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Torn - Ch. 3 - A New Enemy

Looking towards Jackie, Matt saw a man, about his age grab her by the hair, just to solidly punch her directly on muzzle, a loud crack rippled through the air as she yelped loudly, he dropped her and started kicking her as she lay there, unconscious. Matt tried fighting back, to no avail, the other two had him pinned, he felt himself get kicked in the chest and gut hard several times, along with a few hard blows to the head, right before they left, he felt something crack across his left shin. He lay there, unable to do anything, his battered body not letting him move for several minutes.

They took his keys, both their guns and most importantly to him, Jackie. Slowly pushing himself up, his vision was blurred, slightly red at the edges, all he could hear was the blood pounding in his ears. Seeing a baseball bat lying in an alley, he ran to grab it, a searing pain shot up through his left shin every time he put weight on it, he didn't care, his only objective was getting to Jackie.

Running toward the apartment he saw them run into, he saw the back of one of the three men sitting on a lawn chair, as he silently entered the room, the door missing, blown off its hinges by C-4.

Swinging the bat, he landed a hit directly to the man's windpipe, collapsing it. The man fell with a thud, suffocating on his own windpipe trying to breathe.

The second man came running in from the other room, yielding one of the 1911s Matt found the previous day. Matt ran straight for him as he pulled the trigger, the hollow point bullet tearing into his muscular left arm, midway between the shoulder and elbow. Before he had a chance to get another round off, Matt swung the bat with his right arm, catching the man across the bridge of his nose, shattering it, blood started pouring as he fell. Brining the bat up once more, he brought it down on the man's head, with a loud crack the bat shattered across his forehead, splitting it wide open, leaving Matt with a foot long stump of Louisville Slugger.

He painfully leaned over and grabbed the 1911 and pointed it through the door. Looking into the other room, he saw the kid that had beat Jackie, pointing the S&W 500 at him with trembling, inexperienced hands, then he saw Jackie, lying on the kitchen table, a thin line of blood dripping from her muzzle from when the kid had punched her, her shirt now missing, several cuts and lacerations on her abdomen.

Matt crossed the room to the kid in four long, pained strides, swung the stump, knocking the gun out of his hands, he collected it and looked at the kid, who looked back, to meet a single round from the 45.

He found his pack, jammed his shotgun in its loop, slung Jackie's rifle over his left shoulder, and jammed both the 1911s and his 500 in his belt before finding his keys and scooping Jackie up, his left arm now screaming in pain. Hobbling back outside with Jackie over his right shoulder, he ran for the HUMVEE and was able to get her in the passenger seat. He found the emergency pack just as she started regaining consciousness, he pulled a syringe of sedative and knocked her back out before trying to bandage up the deeper cuts.

Doing what he could, he jumped into the driver's seat and roared back out of town, gunning it for the cabin. By the time he made it to the town Ferlin was in, he was having a hard time breathing, black spots floating in his field of vision, but he kept on going.

By the time he made it to the cabin, he had started going into shock. Hobbling inside, Jackie on his shoulder, he fell down on the entryway floor. Ferlin, in the dining room, scrambled up and ran to their side after hearing the crash.

The last thing Matt gasped to him before blacking out was, "Take care of her first!"

Not listening, Ferlin closed up Matt's left arm as much as possible, the bleeding slowing down and stopping, a silver dollar sized red patch showed through the gauze wrapped around his arm. He patched up the deep cuts on his chest and abdomen and a gash on the forehead, there wasn't anything to do for the shallow cuts and scratches, they would heal on their own.

Turning his attention to Jackie, he redid Matt's hasty job on her and stitched up her muzzle as best as possible, before carefully carrying Matt then her up to their respective beds, both of them still out cold.

A day and a half later, Jackie slowly woke up, her whole body aching. Looking around and at herself, it all started coming back. She panicked, worried about Matt and started yelling his name as best as she could, her bruised chest screaming in pain.

Ferlin ran through the door hearing her yelling.

"Ferlin, where's Matt, is he ok?" Jackie asked very hastily.

"Whoa, slow down, Matt's going to be just fine, he's in his room, still out the last I checked" Ferlin responded coolly, trying to calm Jackie down.

"Oh thank god, now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to use the restroom then pay him a visit" the vixen said, slowly sitting up, her body protesting the motion.

