//------------------------------// // June 5/6th, 2015 // Story: Perils of a Merpony: A Ponies after People Tale // by kitten_girl86 //------------------------------// June 5th, 2015 @ 6:30 pm Dear Journal, Using my new pickup, I had found a decent sized trailer RV while driving around the rich part of town. It’s got a full kitchen, full shower stall bathroom, big bedroom at the back and LOTS of storage for the supplies... and maybe some more survivors? Only took me one buck to shatter the old padlock on the hitch and the RV came with a large sized Canadian flag hanging on the back. I also broke in to search the house. It had a pool in the backyard but the water had already turned foul. Found a couple of tablets and thin laptop in what appeared to be an office. Also nabbed a sweet solar panel from the house roof; the rope I got from Canadian Tire came in handy (hoofy?) to slowly lower the panel to the driveway. The only pets I found were a sealed fish tank with floaters. Nothing I could do there so I left them behind. Found only a couple of water cooler bottles in the garage so I threw them in the RV too. I still felt bad for taking the RV.... so I left a note. I had to use my mouth to hold the pen and print, like I use my stylus on this tablet. The penmanship was horrendous but still readable. My name is Kathryn. Strange things are going on in the world... If you’re reading this, it means you’ve come home to find your RV & solar panels gone. I'm sorry. I needed to borrow them. If you ever find yourselves down in Miami, Florida, come find me and I'm sure you can have them back. I've been spending the last few days, making more bio-fuel for the diesel generator while I planned to siphon fuel for the truck from the gas stations along the way. The bio-fuel barrels –four completely filled and sealed- went into the second trailer, strapped down as best as I could with only hooves. God, I miss my fingers!! .... What? Oh yeah! A second trailer! I was shocked when I realized that the RV trailer came with a back hitch of its own! That meant I could tow another trailer for the other hazardous stuff like the propane canisters for the camping stove and the barrels. Mental note: acquire second genny if possible. The genny went into the back of the pickup truck, along with much of my big equipment (tote of solar lights & lamps; pile of dog food bags; aired crates for the seeds; archery cases full of crossbows and bins of arrows [one bow and one bin went into the truck’s cab with us!]). (I had left the pickup parked on the street with the RV & back trailer all hooked up while packing; if I had to go out anywhere for anything, I used the school bus.) The food was all packed up today. I had to pick through all of it again to sort out the good from the bad; the weak from the chaff. Anything on the fence but leaning to good, I left out to eat tonight and tomorrow morning before we leave. Anything leaning to bad, I loaded up in my neighbor’s red wagon and dumped it in the park, along with the very last of bags of each peanuts and bird seed. I said my good-byes to the animals there already. I left a new note at my parent’s house, along side of the original one, telling them of where I had gone and why: Miami, Florida because I'm a merpony! I even added sketches of my new form and the butt tattoo so they could better identify me if they came looking. Raea is whining for dinner so I ought to get on that. I plan on an early start tomorrow. June 6th, 2015 @ 9:20 pm; One Niagara Welcome Center, Niagara Falls, NY Dear Journal, I had started out early this morning to Hamilton. I wanted to see if any of my family there had remained. When we prepared to leave Brantford, Butch and his pack came to the house, I guess to see us off. Butch huffed to one of the smaller dogs, who stepped forward and presented Raea with a very large bone; probably taken from a pet store. Butch came forward next and bowed his head to me. Instinct told me that he was wishing us a safe journey and promising to not attack any others like me. I gave him a scratch behind his ear as thanks. I had left copies of my earlier journal entries at the house in sealed plastic in case anyone should come across it. I also updated any signs I had previously made, adding a few new ones to other local hot spots that people might go to for help: city hall, police station, fire station, public library and every major grocery store & the Lynden Park Mall. With the trucker radio I had scavenged rigged up to the inside of the pickup truck, I was able to coast the stations, looking for others who might be transmitting. The drive up to Hamilton was, not surprisingly, empty & uneventful. The only stop I made was to Costco/Pets-mart in Ancaster (former for bigger supplies of non-perishables & more propane canisters; the latter, a very sad display for more of Raea’s dog food; I won’t dwell on what I found there). :'( As soon as I reached Hamilton, I searched much of the city, blaring the truck’s loud horn and broadcasting on the radio but found not a single other pony. I saw plenty of stray dog packs and evidence of scavenging but no sign of any sapient beings. (And to be fair, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking for at the time.) About three hours of driving around Hamilton yielding no results, I went to the homes of my family members; I found not a soul at any of them but left plastic-sealed notes telling of my plans, sketches of what I looked like both as land pony and merpony, my butt tattoo and the fact that I have Raea with me. With daylight burning, we drove down to Niagara Falls, watching as a bank of dark storm clouds rolled in off the USA side and blanketed the whole region in torrential rain. What should have been an hour, 10 minute drive turned into nearly 2 ½ because I could barely see the road in front of me and no street lights working. The storm was so dark; it turned mid-afternoon into the blackest of night as we drove through St. Catharine’s, Ontario. Raea & I managed to cross the Canadian/USA border at the Peace (Rainbow) Bridge just as the first strikes of thunder and lightning hit the area. I was surprised to see a few lights still turned on at the bridge before I realized that they were solar powered. We arrived here at the Welcome Center not long after crossing the bridge. During a break in the rain, I took the tablet outside and found a good spot to photograph the Peace Bridge... I just got lucky to capture the lightning in there too. I used my genny to power up the lights in the welcome center, in the hopes that someone (somepony?) will see it before we leave tomorrow.