Clyde and Rarity made their way to the lobby of the chaotic hotel. Ponies were rushing past one another grabbing the daily food from the hotel. Hotel security was steadily growing each day, with more and more guards situated near the main entrance. After finding a non-compacted area, Clyde opened the supply bag that Silver Team retrieved.
“Let’s see, we got food, medicine and...syringes.” Clyde shuttered when he moved the syringes out of the bag. “We got water, flashlight, all the other basic stuff.” Clyde returned all the items back into the bag and noticed Rarity’s silence. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she answered.
Clyde sighed. “You don’t have to go with me, you know. I’ll be fine.”
Rarity sat there for another few seconds then got up. “ I would much rather stay at this half-elegant hotel, but I can’t let you go by yourself.”
“I swear I can-”
“Because knowing my luck, you’ll die out there, and I won’t ever see you again and it will be all my fault that I would never be able to get over it.” She began to have tears in her eyes. Soon, she began crying softly and before she could say anything else, Clyde walked over to her and gave her a hug. She returned it, crying into his forelegs, and they stood there for a few moments, enjoying their respective company. After she was done crying, Clyde let go and walked over and picked up the bag and put it on his back. He turned around and saw Rarity strap her bag on her back. He watched her for a few moments and walked towards the doors.
“Woah, woah,” said Franky, “I know we let a bunch of guys similar to your age out there yesterday, but not this time. It’s getting way too crazy out there. Zombies are growing in numbers everyday.”
Clyde looked outside the grand doors. “Listen, chill out and hear me out on this.”
“Fuck! Just let him go out there and die,” said Preban, “I’m tired of these damn kids trying to kill themselves out there. Fucking just leave and don’t tell us. I don’t care.”
Franky rolled his eyes and opened the doors. He took out the remote he gave to Silver Team yesterday. “Before you go, take this it’s-”
Clyde grabbed the remote from his hoof, “Yeah, yeah, I get the reference. We aren’t in the 90s anymore dude.” Clyde and Rarity both stepped out into the South Beach air while Franky was closing the doors behind them. “Hey, tell your friend he needs to stop getting mad at others.”
“Kid, watch your damn mouth!” yelled Preban, “I’ll fucking come out there and kill you myself.”
“Hey, thanks for being ‘okay’ of letting us die out here anyway, buddy!” Clyde laughed then waved goodbye to the guards. After turning around, he sighed and led Rarity to the streets and looked around. They stopped in a bus stop that was still intact. Clyde looked around the corners of the bus stop and once clear sat down and pulled out the map from the bag.
“Well? How far is the arena from here?” asked Rarity who sat down beside him.
“We can see the arena from here, so if we follow this boulevard we should be fine.” Clyde looked around the bus stop and pulled out some duct tape. He picked up a small piece of a fallen branch and kicked out the glass on the side of the bus stop. He began to fiddle around with the items. “Hey, I want you to stay close to me at all times out here. We could get ambushed at anytime.”
“What happens if we do get ambushed?” asked Rarity, “will we have to kill them? I don't think I'll be able to do it.”
“Well, try to get me between you and them at all times. I’ll handle them all if I have to and if you don’t want to kill anything.”
“How? We don’t have a weapon of any sorts.”
Clyde grinned. “That’s why I made this.” He showed her a makeshift shiv he made. He used the branch piece as a handle and the glass shard as the blade and taped it into a small, easy-to-hide, weapon. “I can make you one if you want.”
After pondering, Rarity decided to at least have one just in case, whether it be as Clyde’s replacement or if, which she hoped never happened, she had to use it. She carefully placed it in the side pocket of her bag.
“You ready to go?” asked Clyde. Rarity nodded and they set off. Since it was still morning, the abandoned city atmosphere didn’t faze them. Clyde marched confidently through the streets, avoiding any suspicious looking areas like alleyways and random piles of rubble, unless he had to and which he gallantly guided Rarity through. The two of them talked about the past during their travel to help be occupied and learn some more about each other. After a good hour walking, Clyde stopped them at the sight of a strange haze in the streets. “Well, this could be a problem.”
“What are we going to do? Go through it?” questioned Rarity.
“I don’t think that’s even possible.” He looked around the vicinity, searching for an alternate path. “There,” he said pointing, “that park has a bridge that connects to the road that is across from the arena.”
“Clyde...,” said Rarity.
“Hmm?”
“Look at the haze....” This time he heard fear in her voice.
Clyde turned around and saw about five zombies slowly advancing from the haze and the alley near them. “Remember, stick to me as best as you can.” Rarity nodded, and they both bolted towards the park.
The park was bigger than normal parks the two have seen before, but it probably was also the fact that they were in South Beach and not some small town. Clyde turned around constantly to check if the zombies were still trailing, which they were. He also saw Rarity losing energy as the journey through the park prolonged. Once at the bridge, Clyde turned around and saw that the number of zombies behind them increased from five to about thirty. They were still about sixty yards away so everything was fine for now. As Rarity caught up with him, Clyde saw that haze they saw before was in the middle of the bridge.
