Chapter 3: Twiler
Pillars of rubble and corpses rose around the survivors like an altar to some forgotten god. The slow groans of the undead filled the air and soon turned to roars of rage. The four mares were in complete shock to having fell for this obvious trap. In the center of this circle of death ripped floor boards began to shift as a figure of immense fear climbed to her hooves. A purple, straight-maned, unicorn. Twilight Sparkle. For a moment, it seemed as though Twilight wasn't infected. She didn't display the initial traits of a normal trotter. She wasn't cut up or scratched, and showed no indications of being bitten. But the look in her eyes, a look of pure rage. Colgate looked to Twilight's neck and saw exactly what killed her. There was a lynch tied firmly around the purple unicorn's collar bone. The rope had been cut from where ever Twilight had hung herself. A thought that would enter the survivor's minds later was who, or what exactly, had cut Twilight from her self made gallows?
What would happen next, however, would cause a new spread of panic through the survivors. Twilight's horn started to glow with a dim aura, as she began to levitate several objects from the ground. The group took this as an indication to run. Twilight began to throw objects of differing size and shape at all four of the mare survivors. For the most part, Twilight had telegraphed her attacks rather easily, which made them easy to dodge. This didn't matter very much to her though, as the zombified unicorn continued to pelt the survivors with more and more heavy objects which she pulled from around her. A few times, Twilight would pick up a trotter and throw it at the fearful survivors. Derpy , with all her brevity, was able to hit a thrown trotter out of the air with her axe, cutting its head off in the process, much like a baseball.
As much as they hated to do it, the four ponies had to open fire upon the infected ponies, including Twilight . They were already surrounded, and couldn't afford to risk one of them getting bitten. Colgate was able to shoot her infected friend in the head, but this did not stop her. A thick black liquid leaked from the bullet hole Colgate made in the purple zombie that once was Twilight Sparkle. Twilight stumbled a bit, but regained her balance, and launched a wild screech of anger not unlike the one that lured them here. Soon more voices of anger and rage joined Twilight's, as the group found themselves in a bad position.
"Uh-oh..." Carrot Top lamented
"I think I know what that means!" Cloud Chaser bellowed, happy to be able to kill more of these sick monsters again.
Out of almost every corner of Ponyville came more and more trotters, eagerly running to their next meal. The survivors had to fight back even harder due to the large influx of new targets. Twilight had doubled her pace, throwing larger objects and at an increased rhythm. The four mares, however, paid very little attention to her, as the number of trotters surrounding them increased. But Twilight took this as an opportunity to up her aim. With the ferocious strength of Twilight's magic, the infected unicorn grabbed a half broken crate from the bloodied ground and threw it as hard as she could at Colgate. The unsuspecting blue and white pony didn't even see it coming. The large wooden box hit Colgate squarely in the back, exploding into a mess of splinters and planks which cut Colgate quite extensively. Colgate tumbled to the ground, her rifle falling just out her reach.
The other three mares friends took notice of their friend's incapacitation, but could do little to help her back up, as the bodies of infected ponies fell closer and closer their defensive circle. And while Derpy was able to fend of a respectable amount of attackers with her axe, Both Carrot Top and Cloud Chaser knew they would run out of ammunition eventually. One trotter was able to jump Carrot Top from behind, but Cloud Chaser was quick to react. With a single well placed trigger pull, Cloud blew the zombie pony off of her orange maned friend's back.
By this point Colgate was completely separated from the rest of the group. Yet she was fine. None of the trotters even bothered assaulting the defenseless blue and white pony. The hordes of infected were intent on killing and devouring the three ponies that still remained a threat. Colgate attempted to get back up, but winced from the pain of the splinters still lodged in her back, and fell to the ground. In truth, it was a one on one battle; Twilight versus Colgate. And although Twilight could have easily finished off the toothpaste colored pony right there, she had something else planned. Twilight's horn began to glow an even darker violet than before.
At a tempered, yet sluggish rate, Twilight began dragging her old friend across the bloodied and filthy ground, into the reaches of her doom. Frantic, Colgate tried with all her strength to break free of Twilight's magical clutches, But to no avail. In a spark of thought, Colgate reached behind herself with her magic and attempted to grab her fallen rifle. With some unbelievable luck, Colgate was able to take hold of the stock of her dropped gun. With the speed of a Wonderbolt, Colgate aimed her wood furnished rifle at the head of her purple assailant.
