A mare to keep

Oh no, he’s one of them now. He always warns me to ‘steer clear’. It only takes one drip of blood, one bead of sweat, one drab of drawl, and you join them. Why couldn’t he for once follow his own advice? It matters not, I’m soon to follow.

The sharp barbs drag through my tender flesh. I hear my beloved friend roving and moaning on the plain of dearth leaf litter beyond the wire fence.

He has blood slathered around his shuddering lips. I cannot flee.

He approaches my prison of penetrating barbs. I pull away but the pain it throws me and the fear it freezes me to the spot.

The inebriate survivors from the town clamber from the truck. Some of them aim their guns at my blighted friend. The rest, they cruelly peel me from the wire fence.

I am in shock, there before me is a river of my blood. I kick meagrely and struggle facilely until I am dumped away from the bottleneck.

I see what I think to be impossible, the grizzled survivors two wonder through the wall of pain. I am woken from my dream dazed state as I see the barbed wires have followed me.

The blood, it runs in torrents from my smattering of cuts. I hear my beloved friend retaliating to the unfair odds that surround him.

I can’t do anything. I want to, Celestia believe me I do. Oh, how poetic. He’s never let me down but the moment he needs me, I can’t be there for him.

I hear a loud, awful noise. My friend falls onto his back. He seems somehow peaceful. I try to get up but my legs, they won’t carry me. I feel something cold stroke my freckled cheek and I panic. I need to calm down, he told me to stay calm. They’re gonna kill me if they think I’m corrupted.

I hear a click, but I still breathe. I turn around as quickly as I dare until I am facing a firing squad. I cry, I try to stop my tears but I don’t see the point anymore. It was just a normal day…

“Check her eyes, make sure she’s clean!” I hear one of the survivors bark.

“I can’t see ‘em.” I hear another answer.

I risk opening one eye and catch sight of one of the survivors. He is standing tall on the back of the truck. He shakes his head.

“Nah can’t take that risk. Put her down boys.”

The sights all train in on me. I look to my silent friend, who once spoke with jokes a plenty. I watch him do absolutely nothing as I do the same. The air runs still and the light, it fades.

The drunkards clumsily make holes in me. I scream, but stop, what is the point? Finally, one merciful soul sends a bullet into my skull.

Fin