Title:           Week6 - GreentextSavant
Author:          AlexanderGrey
Pastebin link:   http://pastebin.com/V3ubUPjn
First Edit:      Friday 29th of April 2016 12:02:33 PM CDT
Last Edit:       Friday 29th of April 2016 12:02:33 PM CDT

>[Rarity are you getting these?] The latest message from Sunset really shouldn’t exist.
>The message is still actually there after Rarity rapidly blinks at it during the brief half of a second she sees it before shielding the screen’s glow from view.
>Something within Rarity fiercely wants to respond, to let the others know that by some miracle, she’s actually still alive. But the labored breathing on the other side of the locker door convinces Rarity otherwise. If the girl had hidden the screen of her phone just a split second later, then there would be quite a bit more than labored breathing on the other side of the door.
>Just the tiniest sliver of light would be enough to provoke an attack. Rarity remains still, praying to anything she can imagine for the monster in the dark to retreat.
>…
>After about ten more minutes of driving, Sunset considers sending another text to Rarity’s number. “You sure it worked?” She looks over to Officer Moss.
>”It should. I plugged her mobile phone’s IP address into the system and everything.” He looks back down at the tracking equipment beside his seat. “If you sent a text to her phone, it would surely get there.”
>These words force Sunset’s heart to sink. She tries her hardest not to imagine the worst of possibilities… even though it looks like the most probable at this point.
>Sunset lurches forward in her seat, holding her phone out once more for Officer Moss to plug it back into the cord. “Maybe you put the number in wrong!” Every spurt of hope that Rarity is still alive crashes into Sunset’s mind.
>Officer Moss can tell what’s going on in Sunset’s mind. He frowns slightly as he hears the urgency in her voice, and knows that nothing he alone does can give her closure.
>”She has to answer! There’s no way she wouldn’t answer!” Sunset repeats to reassure herself. “When the zombies came flooding into the gym, they were after the rest of us! And Rarity was safe hiding in the locker room.”
>Officer Snow mumbles under her breath as she listens to Sunset’s now unrealistic rambling. “I knew this was a bad idea.” She gets ready to turn at the next corner, eyeing the paper map of the town with a marker line on the designated route to the school form the station.
>”Hey, now.” Officer Moss immediately states the contrary to at least keep Sunset’s hopes up. “It’s worth a shot. Every life counts, and this life has a huge chance of still being alive!”
>”How do you know, Moss? Huh? What’s your confirmation on that?” Snow has to keep her arms steady with effort as she turns the steering wheel. “This person could have been dead hours ago.”
>Officer Moss turns to Sunset, trying to get her to continue what she was saying before. Sunset turns to the driver with tears starting to cloud up her eyes.
>”You don’t understand.” She tries to explain, setting her phone back down on the seat. “She wasn’t even anywhere where the zombies could know where she is. She was literally already hiding before they came in. The others told me.” Her voice is starting to audibly quaver.
>Officer Snow quietly scoffs before turning her attention back to the road. She takes a quick glance into the rear view mirror after this, just barely able to see the silhouettes of the zombies still in pursuit of the SUV, barely appearing in the distance. “Yeah, well… we already did out part in getting a few of those bastards away from the station.” She bites her lower lip with squinting eyes. “And to be honest, I was willing to see how far away we can take them, but that would mean taking longer to get back to the station.”
>A shock makes Sunset’s eyes go wide as she hears this. “But we’re almost at the school.” Sunset tries to find a way to point it out to her from this side of town.
>The current location they’re in should be at least remotely close enough to be able to see the school in the distance. This HAS to be worth it. If Sunset can at least save one… just one of her friends, then she can at least have one thing to remind herself about this day as she tries to go through whatever it is that awaits her tomorrow.
>”But if she’s not replying right now… like…” Officer Snow tries to lay in on Sunset easily, having picked up on this being one of the girl’s friends in question here. “Time is a major factor, here.” Between the lines, Sunset can hear the words “we have to turn around” in what she’s trying to say.
>”I can try again.” Officer gestures for Sunset to hand him the phone so he can connect it to the wire.
>The SUV turns once again right as he does this, and Sunset recognizes this street. She glances ahead through the windshield to spot Canterlot High just down the block.
>”It’s there.” Sunset immediately points her finger at the building. “That’s it right there.”
>Officer Snow sighs as it dawns upon her that it’s too late to turn back. She thinks about how much of a waste of time it would be to go into that building only to find nobody alive. If only there had been a reply on the girl’s phone would there be a confirmed reason to go into the school that now stands right in front of the SUV; the horse statue a few feet away from the metal bars over the front grill.
