“I still don’t get it. How can the cat be alive and dead?”

“Because we can’t see the cat, so we don’t know if it’s dead or not.”

“Wouldn’t we still hear it?”

“We’re in another room.”

“Well, what if we put a camera in the box to see?”

“Because then we can see the cat and the theoretical situation would be invalid.”

“I’m really not getting this.”

“I noticed.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault I only studied something important, not this theoretical shit.”

“This is important!”

“Is not.”

“Is too!”

Twig woke up due to the sounds of Gauze and Gris arguing. He made his presence known by coughing loudly. The two stopped their arguing and looked at the small purple batpony.

“Ah, you’re finally awake.” Gauze said with a smile. “We can finally head off.”

Gris rolled her eyes before packing everything back into her small saddlebag. Amazingly, the fire hadn’t gone out from last night. It was a good thing too, because despite it being morning, it was still really dark outside.

“Hey, Gris, could I get a drink?” Gauze asked. Gris dug through her bag and pulled out a bottle of beer. “Do we have any water or anything other than alcohol?”

“Nope. That’s all you had in the fridge. Why, too early to drink for you?” she asked with a sly grin.

“No, it’s just that alcohol dehydrates you. Soda as well.” he said as he began to pack his things back into his bag. “Wait, Twig you were meant to get more water yesterday!” Gauze said as he turned to his friend. Twig just shrugged. “Shit. We need to find some water. There has to be some back in Mercer!”

Gris and Twig looked at each other for a second.

“Gauze, they burnt it down last night, remember?”

“I know, but there has to be something left in the debris. The pumphouse should probably still be working too!” Gauze said getting up and walking to the door.

The others quickly got up and followed him. They exited the old building and reentered the cold outside of Stalliongrad. It was as dark as it was last night, despite being 8 AM. Small fires still burnt from the massacre of Mercer last night.

It took a few minutes to safely reach the ruins of the town. Buildings which stood perfectly intact not 12 hours ago were now nothing more than charred reminders of a pointless slaughter. The few fires which still burnt gave just enough light to see where they were going.

They found the burnt husk of Gauze’s and Twig’s medical office. There was nothing which could really be salvaged from the building. Even Twig’s money safe had melted and became useless. No clean medical supplies were in Gauze’s office either.

Twig was on the verge of tears. He and Gauze set up this place together. Made a name for themselves together. Now, now it was gone. Even though he tried not to show it, Gauze was finding it hard to shift through the rubble too.

Gris had left them to search their old home while she combed over some other buildings. She nearly tripped on the charred remains of a former resident of the town. Looking through the ruins of the other buildings garnered nothing of value. No edible food, no water, no medicine not even an extra pair of clothes.

The burnt husk of the bar had to have some drinks, right? There was no way that there couldn’t be at least one bottle of water. Nope. Nothing. All the bottles had fallen off the shelves and poured onto the charcoal black floor.

Their final idea was the old pumphouse. No way they could've destroyed the water supply there. It was true, they didn’t destroy the pumphouse. They just made it unusable. The valves had melted to the point where they couldn’t be turned. But in the back Gauze noticed there was a pipe that was spraying something. Gauze walked closer to it while Gris and Twig tried all the other valves.

“Guys, there’s water here!” He shouted before starting to drink the spraying liquid from the pipe.

Gris walked closer and took a look.

“Gauze, there’s no water there.” She said in a concerned tone.

“I, what? I, uh.” He stuttered, trying to find the words to explain it. “I must be a little delirious from the lack of sleep. Yeah that must be it.”

Gris gave him a look which suggested that she didn’t believe him. They gave up a few minutes later. They weren’t going to get anything from this town.

“So, now what?” Gris asked.

“Now we head to Igloo.” Gauze responded.

“I trust you know where that is.”

“I, well, yeah, I, uh, kinda.” He said embarrassingly. Gris squinted her eyes at him. “I know it’s to the north west! We just look at White Mane Tower and head to the left of it. Also we need to find White Mane Tower too. We should be able to find it. Hopefully.”

“I’m trusting you on this, Gauze. Don’t get us killed.” Gris said angrily.

“I’ll try not too.” He said before walking ahead. “I just hope I can trust myself.” He muttered under his breath before heading off.

“I spy with my little eye, something beginning with ‘S’.”

“Snow?”

