FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Connie shivered as the two gigantic cockroaches held onto her and forced her forward. She knew she couldn't do much to resist; her hands were bound by rope behind her back, and her feet were similarly tied together so she had to shuffle along, the ropes burning the skin beneath her fur.

These bug escorts were terrifying, and that wasn't just because of how big they were. Connie hated insects of all kinds, as most mammals did. Little bugs they found on a daily basis reminded them of the huge ones this these around her, the ones who preyed upon them, the ones who kept them hiding in forests and deserts, or anywhere they could hide from the massive things.

Connie knew she should be panicking right now; the insects were generally merciless in their hunger for the flesh of those with fur; depending on what kind found you, they either picked you up and just started chewing you whole, or if you were lucky, you got nabbed by a spider, who would inject you with a paralyzing agent that would cause you to suffocate while the thing liquefied your guts with more venom. At least, she thought that would be better. Not being able to breathe sounded nicer than having her limbs crunched and smashed by teeth and jaw while she could scream out in pain with no effect.

But this was different: the bugs never arrested their victims before eating them. They were generally solitary predators, so unless a person got snatched by ants, it was generally a safe bet that being caught meant that she wasn't on the menu, at least not right now.

But, she had to admit, this was still a cause for concern. Whatever they wanted with her, it was likely to be bad. The cockroach escorts marched her through the slimy street of the old ruins that legends said used to be the home of mammals like her. And she could believe that; the buildings made of stone all around, with their windows and doors, seemed tailor made for the smaller, sleeker animals, particularly cats like Connie.

She wasn't sure why they were here specifically, either. Insects didn't live in 'towns' like normal people did. They had nests, burrows, underground tunnels. Not above ground, stone structures.

Connie was marched forward still, relatively unconcerned. There was another angle here: she had been captured while separated from a heavily armed hunting party. That group was likely looking for her at this very moment, and so far the only bugs she'd seen had been these two cockroaches, and one large ant. They might've been physically superior one on one, but she was still sure that her party would be by to free her soon.

They reached a clearing in the buildings, a place with a big wooden platform that she thought she remembered was called a 'town square'. Up upon the wood stage was a strange looking contraption: it was like a wooden box, rectangular, but there was a contraption attacked to one long end. It had two wooden poles extending upward, and at the top, some few feet up, was what looked like a trapezoidal piece of metal. As they drew closer, she noticed with a slight pang in her gut that it appeared to be a blade. That was extremely odd; she'd never seen or heard of such a mechanism, and it didn't look decayed like all the other wooden stuff in towns like this. It was new, like the bugs had built it. But that wasn't like them...

This was the first thing to make her feel nervous. Whatever that thing was, it definitely wasn't good news. Maybe it was her imagination, but that silver blade appeared to be stained with something dark that a nasty little voice told her was dried blood.

The other concerning thing was that this public square was teeming with bugs. That was significantly worse than the strange machine, for this would make rescuing her more difficult. There were ants, cockroaches, wasps in the sky, and beetles skittering around. There had to be fifty of them. But she kept faith; there were ways of making a crowd like this scatter.

The buzzing and clicking of mandibles and wings were a cacophony to her ears, and she wondered as she often did if these ugly things were trying to speak or communicate somehow, either with her or among themselves. Were they mocking her? Angrily shouting? She couldn't tell.

Connie and her guards stopped in the crowd, and she jumped as a large, nasty yellow wasp landed right in front of her with a solid thud on the stone. The thing's massive eyes stared into her, so close she could clearly see her reflection in those huge black orbs. She backed away out of instinct, fearing the apex predator before her, but the cockroaches stopped her.

The wasp reared suddenly, bringing its thorax forward between its legs. Connie yelped at the fast moving gesture, filled with immediate terror at the sudden appearance of the horrible thing's giant stinger, which was now pointed at her. The thorax twitched as she was held in place, like it itself was watching and gauging its target. For a second, all the bugs around seemed to get quiet, and she caught a glimpse up on a nearby roof of what looked like a mammal. It was!

