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Torn - Ch. 4

"Holy hell!" Matt blurted out in shock.

"Shit just hit the fan, big time" Ferlin mumbled, a distant look in his eyes.

"Oh...my...god" Jackie stuttered, nervously, her ears flattened.

As the shock of seeing the nation's capitol literally leveled, subsided, the full realization of the situation set in.

A long, drawn out silence passed between them, the tension hung in the air so thick, it could have been cut with a knife.

The T.V. image cut to what appeared to be an underground bunker, the very recently sworn in president sat behind a card table serving as a makeshift desk, by the look on his face he was obviously very shaken up. Speaking to the camera, he said in a clear, almost hard tone, "I am declaring a national state of emergency, Russian troops crossed our borders unannounced approximately an hour ago by air. Washington D.C., has, as you may have seen, been obliterated, we are, as of now, not disclosing the reasons as to why. Standby for further updates. This is your president signing off" the connection cut and the T.V. went blank.

"Ok, that was the vice president, not, oh...HOLY SHIT!" Ferlin exclaimed.

"What?" Jackie asked.

"The president's dead."

"Shit, now what?" Matt asked.

"Go, get your shit packed and be ready to go" Ferlin ordered them.

"Why not just stay put for now?" Matt asked.

"We're going to try but if this area is overrun by Russians, we will have to leave."

After packing their bags with the essentials, they tossed them into the HUMVEE, when both Matt and Ferlin's eyes fell upon the Browning .50 cal turret gun procured from the armory weeks before.

"You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" Ferlin gruffly asked with a dark grin.

"Yep, as much as I hate to say, I think we're going to need it" Matt responded grimly.

With the help of a chain hoist in the garage, they managed to heft the weapon up and get it mounted in the truck's turret, the end of a belt of FMJ rounds, with a tracer every tenth round, was loaded into the chamber and bolted. As an afterthought, Ferlin hooked another belt onto the first, giving himself enough ammunition to last at least a few minutes.

Idle time passed over the next few days, leaving all three of them on edge, knowing all hell was going to break loose, with no clue as to when.

Matt laid face up on his bed, just thinking about what to do, when Ferlin knocked on the door.

"What's up?" Matt asked tiredly, shaking the sleep from his head as he sat up.

"Just though I'd let you know the Russians have landed on the west coast."

"They were able to break through the defenses setup after what happened a few days ago?"

"Yea, there's now nearly half a million Russian troops on our west coast alone and nearly fifty thousand on our east coast."

"They'll push inward, pushing furs and pro-fur humans alike, into the plains region, slaughtering anyone who gets in their way" Matt responded hollowly.

"Exactly, there's only one problem, the troops on the east end are getting annihilated. That still leaves the troops on the west end, those are the ones we have to worry about."

"Hmm, we need to get a plan of action together" Matt said, putting a hand to his chin, his brow furrowed deeply in concentration.

"Yea, try to get some sleep, we're going into town tomorrow morning for water, the pump's out."

"No shit? Alright then, see you in the morning man."

***

Four hundred miles to the west, an old battered Chevy Silverado 1500 sat alongside a burned out apartment complex, the 350 small block emitting a low rumble, its muffler gone, ripped off when the truck slid over a street sign hours before.

A small group of survivors was forming around the tailgate, looking at a roadmap, stopping after trying to figure out where to go. The self elected leader, a seven foot tall dragon with deep purple, almost black scales traced the route with an extended claw, saying in a deep baritone voice, "Here's where we are, here's where we're heading, miles away from this living hell, let's go!"

Occasional gunshots could be heard in the distance, pushing closer, the screams and booms of antiaircraft and tank fire was getting closer as well. They had narrowly escaped death when Russian troops and Humanist forces had overtaken their town, mowing down anyone who stood against them, burning out buildings. The group had been driving for nearly three hours and had to stop to look at a map and scavenge some gasoline for the truck.

In the bed of the pickup truck, several furs were already sitting, waiting, praying, eyes all bearing a hollow expression, of a town of nearly twenty one hundred, they were some of the only survivors, the other few left behind, their injuries making travel impossible. A middle aged fox clutched her crying, young kit tightly. Others were crying over loved ones they had lost.

