He had nothing left to hold on to. It took Brett a good amount of time to comprehend this. Him and Lucas had been together for years and it had never gotten this bad. He knew that it was too late to accept his brother back into his life. He had one more responsibility…those ponies. He turned his head off to the side slowly, finally opening his eyes. He was surprised to see that the purple pony had snuggled up against him. The way she held on to him reminded him of a frightened child almost, “Hey, wake up. We have to keep moving.”

Her eyes cracked open, flinching when they came into contact with the blinding sunlight, “Huh… what? It’s... you. So… it wasn’t a nightmare?”

She got up slowly, her facial expressions adopting a rather depressed look. He frowned, feeling some pity for her, “Hey, I know it’s tough, but if we stick together, we can survive. Oh, and you should wake up your orange friend over there. It’s not smart to stay in one place for too long.”

She nodded and walked over to the snoring pony, nudging her with a hoof. “Hey, Applejack, wake up.” Twilight requested.

Some groans were heard, but all that Applejack did was turn over in her sleeping bag. “Twi’… why can’t Ah just get some darn sleep? Not like anypony’s gonna’ find us out here…” The farmpony tried reasoning.

“It’s not the bandits I’m worried about. The infected could be lurking around at every corner.” He said simply, like it was something bound to happen.

They both looked up and tilted their heads, saying simultaneously, “Infected?”

He looked up at them, expecting to see grins, which would have pointed out that they were just kidding around. They looked genuinely confused, to Brett’s dismay. “You…don’t know what the infected are? Where are you from…?”

They looked at him as if he was crazy, “Uh… we’re from a place called Equestria. A more important question would be… where are we right now?” The purple one replied.

Brett packed up the sleeping bags into his sack, trying to cram them in with the rest of his scarce supplies. “Well, we’re in the shitty state of Colorado. Well… what’s left of it.” He had a thought, and asked about it. “Wait… how long’ve you two been here?”

Twilight said sadly, “Well… we’re not quite sure what happened. I was in my library, and the next thing I know, I woke up here. Right next to Applejack, of course. I think around five minutes later some creatures like you came and took us. I think they were bandits… But, you came to our rescue afterwards… that’s all I remember. Thank you, again. If you didn’t show up, who knows what they would’ve done to us.”

Brett saw several million illogical things just from that statement alone, but he decided to shrug them off, “Well, I think it’s time we got moving. Got a long day ahead of us.”

Wordlessly, the two ponies followed him when he had gotten done packing. They trudged through the snow for quite a while, stopping every once in awhile when Brett thought he had heard or saw something. He wasn’t used to being depended on. Now that he had a taste of what Lucas had to go through, with mom and him. He felt slightly bad for the old guy, but quickly shrugged that off, remembering the mean things that asshole had said to him.

After about a half an hour of their boring trek through the forest, Applejack piped up, breaking the silence, “Where are we even goin’?”

Brett sighed silently, and replied. “East…”

Twilight giggled, but got a little bit more serious. “That’s not very helpful, Brett.” She didn’t sound angered or anything, just pointing out an obvious fact.

He merely grunted in response, which scared him because he was starting to act like Lucas. He wanted nothing to do with him, at all. “Yeah, sorry. I just have a lot on my mind...”

Twilight didn’t say anything- then again, she was there last night, when the shit hit the fan on astronomical levels.

He didn’t have to look back to know those two were exchanging looks. Brett didn’t need their sympathy. He just wanted to stay in one place without having to worry about bandits, getting a piece bitten out of you, or where your next meal came from and if it was even safe to eat. He wanted to have some of what Lucas talked about. A house, kids, a car… hell, even a dog would suffice. Not like you see many of those anymore. Let alone kids.

They had walked up onto the top of a hill after some effort. It was a pretty steep hill. Brett looked out over the horizon before took out his binoculars and sweeped the surrounding area with them. He stopped when he spotted a small town. There didn’t seem to be any inhabitants, so he spoke. “See that town over there? That might be a good place to find supplies. It’s most definitely been looted but there might be something of worth left. Who knows, we might even find some ammo, but I doubt it…”

They began the hike down the hill, trying not to fall, which would probably result in a broken leg or two if they did. Brett scaled it like a pro, but the ponies were having a difficult time going down, “You girls alright back there? Do I have to carry you?”

