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Chapter 5

Lou

A lot of furs run. I could run. But I just sat there looking at the screen. I always knew it would go down like this. Well, not this exactly. Murder? Me? Fuck, I can't even bring myself to shoo away a stray feral. But I knew I'd be looking at myself on a wanted poster one day. I was too unlucky to avoid it.

Where the hell was I even? Psycho Fox knocked me out in the back of a van. The next thing I knew, I was here. A big empty warehouse, maybe. I'd been so in shock, I'd neglected some serious questions. I can't think on an empty stomach... Didn't someone mention something about power bars or something?

I spent a good half hour looking through the stack of crates. Most of them were locked, and I left those alone, but the ones I could open were interesting. Sacks of dried rice, cartons of surplus batteries, spare parts for film projectors. It was like someone showed up on the last day of neighborhood wide garage sale and bought up all the crap left behind.

I chewed on the rubbery cardboard bar that claimed to contain all the necessary nutrition needed to keep me healthy. An odd change from my diet of fast food, pot, and cheap beer. I held up a bolt of black cloth I'd found and wondered if Psycho made his own costume.

There was a door and I wasn't one hundred percent sure it wasn't booby-trapped. Taking my chances, I opened it. I think I was somewhere on the westside. Rusted railroad tracks ran through a field of waist high weeds. There were several other warehouses, some looked like they were starting to collapse.

"Well," I mumbled through a mouthful of that awful food, "no one's gonna think of looking for me out here at least."

***

"Fuck!" Another one of the burner phones locked me out for an hour. They only let you make four attempts at the three digit pin before freezing for a period. Watching the chatter from the police searching for me had grown depressing. I decided to give in to the fox's offer of a phone. I should have taken him up yesterday because they were all passcode protected and I had no idea what a wannabe superhero would use as a code. Lucky for me, the fox seemed to buy in bulk. There were about twenty of the disposable phones in an unlocked cabinet.

I was close to smashing something. Not that I'm a violent fur, but I really needed a hit and that stupid fox took everything I'd had on me. Not cool. If only I had something to take the edge off!

Next phone. 9-3-6? Wrong. 1-2-5? Wrong. 4-7-1? Wrong! 1-1-1? Correct.

Goddamn, motherfucking- Oh, wait... I got it.

I know the fox said not to call anyone, but I had a life, and if by some miracle, I really do get out of that murder charge, I'd like to be able to go back to that shitty - yet all mine - life.

"Pick up. Pickuppickuppickup."

"Yeah?"

"Heeey," I get charming. "Let me talk to Vekt."

"Who is this?"

Ok, so I'm not a big name dealer. "It's Moon."

"... Moon?"

If I had any kind of drive I could have worked my way up to having my supplier's personal number. Then I wouldn't need to go through these call screening morons. "Yes. M-O-O-N. Moon. Vekt knows me. I need to talk to him."

"He's busy, Moon. So fuck off- Hold up." The line is silent for a minute. I checked to see if the asshole hung up on me. Finally someone started talking again.

"Moon?"

I recognize the thick and smooth voice. Vekt is a raptor, but you'd think he was part peacock the way he was constantly preening his feathery head and strutting around in designer threads. At least, that's what I got the two times I'd met him in the flesh.

"Heeey, Vekt. Look, I know I was supposed to pay you Saturday, but I gotta say that there might be a little delay. Nothing big! You will still get the money for the last supply, b-but I might need a couple extra days... and a little more shit." I winced preemptively. Vekt was not known for his leniency.

"Mhmm," he hummed. "Are you watching the news, by chance?"

"The news? No. Hang on." I ran back to the row of computers. I know I saw the fox listen to the local stations. It took me a little experimenting, but I found a browser tab with channel six streaming.

"Ok, Vekt, what am I looking fo-" the phone sild from my hand. That was a picture of me on a projector behind three grim looking furs on a stage. Cranked the volume.

A wolf in a tailored suit was behind the podium, apparently taking questions from the press. "-no, we aren't saying with any certainty this is the killer-"

"The New Abilon Ripper?" shouted someone from the audience.