Propping herself against the front wall of the bed, a female coyote clutched the old M1 Garand in her hands tightly, it had been her ticket to another day of life, after pulling it from her father's dead hands. Her hazel eyes bore no expression, blood, both hers and the man who gunned down her entire family, matted her fur and tattered clothes.

The driver's door slammed and the truck roared off, into the dark, inky abyss of night.

***

Matt awoke in a haze, extremely groggy, unable to get any good sleep. His night had been punctuated with a replaying nightmare, Ferlin's body sat slumped in the open street, dead by a sniper's bullet, Jackie and himself were hiding behind a concrete embankment, nearly out of ammunition and surrounded by Russians. Suddenly he felt Jackie slump down into his lap, he looked down just in time to see her dead body, a bullet through her chest, just before he, himself was shot, but death never came, instead he would wake up, breathing hard in a sweat, only to fall asleep and have the nightmare replay again.

Stepping into the hallway a few minutes later, he saw Jackie, leaned against her door, waiting to go. He ran across the hall and smothered her in a tight hug.

"OOMPH, someone's happy to see me!" she managed to get out, Matt's death grip hug nearly squeezing all the air from her lungs.

Loosening his grip, he whispered into her ear, "Had the weirdest dream last night, I never want to have it again. Jackie, whatever happens to us, know one thing, I love you".

"I love you too, Matt" she whispered back, looking up, into his eyes.

They separated a minute later just as Ferlin stepped into the hall, he smirked at the two, still standing there, eyes locked, "You lovebirds will have time to make a baby later, we need to go".

They just rolled their eyes at the grinning wolf.

Half an hour later, the HUMVEE roared into the city limits at nearly ninety miles an hour. Matt jumped on the brakes, the truck slid to a stop in front of the supermarket, jumping the curb. The hard jar threw Ferlin, who left himself unbuckled, into the back of Matt's seat with a thud.

Looking back, Matt asked, "You alright?"

His response was the finger and, "You jabbed the brakes and bounced the curb at twenty five miles an hour, WHAT DO YOU THINK JACKASS!"

"I don't think, I just do."

"Guess that's what you get for calling Matt and I lovebirds" Jackie smirked.

Grabbing their rifles they clambered out of the truck and into the store.

***

On the other end of town, the old Chevy rolled to a stop in front of the surplus store, the survivors stopping to look for ammunition. The coyote jumped out of the truck bed, slung the Garand over her shoulder and started walking away from the store.

"Hey, Jess, where ya going?" one of the others called out to her.

"I'm sick of running, I'm getting off here" she replied, looking down at her own hands, the dirt and blood caked over her fur, this is ridiculous, running, for what, just to be killed later on, she muttered to herself. Kicking a small stone in the street, she kept walking.

Finding nothing inside the store, several minutes later, they climbed back into the truck and roared off, taking a left onto the main highway out of town.

***

Thinking he heard a noise outside, Matt tossed the gallon jugs of water he was carrying, into the HUMVEE, before walking a few paces from it. Seeing a shadow emerging from behind a nearby building, he cautiously moved closer, his SKS held to his shoulder.

The shadow's owner jumped out from behind the brick building, her M1 Garand aimed at Matt's head. Matt tensed and tightened his grip on his rifle but not bringing it up in fear of getting his head blown off.

"Freeze or die" she hissed icily, slowly stepping closer to him.

Matt stood stock still, looking her over, he judged she wouldn't hesitate to make good on her command.

"Your funeral dear" Jackie remarked in a matter-of-fact tone, slowly walking up to Matt, her .22-250 trained on the coyote's head.

"Who are you?" the coyote asked in a slightly cocky tone.

"Someone you really don't want to piss off and, dear, right now, you're doing a pretty good job of just that. And you are?" Jackie replied angrily, a deep anger within her started rising when she saw the gun pointed at Matt's head.

Lowering her rifle and her ears slightly, she huffed and said quietly, "The name's Jess".

"C-c-can I relax now?" Matt managed to get out, still standing stiff as an old oak tree.

"There's no one pointing a gun to you head to stand still" Jackie smirked.

"Hey, there was, you know!"

