It had been almost half an hour since the group had left camp, trudging their way through the wastelands, making their way forward to the ruins of Ponyville.

Not one of them had said a word since they had left, Spike figured they took a page out of his book and wanted to be alone with their thoughts, and besides, he didn’t think any of them knew what to say in this situation that might lighten the mood.

Spike didn’t know truly how they were feeling, he had decided to take point ahead of the group, and he wouldn’t dare turn around to see the facial expressions of his comrades, he was happier not knowing whether or not the others were as scared as he was.

While moving, Spike took awareness of a large portion of his surroundings, remaining vigilant at every little place such as the crumbling ruins of an old cottage or even through some trees, anywhere that could be a potential place for bandits to be able to jump out and ambush them, so that he could be ready every time and counter any move they might make; he assumed that was what the others were doing also.

It was strange somehow, all of them have walked this path numerous times, almost everyday for some of them, but it was different now; the surroundings had changed in a way. Homes of ponies had been reduced to ruin, some to which due to fire or looting, and the nature surrounding was becoming overgrown, taking apart what was left of the structures with grass and streams forming.

Spike knew this was the case for the future now, nature was going to take back the world, and although it could be considered beautiful when looking past it, he wondered what the town must look like now after all this time, when it had done all this to these remains in that period.

After a few moments of walking the beaten path towards town, they stopped to find a structure that hadn’t been completely destroyed as the others were that they passed, a small cottage, similar to the design of the one Fluttershy used to live in, and because they were still just about outside town by now, it was the perfect opportunity for a practice at searching through buildings, with the possibility of actually finding supplies that could prove useful.

Rainbow Dash stepped forward beside Spike and finally broke the long silence the group had managed to maintain since they left.

“What do you think? Should we have a look?”

Spike turned the group and agreed. “We should check it out. It’s the first real building we’ve seen since we left.”

Rarity nodded in agreement and they stepped off the path, towards the beaten down cottage. It had broken windows, the paint was thinning, and the previous occupants garden was showing the first stages of reclaiming the land, moss and weeds breaking their way inside, but it was still standing, and that was good enough to hold supplies in Spike’s opinion.

They positioned their way to the front door, with Sweetie reaching her hoof to the doorknob, only to be stopped by Mac, gesturing her to wait and stand back a moment, then proceeding to pound his hoof on the door five times, loudly and repeatedly.

“What are you doing?” Sweetie exclaimed, looking around to see if anyone in the area had heard, but before Mac could answer, a body broke its way through the crumbling door, revealing itself to be a walker, and before Spike could pull his machete out, it was already silenced by Mac, fully expecting anyone to come out, that was his plan all along.

“Checking if anyone was home.” Mac replied coldly, wiping the blood off his knife onto the grass, before placing it back in his holster.

Spike did not consider this tactic, and it was a good thing Mac did, otherwise that walker could have gotten them by surprise on their first attempt of scavenging.

“Nice going, Mac.” Spike commented, looking down at the body, seeing the red knife mark though the forehead courtesy of Mac, that managed to bring down the killer.

Mac did not reply, but looked forward into the now open cottage, the door was now chunks of wood and splinters underneath the walker.

The group walked cautiously into the building, spreading out to every doorway of any other room and within a few short moments of weapons armed, they concluded they were the only ones there anymore.

“Clear.” Rainbow confirmed, lowering her crossbow and unarming the bolts.

“Alright,” Spike announced to the group. “Spread out and start searching for anything useful to the camp, we leave in 10 minutes; that way we will be able to cover more ground before the sun sets.”

Rarity and Sweetie Belle made their way to the kitchen, looking for any canned goods that may had outlasted the previous owner, Mac searched the bathrooms, with the hope of finding any medicine, while Rainbow and Spike took to searching the upstairs, making sure the house was well and thoroughly checked.

Spike was so far finding nothing of value in one of the bedrooms he had been searching in, the only thing having any potential was a large chest sitting by the window, which by the time he managed to finally unlock he found to be filled with only old junk that wasn’t useful in the slightest.

