Walk The Aftermath

The stallion watched the RV speed away through the scope of his rifle, and sighed as it grew smaller and smaller.

"They left?"

"Yes, yes, they have left."

"Good."

Windy Nights said, cocking the pistol she had pressed against the side of the stallion's head, and pulling the trigger.

2 Months Later

The snow had piled up significantly, causing Stone Temple and StarFire to struggle with the front door to the building. After straining to get it open and closed again, the mare's sighed and looked around.

"Looks pretty looted to me."

"Well, maybe we'll get lucky."

StarFire took the thick wool scarf covering her face off and spoke more clearly the second time.

"Let's just hope that Bolt and Red have more luck than we have today."

"Speaking of, I'll see if I can find something to contact them with."

"K, let's just try to be quiet."

"Got it."

Stone Temple moved upstairs, drawing the crowbar she had equipped herself with earlier and slowly spinning it in her wing. Upstairs was a small open room, with a hallway on either side, each with three doors within their lengths.

"Guess I'll go left first."

Meanwhile, downstairs in the kitchen, StarFire was carefully opening cabinets with the machete her sister had given her and stepping back after they opened. On about the third top level cabinet, she gasped when she saw the rats infesting it.

"Fucking kidding me? Out, all of you."

She tried to shoo the vermin away from the few morsels of food left in the cabinet, but many just hissed at her and continued eating.

"Fine, you have that one. Fucker."

She moved on to the lower cabinets, and upon opening them found a small box of matches and a bottle of alcohol.

"Huh, can only imagine what's being implied here. Hmm, not exactly my type, maybe Stone will like this."

Back upstairs, Stone Temple had found nothing in any of the rooms to the left, and proceeded to the ones in the right hallway. When she opened the first door, a zombie stallion fell out and almost on top of her. She managed to dodge it, but fell backwards in the process of doing so. Her head hit against the wall, causing her vision to blur slightly as she watched the zombie stand up. With all her frayed strength, Stone Temple pushed herself up, dragging the hooked end of the crowbar and swinging it up clean through the zombies rotting mouth, knocking out almost every tooth. When she finished her swing, she readjusted her grip and drove the pointed end into the zombie's eye, killing it. StarFire walked upstairs just in time to witness the finishing blow, and looked at her sister with a look of both shock and slight envy.

"You just really aren't afraid of them, are you?"

"Can't be, that's how they get ya. What's that?"

"Could be your reward I guess, if it's your brand."

StarFire tossed the bottle to Stone Temple with a slight grin, and Stone Temple caught it with an almost mimicked one.

"Scotch? Jeez, I haven't had any of this since Mitzy died."

"Why'd you have to remind me about Mitzy?"

"Sorry. Come here, why don't you have a little?"

"No, you know I don't drink alcohol."

"Yeah right, didn't I see you down a whole bottle of Amaretto last birthday I was home for?"

StarFire smiled and sat down beside her sister, taking the bottle being handed to her.

"What's it been, six years?"

StarFire took a small sip of the liquid, happy to have an form of hydration. She recoiled slightly at the taste and sting of the alcohol, and Stone Temple took the bottle from her.

"It's strong. Not used to that."

"Well, I'd kinda hope not."

Stone Temple chuckled, taking a swift swig of the gentle amber fliud, and set the bottle down beside her.

"Probably shouldn't have too much, barely had anything to eat in almost two days, won't be much there to absorb it."

"Yeah, maybe your right."

"Come on then, we still got two rooms to check."

"And...now."

Redline and ThunderBolt quickly moved across the street, taking out the two zombies in front of the school with their melee weapons. ThunderBolt quickly opened door, and ran inside as Redline closed it.

"Hallway looks clear."

"Let's check the classrooms, we go back to back and don't break position."

"Yeah."

ThunderBolt agreed as he spun the butterfly knife around in his wing. Redline pulled the claw hammer from his toolbelt and flipped it once, catching it just before kicking the first door open. The room was just an empty classroom, only being with a few scattered desks.

"Nice entrance and all, but maybe we should do this silently next time."

"Fine, buzzkill. Where the hell'd all the desks go?"

"Suppose somepony stole them?"

"Pfft, the hell'd wanna steal desks?"