“Yup. You’re really good at this. Okay, I spy with my little eye something beginning with ‘F’.”

“Fog?”

“You must be reading my fucking mind. Okay I spy with my little eye something beginning with ‘H’.”

“Uhh, I got nothing.”

“Hopeless, bleak, despair. I think that about sums up this entire city so far.”

“You have no fucking clue where we are do you?” Gris asked annoyed.

They had been walking for hours through the cold snow. Visibility was low, they could only see about two feet in front of themselves. Their clothes were turning white from all the snow.

“We’re, uh. Somewhere.” Gauze said meekly. “We’ll find something soon. I know it!”

The group was silent for another few minutes before Twig stopped suddenly and pointed to the horizon. Light! There was someone nearby! They ran to the small light they saw in the distance. It probably wasn’t the town, but at the very least it could be a shoveller!

As they approached they noticed no one was there. Odd, the fire was out in the cold, exposed street, but there was no one to tend it to keep it lit.

“Weird, there should be a shoveller nearby or something. But this is just in the middle of the streets, maybe they’re-” He cut himself off suddenly. “Raiders!” He yelled at the top of his lungs.

He ran and dragged Gris and Twig into a nearby house. They slammed the door shut. In the distance they could hear laughing.

“Little pony come out.” A stallions voice called out from outside.

“I need to find a weapon.” Gris said sternly.

She pulled out her lighter and began to look around the building they had taken cover in for anything which she could use for a weapon. Gauze and Twig slowly made their way down the dark hallway behind her.

Out of the darkness a slender unicorn attacked gris. The unicorn had a large knife in her mouth and she made swinging motions at the griffon. She had obviously not noticed the other two ponies with Gris as Gauze charged directly at her, knocking her to the ground with a thud.

“Thought you didn’t fight.” Gris said as she ripped the knife out of the unicorn's mouth.

“That’s not fighting, that’s just helping.” He said.

Gris rolled her eyes before a loud crash broke their attention. It came from the front door.

“Come on cyka, we’re not going to hurt you. Promise.” The same stallions voice called before it began to laugh again.

The shouting from outside took their attention away from the unicorn mare on the ground behind them. She sprung up and grabbed Twig by the neck, slowly beginning to choke him. As she did so she pulled out a second knife with her magic. Swinging it wildly she cut Gris a couple of times before she simply grabbed the knife out of her magic. The unicorn stared for a minute. Shocked that it had been that easy to be bested.

“Blyad.” She muttered before Gris lunged at her with both knifes.

The unicorn began to use Twig as a shield. He thrashed around trying to break her grip but to no avail. Gris’s swipes narrowly missed Twig a few times. As this was happening the front door opened to reveal a skinny stallion. He had a double barrel shotgun in his magic.

He shot it down the hall. Small pallets hit Gauze directly from behind making him stumble forwards into Gris and her frantic stabbing. Gauze knocked her off balance making her fall towards the unicorn she was frantically trying to stab. As she fell one of the knives she was holding dug into Twig’s chest making him cry out in pain. The unicorn saw her opportunity and pulled the knife out with her magic and started swiping at Gris.

Meanwhile, the buck with the shotgun walked slowly down the hall. Gauze was laying on the ground, acting more injured than he was. Sure, he had taken a few shotgun pellets to the ass, but a stallion his size could take it. The stallion strode up to Gauze and lifted his gun to Gauze’s head. At the last second Gauze sprung up and kicked the pony square in the face with both back hooves. They collided with a crack as the stallion’s muzzle collapsed inwards. The shotgun fell to the ground with a thud as the pony fell back in pain.

“Gris, shotgun!” Gauze yelled as he slid the shotgun down the hall to the griffon.

Gris was currently wrestling with unicorn, thankfully she was on top of her, but it didn’t matter too much as the unicorn still managed to get a few good swipes at her. When she saw the shotgun on the floor, Gris dived off the unicorn at it. She picked it up and shot the remaining bullet in one quick movement. The unicorn finally stopped moving, and the knife fell to the ground.

She got up and walked to the stallion Gauze had just knocked out. Grabbing one of the knives she bent down and thrusted it into his neck. The room was silent, except for the sounds of the stallion choking on his own blood. Gauze got up slowly, before noticing Twig lying on the floor. He was twitching and crying as blood pooled around him.

