//------------------------------// // The Quarantine Zone // Story: Manehattan Zombie Outbreak // by FxBlackJackx //------------------------------// Angel woke up early in the morning, she managed to avoid her nightmares within her previous sleep. She rolled out of her blanket and got to her hooves. She inhaled deeply and gently shook Sapphire. "Hey hun, what time is it?" Sapphire said with a yawn and sat upright. "Early enough. But if it wasn't for Tiki, we might have never lived to see today." Angel replied. "Ah know. Have ya spoken with Golden Sentry yet?" "Uhm no, no I haven't. At least not yet." "We probably need to check in." Angel walked back to her original mattress and retrieved her saddlebag. She picked it up within her teeth and came back to situate herself next to Sapphire. Angel sat on the foot of the bed and stretched out her hind legs. She reached into her bag and pulled out her walki-talki. She manipulated it to where it was usable and applied light pressure to the protruding button along the side of the device. "Golden? Are you awake?" After a moment a voice replied, Golden's sleek voice was changed to a noticeably relieved tone. "Angel? Sweet Celestia! Where have you been?!" "Away; we've gotten into slight trouble last night. We took refuge in an office building off of Pegasi Road. And we've meet a few people here." "Will you bring them back?" "I'll ask although they seem pretty set up here." "Ok, please stay safe Angel. Tell Sapphire I said the same." "You too Golden." Angel took a deep breath and returned the walki-talki back to its original place within her bag. She turned to see Sapphire relaxed sitting in her bed. She then spoke up to Angel. "So, why don't we say hi to the neighbors?" "Sounds good." Angel replied. They both got up out of bed, settled their saddlebags on eachothers flank, and proceeded out into the main office room. The two mares walked into a large rectangular room adjacent to the break room. Snakes was already awake in a recliner conversing casually about school. He was speaking with Babs, she had awoken and seemed to have met one of the strangers. She seemed relax in her tone so she must have been acquainted with the strangers for quite awhile. As Angel and Sapphire approached they interrupted the conversation. "Uhm, good morning. Snakes, was it?" Angel said awkwardly. "Yeah that's me." The dusty colt replied. "So do you have a plan or something?" "You should speak with Tiki about that." "Where is he?" "Sleeping. I'll wake him." Snakes said as he rose from his chair and walked past the mares. He had a knife across his flank that he didn't try to hide. The intricate leather pattern along the sheath intrigued Angel. It was complicatedly laced with two colors creating a vortex of the lighter and darker shading. He exited the area and entered into another unfamiliar door. "Hey gals, how've you all been? Did Washboard not wake up with you?" Babs said in her bronx accent. Her eyes shined with innocence. "Uhm, he ah, had to go." Sapphire said nervously and she scratched the back of her head. "He's dead, ain't he?" Babs said rhetorically and lowered her head in grief. Angel nor Sapphire dared to admit it, even though Babs wasn't blind. Angel stepped forward and sat down next to Babs. The white pony put her hoof around the filly and hugged her. "He saved our lives, he took the lead and took the sacrifice." Angel whispered to her. After a long moment, Tiki entered the room with an ice pack over his head. "What's with the ice?" Sapphire asked the red pegasus. "Oh this? Just a little hungover. It's no big deal. So is there a reason Snakes summoned me here? Or have I been tricked to get out of bed?" The crimson pegasus responded. Angel spoke up to answer his question. "Yeah, do you have a plan? Or would you like to come to our safe house?" "Oh, aren't you a silly filly, we're preparing to depart and head to the quarantine zone." "Q-quarantine zone?" "Yeah haven't you heard? Princess Luna set up her lunar guards around the outskirts of Manehattan." Tiki said as he reached for the tv remote and flicked it onto the Equestrian News. A purple mare with a white mane in a bun was speaking behind her table. Sure enough, she was talking about the zombie outbreak and all of the cities that have been discovered with the virus; the entire crystal empire, Bostallion, Manehattan, Fillydelphia, Baltimare, and several other large cities were listed. Canterlot was under strict lockdown; no pony in or out can pass the royal guard sentries and barricades. Luna's lunar guards were ordered to surrounded major roads exiting the infected cities and to aid any pony not infected. "That's were we are going, and I'd rather die next to my friends than to fly away cowardly." "Can.. we come with you?" Angel asked nervously. "Oh absolutely not. We can't allow anymore to travel with us." Tiki replied shaking his head. Angel's heart sank and her eyes filled with sorrow. The open door behind Tiki was occupied and Titan was leaning against the doorframe. "Come on Tiki, just let them follow us." Titan said waving