Spike awoke with a headache already forming, only when his eyes adjusted did he realise where he was at last. He was so used to waking up in his sleeping bag at camp that the maintenance shed the pair had chosen as refuge that night seemed strange, until his senses finally caught up with him.

The only similarity being it was just as uncomfortable.

He rose up after a couple of seconds and began to stretch his aching muscles; leaning against the wall all night didn’t make it easy to sleep, it could even be said that without Sweetie serving as a source of heat as well as comfort when next to him, it was hard to say if he would have gotten any sleep at all, so he had to thank her for that.

Now that she was on the subject of his mind, he stopped stretching and turned his attention to the still sleeping Sweetie lying on the platform, giving him a small smile at the sight of her. He hated to stop the picture he was seeing right now, and contemplated letting her rest for a little while longer, but decided he’d better not. She would be more eager to find the others than he was, especially for Rarity, and the sooner she got up, the more hours they could spend in daylight.

He gave her a gentle nudge, which was responded by an unladylike grunt, until her eyes slowly opened and met Spike’s.

“Hey…” she said, rubbing her eyes with her hoof.

“Hey,” he responded, still smiling. “Figured you would want to start searching as soon as possible.”

“Yeah, we should.” she said, letting out a yawn. “Sleep well?”

“It was...okay…” he lied, resisting the urge to stretch his aching back again when reminded of it.

“So by that you mean awful.” she teased, with a smile growing on her face, telling of his obvious lying.

“Awful.” he admitted. “What is that thing made of? Bricks?”

“I know right?” her voice wakening up. “It’s not as comfy as it looks, but I guess it’s more than anything else in here…”

“Yeah…” he agreed, giving the room a quick glance before turning back to Sweetie, still lying down. “We should at least eat something before heading out.”

She nodded in agreement, rising from the makeshift bed and making her way to her backpack, that she had left at the corner of the shed. She scanned the inventory of her pack, and through careful rationing, pulled out two cans of food, tossing one to Spike.

He inspected the can and let out a sigh. “Canned Peaches. What I’d give for a normal breakfast again for a change... “

Sweetie giggled while taking out her can-opener and talked sarcastically, “What? Sounds like a nutritious breakfast to me…”

“Oh, hilarious.” he commented, opening his own can and peering into the not so delicious meal in front of him. “It better be filling at least.”

They both proceeded to eat their food out of their own cans, not particularly enjoying it, but figuring it was better than being hungry. They needed their strength of course.

“So,” Sweetie said, making conversation as they ate. “What’s our plan for today?”

“Well,” Spike pondered. “If what I’m thinking is correct and we’re lucky, the horde we ran into may have moved their way outside town while we slept, hopefully moving far away from here, and perhaps because of this, the Hunters may not be taking any chances just yet, and might just stay where they are for the time being, giving us a distinct advantage in searching today.”

“Sounds good.” she replied. “I sure don’t want to run into any of those guys again. Yesterday was a nightmare.”

“It’s an assumption. I think yesterday we were too careless at what we were dealing with. Today we move quietly and quickly, find the others and then we’re getting out of here, back home.”

“You think we have enough supplies?” she asked.

“Enough to survive the Winter.” Spike replied. “I don’t want us here any longer than we have to. It’s bad enough I have to tell the Apples about Mac.”

Sweetie frowned at that comment. “Shit… I never thought about that, and Applebloom wasn’t taking things well when we left her, I can’t imagine how she’ll be when-”

“Sweetie.” he interrupted, guilt etched on his face.

“Sorry.” she said, realising she wasn’t exactly helping. “You ready to go?” she added, trying to change the subject.

He looked at his can, realising despite it not being the best breakfast in the world, it didn’t stop him from finishing it. He figured he was hungrier than he thought he was.

“Yeah. Better start moving now I guess.” he concluded.

The pair dropped their empty cans on the ground and prepared to move, each putting on their rucksacks and their holsters, and within a few moments, they were ready to move.

They stepped outside expecting to hear the sounds of walkers in the distance, only to luckily be placed in complete silence from the outside, meaning the horde was thankfully gone for the time being, making their jobs a little bit easier for now.

Sweetie made one step forwards only to be blocked first by Spike’s arm. “Just making this clear; if we get separated out there-”

“Spike.”

“Let me finish.” he ordered. “If we get separated out there, this is where we meet up again before sunset. Clear?”

“Clear.” she understood. “But hopefully, it doesn’t come to that.”

