The Unicorn Lost in the Woods

Chapters

05/23/2015 The First Day
05/24/2015 The Plan
05/25/2015 Observations and Emotions
05/26 - 05/27/2015 A Warm Departure
05/28/2015 Arrival and Recruitment
05/29 - 05/30/2015 Improving the Situation
05/31/2015, 02:05 Transcript 1

05/23/2015 The First Day

Day one, 05/23/2015;

To my new journal/guidebook/adventure log/whatever the heck this is. Today has been a very interesting day for me, actually I haven't done that much different from the usual, it's just that the circumstances behind it that are different. I think it would be best if I started in chronological order, that way, not only am I sure that I will be getting all of this down correctly, but it'll just make a lot more sense for anyone who is reading it. Actually, on second thought, let me tell you a bit more about myself first.

My name is Mitch; I'm 18 years old, and I'm currently a Private First Class for the North Carolina National Guard. My last day of high school was literally last week. Meaning I am a full fledged adult, officially recognized by this state to pay taxes on everything I buy. You know, if there was anyone left to buy from.

What else should you know about me? Oh right, of course, the most important thing: where I live. I AM using this to find people after all. I live exactly on the Henderson/Louisburg border. Seriously, it is the most confusing thing ever. You want to find my house by GPS you have to type in Louisburg, but if you want my mailing address you have to write Henderson on the envelope. Anyways, onto the house itself, it's very nice, big open living room on the second floor, four bedroom, two bathroom, even a pool. The only problem with it right now is that it is in the middle of nowhere. It takes about 15 minutes going 60 miles an hour to get to the nearest Wal-Mart, and about 45 minutes going the same speed to get to my school in Wake Forest.

I guess it's about time I moved on to my family... Well I live, scratch that, used to live, I guess, with my mother, my father, my younger brother, and my younger sister. We also had, and apparently still do have, one black lab mix named Gunther, and one cat (no idea what breed he is) named, sigh, Puffmuffin (my sister's idea not mine). Excuse me if I don't talk about them much from here on out. So far in life, the best way I've found for dealing with stress is to not think about it too hard.

Well enough about me personally, let's actually get to describing how my day has gone.

Do you ever have those few days, or week, where no matter how hard you try, you just can't sleep in those few extra hours that you know you deserve because you've just finished a hard test or a had stressful day in the office (I don't actually work in an office so I wouldn't know about that one)? Well me neither. I woke up that morning at 7:45 AM, no matter how much I wish it was 9:00 or even 10:00, especially in light of all that's happened.

Anyway, the first thing I did was moan at this single beam of sunlight that somehow managed to constantly find its way through my blackout curtains onto my face. I could feel numbness emanating from my limbs, but I just assumed that I slept in a weird position. It wasn't until I reached for the glass of water I kept on my bedside table that I realized something was wrong. Mostly because I knocked it, and just about everything else, off the table.

I'm proud to say I did not scream at the sight of the yellow hoof where my hand was supposed to be. I just kind of stared at it for a minute and tried to go back to sleep. Obviously I didn't fall back asleep, but I'll be damned if anyone else could have told the difference. It took about an hour of internal monologue, and slowly twitching my other appendages, before I worked up the courage to roll myself out of bed onto the floor. Then another five minutes, crawling three feet, to reach my full size mirror, one my parents had generously placed in my room just because they didn't want to put it in the garage.

This led to some startling conclusions. I was a pony, and not just any pony that you would see out in a field munching on grass. No, because that would have made more sense than what actually happened. I was smaller (only around 4 feet), had a dull yellow coat, and the largest eyes I have seen on anything ever. Seriously, if my eyes were any bigger they would take up my whole face.

I was so distracted by my new freakishly large eyes, that I almost didn't notice the small horn protruding from my head, barely visible through my messy brown mane.

If Greek mythology, and the Dungeons and Dragons monster manual serve me right, this means that I am some sort of pony unicorn. Meaning, that I have the capacity to use magic. I've always wanted to use magic, but never tried due to the fact magic doesn't exist.

It still probably isn't real, heck, I don't even know if any of this is actually real

Maybe that's the upside to all this; "everyone you know and love is gone, and you get stuffed into the body of a tiny pony, but hey, it's a MAGIC pony!" well, magic missile hasn't worked yet universe.

Wait, I didn't mention that everyone is missing? Don't worry I'll get to that, I'm still trying to go in order here.

Now to the surprisingly boring part of my reaction. Seriously, even I thought it would've been more interesting than what I actually did. I just kind of sat there, dumbly moving my legs (it's still weird thinking of all of them as legs instead of arms) and watching my reflection do the same. This went on for about half an hour before I hatched an ingenious idea. Since I had hadn't heard anyone else awake, I went to check on my presumably sleeping family, planning to go back to bed and wait till one of them wakes up to see how they handle it if they looked anything remotely like me.

