FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chris emerged from the basement of the shelter and had a slow look around. He could hear sirens in the distance, but it was otherwise dark, and quiet. He hopped the last step and began a hurried pace through the campus, keeping his head low as he rushed for the mall.

As he moved, he could swear eyes were on him, hungry. How many different creatures were there, waiting for something to attack and convert? So far he had seen a fox, a skunk, and if the egg counts, rabbits. There could be any number. So far, two were covered in rubber, and one was flesh.

Chris glanced down at his hands, shining when light hit them, coated in the rubber as they were. Pfft. Mike got to become a well hung rabbit, and I'm turning into a rubber skunk. Where's the justice in that?

His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden sensation of something passing close to his head. He ducked and heard something bounce off the concrete behind him. A glance revealed the feathering of an arrow. He heard a string being pulled taught and looked quickly, finding a man aiming a bow at him from behind a car some twenty feet away.

The man was illuminated by a streetlamp that was directly overhead, highlighting his well muscled physique, and the simple but effective nature of the weapon he was wielding.

Chris dove to the side, behind another car, just in time to see the arrow crash into the ground about where he was standing a moment ago. He drew his pistol free and readied it, going still. He heard an odd clopping sound, like a horse. Was the guy mounted?

Chris rolled out from behind the car, gun rolling up into firing position as he made to fire at...

His fire hesitated as he beheld the creature in front of him. Half man, half horse. A centaur in the flesh. The man he saw only existed to where his hips would be, instead flowing into a large horse body. Chris was no expert on horses, and wasn't sure what breed it was, but it had brown hair. The man was, technically, naked, though his lower half was too furry to really make the title stick.

The centaur wasn't as impressed with Chris as Chris was with him. He let his arrow fly and it whizzed at Chris. Chris hissed in pain as it brushed against his right shin on passing, cutting it with a flash of pain. The pain swelled agonizingly in a moment before exploding in a numb pulsing.

Chris' right shin felt different, becoming slimmer and bonier. Chris frowned and began firing at the mythological creature. The first shot struck it in the chest, making it stagger back. The centaur raised its bow as if to fire again, and the second bullet got it straight in the chest. Bronzed muscles made for poor bullet proofing, and the centaur collapsed in place, bleeding out onto the dark street.

Chris rose to his feet, winced, and reached down to the wound on his leg. It wasn't bleeding. The scratch seemed to be mostly gone, but so was the humanity of his shin. Covered in brown fur, it was clearly a shin more suited for a hose than a man.

"Damn," he said to himself before rising back up and hurrying down the street. What bothered him more than the fresh infection was that his pistol only had a few bullets left.

He could see the mall up ahead. The commercial area of the city, the result of millions of dollars of effort to draw in business. Of course, that all seemed quite silly with the city under siege by all sorts of strange creatures. Chris thought about it with amusement as he walked past the lit, bubbling, fountain and towards the mall entrance.

He felt reasonably safe. The area was well lit, and seemingly abandoned. What was more surprising was that the mall seemed to be open at that late hour. He walked up to the doors that slide open for him, and proceeded inside, looking around carefully.

He saw several people wandering around, and was sure he could see a few more down in the food court. So they were not the only survivors. That was encouraging news. He waved towards the people and approached them.

"Hey," Chris called out, "The mall acting as a shelter?" As he got closer, he noticed a few things off about the people. Three out of five of them had long naked tails, like a rat. When they turned towards him, he could see several had slender snouts to match. They didn't seem to mind it much though, and weren't making any hostile moves.

"Woah, looks like you've been through harsh times," said one of the males, "You should get some new threads." He pointed upwards, towards the clothing stores on the second floor.

"Like, totally," agreed one of the females. She was almost entirely rat, but the transformation did not seem to be impeding her ability to speak or socialize, "We'll show you the way, ok? We'll have you looking fabulous in no time."

Just listening to them was making Chris' ass itch for some reason, and he reached a latex clad hand back to rub at the base of his spine lightly, "Well, thanks. But aren't you worried about, you know... the whole rat thing?" he asked.

The one female that did not already have a partner moved over to stand close to Chris, "Why would that worry us? We never felt greater," she insists. She had light mousy grey fur and large ears. Her build, like her friends, was slim and athletic. She seemed kind enough, and made no move to attack, none of them did, just guiding Chris along through the mall towards the clothing store.

