Somewhere in mid-section of Indiana, two cars with five friends had just pulled up to a two-story house. It had a small front yard with a basketball hoop next to the paved drive and a large bay window pointing out to the street, nothing fancy. It was practically the same as nearly half the other houses in the suburbs. One car pulled into the garage, the other just behind, next to a large yellow truck. They slowly gathered their things and empty out, each bringing cases of beer, bottles of liquor, and bags of party snacks.

One of the guys, Cerb, steps out from the passenger seat. He was taller than the rest, tan skin, and the body of someone who used to lift a lot but had softened up from staying out of the gym. The letters USMC tattooed down the side of his right arm showed clearly.

"You want all the beer in the garage, or does some of it go in the kitchen?" he asked aloud, raising a case in each hand.

Ben, or Benny, as he was usually called, was balancing two boxes full of bottles of booze. They clinked together as he tried to pull his keys from his pocket. He was skinny, with fairly pale skin, and thin red hair.

"Benny!" Cerb piped up to get his attention.

Benny finally got his house keys out of his pocket.

"Ugh, two cases in the garage, one in the fridge in the kitchen."

"We got four cases, bro. Remember?" came another voice from Peter, aka Sniff, the resident playboy/pretty boy as he stepped out of the second car.

With a straight face, Cerb mockingly glared from the other side of the car.

"Your flavored candy water isn't beer."

Sniff never got tired of hearing that joke and countered as only he could.

"Oh, don't be like that. I just grab what the ladies like. Right, Lumberman?"

"I don't want to hear about you grabbing Lumberman's dick," Benny slipped in as Lumberman started to pull his bag of liquor from the back seat. Laughter filled the garage.

Lumberman was laughing, too.

"Dude, don't be grabbing this black dick unless you're gonna finish the job."

Two car doors closed behind them as Kelly and Becky walked up, each holding vodka bottles.

"Hey, hey, boys. No gay shit 'til we're in the house so I can watch," Kelly chimed in, finishing with a sultry voice.

Benny fumbled with his keys.

"Oh, yeah. That'll get the DripDrip going."

Kelly stroked the neck of her bottle.

"Well, I wouldn't be Drip without the drip-drip, now would I?"

Lumberman was all smiles looking back at Kelly.

"Drip, can you give Sniffles some pointers? I don't think he's as good as he told me on the way here. Brotha needs some nasty lovings tonight."

Sniff turned his back, walking up to Benny, ready to head inside.

"Just put the skirt on like you promised, I'll find a way to make it work." He says with a shit-eating grin.

Becky started a small coughing spasm as she walked up, gripping the bottle with both hands. Clearing her throat, she jokingly denounced their typical antics.

"Y'all mother fuckers are gross." She said raspily.

Kelly turned with a grin, winked, and puckered her lips. This secret message made Becky lower her head and try to hide her blush behind her hair.

Benny still struggled with unlocking the door, the key not wanting to turn.

"I hate this fucking door."

Lumberman pointed back to his yellow truck.

"All you gotta do is ask, and I'll fix the damn thing. I literally got all the tools with me every time I come here. Just say the word, bro."

Cerb huffed as he considered breaking the door down so Benny would stop putting off having it fixed.

"Why'd you even lock the door? Chris is still here," Cerb asked as he looked up toward the ceiling, just below where he was sure Chris was upstairs.

"Chris! Stop beat'n it to hentai and open the damn doo-"

For a moment, the air stood perfectly still as it was flooded by an aura of bright whites, neon blues, crimsons, and violets that lit up around them like an industrial fire. The light was blinding and stole their breath.

Before they could draw in a gasp, the air rushed inwards towards the house, blowing with enough force to feel as if it was being drawn through the walls themselves.

What they felt next was something akin to the concussion from a roadside bomb. It sent them hurling back into the garage, ready to splatter against the plaster walls. However, their surroundings moved with them, flying just as violently.

