FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Elpis's day starts with absolute darkness. The electronic clock that usually wakes him up has been shut down, resulting in him waking later than most days.

"Com!" Elpis called but the familiar voice of the facility's assistant did not answer.

Worriedly, Elpis traced his hand on the headboard, following it until he reached a shelf hanging over his head. His hand panically dashed across the shelf, knocking down various kinds of books and a picture frame along in the process until the cold tablet meets his hand. He winced at the sudden brightness when he turns his tablet back on, and winced even more when he adjusted the brightness to max.

Using the tablet as a make-shift flashlight, Elpis scanned his room. Even at the highest brightness, the tablet is barely able to illuminate the room completely.

Elpis tried to hop out of bed but suddenly stopped when his legs gave out. He felt dizzy and disoriented, his eye sockets hurt and his head feels like it gonna split open any second now. He feels cold, as if a veil of pure ice was draped over him, sending shivers throughout his body. The fact that he fell on the freezing cold floor did not help either.

He laid helplessly on the ground, his clothes drenched in sweat continue to strengthen the cold and his mind is barely coherent anymore.

No. He refuses to lie here. The facility is facing a blackout right now, how dare he laid there.

Through sheer force of will, Elpis managed to pull himself back up. Using the wall as leverage, he hobbled out of his room and into the hall, heading toward the electrical room one step at a time.

When Elpis finally reached the electrical room, the smell of smoke instantly hit his nose. Though his stuffy nose managed to block out most of the scent from the scorched plastic, it still causes his headache to worsen. Flinging back and forth, Elpis frantically fanned away the smoke whilst using his other hand to cover his mouth as he inches closer to the broken box.

He quickly replaces the loose cable dangling outside the power box with a new one. Almost instantly, light blooms through the entire facility, the horrid smoke start to disappear as the air conditioning system went back online.

A sigh of relief escapes him as Elpis let his body leaned against the wall to rest for a bit. But this moment of peace did not last long before Subject 1001 suddenly appears in his mind.

"I should check on him..." He mumbles and got back up again.

~~~

The door of the containment suddenly swung open and came Elpis, tiredly leaning on the handle as he asked, "Hey, are you alright?"

Subject 1001 caught sight of the exhausted Elpis and instantly rushed to his side, giving the scientist his arms as he shifts Elpis's weight onto him.

"S-Sorry for the blackout... " Elpis slurred and simply follows along with the tiger's movement. He felt cold, so cold... But the tiger feels so warm... As if Subject 1001's body was his personal heater, Elpis mindlessly dug himself further into his muscular arms, hoping to finally get rid of this freezing sensation. All to no avails.

"Hot..." Subject 1001 commented as he touches Elpis's cheek. His limp body laying helplessly in the tiger arms, practically drenched in sweat as he lets out heaving breaths.

Just as Elpis's consciousness finally gave out, so does the entire facility light, plunging the entire premise into darkness once again...

~~~

When he woke up, the feeling of deja vu rushed over him as his eyes meet the pitch-black void again. For a second, Elpis thought that he was in bed, waking up from a vivid dream of him fixing the blackout whilst utterly defeated by the fever he had caught.

But his current whereabouts would say otherwise.

He was huddled in a corner, tightly embraced by the strong chest he was already too familiar with.

"H-hey! Wher-" Elpis was abruptly cut off when Subject 1001's hand reached onto his mouth, muffled the rest of his sentence.

"Danger..." Subject 1001 whispered into his ear.

What? Elpis thought as his eyes slowly adjusted to the dark. That was when he noticed that there were figures hobbling outside of the cell, limping mindlessly from place to place. Elpis squinted his eyes as hard as he can, trying to get a better look at the silhouettes through the thick layer of glass.

And that's when one of them bumped into the window.

Leaving behind a disgusting splat sound against the glass, the zombie readjusted its route and continue to wander around the lab again.

Elpis can only watch in dismays as he counts the number of undead. One, two, three... eleven... Eleven zombies in the lab right now...

