FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words:

freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.

-Winston Churchill

The following series is dedicated to all those brave enough to place the ultimate sacrifice upon the altar of freedom... As such, it contains realistic depictions of war violence including sexual assault. This should be taken into consideration before reading.

Another thing to note is that this is inspired by the single player version of Flexible Survival. I have no experience with the multiplayer...

--

The last transmission to ever reach the denizens of Fairhaven was broadcast via television, radio, and the internet:

The following message is transmitted at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Centers for Disease Control, and the California State Police Department... It is recommended that the following actions be taken by all members of the public... Stay indoors and away from windows if at all possible while barricading any entryway... Gather enough supplies for sheltering up to 4 to 5 weeks... Avoid all contact with any person or animal exhibiting unusual behavior... An unidentified contagion is rapidly spreading ac--

It was at that point that all communication systems within the city catastrophically failed, along with the majority of utility services. The majority of citizens failed to head the warning, or were simply too caught up in their daily lives to even take notice... Until it was too late.

10:00 AM, P-Day plus 2... Somewhere in small town California...

...All stations this net- all stations this net- sit-rep to follow... Unidentified hostiles have breached defensive lines in the south and are converging on several small population centers to the southwest. All available 1st Marine units are to respond immediately and commence evacuation of civilians in the affected region... Thermal imagery shows- enemy units numbering in the hundreds- no final numbers. Hostiles have destroyed armored vehicles including one M1A2- expect heavy resistance. Rules of engagement remain- feral combatants, expendable. Medevac all infected showing signs of maintained or regained humanity...

The snarling beast was determined, a feral look in his eyes as he ran, keeping his eyes glued to the fleeing man who held tightly to the paw like hand of his beloved Samorn, an anthropomorphic husky collie mix.

Samorn had been nothing but a sweet, loyal, and simple minded husky less than a day ago. This bothered the man none, given the insane situation.

Around the next corner ahead of them was the main street of the town. At that moment it was filled with marines from Camp Pendleton who had managed to set up a rudimentary extraction point for the still savable remnants of the small city, ransacked by a group of mutants that escaped Fairhaven before the containment perimeter was established.

"Give me that bitch!" the man sized pursuer growled, gaining ground rather quickly, "or I'll have to make a new one out of your redneck ass!"

Quickening their pace the two rounded the street corner, trying to ignore the drooling anthropomorphic German shepherd behind them.

Down the road at the far end of the downtown buildings they could see the three dozen or so marines who had formed a wide defensive perimeter around the landing and leaving helicopters that were quickly filling with dozens of terrified people.

The marines surrounding them on all sides were firing M-16s and light machine guns at anything that aggressively approached the evac site. The vehicles and trash dumpsters they were using as barriers were covered in claw marks, deep gouges and impacts, and a lot of blood, hinting that the troops had been in combat for some time. Bodies of anthropomorphic and non humanoid creatures, most of them riddled with bloody holes or torn apart by explosives, were strewn about in the streets and on the side walks.

Upon seeing the long sought after safe haven ahead the strong man shouted in his raspy country accent, "There they are, Samorn! Let's get the fuck out of here!"

Tightening his grip on Samorn's paw hand he ran as quickly as he could, Samorn having no trouble keeping up. Unfortunately, he did not notice the beast that had been pursuing the pair emerge from behind a flipped pickup truck to his right.

With a blazing fast kick to his side the man was sent sprawling hard to the ground, his western style hat flying off. Between his labored breaths he could hear Samorn scream in a human like woman's voice as the beast roughly forced her to the ground. This shook him to his core, but he knew he couldn't just watch and hope for the marines to do something. They might shoot her as well, he thought.

Before the German shepherd could remove his ragged shorts and have his way with the terrified dog woman his ears perked up, hearing the deep and angry voice of the man.

