In the Neon Glow
In the Neon Glow
This story is mine! Copywritten! Do not take! My concept, my ideas, my everything! I will likely be using some of this again!
I would, however, love some fan-art of this story....
To give you all an idea, this was my first 'contest' writting using Verra, my Darwin's Fox fursona. It was written for a short story contest on Gaiaonline.com (I won't tell you what place I got, but I can tell you I did place high.) I'm not very good with short stories- in fact, I hate writting short stories, but I figured I'd give it a shot. This is also the first time I've posted anything on this site- writting wise. I would like constructive comments, though please understand that I'm not likely to come back to do much with this other than edit. I would really like to move on to another story ark that I'm working on (yes, it will be longer- much longer.)
With that, please enjoy!
There was that smell again... Verra lifted her nose to the breeze and took a soft breath in. Oh gods, it smelled like rot! Not the good, wholesome, kinds either; more like meat that had been left too long unattended- maggoty and melting in the heat of the sun. It burned her nose and throat, leaving a sulfury taste behind. Shaking her furry head and laying her ears back she continued on, pausing only to bring her green goggles down over her eyes- the smell was even starting to make them burn! At least there was no one about to ask her stupid questions or demand she get to the bottom of anything.
Being the only Darwin's Fox in this neighborhood had its advantages, being the only canine other than her mate- not so much. Most of her neighbors feared she might eat them, so rarely bothered her as she darted down the alleys. The majority of the population was a mob of tech-savvy rats, though there were a few thieving stoats and weasels and one very large ground hog who had somehow claimed an odd form of leadership for this shit hole of a town. When anarchy seemed rampant, she managed to pick the town that had a system (and one that seemed to work, too!)
She didn't realize she was following the smell until she stepped in a puddle of nearly purple, industrial goo. Hackles up, she backed up and tried to wipe the grime off of her paw. Just her luck- this day was only getting weirder. First, the order of computer chips and indicator lights didn't come in, something about the delivery guy going afk. Then, the massive hog himself came by demanding that she go search for his daughter, the ungrateful little twit, only to leave her calls unanswered when she found the snotty brat. She'd been forced to drop the kid off with the elderly Russian rat next door, poor old dolt. Now, this screwed up smell was drifting along her haunts, and someone had busted into a barrel of waste- leaving it where just anyone might fall into it! Where were those annoying clean-up crews when you actually needed them?
With a grunt of disgust and a soft hiss of annoyance, she moved around the puddle, with special care not to drag her tail through it, and continued down the alley. The air started to taste like it smelled, not a good sign. Verra snapped her panting mouth shut to keep from losing her lunch to the sour taste. The fetid air was thick, almost oily on her whiskers. Giving a pause and a shudder, she bound down the last few feet of the alley out of hope that getting out of it would give her some fresh air and respite.
Two leaps and a few fast steps brought her bursting out of the alley, almost laughing with joy- only to skid to a nail-scraping halt. Eyes wide and mouth dropping open, she gaped at the site before her. In ragged pieces, the ground hog was strewn about the street with the hither-thither of a crazed carnivore. There was little left for her to identify, but the silver and fluorescent yellow watch on his left wrist was enough to identify him to anyone. It was custom made by none other than Verra's coyote mate, Diasnis. The blood didn't seem to touch the watch at all; it was still clean and unbroken, despite its owner's own state. She should take it back to her mate; he'd want to know the good work he did. He'd want to see it- this is ridiculous! The groundhog is dead and his body mutilated, and she's thinking about a damn watch! She bent to sniff around. It was her job to find out who did this. The only creatures she knew could do this sort of violence were the Jackals, but they had been driven out years ago! Oh, if they were back...
Her mind ground to a halt at the strange coughing grunt that came from her left. She stopped her investigation, and slowly turned her head towards the sound, ears pointing straight forward. There, hunched over something, was one of the rats. It had its back to her and seemed to be busy worrying at something. She could just make out the left ear enhancement, glowing bright blue still, and the tip of the snaking tail had a large metal rod wrapped around it with electrical wire. This could be none other than Gosum, the wire junky. What was he doing out of his hole and away from the Net? Verra opened her mouth to call his name, ask what he was doing, when she caught a glimpse of what he was worrying... with his teeth... The bloody head of another rat was staring at her in shock and horror from between Gosum's paws as the crazed thing nibbled at a shredded ear.
Hackles rising and tail slowly puffing out, Verra took a step backwards, then another, another, before dashing back down the alley she had come out of in full terror. What the hell was going on? How could Gosum, that scrawny excuse for a rodent, have killed not only the hog, but another rat? He barely remembered to eat! What was going on? It wasn't until she was half-way home that she realized two things. One, the smell had been strong all around the corpse of the hog, but it had been strongest from Gosum. Two, the smell was stronger here than she remembered it, and she was running towards it!
She came skidding around the corner and onto the main street- to be confronted by a mob of creatures, all turning to stare at her with vacant, foggy eyes. Some carried chunks of flesh or limbs like bloody trophies, others merely stared, mouths open, with almost surprised looks on their faces. Rats, weasels, rabbits, a goose, two canines of some kind, and more beyond them. Only the rats and weasels were familiar to her- much too familiar. Who the hell were the rest of these freaks? What the fuck was going on?!
When one of the rabbits shuffled towards her, her instincts took over and she bolted back the way she had come, careful to stay away from the alley Gosum had been down. Ears back and tail flying, she dashed from one street to the next in a full on panic. It seemed that as the smell followed her, so too did the mobs of creatures. Mixed with the faces she recognized were the beaks and snouts of creatures not from her town, much less her country! Feathers falling off, fur tattered and matted with all manner of fluids, scales rotting away into slime- what was happening to them? Was some kind of disease spreading? Dear gods- did she have it?! She almost stopped to check her own fur, as if that could confirm or deny her infection. A gore covered sparrow prevented that with a flap of wings and a squawk of hunger, lunging at her. She bashed it's head against the street with a paw, putting all her body weight behind it before vaulting over it, not even bothering to see if she'd killed it.
She nearly screamed when a bear cub reached out a paw and tried to knock her down. Creatures were coming from all directions to her sides and behind her, as if they could hear her, or smell her, and know she wasn't like them. Only the way before her smelled less of the putrid stench. Only the way before her remained mostly clear of corpses, dead and alive. She ran, finally knowing where she was going. Knowing her destination gave her an extra burst of energy. She stretched her body to its fullest length with every lunge, and snapped it tight before the next lunge. Five more streets, four, three, a left turn and a great leap over a dead snapping turtle with LEDs in his back like spears, two streets, one street!
She used the wall to jump off of and help her turn down the street. There was nothing down this way, almost no smell! She could have howled for joy, but she was dead tired. There! His door! She bound to it, pushing down the knob with her paw and thanking the good spirits that it wasn't locked. Dashing in, she flipped around and slammed the door shut behind her, shoving the bolt home for good measure.
Panting, and almost to the point of collapse, she turned and walked to where he stood, his back to her, at his work table. He had his earphones on, so he obviously didn't hear her. With a little smile to herself, she reached with her muzzle and licked his shoulder. The fur was bitter, dry. He turned with bloody, foggy eyes locking on hers. She sighed, relieved, and leaned into his embrace as his teeth sank into her shoulder. They will be together, now. Forever.