The yellow pinprick of eyes narrowed at the sight of its prey in the early morning light: the youngest of the five leaving the building. It barred its teeth and crouched low to the top of the roof. It waited until its target was in full sight and pounced at him. It made a shrieking sound it an attempt to disorient its pack members.
“What the?!” said Ellis as the Hunter landed on top of him. His eyes bulged as he realised what it was, “HOLY SHIT! HUNTER!” he cried out to the surprise of the other four as the Hunter started to tear away at his chest. Nick reacted first and bashed the hunter with his frying pan as Coach revved up his chainsaw. The Hunter, following the plan, quickly fled the area by jumping away on rooftops as the survivors tried to figure out what happened. Nick helped Ellis to his feet.
“What the hell?! You said there weren’t any infected here!” Ellis said angrily at Applejack as he held his bleeding stomach. Applejack stared at him in surprise.
“W- What was that?” she asked, shaken by the sudden attack.
“That was a Hunter,” said Rochelle. She turned to Ellis and tossed him a bottle of pills, “here, take these.”
“Thanks,” said Ellis as he downed the bottle of pills. He shook himself slightly and said, “Much, much better now.” He turned again angrily to Applejack, “just what kind of infected are you? We’ve seen some crazy shit out there but we’ve never seen anything like you.”
Applejack backed away at the four angry strangers, they clearly thought Applejack had something to do with the sudden attack. “Ah swear; ah ain’t one of those infected and ah’ve never seen anything like that before.”
Nick rolled his eyes, “sure, and we’ve never seen trees before. Just what exactly are you planning next? A Tank?”
Applejack tilted her head, confused, “ah Tank? You mean like Rainbow dash’s tortoise?”
“A Tank is one big mean son of a bitch that can send you flying through the air with a single punch,” said Ellis, looking around for more infected. He failed to notice a small shadow descending on his head. A pair of magenta eyes glowed with determination as it crashed into Ellis’s head and tried to pull him away from the others.
“JOCKEY!” he yelled as he tried to pull the attacker off his head. Nick brought up the frying pan again and to try and swing it at the attacker.
“NO! STOP!” cried out Applejack, “Rainbow, get out of the way!”
Rainbow dash just barley jumped off Ellis’s head in time as Nick swung the frying pan full force and hit Ellis’s head. He stood there dazed for a moment and fell to the ground, unconscious. Coach checked Ellis to make sure he was alright and glared angrily at Applejack.
“Not an infected? Girl, you just led us into a Hunter and a Jockey ambush!” said Coach angrily as he brought up his chainsaw. Applejack backed away into a wall and Rainbow dash flew up into Coach’s face.
“HEY! You stay away from her!” she yelled. Coach blinked.
“What the hell? Flying Jockeys?!” he said as Rainbow dash kicked his face. “Aw DAMN IT! It’s on now you rainbow jockey bitch!” he said angrily as he started to try and hit the flying Rainbow dash who was repeatedly hitting his head. Rochelle yelled at him.
“STOP IT, NOW!”
He and Rainbow dash stared at her in surprise. Rainbow dash then quickly kicked Coach’s chainsaw out of his hands. Coach glared angrily at the Pegasus. Rochelle continued to speak.
“Coach, that isn’t a Jockey. It looks like her,” she said gesturing to Applejack, who was shaking slightly against the wall of the building. Rochelle walked up to her and knelt down. “Don’t worry; I know this is just a misunderstanding. They won’t hurt you,” she got back up and walked over to where Rainbow dash was hovering, “now, who the hell do you think you are for jumping Ellis?!”
The blue pony stared at Rochelle, “uh, Rainbow dash and I’m saving Applejack from four monsters?”
Rochelle narrowed her eyes, “and why, of the entire stupid thing you could have done, why did you jump him like a Jockey?”
“Jockey?” she asked, what’s that?”
“Oh great, more useless explaining,” muttered Nick.
“A Jockey is a thing that jumps on the back of someone’s head an rides them around,” answered Rochelle, “Ellis hates Jockey. The infected are the monsters. Not us.”
“So… you say you’re not monsters,” asked Rainbow dash, “then why’d you try to attack Applejack?”
“Like I said, it’s a misunderstanding. We’ve been surviving a zombie apocalypse for a week now and were lost,” said Rochelle, “there are very few people we can trust.”
“Ugh… what happened?” the five turned their heads to see Ellis clutching his head where Nick hit him with the frying pan. “Where’s the Jockey?” he asked.
“At apparently wasn’t a Jockey. It’s now a flying pony,” replied Nick, deadpan.
“What? First they can talk now they can fly? Where the hell are we?” he asked, confused.
“Were in Ponyville, duh,” said Rainbow dash. The four sniggered slightly.
“Ponyville? What did a seven year old name this place?” asked Nick.
Coach was chuckling, “I gotta agree with Nick, what kind of person names their town ‘Ponyville’?”
After the four got over the name of the town, the set of on their original purpose: to get a map from Twilight. They ventured through the town, getting strange looks from the citizens of the town. Ellis asked Applejack why they were staring at them.