"Yea, I don't think so, boy!" the man objected as calmly as he could, barely concealing his rage as he looked the German shepherd sternly in the eye. He brushed the dust off of his hat then placed it back upon on his head. "Last time I checked she don't belong to you," the man went on, "and trying to claim her by force isn't worth your life, now Is it?"

Letting go of his shorts with a sarcastic smirk on his muzzle the beast huffed and backed away from Samorn, then began striding up to the man to accept his challenge. His clawed digitigrade foot paws made clicks on the pavement as he stalked.

The two prime examples of muscle began sizing each other up fearlessly for a few seconds, circling each other without blinking.

"Your move, asshole," grunted the man.

"Sir!" the barking voice of a man suddenly came from down the road. It was a marine, accompanied by two more. "Sir, try to keep your distance from it, I can't get a clear shot!"

The man quickly glanced at the marines and it was all the opportunity the German shepherd needed. He lunged at the man, but was stopped abruptly by the trained draw of the man's concealed revolver. Not phased, the beast snarled and knocked the firearm out of the man's hand, leaving small cuts on his palm with his blunt claws.

"GYAAAH!" the man growled in rage and began throwing his fists at the creature's head in a furious yet focused haymaker. The beast grunted as the man landed several blows, drawing blood from the shepherd's big dog ears and black wet nose.

Stunned by the man's strength and with a swimming head the German shepherd could do nothing but watch the man deliver powerful blows to his exposed furry stomach. The blows were powerful, forcing him to bend over, coughing. He dropped to his knees and watched as the man retrieved his revolver. The man then placed the barrel to the top the beast's furry dog head, his finger tightening around the trigger.

"Go ahead- bitch!" the beast grumbled, blood dripping from his thin black lips. "If you've got the balls, do it! - What are you waiting for?"

"Aston!" a woman's voice suddenly came from over the man's shoulder. A paw like hand covered in white and brown fur and big black claws griped his shoulder tightly from behind. It was Samorn, who had recovered from the creature's attempted rape. "He didn't hurt me," she said softly into Aston's ear. "Let him go."

"Are you fucking kidding?" Aston asked. "He just tried to rape you, and you're asking me to let him get away with it? The fuck?"

"He didn't know what he was doing," Samorn growled. "You know this... I almost did the same to you... Remember?"

Aston sighed hard, shaking his head, trying hard not to let the memories of the previous day come into his mind. He lowered his gun, sighing again.

"Pussy," the German shepherd grumbled.

Suddenly two A-10 jets whipped low overhead startling everyone as they began firing their gatling guns at something in the far distance, followed by several F-18s engaging the same target or target area with missiles. The sounds of the chaos in the distance was terrifying, yet oddly calming as the deep thump of distant impacts and explosions rippled through group's ears.

"Excuse me, sir," one of the marines said as he approached. "We have to go now. The last transport out of the area's leaving right now. Let's get moving!"

Aston placed his free hand on Samorn's, feeling her paw pads grip tighter. "Were coming," Aston replied, holstering his gun behind him.

As the group began to walk away the German shepherd spat blood onto the back of Aston's blue jeans. Enraged once again, Aston quickly turned to deliver a swift and hard kick to the side of the German shepherd's head with his steel toed boot, knocking the defeated beast out cold before hastily proceeding with the marines and Simorn toward the evac site.

"Fuck sake, dude. Was that necessary?" a marine asked.

"Yep," answered Aston, breathing heavily. "I think it's the only thing that works to- to snap 'em out of their sex filled craze. Kind of a- uh- cognitive re-calibration of sorts. It worked on her, anyway."

Aston gestured an elbow at Samorn with his last statement. He gasped and stopped briefly, looking down at his bleeding palm. A slightly worried look appeared on his face.

"Something wrong?" asked Samorn who stopped as well, a hint of fear in her sweet voice.

Aston clenched his fist and shook his head. "No. I'm fine, babe. Lets move," he replied and gently stroked the side of her head before proceeding with the men. He then noticed a marine glancing back at the odd pair as they went on. "She's still my dog, ya know." Aston added, projecting his voice toward the young man.

