//------------------------------// // The Plans // Story: Four Man Cheeseburger Apocalypse // by Dihinner //------------------------------// Ellis’s eyes cracked open. He blinked multiple times and rubbed them with his hands to clear them from the grime. His entire body ached. He vaguely remembered running from a Witch. After that it was blank. Sitting up, he noticed that he was in a hospital. Getting up, he opened the blinds to see that the moon was out. He turned around to see his guitar lying on a nearby table. All the blood and other zombie bits had been cleaned off of it. “Well ain’t that considerate,” he muttered quietly as he went over to it and strapped it to his back. He opened the door to his left and started to walk down a darkened hallway. He heard the sounds of people sleeping. Not wanting to wake them, he moved silently across the hospital despite the feeling that his fellow survivors might be nearby. He walked down the hallway and came across the entrance doors. Something seamed off about them, like they were too small. Walking closer to get a better look, a wave of memories flooded back to him, the hurricane, the Spitter attack and the mad rush to the hospital. He sighed, ‘why can’t we get a break?’ he opened the Ponyville hospital doors and started to walk down the dimly lit street. **************************************************************************** A loud wail echoed throughout the forest. The Smoker felt a feeling of dread upon hearing the wail. The wail was caused by the Witch. The Smoker didn’t know the Witch was here yesterday but that ear piercing wail gave her away. She was the only infected that the survivors truly feared. Sure, the Tank freaked them out but it wasn’t the sheer terror of the Crying girl. The thing the Smoker found the most upsetting was not that she was the most deformed; in fact, she was the least deformed out of the group. It was that she scared him too. The only things to have the courage or the stupidity to approach the Witch are the giant Tank or the insane Jockey. How they manage not to piss her off the Smoker may never know. But he knows one thing: if the Witch decides to help his plan, then the survivors will have no chance of doing what they do best. The Smoker of course, will not be the one to ask the Witch. It will be the Tank. Mostly because he’s ninety nine percent rage and the remaining one percent is trying to keep the Witch safe, for whatever reason. The Hunter thinks that in their life before the infection the Tank had a thing for the Witch. And then the infection hit. The Witch tolerates the Tank because he usually keeps quiet when she’s wandering around. The Jockey… usually manages to shut up when the Tank is nearby, which is fairly common. Case in point, the Smoker will send the Tank to try and retrieve the Witch… The Smoker then started to prepare for what will be the final confrontation with the survivors. ************************************************************************** Ellis awoke with his arms and legs tied around a tree. “What the hell?” he muttered. He too tired to completely understand the situation. He heard voices coming from behind the tree. “Uh, hi, do you mind helping me? I’m kinda stuck.” He heard whispers from behind him, “uh, hello? Is anyone there?” there was more whispering until… “We captured one of the monsters!” Ellis sighed,” monster? Are y’all sure you got the right guy? I mean, yeah I’m new here but that there monster was killed yesterday so-“ one of the voices cut him off. “Hey Scootaloo, is the monster supposed to talk?” Another voice spoke, presumably Scootaloo, answered her accomplice. “Don’t be silly, monsters don’t talk!” Ellis sighed again, “Exactly, now, can y’all let me go?” The voices stopped as they came around to face the captured survivor. “Hello,” said Ellis, “uh, do y’all mind letting me go? It’s kinda getting uncomfortable…” The three ponies (Ellis assumed they were younger that the others he saw) beamed at their captive. “So uh… can y’all let me go now?” The yellow one reacted first, “uh, no?” Ellis gave them an annoyed glare, “look, I know me and mah teammates aren’t from here but why are y’all going tying me up? Why not Nick?” They continued to stare at Ellis, unsure what to do about their annoyed captive. Finally, Ellis gave up trying to reason with them and started to call out for his fellow survivors. ******************************************************************************* Coach walked down the street. Dozens of ponies looked at him with fear and suspicion. It didn’t help that he had blood stained clothes and a mysterious weapon strapped to his back. Yesterday after the Charger attack Twilight had sent a letter to Princess Celestia, whoever the hell she was, and received a letter earlier this morning stating that she and the survivors go to see her. The problem was, They couldn’t find Ellis. The doctor ponies who were watching over him last night after his brush with death said he must have left late that night. Coach also warned the doctors to keep a close eye on Fluttershy. He told them that there was a chance that she might have come in contact with the infection. Fortunately, so far they hadn’t noticed any change in