FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Alcatraz and I loaded up with Mike early the next morning to make our way to the radio station. The sky was a dull gray with the sunlight just barely coming through it. Almost everyone inside the tower's fences was still asleep and snoring was clearly audible. We were putting gas in the Ford when Chy spoke up.

"Reminds me of that one time that your slavers let you come with me camping", She said, "this was about the time we left."

"I liked your owners", I said putting the gas cap back on, "they were the most chill people on the planet and treated you like their daughter."

Chy smiled, "I know, I actually miss them. At least they know I got away safe."

I tilted my head, "if you miss them why'd you run away?"

Chy sighed, "I didn't run, they sent me away. They heard that a slave dealer was rolling through town and offering such high prices that no one could say no. So they gave me a backpack and told me to run as far away as I could."

"Something I should have done years before I actually did", I said putting the gas can away.

"The light house is on the same route you took to get Vahq", Chy said, "just keep going straight once you hit the intersection, then follow the road up the hill. I don't know if the gate to the light house is locked or not, but if it is you'll have to brake it down, something that truck should be more than capable of."

"Got ya", I said climbing into the driver's seat, coiling up my tail so it wouldn't get in the way of anything. Mike rode shotgun and Alcatraz was in the bed because he didn't fit in the seats because of his Exo. Marco opened the gate as I put the Ford in first gear and started it. The big 6.2 liter Diesel engine came alive, blowing blue smoke out of the pipes sticking out of the bed. Even though it was blowing smoke, the massive engine didn't have the roar I'd come to expect from Ford's beefy turbocharged V8, rather this truck, being stock, had a low gurgling sound to it, preventing it from waking the dead. I idled the truck out of the life guard tower parking lot and as Marco closed the gate behind me I gave the engine a little bit of gas to get the truck up the steep hill. I steered the truck around the other smashed cars and crossovers before turning the corner at the top of the hill. I gave the truck some more gas and shifted into second gear as Mike spoke up.

"What exactly are we looking for at the light house?", he asked.

"Radio equipment", I said, "that's our objective, but of course we can't leave anything remotely useful behind."

"Think there might be people up there?", Mike asked.

"What kind? Survivors or Ryu's mercs?", I asked.

"Either", Mike asked.

"If there are people", I said, "I hope it's just survivors, I don't wanna deal with any more sociopaths, I've about had enough of these kinds of people."

"You and me both", Mike said, "you should have tried working with Martin, protecting him even. Just being near that man made me uneasy. When he captured all those pyronauts that were infesting our generator room, he did it so efficiently that we were back online in less than an hour, I'd kill to know exactly how he did it. Most of the time you can't get near a pyronaut without scorching yourself."

"Who cares?", I asked as we made the intersection, the truck's tries crunching over the bodies of a few slain ghouls as we started up another hill, "what matters is that he's dead and gone."

"I suppose", Mike said.

I drove the ford up the hill and through a few twists and turned before I noticed that there was a stream of what looked like blood flowing down the street. I also noticed that there was an orange light by the speedometer that read TCS, SILP. As we turned the final corner before the lighthouse, I noticed the rear end swing out and then a big, red MSTC flash across the truck's touch screen

"Mechanical Stability Control just flashed", Mike said, "that only happens on this model of F-150 when the rear end brakes lose."

"Throwing stability management systems?", I asked, "that can't be good, why are the roads so slick up here?:

"Maybe it's all the blood on the street", Alcatraz said over the radio, "the damn concrete is stained red."

I must not have been paying very good attention to my surroundings because this was about the time I noticed that the road into the light house was stained with blood. When I cleared the corner, I noticed it was practically flowing from the lighthouse, the gate was closed.

"Hold on", I said as I matted the pedal down. The truck lurched and the needle jumped from 2 to 4 thousand RPM and the truck easily knocked the chain link gate out of it's way. I shut it off and as we disembarked, I notices a putrid, rotting meat smell that was permeating the air.

