Paws Of Snow Chapter One
Dark here, just wanted to say I am happy to present to you, something I have been working on for a while, My Piece By Piece Novel Series Paws Of Snow. Paws of snow is a scifi, near future, hyper accelerated technology, post apocalyptic, furry warfare fictional novel.
Set in the year 2023, technology has acclerated ten fold, mankind has launched the earth into another war and transformed most of North America into a wasteland. The government has created anthros and labled them for military use, but when Dark eventually meets up with a group of non military, "outsiders" group of anthros, know as the "Wasteland Army". Will Dark give in or will the bullets fly and shoot first ask names later happen?
Follow Dark, Grey and Many others. in this slowly growing ride of a series starting out slow and slowly building and building and blooming till its a beautiful flower of a fictional warfare novel.
Chapter One- "The Last Day of Boot Camp: The Last Day of Safety."
Slow the sun crept across the military base know as Mark 4, to its inhabitants this place was home, a home earned through hard work and grueling labor. To the ones that made it past the first week of hell, could take a breath and call this place home. Mark 4 was the furthest base from all the other ones, those being, Alpha 9, Gamma 2, and Omega 5. But nonetheless it wasn't the smallest, that title was bestowed to Omega 5.
The Base was home to all but one, he was known around the base as "Dark". Dark was a five foot seven and a half, sky blue fox with white markings to the crook in his arm and a huge white oblong circle covering his chest down to the bottom of his stomach, which joined with the marking on his arms at the front of his shoulder. Around the base he was the silent type, talking rarely to anyone...Ermm...actually correct that there was one exception and that was an inch taller than him yellowish orange tiger-fox with black tiger markings in the usual fashion, who was a commander and much of a rank higher than him. But, that really didn't mean anything when they saw each other, disregarding the rank it was almost like friends talking to each other, in a more formal, military kind of way.
They had been friends for almost two years now, fighting through various conflicts and battle and the like that had been thrown at them over the two years that they had know each other. On the battlefield they were brutal, ruthless, and highly efficient killers. They had probably seen every god forsaken hell-hole that they could have seen and than back again. Both had seen the best and worst of people, some times at once, sometimes in separate, some times not even at all. The two of them had seen almost all of their friends die in the blink of an eye, all of them the best friends that they could meet, actually they were the best you could meet anywhere. But the lucky card of fate had not been played over any of their now deceased friends. All of them had been mourned respectably and given the best and most proper burial that they received. But that had been probably the only time that Dark had shown his emotions and his weak and defenseless side.
To be quite honest Dark was deathly afraid of his emotions and knew that they left him frozen, powerless and weak. Out of all the enemies that was the one that could never die, the one that could never be killed and was the ultimate evil in the military. So deep down the enemy of his emotions was stuffed away into a small, rusty and almost bursting cube where everything else went that he wanted to lock away. But now wasn't the time for those types of thoughts, here was one of his friends before him and look he was ignoring him, 'Damn, I hate when I get caught up in my thoughts like that' Dark half said/ half mumbled to himself under his breath.
"Did you say sometime Dark?" his friend the tiger-fox said, flashing his fangs as he smiled speaking in a half German, half British accent.
"No Joshua, I didn't say anything that was 'important'" Dark said, the last word being pushed through his teeth.
"Ah, I see, you must have something on your mind Dark? Otherwise you wouldn't take this long to respond" Joshua said slouching in his chair as he lit up a cigarette.
"We've only been here for about ten minutes..." Dark said sounding stressed as he looked over to the clock nearby.
"No need to get angry Dark, its just that I can sense it off you, it's as sensible as a plot in a book that is written all over your face." Joshua said, flipping open a box of Forest Flat cigarettes towards Dark. "Want one?" he said with a smile on his face and than took a quick drag of his cigarette that was previously hanging unloved in his mouth.
"Don't feed me those 'Poisoned Treats', plus I gave up smoking when I came here, that and sex." Dark threw up a smug smile, giggled and rolled his eyes playfully as he spoke the last word of his sentence.
"Treats!?" Joshua said sounding confused as he looked down at his box of green wrapped filtered cigarettes with a majorly confused look on his face, but than he laughed hardily. "If they were treats you would be begging already, wouldn't you Darky?" As Joshua waved the green pack of cigarettes in front of Dark's face almost mockingly
Dark almost jumped across the table and slammed the cigarettes, Joshua and anything else he could get his paws on to the ground. "How dare you!" Dark said quietly but angrily as Joshua pushed him back into his seat. He was almost about to punch him when the doors of the mess hall that they had been in for over twenty minutes in slammed open and the Area Operational Commander (A.O.C) walked in escorted by three digital urban camo clad special forces soldiers, wearing the latest and greatest gear that only the military gave out on a gold and chained platter, which was available to only the best.
