//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: Dead Day. // Story: Monster-bumps // by Napalm monster //------------------------------// "She did what!?" Dead yelled, both baffled and angry. The Wolf Boy simply let out a sad whine, and hung his head down in shame. Daunted by how it let itself be beaten so easily and effortlessly by a girl. DeadBones scowled at the Wolf Boy standing outside the supermarket in the parking lot. Along Dead, was the Mutant Mantis, the Wendigo, the Mummy, the Snowman, the Ooze, the Meltedman, the Queen Bee, Widegrin, Jack, and Sharkman, and a couple of Gingerbread Monsters all assembled. DeadBones groaned in frustration, pinching the temple of the bridge of where his nose should be. He then glared up at the Queen Bee. "And you! I sent you to them to destroy them, not....ugh." Dead paused and let out an annoyed groan, face palmed and shook his head when he saw the giant bee ignoring him, busy licking honey off its right foreleg. Much to his chagrin. "Licking honey..." Dead trailed off, seeing the futility of getting the bee to notice him. He knew once honey was around, that bee ignored the rest of the world around her. "And you!" He pointed to the mantis, which made it flinch visibly unlike the other big bug, "Your so big! You could've crushed them like - like .... Well like bugs! No offense, but seriously! How hard is it to kill a bunch of teenagers!" Dead turned and kicked a pebble in frustration which it hit a car and rebounded knocking Meltedman down, "It seems I underestimated these kids a bit. With that pen they could trap us back all on those stupid pages. I am not going back on a shelf." He then looked at the werewolf, "Alright fido, follow they're scent and see if you can lead me to Ralph and his dumb group of girls!" The Wolf Boy tossed his head up and began sniffing the air. He then ran over to the car the Mutant Mantis crushed earlier that belonged to AppleJack, he surveyed the wreckage before the scent was clear. He let out a howl and hunched down on the ground and began running on all four towards the source of the scent: the graveyard. "Come on daddy, It's only eight of you versus an entire army of monsters, let's see how long you'll last out there." He murmured and began following the brown werewolf, while the other monsters including the mantis followed the skeleton and werewolf. After a short trek, the group had found the large iron gates leading to the cementary. Slipping in was easy, though Fluttershy was incredibly reluctant when she saw the stone graves line up. But the others literally dragged her inside. Much to her dismay. The cemetery was the least scary thing the group had seen all night. Which meant it was still pretty terrifying. The sliver of moon cast shadows over the trees, making the shadows of the trees look like spindly creatures with their arms stretched out to grab the group. Stone angels watched they're slow progress through the graves across the cemetery, the branches on each tree they passed kept trembling with each breeze. The only sound was the crunching of leaves beneath they're feet and they're steady breathing. "I'm still the only one wonderin' how long there was a cementery here and we haven't heard of it before?" Applejack asked, only to be ignored once again by the group. "Ooooo! Spooky," Pinkie slurred, unperturbed by the scary atmosphere. "How far are we now?" Rarity asked Sunset. "Just a couple of minutes," Sunset replied, "After that we'll move through Everfree woods and we'll be there at Canterlot High in no time." Fluttershy tried not to think about the bodies rotting six feet under. Ralph noticed this and tried reassuring her. He suddenly grew this sudden feeling to console the taller girl, he slowed down his pace and walked alongside her. "Relax, they're already dead so they can't hurt you." Ralph said nonchalantly. This obviously didn't make her calm or feel better, as her shivers grew more violent and erratic. "Eh, I mean, we're-so, eh, nothing bad will happen as long as you stick close." Ralph assured her. "W-w-why did you have to come up with such scary monster?" Shy asked nervously. "I told you, to get even with my tormentors. I wouldn't expect you to understand, I've been isolated for so long, i created my own friends, I know they seem scary to you but a long time ago they were my best friends. While others just thought of me as this weird guy." He explained. "I don't think your weird," Shy said, somehow more relaxed than she was a few seconds ago, "I used to have the same problem before I met my friend Rainbow Dash. And I can tell your just misunderstood." Shy put a hand on his shoulder and rubbed it in circular motion on it to reassure him. "I guess the way you found comfort in monsters is the same way I found comfort in animals. So I think I understand." She smiled happily. Ralph sighed happily and looked up blankly into the air, "The monsters have always been my friends, I just wish they didn't try to kill me." Aiden couldn't help but smile, she stared from a distance as she saw her little brother actually interacting with another human being, he was using social skills he never used around her. For a moment she could see her former brother, the one who filled her with such joy before. She didn't notice Sunset slowing down to walk alongside her. Sunset then nudged her out of her musing. "I see you really care about your brother, huh?" She asked. "What? Oh yeah, why wouldn't I, sure he can be lazy and angry every once and a while, but he cares for me," she then turned to see Ralph and Fluttershy laughing together, "And I care about him. More than anything in this world or the next." Sunset smiled and respected her dedication to her family, she contemplated