>”We just have to go to the gym, I promise!” Reminds Sunset, already unbuckling herself. “I can lead the way if you want, Officer Snow.”
>Officer Snow holds her hand out to shush Sunset, watching the distance in the direction from which she just drove. Surely enough, about three of the zombies appear running, having locked their sights on their target: the SUV itself.
>Upon seeing the approaching danger, Officer Snow keeps her hand held out. “Moss! With me, now. Sunset, stay here.” She steps out of the vehicle onto the open road with Officer Moss doing the same on the passenger side.
>Their presence becomes known to the zombies in an instant.
>”O-officer Snow?” Stutters Sunset.
>”Just sit tight until I say it’s safe!” The lady sternly replies after drawing her gun. “And you can call me April.”
>Officer Moss is the second one to draw his gun. He slowly backs away from the approaching trio, bumping into the SUV as they get close enough to see the whites of his eyes. The whites of Sunset’s eyes explode with anxiety before the girl covers them with her hands.
>Without hesitation, April pulls her trigger, and Moss does the same after hearing the first ear-splitting shot ring out.
>The first hit goes right to the front zombie’s head, blowing the undead lady back and nearly making her fly out of her own torn shoes. Once the sound of her head hitting the asphalt before the rest of her body reaches April’s ears, the officer directs her barrel towards the next target and fires.
>It’s like clockwork; the second zombie goes down in exactly the same way the first one had, and the same happens with the third zombie. Officer Moss lowers his gun after he realizes that it’s better for him to save his bullets until his partner needs to reload. The extensive focus in April’s eyes as she mows the zombies down one by one reassures Moss that it will take a lot more than just three zombies to get past her when her gun still has ammo.
>One more shot later and four zombies lie in the middle of the street, three of which are motionless. April approaches the only one still moving and hits the target Officer Moss barely missed on it before — the head.
>But April is not convinced that the first four will be all; she eyes distant far end of the street, hastily reloading despite having a couple of bullets left. “Moss, check the other direction.” She scans a number of the yards of surrounding houses along with the grounds of the school.
>Now a little bit more confident about who has his back, Officer Moss raises his gun once more and finds a lone zombie slowly approaching on his side from one of the houses. He aims as precisely as he can and waits for the undead man to get just a little bit closer. “We got one right there!” His finger gets ready to squeeze the trigger.
>”Same here! Smoke him!” April points her reloaded gun and shoots first. “Try not to miss!”
>Officer Moss waits until the zombie he has his gun pointed towards reaches about fifteen feet from him. He knows that it would only take about two more seconds for those rapid legs to move that scowling face to his neck. Moss pulls the trigger in an instant, praying that he’s had at least enough experience to pull off a rushed headshot from ten feet away.
>A hole in the zombie’s forehead appears and the lifeless body slams down onto the grass below. After seeing nothing else coming in his direction, Moss spins around after hearing a gunshot behind him. He sees another zombie fall forward into the street.
>Over a (nearly) silent minute of heavy breathing goes by before April turns her attention over towards the school. “Alright, we’re clear. Let’s move in.” She lightly taps on the side window of the SUV with the butt of her handgun. “Sunset, come on.”
>Sunset scrambles out of the back seat and nearly falls out of the vehicle. She clumsily follows the two Officers already heading to the school before regaining composure.
>”Offic- uh, April?” She stutters, still shivering from the event. “Did you shoot all of those?”
>April smirks at the girl. “Most of them, yeah. Why? You weren’t looking?”
>Sunset shakes her head, staying silent as April continues.
>”Heh… well I’ve been in the force for ten years. Got pretty handy with a pistol. But that’s a story for another time… we need to find somewhere to enter.” She turns to the other officer. “Moss, stay on your toes!”
>Officer Moss perks up as he reaches the glass front doors. “Oh, uh, right.” He gets ready to try the front doors, but instantly backs away and draws his gun.
>He saw a LOT of movement in there, and April can tell through how fast he jumped away from view from inside the building. It was too dark inside through the tinted windows to see what was going on.
>”How many? Did they see you?” April grunts one question after another in a half-whisper while pointing her gun towards the front entrance.
>Officer Moss trembles in his shoes. “Like… t-ten… maybe more.” His voice suddenly sounding a lot more submissive than before.
>”TEN?” April’s own arms start to tremble as this dawns upon her. “Sssshit! Around the corner! Now!” She directs the other two along the outside of the school without a second of hesitation.
>They stop around a corner to ensure their absence from the zombies’ line of sight in the apparent pack were to swarm out the doors. No noises so far; no doors opening, no banging, no footsteps, no growling, nothing.
>April turns back to Sunset, still keeping most of her attention focused on her surroundings. “Where did you say you left from again?” Her voice stays in a hushed tone.