He nodded in agreement also deeply hoping that didn’t come true, and then let Sweetie free to pass finally, before both of them climbed their way over the fence and revealed the outside world once more.

Quietly, they peered their heads around the corner of the alleyway they were leaving from, and with close inspection, concluded he didn’t see any trouble just yet, putting the both of them at ease.

“Which way?” Sweetie asked.

“Let’s head back towards Sugarcube Corner and try and figure out where they would head from their direction.” Spike said, making his way away from the alleyway with Sweetie closely beside him. She looked uneasy at first from what Spike saw, looking in every direction possibly looking for danger, but then he noticed her look at him, and just like that she calmed down a little more, her facial expression relaxing a bit, like he was the reason.

He didn’t know why this was the case, but he was happy for it and he wasn’t going to ask questions about it, he didn’t want her to be scared. Although when Spike did think about it, he thought it could be possible he was the reason, perhaps she was more relaxed because she wasn’t alone. He knew he would be more stressed if he was stuck out here by himself, so it seemed plausible, he could even say he felt the same way Sweetie was.
But somehow, it felt like it wasn’t just that. It was like, he felt more relaxed not just because he wasn’t alone, but because, for reasons he couldn’t explain, was happy it was Sweetie Belle who was with him, not anypony else.

He genuinely couldn’t think of a reason why.

He had been seeing a lot of her lately, not since they started this trip, but since this whole thing started, the apocalypse. They both knew they were friends, perhaps even best friends, but he had to admit he didn’t hang around with them as much as he did with Twilight and the others, not for any particular reason, he didn’t have any kind of problem against them.

But when all of it did start, when the both of them moved into this camp with the others, it changed. It was hard not to see each other more often, not just Sweetie, but Applebloom and Scootaloo too, seeing as they were pretty much trapped in a confined space for months on end.

It’s not that he didn’t like it; in fact, it was one of the few benefits of this whole situation, spending more time with friends, and getting closer with them, much more than they did in the past, making Spike think of it as a small silver lining in an otherwise dark and gloomy cloud.

He was happy he was getting closer to them, they talked more, they worked together more at certain jobs, whether it was just lookout duty or repairing damaged barricades, and now Spike could actually say now he was as close to them as he was to his other friends, perhaps not just because of all their time together, but maybe because since this all started, Spike felt like he needed to hold on to what he cared about now, no matter how small it was, due to the risk now of it being taken from him.

That simply meant, Sweetie was family, and he would sooner die than let anything happen to her, or any of his family for that matter.

“Spike.” Sweetie whispered, breaking him out of his train of thought. “Look, walkers. Dead ahead.”

Spike looked forward and saw it was true. Two walkers, backs turned from them, they hadn’t spotted them yet thankfully, giving them an advantage.

“It’s only two. We can take them.” Sweetie said, looking for his insight.

Spike nodded, unsheathing his machete slowly. “Right. You take the one on the left, I’ll take the right.”

They moved quietly behind the two walkers, still silent enough to be unseen, and before they could react, Spike grabbed the mane of the first walkers head and jammed his machete through the back of the unexpecting walkers skull, taking it out instantly.

Spike turned and saw Sweetie took a different method; she took out the back knees of the walker first with her hooves, and while it was on the ground defenceless, that was when she made the finishing blow with her own knife.

“That was…. impressive.” Spike commented, surprised at her able to do it so simply, and perfectly.

“Thanks.” Sweetie replied, pulling her knife out and putting it back into her holster. “Applejack taught me and the girls; take out the knees first, and it can’t attack for a few seconds, but before it can, that’s when you take them out.”

She smiled, almost as if she was memorising Applejack’s exact teachings to the word and was reciting it in her mind.

“I gotta try that sometime. Thanks for the tip.” Spike said, re-holstering his own machete.

“Looks like not all the walkers left with the horde.” she claimed, scanning her eyes for any more. “We should keep our eyes peeled.”

“Yeah...” he agreed, still perplexed at the skill she had just performed, he had never seen Sweetie do something like that before, at least, he had never noticed it before.

It was… awesome.

Spike couldn’t help but become impressed with Sweetie and how she was taking this whole situation, and by extension, this whole world. Most ponies snap at some point, the whole thing becoming too much for them, and that’s what got them killed in the end. Usually this was the case for the ponies during the first couple of days, maybe even weeks, but it mostly came down to how much you were willing to survive, and how much you could adapt to being thrown into a place you weren’t used to, and the ones who could reach the end of that tunnel eventually after much endurance, and much loss, could actually have the potential to survive out there.

