The Last Child on Earth

by ThePonyCritic

Chapter 4: Caught In The Dark

Aiden woke up with a start. A silent start that is. Usually nowadays, here would make sure to hold his mouth before he screamed, though sometimes he would breathe so quickly that he'd almost choke himself. This had become a normal thing to him, for the next couple of days, almost a week.

He sighed heavily as he got out of his 'bed' and looked to the window of the home they were staying in for the night. "Early morning...too early." He groaned. He wished he could go back to bed, but it was either going into 'dreamland' or going out for a secret stash run. Walking had become part of his daily routine as well, since finding a vehicle was harder than he anticipated it to be. When he did wake up too early, he would go out, find anything useful, take it back and hide it near their camp, and when they all started walking, he would pretend to drag along until he spotted it again. Of course he had done this more than once now, and the ponies believed him to have just randomly find it. "Let's see what I can find today." He said usually, as he quietly dresses and creeps out of the house, either by climbing down the eaves or the occasional vines, or slowly exiting the room, taking 5 minutes each door he opens and closes, and speed walks away from the house and down the street.
//30 minutes later...//

He comes back with three things in a plastic bag he found: a lighter, a small sketchbook, and a granola bar. "Well, better than nothing." He thought to himself, then tosses the stuff into a nearby bush. He walks back to the house and does the same thing he always does: go to the door QUIETLY, take 5 minutes to open and close the door, then quickly tiptoes back to-

"Where have you been?" Said a familiar female voice. Aiden froze instantly, his hand out to reach the doorknob to the room he had selected to sleep in. Aiden gulps slightly as he turns his head towards the female voice, and gets flashed by a flashlight.

"Ah! Silvia! Turn it off!" He said quietly blocking his eyes with his hands until she turns it off. He sighs as he lowers his hands and looks back up to where she was. Silvia had been sitting in a chair in the dark, waiting for him to come back, this time catching him sneaking out and into the dark. She walks up to him and he knows that she's glaring at him.

"What have I told you Aiden?! We don't go scavenging unless-" She started, but Aiden caught on to what she usually said.

"Unless we're in a group, yes, I know." Aiden finished. He hears her sigh, not exactly able to see her face. "So are you made at me or happy, because I can't seriously tell from it being night-" He started to say trying to lighten the mood, but Silvia had made her horn glow, showing her face...and it was the EXACT opposite of happy. "Time..." He finished again more slowly this time, not seeing her expression change. After a while, it did, only this seemed worse to him, as it was a face of worry. Silvia used her magic to make Aiden come close enough for her to reach out to him and make him embrace her for a hug. This, to Aiden, was one of the things he hated about Silvia...her pretending Aiden was a little kid that SHE thought she was responsible for. She let go of him for a second to give him eye-to-eye quick discussion.

"You have to stop doing this to yourself-" Silvia started.

"I will...” Aiden interrupted her.

"So no more night runs-" She asked

"No more night runs..." He interrupted her again before she could make it a question. Silvia sighs, then brings him in for another hug. He grumbled mentally to himself, feeling uncomfortable with this, so he gently pushed her away. She felt a bit shocked, but he didn't respond to her as he makes it back to his room and shuts the door. Silvia thought quietly to herself before sighing, then heading back to her room that she had herself to. Silvia had asked to have her own room as well before tonight, so Rebeca and Tony had the rooms to themselves...
//Morning time arrives//

"Are you serious?! You caught him, at night, sneaking off into the dark?" Tony asked Silvia, summarizing over what she had told him just minutes before. Silvia nodded.

"Yes, that's exactly what happened. And it looks like that's what he's been doing EVERY night." She added. Tony puts a hoof to his face and sighs.

"Now it all make sense, all the stuff he 'miraculously' found." Tony said, now feeling stupid for all the things Aiden had pulled. Aiden was sitting on the sidewalk in front of the house while the ponies were talking on the porch.

"Great, just great...Silvia is tattle telling on me to Tony, Tony is making a big fuss as usual, and Rebeca..." Aiden thought, though as his thought came across Rebeca, so he looked around and saw she wasn't outside. He looked up to Tony and Silvia. "Hey guys? Where's Rebeca?" He asked. The ponies to him and Tony answered,

"She's inside, getting ready." Aiden was confused. What did Tony mean by 'getting ready'? Should it REALLY take that long to pack up everything? Even using her magic would be quicker, so then they could be out of there in no time!

"Then Tony and Silvia would stop talking about me and we can get on with our-" Aiden continued to think, but was interrupted as Rebeca was FINALLY ready.

"Okay! Everything's packed. Are you guys ready?" She announced. Tony and Silvia nodded, and Aiden got up, shrugged, and headed across the street. Silvia was the first to react to him wandering off.

"Aiden? Where are you going?" Silvia asked as she went down the steps. Aiden paused and turned around.

"I'm getting my stuff." He answered.

