Walk The Aftermath

"Well, I'd say that's unstable enough for anyone but you, wouldn't you say?"

The dog, as it would, didn't respond, but continued sitting guard and panting under the sun.

"And I'm talking to a dog."

As if by response, which FireStarter took it as, the dog barked.

"Fine, fine. You're, a companian."

The dog barked again, and again soon after, prompting FireStarter to turn and look. The dog had been barking at a figure that was moving slowly along the side of the buildings directly behind them.

"Oh, ok, I see. Don't worry boy, I'll take care of him."

FireStarter drew his pistol, still having half the rounds left in the magazine, and aimed it at the figure while moving toward it.

"Hey, over here stupid!"

His attempt to draw the 'zombie's' attention failed when the figure looked at him, then ran off into a nearby mechanics shop.

"The fuck? I really hope that isn't actually a zombie, otherwise this whole zombie apocalypse situation just got a whole lot more complicated."

As he turned back to the dog, he motioned for him to stay, and started moving toward where the figure ran. He slowly pushed the door open, leading in with his gun, and looked around. It was dark in there, and the only thing that stood out was the lone car sitting in the small shop. After poking his head over the counter and seeing nothing, he walked toward the car, gun trained on it. A few bolts that were laying on the floor scattered when he accidentally kicked them, and a sudden movement came from inside the car. FireStarter, assuming the more reasonable probability, fire a shot at what he once again thought was a zombie. When he heard the shot miss and hit a tool chest nearby, he moved forward. He reached the car, and went to draw his flashlight, when the hood was forced open, hitting him in the head and knocking him to the floor. Through now blurry vision, FireStarter watched a figure crawl out of the engine bay and grab him. The figure threw him up and forward, his stomach smashing against the grill of the vehicle. Through the empty bay, he saw his pistol on the floor, just before the figure spun him around and delivered a strong hoof to the face. The blow sent him sideways, but he exaggerated the force and fell to the floor, grabbing his pistol and cocking it as he aimed it at the figure. Before he could tell it to freeze or anything else, the gun was out of his grasp, and pointed at him. He threw both front hooves in the air, as if surrendering, but kicked the figure in the gun and fired a round at the ceiling when the gun was back in his possesion.

"Don't move!"

"What the hell!?"

FireStarter looked over the figure's shoulder and saw Windy Nights and Stone Temple were standing in the doorway.

"Good damn thing you two are back, whoever this is just beat the shit out of me."

"What?!"

Stone Temple walked up to the figure and spun it around to face her.

"Alright buddy, I want a name and a reason for beatin' on my friend here."

The figure slowly nodded, then started walking to the exit. Once outside in the light, he turned around to face the other three. He was an earth pony, with a dark red mane and a black coat. He had a medical mask covering his muzzle, which he moved down before speaking

"Name's Stitch. By the way, your friend shot first. Alright, I'll be on my way then."

"Hold on, hold on."

As Windy Nights walked up to Stitch, he turned around again.

"Why were you in there?"

"Looking for a way out. Rumor has it that this place isn't all that exists. If we can find a way to go far and fast without flying, it would be best."

"And, why exactly did you not declare to him that you were friendly?"

"It's the apocalypse, nopony is friendly."

Stitch chuckled through his sentence and started walking away again. Stone Temple walked up beside Windy Nights and whispered something to her. After a few seconds, she turned back to Stitch.

"Hey!"

"Yes?"

"You got anywhere safe? Some kind of bunker, maybe even just a fortified house?"

Without responding, Stitch turned and pointed to a building that could barely be seen through the bright sun.

"About three clicks that way, little slice of heaven. Fortified it basically by myself, it's just about as zombie-proof as a funtioning military base."

"Is this place open?"

"Well sir, that depends."

"On?"

"What do you have to offer us?"

"Us? There are others?"

Stitch, figuring the coversation would continue, walked back to the group.

"Correct inference missy. Plenty of help, plenty of protection, plenty of just about everything you need. But, we've thus far only taken in those who help us for helping them."

"What about protection? Two out of the three of us have trainin'. Her military, myself police."

"And him nothing? What would he offer?"

"Before all this, I was an engineer. Just about anything you can think of, I can take a damn good shot at building."

"Really? Hmm. What all do you know about vehicles?"

"Not very much, though internal combustion engines did run some of our machines back where I worked. May know my way around them."

"Two militants and an engineer. Well, safe to say that you three earned your way. Let's go."

"Wait, one question."

"Shoot."

"Are you trained in any way? You really kicked the shit out of me, and you moved pretty quick."

"Well, professionally trained, no. But when you're fending for yourself since you were a foal, you learn stuff. Now come on, let's get you three back to base."