“Twig, nonononono.” He said in a panic, not even noticing his own wounds. “Gris pull my supplies out now!” He yelled at the bloody griffon, covered in scratches.

Gauze worked as well as he could in the current situation. Stab wound was cleaned, sewn shut and wrapped with bandages. Twig was still coughing up a lot of blood. Gauze made him down a couple of healing potions, which only dulled the damage slightly.

“Gris, find us a bed, or somewhere to put him.” Gauze said sternly as he continued helping Twig.

Gris did what she was asked and looked around the old building for anything which could be used as a bed. She found a large couch by the front door.

“Gauze, over ‘ere!” She yelled at the large stallion.

He brought him to the couch carefully and laid him down.

“Gauze, y’think y’should patch those bullet holes up?” Gris asked as she stared down at the large red patch on the stallion’s green butt.

“Just pass me a healing potion, I’ll fish those bullets out later.” He muttered as he gestured for Gris to hand him a potion. She handed him the pink vial before he quickly drank it down in mere seconds. “Thanks, Gris.”

“I’m going to look around the building.” Gris said downing a healing potion herself. All the cuts on her body began to close almost immediately.

The griffon walked back down the hallway to the bodies of the two ponies who had just tried to kill them. Obviously the group wouldn’t want to look at the bloody cadavers that were laid out in front of them. To her right was what looked to be a broom closet of some sort. Naturally she threw the two bodies into the cramped space.

The hall ended at a large dining room. There was a large, damaged, mahogany table in the centre of the room with a handful of knives on it. Gris picked up what looked to be an old, serrated machete and slid it under her belt. The dining room naturally lead into a kitchen. It was poorly illuminated but she could still make out her surroundings somewhat. She opened an old fridge. Bottles of beer and vodka were inside as well as a couple bottles of irradiated water. Gris grabbed them without hesitation and stuck them into her bags. Looking to her left she spied a sink. Maybe the water could still work. Couldn’t hurt to try, right? Turning the knob, water began to flow through the tap and into the basin.

She begrudgingly emptied a few beer bottles into the sink before filling the empty containers up with the water. Gris looked around for any other bottles or containers which she could fill up. Old milk bottles, soda bottles, beer bottles, hell she even filled up and entire jerry can. She stuck as many as she could into her bag before she returned to the boys on the couch.

Gris threw down the full jerry can which landed with a thud. This woke Twig up slightly. His slitted eyes tried to focus on anything in the room, but struggled. Gauze shh’d him and he fell back asleep.

“I’ve got about 10 bottles of water in my bag, plus this heavy as shit can.” Gris said with a smile, opening her bag and pulling out the water. She slid a few bottles to Gauze. “There’s a sink out back if you want to clean up.” She said pointing at the stallion’s bloody hooves.

“In a bit.” He said in a somber tone.

The two sat on the floor next to the couch for a bit. Neither of them talked for the longest time. Eventually Gris opened her mouth to say something before closing it again.

“So.” She started quietly. “How long do you think it’ll take him to recover?”

“A week at the earliest. For a full recovery anyway. He should be good to continue walking tomorrow, albit with a lot of pain and labored breathing.” He said flatly before sipping one of the bottles of water.

Gris was quiet again for another minute or two.

“So, what’s up with you two? Are you like, y’know?”

“I don’t know.”

“Are you two like, y’know, do you, uh, are you guys y’know?”

“Yes we are in a relationship if that’s what you’re getting at.” Gauze said flatly.

“Cool, cool.” She stopped for a minute. “So how does that, y’know, work?” She asked naively.

“How does what work?”

“Y’know.” She said before making an ‘O’ shape on one hand and putting a finger through it.

“What sex? Eh, it’s, let’s just say it’s complicated. Besides, I don’t really want to get too deep into my sexlife with a griffon I just met a day ago.”

“What, I thought we were friends, amigos, compadres, comrades.”

“Just, leave it, Gris.” Gauze said before he stood up and walked down the hallway.

Gris just shrugged and stood up, looking for a more comfortable place to sit. She found a small recliner in the corner of the room and began to sit in it. After a couple of minutes the griffon began to nod off to sleep.

Gris was awoken by the sound of Gauze hitting his head on the wall. It had apparently awoken Twig too as he got up off of the couch and ran towards the stallion. Gris slowly got up and approached him too.

“Gauze, you okay there buddy?” She asked cautiously.

