Shazta and Fang
The sound of the humvee pushing forward hard was loud and I turned to look at Shazta with a grin. "Looks like we succeeded in another mission, huh?"
The black and white husky just grinned back at me with a silly look, "Yup," he set his paw down on his rifle that was in the other paw's grip. "I guess I'm buying drinks when we get back home." I knew he was making a statement and not questioning who was buying the drinks.
"You know I don't drink Shazta." I said flatly and licked his cheek. Shazta and I had been a couple in the war for a long time now; we first met on a battlefield, which proved to be ironic.
"Oh come on, after I took a bullet for you, he raised the short sleeve to his camouflaged shirt and showed me the bandage that remained damp with fresh blood. I splayed my ears and whined a bit. He had possibly saved my life by pushing me out of the way of the sniper bullet and was lucky the bullet hadn't hit him in a more serious place than his upper arm right under his shoulder.
"O-o-okay, for you I will."
"That's my foxie," he grinned and returned the lick to my cheek. We both looked out the back window of the humvee to see the town we were pulling away from, most of the buildings were currently on fire, gunshots could still be heard but they were faint. I became glad that we were already on the mile long bridge, heading away from what had truly proven to be a hellhole.
"RPG!" We both heard the shout of one of our fellow soldiers and yipped in unison as the jeep in front of us exploded and flew off of the right side of the bridge, someone screaming, as they were still alive and in the jeep.
The humvee behind us suddenly exploded and flew over the top of ours, and then landed right in front of us and our driver yanked the wheel to the right too late. We hit the humvee in front of us just as another explosion sounded and to our horror, the bridge in front of us was crumbling.
I felt a harsh tug on my arm and was basically yanked out of the vehicle just in time for it to explode and for me to be thrown away from it.
My ears were ringing loudly as I looked around and I whined and called out as loud as I could, "SHAZTA!" I looked around desperately and saw our humvee go down along with the section of the bridge it was on and whimpered. Suddenly though, I felt a paw grab my shoulder and spin me around, it was Shazta. I hugged him hard and he pushed me off of him and began shouting something that I couldn't make out due to the loud ringing.
I just stared at him blankly and he pointed down to my sniper rifle and pointed to the side of the bridge we had just came from where I could see some other people in yellow uniforms approaching us and shooting. Shazta turned away from me and began firing his semi-automatic rifle at them.
Slowly, I raised the scope of my rifle to my right eye, closed my left eye, and began firing at the "Global Liberation Army, or GLA" as they called themselves. Every time I pulled the trigger, a new ringing hit my ears and kept me deaf to what was happening around me. I saw something move in my scope and focused it on the object while zooming in; to my horror, it was a tank.
"ENEMY TANK!" I yelled loudly and looked around. Shazta nodded as he heard me and I saw two other soldiers nod in unison, my hearing slowly started to come back around as I reloaded my rifle and I heard the soldier to my left close to the left edge of the bridge, "There's too many of them! We're not going to make this one!" Then, without any warning, an explosion in front of Shazta and I sent both of us flying back towards the edge of the bridge where the bridge had fallen into the river, a mile below. I skidded to a stop at the very edge but Shazta didn't and instinctively, I grabbed his right paw and yipped loudly as his body's weight was suddenly put on my right arm.
"Oh my god Fang! Don't let go!" he whined as he dangled in the air only suspended by my arm. I grunted and whined and whimpered as I tried to pull him up but to no avail. I looked back to see one of our comrades running towards me and then went wide eyed as his blood splattered against my muzzle. Our other comrade took cover behind the jeep that remained on the bridge and he looked to me with hopelessness in his eyes. I whined at him and he slowly nodded and got down low to the ground and began to crawl towards me.
"FANG! I'M SLIPPING!" I suddenly looked down and grabbed Shazta's arm with my other paw. Grunting heavily I tried to pull him up again and whined as yet again, I found that I couldn't.
