FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Tracks

When one is a member of an elite commando team during a time of war, one finds oneself in many challenging situations. Behind enemy lines? Nothing new. Under fire while mining a bridge on an enemy supply line? Walk in the park. Pulling a railroad switch to send a munitions train the wrong way? Blindfolded and drunk.

So why, Captain Chuck Gray thought to himself, was it so difficult to be stuck in a small space with a scared junior airman?

Perhaps it was just the small space, he considered, reaching forward with his long, limber trunk to pull a lever while maintaining a tight grasp on the controls of the tank he and Airman Bobby Chang were holed up in. German tanks were not generally built for creatures of his size, and he had almost called for someone to break out the axle grease when they had told him he'd be driving. It had turned out, however, that after six weeks in a particularly unpleasant POW camp the elephant slipped neatly into the driver's compartment. It was still cramped, but he could manage it.

Mostly.

"Why did we speed up? What's wrong?"

Gray almost growled at the nervous voice from behind. Instead, he schooled himself to patience and glanced back. Shar peis did worried expressions better than pretty much anything on the planet; that mass of wrinkles, the sagging skin around the jowls and everything else combined to make the young male look like nothing more than a very concerned raisin.

"We sped up, Airman Chang, because the tanks ahead of us sped up and I didn't think you'd want to stand up out of the hatch and wave goodbye." Turning back to peer out the hatch, Gray adjusted their speed slightly to move closer to the Panzer crunching along ahead of them. "If we get separated, we get lost. Captain Williams has the map in the lead tank."

Chang let go a long, nervous breath and wiped a paw across the rumpled black panzer crewman's uniform, that wrinkled visage shifting from raisin to rumpled bedding as it relaxed slightly. "O-okay... I thought maybe we'd been spotted. I think I got the guns figured out but I'm not totally sure."

"Don't worry about it, son. If we need to use the guns we'll be in more trouble than I, or anyone else, wants to get into. Now go back and see if you can keep an eye out to the rear from the commander's seat."

"Yes, sir." Chang rattled his way back into the guts of the tank.

Gray used his trunk to hold one of the control levers and wiped his brow with his cap. How he had wound up saddled with an airedale instead of one of the ground-pounders that populated the other three tanks was a mystery. Maybe he had kicked dirt on the always-shiny boots of the tiger who drove the lead tank in their little Panzer division. Or maybe he was just lucky.

That, he doubted. Luck was not something the elephant had in stock on this run.

He and his unit had been tasked with infiltrating the German lines to take out an important rail bridge that was carrying supplies for two brigades. Losing those supplies would be a blow to those units and give the British and Canadians fighting their way inward from the beaches of Normandy.

Unfortunately, his team had zigged when they should have zagged. Most of them had died in a hail of fire from an infantry squad in the wrong place at the right time. He had taken a graze off the head and woken up in a dirty field hospital. A week of recovery time and he was moved into a forward POW camp.

Once his head had stopped spinning every time he moved, Gray had immediately jumped into the escape organization that was present in each and every such camp. It had taken several weeks, but with the elephant's skills and those of other special-operations furs a plan had come together.

The commander of the POWs in the camp had demanded that the escapees be selected at random from the prisoners. Which was how, instead of the ground troops he had hoped for, the escapees wound up with three downed airedales under their watch.

Something clanged from behind him. Gray jumped, nearly losing his grip on the controls. "Goddamnit, Chang, what happened?"

The shar-pei peered back down, rubbing his head. Skin flopped around almost comically. "Sorry, Captain, the hatch fell and hit me on the head..."

"You know there's a latch to keep it up, right?"

"Um... No. I didn't."

"Of course you didn't. How long were you in your squadron before your plane got shot down?"

Chang sat on the floor, the small canine fitting perfectly in the tiny space. "Um... two weeks, I think? Sir? I was on my third flight."

"Gunner, right?"

"Yes sir, waist gunner." Gray could almost hear the shrug. "I wasn't good enough at testing to do anything else. Pretty good shot though. Sir."

"Being a good shot is pretty important these days, kid. You know how to use that coax machine gun up there?"

"I think so, sir."

"Good. If something happens, you're gonna have to use it."