"Uh-huh. That, she is," replied the marine with a hint of mockery.

As they approached the makeshift barrier the marines inside signaled them to hurry toward the last remaining helicopter, a navy Sea Hawk that looked as though it was already full of scared townsfolk and what appeared to be a couple wounded marines.

Oddly enough, Samorn was the one who lent a helping hand to the men as they clambered over the barrier of cars and dumpsters as quickly as they could. The marines nervously thanked her.

Aston was the last to be helped across by the beautiful husky collie woman. He was amazed at her raw strength, and briefly wondered if he truly needed to be there to guide her along.

"Well," Aston began, slowly letting go of her powerful paw, "you're tougher then you let on, Samorn. You could have taken that ass hat back there."

A shy smile spread across Samorn's black lipped muzzle as they continued onward.

"Keep your heads down!" a marine yelled to them, barely audible under the sound of the Sea Hawk's engine and whirling wind around it.

As they approached, the woman marine manning one of the miniguns exited the side door of the helicopter and ran up to the marine leading the group, who then signaled Aston and Simorn to halt and get low. Taking a knee Aston could not hear what the female marine was saying but he could easily tell that her words angered the platoon leader.

"What the fuck do you mean only one can go?" the platoon leader yelled. "Make some fucking room!"

The marine was obviously agitated by her response as he turned to face the two survivors.

He said into Aston's ear, "They can't take both of you. They're overloaded as it is. You need to decide quick whether it's you or your- dog that is staying behind with us! Do you understand?"

"Yea!" Aston replied without hesitation and looked at Samorn. "Samorn, you're going with them! You're getting out of here."

"What?" Samorn gasped, sidling up to him with a fretful look in her eyes. "No!" She shook her head. "I'm not leaving you behind in this hell all alone..."

"I wont be alone." Aston replied.

Samorn hugged him tightly, resting her muzzle on his shoulder.

"Ma'am," the female marine from the helicopter shouted, "we need someone to hold a child for us so we can have both guns on the chopper manned. Will you do that for us?"

"I'll be fine," Aston continued. He returned Samorn's warm embrace, running his calloused fingers through the soft brown and black fur on the back of her mixed breed dog head and neck, playfully making her large husky ears move back. "I love you, sweetheart," he said, resting his forehead on the top of hers while holding tightly to his hat.

"I love you too," Samorn said, choking back tears as she gazed into Aston's stern yet loving eyes. "I'll come look for you when I can! I promise."

"We'll see each other again, soon," Aston added. "Don't you worry 'bout a damn thing!"

Tears welled up in Samorn's green eyes, but she fought to keep her composure and agreed to leave with the helicopter. Aston nodded to her as the woman marine led her to her seat and helped strap her in before another marine handed her a small boy who's head, neck and arms were wrapped in blood soaked bandages. Samorn did her best to comfort the wounded child as the Sea Hawk began to lift off.

Out of the blue the roar of a jet plane engine began getting louder and closer. Looking above the evac site the men and women on the ground could only watch in sheer terror as what appeared to be a crippled F-18 on fire plummeted from the sky, sailing just a hundred feet over the evac site and crashing nose first not more than a few hundred feet down the road, prompting the marines and Aston to scramble to take cover as flames and debris came billowing toward them.

The fleeing helicopter's gunners began spraying a continuous line of rounds in both directions with some of the wounded marines onboard firing their weapons as well. A shower of spent brass shells from the miniguns and rifles rained down upon some of the marines below as the helicopter sped away.

"Contact!" a marine not far from Aston screamed. "Lots of fucking contact!"

Peering from behind one of the bloody dumpsters Aston could barely make out the outlines of the freaks racing toward the barricade through the smoke and dust left behind from the jet crash.

"Oh, fuck me runnin'!" the platoon leader grumbled. "Hold your ground and conserve your ammo! Only shoot at what you can hit!" he barked and began firing his M-16 from cover in single shots, Aston watching as the seasoned man landed several hits on the creatures before rapidly reloading.