his hoof. Tiki's lime green eyes filled with disapproval and he swung around to meet his friend face to face. Whispering to him enough for only Titan to understand. "It's several miles till the quarantine zone, it's not safe." "It's not safe here either Tiki." Titan responded. "In times like these, you can't show compassion because that's when ponies walk all over you like a doormat. They use you for their own benefit, Angel and Sapphire are lucky I saved them." "Just give them a chance. They're grateful ponies and they offered us a safehouse. Seems pretty heroic to me." Tiki closed his eyes and pondered his will for survival and compassion. "Fine.. They can come, and we might as well allow anypony else to follow the train as well." "Hear that girls? Invites are open." Titan said louder for the mares to understand. Angel's heart lifted and she exhaled in relief. "Thank you." Tiki and Titan murmured something about Snakes and left the room leaving the three girls alone. "Golden and Charcoal should be happy. Don't you think?" Angel said. "Yeah, let's call em, have em pack up early before we leave." Sapphire replied. Angel rooted into her saddlebag and retrieved her walki-talki. She fumbled with it and called her friends. "Golden guess what!" Angel said. No reply came back to her. "Golden?" "Hey little trouble here, what do you need?" The familiar voice said through the wavelengths. "The four of us are going with the group we met. There is a quarantine zone on the outskirts of Manehattan, pack your bags, we'll pick you up soon." Angel said excitedly. "Leave? Uh yeah! I like that, okie dokie, hurry up." "Is something wrong?" "Just zombies being zombies, gotta go." Angel set down her walki-talki confused. "Okay, that was a little odd." The three stallions came back into the break room, they each wore large saddlebags with various other stuff attached. They each had a roll out sleeping mat tucked ontop of the bags. Snakes had his spear in his mouth and angled it where it was out of the way. Tiki had his rifle slung over his right shoulder and small throwing knives along his torso. Titan had a large machete across his abdomen which had only the grip protruding from the sheath. "Are you ready?" Tiki asked. "No, our crew is in an apartment building on Hoofen Street." Angel replied. "Crew of how many?" Tiki asked suspiciously. "Just two colts." Angel reassured him. "Fine, we can get them." Tiki said and turned to lead the group out of the office room. Angelwhiskers followed the group of ponies out the room and into a short hallway. The walls had several doors lined upright against the surface of the wall. She continued to follow the three stallions with Sapphire and Babs close behind her. They reached the end of the hallway and proceeded through the maze of rooms until they reached a stairwell. The walls read "A12" in bright red letters. Tiki leading, they marched down the stairs. The order was Tiki, Titan, Snakes, Angel, Babs, and Sapphire bringing up the rear. Level 8; Angel heard the unmistakable noise of a zombie; its low growl echoed from down below. Each pony froze in realization, except for Tiki. "I've got this one gents." He said quietly and proceeded down to level 7 to introduce himself. A royal blue pegasus was standing awaiting for food. His coat was roughly fading to grey and his black mane was twisted and patches of hair was missing. He gnarled his teeth at the sight of the crimson pegasus. "Come here Babe." He mocked the zombie. The blue zombie sprinted up the stairs to Tiki. The red pegasus grinned and prepared for an easy kill. He raised his hoof to shield himself from the zombie's weight being thrown onto him. In one swift motion Tiki spun the zombie around with his left hoof and left wing and knocked the zombie over the railing. The zombified pegasus fell backwards over into the empty space within the stairwell. It fell one story and it's waist took the impact of the guide rail. With a loud thud it continued to slide off and into the emptiness of the stairwell. "Hell yeah!" Titan exclaimed. "Come on, we've got a lot of ground to cover before dark." Tiki said as if it was nothing. The six ponies continued their journey down the stairs, Angel swallowed nervousness down and didn't miss a step as she followed Snakes. His yellow mane bounced with each step and his muscles tensed with each motion. His flank was defined and quite alluring to her. She felt a sudden redness rush over her face and she attempted to forget her daydream. They reached the first floor and Tiki opened the door. As he opened it he was faced with nine zombies within the office lobby. Tiki's green eyes lit up and he made a grunt that showed his distress. He carefully closed the door and quietly backed away. "I can only see nine, we can take them easily guys." The reddened pegasus whispered. "No, it's too dangerous, there are too many obstacles to know for sure." Snakes whispered to reply. "Let's find a window on level 2." "Yeah seems fine to me." Tiki replied and passed between each stallion than mare. He led the group up to stair