ThunderBolt shrugged as he walked back to the door.

"Barricades maybe, not an entirely terrible idea. C'mon, still got about twenty rooms to check I'm sure."

Two more half empty rooms later, ThunderBolt put his knife away and leaned on the teachers desk.

"I think this place is pretty secure, may wanna set up a secondary camp here."

"Why would we do that?"

"Think about it. If we slowly secure every building in this town, and build walls around every building we secure, we'll basically have our own town!"

"Well, we may just have t'wait 'till the winter's over for that."

"Dreamcrusher."

The two stallions chuckled as they walked out of the room and looked down both hallways.

"Well, forward or right?"

"I guess we can go right, looks like we could just loop back in any case."

"Lead on then."

ThunderBolt walked slowly down the school hallway, looking at the many foal's drawings posted up on various bulletin boards. He stopped suddenly and stared dead-faced at a simple drawing of the school. It was by no definition anything special, which is why Redline was weirded out by ThunderBolt approaching the board.

"Um, Bolt, what's goin' on?"

ThunderBolt didn't respond for a second, but instead took the drawing down and looked at it.

"Bubble Blitz...she, she did this."

"What?"

"This drawing, she did this, see!"

ThunderBolt turned the drawing around so that the two could see the back of it. Sure enough, the name Bubble Blitz was written in sub-par penmanship in the bottom corner.

"Wait a minute, so that means-"

"We're inside the school from PonyVille?"

"No, no this isn't even close to how that school looks. But, if this board and this drawing are here, then maybe some things from the old world are here."

"Oh pfft."

"No, seriously, think about it. We all got here, didn't we? So what's to say that certain objects didn't get transported here too?"

"Well, even if that did happen, why the hell would just the board get put here?"

ThunderBolt shook his head, looking from the drawing to the bulletin board and back again.

"None of this makes any sense. How the hell could this get here?"

"Maybe, and here me out, maybe we's inside some crazy virtual reality, and somepony is putting that there on purpose."

"Oh, and my theory was crazy."

"S'worth a shot."

"Well, whatever. Let's just get through this and get outta here."

"Wanna just cut it short? Runnin' on fumes here anyways."

"Yeah, seems like there isn't any threat, let's go."

The team moved around the rest of the school, merely looking into the classrooms for anything of interest before moving on. Eventually, they made their way to the office, having still not seen a zombie.

"Well, here's where I spent most of my time in school."

"Get into trouble a lot did'ya?"

"Yeah, had a bit of a thing for pranking. Me and my friends all did."

ThunderBolt chuckled as he walked over to the door and opened it. Nothing was inside, so the two of them walked in.

"Shit, empty."

"Ain't there a nurse's office 'round here or somethin'?"

"There should be, but I sure don't see one. Maybe, maybe there's a gym around here, has first aid kit in it?"

"Yeah, let's look for that."

Just outside the principal's office was a entrance and a large set of double doors that was barricaded.

"How did we miss this?"

Redline remarked as he walked closer to the doors. There was a large wooden plank in between the door handles, and writing on the door read 'condemned'.

"Well, that's ominous."

"Yeah, but it won't stop me."

"Woah woah woah, what do you think this is, Red? The sign says stay out, man."

Redline gave ThunderBolt an unamused look for a moment, then knocked hard on the door three times. After waiting a few seconds, he nodded to ThunderBolt.

"Satisfied?"

"Whatever, just remember that we don't have any guns."

"No problem, not like I haven't had any close quarters experience before. Ready?"

"Yeah."

"One, two, three."

The two stallions pushed the board out of the way and stepped back, drawing their weapons. After a few seconds of nothing, ThunderBolt nodded to Redline, who threw open the doors. The room was dark, but was surprisingly warm as they stepped inside. ThunderBolt took the flashlight from his coat and shined it around the room. His mouth dropped open when he saw the three pairs of eyes staring back at him.

"Ho..ly..shit."

Shadow Spot opened her eyes, jolting slightly as she was shooken awake. She looked up to see Haywire, the newest addition to their group. He was a younger earth pony stallion, barely even a stallion, with a light blonde mane and white coat. He smiled at her and sat down in the chair across from her.

"You alright there? You sure were shaking."

"Oh, uh, yeah. Yeah, I-I'm fine. B-bad dream I guess."