The wolf with gray fur, our other comrade, reached us and he looked horrified as he saw that I was trying to pull Shazta up. "Fang, we're going to die!" he whined a bit. I whimpered as he grabbed onto Shazta's other paw and began to pull him up too. Shazta pulled his arm out of the grip of the wolf's paw and reached down, pulling a radio transmitter out and pushing it into the wolf's paw, "Try to reach someone, we need air support, or anything!" Slowly, the wolf nodded and got onto the transmitter and asked if anyone was out there.
I whined and tried hard to pull Shazta up but simply couldn't seem to, and he looked me in the eyes and I saw the horror in his. "We're going to be fine Shazta," Tears started falling from my eyes and landing on Shazta, "You're going to buy drinks remember? We're going to be fine," I whimpered and whined loudly, my ears splayed hard against my head.
He whined and slowly nodded, "Y-y-yeah."
The radio transmitter began to make a static sound and then a voice came on, "This is Colonel Xavier, who is speaking?"
The wolf's eyes lit up, "This is Lieutenant Patterson! We need air support! We've been ambushed on the "Great Bridge" just outside of Leeon. The bridge is out and there are only three of us left, and one of us is dangling off of the bridge sir. Everything is gone sir, they've taken out almost all of our convoy and we have no vehicles left! They blew up the other half of the bridge sir! Please help us!" the desperation in his voice was easily decipherable by anyone. "We're American squad Charlie."
"Americans huh? Hang tight boys, we're sending in choppers, estimated arrival in six to ten minutes" the radio transmitter clicked as the Colonel finished speaking.
"With all due respect sir, we're not going to last that long, the GLA already has us pinned at the edge of the bridge and our sniper spotted a tank! We'll be dead by the time your boys get here!"
"Listen to me son, just sit tight and we'll do everything we can, Colonel out."
The wolf set down the transmitter and grabbed onto Shazta's arm again and began pulling, as did I. Slowly, we began to make progress and got Shazta up to the point where his chest was on the bridges and we pulled hard.
He got up and hugged us both tightly and then we all ran to one of the jeeps that was on fire and had already exploded but had managed to stay on the bridge.
"What now? We're sitting ducks here, the tank will take us out in a matter of seconds if we stay here," I whined my thoughts out loudly and slowly, Patterson nodded in agreement.
"You both heard the Colonel, reinforcements are on the way, lets take turns throwing what grenades we have left over at them."
Slowly I nodded and so did Patterson. Patterson pulled the pin off of his standard grenade and threw it over the jeep. We all waited for the explosion and then heard it and Shazta nodded to me and slowly I took a deep breath, pulled the pin of one of my grenades and threw it over the top of the jeep. Another explosion sounded and this time we heard yipping and groaning.
I heard a thumping sound next to us and pulled the wolf into my lap and rolled towards Shazta as a grenade exploded right next to where Patterson had been. I whimpered a bit as the ringing returned but not as loud or as deafening as last time.
An explosion reverberated and the next thing I knew, I was laying with my back against the concrete close to the edge of the bridge. I looked up and whined loudly as I saw what had hit us, an enemy chopper was flying close overhead now and just hovering there, not firing at us. I looked to my right to see Patterson with his muzzle against the ground, he wasn't moving and blood was trickling out of his mouth.
I whimpered loudly and turned to my left to see Shazta groaning loudly, he was holding his lower abdominal and blood seemed to be flowing against his paws which only made me whine. I tried to urge myself to move towards Shazta but nothing happened. I whined and looked down, I wasn't bleeding anywhere.
I looked back to Shazta again as my hearing came back, "SHAZTA!"
He looked at me clenching his jaw close and breathing through his mouth, still groaning and rolling a bit. "D-drinks," his weak grin was lost on me and I couldn't imagine the pain he was in.
I yipped as I heard a gun shot and looked over to Patterson to see that a dragon in a gray trench coat had just shot him in the back of the head with a Dessert Eagle. I tried to back pedal away from the man and then there was an explosion as a chopper flew by and the enemy chopper went down. The dragon growled and looked away from Shazta and me and began pointing at the chopper and seemed to be ordering commands to the two wolves next to him to shoot at it.