They were jerked back, then down, and spun around, suspended above the ground until the world and the gusts of hellish wind around them stopped. Their bodies and the house, along with everything it, jammed forward with a heavy dose of inertia that forced them upwards off their feet.

They spun down, slamming into the cement floor.

The bang that they should have heard seconds ago finally came as well. It came along with a crash and crumbling of the foundation, lumber snapping, and all the shelving with their odds and ends clattering off.

What followed was confusion and chaos. Benny winced, trying to sit upright from the floor. His vision cleared, readjusting from the sudden burst of light. His ears, however, were ringing painfully. The smell and taste of rum hit his senses. A broken bottle soaked his shirt and pooled in his lap through the one box he was still able to hold on to.

His eyes trained to the open garage door and the sunlight glaring through it. No smoke. No flames. Although black, jagged streaks on the walls and ceiling from new cracks in the drywall were noticed.

His eyes fell lower to Kelly, who was sitting upright. Her black-rimmed glasses were broken and barely sitting on her face. A dark patch of hair was clinging to her forehead and cheek, blood slowly dripping through the strands. She was yelling. Screaming perhaps. Screaming at Becky, who laid in her arms.

Becky shook and convulsed, clenching her chest. Her head fell limply, the look of panic across her face. Tears rolled away from her as her inaudible cough grew less and less intense as if she were suffocating.

Benny pushed the box of booze off his legs. The faintest sound of the bottles could be heard as they clanged together. That noise was then replaced with a hiss. Benny instinctively looked to the source of the sounds.

Streams of foaming liquid sprang from a torn open twelve-pack of beer came to focus as Kelly's voice started to fade in.

"on't sta eathing," her muffled words faintly made their way through what little noise he was starting to hear.

"ecky!"

Her words were fading in and out. The ringing in his ears pulsed louder, deafening the screams and clatter.

"Becky!" the full words finally came, just as Benny looked past the damaged beer cans to see Lumberman down and out cold. He lay in a pool of beer and motor oil. A bottle of 5W-30 engine oil stuck out next to Lumberman, pierced by a pair of hedge clippers.

"Becky! You got to keep breathing, sweetie! Look at me!" Kelly's desperate voice popped in, clearly audible for the first time.

Benny rolled over on all fours.

Benny tried to call out to his friends, but his voice was low.

"Becky..."

His back and lungs were swelling with pain like he had just been body-slammed. He placed his left hand on the car bumper to try and bring himself up.

"Lumber-"

Two hands grabbed his shirt, pulling him away from the car and back down to the floor. It was Cerb, and he shouted at Benny with a hysterical voice.

"Stay down!"

Cerb was screaming like he was back in a warzone.

"We've been hit by an IED! Radiomans' out! Multiple men down! Stay close to me and low to the ground! Hostiles incoming!"

Benny craned his neck behind him, looking up to see Cerb wide-eyed and searching every bit of open space around them. The right side of his face was scratched and bruised.

"Justin? What's happening?"

Cerb looked down, tears welling up, and the faint glint of red on the corner of his lips.

"Turner and Garcia are dead."

He finally released Benny and went to the ground, frantically feeling around.

"I can't find my rifle. I can't keep us safe if I can't find my rifle!"

There was no rifle there to find in his frantic state. Instead, he found a hand sticking out from under a broken shelf that was crushing someone.

"Garcia! Don't be dead! I don't want you to die, Garcia!"

Cerb pulled so hard on the tipped over shelf that the entire right panel ripped off. He discarded the board, throwing it against the wall, then brought his right hand back to the shelf with a clenched fist, bashing the three wooden shelves off from the screws holding them in. The rest he picked up over his head like a powerlifter.

He turned and threw it as hard as he could against the wall away from everyone else.

"Garcia! Budd! Come on, Devil Dog. Don't be dead. I'll keep you safe. I promise."

Cerb was running his hands up and down Peter's chest and face, which slowly got him lucid enough to speak.

"Dude... what happened?"

"I saved you, Garcia. I fucking told you I would," Cerb sob as he pulled Peter up and hugged him uncomfortably tight.