"What stuff? You actually GOT something?" Silvia replied, surprised that he got something from his little night run. Aiden rolled his eyes and kept walking.

"Of course I did, that's why I did it! Because I'M willing enough to take a risk and-" He started as he gotten to the bush he had thrown the stuff he found in, and as he reach his hand to it, a stray dog jumped out of the bush and almost bite his hand. Aiden had jumped and fallen from the scare, which the stray had taken advantage of as it pounced on him quickly and tried to bite at him again, but this time his face. The ponies were already galloping toward him, Silvia being the first since she was at the bottom of the porch already. She ran to Aiden, turned around, and kicked the stray off of Aiden just as he had leaned away for the dog to be kicked. The stray was launched a few feet away and into the woods were it came from, but they heard a crunch, either from what it landed on or it breaking a bone. A howl of pain was followed shortly after, then silence. Silvia helped him up and was about to embrace him again, but this time he shoved her away. Silvia gave him a shocked and hurt expression.

"Aiden, what is happening with you? First you go out on night runs, scaring us half to death, then you get attacked-" She started, but Aiden cut her off.

"One, that dog came out of NOWHERE! And two, I was CAREFUL when I went on night runs. I came back, didn't I? And don't say the whole GROUP was scared for my safety, we all know YOU are the most concerned!" He said angrily, pointing at her when he mentioned her being the most concerned, which she went a little wide-eyed.

"What are you saying? That I care more about you than all of us?" Silvia asked.

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying! Tony is right, I CAN take care of myself, and I would've been fine if you hadn't stumbled upon the research facility!" He answered, which caused them all to look nervous.

"W-what are you talking about, I never said-" Tony said but Aiden interrupted him.

"He was right, you should've checked that I was sleeping, back at the facility. I heard the WHOLE thing..." Aiden explained, smiling slightly in a 'ha-ha I caught you' way. Tony instantly had that face that said 'I knew it!', but it quickly faded when Rebeca glared at him.

"Please Aiden...let me explain." Silvia said, reaching out to him, but Aiden turned around before she could and started to walk away.

"Just leave me alone, Silvia. I just want to think, surely you can understand." He said, but stopped as Silvia used her magic to tug on his shoulder, stopping him from walking away. He turned around to glare at her, but he didn't as he saw her expression of sadness. Aiden feels bad, and now that he thinks about it, he was being a jerk. Aiden sighs and looks back to her and says, "I'm sorry. It's just...I want to help in anyway possible, since you guys are helping me get back to my parents." Silvia smiles slightly, seeing that he was calming down. She goes over to him, kisses his forehead, and hugs him. He blushed slightly, but smiles as well, then hugs back.

"Great, we've ended this right? Look, if there was one of those dogs, and if their anything like wolves, then I would think that they like to travel in-" Tony started, but was cut off as one after another howl of dogs. "Packs..." He finished as he looked back to the woods. The others did as well.

"Guys? Run." Aiden said, as strays of all sizes started coming out of the woods and barked, heading towards them. Everyone had already turned around and started running as fast as they could. Eventually the wolves were able to be seen from behind, but none of them wanted to look back. They continued down the street until a couple of smaller strays headed towards them. Aiden had already taken his police baton, extended it, and got ready to attack and defend. One of the small dogs jumped at him, which he quickly dealt with when hitting it as it got close to him, then he kept running.

"There's more of them in the way! Where do we go?" Tony said as they all slowed down when the pack of strays had caught up and got in front of them. The ponies and Aiden backed up again a wooden fence as the dogs surrounded in front of them, all growling and barking furiously.

"N-now what? We're trapped-" Rebeca started, but was interrupted by the noise of the fence behind them being pushed down, by Aiden and Tony, who both had the same idea.

"You were saying? Let's go!" Aiden said as they all started running again, into the backyard of a house.

"Fence!" Silvia said, as they were heading for a fence, chain unfortunately, that had surrounded the whole backyard. Aiden though, surveying the area quickly, saw a hole in the fence, big enough for him to go through, and a wire cutter on the other side. He put on a serious face as he went straight for the hole, which the ponies had seen after he had run for it. As he got to the fence, he slide under and picked up the wire cutters and cut quickly through the fence for the others to fit through and climb under.

"Come on guys!" He said in a hurried tone, as the dogs weren't far behind. The ponies went under, first Silvia, then Rebeca, and lastly Tony. As Tony came through, one of the dogs chomped on his tail, which he yelped in slight pain as the dog started to pull him back under the fence. Aiden quickly went over to between the two and bonked the wire cutter on the dog's head until it let go. Once it did, Silvia had found something to block the opening, a heavy wheelbarrow, which the dogs didn't even try to hit at it, they now resourced to going up to the fence and furiously barking.

"Come on guys, let's leave before more show up." Tony suggested, which everyone agreed to and started to walk away quickly from the barking beasts.