Sapphire took the first step out into the chilled air. It was freezing, warmth was the one thing she missed about Dodge Junction down south.
She shook off her memories when she heard a voice coming from her saddlebag, she quickly located the walki-talki.
"Girls, can you hear me?" Golden had said over the frequency.
"Yeah, Angel and ah hear ya, abit staticy, but we're good." Sapphire spoke into the device she held in her hoof.
"Ok, the market is only four blocks north of where we are, just stay safe." Golden had stated through his end.
At that, Sapphire returned the walki-talki into her saddlebag.
Angelwhiskers asked "So what's the plan? How are we going to do this without causing a scene?"
Sapphire whispered to her companion "Lets travel along the back roads till we get to the intersection of Hoofen and Pegusi road."
Side by side the couple gingerly walked through the back alley ways, thankfully, the apartment building was on an intersection so it had alleys of its own. There wasn't much trouble, just the occasional rat skitter by and the distant groan and moan of undesirables. The two mares studied their surroundings; fire-escapes, dumpsters and the occasional intersection of alleyways. They reached Pegusi rode without too much of a problem and now all they had to do was hoof it across the street with the occasional dormant zombie along it. Sapphire was out of ideas and considered the risk of sprinting.
"Any ideas hun?" She asked.
"Just one, follow me." Angel was searching for something along the ground. She had finally found what she was searching for and picked up a hoof-sized rock with her mouth. She walked up to the border of the alley and hurled it as far as she possibly could. The rock skittered along the roads surface and stopped, followed by an eruption of groans.
A zombified mare had walked right passed the white pony, only a foot or so away, however its intent was focused on the sound the rock had made. Angel got a full sensory description of the poor mare. She was grey with patches of her coat missing. She had large gashes along her flank and abdomen. The poor mare also wreaked of decaying flesh. It had a low pitched moan that made the two ponies shudder.
Angel felt a little light-headed at this mutilated mare, after all she was a nurse previously, she wasn't unfamiliar with horrific injuries. After she passed the alley, Angel turned to see Sapphire losing her breakfast behind a dumpster, it seems she had seen the zombie as well. After she had recovered they had to move quickly across the street without creating more stimulus to the zombies. There were about six or so encircling the rock when the two mares crossed the street silently. After they crossed the street and over short hedges, they galloped for the front doors of the Super-Duper Market. The mares let out a sigh of relief when the doors were unlocked and they let themselves in, only to be shocked at what they saw. The entire store was ransacked and destroyed on the inside. Shelves were knocked over and miscellaneous goods littered the floors.
"Oh my Celestia! Its only been one night!" Angel was frowning at the sight she'd come into.
"Ah know, It's crazy what ponies can do in a panic. We'd better take a look around. You ain't claustrophobic are ya?" Sapphire had replied.
Then the walki-talki went off. Golden Sentry's voice was heard from inside the saddlebags.
"Girls? Are you alright? We watched you get inside the market but we're having trouble loading the cameras in the market. I think somepony had broken or stolen them last night while we slept. Just be cautious, we don't know if any zombies infested the market or if it were just looters."
Angel reached into her saddlebag and pulled out her own transmitting device. "Yeah, we're fine. The entire place is a wreck."
"Just search for anypony still alive in there." Golden had replied.
Angel stuffed the walki-talki back into her saddlebag and looked a Sapphire. She was lost in thought somewhere, Angel couldn't tell.
"Ready?"
"Ready." Sapphire replied.
Angelwhiskers took the lead along the perimeter of the store. She was trying to avoid stepping on anything that'd make a crunching sound.
Sapphire trailed behind her by a few feet just to keep an eye out on their flanks. Angel reached a corner of the market quickly and turned the corner only to be faced by a decomposing stallion.
"SAPPHIRE!!" Angel had shrieked as the stallion toppled over her, trying to fight her resistance.
Sapphire's heart dropped for a moment and sprinted straight for the struggling two. She barreled right into the zombified stallion which let Angel scurry away to safety, Sapphire's hat slide off of her mane and somewhere onto the floor. Sapphire was naturally skilled in wrestling, being a farm-pony and all. They rolled from side to side knocking over scented shampoos and other shower products. The brown mare had the zombie on top of her at this point. The zombified stallion's face was inches from her muzzle and his jaws chomped on air. The stallion's drool was hanging from the side of his grotesque face. If Sapphires breakfast wasn't already gone, it was sure to be now. She felt her hind knees buckle, then bucked the stallion in the groan and she felt the pressure come off of her body as the zombie was thrown aside. She had no time to react when she pulled out her knife and stabbed it into the back of the pony's skull.
