Lee Everett's New Life

BANG

  Lee shot awake from the couch Applejack let him sleep on after Twilight finished asking all of those questions. He really never wanted to be near that unicorn after all of those hours spent with her.

BANG

  "What the hell..?" Lee muttered as he yawned and got up. "Hold on, I'm coming!"

BANG

He carefully sauntered through the dark void that was the living room he was in, all the way to the door. He clutched the door handle and opened the door.

  Standing there was Twilight. However, she was now severely decomposed, and making a deep, disturbing moan that made Lee immediately freeze, as if he was turned to stone. The unicorn shuffled towards Lee, and his instinct took over.

  "FUUUCK!" Lee yelled, slamming the door into the undead unicorn's face before she got a chance to bite a chunk of flesh from him.

BANG BANG BANG BANG

  He frantically turned a lamp on and quickly moved a coffee table up against the door as bangs continued He ran upstairs, being careful not to trip on the steps as he hurried. He burst open the first door he got near, and looked inside.

  Applebloom, whom Lee was introduced to by Applejack not to long after answering all of Twilight's questions, was now being messily devoured by her own sister, now too one of the undead. Blood pooled around the dead foal as chunks of meat were ripped out by the cowpony's teeth. Then, Applejack snapped her neck towards Lee, who was staring in shock at what he was seeing. The undead cowpony slowly got up and started moaning and walking in a stiff and rigid shuffle towards him. He quickly backed out into the hallway and slammed the door once he was out. Suddenly, he heard moans resonate from down the hall. He saw Big Mac and Granny Smith coming down the hallway.

  But what made him fall to his knees in horror was seeing Clementine in front of the two, standing there and staring at Lee with her cold, lifeless eyes. She didn't move at all.

  "I'm so sorry, Clem." Lee whispered to the undead Clementine as he shut his eyes.

  He then felt the broken teeth of the two farm ponies bite down into his flesh, making him scream in pain.

  Lee gasped as he woke back up.

  Another nightmare. Lee shook his numb head and got up from the couch. Nobody was up yet. The lamp was off, the coffee table was still in it's place as it was when he went to sleep, and there were no walkers. He yawned and sauntered over to the door

  He opened the door quietly, and lightly shut it. He looked around the landscape, filled with rows upon rows of apple trees. He smiled at the sound of the bird's chirping. The dark blue sky and the cool, fresh morning air made him wish that all of his fellow survivors were with him here. Lee walked around the barn for a few minutes, watching the sun rise over the tall, tree covered hills in the distance. He thought the place he ended up at was more beautiful than anything he ever had seen.

  "Hey Lee, ah see ya got up early." Applejack said from behind him. Lee turned around to the cowpony.

  "Yeah." Lee replied. "It's so beautiful out here. Do you and your family run this place all by yourselves?"

  "Me and Big Mac, the red one in case ya forgot, mostly deals with bucking trees around here. Applebloom occasionally helps out when she wants. Granny Smith deals with bills, taxes, and occasionally running our stand when I'm not."

  "That's interesting." Lee replied.

  "Sure is." Applejack sighed. "Ponyville actually started out at this very orchard."

  "Say, you mind if I take a walk around the place for a bit?" Lee asked.

  "Ah don't see why not. Sure."

  Lee nodded as he turned and started walking down a dirt path. The sun was just barely over the hills now, and was already starting to light the landscape. Lee looked around as he saw bright red apples dangling on the trees next to the path. If he were trying to fend for his life like he was only a day or two ago, he would have taken several of these apples, and possibly stay here and make a hideout.

  Then, Lee noticed a tree house. A large and ambitious one to be exact. It would have made Clementine jealous. A wooden board led up to the main wooden building. It was painted, and looked like it was being used about every week. Lee guess that Applejack's younger sister played on this when she wasn't doing anything important.

  The treehouse seemed in a strange place to Lee. He had always thought of tree houses being near the homes of their owners and not as far as he was now. It gave off a serene, peaceful feel to it like the rest of this place had.

  Then his attention turned towards the mountains. He could see an elegant, White Castle built off the side of one of the mountain's sides in the very far distance. He gazed at it, wondering how it was possible for something like that to have been built. He just shrugged after trying to come up with an answer, then decided to head back to the barn.

  "I should get something to eat." Lee told himself. "I haven't even had breakfast yet."

