Dead World
Dead World
The sky was dark and the world was quiet. A soft tapping sound began that of someone or thing walking across concrete. A lone creature, an anthro fox with black fur lay on the floor of what might have been a parking garage at one point, looks down the scope of a sniper rifle. The area he now resides in resembled nothing more than that of a camping site with hunks of twisted and burned metal acting as walls surrounding a tent and small fire pit. The fox sighs internally and adjusts his scope. He hadn't seen anything for a few days now and he needed to find food soon. He heard the soft clicking and smiled. It sounded like dinner was walking this way. He hoped it wasn't fast food. Shooting a fast moving target could waste ammo if he missed.
The clicking grew louder steadily and only a few minutes later, a female wolf anthro walked around the corner. He sighed. So much for lunch...moving the scope he stiffened. A Creature was following the wolfess. He slightly pressed a button on the side of the scope and was rewarded with a close up of the thing. It had six legs, a rusty red colored carapace like skin, and 6 eyes, two in the front, two in the back, and one on each side. He grimaced. It was a Hunter. He smiled coldly as he took aim slightly above the middle and squeezed the trigger once for a semi muffled crack as the bullet split the air and continued on to smash into the target's thorax and heart. The creature slowed and looked over at the wound before falling down off the free way it had been using to stalk the female. It landed in front of her and he almost laughed. Well that's one hell of a meeting gift, normally it would have been flowers or jewelry, but of course, with him it was always something strange.
He watches her reaction with interest. She jumps backwards and snarls, although he cannot hear it to well at this distance, before beginning to study it, stopping when she found the entrance wound. She looks around and sits. He raises an eyebrow. Either very smart or a very stupid wolf. He shrugged and began to pack up, folding up his rifle and placing it on his back and the few things he really needed, including a canteen of water, extra rounds of ammo, and his flint sticks to start fires, along with his handy lighter.
Moving around the walls of twisted metal he had set up, he gets on his hands and knees to crawl through a gap leading out so that he can make his way down the path towards the exit. As he left he smiled at all the burned lumps of metal he passed as he moved on, it was always nice how there were so many useful materials around for the determined and creative survivor to use. He finally arrived at the floor level and walks towards the Wolfess. Grinning he stops several feet away and bows slightly. With a soft voice like that of silk but without the customary mistrustful feeling that would normally follow it. "I see you found the offering I accidentally dropped at your feet."
The she-wolf simply looked at him before laughing. Her voice was beautiful yet slightly deep as due to her lupine decent. She turned away from him and beckoned him to follow her with a finger. He shrugged, shifted his pack, and began to follow the strange wolf. As they walked, she would steal furtive glances over her shoulder to study the fox. He stood at an abnormal height of 6'0" and was not overly muscled nor did he seem to have an ounce of fat left on him. It had been 4 months since the apocalypse and those that had survived were defiantly at their peak now. He had a lithe frame with proportioned muscles and limbs and fur that was black as the shadows, no grey, with pure black tips on his ears and tail. His fur was actually a deep grey that was perfectly patterned to look like nothing more than shadows. He must have been an outcast due to his coloring. She simply smiled to herself, he had saved her life and she held no grudge against him for the color of his fur. How racist was it to blame something on them that they had no control of? That was like the humans and their black people verses white people, in who was better. They were the same except one had dark skin and the other didn't!
Her many sidelong glances didn't go unnoticed and the fox simply sighed internally. Was she another who would outcast him and hate him or try to kill him because of his fur? He sure hoped not. He rather disliked killing survivors...He ran his hand over his arm and in doing so checked to make sure his knives were still there and ready, just in case. They were, and just like the last dozen times he had checked, they were ready as ever to be sprung up and into his hands in less than a blink of the eye.
A few hours later they arrived at a natural cave. It sloped gently backwards and away into a darkened area. The entrance was difficult to squeeze through for both of them, but assured them of a protected shelter from the monsters that inhabited the lands. He pushed his backpack inside first and slit in quickly after it. The she-wolf followed very quickly after and pushed a rock over and into place. The room descended into darkness. A clicking sound echoed off the walls and a sudden light burst from a tiny metal lighter. The fox turned around holding the lighter and pulled out an oil soaked cloth wrapped around the top of a thick stick and lit it. Turning towards her he noticed something interesting. She had fragmented eyes. But as soon as the light fully reached them they were normal once more.
She smiles kindly at him and points to a section of the room that was filled with silk like cloth and several patches of moss and groups of furs. He smiled and yawned. He tiredly and smiled before crawling in and curling up on the nest. An hour passed and his breathing became even and calm. The she-wolf stood up and silently walked over towards the sleeping male fox. She pulled out a knife and slowly began to lean down towards him. Just as she was about to place the knife at his throat, he said calmly "Why would you kill an outcast like yourself when I have made no attempt at attacking you, even though I know you're a hybrid?"
She froze and jumped back taking a defensive stance holding her knife at the ready. He sighed and sat up and placed one arm over a knee. "You're a hybrid of a creature. I am guessing the Tracker I killed was a friend of yours..." She snarled and nodded, her eyes filling slightly with tears. He sighed and spread his arms. "I am sorry. If you feel the need to avenge your friend, I will try to stop you, but I will return to give him a burial should I survive. And I will give you one as well. All I ask is you give me one as well should you win..."