Antipode
Chapter 2
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She exhaled through her nose, the glass pane in front of her dimming. Modern art stunk, or wait, was this even art? Maybe it was more considered modern architecture? She'd figured climbing up the big bridge that crossed the freeway would have given her a good vantage point-- and it had --but well up here the window panes looked even more garish than they had from a distance.

Seriously, who stuck a bunch of random pieces of coloured glass in a grid where most of the panes were otherwise clear?

She got her front legs down from the top of the bench's backrest and sighed. It'd been what, nine days now? Maybe more? Still no sight of any humans... or weird alien creatures for that matter. In all of Gothenburg she seemed to be the only one around.

Maybe it was time to consider the other option? The bridge was certainly far enough up, which had also been a reason why she'd decided to get up here in the first place. Hell, if she angled it just right she could have the branch face first on the way down.

Another sigh escaped her lips as she stared up at the late spring sky. There were still a few birds flying about as well as the occasional cloud in the distance; if she pretend hard enough then everything was just like normal. But the silence all around her told the obvious story.

She wasn't starving or hurting, not yet anyway, but it was hard to keep up hope for a better tomorrow when all that remained was a ghost city. All those trash near future novels about being the last person on earth felt woefully lacking when faced with the reality of it all.

But then again, those lucky bastards tended to at least remain human. Everything was too large for her now. A problem she never expected herself to have what being so god forsaken tall that-

Wait, her ears were doing that funny swivel thing again. She could barely make out some distant sound, more birds? Her eyes widened as the slowly growing louder sound registered for what it actually was: A car engine.

She just sat there on the bench frozen in shock for a few moments. It wasn't until the sound blasted past below her that she scrambled to her hooves and got up on the back of the bench again. Blasting past up the freeway was a white car, the sun catching and reflecting off of the roof.

It only took her a moment to make the decision, scrambling off the bench she rushed to get off the bridge and give chase; all while her mind clouded with doubt that she'd ever catch up.

Another expressive swear rang out as she rolled down the road. She knew that an electric skateboard had no chance in hell with catching up to a car going at ninety. Still, she had to try; there really was no other alternative.

That didn't mean that the sweltering sun glaring down on her helped.

Letting go of the joystick that handled propulsion she slowly came to a halt. With a quick flick she removed her final water bottle from her backpack and emptied it in one go. She hadn't really planned on coming back so she'd neglected to scavenge.

Wasn't there a big grocery store nearby? She never traveled south in the city particularly often, but the few times she had she could have sworn she'd seen a really big grocery store as she went by in the tram. Putting the empty bottle back in her bag she got back into position and nested her tail through the top loop on the backpack. Once she was in position again she got her board moving with new heading in mind.

It felt surreal to "drive" down the highway on her own. Sure it was empty, and sure, she wasn't even driving a car, but still! It felt different then riding along in someone else's car. As the wind slammed into her face from going at top speed she could feel something that she'd been sorely missing for a long time: hope.

There was someone else out there! Yeah, she'd basically lost their trail entirely at this point, but if there was one maybe there were others? Plus it was likely the car was heading straight for the city central; maybe they were also looking for survivors and wanted to hedge their bets?

With a light turn she slowly made her way off the highway and uphill. All the traffic lights were off, as they had been for a few days now; not that there was any traffic to stop for in the first place. The thought of where all the cars had gone crossed her mind again.

It'd been early morning when whatever end of the world thing had decided to take place. The highway should have been packed of cars, it would have been rush hours. And yet... no wreckages, no cars clogging up the roads. Everything was just empty.

Slowly she rolled closer to the brick building she knew to be a grocery store, though the bright red sign made that fact quite clear on its own. Usually the really big ones were located outside the city, in one of the smaller surrounding towns along the highways or other major roads. Yet here this one was located pretty smack dab in the city.

Though maybe that had more to do with the city ever growing southwards, she mused. Where she was now would have previously been close to the border between two different cities entirely.

As she was rolling up the small bridge crossing the river that separated the road from the store's parking area she had to stop. In the middle of the parking lot she spotted two moving white figures, behind them a white car. Her skateboard's momentum carried her almost all the way over to them, all while tears welled up in her eyes. The smaller one was clearly focusing their attention on a grocery cart filled with goods that stood beside them, the other one seemed to merely follow along.

The larger one noticed her first, a giant-- to her anyway --fluffy white dog. With a bark it started running up to her; something which caused the unicorn to turn their head and meet her eyes.

She wasn't alone anymore.

Author's Note

If I were to give this chapter an English title it would be: "The Bridge at the Edge of Fate"

This story is, unless it wasn't clear, meant to be told in an achronological order.

Oh and, expect numbers in metric, what with the characters local.