her," Lee simply replied.
The guttural snarls came from the entrance to the morgue. Past the hole, the group could see multiple walkers rapidly and hungrily making their way toward them. One of the walkers had began crawling it's way through the hole.
With a slight ounce of worry, a thought passed through Pinkie's mind, wondering how the herd was able to track down where they were.
Omid ran over to the door and slammed it shut. "We'll hold 'em off as long as we can. Try and look for a way outta here!" He, Christa and Ben all pulled out their weapons. They all individually took cover behind different barriers as they waited for Lee to find a way out. That was if the walkers don't bust down the door beforehand.
Lee got to work, searched around the morgue for any type access point, a hatch, a door that led to the sewers - anything that would be able to get them out of there. Upon further searching, he came across a set of two large iron doors with a worn out color of red. To the left of it was the number eight encased in a square. An elevator! Lee thought.
"You found a way out?" Pinkie came up beside the man, glancing at the doors.
"Yeah. We just need to get these doors open," Lee replied.
"Any idea on how we do that?" The mare took a quick look around and at the doors. Noticing a set of small buttons organised in a column with the top button having an arrow pointing upward. "What's that?" She walked toward it.
"It's an elevator, do you have those back in your world?"
"If they do, I've never heard of it." Pinkie pushed the top button, frowning when nothing happened. "Is something supposed to happen?"
"The power's out." Lee began walking back into the main area with Pinkie following behind. "We're gonna have to find something to open those doors."
"How are we gonna open that!?" Pinkie glanced toward the doors again. "Why don't I try bucking it open?" She ran off before Lee could even respond. Gathering up all her strength, she delivered one brute kick toward the two doors sending a loud boom echoing through and beyond the room. The pony took a quick look at the now heavily dented door and saw a small gap in the shape of a stretched oval in the middle of it. A victorious grin stretched across her features. A thud came from behind her, causing her to look back and the sight of Lee laying on the floor, unconscious and slowly breathing made her lose that grin. Lucky, she wasn't the only that noticed. Everyone else had saw him faint and was already walking over toward him.
"Oh fuck! I-is he... is he-"
"It's the bite," Christa grimly said, cutting off Omid.
Pinkie swiftly made her way over to them. Ben was off to the side, watching. Omid was kneeling down beside Lee and Christa was standing over him on the other side. "What do we do!? Is he gonna turn?"
"I don't know." Christa paused, her eyes landed on something before she knelt down to Lee. "Omid, help me get him on that table over there." She nodded in direction of what appeared to be a table of sorts. Like one of the counters back at the mansion except this one had no cabinets on it. Just a dirty, silver tiled top. Both of them lifted the man up onto the counter. Thoughts became endless, running through her mind all at the same time. Was he okay? Is he turning? He's gonna die here! Who's going to take care of Clementine!?
Omid stressed. "What the hell do we do!?"
"Calm down, would you? He's still breathing." A small weight lifted off Pinkie's chest when she heard Christa say that. Okay, he's still alive. Nothing to worry about! "We still need to do something about this bite."
"B-but, what can we do? We can't exactly take it off," Ben timidly said.
There was a pause. Christa looked at him for a moment before taking a quick glance around the room. Her eyes landed on a surgical saw, laying on top of a counter behind them. Omid followed her line of vision, his eyes widened as soon as he saw the morbid tool. "Oh. My god! You aren't serious... right?"
"If it means saving his life," she replied.
Pinkie frowned at what they were saying, "Uhh, hello? What are you two talking about?"
"We're gonna have to cut off his arm," Christa said.
"WHAT!" Pinkie snapped. "Have you lost it!?"
"If it's going to save his life, what does he have to lose?"
"His arm." Ben interjected.
"Besides that. I'm saying that he's already bitten, why don't we try what we can?"
"It'll kill him quicker! Won't he lose-like a lot of blood!?" Pinkie exclaimed.
"Obviously but we have to try!"
Pinkie laughed mockingly. "We are not doing anything! I mean, do you see"-She gestured to the entire room. -"Any bandages around here?"
"Well, what do you think we should do then!?" Christa snapped at the pony.
"How 'bout not cut off his arm? That's a brilliant idea!"
"Oh, screw you."
"Screw you!" When Pinkie snapped back harder at the woman, Omid decided to intervene.
"Okay, guys! Let's just... relax, okay? Let's just-y'know calm down, please?" He held out his hands at both of them. "Alright? We shouldn't be yelling at each other. How 'bout this, how about we wait? We wait for him to wake up and then he can decide what to do. Is that better?"
"Yeah, exactly. I agree with that plan!" Pinkie smiled triumphantly.
Christa shook her head. "Alright, fine. We'll wait."
Pinkie threw her one last smugly smile before she looked over at Lee who was peacefully resting on the table, albeit with the bite on his wrist; hoping he would pull through because without him, she and all her friends would've never been able to survive in this world. Well, maybe they would have, if not for Lee. If he never came along when he did, who knows what she and her friends would've done in order to survive.