FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

_ On the Move _

"Hey," June said to the cashier, "you got a restroom?"

"Uh, b-back in the corner." He pointed with a shaking hand.

"Really?" McClory stared at her. "Now?"

"What? I gotta take a shit and I don't know how many more hours it'll take to get where we're going." She motioned at the stuff she'd just bought and headed for the bathroom. "Grab that and wait in the car."

Once inside, she locked the door, took a few steps, and started shaking violently. She slumped against the wall and tried to take a few slow, deep breaths. Her heart pounded so hard, she thought it might crack a rib.

"Easy there, June," Roz said through the earbud. "Just wait it out."

June tried to let her mind go blank. Gradually, her breaths came easier and her pulse slowed. Once she was finally back to normal, she flushed the toilet, turned the faucet on, and braced her hands on the sides of the wash basin.

"You're doing just fine, Mom," Jack said, then quickly added, "Remember not to say anything back to us."

She stared at her hands until they stopped trembling. She flexed her fingers a few times, turned the water off, and unlocked the door. After taking one more long breath to brace herself and get back into character, she yanked the door open and found McClory standing right on the other side. June almost jumped back, but somehow managed to stop herself and let an arched eyebrow be her only reaction.

"Hanging out in front of restrooms, are you? Fuckin' pervert." She pushed past him and headed for the front door. "Let's get back on the road."

Once both of them were back in the Humvee, June started the engine and floored it. In the corner of her eye, McClory flicked a startled glance at her and hurried to fasten his seatbelt.

"How much farther do we have to go?"

"Just keep driving. I'll tell you when we get there."

"Fine." June let out a sharp sigh and then reached over to dig around in the bag of snacks. She grabbed a random item, glanced at it, and sneered at McClory. "A fidget spinner? Seriously? Jesus Christ." She tossed it back into the bag.

He scowled at her and then turned away.

Hmm. Time to say something unnerving again, just so he doesn't get too comfortable. "On second thought, I heard a guy sliced his own cock off with one of those a while back. Maybe I can find a use for it after all." She giggled.

He shot a wide-eyed glance at her and looked away quickly.

"What else have we got in there?" She reached in again, found a small plastic bag, and pulled it out. "Oh, Cheetos. Haven't had those in a while." She braced her left knee under the steering wheel to hold it still long enough to tear the bag open and drop it in her lap. Then she put her left hand back on the wheel and started eating. After crunching away for a few minutes, she said, "Are we there yet?"

"No." He sighed.

She finished the bag over the next few minutes. "Are we there yet?"

"No! I'll fucking tell you when we're there!"

"Well, that was rude." June pondered the situation for a moment, then braced her hand on his shoulder and shoved him into the door. His injured shoulder and the side of his head slammed into it and his face twisted up.

"Ow!"

"Oops. I guess that's my impulse control disorder kicking in."

He snarled and cocked his fist back. She jerked the wheel to the left and swerved into the oncoming lane. He grunted and braced his hands on the dashboard.

"You really sure you want to hit the person who just happens to be driving the vehicle you're in? If you manage to knock me out, where would that leave you?"

He glared at her, but then he sighed and settled back in his seat, apparently giving up.

June smirked and continued driving in silence. After a few minutes passed, she decided to mess with him again. She cocked her head slightly, as if listening to something only she could hear, then she turned slowly to give him a sort of sideways Kubrick stare. He glanced at her, did a double-take, and then stared back at her with wide eyes. She faced forward and nodded.

"Yes," she said under her breath. "I understand."

"What?" His eyes opened a little wider. "You understand what?"

"Don't worry about it." She put a serene smile on and just kept driving.

---

"Miko, are you … are you alright?"

"Still a little sore, but I'll get over it, Dad." Miko touched her face and winced at the sudden burning pain. "Probably have a concussion, and the swelling on my face is gonna be bigger than my tits when it finishes puffing up. Not that that's saying much."