He slammed the lid down in frustration and was ready to swear out at wasting his time, but then something outside the window caught his eye, making him forget of the useless chest. He hadn’t been able to see it before, but from at this altitude the view had became so much clearer, he was able to look over the hill from that window and saw the outskirts of the town.

At least, what was left of it.

Spikes assumption was true; nature was reclaiming this town as it did to the debris of the cottages outside the town. Vines and moss had spread like wildfire along the walls of some of the still standing but broken structures, and the roads between them had tall grass beginning to sprout through in between each stone. Without the usual maintenance of the ponies that had once lived in this town, it was becoming more and more different than the place Spike had once called home.

However, he couldn’t say the town was completely deserted, he assumed what was the going to be the first of many walkers were trudging along in no specific direction along the outskirts. It may had been only a few, and too far away to actually pose a threat, but Spike still felt uneasy, one reason being because he knew there was so many more out there as well as other threats the further they went into town, but also because of the recurring fact that if things don’t go fully to plan while in town, he as well as the others could just as likely become one of those mindless walkers, with no purpose, not being who you were anymore, just a savage animal.

Spike felt sorry for them in a way, it was hard thinking that they used to be something, that each of them used to have their own lives with their own families, but that didn’t matter anymore. Now only had to be considered a walker, a walker needed to be put to rest. You had to think like that, otherwise you wouldn’t survive. He hoped the others knew that.

After a while, they regrouped at the front of the house to present their findings, if this first house was a lucky one.

“Anything?” Spike asked the group, hoping they found more than he had.

Rainbow and Mac didn’t speak up, but it seemed the stuff of most value was in the kitchen, no matter how small it was; Rarity and Sweetie managed to find a few cans of food in one of the cabinets; not a lot, but it was something.

Spike knew he shouldn’t expect to find a jackpot in any of these houses, he had to take things slow and stockpile what they find, and at this point, he considered it a win that breaking into this cottage wasn’t a total bust.

“Alright, let’s move on. The town’s close now, so stay vigilant.” Spike told the others.

The group followed Spike over the hill to see what he saw, and Spike was sure he heard a gasp come from a few of them when they took in the sight he had earlier; they also couldn’t believe what had become of the town.

They moved forward to the town, and the next few hours went as followed, they took out any walkers that came close and moved from building to building searching for any supplies, never lingering, they wanted to move in and out to as many places as they could while the day lasted, while doing so staying behind any cover they can see to remain hidden, they may had not seen any Hunters yet, but they still didn’t want them to see them first.

Over time, each of their rucksacks filled slowly as they progressed to each building; it may had not been a lot from each place, but it was progress, and Spike knew if they kept this up for another day or two, it was possible they could find enough supplies that could last a while, or at least to pass the winter.

They found it wise to take out walkers there were only in single digits, in their twos or threes, never while in a herd. In that circumstance, it was hide in the building they were in until they pass, or be stupid and die.

This cycle went on for a couple of hours, and by that time, each member of the group managed to find some supplies from each trip, and took out a considerable amount of walkers in the process.

While the group went through their latest building, Spike found himself feeling slightly uneasy, and suspicious. The last couple of hours of plundering through had been, to the lack of a better word; peaceful, at least when comparing what they faced so far to what they had been described by Pip’s group.

He had expected Hunters and Walkers at every corner, at while there had been the occasional herd of 20-30 walkers trudging by at times, the group had mainly went walkers in small portions, nothing a group of five couldn’t handle, and one thing Spike couldn’t shake was they hadn’t seen a single Hunter yet, or any kind of Bandit for that matter, making him feel highly suspicious into what was really going on here.

Pip said these Hunters practically owned the towns supplies now, taking out any other groups who dared to roam their streets, who would risk death for food, but apart from walkers, the town was practically empty from anything living, raising only more questions for Spike.

Where are this guys? Did they just leave town searching for another town to plunder? Did they actually run out of luck already and the walkers got them?

These questions and so much more raced through Spike’s head, to the point of almost giving him a headache, but all thoughts left his head when a hoof suddenly grabbed his shoulder.
Spike turned around to see the pony who grabbed him was Sweetie Belle, with a look of concern etched upon her face.

