Strange Hooves

Mike was astounded someone as still alive on this boat, but had interrupted his thought as he shouted,

“Hello?!”

Everything went still for a second save the waves before another voice answered,

“Hello! Where are you?”

Mike shouts back,

“Up top! It’s clear up here!”

Mike looks around, but only sees corpses and the ship. The voice responds,

“How?”

Mike scoffs and says,

“Well? I’m the last one standing, obviously.”

Another voice with a southern accent shouts,

“Alright! We’re coming up!”

A door opens, andfour individuals walk out.

Mike looks over the sorry conditions of the survivors, and the very same look over mike and his attire.

The one in the white suit says,

“Are you from the government or something?”

Mike looks over his suit and then raises his hands and replies,

“Eh. It’s the fashion. Are you all that’s on board?”

The girl in the tee says,

“Yeah... I think.”

Mike points to the group and says,

“What are your names?”

The black guy with a purple tee says,

Yellow shirt guys says pointing to the girl,

“Shoot, my name’s Ellis. That’s Rochelle, there.”

Snooty guy in the suit says,

“Nick. Name’s Nick. What’s your name?”

Mike takes off his hat and does an exaggerated bow.

“The name’s Mike. Mike Alpha. I’m here to take you to safety.”

Straightening out and putting on his trusty fedora, Mike sees the unamused reactions of the survivors.

Grinning nervously, he says,

“Right. Let me get a message out to my... associates, and I’ll be right with you.”

Mike rolls out a scroll from his suit, writes in a message to Luna saying something along the lines of Found three dudes and a chick on the boat. Please advise course of action, before using a magic lighter to shoot it off, much to the confused expressions of the other occupants of the boat.

Rochelle says,

“So... you’re going to burn paper?”

The others look at each other, seemingly thinking at the same time, surely this guy doesn’t all have his marbles.

Mike claps his hands together, still grinning, says,

The survivors look at Mike like he’s crazy until a green flash whites out everybody’s vision for a second before seeing Mike with a scroll. He reads aloud,

“Dearest Mike,

There are at least 3 other hu-- *cough cough* survivors, presumably on an island somewhere. From the look of things, you’re near their position. Please build the por *cough cough* escape vehiclethere, and escort these poor souls here.

Lots of lov *cough cough* luck,

Luna.”

Ellis states flatly,

“Well, shoot, Mike. That’s nice t’ meetcha. Just one question; are you immune?”

“I don’t think I’m infected, guys. Anyway, let’s go--”

*Crash*

The ship had run ashore on an island.

“Oh.”

Dropping the anchor and using that to climb to the sand, Mike and the survivors check out the island. Everybody seems to have cautious eyes on Mike as much as the rest of the island, as if he’s just as mysterious and potentially dangerous as the rest of the island. That couldn’t be right? Right? Right.

The sounds of feet on sand change to the sounds of footfalls on dirt and vegetation as the group checks around. The wildlife are apprehensive of their guests, as they scurry or fly off. Rochelle suddenly points to the sky and says,

“Guys, isn’t that smoke?”

Everyone looks, and sure enough, there is a smoke stack rising above the trees. Without a word, the group headed for that. The sound of of a camp reach the party’s ears. The survivors raise their weapons and slow their walk to a cautious pace, but Mike didn’t notice this and swiftly cuts through the tropical environment to their destination.

Mike abruptly stumbles into a clearing. He looks around and sees a campsite with several primitive tents, mismatched with supplies and guns. Lots of guns. These were all ringing a campfire in the middle of the camp. Mike noticed that his movement wasn’t unnoticed. Drat twigs giving away positions. Mike froze.

Someone’s head poked out of a tent. She was in her 20’s (or so Mike guesses), and she notices Mike with wide eyes. Mike’s eyes dart side to side, then focuses on on the girl again.

Coach, Ellis, Rochelle, and Nick break into the clearing, next to Mike. They spot the camp and the survivor and all shout,

“Zoey!”

A tall man rushes from the edge of the forest, covered in tattoos and a biker’s jacket. He stares wide-eyed at the group as they all shout,

Another guy pokes his head out of a tent, and the group shouts,

“Louis!”

Everyone runs to each other and greetings are washed in each other, albeit excitedly, and Mike notices how Louis limps to the apparent reunion. Mike stands off as everyone else talks over each other, stating things like,

“Thought I’d never see you guys again!”

“We made it, man!”

or,

“Zombies ain’t no thing!”

But then the biker asked,

“Who’s that guy?”

Everyone turns to Mike, who waves back at them.

“Name’s Mike. Survivor, wizard, and the guy who’s gonna get us out of here.”

Ellis seemed to get excited for some reason. He yelps,

“Dude, toldja wizards are real!”

Everyone else looks on with a “no way” expression. They ignore him, and chat some more.

Mike then goes off to find something to build an archway with as the survivors socialize. After half an hour, the group notices Mike’s dissapearance, everyone but Nick and Louis goes out to find him.

They find Mike at the coast walking around, surveying the rocks that wash up on shore. He’s looking over one the size of a small bus. They get within earshot as he’s saying,

Rochelle retorts,

“What do you need an archway for?”

“So we can get outta this place and get to safety.”

Rochelle retorts,

“Riiight.”

Mike looks back, and his expression says, “No, seriously.”

Mike pulls out a hammer and chisel he’d been saving for this task ,and everyone just rolls their eyes and walk back to camp, presumably to move into camp. Mike keeps chiseling.

By dusk, Mike had roughly chiseled something resembling an arch and was preparing to cast the archway portal spell on it when Ellis came along with some rations. Mike sees Ellis and quickly puts away his power gem and faces him. Ellis hands Mike his half of the rations while saying,

“So this is what you’ve been up to?”

“Yeah. I’m just about done, and we can get out.”

Ellis gives a bemused sigh and said,

“And an archway is gonna get us out of here how?”

Mike throws his hands up and said,

Ellis finishes his rations and gives a laugh.

“Man, Nick keeps telling me you’re no wizard, but you certainly dress fancy.”

Mike eats the rest of his rations and pulls his gem out, ready to start the spell.

Ellis sees the gem and says,

“Whoa, man. That’s a gem.”

Mike traces the inside of the archway with the gem, and then steps back, ready to begin the main segment of the spell. Mike starts humming to himself while Ellis sits on the sand and watches the sunset. Mike suddenly says, drawing Ellis’s attention,

“Okay, here we go...”

Mike hesitates for a moment, looking around him. Ellis does the same then asks Mike,

“What?”

Mike replies,

“I, uh was expecting to be attacked right about now. Just that this is going too well.”

Ellis runs back to camp, shouting to his associates, while Mike trails with a calm pace. Little did they both know, they were being followed. A filly or three had entered the portal from the other side, and were now wondering where they were. This certainly wasn’t their intentions when they said they wanted their “portal exploration cutie marks”.