>”The… the gym. It’s on the other side. We have to go around.” Sunset brings up.
>”Alright…” April already starts off to the other side of the building. “Go go go!”
>The three turn around another corner, momentarily along the side of the school at about the midpoint between the front entrance and the gym at the back. What sounds like the shuffling of footsteps just barely makes it to April’s earshot. She of corse alerts her partner about this, hardly haven taken two more steps.
>Each officer turns in the direction of the noise with their fingers on the triggers while Sunset nearly gags at the sight of a mangled corpse over by one of the classroom windows.
>Sunset takes a closer look, recognizing something she can’t quite put her finger on at first. But after another second or two of glancing over at it, a vice starts to relentlessly close in on Sunset’s heart.
>It slowly dawns upon her when she recognizes that dark blue tuft of hair with a messy pink stripe in the cluster of… sheer carnage. The remnants of clothing can barely be pointed out in the parts that aren’t stained with blood. Everything else appears to be nothing more than scrambled bones… and still remaining on some of them is… it’s too sickening to think about.
>The hair may be the only thing that Sunset can recognize, but it’s all she needs to realize. And it brings her to her knees as the tears leak out from her eyes. “T… T-tw… Twi…” It hurts so much more every time she tries to get the word out.
>Every single part of the world falls away from Sunset. The girl briefly forgets what world exists around her as the sharp wail coming from her lungs echoes off of the side of the school. She shuts her eyes and turns around from the horrible sight, not able to even stand back up.
>Her whimpers drown out any real words she was about to say, only growing louder as she now falls forward onto her elbows. Sunset’s heart begins to race in absolute distress — it isn’t long before she begins to shake all over her body.
>Having heard the crying before seeing it, April takes a quick glance back at the girl, finding her hunched over. The despair in Sunset’s voice can’t come from anything other than someone who just lost someone extremely close to them. Sunset’s disheartened cries start turning into full on screams as the girl feels the brunt of her shock.
>April has no other choice than to clasp her hands over Sunset’s mouth to keep their position from being found out. There’s no way Sunset would have gone silent; she continues to sob uncontrollably into the officer’s hand, still quite loud.
>Officer Moss points his gun directly on the line from his point of view that separates brick wall from open air. The first sign of movement, and he will unconditionally pull that trigger.
>”Shhh… Sunset, look at me! Look at me!” April tries to get the girl to come back to her senses, already feeling compromised enough to scan the building for any quick escapes to inside. “Sunset!” After failing to get Sunset to calm down, she noticed a smashed open window right behind the bloody carcass that Sunset could not bear to look at.
>After another few seconds, Sunset goes completely limp and unwilling to stand up no matter how hard April pulls her. “TWILIGHT!” The name of her closest friend repetitively spills out from her shattering heart. Her breath exasperated and broken as it drowns out her voice whenever she cries out her friend’s name. “Twi… Twilight!”
>After all of that time praying that Twilight was alive. After all of those minutes, then hours of hoping that Twilight had run off to somewhere. That time Sunset spent convincing herself that Twilight was going to be okay in the end. That she was going to be able to see her friend once more. All of the instances during which she was sure that Twilight was going to take the time to text her friends once she was out of harm’s way, and let them know that she was coming up with some sort of plan to fix everything.
>There’s no way her hero could have ended up like this. It was beyond something Sunset could ever hope to imagine and that fact alone only amplifies the pain of seeing… what’s left of Twilight. Sprawled all over the grass over a dark stain.
>Gunshots ring out from Moss’s direction; something must have turned the corner. But the gunshots cease when April catches a glimpse of him running past her and Sunset, and soon making a dash for the open window.
>”Moss!” April shifts her attention to where he just ran from — trampling over one already dead one, there are zombies hungrily emerging from around the corner… in two’s and three’s.
>Her partner had underestimated their numbers when he said there might only be 10.
>Needless to say, Officer Moss has already leaped through the window by the time April looks back in his direction. The next thing April thinks about is getting Sunset to follow him; Sunset doesn’t have a gun. The split second comes when April forcefully drags the bawling Sunset up from her knees and over to the window.
>Three pairs of clawing hands close in on the two, and April has no choice but to use one of her arms to point her gun towards the attackers. One of them dives directly for Sunset’s leg, and would have succeeded if it weren’t for the bullet flying through its head.
>”MOSS! MOSS!!” The cry for help blares from April’s lungs as her partner scrambles back over to the window with his own gun drawn. “PULL HER IN!” April fires another shot, barely hitting another zombie in the shoulder.
>Her aim isn’t as efficient under this pressure.