"Nononono... This can't be happening..." Mumbled Elpis as he anxiously bit into his fingertip, tasting blood in the process. "Did the security system failed? The backup power should've been activated already? How did they found the base?..."

Thousands of questions swirling around his head whilst Elpis unconsciously repeated them out loud, completely unaware of the increasing pressure he starting to put in his bite, drawing even more blood from his finger as it trickles down along his arm.

Suddenly, Subject 1001's paw engulfed his biting hand and moved it away from his mouth, preventing him from drawing more blood

"Don't..." The tiger said softly, his paw still holding onto Elpis's hand.

The tiger's gesture instantly snapped him out of his train of thought, he mumbles a quick "Sorry" before getting up from Subject 1001, smearing the blood on his pant as he does so. Back and forth, Elpis paced around the room as he tries to come up with a way to deal with the horde outside.

The closest thing to a self-defense weapon he has is the capturing rifle, a single target weapon that needs to be recharged after every shot. Definitely won't work against the undeads outside after the first shot.

His second option could be to try and reactivate the base's defense system. But Elpis soon scrap that idea after he realized that fixing the power would make too much noise. The zombie would maul him to bits first before he can even get his hands on the power boxes.

His frantic steps soon came to a halt as he's slowly running out of ideas.

"No... There has to be a way out of this." Elpis murmured desperately.

But deep within him, he already knows. There is no way he could reclaim the base, it's theirs now, he can't do anything else about it anymore. He has failed. Failed to keep the base protected, failed to find the professors, failed to find the cure...

With a sob, Elpis's shoulder starts to shake as he felt tears forming in his eyes.

"I'm sorry..." He cried, using the labcoat to wipe away the constantly forming tears on his cheek as more and more starts to forms.

Suddenly, he felt the warm body of Subject 1001 pressed against him, two muscular furry arms wrapping around his waist. This combines with the vibrating purrs emitting from under the tiger's throat somehow managed to ground him back to the presence.

That's right! It's not over yet. He still has Subject 1001. There's still hope for him to find the cure.

But first, he needs to find a way out...

With one last wipe, Elpis clears away the rest of the tears and begins to think of an escape plan. It doesn't take long for him to come up with one, because the plan was already hugging from behind.

He parts the tiger's arms and turned back facing him, "Subject 1001." He said with determination in his voice. "I'm not sure if you're even understanding this. But I require your assistance..."

As usual, Subject 1001 did not reply. The only sign showing that he's listening is his head slightly tilting out of curiosity.

"According to my knowledge, the feline class is usually equipped with night vision. So, because I can't see in the dark, I need you to be my guide. Just stop whenever there's a turn, are you clear?"

"..."

"I'll take that as a "yes"."

"However... There is a next step..." Elpis's face reddens as he thought of what he would do next. Since most of the undeads don't have a functioning sense of sight, they rely on their hearing and smell instead. Hearing won't be a problem as he can just avoid interacting with anything that makes a sound. But there is no way Elpis can cover up his natural scent. Well... Except for one way...

"I-I need your clothes," He stuttered. His face getting hotter with ever. "Your scent can cover mine and I won't get detected. Is that okay?"

But of course, the tiger still didn't answer. Still staring at Elpis with the same curious gaze as before. It starting to get on his nerve a bit...

"Fine! I'll take that as a "yes" as well" He grumbled and unzip the orange bodysuit, starts stripping the tiger naked.

Surprisingly, he was very obedient throughout the process. Letting Elpis slide the sleeves down the tiger's arms along with the rest of the clothing with next to no resistance.

A few seconds later, Elpis now have a stark naked tiger next to him and an oversized bodysuit in his hand. He quickly gets in the suit, and of course, it was too large for him. The legs practically dragging on the floor, the arms sagging over Elpis's, and with the back stretched over his head, Elpis looks like some sort of jaundice-ridden swamp hag.