Her dad reached out, hesitated, and then awkwardly put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry I couldn't save you from this. I failed you."

"We were all outclassed. I'm just glad you weren't hurt even worse than you were." She patted his hand and walked over to grasp the bars. This place looked like it might be an underground bunker, but not left over from the Cold War. Everything here looked new, right down to the bright concrete walls and the bars on the cells everyone had been shoved into.

She glanced around at Lucas and Bobby and all the others. The rest were Raf's siblings and parents, and Miko had never met them before. The older ones tried to comfort the younger, while looking like they needed someone to do the same for them. Everyone had been divided into three groups and stuck in adjacent cells.

At least Bobby finally stopped crying. Poor kid. Lucas sat in the corner, hugging his adopted son and pressing his lips together to keep his stoic expression from crumbling.

Her father glanced at them and sighed. "With any luck, this won't last long. They'll either get what they want, or your friends will find a way to make them back down. Then they'll let us go."

She stared into his eyes for a moment, glanced at the others, and then led him over to the far corner. She leaned closer to his ear and whispered, "Don't bet on it. They let us see their faces. That's not something people wearing masks do if they're planning to leave witnesses running around."

He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and whispered back, "I suspected so. I was just trying to reassure you."

"Thanks." She took his hand and held it for a moment. "This just means it's up to us to get out of here on our own. My friends will be trying to find us, but if they don't have a way to track us down, all we've got is us."

He let out a slow breath and nodded. Miko gave the corridor another visual sweep.

Hmm. No cameras anywhere, at least none that I can see. That'll give us some room to maneuver. She smirked.

"Luckily, I've got something in mind."

"You have a plan?"

"It's a work in progress, but at the moment it's all I've got. It's gonna get a little weird, but just roll with it." She turned to stare through the bars at the man and woman seated at the card table at the end of the corridor. "Hey! Come here for a minute."

"Lemme guess," the man said, "you want us to let you out so you can take a leak? Not gonna happen."

"No, nothing like that. Just come here."

"Why?"

Miko sighed. "Look, I don't know if we'll ever get out of here. One of the ways this might end is with a bullet in the head, right? Well, I don't wanna die a virgin! You can at least let me scratch that one thing off my bucket list, right?"

The man rolled his eyes, picked up his phone, and started playing around with it.

Great. The whole "distract the guards" thing isn't as easy as it looks in movies. Miko sighed and pulled her shirt off.

"Come on. This might be my last request." She slipped out of her sports bra and flung it off to the side.

"Put that back on. I'm not gonna fuck a fifteen-year-old."

"Think about it. My pussy's tighter than a Chinese finger trap. You don't want to miss out on that."

"Miko!" Her father gaped at her. "What are you doing?"

"Him, if I'm lucky." She nodded at the guard and unzipped her pants. She let them slide to her ankles and pointed at the woman. "Well, if he's not interested, how about you? I don't think I swing that way, but I'm willing to try it out and see if I like it or not." Come on, one of you get over here so I don't have to take everything off.

Both guards glanced at each other with bewildered expressions, as if asking each other, "Is this girl nuts?" They shook their heads, stood, and marched over to the cells.

"That's enough," the guy said in a weary tone. "Put your clothes back on."

"Aw, come on. Right here in front of everybody, I don't care." She stepped out of her pants and slid a thumb under the waistband of her panties.

"Stop making a scene, or we'll give you to our boss." The man smirked. "He's got a special room here. The only people who see the inside of it are those who need … an attitude adjustment."

"Is it his masturbatorium?" She glanced over her shoulder and grinned at her dad. "I bet it's his masturbatorium."

Behind her dad, Lucas kept his hands over Bobby's eyes, and Bobby kept trying to wriggle out from under them to see what was going on.

"Let me put it this way," the guard said. "People who are taken in there scream for hours, and when they leave, they have to be dragged out. And the whole room has to be hosed down afterward."

