FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A soft breeze ran through the trees, carrying with it a warning of a coming storm. A tiny, slender head slowly lifted to taste the air, yellow eyes giving a blink before lowering back to the ground. The box turtle stretched out her back legs, clawed feet shoveling the soft dirt out of her way.

As a mother-to-be, she had taken weeks to find just the right place for her nest. It was high enough that the rain wouldn't drown her eggs. The ground was just the right balance of soft and firm. The predators were nearly nonexistent. Everything she needed to give her future offspring the best chances for survival.

Her privacy was not to last, however. She felt the vibrations of many stumbling feet long before she could be expected to hear them. Turning her head in the direction of the vibrations, she froze in place, one leg stretched out while the other was still folded against her body. Slowly, she lifted her tiny head and stretched her neck out in order to get a glimpse of what was coming.

In the distance she could see a cloud of wriggling shadows slowly making their way toward her. The turtle's head pulled back into her shell before peeking back out. The shadows were still approaching. The vibrations caused by their movements continued to tickle her sensitive under belly as it rested against the forest floor.

As the shadows came closer, they began to form into the shapes of unsteady humans. Drunkenly they stumbled, arms hanging limply to their sides and heads lolling back and forth with each step. They appeared to be wandering aimlessly, occasionally bumping into trees and tripping over roots or pinecones.

The reptile continued to watch them as they came closer, not quite sure if they were friend or foe, until the smell finally came to her nose. Rotting flesh and disease began to fill the air. The pungent stench of death triggered deep instincts within the expectant mother. Lowering her head, she abandoned her half-dug nest and turned away from the cluster of shamblers to run away as fast as her stumpy little legs could carry her.

One of the undead spotted her movements and broke away from the pack. Groaning out its intentions, the rotting corpse reached out and grasped at the empty air with bony fingers. Its companions turned their heads at its call and began to follow, although they did not see any prey.

For several feet, the turtle and the zombie hoard traveled at the same speed, neither of them gaining any ground on the other. The turtle, fueled not only be the preservation of her own life but also the unshed eggs in her gut, strained to get away from the creeping plague chasing close behind. Given enough time and the luck of an abandoned burrow from some previous nester, she may have managed to gain her safety.

Fortune's fickle gaze gave her no more than a passing glance, however. The walking dead in the lead of the pack tripped over a small rock, half buried in leaves. Not that visibility would have made any difference. Arms still flailing in an attempt to grab the tiny mobile snack, the zombie fell rapidly to the ground and landed teeth first against the turtle's hard shell.

Reflexes honed by evolution jerked the turtle's limbs swiftly into her shell, which snapped tightly shut around them like a sarcophagus of bone. She could only hope that the thick plates would hold up against the creatures outside of it.

Unable to feel pain, the fallen zombie gnawed at the shell with broken teeth and shattered jaw, but could not seem to get any purchase on the crunchy treat. As the others showed up, each demanding a place at the feast, the box turtle was kicked by accident, sending her out from under the first one's clamping jaws and sliding across the litter of leaves and pine needles.

Finally spotting her, the remaining horde groaned about their eternal hunger and slowly charged after the escaping meal. The mother could only sit still and wait as around her the zombies got in each others way. She couldn't see them as they tangled limbs and smacked their own heads together. One of the hungry corpses became a little over eager and bit a chunk out of his neighbor's shoulder. The fallen alpha was trampled under foot, the combined weight of the others thwarting its own attempts at reclaiming its prize.

The ground suddenly fell away as one of the creatures lifted the sheltered turtle. Teeth clicked against her back. Dirty fingers probed at her belly. Greedy hands snatched at her shell. Knocked free of the loose grip, the turtle was jarred as she tumbled back to the ground, landing on her back. Another accidental kick sent her hurtling several more inches away, with the mob following close behind.

Again she was picked up and dropped as the shamblers fought for their share of tightly packaged meat. And then one of the unsteady creatures was knocked over by its mates. The zombie's fragile skull shattered across the turtle's shell ridge, spilling congealed blood and fermented brain matter all over the hiding reptile.

As if a switch had been thrown, the animated corpses fell still and motionless. Noses began twitching as they sought out the food that had been there a moment before but disappeared without a trace. When all they could smell was themselves, they calmed and began to wander off again, their journey as aimless as before in their search for life.

The turtle waited several minutes after the last tremor of their steps disappeared into the distance before allowing her shell to fall open the smallest amount. A tiny, pointed snout peeked hesitantly out, ready to jerk back into safety at the slightest threat. When nothing made itself obvious, she poked the rest of her head out and looked around her.

The area was once again quiet and free of zombies save the expired one using her for a pillow for her eternal sleep. One by one, each of the turtle's legs came out of hiding. It took effort to get free of the corpse, but after a few minutes she had managed to pull herself out from under the shattered head and lifted her head to get her bearings.

She found that she wasn't too far from her chosen nest sight. Several more minutes of slow walking, as well as a brief pause to snack on a mushroom that had been unearthed in the shambler's passing, brought her back to the hole she had been digging. It was undisturbed by the wandering undead. Turning around, she backed her hind end into the hole and began to dig out the soft soil with her hind legs.

Undisturbed, the new mother worked tirelessly at her task of digging her nest. She had new life to bring into the world, and even the undead could not stop her.