After the encounter with the grotesque beast, the newly formed party of two had steadily made their way through the abandoned halls of the facility. Silence settled between the two as neither one spoke to the other and the only thing that could be heard was their echoing steps.

While the recently freed Griffin walked slightly in front of the tigress, this gave her the opportunity to see his chiseled back as well as the large scars were his wings would've been. This was an odd sight for her as not many griffins consider removing their wings. Her thoughts were soon interrupted by a sickening crunch coming from below her.

“Watch your step.” Spoke the male griffin, unfazed by the sudden sound. The tigress looked down and saw that she had stepped on the husk of a dead roach.

“Thanks.” She replied with a bit of disgust in her tone as she kicked the husk aside, noticing the numerous dead roaches littered across the floor. “We're here.” Saying this, The young tigress looked up to see that it was indeed their destination.

“It's rusted and the cables look ready to snap.” Noted the griffin, earning a simple shrug of the shoulders from the tigress.

“It got me down here relatively safe.” She replied as he gripped the edge of the rusted door before forcing it open but to avail. It wouldn't budge for even a single centimeter. “Can you give me a hand?” She asked.

“Already on it.” Came the griffin’s response as he came into her view and gripped the edge of the same door. “Alright pull.” Hearing this, the tigress pulled once more with the help of the griffin and the result came in the form of the screeching sound from the door being forced open. Once the door was far enough open to pass through, the griffin looked down at the tigress before speaking.

“Ladies first.” He said with a grunt as he held the door from closing again.

“Such a gentle griffin.” The tigress replied in a joking manner before entering the elevator. With the tigress inside, the griffin entered as well before letting go of the door and allowed it to slide shut. “Once we get out of here, I have a buggy waiting outside. I think I got some spare clothes in the trunk.” She informed the griffin, gaining a look of slight confusion.

“What?” She asked him. The latter simple shook his head.

“Nothing.” He replied as the tigress pressed the large button beside her, causing the lift to shake beneath their feet before it slowly began to rise up towards the surface facility. “You have a name?” Asked the griffin, not allowing the silence to settle in.

“Dea.” The tigress, now known as Dea, answered after a brief moment of silence. “You?” She asked, looking up the elevator shaft.

“Cyrus.” The griffin said without hesitation. With his arms crossed, Cyrus slowly lost patience. Not another word was spoken and silence finally began to settle between the two before lift came to a sudden stop, signaling their arrival.

Unlike the rusted door from before, this door slid open albeit with a little difficulty. From within the elevator, Cyrus was able to see the partial light of what he assumed was the sun shining through a boarded window. He made a quick scan of the room in front of him, seeing and hearing the generator that powered the elevator. The walls of the room looked ready to crumble, cracks having already formed throughout the room's walls and ceiling. Trash and debris littered across the floor, whether it was burnt documents or simple letter was unknown.

A weapon workstation was also seen through the corner of Cyrus’ eyes as he stepped out of the elevator and onto littered floor. Dea soon followed suit, letting the door slide shut behind her.

“Come on, the exit’s this way.” Dea said, walking by the large griffin as she spoke. Without word, Cyrus followed behind her and took note of the many things thrown around the floor from shattered terminals to skeletal remains in tattered fatigues. Cyrus noticed a door hanging off its hinges before looking back at Dea as she continued walking away.

Deciding that he would catch up with her, Cyrus took a look through the busted door and was greeted with quite the sight. Inside the room hung the decomposing corpse of a mare and surrounding the hanging corpse were three shotguns primed and ready to fire, their triggers hooked up to a tripwire placed in front of the busted door. The room was small, even smaller than a broom closet and one of the three guns was just in his reach.

Cyrus glanced towards the direction he last saw Dea before looking back at the rusted gun. With a silent nod to himself, he began to reach out for it.

While Cyrus stayed behind, Dea kept on walking towards the exit, unknown to her that the griffin wasn't following her. It was a rather small through the halls of the building before arriving at the main entrance that consisted of two double doors littered with bullet holes that allowed the sunlight to poke through.

She said nothing as she pushed open the door being blinded by the sudden light. Once her sight returned, she was faced with the oceans of sand hills and rocky mountains and her face expressed shock as the sight in front of her was not one she had hoped to see.

