Strange Hooves

Mike shivers as a new memory floods his senses.

…

When news of the infection hit, Mike didn’t know what to believe. Wither it was the new H1N1 or some other hyped disease not to be worried about, or something to be concerned about was left to be decided. But when the evacuations to the big cities started, Mike knew something was up. The area was to be a safe haven from the Green flu for a while. He had even taken the time to get back together with his family, of all things. They had been given the keys to a house in the suburban area in the city, with other folks telling same stories.

Houses that were on sale but were never bought are now full of families that were forced from their earlier homes. Some of these houses were even nicer than the previous homes, actually. There were plenty of opportunities to be grateful for things in the city. The fences and the concrete wall the military put up in ridiculously short amount of time kept the infected at bay long enough for the military-militia coalition to dispatch them with rifle fire.

Apparently, the military, or whatever’s left of it, has been put under severe threat by the infection. Some folks claim that these were just rumors, but I don’t know. If they were at full strength, the infection would’ve been quelled easily and the need for the coalition would not exist. There was plenty to do. Civilian training for the Militia was commonplace, with wilderness survival and technical training by the former civilian Militia, and combat and physical training by the Army. Everyone ran the courses, read the books, spent time at the firing line, and all of us have graduated these academies by taking part in a zombie hunt. It seemed that the siege would be a somewhat peaceful one. The city… what was its name again? It was something, but they renamed it. What was it again? Ah, yes, New Olympia, Washington.

Everyone thought that good ‘ol Eagleland could be rebuilt after the swarms faded. Well, they didn’t fade. They intensified, with more swarms of Tanks. Freaking hulk-zombies tore right through the wall like paper. Most of us didn’t go through complete training yet, so the city started to fall after the Coalition fell… that was a terrible time.

Mike’s family was readying themselves for a fight by the time the zombies arrived. They were not prepared for this even they had trained for years on the most Spartan of regimes. Mike was the only one left.

Mike stood outside of what once was his home and haven come good weather or ill. The zombies that broke in the back were now scraping against the insides of the front, hungering after Mike. He sees the post-human faces of his family. His father, whom was a good man and always showed him the path of good, his mother, whom loved him and cared for him unconditionally, his brother, whom he always pulled out of trouble, and then got into trouble again later with, and his sisters, whom he loved, even if they were annoying at times. Now, they were anything but lovable and human. Their skin was greyed, their eyes soulless and locked onto Mike’s figure. He had a Molotov cocktail in his hand, match at the ready. He had other weapons, such as his kukri, knife, and a standard issue M1 carbine issued by the coalition. Thing looked like it came right off a WW2 propaganda poster, but it was empty now. Mike dropped the useless weapon and lit the fuse on the molotov. He threw it.

The instrument of fire crashed into the window, shattering the bottle in the process. The fire inside expanded into a fireball, which blotted out the view of the infected inside for just a few moments. The zombies flew out of the window, dying as they stumbled mindlessly, grabbing at the flames. Mike felt a pang of guilt, but he saw his family. Dying because of his actions. In a sense, they were already dead, but that did nothing to comfort Mike as the infected burned up at his feet. He will never forget that smell of burning, rotting human flesh.

He stood there for a second after that, wondering what he’ll do now, until a hooded zombie somehow flew over to him and tackled him. Mike was surprised, but his sadness was easily transformed into anger and adrenaline again surged through his body. He drew his knife and the hooded zombie was dispatched with a quick slash across the throat. He got up and looked at the city, now inflamed with battle. He hears screams coming from it, and Mike decides that people needed his help. He runs.

…

Mike unwittingly skips over the memory after that, as it was only conflict and death. He thinks about after what happened when he met up with Megan in the Warehouse Safehouse…

…

Mike was led by the hand by Megan to the offices of the warehouse. She opens a door, and pokes her head inside, yelling,

“Barbossa! Guys! Look who I found!”

Mike keeps up with Megan’s quick pace, and raises an eyebrow, but they’re not the weirdest names he’d heard. Not by a long shot.

She ducks into the hallway beyond, and Mike follows. The hallway was filled with doors with blinds on them, but a door to the

right was open, and a gruff, tired voice responded,

“I swear to goodness, Megan, if it’s another kitten….”

Megan runs and goes around the door, and says,

“It’s not a puppy, dudes. It’s Mike!”