“Everything okay?” she asked. “You look a bit stressed since we came into this room.”

Spike didn’t notice he and Sweetie were in this room together; he assumed she was searching with the others in the room adjacent, and that he was searching alone.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” he lied, but seeing Sweetie obviously could tell he was lying, he decided it was better off telling her the truth instead of trying to make her feel better.

“It’s just, don’t you think things have been running… a little too smoothly?”

Sweetie Belle looked confused. “I wouldn’t exactly call it smooth having to deal with these walkers.”

“I know, but you know what I mean,” Spike looked out the window. “Most of Pip’s group were taken out by these Hunter guys, and we haven’t seen one yet, it’s like they just got up and left. I’ve got a bad feeling.”

Sweetie got up and joined Spike by the window; taking Spike’s claw with her hoof, grabbing his attention, and she told him, “I know it’s suspicious, and I’m wondering what’s going on too, but frankly, I think it’s better if we just get these supplies and get all of us back home again with as less hassle as possible, so perhaps it’s actually better that we aren’t seeing any of these guys, it means we are standing a better chance out here.”

Spike felt that she had a point, they were lucky that they haven’t seen any Hunters, it made their job slightly easier; maybe even getting it done faster, and he appreciated Sweetie helping him see that.

“Thanks Sweetie,” he told her. “I guess I didn’t think of it that way.”

Sweetie smiled. “That’s what friends are for, right?”

“Right.” he smiled back.

They soon stepped back from the window, letting go of each other, and resumed searching the bedroom they were in, as the others were next door, except this time Spike felt slightly more at ease, mainly because he was somehow happy that Sweetie was with him, he felt that having her with him made him feel less stressed with the whole situation they were in.

He couldn’t quite explain why.

“You know, I never did thank you for before,” Spike said, changing the subject.

Sweetie again made a confused expression while working on emptying the bedside tables. “Thank me? Thank me for what?” she asked.

“Back at the camp,” Spike explained. “I was giving up hope anyone in the crowd would put their hoof up when I asked for volunteers, that me and Rainbow were going to have to go out here alone; then out of no-where, your hoof came up, then it went on from that. So, thank you, I know that mustn't had been an easy choice.”

Sweetie looked away from Spike, but even though he couldn’t quite make it out, he could had sworn he had just seen her blush slightly.

“You don’t have to thank me for anything,” she finally said. “You would had done the same for me, I know you would.”

Spike felt like it was his turn to blush, but forgot it all when Sweetie’s face had changed to a look of despair. Something was bothering her.

“I just wish Rarity didn’t volunteer after me, I can’t help thinking I’m putting her in danger by doing this.” she said.

“I know the feeling.” Spike understood. “But you gotta remember that Rarity made her choice to be here. She knows the risks and she chose anyway, like you and I did, so no matter what happens, you can’t hold yourself responsible. Twilight told me that.”

Spike wasn’t sure if what he said made Sweetie feel better, it was hard to tell, but he had to try something.

Although, any chance of any further discussion to look into that was completely interrupted between the two as Mac came to the doorway of the room. “Alright you guys.” he said in a strong, ordering voice. “Time’s up. Let’s go.”

Spike was annoyed. Not just because he wanted to finish that discussion with Sweetie, but also because he didn’t know if Mac knew who was in charge here.

Mac had always been a private person; he stuck to little words for as long as he knew him, and despite being Applejack’s brother, he really didn’t spend that much time with him. But ever since he had lost Granny Smith to the horde at the beginning of all this, it hit hard for him as far as he could tell, as it did for the rest of Apple family, and he changed as the world did. He became cold, and rarely smiled anymore, being even more of a private person than he ever did.

Spike wasn’t quite clear into why Mac volunteered to join this group, as far as he knew he wasn’t particularly close with anypony else, so why would he agree, and separate himself from the only family he had left? Spike couldn’t understand, but he wasn’t going to ask any questions that may change his mind on the matter.

At that time, they needed all the help they could get.

The pair proceeded to follow Mac outside the now practically empty bedroom, and joined Rainbow and Rarity in the living room.