Sapphire fell to the ground into a ball of sadness. Tears were leaking from her face, she had just murdered a pony, a victim of a disease. She couldn't help but sob staring at the dead pony.
Angelwhiskers said her silent blessings and quickly wrapped around Sapphire with her hooves. "It had to be done. I know killing isn't the easiest thing to do but you saved my life."
Sapphire was choking through her tears. "Ah-ah just killed a pony, who probably has family worrin' about him or somthin'."
Angel whispered to her friend. "The first time is always the hardest. Trust me."
Sapphire looked at Angel, her sapphire blue eyes had turned to a murky grey color through her tears.
"Are you sayin' you've killed somepony before?"
Angel looked at Sapphire straight in the eyes. "Yes I have. A couple of months ago somepony was carried into the hospital with a severe disease. Her name was Mintleaf, we used to be friends. The unicorn doctors couldn't even diagnose what had happened to her. Mint was found in a coma and my mentor had tried everything he could but her problem only grew worse. Then one day, he gave me a syringe and told me it was time for an important lesson. I-I was shocked, I couldn't kill my fillyhood friend. Not one part of my being could bring me to it. Until I looked at Mint's condition, she was suffering a fate worse than death. I did what I had to do. After I returned I exited the building in silence. I passed by Mint's mother who looked at me with hope in her expression, but quickly turned to grief after she saw my tears."
"Ah'm so sorry." The brown mare offered, then wiped away her tears.
"It had to be done." Angel reassured her.
They retrieved the knife covered in crimson liquid which was wiped away on a magazine they had found. The fight had caused a lot of commotion because the next moment a zombified filly was searching the area. It had come to the aisle the mares had fought in. Sapphire and Angel tensed up when they saw the filly come in their direction. Zombie or not, neither of them wanted to murder a filly.
The filly had come to the entrance and stopped for a moment. Angel's eyes lit up, the filly was blind!
The decaying filly was missing her eyes, disturbing as it was, the mares couldn't have been more relieved. It continued to walk past the aisle and the mares payed little attention to it.
"Sweet Celestia, can this get any more worse?" The golden maned pony choked out.
"Don't jinx us so soon hun, lets finish our search." Sapphire replied.
A knock was heard on the entrance doors. It was more like several ponies banging on the door. The group out in front of the store must have heard the screams of Angelwhiskers.
The achromatic mare swallowed fear for a moment waiting for the door to open.
But it never opened.
"What's going on Sapphire?" Angel had asked.
The beige mare's expression quickly changed to laughter. "Ah think they can't open a pull door."
Angelwhiskers let out a sigh and watched the struggling ponies outside. "Well there goes our way out."
"It's fine, Ah'm sure there are others." Sapphire chuckled.
The two earth ponies continued to searched the rest of the market only to find broken or smashed containers and ripped papers. There wasn't much to be looted unless you were desperate.
They made way to the end of the market and found the employer's office. It was much cleaner in this room than the rest of the market.
They found the keys to the back door and other useless newspapers and files after searching. They left the room and exited the market into a back road for employees. Sapphire Stone pulled out her map and began to plan their return route.
"Ah think we can go along the back of these offices." Sapphire was drawing their route out with her hoof.
They needed to hurry back to the apartment before it got too dark out, it was nearly 7 pm. Sapphire led Angel throughout the few blocks. They came to Hoofen road and was moments away from their sanctuary.
Angel sprinted across the street to be watched over from Sapphire. After she was safely across, Sapphire ran across the road and they were greeted by Golden Sentry.
"No other pony in the market, huh, I was sure somepony would take refuge in the Super-Duper Market." Golden said with a dissappointed look.
"Hell of enough zombies were in there." Angel mumbled.
"Better luck tommorrow I hope." Golden said with a cheesy smile.
Sapphire and Angel groaned in displeasure. Which then gave Charcoal an unnaturally devilish idea he'd need to try out later but unfortunately it was late.
The four earth ponies ate their food that Charcoal prepared earlier and went off to bed. Angel walked down the same hallway, followed by Sapphire and into her room. She jumped onto her cot and watched Sapphire climb into the other.
Angel paused for a moment in realization, then finally chuckled.
"We forgot your hat."