The night was full of mysteries and horrors. A lone figure stumbled across a road, just a few feet away from a massive grid lock that went on for miles. He turned slightly to his left as he saw a speeding blue blur slam into him.
The blue car swerved wildly until it screeched to a halt, causing the infected to fly off the windshield and land broken and lifeless on the ground ahead. The doors of the famous Jimmy Gibbs Junior stock car opened and ten figures got out.
“Sorry, sorry,” yawned Ellis as he walked to the back of the car and opened the trunk.
“Next time, remember to tell me when it’s my turn to drive,” replied Coach as he and Ellis pulled out five chrome shotguns, five silenced sub machine guns and ten health kits. Ellis reached into the trunk of the car again, this time pulling out the battered backpack he used to carry Rainbow dash in and wore it on his back. The other nine stared at him while he was doing this.
“What?” asked Ellis as he noticed the looks.
“Uh, Ellis, I can get around on my own just fine now,” said Rainbow dash.
“Well, better safe than sorry I guess,” he said as he closed the trunk of the car. He paused again and yawned, “Sorry for blanking out back there. I guess I shouldn’t have been driving that long, huh?”
“Well I thought that was fun!” said Pinkie pie as she grabbed health kit and a shotgun.
“Yeah, that zombie went flying!” exclaimed Rainbow dash as she grabbed a gun and health kit of her own.
Ellis had been driving the car ever since they escaped the mall back in Savannah and never got a chance to sleep. In total, he’s been awake over forty eight hours. Ellis squinted as he grabbed a sub machine gun and a health kit from the back of the car.
After everyone grabbed a weapon and a health kit, they began their walk down the car filled highway.
“What’s that on the sign?” asked Twilight as a large billboard came into view.
Coach smiled, “That’s Whispering Oaks, shit, I wasn’t expecting to be back here so soon.”
“I take it you’ve been here before?”
“Yeah, I used to go to this place when I was a kid!” exclaimed Coach, smiling as he remembered his time when he was younger.
“Great, another chance where we can die there as adults,” said Nick as he jumped onto a car and spotted a couple of infected.
The night highway was soon filled with the sounds of gunfire and the occasional stray bullet missing its target.
Fluttershy noticed that Ellis couldn’t seem to hit whatever he was shooting and asked him if he was alright.
“I’m ok,” he said, yawning, “I’m just a bit tired is all.”
“Hey, Ellis,” said Pinkie pie, “what’s Whispering Oaks?”
Ellis tried to smile but instead yawned again, “Whispering Oaks? Well shit, only the best amusement park I’ve ever been to. Oh man, you’re going to love the Screaming Oak!”
Fluttershy eep’d, “there’s a screaming tree!?”
Ellis let out a tired laugh, “nah, it’s a wicked fast rollercoaster, this one time me and my buddy Keith snuck some paint ball guns on the rollercoaster and-.”
“Ellis,” said Rochelle, “I know you’re tired but try to focus on shooting the zombies, alright?”
“Okay.”
The walk down the highway of abandoned cars went with little incident, minus the fact that Ellis couldn’t manage to hit anything. The traveled down an off ramp and restocked their weapons at an ammo dump beside a sand colored hummer.
“I still don’t know why we had to ditch our weapons from Rayford,” grumbled Rainbow dash.
“Well they’d have been pretty useless now, if you remember, they either all ran out of ammo or jammed,” said Nick as he spotted a Spitter.
The infected women bolted across the highway and ran into the nearby Whispering Oaks motel parking lot. Nick gestured to the others to follow him. They walked cautiously through an underpass and got a full view of the motel.
As far as motels go, this one wasn’t too bad. Well, besides the smell of burnt flesh and the zombies.
The ten spit off into smaller groups of four and six and looked for supplies, mainly food and water, which they had been lacking since their hasty escape from the mall.
Applejack searched the main reception area with Pinkie pie, Ellis and Rainbow dash. A low growling emitted from behind a door that lead back outside.
“Careful, Hunter,” Ellis yawned as he struggled to keep his eyes open.
Rainbow dash shifted the dark green war beret she wore on her head. Apparently the ghost of the body (who was named Bill) had given her the hat in a metaphorical ‘passing the torch’ sort of way. Well, according to Rainbow dash it was that she had proved she could go a day without getting maimed by the infected.
By this time the growls of the Hunter had gotten louder and the door behind the counter started to get dents form the Hunter’s attempt to break it. A half second later, the door smashed to pieces and the Hunter leapt from the door frame and onto Applejack.
“Get it off me!” she screamed as the Hunter started to tear away at her chest.
Pinkie pie shoved the Hunter off Applejack and started to shoot its hooded head with her shotgun. The Hunter swiped one of its claws at her in an attempt to defend itself. The claw scraped Pinkie pie’s leg as a bullet collided with the Hunter’s head, causing blood to splatter across the floor.
