The forest was a place that Johnny hated being, before he’d come here he was accustomed to the vast urban jungles of New Jersey. The muck and grime of this foul place was one of the many things he’d grown to hate over the past few months skulking around, and now that the heat was on, he found himself dropping down into the foul stinking earth more and more. His normal routine of scavenging and hunting for food had only increased in difficulty since his escapade the night before, patrols of alien ponies in black armor had started patrolling his normal routes to and from the dark dank cave that he and his compatriot had been holed up in.

His mind shifted from how much he hated hiding in the mud and muck to making sure he stayed hidden, as a patrol was currently no more than five feet from the bushes he’d hidden in. He could see they carried crossbows, and judging by the armor they wore, Johnny knew that even if he managed to drop one of them with his hunting rifle, he’d not be able to duplicate the feat before being riddled with holes, or worse. Not that he wanted to attack them, either, but his mind was filled with worst case scenarios at the moment.

“Company! Halt!” He heard one of the aliens bellow from ahead of the group he was watching now, Johnny tensed as he watched them all stop in their tracks. “Five minute break gentlecolts! Take this time to get some water and rest your hooves. Heat’s only expected to increase anyway!” Johnny sighed as quietly as he could as he watched the group begin to disperse through the bushes, some of them moved over to sit on some rocks in the distance whilst others began to chat amongst themselves. The man hiding in the bushes froze entirely as he saw a set of hooves approach his bush.

They were about to be close enough to see him before they veered off and went another way, Johnny remained completely still nonetheless. Years of hiding and staying quiet had made him relatively hard to find, but that was in an urban environment with creatures that were half blind and attacked anything that made noise, as well as drug addled maniacs with more guns than brains. The chatter of the group was too far off to hear anything important, Johnny wouldn’t have been able to remember any of it anyway, he was too focused on hiding. Each second to him felt like an eternity, he could see that some of the ponies had set helmets on the ground, they looked oddly human in design. Two alien letters were painted on the front of some of them in white, he could only assume that identified their rank or something.

“Drop your cocks and grab your socks, gents! Five minutes are up!” Shouted the same voice from before, the soldiers grumbled to themselves and pulled on their helmets again. Johnny watched them begin marching by, their hooves creating an eerie rhythm against the muddy ground. He waited nearly ten minute before finally standing up and moving forwards, doing the best to cover his tracks in the mud as he did so. The branches of the trees around him left small scratches on his already scarred up arms, tearing small holes in his threadbare hawaiian shirt and the shirt he wore beneath it.

Johnny was thankful that he was in the home stretch now, he could see the cave entrance in the distance, but there was still a lot of open ground between him and safety. He held his rifle at the ready as he bit through the pain in his feet, wearing female combat boots the night before had managed to keep him from tripping, but it had also left him in great discomfort. The haggard old sneakers he wore now were barely held together by duct tape and string that had been made out of vines. Every step he took was measured, one snapped twig or loud tumble could call all the patrolling forces upon him.

The man relaxed only after he reached the last five feet to the cave, it was well hidden, and his friend had made a makeshift net of camouflage out of twigs, vines, and leaves to conceal it even more. Johnny stepped under the net and into the dark dank cave, the sounds of the forest faded into the background, replaced by the silent echoes of the underground.

“Jen…?” He called quietly as he continued into the cave.

“Shh.” Was the swift reply he received from the darkness, Johnny smiled and walked forwards towards the voice. He unslung the backpack he had over his shoulder, loaded with apples he’d taken from a local orchard and other fruits and vegetables raided from the unguarded farms of the area. He took a few more steps before rounding a corner and entering a dimly lit cavern, it was naturally lit by a small hole in the rock and luminescent flowers that had sprouted up in the corners.

Seated on a makeshift bed of dry grass and leaves was the black haired maiden that had helped Johnny over the past few months, her warm green eyes shifted to look at him and a smile spread across her lips. She had her boots off and was working on fixing her socks with a small needle and thread she’d pilfered from an odd hut out in the forest. She wore army fatigues covered in dirt and faded, though currently the blouse was set aside leaving her in a rather ratty looking tank top, Johnny winced as he noted several scars along her skin, nothing he hadn’t seen before though.

