Day 15
Gear had been getting more and more depressed as they traveled. As they neared Stalliongrad more and more corpses appeared. It started with just one or two on the side of the road, then turned into entire caravans of fleeing citizens. Any houses they passed looked as though they had been looted of everything valuable or useful. The only pony they met on the road was in the early stages of infection, they killed him upon his request.
By the time Stalliongrad was in sight, he’d given up entirely. “This is stupid. We aren’t going to find anything there. All the ships were probably sunk or something. How do we even know the island is infection free? What if we get there with everypony and are suddenly mobbed by thousands of infected? It’s probably safer at the palace!” He said.
Shining glared at him. “The islands are fine. I can feel it. We just need to get a boat, if not here, then one of the other coast cities like Las Pegasus or Whinneypeg.” He said.
“I’m just saying, there’s very little chance of us actually finding anything.” He muttered.
Twilight glared at him. “What do you want to do? Sit in a room overcome with depression while we wait for the infected to eat us? There’s a chance to get off of the main land here, and no matter how small it is, I’m going to take it!” She said.
The others agreed with her, looking at him nervously. Gear sighed and pulled his weapons out, handing them to Twilight. “I’m done. I’m just done. Everypony is dead or going to die and nothing we can do is going to change that. You can continue on without me. I’ll just sit in a room, overcome with depression, until they come and eat me. But before they eat me, I’ll jump out of a window. Sound like a plan?” He asked angrily.
They stared at him in shock. “What? You’re really just going to sit around waiting to die?” Twilight asked in horror.
Gear nodded. “I’ve lost the will to go on. I don’t care anymore, I just don’t care. I hope you succeed, I really do, it’s just that you won’t.” Gear said sadly. Shining took the fire axe and Gladius from him reluctantly.
“Are you sure this is what you want to do?” He asked. Gear nodded and walked over to the nearest building.
“Good luck to you four. I’d say you need it, but no amount of luck is going to help you live.” He said. He opened the door and entered without turning back to look at them.
So there he was. Sitting in an abandoned child’s room, the door boarded shut and waiting for death. He’d chosen a room three stories up so he’d probably have to dive head first out the window to die instantly, but that was fine.
He’d been sitting for a good three hours before he heard the moaning of an infected outside the door. It began banging on the door, trying to get in. “This is it.” He said as he stood. He walked over to the window and stepped up onto the sill, waiting for the infected pony to break down the door.
He looked around a bit for a moment and happened to glance through a window across the ally from him. A Pegasus filly with a light blue mane and a pale blue coat was wrapped up in a blanket on a bed. He felt sad for the corpse, she’d probably been infected and died suddenly, or maybe a looter had broken in and killed her for her stuff. He watched her for a while longer and heard the door splinter behind him. He looked behind him to see the infected pony had punched a hole in the door.
Gear prepared to dive head first out the window and decided to look at the poor filly’s corpse again. To his surprise, she moved. The filly sat up from the bed and looked around the room sleepily. She then looked out the window and saw him about to leap to his death. They stared at each other in shock for a moment before Gear heard the door smash open behind him. He made a split second decision, and jumped as hard as he could toward the other building, he fell short and crashed through the window just below the room the filly had been in.
“I can’t just leave her there…” He said as he recovered from his rough landing. He heard a splat behind him and looked out to see the infected pony had tried to jump after him and fallen very short. It was a twitching heap of bloody bones and flesh on the ground now. Gear tore himself away from the window and grabbed a knife that was sitting out on the kitchen counter in the room he landed in.
He rushed out of the room and up the stairs to the next floor. He could hear the infected close behind him, maybe two flights down in the basement and coming up so he closed the hall door, locked it, and dragged a couple of tables and chairs to block it with. When that was done he went over to the room he thought the filly was in. Gear knocked on the door softly. “Hello?” He called out just as softly.
“Go away!” He heard yelled from the room. Gear frowned worriedly.
“Hey! Don’t worry; I’m not going to hurt you. Are you alright?” He asked. He glanced at the stairwell door nervously as it rattled from an impact.
“I’m fine! Go away! Mom and Dad will be back any time now!” She yelled at him. Gear didn’t believe her.
“I’m going to take care of these bad ponies and then I’m going to come back and talk with you some more, just sit tight, ok?” He said as a hoof burst through the stairwell door.
He didn’t wait for a response before rushing half way down the hall to fight the infected. They smashed through the barricaded door, four in all, and charged while snarling and drooling. Gear stepped to the side and tripped the first one while he jammed the knife into the right eye of the second. He had to kick the third one back before pulling out the knife and jabbing it into the fourth’s heart. He jumped to the side as the first got up and attacked, while the third recovered from being kicked. Gear grabbed hold of the first’s head and ran behind it, twisting as he went to break its neck. The third infected pony charged him again and was met with a knife between the eyes.
Gear pulled out the knife and wiped it off on one of the pony’s shirt. He heard a door open behind him so he turned to see the filly coming out from the room. “Are they gone?” She asked timidly. Gear nodded and sat down. “You look terrible. You could use a bath.” The filly told him.
Gear chuckled in amusement and looked down at the floor. “You don’t look any better.” He said. She sat down a couple of feet away from him. “When did your parents leave?” He asked.
“Two days ago…” The filly responded, a tear in her eye. Gear looked down pityingly.
“I’m sorry. Hey, you’ve been living on your own for two whole days? That’s pretty impressive!” He said. She sniffed and wiped her eyes.
“Yeah, I guess…” She scooted a little closer to him. Gear scooted further way from her, he was covered in infected blood.
“You wouldn’t happen to know your blood type, would you?” He asked. She nodded.
“My parents had me tested when the newspaper said something about blood types. I’m B-” She responded. Gear sighed in relief and scooted back to his original position.
“My name’s Gear Axis. What’s yours?” He asked. She looked up at him.
“Dew Drop.” She replied. Gear smiled at her.
“That’s a very pretty name, what should I call you? Dew, Drop?” He asked.
“My parents always called me Dewy, but only them! Um… you can call me Dew.” She said.
Gear smiled and stuck out his hoof for her to shake. “You can call me Gear, Dew. It’s very nice to meet you.” She shook his hoof and scooted a little closer to him. “Well, I was going to cut my life a bit short, but I can’t very well do that now that you’re here. Do you want to come with me to find a boat? We can sail off of the main land to an island chain where there aren’t any infected.” He said.
She looked up at him hopefully. “Really!? We can?! I want to go!” She said.
Gear nodded and patted her head. “Alright then, let’s go.” He said. She leaped the remaining distance between them and hugged him fiercely while sobbing uncontrollably.
“Thank you! I want to get away from this scary place! Thank you!” She cried into him. He put his arm around her and looked at the door worriedly.
“What happens if there aren't any boats?” He thought.