"Really? Tell me about it."

"No, no, I'm sure you wouldn't wanna here it."

Haywire chuckled and pulled a small, many times folded peice of paper from his sweater and passed it to Shadow Spot. She unfolded it and looked at it, seeing that the word 'psychology' came up a few times.

"What's this?"

"My classes. Manehatten U. So, about this dream."

Shadow Spot smiled and tossed the paper back to the stallion.

"Alright, let's see what'cha got. In the dream, I was running through a real narrow hallway, and it was getting tighter and tighter. There was a voice, and I couldn't figure out who it was, but I could see an outline. Before I could reach them, you woke me up."

"Hm, well, I suppose that this could resemble something...who did the outline look like, anypony you know?"

"It was a mare, that's all."

"Hmm. Outline you say? Was it more of a shadow, like from a light behind them?"

"Yeah, actually. How did you know?"

"Well, when somepony has died, they'll sometimes appear 'in heaven' so to say. I believe that the dream is good, showing how the mare is in a good place."

"Huh."

After a long pause of contemplation, both heads turned when the front door opened. It was Angel, justing coming in from checking on Stitch, who was outside at the front gate.

"Still alive and well?"

"Well, he's alive. Seems he's developing more and more of a cold."

"No doubt, he's been out there almost every day for more than ten hours each time. Does he have a fire going or anything?"

"It was just embers when I came in."

"Boy's gonna freeze himself to death out there. Why do we need a guard anyway? The gate was here when we arrived, I'm sure it'll stay here for a while."

"Believe me, I feel the same."

Angel pulled up one of the kitchen chairs and sat down between the other two ponies, shivering as she pulled her scarf up around her. Shadow Spot smiled and stood up, looking at Angel.

"Here, get closer to the fire, I'm gonna see if I can get in contact with the others."

Angel smiled as she graciously took the chair, and Shadow Spot could faintly hear a conversation starting as she ascended the stairs. One of the rooms used to be an office, and had since been turned into a comms room. Slipping on the headset, Shadow Spot took a seat behind the various equipment.

"Does anyone read me, repeat, does anyone read me."

After a few moments of silence, Shadow Spot sigjed and tried again.

"This is Shadow Spot from the manor, does anypony read me, hello?"

When no response came again, Shadow Spot leaned back in the chair and sighed, covering her mouth. She let out a frustrated gasp, and threw the headset down beside the equipment.

"We'd collected a lot before the winter came, it's gotten us this far at least."

The unicorn mare sat down in the small wooden chair across from the couch ThunderBolt and Redline were sitting on. ThunderBolt was slightly tense, keeping his wing draped slightly over his weapon as he tried to get a read on the mare. Her mane was white with small streaks of various other colors throughout, atop a magenta coat. Redline took a short moment to eye the two younger ponies in the room. The pegasus stallion, or possibly still a colt, had a greyish mane, and a yellow coat. The obviously still a filly unicorn however looked remarkably similar to the mare across from him, but with a black mane instead of a white one.

"We've, well, we've been through a lot to say the least. Oh, how rude of me, we haven't even exchanged greetings. My name is Summer Bloom...It's a pleasure to see some friendly faces."

"I'm ThunderBolt, this is Redline, it's good to meet you."

"Well, I can only imagine how much you two have been through, what with this weather."

"Well, we are on a bit of a mission."

"Oh? What's that? If you don't mind me asking of course."

ThunderBolt reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a slightly crumpled piece of paper. He straightened it out as best he could before passing it to Summer Bloom. It had boxes to be checked off, beside them were various prescription names in a variety of different hoofwriting.

"This is quite some list, you're obviously not alone?"

"We have a group, back about five miles."

"Five miles, oh my. You two must be incredibly tired."

"Well, this was as far out as we planned to go, so we still have enough to get us back, right Red?"

"Yeah, yeah."

Redline very seldom looked at the other two. He kept his gaze between the two younger ponies and the various objects around the gym.

"Is there, something I can help you with, sir?"

"Them, they just barely kids. Your kids?"

"Yes, technically."

"Technically?"

Summer Bloom looked over at her children longingly as they prepared tea.

"The boy, Dawnhoof, he's his fathers. Had him a year or so before we were met and married. But her, she's mine."