level 2 and entered through the iron doors. He walked down the short hallway and small room of office supplies. He pushed down the window blinds to peer out of the window. There was a dumpster right underneath them; about a four foot drop. Tiki slid the window open carefully and stepped out into the air. He extended his wings to avoid falling but the weight of his saddlebags lowered him down. One by one each pony lowered themselves out of the window and gently on the dumpster. Babs jumped without a care and slid off the dumpster like a professional. "Alright Angel, show us the way." Tiki said allowing her to the front. Angel took the lead of the group, she began to work out where she was exactly. She was on an alley way right off of Steller Street, the road connecting Hoofen and Pegasi Road. She began to walk south, towards the apartment building, and reached the intersection in less than a minute. A few zombies lurked around the entrance and the road. Just two mares and a stallion. "Ok, I'll take the mare that's secluded from the other two. You guys think you can handle the others?" Angel said devising a plan. "Easily." Titan boasted. Angel retrieved her knife from her saddlebag and stepped out onto the blackened road. The zombified mare swung her head and growled at her. Her eyes were glazed over and her corneas were yellow. It ran towards Angel, who took no haste and knocked it over with her shoulder. She embedded the knife into the temple of the zombified earthpony. The other two were already dead from Titan and Tiki. "Easily done guys." Tiki said grinning. "The door is in the back." Angel said and proceeded to the corner of the house. Each brown brick stacked on top of each other were lined for several feet. She rounded the corner and walked up to the basement doors. She pulled the latch downwards and the metals cracked and allowed her inside. Each pony followed the white earthpony into the basement. There were the same boxes stacked ontop of each other that never moved. "Golden?! Charcoal?!" Angel shouted through the apartment stairs. "Hey Angel, up here!" Golden responded from upstairs. Angel walked up the stairs and looked around. She was astonished at her surroundings; three zombified ponies lie on the floor dead but she didn't recognize any of them. She carefully stepped over them and walked into the kitchen. Golden and Charcoal were in the kitchen/dining room. Golden Sentry had his hind hooves up on the table. "I brought our friends Golden." Angel said excitedly. Tiki rounded the corner and made eye contact with Golden. "Golden Sentry!" He exclaimed happily. "Tiki? Sweet Celestia, you bastard! How the hell are you?" Golden replied with a shift in tone. "How's anypony in zombie apocalypse?" Tiki joked. "Sorry to intrude but ah'm guessing ya'll know each other?" Sapphire asked. "Oh yeah sorry, Tiki and I were mates way back." Golden replied. "Oh how nice." Sapphire said while stepping back to relax in a chair. "So I heard we're going somewhere?" Golden asked his crimson friend. "There's zones of lunar guards set around the city. Survivors are recommended to meet up there." Tiki explained. "Alright best not to delay I suppose. How far is it?" "It's uh, seventeen miles till the closest one." Golden exhaled in distress. "Alright let's start our way." Golden sat up and retrieved his saddlebag out from under the table. Then he reached out and collected his double-barrel shotgun that was leaning against the wall. He slung it over his neck and walked out of the kitchen. Charcoal did the same except he retrieved his wooden crossbow and a leather quiver. Everypony walked back out into the basement and out the door into the alleyway. She felt the exchange of temperatures as the breeze blew past her muzzle. Tiki was leading once more, he was the only pegasus in the group and knew his way around the city the best. Angel decided to catch up with Snakes and speak with him. "So, how'd you come up with your pole weapon? It's pretty impressive." She innocently asked. "My father, why?" The dusty colt responded. "Oh, no reason." Angel replied, when in reality she just wanted an excuse to talk with him. "It saved my life plenty of times." Snakes said and laughed. "Yeah, this whole thing is kind of mind blowing." Angel said as she pushed her golden hair out of her face. "Tell me about it." Snakes joked. She couldn't explain it but she kind of liked him. Maybe it was because of his body tone, or personality, or because he was nice to Babs this morning. "So how did you meet Tiki and Titan?" Angel asked. "It was a long time ago, I can't remember." Snakes replied shaking away discontent. "And yourself?" "What?" "How did you meet Sapphire and Golden?" "Oh, uhm, by fate." "That's gotten you this far?" "Yeah.." "You're quite lucky Angelwhiskers." "How's that?" "Some strangers take advantage for their own benefit, while the others are left behind." "I can assure you, we're loyal even after death." Snakes slowed down a little and casually walked closer towards Angel. After a moment, they were side by side following Golden and