After two hours of scavenging in the store, the trio and Pharlin decided to stop and rest for the night. They made a makeshift fire in the middle of the store and took out some blankets to lay on. They barred up the door so no one could get in, whether it be a zombie or other Miami survivors.
“So, Pharlin, how long have you been here?” asked Cannon as he opened up a bag of chips. He crunched on some but quickly spit them out as they were over a year stale.
“Uh,” he replied, glancing at the floor, “about seven hours now. The zombies surrounded me out there and I quickly ran to the nearest building. I’m just glad there are many supplies still left in here.”
“You shoulda came to our hotel, our friends are pretty much untouchable up there,” said Patel.
“Yeah, unless zombies just storm up that hotel and slaughter them one by one.” Cannon then gave a chuckle.
“I swear man, why are you such a douche?” asked Patel again. Cannon just laughed again.
“Anyways, you gonna come back with us to the others?” asked Wahlburn towards Pharlin.
A flash of expression appeared in Pharlin’s face. “Of course, that is if you have room for me. I don’t want to take room for somebody else who needs it more than me.”
“Are you kidding me?” said Cannon, “of course we have room, I mean even if we didn’t, we can just get rid of Jeb. Nobody likes that loser anyway.” They all gave a chuckle in agreement. After the laughter subsided, Cannon spoke back up. “We are staying here though for the night. I ain’t going out there in the middle of the night and getting mobbed.”
“That’s understandable,” said Patel as he collapsed onto his blanket. “Besides, the others can survive another night. Oh shit!” he said as he jolted back up. “We have a walkie-talkie still don’t we?” Cannon rummaged around in his pack and handed Patel the walkie-talkie.
“Hey, can anyone hear me?” said Patel into the device. Patel repeated the message and set the device down. They all stared at the walkie-talkie hoping for someone to answer back. “They better not be dead. We only left a few hours ago!”
“Actually,” said Pharlin looking at his watch, “it’s nearly eight in the evening. Sun will be down in a few minutes.”
“Oh, well that’s-” Suddenly a loud crackle came from the walkie-talkie that made Patel and the others stop in their tracks. After a few seconds of the fuzzy sound, the voice of Clyde rang out in the room.
“Patel?”
“Shit, Clyde? You guys ain’t dead?”
“No, well not us at least...the others....” The fuzzy static cut out half his sentence. Worried, Patel picked up the device.
“What? I can’t understand what you said.”
The device was silent for a second then the static filled voice of Clyde was heard again. “I said...roof...the rest are...hotel-” After that, the static stopped as Clyde’s connection was cut.
“God damnit! What the hell is going on?” Patel threw the walkie-talkie on the ground and sat there looking at it.
“I guess the outside area has too much interference between us and the hotel,” said Pharlin, “I wonder what is happening over there. It seems like he said roof if my hearing is correct.”
“He did,” said Cannon sternly. “I have no idea what that’s about, but it sounds troublesome.”
“I guess we'll find out tomorrow when we get there,” said Wahlburn. “We should try and wake up early to get back as soon as possible.” In unison, they all proceeded to fall asleep for their journey tomorrow.
* * * * *
“Hey, Poncho, you alright?” asked Spike as Poncho slowly opened his eyes and adjusted to the light of the room. He slowly rose from the couch he was on and rubbed his head. “You fell asleep after that dispute.”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Where is he at now?” Poncho got off the couch and walked around. He looked out the window and saw that the sun was setting.
“I think he left for somewhere. No one knows where he went.” Spike showed a worried expression on his face that Poncho ignored. Poncho swept by him and back out into the hallway. “Yo dudes! Poncho is up!”
Suddenly the thunderous rush of the others filled the hallway. “Poncho, you’re alive!” yelled Pinkie Pie in excitement.
“Y-You cared?” stammered Poncho, surprised on the sudden remark.
“Well of course I cared! I don’t want to see any of my friends die!” Pinkie then bounced back into her room.
