FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A day and a half Molly managed that big bus, the steering wheel and pedals would never be the same, claw marks showing how much trouble she had operating it.

"Ok its the next left, then its straight on to the gates of the base." Jake, now clothed due his sudden realisation that 'holy shit I'm naked', advised.

I turned to Jenny, "Ok, you understand what we need you to do? Drive up, tell them we are not hostile but to back away while we get out." I told her.

"Yeah queen, got that." She said, the nickname had stuck now, much to my annoyance.

"Ok, you can take over, remember how I showed you." Molly said, after turning the last corner and pulling up to swap places with the human.

Jenny nodded and climbed into the slightly damaged seat, Molly had attacked it with a knife very soon after finding out how uncomfortable it is to sit on your tail.

After a little juddering we started forward, rolling faster she tooted the horn in the pattern Jake had taught her, meaning 'SOS' in Morse, the rest of us moved as far to the rear of the bus as we could.

"Drive forward and stop at the gate, failure to do so will be cause for immediate and deadly action!" sounded from a large speaker at the gate.

We had discussed this with Jenny, she was to do everything she was told, and she did, the bus slowing and stopping where they wanted it.

"Driver is to exit the vehicle now, unarmed and hands on the back of their head!" the same speaker said.

"There's soldiers out there with guns aimed at the bus." Jenny said.

Jake spoke up, "Do what they ask, don't go past the doorway though, otherwise they might walk in before you can explain."

Jenny nodded and stepped down and out the open door. We couldn't hear what was said over the sound of the big bus' engine still idling.

She climbed back in, "They said they will back off and we are all to leave the bus, I told them you have information about the cats. I don't know if they are going to just shoot us or what." she said.

I stood and started padding forward, "Just stand clear of us Jen, if they do open fire they are not likely to shoot you if you're not right there with us."

Climbing down before her, I noticed the soldiers raise their rifles, aiming at me. "Don't shoot, we are here seeking sanctuary and to give you some information. We have one of your soldiers with us, from the initial skirmish near Heyfield."

"Fuck did that cat just talk?" one soldier said.

Another came back with, "Shut it, orders from up top are to shoot all hostile felines. These sure as fuck don't look hostile.". By the markings on his uniform I figured he was higher in rank than the others.

Just then Jake dismounted, holding his steyr above his head, unloaded with the firing mechanism out and in his belt. "Sir! Corporal First Class Richards reporting, Sir!"

"Richards!" the more senior soldier exclaimed, "What the FUCK happened to you soldier?"

"Sir, we got into a shit fight, as you can guess, with no intel on what they could do, we were fubar, Sir. This lot, David there, the big female, saved my arse, even if it has a bit of fur on it now, Sir." Jake said to the query.

"Well shit it, boy, if you say they are not hostile, however unusual they are, I will take your word." the soldier then whistled loudly a few times and waved his left arm.

The speakers flared to life again, "Re board your vehicle and follow the Sergeant to the designated decontamination area."

"Back in the bus then kids." I told my pride.

Molly took the wheel now and idled the big vehicle along the track the soldiers jogged along finally coming to a large hanger and airstrip.

"Last stop, please ensure all kittens are brought off with you and that you have all luggage from the overhead storage, thank you for riding highway to hell tours." Molly droned to us.

Jenny helped us with the kittens, getting them into the clothes carriers she had cobbled together just before we departed.

Jake dismounted again, rifle held the same way, followed by Molly and then myself, Sally, Rough with Jenny at the rear.

"Corporal, is that a male cat you have there? Because if it is, there had better be a fucking good explanation for it." the Sergeant said.

Jake lowered the gun to parade rest and replied, "Staff Sergeant Blake, you may want to get the brass out here Sir, the explanation is a long one.".

"Soldier, if there was anyone higher rank than me left you would already be talking to them, had a big pack of those mean bastard cats come through here a day ago, drove them off with flame-throwers in the end. Nothing left here higher than me. We are still trying to get command to send us some new officers but they seem reluctant to have anyone enter the 'quarantine zone'." the Sergeant said.

"Don't blame them, personally." I said.

"You got that right ma'am. Who am I speaking to?" Blake asked.

"David, David... uh, well, long term memory loss seems to be a side effect of all this." I said, "I was a keeper at the installation where the first cat was kept, Sally here" I gestured to my love, "was my superior but she is having problems with speech, lets just say that even with the right circumstances the adaptation to cat is less than perfect, and with no preparation there is nothing left of the original person."

"Well, some actual qualified advisors on this shit, that's more than we have gotten out of HQ. You keep your big feller there from causing problems and you are welcome to stay, if you are willing to give us information, heck you can have a bunk in the barracks." the Sergeant said with a chuckle.

"All I want is a safe place for my kittens and my pride, food and safety for Jenny and I will tell you whatever you need to know about these things. And yes, my pride includes the big male there, Rough." I told him.