“Ahh,” said Pinkie pie as she moved her leg to see if the Hunter damaged anything major.
“Are you alright?” asked Rainbow dash, dropping to the ground to inspect the wound also.
“I think so,” she said as Ellis passed her a cloth he found on the counter. She looked at it oddly, “what do I do with this cloth?”
“Hold it down on the spot where you got hurt. It’ll stop the bleeding,” said Ellis as he noticed a bright red crowbar lying on the counter. He grabbed it and smiled before hearing something approaching. He flicked the flashlight on his sub machine gun off in hopes to surprise whatever was approaching.
“Hey, guys? You in here?”
Ellis flicked the flashlight back on and smiled, it was Coach and presumably with the others.
“Yeah, we’re in here. Pinkie and AJ got hit by a Hunter but there fine, right?” said Ellis. They both nodded as he opened the door and met with Coach. As with him, their respective searches for supplies were failures.
“Did y’all find anything?” asked Coach.
“Besides Ellis finding a crowbar, nothing,” replied Rainbow dash, who was trying to find a way to fly fast without losing her hat.
With that said the ten went over to a stair on the side of the motel and walked up it to get to the second floor. Not far ahead the walkway had been torn off, by the infected or deliberately no one was sure. Instead of trying to jump across, they climbed through a window leading into a room and passed through a torn out wall and back out onto the other side of the path.
After passing down yet another stairwell, they walked behind the motel and found themselves facing a rather steep ditch. Across from said ditch was Whispering Oaks itself.
“This is gonna be fun,” said Ellis as he started to slide down the hill.
The other seven soon followed (Rainbow dash and Fluttershy flew down) and started to pick off some of the stay infected that had wandered down here. Then, the entire ditch suddenly went quiet besides a deep growling sound that came from behind some bushes.
Coach reloaded his shotgun and told the others to do the same.
“Why? I still have enough ammo to pick off a few more,” Rainbow dash said cockily.
“Do you have enough for a Tank?” asked Coach as he slowly started to walk towards the growling.
Realising what Coach was meant; Rainbow dash reloaded and aimed her gun at the direction Coach was walking towards. When Coach was about three feet away the bush exploded and the Tank swung its giant arms in an attempt to hit Coach.
Ellis, who had apparently had fallen asleep for a moment was awakened by the roars and shouted, “TAAAAAAANK!”
The Tank once again swung its large arm, this time hitting Ellis and sent him flying into the small stream running down the center of the ravine.
As Ellis got himself out of the water, he briefly saw Fluttershy fly close to the Tank’s head and fire all eight rounds of her shot gun at it before hastily retreating.
Ellis held down the trigger on his own gun and bullets went flying everywhere. The Tank roared a final time and collapsed to the ground. He then looked to the other side of the ravine and saw a path up.
The ten (minus Rainbow dash and Fluttershy) began their trek back up the side of the ravine and towards Whispering Oaks. A maniacal laughter drifted down from the top of the hill causing Ellis to stop in his tracks.
“what’s wrong?” asked Pinkie pie.
“Jockey,” Ellis muttered under his breath as he reloaded and waited for his arch nemesis to appear.
During their time fighting through the country, they had found a surprising lack of Jockeys, much to Ellis’s relief. But, now that he had found one, it usually meant that twenty others were farther ahead.
“is that bad?” asked Pinkie pie, despite already guessing the answer.
“head humping little bastards,” Ellis said again as he started moving again. He then turned to Pinkie, “hey, when y’all see it, shoot it fast.”
As if it heard him, the Jockey burst from atop the hill and ran towards Ellis, dodging bullets from everyone else. Ellis saw this and narrowed his eyes and pulled out his crowbar. The Jockey then leaped at Ellis in an attempt to pull him back down the hill while clawing at his face. Instead, Ellis swung his crowbar with enough force to tear a Witch’s arm clean off at its face. Needless to say, the Jockey screeched in pain as half its disfigured face was brutally torn off its face. The body landed on the ground and rolled down the hill and into the stream.
“got it,” said Ellis as he got back to walking.
Pinkie pie stared at him; usually Ellis was laughing or at least smiling as he journeyed with them. instead, his face was tired and grim.
“are you alright?” Pinkie pie asked him as they got up the hill.
Ellis smiled for the first time of the night, “yeah, we’re here.”
The six ponies stared at the looming structured within the amusement park known as Whispering Oaks. They could faintly hear a squeaking sound along with the grunts and moans of the infected.
“hey! Get your asses in here!” shouted Coach from the safe house at the ticket booth just beyond a parked car.
“sorry!” Twilight shouted at him as she and the other five ponies ran or flew towards the safe house.
When they got inside, Coach shut the door and turned to Ellis, who had fallen asleep while leaning on a wall.