The weak ones didn’t last long. Sooner or later they broke, and that was when one by one they were wiped out, either by walkers, or the ponies who changed too much, by that meaning, forgetting who they were anymore, not having something worth surviving for.

He was happy this wasn’t the case for his friends, and while still on the subject; Sweetie. It was tough when it started for everyone in camp, they didn’t know what they were doing and they certainly weren’t used to the idea of survival of the fittest, there was even times where even Spike himself found it hard to find hope in the situation they were in.

But after some time, they past the point where the weakest ones died, they realised that they couldn’t act like nothing was happening out there, so they had to adapt to survive, meaning they had to learn to use weapons, to not be so trusting to anyone outside the group, and to only think of what could be in the best interests of the group, no one else.

So after months of all this, Spike believed that he and his friends weren’t the same as before, in some ways they were stronger, and more willing to survive by all means necessary, and through different experiences, they learnt new tactics in surviving, like how walkers acted, and how to take them down easily, bringing his attention back to Sweetie.

Spike could tell it was tough for her when it began; she rarely slept the first few nights, she never left her sisters side and generally was in a state of shock from what she had seen before she arrived at camp. It could almost be assumed she was also one of the weak ones, other ponies in camp just assuming she just wouldn’t last in the end.

But now, she ended up proving them wrong. She did adapt like him, and he couldn’t help but be impressed at how much she progressed from being scared to getting this far out here, even to the point of volunteering to go outside on this supply run for the sake of her friends. He had to give her some serious credit for that, she was a tough pony, and he appreciated her for that.

“Um, Spike?”

“What? Walkers?” Spike said, breaking his train of thought, looking around the area, only to see nothing.

“No, it’s just… you were staring.” Her face went a slight pink when she said it, as if she was somehow embarrassed.

Spike also went a deep red and quickly looked away, realising what he was doing without knowing. “Sorry... I guess I was kinda in a trance for a moment there.”

“It’s okay.” Sweetie replied, shrugging it off. “Look, we’re here.”

Sweetie pointed with her hoof to the now even more ruined structure of what once was Sugarcube Corner. The walkers from yesterday had reduced it to even more destroyed than when they first discovered it, even with a few traces of bodies taken down still lying down inside.

“Do you… think we should go back inside?” Sweetie asked.

Spike thought for a moment and concluded whatever was in there, whether it was Pinkie or Mac, it wouldn’t be doing them any good. “No, the place looks like it’s about to collapse. We should just keep moving.”

He looked in the distance, retracing the steps of yesterdays events, trying to remember clearly which direction the others travelled in before they escaped, so that later they could try and travel down their path and try and predict where they would have gone from there. It was their best hope.

“I think they went this way…” Spike considered, raising his claw in the direction down the road. “What do you think?”

Sweetie looked down the same way, uncertain. “Maybe, I’m not sure.”

“It’s our best hope. Let’s go.” Spike and Sweetie made their way down that path, looking for any areas that could perhaps stand out to them, and with that in thought, maybe the others did too.

The next few hours went by slowly, involving the pair moving their way through countless parts of town, finding nothing but a few walkers that came in their way, with no trace of anything living, only thing good about that being that they hadn’t encountered any Hunters all day, but still remaining the fact that Rainbow and Rarity had practically vanished in thin air.

They couldn’t yell out their names to find them, risking of any unwanted attention, making their job a whole lot harder, and no matter how many buildings they thought could have them inside, had absolutely nothing, leaving themselves getting more and more annoyed.

“Maybe they went back to camp…” Spike wondered, while leaving the entrance of their latest failed attempt.

“No…” Sweetie said in frustration, kicking a nearby trashcan. “If I know Rarity, she wouldn’t even consider leaving without me with her…”

“Damn…” Spike said, all ideas going out the window.

“Where to next?” Sweetie asked, for the hundredth time today.

Spike looked up into the sky, seeing the sun make it’s way down the horizon, and let out a frustrated sigh. “Shit… we gotta go back to that maintenance shed from before, it’s getting dark. We’ll try again tomorrow I promise. “

Sweetie Belle didn’t answer, just letted out a annoyed grunt and followed in Spike’s path back to the shed they slept in last night.

While walking, Spike looked and saw Sweetie annoyed facial expression facing the ground, not at him he hoped, but generally because of the feeling they had just wasted today and accomplished nothing.