Seriously, this was my plan, make sure other people were having the same problem as me then hide and hope that they have a better way of dealing with it than I did.

Needless to say at this point, and even now, I am not the stealthy ninja I once was. Hooves are not very quiet on tile, or wood, especially when climbing half a flight of stairs from the bottom to second floor. Luckily, Gunther must have been outside or something because he didn't bark and scare the shit out of me. I shuffled my way, albeit loudly, down the hallway to my brother's room. Though having his door shut has never deterred me before, this time, it might as well be the door to a safe for all I could open it. I continued it down the hallway until I reached the junction where my parents and sisters' rooms meet; I found no one in either.

It only got worse from there; no cars were missing from the driveway. Using my face on my phone (which is about as hard as it sounds), I tried to call their cells, but both rang from their respective chargers somewhere in the kitchen. Panicking a bit more now, I tried calling some of my school friends, no answer. Then, a few random numbers before I worked up the courage to call 911, I got an answering machine.

I may, or may not have started talking myself into a panic attack at this point, trying to convince myself that none of this was real, or that I was part of some new drug testing in a lab somewhere. The only reason I surfaced from the depths of my panic attack is because Gunther reminded me that it was time to feed him.

Which reminds me, the cat's bowl probably hasn't been refilled all day. My sister is usually the one who feeds him. Probably why he's been bugging me so much. Hold on, I'll be right back.

Okay, where was I? Right! Feeding the dog. I couldn't actually fill up his bowl with hooves and all, so I had to make do with popping the lid off where we keep the food and watching him to make sure he didn't eat all of it at once. Which he didn't, he actually showed a surprising amount of restraint, he just took a few bites, looked at me, then walked away. I didn't think much about it back then, but in retrospect both of the animals are acting kind of weird.

After making sure the dog ate I decided to feed myself with whatever I could reach from the bottom drawer of the fridge. It ended up mostly being vegetables and fruit, which is good because I really didn't want to try testing this body's reaction to meat. And because preparing any sort of meat, even at the simplest level requires some sort of heat source. I can't reach the microwave and there is no way I'm going to try to use an oven when the only way to reach the controls is by leaning against it.

I got to say, either my mom got the good stuff when she last went shopping, or apples and lettuce taste a lot better with this mouth. Which reminds me, if you are a unicorn like me ( never going to get used to that) be very careful with your horn. That thing is sensitive as shit. While I was using my entire face to reach into the drawer, I smacked it into the counter above. It didn't hurt per se, it just felt like, I don't know, but I really don't want it to happen again. The closest thing I can compare it to is when someone drops an ice-cube down your back, but ten times worse.

Nothing else really happened today until now. It took a good while to get back downstairs into my room, but it was worth it because now I have this laptop. I've been using a pencil in my mouth to start everything up until I could turn on this Dragon voice recording software. Oh look at that, it even capitalizes itself automatically when you say it, neat. Anyways, in addition to writing this, I'm using my limited power and Internet connection to look up as many post apocalyptic survival guides that pertain to this situation as possible. In fact, most of the learning stuff I mentioned at the start of this chapter will probably be from those guides. I didn't exactly learn much today, besides how to properly inch your self across a floor with four hooves. And I can't really give you any advice on that besides practice makes perfect.

Well, that's most of day one. If there are any other survivors out there please remember to try and get in contact; I don't know how many websites are going to stay up during this so the sooner you try the better. But enough of that, let's move on to something a bit more useful for anyone listening. It's time for:

<<< Useful survivor tips>>>>

1.Humans, and I'm assuming tiny unicorns, can only go about two days without water. Now, I'm on my own well water out here, but I rely on electric pumps to get it out of the ground and into my faucets. So the best thing to do is to go around and fill every available container with water before it stops. Yes, even plugging the drains in your bathtubs and sinks and letting them fill up.

2.Don't try to use highways or freeways, I haven't actually been outside of my house or even able to really see the road, too many trees in the way, but if everyone really has disappeared off the face of the earth, then thousands if not millions of cars should have crashed or swerved off the road. Now that I think about it, this tip seems more useful for people who are driving a vehicle. But still, don't try to use them as shortcuts, because they are probably so congested with cars you can barely walk.

3.And finally, for those of you that are already in a group, consider this; you are quieter, faster, and use less resources when traveling in small groups. On the other hand, there are obvious advantages to having a high number of people defending one area. Just be careful about noise, light, and litter discipline. Unless you want others to find you.

Author's Note

Hello there everyone!

Look at all the diversity from these side stories! We got on earth pony and pegasus in California, a unicorn in Texas, a bat pony in Canada, and now another unicorn in NC. I also hear rumors of a changeling coming to Europe.

While sadly I cannot say I'm the first to post a side story to this, I can almost without a doubt say that I definitely saw this coming. Look back in the comments of the original story and you'll see that it is true~. I am actually using the Dragon voice recognition software to type this, so if you see any obvious errors it's probably from that, so please tell me so that I may fix them.