"Yes, sir." Chang paused. "Sir, do you think we're actually gonna make it back to our lines like this?"

Gray looked over his shoulder and grinned at the young canine. "What, you think four Panzers clanking across no-man's-land might get someone worried on our side?"

"Well... I know if I saw four tanks coming at me and I had stuff to shoot I would. Sir."

"Son, you and your fellow flyers have seven professional ground-pounders to deliver you back home. Don't worry."

Chang disappeared again. The tank crunched and rattled its way across the rough road, skirting bomb craters. Here and there, knots of soldiers passed, heading towards the rear. None of them took a second glance at the passing tanks.

Gray had been worried about that part of the plan, but Captain Williams had insisted it would work. They had enough German speakers to pass as a delivery crew of injured troops taking fresh equipment to the fighting furs at the front. Four of the special-ops furs had taken out a real delivery crew, stripped them of clothes, papers and tanks, and they had been off.

That had been two days ago. Since so many of the regular troopies were too busy worrying about the oncoming Allies, they had been challenged only once by an overly-enthusiastic traffic MP. Williams had gone up one side of him and down the other before they had been given clear passage.

A paw waved from the hatch of the tank ahead, and Gray pulled the tank to a stop. Chang immediately dropped down from above. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"Pulling up. Not sure why."

Three figures jogged back towards their tank. Gray struggled up to pop the hatch and stand up to meet them.

Williams led the way, the other captain's striped tail lashing. "Gray, if I read this right we've got to turn off the road and follow that river down a few miles to this bridge, if we want to get around the main push in from the beaches. There's a few possible Resistance strongholds still around too, that might be a help."

"Sounds good, John. What's the problem?"

"The problem is, we have no idea if the Germans are going the same way or not. Our map's a week old now - anything could have happened in that time." Williams waved at it. "We run into a real panzer unit out there, or even an infantry team with a couple of tank killers, and we could be in trouble."

Gray studied the map as Williams spread it out on the tank's hull. He gestured with his trunk. "Why would they go up the river when they could counterattack out of this valley over here easier and with better supply lines?"

"He's right, Captain." A young fox with a British accent, a lieutenant, tapped the map. "I worked on mission planning quite a lot back in London, and that would certainly be a better approach. If anyone is over that way they aren't likely to ask many questions."

Williams scratched his chin, leaving smears of grease on the white of his muzzle. "All right. Let's..."

He cut off as the top hatch flipped open and Chang's head popped out. "I think I saw something coming up behind us, sir! Um... sirs!"

"Salute when you address an officer, Airman!"

Chang jumped at Williams' snarl and snapped a paw up hard enough to nearly knock himself out. "Yes sir, sorry sir, just there's a car coming sir and shouldn't we be moving sir?"

Williams peeked around the edge of the tank, and frowned. "The airedale's right, but none of you heard me say that." He gave Chang a glare and pointed downward; the shar pei paused, jowls sagging, then ducked back down and pulled the hatch after him. "Let's get moving."

The car, bearing official markings, passed by without slowing down as they mounted the tanks and clanked off once again. Gray put power to the tracks and politely ignored the slightly vulgar commentary from the gunner's compartment referring to the parentage of certain tiger captains. The elephant almost smiled, remembering his own first brushes with pissed-off officers. For an airedale, the kid had a good vocabulary, he noticed.

But, all good things must end, he thought.

"When you're done discussing Captain Williams' mother, could you get your skinny ass up out of that hatch and keep an eye to the rear?"

The clank he heard was, Gray judged, Chang's head bouncing off something just hard enough to get him back on task - well, at least he was back to watching, even if there were a few quiet mutterings in Mandarin drifting down through the engine rumble. He'd have to be careful with surprising the kid - a few more raps like that and he wouldn't be able to shoot straight if it came down to that.

"God, don't let it come down to that," he murmured, watching the tanks ahead turn to pick a route through the woods that spread out into the valley where their target river ran.

Four tanks moving together through the woods drew little interest from anyone else; in fact, they saw precious few other furs as the day drew on. Most of the infantry were many miles ahead and further south, Gray surmised from the maps he had seen, attempting to blunt the push of the various Allied troops making their way inland. Now and then an aircraft would buzz by overhead, barely heard over the noise of the big diesel engine.

