//------------------------------// // Motor-inn Bust... // Story: Monster Inside // by Penguin17203 //------------------------------// Starlight could see the motel's large sign coming up on the street they were travelling on, it read "Travelier Motel." The sign itself was sort of a big nightlight with a halogen glow but in the shape of an arrow pointing to the left. Must've been at the motel. On the other side of the road was the woods, it was nearly pitch black when you looked at it. There was a fence separating the road and the trees. Occasionally, you would see a faint outline of something or quite possibly, someone moving within them; being that it was night just added the overall creepiness vibe to it. Getting there wasn't difficult, thankfully. They mainly spent most of their time dodging and diving into shadows to keep from being noticed by walkers. It was surprising to Starlight as to how easy it was to sneak around them, Applejack also thought the same thing. Initially, Starlight thought she was going to be draining her energy running away from the walkers. "Y'all think there's gonna be more walkers at this place?" Applejack asked as she eyed the big sign. "Probably, I-I mean did you see how many we had to sneak around?" Carley gestured back the way they came with the flick of her thumb. "Honestly, I thought this was going to be a lot harder," Starlight decided to interject. "Don't jinx us," Lee said with nonchalance. "'Jinxing' doesn't exist. I mean, really saying something like 'there's definitely not going to be any walkers at this motel' doesn't mean it's bound to happen." "Well, the whole reason why we're here is because Glenn is hiding from walkers." Carley pointed out, making Starlight falter. "Oh... yeah, I guess I kinda... jinxed myself?" Starlight shrugged. "Yeah, it seems so." They arrived at the motel, there was a long brick wall that separated the road from the parking lot. Just on the other side was an ice machine and a soda machine which sadly, wasn't on. Starlight groaned. "I really need a drink." Suddenly and almost instantly, a growl was heard and it sounded way too close. She caught a glimpse of it and suddenly she found herself crouched down against the brick wall. They heard the walker for a few seconds before it wandered off. Lee let out a sigh of relief while Starlight was left almost paralyzed for having been so close to a meeting with death. The group slowly peeked over the brick wall only to discover that parking lot had walkers in them. The ice machine began to creep open, it's hinges squeaking against it's metal. "Hey! Watch out." Applejack whispered, pointing at the ice machine. The machine's door opened, to reveal Glenn. "Ah guys!" He climbed out of the machine and hopped over to the group to meet them. "Man, it's good to see you." "See!? I told you." Starlight said, specifically to Lee. "I told you this was too easy." She couldn't help the amused grin that etched across her face, thinking back to the conversation about jinxing. "Can we get outta here before any of these things notice us?" Carley abruptly whispered. "Not yet, there's a survivor trapped up there." Glenn gestured at the motel's second floor and in an instant the grin on Starlight's face had ceased to exist. Lee glanced back at her with a knowing somewhat amused look. "Alright, any y'all got a plan to deal with these walkers?" Applejack stole another glance over the brick wall, at the walkers. "Whatdoyoumean deal!?" Carley snapped. "We need to leave now before any of them catch us!" "And just leave whoever's up there?" Applejack replied. "We don't have time to fight walkers." "Well, we can't just leave her up there." Glenn butted in. "Her? So, it's a girl?" Carley reiterated. "What does that have to do with anything?" Starlight inquired. "Well, it's got something to do with Glenn being suicidal over a girl." "We're saving her, with or without you." "We'll be fine, as long as we're careful. We didn't make it 'ere by bein' stupid." Applejack added, trying to convince Carley. The farmer wasn't going to up and leave someone behind because it was too dangerous; she wasn't even thrilled on the idea of killing the walkers. She obviously knew they were dangerous, their appearance alone was threatening. "Fine, whatever. Let's go take care of Glenn's damsel-in-distress." Carley relented her argument. The group moved to another brick wall, this one was the center and was much longer than the previous one. The upside was that there was only about four or five walkers in the parking lot, downside was not having a weapon to take them out; except for Carley's gun and that was