I would like to thank Nitrous Rainbows for helping me with editing, and the moderators for actually stopping my story before I could publish it with all those errors present.

I would also like to thank the whole Ponies After People community for giving me three likes and three favorites before this was even published. If you did read it before it was published please read it again, I changed some stuff ( less self-inserty more pony)

Anyways, please leave comments about what you liked, disliked, or fixes.

Thanks for reading,
Spleedude

05/24/2015 The Plan

Day two, 05/23/2015:

I have good news and bad news to share today, the bad news is I lost power. That means no electricity, no water, and worst of all no air conditioning. Seriously, I can't even open windows with these hooves, I miss my hands so much. Oh the things you take for granted until they are gone.

If you're wondering how I'm able to post this on the internet without power, don't worry I'll get to that later.

The first thing I did with the power went out, was panic over the amount of food that was about to go bad. Fortunately, most of it turned out to be meat. Which, for the record I still wasn't 100% sure I couldn't eat. That is, until I spent the next 20 minutes trying to cook a corn dog inside one of those special heater pockets that you get inside an MRE that I got to bring home from basic training.

Don't look at me like that, corn dogs are one of my favorite foods. They're are easy to cook and taste delicious, and don't even get me started on how hard it was to open an MRE with hooves. That hing is hard enough to open with hands in the first place. I really did consider spearing the thing with my horn before I just tore it open with my teeth.

Getting off topic here. Anyways, the mere smell of meat cooking was enough to make me throw up into the sink. If my new pony nose is this put off by the smell of meat, then I don't even want to know what my pony taste buds will think of it. I'm not ashamed to say that I may have cried a little over the loss of an entire, not to mention my favorite, section of the food pyramid.

After that I took a count of all the edible, nonperishable, food stuffs in the house and came to the conclusion I had been dreading most of all. I had to leave, soon. If I were still able to eat meat I would be able to stay much longer. Between stuff like beef jerky, canned tuna, and even canned beans and bacon bits I might have had enough food to last me a month. As is, between the food rotting in the fridge, and the majority of the non-perishables being meat, I only have enough food to last me a week or two.

It was at this point that I decided I needed to be ready to leave within this week, Within the next few days if possible.

I know exactly where to go too, the Louisburg Armory. Not only will they have a large supply of MRE's they also have things like; military grade vehicles, military grade radios, a backup power supply, and a large selection of weapons and survival tools. Unfortunately, the only problem going there is, as I've stated before, it takes 15 minutes driving at 60 miles an hour to get there. I will be going considerably less fast than 60 miles an hour. Quadrupedal locomotion is hard.

Obviously I can't drive a car, but I did need some way of carrying around all my supplies. It was then that I remembered we had a very large gardening wagon in the garage, but unfortunately for me, we have a detached garage separate from the rest of the house.

It was the first time I set ~~hoof~~ ~~foot~~ hoof outside of my house since all of this began. I was scared to death. I actually tripped down the stairs of the deck onto the gravel driveway and cut myself up a little bit. Nothing too bad, but it did hurt. Thank goodness the door to the garage was unlocked because I don't think I could've come back outside if I had to go back and get the keys.

The wagon was a lot bigger and heavier than I thought it would be, but I somehow managed to pull it from the garage to the carport next to my room. Now it was only a matter of filling it with stuff like water and food.

It was at the moment when I was trying to decide whether or not to pack this very laptop that I remembered probably the two most important items that I could have right now.

The first is a portable power converter. This isn't just any converter, it converts the power from those stupid round outlets you find in cars into actual electricity that other things can use. My laptop for example.

The second is what lets me continue to post on the Internet, A military grade MIFI. It is basically a mobile WiFi hotspot, but instead of needing to be connected to a phone or land line this thing talks to satellites, which means as long as I keep this chargeed I will have Internet for as long as the servers stay up.

As such whenever this laptop is not in use it is charging in my dad's car.

So, my plan is this:

The main objective is to survive here for a few days, then to make my way into town to the armory. From there I will use the advanced military equipment to prolong my survival, as well as search for others.

The secondary objective is to manually search for survivors on my way to the armory, and continue to write my experiences as well as tips for others in this journal. (sorry, but this journal is secondary to my survival)

Unfortunately, I still didn't learn much of anything unique today, but I will try to post at least three tips after every one of these.

<<< Useful Survivor Tips>>>

Have a plan - Seriously, even if it's as simple as "learn to walk today". Having a plan is the key to staying busy, and staying busy is the key to not thinking yourself into a depression. In the words of my drill Sgt. "If you're standing around to doing a thing, you're wrong!".
Cars are the new generators - You may not be able to drive them anymore, but that doesn't mean you can't use them. If you found a way to convert power like I have, then you have an infinite amount of cars to choose from, and literally all the gas in the world.
Not everyone is your friend - It may sound cold and harsh, but if the military has taught me anything it's that there are always those who are more willing to steal from hard-working people then actually work and get it themselves. So please, be careful.