"You don't want to see him."

"Why not?"

"He looks like shit."

"So what."

"So what? Jackie, you don't understand, its real bad."

"LIKE I SAID, I DON'T CARE, IF IT WASN'T FOR HIM, I'D BE DEAD, I'M GOING TO SEE HIM!!" Jackie snapped back, yelling at the wolf.

"FINE!" Ferlin stormed out of the room, popping his head into Matt's room, he hadn't moved an inch, he let a sigh of relief hearing Matt's breathing was pretty normal at last.

Walking across the hall, Jackie stopped at Matt's door and eased it open, the door gliding silently on the well oiled hinges. Pulling up the beanbag, she sat down at his bedside. She could see the bandage wrapped around his head, a quarter sized dot of blood on his forehead had soaked through and the bandage wrapped around his left arm and the large bloodspot on it. Most of his chest was covered by a sheet, but what she could see was mostly dark with bruises.

His right arm, only slightly bruised was on top of the sheet, Jackie reached forward with her left hand and gently placed it on his right. She was slightly startled when his thumb locked with hers involuntarily, she sat there by his side for nearly an hour, not moving an inch until her stomach protested, telling her it was time to eat. Easing herself up, she slipped out of the room and carefully made it downstairs, her body still aching in pain.

Finding the beer and a bag of corn chips and a bottle of salsa, she walked into the living room and eased herself onto the couch. Ferlin was sitting on the easy chair, watching The Hangover.

"How are you doing?" he asked absently.

"I've had better days, wonder why Matt's still out" she responded, twisting the lid off the salsa bottle, the seal breaking with a pop.

"He passed out on the entryway floor carrying you inside, he had to have been going into shock while he was driving back."

"No shit? Hey, I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier, I just needed to see him, you know?"

"Don't worry about it, I understand, I overreacted too."

Eating her fill, finishing her beer off and watching the rest of the movie, Jackie made her way back up the stairs and back into Matt's room.

Sitting down in the same spot as before, she took his hand again, a second later, his flipped over and lightly gripped her fingers. She gasped lightly and looked at his face to see a smile and a wink.

"Hey sleepy, you're awake!" Jackie said happily, smiling back.

"Getting there, good god what happened, my entire body is killing me" Matt responded groggily, the fog of sleep slowly lifting.

"From what I can remember, we got ambushed and got the shit kicked out of us."

"Well, that would explain the soreness and all, but why can't I remember any of it?"

"From what Ferlin told me, you were going into shock on the way back here, you passed out on the entryway floor."

"Wow, I was going into shock?"

"Yes, now listen, and listen well, DON'T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN!" she barked.

"Um, I really didn't have a choice."

"I could have driven!"

"You were unconscious, I was still up."

"Still!"

"Ok, I give up" he moaned, tired of arguing.

"Good" she smiled slyly at him before leaning forward and pecking him lightly on the cheek.

"What was that for?"

"Putting your life on the line for me."

"Jackie, I don't care what it takes, I won't let you die!" Matt said, his typical fire returning.

"Just don't let yourself die keeping me alive."

"I can't promise you anything."

"You better."

"I'll try. I got shot didn't I?" Matt asked, looking at his left arm.

"Yea, you did."

"Well, that would explain why I went into shock."

"Probably, speaking of which, that bandage needs changing."

"You mind helping, I have a feeling my arm's kind of useless"

"Sure, you need to get up anyway, follow me."

He was able to slide out of bed and with her help, he was up on his feet, his left shin screaming in pain every time he put weight on it, it was lightly fractured and purple from the blow. Limping into the bathroom slowly, he saw she had started running a bath and had stripped down nothing.

"Oh, you're getting in too?" he asked, trying not to stare at the nude vixen smiling innocently at him.

"Yea, you can look you know, nothing you've not seen before and buddy, time to lose the underwear" she teased.

"Yea, about that, I'm going to feel stupid, but I'm going to need help" he said, very embarrassed.

She sat down on the edge of the tub and grabbed the hem of his boxers. Matt unsuccessfully tried covering himself, embarrassed that he was already erect.

"Oh come on Matt, nothing to be embarrassed about, you're actually pretty big" she said, teasing him again.