Twilight’s face became flustered, “Hey, I appreciate the concern but I think I’m perfectly capable.”

Brett shrugged, leaving them to it. Without much effort, he’d gotten down to the bottom and was looking around, making sure they weren’t being watched. After about a minute, the two ponies had finally gotten down. In complete silence, he kept going in the direction of the town. When they had gotten close enough to make out the smaller things, Brett stopped and looked at the buildings, one by one. Content that there were no open doors, he went into the town.

“Alright, I want you to stay close to me. Anything could happen in an instant.” Brett warned- rather, commanded the ponies, who seemed frightened by his grave tone. He walked up to a general store, withdrew his pistol, opened the door, and swept the room with the weapon. He looked upon the shelves and was shocked to see clean bandages still on one of them. There was even a bottle of rubbing alcohol.

“I think we’ve just hit the motherlode…” Brett grinned ear-to-ear. It was rare to see such luxuries in any place. He had been so focused on packing everything into a cloth bag, he had nearly forgotten the ponies. He snapped his head up when he heard a shrill scream. Applejack looked up in alarm from a box of tampons, which she had been studying with interest.

Instantly, he ran to where he heard the scream. He tracked it to an open door, which Twilight sprinted out of. He brought his pistol up, knowing what came next. What came running out was one of the infected so he shot at it to grab its attention. Its torn flesh hung limply from its face and its left cheek was completely gone, showing blackened, rotting teeth. Fleshy growths were all over its body as well, which served as an armor of sorts. It slowly looked from the fleeing Twilight to Brett, its yellowish-red eyes sizing him up as it quickly became angry.

Brett turned and ran the other direction back to the store, having already hatched an idea. He slid around, making sure a large shelf was between him and it. He saw it running at him, arms flailing, and making snarling noises. Putting both hands on the shelf, he pulled with all of his might, slowly tipping it over. When he thought it was too late, the shelf came down, and landed on the infected, along with all the items it was holding. It squirmed and screamed, trying to get out of its imprisonment, still glaring at him with those disgusting eyes.

Brett turned and ran out, not looking back to see if Twilight and Applejack were following him or not. He didn’t stop running, even when the town started becoming smaller in the distance. Only when he thought it was safe did he look back. Behind him were the two ponies, panting from exhaustion.

Twilight looked up, her eyes full of fear, “Wha- what was… THAT…?!”

When Brett had finally caught his breath, he said, “That… was an infected.”

Elsewhere

“Ungh...” Lucas moaned while he woke up from his sleep. He didn’t have much recollection of what happened the night before, all he remembered was that he drank himself to sleep with what beer he had left in the back of the truck. After his vision became clearer, he looked out the windshield from the driver’s seat and found he’d apparently driven to the outskirts of a little town, it looked to be populated well enough. Great... people. The last thing he wanted to see.

Lucas reached under his left arm and pulled on the door handle and the truck’s door swung open, causing him to fall on his back and out of the vehicle. “Son of a bitch...” he groaned while he stood. “Okay... where’s the nearest bar.” He said to himself while he looked over his reserves of alcohol. Which bittered his mood, as there was none left.

As the old man made his way through the quiet town’s streets, he looked up to figure out what the time of day was. Judging by where the sun was, it was clear that it was late afternoon. It wasn’t like him to wake up so late, but then again it wasn’t like him to drink himself under the table.

After asking for directions, Lucas figured out where the nearest bar was and entered through the front door, not even stopping for the bouncer out front because it was obvious he was old enough to drink and he didn’t want to deal with some prick getting in his way.

“Whiskey.” Lucas stated coldly while he took a seat on a stool, he made sure the bartender heard him so he wouldn’t have to repeat himself. The place seemed pretty packed but strangely quiet, seeing as how the one he just took was the only one available.

“Hey…you’re sitting in my spot.” Said a deep voice.

Lucas turned around and stared the man right in the face, “Hey... you’re sitting in my piss off space.” Clearly he was in no mood to talk to people and just wanted some quiet, and his hangover didn’t make things any better.

The man was gigantic, his muscles rippling under his shirt that hopelessly clung to his skin, putting a hand on the bar, he looked Lucas straight in the eyes, “I don’t think you heard me, jackass. Get. OUT.”