When the group walked up to the former mini-mall, they could see small buildings serving as overwatch towers, and barbed wire coated the array of spikes around the building. The sun gleamed off of the blood staining the defenses, and back into their eyes.

"Clear!"

Stitch held his hoof up and yelled when the guard on the left aimed his sniped atbthe group. The stallion in the tower put his gun down and held a hoof out for a moment.

"How did you get all this?"

"Barbed wire was from a farm way back when, and the guard towers are just a hell of a lot of wood, bricks, and work."

"No doubt."

"Anyways, let's get inside."

Stitch pushed the main gate aside and motioned for the rest to move through it. After they were all inside, he shut the gate and looked around outside before walking in behind them. Windy Nights stopped and lookes around at the setup. Almost all of the shelves were pushed up against the front doors and windows, the rest pushed into the far left corner for storage. There was a kitchen just to the right of it, which she could see was being used by another mare. Over to the right, there were only a few bunk beds, and multiple sleeping bags. Close to that, she could see a younger stallion playing with a filly. The thought of even just a little safety made her smile. She felt something move and rub against her leg, and she looked down to see her dog.

"Oh, hey buddy, how are you? I really still gotta you a name."

She crouched down and looked at his tags again, still finding no name. As she rubbed behind the happy dogs ears, she looked into his eyes.

"Oscar. You seem like an Oscar. You like Oscar?"

The dog licked Windy Nights' face, as if in agreeance, and she laughed.

"Alright buddy, Oscar it is."

When she noticed that FireStarter and Stone Temple were still over by the front door, she walked over.

"So? What do you two think of this place?"

"I think he was right. Little piece of heaven."

"Let's not entirely let our guards down though. This place does look safe, but remember that anything can happen."

"What about you Windy?"

"Gosh, it really is heaven, as far as I can see. Food, water, plenty of guns and ponies to use them. Think we could consider this place home soon."

"But what about our plan? Where did you two put the gas?"

"Inside. We just got back when we heard the shot and ran to help, we can set it up at just about any time we please."

"Well, I suppose that's all good then. Still got that molotov?"

"It's in the building. If anything, we can make another one. I'm already seein' plenty of booze."

"Alright. Good good. Let's make ourselves at home shall we?"

Later that night, when almost all the ponies had gathered and eaten dinner, Stitch stood from his place at the head of the table and adressed everyone.

"Alright, alright, listen up. I'd like to announce, if you somehow haven't met them yet, these are our newest community members, second luitenant Windy Nights, officer Stone Temple, and FireStarter, the engineer."

As the ponies raised their hooves or nodded when respectively called, the ones around them offered soft clapping and nods of approval.

"And of course, let's hear a short round of applause, though they can't hear it, for our tower guards tonight, Redline and Absent Mind."

Another round of applause came, this time the newer three joining in.

"Alright, you all have about forty minutes before we shut the lights down, so an early goodnight to you all. Dismissed."

Collectively, all the ponies at the table stood up and went in different directions. Windy Nights and Stone Temple however did not, but instead remained sitting at the table.

"Damn, I'm startin' to think this is truly our home for the apocalypse."

"Well, we can only hope."

"Seems to be about all we got left. It's always better to have it than to not."

After a couple moments of silence, Stone Temple looked just past Windy Nights and chuckled as she nudged her.

"Looks like Oscar's already made a friend."

Windy Nights looked where Stone Temple pointed and saw a long grey mane with a bright blue striped through it atop the head of a pink filly. Oscar was sitting on the floor, watching the filly as she played with his fur. The two mares chuckled and watch for the few seconds before a navy blue stallion with a red and black mane ran over.

"Gee, leave for one second and she's drawn here. My apologies."

"Oh no, no, it's fine. He seems to be enjoying the attention anyways. Second luitenant Windy Nights, and this is office Stone Temple, it's nice to meet you."

"ThunderBolt, likewise. And this little spazball is Bubble Blitz."

"She's mighty cute. How old is she?"

"Just turned six."

"It's a damn shame that this is the world she's growin' up in."

"Isn't that the truth. Alright sweetie, say goodnight to your friend, we gotta get you to bed."

Bubble Blitz quickly hugged Oscar before standing up and walking away with ThunderBolt.

"Where the hell's FireStarter gone to anyway?"

"Who knows? He's probably off looking for brownies or something."

"That boy and his sweet tooth. Well, I'm about ready to hit the hay, what about you?"

"Sounds like a plan, We've really had a rough day."

"There are rougher ones ahead I fear, but let's cross that bridge when we reach it."