Benny readjusted himself, looking back at Kelly and Becky, who were staring dumbfounded and scared at the scene. Becky had apparently stopped coughing, though she still seemed to struggle with her breathing.

Peter put his free arm on Cerb's back, patting it gently.

"Justin."

Cerb didn't reply, he just continued to sob into Peter's chest.

Staying as calm as he could, Sniff tried again.

"Justin, buddy... I'm not Garcia. Garcia is gone, man. Remember?"

"Garcia, no..." Cerb's words trailed off, back to the sobbing.

Benny finally got himself back up to his feet and went to Cerb's side.

"Justin, ou're home, buddy. We're all home."

Cerb pulled away from Peter.

"No. No. We have to go back. They shot Garcia. No one gets left behind!"

Benny put his hand on Cerb's shoulder.

"Justin, that happened years ago. You're not fighting anymore."

He looked back over to Lumberman, who still hadn't moved.

"And James needs our help right now."

"James?" Cerb wasn't fully back and into the real world, yet, but was letting go of the illusion he was reliving.

Benny knelt down, knowing how careful he had to be with Cerb when he was like this.

"Yeah, dude. James. Our friend. The black dude laying on the floor."

Benny pointed, and Cerb seemed to snap out of it.

"Oh fuck, Lumberman!"

Benny and Cerb picked up Lumberman, dragging him out of the puddle of beer and oil. They got him sitting upright and used a few shop rags lying nearby to clean him up as best they could while trying to wake him.

The chaos in the garage was fading as everyone collected themselves, but all still pretty shaken. Sniff was sitting up against the wall, not moving from where the shelf had been crushing him earlier. Becky was resting and catching her breath in Kelly's lap, they both looked exhausted.

Finally, Lumberman started to stir.

"Owe, man. Knock it off."

"James. Dude. Mr. Lumberman. Bro. You alright?" Benny asked a bit too excitedly.

Lumberman sounded groggy, if not punched drunk.

"Did I get hit by a truck?"

A crash of wood and glass came from behind the garage door. Everyone went silent as heavy footsteps dredge through the wreckage on the other side. Cerb rose to his feet in a fighting stance, still on edge from the explosion.

The clatter drew closer to them, stopping just behind the door. A thud and creak came as the door was pulled and pushed back.

Benny put himself between Cerb and Lumberman while Kelly pulled Becky in close, too scared to move as Cerb moved closer to girls.

Another snap and crack and the door gave way, falling off its hinges back into the house. From the low-lit entry, Chris stumbled into the light.

"Oh, shit, Chris," Cerb dropped his guard with a sigh of relief. "Are you okay?"

Chris rubbed the top of his head, a lump clearly popping up.

"Dude... I think someone bombed your house."

Becky broke the silence with a spat of coughing and wheezing.

Kelly rocked her idly in her arms.

"Hey, we really need to get Becky to the hospital."

Becky held her chest, her coughs not disappearing as Lumberman finally asked the question no one thought of yet.

"Where's the ambulance?"

"Or the cops," Kelly added, panic in her voice. "I don't hear any fucking sirens! Where the fuck are they?"

Everyone stopped and listened. Only the chirping of birds and the rustle of leaves in the trees were heard. But as they looked out past the driveway, a new mystery was discovered.

"Where's the neighbor's house?" Chris asked.

Kelly's emotions and desperation were starting to overwhelm her.

"Oh my god. Are they dead?"

Cerb walked closer to the outside world, trying to piece together what their situation was.

"Where's the road?"

Benny followed close behind Cerb, walking over Kelly's legs and stopped under the garage door.

"Where's the rest of the block?"

Still, not all with it, Lumberman slowly came to his feet and made his way to see for himself. Chris lingered just behind them as Lumberman continued with his observations aloud.

"Ben... where the fuck is everyone? The power lines? The houses?"

Benny quickly walked toward the end of the drive. The concrete crumbled and fractured the further out from the house he went.