"What... can we just get in the tub and get this over with?" he stuttered, getting flustered with her teasing.

"Fine, I'll get in first and help you in, that left leg is pretty battered."

She slipped in and turned the water off before carefully helping Matt in. He sat at one end, with her at the other, she reached for his left arm and unwrapped the compression bandage, throwing it towards the trash can. Using plain water, she very carefully rinsed the worst of the dried blood off his arm, while he did his best not to openly stare at her chest.

The water had accumulated a red tint from previously dried blood, stuck to both Matt's skin and Jackie's fur. It was drained, replaced with clean, warm water. Jackie shrugged down into the tub, the bottom of her muzzle in the water, Matt smiled a little, the water helping soothe his incredibly sore muscles.

Not much was said between the two for their hour long soak, the water barely lukewarm by the time they decided to get out. Jackie helped Matt back out and bandaged his arm. With her help and an awkward moment later, Matt was wearing a pair of shorts, not bothering with a shirt.

"I'm going to grab a bite to eat, you want something?" Matt asked.

"Think you can make it downstairs with you bum leg?" Jackie asked, wrapping herself in a towel.

"I think I can manage, but if you hear a loud crashing sound followed by cursing, don't laugh at me from the top of the stairs."

"No? What do you want me to do then?" Jackie asked coyly.

"Help me up maybe?" Matt replied sarcastically.

"Nah, I'll leave Ferlin to help you, I gotta get dressed" she smirked, slipping into her room.

Matt slowly made his way down the stairs, holding himself up with his right arm, putting as little weight on his left leg as possible, searing pain still shooting through his shin.

He hobbled to the kitchen table where Ferlin was sitting, engrossed with the internet and a ham sandwich.

Carefully lowering himself into a chair, he spoke up to the wolf, over the AC/DC playing on the computer, "What's up?"

Ferlin turned down the music and replied, "Not much, good to see you up and around though".

"Yea, I'm still sore as fuck, but I'll manage."

"I'm amazed you're still alive, you were fully in shock by the time you stumbled through the doors."

"I know, Jackie already told me."

"About her, Matt, I'm sorry but I had to ignore you, I took care of you first."

"What?"

"Right before you passed out, you told me to take care of her first, I didn't."

"Why?"

"You probably wouldn't be here talking to me if I had listened to you."

"Oh!" Matt said, surprised, he knew he was in bad shape, but not that bad of shape.

"Yea. Getting hungry, I suppose?"

"Why else would I have hobbled down thirteen stairs on a bad leg?"

"To see me?" Ferlin asked with a lisp, his wrist limp.

"Fuck no, you did that a little too well man!" Matt exclaimed, shocked by the wolf's homo impression.

"Don't worry, it was only an act, although you are cute when you're mad" Ferlin grinned.

"The fuck is wrong with you? I'm getting food and the hell out of here!" Matt exclaimed, choosing a bag of beef jerky and a Coors before hobbling back upstairs.

He sat down on his bed and inhaled the jerky and was halfway through the beer when Jackie slipped into the room, wearing some silk pajamas they had procured just before being ambushed.

"Though you could use some company" she said warmly to him, curling up on the beanbag that sat next to the bed.

"Thanks, want a sip?" he asked, tilting the beer bottle her way.

"Nah, had one earlier, thanks."

By the time Matt finished the beer, Jackie was asleep, her head resting on the edge of the low mattress, he smiled, she looked kind of cute to him, curled up and sleeping.

Three weeks later, Matt was feeling all around better, he was still slightly sore but walking and breathing were easier and his left arm was nearly back to normal, the gunshot being much less severe than he had thought, not causing enough damage to render it useless, just slightly weaker for the time. Jackie was feeling somewhat better than him, almost back to her normal, energetic self.

Outside the cabin, a lone Humanist commander stepped across the driveway alarm, breaking the beam, setting the alarm inside off.

"Shit, we've got company!" Matt was startled, half asleep on the couch before the alarm sounded.

"Calm down man, it's probably a deer or something" Jackie grumbled, woken up from her snooze on the easy chair.

"FUCK, NO IT'S NOT, GET THE HELL DOWN!" Ferlin barked from the dining room table, looking at the security camera feed.

Back outside, the commander slowly walked up the winding driveway, noting a lack of vehicle tracks, a possible place to base local operations from. Little did he know the fate that awaited him.

