Peyton held a radio in her hooves. It was a large, clunky thing, hardly new technology. It spat a stream of static at her as she turned a dial on it back and forth.
Cala got tired of trying to figure it out. “What are you doing?”
Peyton sighed. “Trying to find a broadcast. The airwaves have been completely silent recently. Even those radio stations that were programmed to keep broadcasting pre-chosen songs and ads have stopped.” She turned it off and looked at Cala. “If I ever manage to hear anything on the radio, it'll mean that there's somebody out there that has figured out how to send a signal.”
“But I thought we'd already found everyone,” Cala said.
Peyton laughed. She put the radio on the nightstand and crawled into the bed with the other mare.
The bed was strange. It had a water-filled mattress, per Peyton's request, and had slick sheets that weren't made of cotton or any other material that you normally found in bedsheets. Instead, they were made of a non-absorbent material so that Cala could sleep well without her skin drying out. Peyton was surprised Willy could procure a thing like this on such short notice. It wasn't the first time, either; he knew the city like he used to know the back of his hand.
“Goodnight.”
Cala settled in to sleep. This was the best she had felt since the disaster happened. Her right side was still covered in scrapes, but they were no longer bandaged. They had fallen off in the bath, revealing fresh water-resisting scabs underneath. They still stung to the touch, but felt much better than they had at first. Even her empty eye socket, while still aching, felt better than the ravenous itch that first took over after the dog attack. It hadn't seemed noteworthy at the time as it had blended in with the pain of the rest of her body.
Cala felt something, again, that she had nearly forgotten about through her trek that day. It was a stirring in her belly. She knew that something had been dwelling in there for the past month. It wasn't anything bad. It just put strange thoughts in her head that were alien to her.
She fell asleep to thoughts of... pouches.
⤍
Willy awoke to the sound of something crashing downstairs.
He groaned. He felt something stirring next to him, and opened his eyes to see the beautiful striped body of Renée next to him. He turned over and looked around the room. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Honk!
Uh oh. That was the sound of one of his airhorns... not good.
He jumped out of bed, leaving behind the mare and leaped to the door. He nabbed a vest off a hook and stumbled to fit each foreleg into it while stumbling across the hall.
Now wearing his vest, he ran down the stairs into the living room to find two fillies rolling around on the floor laughing. But there was something wrong with the floor. The whole room, what had just the day before stank of old fish, was now flooded. He saw that all of the carpet was completely damp.
“Hey!” he shouted. The girls both froze, wide-eyed, slowly turning their heads to look at him.
He stomped across the carpet. He could feel the water on his hooves; it was strange, something he hadn't ever felt with his new body. He went right up to them and scooped Cala up onto his back. He nabbed the airhorn from Peyton's hooves, stuffing it in a pocket.
“Peyton, this is not right. I'm disappointed. I want you to find a steam cleaner and get all this sorted out by the time I'm back.” He marched toward the door, taking the fishy filly with him.
“But we don't have a steam cleaner! Where am I supposed to get one? Where are you taking her?!” Peyton said.
“Bye Peyton!” Cala called before the door was slammed shut behind them.
⤿
Willy stopped walking.
Confused, Cala sat up and put her forehooves on Willy's head, peering over at what he was looking at.
“Well, Cala,” he said, “this is where I found you. Do you know which way you came from when you got here?”
Cala looked around. It was all familiar in a vague sense, but more because she had been around the whole city as a child, and not because she remembered collapsing here. But she did remember a few things about her run.
“I don't remember, Mister Willy. But, um... I figured out my legs are really, really weak, and I don't know how I was able to run so far.” She looked at the street they were on, and noticed how the pockmarked pavement was sloped. “I guess I was running downhill.”
“That works for me,” he said. He started walking up the street away from the city.
Cala sat back as they started moving again. “There's a thing on your butt,” she said.
“Yeah, I noticed that pretty quick after I got turned into this. A traffic cone... heh. I was a construction worker before all this. I got to do work all around Seattle, and sometimes places abroad. I know Seattle very well. I was the one who found both Peyton and Renée; you know how?”
“Hmm...” Cala thought for a moment. “Did you search through every building in the city?”