Thankfully, the zombie's eyes don't work anymore.

Elpis turned back to Subject 1001, grabbing his hand, and said "Lead the way for me, alright?" Before tracing his hand along the wall, following along the cold wall until he reached the door.

However, just as Elpis was about to swing open the clunky metal door, he was hit with a sudden realization.

How can he open the door?

The door doesn't automatically open anymore due to the blackout, which means Elpis will have to manually open it himself, and opening it will surely make a sound loud enough to alert the zombies.

As Elpis stood there, puzzled, like a lone star within an abyss, he sees the light of the food-carrying robot waltz in. Then, the robot let out the usual deafening alarm, and like throwing a rock at silent water, chaos instantly erupts as zombies pilling onto the poor robot.

Now!

Without a second thought, Elpis swung open the door and made a run for it, his hand tightly clenched around Subject 1001's. He ran and ran until he's suddenly stopped by the tiger lifting him, preventing him from headbutting the wall.

"Be careful..." Subject 1001 murmured and put him.

Elpis quickly whispered a "thank you" as he shifts to Subject 1001 side.

"This is as far as I can go," Elpis said, barely a whisper. "I'll need you to stop at every turns and in front of any door. Is that clear?"

"..."

"P-Please answer me..." He pleads, his voice slightly shaken.

"...Yes."

He let out a sigh of relief and pulls himself closer to the tiger. He doesn't care anymore that Subject 1001 was naked or not. Elpis need him right now.

He closed his eyes and listen. Listening to their steps whilst ignoring the groaning and heaving sound of the undeads that they walk by. One step, two steps, three steps,... And when at step 23rd, they suddenly stop. Two days ago, he was suddenly out of a solution, so Elpis went down to the chemical storage to get it, it took him the exact steps to get there from the lab.

Elpis shook his head side to side, signaling the tiger to continue.

Step 45th and they stopped again. The slight aroma of microwaved food still lingers around in the air, indicating that this is the kitchen. He shooks again and they continue.

After repeating this stressful endeavor a few more times, they stopped one last time. By this point, Elpis already lost track of where they were, so, he extended his hand to try and guess.

There, he found something slick and oily smeared on the wall, and after smelling the strange substance, he realized it was gasoline. Specifically, the kind that he used to refuel his motorcycle yesterday.

Then they must be at Dock 2!

Excitement rushes over him as Elpis fumbles to find the door handle. Just behind this Dock is his trusty motorcycle, all fueled up and ready to get them out of here. Just a bit more...

...

All of the sudden, his hand met something cold and moist, fuzzy and rough at the same time. At first, his mind couldn't comprehend what he just touched. Only after the creature released its terrifying roar, he knew that he fucked up.

The zombie quickly grabbed his hand and dig its sharp claws deep into his skin before lunging its head forward, attempting to take a bite out of him.

Struck by the sudden shock and pain, Elpis screams in terror as he tried to jump back, only to tears more skin in vain.

Elpis can only brace himself for the bite, but it never came...

Instead, Subject 1001 has left his grasp and dashed in front of him, stopping the zombie dead in its track before pinning it down to the ground with his fist. What follows is a series of meat-tearing sounds as Subject 1001 mauled the zombie limp by limp, blood splatting everywhere as Subject 1001 continues like a feral beast.

But Elpis was soon snapped out of his stupor by the sound of zombies scrambling toward them and swung the door open.

He quickly hotwires a nearby power cell to raise the Dock door open, hopping on his motorcycle as soon as he sees it starting to roll up, shinning a gleaming evening beam through the crevice.

"Get on!" He shouted at Subject 1001. It seems like that was enough to snap him out of his fury as he hopped off the bloody mangled corpse and ran toward El.pis.

Feeling the weight of the tiger shifted his motorcycle, the engine vigorously roars to life. Elpis could hear the scraping sound as one of the undead's claws scratched their vehicle side before they zoom through the rising garage door. Out of the compromised facility and into the sunset.