"Didn't catch your name" Jess said, turning towards Matt and giving him a slight smile.

"Matt's what they call me" he smiled back nervously, happy her gun was no longer pointed between his eyes.

"What's going on out here?" Ferlin asked, walking around the back of the HUMVEE.

"I about got my head blown off" Matt smirked.

"What the fuck are you talking about and who's she?" Ferlin remarked, motioning towards Jessie.

"That's Jess, just met her and almost the bad side of her rifle" Matt said, slinging his SKS back over his shoulder.

"Right, let's get the hell out of here and back home" Ferlin said.

"What about Jess?" Jackie asked.

"She can roll with us" Matt said, before turning to her and saying, "If you'd like to and if you promise to not shoot me" he smirked.

"What makes you think I won't shoot you?" Jess teased lightly.

"Those two, I didn't take aim at you, Jackie did and Ferlin wouldn't think twice about it" Matt said, pointing at them.

She looked at all three of them and nodded her approval, "Yea, I'll go".

Piling back into the HUMVEE, Matt backed off the curb and pointed it out of town, towards the cabin and rolled into the throttle. Less than a quarter mile from the edge of town, an old olive drab pickup truck carrying a load of gun toting Humanists came screeching into the main road from behind a brick building, heading right for the HUMVEE, several of them taking potshots at Matt's truck, a few glancing off the metal panels, leaving small pockmarks and the occasional hole. Acting on pure adrenaline, Ferlin jumped from his seat and up into the turret and started unloading three round bursts from the Browning through the windshield, decimating the gunner in the passenger seat, a well placed shot separating his head from the rest of his body. Switching to full auto, he started mowing down the rest of the bastards in the bed, several dead, disfigured bodies falling onto the pavement.

At the same time, Jess leaned out her window with the M1 Garand and emptied all eight of its .30-06 rounds into the last few passengers.

The driver received one of Jess's rounds to the right shoulder, the truck started swerving erratically, before finally slamming headfirst into a lamppost, leaving him to bleed out.

Stomping the throttle, Matt pushed the HUMVEE towards the city limits, running over some of the dead bodies, each one with a sickening crunch, one screamed, not completely dead, until the tires rolled over his head, popping it like a grape, when a Jeepload of Humanists roared out from the same street the truck had, chasing the HUMVEE.

"WHAT THE FUCK THEY'VE GOT A FUCKIN' RPG TUBE!!!" Ferlin screamed after spinning his turret around to see the open top Jeep, a loaded RPG launcher mounted to the roll bar stared them down ominously.

Ferlin started unloading into the Jeep, the Browning jammed after only five rounds, "FUCK!" Pulling his 1911 from his belt, he unloaded all three magazines he had, killing only two and injuring three, including the RPG man.

The few rounds fired at the Jeep gave Jackie just enough time to jump into the back and unpin and whip a hand grenade at them, while the driver struggled to regain control after swerving to avoid getting annihilated. The grenade went off to the left and rear of the Jeep, giving it a hard shake just as the RPG operator pulled the trigger. The jolt caused his aim to fall short of the HUMVEE a few feet, doing nothing more than put a small crater in the pavement and spray asphalt everywhere.

She yelled up to Jess, "GIVE ME SOME SUPRESSION FIRE!!"

"WITH WHAT?" Jess yelled her question back while unbuckling.

"THIS!!" Jackie screamed, pulling the canvas cover off the machinegun.

Jess jumped back and started unloading .30 cal rounds from the belt gun, the driver had sunk as low as possible in his seat, only his eyes were visible through what used to be the windshield. The RPG operator struggled to reload with the hail of lead ripping through the air around the Jeep and the .45 caliber round lodged in his abdomen. The rest of the live crew dropped into the Jeep's body, trying potshots, none of the rounds coming close to the HUMVEE, the untrained men unable to keep steady as the Jeep swerved.

Hope to hell this works, Jackie muttered to herself, looking at the IED she was about to deploy, a small, green Coleman propane cylinder, duct taped to a hand grenade. She yelled up to Matt, "SLOW DOWN!"

"ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY?" He screamed back.

"JUST SLOW THE FUCK DOWN GOD DAMNIT, I'M GONNA END THESE BASTARDS!!!"