"Your label, not mine," the wolf growled before composing himself. "A fur of interest, that's who he is. Any information leading to his arrest will yield the five hundred dollar NAPD Crime Stoppers reward, and I'm told - fact check me on this - that the family of the first two victims are putting up a twenty thousand award fund-"

I wanted to throw up. I squatted, putting my head between my knees as the wave of nausea washed over me. Shit! Vekt was still on the line. I grabbed the phone and sat back on the cold cement floor.

"Vekt?"

"Moon."

"Vekt, I swear it's just a misunderstanding. I'm clearing it up as we speak."

He gave a paternal sigh. I hated how calm he was. Angry Vekt I could deal with, this was just unnerving. "I don't give a shit who you kill and gut for fun. What does affect me is when you fuck with my business."

"Wha-"

"I've had cops crawling all over my territory since the second murder. Three of my boys have been picked up. Do you know how much money this is costing me?"

"B-but, I didn't do anything!"

"The TV says otherwise, Moon. I'm being generous and giving you a chance. Turn yourself in. Let me get the wheels of commerce spinning again, at least for a while. If you really are innocent, someone else will turn up dead in a few days and you've proved me wrong."

"But I'll still be in jail. They'll still have me on drug charges and resisting."

"Better than murder, right?"

Ha-fucking-ha! "I can't."

"I said I was giving you a chance, not an option." Vekt's temper was rising. "Turn yourself in, because if I have to send someone to find you, the cops won't be keeping you in a cell, they'll be keeping you in a drawer. You've got two hours."

"Vekt!" the line went dead. I struggled back to my feet. The press conference was over, now the anchors were recapping everything. They had my picture up. A mugshot from a few years ago when they caught me dealing at the mall. I couldn't help but wonder if that was the picture they'd be using for my obituary.

Two hours to turn myself in... or Vekt would come looking for me.

***

Chapter 6

Casey

Mike was reading my notes while I was sweating profusely, praying that I never wrote anything insane, like Mike + Casey 4ever. God knows what I do when my brain shuts off around the big antelope.

"You've got notes from chapter sixteen. I thought the prof said we could skip it... Is this going to be on the test?"

I'm a bit compulsive when it comes to note taking. I like to cover everything even if it's optional material. "Probably not. But there's a quiz coming up that focuses on the history of psychology and chapter sixteen covered some of the early days of non-narcotic treatments for mass hysteria. They'll probably go over it again, but I figured I'd just go through it now so it'll be easier to understand later."

Why was Mike smiling at me? My red fur could hide some of my blushing but if kept that cute quirked smirk...

"Damn, you're smart, Cas."

I laughed like a duck that swallowed a fog horn. I might have offended the donkey in the front row. He was glaring back at me like I was mocking him. I dipped my head and mumbled a faint apology.

Mike was trying not to laugh as he furiously added to the pages of notes he'd made. From what I could tell, the only thing that he might want to work on was his organization. My notes were all printed clearly in several tiers of bullet points, his was a block of looping, overlapping letters, barbed with seemingly random arrows.

He passed me back my notebook. Our eyes locked and my heart started hammering. Slowly, he reached out. Oh God, he was going to touch my face! I could not gurantee I wouldn't have hot, sweaty, bestial, male on male sex right in the auditorium in front of everyone.

His finger touched my chin. Instead of the lewd caresses I'd anticipated, he tuned my head ever so slightly.

"Dang," I whispered. The professor was walking in from the side door, his TA wheeling a cart with his laptop and material behind him.

Mike laughed warmly. Did he know the effect he had on me? Did he feel anything? His hand patted my back and I knew this was going to be a long, long, long lecture.

***

"Wow," Mike touched me again. Upper back. If he kept this up I was going to start keeping count. "Time just flew by."

I blinked my glazed eyes and wondered what dimension the antelope had slipped into for the last thousand years.

"Yeah, Mike. Real fast."

We stood up. He stretched while I packed my backpack.

"Here, let me carry that for you." He hefted my bag off the chair. "The least I can do for you helping me out."

"Hehee, yeah," I said eloquently.

We headed for the door. "I was going to race you to the gym, but what on earth do you have in this thing? It weighs a ton."

"Y'know," I shrugged. "Books, a change of clothes, that sort of stuff." Crime fighting gear, lock picks, civilian grade forensic tests. Things any normal fur would have on them.