Oh, thank god! She breathed in slight relief as the wasp's thorax still twitched in her direction. It was Borous, of her hunting party. She was saved.

As she looked, the stinger lunged forward without warning, piercing Connie's gut in no more than an instant. She gasped and her breath caught in her throat, so surprised she didn't even think to scream. She just stood there for a split second, wide eyed and disbelieving. She expected terrible pain, which she got, but somehow it wasn't as bad as she would've expected from being impaled through the belly.

Her thoughts quickly became murky, and she was aware of falling forward, but then it seemed like she was suspended above the ground. The bugs caught me, she thought dully. It seemed she was to be eaten, after all. She was moving all of a sudden, backward, being dragged while still facing the stone ground. The pain in her gut was fading rapidly, and she knew she must've been dying. Rather than let it take her, in her state of shock and discomfort, Connie tried to fight against the bugs' hold on her. They were trying to bring her up some stairs now, and she felt numb all over.

In fact, she realized with a horrible jolt, she couldn't really move at all. She could twitch, and jerk her arms slightly as they were held, but that was all. It didn't _feel_like she was dying, now that she thought of it. As she thought it over, her heart dropped into her injured belly, which was currently spilling her blood all over the wooden platform that she'd been brought to. She had been paralyzed, which means her guts were probably dissolving right now...

Tears formed in her eyes, unconnected to the faded pain. She was dead. There was no saving her, even if her people came down and slaughtered every one of the bugs right now. She was dead...

There was a strange tugging on her body, and tearing sounds. Bits of cloth littered the platform now, shredded and torn. Her clothes... They were stripping her. She noted pieces of what looked like her panties, and was just able to see that she was fully naked, having been rendered this way within a couple of seconds.

Now she was at that box she'd seen. The bugs were laying on her on it, face down, and scooted her forward until her head poked through that contraption on the end that she'd observed earlier. Based on her position, that ugly blade must've been directly above the back of her neck now. She felt the cockroaches let go of her, but it was just the sensation of pressure now, that she felt. No actual sensation or feeling, and she knew she was nearly completely paralyzed. She was still breathing for the moment, but that was about it. She just stared wide eyed out at the crowd, who all seemed to be interested in her, though she could only see the ones near the front of the platform as her head dangled helplessly at the edge of the box.

A loud _thud_announced that the wasp had landed nearby again. Connie's heart leapt in fear once more. Was the feasting about to begin? She wasn't sure, but thought she might've been strapped in place, for all the need there was for that. The wasp walked past her field of vision, toward the back of her body.

There was unexpected pressure at her lower back, and she was aware that every muscle in her body was tensing. It was almost painful, though the paralysis blocked it almost completely. She felt vaguely aware of her legs rising into the air, and her neck tensed as well, causing her head to rise up to be level with the rest of her body. Stuck in this unwilling, undignified position, Connie saw the wasp pass back into her vision, walking on its horrible legs over to something beside the box, to her right. She could just make out what looked like a pedal on the platform with a straight, rigid something connecting it to the box.

The wasp was staring at her, and she stared back, wanting badly to scream. The horrible thing extended one foot toward the pedal, and just as it did, Connie heard a great KA-CHUNK-CHUNK sound.

In the instant that happened, she was moving again. This time, downward. Her face was looking at the wood stage again, and was falling toward it. Something must've propelled her out of the machine, and her thoughts were getting very hard to form. Her forehead bounced painlessly off of the wood planks, and she felt herself rolling, landing chin-up nearby. She was still terrified, unsure what had happened, though for just a split second she thought she had seen a headless body, that looked a lot like her, lying on the box, gently squirting blood from its neck stump. Connie was disturbed by this, as well as her vision growing quickly dark, and her eyelids becoming heavy at the same time. What happened, her mind cried out in a desperate attempt at coherent thought. No answer came. Her hearing was gone. Her vision was just encroaching blackness now. Then the world was gone, and so was she.