Author's Note

Hello again everyone,

Look at this group now! We have stories coming in from left and right!

Don't worry about Mitch up there he's got a plan, but what's gonna happen when even his plans don't keep him busy enough to distract him from what has happened to himself and the world?

As always, please tell me what you liked and disliked so that I can continue to improve the story.

05/25/2015 Observations and Emotions

Day Three, 05/25/2015:

I took a page out of my own book from yesterday where I said that "even learning to walk was a good plan", and spent the better part of a few hours today learning to do just that. Walking back and forth down the long hallway that connect everyone's bedrooms.

Unfortunately, an unintended side of walking nowhere for hours on end, is that it gave me a lot of time to think. Something I've been desperately trying to avoid since day one.

I was able to keep myself busy for the first two days, learning how to function in a new body and doing other general survivor tasks, but if my years of playing multiple genres of survival games has taught me anything, it's that for every day packed with excitement and adventure, there are always a good three or four that are basically sitting around inside your base doing nothing. In fact, I would be playing video games right now to relieve some stress, if it weren't for the fact that I had a goddamn set of bricks where my hands used to be!

At first the thoughts were about my new body, Which makes sense, seeing as how learning how to walk with it was what I was currently focused on. Stuff like: why me?, why is walking so damn hard?, and what the heck is this horn even for anyway?. Eventually I stopped asking myself questions like this. I mean sure, I'm still wondering about the answers, but I didn't have them, so what was the point of asking myself?

The next set of questions were about something I really was trying not to think about, my family. Where are they? What happened to them? Why am I the only one to survive? All of this hit me like a truck and I collapsed on the floor in a sobbing heap.

I'm 18, the longest I have been away from my family was during basic training for 10 weeks. During that time I got to send as many letters as I wanted and had three phone calls to keep in contact with my parents. Now, there are no letters, no phone calls, and no graduation day for them to come pick me up and congratulate me on surviving this nightmare.

I just want everything to go back to normal, is that too much to ask? Is that too much to FUCKING ASK?! I had a family, a good family who cared for my well-being, and a job, a job that would pay my way through college so that I could join society as a productive HUMAN BEING! Why? What makes me so special to the point where, while everyone else is dead, or gone, or whatever the hell happened, I got to stay here and be put into this tiny, useless, utterly alien body?

I just... I just want to go home, but the scary thing is... I am home, and I have to leave it soon if I want to survive.

...Sheesh, I'm sorry you had to ~~hear~~ read that, though no one has responded yet so I don't know if anyone's actually reading this. It just, needed to come out. Um, I'm going to keep writing about a few other weird things I have noticed . You can keep reading if you want.

Well, it was during my little breakdown ( not the one you just read, but the one that happened during my walking practice) that Gunther laid down next to me and let me cry into him. Now this is unusual but I wouldn't classify it as weird. What was weird was what happened when I tried to give him a treat. The first one I gave to him for free for letting me cry on him, but the second one, I made him do a few tricks for.

I made him do the standard shake, sit, lie down routine. Then, on a whim, I asked him the rollover. He did. My family had never once tried to teach this dog the command rollover. Needless to say I was shocked. I asked him to play dead, which he did perfectly.
.

At this point I was getting a little freaked out, but I had one more test for him. I sat down, pointed a hoof at him, and said "reach for the sky,". He stood up, and even waited till I said "bang" in the tiniest, shakiest voice, then fell over and pretended to be dead.

Needless to say he got the treat I was holding and about three more.

This dog has been acting strange since day one. He's smarter, definitely, I can see it in his eyes. I don't know how much his intelligence has grown, or if it has even stopped growing yet.

Oh God, what if it grows to the point to where he can achieve human speech? I kinda hope it doesn't go that far, but if it does, on the bright side I will have someone else to talk to.

If you're wondering about the cat, don't, because he's pretty much acting exactly the same.

Another weird thing I have noticed, is the distinct lack of explosions. You might think it's weird, but thousands of cars suddenly without drivers miraculously not hitting each other, or the hundreds of homes that were left with the stove on? You think something would've gone kaboom by now.

I'm not complaining, I'm just saying it's suspicious.

And it looks like we've reached about current events with this entry. So, I guess it's time we move on to everyone's favorite part:

<<>>

Pets are smarter - I don't know if this effect has spread to all animals, but my pets are definitely smarter. So be careful, because not only do we need to worry about offending animals on their new found emotional level, but animals like wolves were smart enough hunters already.
Bottling up emotions is bad - Yeah yeah, this isn't really a survivor tip but people need to hear anyways. If I didn't have a break down in the relative safety and comfort of my own home then where would I have lost it? ~~If~~ When I found another survivor? While I was defending myself?
Beware any explosive hazards - all this is, is really just a reminder to be careful where you light your matches. You never know who have their stoves on when... this... occurred. All it takes is one little spark, and boom! You and the whole building are gone.

