FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

It was starting to get chilly. Seth cursed himself for not putting the liner in his overcoat. All he could do was get off the cold ground and huddle up. He had to be careful not to get too comfortable, though. After all, he was on patrol. Seth positioned himself in a tall tree so that he could see a pretty far distance. It was much harder to climb with a prosthetic leg, but he fashioned some spikes at a downward angle to dig into the tree. It was much harder, but not impossible.

Seth nearly fell out of the tree when a voice from right next to him spoke up.

"Seth, you haven't checked in, is everything ok?"

Seth leveled his rifle and awkwardly spun around to find nothing.

"Hellooooo... Did you fall asleep or something?" the voice said again.

Very confused, Seth called out, "Who's there? Show yourself!"

Laughing, the voice replied, "Oh jeez, don't tell me no one told you how our coms link works... Magic silly! This is Tara, from base?"

"Oh wow, I feel stupid now. But yeah, I'm here. And no, I didn't fall asleep. There is zero activity out here, over."

"Okay, but try to remember to check in every once and a while alright?"

"Roger that Ma'am. Over and out."

With all the time Seth had to himself, his mind started to drift. He started thinking about old friends. Most of them disowned him after he was framed. But whatever happened to Cody, the guard that let him free? They were never close friends before all of this, but while he was in jail, Cody was the only friend Seth had. If the military found out that he let Seth go, Cody was surly dead by now. Seth was pulled from his day dream when he heard a shot in the distance.

"Tara, you still there?" Seth asked to no one.

"Yeah, I hear you. What's up?" Came the response from nowhere.

"I heard a shot in the distance. How far out does our zone go?"

"You still have a ways to go. But be careful, there isn't anyone close by. If you think its trouble, you call for back up got it?"

"Copy that. I'm going to investigate."

Seth dropped from the tree, falling in a heap when he hit the ground. 'Damn leg...' he thought to himself. After recovering, he set off in the direction of the shot. Once he got to roughly where he thought the shot came from he started looking around. He could barely make out foot prints. Several sets of boots and one set of paws. 'Not good'

"Tara, I've found several tracks. Multiple humans, one most likely Keidran. What should I-" He was cut off by a small explosion followed by the sounds of exchanging gun fire from the direction the tracks were going. One set of shots stood out from the rest. It sounded like... a Basitin rifle. "Shit, cancel that, most likely Basitin, I'm going in!

"Hold on! You're on the very edge of our zone! There still isn't anyone close!"

"Well tell them to run!" With that Seth took off in an all out sprint. Well, as fast as he could go considering he still wasn't used to his leg.

As he started getting closer, he noticed a blood droplets on the ground. 'Shit' "Send a medic too, Tara." When he didn't get a response, Seth panicked slightly. 'Do the coms go dead if I'm out of range? This might be bad...'

The exchange of gunfire was still raging as he got close. He was in the perfect flanking position. There were three humans, one behind a tree, two behind a large rock. Slightly further away on the other side of a fallen tree, Seth could make out the tip of an ear, though he couldn't be sure what it belonged to. He took aim and fired at one of the two hiding behind the rock. Three shots rang out, all hitting their mark, before the gun jammed. 'Fucking human piece of shit!!' Seth tossed the rifle and drew his side arm and managed to take out the other one at the rock before the pistol was kicked out of his hands. He managed to dodge just before being hit with the butt of the rifle of the third human. Unfortunately, not being able to feel the ground he was standing on, Seth tripped over a small log. The human managed to take aim before a shot hit him in the head, taking his helmet right off.

Seth scrambled to his feet and headed to whoever was behind the tree. He instinctively dove back behind cover when he saw the rifle still aimed at him.

"Whow! Friendly! Hold your fire!" Seth yelled out peaking over the rock just in time to see the figure collapse on the ground. "Damn it!" Seth ran over to the figure and rolled him over. It was indeed a Basitin. He removed the Basitin's helmet and bandana that was covering his face. IT was Cody!

"Cody! What the Hell are you doing out here! Shit..." Cody was bleeding badly from his lower abdomen. "Hang in there, I'm gonna' get you help. Tara! I need a medic now! Tara! Do you copy?! Fuck! I'm out of range!" Seth pulled off his camo scarf and tied it around Cody before saying, "This is gonna' hurt like hell." He pulled it tight and hoisted Cody over his shoulder. Cody let out an agonizing yelp. Seth ignored it and took off towards the base. Soon enough Tara's voice 'crackled' into life.

"Seth! There you are! What the hell happened? I lost contact as soon as you said you were going to investigate."

"I need a medic now! I have one critically injured! I'm inbound on foot!" Seth could feel the blood soaking into the shoulder of his jacket.

"Stop moving."

"What?! Why?!"

"Just do it!"

He stopped, but before he could protest, Seth found himself standing in the medic tent surrounded by waiting medics. He felt woozy and handed Cody off to one of them before he threw up, fell over, and passed out.