Colgate emptied her entire clip into Twilight's enraged face. Bullet after bullet rang into the purple unicorns head as more plumes of blood decimated Twilight's face, making it almost incomprehensible. One shot charged straight into Twilight's eye, spewing visceral liquid out in a gush of blood and gore. Another shot went into Twilight's mouth, impacting directly on her tongue. An explosion of blood and flesh poured out of the purple unicorn's muzzle. But she would not desist. Twilight continued to pull the hapless white and blue pony closer to what was sure to be a painful death. Colgate fired her last shot. Twilight still wouldn't stop. Colgate began to panic. She resorted to her last option.
The distraught toothpaste colored pony threw the hunting rifle away, and unlatched the pistol she had kept hidden under her hind leg. This truly was just as dangerous for her as it was for whoever she used it on. She barely used the darn thing. But the damage that it's proven capable of was reason enough to keep it around. With the remaining strength left in her body, Colgate thrust the weighted hand gun into the head of the purple zombie unicorn. Colgate pulled the trigger as fast as her hooves would allow, a flurry of new holes opened on the already mangled face of Twilight Sparkle. But Twilight continued pulling the terrified blue pony even closer to certain death. Twilight was practically on top of her now. Colgate closed her eyes. She fired the last of her shots at Twilight. With unbelievable luck, Colgate was able to shoot Twilight on the tip of her horn, causing the zombified mare to cease her telekinetic spell. But Colgate didn't notice, and continued to unload the rest of her clip into Twilight's face. With her final shot, Colgate was finally able to kill Twilight as her purple body fell into the mucky dirt.
The number of attacking trotters soon dwindled. And at just the right time, too. Both Cloud and Carrot Top were pushing on their last few rounds, and Derpy was beginning to grow lock-jaw from swinging that axe in her mouth. The air began to to calm once again, and the three breathed a sigh of relief. But their relief was soon taken away again, as Carrot Top realized that a certain white and blue unicorn wasn't standing with them.
"Wait, Where's Colgate?"
The three mares began to panic. Where was their friend? They began to search frantically for Colgate. Eventually, Colgate was able to call out to them. The group rushed over to their incapacitated ally.
"Holy... Are you okay Col'?" Cloud Chaser asked.
"Yeah, I just need some help getting up,"
Carrot Top picked Colgate off the ground and helped here onto her hooves. Carrot Top felt a wet patch on Colgate's back. She gasped as she saw how badly cut up her friend was.
"Colgate! What happened? were you-"
"No. I wasn't bit. I just took a nasty fall is all,"
Just as the group finally felt they could relax, a growling sound was heard behind them. It was Twilight. After all of the abuse she had taken she was still alive, barely. She was laying on the ground, crawling her way towards the survivors. A portion of her horn had been shot off, keeping her from performing any magic. The lynch still barely hanging around her neck. Her face was beyond incomprehensible. A mound of bloodied and rotten flesh. Twilight continued to growl and gurgle, as if she still posed a threat. Colgate couldn't hold back her tears. Twilight was her friend, and she couldn't handle seeing her like this. Colgate always thought she looked pretty, but now she was nothing but a pitiable corpse playing in the mud. This situation reminded Colgate of what happened before the quarantine.
Colgate had gone to the library in order to return a few books she had borrowed, and what she found inside was Twilight Sparkle in full on panic mode. As soon as the first infection hit Twilight began to prepare for the worst. Twilight had sent Spike to live with her parents in Canterlot, just to make sure he'd stay safe. The poor unicorn tried her hardest to warn everypony as best she could, but no one would listen. Don't worry, Everything will be fine. Calm down Twi, this will just blow over. Have faith Twilight, the princesses would never let anything bad happen to us... Likewise with Colgate, when she entered the treehouse-library Twilight came up to her and pleaded for her to listen. Twilight was practically in tears, even her friends began to avoid her, and no one would pay her any mind. Colgate tried to calm the her distraught friend. But she would not calm down. Colgate left the books on a nearby table, and left. That was the last she ever saw of Twilight.
This wasn't fair. How was Colgate still alive while Twilight lay in the dirt, a twisted version of her former self? Why didn't Colgate listen to her friend in her time of need? Why didn't anypony listen? Because they didn't want to believe it would ever get this bad. Colgate's entire body was quivering as teardrops streamed down her chin. She continued to stand there for a few more moments, unable to look away from the monstrosity that was once her dear friend, Twilight Sparkle. The rest of the group remained in solemn silence, and gave their friend the time she needed to mourn. Colgate knew what she had to do, she couldn't allow her friend to suffer like this.