"I don't know, man. Everything's... even the town... did we get nuked?"

Cerb looked around, assessing the damage, but found no signs of an attack outside of Benny's yard.

"No, look around—no scorched earth. No debris? This was no nuke. Everything around us is fine. If we were close enough for the blast to throw us on our asses, we'd be dead or wishing we were."

Benny ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.

"Okay, yeah. Obviously not a nuke, but something... some kind of bomb. Err... No, it had to be something else."

"Oh my... God damn it!" Kelly shouted from behind them. "I don't have any fucking cell service. We need to go to the fucking hospital!"

Benny was really starting to panic as well, and his voice couldn't hide it.

"Where the fuck is everyone?"

He started spinning in circles looking in all directions, staring up at the sky as he walked farther out from the house.

"This isn't-"

Try as he might, he was at a loss for any reason or logic for what was happening.

"I don't know where the fuck we are."

Chris finally stepped out of the garage to see for himself.

"What do you mean you don't know where the fuck we are?"

Passed the broken concrete of the driveway, Benny turned and shouted.

"Take a good goddamn look around, Chris!"

Chris, dumbfounded, looked back and forth at the unfamiliar area they were now in.

"We're in the middle of fucking nowhere!" Benny shouted as he pointed at the large hill no more than a hundred yards out in front of them. I don't live at the bottom of a god damn hill! And there are no fucking forests in Hendricks county!"

Both Cerb and Chris took notice of the mass of trees not so far off from where they stood.

"That's a whole lot of fucking trees, right?!" Benny sarcastically pointed out.

Kelly sat quietly sobbing, doing her best not to break down. Tears readily rolled off her cheeks, leaving wet trails on Becky's arm. Her breathing still a struggling endeavor.

All the while Sniff was still laid up against the wall in the garage.

"Hey, guys... what the hell is going on? I can't see what's going on from back here. What is Ben screaming about?"

Lumberman half looked back, but lowered his gaze, holding his head as if he had a headache, which he did.

Chris did a slow double take from Sniff to Ben and back again, finally hobbling back to Sniff.

"Can you get up, man?"

Sniff looked down at his leg.

"Maybe, my legs really hurt."

Chris eyed them up and down.

"Shit, they're not broke, are they?"

Sniff rubbed both legs lightly.

"No. I don't think they're broken, but god do they hurt."

Chris lowered himself down to Sniff's level.

"Let's try to get you on your feet, man."

Sniff winced as he tried to bring himself upright.

"Okay."

Chris put his arm behind Sniff's back and slowly started to lift him up.

Sniff gritted his teeth.

"Ouch! Damn it. Everything from the hips down feels like your mom sat on 'em."

"Oh go fuck yourself, Sniffles," Chris fired back, as he wasn't quite ready to try and joke his way through their troubles. "Come on, though. You gotta see this."

Sniff groaned as the pain in his legs shot up with every step.

"Mph. See what? How bad is it outside?"

As they got closer to the door, they both looked down at Kelly and Becky. Sniff took his arm away from Chris, falling into the side of the car Kelly sat against.

Catching himself, he asked.

"You both holding up, okay? How's Becky doing?"

Kelly just sobbed and shook her head from side to side.

"I'm still here," Becky's voice all but whispered out with a rasp.

Kelly's voice whined up in a higher pitch, still trying not to break down.

"Oh, Becky. You had me so scared."

Another prolonged cough came along.

"Parties still on, right?"

Kelly laughed through the tears.

"Sure thing, babe."

Sniff and Chris let out a sigh of relief to see she still had a sense of humor.

Sniff stood upright again.

"Chris, stay with them for a bit. I'm gonna check outside... da fuq?"

Kelly wiped her face clear.

"Yeah, everything got blown up or something."

Chris was quick to correct her, in spite of his own confusion.

"No, everything's just gone. Benny said he doesn't know where we are."

Sniff painfully made his way past Kelly.

"How'd he get lost at his own house?"

"No, it's like we're not at the same place anymore," Chris said in a manner that made it clear he didn't understand.

