//------------------------------// // A Casual Stroll To The Mall // Story: Four Man Cheeseburger Apocalypse // by Dihinner //------------------------------// Ellis grabbed some spare ammo from the ammo pile on the table beside the safe room door. He tossed the four spare health packs to Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity. Although they ponies were incredibly unwilling to go back outside, they were terrified to be left behind. Coach opened the door and the group of ten walked into the parking lot of the Vannah hotel. Twilight looked at some CEDA trailers curiously. “What are these?” she asked as she walked up to one. “CEDA trailers,” replied Coach, “they were supposed to warn people about the infection. As you can tell, they failed.” “Oh,” she said before feeling the ground started to shake, “earthquake!” she yelled. “Worse,” said Nick, “TANK!” he yelled as the giant infected flipped over a car and reviled itself at the other end of the small parking lot by some tents. Nick and the other survivors opened fire on the Tank. It roared in anger as it barrelled towards them and was narrowly avoided by Ellis, who swung his axe at the infected. The Tank roared again as it flung Ellis into a CEDA trailer. “Aww!” he yelled as he got back to his feet and resumed firing at the Tank. By this time, the ponies had recovered from the sudden appearance of the Tank and started shooting it too. Although it took a decidedly shot time to kill a Tank with a group of four, it took even less time with a group of ten. Ellis walked over to the corpse of the Tank and pulled his fire axe out of its back. The group then left the parking lot and shot down a couple of infected until they made it into a side building. Rochelle opened the door to see what was inside. “Adrenaline shot here,” she said as she walked past it. Rainbow dash walked over to it and grabbed it. “So uh, where’s the next safe house?” she asked, eager to get off the street. “It’s in the mall on the other side of town,” replied Rochelle, “on the way there we can stop at Whitakers gun shop.” “Gun shop?” “Yeah, they have all kinds of guns in there,” replied Ellis as he walked down the stairwell and opened the door at the bottom of it and entered the streets again. He paused when he heard a growling sound. “Careful, Hunter,” he said in a low tone to avoid being heard by it. He walked through an underpass and saw came across some beat up cars and a small patch of grass with another street on the other side. The Hunter watched Ellis from atop a cargo container that led to the next street. It shrieked at him as he began to climb the small ladder. “Get it off me!” he yelled as the Hunter started to tear away at him. Applejack aimed her chrome shotgun and fired at the head of the Hunter, killing it instantly. “Thank you,” said Ellis as he got off the ground and walked over to the container. He grabbed the handles of the ladder and climbed up them. A small bit of dirt was kicked into the air as he jumped off the container and landed on the other side of the street. He waited for the others to catch up before moving on. Crack went Rainbow dash’s shotgun as the entire top part of an infected’s torso exploded. Some of the blood splashed onto Rainbow dash when she fired. “Eww…” she muttered, wiping the blood off her face, “why do these infected have to be so… bloody?” she asked as she saw Fluttershy flee from an infected that was chasing her. Rainbow dash grabbed the axe that was strapped to her back and swung it at the infected’s head, causing it to soar through the air with a trail of blood. “I guess it’s because we’re big,” replied Ellis as he gunned down a Boomer in the distance, causing bits of it to fly everywhere. He ran to the other side of the street and entered another side room with the others close behind. Inside there were some pistols lying on the ground and Ellis decided to abandon his axe in favor of the firearms. After going up another flight of stairs, they exited on a small overpass. Ellis went to the end of in and jumped onto a steel container and then jumping onto the ground. A loud cough echoed throughout the nearly empty street. Rochelle pulled out her Magnum pistol and looked around for the source of the cough, which would likely be a Smoker. Pinkie pie quickly followed Ellis and ran slightly ahead. “Ahhhhhow!” wheezed a Smoker as its rope like tongue shot through the air and wrapped itself around Pinkie pie. “Huh?” she asked aloud before being dragged away. “HELP!” she yelled as the Smoker finished reeling her in and stated to attack her. All the surrounding infected, eager to help a Smoker kill its prey, started to attack the pink mare as Ellis ran towards it firing his silenced machine gun. “Hold on!” said Ellis as he pulled out his dual pistols and started firing at the infected before shoving the Smoker off of Pinkie pie, who fell to the ground incapacitated. Another desperate wheeze escaped the Smoker as it exploded into a cloud of smoke, killed by Ellis, who ran back over to her to help her up. “Come on, y’all can’t lie here all day, we got a mall to get to,” said Ellis as he helped Pinkie pie to her hooves. Pinkie pie however, saw a strange blue figure looking exactly like the one Rainbow dash saw when the Jockey incapacitated her. The figure appeared to be nodding, seemingly approving at how Ellis was helping her. The figure then pointed to another side room up some stairs and then pointed at the grey object he held in his hands. Then, just as she was standing steady again, the figure vanished. “Who was that?” she asked Ellis, who was healing her with his first aid kit. By this time the others had caught up to them. “Who was who?” he asked confused, “did y’all see someone?” Pinkie pie nodded, “yes, he was all bluey and had a funny grey thing in his hands like your gun thingy,” by this time Ellis had finished patching her up with his first aid kit, “thanks!” she said happily. Rainbow dash stopped dead in her tracks. ‘Is she talking about Bill?’ she thought, ‘nah,’ she shook her head, ‘why would Bill be here? He said he was dead.’ The group entered yet another side room, walked over another over pass, before finally arriving at Whitaker’s gun store. Twilight shot down an infected as it attacked the doors of the shop. When they all got inside, the ponies stared at the vast array of firearms. “Wow…” exclaimed Rainbow dash as she looked over the mass weaponry. She poked around with some of the guns before finding the perfect one for her: an assault rifle. She chose it not only because it shot bullets faster than her old gun, but because it looked a lot like the one Bill was holding when his ghost helped her. The others also chose guns that slightly reflected their performances of fighting the infected. Applejack took an auto shotgun, Pinkie pie took the AK-47 assault rifle, Twilight a hunting rifle and a Magnum that was behind the glass counter, Rarity took a combat rifle with dual pistols and finally Fluttershy, to everyone’s surprise, took a sniper rifle. After the other survivors got weapons of their own as well, they went over to some crates and found a box full of laser sights. “What are these supposed to do?” asked Rainbow dash. “Help y’all aim better,” replied Coach as he attached one to his automatic shotgun, “now hurry up, we got a mall to get to.” As the others attached laser sights to their own guns, Coach walked up to the back door of the shop and pressed the button on the speaker next to the wall to contact Whitaker. “Hello there. I’ve barricaded myself on the roof top with ample provisions. But in my haste, I forgot cola. So here’s my proposition, if you go get me some cola from yonder food store, I’ll let you keep the guns you stole from me free of charge and clear the path to the mall for yah,” said the voice from the other end of the speaker, presumably Whitaker. “Uh… ok?” replied Twilight as the locked door opened as they left to get the cola. “Procure my colas and my help is guaranteed, ma’am,” said Whitaker, “consider the guns a generous donation to the cause.” As the survivors and the ponies walked down to the store, they heard Whitaker mutter something that sounded like, “this lack of cola must be screwing with my sight, first I’m seeing zombies now I’m seeing gun slinging ponies!” Nick walked up to the convenience store called ‘save 4 less’. “Ready?” he asked as he prepared to open the doors. After he got a yes from everyone (except Fluttershy, who squeaked ‘no’ in an afraid voice) Nick opened the doors to the store and ran to the back to get the cola. A collective shriek of the infected rang out as the loud store alarm was set off. As Nick ran back through with the cola in his hands, the infected started to jump over a nearby hedge and started attacking them. Over the gunshots and the shrieking infected, Applejack could faintly hear Whitaker say “sacrifice your selves if you have to. The cola is that important!” “Sacrifice yer self if you want the cola this bad,” muttered Applejack. She aimed her shotgun and shot the heads off three infected that were gaining on Nick. More blood and zombie bits rained on her for her effort much to her displeasure. Fluttershy and Twilight meanwhile were back near the gun store taking advantage of their rifles long range. Well, at least Twilight was. When she noticed Fluttershy hadn’t taken a single shot she asked what was wrong. “I… I can’t! I can’t kill any living creature!” she whimpered. Twilight sighed, “Fluttershy, we need your help with this. Ellis said that they were going to help us get home. All we need to do his help them get to the mall and then we’ll be back home in no time! But for now we need your help. And that means you’re going to have to shoot them!” Fluttershy nodded reluctantly. The peered through the scope on her rifle and looked for the red dot of her laser scope. She then reluctantly aimed it at a Hunter, who was about to pounce Rarity, who herself was occupied with helping up Applejack as she was being overwhelmed by the infected. “I’m sorry,” she whispered as she fired the gun. A loud crack emanated from it as the bullet whizzed through the air and slammed into the Hunters skull, killing it and protecting Rarity. A surprised shriek from the Hunter alerted Rarity as it slumped over. She and Applejack looked at Fluttershy on the upper area and waved at her, signaling their thanks. Twilight turned to the Pegasus and smiled, “you did it! If you hadn’t of shot the Hunter, Rarity might have been seriously hurt!” “Yeah…” whispered Fluttershy, who looked like she was about to throw up. Just then, Nick came running by with the cola in hand with Pinkie pie bouncing behind him to keep the infected from blocking him. “Put the cola in the slot!” said Whitaker as Nick opened the door slot and dumped the cola inside Whitaker’s rooftop bunker. “Now, go screw yourselves. I ain’t helping.” “What!?” yelled Rainbow dash as she shoved an infected away and opened fire on it. “Why you-!” An amused chuckled came from the speaker, “I just wanted to see the look on your faces. Here you go,” he said just before a huge explosion shook the entire area as the tanker blocking the path to the mall exploded. “God watch over you,” he said before the speaker clicked off. “Oh shit I think that was diet,” muttered Rochelle as they all regrouped, “hey thanks mister!” she shouted. The ten walked past the destroyed tanker and saw some abandoned CEDA tents. Fluttershy, still unwilling to kill anything, hid behind Rochelle as they ran to the mall entrance. “Um, this doesn’t really look like an evacuation center…” said Rainbow dash as she went into the safe room at the entrance. “That’s because it isn’t,” said Coach as he closed the safe room door, “CEDA’s abandoned it. we’re going to have to get outta here ourselves.” “And how do you suppose we’re going to do that?” asked Rarity. Coach chuckled, “three words: Jimmy Gibbs Junior.”