Author's Note

Well it happened... someone finally snapped.

05/26 - 05/27/2015 A Warm Departure

Day Four, 05/26/2015:

Nothing really happened today. I practiced walking some more, almost finished packing up the wagon, and pretty much spent the day bumming around.

I did try feeding the animals a few of the 'not as spoiled' meat products. They took to it a lot better than I thought they would, because I have yet to see either of them throw up. I don't know if it's part of their new intelligence, or if it's just that we haven't been feeding them actual meat or what.

Oh! I just realized, I actually haven't been wearing my glasses for the past four days. It's weird, I'm nearsighted, and I mean really nearsighted. Like, I am not legally allowed to drive without my glasses on, but just today I noticed I have been seeing fine. I found my glasses on my night stand by my bed, where they've been since this all started and looked through them. While my vision did improve, it wasn't as drastic a change as I was used to.

I think it has something to do with these new eyes and how big they are. Maybe because there is more surface area to catch the light bouncing off objects it improves my vision? I don't know, but I definitely wont need my glasses as much anymore. Thank goodness to, because they definitely don't fit on my face anymore.

Well, that's about it for today. While I think this entry is a bit too short to warrant its own useful tips section ( I will probably post this with tomorrow's entry) I will however, put a list of things I plan and have already packed into the wagon for my journey to Louisburg.

About 30 cans of assorted fruit and vegetables (plus can opener)
Four milk jugs filled with water
The last of the dog and cat food
Any matches I could find
my machete from the garage ( about the only weapon I found that I can use with my mouth)
My military camel pack ( it's like a backpack, only for water)
my wallet
my dog tags ( the military ones, not the animal ones)
a flashlight
my phone, laptop, and MIFI ( and their assorted chargers)
The portable power converter
and finally, my dungeons and dragons monster manual...

What? If I can turn into a damn unicorn what is to stop other people from turning into other mythological creatures? We need a way to identify them, and maybe what their capabilities are.

Day Five, 05/27/2015:

I really, really, don't feel like doing this tonight, but this is kind of the big deal, and a lot of stuff has happened so...Here we go.

I awoke to the sound of Gunther fearfully barking at something outside. I looked out of the second story window expecting to see some sort of animal, a deer at best or a bear worst.

What I saw, was probably the worst thing I could have seen. It was fire. A huge, roaring, inferno that had engulfed my neighbor's house and was slowly advancing across the tree line that divided us, onto my property.

Now, because no one was there to contest me on this, I'm going to say that years of school fire drills have trained me for this very moment. I calmly called over the dog and cat, opened the door, grabbed the wagon, and we escaped to the main street at the end of the driveway.

Okay, because you guys are great, ( and imaginary until proven otherwise) audience, I'll tell you what actually happened.

I fell down the stairs to the front door, hitting my horn on the railing, panicking and screaming the animals names, opening the door and feeling a stab of betrayal as the cat instantly bolted. Then, screaming through the handle of the wagon, I pulled it through a tunnel of burning leaves and smoke up the gravel driveway to the relative safety of the street, all the while Gunther ran around me barking like a mad dog.

The smoke and trees were to thick to actually see my house burning, so I had to make do with watching the ashes of my home rise above the trees and spread in the wind, never to be seen again.

I don't know how long I sat there, with tears rolling down my face, vaguely aware that the cat had rejoined me and Gunther in starring at the flames, wishing that I had thought to be a bit more sentimental when I was packing my survival wagon, but it was definitely past noon when I decided I needed a place to pass out from pain and exhaustion.

Unfortunately, the first building I came across was the lone gas station near our house. Not a building you want to stay in while there is a raging fire just down the street. I did take the opportunity to break inside to steal a few nonperishable snacks, a map, and some bungee cables to make myself a crude harness for the wagon.

I told myself it wasn't stealing because there was no one to steal from, and even if everyone came back then I would definitely pay for it.

The walk to the place I am now sucked. The makeshift harness chafed, the cat thought he was too good for walking and decided to ride in the wagon, and I was attacked by bugs the whole time.

I HATE bugs! Well okay, mostly just the flying ones, but it's gotten so bad it's to the point where multiple people have said that I most likely have a phobia of insects.

But that's not even the worst part, the worst part is the fact that my ears now turn toward the sound. It's like they have a mind of their own, and I hate it. Back at the house it was mostly quiet, or sound was coming from one single direction, but out here sounds are coming from everywhere, including the bugs flying into my ear.

My brain may be plugged into this body, but my memories keep telling me that ears shouldn't be pointing in opposite directions.

