{"sf1_id":602337,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Acquiring a New Friend","author":"Niniju","words":1320,"posted_at":"2013-10-15T02:25:00.000Z","tags":["Chipmunk","Husky","Ice","Koyu","Niniju","Radioactive","Tiger","apocalypse","zombie","zombies"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/602337-acquiring-a-new-friend","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/602337","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=602337\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":"\"Koyu?\" He questioned back. \"You too, huh?\"\"Yeah... I guess so...\" I replied.\"Better than you becoming one of those things, I guess.\"\nReasoned the now anthropomorphic white tiger Frost.\"Yeah,\" I continued. \"So what now?\" I asked \"From the look\nof things, you had a run-in with your 'new' family too...\" Frost gave a slightly\nsaddened look away.\"Yeah...\" He said quietly.After a brief pause for whatever mourning we decided to\nrisk, I finally blurted out, \"Hey, I assume this didn't just affect us. We\nshould look for other survivors, if there are any.\"I noticed that Frost hadn't grabbed nearly as much stuff as\nI had, probably because unlike my parents, his never seemed to care that\neventually there could be a nuclear apocalypse that destroyed all life on\nearth. Or in this case, turned everyone into either mutated freaks we finally\njust referred to as \"The Corrupted,\" or us, which we just called \"The Altered.\"I tossed the anthro-tiger Frost one of my bags, which I had\nfilled with cans of food, and we headed out down a third street, which\nintersected the one both our houses were on.As we walked, we noticed that there was almost no one left.\nApparently we were two of the few lucky people that weren't killed by whatever\ntype of radiation was still passing through here. I assumed that we must have\nbeen made immune to whatever effects the radiation had. We were walking as\nsilently as we thought we could. Although we hadn't encountered anyone or\nanything so far, we still both knew it might be better if we didn't bring too\nmuch attention to ourselves. I then noticed something and tapped Frost on the shoulder.\"What, Koyu?\" Asked Frost with a bit of edge in his voice.\"Look, there!\" I said as I pointed to a tree off in the\ndistance.Frost sighed, and with a hint of sarcasm pointed out, \"Koyu,\nlook, I know you're a dog and all now, but this is no time to mark your\nterritory.\"I punched him in the arm, hard.\"No you stupid house cat! There's one of us over there! An\nAltered!\" Even from the distance we were at, we could tell that the Altered in\nquestion was a chipmunk. He looked young, scared, and sad. He was also crying.He was calling quite a bit of attention to himself, and was\nquite out in the open. We could both see that something was moving toward him.\nIt was slow, and we could most likely get to the chipmunk before whatever that\ncorrupted thing was did.\"C'mon.\" I told Frost as I started running toward the\ncorrupted. Frost matched my speed, and I was almost sure he could pass me if he\nneeded to. We were headed to a parking lot, outside of what looked to be a\nWal-Mart Supercenter. This could be bad, places like this were usually crowded,\neven at night, so there was definitely a possibility of some Corrupted in\nthere.I nodded Frost over to the Chipmunk, as I continued heading\nfor the bloated, legless Corrupted. I drew the katana from my back, and in one\nswift stroke beheaded the monster. That probably wasn't my best move. Almost a\nfull five seconds after I killed it, it's already bloated body started to fill\nwith air. I knew what came next. I quickly jumped out of the way as the Corrupted\nburst, throwing its insides and vile stench everywhere. I have played too\nmany video games to not +know that what comes next was going to be bad. I ran back\nto the tree where Frost and the chipmunk were. Frost barely had time to tell me\nthe name of the chipmunk before I cut him off. \"We should probably get out of here. Place is too open, and\nI'm pretty sure that stuff that just spewed everywhere is gonna attract more of\nthem.\"\"Good idea, but that might be a problem.\" Frost told me. He\npointed at the side of Charlie the chipmunk's leg, and I noticed that he had a\nlong bleeding scar running down it.\"Corrupted?\" I asked.\"No, from what I got, he cut himself on some metal.\" Frost\nmentioned.I quickly replied, \"Damn, he won't be able to run on\nsomething like that, but right now we have a problem.\" Out from the doors of\nthe Wal-Mart, as well as a nearby tree line, we could see several Corrupted\nheaded our way.\"Well we could carry him...\" I suggested. We seemed to have a\nbit of increased strength with our new forms, so it wouldn't have been too\nhard.\"Nah,\" Replied Frost. \"There's actually not that many of\nthem, and plus, it gives me time to try this.\"\"Wha--?\" I tried to manage before Frost stood strait up,\nfacing the group of corrupted making their way to us. Frost seemed to have his\neyes closed, maybe he was concentrating but on what? \"Frost! What are you doing?!?\" Nothing was actually\nhappening, I don't know what Frost thought he was doing, but apparently it was\nhaving no effect. I pulled him down to the group, waking him from whatever\ntrance he was in. The Corrupted were now all focused on what movement Frost had\nmade. Most of them were small, and wouldn't put up much of a fight, but there\nwas one huge monster among them. Apparently, the Corrupted's idea of\nfiguring out what the movement was was to throw a two ton truck directly at\nus. It just barely missed us by sailing over our heads. It must have been a\npowerful throw; however, because it completely broke the tree we were next to in half.\"Greaaat... Now they know were here.\" I sarcastically told\nFrost. \"Ugh, I know your itching for a battle Frost, but c'mon, you nearly got\nus all killed!\" I could see the anger building up in Frost. He seemed confused\nfor a moment, but mostly just angry. \"Damn it's getting cold. Is it just me,\nor--\" I stopped and looked at Frost for a moment. Most if not all of his black\ntiger stripes were now glowing a cool cyan color. The closer I got to him, the\ncolder it was.\"What the--\" I questioned again. Before I could say another\nword, Frost had stood up again, this time with a bit of purpose. He reached out\nnext to him, and almost as quickly as he had, what looked like ice had formed\nin his paw. It wasn't just a block of ice. No, it had formed itself into a sharp\npiece of freezing atmosphere. What came next was even more amazing. Frost held\nit for quite a while, slowly making it longer and sharper. It was still a\ndagger, but now it more resembled a throwing knife.\"Well... That's new.\" I mentioned.\"That's nothing, Koyu. Watch this.\" Frost told me as he\nmoved his arm into a position to throw the blade he made. I noticed his stripes\nwere now almost fully cyan, and the air temperature was getting fairly close to\n-20 degrees or so. The moment he threw the blade, he had already begun to form a\nnew one, this time quicker. The blade he had thrown at one of the smaller\nCorrupted struck it directly in what was left of his head, but that wasn't all.\nA mere second after it struck the foul thing, it exploded inside the skull of\nthe monster turning everything around it into ice.\"Well...\" I continued, \"You know that's only one right?\" I set\ndown a few heavy tools and my backpack, and drew my katana. Even if we did have\nan altered freezer with us, there was quite a few Corrupted still headed our\nway, including the big one. I decided to take the left side, while I left Frost\nto take care of what he could. With all of the extra weight off of me, I was\nable to run incredibly faster, and reached the first corrupted in no time at\nall..."}