FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

She was in absolute agony. She felt trapped. She could feel chains shackled around her ankles to keep her from escaping. She couldn't move. Every second she sat there felt like an eternity. She had no clue when she'd be allowed to leave, but she knew that it wouldn't be any time soon. She fought down the urge to groan; she knew that letting one out would result in dire consequences. She squirmed where she sat and breathed heavily through her nose. She couldn't take this for much longer. It was just so...so...

Boring.

She glanced up at the clock overhead. 3 hours. 3 more friggin hours was how much longer she had to spend here until she was allowed to leave. The panther drummed her fingers atop her desk in an agitated fashion and glared at the phone sitting in front of her. It was because of this thing that she was stuck here. She shuffled uncomfortably in her seat again. Good lord did she hate this uniform. What she hated more about it was that she had to wear it despite not being on the actual police force!

Her eyes drifted over to the police officers walking by out of sheer boredom. She almost felt as though they were walking past her just to spite her. Like they were rubbing the excitement of their job in her face. With a scowl, she glanced back up at the clock. Nope. Still 3 hours left. Her attempt at time travel had failed. Good. Great. FANTASTIC.

She leaned back on her chair and stretched her arms out, letting out satisfied sighs as she felt her back pop here and there. "No slacking on the job, Miss Attah," called a voice from afar.

"I'm just stretching-s-UH-s-Sir..." She sat right back up as soon as she realized that the voice had belonged to her boss. "Ahem, I'll...I'll stay up now, sir." Only when she saw him slide back into his desk did she relax again. Jady hated this job. She really did. No kid in their right minds ever pictured themselves being a police records technician when they grew up. The only reason she had applied for this job was because she had thought that she could slowly rise up in the ranks and work her way up to becoming a police officer. It was how it worked in all of those family movies and such!

But no, evidently that wasn't how it worked. Now she was stuck here waiting for the clock to count down to her release time. The irony of this place feeling like a prison didn't get past her. Now she craved her freedom like any inmate would.

She jolted up in her seat as the phone on her desk began to ring. After straightening herself out and sliding some papers closer to her, she cleared her throat and picked up the phone. "Calvert City Police Department. What's your emergency?"

"Hi, yes, I need you to send in your best men."

"Okay sir. Do you need an ambulance, fire or police?"

"Police please. I--HEY!"

Jady's heart rate began to pick up. Wait...was something actually happening today? "Sir, is everything alright?" She heard more shouting in the background.

"No get AWAY! Get AWAY!" Not hearing a response, Jady turned to her computer and got to work on tracing the call. While she waited for the computer to do its thing, she rapidly tapped a buzzer on her desk and waved her paw over her head. "No! Get away from there! NO--" The harsh sound of something shattering filled Jady's ears. "AWWW, look at what you've done!"

Jady stopped buzzing.

"Do you realize how much that costs?! It's worth more than you! And now you've gone and broken it!"

"Hey, it's not that bad. I think I can fix it. I just need some glue and--"

"FORGET IT! Hello? Are you still there?"

Jady shook her head. "Y-yes, I'm still here, sir."

"Good. Like I said, I need you to send me your best men. I've got some weird homeless guy stepping onto my property and breaking things. I've been trying to get him to leave, but he refuses_to budge. You've _gotta get him out of here."

Jady let out a disappointed sigh, not particularly caring over the fact that the caller had probably heard it. "Alright sir, I just need your address and--" Jady glanced back at her computer to see that it had finished tracing the call and was now displaying the address. "Never mind. I just need your name as well as the names of everyone involved, and we'll send someone your way."

"Thank you. My name is..." Jady more or less zoned out by then and let herself go into autopilot. It was like this every friggin day. Literally every call she had ever received was over something mundane and unexciting. It was never over anything thrilling, like a break in or a fire. Not a day went by where she wouldn't be listening to someone complain over something miniscule for 5 minutes at the least. If it wasn't from a call, it was from one of her co-workers. Sometimes, if it was a special day, it'd come from her boss, and usually about something that she was doing wrong.