the opposite of what they needed. "Okay, it's pretty simple, we go in here take out the walkers and get her out of the room." Lee whispered. "Easier said than done." Starlight gestured to herself. "No weapons, see?" "I know, that's why this may not be as easy as you thought." Lee quipped to which she returned with a blank stare. "Alright, let's have a look around." Starlight and Applejack began taking glimpses of the area, anything that would help them take out the walkers with no trouble. There was a rather large R.V parked in the lot and one of the walkers was eating something just a few feet away from it. Starlight nearly puked at the sight whereas Applejack held down the urge to gag. They could hear the walker munching away at it's unfortunate, long dead victim... hopefully, he or she didn't suffer through it. Both of them shared a look of disgust and sorrow before attempting to focus on something else. "How easy do you think it would be to take out one of the... walkers?" Starlight asked as she peered the lot. "Ah dunno, hopefully it ain't too difficult." Starlight's saw a something on the wall of the motel, it quite a distance away but looked to be a stick of some sort encased in a box with a glass window. "Maybe, we could use that." Applejack followed her line of sight and saw the object. "Yeah, yeah maybe we can." "Goodluck smothering them to death," Carley said to which they both took a glance over their shoulders to find Lee holding a pillow. "How in the hay do you just find a pillow out here!?" Starlight nearly shouted. "It was just laying there, it'll be useful." Lee replied. "A pillow? Useful... against walkers? If they're that fragile why don't we just knock them out with our hooves then?" Starlight blurted out before she was able to stop herself and now the group was giving her weird looks. "Hooves?" Carley repeated, she looked like she wasn't having any of it and Lee and Glenn were frowning at her. "What do you mean hooves?" Glenn inquired, sounding genuinely confused. "Okay, hands or whatever you call it! We'll just kill them with that!" Starlight quickly rebutted. "But why would you say hooves?" "Who cares!?" Starlight almost shouted but still maintaining a hushed tone. "Guys!" Lee butted in. "How about we just stay focused on the task at hand, alright?" "Well, I was until Glenn started quest-" "Forget it, just do... what you need to do." Lee dismissed her with the wave of a hand and went back to what he was doing. Starlight rolled her eyes before turning and made her way to the end of the wall, peeking around the corner. She saw a stationary car with a walker that was slouched over sitting against the front tires. "Walkers can't sleep... can they?" She turned back to Applejack with a frown. "Ah dunno, but it seems like." She replied. Starlight turned back to the walker. She then noticed the pickup truck that also happened to be stationary. It was parked in-between two wooden columns. One detail that caught her eye was the bumper reading "Shit Happens". The word "shit" piqued her interest, having no concept nor recollection of the word being used in or by anypony in Equestria. She went to sneak over behind the pickup truck, dreading and hoping none of the walkers saw her or Applejack walk over. Starlight took a peek around the corner of the bumper, feeling slightly annoyed at the lack of progress they were making. She sighed. "There has to be something that would help us clear out these walkers..." "Maybe, we could try buckin' them? Y'know, like how ah buck trees?" Applejack suggested. "We... could, I just wouldn't have very much success... I don't think. Since, I'm not a farmer and I've never kicked a tree in my life." She paused. "Hey... why don't you go try? O-On that walker over there?" She gestured to the walker that was sitting against the tires. "A perfect candidate." She grinned at her friend. "You're very nonchalant 'bout this." "Well, yeah-I mean, why wouldn't I be?" Starlight inquired. "Cuz ah'm about to kill somethin'." "Yeah... a walker, they're-you know... dangerous?" "Yeah but they were also humans once." Applejack looked at the walker, thinking about who it used to be. It was still horrendous to look at but she shake the fact that it was once a human, just like Lee, Carley and Glenn. To have to kill it, somehow even though it looked the way it did, still felt wrong to her. Stupid, she knew it was but it didn't matter. The point was she didn't want to have to put it down. It looked like a man who was maybe in his thirties? She started thinking about who it was, or more, who he used to be before he was... killed. "Hey," Starlight