her blood stream or appearance. He, Rochelle and Nick also gave another warning, this time to anyone present after the Charger attack. It was to listen for anything unusual, like loud coughing, growling, insane laughter and various other sounds the infected make. Coach chuckled softly, remembering the look of astonishment on the ponies faces after he revived Ellis. The best one was from Twilight: “But… THAT’S NOT POSSIBLE!” she cried out defiantly. Coach laughed, “Girl, we’ve been living through hell for the past week. You saw the Charger and Spitter with your own eyes. Don’t saw what is and what isn’t possible. We’ve been doing the impossible. Have you ever fought a huge ass zombie that’s all muscle and lived? Have you had to start a rock concert to call a helicopter while fighting hordes of those bastards? If you have, then you’ve done the impossible. We’re from another goddamn dimension and look at us? Were goddamn here! Don’t go questioning what goes on. you might just wind up hurting more than us.” The entire hospital was speechless after that, even Nick and Rochelle. Coach continued to smile when he heard Rochelle calling to him. “HEY, COACH!” Coach turned around to face her. He asked if she had found Ellis yet. She shook her head. “No not yet,” she replied, “but he wouldn’t have gone far right?” Coach nodded, “although there don’t seem to be any infected native to here, he still knows about the Hunter and Smoker. He is probably hanging around somewhere and we’re just missing him.” Rochelle nodded and then stopped. She faintly heard something in the distance. “Coach? Rochelle? Nick? Anyone? I need some help!” She turned back to Coach, who nodded. “Sounds like Ellis. Better go see him. Twilight seemed to be stressed about us meeting the Celestia person.” She nodded, “she did sound like royalty…” “But she ain’t the queen. I wonder why she didn’t send a letter to their king. Seems to me like he’d be the one who’s in charge,” replied Coach as they wandered over to where they heard Ellis’s shouts. After a short walk, they found their missing companion tied to a tree with three small ponies surrounding him. “Hey,” said Ellis, clearly annoyed at the three young ponies that looked up at Coach and Rochelle. “Can y’all untie me? I’ve been here for hours! And these three ain’t any help.” The three small ponies started to back away at the arrival of Coach and Rochelle. Coach glared at them. “Do y’all know who this is?” he asked in a serious tone. The three fillies shook their heads. “This is Ellis. He should be in the hospital.” Coach shot an annoyed glare at Ellis who grinned weakly, “do you know why he was in the hospital.” Again, they shook their heads. “To put it short, the person tied to that tree died.” The orange one looked at coach with a confused look, “he died? He doesn’t look very dead to me.” “That’s because I brought him back. He died holding of a Charger,” said Coach. This time, the yellow one spoke up. “What’s a Charger?” she asked. “A zombie with one big ass arm, it slammed Ellis into the hospital floor,” said Coach, “the reason he got caught is he sacrificed himself to let me, Rochelle, Nick and four others get out of the forest.” “What were you doing in the forest?” asked the orange pony. “We were saving someone from a Spitter. I think her name was ‘Fluttershy’,” replied Coach, the three fillies gasped. Rochelle quietly asked Coach what he was doing. “telling them why they shouldn’t have left Ellis tied up,” he replied, then resuming telling the three fillies the story of yesterday, “we heard her screaming from Twilight’s house, then we hurried off to see her lying on the ground about to be killed by a Spitter. We fought and killed the spitting bitch and Ellis here said he would stay behind to cover us. We made it to the town ok but shortly after we got to the hospital, we found Ellis getting the shit beaten out of him by a Charger.” All they eyes present were on Coach, even Ellis was slightly impressed on how Coach was bending the truth on what actually happened: he ran, yelling and screaming to the town only to get beaten into shit and wasting their only defibrillator. He liked Coach’s version better though. He listened to the rest and after a pause the three fillies apologised greatly only to cause Ellis to chuckle. “It was an honest mistake,” said Ellis, “and besides, Coach may have exaggerated the story a little.” “No he didn’t. What you did was very brave Ellis,” said Rochelle, “who knows what would have happened if you didn’t hold off the Charger. Fluttershy might have died.” Ellis sighed, “Yeah I guess, at least it wasn’t a Jockey that got me. Now that would have been humiliating.” The three survivors laughed and the three fillies looked confused. “What’s a Jockey?” asked the white one. “Pray you never know,” said Ellis darkly, remembering his many run-ins with the insane infected. After another apology from the fillies, Ellis, Rochelle and Coach left to find Nick, who was having some problems of his own… ************************************************************************************************************************ Nick couldn’t believe his eyes. He slowly started to back away when he heard a deep growling sound. “Oh SHIT!”