Sniff took in the sight of green landscapes that lay before them.

"Holy… shit, man, what the fuck is going on?"

Cerb came around the corner of the garage, nearly bumping into Sniff, startling him.

"Oh, Jesus," He stepped back a bit. "Guys. I don't know where the fuck we are. I went around the whole house. Either all of Plainfield just up and vanished with the explosion, or we're not in Plainfield anymore."

Benny walked up to rejoin the group.

"Great, now we just got to go out to find the Yellow Brick Road and make a deal with a wizard."

"That's not funny, man," Lumberman leaned over the trunk of the car, still holding his head. "Too soon for bad jokes."

Sniff tried to hold back a smile.

"I thought it was funny."

Lumberman groaned.

"No. Too soon."

Chris turned his attention to Sniff.

"Sniff already made a joke about my mom."

Cerb also turned to Sniff. "

Fat joke?"

Sniff grinned.

"Fat joke."

Chris scowled.

"Fat joke."

Becky raised her arm up between them with a thumbs up.

"Fat joke."

Kelly looked up, back and forth between the three.

"Wait. I missed the joke."

Benny joined Lumberman, leaning over the trunk.

"Fat joke, Kelly... Fat joke."

Lumberman lowered his head and buried it in his arms.

"We almost died, you're all stupid, I hate all of you, and I'm pretty sure I have a concussion."

Becky cleared her throat.

"Sounds terrible. You should-" Another cough interrupted her. "-get that looked at."

Benny turned and lowered himself down, sitting back against the car's bumper.

"Could be worse. Pretty sure there's a witch crushed under my house."

"No," Lumberman groaned, suffering in defiance.

"She's got a way worse headache than you," Benny continued.

Lumberman increases the volume of his resistance.

"No!"

Benny raised his hands, bobbing them up and down on either side of his head.

"Probably feels like her head is stuck between a house and a hard place."

Lumberman surrendered.

"Fuck me."

Becky raised her hand back in the air with another thumbs up.

"Party's back on. Lumberman said so."

Kelly joined with her own thumbs up, a bit of a chuckle mixed a nervous sound of sadness still in her voice.

"First rounds on me."

Chris stared blankly at Cerb.

"I don't know why they're not scared out of their minds. I am. Aren't you scared?"

Cerb rolled his eyes and shrugged.

"Nah, I had my chance to die. Missed it."

Lumberman moaned, sinking lower into himself.

"It's 'cuz I'm black, right? My crazy-ex said my white friends ain't nothing but trouble."

"Oh yeah?" Sniff huffed, mockingly. "This was clearly the result of all two white friends you have."

Becky tapped Sniff's ankle.

"Hey."

Sniff winced in pain, even from just that slight contact.

"Ow!" Sniff looked down at Becky. "Oh... sorry, all two and a half white friends."

"Thank you," Becky gleamed with a smug smile.

Lumberman raised his head.

"I hold all two and half of you accountable for this until proven otherwise."

Everyone stood silently for a while, not really knowing what to do next. That and no good jokes came to mind.

It was Kelly who broke the silence.

"Did anyone else check their phones? I don't have any signal."

Cerb shook his head.

"I tried when I went around the house. No signal."

Benny held up his phone, not having any better news to share.

"Zero bars."

Chris dug his hands into his pockets.

"Mines somewhere in the mess upstairs."

Sniff turned his screen on.

"I checked mine while Benny was screaming at the grass or whatever. I thought I had a bar, but it was just a crack on my screen. Lumberman?"

Lumberman held up his cell with a screen, so busted, parts of it were missing.

"I'll see your cracked screen and raise you one broke as fuck phone."

Becky felt over her pockets.

"I think I lost mine. I know I had it on the way to the store when I was texting."

As if by fate, the familiar sound of vibrating hummed nearby. Everyone's eyes widened. A soft melody began to chime as another set of hums from the vibrations came about.

Kelly tilted her head up to the car she was leaning against.