Another voice answers, stuffy and very, very British.

“Darling, whoever is this Mike? A puppy you found?”

Megan facepalms, but enters the room. Mike pokes his head around the door, and finds two men sitting on office chairs with

shotguns on their laps. The one on the left could look like he could still be a wrestling champion even at his age, considering his greyed hair, his muscles bound only by a black t-shirt and brown khakis. The man on the left… well, he could be called a gentleman, was very obviously British with his white shirt under his pompous red vest and grey dress pants, and oiled blonde hair that he combed backwards. The two see Mike, and what happens next shocks everybody in the room. Styx and

Barbossa stand up, shotguns aimed at Mike. They both ask,

“Who are you, and (what are you doing here?)”

They look at each other curiously, as their similar sentences had branched off. They glance at each other, shrug, and

resume the standoff. Megan steps in front of the line of fire and puts her hands on her hips.

“His name is Mike, and he’s a good friend of mine. I can vouch for him.”

Mike enters, standing closer for everyone to see. Styx and Barbossa lower their weapons slowly, and then Barbossa sits down, while Styx offers a hand to Mike, saying,

“You made it outta this mess too, huh? Good on you. The name’s Styx. I was one of the lieutenants in the Militia. Barbs here was one of my recruits.”

Styx gestures to Barbossa, who absent-mindedly waves a hand over to Mike, trying to distract himself. Mike gets a thought and says,

“Why don’t you guys have uniforms?”

Barbossa chuckles heartedly and says,

“We don’t need those here. Besides, we’re all nothing but survivors now.”

Styx nods and says to Megan,

“Did you barricade that last entrance?”

She salutes with a valiant,

“No, sir! Mike did that for us!”

Styx seems surprised by Mike’s actions, but pats his shoulder nonetheless. He says,

“We can use you, man. We most certainly can use you. Welcome aboard.”

Mike awkwardly salutes and says,

“Aye, aye, dude!”

Styx looked ready to reprimand Mike, but he let go with a booming laugh only usually reserved for Santa Clauses. Mike’s impression of the guy was that if he were to have a chainsword and some spess mehreen armor, then even he’d be calling him the gahd emprah. Or something. Mike’s vision fades to his normal vision as he notices he’s being shaken. Mike realizes he’s only in a vision of his past, but he’s in too muddled a mind-state to resume with the real world. He tries to remember why he would be re-visiting a memory in the first place, but something strikes him square across the face, following somebody- no, somepony saying,

“Snap out of it!”

Mike is fully aware now.  Fully awake. Very aware of the eyes watching him.

He turns his head to see Twilight, Fluttershy, and Spike, all having tried to snap him out of his despair. Mike says in a weak voice,

“Who hit me?”

Twilight raises a hoof guiltily. Everyone in the room is shocked to hear what Mike said next.

“Thanks, Twi. I needed that. I… I just had a very vivid memory of… before I came here. The details would scar you forever,

so I really don’t want to say the story. But I can say this.”

Everypony gathers ‘round the human.

“I barricaded myself into a safe area with people named Megan, Styx, and Barbossa.”

Fluttershy quips,

“Megan’s the one you kept mentioning. Who’s Megan?”

“Megan was an old friend of mine. She’s one incredible girl. We knew each other forever, and we very nearly stayed together forever. Everyone who knew how close we were keep joking that we’d get married and have 10 children if we'd just man up… wonder if that would’ve happened….”

Mike thinks for a while until Spike clears his throat.

“Right. Styx was lieutenant of the self-trained Militia that, along with whatever remained of the military, kept the city, New Olympia, safe. Then the infected  came and I was forced to flee. I was wandering and fighting until I saw Megan again, with Styx and Barbossa. Barbossa… was kinda of a jerk. A jerk with a heart of gold, but his actions can’t really be justified. I remember the day that he tried taking on too many zombies for himself to handle, and we had to bury him.”

Mike lowers his head in a moment of silence, but continues.

“Styx died of a combination of old age and battle-weariness. It was just me… and Megan. We maintained our new home, and it would seem that we could last ‘til the end of time, perhaps have a family, too. We joked about starting our new Terran Empire that will take back Earth and start the space program again, with us as King Adam and Queen Eve. We never got the chance to start a family, though. During a break-in by the zombies… she got bit.”

Mike has to hold back a twisting bout of despair, but continues..