"Hey you see that gear that their wearing, that's some heavy shit Dark" Joshua whispered to Dark from across the table.
"That looks like Area Operational Commander Bishop, there has to be a good reason why our operations commander of the area has to be here..." said Dark whispering back.
"Well, Rumor has it that they are pulling a shooter for some special ops shit or something like that, plus he's going to sift through these wolves like sand and find us right?"
Dark paused as he looked throughout the mess hall looking at the various soldiers trying to think of a response and just when he scanned back to Joshua, he thought of one. "No" Dark said with a disappointed sigh. "Were too noticeable, do you think that they would really want a Blue and White fox or even a Orange and Tiger Marked fox like yourself on some covert ops shit or something, if I was A.O.C, I would pick a black or gray wolves from the masses of them that are here, 'they' would suit the job better."
Joshua laughed "Yeah, true, were just way to noticeable, maybe if we dyed you black or even white like your markings we would be in business."
"Dye me of all species, but I was born this way" Dark said looking at his paws as he held them up thinking of them being bright white. "Why change something natural?"
"No shit, you were born that way, come on" Joshua said as he began to laugh at the statement that Dark had made thinking that it was complete and utter bull shit.
"Honestly it is true, here I even have a picture..." said Dark, searching through his wallet to pull out the picture he was talking of.
The wallet that Dark carried and contained was a two section "Black Fossil" wallet which he kept no more that fifty dollars in at a time in case things came up in which he needed money, his single bank account card and the one picture of his family that he had to remember them by. There in his wallet, under the plastic protector where a driver license should have sat, sat a picture of his family. It was his mother and father looking happy holding a puppy version of him against a generic blue photographer's background, which you get in one of those cheap $20 picture booths. He handed it to the 'skeptical' Joshua and watched a he took it his eyes moving furiously over the picture analyzing every detail of it. He looked over the photo with a finite comb, like a jeweler does when he finished a diamond, it was like he was going to find an imperfection and smooth it out.
"It's cute" he finally said, breaking the silence that hung thickly in the air, as he handed the photo back "I like how they wrapped you in a blue blanket"
"Well, when you go to a human hospital, which at the time was the only one available, they wrap the boys in blue and the girls in pink." Dark said putting the photo back in it plastic holder. "Of course, as you probably expected, I was the only blue fox baby in the "ward" as they called it and of course you expected me to be wailing my eyes out, but actually when the nurse came in and got me, I was actually under the blankets curled in a ball sleeping."
"Wow cute" Joshua said with slight sarcasm "so than where was this picture taken again"
"It was taken about thre-"and than with a sudden abruptness Dark stopped his sentence and turned his attention out towards the window, pointed as he spoke: "Do you see that there, out on the horizon"
"Yeah, it almost looks like a helicopter, but we haven't any flights since that quote un-quote malfunction, since about yesterday...." Joshua said standing up; he squinted slightly to cut the glare of the sun nearby.
But than at that very moment, Dark, Joshua and just about everyone's radio's crackled and than picked up a message with much interference. "If you are getting this message, this is the four hundredth and seventy eighth Speznatz Airborne Force, lay down your arms and slowly put your hands in the air when I can see them or we will shoot anyone who gives any form of resistance, you have three minutes".
"Wait, Russian's, but how they could...have...found...us...." and with that statement, Dark looked left and saw that his friend Joshua was pointing a pistol at him.
"You're a spy, I know you are, and there is no way that the Russian could have found this place, despite what has been going on in Washington D.C. with the whole 'invasion' thing" Joshua said with hate in his voice, flipping the safety off of his now discernible 9mm Military Spec Semi-Automatic Beretta Pistol.
"Wait, Josh, Wait shooting me is not the answer...." Dark said, waving his hands in front of him "Think if I was a spy, would I have killed all of those 'Russians' including that high raking officer that we stumbled upon sleeping with that black haired broad, that you ended up making out with in the end, but than she turned out to be an 'assassin' and while we were in that bar she slipped something in your drink and we spend the hour we had tracking her down to shoot her and found that she had been shot already and gave you that 'antidote' that you needed"
"You are right, but still, a spy would have killed all of those people to keep his 'cover' and to make the people around him seem more at ease with the transition of a odd blue fox into an army of black and gray wolves." Joshua said, his grip tightening on the pistol and pushed it closer to Dark, he could feel the anger in his veins, coursing and pulsating. Hell, he didn't even care if Dark was his friend he would just shoot him now and this shit would be over with.
