As far as safe houses go, they usually aren’t very big with only four people in them.
If they, however, have four people and six ponies in them, the word cramped fits the situation perfectly. The mall safe room was really a narrow strip of an entrance way, about ten meters wide and five across. Nick had finished reloading his combat rifle and Magnum. He glanced over to Rarity, who also was carrying a combat rifle. Slightly intrigued by her weapon choice, Nick asked her why she chose it.
“Why I chose this… gun?” she repeated, “well… the pattern matches one of my hats back home.”
Nick raised an eyebrow at this statement, but sighed and walked over to the exit door. On the other side there were a few scattered infected along with a shutdown escalator, which led to the next floor. Ellis walked up to Nick and looked out the bared window.
“Hey Nick, even think we’d be back here again?” he asked.
“Nope,” he replied as he lifted the safety bar and opened the door. He walked slowly around the small blockades and waited at an un-functioning elevator. He lifted his combat rifle and shot the head off an infected waiting at the top of the escalator.
Gunshots echoed throughout the abandoned mall, making the six ponies feel even more alone in this giant building.
“So uh, where is this Jimmy Gibbs Junior?” asked Applejack as she and the others waked up the escalator to the first floor.
“Jimmy Gibbs Junior is down in the atrium,” said Ellis as he pulled out his dual pistols and shot down two infected, “it’s not far, and we just have to get to the other side of the mall.”
“Seems simple,” said Twilight.
Ellis led the others through the store they were in, called Kappel’s. Bullets whizzed in the air of the nearly silent mall until a faint crying echoed throughout the abandoned evacuation point.
“Is somepony… crying?” asked Fluttershy, coming out from behind Rochelle and looking for the source of the crying. She saw that not far away there was a girl with her hands on her head and crying loudly. Fluttershy went to go get a better look when Nick stopped her.
“Quiet, I hear a Witch,” he muttered.
“Witch?” asked Applejack, “is that bad?”
“yes, now stay away from it,” Nick said as he moved as far away from the Witch as possible while still heading to the broken security door, which had a large gap that they could walk through.
Ellis and Rochelle soon followed him through the security door and Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow dash and Rarity soon followed.
Fluttershy and Pinkie pie however, decided to try and talk with the Witch. She looked normal enough, right? Coach was just about to go through when he heard a deafening screech.
“What the?!” he yelled as he turned around to see the Witch chasing Pinkie pie while Fluttershy was hiding behind a glass counter. He ran after Pinkie pie and fired ten complete rounds of his auto shot gun at the enraged Witch.
The Witch stumbled slightly and collapsed onto the cold tile floor. Pinkie pie stopped dead in her tracks and was hyperventilating. Coach walked over to her and sighed.
“I guess it’s a bit late to tell y’all but, never piss off a Witch.”
*******************************************************************
Twilight assumed they were close to the center of the mall called ‘the atrium’. They had gone up and down multiple escalators until they found a pushed in door that they could walk over. Pinkie pie had mostly recovered her experience with the Witch but jumped behind something whenever she thought she saw one, which was very often.
“Wow Pinkie pie,” said Rainbow dash as Rochelle opened a door and found extra ammo, “you’re hiding more than Fluttershy.”
Pinkie pie peered into the room Rochelle had opened, satisfied that there was nothing in there, she slowly walked in and reloaded. Rochelle could tell that the experience had shaken Pinkie pie along with Fluttershy. All they wanted was to help the poor crying girl, all alone in the mall. And what did they get for trying to help? A very angry infected with twelve inch claws, hell bent on killing the one who disturbed her.
The group of ten walked down the white hall, occasionally opening doors in search of supplies, until they found a stairwell.
“Christ I forgot about this,” muttered Ellis.
“What’s wrong?” asked Twilight.
“You’ll see in a minute, stay close.”
At the end of the hall way there were two sets of double doors. After opening the first set, the second set was a few feet behind with a warning that said,
Alarm will sound if doors are opened.
“Is that bad?” asked Rarity.
Ellis nodded, “if we get separated yes.” He turned to Fluttershy, “now, when these doors open, I need you to throw your bile jar as far as you possibly can.”
“Why?” she asked, slightly afraid of what awaits on the other side of the doors.
“When the doors open there’ll be an alarm. Now, these zombies hate loud noise so we’ll attract all the ones on the area,” Ellis turned to face the doors in preparation to open them, “We have to shut off the alarm on the third floor to get them to stop. What I need you to do is to throw the bile jar to give us some time to get to the alarm while the zombies are occupied with the bile.”
