The Lost Ones (Newspaper clippings)

     She clopped around the stable, head low.  The wind whistled through the open door, making the sign above the stall that said 'Madam' knock against the walls.
     Tap, tap, whistle, clop. Tap, tap, whistle, clop.
     The air was cold and crisp, she could see her breath dancing away on the current of the wind.  The smell of the hay filled the openness while the smell of warm, roasting oats slowly declined.
      She was sad.  He hadn't come to fill her bale and brush her main in too long.  The hay she could take care of herself.  There was a very big pile in the room next to her stall, but the brushing was different.  Her back hurt with the weight of the blanket, the hairs on her back longed to be patted and combed, and her main was tangling.  She couldn't do that herself.  It had been days and she still didn't know where he was.  Madam longed to go run in the fields, her rider urging her forward.  But he hadn't come back.

     Madam decided it was time to leave, she was going to find him.  She wanted to be brushed, but most of all, she wanted him to be safe.  He had raised her, loved her, taught her to be free, and she was going to find him.

     The brown mare made her way to the doors of the stable.  She tried kicking the door with her solid hoof, but that only hurt her.  She knew she was going to have to try harder to get out.  Backing up to the other end of the stable, Madam bowed her head and braced her self.  The door shuddered under the impact, but stayed in tact.  Hit after hit, the door was assaulted, but still it did not budge.  Madam had almost given up hope, when she decided to try one more time.  The lock stayed firm.  The last hit was so hard that Madam half lost conciousness.  The room slowly came back into foucus as she lowered her head in defeat, that was when she noticed the broken window.  She had been so busy knocking down the door that she didnt notice that the giant window a few yards away had broken in the process.
   
     She charged quickly into the fields, leaping over the fence that kept her enclosed.  She didn't know where she was going, but he always liked riding towards the sun, so that's where she went.
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      The world was empty, overcome by death.  Disease left it's mark, leaving only a few in it's wake.  Surviving was the only thing left in the survivors future, there was no hope, or happiness, or what was once considered a good life.  There was simply to continue living, or get busy dying.
     When the sickness struck, it annihilated almost everyone.  Anyone left tried to bond together, the best of humanity coming through like the sun shining through a crack in the wall of a dark room.  But with the lack of edible food and contaminated water, even the survivors began to die off.
     As the people died, and the numbers reduced, people latched onto each other for any sort of relationship to keep some sort of meaning to life.  So when a teenage boy began to take care of a little girl, it wasn't unusual.  They became brother and sister, inseparable, where he went, she went.  He told her stories and reminded her about the time when joy ruled the world and sorrow could be tamed with a smile.  They talked about their lives before the darkness and what they would do in the future.  He wanted to take her to his family's ranch, to the place where he learned to love and understood loss, and he told her exactly the route they were going to take to get there.  And he protected her with his life, to the very end.

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     She was young and didn't know what to do.  When her family died, he had protected her, and now he was gone.  She was finally alone.  She decied to go to the place he talked about taking her.  It would take a while, he had traveled before the plauge hit, but she wanted to find a place she could call home.  He had talked about the place like it was a fairy tale kingdom, and she would be the fairy princess, she wanted to go there.