FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Location: Wastelands.

Closest City: Falsetto.

Time: 15:25pm.

Year: 2180, March 11th.

So far, the day had been very uneventful. Me and Elise kept swapping between driving The Cradle and having a nap; leaving us in complete silence. It was a lonely day do far, and I was slowly getting bored. There was nothing to do; for once I actually wanted some excitement. Anything would do; running, fighting, panicking. I started to tap my hands on the steering pole, slowly rolling my head back and forth. Elise just told me that we were heading north-west, so that was just what we were going to do.

I stared to the left of the ship, looking at the large, rocky trench that we ended up in. We were between two different mountains that looked stable, but were actually on the brink of collapse; we had narrowly missed two rock slides so far, which put me in a very cautious mood. My hands were still shivering slightly from the shock; I took a few deep breaths to calm me down. Unfortunately, that calm didn't last too long.

I felt the ship begin to shake a little and start to descend slightly, causing me to panic; the ship always handled rather smoothly, and was always at least one meter off the ground. I didn't stop the ship because in doing so, the ship would immediately crash into the ground and most likely get torn up around the underside; that, and I daren't risk another rockslide coming down over our heads and killing us.

"ELISE!" I shouted at the top of my voice, keeping the ship on a straight path through the rocky trench. "ELISE, GET UP HERE!"

It took no time for Elise to run up and slide the door to the side, steeping up to the stern with me to see what was going on. She ran over to the left edge and looked over the side at the underside of the ship, and turned back to me, shouting over the grating noise that the ship was starting to make from being dragged along the ground.

"We're descending." Elise shouted to me; "Stop the ship; we'll immediately brake and reduce the chance of tearing up the bottom of The Cradle."

I did as I was told and immediately pulled the pole further away from the interior of the ship, causing it to rise slightly on the other end, and slow to a stop, quickly dropping to the ground with one enormous 'clunk'. I fell forwards from the impact, and ended up with Elise on top of me. For such a slim person, she was definitely heavy, and knocked all the wind out of my body.

"Sorry." Elise groaned, getting up and helping me up with her. "What do you think happened to The Cradle?"

I stayed silent and just listened to the environment. It was still; there was no wind what-so-ever, and the dark clouds in the sky made sure that no sunlight reached us. I looked at Elise, expecting her to know what had happened; unfortunately, I was right. Elise cursed at the top of her voice and kicked one of the bars that made up the railings with full force, making it dent slightly and sending vibrations around to my end.

"No wind, no sunlight, no water." Elise growled, placing her head in her hands. "We've been like this for quite a while; and without knowing it. We've probably gone through all of our electricity supplies as well."

"I don't suppose you have a backup supply?" I asked, looking at her, but no expectantly. Elise shook her head, which wasn't all that surprising. If she did have a spare supply, she wouldn't be this angry.

"We'll have to wait until the wind comes back." She sighed, looking up at the mountains that towered over us; "It'll be a problem considering we're in a trench. We only have heat energy left; enough to last us the week. After that, we're screwed."

I sighed and looked onwards down the trench. It still looked like we had more than a few miles to go before we arrived in an open environment. I had a long think about the situation; we would either have to wait the week for the wind to come back, or...that was actually about it. I was about to consider continuing on foot, but the whole idea was ridiculous. Aside from the miles we had to go through to cover the trench, we could end up walking for weeks, even months.

"What about Falsetto." I suggested suddenly, causing Elise to turn to me in confusion. "We could walk to Falsetto and...um..."

Elise smiled sadly, giving me a certain look that said 'It'll never work'. I sighed again and returned inside the ship, heading to my room to think some more. Unfortunately, there was nothing to think about; no ideas floating about in my head, no ideas on what to do until the wind picked up; nothing at all. I didn't notice that Elise followed a couple of meters behind me and into my room, sitting down on my bed.

"So what now?" She asked, taking the words right out of my mouth. "There's nothing we could use to speed up the week..."

I nodded, understanding what she meant. Stasis pods were regularly used back in the 2030s, when people were so desperate to survive the nuclear blasts that they froze themselves; underground, too, so that no blasts destroyed the pods. Not many people remembered them; maybe all the people who used the pods ended up trapped underground, slowly starving to death. It made me thankful that I hadn't been around to experience it, and that there weren't many pods left around the world anymore.

My stomach stared to groan quietly, but just so Elise could hear it; "We could start off by getting some food." I suggested, getting up from my bed.

"Just so long as you don't expect me to cook for you." Elise laughed quietly, getting up with me.

"Hey, I've cooked before." I retorted playfully, jabbing my finger into her chest and smiling. "I'll tell you what; if I can find the right ingredients, I'll make you something nice."

"That sounds like a good idea." Elise replied quietly, walking out of the room whilst grasping onto my arm softly.