I turned to Shazta and he continued to writhe around in pain and I whimpered and pulled out my pistol and aimed it at the dragon, I took three shots, and the dragon fell to the ground and then I saw the butt of a rifle smash against my head and went unconscious.
I opened my eyes slowly and whined loudly, I couldn't see anything!
"Shhh, Shazta's here," I felt a paw rub my head and then I felt something slimy and slippery rub up against my muzzle and then I heard a some gasps. I murred lightly and tried to hug the form that had just licked me, and I recognized Shazta's body build and murred very lightly.
"Sh-Shazta? I-I-I can't see," I whined and hugged him harder.
Shazta whimpered and nuzzled me and then I could hear the thump-thump-thump of a helicopter's blades. "I know sweetie, the medic said you may be blind, but we can still make this work, I'm still taking you out for you first drink," Shazta's voice was softer than normal and I whined at the news. BLIND! I'd never been blind before in my life and now here I am, blind for the rest it! I'm a sniper for god's sake!
"B-b-blind?" I whimpered out. I felt Shazta's tongue drag itself from my nose, up my muzzle and I just hugged him harder, refusing to let him go.
"And you know what else Fang? I'm going to take you home," Shazta's voice sounded confident, but I knew him enough to know that he was nervous.
After being awarded a medal for bravery, both Shazta and me left in his car for his home. I held his paw the whole way there. I felt very nervous because I knew his younger brother lived with him.
"D-d-does he know you're..."
"Yes Fang," Shazta interrupted me and laughed a bit. "In fact, the reason our parents kicked him out was because he is too."
"R-r-really?"
There was no response for a while and then I heard Shazta whine a bit, "Sorry about that, I was nodding yes, I forgot..."
I splayed my ears. "Does he know about us?"
"Not yet but I know he has a boyfriend of his own that might be there when we get back, you know something Fang? I think that our commander went soft on disbanding us just because you lost your sight."
I growled lightly, "He still didn't have to call us fags."
"Yeah but usually he'd be blowing off steam in that kind of situation."
"Yeah, I know."
I walked forward nervously and with Shazta's arm around my waist as he guided me along the concrete sidewalk. My ears picked up on a car door closing and then I heard someone's voice that I didn't recognize, "Oh you're back? Welcome home neighbor. And who might that handsome stud be?" the voice was definitely female and I just blushed hard.
"He's my boyfriend, Fang. Fang, that voice belongs to my neighbor Tammy, she's a cat."
"Voice?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to mention, Tammy, Fang can't exactly...see." I splayed my ears hard and just kept looking forward blankly, not sure what to do or say.
"Oh my god! Well, I know you always said that your boyfriend's name was Fang and that he was the cook, so...I'll tell you what, I'm going to fix you guys up dinner, so don't sweat about it. Plus, a couple of army veterans like you two deserve it anyway," I heard another door open and then close and I just felt lost.
"She's very nice, you'll like her once you get to know her," Shazta kissed me and I kissed back and murred a bit. "C'mon, Randy's not home, that'll give you a chance to get a feel for the place," Shazta's voice made me melt a bit and I couldn't help but murr lightly as he guided me into the house. Almost immediately, I felt the cold air hit me and I shivered lightly but Shazta noticed almost instantly, "Sorry Fang, Randy and I are huskies so we like to keep the house cold, do you want me to turn it up?"
I slowly shook my head and yiped in surprised as my muzzle hit one of the walls. "YOUCH!"
Immediately, Shazta pulled me close and nuzzled me, "Maybe you should try using your paws to feel around and draw a map?"
Very slowly I nodded and whined lightly as I heard his foot falls heading away from me and I reached my hands out, feeling like an idiot as I moved them around, trying to find the wall from earlier. I found it and sighed and pushed both my paws against it and then began to slide them to the left and almost yipped in surprise as I found another wall that turned ninety degrees to the left, slowly I followed that wall and stuck my right paw out for any objects that might be in my way and began to walk forward nervously.
