Luella awoke in heavy red armor veined with black. The slickness of the roof and the heaviness of the armor caused her to slide off the roof into her backyard. When she looked up, Aloysius was looking down on her with his black eyes. He was sheathed in black marbled red armor. What are you doing on the ground? We have business to get to! Luella stood up and dusted herself off. She was surprised to see the greatsword waiting for her on the rail of the deck behind her house. She quickly put it into the sheath behind her back before climbing up onto Aloysius’ back. Hold on! It was the only warning he gave before rearing up on his back legs and pawing at the air in front of him with his front hooves, neighing a battle cry. Luella had to wrap her arms around Aloysius’ neck to keep from falling off and she couldn’t stop the laughter that bubbled up from her lips.

Aloysius charged right through their neighbor’s fence, startling the man on the other side. His hair was disheveled and his clothes askew. He was in a crouched position, like he was just sneaking out. Aloysius didn’t pause at all, but rode the man down, crushing him underhoof.

“Oh, God.” A woman breathed in disbelief from the door of the house. Her hair was also a mess along with her makeup and she had a pink bathrobe wrapped around her. Luella noticed that the woman had a ring on her left ring finger, and when she glanced down at the ruins of the man beneath her, she didn’t see any ring at all.

“I’m afraid God won’t be helping you now.” She said. The woman met her eyes for a moment then ran back inside the house, slamming the door.

Aloysius snorted. Go. I cannot easily fit into your shelters. Luella hopped down, loosening the sword in its scabbard with a grin. She hadn’t expected she’d get to use it so soon. She kicked down the door, which was much easier to do in her heavy armor than she thought it would be. Once inside, she could hear movement upstairs. Luella pounded up the stairs, her heavy footsteps making it sound like a giant had just entered. She smiled, impressed with herself.

At the top of the steps, she was confronted by the woman with a baseball bat. She swung it as soon as Luella came into view. It splintered against her armor and made her stumble back, but Luella caught herself on the railing. The woman shrieked and ran to a bedroom. Luella followed, pulling her sword from its sheathe. As she entered the room, the woman wailed and begged Luella to stop. She held up her jewelry box. “Please! You can have whatever you want. Just please leave me alone!” The jewelry box didn’t provide much resistance as Luella’s sword sheared right through it and into the junction at the woman’s neck and shoulder. The woman made a gurgling noise accompanied by the sound of beads hitting the floor.

Luella wrenched her sword free, causing the woman’s body to fall forward. Luella cleaned the blade on the back of the woman’s robe and sheathed it again before going back outside to mount Aloysius once more. Good job. He commented before cantering out into the street. Abandoned cars littered the roads along with all kinds of chaos. It took her a moment to realize it, but one of the vehicles that had crashed was her mother’s van. Without even thinking about it, Luella directed Aloysius to the van.

The driver seat was empty as well as the car seats in the back. There were even the kids’ backpacks laying in the floor of the car. They are gone, Raptured with everyone else. Luella felt the memory of her last conversation with her mother jump to the forefront of her mind unbidden.

She nodded and tapped her heels against his sides to get him moving once more. “Let’s hurry up and get this done. I need to get back to my mom.”

Aloysius started into a gallop. There. He pointed out another straggler. Luella stood with the balls of her feet in the stirrups and her butt hovering just above the saddle. With one hand in front of her to steady herself, she drew her sword with the other hand. As Aloysius neared the man, Luella swung taking off the top half of the man’s head.

After that, she didn’t get much of a chance to sheath her sword again. She cut down the wanderers left and right, and sometimes Aloysius would charge and trample them to death. Both horse and Rider’s armor were more red than black now, and they still had more to do.