Chapter 3
Dash to Safety
(or, 'Hooves Are Loud When Running')

Two days. I had been sitting in the apartment with nothing to do for two days. It may not seem like much, but because I wasn’t exactly the most patient of people, this was hell. And with the power out, any electrical device was merely a paper weight, which was a kick in the face for me as this apartment had numerous gaming consoles and a PC. They had been tauntingly sitting in the living room with a bookshelf full of games and DVDs. I was currently lounging in the lounge on the couch and staring at the blank screen longingly. My phone had died during my first night at the apartment so I had made sure to give it a proper burial in the backyard.

What? There was no way to charge it and I didn’t exactly have pockets so carrying it anywhere would be a pain and a half. Man, I was going to miss that phone, I almost shed a tear during the ceremony. There was a lot I reminisced about aside from my phone; friends, a proper meal and the internet. Mostly the internet though. I looked out the window and sighed.

“World, if you’d just let me use one hour on Youtube I would have been happy. Won't you give me even that?”

My stomach began to growl so I got to my hooves and wandered to the kitchen. I would have to leave soon or I would starve and/or die of thirst in a few days. In my boredom I had stacked all the edible food into a small tower, with cans being the foundation. But as the days wore on I had eaten through most of the leaning tower of food. All that was left was some dry spaghetti, a pack of 2 minute noodles and a can of diced tomatoes. I growled at the gas stove, as my chance for a pasta was thwarted by a lack of gas. Sighing, I used my teeth to break open the pack of noodles and small flavour sachet and made the sad little meal. Crunching down my lunch I contemplated the can in front of me; it would be my dinner, and if I was hungry enough I would eat the dry spaghetti. Washing down my noodles with some stale water I went back to the bedroom to go over my plan of escape.

The walk to safety wasn’t terribly far, but I had to take every precaution possible if I wanted to survive the journey. I had decided to go out at night as it would be harder to spot my almost fluro yellow coat and I would have less trouble sneaking around if any animals, namely dogs, decided to snoop around. The day before I had prepared a backpack which had the map, a working head torch, a bottle of water and some rotten meat, a dog distraction delicacy.

I had been practicing walking and even running on the spot to the point of optimal proficiency if I had to sprint my way to safety. On the magic front, I had come to the conclusion that my horn was just for show, or impaling enemies. Try as I might, nothing seemed to get my horn to do anything interesting.

It was late afternoon and I sat at the front window as the sun reached the horizon. My heart was steadily beating at a faster-than-normal rate, regardless of mentally trying to calm myself down. I had everything that was of use to me in the bag which was now strapped to my back. The head torch was fastened just under my horn, and I was unsure how I managed to do that.

It was still outside, save for the trees swaying in the wind. If there were any hostile animals they were hiding pretty well. I gulped as I prepared myself for the next part in my journey. If encountered with something dangerous… I might not survive long enough to complete it. Looking around Ricky’s apartment I stood there in the doorway just thinking back over the past few days. So much had occurred, the most of which I never would have believed possible. With a sigh I stepped outside without a backwards glance, this was the last time I saw Ricky’s apartment.

Walking past the mass of bird faeces I came to the gate that protected my sorry ass for the last few days. Opening it with my hooves this time I stepped out into the quickly darkening hostile world, where I, a bright yellow small horse would be traversing. Attempting to be as quiet as possible, I slowly clip clopped my way passed the apartment and onto the street. Keeping myself as close to the walls and bushes as possible I looked both ways, it seemed to be devoid of movement. I sneakily crept my way down the street and beyond.

After about ten minutes of sneaking I began to feel a bit less anxious at the lack of dog attacks
and sung the Mission Impossible theme song under my breath. My trek took me to the road that I had tracked from the map and I felt chills go down my spine at how unusual it was to see a completely barren highway. Usually at night the streets would all be lit up there to the distance, but not a single light could be seen, save the moon. Shaking the fear away I continued onwards, still on the lookout for anything suspicious.