"So, if it ain't too sensitive a subject.."

Before Redline could finish the sentence, the mare adjusted herself in the chair and sighed.

"What was the door like to get in here?"

"There was a plank in the handles, but that's it."

"Well, it's been four days. He went out on a supply run, promising he'd be back. You haven't happened to see him, have you?"

"I don't think so."

"Yeah, we haven't really come across too many others, and it's pretty hard to see out there anyways."

Summer Bloom simply nodded as the two younger ponies placed a tray on the table and scampered away. Redline looked around, nudging ThunderBolt and nodding to him.

"Um, if you could excuse us, just for a moment."

"Sure, sure."

The two stallions stood up and walked over to the now propped open door.

"What is it?"

"We gotta go. We still have to get back before sundown, and there could be anything out there that we missed."

"Well we can't just leave them here. Don't know if you picked up on it, I kinda failed to mention what was written on the door."

"Yeah, well, that ain't our problem."

"So you're gonna leave them here to die?"

"We don't have enough resources to keep them. I would want to, but this ain't like months ago, when we had plenty. Lootin's gettin' hard enough as is, and unless they can help, they can't stay with us."

ThunderBolt sighed as he looked over at the trio of ponies across the gym, then looked back to Redline.

"Alright. I'll try to get a read on how they're stocked and what they can do. But I got a job for you."

"What's that?"

"Go out and scavenge with the boy, see what he can do. Get him a weapon, see if you can at least scope out a hospital or something. And remember, keep an eye out for the husband. I'll ask for a picture, and give it to you before you leave. We find him, we restore a family. Maybe a little good karma will come our way."

"Well, I'd say that's a wrap."

"No shit, and about damn time. Let's just hope the journey home goes a little smoother."

Stone Temple moved her hat a little further down on her head and nodded to StarFire before kicking the door open. Immediately, she regretted the decision when a shooting pain went up her leg, knocking her to the ground slightly. She had forgotten that she had broken that leg during the escape from the mini-mall, and it apparently hadn't fully healed yet.

"Shit, are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, I just need to stop kicking things apparently."

"Can you walk?"

"Yeah, let's try to move slow, I don't know how fast I can go."

StarFire put a hoof around her sister's neck and helped her walk back toward the house. The wind had picked up, and was affecting visibility just enough to make the journey home harder. They only came across two zombies, but when they got to the front gate, they saw that Stitch was slowly taking out a group that had gathered around it. StarFire dropped her hoof from around Stone Temple and helped finish off the last few.

"Stitch? Everything alright?"

"Yes, is fine. Good that you are back, but we may have problem."

"What's that?"

"Door opens toward you, you're going to have to move bodies."

"Shit, couldn't be easy, huh? Alright, let's do it. Think you can help, sis?"

"Probably. I really hope Red and Bolt find some damn painkillers."

As they moved the bodies, StarFire swore she heard something over the growing storm. She drew the hatchet, and as she rolled a corpse over, the one under it sprang to life, almost biting her before she drove the weapon in the top of it's head. Stone Temple and Stitch both heard the fight, and since the gate could now be opened, both came over.

"How was he not dead, I stabbed him!"

"What are you using?"

Stitch held out the small screwdriver that he was using. StarFire took it, and after looking it over, pocketed it.

"You're gonna need to find something longer, I don't think you killed it."

"Good to know, I will check around for another. Let's go, she looks wounded."

"I'm fine, just opening an old wound really."

"Go in, get her to Angel, see if she has meds."

"You're staying out here?"

"Of course, we need watch."

"You're gonna freeze to death! The wall will keep them out, come inside, at least for a little while."

Stitch looked around, through the gate and into the snowy city.

"Proklyat'ye...fine."

Dawnhoof stopped, perched on a slippery edge, and looked through the blinding white.

"Look there."

Redline squinted and looked over at where the colt was pointing. There was a large, one-level building about a quarter of a mile down the road. Though portions of it were whited out, both ponies could understand that it was a hospital.

"This is a very good thing, medical supplies are always in high demand now."

"Sure are. How's about we mark this as a future loot run?"

"Yes, we should. However, we must go, as night will be here soon."

Dawnhoof turned and started walking back toward the school.