“You have three seconds to get out of my face before I give you a second reason to piss off.” Lucas angrily said while he brought his hand up, leaving three fingers extended. Slowly putting down one at a time.

The big man laughed, his voice booming, “You think I’m going to be afraid of a old shit like yourself? I’m going to skin you alive with a rusty fork, old man…”

“Three...”

“You hearing this, Samuel? This dumbass thinks he can take me.” The man said to another who had gotten up. This second one was a little bigger than the first.

Samuel spoke up, “Old man… you got guts. I’ll give you that. But you started something, so me and George here are going to finish it. Not right here, though. Outside.”

Lucas looked at him for a moment, realizing that fighting in here just gives him an unfair advantage over the one he already had. If he was going to fight, he at least wanted a challenge. “... fine. Outside, assholes.” He stated before he got up and made his way outside. The old man always knew that if an enemy was large and talked tough because of his size, he most likely was stupid.

The two men laughed together and followed Lucas outside. As soon as Lucas had put a foot outside, Samuel kicked him from behind, getting a cheap shot in, “You thought we were going to play fair? You’re going down…”

Lucas fell face-first into the sidewalk, quietly grunting angrily as he wiped a bit of blood from his mouth. He was going to let them off easy. But now he had to kill em’. “Two can play that game.” He said while rolling over. He kicked George in the side of his right knee to put him off balance. While the large man came tumbling down, Lucas moved out of the way by rolling, and as soon as he heard the thump he brought his left elbow down to the back of George’s head. This forced George’s face into the pavement, possibly breaking his nose. If not, his face.

Lucas shot to his feet and got into a simple fighting stance. “When I’m done with you two, not even infected will be able to recognize what you are.” He threatened while pushing the downed George over and onto his back with his foot.

Samuel snarled and flew at Lucas, bringing his right fist to catch the old man at the temple. His eyes were full of rage for what the old man did to his companion.

Lucas bent down and twisted under the fist so his back would collide with Samuel’s stomach, he brought his left elbow up and straight into the face of his attacker. After, he stepped back and twisted the other way to uppercut his dazed opponent in the chin, again with his left arm. He didn’t even realize he was doing this one handed so far.

Samuel slammed back against the wall of the bar, shaking a few bottles from inside enough for them to fall and shatter. He grunted, wiped the blood from his mouth, and glared at Lucas with enough venom to put a black mamba to shame. He pulled out a switchblade, grinning again, “I’m going to carve so many steaks out of you… enough to feed a family…”

Lucas stared back into the face of his opponent and reached down to his right leg. He pulled out his machete from its latch and grinned. He held it low and waited, already sure of what his enemy was going to do.

Samuel’s grin fell and for once, true fear formed in his eyes. He looked down at George, who was sobbing quietly. He looked back up, and pointed the pathetic piece of metal at Lucas. “You won this round… you fight pretty good for an old man. Guess that’s why you’re still alive.”

“Call me old, one more time.” Lucas stated coldly. He was already angered past the point of no return, but that was just the icing on the cake.

Fear came back in his eyes, “P-please… I…we’ll just go, alright? You won…”

“In today’s world... there is no winning, only those who come out alive.” Lucas said while he approached Samuel slowly.

Backing off, he pulled out a hidden revolver and pointed it at Lucas, “You think I’m afraid of you? I’ve had to kill before… I’ll do it again.”

Lucas grabbed the gun with his left hand and stared at his fear stricken enemy. He pushed with his index finger on the cylinder, it popped right out with the bullets still inside. It hit the ground below which caused the bullets to scramble out around the ground. After this he brought the machete up and stabbed the man directly in the underside of his arm, the blade coming out upward on the other side. “The amount I’ve had to kill makes your list look like a speck of dirt.”

Samuel screamed as the blade pierced, slapping Lucas across the face in response. He fell back through the door and back inside of the bar. The other customers looked at him in surprise. Samuel held a hand, “P-please… I have a family. My son’s only eight… I… I’m sorry for making you mad, okay? I don’t want him growing up without a father! Please!”

“He’ll live.” Lucas stated while approaching the fallen Samuel, his own handgun was in his hand and aimed directly at the man’s neck. He fired it there so Sam could feel himself dying while his throat became clogged with blood. He wasn’t proud of what he did, but the old man wasn’t sad either. Just... angry.