Ferlin loaded a dart into the chamber and bolted the rifle. Opening the second floor window above the door just enough for the end of the barrel to slip through, the wolf peered through the high powered scope.

Just as Ferlin got the bead on the man's neck, the clouds broke, the sun reflected off the gun's barrel, betraying his position to the man outside. The commander brought his rifle up just as Ferlin pulled the trigger on his own gun. The dart hit its mark a second before the commander pulled the trigger on his rifle, the errant bullet splintered the wood just inches above the window Ferlin was shooting from.

Hearing a gunshot ring out, Matt blew through the front door, 12 gauge trained on the now unconscious commander. Walking up to him, he kept the Mossberg aimed for a headshot.

Seeing he was out cold, Matt called up to Ferlin, "What should we do with him?"

"Hog tie, blindfold and duct tape his mouth" he yelled back, now hanging halfway out the window.

"Um, what EXACTLY are you planning on doing?"

"Interrogation" Ferlin smirked.

"Should we use the fallout shelter?" Matt asked, rolling the man over and pulling a length of cord from his pack, tying the man's arms and legs.

"Yea, put him down there."

"Got it." Matt finished tying him and proceeded to blindfold and tape him.

Matt drug the commander down into the shelter while Ferlin set up a card table and four chairs to be used in the makeshift interrogation room.

"Matt, can you handle tying him to his chair?" Ferlin asked.

"Yea, where are you going?"

"Getting a couple things."

"Oh, ok" Matt didn't question him as to what he was procuring.

Several minutes later Ferlin came back down, carrying what could only be described as a caveman's club, three feet long and heavy, designed to inflict serious pain.

Jackie came in a minute later and sat down next to Matt, who had finished tying the man up and had taken a seat across from him. His weapons, consisting of an old SKS and a 9 mm Beretta had been removed from his body, along with all his spare ammo and other tools. Later on the 9 mm would be placed in the glove compartment of Ferlin's truck, Matt kept the SKS for himself.

"What exactly are you guys going to do to him?" Jackie asked Matt quietly.

"We are going to interrogate him" he replied.

"Interrogate? Or torture?" she asked, motioning towards the club.

Before Matt had a chance to respond, Ferlin yanked the blindfold and duct tape off the man's face, abruptly bringing him back to consciousness as the tape ripped some facial hair up, before screaming to his face, "ALRIGHT, LISTEN UP DIRTBAG, YOU'RE GOING TO TELL US EVERYTHING YOU KNOW, START TALKING!!!"

Matt just sat there and grinned, a pad of paper and a pen in front of him to scribble down notes. Ferlin's outburst surprised Jackie, her ears were pinned flat as she sunk down in her seat some.

"Never!" the man spat back, a hint of Russian in his voice.

"Ok, hard way it is" Ferlin responded. Turning to Matt, he said, "Pull his chair back from the table a few feet".

The chair was pulled back and Ferlin lined the club up with his right kneecap and swung, the club made contact, his knee shattering with a gunshot like sharp crack, he screamed out in pain as blood started seeping through his pant leg.

"Feel like talking now?" Ferlin asked.

"The Russian army is joining force with us" the man whimpered.

Jackie grabbed the paper and started jotting down what he said.

"You know more than that!" Ferlin barked.

"Yes, I do."

"WHAT DO YOU KNOW YOU PIECE OF SCUM!?" the wolf roared.

"Everything."

"What's everything!?"

"I'll never tell you!"

Ferlin got right up behind him and swung a large right fist, catching him right above the ear, his head snapped sharply to the left, leaving him dazed as black spots started floating in his field of vision.

"We'll just see about that" Ferlin then walked over to Matt and whispered in his ear.

Matt got up and left the shelter, coming back down several minutes later with a battery from his HUMVEE and a set of jumper cables, before leaving again for a frying pan and several bottles of water.

The commander swallowed hard when Matt hooked the cables up to the battery and struck the other ends of the cables together a couple times, producing a large spark show. He grinned darkly at the man as Ferlin and Jackie pulled his boots and socks off, before pushing the pan of water under his feet.

"This may tickle a little" Matt sneered, before connecting both ends of the cables, the positive side to his left hand and the negative to his right.

