FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Andrew awoke suddenly, his eyes flashing open as he took in a deep breath like a man coming up for air. Heart pounding, the fox's mind raced as it tried to make sense of what just happened. Lying on his back, he looked to either side, his vision too blurry to make anything out other than dark shapes. Damn, where are my glasses? he thought. His paw reached out, inching along the floor until he felt the familiar wire-framed spectacles and brought them up to his face. Blinking several times, the blurriness of his vision faded, though that didn't make things much better.

A thick haze hung in the space around him, a cloud of particulate slowly drifting down from somewhere up above. Thin rays of sunlight cut through the dust, illuminating his surroundings enough to recognize the coffee table, or what was left of it, a few feet from where he lay. What the hell happened? he thought.

He heard it before he felt it - a deep rumble from deep within the earth that built up to a fervor. Debris rained down, dust and dirt coating his red and white fur in a fine powder. Coughing, he raised his arms above him and turned his head to the side in an attempt to capture breathable air. For a few short terrifying seconds, he wasn't sure if the roof would come down on him or not, but just as quickly as the aftershock came, it subsided and left him in relative peace once more.

After shaking the dirt from his hair, he wiped his glasses with the corner of his shirt and looked around a bit more. He was in the living room, the coffee table smashed, his desk nearly as obliterated, the wine glasses shattered - it was an absolute disaster in here. Luckily though, he was all in one piece.

"Now, how to..." he said aloud, his voice trailing off. James, he thought. Where was James?

His throat dry, he called out in a raspy voice. "James! James, where are you?"

There was no response.

A feeling of dread began to sink in. Where was he? Where had he been before the earthquake? Taking a deep breath, he tried to clear his mind, thinking back to the moments before the quake. A few seconds later, he had his answer: he had been in the bedroom. From the living room, where Andrew currently found himself, that would mean James would be over... Oh, God, he thought, looking at where the doorway to the bedroom had been.

The doorframe was broken - the wood splintering and mangled, the door missing from its hinges. While that would cause him to fret in its own right, it was the large concrete slab that rested just beyond the threshold, blocking his view into the room. Shaking, he got to his knees, calling out again.

"James! James, can you hear me?"

Again, nothing.

Unsure what to do next, his ears twitched and turned in the direction of another voice coming from above him.

"Andrew? Andrew is that you?"

He recognized the voice immediately - it was Amanda, his next door neighbor. "Amanda? I'm in my living room. I...I need some help!"

He could hear a grunt as she moved some rubble aside, opening up a large enough hole that he could see her face through. "Andrew! Thank God you're alive," she said, sweat dripping down from her brow.

Andrew looked up at her, a small smile creeping across his lips at the sight of a friend. She looked horrible, her short brunette hair now a dark brown from all of the dirt and dust. A bit of dried blood covered her cheek, but that didn't keep her pink face from smiling back at him. "Glad to see you, too."

Amanda looked around the room before looking back at Andrew. "Where's James?"

Swallowing, he shook his head. "He was in the bedroom. I called out, but...but I haven't heard anything from him. I don't know if..."

She nodded and pushed more of the rubble aside, making the opening bigger. "Come on, we need to get you out of there."

Looking at the concrete slab, he hesitated only a moment. There would be no way he could get through that way anyway. Perhaps I could get to the bedroom another way, he thought. Turning to Amanda, he put one paw in front of the other, crawling towards the opening Amanda was making. He felt a piece of glass slice into his paw, but he ignored it, keeping his eyes focused on the opening just up ahead. Paw outstretched, Amanda grabbed his paw and helped him through the rabbit hole, the raw sunlight blinding him temporarily.

Standing up with her arm around his waist, he looked around. The apartment complex was practically flattened - portions of the three story buildings had pancaked down to one, the two story units either demolished or in ruins, small fires burning here and there. All around him, he could hear the other residents, his friends and neighbors, calling out for help or loved ones. He looked at Amanda, his face stricken.

"My God," he said. "It's like a bomb went off."

She nodded silently, looking out over the devastation with him.

"What about your roommate? Is he..."

She shook her head. "He wasn't here; he was on his way to work. I'm assuming he is okay - I haven't been able to get cell service yet."

Andrew gave a slight nod. "Okay, well, that's the first bit of good news I've heard so far..."

Amanda gave him a pat on his side, causing him to wince. Startled, she looked at him with a worried expression. "Are you okay?"

A wave of agony washed over him, forcing him into a coughing fit that only exacerbated his injury. His body reeling, he managed to get his cough under control in the seconds that followed the initial surge of pain, his breathing labored as he focused on calming himself. "I think I might've bruised a rib or three."

Leaning a bit on her, he let the pain in his chest fade, his mind taking stock of what else hurt. He looked at his paw and saw a sliver of glass still embedded in his palm. Grimacing, he carefully pulled it out and pressed the open wound to his side to try and stem the bleeding.

"Okay," he said, doing his best to ignore the wet feeling that seeped through his shirt. "I need to find James."

He took a step towards the bedroom, testing the weight of the ground beneath him before pressing on. Amanda walking alongside, they rounded a section of wall that had managed to stay upright and left relatively unscathed from the destruction of his apartment. Recognizing a few of his possessions scattered about, he realized they had entered what had used to be his bedroom.

Turning around in place, his eyes scanned the debris, calling out for James. "James! James, where are you? Can you hear me?"

Not hearing a response, his heart began to sink. What if he really was...

"Andrew!"

Amanda's voice pulled him from his thoughts and snapped his attention in her direction. She sat on her haunches, clearing bits of concrete debris away off of a form that lay beneath the rubble. His heart skipped a beat, recognizing the gray and white fur of his James's head. Hobbling over, he fell to his knees, helping Amanda clear away the remains of what had been his life.

Finding his mate's paw beneath some of the detritus, he took it in his own, tears starting to well up and roll down his cheeks. He could feel the warmth of life, a shallow pulse still pumping blood through the veins of the husky. Trying to keep it together, he patted the paw softly, his voice broken. "James...James, hun, wake up..."

Amanda looked at the large slabs of concrete and wooden beams still covering James, knowing that there was no way she could move them, even with Andrew's help.

"Stay here - stay with him," she said to Andrew. "I'm going to go find some help."

Andrew nodded in silence, holding James's paw as she stood up and left them, shouting for help amid the sea of others doing the same.

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Because I've had a few folks inquire a real ending, I conceded that I had written proper "endings," but couldn't decide which to use. So, in the spirit of a 'choose your own adventure,' choose an ending and enjoy.

'Happy' Ending

'Sad' Ending