"Cloud Chaser, can I use your shotgun?"
Slightly startled, Cloud nodded and handed over her chrome armament. Colgate bent over, and spoke a few last words to her old friend.
"I'm so sorry this happened to you. You have to know that I never wanted this to happen. I just hope you can find it in yourself to forgive me,"
After saying her goodbyes, Colgate aimed the large metal weapon directly onto Twilight's head. The purple unicorn reacted by letting out a menacing hiss. Colgate was trembling even more than before. She was practically drenched in her own sweat and blood. Colgate clenched her eyes closed. And with the single pull of a trigger, the pony that was once Twilight Sparkle was gone.
Colgate gave the shotgun back to Cloud and without turning to the rest of the group, stated "C'mon, let's see what we can find in the library. There has to be some useful supplies inside,"
Without question, all four mares entered the library.
The inside of the library was almost as horrifying as the outside. Bodies lay strewn about on tables, and cut into segments of the floor. The wood was stained with crusted blood. There were burnt out candles everywhere. The walls were riddled with bullet holes. Many of the books were thrown out and had several pages ripped out. PNI flyers were posted in large numbers upon the walls, many of which were torn up or had incomprehensible gibberish written over them. There were signs of vicious battles everywhere. But for the most part, it seemed safe.
After treating Colgate's wounds the survivors began to split up and search for supplies, which were increasingly scarce. They needed to find something, or they'd be completely defenseless. Carrot Top noted a strange bottle on one of higher shelves. The orange farm pony called over her friends.
"What is it?" Cloud Chaser questioned curiously.
"I have no idea. Here, give me a boost," Cloud did as she asked and gave her a boost up. But when she took hold of the glass bottle, she found that it was extremely hot. The small bottle burnt her hoof immediately upon contact. Carrot Top fell back onto the ground.
"Let me try," Colgate took hold of the flask with her magic and gently levitated down for her friends to see. There was an inscription on the back:
FIRE POTION
*warning*
Do not ingest the contents of this container
Do not in any way fracture the container itself
Contents are extremely flammable
"I think I like the sound of that," stated Cloud with a devilish grin on her face.
"Me too," agreed Colgate as she tucked the fire potion away in her saddlebag.
The group continued there search on the first floor for a little while longer, and found that there wasn't much left of anything for them to take. Since it was obvious that there was nothing left on the first floor, the group decided to graduate to the second floor of the library. The survivors noticed what seemed to be a sniping tower on the balcony, but there wasn't anything of worth there, not even a weapon. Once again the four mares searched high and low for supplies. Nothing. Finally they were upon the door that lead to Twilight's bedroom. Colgate breathed, and opened the door.
The room made everything else seem childish. Body parts ornamented almost every piece of furniture. Bodies were cut up with surgical precision, leaving large flaps of skin on either side which exhibited what was left of their bones and organs. Wide pools of blood were all over the floor. Even more frantic scribbling graffitied the walls. In the center they saw what would haunt their thought for a long time. The rope that Twilight was once hung from. It stayed exactly where it was when Twilight first attached it to the roof. Due to the quality of how it was cut, the rope was most likely split with a dull blade-like device. But what was on the opposite side of the room was able to catch the attention of the survivors. A military styled crate. Carrot Top and Cloud immediately ran up to it as soon as they noticed it.
Derpy remained at the door, uneasy at the sights that lay before her. But Colgate noticed something peculiar on top of Twilight's nightstand. The toothpaste colored unicorn decided to investigate. It was a book. From the looks of it it was a journal of some kind. Colgate debated whether or not she should read it. In the end she decided that curiosity overthrew common sense, and slowly creaked open the book of lost memories:
Entry I
Well that's it. I've just finished boarding up all the windows and doors. I'm not going to let anypony in or out of here until Celestia finds a cure. It's the only way to make sure I stay safe. I've decided to begin chronicling my time in here in order to pass the time. And also, Just in case, I don't survive the whole thing. If you by chance find this journal with me not around, or if I've... been disposed of, you can find a list of various supplies on pages 6, 14, 34, and 73.
Colgate flipped to a random page and began to read again.
