FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Written by brazy "birb" seeker

Inspired by K.A. Applegate's "Animorphs"

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CHAPTER 7

Light.

The hawk. I saw it suddenly right before my eyes. I was standing in the same road from the night that seemed like years ago, I saw the hawk fly across the road. I saw headlights crest the hill in the road. Why was it flying so low...?

No! It was too low! The cars tires squealed as it impacted, trying to stop but it was too late.

"THUMP"

Suddenly I wasn't just watching anymore. I was the hawk. My wings crumpled and I fell to the ground. I was absorbed in pain, the black surface of the road filled my vision as it narrowed in. I was finished, never to fly again, never to feel the familiar sensation of air filling my wings. I would die here, the car would drive off. I wouldn't be buried, my body wouldn't be wasted and hidden away. I would return to nature through the jaws of a scavenger. The cycle would be complete.

I closed my eyes. This was okay.

I woke to the sound of an engine sputtering and dying slowly. It was my dad's car, I could remember that now. The sound of the car was so familiar, it was the same engine I had heard a thousand times in my life, from the dozens of drunk driving episodes with my father and his friends to the few times I had been able to drive it myself.

I screamed. It was like every single fiber of my being was shocked back awake. I tried to flap my wings to fly away, but it just twisted my already hurt arms painfully making me panic even more.

"AHHHH! HELP HELP I CAN'T FLY!" I yelled, looking around at where I was. Car seat, the back seat. It was a seat I knew. I looked at the mounds of blankets, empty water bottles, and various snack wrappers on me, trying my best to sit up, letting out a long groan along with the motion. I tried to put my arms back up to my chest, but they wouldn't move right, leaving them to my sides instead. They hurt like hell, it felt like someone took both my wings- arms, and smacked them with a hammer right along the wrists. On my right arm it was worse, it hurt all the way up to the forearm. I could barely move them without searing shooting pain jolting through my whole body.

"W- what the hell, where am I? I was a bird... I..." My brain struggled to pull the pieces together. It felt like two realities had merged.

"OH MY GOD! YOU'RE ALIVE!" The car swerved hard as the voice from my dreams responded in excitement. Mikey's voice. "I thought you'd never wake up!"

"What? I... I was just asleep, why am I in my dad's car, and... what the hell I didn't know you could drive!" I responded.

"Oh, you... shut up, neither did I! God, hold on let me pull over so I can give you a hug." Mikey said, the car coming to a swift halt on the freeway.

"Where... are we..." I said as Mikey came around to the back seat. He opened the door and pushed some of the trash out onto the side of the road and taking the blankets off me, before reaching in and helping me stand up. "Agh... and why does everything hurt so much"

I looked out into the early evening sky, it was hot and very dry, but that sky. I've never seen anything like it. It didn't look anything like my home town.

"We aren't in Michigan anymore, are we Mikey..." I said.

"We're in... California. I'm pretty sure at least. Somewhere southern." He replied, rubbing his shoulder anxiously with one arm while supporting my shaky stance with the other.

"No way... no way, you're messing with me," I looked around again. Yeah. It looked like what I would imagine as California. "Oh my god..."

As I stared into the sky everything started to come back to me. The reason for my aching bones, my swollen arms. They were broken, had to be. Dammit.

I could see headlights almost burned into my memory. The headlights of the car I jumped in front of. I saw my arms out in front of me, as if accepting the car to hit me. I felt immense guilt fill me.

"Mikey, I... I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to do this to you- " I started to say.

"Sorry? You're sorry?! Are you kidding me? Look at me!" He said, looking down at me as I turned his way. "I was terrified I'd never be able to apologize for what I said to you that afternoon. I was so scared you were gone, I just started driving and driving, I took all the money I could find to get this far."

Tears started to well up in his eyes "I'm so sorry I pushed you like that. I never should have said what I did, I was angry, I was emotional. What happened to you in your past, it matters just as much. I'm so grateful you're alive."

He leaned in and wrapped his arms around me. I felt like I was about to cry on his shoulder, but it was cut short by the searing pain that jolted through my arms.

"Agh! Ow, Ow, my wing- Er... arms," I said, correcting myself mid sentence, "Be careful! I can barely lift them. God, I must have hit right on them..."

"Oh! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I forgot," Mikey said and jumped back, before pausing, "Wait your what? Did you say wings?"

"I um," I lowered my face in embarrassment, "I had some strange dreams..."

"Ah. Well I probably would have too if I were asleep for days" Mikey said.

"Days?!" I said in shock

"Yeah, that car put you to sleep hard. I took care of you, don't worry. It took almost three days to get this far, there wasn't much life left in that car of your dad's..." He said, trailing off towards the end out of what seemed to be guilt.

"Are you telling me... what was I in a coma or something?" I said, "My dad is going to kill me if when he finds out about this..."

"Hell if I know. By the sounds of it though you were more of a bird than a vegetable. Bird-Boy." He grinned at me in that all so familiar way that always makes me want to both punch him and laugh at the same time.