“I, what’s happening, where are we?” He asked quietly. Gris was about to tell him before he stood up. “Right, right. Okay okay okay. Let’s just. I just. Uh, I’m fine. Don’t worry.” He said before rushing off to the kitchen.

“What was that all about? Should we be worried?” Gris asked the mute pony that stood next to her.

She could see that he was on the verge of tears. Gris began to walk towards the kitchen before Twig stuck an arm out stopping her.

“Right, you should go and check on your coltfriend.” She said.

Twig turned and gave her the bitterest look he could give her. She was quite surprised by the sudden hostility from him but let him leave.

‘There’s something not right about those two’ she thought to herself before she sat back down on the seat and took a long drink out of one of the water bottles.

After a few more minutes the two walked back to Gris. They dressed themselves and made their way to the door.

“Come on, Gris, we’re leaving.” Gauze said flatly.

She didn’t say anything, she just threw on all the clothes she could find and made her way to the door.

They exited the building into a blizzard. Outside was freezing, well below -20C. Gauze and Twig were fine. After living in Stalliongrad their entire lives they had adapted to the temperature. Gris, however. She struggled to keep up in the intense cold of Stalliongrad.

“Gris, are you okay?” Gauze asked the grey griffon, who was now turning a shade of blue.

“N-no. I-I-I-I’m fucking f-freezing!” She yelled, her beak chittering uncontrollably.

“I have a blanket in my bag, grab it, wrap yourself in it and stay close to me for warmth.”

She didn’t have much of a choice, it was the best chance she had of not getting hypothermia. Rummaging through the stallion’s saddlebag she found an old, slightly crusty blanket tucked deep down in the bottom of it. Gris threw it over herself and felt the slight warming sensation of the blanket. The griffon was still shivering furiously though. Gauze let out a long sigh.

“Okay, let’s get back inside.” He said turning around.

“What, why?” Gris asked.

“I don’t want you to get hypothermia, Gris.”

“N-no, let’s keep going.” She said turning and walking forwards.

“You won’t make it too long, Gris. Just turn around and we can continue walking later.”

“N-n-n-no! L-lets go now!” She yelled as she kept walking into the thick snowstorm. Gauze just let out another long sigh, and Twig just shrugged before they fell into line behind her.

They were walking for another hour or two, no real direction, only the faintest idea of where to go in this dark, dreary city. Gris was starting to lose her balance the longer they walked. Eventually she fell face first into the deep snow.

“Gris, you alright?” Gauze asked as he rushed to her side. Inside he knew that she was suffering from hypothermia, but refrained from saying anything.

“I-I-I’m just h-hot.” She said in a slurred voice as she began to undress herself.

Gauze had to physically restrain her and redress her himself.

“H-h-hey! I’m burnin up h-here!” Gris yelled as she struggled to stop the massive stallion redressing her.

“Gris, you’re delirious.” He said trying to restrain the struggling stallion. She proved tough to control so eventually he just put her in a headlock. “Just stay still.” The griffon continued to struggle before she eventually fell unconscious. “Fuck, I really didn’t want to do that.” He lamented before he threw the old blanket on the ground and placed her on it.

Gauze took off his large jacket and dressed her in it before rolling her up in the large blanket and throwing her onto his back. He let out a long sigh.

“Come on, Twig, let’s find some shelter.” He said as he began to walk faster.

A little down the street they were on was the entrance to one of Stalliongrad’s many metros. It wasn’t the ideal place to rest, but there didn’t seem to be many other suitable buildings.

Forcing open an old rusted gate they were greeted to the unmistakable smell of the metro. Damp air which wonderfully combined with the stench of death lead to a smell which most people who lived in Stalliongrad knew all too well. A small hallway lead to a large open room. The old train tracks were fully submerged with a thick green water which had chunks of the old roof in it. Light only came from old red emergency lights, some of which were submerged. All around them insects scuttled away to the furthest corners of the metro station.

“Twig, dig through Gris’ bag would you, find the lighter.” Gauze said as he struggled to see anything in the nearly pitch black room.

It was a minute or two of fumbling around in the dark before Twig finally pulled out the griffons lighter. Igniting the flame a sudden aura of light formed around the trio. It wasn’t a large aura, but they could see better now.

“Okay, good. Let’s see if we can find any dry wood in here.” Gauze said as they searched for some wood which they could burn.