The man convulsed heavily when the juice from the 12 volt, 1200 amp truck battery coursed through his body. Matt let up after just a few seconds, not wanting to kill him, just yet.

"Ready to talk now? Or will I have to leave the battery on you for longer, say thirty seconds?" Matt asked, clamping one of the cables to his ear.

"The Russians are planning an invasion on U.S. soil" he stuttered, still shaken up from getting zapped.

"Where?" Ferlin asked, seemingly calmed down.

"Why do you need to know?"

"Do you have a family?" Ferlin asked.

"Yea, a wife and three normal human kids."

"I suppose you'd like to see them again?"

"Yes."

Matt pulled out the S&W 500, cocked the hammer and pointed it at the man's temple, "Then you're going to tell us where and when the invasion is going to happen, or we're the last people you will ever see" Matt said coldly.

The man remained silent.

Matt removed his gun from the man's temple, pointed it at his left kneecap and squeezed the trigger, the large lead round nearly splitting his leg in half, he wailed out in searing pain.

Getting right up in his face, Matt screamed, "I SAID TALK, MOTHERFUCKER!"

The commander started cracking under the pressure and shattered kneecaps, "Washington, t-t-there's going to be an attack on the capitol" he stuttered, starting to get nervous that he may never leave alive.

"There has to be more than that" Matt said harshly, before he walked over to Jackie and quietly said, "Give him hell, firecracker" calling her by an old nickname.

She stood up, handed the paper to Matt and shoved the table across the room with enough force for it to bounce off the wall, before stepping up to him and grabbing a handful of his hair and painfully forcing his head back.

Her lips curled back, showing off a set of white, dangerous teeth, she snarled to him, getting right up in his face, "This is your last chance to tell us anything!"

"Or what?" he gasped, the vixen taking him by surprise.

"I'll kill you barehanded and don't think I won't" she said in a matter of fact tone, pushing a claw into his neck, next to the jugular vein, just hard enough to break the skin.

Crumbling under the pressure, he finally divulged most of what he knew, "Russian troops are going to be landing on both coasts and slowly pushing towards the center of the country, after the attack on Washington. The plan is to be put into action in exactly one month, I'm just here looking for places to base operations from" he said nervously, eying the dangerous looking vixen and the .45 she carried.

In the background, Matt finished jotting down the information that had been exposed, just before Ferlin nudged him with an elbow, "Damn Jackie's a piss ant" he smirked.

"How do you think she got the nickname firecracker?"

"Ha, I knew it would be a bad idea to piss her off, but damn" he chuckled.

"Yea, let's get serious, what are we going to do with him?" Matt asked, pointing at the now bloody and slightly disfigured commander.

"Kill and burn him?"

"Works, how do you want to terminate him?"

"A gunshot would be loud and there may be more of him around, I say be a bastard and club his head in" Ferlin grinned.

"Be my guest, we've gotten everything we're going to out of him."

"Better idea guys, burn him alive" Jackie smirked, giving him a swift kick on the groin on her way past him. His eyes went wide and the bile started rising from both the pain in his crotch and hearing the fate that awaited him.

"Why you demented little vixen...that works for me!" Matt replied, going to work untying him from the chair but leaving his legs and arms lashed.

After carrying him back out into the garage, Ferlin loaded him into the bed of the HUMVEE while Matt replaced the battery under the hood, the big CAT diesel taking every ounce of power the two batteries stored to start.

Pulling back out onto the main road, Matt drove the opposite direction of the main road, finding a long unused trail, barely wide enough for the truck. Driving down the trail for several miles brought them to a nice sized gravel pit, long abandoned mining equipment sat rusting away, forgotten over the years.

Pulling the HUMVEE into a particularly deep area of the pit, Matt stopped the engine and listened, it was quiet, but sounds of wildlife could easily be heard. When it was dead silent is when he would start worrying.

The commander was wrapped head to toe in white linen that had been doused with diesel fuel, before being tossed to the ground several feet from the truck.

"Alright Jackie, it was your idea to barbeque him, I'll let you do the honors" Matt winked at her, handing over a box of kitchen matches.

She pulled a match from the box and paused, snarling, "May you burn in the deepest pit of Hell".