Entry VII
I had to do something horrible today. While I was reading a book on viral infections in hopes of finding a cure, I heard a whining sound from outside. I went out to the balcony, and saw a little filly crying for her mother. I tried to get her attention, I pleaded for her to stop, but she couldn't hear me. I could already hear the infected coming. I had no choice. I took my sniper rifle and shot her in the spine. It was the only way. She didn't feel anything, I swear. At least what I did to her was less painful than what they would do to her.
Once again, Colgate stopped reading, and opened to a new page.
Entry XXVIII
Rainbow Dash tried to break in today. I heard her trying to beat down the door. She called my name. She was begging me to let her in. I pretended to not hear her. She became extremely angry. I heard her curse my name dozens of times as she tried her damnedest to break through the door. But I was a little too good at fortifying my library. Everything went quiet for a few seconds, then I heard her fly up to my window. She was even more furious as she tried to buck down my window. This was the first time I can honestly say I've been afraid of somepony. She eventually stopped bucking and just started to knock on the window. I could hear her crying. I've never heard her cry before. She apologized for not listening to me. At one point she stopped pleading all together and just began to sob to herself. But I wasn't going to let her in, Even if she was my friend. Before she left she said something strange. She said that there was somepony else out there. I didn't understand what she meant. I almost asked her what she meant but before I could bring up the courage to talk to her she already left. After that, I decided to lie in my bed and cry to myself for a few hours.
Colgate was afraid, but continued on a new page.
Entry LXV
This is bad. This is really bad. The infected broke into the first floor. I don't how. But they're in. Luckily I was able to barricade the stairway up to the second floor. For now I'm completely cut off from the rest of my supplies. I barely have any food in here And I'm running out of ink.
Colgate flipped to a new page, and noticed that the color of the ink was now red.
Entry LXVI
Good news! In a streak of genius I decided to kill a couple of infected and take their bodies into my room. With these books on anatomy I have I'm able to preserve their blood for much longer than normal. Obviously it isn't the best replacement for high quality ink but it'll do for now...
Fed up with reading this terrifying novel, Colgate went to the very last page.
Entry LXXIV
This is it. This is the end. I hear the roars of the undead perpetually. I can't sleep. I haven't eaten in weeks. They beat on my door nonstop. I can't take it. I found some rope tucked away in the corner. I think it'll do. But before I do this I need to say something. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everypony I could have saved but didn't. I'm sorry for everything I've done... I can hear a voice sometimes. I'm not sure whether I'm imagining it or not. But it doesn't matter. Soon it will all be over.
Colgate could barely restrain her tears. She knew that she could have saved Twilight. All she needed was one pony that would listen to her. But then, she noticed something strange. They're appeared to be another page stuck to the back of this one. This page was rather strange. The writing was written in some kind of gray ink, and covered the entire page:
WHerE iS Thy QueEN?
Puzzled, Colgate closed the book and placed it back where she found it. What did it mean? Who was this Queen? Was it talking about Celestia? Chrysalis? While Colgate was in deep thought. Carrot Top snuck up on her and tapped her shoulder. Colgate nearly jumped out of her skin.
"Dear sweet Celestia, Carrot! You scared the hay out of me!"
"Sorry, Col'. You've been standing there for a while. I just wanted to make sure you're okay,"
Colgate blushed "Oh. I'm sorry... I was just in deep thou- wait. What did you call me?" The white and blue mare pondered her carrot maned friend.
"It's your nickname! Me and the others decided to make you one," Carrot Top stated gleefully.
"Oh, well thanks. I guess..." Colgate smiled warmly.
"Well if you guys are done having your little tea party we better get outta here. there's ammo in that crate over if you need it," Cloud interjected.
Colgate nodded, got herself some ammo for her gun, and they set out once again to their next confrontation.
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Well, that became depressing REAL fast. Poor Twilight, gotta feel bad for her. Gotta say, you were spot on with how Twilight would respond in the situation, and about how she tries to find a cure and gets all upset and things during the library visit. Still REALLY confused as to why she didn't at least ATTEMPT to find a way to let in Rainbow Dash. I mean, come on, they're best friends.
The boss battle...oh it gave me goosebumps. I can just imagine, the terrifying feeling of being pulled closer and closer to what must feel like your doom, but with there being no one to help, and nothing seems to be able to stop it. I woulda shat myself. God that sounds horrifying. Kudos to you author, nailed it spot on.