Stripping some old benches of their seats provided them with enough wood to make a decent little fire in the middle of the station. Gauze laid Gris down on a blanket and then covered her with all of his clothes.

It had been a few minutes of the three just sitting around the fire (or unconscious and lying on the floor in Gris’ case.) The only sounds came from the crackle of the fire and the ambient drips of melting water in the tunnels further down.

“Uh, Twig, about earlier.” Gauze started. “It was the. The. It was the.” he was having a hard time working up the courage to tell Twig what was wrong.

Thankfully Twig was patient. He wrapped one of his leathery wings around the large stallion and gave him a small smile. Gauze smiled back before pulling the batpony closer with his arm.

“I didn’t mean to scare you like that again. I just. It’s hard you know?” He said dimly. “I should be fine for a while though.”

Twig still looked at him with sad eyes before resting his entire body against the hulking pony. Gauze returned the gesture and wrapped his large jacket around the two. Both stallions were still tired, the rest they got in the house obviously wasn’t long enough for either of them. Yawning Twig snuggled in closer the the giant stallion. It wasn’t long before the two also fell asleep once again.

“Gauze. Gauze wake up.” The irritated voice of Gris commanded.

The large stallion slowly rose up off the cold hard floor to face the angry grey griffon.

“Huh? What?” He asked wiping his eyes.

“Why the fuck did you knock me out?! Why shouldn’t I kick your arse?!” The griffon shouted.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, that. Gris you were going to die if I didn’t stop you from stripping yourself. And I mean, you can kick my ass, but good luck finding your way around the city without me.”

“It’s not like you can find your way around the city either. But anyway, that’s besides the point. I was feeling fine. Hell, I was feeling very fucking hot and you just knock me out like that you piece of shit!” Gris almost spat into Gauzes face.

“Gris, one of the last symptoms of hypothermia is feeling very hot. You were going to die, but we saved you in time. Probably. You seem fine. You got off lucky you ungrateful bitch.” Gauze said getting more annoyed by the griffon’s attitude.

The griffon stormed off before turning back around and sitting back down by the fire.

“Just get me something to drink.” She muttered.

Gauze handed her a bottle of water and she quickly drank the entire thing. She crumpled the plastic bottle it was in and threw it away before wrapping herself up in the blankets again.

“So where are we?” She said in a monotone voice.

“The metro. We should be able to reach some sort of settlement down here. I had a look at the map on the far wall and it seems we’re close to Athens station. We just need to follow the blue line.”

“Lead the way then.” Gris said motioning Gauze to walk ahead.

The large stallion began started to walk down the cold, damp metro tunnels with the other two behind him. Drips, groans and splashes from deeper down the circular hallway they were walking down was all the noise they would get for a while (other than themselves). Soon the ice and snow and water thinned down on the tunnel floor as the tunnels began the warm up slightly.

They passed abandoned train cars. Suitcases, clothes and toys covered the floors inside. Large pieces of wood showed where ponies had once tried to make home before someone or something destroyed it. By this far in the only real light source was Gris’ lighter and the assortment of various glowing fungi growing out of the cracks of the concrete.

Something caught Twig’s attention. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a large white silk like material. It glistened a bit in the dim light. Twig knew what it meant, Gauze too.

“Shit. Okay be very careful. Chances are that web is years old.” Gauze said cautiously turning around and continuing down the tunnel.

“What is that thing? Why should we be careful?” Gris asked as she rushed besides him.

“Just don’t worry about it Gris. I’ll tell you when we reach a settlement.” Gauze said not taking his eyes off the tunnel ahead.

Another hour passed of them navigating various piles of rubble, abandoned train cars and radioactive pools of water. Then they heard it. Twig stopped on the spot with Gauze stopping a second later then Gris a second after him. It was faint, but unmistakeable. Click. Click. Click. The sound of those mysterious clicks reverberated around the metro sending fear down the two Stalliongrad locals. Gris was obviously confused.

“Gauze, what the fuck is wr-” She was cut off abruptly by Gauze.

“Fucking run!” Gauze shouted as loud as he could before he and Twig turned around and started to run the way they came.

Gris started running too, she was about to say something but then something broke her focus. The clicking was getting louder. Not just louder; closer. They grew in magnitude as whatever was behind them began to catch up.

“Maintenance tunnel, left!” Gauze shouted.