"So kid, tell me about yourself. That school the one ya went to?"

"No, no, mother homeschooled us."

"Oh. Well, what was that like?"

"Just about as much good as anything else. Mother does have her degree of course, and I don't mind the environment. 'Drowning myself in books' as sister always says. What about you, where did you aquire your education?"

"Well, I kinda went straight to work after a few years in school. Had some pretty good connections."

"Ah, I see. Father had a good friend who did the same. It did seem to work quite well for him."

"Gotta say, you're kinda talking all, well, fancier'n me. You pick that up yourself?"

"Yes, why?"

"I didn't really get that from your mother."

"Well, you wouldn't have. I'm well aware of my parental situation, and even if she is quite different than father and myself, I love her the same."

"You a lot like yer father?"

"Spitting image, so I've been told. Always have been. Took after his mannerisms at an early age, took a firm hold of his intellect, and even happened upon his love of foreign literature."

"Wow, he sounds like quite the interesting stallion."

"Quite so. Not much of a free spirit though, quite introverted truly."

"Well, comes with loving foreign literature I suppose."

Redline chuckled, and a bit to his surprise, so did DawnHoof. As they reached the door of the school, they, they could hear a slight commotion from inside. Redline quickly drew his weapon and ran inside. As he reached the doorway, DawnHoof shined his flashlignt in the room, and both gasped. Summer Bloom and her daughter were in the corner, cowering in fear. ThunderBolt was strattling a zombie, multiple others on the ground around him, continuously stabbing his target with decreasing speed. After one final stab, ThunderBolt looked up, blood coating a good amount of his body. He could only mutter a few exasperated words before collapsing to the ground.

As Windy Nights approached the sign, she struggled to read it's entirety through the snow and various rust patches.

"Marina. I'm at the water."

She turned and took one more looked at what she could see of the city. The few infected nearby were growing closer, so Windy Nights took in a deep, cold breath, and headed onto one of the docks. Of the boats that remained, many were frozen in their places.

"Hope somepony else is being as smart as I am. I really hope it's the old group."

Reaching the farthest extension of the wooden docks, Windy Nights put a hoof gently on the ice. She struggled slightly to keep herself stable as she made her way across the frozen waters. A quick look over her shoulder confirmed that her idea was valid, as the zombies were having an even more difficult time traversing the ice than she was.

"Good, I was right to do this then."

Windy Nights pulled the strap of her bag higher onto her shoulder and continued forward. After roughly half an hour of walking, a faded, snow-blinded outline of a building came into view.

"There, there it is."

After making her way to one of the cylindrical supports, Windy Nights placed a hoof on the rusty ladder. She looked up quickly, and started ascending the ladder. Once she reached the top, she looked around.

"Shit."

She drew the rifle she had most available, the silenced Scar-H on the strap at her side, and took down the two zombies in front of her. As she aimed at the third, she saw a machete swing into it's head. A pony dressed in full winter gear stepped out from around the corner and sheathed the machete, drawing a pistol and aiming it at her.

"Hey, I'm friendly!"

"Put your weapon down, and walk over here slowly."

The strong, commanding voice from the stallion was able to instill a small amount of fear into Windy Night's heart, and she followed the command. After reaching the stallion, she was pushed into the nearby doorway, and she fell onto the floor, her bag and gun falling at her side. She looked up to the the stallion aiming his pistol at her, along with another stallion and a mare.

"Name, occupation, reason for being here. 15 seconds starting now."

"I-I'm lieutenant Windy Nights, I'm just here to find shelter for the winter, I don't mean any harm."

The stallion pulled his hood off, reavealing long brown locks and five o'clock shadow around his army green face.

"Get up, kick the gun over, and step away from the bag."

Once again, Windy Nights followed the commands. After the stallion made a whistling sound and a motion to one of the mares, she ran over and picked the bag up and set it on the table.

"Alright, now just listen. We don't want to hurt you, we're just a little on edge, as you can surely imagine."

"It's ok."

The stallion nodded, and slowly lowered his pistol, signalling to the others to lower their guns.

"I'm Broken Earth. She's FireWind, he's Pendulum, and Voodoo should be around here somewhere. As long as you don't cause trouble, you should be fine to stay here for the winter."