“Honey, I’m home!” He said in a joking tone before setting his bag down on the floor of the cave, Johnny sat down on the stoney surface across from Jen. The woman set down the sock she was working on and picked up the bag, then grabbed an apple from within.

“You got real fruit this time? How?” She asked, Johnny gained a confident smile.

“Well, all their soldiers seem focused on searching the forest for us, so getting the stuff was easy. Getting back was the tricky part.” He responded, Jen quietly took a bite of the apple and let out a very pleased moan. “I figured you’d like something more than mushrooms and those natural potatoes.”

“Honey, you have no idea.” Jen replied before taking another bite of the apple. “I would kiss you but then I’d have to stop eating the apple.” Johnny just smirked before feigning a sad slump.

“Woe is me, she betrays my love for an apple.” He said, earning a giggle from Jen who was already half way through the delicious red fruit. The two lapsed into a comfortable silence as Johnny leaned back against the wall of the cave, Jen quietly went back to working on her socks, only pausing to finish off the apple. For a few minutes the silence carried on. “You have any idea where we are?”

“I’ve been working on a theory.” Jen replied quietly as she continued her work. “I’m not one hundred percent certain on it yet though, and I’m worried you’ll think I’m crazy when I tell you.”

“You think after zombies, weird portals, wandering in the woods alone, and meeting some hot military chick that saved my ass, I can find anything crazy then you’re the one that needs your head examined.” Johnny replied, counting off each of his points on his fingers, Jen smiled a small smile and paused her work.

“You remind me of my friend Mark.” She said in a small, almost sad, voice. Johnny shifted his position and scooched around to sit next to Jen, he rested a hand on her shoulder but she brushed it off. “I’m… Sorry. I’ve just been thinking a lot lately, being cooped up in here isn’t doing me any favors.”

“It’s alright. Talk about what you want, I’m here for you.” Johnny responded, Jen looked to the floor and quickly wiped her eyes. Now the silence was uncomfortable, Jen had stopped her work on the sock and Johnny couldn’t help but kick himself. It wasn’t his fault, he knew that, but it still ate away at him to see Jen in such a state.

“Tell me about New Jersey again…” Jen said quietly, looking over at him with a small smile. “It always cheers me up.” Johnny returned the smile and cleared his throat as he thought of something to say.

“I ever tell you about the time I had to write an essay in spanish?” Johnny asked, the woman beside him shook her head as a smile began to form. “Okay, well, it was my last year of highschool in the final weeks before graduation. My teacher wanted us to write farewell letters and essays in spanish to read to the class.”

“Is this the ‘Empress’ teacher?” Jen asked, Johnny shook his head.

“No, Miss Ramsey was English. This was Miss Petrov.” Johnny responded, he began laughing as he thought back, remembering the stout Russian woman speaking spanish was enough to make anyone giggle. “Anyway, I write mine in English because I am a shit spanish speaker. I figure I’ll go and run it through a translator or something.”

“How was your essay?” The woman beside him interrupted again. “Was it happy? Sad?”

“It was essentially a big fuck you to the class. Not Miss Petrov, but everyone else.” Was the simple reply, Johnny reached for the bag of fruits and veggies he’d captured and removed a carrot, then he took a big bite off the end. “So anyway, I run it through the translator, but as I’m looking through the languages I clicked Russian instead of Spanish. Normally you’d notice because they’ve got that weird alphabet, but the translator was set to phonetic.” Jen began giggling right then and there, falling back on the bed as she held her stomach and began laughing harder.

“Oh god! I bet you made the list of worst students ever!” The woman said in between snorts and giggles, Johnny shook his head and smiled.

“The best part was when I started reading it to the class, not one person understood what I was saying except Miss Petrov, and she started laughing her ass off halfway through!” Johnny began to chuckle himself as Jen’s laughing became contagious. “I mean, think about it, she probably got a lot of shit being a Russian Spanish teacher.”

“Stop! Stop! I can’t breathe!” Pleaded Jen, Johnny smiled to himself as he leaned back on the makeshift bed next to the laughing woman and put his hands behind his head. Her laughter trailed off after a few minutes and she rolled over to put an arm over Johnny’s chest. The man shifted his look to her and smiled wider when she leaned in and gave him a bop on the nose.