It only took less than a minute for me to yipe as I felt fresh hot tears rise to my eyes as a sudden pain from my thigh hit me, "GOD!" I held my hip and whined a bit as I clenched my jaw close and took deep breaths.
"You okay Fang?" I heard Shazta call out and slowly I thought about his question.
"N-no, I'm not. Shazta. I can't do this, I just ran into something and I don't even know what it is," I whined a bit and then my ears perked up as I heard his footsteps getting closer.
"Holy shit! Fang you're bleeding, what did you..." his voice trailed off as I assumed that he saw what I ran into, "I'm so sorry Fang. I didn't see that Randy left his pocket knife out," he licked my cheek and slowly guided me across a wood floor that eventually turned into tiles.
"W-where are we?"
"The kitchen sweetie, just sit here on this chair," he guided me slowly down onto a soft cushioned chair and I sighed as I leaned back and then yipped in surprise as I fell back. I realized too late that the chair lacked a back.
I hit the floor pretty hard and whined a bit, "I SWEAR SHAZTA! I CAN'T DO THIS!"
I felt his chest push against mine as he lay on top of me and he licked my lips, "I'm sorry Fang, but I swear to you that we can do this."
I sighed and growled a bit, "This sucks!"
Shazta rubbed his nose against mine and began to rub my chest with one of his heavily padded paws and I murred very lightly. "Come on foxie, you promised that I could at least get you your first drink."
I slowly sighed and nuzzled him back and went to rub his abs but blushed hard as I missed my mark and instead ended up rubbing his thigh. I almost instantly corrected my mistake and raised my paw up to his abs and rubbed them, still blushing hard, sure that the redness was showing through my orange fur.
Shazta murred and kissed me, and then he took my other paw in his and raised it to his muzzle and I could tell that he was smiling as I let my padded fingers brush over his lips. I smiled lightly at being able to tell he was smiling and murred.
I sat on the couch that Shazta had left me on, he said he was going to go get some pizza for lunch and that Randy and his boyfriend were coming home and so he might be back before them or he might not be. The T.V. was on and I was pretty sure it was Disney Channel because I remembered a show called "Good Luck Charlie" that had just come on. I sighed and just sat there, I couldn't remember where the remote was and even if I did find it, I wouldn't know how to work Shazta's T.V. without any vision. Shazta had been kind enough to leave the lights on...I think. I sighed again and just stared blankly forward and then I heard the knob of the front door jingle a bit.
"Shazta! Are you home? Open the door you bastard! I forgot my keys inside!" I whined a bit at the unfamiliar voice and slowly stood up and began walking towards the voice, focusing hard on where it was coming from. I had both paws out in front of me just in case. I found a wall and began following it and then I heard the voice again, "Shazta! I swear! Its fucking hot out here!"
Slowly but surely, I found the door and felt along it and found the lock, turning it very slowly, I yipped loudly as the door swung out and hit my muzzle and I fell back and hit the wall. "GAH!" I whined and held my now bleeding nose and groaned a bit. Yep, I'm definitely going to end up bleeding to death before I can possibly get used to this being blind thing.
"Hey, you're not Shazta, who are you?"
"I-I-I'm Shazta's boyfriend," my voice croaked a bit and I just stayed there on the ground.
"O-oh, I'm sorry, here, let me help you up."
I whined a bit and splayed my ears hard.
"Well? Are you going to take my paw or not?" He sounded a little irritated.
"I-I'm blind, I can't see your paw," I spoke flatly and kept my ears splayed hard.
"Really?"
Slowly, I nodded in response and then I felt a rough paw grab mine and then pull me up slowly and then I heard his foot falls walk away from me and into the house. I began to close the door and yipped a bit in surprise as I felt a scaled hand push me aside a bit.
"Hi, I'm Alex, Randy's boyfriend."