"Holy fuck", I gagged, "where is that fuckin stink coming from."

"The light house", Mike said putting a gas mask on.

"Good idea", I said reaching into my ruck for my own mask.

The three of us walked to the door of the lighthouse. It was a heavy looking door that was locked up tight.

"Alcatraz?", I said stepping back.

Alcatraz took a deep breath and then kicked at the door as hard as he could, barely scratching it.

He sighed, "I hope you got some powerful explosives on you, cause that fucker's not budging."

"I always carry some C4 on me", I said.

It took me a minute to set up a charge that I was confident could get through the door without bringing down the light house. We retreated to safety behind the Ford as I pulled out the detonator.

"Fire in the hole", I said pulling the switch.

There was a loud BANG as the C4 shattered the cast iron door. We stood up from behind the Ford and began approaching the entrance. As the smoke cleared, the stream of blood grew, almost tripping in size.

"That doesn't look good", I said.

When we entered the lighthouse, saying what awaited us inside was truly horrifying wasn't even close to reality. The inside of the lighthouse was covered in some kind of pulsating, blood red bio mater. It was growing into power boxes cracks in the wall and so on and so fourth. In the middle of the room was a huge pillar that had four people in it, and the only way I knew this was because I could just barely see the outlines of their bodies. The pillar of meat rose to the top of the light house with webs of the stuff branching off to different sections of the light house tower, while at the top there was a huge glob of meat. There were drops of blood dripping on my mask from above.

"This is fuckin disgusting", Alcatraz said, sounding like he was fighting the urge to throw up.

"Don't take your mask off", Mike said, "what ever you do, don't take your mask off."

"Duh", I said, "let's hurry up and find this radio gear."

"I know exactly where it would be", Mike said. He carefully stepped over the Bio matter and entered a back room. Alcatraz and I followed him, finding out the room was storage and the Signal Booster we were looking for was on a shelf. The room also had a deactivated power box.

"I have no idea what this thing is", Mike said, "but it needs to die."

"Not yet", Alcatraz said, "let me get some of it for Sarah to analyze."

Alcatraz left the room and shortly after returned, nodding to Mike. He grabbed the lever on the box and pushed it upwards, turning on the lighthouse power. Just outside, I heard a Diesel generator, sounding like Brigg's V8, roar to life. There were the sounds of sparks, then black smoke and the pained growls of a dying meat tower. Mike kept the power on until the growls stopped. We could even smell the stench of burnt meat through our gas masks. When we exited the room we found the tower had been fried to a crisp. Even something that big couldn't take the sheer power that a Diesel Generator could put out.

"Damn", Mike said, "that's just wrong on so many levels."

"Who cares?", I said, "let's get the fuck out of here."

We piled in the Ford and headed back to the Tower. When we arrived, almost no one except for a few guys were awake. They were standing by the railing having breakfast and talking to each other, while Chy was standing by the gate waiting for us. Mike, Al and Chy took the signal booster up to the radio antenna while I took the meat, which was still squirming in the test tube, into Sarah, who was asleep at her desk.

"Hey Sarah", I said stirring her.

"Hmm?", she asked lifting her head, "What's up Skyline?"

"We killed something in the lighthouse", I said, "I have no idea what it was, but Alcatraz took a sample for you."

Sarah took the piece of squirming meat from me.

"Okay", Sarah said, "i have no idea what the hell I'm looking at, but I'll get cracking on it as soon as I can wake up enough to form some actual thoughts."

I patted her shoulder and then left, going up stairs to see what Chy and the others were up to. Which from the looks of it, was trying to contain anger.

"This can't be good", I said walking up to them, "what's going on guys?"

"The signal isn't strong enough to get past the Ania's Ionosphere", Chy said.

"Damn", I sighed, 'where does that leave us?"

"There's a stronger radio tower on the roof of the hotel not far from here", Chy said, "if we can get our hands on that, we should beable to contact the fleet."

"Then that is my next target", I said.