“Better now?” Johnny asked, Jen nodded silently and rested her head on his chest. She closed her eyes and exhaled through her nose. “Gonna sleep?” He got another nod, prompting him to grab Jen’s bag and reach into it. From within he pulled a beat up long leather jacket, the black material marred with scratches and rips, he draped the jacket over her and himself like a blanket, taking note of a small patch on the shoulder. Jen had never really explained what it meant, an odd blue crescent moon with latin text beneath it.

John began to stare up at the ceiling, the dim light of the cave making it a bit harder for him to really relax. He began to think about how all of this had started, how he’d gone from a low level scavenger to falling for one of the greatest people he’d ever know. As his eyelids began to grow heavy, he could swear he could smell asphalt and car exhaust.

[♦]

The streets of Newark were worse than they’d ever been, the city had been almost completely overrun by infected. The only people who survived here were the groups that had once been so viciously hunted, the organized rings of criminals. In the weeks since the fall of civilization they’d armed enough people and built enough barricades to claim small portions of the city as their own. Still, they required supplies to function, and so the unsung heroes of these new city-states were dispatched.

One of these scavengers was a man who’d earned the name ‘Jackknife Johnny’, originally he’d started out boosting cars and robbing electronics stores, now he stole just about anything useful. The devices and money he’d stolen in the past went untouched now, his targets were grocery stores or food banks. The young man was easy to spot, considering he was the only one that wore a hawaiian shirt. Most scavengers preferred some form of armor, but Jackknife was one for doing things the old way.

As it stood, Johnny found himself skulking through the aisles of one of the more avoided supermarkets in the area. It had been taken over by a small faction of street gangs, thugs that had somehow survived long enough to start thinking about expanding. Johnny didn’t particularly like street gangs to begin with, they gave honest hardworking thieves like him a bad reputation, but now that food was the new currency of the world, it felt even sweeter to steal from the bastards.

As he went along, Johnny was grabbing cans of whatever he could and slipping them into his backpack. The old item had been gained as a result of a raid he’d carried out on an army surplus store, that was where he’d also come into possession of his hunting rifle, which was slung over his shoulder. Each step he took was quiet and measured, his ears took in any sound he could from around him. A few aisles over he could hear chit chat between two members of the street gang, they sounded like they were drunk off their asses, which made them even more dangerous.

So far Johnny had filled up half his bag without incident, his ammunition only took up about a quarter, meaning he could fit five more big cans if he really stuffed the pack full. He rounded a corner and peeked down the next aisle before going down that. So far all he was finding were canned beans and spam, all well and good, but he’d heard rumors that this store had something far better than those. Something that was worth more than its weight in gold. Then he spotted it, a wide smile crossed his face as he slowly approached his prize.

“Ramen noodles…” Johnny whispered to himself as he grabbed a big bundle of the beef flavored delicacies and attempted to put it in his bag. It took so doing but he was able to slip it in, he was about to leave, but looking at the rack of noodles again, he began to remove the cans of food he’d grabbed and instead loaded the bag with the noodles. He’d be able to buy plenty of spam and beans with all the noodles he’d be carrying home. Furthermore, if he could mark this spot, his bosses would certainly give him a bonus. Against his better judgement he loaded his bag with ramen noodles and took off down the aisle.

The drunk voices were still talking away, so Johnny felt safe enough to do some more exploring, mainly hunting for some means of marking the building so that his bosses could send some real muscle to take it over. He passed numerous racks of knick knacks, cheap toys, and dog food before coming to what he was looking for. A rack that had been devoted to the fourth of July, at the time of the city’s fall this rack would have been relevant, but now it was just a memory of a nation long past.

“Motherfucker!” A voice shouted from his right side, he turned and saw that someone had spotted him. A black man in what was left of an orange jumpsuit and a bandanna, he had a policeman’s glock pointed towards him, with the weapon sideways. Johnny quickly grabbed one of the flags from the rack and bolted, the man with the gun began firing, but being an idiot with his gun turned sideways, the bullets missed by miles. It seemed there were more than two guards in the building as he heard a lot more yelling, he caught a glimpse of several others coming to chase him before he spotted a door that seemed to lead to a stairway. From what he’d seen before he’d entered the store there seemed to be enough space for him to hop from roof to roof if need be.