Also, just a note, watch the amount of redundancy in your writing. I notice a lot, or if it's not redundancy, just a lot of repeated words, like the paragraph above. Just keep that in mind, because it almost made my head explode.
Anyways, wonderful chapter! Simply brilliant! What you're doing to the mane six is very intriguing, and learning about what happened to them, and how they spent their final moments is very...unique to me. Also, the interaction between all four survivors is neat as well. Keep it up!
-Cyneryk
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Thanks for the advice. That's something I've been trying to work on for a while, but I haven't found a good way to go about doing it.
Le thumbs up.
Terrifying and gratifying. Please continue.
PLEASE PULL THIS OUT OF HIATUS! I've been waiting for another good read and this is one.
I shed many tears. 
Fade, you never said anything about being a writer! Has i known, I would of looked at this!
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Well, would you mind telling me what you think, if you don't mind, that is.
I've sorta been keeping this story in hiatus, mostly because I'm not too sure it's all that good, some constructive criticism would be very appreciated.
To be honest, I don't see how you could put this on hiatus. The story so far is great, your way of telling how the mane six died is spot on, and while yes you do have minor errors fixable with the backspace and some taps of the keyboard, the storyline is original enough to keep me reading.
You my friend, are Obi wan in this scene, against the power of doubt, You really shouldn't give up, stop listening to your depressed side of your brain and start looking at the positive.
Left for Friendship
Author: Zz_-F4D3-_zZ
Reviewed by: theforrealdeal
Left for Friendship tells a good story full of dialogue and action to keep the reader’s attention. It is easy to read from it’s simple writing that hits all the basic elements of writing. However, that is all the writing is: basic, which is essentially what holds this story back from what it has the potential to be. What truly prevents this story from being great is the elementary feeling that the writing has. It tells a good story, but it just doesn’t show it well enough to really make it a great story. Along with its amateur style, the main factors holding this story back are the various technical errors within the writing.
Though these flaws are consistent throughout the story, they are only minor and do not completely take away from the story. If one can look past the simple writing and minor flaws, this story holds a ton of potential to make for a cool adventure. Anyone looking for a quick and easy-to-read zombie apocalypse story will likely not be disappointed with this but should not expect any of the writing to jump off the page at them. Read this for the tale it tells, not for the writing.
6.5/10
Full Review
~Equestrian Critics Society
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Oh look, a zombie pony story. And before you think this review is going to start with yet another rant on how overused the zombie apocalypse scenario is, allow me to throw you a massive curveball by stating that I'm not so down on the zombie apocalypse. Yes, it's infecting every asset of popular culture like… well, like a zombie apocalypse, but, just as high gas prices lead to cheaper, more fuel efficient cars, an overabundance of zombie apocalypse stories leads to the perfecting of the formula. Nowadays, to make a zombie apocalypse story that anyone cares about, you have to put extra effort into characters, characterization and character conflict - often to the point that those three are the true meat of the story. And if any of you handsome motherfuckers read my reviews with any regularity, you'll know that those three salient points are the aspects of story writing that I write sappy, melodramatic love poetry for and make longing glances towards in the school cafeteria.
But I am not so caught up in my love for characters that no restraining order in the world can hinder that I'm not also aware that this is a story spat out by the internet, which is only populated by assholes, idiots, closet homosexuals, incredibly open homosexuals and overdramatic people who won't shut the fuck up about Pierce the Veil - notice "really sweet writers" are not listed among these. So, I'm well aware that there is a high probability of cliche, like the author killing off the main cast in gruesome, overly detailed Cupecakian gore scenes only suitable for teenagers (see "teen" and "gore") - not for adding to the drama of the story or exploring the impact of such a death on the rest of the cast, but rather to show that the author is not fucking around as well as provide a prime opportunity for giving characters that the author likes screen time. However, if you kill off characters for the sake of killing off characters then your left with a cast you don't want to kill but don't know what else to do with, so you run out of ideas. (see "On Hiatus")
Well, I'm pleased to report that the author did understand the need for characters and character conflict, but it's a shame that each character and conflict are completely generic. So, let's meet the crew: First is Cloud Chaser, the badass one who's on top of everything and wields a custom chrome shotgun that can't run out of ammo and surprisingly both exists in a world where there's absolutely no need for guns nor, indeed, a method for creating guns and it can be operated without fingers. She gets the prerequisite missing romantic partner/family member subplot, as if stamping that onto a character automatically makes them sympathetic. Next we have Carrot Top as the de-facto-group-leader type who serves as Cloud Chaser's antithesis so they can fight all the time in a manner that feels juvenile, contrived and counter-productive. Then there's Colgate, the practical one that has no personality traits and screams "I'm the one that's going to get killed off later!" And finally, there's Derpy, starring as the useless, idiot character that you really want to die but never manages to fucking die.