The trio dived into the small little corridor. There was no door that they could shut to try and make hiding easier.

“Gauze what the fuck is going on.” Gris almost shouted.

“Shut up, we gotta find a way out of here.”

The maintenance tunnel lead to a large room which seemed to be a sewer outlet or something to that effect. They exited onto a large, unstable catwalk dangling about 50 feet above solid concrete. Gris and Twig hovered in the air above the unstable thing while Gauze tried his best to get across it.

But then it appeared. Through the door which lead from the maintenance tunnel a long, black, slimy tentacle like appendage started to try and grab the pony. Shortly after another long tentacle slid through the door in an attempt to seize Gauze. Whatever it was, it was not happy as loud hissing and screaming could be heard coming from the tunnel before echoing throughout the outlet.

Gauze ran as fast as he could, tears building up in his eyes as he did so. The rickety catwalk shook more than an earthquake. From the doorframe a few of the old cables which held the catwalk up snapped. It started to tilt up. Gauze tried his best to get to the other side, but he couldn’t make it. He tried to grab anything to stop from sliding down.

“Fuck, Gauze!” Gris yelled as she rushed over to pick the large stallion up. “I got you. Twig help!”

Twig grabbed his legs while Gris wrapped her arms around his waist. They reached the other side of the large room and dropped the stallion on the cold concrete. As they did so the more of the cables on the catwalk snapped sending the thing crashing down. Whatever was at the door on the side they had escaped from obviously couldn’t get through and left.

The group walked a little bit away from the ledge before collapsing to the ground. Gasping heavily they all took drinks from their water bottles.

“What the fuck was that?!” Gris said between laboured breaths.

“That.” Gauze spat out. “That was a Stalker.”

They had left the large room and found another maintenance corridor. Deciding to wait for a bit after the close encounter they just had they lit another small bonfire.

“So what is a ‘Stalker’?” Gris asked curiously.

“Do you know what a spider is?” Gauze asked, to which Gris nodded. “Stalkers are spiders, except they are huge. The Stalker we were just chased by is probably only in it’s adolescence.”

“Bull-fucking-shit. No way that wasn’t an adult.”

“Larvae are about the size of me, teens are about the size of a train car and the adults.” He trailed off a bit. “Let’s just say no one sees the fully grown ones often. Or at least, they don’t live too often. But if rumor is true, they’re about the size of the tunnel they live in.”

“That’s fucking impossible. How?”

“Taint? Radiation probably helped, but on one can really study them due to their tendency to kill everything.”

“So what makes them so bad? They can’t be as bad as Hellhounds, right? Those things are the deadliest things in the wastes.”

“I don’t know what Hellhounds are, but I doubt they’re as bad. I mean, you’ve seen how fast that Stalker was. What you didn’t see was the rest of it. The razor sharp claws and fangs. Or the slimy acidic coating, or the vomit, or the webs or anything else. Trust me, even touching one of these things without protection will fuck you up. I’ve treated people who brushed one and they ended up looking like fucking burn victims. Do not mess with these things. Ever.” Gauze said in a dark, serious tone.

Gris didn’t say anything for a while. No one did. They all just stared at the dim fire in the cold maintenance room.

“What are they scared of?” Gris asked quietly.

“Settlements use flame traps to keep them at bay, but I don’t know if they’re actually scared by them or not.”

“Worth a shot, right?” Gris said looking up to the large stallion.

He just shrugged before turning to look at Twig who had been rather still and silent (well, more so than usual). The purple batpony had curled himself into a ball and sat next to the fire.

“So what’s the plan?” Gris asked.

“We’re going to leave in a few minutes to try and find a settlement.”

“And if we can’t?”

“Then I guess we fucking die.”

It was a few more minutes before the group set off to try and find any form of civilisation. They were all geared up and set off back into the dark abyss of the metro system. The tunnel they entered into was more akin to a concrete river as irradiated water ran down the track. It was too deep for Twig and Gris to walk comfortably in so they hovered above the green river while Gauze had to walk through it.

The marking on the wall stated that they were on the yellow line. Not the system they needed to be on to find Athens, but they could probably make do without being on the correct line. Gauze was thankful that the track never went down as the water was already up to halfway up his neck. Although he wasn’t thankful for the smell.