"N-nice to meet you," I felt the air change a bit as he stepped inside and then I closed the door. "Would you mind helping me to the couch, I can't see."
"Not a problem," I felt a scaled arm wrap around my waist and slowly, we began walking forward, I tried to remember the path that we took but gave up after six different turns. Then I felt myself being pushed and slowly began to sit and sighed in relief when I landed on the couch.
"Are you sure you're blind? I mean, your eyes aren't faded or anything, they're just a normal blue," I recognized Randy's voice from behind me and thought he must be in the kitchen.
"Y-yeah, at least since four days ago."
"Really? What happened?" this time, the voice belonged to Alex and I tried hard to distinguish their ages, I guessed that Randy was 16 or 18 and Alex was 18 or 19, both had clearly already gone through puberty.
"I um...don't think I'm allowed to say. The information is considered confidential to the U.S. Government, or at least that's what they told me, sorry guys."
"Oh, you're in the government or the army?" Alex asked with excitement in his voice as he sat down next to me.
"Um...well...used to be in the army, I got disbanded as did Shazta"
"Shazta did what!" Randy's voice sounded a bit angry and I splayed my ears as I tried to locate where in the house he was.
I sighed and retold the part of the war where I had woken up to find out I was blind. "There was no way out of it, we were both disbanded for loving each other, I would've been disbanded anyway just for being blind."
I heard Randy growl a bit and then we all fell into a silence that seemed to last forever. Then Alex spoke up, "Hey, isn't that new show supposed to be on tonight?"
I just looked forward blankly, hating that the only color I could see was black.
Shazta finally showed up and right as he walked in, his strong masculine scent hit me as well as the heavy scent of the pizza and I felt my stomach rumble and blushed a bit.
"Well, looks like I got here just in time. What happened to your nose Fang?"
"I let your brother in,"
"Hey, that wasn't my fault," Randy complained defensively.
"I know and I'm not blaming you, lets just eat okay?" I almost whined a bit and I noticed the completely silent state that Alex had seemed to fall into, but I could hear his breathing so I knew he was fine.
Shazta raised my paw to his muzzle and I felt over his lips and realized he was grinning and I splayed my ears instinctively. "Okay Fang, since you're so eager to eat, you can say grace."
I faced my head in his direction and sighed, he knew very well that I had no relationship with any god out there and that I didn't know how to say grace, and I knew that's why he was asking me to say it. "O-okay, I'll try..." I took a deep breath and sighed, "Dear heavenly...umm...umm...spirit. Please...umm," I tried hard to remember what my mom had once said when saying grace. "Umm...bless this food...and...umm..." I sighed a bit as my brain worked hard to retrieve the memory. "Bless Shazta and Randy...and Alex, that they will...umm...live happy lives...umm..." I sighed again and tried to remember how to end grace. "Umm...thank you for listening to this...umm...prayer?" I questioned in Shazta's direction and heard everyone say "Amen" in unison. I mentally winced as I recognized the word and scolded myself in my mind for not having remembered such a simple and short word.
"Heh, good prayer Fang," I heard the sarcasm in Shazta's voice and I just sighed.
"You know I don't have experience with religion Shazta," I stated flatly and defensively. I heard Randy giggle lightly and then my ears flared up when I heard Alex growl, Randy fell silent and then Alex stopped growling.
"Its not funny Randy, he obviously is being serious about having tried his hardest," I murred very lightly at Alex's defending me.
"Okay, lets eat guys, here Fang, I already dished you a piece, its just cheese," Shazta spoke softly and set a plate in my lap and slowly I reached down and padded my paw around on the plate until I located the tip of the pizza, and then I dragged my paw up to the top where the crust was and grabbed it there.
I ate maybe two pieces of pizza and sighed happily as I laid my head in Shazta's lap and murred a bit. They had put on a horror movie called Five Girls or something. Since I couldn't see it, I just had to listen intently and slowly; I closed my non-seeing eyes and began to doze off into a deep sleep.