FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The pain, the searing pain. It hurts so much I can't stand it. The world around me blacks out.

I wake up. I slowly open my eyes, taking in the world around me. I feel the damp grass beneath me as I prop myself up. I am in someone's front yard. Whose, I don't know. It is a typical suburban neighborhood. One of those big developments where all of the houses looked the same. The houses with three car garages and five bedrooms yet the families who lived in them only had one child. I look around for signs of life. I can see smoke off in the distance from what I can only assume is a house fire. There are no sirens, only the sound of a nearby car alarm. As I try standing up I realize the pain in my arm is gone. I look down at my wound and notice it has stopped bleeding. It is at this point that I realize I can't even remember how I got hurt in the first place. Wait a second. I can't even remember my name!

I am surprisingly calm as I try to recall details to possibly remember my identity. However, all I can picture are random flashes. I see a house. A modest one-story house with a tacky green paint job, small fence and a beat up Honda Accord sitting in the driveway. The grass needs to be mowed and it looks as though there is someone standing outside, but the face is a blur. I can only assume that it is my house. But where it is or who that person is in front of it remains a mystery. Thinking harder I can see various locations and people but none of them having any significance to me.

I look down at myself. I am wearing jeans and a pair of Nike sneakers. The t-shirt I am wearing is stained with blood that I could only assume to be mine. It was a New York Yankees shirt celebrating their 27th World Series victory. Strange. I don't picture myself being a Yankees fan, but then again, there is a lot I don't know about who I am.

I try walking, finding that for some reason I was reduced to a limp. Odd, I don't feel any pain. But it seemed as if my motor skills were weakened somehow. I try lifting my arms, finding this motion to be just as hindered. I look around once more before deciding to go off in search of others.

After what feels like hours of walking, I haven't made much progress. However, for some reason I'm not the least bit tired. I continue to walk, following the road as I go. Soon it is dark, but I'm still not tired and I feel no need to sleep or even shut my eyelids. I notice how my eyesight adjusts to the dark rather quickly. I also discover that though my muscles move slowly, my eyes can focus on things much faster, movement from things such as a bat darting across the sky or a mouse scurrying through the grass. Things that I normally would have missed all seem so clear to me even in the pitch black of night.

Soon I can see a faint light deeper in the woods and begin to head in that direction. As I get closer I can faintly smell the stench of burning wood. Soon I can see the outline of a tent. It is a campsite. As I approach I don't notice anyone in the vicinity. I try calling out but all that comes out of my throat was a loud growling noise. I must've hurt my throat somehow. I look around the campsite some more. That's when I notice a sleeping bag on the ground. I spot a creature of some sort stirring inside of it. It is at this point that I realize how hungry I am. Up until now I felt fine, but seeing this food right in front of me suddenly makes me ravenous.

I quickly hobble over to the unsuspecting creature. It doesn't seem to notice my presence as I kneel down next to it, grab one of its limbs and bite down hard. It cries out in pain and begins to struggle in an attempt to get away. However as I am on top of it I have more leverage and thus am able to keep it pinned as I then bite into its throat. Blood seems to pour out from the wound as it continues to fight and I continue to feast. It looks at me with fear and panic in its eyes. Crying out in hopes that someone or something would come to its aid. I was like a feral animal. No care except to eat the meal in front of me. Slowly the creature's struggling becomes weaker and eventually it stops moving altogether. I have killed it.

I continue to eat until I no longer can. I stand up to take a look at my handy work. My hands and chest are covered in blood as well as most of the ground. I look back at the body of the helpless beast lying on the ground. Its eyes still open, blankly staring into space. Its long hair is now matted and stained with it's own blood. I looked further down it's body, studying my kill. It was at this point that I noticed that it is clothed; this animal is wearing a shirt and pants. Why would an animal be wearing clothes? I look down at this creature once more, and for the first time I see it for what it was.

A person.

I had killed and partially consumed a living human being. At this point I no longer who know who I am, but I have a good idea of what I have become. A monster.

These thoughts however dissipate rather quickly as I notice movement in front of me. The thing that I had just killed, the human, is once again moving. It groans as it begins to stand on its own two feet. As it stands there it looks at me. Its eyes no longer filled with fear; rather, they held no emotion whatsoever. It is as if this person is just an empty shell with nothing inside. Instantly at this moment, for a brief second, it all becomes clear to me. I am a zombie. It all makes sense. I had died, come back to life and had killed this human in front of me only for it to join me as a member of the living dead.

A gunshot off in the distance takes our attention as we both turn our heads. Then we begin slowly hobbling toward the source of the sound. What we expect to find, we don't care. We are dead. There is no purpose for us on this earth. Our only task now is to continue walking. Searching. Feeding. Hoping to one day finally rest in peace. So that our souls could continue on into whatever was in store for us. But for now, as we are trapped in these semi-conscious bodies, we just keep going. Limping towards what would hopefully be the beginning of our end.