"Stay in a single file line, everyone! We don't want anyone getting lost! And keep up!"
An hour after they had discovered the plume of smoke hanging over the forest, Albert and Francis rounded up the entire group of thirty-three humans, attempting to get them safely moving in the direction of the smoke.
It had taken some doing, but they managed to get all thirty-three of them in a single file line, with only moderate grousing from some of the children.
With Albert taking the lead and Francis rounding out the rear, the group made their way through the forest in the direction of wherever the smoke was coming from.
As they trudged through the forest, Albert kept a trained eye on the group as much as he could. He had ordered the line by families, so hopefully there wouldn't be anything to worry.
Directly behind him were the Louvertures: Martin, Lucy, Steven, and Priscilla.
After them were the Sydneys, a well to do black family who lived in the third house on the left within Hawthorne Ct, which also happened to be the largest, most expensive house on the street. Dwight Sydney was a tall, clean-cut black man in his forties who ran a successful law firm. His wife Riley was the manager of a bank. She was currently keeping an eye on her two children, twelve year old Bernice and ten year old James. Albert knew it wouldn't be necessary, both of them were good kids.
Dan Bradley came after them. The oldest neighbor on the street, Dan was a cantankerous and ornery seventy-three year old who lived alone in the first house from the right, directly opposite Albert's own.
Mostly bald with a pot belly, Dan was notorious for not getting along with anyone. He kept to himself mostly in his slightly run-down house, and no one really knew where he had come from or what he did before he moved in. Despite his unpleasant demeanor, Albert knew that Dan was just as big a liability as a child. His arthritis was serious, and he had suffered a heart attack four years ago.
Beyond him were the college kids who lived in the duplex, the fourth house from the right. Anthony, Richie, and Tim the boys, and Natalie and Candice the girls. They were a group of friends who went to the local high school around the same time as Martin. They ranged from the ages of twenty to twenty-three.
In the middle of pack were the Morrises: Bianca and her boys. D'Angelo and Kevin would no doubt be the biggest handfuls as they made their way throughout the forest, but Bianca was a tough as nails twenty-nine year old who kept them in line as best she could by her lonesome. They lived in the sixth house from the left, right next to the Louvertures.
Next up were Nikolai and Nadia, a middle-aged Russian couple who lived in the third house on the right. And beyond them were Ryan and Brit, a young couple from the fifth house on the left.
The next couple was Vang and Monica, from the second house on the right opposite Francis. Monica was a stout white woman of around sixty, while her husband was an Asian man who, like Ray, never seemed to get along with the rest of the neighborhood.
The last two families were the Alexanders and the Lopezs. The Alexanders were a white couple from the fourth house upon the left, who lived with their nine year old daughter Ashley. The Lopezs lived next to the Louvertures, on the fifth house from the right. Jesús, Mercedes, and their three children: thirteen year old Ramón, eleven year old Emilia, and eight year old Augustin.
Rounding out the back was Francis.
Francis stood in the back a fair distance away from Jesús Lopez, watching for any stragglers. His eyes were trained on Kevin Morris, who walked between his mother and brother somewhere in the middle of the pack. Bianca was keeping an eye on both her sons, but her younger one was almost too rowdy for the single African-American woman to handle.
The trees became thicker and denser, and because of that the group lost site of the plume of smoke. The trail they were following was clearly man-made however, and Albert had memorized the direction in which their presumed town could be found.
"Let me know if we have any injuries or accidents! Kids, stay close to your parents! And no potty breaks!" Albert made sure his voice carried to the very back of the line.
"We're really lucky we don't have a higher number of people to worry about."
Despite Albert's instructions, they had eight kids to look after amongst their group, and they ended up taking more potty breaks than they would have liked.
Moving to the source of the smoke took longer than any of the adults would have liked, and Albert realized that they had zero supplies on hand other than the clothes on their backs.
"Hey! Look!" someone shouted from the group. Being in the front, Albert of course was the first one to see the small forest town they had come across.