Fluttershy nodded and Ellis told the others what was going to happen. After everyone was ready, Ellis pushed open the doors and a loud alarm went screeching throughout the mall.
“Don’t get separated!” yelled Coach as the blasted the heads off some of the infected. They ran a few feet until they arrived at a large open area with two escalators leading up.
“Now! Throw it now!” yelled Ellis as he shoved away an infected and gunned it down with his dual pistols.
Fluttershy quickly grabbed the jar, nearly dropping in on the ground, and threw it with all her might into the horde of infected. The infected swarmed the area covered with bile, giving the ten a clear shot to get to the alarm switch. They all ran (or in Rainbow dash’s case flew) up the escalator and gunned down any infected that came in their path, Rainbow dash, seeing at how she would be faster at getting to that alarm, decided to go on ahead and left the others to hold off the zombies while she was turning off the loud siren.
“What the hell is she doing?” yelled Nick as he shoved a Spitter down to the floor below. For a brief instant Fluttershy looked down on the broken body of the Spitter and shuttered at the memory of her getting attacked by one.
“How many of these things are there?” asked Applejack as she tore the legs off of some infected with her fire axe.
“They ain’t ever going to stop until we turn off that alarm!” said Ellis as he raised the scope on his sniper rifle and fired. The bullet tore through dozens of infected before crashing into a wall.
Rainbow dash was gliding past the hordes of infected as she saw the alarm shut off in another room across a gap. She flew as fast as she could towards it. While she was doing so, she heard a strange cry from an infected. Suddenly, something huge crashed into her and carried her off to the far wall away from the alarm. The thing that grabbed her lifted its arm and pounded Rainbow dash into the floor. Getting a quick look at its face, she noticed that is was the thing that killed Ellis at the hospital. ‘What was it called?’ she thought franticly, ‘was it charger?’
The infected, whatever it was, it let out another unearthly screech and slammed her back into the floor.
“Help!” she yelled as the Charger lifted her up again and pounded her with even more force than before. Rainbow dash coughed up a bit of blood when the Charger prepared to resume its work. “Help!” she sputtered weakly, some blood dripping out of her mouth and onto the pool of blood forming on the floor.
Rainbow dash could faintly hear yelling and a sudden silence. Everything was a spinning and she sub-consciously noticed she had fallen to the floor. It took her a moment to notice that the alarm was shut off. She blinked and tried to look around herself. All the zombies that were there previously had been killed and Fluttershy was yelling at her. The only thing she could hear was her own steady heartbeat, which was slowly losing its pace.
‘Wait, why is Fluttershy is yelling at me?’
And then all the sound came flooding into her ears.
“Get up! Please Rainbow dash, get up!” Fluttershy was shouting at her.
Rainbow dash weakly tried to roll over. A sharp pain surged throughout her body upon the movement.
“Oww…” she muttered under her breath. She coughed up some more blood and collapsed weakly to the floor. The sounds were fading again.
The others came running just as Rainbow dash was losing consciousness. A cold feeling entered her body and a shining light was in the distance. It only took her a brief moment to realise,
‘I’m dying…’ The words echoed throughout her mind. The blackness around her eyes was slowly taking over her vision as the dark shadow of death descended upon her. She tried to keep her eyes open just a bit longer to see her friends one last time. She saw them, all crying or in a state of shock while Ellis, Nick Coach and Rochelle were standing nearby with ether their heads down or using their guns as crutches. The cold feeling got stronger and her eyes began to close.
“Don’t fall asleep yet, you still got work to do,” said an unseen voice, “how many times do I have to save your sorry ass before you learn to do it yourself?”
Rainbow dash instantly recognised the voice speaking to her, ‘Bill?’
“That’s right, now brace yourself, this is going to hurt like hell, but at least you’ll live.”
‘What are you going to-?’
An incredibly painful blast of electricity shot through Rainbow dash’s entire body and jolted her failing organs back into work. She screamed at the intense pain, along with the surprise of the sudden rush of sound in her ears. She coughed up some more blood and opened her eyes a bit wider.
“Stop coughing, or else I’ll have done that for nothing,” said the voice of Bill as Rainbow dash became aware of all her friends trying to speak with her. “Now, I don’t trust you on your own anymore. Congratulations kid, you’re now haunted.” The ghost of Bill faded and the sounds returned fully.
“Rainbow dash, wake up!” yelled one of them, she couldn’t see who. Rainbow dash coughed again, this time there was no blood, and answered.
“I’m up, I’m up. What do you want?”