>From inside and outside the room, hands lift Sunset through the shard coated window pane and send her tumbling into the classroom. Sunset lands on something relatively soft, and springs away from it immediately.
>Sunset only saw it for the shortest length of time.
>She looks below to discover two rows of what look like more bones… the remains of two legs leading up to a torn up skirt with… with a… familiar looking shade of purple to it. And that’s all Sunset sees before the loudest of screams explode out of her.
>The only thing that drowns out the screams is the gunshots, some coming from inside the classroom and others entering through the window.
>”MOSS!” April fires wildly until she runs out of bullets. “MOSS!”
>Not wasting a second, Officer Moss pulls April in, sending her crashing down to the same spot Sunset had. At this point, Sunset keeps her eyes shut with her hands tightly over her ears.
>The gunshots continue as April snatches Moss’s gun out of his hand. She has less than two seconds each time a zombie comes climbing through the window, wanting nothing more than for each shot to count.
>A massive panic attack overcomes Sunset as she shrieks at the top of her lungs, blocking out all sight and noise from her universe. She wants to force all of this to somehow no longer be real — the girl has had enough. She doesn’t pray, she doesn’t beg, she doesn’t hope, she only screams with lines of tears rolling down her reddened cheeks.
>And her screams are drowned out by the desperate gunshots as each new zombie is blown back after climbing up to the window frame. Each time two of them try to fit in at once serves as a golden moment of opportunity for the two officers; it gives them an extra few seconds to pull out their last clips and reload.
>There’s no telling how the miracle is pulled off. One could say that it was out of pure adrenaline, one could say that it was dumb luck, and others can look to the skies and choose to see an angel watching over the three in the classroom.
>The constant flow of zombies is only truly halted when Officer Moss picks up one of the desks and hauls it right into the window frame once both he and his comrade have no time to reload. The extra weight brings momentum, and the current zombie making an attempt to get in finds his or herself slammed in the face — Moss didn’t even take the time to look and what he was aiming for other than the window itself.
>Sunset screams at the floor the entire time, resisting her world falling apart around her.
>”I’m out!” April announces after finding her spare clips of ammo used up.
>After ferociously wedging the desk into the window frame, Moss tosses his gun in April’s direction, and his last ammunition clip follows. “It’s all I’ve got left.” He nods over to her. “I’d rather it count.”
>And of course, the desk is certainly not going to hold for long.
>Right as April slaps the clip on, she and Moss notice something else making ruckus in the room on top of Sunset’s devastated cries. April turns the barrel towards the door to the hallway, finding it open. And already halfway across the room, savagely climbing over the desks is another zombie.
>With a hardened clench of her teeth, April pulls the trigger after aligning the front sight with the space between the undead man’s eyebrows. He goes down, and Sunset is forced to her feet while the desk in the window is on the verge of falling out of its tight hold with every push from the outside.
>”Come on, go go go go go!” Officer Moss is already edging his way along the front whiteboard, peering out into the hallway.
>Sunset can hardly see with the tears clouding her vision. “Twilight! Tw… Twilight!” She still sobs, but only while making an attempt to get away from this horrific place.
>The sound of the desk crashing to the floor from the window prompts everyone in the room to pick up their pace. April, only by a half a second, is the last to leave the room. She takes glances in every direction, seeing the remains of another student lying on the floor right outside the door. If Sunset had looked down, she would have (somewhat) recognized him as Flash Sentry.
>”I have about eight shots left!” April spins around and struts backwards as she finds out how many zombies are in pursuit. She spends a couple more seconds waiting for at least one more to come out the door. “Wait, hold on!”
>And just like that she aims and fires. Two shots resound through the hallway, followed by the echoes of bodies hitting the marble floor. “Alright… six shots.” April announces before a third zombie appears from the classroom. “Wait wait wait wait…” She waits until it gets close enough and fires again.
>Nothing else comes after the third zombie — April hadn’t come to realize exactly how many of the large group from before she had eliminated back in the classroom.
>April Snow hyperventilates as she and Moss scan every possible direction something could come running at them from. “Okay… five… I’ve got five shots left…” She says in between breaths after waiting another ten seconds to be sure. “F-five shots. But… but that’s it.”
>Sinking to the floor, Sunset covers her tear ridden face and lets her anguish wash over her. Officer Moss carefully places a hand on her shoulder, trying not to let the blood from the gash on his palm get onto the girl.
>”What happened to you? Did they bite?” Asks April with even more concern filling her.
>Moss perks up. “No, no… window.” He holds his palm out, displaying the evenness of the cut. “There was still some glass on there.”