It was a few hours before I saw any sign of a residential area, but unfortunately it was one of the many trailer parks that were littered around this area, and therefore had no place to store the survival wagon to hide it from bears and stuff. I had to travel about another half hour before I found a suitable house with a garage that was unlocked.

After securing the wagon, and making sure that me, Gunther, and the cat were all fed and hydrated I decided to explore the house.

It was at this point, where I remembered that I forgot to pack any sort of medical equipment, mostly due to my still throbbing head. I berated myself for forgetting to grab it, both at home and at the gas station, and set off on my new quest to find a couple of aspirin.

In my quest I discovered two things; first, old people must have lived here because it took me forever to find the aspirin with so many other bottles of medicine in the same cabinet. Second, Ponies are really bad at opening of those childproof medicine bottle-caps.

Seriously, it took me 20 minutes and brought its own headaches along with it.

After that I found in the master bedroom, and we've reached this point. The animals are all the same bed as me, both asleep, though the cat keeps seeming to wake up just to give me an evil glance now and again. After these tips I'm going to bed, I think I've earned it.

<<>>

Walking is hard - Seriously guys, in basic training our final march was 20 miles with 60 pounds of gear and that took almost all day. All the walking I did today probably equated to about five minuets in car time. Plan your trips by adding about half an hour to an hour for every mile.
Heat stroke - It is hot, at least where I am, and the potential for heat related injury is Increased significantly when doing heavy work. Like pulling a heavy wagon filled with supplies down an asphalt road. So drink plenty of water and take frequent breaks in shady areas. A good tip to see if you are hydrated enough is to check the color of your urine, the clearer it is the better.
Make. A. List. - I forgot medicine guys, medicine! One of the most important things you can have after the end of the world, and now I feel like I'm growing a... horn...out ...of... A second horn out of my head. So make a list of everything you think you will need before something makes you need it.

Author's Note

I bet you are all wondering why I didn't post a chapter at 2:00 in the morning last night like I have been. No? Well I was at a friends house playing horror games.

Looks like Mitch left on his trip a bit earlier than he expected. Let's hope nothing else untoward happens to him as he makes his way to the armory.

Remember to tell me what you liked, disliked, and any comments, concerns, and fixed!

Thanks for reading! And remember, keep your urine clear!

05/28/2015 Arrival and Recruitment

Day Six, 05/28/2015:

Well, I finally have some good news today. Not only did I make it to the armory, but I found another survivor!

His name is Jack, he's 24, has a dark brown coat, and a dull, silver colored mane. In other words, hes a pony like me.

It may seem a bit selfish to say, but I'm actually kind of glad that I'm not the only one who's been forced into the different body. For the longest time I feared what would have happened if I had been found by any human survivors. The options ranged from keeping me as a pet, all the way up to killing me for my pelt and horn to make magic wands with.

It's just...One less thing to worry about, you know?

But notice how I didn't say he was a unicorn like me. Jack has the immense fortune of not having a super sensitive piece of his skull sticking out of his forehead. So I guess that makes him just a regular pony then, a small, dis-proportioned, oddly colored, regular pony.

Let me start from the beginning, and I'll tell you where and how I found Jack.

After waking up, eating a good breakfast of some carrots, and ~~looting~~ scavenging the rest of the house for food, water, medicine, and some cloth to stuff between my skin and my bungee cord harnesses to prevent chaffing, I was off.

Something strange I noticed, was that there were no cars on the road anywhere.I didn't notice it yesterday because, you know, backwater country road and all, but you would've thought that I would've seen at least one car by now.

Anyways, the walk to the town, if you can even call it that, it's more of a glorified rest stop then anything, Was pretty uneventful. Also, I appear to be even worse at judging distances that thought ( something I'm already terrible at to begin with), because it was barely even noon by the time I reached the hospital on the outskirts.

I had totally forgotten there was a hospital here. I didn't scavenge from it then and there, because I figured the Wal-Mart on the other side of town would be filled with medicine and first aid equipment that didn't need a PhD in order to pronounce. Still, it's nice to know it's here.

As I walked through town I found myself really appreciative that I decided to come here, whether I was forced to leave my home or not. I passed no less than four different gas stations, seven different fast food places, a construction site, and a lumber mill. Those last two are definitely going to be useful for any construction me and Jack here might need to get done.

Then, I laid my eyes upon the most glorious site I had seen for the past two days, the Armory. The large artillery piece gleaming in the front parking lot showed to the world that America had put in this building here and we're ready to defend it. Just from the parking lot I could see behind a chain-link fence the multitude of different military vehicles, including Humvees and, a large supply truck we in basic called, the cattle wagon ( guess why).

To bad artillery and Humvees couldn't protect America from what has happened.

The place apparently had enough electricity to keep up security measures, because I had to use my military ID to unlock the door to get in. After doing that, I unloaded the survivor wagon In one of the offices so that I could take the now empty wagon out scavenging.