As the tunnel continued they found an old train car. Amazingly it didn’t seem to be flooded despite the rest of the tunnel being filled with the foul water. Gris and Twig landed on top of it. There was a small hatch on the roof which they pried open. They dropped into the dark cart to see if there was anything of value in there. In sitting next to one of the doors was the skeleton of a griffon with a small pistol resting next to it.

“Score.” The griffon said as she picked up the handgun and checked to see if there was any ammo in it.

Thankfully there was a few bullets in the magazine. She excitedly slid the pistol into one of her pockets. Not the best place to have a gun but it’d have to do. Twig was having decidedly worse luck in the car. He only found empty tins and bottles. There were a few bottle caps, however, but there wasn’t a lot.

The two climbed back out of the car and rejoined Gauze who had been standing in the radioactive water for at least half an hour now, and was starting to feel the effects of it. His already pale green skin was even paler now. He was sweating profusely and breathing heavily.

“Gauze you good?” Gris asked cautiously.

He didn’t say anything he just walked away, looking scared, confused and disorientated. Gris didn’t try to say anything else and just followed him some more. His movements became slower and he started looking more and more sickly.

The group made it to a solid wooden barrier which seemed to serve as a dam. There was a ladder to let ponies get out but Gauze collapsed as soon as he touched the grimy metal rung. His muzzle hit the rung hard before sinking under the water.

“Gauze!” Gris yelled in shock as she and Twig both tried to fish the stallion out of the water.

“Who there?!” A voice yelled from the other side of the fence.

“Our friend is drowning, help!” Gris yelled to the person behind the fence.

Then from on top of the structure the feathered head of a griffon appeared and stared at the two trying to help drag Gauze out. He disappeared from sight for a few seconds before throwing a large net down into the water.

“Put under and pull.” He said.

They did it as quickly as they could. Slowly but surely they managed to slowly wench the unconscious stallion out of the water. Gris and Twig both pushed Gauze over the fence and onto dry land.

On the other side of the fence was a group of griffons. They had all gathered around to help the half drowned stallion. Some tried to do CPR on him, while others dug around his bag for any Rad-Away. Slowly but surely the stallion’s condition seemed to stabilize. He was laid down on a makeshift bed while he recuperated.

“Thanks for the help.” Gris said to the griffons.

“No problem. But who you? What you do in fishing tunnel?” One of the griffons said.

“We’re just trying to find our way to a settlement. Is this a settlement?”

“Da, but probably not the one you want. This is fishing settlement, you want Athens, right?” The griffon asked, Gris nodded. “We can take you to Athens, we trade with them.”

“That would be great, thanks. Say, I never caught your name.”

“Gitrov.” The griffon said.

“Gris. That’s Twig and the stallion you helped is Gauze.” She said pointing at the two, respectively.

“Good to meet you. Convoy will go to Athens in two hours. You going?”

“Yeah sure.”

“Then maybe put big one onto train?”

“Good idea, let’s go get him.”

The two griffons heaved the large stallion onto an armoured train car.

“Will leave soon, be ready.” Gitrov said as he walked over to a pile of crates and loaded them onto the train.

Gris took a seat on one of the crates on the train before taking a look around the tunnel. The little settlement that they had found themselves in had nets and cages strewn all around. Large, slimy fish like creatures hung from hooks.

‘Wait a minute, these are fish. Then how does Gauze not know what a fish is?’ Gris thought. ‘Eh, whatever, he’s a weirdo anyway.’

The tunnel was lit by little fires in old oil drums. They provided enough light to fill the settlement. Wooden structures were built into the the sides of the concrete tunnel. Old torn mattresses lay on the rotting wooden structures. Condensation was building up on the metal pipes on the roof, which dripped down in a consistent rhythm.

The train that she, Gauze and Twig were on was a flatbed with sheets of steel welded to the back with sandbag walls behind them. Large fluorescent lights pointed backwards and forwards. A huge machine gun was mounted in the middle of the train car pointing backwards. Obviously they weren’t expecting much trouble from in front. Crates full of dead fish and ammo lay in semi organised piles on the flatbed. In the front of the train was a gas fueled trolley cart. Thin chainlinks and corrugated metal covered the driver. A smaller machine gun was attached to the trolley just in case.

For a community who lives right next to a rotten wooden dam they sure put a lot more effort and money into the train than the thing which keeps them from drowning.

