FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 9

The ride was both shorter than I expected and longer than I would have liked. With only the slim amount of light coming through the shroud over my head, I could only tell the passing of time by the condition of the road.

It had started bumpy and brutal with me bouncing around, barely staying upright. Thank the heavens that Rob had been with me. He kept a firm hold on my shoulder the entire way to keep me steady. After what seemed like an hour, there were less bumps and I could sit upright by myself. There were twists and turns and even a fairly steep decline before I could hear the tell tale sound of good pavement under tires. It was all smooth after that and that made me feel queasy because that meant whatever came next was getting close.

There was little talk the ride. The Pelitans joked and laughed some times or just bantered about random things such as the weather or their sexual conquests; I could tell that they were careful not to talk about anything important since I was within earshot. Understandable. I was an unknown. Still, most of the ride was in silence and I just listened to the wind and the road.

It was past midday and I knew it was since the light I could see was beginning to dim, before I heard the sound of civilization of some sort. We would pass some other vehicles, their engines roaring past for a few moments before slowly fading away. Sometimes I could hear other people for a fleeting second as we passed them.

Then suddenly, the vehicle stopped. I dared not speak and instead sat where I was and patiently waited. Though a surge of panic rose through me when Rob got up and left. He could have moved a few inches or left entirely, with the sack on my head, it was impossible to tell, but I kept calm somehow.

"Is this the one?" I heard a female to my right suddenly, very close. I turned my head towards the voice, but did nothing else.

"Yes, commisar," Rob then replied and said something else, but I didn't catch it. I was too focused on the rank of the female.

Commisars were known to me, the political officers of the Pelitan military. If the common soldier was the back bone of the army, the commisar was the ligament that held the bones together. They pushed the soldier forward when backwards seems to be the only way. When morale was failing and fear filled the soldier, the commisar made sure the soldier feared the political officer more than the enemy. They would use any means necessary to keep order.

Cainus didn't use commisars simply because they didn't need to. The whole pecking order pretty much made sure anyone higher ranking had authority over their underlings. No one questioned that hierarchy and those that did or failed to respect it were quickly punished. It could be just as brutal and effective as any commisar.

"Take him to a holding cell for now," the commisar spoke again. "I'll see him in my own time."

Just after that, a hand firmly grasped my upper arm and pulled. It was awkward, moving without seeing, but I eventually got out off the vehicle without falling and was led in who knows what direction.

"Everything is going well," I heard Rob speak to me.

It brought down some of the tension knowing he was still here.

"Just keep doing what you're doing and I'm sure they'll have you released back to me by tomorrow."

I didn't speak and I didn't think that he expected me to. Instead, I kept listening to what was going on around me.

It was definitely a military base. I could hear the unmistakable rumble of tank treads somewhere to my right. There was the rhythmic gunfire that only existed from a gun range somewhere far away to my front and the few words I could hear from random conversations were about orders this or bullshit officers that.

From there, I was taken indoors. It became very quiet. The crunch of gravel under my boots turned to the hard thumps of walking on concrete. Then I was put inside the holding cell and sat down on a chair.

My sack hood was removed then and I was met with Rob's face.

"Hey there," I said, blinking a few times. The air in the bag had begun to get musty and stale and the fresh air of the room stung my eyes.

He smiled. "Hey," he said and knelt down to get to eye level with me. "I'll be going now, but like I said, just keep doing what you're doing. Don't panic. Be cooperative and I should be able to pick you up tomorrow."

"Uh, yeah," I said back and took a quick glance around the room I was in. It wasn't bad as far as cells were concerned. There was a steel toilet in the back corner with a sink and even an uncomfortable matt on the ground in the opposite corner. Then there was the chair I was in. I've definitely seen worse.

"Get some sleep while you still can," Rob said and tilted his head towards the mat. "Once the commisar gets here, its most likely going to be a while before you can get more sleep."

"I will," I promised.

Rob then reached out and took a hold of my hand in his paw. He was warm. He squeezed it and then he got up and was gone.

I used to think, when I first joined, that those soldier on watch who would just stand there for four or five hours without moving much were crazy. How could someone just stand there with their gun and their webbing weighing them down and now go crazy. I later learned, after standing those watches that you are a little crazy. I would stand there and think about anything and watch the world go by. Make entertainment out of nothing. Must be crazy to do that. Anyways, it helped time go by.

That's what I did now because when I laid down on the the mat, I just couldn't sleep. It could have been anything from today. I would close my eyes and sleep just wouldn't come. So I laid there and just let time pass.

I thought about home. I thought about the mission and the Emthirian and Nequeek. There was plenty to think about and that helped in its own way because the door opened.

I opened my eyes and sat up as, I must admit, a stunning pelitan walked in.

Despite the stiff military green and khaki that draped her body, all I saw was the perfectly brushed fur, the haunting and yet mesmerizing green eyes.

"Mr. Caldwell," she said, not asking and reading from a clipboard. "Sergeant Caldwell. Served with distinction until you were betrayed by your commanding officer and left to die." She looked up from her clipboard, not a single trace of emotion on her face. "Am I correct so far?"