“Probably because nopony’s ever seen anything like y’all around here,” she replied. As they continued to travel through the awakening town, Ellis occasionally heard the wheezing of a Smoker. He slowed down to walk with the other survivors, “hey, keep your eyes open. I think I hear a Smoker.” They nodded. Finally, they arrived at Twilights house. The four stared at it.
“Now, I’ve heard of a tree house but this is ridiculous,” said Coach, “how the hell is that tree still alive?”
“Dude, it must be some sort of magic,” said Ellis, “ah mean, look at some of this stuff. Flying ponies, dragons all that mythological shit. All they need are goddamn unicorns and there set!”
“’Goddamn’ unicorns?” said a voice from behind the tree door, “why do they’ need unicorns exactly,” the source of the voice opened the door behind a pile of floating books. The survivors stared at it.
“Is that what I think it is?” Nick asked Applejack. She nodded.
“I’m sorry but what do you want?” she put the books on the ground and turned to the four, “sorry but I-“she stopped in mid-sentence. She stared at the survivors. And they stared back.
“Uh… hi, name’s Ellis; these are my friends, Coach, Nick and Rochelle. We’re wondering if you have a map. Were kinda lost,” said Ellis. The pony continued to stare at them. “Uh, you ok?”
“Applejack, Rainbow dash, get inside my house. NOW!” she said as the two ponies went into the tree. Ellis could hear voices inside.
“What in Celestia’s name are those things?!”
“Ah don’t know. They broke into Sugarcube corner last night when ah was helpin her make some pies. Then these four showed up and barricaded the doors and windows,” said Applejack, “Ah tried to get one with ah rope but they cut it in half and called me something called a Smoker. Then ah woke up to them arguing. After they explained their situation, we left to go find you,” She finished. Rainbow dash snorted.
“Yeah, you forgot the part when they tried to kill us.”
Twilight’s eyes bulged, "WHAT?! They tried to kill you and you still stayed with them?!” Applejack put her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder as she started to panic; “there are four killers outside my house!”
“Now hold on sugar cube, it was a misunderstanding. They come from a place with some sort of infection that’s turning things like them into zombies,” said Applejack. Twilight laughed at her.
“Zombies? They told you they came from a place with zombies? How dumb to they think we are?” she laughed.
Applejack looked sternly at Twilight. “They ain’t lying. Ah saw one with mah own eyes. They called it a Hunter of something.”
Twilight glanced at her, “really? A zombie just happened to walk up right after they told you about them?”
“More like it jumped on him,” said Rainbow dash, “I was flying around when I saw this thing jump from a roof and land on one on them. It started to claw away at his chest until the taller one with the brown mane hit it with a frying pan.”
“A frying pan?” said Twilight, “they killed a zombie with a frying pan?”
“Nope, it ran away, coward,” said Applejack.
“and then they tried to kill Applejack,” said Rainbow dash, “I, being awesome, jumped on the one who was just attacker’s head and tried to steer him away from Applejack. They sort of got mad.”
“More like downright flipped out,” muttered Applejack.
“Yeah. And after the darker one with the black mane got mad at the other three, we led them here,” finished Rainbow dash. “Hey Applejack, why they want to come here anyways?”
“’cause we're looking for a map,” said Ellis as he opened Twilight’s door but didn’t go inside. “We must have gotten lost in a hurricane and somehow ended up here.”
Twilight’s ears perked up upon hearing the word ‘hurricane’. “Excuse me uh…”
“Ellis. My name is Ellis.”
“Ellis, did you say you got lost in a hurricane?” she asked.
“Yep, we were fighting off some zombies waiting for Virgil to pick up in his boat. We were out getting diesel to fuel it,” said Ellis. Twilight stared at him, Coach Rochelle and Nick.
“You say there are zombies where you come from?” she asked, “where exactly DO you come from?” she said as he levitated a map from one of here atlas’s. The survivors looked at it.
“Is this a joke? This isn’t the right map. We’re from the United states,” said Nick.
“United states? Where’s that?” asked Rainbow dash.
“You know the middle of north America?” said Rochelle.
“Never heard of it,” replied Applejack.
“Uh, planet earth?” suggested Coach.
“Which planet is that?” asked Twilight. The four survivors turned and stared at each other.
Where ever they were, it sure as hell wasn’t anywhere near Ducatel.
************************************************************************
The Smoker’s tongue shot out at an unsuspecting chicken. It screeched at the sudden attack as the tongue slowly strangled it to death. The Smoker then proceeded to pound the dead chicken into a tree until it was just a fleshy mass of flesh and feathers. It then started to eat what was once a chicken. Blood splattered all over the Smoker’s diseased flesh and sun burnt skin. It turned to see the Charger pound a fully grown bear into a tree, snapping both the tree and the bear’s spine, in half. After it pounded it into the ground enough times, the Charger then orced the flesh into its deformed mouth. The Smoker wheezed.
Once the Charger had finished eating, phase two of the plan would begin.
If only he could find the damn Spitter…