“All right, train leaving in five! All aboard who want to go!” A loud griffon yelled to the settlement.

A few griffons put on combat armour and a few griffons only put on old jackets. One by one seven other griffons got onto the train car and sat down on the crates.

“Train leaving station!” The same griffon yelled.

A few seconds later the train started to move, giving Gris a bit of a fright. It slowly moved out of the station before picking up speed and continuing down the line. They zoomed past old wooden structures and signs.

“Should arrive in Athens in ten!” The train driver shouted to the people in the back.

Gauze was still on the floor. He was getting worse by the minute. The stallion needed treatment and he needed it soon.

Everyone was quiet on the train for the longest time. The only sounds were of the train, and Gauze coughing on the floor. But then they heard it. That horrid clicking.

In an instant everyone on the train except for Gauze, Gris and Twig all jumped up. One griffon in heavy combat armour stood up and took control of the machine gun. Another two armoured griffons looked over the sandbag and steel wall with rifles pointed straight behind them. No one could see anything in the darkness, even the bright lights attached to the train didn’t help.

“Move train faster! Stalker on tail!” One of the griffons yelled to the driver.

The train started to move a little quicker, but it still wasn’t fast enough. Click click click. It was getting closer.

Then they saw it. A dozen bright red eyes. Some griffons screamed, but most started to shoot the thing. It screamed the most ear piercing scream anyone on the train had ever heard. Machine gun fire drowned out the screaming but that didn’t solve the problem of the creature still coming towards the train.

A long, black, tentacle like appendage struck the train, thankfully missing a couple of the griffons by mere inches. As the thing followed more and more of its horrifying body was revealed. Long fangs, ten scrawny legs which pushed the goliath along at a shockingly fast speed. The two tentacles rested on its back before shooting out at the train. The creature was huge, bigger than anything had any right to be. Putrid sores ran all along the things black and red back.

The tentacle shot out again. It wrapped around one of the griffons on the train. His skin boiled and burnt from the mere touch of the thing. He screamed the most scared and heart wrenching scream he could before the tentacle moved the burnt griffon to the things mouth. The fangs stuck into the back of his neck and butt. In a second the griffon went from normal looking to skeletal as the Stalker sucked everything out of him. The body just dropped to the ground and rolled along the track. Another corpse to add to the ever growing collection.

Shooting the thing wasn’t working. It barely slowed it down. The tentacles swung again and again, hitting griffons and sending them into screaming messes on the floor.

“Fuck it wont die!” The machine gunner shouted. “Grenades! Box of them! Use now!” He yelled again.

Gris dived for the box of grenades. She opened it picked one up then looked back at the large creature chasing them. The griffon pulled the pin on one of the grenades, stuck it back in the box and threw the entire case off the train straight into the Stalkers giant maw.

They exploded, sending bits of teeth and flesh flying. It screamed before it stopped moving. All the griffons stopped firing and stared at the creature. They smiled. Then it moved again.

“Oh you are fucking shitting me!” Gris yelled at the top of her lungs.

Another tentacle shot at the train again. This time it slapped Gris, sending her flying backwards. Her skin boiled and peeled off at the touch. One of the other griffons started hacking at the appendage with a machete. After a few decent hits the thing fell off and landed in the middle of the train. The Stalker screamed again.

The thing seemed to get angrier. Even though the eyes were full of lead it didn’t change how pissed the creature looked. It charged even faster now. The putrid creature was almost on the train.

“I’ve got an idea! Hold on!” The diver yelled.

The train stopped suddenly and the Stalker ran right into the back of it while the griffons flew forwards. The Stalker seemed a dazed for a bit, its fangs were broken on the hard impact. Quickly getting back up to speed the train left the creature behind for another minute.

“Stalker!” The train driver yelled at the top of his lungs.

Gris didn’t know why for a second before she saw a large metal door close quickly behind the train, stopping the creature. The train slowed to a stop before other ponies and griffons ran to help the people on the train.

“Shit, a lot of injured!” One of the ponies yelled. “Don’t worry, you’re safe!” She said to Gris who was lying on the ground covered in boils and sores from the slap earlier.

“Ugh, where am I?” Gris muttered.

“Athens Station. Just try not to move, you’re horribly burnt.” The mare who was helping Gris said.

“You have a bug problem.” Were the last words she could muster before blacking out.

Author's Note

Again I appreciate criticism. pls?