//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: Afterworld: Dead Days - Volume 1 
// by Ribe_FireRain 
//------------------------------//

My name is Matthew Calden and I'm a lone survivor. I can't tell you exactly where I am in this point in time because I simply don't know. It is hard to tell where anywhere is anymore. No home, no family, no friends, nothing. Pretty much everyone died in the plaque that consumed the Earth. Anyone you've ever know, dead. Think about it - loved ones, your family and friends. All dead. Everyone you've ever known are dead and you are on your own, fighting for your very life every day. It isn't easy, any survivor can tell you that, and I say the same. 

Life as we all know it has died, gone. Anything that walks is pretty much dead one way or another. As for this plaque? Ha, that is something else entirely. It first started as a simple infection, a virus. How it was transferred, I don't know but it was highly contagious. In my time of experiencing this, I have come to learn that keeping moving is the only way to stay alive and out of harms way. Stay one place long enough and they find you. Kinda strange, isn't it? All those times you watch horror films, filled with guts and death and zombies and then it becomes a reality, a living nightmare. Or undead nightmare, as some would call it.

Anyway, the only thing I can do to protect my life is hold my pistol in my hands and shoot until my target stops moving. My leather jacket may be tough to tear but the bite one of those zombies can give makes it look like wool. My shirt and black jeans may not be much in the way of protection, but I don't really plan on going near zombies anytime soon. I walk the streets, looking for supplies to aid me on my travels through the town I'm currently in, and that is lucky considering I was right outside of a small newsagents. The windows were all barricaded up with wooden planks and the brickwork was burned in small areas, but the door to the small shop seemed unlocked, so I went inside, pistol at the ready.

When I moved into the shop, I could clearly see that it was minorly burned, various surfaces fire-blackened, the smell of burning lingering in the air, making it slightly hard to breathe. On the floor were small pools of blood, though dry it was letting off a foul, irony smell. Shelves barely had any stock on them, presumably this place had already been looted by a previous survivor. I grabbed what I could from the shelves, and turning to leave, I noticed that the trail of blood I saw earlier ended near my feet, going around the corner behind the cashiers desk. I cautiously walked around and sure enough, there was the dead body of a man laying in a pool of his own blood that has dried and coated part of his blue shirt. His skin was rotten and dead, the colour grey and strong with the scent of decay. 

I tapped his booted foot with my own black boot and not surprisingly, he stayed still. Normally, I would of expected the corpse to move, but this one didn't, thankfully.  When I turned to leave the building, a bright, purple flash blinded my vision to white, making me shield my eyes, feeling as though it was going to melt them from the intensity of the sudden burst. Soon enough, it dissipated and when I removed my hand from my eyes, I stared in shock at the figures before me - six ponies. Shock ran through me at such beings. 

''What are you?'' I managed to whisper, my eyes still wide with shock. They responded with a loud, long scream, the yellow, winged pony hiding behind the white pony with a horn and curly, stylish purple mane. The purple one, another horned pony looked into my eyes, though still small and filled with fright, she managed to find her voice.

''You can talk?!'' She exclaimed, ''What are you, anyway?! I've never seen anything like you!''

''I could ask you the same thing.'' I stated softly, mind going through more shock upon knowing that such a being could talk. ''I didn't know animals could talk...''

I heard a groan behind me, and then I saw the corpse in the blue shirt move, twitching at first and then clumsily getting to it's feet, moaning hungrily as it drooled blood. He turned to me, those lifeless, pale blue eyes looking into mine, the intent of eating me within them. He lunged at me, arms nearly at my shoulders right before I quickly aimed at his head and fired my pistol, the round echoing loudly as the bullet drilled a hole in his head, splattering his thick, chunky coagulated blood over the wall as he dropped down without a sound, blood soon pooling around his now dead figure.

The ponies just stared in shock at the act, their breathing now heavy as they stared at the now dead zombie next to my feet, soon averting their gaze into my eyes and it wasn't hard to tell what was running through their minds having witnessed a person getting killed in front of their eyes.

''You...you killed him! Why...?'' The yellow, winged pony asked me, her eyes glazing over as she hid behind her mane.

''You wouldn't understand. I...move!'' I yelled, the ponies soon moving away, having seen a few zombies behind them, moaning hungrily as they looked at us. The sound of my pistol shooting must of drawn them here. Christ, I should really get a silencer for this thing. I fired at the few zombies, each bullet hitting them in the head before they collapsed like a sack of potatoes into the ground with a dull, meaty thud. I could clearly see they were coming through the front door, while some just mindlessly clawed at the barred windows, trying to make more entries to get to their targets.

I looked around in a hurry for a place to run to as more zombies limped their way in, soon finding a hallway that lead to the back of the shop and to an exit. I called to the ponies as I ran in the direction of the hallway, the ponies in tow with quick pace. I ran as fast as my legs would carry me, dodging zombies that were in my path and shooting them down, soon rounding the corner to a door with the word 'exit' displayed above it and without hesitating, I barged out of it, an alarm sounding with enough volume that more zombies were probably going to start coming and come they did, as I found when we finally got to the streets. Zombies, some with arms and other limbs missing were limping their way towards the shop to the sound of the alarm.

I had to act, and fast. The ponies looked terrified to say the least, the yellow one especially whom was being carried on the rainbow-maned pony's back. I spotted a small alleyway and seriously hoping it wasn't a dead end, headed towards it, motioning with my arm for the ponies to follow me. We ran down the litter-filled alleyway and luckily, it wasn't a dead end - it opened up into the streets that were thankfully zombie-free. The majority of the rotting things must be at the shop. Good riddance. Still running, we made it to a bridge leading to a freeway, hiding underneath it, panting for breath as we were all finally free of flesh-eating zombies.
I sat down with my back against the wall, facing the ponies who I hoped were alright, especially the yellow one.

''Hey, you all okay? Didn't get bitten or anything?'' I asked them, still panting for breath. They faced me, and the breathing of the yellow pony had slowed to its normal pace. 

''What in the name of Celestia was that?!'' The purple pony asked me, a mixture of shock and fright on her face. 

''Zombies. Now, seriously, anyone get bitten?''

''Wait, what?! Bitten?!''

''Yes, bitten. Whatever you do, do not get bitten! Not unless you want to end up like one of them things!'' I said, getting back on my feet as I faced the scene before me. This place was a freaking nightmare! Cars overturned, crashed, pools of blood and fires raging in areas around towns and cities visible from miles around. I checked the ammo in my pistol before turning to them again.

''We can't stay in town. I have no idea where you all came from, but we need to get out of here. Everything is going to hell pretty fast and some survivors like me will more than likely do something terrible to you if they find you. I guess you should stick with me for a while, just don't get in contact with a zombie or get bitten. That is the last thing anyone in this world wants.'' 

''By the way, I'm Matthew Calden. You may call me Matt.''