>April starts to answer, but the words that come out of her mouth are changed by the dull roar coming from the very back of the school. “Oh… fucking hell…”
>”Sunset, we need you to cooperate with us, okay?” Officer Moss kneels down to the sobbing girl. “Please… this is crucial.”
>April Snow examines her gun before taking a couple of steps in the direction of the noise. “…Five… five bullets.” She cocks the gun and narrows her eyes. “These sure as hell better count.”
>…
>Rarity is not entirely sure, but she could swear on her life that she just heard distant gunshots.
>To peer out of her locker is something Rarity can’t bring herself to do; it’s probably not the best idea. The footsteps in the room from before never die down, only moving to different places in the locker room as though they are searching for something.
>Rarity thinks about the text message that Sunset sent her, and thinks about how long it would take for the girl on the other end to get the impression that Rarity is no longer alive.
>These thoughts are interrupted by a dull roar coming from within the gym. Rarity freezes even more, despite being completely motionless anyway a couple of seconds ago.
>Like cheetahs responding to the outcry of a wounded impala in the savannah, the zombies in the locker room shuffle through the aisles towards the door. It takes very little time for Rarity to realize that these things are organized enough to somewhat communicate with eachother like predators in the wild.
>Rarity continues to listen, noticing a small flood of light enter the blackened room every time the door is opened. It’s hard to see past the lumbering shadow of the aisles of lockers between the light source and Rarity’s position, but the dingy green metal of the lockers and the beige ceiling can still be made out. Judging by the number of times something blocks the light entering the room from the doorway, at least five or six zombies just went from the locker room to the gym, joining however many zombies were already still in there from before.
>How many of them had the others led out of the school as they ran away? That part is impossible to tell from Rarity’s point of view, but she can verify that at least a couple of made it away of Sunset can still send her a text messages.
>Another second passes, and Rarity’s heart skips a beat.
>It’s unmistakable this time — the sound that Rarity heard a couple of minutes ago were indeed gunshots. They the next two emitted are close enough to become obvious now.
>…
>April holds her arms as steady as she can, and aims right at the approaching zombie’s head. She doesn’t even remember when the thing came barreling around the corner.
>The shot rings out, and the bullet pierces through the zombie’s forehead right as it makes it to within arms reach of April. Only four bullets now.
>Remembering what Sunset told her, April leaps around the corner and scans the hallways for any doors that look like the entrance to a gym. This school didn’t look too big, and April knows that she should find a gym sooner or later.
>But the rushed crowds of footsteps convince the Officer to go back in the direction from which she came; they sound as thought there are nearly double the amount of targets to hit than bullets in April’s gun.
>She weaves around corner after corner, soon making her way back to Sunset and Officer Moss, who aren’t in the same location as they were before. An open janitor’s closet door slowly starts to close as Moss emerges out of the room with a broomstick in his hand. The broom portion has already been snapped off.
>Moss frantically looks down the hallway as the footsteps draw closer. “Sunset told me the door was unlocked. A friend of hers hid there!”
>”Oh my god, that’s perfect.” April gasps, pulling out her taser. “Here, take this. I have an idea.” She has to basically ram the device into Officer Moss before he takes it.
>”Wait, what? We’re not supposed to use these! They don’t work on them, remember?” Moss almost continues before three zombies lead a few more into his line of sight.
>”Go!” April already has her gun pointed and pulls the trigger once the leading one is close enough for her aim to be as accurate as possible, only hitting the attacker in the collarbone.
>Officer Moss no longer questions the taser and heads to the nearest exit from the hallways with desperate feet. Having started running when April handed Moss the taser, Sunset is far ahead of the two officers.
>The corridor connecting to the previous hallway is the longest stretch Sunset can imagine. She frantically searches for a place to hide, heart racing and eyes darting. There’s no easy way of telling if the gym will be safe; given that Rarity is the only reason why she and the officers arrived her to begin with.
>But the fight for Rarity’s life is quickly turning into a fight for her own life, and the same can be said for Moss and Snow as the narrowly escape the crowd behind them. The zombie that was shot in the collarbone starts to lag behind, temporarily subtracting one from the group of many advancing undead.
>Three bullets left, and presumably five targets left to shoot until comfort can at least slightly resume.
>…Hopefully only five.
>Moss makes it to the end of the corridor first, having ran faster without turning back to shoot or figure out where to hide. He only wants out, completely regretting his decision to do this. And it may have cost him not only his life, but two others.
>Moss almost turns around until Sunset shouts over to him. “Keep going! The gym’s that way!” She instantly catches up to him with April only a few feet behind, at least closer to her comrade than the remaining zombies.
>”Which way?” April gets ready to fire again once the three reach an intersection.