She was immediately tackled my all her friends in a hug that put all other hugs in history to shame. The four survivors were smiling. Well, most of them were as Ellis was currently missing. Rochelle walked over to them and asked Rainbow dash how she felt.
“I’ve been a lot better,” Rainbow dash weakly.
Rochelle smiled, “well, at least you’re not dead. Ellis is going to find a backpack to carry you. I don’t think you can walk in your current condition.”
When Ellis returned with the backpack, they managed to place Rainbow dash inside it and continued to travel through the security room and into another hallway with a set of stairs at the end. They descended down the stairs into a room under renovation.
“Almost there,” said Coach as they passed into another open area with some CEDA tents set up, “the safe house is just up that escalator.”
Rainbow dash looked around the open area. There were few infected, most of which were killed immediately, as Ellis carried her in the backpack to the safe room. After everyone was inside, they resupplied. Rainbow dash could still see the silent ghost of Bill, who was standing idly in the safe room, occasionally glancing at one of the survivors. Ellis was rambling on about some guy named Jimmy Gibbs junior. When Ellis finished rambling, they left the room, walked down a long hallway and entered the atrium.
There was a boarded up walk way leading to an elevator. When they were all inside of it, Ellis pushed the button and they descended down. Coach decided that this was the best time to tell the ponies the plan.
“Alright, see that car down there? We gotta collect the gas cans that are lying around all over the room. When we do, we’re going drive out here,” he said, “but remember, stay close to each other. I don’t think Ellis can fit anymore of y’all in there.”
The ponies nodded, (except rainbow dash, who grinned weakly,) and the elevator doors opened.
“Haul ass and get gas!” shouted Coach as he grabbed a gas can that was lying just outside the door and ran to the blue car behind the elevator. He ran to the car’s gas tank and poured the gas into it. “Come on, just twelve more to go!”
Ellis and Rainbow dash ran to the far end of the atrium and grabbed the two cans. Ellis ran with one in his arms while the other was beside Rainbow dash, who was wielding his dual pistols for cover.
The atrium was over flowing with the infected. Fluttershy and Rochelle were on the third floor tossing gas cans down while Twilight and Rarity were grabbing them mid-air and passing them to Coach, Ellis and Rainbow dash.
Nick, Pinkie pie and Applejack were collecting the cans on the third floor and also providing cover for Coach, Rainbow dash and Ellis.
Twilight heard the loud gurgling of a Boomer just before an unpleasant barfing sound and becoming covered in Boomer puke.
“Ergh, what is this?!” she said her vision was obscured and the infected began to swarm her and Rarity.
Rarity, upon being covered in Boomer bile, began shrieking as loud as her voice would make it and began to shoot wildly, accidently hitting the Boomer and covering herself in more bile.
All the infected in the room began to swarm the two ponies while Rochelle and Fluttershy bolted across a walkway and ran down the staircase to Twilight and Rarity’s aid.
More bullets flew through the air as Ellis poured in the last gas can. The lour rumble of the car’s engine rang throughout the atrium, alerting the others that it was gassed up and ready to go. One infected in particular noticed this and stumbled over to the car.
Ellis blasted the head off an infected before seeing an infected with a white racing outfit and motor oil covering its hands.
“Nooooooooo!” Ellis yelled at facing the infected Jimmy Gibbs junior.
“What? What is it?” asked Rainbow dash franticly as Ellis began to back away from the car.
“Someone else has to shoot him!” said Ellis.
As everyone (besides Ellis) ran to the car, Nick saw the infected Jimmy Gibbs junior and split his head open with a crowbar.
“Come on!” he yelled as Ellis ran towards the car.
Ellis tossed the backpack with Rainbow dash inside and ran to the driver’s seat. Coach took a quick glance back from the passenger’s seat to make sure everyone was inside.
“Everyone’s in, now move!” said Coach as Ellis slammed on the gas pedal and the car drove through the entrance doors.
“Woo!” yelled Ellis as they ran over dozens of zombies on the road. He glanced back at the ponies, “hey, nice going. Our next stop is: Rayford Georgia.”
“What? I thought we’re going to Ducatel to send us back to Equestria,” said Twilight.
Coach chuckled, “you thought we only had to go through a mall? Nah, we got a whole road trip ahead of us before we get back to Ducatel. In fact, I suggest y’all rest up. Rayford is just a few hours away and we’ve got a deadline.”
Twilight looked over to see how her friends were doing. To her surprise, Rainbow dash, Pinkie pie and Fluttershy were all sleeping in the cramped car. Feeling tired herself, Twilight closed her eyes and hoped for better things to come