FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

It was a morning like any other day to Elpis, he has just woken up and briefly brushed his teeth. Scrolling through the daily scout report as he puts on his a size too big lab coat when suddenly, he noticed that three of the drone has gone offline, all in the same vicinity no less.

"Strange..." Elpis mumbled as he took control of another drone nearby, driving it to the area for further investigation.

The drone models - or H3RM3S, as he likes to calls it, were programmed with the ability to differentiate between the zombies and the livings, reinforced with steel armor and stealth flight. By theory alone, no one should be able to take down one, let alone three.

Elpis continues to pilot the drone further into the area. Naturally, the place is filled with zombies, mindlessly wandering around the place, occasionally bumping their heads into nearby obstacles.

After a while of aimlessly flying around, trying to find his target Elpis finally narrowed the list down to one single building.

At the entrance of the building, three of his drone was lying there lifelessly on the ground, perfectly intact, not even a scratch can be found.

"Physical damage probability - Eliminated," said Elpisemotionlessly before proceeding further into the building. The camera still remains top-notch quality too, eliminating the chances of there being a wave disruptor device nearby.

But then suddenly, all of his questions were answered as the camera slowly came into view of a lion zombie, sitting near a corner, his striped orange fur dyed brownish red from the dried up blood. His cheeks were decayed, revealing the fangs underneath.

That was all Elpis could see before the flashing red error message popped up on his tablet before the screen went pitch black.

Elpis spends a few moments standing there, staring at his tablet. He stood there, utterly flabergasted as thousands of questions start popping up. Who is he? Why was he there? How did he do that to the drones?

Whatever it is, Elpis need to find and bring him back here to study. Perhaps it will prove valuable in the future.

"Com," he called. "Prepare the exploration gears."

"Exploration equipment deployed. Please proceed to dock 2." Com's voice echoes throughout the lab.

~~~

About half an hour later he finally reached the town's outskirt. Slowly, he approached the town on his motorcycle before parking it behind a nearby bush. Elpis quickly puts on his camouflage suit. The suit was scented with the smell of decaying corpses in order to blend in better with the zombies, along with light fabrics for easy movements. Finally, Elpis popped the motorcycle trunk opened and pulls out his capturing rifle.

"Operation securing mysterious entity - commence," Elpis mumbles as he walks closer and closer to the town.

~~~

To say the town was destroyed was an understatement.

Flipped cars and building debris scattered across the street. Overgrown vegetation has climbed up and all over the houses, the grassy green tentacles of the plants seemingly devoured everything. The few places where the plants haven't touched are thoroughly looted and destroyed, traces of burning remains.

As Elpis observing the area, he suddenly got stopped when he bumps into the chest of a wolf zombie. The creature barely responds with anything other than a grunt before moving aside, wobbling as it continues its aimless wandering.

After a bit more time, Elpis finally reached where four drones went offline. The place is a multi-floor building, perhaps belong to a corporation judging from the multiple broken windows.

Drawing out the rifle, Elpis proceed into the building and instantly found his target. The tiger lays there, unmoving and filthy from the dried-up blood. If all the other corpses don't walk on their own, Elpis would've mistaken the tiger for a regular dead body.

Step by step, Elpis carefully inch closer to the tiger, his eyes focused on the motionless creature, watching for any sudden attack. Out of nowhere, the sound of glass cracked under his feet as he crushed the glass shard under his shoe.

Then, the tiger did what surprised even the unmoving Elpis. It looks up.

Granted, most of the zombies here have eyes rotten away from early on and rely solely on their hearing and their sense of smell to detect their target. But... There was something different with this tiger. Its eyes are still intact, staring curiously at Elpis with its deep and soulful yellow eyes.

Both oculus uterque seems to be functioning, Elpis thought as he continues to inch closer to the creature, and upon closer inspection, the tiger seems to be at least 1 ft bigger than Elpis, with well build muscle hidden under the clothes and the fur. Carrying it back will prove to be difficult.

The tiger tilts its head in curiosity and extends one of its hands toward him. Elpis reacted to the sudden movement by pulling on the rifle's trigger, sending out a metal net wrapping around the creature before a wave of electricity rushed through the net.

The tiger convulsed on the ground, groaning intensely as shock gushed through its body before going limp.

"T-Task - completed." Elpis stuttered as he tries to recover from the jump scare.

A few seconds later, after his heart has returned to its regular rhythm, Elpis hoisted end of the metal net on his back and started to drags the huge tiger back to the base. The net barely moved an inch after his few pulls.