Aston could hear the rest of the marines as they began firing their weapons as well, periodically shouting locations of targets to focus their fire on. To Aston's right a woman marine began firing her light machine gun in short bursts.

"Multiple hostiles at our six!" a marine on the opposite side of the barrier shouted, firing his rifle in long bursts down the road before reloading.

The platoon leader ordered his platoon sergeant and several others to cover the road behind them while he and the rest would handle the front sector. He then told Aston in a surprisingly calm shout that he was more than welcome to join the fight.

Aston took cover behind the dumpster and drew his revolver, opening the cylinder and making sure all chambers had a live round.

He nearly pissed his pants when a creature tumbled loosely from the top of the dumpster and plopped with a loud wet smack in front of him. Yelping he drew his feet in as close to his body as he could, not wanting to get anywhere near the thing. It appeared to be dead, thankfully, lying on its back with several bleeding holes in its chest and stomach. The creature was some sort of anthropomorphic weasel or mink creature that he could tell was a female with streamline womanly curves and beige fur covered breasts where a woman should have them.

"Oh, Christ," Aston panted under his breath, trying to steal himself.

Peeking from cover with his pistol ready Aston could see at least thirty or more mutants rushing toward the barrier from both sides.

"Oh, fucking Ch-rist!" Aston hollered, watching the nearest beasts get eviscerated by the marine's weapons. The dead beasts fell hard to the street in a bloody mess. Grenades, some thrown, some fired from rifle mounted launchers went off down the streets as well, blowing some of the mutant's limbs off.

"Shit! Lieutenant, I'm loading!" the woman marine next to Aston said as she opened the empty feed tray of her machine gun.

Suddenly a powerful stray mutant managed to dodge all incoming rounds and leaped like a big cat toward the woman from the opposite street, tackling her hard to the ground as she screamed in abject terror.

It was big, built like a centaur or something similar, only this creature had a big black panther body instead of a horse's from the waist down while its feminine humanoid upper torso was covered in black fur and had paw like hands. It had a panther like face and ears and large breasts. Between its four panther limbs hung a massive feline sheath and set of feline testicles, its arousal was obvious.

The panther taur held the marine down with its panther body's front paws, its claws digging into the woman's kevlar vest. The beast quickly ripped the struggling woman's armor and uniform away and tossed them aside as though it had plenty experience in doing such things.

With trained hands Aston aimed his revolver at the creatures upper humanoid torso, figuring that to house the creatures most vital organs.

"Hey! Bitch! Get off her!" he shouted over sounds of blaring weapons and explosions. It didn't hear him, and began positioning itself to penetrate the screaming woman's sex as she struggled in vain to pry its lower paws from her bleeding chest.

Aston squeezed the trigger of his revolver. With a loud crack and subsequent spurt of blood from the creature's humanoid furry chest it collapsed onto the woman before it could insert its cock into her.

Rushing to the scene of the attempted rape Aston and a marine lifted the dead beast off of the woman, noticing a large amount of the beast's blood had spilled onto her toned body and her face, getting into her eyes, nose and mouth.

"Help me up!" the woman marine cried, spitting some of the blood.

As Aston reached down to help her the other marine grabbed his shoulder and tugged hard.

"No!" the shaken marine shouted.

"Why?" Aston angrily asked, ducking briefly as another explosion went off.

"It's too late! ... The blood!"

Aston looked at him, his eyes wide in shock. "What? She's fine, lets get her out of here!"

"She's heavily infected," the platoon leader shouted from his new position behind a burned out car. "We can't risk taking her with us. Don't you fucking touch her!" he barked, then began firing his rifle from cover.

Aston was beside himself. His mind couldn't comprehend that he had been deprived the chance to save someone who, apart from the blood and claw marks on her, seemed reasonably unharmed.