"I see the river, Captain!"

"Good, Airman, glad to hear it. Williams didn't have the map upside-down, anyhow." He paused. "Did you just laugh at a joke about an officer, son?"

"No sir!"

"Bullshit."

"I wouldn't lie to an officer, sir!"

"Don't dig yourself too-"

The tank lurched abruptly. Gray swore and yanked on the controls to keep the Panzer moving straight. Something clattered hard beneath the hull. The left control jammed, the engine roared with an unpleasant note, and Gray slammed the throttle down to prevent the diesel from tearing itself apart.

"What happened?"

"I think we threw a fucking track, is what I think happened!" Gray leaned back in the driver's seat. "Climb out and look at our left side, see if you can spot anything!"

Chang's worried, wrinkled face disappeared as he clambered out the hatch. A moment later he came back. "The track's gone for sure, sir... looks like a pin broke. If we had spares I might be able to get it back together..."

"You... what?"

"I might be able to fix it, sir... we had a big bulldozer with tracks back on the farm, my pa taught me how to fix stuff like this."

Gray watched the shar pei rattling around in the compartment, an eyebrow raised. "I am impressed, Airman. Try that big box in the corner."

Chang nodded and opened the box. His ears perked. "Spares and tools! I can-" He froze. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Gray looked after the other tanks; they hadn't noticed the fourth of the group fall behind and were making their way towards the river, crossing an open space a quarter-mile or so ahead.

"Shh!"

The elephant frowned. "Did you just shush-"

"Shut up, sir! Please!"

Gray froze at the dog's tone and clamped his lips shut. The canine's head tilted one way, then the other, then his eyes widened and he slammed the hatch down over his head.

"P-47s diving!"

"Oh Jes..."

A roar burst out from somewhere above, and the ground around the tanks ahead exploded. White trails pounded down, turning the clearing ahead into a cloud of black and brown and white that erupted from within with secondary explosions.

The tank rocked with the blasts. Gray ducked down as rocks and shrapnel pinged off the hull. Chang whimpered behind him as the Panzer shuddered and slowly settled once again.

As soon as it started, it was over. The sound of fighter planes buzzing away dimmed. Gray slowly lifted his head to look out the viewport.

Three tanks - or the remains of them - burned in the clearing. There was no way anyone had survived that rocket barrage, he was certain of that.

What was worse, the fire was likely to attract attention. His German would pass muster when the troops that were likely to be investigating arrived - but the closest Chang would get to speaking German was likely to ask for sauerkraut on a bratwurst at the local ball park.

"Oh god, they're all..."

"Shit. Chang! Are you okay?"

"Sir... they're all dead! What are we-"

"Chang! Attention!"

He'd never been a drill sergeant, but he'd known many of them and the tone came automatically. Chang snapped upright in the gunner's compartment, whacked his head on the hatch, and sat down hard, blinking at the elephant, flaps of skin flopping around his muzzle.

"Son, I need you together right now if we're going to get out of this. All right?"

The stunned dog nodded, still a little bleary.

"Good. Now. I want you to swing the turret around back the way we came. Can you work that out?"

"I... think so, sir..." There was a rumble and whirr, and Gray saw the barrel of the main gun swing past the viewport.

"Good job, Chang. Turn the turret to face back the direction we came. We're sitting in brush, right?"

Chang looked down, worried. "We're in shrubs a little above the tracks, I guess. Why?"

"Because," Gray grinned, "that should give 'em less of an idea which way we're really facing. So when they get too close you can light them up with the MG."

"You mean shoot at them?"

The kid's face would have gone white if it didn't have fur all over it. Glory be, a pacifist in a war zone, Gray thought.

"Yes, son, shoot at them. As many of them as you can hit before they find cover." The elephant rolled his eyes at Chang's worry. "Think of them as little airplanes if you have to. You do realize all those planes you shot at had pilots, right?"

A quiet growl drifted in from the turret, but the drive hummed, pushing it around to face towards where Gray suspected any investigating troops would come from. In the meantime, he crawled back to search the rest of the tank for useful tools.