She pulled the pin, held the lever and waited.

"HURRY THE FUCK UP, I'M RUNNING OUT OF AMMO!" Jess yelled to her, a few rounds from the end of the belt.

"JUST ONE SECOND!!" she yelled back. When the Jeep was just close enough, she threw the IED as hard as possible, it bounced off the back of the hood and through the now nonexistent windshield.

"MATT, GET THIS THING THE FUCK OUT OF HERE, NOW!!!" she screamed to him.

"WHY?" he screamed back, flooring it anyway.

"BECAUSE...." BOOM..... KA-BOOM!!!!, "THAT!!!" she screamed over the double explosion, the grenade exploding ripped the cylinder open, igniting the gas. The explosion from the gas cylinder turned the Jeep and its occupants into shrapnel and gore as what was left in the gas tank was ignited by the propane explosion. Jackie and Jess ducked back into the back seats as bits of metal and a little human flesh sprayed the back of the HUMVEE, a severed human thumb bounced off the inside of the windshield, landing in Matt's lap.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" he screamed, seeing the bloody thing.

Ferlin yelped and dropped from the turret, his exposed back and shoulders taking some metal, turning around just as Jackie chucked the bomb she had built, had saved his life.

"WHAT HAPPENED!!" Matt yelled back to the wolf.

"Shrapnel to the back, hurts like hell."

"You gonna be alright to run for awhile man?" Matt asked hoarsely, his throat sore from yelling.

"I should make it, where are we going?" Ferlin said, breathing heavily, his back starting to bleed.

"East, I don't know where, but with those weapons they had, Russians aren't far behind."

"Yea, I thought about the same" turning towards Jackie, he said, "Take a look at my back, would ya".

"Yea, take off your shirt....oh, shit this looks bad" she said with a deepening frown, several hundred small lacerations peppered his back. "Hmm, not much I can do other than pull what I can find".

"Just get what you can, my right shoulder hurts like a bitch in heat" he grumbled.

"No shit, Sherlock, you've got a nice sized chunk of metal lodged in it" she said before carefully taking it in her hand and pulling it.

"FUUUUCCCCCCK!!!!!" he roared when the chunk of what used to be part of a Jeep door was removed, the blood started soon after. Thinking quickly, Jackie tore a piece of his t-shirt off and used it to tie a massive wad of gauze to his shoulder. She worked quickly, healing him up as best as she could, he would have some jagged scars the rest of his life though, reminding him of the horrors of war.

Matt turned onto the main east/west interstate highway two hours after the ambush. Their travel was slowed slightly, dodging burnt out cars, some with bodies reduced to skeletons inside and more than one big crater caused by IEDs. Finding a shelled out gas station, they were able to scavenge some diesel fuel, cutting the underground tanks open, via the hatches in the concrete.

Slowing down to avoid several burnt out cars, Matt noticed one, it held what was a family of four, one of them was just an infant, all reduced to bones, "Why, all this, entire families dead because of what, a bunch of BIGOTED FOOLS!" he started whispering, yelling the end for the rest of the world to hear.

Jackie, who had moved back up to the front seat hours before, turned towards him and saw the bloodshot, tired, teary eyes of a man who had been hurt emotionally. Taking his right hand into her left, she asked in a whisper, "You gonna be alright?"

"I'll make it" he responded hollowly, while his mind told him, there's no way this will ever be over.

As nighttime approached, Matt pulled off the interstate and onto a two lane blacktop and finally into a deserted cattle pasture, somewhere in the Plains region.

***

"Sir, we have several distress calls from the troops deployed to eastern Arizona" the intelligence officer at a U.S. Army base camp, a jet black fox said quietly to her commanding officer.

"What's the situation?"

"Our troops are reporting mauling by Russian troops, saying they have seemingly gone insane."

"What the fuck, zombies?"

"Not exactly."

***

Ferlin jolted awake when Matt shut the HUMVEE's diesel engine off, "Wha...what's going on?!" he asked, startled.

"Nothing, we're stopping for the night, I'm exhausted and we only have a quarter tank and two jerry cans of diesel fuel left and I don't wanna run the risk of running out on the interstate, especially at night" Matt responded tiredly, his exhaustion obvious in his voice.