>Sunset points to the right towards two large double doors. “There!” She immediately starts running with the other two as the zombies are merely feet away from them at this point.
>About twenty steps later, Moss and Sunset ram up against the doors, pushing them open as they open away from their direction. April points her barrel at the closest zombie: within arm’s reach. The good part of this is that she can’t exactly miss with the barrel inches away from the zombie’s face, but the bad part is that the next zombie is right behind the one that falls to the floor with a hole in its head.
>Two more bullets.
>Sunset and Officer Moss are already on the other side of the doors while April had fallen behind to ensure that her limited bullets count. Without second thought, Officer Moss looks down at the broom stick in his hands and haphazardly forms a plan. He hands the broomstick to Sunset as the zombies catch up to April close enough to almost reach her shoulders. But that changes when one of them actually grabs her by the shoulder and yanks her back.
>”Jam the door!” Moss had barely noticed the handles on the other side, knowing what purpose they could serve.
>Sunset watches him spring back into the hallway right before April sticks the barrel of her gun right under the chin of the zombie that grabbed her and sends a single bullet up through his skull. And that sight is the last thing Sunset catches a glimpse of before the gap between the doors closes and the broomstick is anything but hesitantly slid through the handles.
>Less than a half second later, an extremely loud and forceful collision of the other side of the door nearly snaps the broom stick in half. Sunset jumps out of her skin and falls backwards against the wall on the opposite side of the hallway. Her broken heart pounds away at her chest like a sledgehammer.
>Collective shouting from the two officers and one last gunshot echoes throughout the school. Whatever is banging against the doors isn’t stopping, and Sunset finds herself unable to move.
>”Get him! Get him!” April grunts a second and a half before repeated blows against flesh replace what would have been another gunshot if there were any bullets left. “Aaaargh!”
>”Come oooon!” Moss’s voice is suddenly brave and domineering as the noises continue on the other side of the door. “Just. Ergh. Fucking. Die!” Each word sounds along with an audible blunt hit into the zombie.
>There’s obviously one last zombie against the doors, Sunset becomes certain when something growls almost like a tiger into the crack between the doors. That little broomstick never looked so flimsy before.
>”Gottem!” Moss blurts out in an exasperated tone as Sunset barely notices the sound of the lifeless zombie falling to the floor through the continuous banging on the doors. “Got one more coming, I’ll get the one at the door. You alright?”
>”The fucker didn’t bite hard enough, I’m fine.”
>Sunset stays frozen in place, not even having the ability to scream. The streams of tears running down her cheeks begin to dry as she waits for the final sounds to stop. The ceasing of the banging against the door… and it being replaced by the sounds of a struggle between Officer Moss and the undead human he eventually puts to rest.
>However April takes care of the further away zombie isn’t close enough for Sunset to hear. But but what Sunset does hear is April’s bone chilling announcement after Moss finishes his business right outside the doors.
>”Moss! We got more of ‘em!” Her rapid footsteps can already be heard approaching the doors. “Tons more!”
>A low gargling moan distracts Sunset from Moss’s reply to April… a moan on her side of the door. The girl spins around to immediately notice something crawling towards her on the floor.
>It’s Indigo Zap.
>The undead girl can barely crawl with any speed at all, only having been noticed after she actually made a sound. Luckily, she’s far enough away from Sunset to keep her from responding to what the two officers say next through the doors, despite the scream that is brought out of Sunset regardless.
>”Sunset! Open the door!” Moss begs at the top of his lungs. “Open the door! Open the door!” He slaps his hands on the surface even harder than the zombie had before.
>April says the exact same thing during the next literal millionth of a second before the stick is slid away and the doors are swung open from the weight of the terrified police officers.
>”Close ‘em!” April spots the broomstick and reaches for it.
>A brief two further seconds of Sunset’s ability to see into the previous hallway reveal at least four more zombies approaching in a close pack. The door is slammed in their faces. April goes the extra mile to slide the broomstick to the side enough to snap it in half again with one part still blocking the doors.
>She takes the broken off piece and slides it over the first piece, and the trio likely would have been dead meat if it weren’t for this. The force against the doors from the other side is like that of a freight train.
>April turns to Sunset to tell her to stop screaming, but only finds the girl pointing down to the half eaten zombified remains of Indigo Zap. She fixes her bun as Moss provides the doors with extra support, then goes on to approach the slowly crawling zombie before her.
>Indigo reaches out to April and aggressively tries to grab ahold of her leg, but the foot at the end of that leg promptly collides with he undead girl’s face. April Snow repeatedly stomps down again and again onto Indigo Zap’s head, and forced the skull to elicit sickening cracking sounds after the tenth stomp or so.
