I arrived back at home without being tackled and slipped inside in a hurry. The neighbors were out in force in the garage, looking nervous as hell, and who could blame them? They were gathered around something so I went to see what it was.
"He can't stay here!"
"He's cool, man. He just needs some help."
"He's already changing. He'll come after us next."
They were talking about the prone form of someone who lived on my floor. I didn't know the guy personally, but we ran past each other a few times. Seemed nice enough, or was. Now he was contorting into one of those ponies. His wings were spreading, covered in blood and fluttering around as if to clean themselves.
One of the others threw a blanket over him. "Whatever you decide, don't let him splatter blood around, that might be contagious."
A sickening crack brought everyone's attention back to him as his jaw split in half in a disquieting display. His eyes flew open and he looked around at the lot of us. One of his friends smiled nervously. "See, he's awake. How ya feeling, John? Not a crazy monster, right?"
John, or what was once John, rolled up onto hooves, his change progressing rapidly, but still not entirely a pony. He tried to talk, but a busted, or whatever it was, jaw made that hard. With the sound of a cracking whip, he lashed out a tongue, grabbing his friend around the neck. As if that wasn't bad enough, he had two more tongues where it came from, and he soon had another victim. He seemed more interested in licking than killing, small praises for that. I didn't want to see anymore. "Get him the hell out of here!"
The biggest guy in the crowd hefted up the... mutant? pony and bodily hurled him over the gate after a quick run. He came back as quickly. "That won't keep them off for long. You saw he had wings."
I pointed at the building proper. "We have to set up inside, barricade the windows and hole up until the military starts earning their paycheck. This isn't some stupid movie, they'll shoot first and ask questions maybe later. I saw one of them go down with a few shots, they're not immortal or anything, just... ponies."
The general idea seemed to be agreeable to my neighbors, and they started towards the inside. The big guy held up a hand, barring the way for the two victims of the recent pony. "Nuh uh. You two stay out here. You might be infected with whatever this is."
The friend of the guy scowled. "Whatever. What I get for having a damn heart."
The other took it less well. "I'm not going anywhere! You're not sentencing me to that craziness outside. I live here just the same as you, I have my rights!" He moved to push past the large man when a loud bang echoed off the walls of the garage. He sagged to the ground, and two more shots rang out. Another of our neighbors stood there with a gun, having just executed the potentially infected.
The armed man, Peter I think his name was, looked at the other potential infected. "You going?"
He thrust a hand up in a placating gesture. "Alright, alright! I'm going." He turned around and walked to the door, slipping out. The large guy moved up and made sure the door was closed and locked again just as Sandra came up.
"She's with me!" I rushed up to get to Sandra and welcome her inside. She hugged me tightly and I returned it just as well. It was really good to have a familiar face around. I leaned in and whispered to her while we were close, "Do not mention the french kiss you got, under any circumstance. They are totally willing to murder infected people."
Sandra looked at me like I was crazy, but nodded. We headed inside and got to sealing ourselves in. The building got a lot darker without sunlight, but significantly safer-feeling with boards up in front of every exposed window we could find. I was feeling pretty exhausted and retired to my apartment, where Sandy was already taking a load off. She looked to me and gestured at the door. I closed it. "Alright, so can I get some answers now?"
I gave what I could. "People are turning into ponies. I've seen winged ones, horned, and some without either. I saw one that had crazy long tongues."
She raised a brow. "Are they dangerous?"
I shrugged. "Depends on your definition? They infect you, then you become another one. I... think you might have been attacked by some people in the early stages of whatever it is. I haven't seen anyone directly torn apart by one."
She sagged in her seat and put put her face in her palms. "So, what, I'm going to be a pretty pony?"
I moved over and put a hand on her shoulder. "We'll get through this."
She frowned up at me. "Will we? I was already... hit or whatever. You said your neighbors are ready to shoot first. I... I don't want to die, Will. You said the ponies haven't attacked anyone. Maybe I should take my chances with them."
The idea of Sandra roaming around the city in its current state did not sit right with me. "Just stay here." I pointed towards my bedroom. "I'll protect you."
"From a gun?" She laughed defeatedly and rose to her feet. "No, no. I don't want you committing chivalric suicide. I'm going."
I hesitated a moment as she went for the door, then rushed after her, slapping a hand on that door. "Wait. Let me grab some supplies. I'll go with you."
She frowned a little with confusion. "Why? Don't be stupid."
I left the door and she didn't rush through it. I grabbed my backpack and started loading it with food, shaving supplies, bandaids, whatever I could find that looked kinda handy. "I'm not stupid, but I'm not leaving you. We can find our own shelter. I bet plenty of people never made it to their house. We hole up in one of our choosing. Grab the duffel." I pointed at another bag, and she joined me in looting my own apartment.
Once we had everything we could reasonably carry, we headed out. We got some nasty stares from the neighbors, but no one prevented us from going. When we got to the final gate, the big guy nodded at us. "Once you go out, you ain't coming back."
"Yeah, alright." I held up my keycard, unlocking the gate. He held out his hand. "What?"
"Give it up. We can't have you coming back as some 'thing' and waltzing past the gate." I gave him the card. I wouldn't need it one way or the other.
Sandra and I left the building behind, and set out to find our own sanctuary to escape the world.