FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

                "I don't like the looks of this." Carson said as we looked the town square over from the alley of a 4 story building. "Neither do I." I said quietly. Everything about this place looked suspicious. For starters, Holland said this was a town, but it was more like a city. We haven't seen anyone since we were back at the compound, but the city we were in didn't look like it had been abandon for long.

                To add to our suspicion, there were multiple story buildings overlooking the square, surrounding it like a bowl, and the ground was covered with grass, luscious, green grass. The entire 200 yards of the area was covered with grass. This was the first time I had seen grass in any city I had been in, in fact this was the only grass I had seen since we left America.

                I withdrew from the corner of the building and looked over to Scott. "What time is it?" I asked. "Ummm," he began as he looked at a wrist watch. "11:24." he replied. "Where is that EVAC bird!" I said angrily. "Give it some time Taro." Faline said as she approached my right side. "I just don't feel safe here." I said to her. She smiled and nudged my side gently.

                I smiled back at her when Chad spoke up. "Hey, hey guys. Listen to this." I looked over to him. He was holding his hand against his left ear, that's when a voice came through my headset. "Talon, where are you. I don't see you on thermals." I didn't know the voice. "Where at the EXFIL point behind the four story building." I replied hesitantly.

                After a long period of silence, the man spoke again. "This is Viper One. I'm providing backup for your EXFIL bird. I got you on radar." Viper said. I sighed with relief. "Good. Viper can you scan the area for any hostile movement?" I asked. After a moment of silence, he spoke again. "I'm not seeing anything from here." "OK thanks Viper. Talon out." I replied.

                "Taro!" Firedrake said in an excited tone. I glanced at him, he was leaning out from behind the building. I walked over to his side and glanced around the corner. About 700 yards out was our V-22 EVAC. "OK, lets get ready to move." I said to the others before watching the aircraft land on the edge of the square about 200 yards away from us.

                "He couldn't have made it easy for us could he." Carson said to no one in particular. "OK lets move!" I yelled before we started to run toward the V-22. We grew about 100 yards away from the V-22 when a sharp pain tore through my back left leg.  I yelled in pain and collapsed as gunfire began to rain down on us from every building, every story., every window.

                "TARO!" Firedrake yelled as they overtook me. He then spun around and ordered the others to continue to the aircraft before running to my side. "Come on Taro, we need to mo...AHHH!" he yelled as a bullet came in contact with his flack jacket. He quickly shrugged it off and began to help me up, but the pain was so powerful, that it was all I could do to stand.

                I could feel the warmth of blood run down my leg as I stood. I yelped with pain as I applied pressure to it and almost collapsed, but Firedrake caught me and we slowly began to make our way to the aircraft. "Come on Taro, almost there!" Firedrake stated as we grew around 50 yards away from the V-22. I weakly limped against Firedrakes side, trying with everything that I could to stay with him, to get them out alright.

                A smile grew across my face as we grew about 25 yards away. Everyone was outside the aircraft firing on the attackers, but failing due to the immense amount of cover the enemy had. Then, movement in on the ground. Everything went into a slow motion state. There was something moving in the grass about 4 yards in front of us. I glanced at it and could tell immediately that it was an IED attached to a string that was being pulled by an insurgent.

                'I have to do something!' I thought to myself before thrusting sideways into Firedrake, sending him out of the way as everything went white, then black. My eyes began to ease open. I was laying on my left side with Firedrake standing a few feet away from me firing both his weapons into the buildings. He was yelling things, but I couldn't hear him due to the ringing in my ears. Firedrake began to ease toward me, but as he neared his head was thrust to his right side, out of my view and he went limp.

                Faline then ran out of the V-22 and grabbed my vest in her teeth, just barely managing to pull me aboard. My hearing was coming back now. I could feel our aircraft lift off the ground as we began to fly away. "Taro, stay with me!" she ordered. She then pulled Chad and Carson over to my side, where they began to remove my vest. After they got it off, Aaron appeared over the top of me and ran his hand over my chest. "Amazing, the shrapnel didn't go through his vest!" he said happily.

                Faline then gave me a slight slap and locked her gaze with mine. :"Come on Taro, lets go home." She said as a voice came over our headsets. "Are they on?" it was Holland's voice. "Affirmative." I heard Viper One say. "Take them!" Holland ordered. Falines eyes widened and she looked out the back of the aircraft as an F-22 appeared out from behind the clouds.

                I weakly sat up and watched as it fired a missile at us and pulled away. "No!" Faline said quietly before jumping toward me as the missile collided with the right wing, sending the V-22 into a tailspin. We dropped our altitude as the velocity of the spin became more and more severe. I began to slide toward the open hatch, but managed to get a grip on a hydraulic cord, stooping me from flying out the back of the aircraft.

                I glanced at the ground and quickly realized that we were closer than I thought to the ground, maybe 100 feet or so, but a steep 300+ foot cliff lay to our left. My grip began to weaken as the spin became faster and faster. I looked up at Faline and the others who were holding on for dear life. "TARO!!!" Faline screamed as I came loose from the cord.

                I was flung from the aircraft at a high rate of speed, helpless as the ground neared me. I attempted to open my wings, but was too late. I slammed into the ground with such a force, that I almost blacked out. I rolled for a few yards before coming to a stop on my stomach. The V-22 split in half, sending Aaron, Carson, Scott, and Chad flying out of it before it slammed into the ground, just feet away from the steep cliff. 'No!' I thought to myself, as everything began to go black. "Faline." I stated weekly before blacking out completely.