“Got anything good this time?” Rarity asked. “So far this room has had nothing except only a few cans of beans.”

“Not much.” replied Sweetie. “But we did manage to find some aspirin by the bed, while we were in there.”

“Alright, if that’s all then maybe we should head on to-”

“Hold on, quiet.” interrupted Rainbow sharply. “What’s that sound?”

The group went silent, then suddenly heard voices, ponies voices, coming from nearby. Spike slowly creeped towards a boarded up window, peeking through the edges to the outside to see if what they heard wasn’t just imagination.

It wasn’t. Spike had seen a group of eight or nine ponies, armed with knives and other weapons, as well as a few unicorns that could possibly know combat magic, not far away, and they were heading towards the house. They had black armbands wrapped around each of them, and it didn’t take a genius to know that these guys weren’t friendly; they were Hunters.

“Shit. Everybody to the back room now and hide behind cover, they’re heading this way!” Spike erged as silently as he could to the others.

The group quickly picked up their bags and followed Spike’s orders. The back room was smaller, but it wasn’t in the open, if they were lucky, it was possible the Hunters could pass them without knowing. They hid behind anything they could find, such as tossed over tables and furniture, and went completely silent, trying to hear the Hunters voices.

“Me and my big damn mouth.” Spike cursed silently to himself, only minutes after feeling uneasy at the sight of no Hunters, now a whole group of them was heading their way.

They were getting louder, indicating that the group weren’t passing by, they had also seen this building had possible loot inside like they had, and they were coming to inspect, and by Spike’s guess, they would not be happy to see us.

They heard a door break open; they were inside. Spike turned to see Sweetie huddled in fear next to her sister; Rarity covering her mouth to make sure no sound is released, and Rainbow preparing to arm her crossbow, only to be stopped by Spike.

“Don’t.” he whispered. “It will make sound and won’t take out all of them.”

The voices were close now. By the sounds of it, they were now in the room they had been previously, if Rainbow hadn’t heard anything, they would had seen us by now, and there would be little chance of zero casualties, they were outnumbered and outgunned. Their best bet would be to keep silent, pray they don’t enter this room, and wait for them to pass.

Spike couldn’t distinctly hear what the conversation was about when they were outside, but seeing as they closer now, he began to hear the individual voices coming from the next room.

“Will you hurry up? I’m starving here.”
“Shut your mouth, you’ve been complaining all day. We’re all starving, idiot.”
“Just gimme my share of food and then I’ll shut up. We’ve been walking for hours.”

Spike found a stroke of luck in this situation. By the sounds of it, they weren’t looting, they were resting. If they were lucky, they might stay in that living room until they are finished and they’ll leave, as long as they kept quiet, they might get out of this with no hassle.

“Fuck. Do you have a can-opener?”
“I thought you had one. Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Don’t lose your shit, just look around, maybe there’s one around this place.”

“Shit.” Spike muttered quietly. All previous thoughts of getting through this with no hassle just went completely out the window, these guys were going to get in here in any second, they had to do something.

Spike looked around his surroundings, there had to be something, anything that could help get them out of this. A weapon, a distraction, anything; time wasn’t his friend right now, he had to think quick.

“Wait. What is that?” he muttered to his friends, grabbing their attention. He was looking across to a whole pile of furniture and other junk gathered up against one section of the wall in the room.

Except it wasn’t just a pile, it was a barricade. And it wasn’t piled up against the wall, it was against a doorway.

A plan shot into Spike’s head like a bullet, there was an exit in this room, barricaded so heavily by the previously occupants that it was barely even noticeable by the group, and right now it was their only form of escape. All they needed right now was the time to break through it.

“Guys.” Spike whispered his plan to the others, eager to listen to anything that may help. “Start moving that stuff, we need to get through that doorway, I’ll distract these guys and buy us some time.”

The plan was in motion. Rainbow and Mac began picking up anything slowly and moving them out of the way, taking down the barricade as quietly as they could, and at the same time trying to move fast, they had seconds unless Spike did something.