A smile of relief made its way onto Albert's face, and when he looked behind himself, it seemed like he wasn't the only one who was smiling. From their vantage point, the group of people were standing on a hill, and the ground dipped down to become an unforested valley where what seemed to be a normal human town had been built.
"Thank the Lord above! Civilization! Just imagine what would have happened if we were dropped in the middle of nowhere!" Albert breathed out.
The group of thirty-three broke off from their single file formation, the mothers tending to their crying and complaining children. They were also lucky there were no infants in the group, just children that were clearly old enough to walk on their own.
"Looks to be pretty small of a town. You can see almost all of it from up here. Look, that must a been the smoke we saw!" Francis Budenburr said, walking up to Albert.
The two de-facto leaders of the group saw a large, rectangular building to the left. The landscape dipped down even more as a trail led to a narrow river at the bottom. A large waterwheel was turning and a chimney spewed the smoke that they had likely been seeing.
"A saw mill. I'm not surprised, this town was probably founded on the timber industry." Albert commented.
"Yeah, but are you guys seeing this?" a new voice piped up.
Albert and Francis were surprised when Martin Louverture broke off from mingling with his family to join the two leaders of the group. Apparently he had noticed something that the two had not, but what was really surprising was the fact that he would actually speak up.
"That's not normal..." he said simply.
Francis almost snorted. Martin proclaiming what was normal was really rich, but he looked down to see what the kid had spotted anyway.
"What the fuck?" his jaw almost dropped.
"What is the meaning of this?" Albert chimed in.
While the three of them were watching the village unseen, someone opened their door on the far end of the town and stepped out onto the street.
"Is that a goddamn horse? Now I've seen everything!" Francis deadpanned. It was true, a small equine was the only one wandering around the village at that time. There was no sign of any people thus far.
"It's wearing clothes, kinda looks like something a logger would wear. And look at those eyes, I've never seen eyes that big on a horse. And it's small, never seen a horse or even a pony that size."
Albert snorted at the simple explanations that Francis was giving. There was something very off about that horse, though. Even from this distance, he could tell that beyond all the odd characteristics, it was moving with a sense of purpose.
"I know this may sound crazy, but I can't shake this feeling in ma gut. I got a feeling that thing over there ain't just a dumb animal..." Francis pondered.
"What's going on over there? What are you guys talking about?" someone, Brit from the sound of it, asked from behind the treeline. Martin, Francis, and Albert all looked at each other with unease.
"How the hell are we gonna break this to 'em? I mean, we don't really know what's going on down there yet, but I'm not so sure that we as a group wanna go down there yet. That is, until we have a grasp on the situation..."
"That's not all! Look!" Martin pointed to the left, directly where the saw mill was. Albert and Francis' eyes panned over to the small mill at the base of the river. It was the same, but the main doors had been opened by they were preoccupied with the strange horse that was now wandering into what appeared to be a lodge.
"More!?"
From their left, a group of nine or ten of the horse things were walking up the path that led from the mill to the town. Each one wore the exact same worker's clothes, but their fur and manes were of varying colors.
"And now they're technicolor? Perfect, just perfect!" Francis groused.
"It's almost creepy, to be honest. Some of them look like they're talking to each other, and that one in the middle just laughed. At the very least, they're doing something that normal horses should be incapable of." Albert commented.
Martin shook his head, the solemn look that was usually plastered on his face never leaving.
"That's not it, either. Look at that one," he said, pointing to a pony in the center of the group.
"Most of them are "normal", for lack of a better word. From this vantage point, that one in the middle looks clearly has a horn. And another one kinda looks like it has wings."
"Unicorns. Freakin' unicorns! Ain't that just dandy? I mean, if they weren't fuckin' horses, I woulda just mistook them for a bunch of workers gettin' off their shift!"
Albert rolled his eyes.
"This is all really strange and all. I mean, if what you're saying is true, we've basically stumbled across a settlement of mythological creatures. But, have either of you noticed what seems to be missing here?" Albert piped up.
"....people," Martin said, with only a few seconds of hesitation.