I could finally spot the shopping centre looming out of the darkness. It was split into two massive sections, one on each side of the highway and a section joining them over the top. My pace quickened, as I grew anxious to get there as fast as possible. But I stopped short. In the distance, walking along the highway towards me were...figures, at least five creatures walking in a group. I lowered myself to the ground to hide myself; what if they were vicious animals?

But as the came closer I could see that they were not, in fact, wild animals. I couldn’t believe my new eyes, small horses… like me? There were others, just like me, walking in the middle of the highway. I stood and cantered forwards, ignoring the obvious sound of my hooves as I moved closer to the other people, after all this time! There were others I could talk to, maybe they were like me and were originally human. Throwing my safety to the wind, I shouted out to them.

“Hey! Wait up!” my voice echoed around the quiet night.

They didn’t seem to be able to hear me, as none responded. One of them lit up their horn (so we can do magic!) along with all the other unicorns as they formed a circle.

“Hello?!” I shouted in desperation.

One of the small horses without a horn looked at me just as the light from the unicorns brightened and filled the area, so much so, that I had to look away as it flared into the night. And just as quickly as it had started, it was over. Looking back my heart dropped into my stomach when I found that they were gone. Simply gone. I couldn’t believe it. I was so close… I could have had someone else to talk to… I was alone again.

A growl to my left proved that to be a false statement. My blood ran cold and I froze in place. All that shouting seemed to have invited some customers. And I was on the menu.

Lifting a hoof up I flicked on my head torch and it shone light ahead to light up the same pack of dogs from two days earlier. As the group of growling mutts began to surround me I noticed that they seemed even more monstrous than they were before. Their eyes were glowing a blood red. Their bodies were stronger and slimmer, and their paws showed large extremely sharp looking claws. These dogs had become killing machines, ‘I was going to die’ I thought as I noticed the blood dripping from their sharp teeth, probably from some other poor animal.

“Stay b-back!” I stuttered as they drew closer.

It didn’t seem to have any effect, not that I blame them, I didn’t think I was a very imposing figure. Really starting to really panic now, my eyes darted from dog to dog, the blood dribbling down their chins.

“Stay BACK!” I bellowed.

They came closer and closer, I didn’t want to die this way. I closed my eyes and let a tear fall.

Wait a minute…

Those other unicorns could do magic, what was stopping me from trying again? Screwing my eyes tighter I strained as much as I could. I’m not sure how I did it, but I could finally feel a tingling going through my body towards my horn. Behind my eyelids I could see the rising flare of green light. Peeking out I cried out in joy as I could see the light from my horn spewing out raw energy. The dogs had stopped now and were regarding me warily.

But as my horn grew brighter, they seemed to feel light wasn’t a big deterrent and continued their murderous path. I poured as much as I could into the growing light, but they just kept coming closer. I would have cried in horror if the light from my horn hadn’t continued growing, taking all my energy to hold as it became stronger and stronger. A heavy wind had started to pick up, spinning around me.

That pug, now an ugly little creature with glowing red eyes leapt at me, pointed teeth glinting. The shock spiked my horn and it flashed a brilliant green as it exploded out with energy, the pulse sent out blew the whole pack rolling backwards. My horn sputtered out as my whole body shuddered and began to become unresponsive as the fatigue hit me. I fell to the ground, unable to move a muscle. To my horror I saw the group of mutts getting back onto their paws and coming back for their meal which now lay as an easy target.

My eyes filled with tears as I admitted defeat, I had no strength left, I couldn’t even lift my head. There was nothing I could do. My world began to fade as my poor mind began to lose consciousness. As I was about to black out completely I heard the flapping of large wings and felt myself lift off the ground. Then I felt no more.

Author's Note

Ooh, things are starting to get interesting! What new encounter is our protagonist going to face?
Find out next time on Chapter Four of Next Stop: Death Central!