Elpis let out a tired sigh in response, looks like gonna be a long trip back.

~~~

After returning back to the base, Elpis took the liberty of washing and decontaminating the tiger. In the case of when it suddenly wakes up, Elpis had four of his robots pinned the tiger down limb by limb as Elpis scrubs away the dried blood and dirt. He even goes as far as making the tiger an orange jumpsuit, taken from the storage room and crossed off the number "376" on the chest with the new number written on top in marker "1001".

It was already lunch by the time Elpis finished with the procedures. The small robot emerged from the corridor and drives up to him with a bowl of soup on its head.

*Beep**Beep* The robot screamed, signaling it time for him to have lunch.

"Not now..." Elpis said before pushing a button on its side before resuming watching the unconscious tiger behind the reinforced glass. How much did he shock it for it to be out this long?

*Beep**Beep* The robot repeat again five minutes later. Elpis pushed the button again.

From its head, a screen popped up and displayed the image of a male hyena, wearing the same lab coat as him, but only more properly fitted.

"Now Elpis, have you been skipping lunch again? I know whatever you're doing is more interesting than eating, but you gotta take care of yourself for us too. Just take good care of yourself a bit more when we returned, okay?" The hyena - Professor Anderson said before the screen went black again.

Sighing, he takes the bowl from the robot, feeling the warmth of it in his hands. They won't be back, Elpis knew it. It has been more than 5 years since when professor Anderson and professor Damian started their journey. It was supposed to be a simple mission, it was supposed to take less than one week to complete, they promised that they will come back to Elpis, and yet... here he is, alone in this desolate lab with nothing other than these old memories of them.

Elpis's face remains completely emotionless and unmoving as tears started to form in his eyes, trailing down his cheeks before dropping down the oversized lab coat.

He continues to stare at the bowl of soup, looking mindlessly at the pre-packaged content swirling around in the mixture. He deeply missed the days they were together, professor Damian and Elpis would guess the ADN structure together whilst professor Anderson preparing dinner. He wasn't aware of it before, he wasn't aware how warm he felt when they were here with him, how giddy he felt despite his stone-cold face. But now, there is nothing... nothing but cold.

Elpis was suddenly knocked out of his thought when he heard a loud thump at the glass. The tiger has woken up and now was pressing his nose at the glass, staring at him curiously again.

"I would love to study you right now..." He said coldly, glancing at the bowl in his hands, "...But finishing the food rank higher in the priority right now."

One spoonful at a time, Elpis starts to eat his soup while still maintaining eye contact with the tiger through the pane of glass. The curious expression remains unchanged, but there seems to be something else. Something that involves his bowl of soup.

"Are you... hungry?" Elpis asked.

The tiger doesn't answer. Instead, it hugs its stomach as the sound of rumbling echoes through the thick glass.

"Com, prepare another serving. Preferably some hard foods.

"Right away, Elpis," Com said. A few minutes later, the same robot returns with a serving of steak.

He grabs the plate, but, as Elpis standing in front of the door, he realized something important. The containment chamber only designed to contain, meaning that there is no way for him to safely enter the chamber. Elpis's eyes dashed around the room, looking for anything that could be used as a defense mechanism. There was his capturing rifle that was still charging, a chair too heavy to lift, and a coathanger in the corner of the room.

In the end, Elpis decided to use the coat hanger. Raising the feet of the hanger against the tiger, Elpis slowly walks in with the plate in his hand. At first, the muscular tiger seems to be interested in him, following every movement he makes. But when he slides the dish across the room, its focus temporarily shifted to the piece of meat and Elpis make a run for it.

Now, he doesn't know whether it was because the meat didn't look appetising enough or he was too slow. But the tiger immediately runs toward him as soon as he turns back, wrapping its muscular arms around him and pulling him against his chest, trapping him in its embrace.

"Let go!" Elpis screamed with all his might, writhing and kicking everywhere as he struggles to get out of its grip. He can't be turned into a zombie. Not now. Not ever. There is a facility he needs to maintains for his professor!

The tiger's mouth slowly inches closer to his neck as Elpis struggles to no avail. He can feel the breathing of the tiger next to his mouth, sending a shiver across his body.

Elpis was starting to cry by now, tears streaming down his face while his effort to free himself slowly falter away. He quickly closed his eyes and harden his body, ready for the sharp fangs to dig into his neck.

Then, instead of the blood-gushing bite to the neck as Elpis imagined, he felt a soft and wet tongue licking at his neck.

"Huh?' Elpis opened his eyes and found the tiger zombie still here, cheeks rotten from the decays sending wet licks all across his neck.

"W-What are you doing?" Elpis asked, his face heating up.

The question he asked was partly rhetorical since most of the zombies couldn't speak or even think. And yet... the tiger continues to surprise him.

"Sad... Don't sad..." The tiger answered in a broken manner and slowly makes its way to his cheeks, licking away all the tears that linger.

"How can you even speak? That shouldn't be possible!"

"Don't know... Happy..." The tiger said before snuggling closer to him, trapping Elpis perfectly in its lap. Left hand still wrapped around his belly, the tiger reached out to the steak and started to munch away on the piece of meat.

Together, they sat there with Elpis in the tiger's embrace for what felt like hours. The tiger purring slightly as it dug into Elpis's shoulder, occasionally sends little licks on his neck.