Gunther wanted to come with me, while the cat seemed to be wanted to be left to his own devices. So I left him some food and water, and told him not to break anything ( two which I swear he rolled his eyes), and set off to Wal-Mart

Oh Wal-Mart, Once the epitome of America corporate business, once filled with hundreds of people going about their day, buying the food and entertainment products they needed, a communal club of sorts, now brought down to being nothing more than another building on the looting list of a tiny unicorn and his dog. How the mighty have fallen.

It was before we even entered the building that I knew something was up. The sliding glass doors were smashed, shards of glass littering the outside of the building telling me that this break had happened from the inside. Not only that, but Gunther started acting strange as well, sniffing and looking around like he expected to find something.

It wasn't until we reached the wet food section ( previously the frozen food section) that Gunther took off barking down the aisle.I chased him as best as I could, but ultimately had to rely on the sound was making to find out where he went.

I found him at one of the employee bathrooms, barking and scratching at the door while shouts of "No!" and "Nice doggie!" emanated from inside.

This, is where I found Jack. Apparently he'd fall asleep on the night shift working here at Wal-Mart, and had woken up to find himself as he is now and with no communication to anyone. He had been living off Wal-Mart and the surrounding area for the past six days.

The dude was scared out of his wits, it took me a good 15 minutes to convince him I was a part of the National Guard and was here to help him before he would even open the door. Eventually, I was able to convince him to come with me to the armory where I had power and limited access to the Internet. I think it was the Internet part that really won him over, would've been the same way with me.

He seems really jumpy, like around every corner there this some sort of predator ready to pounce on him. I guess I would be the same way if I had not had any sort of training, or maybe it's not even the training, maybe it's just because I already had my breakdown.

Either way, After enlisting his help in filling up the wagon we headed back to the armory. Where right now Jack is exploring, looking for food and stuff I guess, while I write this journal and get ready for bed.

I'll start the radio and set up a few permanent survival structures tomorrow, It's too late in the day and I'm too tired for now.

<<< Useful Survivor Tips>>>

Find others - You may have more resources to yourself when you are alone, but three days spent setting up a renewable water source is three days you are not spending setting up a renewable food source.
Scavenge everything - Everything is going bad, anything left in one place too long is either going to rot, or get taken by animals. So don't think because you left that granola bar in that cabinet in that one house, that it will be there the next day when you come back for it.
Set up a base - You may be able to survive pretty good being mobile right now, but when all the food in houses and stores goes bad and you have to grow your own you're screwed. Not only that, but you fortify a base, as well as build more advanced equipment. There is a reason our ancestors stopped being nomads.

Author's Note

2:00 in the afternoon is the same as 2:00 in the morning right?

Mitch has set up a base and found another survivor, but how will he deal with the fact that he thinks he knows what he is doing better than someone who he would have considered an adult authority figure less than a week ago?

The military super radio is going to go up in two days time ( the next chapter) so if any of you are interested in working something out, please don't hesitate to PM me.

Remember, I suck the nutrients from your comments to fuel my writing frenzies.

05/29 - 05/30/2015 Improving the Situation

Day Seven, 05/29/2015:

Today was a good day. Me and Jack got plenty of stuff that done that, at least I thought, was pretty integral to our survival.

The reason I say it like that is because, while Jack did help, he also saw fit to complain about the futility of our efforts. He seems convinced that everyone will come back any day now and the government will be able to help us with what has happened to our bodies.

I held off from telling him that I worked for the government and we have no plans for any of this ( at least not that I was told).

Jack has the weirdest combination of crippling fear and... I don't want to say delusional hope, because I'm really really hoping that everyone comes back as well, but he seems to think that just because everyone is coming back we don't need to set up something as simple rain collecting barrels. I think both stem from the fact that he's in a new body.

Actually, I confronted him about why he was so jumpy after Puffmuffin had scared him for the third time today by jumping out from nowhere and landing on his back ( something I swear he is doing on purpose), and the best answer I got out of him was; "Horses are way too low on the food chain for my liking, we're not exactly apex predators anymore." which makes sense, but we still have the mindset of the predators we once were... right?

His hope, and I'm not saying it's a bad thing that he has hope, most likely comes from the fact that he wants everything to go back to normal ( obvious point is obvious). I can't say I really blame him for that, I just hope it doesn't get to the point where he thinks we need blood sacrifices to bring humanity back.

All in all, Jack is a pretty cool guy to have around, even if we don't talk to each other very much. We both kind of do our own thing, Jack exploring what is left of Louisburg, and me setting stuff up in the armory or on my computer. Speaking of which, the Internet is starting to look really patchy right about now, I didn't think it would go down this fast.

