Black Skies Chapter 2: A Life Retold
#2 of Black Skies
Chapter 2 is here. No yiff again but without it the next chapter (which has yiff) would not make sense. Hang in there. Patience is a virtue and your virtues will be rewarded. *smiles*
Chapter 2: A Life Retold
Ceri sat staring across the room. He was tired, cold and wet. The trip through the pipe was long and hard for him. After making their way to the treatment plant they had to take a dozen back alleys to get to where he was now, a large building that once was a factory, but has been renovated as some sort of headquarters.
When they had arrived, a deer took Mikal off his shoulders and placed him on a stretcher and Oasis followed him. Ceri had started to follow but a cheetah directed him into an office. The feline show him to a chair and asked him to sit and wait. He had been sitting for over half an hour according to a wall clock.
The door swung open slowly and Oasis stepped inside, closing it behind her. She threw a towel to the lion. The snow leopard walked behind a desk and sat. She tilted her head back, and sighed. "Ceri, I'm glad to say Mikal is going to be fine." Ceri looked relieved. "Just a cut and a big bruise on his head, the doctors say there's nothing broken." Oasis winked, but Ceri didn't notice.
Ceri wiped his face with the cloth and looked up. "What is this place? Who are you guys?" Ceri asked looking around the room.
"You don't know? You... you are par- t of us." Oasis looked confused. "Oh... damn those sons of bitches must have wiped your memories." She pulled her paw across her chin and thought. "I don't know if you'll want to hear this?"
"Of course I do. All that has happened tonight needs some explanation. I can't remember pretty much anything."
"Okay." Oasis threw here head back and sighed. "From the beginning, shortly after you were born your parents were killed. Nobody is sure by who. You were found in your family's apartment by a neighbor. He took you took you to an orphanage." Ceri sat quietly looking at the floor; his brown eyes unblinking in pure shock. "You okay?"
Ceri flung back in his chair. "I'm... I'm fine." He put a hand behind his head and scratched his red mane. "What happened next?"
"Well you were adopted, but ran away from your adoptive family three years ago. You were 14 and you wander into this area. You were huddled against a building. Mikal found you and took you back here."
"What is here?"
"Uh...we're an underground group. A corrupt government agency runs this city. The New Horizon Organization was set up to fix up cities. Stop crime, repair buildings. They were given unlimited power to get there projects complete. Herast City was the first city for this program. They abused it. Making outrageous demands to help 'protect' this city."
"Like what?"
"Proximity mines to keep smugglers from getting into the harbor, but everyone else inside. There are just too many to name." Oasis opened a drawer and pulled out a file. "You can read the list if you want to later. Anyway, they isolated this city from the outside world. The other citizens don't realize it but they run everything. Every business, utility, sports team; they are all run by some one in the NHO."
"Why doesn't the government stop them?" Ceri asked resting a paw on the desk."
"Well, they can't. The NHO demanded huge amounts of weapons and armor and the government gave it to them. It's not practical to mount an attack against the city. They just recognize the city as an independent state." Oasis stood and paced across the room.
Ceri looked at the snow leopard.
"Plain and simple, we are trying to stop them from doing harm to anyone. Two months ago we ambushed a guard patrol boat and found an interesting document. They aren't satisfied with just Herast City. They are planning on a military campaign against the rest of the state. We can't let that happen."
"Of course," Ceri said agreeing. "But what happened, why did you have to break me out of that building."
"You wanted to do something to help us. You and Mikal went to a fancy restaurant, where the head of the NHO was dining. It was... 5 weeks ago. Long story short the two of you were found out and you got captured. Mikal was really depressed when he returned."
"Why would he be so sad, I'm just a kid?" Ceri asked puzzled.
Oasis puts a paw on his shoulder. "No one is expendable, Ceri. But I'll let Mikal tell you why he was so sad." Oasis sat down again. The snow leopard opened the same drawer and pulled out a piece of paper. "Last week, we got this. It says that you were being held in the United building - the place we broke out of. Mikal and I were in charge of getting you out." She handed the paper over the table to the lion.