Tiki. "It's not everyday I find another pony I can trust." Snakes whispered. "Oh yeah, it's my pleasure" Angel beamed. "Have you lost somepony close to you?" Snakes said under his breath. "Yeah, my coltfriend. First night of the outbreak. Before Sapphire, he was the closest pony to me." She exhaled in depression. "How about you?" "Yeah, my sister, Piper. She died a few days ago." "Oh I'm sorry. May I ask what happened to her?" "She was bitten when Frostburn abandoned her. The five of us were split up, Piper and Frost ran upstairs while Tiki, Titan, and I went downstairs. From what I know, Piper held the door shut against zombies and Frost abandoned her while she struggled. We never found or seen Frost since then. I'm part pegasus, although Piper inherited the full pegasi genes and she flew away after she was bitten. We returned to her too late and she was already half-gone." Snakes said and winced at the flood of emotions. "Oh, I'm so sorry" Angel said in grief. Tiki turned the corner of an intersection and quickly rushed back frightened. He lifted his left hoof up to his muzzle to silence everypony. "We've got a few zombies, guys. Let's see if we can't sneak past a few of them." He whispered. In a single file line, each pony hurriedly ran across the street. Tiki gave a wave and a halt of his wing to signal when to cross the street. Every pony crossed the street quickly and quietly then continued the silence. Tiki continued the trek along the streets, alternating killing zombies with Titan and Charcoal. "Allow me the next one?" Sapphire asked Tiki. Tiki looked quite surprised but allowed her without question. "Be my guest." He said in a whisper. A minutes pasted and several zombies spotted the group and lumbered towards them. There was about eleven spread out amongst themselves. Tiki, Titan, Charcoal and Sapphire stepped up and readied themselves. Sapphire swallowed her fear and held her knife closely. Charcoal released arrows into the group killing two mares; a pegasus and an earth pony, before the rest of the group came too close. Tiki and Titan quickly stabbed and killed seven zombies and backed away quickly. Sapphire watched the two zombies near her and she felt her adrenaline course through her veins. With the force of a country pony, she knocked over the first zombie and stuck her blade into its cheek. She tugged on the blade and it slowly slid out of the face of the discolored pony. She whipped around and slashed her knife at the last zombie in the short street. She made slight contact with its neck and blood seeped from its coat. She readjusted and thrusted her knife into the forehead of the graying zombified colt. "Nice work girl." Titan said with an approving smile. "Thanks." Sapphire said recovering from her nervousness. Perhaps she wasn't afraid of the zombie itself, but afraid of failure in front of the group. "We should continue moving." Tiki said quietly and quickly moved back to the edge of the road. The amount of encounters were beginning to become much more frequent and Golden stepped in to help defend themselves. Golden had a large survival knife that was serrated along one edge. Angel and Snakes didn't draw their weapons but remained alert. Angel watched Golden Sentry drag a zombie away and viciously stomp on its skull. The bones caved in and splinters of bone cracked. Angel's expression was wide with both fear and awe from her friend. The quantity of zombies increased as they moved further from the apartment and they were forced to take shelter. They sought refuge into a nearby auto-repair shop, Titan and Charcoal lifted the garage door. The garage door wasn't too heavy but they had to leave it on their shoulders while everypony retreated into the workshop. After Angel and Sapphire slipped in, they let the door slam shut. Babs was the first to scream, a live, zombified earthpony hung from a noose that was tethered to the metal railings. He spun gently from his movement, he wore a grey uniform which had two patches of metal wrenches. Angel looked away at the unfortunate soul and found a note tapped underneath him. "Hey guys, check this out." Angel said and ripped the paper from the tap. To whomever is reading this, My name is Metalhoof, I'm the mechanic here. I've come to the unfortunate event that I am infected with the curse. The bite has caused soreness and blood clots around the wound. Eventually numbness and pure torture. If you're reading this, I've turned already and have taken my life. Be careful with those demons. "Didn't know enough to put a bullet in his brain." Titan said resentfully. Tiki outstretched his wings and bounced up to Metalhoof. Tiki remained in the air observing the zombie, pulled a throwing knife out of the leather sleeve and flung it into the head of the mechanic. The blade pierced its cheek bone and lodged itself into his brain. He ceased his movement and his legs fell to his sides. "Euthanasia at its highest." Tiki said and cut the noose. The dead zombie crashed into the ground with a thud. Tiki retrieved his knife and slid the body underneath the garage door.