"Okay, I'm sending someone over now. Just try to keep your space from this man until the officer arrives. Ok? Bye." She closed her eyes and let out a _loooong_sigh as she hung up the phone. She drummed her paws on her thigh and slowly sunk into her seat. Another day saved thanks to...her. Yep...that sounded right.

"Ahem." That, however, didn't sound right. Swiveling an ear around, Jady sat up slightly and leaned to the side. Hidden just behind her computer, there were a handful of cops just standing at her desk, each with a rather impatient look on their faces. And oh good, her boss was among them.

"...Heheh..." she laughed sheepishly, "...oooOOOOHhh look, it's about time for my break. I'll uh...I'll catch you champs in a little bit--"

"You're not going anywhere, Attah."

"Yeah, I didn't think so..."

***

Off in a park not too far from Jady's police department, a large get-together was underway. With their parents all talking amongst one another at the park's tables, a cluster of kids was running around with a seemingly endless amount of energy. With everyone distracted by one another and with the kids fairly far away from them, no one really noticed as they disappeared deeper into the park. "Can't catch me!" shouted one of them as he ran from the other kids at full speed. One of them stopped to catch her breath as the rest chased after the taunting child. She crouched down a little to prop her paws up against her knees and tried to steady her breathing.

"Hello there, friend." No further warning was given as the child was yanked away by the shoulder and disappeared into the nearby bushes. The shriek she let out as she was taken away reached the ears of the other kids and their chase game was brought to an abrupt halt.

"Emma?" called one of the children. After a minute of not getting anything in response, he made his way over to where he had heard the shriek come from. "Emmaaaa!" he called again with his paws cupped around his muzzle. He scanned the forest left and right in search of his friend, but she was nowhere to be seen.

He took one more step forward and suddenly a mechanical arm shot out and grabbed his wrist. The boy shrieked and managed to slip free, but before he or any of the other children could run, a shockwave swept through the area. After it passed, the kids felt as though they were 4 times as heavy as they once were. When they tried to move, they felt like their limbs were moving through thick sludge, slowing their movements to a near stop. As they struggled to figure out what was happening to them, the mechanical being stepped out of its hiding spot to reveal itself to them. Their shrill, horrified screams echoed through the park as it lunged for them all one by one.

***

Jady grumbled to herself as she furiously typed away at her computer. Rather than taking her break, she was spending the remainder of her time here copying written reports into the database. Judging by the fact that there was still currently a large stack of papers left on her desk, she wouldn't be done for a while. She had to fight the urge to snarl as she heard her phone ring. She breathed in deeply through her nostrils before answering the call. "Calvert City Police Department. What's your emergency?" She barely had it in her to make her voice not sound so dead-pan.

"Y-yes, hello, I...I'm sorry, h-hold on," the caller's voice was trembling. It sounded as though she was on the verge of tears. Jady rolled her eyes. She'd probably just been insulted by someone and was trying to get the insulter arrested for "obstructing the peace." It wouldn't have been the first time it had happened to Jady. "I-I'd like to report a missing persons case. Our...o-our children are missing." Jady raised an ear tip. That was...less petty... Maybe she was overreacting though. Kids ran away all the time, after all, and they tended to come back within a couple of hours.

Regardless, Jady took on a more serious tone as she replied, "...Alright, ma'am. Can I get your name, please?"

"L-Lia."

"Okay Lia, we're sending an officer to your location. Can you give me your specific location so that our officer knows where to find you?"

"Y-yes, of course," Lia had to pause as she shuddered, "We're at the Owl Burrow Park Picnic Area." Jady frowned; that was a park that she went to a lot. "P-please hurry, I-w-we think they might have been abducted."

An abduction? Ok, now was definitely the time to take the call seriously. "Don't worry, Lia, help is already on the way." Jady tapped at her buzzer again. "Everything's going to be fine, don't worry. We'll find your kids." Her ear swiveled around as she heard someone next to her receive a call. She tried her best to focus on her own call as that person started their call as well. "Now can you describe your kids to me?"