"Oh, ok, I'll keep watch, you get some sleep" Ferlin said, much calmer.

"Yea, goodnight" Matt said before opening his mouth in a jaw cracking yawn and laying down between the front seats and passing out.

Rummaging around the gear bags, Ferlin procured a set of night vision goggles and climbed into the turret before strapping them on. He kept his 1911 at the ready as he made a quick 360 degree sweep of the area. With nothing looking out of the ordinary, he cleared the jam in the Browning .50 caliber and reequipped it.

The next morning, around ten thirty, Matt woke up feeling a weight on his right side. Looking over, he saw that Jackie had fallen asleep, curled up next to him.

"Morning man" Ferlin said to him, dropping from the turret, sounding completely exhausted, his eyes bloodshot.

"Yea, we need to get rolling" Matt said, stretching to chase the last bit of sleep from his body, after carefully untangling himself from Jackie.

"So soon? Why?"

"No reason to stay here, we should push farther east, try to find other survivors or put more distance between us and the Russian forces, at the least."

"Let's roll then."

"What's that?" Matt asked, hearing a deep rumble coming from the east, he climbed out of the HUMVEE.

"That!" Ferlin exclaimed, now standing next to Matt, pointing to a propeller powered aircraft, heading west.

"Wonder who's it is?"

"Ours, the Russians wouldn't have anything like that here, a reconnaissance plane by the look of it" Ferlin explained, pointing out the radar and recording equipment, just visible on the low flying craft.

"Hmm, that's odd."

"Yea, it is, we'd better shit and get."

"Agreed, let's get the fuck outta Dodge."

Matt woke the girls up starting the HUMVEE, within minutes they were gunning it for the interstate. Jess had taken over the turret, Ferlin having passed out from lack of sleep the night before.

***

"Oh, holy shit!" the intelligence officer exclaimed.

"What is it?" her CO asked.

"This is bad, real bad, our recon plane's footage shows several hundred, possibly thousands of what appear to be mutated Russian troops."

"Mutated, how so?"

"Ever seen The Hills Have Eyes?"

"Yea, like them?"

"Exactly, except worse, they are faster, stronger, more bloodthirsty and harder to kill."

"What caused it?"

"That" the intelligence officer replied grimly, pointing to a massive dark circle on her computer screen.

"What in Sam's hell?"

"It was a bomb, a poorly built, dirty, radiation weapon, went off in their base, anyone in the immediate area would have been vaporized, the mutation we are seeing is from the fallout, which is quite heavy and unable to travel much more than about three hundred miles."

"That's definitely not normal, usually mutations would take a long time, wonder what the hell was in that fucking thing."

"Not a clue, all I know is, there's another one a few hundred miles north of this one, it didn't go off, yet."

"Evac all U.S. troops within the radiation zone immediately, that is an order!"

"Yes, sir."

***

"Matt, what's that?" Jackie asked, pointing to a group of tents, a few makeshift buildings and vehicles about a half mile from the interstate.

"I dunno, grab the binoculars and check it out."

Rummaging through her pack, she grabbed a pair of military binoculars, looking through them, she adjusted the range until a small camp came into view. Looking closer, her heart started racing.

"Pull off Matt, those are survivors down there!" she exclaimed excitedly.

"Really? Are you sure?" he asked apprehensively, not wanting to risk getting shot at, again.

"Yea, it's mostly furs."

"Alright, go tell Jess not to light 'em up."

"On it!" she yipped, jumping into the back seat of the truck.

***

"Hey, Frank, you see that truck out there, just turning off the highway?" a jet black German Sheppard asked the panther sitting next to him inside the small hoop shelter, pointing out the rig.

"Yea, lemme get a scope, I'll check 'em out" Frank responded back as he got up and grabbed a Winchester .308 bolt action with a high powered hunting scope. "Hmm, looks like a military truck, there's a human driving and at least two furs with him" he mumbled, taking his finger off the trigger.

"Military you say?"

"The truck anyway, the occupants don't look like troops though."

"Ok, go tell everyone to hold fire, looks like survivors."

***

Rolling to a stop alongside the camp, they were greeted by a black panther standing outside the small portable shelter, yielding a bolt action rifle.