Spike tiptoed as quietly as possible towards the closed doorway of the back room, the only thing apart from a small hallway that separated them from the vicious Hunters closeby. While remaining crouched, he opened the door only a fraction, and peeked his eye through to see how far they were from them.

The majority were still in the living room, impatient and angry expressions edged upon most of their faces, while others were moving room to room, possibly searching for a can-opener, it was only a matter of time before they would progress their way to their room.

“It’s no use, looks like this place has already been looted.”
“Don’t be stupid. Boss said we own this town now. There’s no looters anymore.”
“Don’t you mean Bosses?”
“No idiot, I mean Boss. We all know she runs our camp solo, her so-called partner is just a lackey. Now keep looking, I’m dying here.”

Spike picked up a piece of debris next to him, a brick, and waited for his window of opportunity. He waited till all of them had their backs turned and threw it into the far room, still empty, hitting a window and shattering it, grabbing all Hunters attention. He quickly shut the door and heard the response of his actions.

“The hell was that? Walkers?”
“Shit. Let’s have a look.”

Now was their chance. Those guys would only have their attention for a short time, and they would need to get through that exit before then, or they’ll be dead for sure.

But it looked like they were almost home free, the others peeled away countless parts already, and now managed to create a small opening through the makeshift barricade to freedom. It was now or never.

“Alright, let’s go, let’s go” Spike whispered. “Now’s our chance. Let’s go.”
The opening was small, but there was no time to carry on, they had seconds, they had to make due with this.

Mac went first, freeing himself despite his large size, then Rarity, then Rainbow. Spike followed through to the outside, about to join the others into nearby cover, preparing to get as far away as possible, before turning to Sweetie and erging, “Alright Sweetie, it’s your turn, push yourself through.”

Sweetie turned around at first, looking at the closed door and hearing the Hunters voices, then followed her way through the small opening of junk and furniture.

When the unexpected happened.

Some of the barricades contents finally gave in, parts of it collapsing, closing the opening made a substantial amount and falling on Sweetie’s back hoof. “I’m trapped…”she exclaimed, terrified.

“Shit…” Spike said. He wasn’t sure how loud the sound was, but he wasn’t hanging around to find out. He had to free Sweetie as soon as possible, he wasn’t going to leave her here.

He pulled at Sweetie’s hoof all he could, only managing to move it a little, but he needed more strength, some of the stuff fallen was extremely heavy, and hard to shift.

“Help me. She’s not breaking through!” he exclaimed to the others. Rainbow and Rarity quickly moved forward in trying to free her hoof, all while doing so Rarity trying to reassure her sister, as well as herself.

“Don’t worry Sweetie,” she assured. “We’ll get you out. Don’t just stand there Mac, come and help!”

The voices were getting even closer than before, they were running out of time, and Spike while putting all his might into moving Sweetie, turned to see Mac standing there, not helping them.

“Mac, what are you doing?” Spike barked angrily. “Help us free her!”

Mac didn’t move. He kept a cold expression, and looked like he made a decision.

“It’s too late.” he finally said. “Leave her, or we’ll all die.”

“What? No!” both Spike and Rarity told simultaneously. “We are NOT leaving her!”

Mac paused, then finally said, “Fine, stay here and die!”, running off and abandoning the group.

“That son of a bitch…” Spike said. “Forget him. Keep going!”
They pulled more and more, hearing the voices so clear now it could be assumed they were now in the hallway outside the back room, all the same forcing to them to work harder.

“Do you guys hear something?”
“Yeah… what is that?”

Finally, with their combined strength, the fallen furniture and bookcase was lifted. Sweetie’s hoof became free. They were all outside, in the open, and they had to get away as far away from the house as possible.

“Quickly, let’s get out of here...” Rainbow exclaimed to the others, running in the same direction as where Mac went, with the others following close by.

It didn’t matter now if the Hunters had finally seen them, Spike wasn’t entirely sure in knowing if they had been spotted in their attempt in freeing Sweetie, but all that mattered right now was running, moving far away from those murderers and finding a place to hide for the night.

They quickly ran in their group of four with Rainbow in front, charging down the main road and praying they didn’t see any walkers on the way there.