She expected to see her small buggy, instead she was greeted with pile of scrap and the chassis of the buggy being held up by cinder blocks. On the side of the buggy, written in red on one of the armor plates was large words that read “Bitch!”.

With an angered yell, Dea kicked a discarded plate of armor. She walked towards the now scrapped buggy, hoping to find something of use that might have been left behind but to her dismay, not a single useful thing was found. She slammed her head against the chassis of the buggy in anger. The anger soon vanished, replaced with shock as she felt the cold hard metal of a gun planted at the back of her head.

“Knew I'd find something if I stayed behind.” Spoke an unfamiliar male voice. Dea dared not to move or speak. “Come on, Love. You knew you had it comin’ as soon as you parked out here.” The unknown voice spoke again, taunting Dea for the loss of her buggy.

Despite her need to sneer at the owner of the voice, Dea decided against it and refused to utter a single word. This only got a chuckle from the male behind her.

“Giving me the silent treatment, ey.” Said the unknown Raider. Dea slowly began to reach for the gun on her hip before being forcefully grabbed and shoved towards the ground. Seeing this as a sort of opportunity, Dea quickly kicked the Raider’s left knee with all her might, causing a sickening crunch to emit from his knee as it bent in a sickening way.

“Graah!” He yelled in agony before attempting to aim his gun, a rusted pipe pistol. “Bit-” The Raider, who Dea noted was a pegasus stallion wearing a white splattered hoodie that bore the upside down red horned skull belonging to White Ash, was interrupted by the sudden bang behind Dea and the loss of his right arm. The Raider clutched the profusely bleeding elbow that was once connected to his arm. Dea was in shock before noticing Cyrus walking into her line of sight, holding what appeared to be an old double barrel shotgun. The weapon in question looked to have seen better days.

The Raider desperately tried to stop the bleeding but to no avail despite his many attempts. Cyrus stood in front of the bleeding Raider before firing again at point blank and all movement that came from the Raider ceased, half the stallion’s face splattered across the Buggy frame.

“Are you okay?” Cyrus asked, turning and offering a hand to the downed Tigress. The latter noticed the newly acquired dirty and tattered cargo pants he now wore.

“Other than a bruise or two, yeah I'm fine.” Answered Dea as she took hold of the offered hand before being pulled up to her feet. “Did you have to kill him?” She asked, seeing the limp Raider, half his head blown off and adding more blood onto the forming pool he laid. She cared not for his life, only the life of her own as well as those in her settlement.

“Pa is going to kill me if he hears about this.” Dea said in a worried tone before her gaze landed on the scrapped remains of her buggy. “Fuck.” She cursed, hanging her head down.

“What's the big deal with a simple dead Raider?” Cyrus asked, tossing the now busted shotgun aside. “Besides, if I hadn't who knows what he would've done.” He added, picking up the discarded Pipe pistol and checked the cartridge.

“You obviously don't understand. This guy is…” Dea stopped to gaze at the dead stallion before looking back Cyrus. “Was part of The White Ashes, a large faction that controls this side of the Great Wastes.” Dea finished, putting both hands behind her head, only earning a raised eyebrow from Cyrus.

“So?” He asked without care of what his answer was.

“So it means that if word comes out of this, they'll much likely start looking for us.” Dea said in an exaggerated manner. “They don't like to be messed with and they'll most likely start their search at the settlement I live in.” Her tone changed to one of worry as she spoke.

“Then tell them that I was responsible, not like this hasn't happened to me before.” Cyrus suggested with a shrug as he inserted the cartridge back into the rusted pipe pistol.

“What!? No!” Dea exclaimed rather loudly. “Believe it or not, I need you alive. You're living proof that I was right to explore this place while others back home thought I've gone crazy.” She added after taking a moment to calm down. Cyrus merely sighed as a response before taking a quick glance towards the scrapped buggy.

“Onto the matter at hand, I don't suppose you've got a back up ride.” Cyrus said, changing the subject without hesitation. Dea groaned and shook her head. “Then what now?” He asked, gaining no answer. Cyrus, having a great sense of hearing, heard the sound of footsteps coming closer.

“Oi, Mag! Where the bloody blazes are ya!?” Yelled another voice belonging to what is believed to the dead Raider’s companion. “We're wasting gas so let's ditch this place before…” Added the second Raider, who Cyrus noted was another pegasus stallion, as he rounded the corner of the building only to stop at the sight in front of him. The Raider stood in awkward silence as he looked at the two individuals standing next to the corpse of his partner.