“Oh...,” said Poncho sadly. He then slumped down the wall beside his door. Rivs and Sticky were still playing hallway basketball and the others seemed to not really care about him or Clyde’s status. Soon, Spike sat down beside him.
“Hey man, why so glum?”
“I’m not glum.”
“You look glum.”
“I’m not fucking glum!” His shout made everyone look at him strangely.
Spike slid farther away from him. “Jeez man, calm down.”
“Sorry,” apologized Poncho. Soon, Twilight and Pinkie sat down across the hall from them. Poncho tried to ignore their presence but soon gave up. “Do you two want something?”
“I want to know what happened that caused that conflict. We have a missing pony among us and I want to know why he left in such a hurry.” Twilight looked at him with such an ice-cold glare, Poncho hesitated on answering.
“He got pissed about something I said after I yelled at him for not getting me for the dinner and for him not doing anything.”
“What did you say about him?” asked Pinkie, in her non-giddy voice.
“Well....”
“Was it about her?” asked Twilight. Poncho just stared at the floor and nodded. Twilight sighed. “Well, I guess that’s the reason why she locked herself in their room and won’t answer us.”
Poncho kept his gaze at the floor. “I still go with what I said to her though.”
Spike looked up at the ceiling. “Man, you must have said something real bad.” Poncho hurriedly got up and went back into the room. He collapsed on the couch and tried to shut out the world around him for that one night.
- - - - -
“There you are. I finally found you.” Rarity walked through the door leading to the roof of the hotel and saw Clyde overlooking the city from the edge. As she closed the door, Clyde ran over and with a flimsy metal pole, tied a knot around the handle.
He smiled at his work. “There, now no one can come up here. And I’m just going to guess that these zombies can’t climb up hotels.” He looked over at Rarity and took his pack from her. “Did you tell anyone that you came up here?”
“No, while everyone was confused and watching over Poncho, I got the bags, locked our room, and left trying to find you. You didn’t try to leave the hotel?”
“If it wasn’t for the fact that it’s dusk and not dawn, I would've probably been gone by now.” Clyde then went back to the ledge. The sun was setting with the sun’s beams going through the cracks of the South Beach skyline. “This view is pretty chill right now.”
Rarity came over and stood beside him. She was in awe by the clash of colors in the sky and the shadows on the ground. “And it’s very beautiful and romantic.” The two stood there and admired the skyline for a few more moments until a muffled sound came from Clyde’s pack. Clyde quickly ran over and dug through the pack. He found the walkie-talkie his friend gave him earlier.
“Patel?” he asked to the device. Soon the voice of Patel answered back.
“Shit, Clyde? You ain’t dead?”
“No, well not us at least. For the others, I have no idea since I’m not with them. Rarity and I are on the roof.” A few seconds went by before Patel talked back.
“What? I can’t understand what you said.”
Confused, Clyde repeated himself. “I said, Rarity and I are currently on the roof due to Poncho, and the rest are still in the hotel rooms.” The walkie-talkie remained silent and Clyde never got a response back. “Gah! The interference is messing this thing up.” Furious, he sat down and tore open a bag of chips from his pack.
Rarity sat down beside him and took out blankets, pillows, and his jacket from her bag. “How long are we going to be up here?”
“I have no idea,” he responded, “maybe when the others get back from their scavenge they will be willing to go on another. If you want, go ahead and get some sleep. I’ll take watch for awhile.”
“Isn’t that unnecessary? I mean, you have the door barred up.”
“I just want to make sure nothing happens to you. Plus, I know how much beauty sleep means to you.” He sat up against the edge they were leaning on before and smiled at her. Rarity put on his jacket and covered herself with more blankets and laid down on a makeshift bed on the floor of the roof. She looked up at him, who was looking back at her. “Goodnight.”
She smiled. “Goodnight Clyde.” She closed her eyes and thought about happy thoughts. After a minute or two of not being able to fall asleep, she partially opened her eyes to see if Clyde was still there. She saw him grab a blanket and lean back on the wall, while looking at her and the door the whole time. She smiled and quickly drifted into slumber.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~