perhaps after the crisis is adverted they could maybe become friends ... All of them, even Ralph. After all she did think he was kinda cute, in a brooding sort of way. It was hard imagining a boy in there group, but Ralph reminded Sunset of her when she was starting to learn about friendship. Angry, no friends, which lead her to be bitter just like- Sunset snapped out of her thought, and stepped forward and stumbling over a branch, falling to the ground with a thump. That’s when she realized it wasn’t a branch. It was a rotting hand, reaching out of a grave. The hand wrapped itself around her ankle. Sunset opened her mouth to scream, no cry could escape the confines of Sunsets throats, she was too stunned to even squeal. This was like a nightmare, except no nightmare had ever been this vivid, this real, this gross, this squelchy and cold. The zombies themselves didn't recognized her as anything but food, the only thing worth was providing protein for their rotted stomachs. Eager to tears sheets of flesh and tissue off her bones The ground beneath her shifted and another hand poked through, grubby fingers scrabbling for purchase against the dirt. Sunset yanked her ankle away just as the creature dragged itself fully out of the grave. A zombie! Another hand poked out of the dirt. Another one, this time with faded pink nail polish. There were more of them. And they were all coming up from beneath the ground, coming for them. Fluttershy yelled at the sight of walking corpses emerging from the earth. Loud moaning soon filled the air as multiple zombies began poking out of the ground. "Girls?" Rainbow said, "Our best course of action would be to... RUNNN!" "Yeah?" Ralph asked sarcastically, "I was planning to have a nice conversation with the undead! Great plan!" Everyone crisscrossed through the gravestones, ducking past tombs and beneath statues. The rotting Dead Day zombies sauntered after them, more of them clawing up from the dirt all around them all. Sunset tried not to think about what would happen if they caught up, those rotting pale corpses, those dirt-filled hands, dragging her down deep, under the ground, into the grave…it made her shiver internally to ponder what they may have done to her. Ralph spotted a lantern hanging freely near one of the angel statue. He grabbed the lantern and swung it at the Dead Day zombies, the oil from the lanterns splashed on them, and the fire quickly ignited, setting a few on fire. Though because of their pain receptors being disabled, they didn't seem to notice they're flesh currently on fire. The others could smell the scent of zombies being cooked as smoke rose from the air, the Dead Day zombies continued burning, slowling charring, and roasting. They pursued them regardless of the flames dancing across their already rotting bodies. The group spotted more zombies ahead of them stumbling forward, blocking they're path. Rainbow, AppleJack, and Sunset pulled out the weapons they picked out from the supermarket and jarred a few zombies in the head blocking they're path. Sunset swung her baseball bat in an arch motion and knocked a female zombies head off her shoulder. Despite being disconnected from its body, the zombie kept a grunt in while on the ground. The group turned to see more zombies limping towards them in a slow stride. Making ghastly moan as they approached the group. AppleJack used a broom and brought it down vertically over a zombies shoulder, making the limb pop out of the shoulder. The limb landed, but it continued moving independently on its own, clutching the air and writhing around. Rainbow swung her baseball bat on one zombie after the other, easily hitting two undead. The last one growled in anger, bared it's teeth at her and crouched to jump her. Rainbow was about to swing her bat in to hit the undead right in the face but the zombie was faster and tackled her to the ground, Rainbow jerked her arm between its neck and tried to push it away, but the zombie refused to be brushed off so easily. It began attempting to bite her face, every swift motion drew itself inches closer to biting Rainbows nose. But a kick from Sunsets boot to the zombies head made it reel off of her. Sunset extended her hand for Rainbow which she gladly accepted and was pulled back to her feet. The group kept running evading the zombies as they kept limply walking towards them, but what they lacked for in speed, they made up for it quantity. More zombies rose from their grave attempting to grab the girls, but they were able to duck and dodge their attempts. Soon the exit to the graveyard could be seen a few feet away. "There it is!" Sunset proclaimed, pointing her finger at the rusty, iron, gates, "It's not too far, hurry!" The group bolted toward the exit but were immediately halted when they saw a flock of zombie once more blocking there way. There were now between two clusters of undead slowly approaching them. The girls with weapons stood in a defensive position, rearing their weapons over their shoulders incase a zombie got close. While the more defenseless girls and Ralph stood between them. Aiden turned to Fluttershy panicking, "What are you waiting for!? Use that thing....." She trailed off. "What thing?" Fluttershy asked, cocking an eyebrow, "You mean the Stare?" "Whatever! Use it!" She urged her frantically, as the zombies drew nearer and nearer. "I can't! It only works on animals!" She stated, nervously as the undead were but a few feet away. "Wait a minute." Rarity whispered, she then dug into her small purse and grabbed a purple sphere shaped bottle of perfume. "Perfume!?" AppleJack exasperated, clutching her broom, "Really Rarity!? You wanna smell nice one last time before you die!?" "Just watch darling, or better