//------------------------------// // Chapter 23: Allies and Enemies // Story: From a Dying World to New Lands // by Electrician //------------------------------// Chapter 23: Allies and Enemies Perspective: Jonathon Burley Location: Southern United States, 269 miles from home Date: November 1, 2025 1:15p.m We were all locked in a kind of stalemate, with both Edgar and the man aiming their guns at each other, and I stuck in the middle. In the glaring light of common sense, perhaps entering another’s home, even though the door was open and we called out to them, was a bad idea. Maybe. “You two are new,” he muttered, though seemingly more to himself than to us. He shook his head, redirecting his glare towards us. “But it doesn’t matter. You can tell your boss that I already paid for this month. And don’t you dare tell me she upped the price; she promised she wouldn’t do that again. We have very little as it is.” Well, shit. It appears as though we were being mistaken for another pair, and from the looks of it some real unsavory types too. “I’m afraid I don’t know who you’re referring to. We’re from out of town, we really did just want to talk.” The man’s gaze shift from me to Edgar, then back again. “Yea? Your friend over there doesn’t seem too eager to talk.” I looked over, noticing that Edgar still had his shotgun shouldered, and aimed directly at the man. “Edgar, put that down.” To his credit, the only thing that gave his away surprise was a hard blink, before narrowing his eyes once again. “And get us both killed? I’m fine holding this here, thanks.” “Edgar, that’s not what we came here for. This man probably thinks we’re here to rob him. Put the gun down.” Edgar bit his lower lip for a few seconds, seemingly considering my request. With a grunt, he slowly brought down his weapon. The man looked at us, his gaze boring into each of us. After a few tense seconds of silence, he sighed, and lowered his weapon as well. “Hell, it doesn’t even matter,” he said, pulling the slide back on the shotgun. Immediately, we both noticed the lack of a shell being ejected. “Even if you were with her, it wouldn’t have mattered. They probably know this old thing hasn’t seen a shell in a while now. I couldn’t do anything to stop them, or you two for that matter.” ‘What…what’s going on? What does he mean?’ Instead of answering though, the man simply waved us into the living room. “If you’re really here to talk, you might as well sit down,” he said. Seeing no better choice at the moment, we followed him in. The man took a seat opposite us, waiting for us to get comfortable before continuing. “I guess some introductions are in order. My name’s Patrick, though everyone calls me Pat.” “Jonathon, though people call me Jon. And this here is Edgar, and he’s not cool enough to have a nickname.” “Hey!” Patrick cracked a small smile. “Well it sure is nice seeing some friendly faces around here for once. I would offer you a drink, but we’re a little low on…well, just about everything at the moment.” “It’s ok, we definitely understand,” Edgar replied. “We brought our own, so there’s no need. Appreciate the sentiment though.” “So you still have all your supplies? That means you didn’t run into her while you were out and about,” Patrick commented. “You guys lucked out; she would have ‘kindly offered’ to relieve you of all your stuff had you seen her. She’s not patrolling this area now though, and won’t be for a good bit. But never mind that; what did you want to talk about?” “This neighborhood,” I said without missing a beat. “There are so many houses that look inhabited, and yet we’re so close to the city. How, how did everyone survive?” “And who is this woman we should be watching out for?” Edgar added. “Well, those two things are actually tied together,” he stated. “I guess we’ll start with her. Her name’s Caroline, though if you ever have the displeasure of meeting her, you have to call her ‘Missus’ or she’ll break your fingers. The crazy bitch has a Godfather complex; the mob-boss-wannabe runs this little ‘slice of paradise’. “As for the neighborhood, it started when this city was overrun. We thought we were doomed just like you guys did, but Caroline stepped in, along with her little group of bandits. The woman may be a bitch, but she’s a well-armed bitch, with a great shot and equally competent friends. They drove off any Infected that tried to enter the neighborhood, quite successfully too. We had one or two more attacks after that first wave, but since then the Infected have kinda just left us alone.” “That first wave must have been huge though,” Edgar noted. “She must have had quite the firepower to drive it off.” “Oh yea; fully-automatic weapons, stockpiles of ammo, even some grenade-like things she got from God knows where. She was one of those ‘preppers’ that stockpiled supplies like the end of the world was near. Guess she was right though. “But back to the story, she became our hero after that first wave. People gave her gifts as thanks for saving our lives. She wasn’t nearly as bad then. But as the years wore on, whether she was bi-polar and it got worse, or all the power got to her head, she became much crueler. The smallest of sleights would set her off and she’d beat you, and she’d make examples of the people who pissed her off enough, which wasn’t hard to do. It was too late to stop her at this point though, and she basically continued on her terror campaign unabated, which is still happening. Oh yea, and those ‘gifts’? They