Ceri read the letter. "The 56, who are they?"
Oasis sat on the desk and looked at the lion. "They are the NHO's soldiers. Their insignia looks like a '56'. That's where the name comes from."
Ceri stood and walked behind his chair. "Do you think it would be okay, if I saw Mikal now?"
"We can see if he's awake." Oasis smiled and walked to the door. She opened it and the two walked out.
The medical wing was a big room with rows of beds. Most were empty. Half a dozen were simple injuries like broken legs, but three were occupied by fursons in critical conditions. Ceri and Oasis walked pass the patients. "Sadly, our efforts have caused my deaths and wounds."
At the far end of the room, Mikal was lying reading a magazine with his head wrapped in bandages; he was already changed into a robe. Out of the corner of his eye, the fox noticed Ceri and Oasis walking to his bed. Mikal rested his reading on his stomach and looked up at the two furs approaching. "Hi. How are you?" He asked.
"We're fine. How do you feel?" Oasis asked. She pulled up two chairs and offered one to Ceri.
The lion shook his head. "I can stand."
"A little pain, but good. Ceri, please sit down." Mikal asked stretching a paw toward the chair. The lion looked at Mikal then the chair before taking a seat. "I want to welcome you back, Ceri." Mikal extended a paw out to the lion, waiting for him to accept.
Ceri grabbed Mikal's paw and the two squeezed and shook. "Oasis told me what happened. About... everything."
Mikal looked at Oasis. "Could you leave, please?" Mikal looked into her blue eyes and gave a small smile.
She looked at Mikal and returned a smile. "Okay, I'll see you two later." The snow leopard left walking down the row of beds.
"I'm sorry, Ceri. It's all my fault! You shouldn't have been captured. Please can you forgive me, Ceri?" Tears streamed across Mikal's cheeks.
"Why? You couldn't have known they would..." Ceri was interrupted by Mikal who was crying loudly. Ceri reached out and wiped away the tears with his paw. "Please, stop crying." The lion placed a paw on his bandaged forehead.
Mikal winced at the touch. "Ah... It is my fault, Ceri. One of the guards noticed me, not you. I should have been the one caught." Tears began to form in Mikal's yellow-green eyes. "And I shouldn't have yelled at you when we were back at United. It was just I didn't want you to get hurt."
"Don't be sorry, okay! Mikal, I was confused as hell back there I wouldn't have made it out if you didn't tell me what to do." Ceri tried to comfort Mikal.
Mikal sat up, grabbing the back of his head. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up.
"Are you sure you should be getting up?"
"I'm okay, the doctor said that I shouldn't, but I need to do this." The fox knelt next to Ceri. He placed his arms around Ceri and kissed him. Mikal released his arms and sat back on the bed.
"Wha - why did you kiss me?" Ceri asked completely confused and scared.
"I thought Oasis told you everything."
"Not this." Ceri looked at Mikal.
He was crying, his elbows on his legs looking at the floor. "Well after I found you on the street; she told you that, right?" Ceri nodded. "Well, we became good friends. Like two years ago, you told me you had a boyfriend who was killed in a car crash and that was why you ran away." Mikal looked up at the lion who had a stunned look pasted on his face. "It was then that I felt that I could tell you that I was... gay too. We shared a kiss right after that. Since then we have been so close."
"So we are... boyfriends? Oh... god." Ceri looked at the ceiling and began to sob.
"Ceri, if you don't feel right about this; its okay and I won't force the past on you, but I love you." Mikal placed a paw on Ceri's knee and bowed his head. "Ceri?"
"I don't have any memories of my life... and this is too much for right now, Mikal." He stood up and walked away.
"Ceri, please, don't go."
Oasis was outside the medical room waiting. Ceri stepped out and walked toward her. "Do I have a room here?"
"Yeah, it's down this hall; take the second hall the right. 4 doors on the left. It's unlocked." The leopard noticed the tears. "What's wrong?"
The lion ignored her; he just wiped his face and walked to his room.
Oasis was confused and walked to Mikal's bed. He was bent over the side of his bed, bawling uncontrollably. "What is wrong, what happened?"