I relied on Elise to guide me over to where the food was stored; all the times I had eaten, Elise usually brought me the food instead of letting me cook for the both of us. Most of the time it was just a few slices of toast or some cold soup to go with it. Hopefully there would be more than just that inside Elise's storage; I'd had enough of eating the same thing over and over.

Luckily, I was right. Elise led me into a small room right next to the larger living room. I had never noticed the door until now; it must've been hiding away in the shadows. Elise slid the door open and walked in, switching on one of the bulbs that hung from the ceiling on a stubby coil of wire. The room had few furnishings; just a small oven-grill to the left, with a pair of oven-mitts hanging from a nail implanted into the metal wall. There was a small sink to the right, with a metal cupboard below that housed some dishes to eat off, and right next to the sink was the fridge -at least, it was cold like a fridge. I actually noticed that it was a rather tall stasis pod that almost reached the ceiling.

Elise pulled open the pod with ease, revealing a good number of stacked up foods; from vegetables to bread to bottles of water. I looked like it would barely last us three days. Elise turned and looked at me, expecting me to be surprised; I looked back at her with a puzzled look on my face, and decided to ask her about the storage.

"I don't get it." I said, looking at Elise and indicating the storage; "That doesn't look like it would last us the week."

"There are more supplies in the next room." Elise explained, closing the pod door. "That's what all the crates boxes are for."

I smiled and walked further in; Elise, on the other hand, was walking out, leaving me in the small kitchen to make something that we could eat. Luckily, I had learnt to cook during my experience in the club. Give me the right ingredients, and I can make something so good you'll still taste it in your mouths after an hour; well, so long as you like spicy foods. I always made it a habit to make my dishes as spicy or hot as possible. If I was lucky, Elise would like spicy foods.

I sighed and pulled a few tomatoes and a stock cube from the 'fridge', closing the door behind me and getting to work. It looked like we'd be having soup and bread again. At least I'd be keeping myself busy...

Location: Wastelands.

Closest City: Falsetto.

Time: 16:15pm.

Year: 2180, March 11th.

I walked into the small living room, holding two small bowls of warm tomato soup in both hands, and laying them down on the separate ends of the small table in the centre of the room. There was a small dish of bread in the middle; I sat down opposite Elise, who had already taken a piece of bread from the dish and began tucking in quicker then me. I plucked a piece of bread, still looking at her, preparing to ask her a few things.

"Hey, Elise." I began, dunking the bread in the soup slowly. "You never did tell me where we're heading..."

"...We're heading to Falsetto." Elise replied with a full moth, covering it and swallowing loudly, and continuing; "Last thing I heard, The Director was there."

"Should I ask how old this news is?" I asked, taking a large bite out of the bread and dunking it in my soup again. Elise held up her left hand, holding three fingers up.

"Three what? Days? Months? Years?" I asked. Elise stopped me just when I said the word 'years'; "That old, huh?"

"It's better than just searching blindly." Elise said, plucking another piece of bread from the dish. "I talked to Epitaph about it; he says three years ago, The Director stopped by Falsetto for something, and didn't return to Tyr."

"He worked at Tyr?" I asked, looking amazed; "Looks like someone grew up wealthy."

"Not exactly." Elise explained, taking another large bite out of the bread. "I only grew up with my mother; she 'passed away' two years ago."

"By passed away, you mean..." I stopped mid sentence. Elise nodded simply, making it obvious that her mother had most likely been killed. I didn't ask any further, and tried to change the subject, unsuccessfully.

"Well, at least you had parents, right." I said, looking down into my soup; "I was just raised by my boss. It's odd now that I think about it..."

"Yeah..." Elise muttered quietly, slurping the rest of her soup; "Well, I try not to think about it anymore. I got my revenge back at the airport anyway."

"It was one of the Foxes?" I asked, darting my head up to meet her gaze; "Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't want you to think that I was just in this for revenge." Elise explained, finishing off her soup. "The oddest thing was that I didn't really feel anything once I got revenge..."

"Sometimes things aren't what they seem." I said, trying to comfort her a little, and finishing off the rest of my soup. I saw Elise glance everywhere but at me.

"Was that what it was like once you found out about this treasure hunt?" She asked, looking down at her feet. I simply nodded once she looked up, and stayed silent.

"Well, I'm beat." Elise yawned, stacking up the dishes and bowls, lifting the stack in both hands; "I'll just take these back to the kitchen and go to bed. You'd best get some sleep too."

I nodded, still keeping quiet. I walked out of the room slowly and opened my bedroom door, stepping in and falling onto my bed. It was like we didn't even notice that we were stranded here until either the wind picked up or some light got through the clouds. As I went off to sleep, I muttered one thing to myself;

"Well, that's it. We're stuck here..."