"The back seat. She rode with you guys on the way there."

Cerb opened the passenger seat and began to search frantically. Lumberman was already in the back seat, while Benny raced around to the driver's seat.

"She sat in the back," Kelly shouted.

Cerb dug his hands on the sides of the seat.

"It's right here, I can hear it," he grunted as the chime and humming grew louder.

Becky reached back to tug on Cerb's shorts.

"It's not a call. Cerb-"

"Got it!" Lumberman shouted from the back seat, but his excitement faded as he looked on the screen.

"No bars... no service..."

The chime and humming stopped as his fingers swiped up on the screen. Benny and Cerb turned and sat in the car seats, having seen the screen before the phone was silenced.

Becky closed her eyes, covering her face in her hands as if ashamed.

"It's 2:30, I need to take my Pirfenidone pills."

Kelly stroked Becky's hair.

"It's okay, hun. You're fine."

Becky muffled her words through her hands.

"If I don't set an alarm, I forget."

Sniff rubbed his legs and lowered himself back to the ground across from Kelly. Chris looked at Lumberman still on all his hands and knees in the back seat of the car, bouncing the phone in his hand a few times before discarding it to the floor mat and face planting into the seat.

Cerb and Benny stared blankly at the mess that was the garage through the windshield, then Benny sighed and set his hands on the steering wheel.

"If we were at sea, I might have some suggestions on what to do. Land navigation and expedition is more your speed, though. You got any ideas."

"Well," Cerb crossed his arms over his waist and slouched. "Thinking about taking a walk."

Benny looked to Cerb for a plan.

"Where to?"

Cerb thought for a second.

"Probably north. See how far the forest goes. Hopefully, find someone who can tell me where the hell we are or what happened. Find a phone that works."

Benny looked up to see the dome light was on. He thought for a moment and reached into his pocket and pulled out the car keys.

"Driving somewhere?" Cerb asked.

"Maybe," Benny turned the keys, and the car stuttered, but still started.

"Well. At least the car still runs," Cerb pointed out before he turned his head around, looking out the back window. "Did you see what's on the other side of that hill?"

"No," Benny answered.

That got Cerb's mind working.

"Me, either."

With that, Benny turned the car off, leaving the keys in the ignition.

Lumberman turned out from his face plant to face the front seats.

"You mean to tell me that only two people here with any military experience, spent all that time outside trying to figure out where we are, and only went as far as the front yard and back yard?"

The two looked at each other as Lumberman continued to lecture them.

"You just looked at the house, saw some trees and a hill, and gave up?"

Benny pointed to his chest.

"I don't know shit about land navigation. I just tried to see where any part of the neighborhood still was."

Cerb pointed out the windshield to the back of the house.

"I just checked the perimeter. No one goes out without recon done first. I wouldn't know where to go."

The two continued bickering back and forth with more excuses as to why they didn't walk more than a stone's throw away from the house.

The other four outside of the car were now all sitting against the wall away from the bickering three as Lumberman inserted himself. Sniff sat closest to the garage door, Chris nearest to the broken door to the house, and the two girls between them.

Becky was fishing through her oversized purse while Kelly was opening her bottle of vodka.

A bit of rattling produced a bottle of medicines. Becky popped it open, shaking two pills into her palm. Just as Kelly cracked the top from the bottle, Becky grabbed it in her right hand, cupped her left hand to her mouth, then replaced it with the bottle and started to chug.

Chris watched a bit puzzled.

"Is it okay to take those with alcohol?"

Becky brought the bottle down, about a third of it gone, smacking her lips.

"Ah... probably not."

Kelly grabbed the bottle back.

"Fuck it. Parties on 'til the cops show up." She raised the bottle up like a toast. "To the greatest MMA match up, we never saw!"

She took a long draw from the bottle, ready to make the best of whatever kind of mess they were in.

Chris reached for the bottle, joining in on the worst celebration he ever had the pleasure of attending. Sniff, on the other hand, became distracted. Focused on something from outside.

Sniff was looking at the horizon over the hill.