He kicked the door open and started up the stairs, holding the folded flag tightly in his grip. Behind him he heard the sound of an kalashnikov before the door he’d kicked was riddled with holes. Johnny ascended the steps like lightning, his sneakers squeaking with each step. The man burst out onto the roof with a loud yell, his persuers not far behind him. He looked around for somewhere to jump from the roof of the supermarket to someplace else. Maybe a fire escape or another roof. Seeing a possible route he sprinted towards the east edge of the roof, his shoes kicked up small stones and rocks as he did so.

He hadn’t let go of the flag the entire time, too focused on running to realize he probably wouldn’t get a chance to use it. Ahead of him he saw an air conditioner stack, the large machine was close enough to jump behind just before a swarm of bullets flew over his head.

“End of the line, white boy!” He heard someone shout from behind him, Johnny ignored it and looked to the closest route off the roof. He saw a fire escape, if he prayed and got a good running start he could make the leap, but he then saw another problem in the form of a torso on the fire escape, a torso that was grey and thrashing around at all the loud noise. It was either risk being bitten in an attempt to escape that may not even work, or face certain death at the hands of a group of knuckle dragging wannabe gangsters.

“Put the bag down and come out here. We promise we won’t hurt you…. Much.” Called another voice, Johnny quietly shook his head and slipped the flag under his arm, then took hold of his hunting rifle. If this was the end he’d go out fighting, there was no way he’d be able to take out the zombie’s torso, but maybe he could take out one of the muscle headed idiots. With his rifle in hand and the American flag beneath his arm, he prepared himself for the end. He felt charged with energy, almost glowing even.

Quietly he straightened his hawaiian shirt and wiped sweat from his brow, time seemed to slow down as he began stepping out of his cover, raising his rifle towards the enemy. He could see their faces now, a mix of all different races, all with guns pointed at him. He lined up his shot on his target, a smug looking son of a bitch with sagging pants and his hat turned sideways. Without remorse Johnny pulled the trigger, moments later he expected to be riddled with holes and gasping for air. Instead he found that he was being pulled into some sort of vortex, time really had decided to slow down now, he could see the muzzle flashes off of his attackers, the bullets slowly making their way towards him, and a spray of blood coming from the head of the man he’d intended to kill.

The vortex swallowed him up after that, and he blacked out, when he woke up he found himself lying face down in a pile of cold, white snow. It was dark out and he was in a forest with nothing but a hawaiian shirt, ramen noodles, and a hunting rifle. It was a miricle he managed to survive a week on his own before he’d run into Jen…

[♦]

Johnny opened his eyes quietly, something wasn’t right about the cave. His dreams and memories quickly faded from his mind as he looked around. Jen was still lying her head on his chest, she was still asleep and snoring cutely, but something about the cave felt off. Johnny’s hand slowly began sliding down towards Jen’s revolver, something told him that he and Jen weren’t alone in this cave anymore.

“That wouldst be unwise, human.” A female voice cut through the darkness, Johnny’s hand froze just inches from the weapon. “Thou hast made quite a stir, and we understand why… We are not thine enemy…”

“Jen…” Johnny whisper yelled to the woman next to him. “Wake up… Now… Please?” His efforts roused the woman from her slumber.

“Huh? What is it, hon?” She asked, Johnny silently pointed towards the darkness where he’d heard the voice from.

“We did not mean to disturb thine slumber, humans. Only to deliver a message.” The voice began again, a pair of eyes appeared in the darkness, accompanied by an ethereal glowing, almost like stars. Jen’s eyes widened as she began to reach for her revolver just as Johnny had before. “Please… We wish thou no harm, only to help thee. If you wish to take our offer, surrender to the next patrol thou encounter. You have our word no harm will come to you.”

“Wh-Who are you?” Johnny asked in a shaking tone, his fingers just barely making contact with the grip of the revolver.

“A very powerful friend…” The voice replied, there was a gust of wind before the owner of the voice and the eyes vanished in a flash of indigo light. Johnny looked at Jen who was staring doe eyed at the spot where the creature had stood.

“J-J-Johnny…?” She stammered.

“Y-Yeah?”

“W-Wanna hear that theory now?” Jen asked, Johnny looked at her and gave a simple silent nod.

Author's Notes:

I had some fun writing this chapter, I hope you like it. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things and so far I hope it's going well.

Rate, comment, and favorite if you want to. And have a good one.