"Than what they hell are you doing here, it's pretty odd that a tiger-fox would be here too, you even said that the 'first day that we met' that 'it was pretty odd that I found a blue fox here like you in an army like this, but hey I'm strange too, look at me the oddest hybrid in the world, a tiger and a fox,...' and than you went off on a ramble and said some stuff that I forgot" Dark said feeling the sweat stinging his eyes, as it dripped profusely from his forehead. "Hell, Joshua, maybe you're the spy, tell us your reason why you're here."
Joshua seemed to falter at that statement, but than he quickly shot back with a pitchers speed "The only reason that I am here is because my father over there, the A.O.C is a disowning bastard who fucked some tigress thinking that she wouldn't get pregnant and look now I'm here, but you my friend are exempt," Dark could tell he was beyond angry as his whole voice seemed to fill the mess hall, hell to Dark those Speznatz shooting them was better than this fucking shit that he was being put through. "You are exempt because you are the one who is 'truly alone', from all of us, from even...yourself"
"Both of you stop!" a voice echoed from the entrance of the mess hall. Dark and Joshua both turned in unison to see the A.O.C standing there, a finger firmly pointed at both of them. The A.O.C lowered his finger and than spoke again "We, all know that Dark isn't a spy, so Joshua for god sakes put the fucking gun away and let's prepare for these fucking Russian before they blow us all to hell!"
Everyone moved at an efficient pace, exiting the mess hall and heading for the armory which was located in the west wing, there they were greeted by the guard who stood there and ushered all of them in at an astonishing pace, where upon the wall hung armor, gear and all the latest and greatest attachments and such. Most of the soldiers chose heavy body armor with high caliber weapons attached with silencers, holographic sights and extended magazines. But just as Dark was about to grab a gun that he liked, an AK-47 by the looks of it, the A.O.C placed his hand on Darks shoulder and whispered in his ear "you, don't want that, powerful but wildly inaccurate, like shooting fish with a pistol in water. Sure it's easy to hit a target when there in a group, but when their thinned out is when you truly rely on the accuracy of the bullet."
"Here come with me..." the A.O.C whispered "I have better guns than these ones, these are for the everyday soldier, but what I am about to show you is for the better, well trained soldier, one who deserves to carry a gold sword even though it may break under extreme pressure, it will never leave it sheath because the one with the golden sword blinks and his enemies fall dead, he lifts a finger and civilizations crumble, he exhales and the world evaporates."
"So what are you saying to me, that I'm going to sit around twitting my thumbs while my sword rests rusting in its sheath?" Dark said a bit confused by the A.O.C statements as he led him towards the back of the armory, to a dusty spot. There a wooden door sat its doorknob rusted and unused, but to Dark's amazement the door and its knob was nothing but a ruse. Behind a flush brick that the A.O.C had lifted up sat a keypad which when activated automatically opened the door in question.
Slowly the door creaked open backgrounded by a mechanical whirring sound, when it did come to rest fully open the sight that it revealed was amazing. Rows upon rows of high powered assault rifles in various camos and shades of colors from sliver to matt black, it was impressive that this room housed a collection such as this.
"Quickly Dark, stop standing there drooling over this massive collection and pick your weapons..." The A.O.C yelled to him from one of the halls.
Quickly Dark shook himself out of his entranced state and started quickly rummaging through the halls, quickly he found an MP5K with a silencer and a holographic site coated in Digital Urban Camouflage, he attached a sling to it on the two attachment points located in the front and back of the gun. Nearby he found a M9 pistol sitting on a rack and grabbed that, he put that into a slinged holster which he found hanging on one of the nearby walls.
With his gear together and set he headed out into the hallway that lead to the Armory, there he met the other half of his squad and saw that they had already set up defensive positions with sandbag. Towards the entry doorway of the hall, the squad had set up a "sandbag wall" with spaces and mounting for two heavy machine guns, to the center of the hallway a small enclosed area held communications equipment and dug into the floor, through the concrete slab and exposed the soft soil below to hold the communications equipment. To the back of the hallway there was another wall sectioning it off, with a doorway to pass in between it and behind it housed various vital weapons and munitions. But Dark was more here or less to find Joshua before the Russian attacked (if they hadn't already) and make sure he was safe. Even if they lost the battle, at least they would die together as friends. To Dark, that was an unpleasant thought, it made him uneasy. But he shook his head clear of his thoughts and waved his hair around wildly. He had to find Joshua, he just had to and plus, it couldn't be that hard "Could It?" Dark questioned himself mentally "It just have to, mine...his...no, _ our _...survival depended on it."