They weren’t quite sure into where Rainbow was leading them, for all he knew she didn’t know either, they could just be running to no particular destination, not thinking of a place suitable to go.

Sprinting at full speed was beginning to wear down on him, as well as the others. They couldn’t keep this up, they had to stop somewhere, but where?

“Spike…” Rarity panted. “What do we do? Where do we go?”

Spike wasn’t sure how to answer, but before he could say anything, a voice came yelling from the distance, at first it was assumed it was Hunters, but Spike soon saw looked around to see the voice came from Mac, yelling from a building, gesturing them to come here.

“This way, quickly! Get in before they see you!” he barked to them.

Spike couldn’t be more angry at what he was doing right now. With any luck, he would attract every walker and Hunter in town their way if he kept yelling. He had to stop him.

The group moved towards the building, not fully realising until they were up close that it was the building formerly known as Sugarcube Corner, it was so damaged and overgrown with weeds that it wasn’t fully recognisable by the group.

Quickly, the group piled inside and shut the door, hoping no one else heard Mac’s cries for attention.

It was dark inside, barely any of the surrounding were seen, only one thing was clear; this definitely wasn’t as each of them remembered as a happy, positive place.

“Lucky I saw you guys right?” Mac commented to the others while they panted for breath. “Any longer and those guys woulda caught up, wouldn’t th-”

Mac’s sentence was cut short, due to Spike slamming his fist into his jaw, and pushing him into the wall.

“You fucking abandoned us back there. You yell for us possibly attracting everything that wants to kill us here, and you call it lucky?” Spike said, anger deep into his eyes.

He was about to raise his fist for another attack, until Mac pushed him away, freeing himself from the dragon’s grip against him.

“What’s the big fucking idea?” Mac said, holding his now bloody nose with one free hoof. “You got her out didn’t you? You didn’t need me, so what are you getting pissed about?”

“Why the hell did you leave us there?” Rainbow added, her breath finally coming back. “You were just gonna let them get to us? What the fuck is your problem?”

“Guys…” Sweetie said, fear in her voice.

“She was going to get us all killed” Mac argued. “I’m not gonna let some girl risk me getting food for my family”.

“That’s my sister you are talking about!” Rarity chimed in, angry as the other pair.

“Guys…” Sweetie repeated, hoping for them to hear.

“I don’t care who she is. My aim here was to get supplies for my family so they can survive this Winter. Nothing’s gonna get in the way of that. I figured you guys wouldn’t get the job done right when I volunteered, I guess I was right…”

“That’s why you volunteered,” Spike realised. “You weren’t thinking of helping us, you were thinking we would screw up and get no supplies!”

“GUYS.” Sweetie said a third time, louder than the others.

“WHAT?” the angry group replied simultaneously, turning their attention to the scared girl, and soon saw what she saw, suddenly forgetting all of what they were arguing, changing their expressions to ones from anger to utter fear.

Like mentioned before, the inside of Sugarcube Corner was dark, they could barely recognise any surroundings, nobody but Sweetie Belle looked around to notice the body of a pony in the corner hanging from a rope.

The surroundings of the shop suddenly seemed clearer now, the group didn’t see her until it was pointed out, and for Spike, what he saw was something he knew he would never forget.

“Pinkie Pie….?”

Author's Note

Guys. Cliffhangers.

Anything to keep the reader invested I guess. I know Pinkie is a well loved character by many, including me, but I decided a zombie apocalypse wouldn't exactly be an environment she would thrive in, and I figured if I wanted this to be realistic, I had to stick by it, no matter how bad it was, thus explaining the feelsy cliffhanger.

Moving on, a lot went on in this chapter, while doing so surpassing my high score on the word count of this story (woo! *high fives self"). The group entered the town, it's all naturey now (last of us style), Spike and Sweetie had a meaningful conversation, introduced the Hunters to the story, and of course, the cliffhanger. All jam packed into one chapter. I hope you enjoyed.

Next chapter coming soon, with more stuff going down planned. (hint: Rainbow isn't taking the news about Pinkie well.)