“She got sick, and I lost all hope. I tucked her into bed one night, when it would seem that she would die peacefully in her sleep, and I… I ran. I ran because I couldn’t bear to see her dead. I failed her, and now… she’s dead.”

Fluttershy hugs Mike’s neck, and he relaxes into her embrace. He says, but with a steadier voice,

“Thanks, Fluttershy. I really needed to get that off my chest.”

“Oh, Mike. It’s so good to see you feeling good again after all you’ve been through. I should get going. I need to feed my

animal friends.”

With that, Fluttershy was escorted to the door by everyone and was bidden farewell. Mike sits back in his chair, and contemplates as to what he should do now. He realizes something, and accidently says it out loud.

“What should I do now?”

Twilight turns to Mike, perplexed at this simple question. He continues.

“I mean, I wasn’t born here, I wasn’t raised here, and I’m just an immigrant on this alien world. But to you, I’m the alien. My

only purpose here is to endlessly fight these monsters inside me, and the monsters in the forest that you ponies seem to keep forgetting to exterminate.”

Twilight says,

“We don’t need to hurt these creatures of the forest, Mike. They’re not really a danger to us, unless we go into there…”

Mike thinks, but says,

“Mankind didn’t crawl and claw their way to the top of the food chain by being nice, Twi. We harnessed fire, which kept our natural predators at bay.”

Twilight says back,

“You don’t need to fight everypony that crosses your path.”

Mike surprises Twilight by saying,

“Of course not. We also invented Agriculture, which somewhat alleviated our need to hunt and gather. We also invented animal domestication.”

Twilight does not seem to understand this concept. Dom-es-ti-cation?

Mike continues.

“Wild animals are driven only by their biological wants and needs back on my world, and as such are incapable of free will and thought.”

Mike is struck with a thought.

“In fact, the domestication of wild horses back on my world has perhaps been the greatest thing since the use of fire. We would treat them to food, warmth, comfort, and safety, and then we get to ride around on their backs and carry our heavier loads. They didn’t mind a bit.”

Twilight tries to imagine Mike sitting atop a pony, but it doesn’t make sense. She asks,

“Ponies are too small, though.”

Mike stifles a laugh and retorts,

“Horses are bigger than we are. Ponies on my world are still wild, but we tamed them, too. Our march to the top was set, but we weren’t finished yet. Oh, no. We experimented with fire, and invented metalworking. We used metal to further the human

civilization. Most things invented by humans in fact have something to do with fire, one way or another. Electricity, even, can depend on fire if it’s power source is something fueling a flame. We invented cars, boats, planes, modern medicine, Nutella, and even a network of electronic systems called the internet. Twilight, picture all these books here.”

Twilight looks around, seeing all the information scattered on the walls of her home. She looks back to Mike.

“Now picture all of these words stored electronically for anyone to access. Actually, you can fit everything into the Internet, and still have room for more knowledge.”

Twilight is stunned by this idea. The library of the world at her hoof tips? Unbelievable. Mike interrupts Twilight’s train of

thoughts by saying,

“We even made rockets to go to the moon. The moon! Too bad it was too difficult to do more than a few times. It would be cool for us to establish a moon colony.”

Twilight’s mind fills with the view of Ponyville, but on the moon. This seems so fantastic, but so far-fetched. She says,

“Can you make any of these things? Do you have more books with you?”

Mike scratches his head, and says,

“I’d have to learn how to make those things and make them safe to use, Twilight. I’d need to go… back.”

Mike is struck with an idea, and Twilight catches on. She says,

“If you can go back and get these books, we can go to the moon, too! It’ll be so fun! Wait, where are you going?”

Mike had gotten up and had retrieved his coat, hat, and was preparing to go out. He reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out his gloves and put them on. He flexes it, mentally readying himself for the mission ahead. He checks his pocket, and there was the conductor gem that allowed him to harness magic. He checked somewhere else on his coat, and finds his knife in its holster, ready for use. He checks his belt, and his Kukri was at the ready.

“I’m going to Earth, Twilight. I need to retrieve whoever’s left in that blasted wasteland.”

After a pause, Mike catches Twilight's gaze and says,

"I'll get those math, science, and engineering books too."

AUTHOR'S NOSE

WELL HI

COMMENT

THAT'S ALL I HAVE TO SAY

GOODBYE UNTIL NEXT TIME.