FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Dodger had never found himself in a plane populated by such... compliant creatures.

Not compliant to him, obviously. He'd been walking around for hours now, asking for directions. In his need to jump from plane to plane, trying to travel back to his home, he'd accidentally ended up in an unknown place. The liolf was lucky things didn't look particularly dangerous there. He found himself in a big metropolis, streets full of towering skyscrapers that rose towards a firmament swirling with dark, threatening clouds. Whether it was night or day, it was impossible to tell.

The place wasn't too different from Dodger's home plane, except for the fact that all the doors in the skyscrapers were wide open and the landscape gave the odd feeling of being abandoned... although it wasn't. Normal-looking people wandered in and out of the buildings slowly and their erratic behavior, joined with so many open doors, was enough to make things a bit different.

"Uh, hi!" Dodger had greeted one of them - a marten with an extremely drowsy expression. "Hm, could you tell me where I am, please? I think I am lost."

"L... lost...?" droned the marten. "Doctor... Doctor will help..."

Dodger held the marten's vacant gaze for a few seconds. The poor guy looked like he hadn't slept for days, his body swaying on his feet, limp arms dangling in front of him.

"Okay, thanks!" he hastily said, walking away from the marten. He had no idea what the stranger's problem was, but he wasn't going to steal more time from someone who clearly needed a bed.

So, a doctor, he thought. Was that who he was supposed to look for? Or what the marten had been looking for? He looked liked he could use one. In the end, the liolf decided he needed a second opinion. Clearly he hadn't asked the right person.

However, when Dodger asked an exhausted-looking bull in the street, he received a similar answer. His words just as slurred and slow as the marten's had been, his heavy body swaying dangerously. Dodger feared the tall bovine would end up collapsing on top of him, but that didn't happen.

When he asked a wandering lioness and got an almost identical response, Dodger came to the conclusion that something weird was going on. A word kept being spoken whenever he asked, though.

Doctor.

But what was a doctor supposed to do to help him? It wasn't like he was sick or anything. He just needed to jump to the next plane. Could that doctor help him find the right way to do it?

Whatever the case may be, Dodger decided his only option was to ask more about that mysterious doctor. He spotted the bull he'd asked earlier and headed for him.

"Hi again!" The liolf was still a bit scared the bull could fall to the ground at any moment, but it hadn't happened before, so there was no reason why it should happen now. "Hmm... I was wondering... You keep mentioning a doctor. Can that doctor help me?"

"D... Doctor...?" the bull moaned.

"Yeah, that's the one. Look, I need help getting to the next plane. Do you know if your doctor could help me?" Dodger asked.

The bull moved his glassy eyes to Dodger and seemed to think. The effort he was making felt incommensurable to the liolf, even though he wasn't the one doing it.

"I take... to doctor..." the bull muttered.

"That'd be useful, thanks," Dodger said, forcing a smile on his face. "So, which way should I go?"

But before he could react, one of the bull's arms closed around his body and lifted him easily, placing him on his shoulder.

"Oi!" Dodger exclaimed. "What are you doing? Put me down!"

He tried to wriggle out of the bull's grip, but he was too strong. Helpless, all Dodger could do was watch as his captor walked towards a near skyscraper, one that was particularly looming. Other bystanders joined the bull, walking in slow motion with their vacant gazes, all towards the door. It felt like watching a horror movie.

"What's going on?" he shouted, trying to get someone to response. "Hey, let me go! Come on!"

They entered the building's lobby and Dodger took a look around. Everything looked derelict and abandoned. What were those people doing in their spare time? Just roaming around the city?

The bull walked towards the lift, still carrying Dodger, and entered it with a few more people. Dodger spotted the lioness he had asked for directions before. Why were all of them so docile and subservient? Dodger had never met such a weird bunch.

It took the lift a few minutes to reach the last floor and everybody walked out of the lift. Dodger, still trapped by the bull, squirmed a bit as they approached the center of an ominous room. There was a big screen on the opposite wall and somebody waiting next to it. From his position, Dodger could see the lizard-like features of a gator.

"Ah! I see you're the one who's been causing a commotion down there," the gator said. "That was irresponsible of you."

"Are you the doctor everybody's talking about?" Dodger asked nervously.

The gator held his gaze.

"I suppose I am, yeah. In a way."

Dodger sighed. Finding someone who could properly communicate was at least a bit reassuring, even if his current situation wasn't.

"Please, you need to help me! I need to get home and... Ugh, could you tell this guy to put me down, please?"

The gator regarded him with a growing grin and then laughed out loud.

"Oh, my! It had been such a long time since I'd had a conversation with a functional brain. How delightful! It's such a shame I'll have to say goodbye to it so soon."

Dodger gulps.

"You mean... you'll help me go back home?"

A bad feeling was crawling up the liolf's spine.

"Hmm. No, that's not what I meant. Take a look around, darling." The gator theatrically gestured to the other individuals standing around Dodger. "And now look at me and think with that juicy brain of yours. Does nothing strike you as unusual?"

Dodger only had one theory, but he didn't like the position it left him in.

"Did you... Did you do this to them?" he asked with a shrill voice.

Oh god, he thought frantically. I need to get out of this plane. Quick!

"Oh, so you noticed?"

The gator walked closer to Dodger and caressed his cheek with cold claws. The liolf grimaced and tried to pull away, but his efforts were in vain. The bull kept him perfectly immobilized in his grip.

"Yeah, all these lovely zombies are my doing. They're all bloody useful as well, but they're not much for conversation. It was a pleasant surprise you came along. How did you arrive here, by the way?" The gator asked, raising an eyebrow. Then he raised one hand and dismissed the question as if it was an annoying fly. "Wait, don't answer. I don't need to know. And neither do you."

The gator turned his back to Dodger and walked towards the screen. He crouched and began adjusting some settings. The liolf felt a lump in his stomach as he guessed what was about to happen.

"W-wait, stop! Don't do it!"

"Oh, stop screaming," the gator responded. "You're making me remember why I prefer my zombies over regular people. And you're the only one in this plane who still keeps his brain intact. We can't let that happen, can we?"

He turned to the liolf and grinned mischievously. Dodger gulped.

"Yes. Don't be so scared, little brain. This is merely a fix."

Just as he said the last word, the screen erupted with light and color. Dodger tried to look away, but the bull grabbed his chin with an iron grip and forced him to stare. His pupils dilated and his head filled with noise as the overwhelming display hit his brain. The liolf couldn't even process what he was seeing. All he knew was that it was too much.

His legs kicked the air and he squirmed helplessly, the last remnants of his consciousness quickly fading as the other zombies around him watched motionlessly, their own brains succumbing to the mind-melting display again... and who knew how many times that'd happened in the past. Dodger tried to hold onto his thoughts, but they were quickly disappearing, pushed by the relentless flood of light and shapes and static and subliminals pushing through the broken windows of his eyes.

When he collapsed on the bull's shoulder, his body loose and limp, only a single thought remained inside his skull.

Obey the doctor.

It looked like he was going to spend more time in that plane than he had originally anticipated.