The Line

I guess I should start at the very beginning. Of the end, I mean. When the first Commons started showing up.

It was about five months ago. I was sitting at home with my wife and son. My wife’s name was Cloudy Skies. She was beautiful. The most beautiful pegasus mare in the world.

My son’s name was Greycloud. I was proud of him. He was getting pretty good at flying.

Anyways, it was a night about five months ago. I had tucked my son in to bed. He was still a foal, but he had started school a few weeks before the outbreak. My wife was out late, working.

“Daddy?” my son called.

“Yeah, kiddo?” I answered back, wandering into his room. “What’s up?”

“Do you hear the noise?”

“What noise?”

“The screaming.”

My blood ran cold. “What screaming? What are you talking about?”

“The screaming from outside.”

I ran over to his window, almost pulling the curtains off in a panicked frenzy. Down in the street below, I saw a mare, no more than my age, fall over, covered in blood. She tried to get back up, but stumbled.

Then, a stallion shambled out from behind a building. He was covered, head to toe, in blood. I could see that part of his jaw was missing.

He made his way to the mare, bent down, and bit into her neck.

Her scream pierced my ears, like the stallion’s teeth pierced her neck. Blood spurted out of the new holes in her neck, and she collapsed. She had passed out from too much blood loss. That much I knew. What I didn’t know (at the time, anyways) was that her corpse would be reanimated a half hour later, and she would go on to turn five more ponies into Commons.

But, it didn’t really matter at the time.

Nothing matters.

I picked up my foal and ran.

It was then when I finally realized who the mare was.

My wife.

My wife, who had married me two years after we had started dating after graduating high school.

My wife, who had stayed married to mo for five years.

My wife, who was dead.

Nothing matters.

I ran down the stairs and out of the house. I ran down the street, where ponies were running around, screaming their heads off. Where some ponies were looting. Some were burning homes to the ground in the hopes of killing any possible Commons inside.

But it didn’t matter.

My hometown of Fillydelphia had been burned to the ground.

Nothing matters.

My hoof hurts from all this writing. Besides, the wood planks are starting to creak more. I had better replace them.

Hopefully, these words aren’t my last.

There. Back. I was able to replace the planks quickly. I had to kill a Hunter when it got too close, but I’m safe.

Anyways, I had found my way out of the city. There’s not much to tell in that respect, because we never encountered another soul on our way out.

I came across a small camp on the outskirts of the town, complete with a tent and fireplace. Someone had gotten there before me.

A pony with a gun walked out of the tent. “Take another step and you’re dead, pal.”

“Hey, listen, I have a foal.” My son was hiding behind me.

“Is he bit?” He raised the gun.

“No.”

“How about you? You bit?”

“No.”

He looked at me, still holding the gun up. Then, he sighed and put the gun down. “Come on in.”

We made our way into his tent. There was an uncurled sleeping bag on the floor, along with a lantern and a few extra magazines of ammunition.

“Who are you?” I asked him.

“My name’s Magnesium.”

“I’m Walker, and this is my son, Greycloud.” Grey hid behind me again.

“Good to meet you two.” He smiled.

After a few hours of small talk and general discussion about the situation at hand, I asked the big question.

“Magnesium, what’s going on out there?”

He sighed. “Well, Walker, your guess is as good as mine. I have no idea of what’s going on out there.”

“None at all?”

“Nope. I’m a chemistry teacher, not a biologist. But, from what I’ve seen, it looks to be some sort of...aggressive infection. Can’t say what kind, though.”

“What do you think it is?”

“Well, like I said, it’s probably some sort of infection. And whatever it does, it makes dead ponies live ponies.”

“Do you...think there’s a cure?”

“Maybe. The unlucky ones, the ones with half of their faces missing, probably can’t be saved. But maybe, if the body is in good condition, they could be saved.”

“How...how do you figure that?”

“Well, I’m a chemistry teacher, but I have a few medicinal science degrees under my belt.”

“Really?”

“Yep.”

“So, we have no idea of what’s going on. The way it looks, we could be the last people on Earth. I have my son, and my wife-”

And then I remembered.

My wife was dead.

I broke down. I buried my face in my hooves, my sobs rocking my body. Magnesium came over to me.

“I lost my family.”

“And what, you don’t feel bad about it?”

“I do. I mourned.” He sat down. “But, I came to terms with it. They’re in a better place now.”

A better place.

I bet the afterlife is much better than this hellhole, where nothing matters.

Anything is better than this.

Anything.