Slithering free of his pants, Chris did not even notice his new tail coming in, long and naked, a good and proper rat's tail.

The clothing store had a wide selection, and the group of rat people scattered, bringing back a selection of outfits for Chris to choose from. Not wanting to waste too much time, he only consented to changing his torn pants. The group escorted him, en masse, to the fitting rooms with about six pants to choose from. As he slipped into the fitting area, the uncoupled rat slipped in with him.

Chris glanced up at her, "I can put on pants on my own. You should wait outside with the others," he said as politely as he could, not wanting to offend his hosts. She shook her head and came up close.

"Don't be silly. I'll help, besides, you have such a nice tail." she complimented.

Tail? Chris grit his teeth and almost tore off his pants, looking over himself from the waist down. He had a long pink rat's tail, and the infection from the centaur had spread down to his foot, which was now a solid hoof instead. He sighed lightly, wondering just how many species he'd pick up before he could get back to his friends.

"Look, thanks, wait outside," he said firmly. The female seemed hurt, but backed away through the swinging doors. He could hear her talking with her friends, asking for advice in how to win him over. He sighed and quickly found a working pair of pants, keeping his tail on the inside to run down a leg.

Chris patted himself down, then realized his gun was not present. He glanced about for his other pants, and saw that they were also missing.

"Could someone pass me my old pants?" he called out to the group of rats outside.

"What do you need those for?" asked one of the two males, previously part human, now entirely rat hybrid. He had thick black fur everywhere but his pink paws and tail. "Come on out and let's have a look at you."

Unarmed and untrained in martial arts, Chris decided that staying on the good side of his hosts would be the best call. He slid out of the fitting room, showing off his new black khakis, "Do you think it's too much?" he asks, feigning interest in the clothing. He never cared much for fashion. Give him a good set of jeans that'll last a few years, that's the way to do it.

"You know," thinks Chris out loud, "You're all mall rats."

The five peered at him oddly a moment, before the ice was broken by the single female bursting into laughter, "He's right. We live in a mall, and we're rats, mall rats. Get it? Totally radical thinking man." she reached and slapped Chris lightly on the shoulder in appreciation. The others began to join in smiling, suddenly getting the joke, or at least pretending it.

They gathered close to Chris, but were already guiding him out of the clothing store, talking animatedly about fashion, the latest movies, and what they would eat later. Chris listened idly at first, and his ass began to itch again, grey fur spreading out over his buttocks as he fell into the droning of the words. He shook his head vigorously and pat his now tighter bottom before glancing around.

"Oh, hey. I have these friends. They're waiting for me to bring them back some food. Can you hook me up?"

The single rat woman sidled up next to Chris, draping a furry arm around his back and rubbing small circles into his side with her pink paw, "Sure we can do that for someone as cool as you, for sure. We'll just visit the food court."

The group moved in unison through the brightly lit mall. They were far from alone. Chris counted at least four other groups of mall rats, varying in size from two to the largest weighing in at twelve. They seemed to prefer coupling up, one male to one female. Where there was an odd number, the odd male or female out would mope along with the group.

Since Chris made his group even, the previously odd one out clung to him quite tenaciously, seeming to try and win his heart and make their couple status official. Chris was sure that wasn't a good idea. Falling in with this girl would probably mean wandering the mall forever, gossiping about nothing and shopping until death. Not his idea of a great retirement plan. He played along though, reaching a hand back around the female and holding her as the group moved into the food court.

The rat that seemed to be in charge moved ahead, glancing left and right before he hopped over the counter dexterously and began to plunder the Chinese food stand of its contents, filling many small bags with the supplies and stacking them up on the counter.

"You sure you don't want to... stay, with me, I mean us!" squeaked the lonely female, pressing in tight to Chris, "We could keep you happy, I mean, there's so much to look at here in the mall, and we're never hungry or cold. It'd be totally rad."

Chris shook his head, "Let me put it this way. You're all a tight group, right? If some of you were locked in a closet, the others would help them out, right? My group needs me, so I can't abandon them, even if you are all cool."

The female pouted, but the others seemed understanding. The collection of food was dropped into a large bag and surrendered to Chris, "Here you go champ. You change your mind, you come back and you can run with us anytime." They shook hands firmly, then the male whistled. He guided the group back into the mall, leaving Chris behind. The odd female out looked over her shoulder until Chris could no longer be seen.