But enough about me and Jack psychologically, you probably want to hear about what we have physically been doing. First thing we did was get the aforementioned rain barrel set up, nothing fancy, just some really big tuba-were containers with garbage bags inside them to catch the rain water. Next, we set up a small vegetable garden, there wasn't a Home Depot or Lowe's we could go to that already would have had some pre-grown plants, but the Wal-Mart had a gardening section so we made the best of it.

Let me tell you right now, tilling soil with a hoe using only your mouth is just about as hard as it sounds, but it seems Jack has a certain knack for gardening because we finished in about half the time I thought would need.

After that we realize that the both of us hadn't taken a shower in a week, and working outside had done nothing to lessen the smell of sweat. Luckily there was a river nearby where we spent most of the rest the day cooling off and getting ourselves clean.

The only thing I'm not too happy about today, is the fact that while we have found the radio, and it works, I have no idea how to operate it. So I've spent every free minute I had today going over this manual I found ( thank God the military loves their manuals) so that tomorrow I can get up and running.

Here's hoping we hear something from someone tomorrow.

Day Eight, 05/30/2015:

God DAMMIT! I sat by this piece of shit all day today and I haven't heard one word from any other survivors.

Do you think there is no one else out there? I don't really have a plan B to put into action if this fails.

It's not as if this thing doesn't have any range to it. I may not be an expert radioman, or whatever you call it, so this thing might not be broadcasting around the world, or even the entire continent, but I should have at least most of the country and parts of Canada hearing this!

This was just... I just really need this to work.

Maybe I was switching between the frequencies too fast, yeah that's it! They probably heard my message but responded after I changed frequencies! There has to be others, Jack can't just be a coincidence.

If any of you guys reading this hear the following message over the radio please respond as quickly as possible, I need to know this isn't all for nothing.

This is PFC Mitchell Dettmer of the North Carolina Army National Guard.

To anyone who is still alive after what has happened... you are not alone. Another survivor and myself have set up a camp at the Louisburg Armory in North Carolina, with plenty of food, water electricity, and gasoline.

We welcome anyone to come join us in surviving through this together.

There will be a ten minute window after this message is played, in which you will have a chance to respond, after which, this message will be repeated on the next highest frequency.

Thank you.

I thought it was short, sweet, and to the point. Maybe that's it, maybe it's so short that no one was able to hear it. I might work on making it longer latter, but right now it's getting pretty late, I'll stay up a little while longer to see if anyone answers, then I'm going to bed.

...

Okay, It's about 2 o'clock in the morning right now, if no one answers within the next ten minutes I'm-... Wait.... OH SHIT! The radio is making a noise! No time for survivor facts tonight!

Hello?...Yes?...Hello?...

Author's Note

Look at that, Mitch has found someone! Who's it gonna be? A survivor? Another author's character ( if an author ever PMs me)? A telemarketer?!?! We'll just have to wait and see.

Authors, feel free to use my message however you want, only stipulation... I want to hear about it.

Unrelated note, I'm off to see Jurassic World tomorrow!

05/31/2015, 02:05 Transcript 1

The following is a transcript of the conversation held between National Guard member PFC Dettmer and an unknown civilian caller. For reference the letter C will be used to refer to the civilian while the letter D will be used to refer to PFC Dettmer.

C: H-Hello? Is this thing on? Hello?

D: Yes! Mam this is privet Dettmer can you hear me? Over.

C: Hello? Mr. Guardsman sir? Can you hear me?

D: Yes! Yes I can! What’s wrong with this thing?! Let’s see, that light is on meaning I’m transmitting, I can hear her but she can’t hear me meaning she’s transmitting but not receiving. That means one of two things, either her speaker is broken, which it can’t be because she heard my earlier massage, or-

C: Hello?

D: No. NO God dammit! MAM! YOU NEED TO RELEASE YOUR PUSH TO TALK BUTTON IN ORDER TO HEAR ME!

C: MR. Guardsman?

D: [There is a bang and clatter of things falling off the table] MAM! Release your push to talk button!

C: Anyone…

D: There’s nothing I can do from this end. Mam!

C/D: please…/PLEASE!

From this point on the only sounds from the unknown caller are chocked sobs and the occasional plead for anyone to answer. The only sounds from PFC Dettmer are swearing interposed with request for the unknown caller to release the push to talk button followed by quiet sobbing when the unknown caller’s radio is turned off. Call ends at approximately 03:17 hours.

Author's Note

IT! LIVES!

So... um... been a while huh? And such a short chapter to. I'm really sorry about that I've been lazy in epic proportions, but I decided to not give up just yet! Now I know I've asked a lot of anyone still reading this but I have just two more things to ask you.

I am looking for a pre-reader/ editor to maybe get on skype/ discord/ google hangouts once a week or so to look over what I've made and to talk about the story to keep my motivation high.
I am trying to decide whether or not I should go back and try to rewrite the previous chapters, maybe even change the... pov? Format? Make it not in journal form. What do you guys think?

Thanks for the patience,

-Spleedude