>What’s left of Indigo Zap falls limp, and April Snow lets out a deep sigh of relief before turning away from the bloody mess on the floor.
>”How close are we?” She simply casually asks Sunset after all of the stuff that just happened.
>Sunset answers without even looking anywhere. “It should be down this hallway.” She points in the direction that doesn’t lead to the door leading outside.
>A door that Rainbow Dash would see as familiar.
>”It’s one of the doors that way.” Sunset adds, knowing for a fact that the gym is nearby.
>But she doesn’t know because of he prior knowledge of the building. She knows because of Indigo Zap’s motionless corpse lying right here in front of her. Sunset doesn’t even recognize this place anymore.
>April nods and wastes no time in heading in the direction. “Looks like we’re going melee.” She examines her empty gun.
>With careful feet, April makes sure not to slip on the pool of blood in front of open double doors. The mats lining the wall signify what could pretty much only be a gym, and April knows to prepare herself for whatever may come through these open doors.
>She steps through the doorway, briefly turning back towards Sunset to see the girl sliding down to the floor once more, shrinking away from the hallway with an exhausted look in her teary eyes.
>The size of the gym lets April’s shoes resound with a slight echo with each step on the floor she takes.
>On the other side of the gym, an empty doorway reveals yet another hallway filled with countless corpses, all lying on the floor. Momentarily halting her steps forward in order to keep herself from vomiting, April grimaces at the sight before looking away.
>She instantly notices the other two doors, which can lead to no other places that the locker rooms. It takes a few seconds to creep across the gym to check the signs for which one is the door to the girls’ locker room.
>The gym itself is silent, allowing the loudest noises heard by April to be the aggressive clawing and thrashing against the hallways doors – merely held by Moss and a broomstick.
>Each echoing step in the gym could trigger a response from an even remotely close zombie, given what April had previously learned about their attentive hearing of these things.
>She continues across the deathly silent gym until she’s close enough to the door to grab onto the handle. Every couple of seconds, she looks over her shoulder to check for anything that might have follower her through the doorway from which she entered. Each time, there is nothing there, but that confirms nothing after the next ten seconds.
>No more movements behind the officer so far as she looks again while slowly swinging the door open. A low creak has to be suppressed just enough to be masked by the distant sounds of the zombies behind the other doors.
>April finds herself face to face with silent blackness, waiting anxiously for anything to emerge towards her.
>April cautiously steps forward, instinctively keeping her gun raised despite it being out of bullets. Though, it’s not like her shot would have been all that accurate with all of this shivering.
>Then again, there would be less shivering if even one bullet had remained.
>Officer Moss grunts in the distance as he holds the doors together, almost out of April’s earshot as she continues into the locker room.
>After a couple of seconds, April reaches the point where she would have to let go of the automatically closing door if she wants to take another step into the blackness.
>She grabs her flashlight from her belt and flicks it on while pointing it straight ahead.
>The dingy green lockers hardly reflect any of the light back, stretching in two aisles standing alone and one aisle lining the walls. Nothing can be seen between these aisles, not even after April takes a few more steps into the room to completely see down the aisles.
>Other than the soft thud of the door completely closing off the room, not a sound to be heard.
>The smell of blood is becoming slightly thicker in the air as April starts scouting in between the aisle not connected to the walls.
>April knows that she cannot confirm Rarity to be dead until she sees a body.
>No other options; she needs to make some noise. “…Police…” April tries to somehow make her voice only ring into the locker room without escaping into the gym and god forbid the hallways. “I-is there anyone here?”
>Rarity’s eyes shoot open.
>Not even realizing that she had drifted back to sleep, the girl meekly tries to put it together in her head whether or not the voice she just heard was part of her imagination.
>One bad judgment call can mean certain death.
>She listens with her hand back over her mouth before even realizing it; but the beam of light soon catches her eye.
>”Police.” The officer repeats herself with just barely more volume this time. “Is anyb-”
>”HELP! HELP ME!” Rarity involuntarily blurts out, startling April enough to almost jump all the way back out to the gym in one leap. “YES, I’M HERE! PLEASE SAVE ME!” Her voice shrill and desperate and her mind in utter disbelief.
>She couldn’t help it, not after everything she’s gone through today.
>April falls back into the darkness, crashing into the wall behind her with her flashlight clanging against the cold floor.
>”R…Rarity?” April scrambles to her feet and swipes the flashlight back up. “I’m gonna have to ask you to keep your voice low, okay?”
>”Yes! Yes, I’m Rarity!” The girl in the locker already starts to tear up once again. “Please… get me out of here.” She gasps for a breath of fresh air after literally falling out of the locker.