became expected payments, current situation be damned.” “I almost don’t want to know, but…” Edgar started, looking a bit pale. “What happens to those who ran out of things to ‘gift’ her?” Pat grimaced. “You had two options. Either she would raid your house and take it for herself, throwing you out with nothing but the clothes on your back, or she’d send you on a supply run.” “Well, that last one doesn’t sound so-” “Into the city. Unarmed. With vague instructions on where to go and what to get.” “Oh…” “It was a fate worse than death, and if you never came back, well, no skin off her back.” “I’ve got a question,” I interjected. “Does that Cobra outside still run?” He nodded. “Then why haven’t you packed your stuff and left already? This place is obviously Hell to live in, so why stay?” He was about to respond, but a little shuffling noise upstairs caught our attention. I turned my head just in time to catch a little blur of motion zip behind the wall at the top of the staircase. It seemed I wasn’t the only one to notice. “Melisa, it’s not nice to eavesdrop,” Patrick reprimanded gently. Slowly, the source of the little blur of motion reappeared, though barely. A single blue eye and a bit of brown hair peeked out from behind the wall. “It’s ok sweetie, these two are actually nice.” Seemingly encouraged, Melisa came out from behind the wall, her little white dress fluttering as she zoomed down the stairs. I noticed no one else seemed to live here, but I dared not ask. Thoughts of what could have happened to her mother flashed in my mind briefly, none of them good. Another much darker thought settled in. This poor girl was old enough to have been around before the Infection, and probably remembers those carefree times too. Had she seen the horrors outside, been forced to deal with them personally? Had this little girl been forced to watch as this Caroline woman basically abused her father and stole everything they had? Did this cruel world rip away that carefree innocence she had? Unaware of my brooding, Melisa rushed to her father, jumping into his arms. “This is my daughter Melisa, and she’s the reason why I stay,” Patrick said, breaking me out of my thoughts. “It’s not ideal here, not by a long shot, but it’s safe. I can raise my little princess in peace, and give her a life that’s almost normal. I can’t protect her from all of it, but I do my best.” He looked back up at us. “Besides, where else would we go? I haven’t heard of any other populated areas, though I’ll admit we don’t exactly get outside news often. I’m sure other safe places exist, but without knowing exactly where they are, we’d probably run out of gas before we found one.” “You could come with us to our town,” Edgar immediately suggested. “The townsfolk are really friendly, and everyone helps each other out. Life is simple there; everyone does something, whether that is fixing stuff, working out in the fields, or in defense. We produce food, and the military comes and collects it. In exchange, they supply us with rations, water, ammo, you name it.” Patrick’s eyes widened in surprise. “Wait, the military actually gives you supplies?” We nodded. Patrick brought a hand to his chin, and furrowed his brow in contemplation. He went quiet for a moment, seemingly internalizing the new information. “Melisa, why don’t you go upstairs?” he said. Melisa switched her gaze between her father and us. When she looked at us though. That look she gave us, that pleading look. I think she knew what was going on, what was about to be discussed, and she was begging us to help. She simply nodded once, and departed upstairs. When she was out of earshot, Patrick continued. “There’s a catch, isn’t there?” “Well, unless you’re as well-armed as this Caroline chick, then we don’t have quite the amount of firepower at our disposal,” Edgar replied. “Also, we had a huge Infected wave attack a couple of days ago. They never made it to the town, but quite a few men and women who volunteered to protect the town lost their lives. It’s not something you have to volunteer for, but if you do end up picking defense as your contribution, know that there is a real risk involved.” “You…you really get to choose?” Patrick asked. “Yes, it’s entirely voluntary,” I replied. “And you’d think nobody would volunteer to fight if that was the case, but you’d be surprised.” Silence again. Patrick seemed conflicted, and as the seconds wore on he only seemed to grow more so. “I…” he began, but never finished the thought. He hung his head, bringing a trembling hand to his face. “I’m afraid I…I’m at a loss on what to do. You don’t stand to gain anything by lying to me, yet it seems too good to be true. But if this is real…if it really is, then I feel it would be stupid to let this slip by. And yet, leaving this house, this safe spot which holds many dear memories, and braving a trip out there alone also seems foolish. I just, I just don’t know what to do. I just want my little girl to be safe, no matter what happens to me.” He clenched his free hand into a fist, squeezing tightly in frustration. “This isn’t something you have to consider now,” Edgar said, trying to put the man’s mind as ease. I jumped in. “It’s also not an offer that has an expiration date. In fact, I think Edgar still has a map in the glovebox. We can draw you a route, and should you ever decide to come, just ask for Phoenix and tell him Edgar and Jon sent you; he’ll hook you up.” This seemed to calm the man greatly. He looked