"Exactly. I mean, like it or not, this is a situation we're going to have to deal with. We could assume that we're still on Earth, and that's there an entire town of mutant horses that just happen to have gone unnoticed by the entire world. Or we could assume that we're not on Earth anymore. Take your pick, because they're both ridiculous to believe..." Albert said, shaking his head.
He caught Martin's eye, and the younger male tilted his head away. Albert instantly knew what he was thinking; the shame was getting back to him. The ponies had made it back into the town proper by that point, the group going their own way. A couple entered houses, but others mingled as more and more ponies were making their way out onto the street.
Francis shook his head at the ridiculousness of it all.
"Forget the horses for a second. What the hell do we do? There are no people in this town, do we just go barging into a town of magic horses and ask for help?" he asked.
"Everyone! Get back inside the treeline now! Don't make yerselves visible until you get the okay from me!" Albert ordered, a small quaver in his voice. The other thirty humans broke out in murmurs of protest and confusion.
"Hey! Who the hell put you in charge, pal?"
That voice could only belong to Richie, but it was clear that there were a few others that shared his sentiment. While some of the families, particularly the ones with children, had opted to listen to Albert and Francis, the college kids, Dan, and Vang were now voicing their concerns.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Francis roared, a little bit too loud for Albert's liking. They were still far away from the town, but who knew whether or not those horse things could hear them.
"Hey, fuck off man! We're finally back to civilization! This trip has been just awful for me and Natalie, and now you're telling us we can't even go get cleaned up?" Candice, one of the female college students, joined the conversation.
Albert rolled his eyes. Off all the college kids, only Tim and Natalie were really nice, pleasant individuals. Richie was pretty much who Steven Louverture would be three or four years removed, yet with a fair bit more anger and bit more smarts. Candice was a pampered princess who was loathe to deal with any kind of hardship. Of course they would be the ones to start complaining first. All the five did was hold their obnoxious college parties in their duplex. Their moronic friends would show up in the neighborhood every once in a while and annoy everyone else who lived there.
"We'll explain everything later. Please, just get back into the treeline..." Martin said.
"He's damn talkative today..." Albert thought to himself, especially with how silent he had been not too long ago. Maybe he felt responsible to keep everyone safe?
"Shut up, pencildick." Richie snarled. Martin didn't even flinch. He and the other college kids didn't always get along, but Martin's plethora of other issues made it easy for him to deal with their apparent disdain for him.
"Hey, meathead, we've got bigger problems right now than you spoiled kids' need to be pampered. I understand that this is a rough situation, but it's about to get even rougher. Just go back and hide behind the trees, so you can't be seen. I'll explain everything in a couple minutes..." Albert said.
Richie and Candice both scowled, but they reluctantly turned away from the two of them and back into the treeline. That left Vang and Dan, the stubborn old codgers that they were.
"You better have a good reason, Albert. No one wants to be stuck out here longer than we have to..." Dan spat, and he and Vang followed the younger generation back to the rest of the group.
"I'm going to head back now..." Martin said. "You two will keep things running smoothly, right?" he said, with an almost pleading glance.
Francis and Albert looked at each other.
The rabble of the neighborhood could be heard as they once again gathered in a small clearing approximately one-hundred feet away from where Albert and Francis had discovered the town.
Albert stepped up on a large stump, giving him a position on which he was higher than everyone else, who was standing around on the forest floor or once again sitting on hollow logs.
"People, people! I understand you all may have questions as to why we intentionally avoided seeking help in a town we have just found," he began, with the few dissenters snorting.
Albert ignored them and continued.
"While it is true that we have found civilization and a place where we could receive possible aid, the circumstances of this small town are less than ideal, and it has brought to light several more issues that we may be facing."
More murmuring. Some of the kids were beginning to turn to their parents with questions.
"Let me be direct. In the town that lies in the valley, there are inhabited houses and a working saw mill, but there are no people in that town that we could see. Not a single one out on the streets."
The silence was uncomfortable.
"This is where it gets really weird. There has been something off about this place the moment we have arrived, and this town is no different. What Francis and myself have found is what appears to be a town populated by nothing but small horses. These horses appear to be intelligent, and they've been acting a hell of a lot like humans do."