"Air strike inbound, sir!" another marine shouted from behind a turned over vehicle, putting a radio handset away.

"Alright, let's move out!" the platoon leader ordered. "Anders, Clewley, provide cover fire and pop smoke!"

The group quickly withdrew from the about to be overrun evac site after two marines deployed smoke grenades on each street to conceal their retreat. They began moving swiftly down an adjacent alleyway, occasionally firing bursts of automatic fire back in the direction they came to discourage anything from following them. The marines stopped and checked around each corner at the end of the alley before proceeding into a wide public parking lot behind the downtown buildings.

They all tried to ignore the pleading wails of the poor woman they left behind, her body beginning to contort and twist as her infection took hold, slowly turning her into a lust filled horror much like her attacker. One of the marines was shaken severely by this and removed his kevlar helmet to cover his ears. It was a savage reminder to Aston that behind those uniforms was a vulnerable human, no different than him.

Not more than a few seconds later a squadron of Super Cobra attack helicopters began flying in from the north, laying waste to the small city's mutant inhabitants with rockets, missiles, and gatling gun turrets. Aston and the marine platoon stayed in cover behind the vehicles in the parking lot and waited for the chaos to be over. The occasional surviving mutant would arrive, but would panic at the sight of the armed marines and would flee, only to be chased and gunned down by a helicopter firing its gatling gun.

"Looks clear- thanks for the assist," the platoon leader said into the ear piece of his radio.

The helicopters withdrew from the area with one final low altitude sweep, the air thickening with the smell of burning materials and flesh. As things quieted down the marines began to secure the perimeter of the parking lot, checking the adjacent alleyways for stray creatures and moving vehicles to create a defendable perimeter.

Suddenly another mutant showed up. The panther taur creature gradually came to an abrupt stop at the edge of the parking lot and eyed the marines. Expecting her to leap at any moment the group of marines closest to her trained their weapons toward her, but she stayed put, panting heavily, causing the dog tags between her black furred breasts to sway.

The platoon leader lowered his weapon and told everyone including Aston to hold their fire before walking up to her. He tried in vain to shoo her away, shouting and pointing. She looked him mournfully in eye and tried to say something, but all she could do was tremble on her four paws. It was then that she collapsed forward into the marine's arms, her body relaxing as though exhausted, but that unfortunately wasn't the case. The marine knelt down with her, trying to support her humanoid torso. He looked her over, noticing a multitude of bleeding wounds and very severe tissue burns on her panther body as well as on her humanoid torso. He knew then that she most likely had only moments to live.

With her dying breath she lifted a shaking paw hand and forced a folded piece of paper into the marine's. He held her hand firmly for a moment as she gradually let her final breath go and went limp. He laid her down as gently as he could, brushed her feline eyes closed and broke off her dog tag.

The marine stood up looking down briefly at the paper in his gloved hand, a speck of blood on it. Knowing exactly what it was he stuffed it into a pocket without a second thought.

"You shitbird!" a marine suddenly shouted and violently shoved Aston back against a van.

Aston took a moment to collect himself. "The fuck'd I do?" he asked the confronting marine, anger in his voice.

"You just had to try and be a goddamn hero!" the marine shouted, leaning into Aston's face and pointing. "Nice work you redneck piece of trailer trash!"

"Anders!" the platoon leader barked as he got between the two and began ushering the furious marine back. "Shut the fuck up, right now! He didn't know. He did what he thought would help."

"I don't care! It's his fault and you know it, Lieutenant!" the marine insisted, nearly in tears as he pointed at Aston. "We've lost enough, and he's just gonna get more of us killed!" The marine looked at the corpse of the panther taur, knowing for sure who it used to be. "Take his gun away!" he insisted.

"No," the platoon leader shook his head. "That won't do any good."

"Fine, I'll take it!"

The platoon leader forcefully grabbed the marine by the back of his neck and shoulder, spinning him around. "You need to get your shit together, son!" the lieutenant growled in his face. "Your a fucking leatherneck, it's time you started acting like one! People- make- mistakes, and you are not compromising this mission with any more of your crybaby bullshit... Square-yourself-away! Now!"