roped Applejack's attention. "You know, I don't want to do this either but I don't know how long we're gonna be here for so we... might as well..." "Get used to it." Applejack finished the sentence for her to which she nodded. She sighed through her nose, subtly shaking her head. Starlight was right, there may be a time where she'll have no choice but to defend herself. As she said, they didn't know how long they were going to be there for and it was only a matter of time before she was forced to do something she didn't want to do. Applejack began tiptoeing toward the walker, whilst keeping an eye on the others in the area. Once she was close enough, she began staring down at the walker; noticing the meat missing from the shin of it's legs, leading her to believe that they were feasted on. Not a moment later, it seemed to have "woken up". It turned in her direction then began growling, reaching out at her. In a smooth but quick motion, she turned and delivered a powerful back kick to the skull of the walker; feeling a disgusting squish against her boot and the car. Applejack was afraid to even look at the mess she made. She did it, she killed her first walker and she didn't know how she felt about that. Her back was still turned and she was able to see Starlight quietly making her way toward her. "You... okay?" A took a minute to respond. "Ah don't know..." Lee pulled open the front door to the car, the interior light came on and it gave him a clear view of what was in it. The car was practically empty, save for the small metallic object sitting in the passenger seat. He shifted the car into reverse with the gear stick on the wheel and took the object. "Found uhh... sparky thing." "A sparky thing?" Starlight inquired, looking at the thing in Lee's hand. "A sparkplug, that could come in handy." Glenn provided. "That small thing can come in handy? Are we just gonna toss it at the walkers or something?" "Or something..." Lee and Applejack began pushing the car back. Applejack pushing from the front bumper and Lee holding onto the car from the side. Surprisingly, she didn't have much difficulty pushing it. She didn't know how Lee was doing but she felt fine, in fact, it didn't even feel too heavy. The car rolled all the way across the parking lot, crushing a walker that was roaming aimlessly into the walls of the motel. The walker was left alive, pinned to the wall. The group went back to the "Shit Happens" pickup truck. Glenn had crushed the sparkplug before he picked up one of the broken pieces and handed it to Lee; leaving Starlight, as well as Applejack, even more befuddled then before. To their surprise, that tiny small piece had managed to smash the driver's seat window like it was nothing. It left Starlight questioning the way physics worked in this world... . Strange how something that could be so small yet hold so much mass that it can apparently smash through glass with ease... or perhaps windows in this world are just very fragile. There was a screwdriver on the seat and Lee reached in and picked it up. "Now, that seems like the perfect weapon." Starlight commented, almost jealously. "That's exactly what I was thinking." While Lee went back to the other walker that was eating earlier, Starlight felt that it wasn't necessary to hide from walkers anymore. Most of them had been "dealt" with and the ones that weren't were either stuck or Lee was in the process of stabbing one of them in the head. Once he had taken out the rest of the remaining walkers, the group came back over to the walker that was previously pinned up against the wall. As Lee was about to launch the tool into the walker's brain, Starlight quickly stopped him. "Wait!" She exclaimed. "Wait-wait-wait... maybe... m-maybe I should do this." Lee frowned, lowering the tool. "Why... do you say that?" She shrugged. "We... don't know how long this whole..." she waved her hands around. "Thing, outbreak or whatever this is, is gonna last for. I-I might as well learn how to... you know... k-kill walkers?" Lee paused, his eyes casted down to the ground for a few moments before they returned up at her. He handed the screwdriver to her and she reluctantly accepted it. Starlight walked over to the walker, it was already trying to grab at her but it's attempts were futile. The walker was growling, it's rotten vocal chords were giving her the chills. It was different seeing them up close, when one's right in front of you, trying to kill you and this one was stuck. She was starting to feel pity for it, it didn't care that it was stuck, it just wanted to... kill her. She wondered if there was any sign of the person