Three small shapes traveled down a decaying road. A heavily-dressed. light gray mare pushed a cart along the asphalt, now and again having to wrench a wheel from a pothole or crack. The cart itself contained mostly packaged food, Three small blankets, some water, and a set of books. A chain was connected via padlock to the cart, leading to a white mare with a neon blue mane. Having hemorrhaged blood from her eyes for some time, the white coat on her face had been almost stained red. A muzzle was locked around her mouth, with a cloth tied around it, which had been sullied with blood for some time. Her hands were bound with several sets of handcuffs, her hands tied together with duct tape.

Behind the two mares was a unicorn stallion with a dark grey coat and even darker, messier mane. He wore a black t-shirt, with a stained white tie. He looked at the road as he walked, with the face of someone who had simply seen too much horror. He and the mare both carried weapons, a machete and a metal bat, respectively. Both seemed overused, with several nicks and dents.

As they traveled down the lonely road, now and again passing a car that had either crashed or ran out of gas, they so no sign of life, beyond the occasional collapsed body, already picked clean both by survivors and crows. The forest around the road was littered with fallen leaves and twigs, as fall began to settle in, and with that, they all knew winter could not be far behind. Rain had come and gone, but the three kept moving, always alert. Now and again, the infected unicorn mare would pull at her restraints, letting out muffled screams and curses at the earth pony pushing the cart, but she seemed to ignore her, or at least had gotten used to it.

"We could always forget the cities and go west." The stallion finally spoke up.

"No. We keep going to Vanhoover. Celestia knows what's west, and chances are we'll fare no better." The grey mare spoke without looking at the stallion, still pushing the cart along the road.

"Nopony's ever been out there, for all we know nopony thought to go. We would be safer, then." He spoke, looking into the forest, that almost appeared to be dying.

"Do you even know the first thing about wilderness-" The mare stopped herself.

"Nevermind. It's off the table. We stay in the cities." She shook her head.

"Until?" The stallion questioned, moving closer to the grey mare, keeping his distance from the restrained one.

"Until we find people who know any better ideas, Neon." There was a hint of annoyance in her tone, as well as her expression.

"Octavia, for all we know, we're the only people left." Neon spoke solemnly.

"Then I suppose you had better get used to cities. I didn't think you'd be sad about that." She laughed, more out of spite than anything.

They stopped talking for a while, the only noise to accompany them being the howling of the wind, the mad-mare's rambling, and their own hoofsteps as they walked.

-

As the hours passed and the day droned on, they eventually came to a pass in between two mountains, like a man-made valley. Concrete barricades and sandbags were left broken and torn, and several bodies were strewn about, both mare, stallion, and caribou. Though there were no guns to be found, even among the dead that were in uniforms, Neon Lights searched a few of the bodies as they passed, usually the ones that weren't stripped of clothing. He able to find a few things of value, a packet of cigarettes here and there, a compass, even enough stray bullets to fill a magazine, although he had no gun to use them with.

Octavia only pushed the cart as Neon searched the bodies. Vinyl Scratch simply stared in some form of glee at the bodies, now and again starting to pull at her restraints whenever she saw a corpse that seemed untouched.

"Eat. Eat." She mumbled in a tone that seemed like half speech, half laughter.

Octavia tried her best to block out the madmare's voice, but she only grew louder as she became more frustrated.

"Eat... Eat CORPSE!" She screamed, pulling at her chain hard enough to begin tipping over the cart.

Octavia pulled back, causing Vinyl to get into a tug-of-war with herself and the cart, but after it was evident she wouldn't win, she eventually gave up.

"We'll feed you soon enough, Vinyl. Now keep quiet."

The red-collared mare in question glared at Octavia, then giggled under her muzzle, but kept quiet.

They continued down the road, surrounded on either side by the mountain, which had been cut through long before the caribou had arrived. These were the Smokey Mountains, as evidenced by the crinkled, torn map that Octavia looked at now and again. Vanhoover wasn't that far, but the sun had begun to set, casting a shadow on the trio of ponies as they walked through the seemingly never-ending passage. Now and again a gust of wind would blow through, biting at whatever skin was left uncovered by their clothing, but they pressed on.

Hours passed until they eventually reached the end of the passage, the claustrophobic feeling that had begun to enter their minds had lifted as they walked through the open, albeit dark, exit. Towering buildings could be seen in the distance, mostly destroyed. One skyscraper in particular had fallen onto another, kept in place by the far sturdier building it now laid upon. Trails of smoke left charred buildings, fires long since put snuffed out.

As the sun set, they made camp. Octavia took another set of handcuffs from her backpack, attaching the cart, and Vinyl Scratch along with it, to an overturned car. The mare tugged at her restraints, and tried spitting blood at Octavia through her muzzle, but sat as the walking caught up with her. As tiredness pulled at her sleeping eyes, she sat on the cold road, looking off into the distance, swaying slightly before laying down and falling asleep, her breathing labored and wet.

Octavia took out a bedroll from the cart, unrolling it. She quietly approached the sleeping mare, gently draping it over her body. She frowned as she saw the chain connecting the mare to the cart, but went back to where she was. Neon Lights had already taken his bedroll out and made himself as comfortable as possible. Octavia did the same, although further away from the two.

Octavia was awoken by the sound of a chain rattling loudly. Her eyes opened slowly to see Vinyl Scratch pulling violently at her chain, staring at something off in the distance, towards the city. She slowly got up, stretched, and looked in the same direction.

Hundreds, maybe thousands of infected mares were walking down that road, right towards them.

She shook Neon Lights violently, causing the stallion to jump awake.

"Octavia! What the hell!?" He yelled out, looking at the frightened mare.

"Neon, we need to hide. Now!" She screamed out.

Vinyl Scratch simply pulled at the chain, and one could hear the straining as a chain was about to snap.

Author's Note

Bit of a shorter chapter this time. This is for two reasons.

A. I'm starting to run out of motivation due to RL stuff happening

B. I want this to be the last "group" to be introduced.