The lieutenant let the huffing and puffing marine go with a shove and watched him storm off to be alone behind a flipped SUV. Another marine went to try and console him.

"I'm sorry," Aston uttered, glancing at the body of the poor creature. "I didn't know the blood-" he choked back a tear, intense guilt rising up in his chest. "I've gotten blood on me!" Aston looked at the lieutenant, raising his voice. "So have you! It doesn't make sense."

"None in your mouth, though, right?" the older lieutenant asked, flashing him an inquiring look.

"Well- no," Aston replied, calming a bit.

"Well- there you go. Mucus, blood, and sex fluids are the main mediums of transmission that we've seen for it. As long as you don't get any of these in you, or a large volume on your skin you should be golden. For now, I guess, neither you or I have caught it."

"But, what the hell is- it?"

The lieutenant sighed, looking away at his marines as they went about patrolling the parking lot. "I can't tell you that," he went on, "and it is not- because its classified or anything like that, it's simply because I don't fucking know, and I'm not so sure I want to. -- You need to get that hand wrapped." The lieutenant looked to his left and called for a corpsmen.

"Yes, Lieutenant?" a navy corpsman asked as he jogged up to him.

"Patch this gentleman up, would ya?" the platoon leader ordered and briskly walked away.

"Yes sir," the corpsman replied before walking up to Aston with a hastily mustered smile. "Let me fix this little problem of yours, ok?"

Aston held up his wounded hand, the cuts beginning to bleed again from gripping his pistol. The corpsman took care to disinfect and wrap Aston's hand with a bandage then handed him a pair of hard knuckle tactical gloves.

"Thanks, man," Aston said and slipped the surprisingly well fitting gloves on.

"No problem... Aston, right?" the corpsman asked.

"Yep."

"Don't let Anders get to you. His whole family is in Fairhaven where the shit's really hit the fan. We can't blame him for acting that way... Do you have any family or friends in the city?"

"My ex wife and her husband live near the industrial district. I can't imagine what... What must be going on in there."

"To be honest, what we saw just now is piddly shit in comparison."

Aston sighed and looked around, rubbing his hands together. "Is, uh, Fairhaven a total loss?" he asked.

"As far as we can tell it's ground fuckin' zero for this shit," the corpsmen explained. "We lost contact with several national guard units shortly after they were sent in. Don't quote me on this but I heard a SEAL team vanished there, too, which is frankly hard to buy. Police haven't responded to any of our transmissions in over forty eight hours, so I guess they either don't have working equipment, they're dead, - or they've joined the ranks of those- things... Unfortunately, were not going to be given clearance to go back in to rescue people for another month, maybe more. I assume our main goal for now is going to be to help with containment, and probably search and destroy missions for anything that breaches the cordon, like we're doing right now."

"Let's hope it works."

"Yea, no shit. Stay safe, buddy."

"I will. You too, sir."

"The name's Espinoza, but call me Doc."

"Alright, Doc. Thanks again."

"You are very welcome, and hey, keep your chin up."

The corpsman fist bumped Aston with his free hand and walked away to help secure the parking lot. With all the emotional stimuli breaking through Aston's stern demeanor he found himself slumping down against the van, removing his hat. He fiddled with it for several minutes, trying to fix the disheveled brim as he fought back tears. With a deep sigh of acceptance he distracted himself by reloading his revolver.

Upon hearing some commotion and voices he looked up and saw that some of the marines had their rifles aimed down an alleyway, shouting for someone, or something, to keep his or her hands where they could see them.

Aston's eyes went wide with a jolt of amusement when the German shepherd from earlier slowly walked out of the alleyway with his paw like hands on top of his doggy head. The beast got down on his knees as ordered with his head down. His fur was dusted with blotches of soot and ash, most likely from the helicopter strike.