"Ok then, unless anything is urgent you have an hour to settle in then we need to debrief, the hanger just behind us has been cleared for your use, don't let your big guy there leave it though, he sets one paw outside of ten paces of that building and my snipers will take him down, anyone else for that matter. If you need our attention stand just outside the front door and be patient, someone will come shortly." he told us, "There is a pile of blankets and bunks inside, it was originally purposed as a refugee camp, but, well, there haven't been any refugees."

With that we seemed to be dismissed, "Ok ladies and cats, lets do what the man said, Molly drive the bus over to the door. Lets see what kind of home we can put together." I told everyone, who started following my directions.

"Love, I don know where his 'ake conrole' hing came from, bu I like I" Sally said, purring and rubbing her head against mine.

Unable to hold back my own purr in the face of such praise I padded forward toward the building.

It took us some time to get everyone settled to bunks or piles of blankets, Sally said she would look after the kittens, since my milk had dried up in the last day of not feeding them, whereas hers was stronger than ever. "Come on Jake, lets face the music." I called to the soldier, who grinning climbed to his feet and padded after me.

After following the protocol, a soldier came up and said, "You two are to be escorted to the Sergeant, he wanted to know if there was any suggestion for decontamination for you two, he doesn't want any fuck ups.".

Jake replied first, "No Private, its only the males or females in heat that can have bad reactions with people, neither of us count as either at the moment." the private just nodded and led us away.

We padded along behind the soldier, knowing that he was a guide not a guard and that there was likely at least a pair of marksmen with their sights over us every step of the way.

Soon we came to a table with some chairs and a cot propped up on crates, just out in the middle of the tarmac, the Sergeant seated with a voice recorder.

"Good work Private, now report to Sergeant Hastings for decontamination, and that means immediately son, no other contact before then." he told our escort. "David, Corporal Richards. Thank you for agreeing to this, I understand you didn't have to come here, you seemed to be doing quite well out there on your own, please, have a seat." he said, retaking his seat.

I climbed up on the impromptu bed and lay down looking at the Sergeant, Jake took the seat beside me.

"Now I am recording this, the way it will work is I want each of you to tell your stories, at the conclusion of each I will ask some questions and I want you to answer to the best of your ability. If the question is a yes or no thing, please answer it out loud rather than just nodding. You both got that?" Blake finished.

Jake snapped out a "Sir, yes Sir!".

I settled for a, "Sure.".

"Ok then David, since yours is the oldest and longest tale, why don't we start with that." the soldier prompted me.

I told my story, from as far back as I thought would matter, as much as I could remember, surprising myself a little at how much I actually did remember. The Sergeant didn't say a word, merely waiting when something was hard for me to explain, letting me get it all out in my own words. "... and so we ended up here, at the front gates to the base, you know the rest." I finished.

He began with simple questions, clarifying dates, effects, numbers, that kind of thing. Finally, having wrung me dry, he asked Jake to start.

"Well Sir, we got prepared, as you know, to go and deal with an animal containment problem, were heading down the road near Seaton when the driver yelled there was something on the road. We bailed out with our combat gear to see the big cats stalking toward the front of the trucks. We began firing on them, and seemed to be holding well when they attacked from behind..." Jake started.

He went on to describe in rather finer detail exactly what went wrong in their deployment, how he tried to get the soldiers rallied when he saw his commanding officer and sergeant both gone, almost getting caught by the cats himself, how we used Rough to get the other cats to leave him alone, eventually winding up at the same point I did.

This time when questioning, the Sergeant was a lot harsher, asking highly detailed questions, asking for his opinion on his officers orders as well as all the different, and he used the same word, 'orders' I had given to him and the others.

"Well David, it looks like I owe you a lot of thanks, you saved at least one of my men and brought us back some very good information. Information that I will now have the fun of reporting on for the next three to four hours up the chain of command. Regardless of your descriptions of how the pheromones work, we are not going to take chances. Your big mate in there seems to have his head on straight for one of these things and although I would love to be able to trust your word on him, you have to understand I can't allow him to just roam the compound. As such, only he is confined to the hanger, the rest of you, barring your kittens who are likewise confined, can do as you wish. I will have the soldiers notified of the change in status within the hour, please don't try and take advantage of the new privilege until at least then." he told me, "And Jake? You did as good as can be expected soldier, understand that if you do want it your place in the ranks is open for you, at least as far as I am concerned. Dismissed."

He got up and walked the opposite direction to where we were headed.

"Guess we head back then." I said to Jake, he just nodded and we got up and started moving.

A sudden flare of heat at our backs caused us to turn, a soldier with a flame thrower had just incinerated the entire little meeting place, only the Sergeant and his voice recorder left the site.

"Can't say as I blame him really." Jake said as we wandered away to await what may come.