That was when the silence broke.
"Bullshit!" one of the college kids cried out.
"Why are we even avoiding this? If we find a town, there's bound to be people in it. Why the hell would you make up this fake story about horses?"
"That honestly sounds hard to believe, Albert." Dwight Sydney chimed in. Some of the parents were also sharing their views of skepticism, and the children were continuing to ask questions.
Albert held his hands up in a placating gesture.
"Look, I couldn't make this up if I tried. For those of you who are skeptical, you can go take a look at the town over there. Just... just don't alert yourselves to them. We don't want to just walk right in to something we don't know about."
Several members of the group looked at each other with varying expressions. Some of the group decided to take Albert's word, and remained seated. They were prepared to follow his directions.
The more abrasive members of the group in Richie, Vang, and Dan rose from their seats, exiting the treeline to take a look at the village down below.
"Holy shit! What the hell? He was right all along!" Richie said.
"There must be fifty of them down there. What are these things?" Dan's voice rang out.
"No people. No people down there. Only horse things..." Vang's voice.
"That's new. There were only about ten of them before. Is there some sort of event going on that we don't know about?" Albert thought as he registered the cries of his neighbors.
The two older men and the college student came back to the clearing in a daze. All three of them apparently ran out of steam upon the shocking revelation.
"Now you know what we're dealing with." Albert said nonchalantly.
"Wait, you were serious?"
The sound Albert heard next was of the many people who went to view it for themselves. Some of the kids left their parents to attempt to run out of the treeline, but Francis was there waiting to stop them.
"Wait! Wait! WAIT!" he roared, grabbing Augustin Lopez before he could enter plain view. "With all of you rushing there, we'd stick out like a sore thumb. We'd be visible to them!"
"So what? What if they're friendly! Maybe they could help us?" Natalie suggested.
It wasn't like Albert and Francis had planned on going forever without making contact with the strange horses, but it could've been avoided if possible.
"Well, like I said earlier..." Albert hopped off of his stump, "We don't want to all just rush in at once to face something we literally know nothing about. I mean, they don't look very threatening or anything, but we need to be careful. These are some strange circumstances we're in right now. Weird horses, our strange appearance, and the lack of anything human besides us so far."
"I'm not against sending out a delegation to meet those ponies, but we should weigh our options first. This is new territory for all of us. The sun is going to set in a couple hours. Let's use the remaining time to see if we can find some shelter for the night. We can discuss what we're going to do once we do. My suggestion is that we send one person into the town as an emissary. We may startle the townsfolk if we all head in at once, and who knows what would happen from there?"
The group began to settle down upon Albert's explanation, but they were still stuck out in the wilderness. Some of the children couldn't keep going like this.
"Okay, anyone under thirteen needs to stay here and rest. We need three people to stay here and watch the kids, make sure they don't hurt themselves. The rest of the adults, split off into five or six groups and start searching in several different directions. We need food, water, shelter, and supplies. If you find something that looks like food, take note of it but DO NOT EAT IT! If you find water, same thing. We have to make sure it's sanitary. Don't lose your way, keep track of the sun and make sure you're able to retrace your steps. We will meet back here at sundown!"
Richie still looked conflicted, but the sight of his friends preparing to go to work seemed to uplift him. Dan, Riley, and Candy seemed to volunteer to stay and watch the kids. Dan's reason was likely because of his arthritis.
"Hey Albert," Francis said, approaching the de-facto leader of the group. "Speaking of shelter, while we were walking through the forest, I saw some train tracks running through. They looked old and worn out though; I don't think the train has run through here in years."
"Interesting..." Albert scratched his chin, "Perhaps we should follow them? There might be a train station or something around here that we could hole up in."
"One more thing." Francis' expression turned more serious. "You're right about earlier, what with the whole not being on Earth anymore thing. It may look the same at first, but too many things are different. We can't hide that from the others forever."
Albert sighed.
"I know. Let's just go find those train tracks first. We'll tell the others when we're settled in."