“Look, Sweetie.” Spike said as they walked. “We’ll find them. It’s gonna be okay.”

Sweetie looked up, her face changing from annoyed to concerned. “But what if they aren’t? What if we can’t find them because something happened and-”

“Don’t talk like that.” Spike interrupted. “Those guys can take care of themselves, and even though we didn’t find them today, doesn’t mean we won’t.”

Sweetie didn’t answer for a moment, but after a few seconds she finally spoke. “Thanks Spike. I needed to hear that.”

“Anytime. I’m worried too, you know. Not just about them, about you as well.”

“Me?” Sweetie responded, looking confused. “Why are you worried about me?”

“Well, generally how you’re taking all of this.” he admitted. “I can tell being away from Rarity is stressing you out, and I don’t want anything bad to happen to you because of it.”

Sweetie looked like she was going to argue that she wasn’t, but after a few seconds she confessed. “I know I’ve been stressing out, but please don’t worry about me. Only one of us should be a paranoid wreck and I’m telling you it’s going to be me.”

They both chuckled at that comment, and by that it make the atmosphere seem a bit lighter, like the day didn’t feel like a complete bust at that moment.

After a couple of minutes, the pair found themselves back at the shed, with only minutes to spare before the sun completely set.

“Man, all that walking today made me tired.” Sweetie yawned, lying down on the spongy platform they had the previous night. “I think I’m gonna turn in.”

“Yeah me too…” Spike said, collapsing on the makeshift bed next to her. “That is, if this thing doesn’t keep me awake again all night.”

Sweetie gave a small smile, her eyes closing. “Yeah, if it weren’t for you next to me last night, I don’t think I would have gotten any sleep last night.”

“Heh. I thought that same thing this morning.”

The pair slowly let themselves become silent for a few moments after that, the long day of walking and searching had left them completely exhausted, and seeing as they hadn’t ate anything since this morning, it didn’t exactly do them any favours in gaining energy either.

“Hey Spike?” Sweetie whispered, next to him. “You still awake?”

“Yeah, I’m awake, what’s up?”

“Remember when we were little? When me, you and everyone used to hang out in Sweet Apple Acres sometimes in the middle of summer?”

Spike smirked, remembering those happy times. “How could I forget? I remember having to hold a big umbrella over Rarity’s head all day so she wouldn’t get sweaty.”

Sweetie giggled. “And you did it no questions asked, because you wanted to go out with her so bad…”

Spike remembered all the things he had done when he was a child, that he thought would make Rarity like him, and gave a small smile. “So you knew about that, didn’t you?”

“It was pretty obvious. I think everyone knew.” she said, letting out a small laugh, then pausing for a few moments, before she said, “Hey Spike? Do.. you still think of Rarity that way?”

Spike felt himself wake up slightly, surprised at the sudden question. “Um, why do you want to know?”

“Just… curiosity.”

“Well, I guess I kinda grew out of it a couple of years ago. Realised it was just a dumb childhood crush in the end, but it was okay because I learned I was just as happy just being her friend.”

Sweetie didn’t say anything for a moment at that last comment, before finally saying. “Hm, interesting. Well, goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” he replied, slightly confused at Sweetie for a moment, before tiredness finally kicked and he just shrugged off the usual behaviour and let himself fall asleep beside her, the small maintenance shed growing darker as the minutes went on.

“You guys go on ahead. I’m gonna check out this building a bit more.”
“Fine. Meet us back at camp in an hour. And don’t lose that special cargo you found, it could be worth something.”

Spikes eyes jolted open. It was early morning, and something familiar woke him, but he prayed those voices outside were just his imagination, that it wasn’t real, until he suddenly heard the sounds of hooves stomping on ground in the background, concluding his fear.

“Oh shit. Sweetie get up. There’s someone out there.” he said, nudging her awake as much as he could before stepping up to the entrance, machete in hand.

“hmph...what?” Sweetie replied, only waking up, confused.

Spike didn’t listen. Slowly, he opened the entrance of the shed and closed it behind him, and slowly climbed over the fence, peering down the alleyway. He had to see how many there was, to see clearly in how much trouble they were clearly in, if they had to run, or fight.

Slowly, he moved the end of the alleyway and peered around the corner, expecting a group of Hunters on the other side. The plan was, see what they were facing, and quickly get back to Sweetie without being noticed.

Except when he looked around the area, he saw nothing, not a living creature, not even a walker was in sight, leaving him confused. He could had sworn he had heard voices coming from outside. Was it really just his imagination? Could it had been like some sort of dream?