Chang sat, staring angrily out the viewer, watching the forest around them.

"Where are you from, Airman?"

The dog's rigid pose relaxed slightly. "Outside of Seattle, sir. Great-grandfolks came over in the '80s just before the exclusion laws. Granddad bought some land with the money he saved building railroad and started farming."

Gray grunted, setting aside a submachine gun that had turned up in his search and digging for ammunition. "Tough life, both of those. Your grandfolks have any trouble along the way? My family came over a little later - India, through Canada. Father's name was originally Grewal."

"Granddad said it was pretty hard on the railway but once they moved out to Skagit it got-" Chang paused. "-I see someone, sir."

"What've you got, son?" Gray slid back forward to the front viewer, watching carefully into the slowly dimming evening.

"Couple of infantrymen, looks like... no helmets, but they're carrying guns." Chang gently nudged the turret, moving it a fraction to one side.

"Don't move it too fast," Gray warned. "Easy motions, don't spook them. They looking at us?"

"Not right now - they're looking towards the other tanks." Chang's voice quavered slightly. "More of them, sir... I count eight... ten... twelve, maybe more. What do we do, sir?"

"Squad strength," Gray murmured. Probably a platoon had been going past on the main road, seen the explosions, and a squad had been sent to investigate. "Easy, son. Just keep an eye on them for the moment and move the barrel real slow. Let me know if they're moving our way."

"Still heading towards the oth... wait, they're pointing this way, sir! They're coming over!"

Gray swore quietly. "All right, Airman. Let them get in about a hundred yards. You ready? Or should I-"

"I'll do it, sir."

"Good man. That should get their heads down and we'll have the time to get to the river. Be ready to go out the hatch, all right?" Gray waited for the dog's head to bob in acknowledgement, nodded himself, and started undogging the hatch.

The machine gun chattered abruptly, loud in the confined space of the turret. Chang growled softly as the turret swept back and forth, the rattle of spent cartridges into their container adding to the noise - but even so Gray heard shouts and screams from the direction the fire was pouring.

Chang held the firing button down for only a few seconds, but it seemed forever, and as silence returned Gray let his floppy ears flap back open. "Damn, son, did you leave-"

BOOM!

The tank rocked hard and a moment later rocked again as an explosion echoed from outside.

Chang grunted, bouncing off of the elephant, who caught him before he could hit anything important. "What the hell was that?"

"Think I pressed the wrong button, sir - must have been a round in the chamber!"

"Good lord, Airman, if that gun had been blocked..."

Gray poked his head out of the hatch and glanced the direction of the barrel. Nothing was moving where the squad had been approaching - well, except for the two trees that were slowly toppling over into the blasted area the 3-inch shell had struck. Bodies sprawled within his view. He could hear groans from somewhere in the wreckage - but a tree finally collapsed and the moan was cut off.

"Well. Good shooting, Airman. Let's go, Chang!"

The elephant clambered out onto the hull and reached back to haul the shocked shar pei out by the collar. "Get out of that coat, it'll be too heavy to swim in," Gray ordered. "And run, straight north! Get into that tall grass and down on your belly, double time!"

"Yes sir!" Chang struggled out of the heavy tanker's coat as he jogged towards the glint of sunset off the water ahead.

Gray followed, shrugging out of his own coat while holding tight to the submachine gun. He cast cautious glances over his shoulder back towards the tank as the river got closer.

He knew it would come eventually, but the first rattle of gunfire still caused him to jump and Chang to launch himself into a flat-out run before diving into the grass and reeds near the river. The elephant ducked as well and slid into cover, accompanied by bursts of fire and the clatter of bullets ringing off the tank's hull.

"Chang?" The whisper sounded awfully loud, even though he knew they were far out of hearing range of the oncoming forces.

"Sir?"

Gray crawled towards the canine. "Get to the river. Nearest bridge is about five miles away, so it should be safer over there. We're going to swim across and head for that copse of trees just downstream. Grab cover and wait for me there. Okay?"

"Yes, sir. Uh... I don't swim really well."

"Learn fast."