Being the newer arrivals, Stone Temple, FireStarter, and Windy Nights were only given sleeping mats and one blanket each for the night. Though she was able to fall asleep easily, she tossed and turned from the same recurring nightmare that had haunted her almost since this whole thing began. But this time, there was something strange about it. There was the same zombie, cornering her mother just the same, but this time she was in front, and there was a figure behind the zombie. She was screaming...something, what was it? She saw the figure raise a gun, and she yelled something again. In the real world, the wind had picked up, and shook the guard towers ever so slightly. Redline, a grey unicorn with a red mane was sitting in one of the towers, and looked over at the stallion in the other tower to see him aiming through his sight. He levitated out his walkie-talkie and spoke.

"Whatcha got, kid?"

"Not sure. Saw a glimmer, saw something move, but nothing out of the ordinary I think."

"What kinda glimmer? Like magic, or like a reflection?"

"Kinda like a reflection, yeah. Hold on, I'll see if I can find it again."

Redline poked his head slightly higher up in the tower as he watched the other stallion looking around. Then, Redline caught the glimmer in his peripheral vision, and it all clicked. He dove down in the tower just as he heard the shot go off, just at the same time Windy Nights awoke from her dream. She snapped her head up and looked around the room, seeing that nopony had moved, except for one unicorn mare halfway across the sleeping area. The orange coated mare turned and looked at Windy Nights and spoke to her through tangled locks of dirty blonde mane.

"You heard that too, right?"

"Heard what? I-I just had a bad dream."

"I heard a gunshot, and it wasn't from the tower."

"Oh shit, you think they're OK?"

"I hope so, but I'm not taking any risk."

As the mare stood up, Windy Nights could clearly see the machete strapped tonher rear leg, and stood up to move after her.

"Wait, you're not really gonna go out there are you?"

"Of course not, I haven't been outside in a little over a week, and that's about all I've been here for. I'm too bloody terrified of those things, I just about freeze uo every time I see one."

"So, what're you doing?"

"Stitch has an emergency walkie set to the same frequency as the tower ones, hopefully they'll both speak back."

As the mare reached a counter near the front door, she quickly opened it and levitated the walkie-talkie to her ear.

"Towers, come in. I heard a shot, is everything alright?"

There was a little bit of static before the two mares heard a faint, crackly voice come over the radio.

"Yeah, I'm fine. No idea what happened to Absent Mind though. Poor bastard, he ain't reponding. I have a real bad feelin' that that bullet had his name on it."

The unicorn raised a hoof to her mouth as she listened. Windy Nights bowed her head and waited for someone to say something.

"Wake everyone up, we gotta talk about makin' this place safer, and fast. I'll be back inside quick as I can."

The mare nodded and put the walkie-talkie back in it's place before running over to the sleeping area.

"Everypony! Wake up! Wake up!"

Most of the bodies slowly shifted and looked up at the mare that was yelling. Windy Nights ran over to her friends and shook them awake as well.

"Windy? The hell?"

"We gotta wake up, something bad's going down."

"Course, why wouldn't it."

After all the ponies had been woken up, they grouped up a few metres from the fromt door, and looked at the orange mare. Before anyone could speak, Redline came through the far door to the tower and the orange mare ran into an embrace with him.

"It's alright sweetie, it's alright, I'm fine."

"Redline, Angel, I'm assuming if the two of you wish ti stay here you'll tell me what the hell this is about."

"Some crazy sum'bitch has our number Stitch!"

"What the hell do you mean?"

"We was looking around like normal, right. Then outta nowhere, I hear a shot, now Absent Mind ain't responding."

"What?!"

Everyone's attention turned to the mare that had pushed her way to the front of the group. Redline and Stitch looked at each other, while all the others simply bowed their heads.

"Is...i-is he-"

Before the mare could finish, there was a loud bang on the alternate tower door that made some jump, and the rest draw their weapons. There were at least six aiming their weapoms at the door, while the rest slowly stepped away.

"It's him, isn't it?"

"Fraid so. Also afraid'a this, that door ain't made well. He wants in, he'll get in."

Stitch nodded and turned to look at the other ponies who were aiming at the door.

"Any of you who won't be able to pull the trigger, stand down."

After a few seconds, three out of the four slowly lowered their guns and backed away, leaving only Thunderbolt.

"Thunderbolt, stand down. Think about your daughter."

The pegasus looked down at the cowering filly near his back legs, and sighed as he stepped back. Stitch turned back to the door, aiming down the sights just as Redline was. After a few more bangs, the hinges of the door creaked, and the door slammed onto the floor, the young stallions body on top of it.

"Absent Mind!"