"Okay...um..." Lia's voice was trembling. Jady could tell she was having a hard time keeping it together. "I-I have a little girl. Her name's Emma. E-Emma Greene. She's about 8 years old, a-and 4 foot 5... She..." She stopped and began to cry.

"Ma'am, it's going to be okay. We'll find your daughter, but I need you to describe her for me so that we can find her." She heard Lia shudder for a few minutes before she finally managed to get a hold of herself. Eventually, Jady had all of the info she needed. There had been a family outing when all of a sudden they heard their children scream. By the time they'd made it to the scene, they were all gone. It was a very concerning story to hear, especially with it coming from somewhere she frequently went to.

"Please find them," Lia begged, "I-I don't know what we'd do without..." She couldn't finish her sentence as she began to sob uncontrollably.

"It's going to be alright, Lia. We're going to find them. Our officers are going to make sure that your kids make it back safely..." Jady began to trail off as she began to listen more closely to the call going on beside her.

"Brown hair and blue eyes?" asked the person next to her, "Mmhmm, species is a golden lab? Okay. And where was the last place you saw him?" Jady blinked in surprise; was that another missing persons case? She shook her head and returned her attention back to her own call.

"I just...nothing like this has ever happened before," sobbed Lia, "I'm sure they're both scared and crying and--"

"Ma'am, please," Jady cut her off, "No need to panic. I know you're scared, and that's fine. But help is on the way, and they're going to do their jobs and help bring your kids back home."

"Calvert City Police Department. What's your emergency?" Jady's ear flicked as she heard someone else receive a call. "Ma'am? Ma'am. Please calm down. What's your emergency? Okay... Uhuh... And you're sure that they're missing?"

Jady's heart thudded. Another one? That...had to be a coincidence... Right?

"Hello?!" she heard Lia call hysterically. Jady shook her head again and brought her attention back to the call at hand.

"Right. Sorry. So please be patient until the officer arrives at your location. They'll be there very soon, so don't worry."

"...Okay..."

"Please stay safe, Lia. Goodbye." At that, the call ended, allowing Jady to finally set her phone down. She still couldn't help but think about the fact that--

"And what did you say the name of the missing person was?"

No. It couldn't be. Another one missing?! After listening in for a few minutes, she realized that her ears weren't deceiving her. Including her own call, that made 4 cases of missing people, and all in the same day! Was something going on?! She jolted as her phone began to ring again. "Calvert City Police Department. What's--"

"Please come quick!" a panicked voice shouted, "M-my little brother just went missing! I-I heard his scream, but I couldn't get to him in time! I think someone took him!"

This couldn't be real life.

After 5 straight weeks of mundane call after mundane call with each one dragging on and on, there was just no way that something could actually be happening here.

"Sorry, I--" Jady stopped herself to adjust her voice to stop sounding so giddy, "Right. I'm sending an officer now. Can I please get your exact location so that they will know where to find you?"

By the time her day had finally crawled to its end, the panther was absolutely drained. Though most of the day had been rather dull, the last few hours had taken a lot out of her (and the additional paperwork didn't help either). So as she began the trek back to her apartment, she allowed her mind to unwind by letting it wander. The first thing it wandered to, naturally, was the amount of calls her department received about missing people.

I wonder what the heck's going on. Cuz that was a lot of people to suddenly go missing at once. Maybe they're all linked_... Maybe they're being held captive by some weird underground organization... Maybe it's happening because there's some weird conspiracy going on, and all of those people_ knew something about it. Or MAYBE they're being recruited for some super-secret project that only a select few people are allowed to know about... Oh man, imagine cracking that case. That'd be crazy_. I'd probably have a bunch of people on my tail trying to take me down. Heck, I'd probably get into a car chase! Wait...I don't have a car... Well maybe I'll have to_ hotwire one in a hasty get away. Probably under gunfire... Definitely under gunfire. Oh and then I'd confront the big boss and end up in a standoff where I have to decide whether I fight for the people or to join their underground operation. Man, that'd be so cool...

***