"What's your intentions?" he asked.

"Survive this hell" Matt explained dryly.

"I hear ya man, so what are ya looking for, a place to catch some sleep, food, fuel or what?"

"Really we just decided to check you guys out, it's a pretty big morale boost when you see someone else who's weathered the storm."

"Oh?"

"Yea, we've been pushing east since yesterday, not exactly fond of being shot at by an RPG!"

"RPG huh, no shit?"

"Yep" Matt said before explaining their encounter to the panther who had leaned up against the hood of the HUMVEE.

"How'd you manage to not get obliterated?"

"I blew 'em up!" Jackie exclaimed, retelling how she killed them.

"That works....wait, what?" the panther said, wide eyed.

"You're telling me. Didn't catch your name by the way." Matt said.

"Oh, sorry, Frank's what they call me."

"Nice to meet ya Frank, you can call me Matt, this is Jackie, the coyote on the turret is Jess and the wolf sleeping back there next the box of grenades, is Ferlin."

"You guys wanna take a break from the road?"

"Sure and a shower would be nice too!" Jess yipped, excited to take a break.

Later after a hot shower from a crude system, consisting of a plastic barrel, showerhead and some plumbing, with no reason to continue eastward, they set up camp.

Jackie was sitting with Matt on the roof of his truck later that night, just reminiscing on their lives before the war, when her sensitive ears picked up a low, distant rumble coming from the east.

"You hear that?" she asked.

"No, what is it?"

"I dunno, a deep rumbling sound, almost sounds like an airplane."

"Might be, Ferlin and I spotted what we think was a recon plane this morning. Huh, now I'm hearing it too, faintly though."

"There! I see 'em!" Jackie exclaimed, pointing at the five C130 Hercules planes flying in from the east, carrying in more troops, the vast numbers of Russian troops overrunning the Americans as they tried to run east to dig in.

Throughout the next few days, primarily at night, more and more American troops and supplies were brought in by air, the roads being deemed too destroyed and overrun by burnt out cars and debris to utilize effectively.

A week after stumbling upon the camp, Ferlin was perched on a makeshift platform just big enough for two people, serving as the camp's watchtower, he was on the last nightshift, the sun would be just rising when he finished. Hearing the telltale gravely crunch of footsteps below him, he looked down, only to see Jess, his heartbeat slowed down, only to speed up considerably.

"Um hello, you mind NOT staring down my shirt!" she scowled.

"What?...Oh, sorry, come on up" he replied, embarrassed, the blood rushing to his face would've been visible, if not for his dark fur.

"Typical guy" she snickered, shaking her head as she climbed the ladder, sitting down next to him on the floor, laying her rifle across her lap.

"So, what brings you up here at four in the morning?" he asked.

"Couldn't sleep, haven't been sleeping well since it happened" she said distantly.

"Since what happened?"

"My town got attacked, our front door was kicked in by a Russian. He went from room to room, kick its door down, then gunshots. I was in the bathroom, trying to find some Advil PM, to cure a headache and get some much needed sleep. He passed the bathroom right up. When I heard another door break down, I snuck across the hall to my parent's room, where I found their bodies...this rifle was still in my father's dead hands" she said, openly sobbing into Ferlin's shoulder.

"My god, that's horrible, I'm so sorry" he said apologetically, wrapping an arm around her slim shoulders.

"That's not the worst part either, I'm the only one in my entire family alive, he killed everyone, both my brothers, Isaac was only ten, David, was an infant, still in his first year of life" she said quietly, looking up into his eyes, new tears started falling.

"How'd you make it out alive?" he asked quietly, subconsciously rubbing her shoulder.

"After finding my dad's rifle, I heard footsteps coming my way, the man turned towards me just in time to die, it's not something I'm proud of, but survival is survival. Then, I ran into his office, grabbed his emergency bag and threw in extra ammo and made a break for it."

"Least you were able to run" he responded distantly.

"What?"

After explaining what happened to himself several months earlier, Ferlin looked through the binoculars he swiped from the HUMVEE. Scanning the endless expanse of flat prairie in front of him, his eyes fell upon a lone figure.

To Be Continued...