She struck the match and lit the cloth on fire at his toes, the extremely hot burning diesel fueled fire would slowly work its way up his body, literally roasting him alive before death dragged his wretched soul to hell.

A few minutes later, he blacked out from the unbearable pain, the fire had only made it partially up his legs, what had been burned was reduced to little more than bone and bits of smoldering flesh.

Seeing that he was not going anywhere, they all climbed back into the truck and roared down the rough trail and back to the cabin. Half an hour later, they were back inside and Matt and Ferlin were sitting on the couch watching Dirty Harry over the last couple beers in the cabin, while Jackie was putting together a supper of spaghetti and meatballs.

"Man, we gotta get our shit together" Ferlin said, turning his attention from the TV.

"What?" Matt asked, setting his empty beer bottle down, the alcohol on an empty stomach giving him a nice buzz.

"We need to prepare for the invasion of Russian troops, I'll explain the rest over supper, Jackie needs to hear this too."

An hour later, they were finishing up eating, Ferlin leaned back in his chair before opening his maw in a jaw cracking yawn and tiredly saying, "We've been lucky so far, the few Humanists we've encountered were simply punks, Matt why in God's name that last bunch didn't kill you two is beyond me. Anyway, most likely we're not going to hold onto this luck much longer if what the man we mutilated said, is true. Tomorrow, we'll start practicing hand to hand combat and tactical defense and probably throw in some weapons training sessions for good measure".

"Sounds like a good idea but where do you want to do the shooting at, using the town could be a fatal mistake" Jackie responded, exhaustion starting to set in for her as well.

"That old mine pit would work, wouldn't it?" Matt asked.

"That's what I was thinking, plus we could use the old equipment for tactical exercises" Ferlin said, collecting the plates and tossing them in the sink before retreating to his room, leaving Matt and Jackie standing in the dining room.

She wordlessly stepped up to him and latched on in a tight hug, leaving him surprised and unable to do anything but return her death grip of a hug.

"Wow, what was that about?" Matt asked, feeling her loosen up her grip on him.

"Because we're both still alive in this living hell."

"Yea and if we're going to stay that way when those troops land, we'll have push any remorse for anyone but ourselves out of our heads. Don't think of them, think of us, think of yourself if it comes to that."

"You mean myself if you and Ferlin are....killed?" she asked, gasping a little.

"Yes, your survival will depend on that mindset" he said somberly.

"Oh."

"Yea, we'd better get some sleep, these next few days will be rough."

Heading up to their separate rooms, they quickly fell asleep, the next morning coming all too soon in the form of a hand held air horn outside their doors, courtesy of Ferlin. He started laughing when Matt cracked his door open and thrust out a fist with an extended middle finger, emerging several minutes later in old style military fatigues. Jackie stepped out in her typical tank top and black pants, both because they were comfortable and she knew how and liked to turn both Matt and Ferlin's heads.

"Alright you two, ready to learn?" Ferlin asked in a classic evil teacher voice.

"Aw man" Matt and Jackie groaned.

After a quick, light breakfast, the morning consisted of Ferlin teaching the two of them the basics of hand to hand combat, the most effective ways to use almost any available blade, from a small kitchen knife up to a large machete along with different types melee weapons.

Lunch was spread out over a couple hour physical break while the three went over defense tactics for different situations, concentrating on urban warfare. The day was ended with physical training, all three of them wanting to be in peak physical condition should the flood gates of Hell break wide open upon them.

Later on that night, sitting around the dinner table, Matt asked Ferlin, "Dude, were you ever in the military?"

"Nope, just always been fascinated by it, I was going to enlist before this happened."

"You may need to put what you know to real use by the time this is all said and done."

"I sure hope not but, I have a bad feeling we will have to fight to stay alive."

The next three weeks passed in much the same fashion with the addition of firearms drills and tactical shooting exercises out in the mine pit. Those three weeks proved to be the most grueling that any of them had experienced, they all pushed each other forward very hard, knowing their individual chances of survival were immensely higher if they all stayed alive.

The last night of the third week and they were sitting around the TV, watching a rerun of Family Guy. Suddenly the TV switched to an emergency news report.

"Oh my god" Jackie said very softly, a furred hand covering her muzzle, her eyes wide.

Both Ferlin and Matt stared at the TV as wide eyed as Jackie was.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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