"That doesn't exactly not make it sound like his masturbatorium." She pulled her panties down and tugged them over her boots.

"Damn it," the woman grumbled. "Put your clothes back on. We're not gonna ask you again."

"Well, now that I've got my mind set on it, I guess I'll have to take care of it myself." She switched on her cybernetic arm's built-in vibrator. Both guards stared at it and their faces went slack. Hah, maybe I finally broke 'em.

"Is … is that a …?" The woman shook her head slowly.

"Yep. A giant alien robot cut my real arm off a few weeks ago. When they offered to give me a new one, I insisted they build a vibrator into it." Miko smirked at her and licked her lips slowly. "You sure you don't wanna try it out? I bet I could blow your goddamn mind."

"For the last time, kid, shut up!" The guy rolled his eyes and stepped up to the bars. "Get dressed and keep quiet, or I'll put a bullet in your head right now!"

Miko lunged forward, shoved her robotic hand between the bars, and clamped her fingers around his throat.

"Hurrk!" He pried at her fingers, but couldn't move them. She squeezed harder and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. His mouth opened, but no sound came out and no air went in. He tried to draw his sidearm, but Miko increased the pressure and his face started to turn purple. He scrabbled at her hand and sank to his knees.

Her father reached through the bars and plucked the gun from from the guy's holster. He stepped back from the bars and aimed at the woman.

The man's eyes rolled back in his head and he sagged to the floor. He began sucking in gasping breaths as soon as she released him, but remained slumped over. Miko let him collapse and raised her eyes slowly to the other guard.

"Get over here. Now."

She hesitated, keeping her gun pointed at Miko.

Miko's dad kept his own aim steady and snapped, "Do as she says!"

The woman didn't move. Miko waved a hand at the unconscious man.

"Get your ass over here or I'll finish him off."

"You … you wouldn't. You're just a kid."

"I've taken lives before. Five of 'em at once, just a few weeks ago. It was no big deal. You think I wouldn't kill a couple of assholes who abducted and threatened to kill us?" Miko reached through the bars and pressed her thumb into the man's carotid artery. "Just one quick jab and he'll tap out in about thirty seconds."

"Alright!" The woman lowered her gun and hurried over to the cells.

"Hand it over."

The woman sighed and passed her gun through the bars. Miko grabbed it, backed away from the door, and pointed the gun at her while scooping up her clothes.

"Open the cells. All of 'em."

The guard winced, but she walked to the keypad on the other side of the door and punched in a code. Once all the cells were open and their occupants out in the corridor, Miko motioned at the unconscious guard.

"Drag him inside and take his clothes off."

"Miko," her father muttered, and she shook her head.

"I figure he'll be less willing to call for help or come after us if he's naked when he wakes up." Miko glared at the other guard. "Well? Get to it! Toss his clothes out here when you're done." Once the guard followed her orders, Miko waved the gun at her. "Out." She stepped aside to let the guard pass by and slid the door shut. "Now, you get into the third cell and then get naked."

She waited for the woman to strip and toss her clothes into the corridor, then she slid the door shut and locked it.

"Alright," her dad muttered, "now will you please put your clothes back on?"

"In a minute. I wanna make it as hard as possible for these chucklefucks to get out of there." Miko dropped her clothes, grabbed the man's belt, found a sheathed Bowie knife, and used it to pry the cover off the first keypad. Then she stabbed the knife into its innards over and over until the wires and circuit boards were a mangled mess. She tugged on the door to make sure it was still locked, then did the same with the lock on the other guard's cell. Finally she grabbed her pile of clothes and put them back on.

"Now what?" Lucas said, holding Bobby in his arms and trying to keep the kid's eyes averted until Miko was fully dressed.

"Let's see if these two had anything useful." Miko searched the pouches and compartments on their utility belts, found three extra magazines on each, plus radios. "Sweet, we can listen in on their chatter." She searched their pockets, found some cash, and stuffed it into her own pocket. "Yoink!"