Willy laughed. “No, no. I wouldn't even be done with a fraction of this place if I did that. What I did, was I went through all the residential areas. We're heading toward one of them now.” He pulled the airhorn out of his pocket with his mouth. “Themn eh yoozt diz—” Honk! He laughed as he put it away. “Then I used that to try and grab the attention of whoever I could, just walking through the streets and blasting it off now and then.”
“Who did you find first?” Cala asked.
“Peyton, of course,” he said. “That little rascal. She lived in the downtown area, probably affluent before money became worthless.” Cala looked at him funny. “That means she had a rich family. Not many people get to own apartments down there, it's expensive.”
“Okay. How'd you find Miss Holland?”
“Uh, please just call her Renée. Well, she actually came to Seattle from Tacoma. Took an entire day and walked all the way up here. That's pretty dedicated, but she knew that if she had any chance to find others she'd have to come up here. Turns out she was right. Still, she was complaining about sore hooves for a bit after I found her... but beggars can't be choosers.” He paused and thought for a moment. “There was also someone else that we met... but, hm. Well, we didn't really get to know much about him. He didn't stay long before he flew off.”
“He flew off?” Cala asked.
“You're asking me, miss Seahorse. I still can't believe how such tiny wings could give him any lift... but that's all in the past. Right now, we need to focus on finding out where you lived. We're entering the residential district now.”
They went silent for a few minutes as they walked along the road.
...
“There!”
Willy looked at the decrepit old apartment as they came in front of it. It had begun to rot, and he saw water damage taking over the foundation. Besides that, there was a crack in the window pane of one of the entrance doors. These were signs that the building had been lived in without any maintenance; it was the place Cala must have called home.
Cala jumped off his back and walked through the doors. She looked around her and found some things were on the floor, as well as the bucket of things that she wanted to bring with her. “Yep, this is it! It's all here.”
Willy knocked the bucket over and watched everything spill out. “This is all a bunch of junk! Why would you want to bring any of this with you?”
“It's not! It all has its—”
“Meaw!”
“Jasper!” Cala gasped as the little cat ran out to greet her.
Willy sighed. “Alright, why don't we, uh... you can pack the things that have... sentimental value, then I'll carry the bucket back.”
“Jas is coming, too! He looks so hungry, though. Can I feed him before we leave?”
“Uh, alright. Don't take longer than five minutes, though. I have things I wanted to get done today.” He turned to leave the building as the filly went to feed her cat. He's just wait outside, keeping watch. Something caught his eye, though. Something... pink, and rubbery. He looked at it a moment before shaking his head and smiling. No, it wasn't dangerous.
He scooped the non-perishables back into the bucket and picked it up. He left behind the items that weren't in the bucket to start with, the crowbar and a pill bottle.
He did a double-take.
He looked closer at the pills. This was the kind of medication that people got addicted to after being in the hospital. A fire began to build in him. This wasn't right!
He ran out the building and chucked the bottle down the road. “Sayonara, painkiller fiend! Ha!” He grinned as it bounced out of sight. One more problem taken care of.
⤳
Renée laughed as she stood at the top of the stairs, seeing Peyton's situation.
Peyton grumbled. Hadn't asked for this. She pushed the big, clunky contraption with her mouth, trying but mostly failing to maneuver it around the room. It was torture. She didn't know what cruel fate enjoyed having her performing housewife duties with no hands, but she knew that they would pay. Good-for-nothing...
She heard the door open behind her and collapsed. She didn't know what she would face for being incompetent and cleaning up her and Cala's mess. Willy was still so strict with her whenever she screwed something up.
Instead, when she opened her eyes she saw Cala's face up to her own. They smiled at each other, and then she looked down at Cala's mouth to see...
Cala dropped what she was holding. “Hi Peyton! I brought you back a gift!”
Peyton's eyes went wide as she tried to comprehend what she was seeing. She blushed fiercely.
“I, um... th–thanks! This is w–wonderful, I love it!”
“Yay! I'm glad you like it,” Cala said. “And look! I brought my friend back from my house.”
Peyton recovered in time to see the orange cat come up to her and nuzzle her. She smiled; cats were such sweet company, she was glad Cala went back to get him. She looked at the mare. Not as great of company as such a great... friend, though.
“Go take a break,” Cala said. “I'll finish cleaning this up, you can play with Jasper.”
Peyton gratefully took the opportunity and left the scene, wary of Willy. Oh, she had an idea of what she'd do... and it likely wouldn't involve Jasper.