Spike was about to get up and head back to Sweetie, wondering what was going on, when suddenly without him knowing, something grabbed him from behind, latching on to his back, and before this sudden attacker could swing his knife down into Spike’s chest, he quickly acted and countered his move, throwing him off him into the wall, and causing Spike to drop his machete.

It wasn’t his imagination. A lone Hunter tried to take him down from behind, and if he didn’t react a few seconds more, he would be lying in a pool of blood right now.

Quickly, the attacker tried swinging at him again wildly with his knife when he got up, Spike barely had any seconds to dodge each swing, and grab his attackers wrist with his claws, squeezing as hard as he could to remove the ponies weapon from his hoof, and only after the attacker let out a scream of agony and wrists became bloody from Spike’s claws did he finally surrender the knife, letting it fall to the ground.

“You fucker!! You damn near broke my wrist!”

Spike’s small victory was short-lived as while he focused so much on one hoof, the other one was free and the Hunter used that to his advantage by punching Spike right in the nose, throwing him off the pony and onto the ground.

Before he could get up, the stranger pinned him on the ground, both of his hooves grasped around Spike’s neck, cutting off his air.

Spike tried raising his claws to stop him, scratching against his face leaving small cuts across the attackers face but with no avail in stopping him getting choked. He could feel himself getting weaker by the second, his strength against him, getting slower and less rapid, and soon, he felt was about to black out from lack of oxygen.

Although, through some sort of miracle, Spike felt his air return to him all of a sudden, his throat released and his attacker falling off him, collapsing on the dusty ground unconscious, the contents of his rucksack spreading all over the floor.

Spike gasped for air, his strength and wits coming back to him, and a saw a distraught Sweetie Belle kneel beside him, a broken bottle in hoof.

“Spike, are you okay?” she said, concerned. “I came out and this guy was attacking you, so I hit him with this.”

She held up the bottle, traces of blood smeared all over it.

“Yeah…. I’m fine…” he managed to say, still out of breath. “Thank you.”

Sweetie appreciated the gratitude and helped him up, before both of them turning their attention to the unconscious Hunter laid before them. On the floor next to him laid a notepad, a small rectangular box and a pair of hoofcuffs. Spike was confused at his choice of equipment, he had no food or anything on his person.

“Quickly, let’s get this guy inside before any more show up.” Spike said, picking up the contents of his bag. Sweetie agreed and grabbed the back hooves of the stranger, while Spike took care of the front.

Within a few minutes, they managed to make their way inside the shed with the unknown Hunter still unconscious beside them. Spike picked up a nearby chair and used the Hunters hoofcuffs against him, leaving him trapped in case he wakes up without them knowing.

“What do you think we should do with this guy?” Spike asked, inspecting the pony.

Sweetie gave no response, making him turn around, only to see tears forming on her face, the Hunters notebook in her hooves.

“Sweetie… what is it?” he asked, concerned. She said nothing, but just handed the notebook to Spike, with him wondering what had her so upset, he inspected the front page and scanned the words written, only when he reached the latest entry did his eyes widen, and he let out a gasp in shock.

“Oh fuck….” he finally said, realising the truth, and letting the notebook fall to the ground while he was in shock. “Oh fuck no….”

“Spike… what do we do?”

Spike’s eyes went to the ground, trying desperately for tears not to form, at the moment all was seeming hopeless, he didn’t have any idea of what to do in this impossible situation, a number of questions zooming past his mind, when looking back at what he saw.

There had to be some kind of mistake.

The notebook on the ground, had a log of notes sprawled all around it in messy writing, and while Spike and Sweetie couldn’t make out a number of those notes, they did manage to find one that stood out, written in fresh ink.

Findings Log:

Scavenged a small piece of weaponry in a from a dead Diamond Dog this morning, at least he was dead when we were finished with him. Could be worth something, it is specifically designed for non-ponies, or creatures with fingers.

Also, discovered a white-furred Unicorn with a purple mane last night, she tried fleeing but we got her in the end. Couldn’t put up much of a fight seeing as she was alone. Taking her back to camp as prisoner. Good thing too, the other ones don’t look too pretty anymore.

Nothing else to report.

Author's Note

I'm kinda running out of things to write in the Authors notes, so I'm just gonna keep it short.
Um....hope you liked the chapter.....upvote, favorite and comment at the bottom please.....um...something something.....blah blah... zombies are swell...
Bye!!