We make our way to the campus gym. It's in an annex next to the athletic field. I'm always reminded of high school when I walk inside. Maybe it's the low sound absorbing ceiling and harsh florescent lights. Maybe it's the way I still feel awkward around furs like Mike. I don't know.

He swiped his ID card and the doors open. The smell doesn't make me as horny as you'd probably guess. It's more like a blast of motivation. It makes me want to prove myself to all the other furs working to be their best.

Mike leads the way into the locker room and passes back my pack. This isn't the first time I've been in there with him. Of course that didn't make it any easier to resist the urge to peek.

"You know what I realized, Casey?"

I yanked my workout clothes from my backpack and blocked my cock. "N-no? What?"

"We don't have each others numbers."

"Oh?"

"You're always helping me in class, and over here, we should stay in touch."

"I'd like that!" I bit down on my tongue. That sounded way too desperate.

Mike gave me that stomach knotting chuckle he has and I gave him my phone. I stared at the number he'd typed in, completely missing him taking off his tracksuit and revealing the light gray shorts and sleeveless muscle shirt he wore underneath.

"Hurry up, Cas," he smiled and left me standing mute in the locker room.

***

I left the lockers and was smoothing out my wrinkled Superwolf shirt when Mike waved to me from across the weight room. He was on a bench, ready for me to spot him. I jogged over happily. We always started with him first, not that I minded. In fact, it was a heck of a show.

I grabbed the bar, bracing myself and looking down at the grinning antelope. He wasn't seeing me from my best angle but at least I wasn't drooling. Mike didn't seem to have a bad angle, but I'd be happy to look for one if he ever gave me the chance.

"So," he grunted, lifting the weights to start bench-pressing. "That thing in class, about societal institutions evolving based on the needs of the least fortunate, do you buy that?"

"Um... Kinda." I really am smart, I assure you.

"Then why all these famous furs we're learning about?" His arms bulged with every pump. "Why would we need crusaders for urban planning, or mating equality? Wouldn't they just spring up naturally?"

"Maybe, but I look at it like the relationship between convergent evolution and medicine."

"Huh?"

Huh, indeed. I made the mistake of letting my eyes wander south. I shook my head to get the blood flowing again.

"Y'know, convergent evolution. Like why we all have fingers and toes, even when some of our ancestors had hoofs." I patted the antelopes perfect fingers to demonstrate. "Even if we're all converging toward an ideal form based on our environment, we still need doctors to treat species specific illnesses, like that flu that hit the razorback population pretty hard. The doctor that found a vaccine is a lot like that fur that started the public housing program. It might have happened later, but it's individuals that make things happen when we need them the most."

The bar clanked back into the holder and Mike was looking up at me. Crap. He thinks I'm a total nerd now. Great.

"Damn, Cas. That's pretty deep."

"Heh. It's not like I'm a philosopher or anything."

He sat up and rubbed a towel over his fur. "You're always so quiet in class. I know you're smart, but deep too?"

His smile makes me blush and I start messing with my hair, brushing it back.

"I'd like to hear your thoughts on some other things too. Maybe if you've got time when we're done here, you want to hang out in the cafeteria?"

"Y-ye-"

My phone rang. It was a custom tone from the opening to a campy sixties TV show. I have it as an alert for the tracking device I planted on Lou to go off if the signal strays outside of my lair's immediate area.

"Shoot!"

Mike looked at me with concern while I tap off the sound. "Everything alright?"

"Y-yeah. Uh, kinda. I just have to take care of something."

"Oh..."

And oh my God. He looked disappointed. Lou was blowing possibly the only shot I'd ever have with Mike. If the goat wasn't being abducted by international organ harvesters I might have to kill him!

"Just an emergency at work," I start edging toward the locker room.

"I know how that can be. Where do you work?"

Gah! And he's taking an interest in me. Curse that pot smoking Lou!

"Tupperware."

"Tupperware?"

Tupperware? What the hell was I thinking? "Tupperware sales."

"Oh. Hope it turns out ok."

The disappointment smacks me like a wet sack of expired mangos. "M-me too. I'll, I'll message you later."

"Great, we can talk more about the history of mass hysteria."

His smile sent me fluttering. "Totally!" I started running for the locker room, hoping he said 'the history of mass hysteria,' and not 'your history of mass hysteria.'

***