  He started walking back up to the barn, using the direction he came from. He eventually reached the large red barn. He went up to the door leading to the kitchen and slowly opened it up. He found Granny Smith already making some food.

  "There you are," Granny Smith said without looking at Lee.

  "Hey." Lee replied casually.

  "You've been outside this morning?"

  "Yeah."

  "What did ya do?" Granny Smith asked in a suspicious tone.

  "I just took a walk. Saw a tree house. Other than that, nothing else special."

  "Alright then..."

  Lee went into the living room. He saw Applebloom trot up to him.

  "Hey Lee!" She exclaimed. "Can you tell me about what it was like back where you were?"

  "Uh, I don't think it's appropriate for someone your age..." Lee nervously replied, rubbing the back of his head.

  "Puh-leeaassee?" Applebloom begged. Her own face was practically pleading for Lee to tell her everything that happened to him over those dreadful three months.

  "Maybe if you're older."

  "Why?"

  "Because your family won't be really happy of me if I tell you." Lee quickly explained.

  "Fine." The foal grunted and walked towards the kitchen. The sound of the door opening and being shut told Lee that she headed outside.

  Lee couldn't help but smile at the young mare's curiosity.

  "Wait, do you have a cutie mark?" Applebloom came back quickly into the house.

  "A what?"

  "A cutie mark. Do you have one?"

  "I don't know what that is..."

  "It's a mark that appears on your flank when you find your special talent! Everypony knows that!"

  "I... Never had that happen before. People don't get cutie marks."

  Lee had to fight to avoid smirking at the funny sounding name.

  "Oh, well do you at least know your special talent?"

  "I used to teach at a university before everything went down."

  The foal just nodded and walked back outside. Lee didn't want to tell Applebloom at how good he was at killing the walking dead. She would either be scared, or just think he's insane. He decided to head outside after a minute of standing around. He figured that there'd be something to do outside.

  He went over to the kitchen, where Granny Smith was still cooking. He walked to the door and opened it up. The whole orchard appeared in his vision yet again.

  "Woof!"

  Lee turned his head towards the sound of the noise. A dog, which Lee guessed was a border collie, ran up to him and started sniffing him. Soon, it sat down and looked up at him.

  "I guess you want me to pet you, huh?" Lee smiled as he knelt down to eye level with the dog.

  "Woof!" The dog replied.

  Lee chuckled and started rubbing the dog on the head.

  Then he remembered the last time he saw a dog. He stopped all of his movement as he remembered that day in Savannah. When they got to that house, and Lee had to dig up the corpse of a rotting pet. He could remember the smell. He also remembered how he slightly upset Clementine after telling her to go over to Christa so she wouldn't have to see. That felt like a stab to Lee's own heart. But burying the dead child with the dog, who had died of starvation before they got to the house, made Lee almost shed a tear.

  The work dog looked at Lee with a worried expression as Lee remembered all of those things. It whimpered silently as it nuzzled up against him.

  "It's nothing." Lee sighed as he looked back up at the pet, as if answering a question the animal had asked. "Just a bad memory is all. Having to dig up a dead animal just to get inside a house... That wasn't the only thing that had happened to me."

  "Lee, Ah see you met our work dog, Winona!" Lee heard Applejack trot up to him. He looked up to the orange mare and stood up. "Ah can tell you two got along as fast as a twister tearing across the plains! She must really like ya!"

  "Yeah. She's sweet." Lee looked down at Winona. "Say, don't you have school here too? Like your sister?"

  "Yup. She doesn't have any school today though. She usually goes play with her friends, trying to find her cutie marks." Applejack happily said before looking around, making sure nobody was watching and motioning Lee closer. "Too be honest though," The cowpony whispered into Lee's ear. "Ah think what they do ain't helping them much." The cowpony backed away and then smiled yet again. "Say, maybe you can help me out carrying some buckets up to the wagons."

  "Sure, I don't have much else to do. Why not?" Lee happily replied.

  "Alright!" The mare happily exclaimed. "Just follow me, ah'll show ya what to do when we get over to where we'll be working."

  Lee nodded as he started following the mare. It had been awhile since he had done some work, and he felt he owned the cowpony some food.

  "Granny Smith should be done with breakfast in about half an hour too, so ah'll just show you what to do, then we'll go eat."

  "I'm guessing it's something apple related." Lee chuckled.

  "Yup. Pretty much." Applejack replied.