back up, eyes shining with gratitude. “Thank you, really. I uh, I’ll need some time to think about it. I’ll also have to ask Melisa if-” “I want to go dad,” answered a voice upstairs. Everyone froze for a second, the conversation stopping dead. My eyes traced a path up the stairs, settling on the child’s small form at the top. “Sw-sweetie, what have I said about eavesdropping?” Patrick asked. He tried to sound upset, to put on his fatherly reprimanding voice, but he couldn’t quite seem to muster it at the moment. “How long have you been there?” “I didn’t go,” she admitted quietly. “Daddy, you’re always so sad. You give all your happiness away, just to make me happy. But I want you to be happy too! That mean lady and those monsters make you sad, so let’s leave them!” She ran towards her father, throwing her arms as far around him as she could, burying her face in his stomach. He sat there, shocked into inaction as he tried to think of something to say. “Please dad. You never smile anymore. I want you to smile again.” Carefully, he wrapped his arms around his daughter, returning her embrace fully. “I suppose we’ll be taking you up on your offer,” he said, with a hint of a smirk threatening to fully show. He placed his hands on Melisa’s shoulders, looking her in the eye. “Do you think you could quickly throw all your stuff into a bag?” “Now?” she asked excitedly. His smirk split into a full grin. “If my little princess doesn’t want to stay here, then we won’t spend another second here longer than we have to.” He replied warmly. Giddy and with much enthusiasm, Melisa raced up the stairs. “Melisa,” he called out. She stopped halfway up. She seemed to have already known whatever Patrick was going to say next, as she raced back down the stairs and into a room on the first floor. Mere seconds later she zoomed out once more, trailing a small pink suitcase this time. Ascending the steps as quickly as her little legs could carry her, she rounded the bend at the top and disappeared down a hallway. Patrick turned to us once more, grin still present. “I can’t thank you enough for your kindness,” he said. “If you’ll give me a few minutes, we’ll have everything packed and be ready to go.” “Need a hand with anything?” Edgar asked. Patrick looked ready to politely decline, but stopped. “Actually, if you have room in your car, I’d like to take our barrels of gasoline with us.” We stopped cold. I thought I was hearing things. I turned to Edgar, but it seems that I was not the only one to have heard it. Slowly, I turned my head to this man, who had said something that could not be. “Sure, but wait…gasoline? As in, not diesel?” If Patrick understood the significance of what he’d just said, he didn’t show it. In fact, a single arched eyebrow was all he did. “Yes, some unleaded fuel with some extra strength fuel preserver. The stuff works miracles on ethanol-free gas. Lasts forever, especially if you keep it indoors and the container sealed tight. Why?” I thought of all the gasoline-engine equipment, equipment that was left behind because no one thought there was any gas left to use them. “If possible, could we…could we have a small sample?” I asked. “After everything you’ve done, it’s the least I can do,” Patrick said. As we walked outside and helped Patrick load in the 55 gallon drums, I decided to let Edgar in on my thought process. “If Twilight got a sample, she might be able to make more. Even if she can’t, she could give it to her ‘friends’, and they might be able to replicate it ‘back home’.” Edgar’s eyes grew wide, and a smile began to grow as he realized what I was talking about. He was just as excited to get the sample back as I was, and we helped Patrick and Melisa pack and ready up in record time. “I believe that’s everything,” Patrick said as he wiped his brow. “I guess we’ll just follow you?” “Actually,” I began. “We were originally here because we had to pick up a large diesel engine for a generator we’re making. We’ll have to head into the city to find one.” Patrick’s eyes widened in alarm. “You’re going in there? That place is crawling with those things! If you want a generator, why don’t you take one of those building backup generators that come on when the power goes out? They’ve got a few buildings on the outskirts; you wouldn’t have to go in there.” “Unfortunately, they don’t usually use diesel for those, since who knows when the generator would be used, and the diesel might go bad. Those generators actually run on natural gas, and the engine internals are completely different than a diesel. In fact, aside from the fuel injectors, natural gas engines are exactly like…like gasoline engines.” It was almost stupid that I didn’t think of it earlier. If we can get Twilight to take the gasoline sample to Equestria, then they should be able to puzzle out how to make more. And instead of running a diesel generator… “Patrick you’re a genius!” “I am?” “He is?” “That’s my daddy for you!” “We don’t even need to make a generator, we can just use a building standby generator like Patrick said. The internals are essentially the same as a gasoline engine, so all we’d have to do is modify the fuel delivery system, and we’ll have a pre-built generator.” Edgar seemed to have caught on. “And if Twilight or her friends can make more gas, then we could actually run it!” He quickly sprinted over to the truck. “Hold on, I’ll tell Eddy and Twilight to return home if they’re not already on their way, there’s been a change of plans.”