that was there before. She didn't realize she was watching it until the growl suddenly became louder and she raised the lethal tool above her head. She swallowed, taking a sharp inhale before shoving the tool into the walker's head and killed it. The tool only went through further when the walker's head fell atop of the car. Starlight stared at the walker, but jumped slightly when she felt something on her shoulder. She turned to see Applejack with a concerned look. "Y'okay?" "Yeah, of course! We're finally done here. All we have to do now is help the girl up there." She gestured with the nod of her head. Of course she wasn't okay but she wasn't going to let Applejack know that. She was still trying to convince herself that it was just a walker because it was; it wasn't anything else but that. She's never even considered the possibility of killing before and now that she's done it... she didn't know how she felt about it. Starlight and Applejack watched as Lee swung the fire axe at the walker, decapitating it with barely any effort displayed. They grimaced at the way the head fell to the ground, rolling for a few seconds before the other walker was taken care of the same way. He made it look so easy, it made Starlight think how prevalent death was in this world. He seemed to be having no trouble killing them like he didn't even had to think twice about it. She understood they were dangerous, she'd even convinced Applejack of that but she was mainly trying to convince herself. Starlight lagged behind, the other going past her. The door was barred with a wood plank and Lee began knocking on it. "Hello? Anyone in there? We're here to help?" What came next startled Starlight, she didn't know why but it did. "Please, just go away!" Said the feminine voice coming from the other side of the door. The woman sounded distressed, almost like she'd been crying. "Let's go, guys." Carley casually said. "You really don't care about anyone else, do you?" Starlight said with scorn. "Actually, I care about getting back to the group as soon as possible." Carley rebutted. "Doesn't seem that way." "Don't have a cat fight." Glenn interjected. "Shut up, Glenn." Carley was irked by his stupid comment. "If you open up we could take you someplace safer, we got a group in tow-" "No, no, no! Please no!" The woman began to hyperventilate. "She's in trouble!" Glenn exclaimed. "Well, come on then!" Applejack delivered a kick to the door, in an attempt to break it down. "Hang on for a second!" Lee moved her out of the way and raised the axe. He threw down onto the wooden plank, cutting it in half before trying the door knob. "No good?" Applejack asked. He shook his head. She nodded before delivering another kick to the door, hearing a crack come from the hinges. "Stop just stop! I'm... coming out." The woman said, they heard a click come from inside the room before the door slowly crept open. It revealed a girl, probably in her early twenties and she had blood splotches all over her; more so, on her hip that she was clutching to. Starlight and the others realized that she was injured. "You're hurt." She breathlessly said, eyes wide. "D-do you... do you need help? What happened?" In that instant the woman unloaded on her. "I told you to stay away! I'm bit! You can't help me, I'm going to die! I'm going to come back as one of... one of them, don't you understand!? There is no helping me!" Starlight and Applejack began feeling uneasy in this situation. They were both thinking the same thing, everything that the unstable woman had just told them. If you get bit by one of them that means... you turn into one of them? "Y-you don't... don't want help? You d-don't want to come back... with us?" Starlight apprehensively continued. If what she said was true that if you get bit, you come back as a walker, then she didn't want to leave her here all by herself to face that alone. That was a fate Starlight wouldn't wish on anypony. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Carley giving her a look of disapproval. "No! I'm going to turn, I'm not going to put anyone in danger!" The woman exclaimed before eyes on the gun Carley held in her hands. "Y-you... have a gun." "So?" Carley frowned. "Can I-I... borrow it?" The woman's voice became soft as if she was finally feeling relieved. Something about that seemed... wrong to Starlight and Applejack. They both exchanged a troubled look with each other before turning back to the distraught lady. "What do you mean 'borrow'?" "Give it t-to me. I-I can just... y'know end this then there's... then there's n-no problem." Starlight's heart was beginning to beat faster as the realization dawned on her. If she held out her hands in front of her, you'd be able to notice quite easily that they were trembling. The woman wanted to off herself. "Woah-woah-whoa," Lee suddenly exclaimed. "Please! I don't wanna be one of them! They're... they're... satanic." The lady begged. There was a pause amongst the group, Starlight turned to Applejack who seemed just as unsettled as she was. She didn't know what to do, killing walkers was one thing but letting someone off themselves? She started shaking her head. No, no, she couldn't do this. She wasn't going to do this. "I-I'm sorry... b-but we can't." "Give it to her." Lee said matter-of-factly. "What!?" Starlight and Carley exclaimed in simultaneously. "Do it." "No!" "What are you talking about Lee!? We're not doing that!" Starlight couldn't believe this, he wasn't serious. He could not be serious, he was just gonna let her die like this!? "Just give it to her! I mean l-look at her, does look like she's getting any better?" Applejack kept silent, she did as Lee asked and looked at the woman. She was already bitten and she was going to turn. Her mind was already mind up but she didn't like it. She didn't want her to have the gun because nopony should ever have to do that to themselves but on the other hoof, she was already dying. "He's... he's right." She finally said, ashamed for having to say it in the first place. "You too!? Applejack!?" Starlight placed her hand on her friend's shoulder, making her face her. "Applejack come on! Don't... d-don't do this, I-I-I mean we! We can't do this, we-w-we-we can't give her the gun! We can't let her do this!" She desperately tried pleading with her. "You'd be giving me mercy! I've seen what hell is like a-and i-it's coming back as one of them!" The lady begged further. "No! T-t-this isn't right! I-it's not right!" Starlight let go of her friend as she began speaking to the lady. "Please, please don't do this." Applejack helplessly watched as her friend who was on the verge of breaking down herself, try to plead with the woman but Applejack already saw the woman's eyes. She wasn't going to change her mind... "I won't come back as one of them." "Argh! You are all unhinged!" Starlight snapped. She began backing away from the group, in direction of the stairs. She shook her head, tears in her eyes. "I will not watch this!" She turned and flounced toward the stairs leaving the group. Applejack didn't blame her, she didn't want this to happen either but there was no choice! She was going to die, they might as well help her gain some level of peace... even if that peace didn't look pretty. Celestia forbid if any of her kin were in this position... "Just give her the gun." Lee softly said to Carley. She sighed. "Alright, fine.'' She knelt down and placed the gun on the floor. "Here." The lady picked it up and her red puffy eyes found Lee and Applejack who had somber looks on their faces. "T-thank you so much... I know how terrible this must be." "We can't watch this. Let's go." Glenn anxiously said. "We can't leave yet." Carley replied. "What!? Why not!?" "Because somebody had to pick up the gun." Lee answered. "You guys go on ahead, I'll stay here." "Okay..." Glenn and Carley began to leave. Applejack was going to follow them but she stopped before deciding that she was going to stay. "You aren't going?" Lee asked with a slight frown. She shook her head before looking up at the girl. "We're..." she gulped. "H-here for you..." The woman who was distraught had managed a tight lipped smile while slightly nodding her head. "Thank you..." she then held the gun to her head and Applejack felt the color drain from her face as she pulled the trigger. Lee and Applejack made it downstairs, Lee carrying the gun. He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "You okay?" It took a few moments for her to answer, she looked up at the second floor from which they came feeling like she had been paralyzed by shock, it was better this way... it was better for her. Applejack nodded. "Ah'll... a-ah will be." "Okay, come on we should go." The two met up with the rest of the group who were all waiting in the car. Applejack found Starlight sitting in the front seat, staring intently at the woods with tear-streaks on her face. "Hey, are you-" "Don't even." Starlight shook her head before her eyes found hers. "Just don't... bother." Applejack stayed quiet for a moment and she finally nodded before getting into the back seat with the Glenn and Carley. Lee flicked on the ignition and the engine roared alive, he pressed down on the accelerator and drove out of the motor-inn.