There was an urge to correct her about the rank. A mere, new concommisioned officer was a Sergeant. I had been a first Sergeant. I bit my tongue on the matter though. It wouldn't help here.

"Yes ma'am," I said, getting up as to not seem rude. I could see a duo of guards just outside the door. They seemed relaxed enough and that helped put me at ease. If they were expecting something, then the anxiety of it would show. Slight tremors in how they stood. A stiffness in their joints as they held their weapons. None of that.

"We'll need to get your bios for records," she said and flipped through several pages of the clipboard. "The information that Agent Tenzen brought with him is a bit dated and needs updating." With that she flipped the papers back to the front and beckoned me to follow.

I followed without hesitation and soon found myself in a lab where I was poked, prodded and weighed like some prized livestock for a fair. I didn't mind much. I had gone through similar before. The military liked to keep every part of an individual documented as if it mattered in the end when they signed death certificates and sent home letters.

They took my blood multiple times and once that was over, made me strip down to my underwear and jog on a treadmill where they then took more blood. I began to feel woozy and luckily they seemed to take pity on me, allowing me to shower afterwards and eat.

The entire time, the commisar was there. She watched and watched, but rarely said anything as I was herded from one place to the next by either doctors or soldiers. I knew that it was all part of the process. If I showed any sign that I didn't really want to be here, she would note it. I did see here take notes on more than a few occasions and I did my best to not try and guess what I had done wrong at that moment. Deep down a dread filled up like a pot under a faucet.

Time was, like most of my journey so far, impossible to tell. I never once left the building I was in or even saw a window to the outside. Everything was concrete or tile and I was beginning to grow tired of the theme.

Eventually I was led back to my cell by the commodore. That was when the questioning started.

A table was brought in and a second chair which made the cell cramped and hard go walk around in, but once I was seated and she sat across from me, that was no longer an issue.

I really wished that I had been slept before because after all the activity and physical exertion, it was already hard to keep awake.

"First Sergeant James Caldwell," she said, actually using my correct rank. "Served six years, was on track to further promotion. Stationed along all of Cainus' borders for varying amounts of time and fought in nearly a dozen documented engagements." She listed pretty much my entire military career from what I assumed was documenf Rob had brought with him out of Cainus and as I listened it was all accurate.

I sat there, trying to not fade away, listening for any discrepancies, which I heard none. Eventually she reached the end, the Tereen Offensive, which she called the Tereen engagement.

"You were left behind to die," she said and looked at and I quickly realized that I was expected to talk now.

"Yes ma'am," I nodded. "Instead of giving me and my men enough time to pull back, my commanding officer blew charges at the peak of the mountain we were on, causing an avalanche. Very few of us made it."

"Who were the survivors?" She asked, clicking her pen and writing new notes down.

I told her, including Donny.

"You know where the rest of the survivors are now?"

I shrugged. "I saw Donny, err, Specialist McGovern, just prior to me leaving with Agent Tenzen. I haven't seen the rest since." I didn't know if the Pelitans knew that thr Cainus were drafting every able bodied man right now, so I left that detail out without lying about anything. Just like what Rob had said, lying just digs the hole deeper.

Again, she wrote notes down before continuing.

"Have you heard anything about your prior commander? Colonel Monroe?"

I thought back. There were a few snippets of information I had heard despite my aversion to military news since getting out. I swallowed a lump in my throat and spoke. "Last I heard, he was up north at a deck job. Supervising logistics Corps or something along the lines of that."

Thr commissar leaned back, setting down her pen and flexing the fingers of her paws. "Then I'm sure it would come as a surprise to hear that he has made the rank of major general and is back in command of Tereen Pass along with a full battalion of Lutrians."

"What?" I exclaimed and then quickly realized that I had an outburst. I coughed and blushed with embarrassment and calmed my voice as much as possible even as i felt my inside boil at outrage. "He can't defend Tereen. He's already proven that."

The commisar shrugged. Perhaps there was the slightest edges of a grin at the corners of her mouth.

Then the questions continued, but it was less about me and more about my knowledge of the state on the military of Cainus. Again and again, I didn't know or had incomplete knowledge and each time, the commissar supplemented me with more and more information that made my blood boil. At one point, I nearly lost it when I heard that the entire southern border with Emthiron had been manned almost exclusively with Lutrians while Cainus forces had been pulled back in. It was andeath sentence for thousands. For once I felt something that confused me, a true disdain for Cainus as a whole. I had been upset with commander's and units before, but this was for all of Cainus. They were sending my people to the front as fodder.

This went on long into the night and as my mind became tired, my rage fueled me to keep going and before I knew it, the questioning was over.

It was sudden. The commisar bid me farewell and asked that I slept some before she got up and left.

Had I failed? I wondered this as I sat alone in the room. Did they want me to know more about Cainus and its military, because they proved that they already knew far far more than I did. Would that make me useless to them?

I didn't think on this long as I was overcome with sudden fatigue. I could barely keep my eyes open as I laid my head down. My last thoughts were about Donny and what hell hole he was going to be sent to. Then sleep took me even if I was still angry.