>Her belt is still tightly fastened to the grates on the door.
>After scouting the rest of the room, April shines the light slightly away from Rarity’s eyes as she approaches the locker. That doorway to the bathroom looked extremely unsettling with that blood pooling out from around the corner.
>”W-wait…” Rarity starts to come to terms with the fact that this isn’t some sort of dream. “How did you know I was here?”
>”Shhh! I said keep your voice low! They’ll hear!” Repeats the officer, holding out her hand. “And your friend Sunset told me all about it.” She takes ahold of Rarity’s hand, finding Rarity to be rather spaced out with an exhausted expression.
>Rarity sinks to the floor as she already tanks her friend in her mind. The text message resurfaces in her memory, now linked with some sort of validation that it too was not in some sort of fear-induced fever-dream.
>April momentarily realizes why the girl can’t stand up, noticing her belt practically welded to the locker door. Rarity just sits there, staring up at the officer as the light shines down from above.
>Her cheeks are coated with streams of diluted eyeliner, her hair disheveled and her eyes bloodshot.
>The officer can only hope that this girl is always this pale.
>”Alright.” April takes a look at how tight the knot in the belt is. “How do we-”
>She’s interrupted by the deafening bang of the door to the locker room being slammed open from the gym. Thinking upon instinct, April immediately flips the flashlight off to avoid being seen.
>In the blackness, Rarity keeps a straight face on the outside at first, only feeling her stomach sink on the inside until the low growl from the direction of the door causes her to wince.
>Literally anything can happen next.
>It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out; the zombie must have heard Rarity from out in the hallways. April internally curses the girl as a hungry set of footfalls creeps across the floor along the outer aisle.
>After somehow making it this far, the last thing Rarity is going to allow to happen is her becoming a live meal. She’s still in the state of shock from this police officer suddenly appearing into her life.
>She’s not going to give up after a small taste of freedom and safety was dangled in front of her face like this; she works on loosening the knot.
>But April’s feelings towards this are ever stronger than those in Rarity’s mind. The officer slaps together in her head the most desperate plan she’s ever come up with; she’s not going to tangle with one of these monsters again.
>Knowing that unclipping anything else from her belt would make noise, April finds her only option to toss something is the flashlight in her hand.
>She reaches forward and feels the opening of the locker Rarity is attached to, getting a decent bearing on where that doorway to the bathroom was. She takes her only shot as the footsteps reach within five feet of her and Rarity.
>The flashlight ricochets off of a couple of walls before smacking loudly against what should be the bathroom floor.
>Less than a half second later, the zombie’s footsteps become increasingly rapid along with its labored grunting… but in the direction of the sudden commotion. Rarity frantically tries the tight knot once more, but make no progress in getting her belt free.
>It’s hard to get this thing undone when she’s also trying to stay as silent as possible.
>No matter what Rarity’s hands do, the knot isn’t showing any signs of coming loose within the next ten seconds, and even that timeframe might be too long.
>April starts to feel around for the girl in a panicked fashion, expecting the zombie to come charging out from the bathroom at any second. She listens to it move around in there for a moment.
>It can be heard sliding the tips of its fingers along the wall while sniffing the air almost like a dog. Hungry grunting starts to resonate back into the locker room as the intruder closes in on something in the bathroom. It almost lets out a laugh as it falls forward to reach something below.
>April soon starts to hear the now familiar sound of flesh being torn. She pauses for a half a second to repress certain memories from earlier in the day.
>Rarity struggles to hold in a scream as she too recognizes the sound April hears, remembering it from just about an hour ago… and in the exact same spot.
>The zombie resumes its unfinished meal, distracted as April finds her way into a strong grasp on Rarity and starts to pull her away from the door.
>April no longer cares about the belt; her only goal is to get out of the near blackness. She’s eyeing the small sliver of light from under the door leading back out to the gym, almost too dim to be visible.
>The crunching of bones can soon be heard emitting from the bathroom. It’s a good omen that the zombie has been occupied for the moment, but there’s no telling how long this moment will last.
>Rarity responds to the now insistent pulling by moving her efforts to the buckle of her belt; she’d rather choose her life than an accessory on her clothing.
>April feels the resistance come to a halt in an instant after the buckle is slipped loose. The zombie in the bathroom doesn’t hear the two luckily fall back into the open space without crashing into the lockers.
>They silently hold onto each other while feeling around for the lockers as a sense of bearing. The increasing number of rows of lockers being put between the pair and the zombie obscures the ripping and tearing sounds from the bathroom.
>The sounds grow quieter ever so slightly, and the cold metal surfaces of the lockers nearly shock Sunset’s fingers as she follows April towards the hint of the door.