yet...don't watch!" Rarity exclaimed and threw the expensive bottle of perfume against the ground. A cloud of of purple heavily scented fragrance filled the air, and worked as a smoke screen, which blinded the zombies. The others were coughing loudly but ran past the undead while the zombies began gagging loudly from the perfume entering their rotting mouth. The group ran out of the cloud of perfume, coughing violently, tears in their eyes, smelling like a perfume aisle, but alive. Ralph coughed erratically, his lungs already filled with perfume, managed to stammer out, "What....was....that?" AppleJack nodded and coughed, "Yeah....I've never seen a bottle(cough)...perfume do that before-(cough)" Rarity beamed, "Just the latest...meilleur perfum. They were selling it for half price only this week. I enjoy being a girl." Finally, the group reached the gate of the cemetery. Fluttershy slipped through the wrought-iron rungs pretty easily. Everyone else followed, Ralph was almost to safety when a zombie grabbed Ralph's foot. "Save yourselves!" he cried as the zombie yanked hard, dragging him back into the graveyard. “Hey dumbhead! I didn’t mean it!” Ralph shouted angrily kicking the zombie in the head. Aiden and Sunset spun around. They dove beside him. They each took an arm and pulled as hard as they could. It was like human tug-of-war. Inch by inch, they pulled him toward their side of the gate. But the zombie wouldn’t let go. Ralph looked like he was about to be split in two. There were more zombies tugging on Ralph now, all of them pulling in sync. Soon the rest of the girls grabbed Ralph's arms, Rainbow, Rarity and Fluttershy grabbed his left arm, while Pinkie and AppleJack grabbed his right arm, but more zombies joined in and grabbed Ralph's left and right leg much to his dismay and mild annoyance. Ralph's entire body comedically stretched like a rubber band as the Rainbooms and the Dead Day Zombies refused to let the others side keep Ralph. Ralph moaned in pain, the girls and zombies clutch on him grew harder and harder with no sign of ceasing. Each side then began digging their feet into the ground and pull harder. Soon more zombies joined the fray, assisting their undead brothers and sisters to pull their so called 'father' back towards their side. They were now stronger than the girls were. They're fingers were going numb, and Aiden could see Sunsets hands starting to slip. They were going to lose him! Ralph shook his head visibly nervous. He wrote Dead Day zombies to eat humans and only humans by tearing the living open like a present an excited child would receive on his birthday, so the victim could suffer longer before they went for the brain. Ralph shuddered recalling the chapters with blood. He didn't want to end up like those characters! Ralph breathed nervously and panted, he then frantically wiggled his legs out of their hold, and managed to pull his left leg out of the zombies grasp. “What! Kind! Of! Monster! Bad! Monster! Bad! Monster! Bad! Monster! ” Ralph shouted with rage. He kicked a zombie in the face with each word. It startled them, and their grip loosened just for a second. "Don't! Eat! Your! Creator!" But that second was enough for Aiden and the rest of the girls to pull Ralph with one final powerful tug out of their grasp and through the gates. Everyone collapsed backwards into the dirt, wheezing loudly, struggling to breathe. Ralph landed on top of the girls as they were in a small pile. It felt as if they're arms were going to fall off. Ralph was already on his feet brushing off dirt. Everyone turned to the sound of groaning and moaning coming from the gates as the zombies shot their hand between the bars trying to reach Ralph, for some reason ignoring the other girls. Rarity huffed, "Zombies, of course you had to create zombies." "Man," Rainbow said rubbing her shoulder gingerly, "For dead guys they have some strong grip, sorry it took so long to help you dude." “Not your fault,” Ralph said dismissively. “I’m the one who wrote those dead heads. Maybe next time I’ll write about a cute little baby duckling swimming sweetly in a pond." He sighed. “Forget I said that. I’d only turn it into a giant sixty foot tall man-eating Duck.” “Maybe those are the last of your monsters we’ll have to fight,” Fluttershy said trying to be optimistic as possible. Ralph simply shook his head, "I wish they were Shy, I wish they were." The werewolf continued and sniffed the ground. Dead and the other monsters were following him, though Dead held an impatient expression on his boney features. They crept through the graveyard until The werewolf paused and let out a series of snorts. It shook its head at the sharp scent hits it nose, and everyone else could smell it. Despite the lack of lungs and nose, Dead was able to catch a strong whiff of it, "Does anyone else smell perfume?" The other monsters nodded. The Wolf Boy shook off the sharp scent and continued tracking until everyone heard the sound of moaning and unearthly groans. The Wolf Boy jerked its head up when it saw the zombies from earlier still attempting to reach the other side of the cementary Dead turned to the zombies, he chuckled at their vain attempts, "He-He-He! I like you boys. What you lack in brains, you make up in heart. Oh, and speaking of hearts…bring me Ralph's." Dead then rotated his head 180 degrees facing the mantis behind him and jerked his arm, pointing at the gate. The mantis let out a small growl in agreement. It lumbered towards the gates. When the zombies heard its loud thundering stomps they all made way for the giant insect to its work. The mantis raised its claws and swiped the gate off its hinges, making it rattle on the ground with a large metal clanging, resonating.