Unable to resist, Aston strode over as the marines declared the beast wasn't a threat any longer. They told him he could put his hands down and gave him a bottle of water that he seemed to have a little difficulty drinking with his new muzzle. Nevertheless the dog man seemed happy to have found somewhere to rest, that was until his relieved eyes connected with the stern marbles of the man he fought earlier. Aston couldn't resist a smile, while the German shepherd's muzzle became unemotional.

The both of them said simultaneously, "Holy shit, you lived through all that?"

"Yes I did," Aston snickered with sarcasm. "Sorry to be the barer of bad news. Name's Aston, by the way," he said and reached his hand down.

Surprised by this the German shepherd hesitated, but nonetheless took Aston's hand and was helped up to his digitigrade paws. He began brushing some of the dirt and ashes from his fur and shorts and appeared to have something to share with Aston.

"Look, I... Um," the beast began an awkward second later, trying to find the right words to express himself. "I can't- tell you how sorry I am for trying to-"

"Don't," Aston interrupted, his tone stern. "Like Samorn said, you didn't know what you were doing, and I'm- honestly, I should be the one to apologize for almost killing you."

Suddenly the platoon leader walked by with a massive snicker. "Me too," the lieutenant said, an amused tone to his voice. "You look a little less like a rapist now." He rubbed the German shepherd's head, making him recoil slightly with his eyes tightly closed.

"Ah! Could you nah-?" the German shepherd winced, scowling at the marine as he walked on.

"You're a good boy," the marine said with a cheerful yet sarcastic tone.

"Well- your an ass!" the dog man grumbled.

"He's just trying to be friendly," Aston mentioned.

"Yea, whatever," the dog man replied and reached a paw hand out to shake Aston's. "Anyway, I'm- Um..." the dog man's ears went back, a puzzled look spread over his canine face and his eyes shifted before looking Aston in the eye. He rubbed his muzzle with the paw hand he originally intended to shake Aston's with, obviously stricken with embarrassment. "Oh, fuck. I don't remember!" he growled. "I don't know my name!"

"It's alright, calm down," Aston said, placing a gloved hand on dog man's furry shoulder. "How 'bout we call you Lucky, or Max, or something like that? At least for now? I mean- Lucky fits with you surviving that airstrike, and all..."

The dog man's face almost looked annoyed, but shifted to a glare of amusement. "I like Max. Lucky's just- too cliche."

"And max ain't? -- Ok. Max it is, then."

Max smiled and his ears perked. It seemed as though his spirits had lifted some, but there was still some obvious unease to his mannerisms.

"K, Everybody listen up," the platoon leader suddenly shouted from across the parking lot. "Evac is inbound. ETA: ten minutes. We're getting out of here. Keep your sectors covered!" As he finished informing the group he strode up to Aston and Max. "You two will go with me when the helicopters arrive," he instructed them before walking off.

Aston and Max began walking around the parking lot together, looking at all the marine's as the men and women did their best to keep something of a perimeter up. Everyone was conversing with each other, trying to pass the time.

Suddenly some of the marines joined the pair, obvious curiosity in their tones as they spoke.

"Hey. Were you a human before yesterday?" the youngest marine asked.

"Yep," Max replied happily. "I'm from this town. That much I do remember. I don't remember my name, my job, or if I had a job. Shit, I may have been homeless for all I know."

"Do you remember how you turned into- this?" another asked, gesturing up and down at Max's body.

Aston Interjected when Max's ears went back and his tail became still as a stick. "I don't think this is the best time to ask that," Aston suggested.

"No," Max went on. "It'll be better if I get out in the open. I remember being chased down some of these streets by a creature a lot like me. It tackled me, ripped my shorts down and then- quite literally Fucked me like some rutting animal. -- I remember trying to get away. Even pulling out a utility knife to try and drive it off, but in the end, well, it had its fun. After that I guess I spent most of the night in a craze, chasing people down and- doing the exact same thing to them. Sometimes even... Well... Never mind. I'm sure you've all seen that stuff at least once."