It was only when he regaining his thoughts that he drew his weapon at the two with the intention to kill them both only to struck in the side of the head with a led pipe, rendering him unconscious. Cyrus grunted at the loud thud of the unconscious stallion hitting the ground.

“Can you stop making this situation worse!?” Yelled a shocked Dea. Cyrus merely glanced back at her and shrugged.

“At least I didn't kill him.” He replied, discarded the led pipe to the sand. “Speaking of which, what should we do with him?” He asked, crouching down before searching the few pockets the unconscious stallion had but found nothing of us in the end.

“Just… leave him there, maybe he'll forget about it.” Dea said, truly not knowing what to do. Cyrus raised another questioning brow before lifting up the unconscious stallion.

“I think I've got a better idea.” He said, taking hold of the belt that held the stallions pants up and removing it. With the stallion and belt in hand, Cyrus walked towards a palm tree that provided sufficient shade against the sun before placing the stallion against the tree and wrapping his arms around it before tying them both together with the belt in an obscene knot. “That should keep him from going anywhere for awhile.” He said, turning to face Dea. The latter had her face buried in her hands.

“This just isn't my day.” She quietly muttered to herself before lowering her hands. “Alright, now with that aside, we can just take their car and I'll drive us back.”

“What about your buggy?” Cyrus asked.

“There isn't any buggy left, just a frame and scattered nuts and bolts.” Dea answered back in anger before sstomping past Cyrus, going the way the second Raider came from. Stopping at the corner of the building, she turned to Cyrus. “Are you coming?” She asked. Cyrus furrowed his brow before answering.

“In a minute.” Was his answer before walking back into the building. Wanting nothing but to leave this place, Dea continued her short walk around the small building. Once reaching the back of the building, she was greeted by a parked Monarch car with its engines still running.

Quickly making her way towards the car, Dea could see very same upside down red horned skull, marking it as White Ash property. She opened the door to the driver's seat, seeing the rather well maintained interior and sat on the driver's seat.

From within the car, Dea could hear something heavy being dragged through the sand. Getting out of the Monarch, Dea was soon greeted with the sight of Cyrus dragging the discarded frame of her buggy. Dea could see that Cyrus had begun to sweat from over exerting himself. Veins were obscenely visible on both his arms and his neck.

“What are you doing?” Dea asked with a dumbfounded expression. Cyrus continued on dragging the frame behind him despite his obvious exhaustion and strain.

Cyrus continued to drag the frame before stopping just behind the Raider's car. From there he took hold of a loose chain that hung on the buggy’s front and tied one end to the frame after a few minutes of struggling to do so. With the other end of the chain in hand, Cyrus scanned the car in front of him before looping the chain around the car's spoiler and tying it as well, squeezing the chain knot afterwards for good measure.

“There…” Sighed Cyrus in exhaustion while he rubbed his hands in an attempt to sooth the pain. “And to answer your question, I'm bringing it with us.” Cyrus answered before falling backwards onto the orange sand, groaning loudly as he did.

“Why? It's just junk, an abundance of useless pipes and metal sheets connected together.” Dea argued, looking down at the griffin. The latter opened his eyes to look at Dea.

“Doesn't look that way to me.” Cyrus spoke as he sat up, planting his arms onto the ground for an extra push. “One tigress’s trash is another Griffin's treasure, as the saying goes.” He said just before standing up, wincing from his tired legs and sore arms as he did.

“Whatever floats your boat, tough guy.” Dea said with her arms crossed. “So can we leave before anything else shows up?” She asked, unfurling her arms as she did before walking back up to driver's seat of the car.

As the door closed with Dea inside, Cyrus still stood outside while dusting himself off. The sand bothered him greatly as it could easily scratch the skin under his own fur if not careful. Once he finished though, he walked up the car and opened the passenger's side door before taking a seat inside.

“If that hunk a junk drags us down I'm cutting it off.” Dea said, putting the gear into drive.

“It's tied by a chain.” Informed Cyrus in deadpan like tone. This earned groan from Dea before she turned the steering wheel to the left and stomped the accelerator, dragging the buggy frame behind them as she drove off.

Author's Note

Does anyone like/read this?

Just a question I'd like to put out there.

Hope you enjoyed and please notify me of any errors.