I am now going to sum up my general opinion of the rest of the story by hitting my head against my computer keyboard a few times: yh554tyyy7y6tydewhyt5iuerdfghjt
Probably the worst part is that "Left for Friendship" is actually pretty well written, save a few redundancies and "lavender unicorn syndrome". Imagery is pretty spot on, the narration is from an objective standpoint, which I personally appreciate, and descriptions are brief but vivid - though the story is way too eager to describe all the dead bodies. I fucking get it, there are dead bodies around! In fact, there is a surprisingly large amount of dead bodies, both as zombie-fied "trotters" and just the normal smelly kind that make the squishy noises when you stomp on them. Either Ponyville, which the story instructs us to believe has been quarantined in accordance with heretofore unnamed biohazard protocols, has seen a monstrously huge immigration influx or friendship is a whole different kind of magic.
The presentation blows quality of the story itself out of the water - it's like Reverse-"Dream-Whisper-Story-Syndrome"! It strikes me as hiring an awesome voice actor like Liam Neeson to read the blog posts of a shallow, maladjusted teenage jack-off with serious daddy issues that feels uploading pictures of their self-mutilation sessions on iFunny is both appropriate and productive in some way. The quality of the method of presentation outshines the quality of the material being presented is what I mean. If the story had a single original thought in its head, the presentation could've really drove home more potent themes and made a good story a great one. As it stands now, the presentation makes an average story seem smarmy - yeah, that's a word, look it up!
There is some kind of hint that maybe something interesting will happen later on in the chapter where Twilight hangs herself, (spoiler alert, I suppose) but by then it was too little, too late. I wasn't connected with the characters, so everything they did was so much piss dribbling down me leg and collecting on the toilet seat. The characters are unreal - they're two dimensional and exist solely to serve the plot, which behaves like a sporadic shithead child smacking its dollies together. The universe in which the story takes place doesn't exist to draw you in or color the tale, it exists to force its favorite characters in scenarios to make them look cool. The story spawns a massive zombie horde when it's zombie-horde-fighting time, but then the zombies disappear completely when it's time for contrived character drama. Like a man with no eyes stumbling into the arena of the cannibal monkey rapists, I'm not sensing the immediate danger.
So the world doesn't feel like a hazard, zombies don't feel like they're a perpetual threat and the characters don't feel like they're autonomous, or capable of various emotion. "Left for Friendship" feels like a string of various individual zombie story scenes that the author thought were cool violently and horrifically sewn together in a fucked up Human Centipede kind of way. First , the story tries to be tense for a chapter before getting bored of that and sliding down to the next bit where it tries out being action heavy. Then finally it puts on its emotional roller coaster hat and tries to move you through melodrama and mystery. Keep in mind that the gastrointestinal tract is pretty well polished (that's the metaphor for the writing, if you're having trouble keeping up), but it's the very literal shit slugging thru this centipede that concerns me. So a lack of interesting characterization and a lack of believable cohesion ruined the experience for me, and the further I disinterestedly got in this gastric-tract-disco-fun-ride the more I could smell the shit!
So that's the review then; "Left for Friendship" is your stereotypical copy-paste zombie story scenario playbook with hints at something greater, but that never gets quite off the ground. It's got every cliche in the book save the black guy getting killed off first and after a while there's a sense that the story has fell flat on its face and is being drug along the sidewalk. As I mentioned before, the only real difference between good zombie story and bad zombie story is character, and when the characters are cliched paper cutouts that I can't connect with, the whole bottom falls out for me. So, if you absolutely need to hear the same old zombie story again, then you'll find "Left for Friendship" comfortably docile and familiar. However, if you're hoping for something intriguing that mixes up the formula, then you'll be as disappointed as the gays are going be when we let them get married, but not divorced.
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fade... people love the story
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grr
Hiatus or not, I tried reading this. Sorry but I bailed out. I'm just done with zombie stuff for a while. Watching every season of walking dead will do that.