FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

'Canada's "Project X" to be the next step in human evolution' firmly stated the front page article title of the newspaper. Trey promptly rolled it up and threw it into the paper bin without giving it a second glance.

"I have no idea why I'm still subscribed to a paper company. I haven't read newspapers in a year." he thinks aloud, still groggy from his new work schedule.

Trey takes a glace over to the shelf he stashed his Associates Degree of Biology. Over the last year he's managed to stuff it under heaps of books. That's how he spends his spare time when he isn't gaming or working at the zoo.

Trey notices his phone ringing. It's Paul, his supervisor. Trey used to work closing shifts at the zoo looking over the bigs cats during the summer and wolves during winter. Recently put on opening shift via request. He picks it up.

"Hey Trey, I know you aren't used to waking up this early, but get dressed have your coffee or whatever and come down." Paul giddily hurried Trey.

"Yeah, I just woke up so you can relax," Trey replied, "also I dont drink coffee."

"Then have a Monster then. Just get dressed and get down here." Paul urged with concern in his voice before hanging up.

Trey sighed and turned to his mirror. He had a medium build, tanned skin, brown hair and hazel eyes. He was however, short. Only around five foot, eight inches (172cm).

After showering and putting on his uniform, he put on the zoo jacket and headed out. It was the middle of January and hadn't snowed too much this winter. After brushing his car off he scraped any problematic ice away and set off for work.

On his way he noticed the odd beauty of a snow covered plateau. Flat, white and blindingly bright without sunglasses. Trey took time to sit and admire the outskirts of his city. The zoo was out in the suburbs and wasn't too far away. The zoo however was pretty massive, a good 300 acres.

On his commute he noticed the highway was confusingly clear. That is probably in part due to the heated pavement the province installed. Took them nearly a year but they finally managed it.

He arrives at the zoo after a regular 20 minute commute. Parks his car in the employee parking and proceeds to walk inside where he finds Paul seeming awfully nonchalant for his concering tone on the phone.

"Hey Paul. What's up?" Trey asks.

"Nothing, just waiting for everyone to arrive." Paul politely responds.

"You seemed in a hurry on the phone. Something wrong?" Trey pries.

"That was to get you off your ass so you would get here sooner." Paul retorts.

"Jeez. Watch the claws. I might not come back if you keep at my throat like that." Trey throws back, making them both laugh.

Everyone arrives and goes off to work on their own stuff. Trey and Paul put on their heavy snow gear and headed out to the wolf pen.

As he approached the fence, two gray wolves already hyper and pacing along, waiting for food. One had gray eyes and the other had brown. The wolf with gray eyes was named Delta, she was the other's mate. His name was Echo.

Grabbing a bucket of chicken, Trey heads into the pen to spend some time with the two wolves. As he gets inside he is bombarded by licks and face rubs by both wolves. With them being normally territorial, this confused him.

After feeding Echo and Delta Trey decided to write down the discrepency. He also was taking note of how they tried to share the chicken rather than swallow it whole like normal. Afterward giving his notes to Paul.

"They were oddly friendly, I thought you said they were the alphas?" Trey questioned.

"They are, I don't know why they're being weird." Paul answered.

Trey figured he had done what he needed for now and decided to put his help to use and took a stroll over to the arctic fox enclosure. On his way he took note of how few guests there were and wondered why. His phone vibrated in his pocket of a severe blizzard watch sent out.

He didn't care much as the foxes were inside and a little snow has never hurt someone before. Once he arrived, he was waved off by the fox handlers as they said that the zoo was closing early as it had been reported a gas pipe that ran all along the premises had a leak and needed to be fixed. Management said it would take all day, if not multiple, to fix.

"This sucks." He thought aloud, "I really need to stop thinking out loud."

With a sigh of defeat Trey walked back to his car and got in it to drive home. Figuring if ever, now would be the time to take his two week break. So he phoned his manager and told him he was taking his break. Trey hung up and focused on the road.

When he walked back into his apartment he laid down on his couch. After which, he played_ The Division _for the rest of the day. When he noticed it was dark out he checked the time to see it was 12:17am.

_"Shit, I need to sleep." _he concluded.

With this thought he turned it off and went to sleep.

In the morning Trey found himself rejuvinated with a new energy. He looked outside his window and noticed the blizzard warning was wrong and no such event had occurred over the night. Checking the weather and finding the rest of the week to be record highs and clear skies, he decided he would buy a tent and go camp away for a couple days.

Making sure to buy extra heat packs and fur-lined sleeping bags, he headed out to what used to be his favourite hiking spot. He hadn't been here in years. The bare trees made it seem like a horror film set.

_"At least since there aren't any leaves that means I can see the trailsigns better." _Trey thought to himself before taking to the trail for the next few hours.

"Fuck sakes," Trey cursed as he felt his nose starting to grow numb from the cold, "Fucking weather channel."

"Record highs my ass." He stated naïvely.

Over the next hour he had started moving faster as he noted the light snowfall that had started alongside some oddly ferocious winds. His nose had been long numb and he was beginning to feel his gloves fingers starting to freeze, his own fingers with them.

He had a can of oil that he figured he would need to start a fire but it woild be useless in this wind. He also wouldn't be able to pitch his tent. He was too far from his car for that to be an option. All he could do was try to find a cave or cabin to hole up in untilat least the wind passed.

The snow had upgraded from a small flaking to a full torrential downpour of snow. This was a particularly bad blizzard as he could barely see a meter in front of him.

Trey's legs were burning, but freezing at the same time. His could feel his feet were soaked to the bone, but were also numb. His lungs were on fire from pushing through shin deep snow for the last hour. He had to take a break. But he cant stop.

"Somebody! Anyone, please!" Trey screamed but could barely hear himself over the whistling of the wind.

He felt exhausted. Wondered why he even kept pushing? There was nothing out here but trees and trees. Maybe a deer or two, but mainly trees. Maybe he would find a hiker's cabin?

_"No, that's something pulled straight from the script of a cheesy ass movie." _He thought to himself.

A few steps later he fell into what seemed to be a plowed space around the size of a truck. This filled him with hope and he picked himself up, moving as fast as his wet, frozen legs would let him.

It took about an hour of run-walking down what he assumed to be a driveway before his legs gave out. He fell onto his stomach getting a face full of cold. Pulling his head out of the snow, he started pulling himself through the snow. He didn't get far before his arms stopped being strong enough.

He flipped onto his back after taking his hiking pack off and figured the burning embrace of the cold wasn't such a bad way to go as he closed his eyes and passed out.