//------------------------------//
// Morning Arrives 
// Story: Contagion Zone Equestria 
// by Gearaxis 
//------------------------------//

	Gear had slept so hard that the occasional burst of gunfire that night failed to even make him twitch. It was a deep dreamless sleep that he desperately needed, he wouldn't be able to continue if he couldn't sleep. The next morning Gear awoke at dawn with the sun barely above the horizon, most of the smoke had cleared over night leaving only a charred spot of ground where the fire had been. Gear stretched as much as he dared, trying not to tear open his wounds that Redheart had so un-carefully closed the former day. He stood, rattling the various objects attached to his bandoleer. The grenades he had found and some ammo clips were still on his bandoleer. His legs were still covered with the sporting pads but he had somehow lost his helmet somewhere. The MP5 was still slung to his side with the M4A1 stored carefully in his backpack. "I should probably drop these off somewhere..." He muttered. 

"Yes, you should." Some pony said. He wheeled around to see the sniper was huddled in the corner of his tent with a blanket on. Dew was lying near by with a similar blanket, asleep. Gear almost yelled at her but didn't want to wake up Dew who needed to sleep. "What are you doing in my tent?" He said softly. The sniper shrugged, "They assigned me a tent when I got here, you were hogging all of the sleeping bags so I just set up in the corner." She said back just as softly. Gear wondered why they had paired a random Mare with a random Colt, then wondered if it wasn't random. "Did you ask to sleep in this tent?" He asked accusingly. She laughed softly and shook her head. "I mentioned that I had saved your life and they decided to stick me with you. Come on, let's go outside." She stood up carefully and placed her blanket on Dew carefully. Dew curled up tighter, holding the new blanket protectively. 

Gear stepped outside, stepping to the side so the sniper could exit the tent as well. Gear noted that she was still wearing the entire ghille suit, mask included, and her hat. "What's with the Ghille suit? Are you horribly disfigured or something?" He asked only half joking. She chuckled and shrugged. "I have a perfectly logical reason for wearing this ghille suit, just give me a while to think of it. What's your name by the way?" She said.

Gear nodded and extended a hoof. "Gear Axis. Nice to meet you." He said. She nodded. "Just call me Sniper for now." She responded.

"Gear! You're awake!" He heard behind him. Gear turned around to see whistle running toward him. Whistle skidded to a halt next to him and Sniper in excitement. "Staff Sargent Sabre told us you pulled in all of the squads, that's awesome! There's like, fifty soldiers here!" He said excitedly. Gear laughed slightly and shook his head. "It was nothing, the soldiers did much more work than I did." Sniper seemed to notice somepony coming and quickly stepped behind Gear to be less noticable. Before Gear could ask, he heard somepony yelling his name. 

"Gear! You're alive!" Twilight and Shining Armor made their way over to him happily. Gear smiled in their direction. "So are you! Where's Applejack?" He asked concerned. Twilight smiled and gestured to a large tent on a different roof. "She's helping to cook food. Come on! Tell us what happened! We thought you were serious about killing yourself!" She said. Sniper looked at him, head tilted as if to say 'You what now!?' Gear laughed nervously and sat down. The others followed suit. Thinking some kind of story was about to be told, three soldiers stood back far enough to look like they weren't paying attention, but could still hear. 

"Well, I was going to jump out of a building, but I saw somepony in the next building over. I jumped over as hard as I could but landed in the window below her. Um... then I fought off four or five zombies with a kitchen knife before rescuing her... We made our way through town and stopped at a sporting goods store but it was overrun shortly after our arrival. We left via the roof and broke into an office building at the other end of the block. That's where I found my MP5 and some other things. Let's see... we left and got something to eat at a restaurant where some pony tried to kill us both but Sniper-" Sniper stiffened with pride. Gear looked at her strangely then shook his head. "saved us. Oh! We found an overrun military forward operating base before the restaurant. That's where we came into contact with Squad 7 and 3. We gathered some items then left for the docks. That's pretty much what happened." He said. One of the soldiers cheered in approval then started in surprise before running away, embarrassed. 

Dew exited the tent groggily and looked around. Her eyes met Gear and she walked over to him, sitting down next to him. "Mornin..." she mumbled. Gear smiled at her then looked back up at the others. "That's an interesting story, I hope you're not thinking of doing anything like that again!" Twilight scolded. Gear muttered an apology and looked down. Sabre walked by then, catching Gear's attention. "Oh! Sir, where do I drop off extra food and weaponry." He asked. Sabre jumped and look at him. "What? Oh, food in the mess tent, weapons in the armory. Everypony is allowed to have one gun on them along with one melee weapon while on the roofs." He said. He turned and walked away toward the other squad leaders. Gear stood. "It was nice seeing everypony again, I may have work to do so I should drop off my stuff then find somepony." He said. Sniper nudged him and pointed to the sniper nest on the water tower, implying that's where she'd be. Gear wondered why she was acting so strangely but let it go. 

Gear left the others, walking slowly so Dew wouldn't have to exert too much energy keeping up with him. He stopped at the armory tent and dropped off everything except for the combat knife and MP5 along with its clips. He remembered the key card and showed it to the pony in charge. "Do you know what this is for? I found it on a SWAT officer's corpse." The pony took it and examined it closely. "Looks like the key to the station's munitions locker. I'll inform Sabre later." He said. Gear nodded and headed for the mess tent next to get breakfast. Dew followed behind him, still half asleep. It was the most relaxed he had been in a long time.