The mare yelled as she ran over to what was once her son. Stitch protested and tried to stop her, but she escaped from his grasp and dropped down on the floor beside the zombie. There was only a moment of audible weeping as Stitch ran to pull the greiving mare back, but the zombie jumped up and pinned to the ground, taking a swift and bloody bite out of her neck. As she screamed and blood sprayed over the zombie and floor around her, Stitch moved back and aimed his gun again. No shot was fired for a long time, far longer than it should have taken. Suddenly, the zombie snapped it's head up, eyes locked on Stitch, and a bullet raced through its head. ThunderBolt stepped over to the body as it fell over to the side, and looked at the mare, bleeding and coughing in a pool of blood.

"I'm sorry."

He whispered softly before pulling the trigger on the mare, ending her misery. As he holstered his revolver, he let his head lower, and his eyes close. He still didn't say a word as he walked past the group and over to his daughter, leading her back to the sleeping area. Stitch shot Redline a look of confusion, to which he nodded.

"I'll go talk to 'im."

"Good, I think he needs it."

ThunderBolt had just tucked Bubble Blitz in on the mat where she slept, and planted a kiss on her forehead before she rolled over. He turned just to see Redline standing in front of him.

"Thunder-"

"Look, I know what you're going to say, but it had to be done, and clearly no one else was volunteering."

"Is this about-"

"Nothing to do with it."

Redline could see in ThunderBolt's eyes that he was right, but knew very well that he didn't wish to speak of it. He nodded and slowly backed away, over to Stitch.

"We need t' s'cure this place more."

"How do you suggest?"

"Well, little more barved wire wouldn't hurt, more barricades 'n we could get this place safer 'n'ell."

"Well, if you say so. We'll send a group out tomorrow."

"How 'bout the rookies? Givem a chance to prove 'emselves."

"You may be right, but for right now, we should sleep for the next couple hours. You don't need to go back up by the way."

"Good, need to comfort Angel anyways, seems a lil shook up."

"Who isn't after that?"

"Whoever isn't must be one stone cold sum'bitch."

High Road stopped and looked at the intersection she found herself in. There were only tall office-type buildings, none of which she needed to enter.

"Dammit guys, where are you?"

After having spent the night fully awake, hiding in the corner of a funeral home, she was tired and on edge. Having to kill a zombie first, she moved up to the door of the first office building and knocked.

"Hello? Anypony home?"

She waited a few seconds for a response that she wasn't expecting anyways. After she had waited, she turned around and started walking the same way she had been. After a couple minutes and a few zombie kills, High Road stumbled upon a pharmacy that looked to be at least be partially looted.

"Please tell me this was you guys."

High Road drew the pistol from her right holster and aimed it through the doorway. Her readied position was held as she walked into the building and looked around. As she stepped through the farthest left aisle, she spotted an open shelf, and only a few bottles left.

"Oxycodone huh? Yeah, this was Stone Temple and the rest. Her at the least. Hm, suppose it wouldn't hurt to grab some stuff for myself."

She quickly shuffled down the aisles, looking for something that was already taken or never there. With a sigh, she turned to the front door, just to see a zombie lunging at her. Se reacted quick enough to dodge it's attack, but tripped backwards over a couple of jerry cans that were on the floor. Not having the caps on, gas slowly started pouring out of the cans once they hit the ground with metallic thuds. When High Road recollected herself and stood up, she aimed her pistol and fired a round through the zombies brain. As she watched it fall to the floor, she readjusted her backpack and stepped out the door.

"Well, now that that's happened, maybe they-"

Only a few steps out the door, multiple shots were heard, and struck the ground just in front of her. One of the shots ricocheted, and hit the metal sheeting that FireStarter had left over, causing a spark to ignite the gasoline that had spilled out of the building. High Road jumoed back when the flame's ignited and ran into the building. She noticed the gasoline trail coming from the jerry cans, and quickly moved them away from the now ignited trail. As she ran for the back door, she noticed a stream of zombies moving toward her, and dove into the office. She closed the door and held it shut with her hooves before she locked it.

"Wow, real shitstorm just happened there eh?"

High Road looked up and squinted the sunlight coming in through the roof's hatch.

"I can get out through there, but I gotta move."

She could feel the zombies pushing at the door, and looking at the lock, it woukdn't hold forever.

"Ok, ok, move fast. One, two, three!"

ALl at once, High Road moved her legs from the door, and jumped up to the hatch, grabbing onto it and pulling herself up. She looked down just as the lock on the door busted off and the zombies flooded the room.

"Well, barely got outta that."

As she looked around on top of the building, she spotted the gleam of a sniper scope, and waving her hoof to show they she was friendly. But the glare didn't move, and her eyes widened just as she heard the shot.