She caught her dad frowning at her and shrugged.

"Think of it as compensation for what they're putting us through." She put one of the utility belts on and sighed when it flopped around even though she'd cinched it to the last notch. She shrugged again, holstered her gun, and tossed the other belt to her dad. "We might need the extra ammo and whatnot." While he put the belt on, she picked up the phones, handed one to Lucas, and checked for a signal.

"No bars," Lucas muttered, having had the same idea. "We must be pretty far underground. Or maybe there's something in here that interferes with the signal. Maybe a jammer."

"We'll have to get to the surface, then. Or away from whatever's causing the interference." She glanced around at everyone. "Well. How about we all get the hell outta here?"

---

Oh, crap! Raf darted through a door to dodge the four heavily-armed men walking toward him. His armor's stealth system kept him invisible, but they'd know he was there if they walked right into him. He watched them pass by and let out a long, slow breath when none of them reacted to his presence.

Okay. Gotta find a computer. He'd used his helmet cameras and sensors to record video and data since the bus had entered the MECH compound, but there seemed to be a signal jammer preventing him from sending any of it back to the base. If I can hack into their system and either bypass the jammers or find some other way to get a message out …

More footsteps approached just as he'd started to step back into the hallway. He backed away from the door and glanced around the room as two more guys passed by. It looked like a conference room or a break room. One laptop sat on the table. He took a quick look at it and left it alone.

No wi-fi. Gotta find one with a hardline connection. Maybe then I could at least email Jack or something.

He peeked into the hallway, found it empty, and continued deeper into the building. He tried to turn each doorknob he passed, but all of them were locked. He turned the corner and stopped, his heart almost jumping into his throat, as a man in a lab coat stepped out of a door directly into Raf's path. Raf tiptoed aside and the guy walked past him, then he lunged at the door and grabbed its edge before it closed. He slipped through and let it close behind him. He turned to take a quick look around, and the breath caught in his throat.

What … the hell?

Six tables filled the center of the room. Two were empty, but covered with blood stains. The other four were … occupied. Bloody white sheets covered whatever was on them.

More blood stains splotched the floor under and around the tables.

Trying not to hyperventilate, Raf checked his cameras to be sure they were still recording, and pivoted slowly to get a panning shot of the whole room. Shelves and benches lined the walls, holding a variety of mechanical components, circuit boards, and what appeared to be surgical instruments.

The possibilities flitting through his mind almost made him gag. He took a few slow breaths and tried to clear his mind. With a trembling hand, he reached over to the nearest table and pulled the cloth back, exposing a twisted mixture of human and machine, limbs replaced with mechanical parts, eyes replaced with things that looked like camera lenses.

He drew the cloth back farther, turned abruptly from the site, hunched over, and wretched.

No, no, no, not in your helmet! Don't barf in your helmet! He kept his eyes closed and forced himself to take deep breaths.

The thing on the operating table was … incomplete. Severed above the waist, with part of the spine exposed and … devices … grafted onto it. Interface ports, maybe.

Whatever had been done to this poor guy, he hadn't survived it.

Keeping his eyes closed, Raf turned back to the table, peeled the sheet back and made sure his cameras got a long look at the "patient," then he covered it and turned away before opening his eyes. He crept over to the nearest corner, slid to the floor, and pulled his knees up to his chest.

He wanted to be anywhere but here. He wished he were back at the base with Bumblebee and Tomoko. More than anything, he wanted to see Tomoko again. Wished he could see her smile, or hear her laugh at something funny in one of the video games they liked to play. Just feel her hand on his one more time.

But I need to find my family and friends and get them out of here. He pushed himself back to his feet and returned to the operating tables. And I need to document this … whatever this is.

And, he realized, he needed to find out if any of the experiments on the table were his parents or siblings or Miko.

What the hell have we gotten into?