"You guys hear that?"

Becky reached for the bottle again.

"Hear what?"

"Bitches." Sniff's words hit them like a bad pun.

All three slowly craned their necks, fixated on Sniff.

"Bitches?" Asked Kelly.

"Yep." Sniff said with the utmost confidence. "Angry bitches."

Chris went to get the attention of the three in the car.

"Guys."

In the car, their discussion had changed from their excuses to what would be the best supplies to take and what the journey they would have to make would mostly consist of.

"Guys!"

Benny and Cerb cut the conversation, looking out the open door to see Chris.

"Sniff said he hears bitches."

Cerb immediately followed Sniff's line of sight to the hill.

"Bitches?"

Benny stepped out of the car, looking for where they might be.

"Bitches?"

Lumberman popped his head up to window height in the back seat.

"Bitches? Sniff hears bitches?"

Becky raised the bottle up, pointing toward Lumberman.

"Angry bitches."

Sniff pointed his finger as if to make a point, shaking it up and down like he was lecturing them.

"Believe me, I know angry bitches when I hear them. The nose knows."

Lumberman opened the door.

"The nose knows? Did da..." he stuttered. "Did you hear them or smell them?"

Benny started walking out, closing the door behind him.

"Don't question it. Sniff's senses for this kind of stuff are legendary."

Cerb closed his door, following out behind Benny, passing the other four.

"You guys hold up here. Maybe they can help us."

Chris stood up.

"Shouldn't we come along?"

Benny turned back, letting Cerb catch up.

"No. Sniff can barely walk, they're already half in the bag, and you're fat and slow."

"I'm not fat," Chris snapped back at Benny.

"But you are slow," Benny quickly countered.

"No, I mean, I'm not slow," Chris said, trying to correct himself.

"But you are fat," Benny said with a grin.

Chris gave up.

"Damn it! You know what I mean, Benny."

Cerb by now had caught up with Benny, but he turned as they were marching to the hill.

"You stay there with them. If anything bad happens, go in the game room and grab the guns."

A bit of shock struck Chris's face.

"Wait? What!? Why don't you take one?"

Cerb raised both arms, flexing his massive arms.

"Don't need 'em, and that's a terrible way to say hello or ask for help."

Chris raised his arms and dropped them to his sides.

"Well, shit. So now we just wait?"

He felt a bottle tap the back of his hand and looked down to see Becky was passing the bottle to him.

"They'll be fine. Drink, bitch."

The five sat back, watching Benny and Cerb, for what felt like an eternity, walk what couldn't have been more than three-hundred yards to get up to and over the hill.

"And now they're gone," came Lumberman with sarcasm before taking a sip from one of the surviving beer cans.

Chris stood, tapping his foot.

"I don't like this. What if something bad happens? None of us can help 'em."

"Hey," Lumberman called over to Chris, tossing him a beer can as he looked over. "You worry too much, man. They'll be fine. Just chill."

"Wahhhhh!" A scream from Cerb echoed over the hill.

The sound of two female screams drowned out the scream from Cerb as another scream from Benny sounded off and five frightening words.

"What the hell are those?!"

Lumberman dropped his beer.

"Oh, fuck. That can't be good."

Chris tossed his beer and was running back into the house for the guns. Then a female voice rose over the hill. Faint at first, but growing with remarkable volume as she spoke.

"-and Powerful Trixie will use her laser horn!"

Well, this is my first submission and first attempt at an MLP fanfiction. Hope you stay tuned and see how this story continues.

*Update 2020, Jun 5th.

This chapter is to primarily introduce the human characters of the story and establish some of their more surface-level characteristics. From here on out, the story will be far more pony centric. I hope you enjoy what lies in store and the mystery, drama, adventures, and new bonds/relationships that develop.

Also, I'm starting to go back to these earlier chapters and correcting as many of my grammar and formatting issues, so if you get to a point where the formating changes and you see extra dashes used to break up dialog in ways that seems distracting, it is being corrected.