"Holy Jesus. I was hit by a car and you drove me all the way across the country- NOT a hospital, might I add, and NOW you're cracking bird puns? I would punch you right now if it weren't for my broken wings. Arms. Dammit!"

I couldn't help but laugh as I yelled at Mikey, giggling and twisting my torso to get him off me as I limped over to the front passenger seat. At least my legs worked, aside from the soreness in them. I reached for the door handle worthlessly with my left arm, moving it all of a few inches before I grimaced in pain. I could feel the bones in my wrist grinding together. This is definitely not going to be easy.

"Ow Ow AGH! Wow that is extremely not nice feeling! Hey Mr. I-don't-need-a-hospital, can you please get the door for me, because my arms are most definitely broken." I said as sarcastically as I could muster while trying to swallow the pain.

"Crap! They are? Are you sure?" Mikey ran around and opened the door. He helped me sit down inside, even buckling the seat-belt. This was not the Mikey I knew, he was being way too nice.

I looked at him with the most entertained look I could make. "Yes. I mean. Okay I've never broken a bone, I know you have, so lets see. It hurts like some fresh hell I've never experienced, and I can feel the bones in my wrists grinding together. My arms don't work at all, and they are also about twice the size they're supposed to be. Finally, Doc, my right forearm feels like its made of Jell-O. Pain flavored. Does that sound about right?"

"Y... Yeah, Okay. Maybe we should have gone to the hospital..." Mikey said as he climbed back in the driver's seat. "At least we have the car still!"

Mikey turned the ignition and I heard the engine roll over reluctantly, sputtering and slowly roaring to life.

"See! Good as new!" Mikey said proudly.

Then the engine exploded. When I say exploded, I mean there was a dent in the frickin' hood of the car.

"WURR GRRRIND- WHAPOW!"

"AHHH!" I yelled

"AHHH!" Mikey replied

Flames started to lick out around the front tires of the car and we both panicked, Mikey popped the hood and jumped out of the seat, running around to the front with a towel and tried to lift the dented hood, yelping as he touched it.

"Hot! Hot! Hot! Ow! Hold on ill put it out!" Mikey said, burning his hands as he lifted the hood.

Now, if you've ever played with fire before, you should know one thing. Fire loves oxygen, and well, Mikey just gave it a lot of it.

Yeah, don't do that.

_ "_WOOOOSH!"

Flames completely engulfed my vision and I screamed, even through the windshield it was like the sun had just appeared in front of me and I was getting a tan. I had to get out right now!

I looked down at the seatbelt buckle helplessly and tried to use my less broken left arm to push at the buckle, but i couldn't get any pressure on the button. No, No, No, I needed help! Mikey! Where was he?!

"Mikey! Help please, I'm stuck! I can't get the buckle loose!" I yelled with my broken voice, it was weak from days of not being used. He can't hear me!

The flames started to grow back around the car further, getting larger with each second until they started to lick under the dashboard at my feet, burning through the old rusted out firewall. I knocked the passenger door with my head, screaming out of the partially open window for Mikey.

"MIKEY! PLEASE!" I cried in panic.

The fire was spreading into the car, my feet were burning and my pants were starting to catch. I kicked at the fire, as if that would do anything, searching around for anything to help me. My backpack, food, water bottle.

Water bottles! I reached with my less broken arm, still calling for Mikey, and tried to pick it up. My wrist then did something a wrist never should do. It flopped, right along the middle, at an ungodly angle. I screamed, LOUD. I started to cough from the dense smoke, my lungs and eyes burning.

"AHHHHHHHH FUCK! HELP, HELP, HELP!" I screamed.

"I'm coming! I was trying to put out the fire but its too much, what the- OH MY GOD!" Mikey yelled.

Mikey freaked when he saw the flames coming into the cab and my twisted arm. He reached in and unbuckled my seatbelt, dragging me out of the car. I don't think he realized the fire was spreading. He reached in through the flames and managed to grab my backpack before running away from the ensuing blaze.

I coughed and laid in the grass on the side of the road only a couple feet away, watching as Mikey grabbed the backpack and threw stuff to the side. I was dazed from the agony, just staring at the fire as it engulfed the car. It was intoxicating and I was frozen in place. It was beautiful in a way, the flames, maybe I could just sit and watch them work. I didn't move and inch. I swear I could almost see that same hawk sitting in the passenger seat as flames filled it, burning up into fried chicken...

"Move MOVE! We have to go! Its spreading too fast! What are you doing?!" Mikey said, grabbing me by my shoulders forearm, luckily it was the left one, but it still jolted the bones again. That woke me up.

"AGH! My arm! OH!" I said, jumping up and away from the car, my hair was singing from the heat.

He dragged me away while carrying the backpack, we didn't make it but 40 feet before:

"BOOM- WOOOOOOOSH!"

The fire reached the fuel tank and it went up, hard. You could have heard that boom for miles, probably. We turned back in awe as the fireball rose into the afternoon desert sky, the heat from it radiating like a second sun.

"Welp," Mikey said finally. "At least we don't have to worry about any evidence, huh?"

I replied with a slow nod, my jaw hanging open as I watched the fireball dissipate and the car burn to a crisp.