All of the customers were caught off guard, but four of them brought out varied guns. The bartender had pulled out a twelve gauge shotgun and pointed it at Lucas, “Get out. Murderer.”

Murderer... that was a word he was all too familiar with. “Fine.” was all Lucas said before walking out of the bar. He’d forgotten all about George, but he didn’t care. The word murderer just played over and over in his head, seeming to become even more true as it played over and over. But he dismissed it in his usual way... “Assholes...”

Three hours later, back with Brett and the ponies

Earlier, they had spotted another town, which was inhabited and barricaded. The way the people moved about and greeted each other gave Brett some piece of mind. At least he didn’t have to worry about bandits here. They had been sticking to the alley ways because if the citizens were to see either of the ponies, there would be a panic. And the last thing they needed was a horde of angry people that probably had guns.

He stopped when he saw, across the street, a dozen people grouped around what looked to be a bar of some sort, “Hey… wait here. I don’t want people freaking out if they see you.”

Applejack nodded, “Yep, we’ll wait right here.”

Brett walked out of the alley way and towards the bar. Whatever they were doing, they seemed upset. One guy was even screaming profanities. This guy was absolutely huge. So the young man walked up to the crowd and asked, “Hey, what’s going on?”

“Some old guy just came in to the bar and killed someone! Shot him right through the neck!” one of the bystanders said. Most of the others agreed.

Another toward the back added to the story, “He also stabbed the poor man in the arm with something!”

Brett tilted his head with curiosity, “Well… why’d he freak out like that?”

The big man walked up to Brett, “I don’t know why he killed my big brother, but I swear… I’ll wring his scrawny little neck… watch his face turn blue as I cut off his windpipe… I’ll kill him… I swear it…”

Brett looked into the bar. The body was still there and being examined by what seemed to be police. But their uniforms were tattered and ruined, but the concept sure stuck. The man’s face was covered in blood, his neck and shirt were soaked in the crimson liquid, “Who would do something like this…?”

Brett looked up in realization of who did it, “No…I knew he had problems, but this?… No…”

The young man shook his head and started to walk out but was stopped by the big man, “Sounded to me that you know who did it.”

Brett had to come up with a quick lie, “I’ve been tracking this old man for quite some time. I’m sorry but I need to go.” He was surprised that the big man had let him go free, at least for the moment.

“If I find that you’re a friend of that piece of shit, I’ll kill you too.” Said the large stranger as Brett left.

Brett got a little dry throat but turned away and walked back to the alley way where Twilight and Applejack were waiting.

“Well…? What happened?” Twilight asked.

Brett shook his head in disappointment, “My brother. My brother happened.”

Twilight frowned at the mention of Lucas. Yesterday, he had been willing to leave them to die. But now? He had killed someone. “I… don’t know what to feel about this.” She shook her head.

Brett knew he had to find lucas. If his brother was on this level of rampage, then the only person that had a chance to stop him was his younger brother. He knew from experience that people tended to get in Lucas’s way a lot. And that never ended well. For both parties. Who knew how long it would be before he finally snapped? He was Brett’s brother, and it was his duty to keep him in line. “Yeah… I know how you feel. We need to find him before he gets really mad and does something he’ll really regret.”

The young man sighed and looked at the surrounding areas. If he knew his drunken brother, then the guy would probably go where no one would think to look. He looked in a couple dumpsters, each time coming up short. He inspected the area, hoping he could find a sign… anything. He tilted his head at something strange. In the adjacent alley way, there laid Lucas’s machete and rucksack against a lone dumpster. He looked both ways, making sure there were no people in the gravel road to see them. Seeing that it was safe, he gestured to the ponies to follow.

He approached the dumpster and rested a hand on it. Bracing for an ugly scene, he opened it up. Inside was Lucas. But his jacket was ripped, and he smelled of liquor and blood. His brother was passed out with a bottle of whiskey in hand, lightly groaning in discomfort.

“Damnit, Lucas…what am I gonna do with you?” Brett asked rhetorically to himself.

Author's Note

Here you go, after my little hiatus from writing me and my friend cranked this out for you all. I hope y'all enjoy it.