"Fuck, man. I can't imagine," the marine said, her tone shifting from curious to dull.

"The change itself was even worse," Max's eyes furrowed. "It hurt. A lot. It was like someone was breaking every bone in my body- pushing them into places they weren't supposed to go. Weird, because before that I had only seen some people moaning, like it was- they felt pleasure as they mutated."

"Exactly. I remember Samorn telling me it was like every cell in her body was on fire," Aston remarked. "Like, she enjoyed it."

"Samorn?" a marine asked.

"My Alaskan husky," Aston continued. "That was, until yesterday when those things escaped the city and swarmed my ranch before she and I could get out. I'm never without my pistol so I was able to shoot all but the bastard that grabbed her. It dragged her off into the patch of woods out back of my property. I took off after it and after about a minute I heard her whining and barking. Soon after that I found her curled up by a log in her current form with that fucker's jizz all over her thighs," Aston sighed. "I nearly threw up my breakfast... I found the fucker a little after that, laughing his ass off beside a tree, sayin' shit to me like how beautiful she was how I should have a go with her... I snapped at that notion and chased him for probably a couple hundred yards when finally he turned to attack, saying how pretty he was going to make me... So I was like, 'nope,' and shot him in the head... No hesitation... Samorn found me a bit after she heard the shot and that's when she tried to come on to me, you know, rubbing herself and..." He shook his head, once again trying to avoid those thoughts. "I didn't know what to do exactly at first so I tried to talk her down. Of coarse that didn't work and she leaped at me. I managed to struggle out of her grasp, which mind you, was not easy. I scrambled to grab my pistol then instead of shooting her I whipped her in the side of the head with it, knocking her out cold. She came to a bit later and seemed scared to death so I told her to come with me, but of coarse I made it clear that she shouldn't try anything again or I'd kill her... After making it back to the house I found my car destroyed so we gathered what we could and started trekking here on foot. We spent the night in that motel on the edge of town, barricading ourselves in until we heard the helicopters. It was kinda nerve racking to share the same bed with her in that form, but... Uh, never mind. At least she kept me warm, like usual."

Aston looked off into the distance as he finished speaking. A deep longing could be sensed as Max looked at him.

"I'm sure she's fine," Max reassured him, patting his back gently.

"Where'd they take her?" Aston asked the marines.

"To the nearest F.O.B.," a marine replied. "They'll take good care of her there. Don't worry. We are instructed not to hurt anyone that doesn't show any- I guess you could call it, feral behavior."

"What's an F.O.B.?" Max asked.

"Forward Operating Base," the marine explained. "Thousands of marines there. Any stray monster shows up there, he'll regret it! I'm sure you two will be heading there any time now."

Aston nodded and folded his arms, gripping his chin with a finger and thumb. Concern for his beloved friends filled his heart, but he accepted his feelings rather quickly, knowing there truly wasn't anything he could do to help them now.

The sound of rotors and engines grew steadily over the next minute as two tandem rotor helicopters approached the area. They hovered momentarily before descending to a soft landing in the street beside the parking lot.

Immediately the marines gathered their gear and began moving toward them to begin boarding. Most of the marine's went in one, the other squad of a dozen in the other. The lieutenant motioned for Max and Aston to board the partly loaded helicopter he stood next to.

Aston sat next to Max near the rear ramp of the helicopter and watched the platoon leader hand a crinkled, blood stained piece of paper to one of the marines boarding the more heavily loaded helicopter, saying something to him. The two marines saluted one another briefly before boarding.

"Was that paper what I think it was?" Aston asked the lieutenant as he sat across from him.

The lieutenant nodded, taking a drink from his hydration pack. "Yea. Not the first I've handled and it wont be the last," the lieutenant said in a matter of fact tone.

Soon both helicopters began lifting off and sped toward their destination with several attack helicopters approaching to providing cover...