“Gah! What are we going to do now!” Clyde started to nervously pace while the zombies were edging closer and closer with each second.
“Clyde! We have to think of something!” Rarity yelled. The fear in her voice returned.
He looked back at the bridge. He saw the arena past the bridge, only half a mile away. He quickly turned around and saw that the zombies were thirty yards away. He gulped and looked at the bay under the bridge. “That’s it. We’re going to have to swim.” He started to push Rarity towards the water.
“Swim? No I can't! My mane and all of my stuff will get ruined!” She dug her hooves into the ground to help resist Clyde's pushing.
“We don’t have time to do anything else. I’ll buy you new clothes and whatever else you want, just get ready to float to the top. Trust me." As he finished his sentence, he grabbed her and jumped into the bay. Rarity screamed in surprise on the way down until they hit the water.The surge of water rushed through them as they sank lower into the water. Still having a Rarity by his arm, Clyde pushed as hard as he could to the surface making sure to at least save her. She kept struggling, due to survival instinct which slowed them down more. As Clyde was about to lose his breath, he came to the surface. Rarity quickly swam over and held onto him for support.
“We gotta hurry, and swim over to the arena before I pass out to exhaustion. This pack is too heavy for this,” said Clyde as he took deep breaths with his chin high above the water to avoid drowning. Rarity gave a slight nod and together they swam slowly towards the arena. Clyde stopped Rarity occasionally for a quick 5 second breather, but they managed to swim the width of the short section of the bay in a few minutes. Once at a pier that was connected to the site of the arena, Clyde threw both of their bags on the wooden dock and slowly climbed up. He turned around and pulled Rarity up onto the pier. They both laid there, looking at the sun at its highest peak in the sky, gasping for breath.
“We made it...,” said Rarity weakly. Her long, wet, mane cascaded down the sides of her face.
“Almost, we gotta get in there first.” Clyde shook his head to get some water away from his eyes and looked at the huge arena before them. They were located at the backside of it, meaning they had to go all the way around to the main entrance if they wanted to be completely safe from the outside threats. He looked back at the sky. “Geez, I sure am tired....”
“Clyde, you can’t go to sleep here!” yelled Rarity.
“Why not?” he asked, dozing off.
Rarity gently hit him and pointed towards the arena. “I really mean it, look!”
Clyde turned to his side and saw four zombies watching them from the part of the pier that connected directly to the site of the arena. “I want you to move back, farther down this pier. If a zombie gets through and is running at you, jump in the water,” he whispered to Rarity while remaining absolutely still. “I’m going to grab my shiv and as soon as I do, I bet you they will start running towards us.” He slowly turned around towards her. “Are you ready?”
Rarity nodded and leaned forward and gave Clyde a quick kiss on the cheek. “Please don’t die.”
Clyde smiled. “I don’t feel tired anymore because of that, so good signs already.” She smiled back and quickly backed up towards the end of the pier behind him. Clyde looked back and saw the group of zombies heading towards him now. He pulled out his makeshift shiv and got up. “One on four? Seems a bit unfair.” Once the first zombie came within a few inches away, Clyde stabbed it with the shiv. The second one was drawing nearer as he failed pulling the shiv free. Instead of fighting it without a weapon, he used the zombie he just struck and pushed him into the second one, making them both fall into the water.
“Heh. Easy.” The third zombie was approaching as Clyde took out the shiv from Rarity’s bag. The zombie lunged at him and Clyde sidestepped to the right and stabbed the zombie into the side of the head and pushed him off the pier. As he turned around to look for the last zombie, it tackled him to the ground. Clyde heard Rarity scream his name from afar and punched the zombie in the face to shake it off of him. The zombie surprised him as it dodged the attacks. Clyde saw the zombie ready to bite him, when he heard a gunshot fire. The zombie fell onto him and Clyde quickly pushed it off and into the water. Confused, Clyde looked up the pier and saw none other than the Miami Flamers point guard, Rio Chalmers standing there with a 9mm pistol.
“Holy hell,” said Clyde as he got up. Rarity came up, hugged him, and clung on to his foreleg. They both picked up their bags and walked down the pier to talk to their savior.
“Glad you two are safe,” said Rio when they approached, “what were you two doing down there?”
“We came from a hotel a few miles away from here. It’s running out of food so we decided to come here to see if they would take us in,” said Clyde. “Anyways, thanks for saving me Rio, you were always my favorite member of the Flamers.”
Rio beamed with light after that comment. “I’m always there for my fans. I hear that the National Guard is in town now and bringing citizens to this arena as it’s a safe place. That line isn’t going to go down anytime soon.” Rio looked around, feeling the warm breeze hit him. “How about we go inside to be safe and talk there?”
“That would be extremely wonderful,” said Rarity. Rio led them into the back door of the arena, bypassing the line of citizens that wanted to get in for refuge. After walking, for what seemed like around the whole arena, Rio stopped by a door.
“We have been in here the whole time since this zombie outbreak disaster began,” said Rio, “welcome to the party.” He opened the doors and Clyde and Rarity walked into the locker room of the Miami Flamers.
* * * * *