Chang almost laughed as he slipped into the water. Probably in shock, the elephant considered as he turned to peek carefully along their trail.

There was no sign of activity beyond the trees where the tank was barely visible in the rapidly fading light. Gray hoped that meant they had turned back around, but it was more likely they-

WHOOMP

-had been waiting for someone with an anti-tank weapon to show up. The explosion was impressive even at a distance; the turret blew straight up twenty feet on a pillar of flame and crashed down again.

Now, Gray considered, they would move up and check the area. That would probably include a pass down to the river. He needed to get a move on.

Chang was just disappearing into the reeds along the other side of the river, two hundred feet away. Fear, it appeared, was a good motivator, even when swimming was involved. The elephant slowly slipped into the water, testing its depth, and edged in until he could just keep his head above water. He had hoped he could walk across, but that wasn`t going to work. Instead, he took the submachine gun around the middle with his trunk and held it above the water while he carefully set out in an underwater backstroke.

Gray couldn`t hear a thing other than the water rushing past his ears and the hiss of his breath. He hoped to god that his path was staying straight - the dim light was nowhere near enough to illuminate the river bottom. Current tugged at him as he swam, but that proved helpful - he slowed his pace and kicked to angle himself towards the opposite shore.

Reeds were just starting to grab at him when a spatter of splashes erupted on the surface. Surprised, Gray nearly lost hold of the gun - which, he realized, was probably what they were firing at. He was just releasing the grip on the barrel when another flurry of bullets cut into the water. Pain seared through his trunk and, as he drew it under the water, something punched him hard in the side of the head.

When the bursts of stars and thunderous ringing in his head eased, Gray found himself in the shore brush somehow. He fought with the pain for a moment, light-headed and near to passing out, before finally getting some control over himself.

A few last shots echoed across the river, then ceased. Gray stayed where he was as voices echoed across the water. From the sounds of it, an NCO was giving someone hell - the German troops hadn`t been given orders to shoot, and the noncom was angry that they had just plugged some aquatic mammal with precious bullets.

The elephant started crawling through the brush slowly, breathing hard through his mouth, a steady stream of heat dripping down the side of his face and another off his trunk. He was losing a lot of blood. This far out, that was not good at all.

A rustle in the reeds pulled Gray's head around, which started the world swirling again. He nearly collapsed before paws clamped down on his shoulder, barely steadying him. There was a grunt of effort and a muttered phrase in Chinese. Gray fuzzily surmised he didn't want to know what that phrase meant, but did his best to support more of his own weight.

"Come on, Captain," Chang hissed as he tried to guide the injured elephant up the bank. "They went back up towards the other tanks. We have to move!"

"Told you to wait in the trees, Airman."

"Yes, sir, you did. But I was worried that you were in the middle of that shooting." Chang shrugged, the movement barely visible in the moonlight. "You're bleeding badly, sir."

"Shot me in the head, Chang." Gray sat down heavily, his voice muted by the trunk wound. "Dizzy."

"Hold on, sir." There was a tearing sound. The shar pei took strips off his shirt and wadded several up. "Let me see your head."

Turning his head was getting very tiring, but Gray managed it. "Must have been a graze, or I'd be dead. Glad I have a thick skull."

Chang pressed the strips against the captain's head at the top of his ear, then bound them with more fabric from his shirt. "All officers do, sir, but if you call me out on that later I will affirm that you were hallucinating it from loss of blood. Ear's pretty torn up, but that should hold it for now."

"Chang, you're a smart aleck. Trunk's pretty bad too. Tie it off near my face."

The airman followed instructions, then looked around. "We need to move, sir. Can you walk?"

"I've been hurt worse than this, Airman." Gray heaved himself to his feet and nearly fell over until the smaller fur ducked under his arm to provide support. "Maybe not. Let's get into those trees and hole up for a little while. I need something to eat and a little rest, and then we'll see what else we can find around here."

"Are you sure about this, Captain?"

"Absolutely certain, Airman. See the way those candles form a diagonal line top left to bottom right in the windows? That's what we're looking for." Gray paused, peering at the farmhouse where it sat at the edge of a small town. "Unless they changed the signals in the last four months. Which is possible. But damn it, this is the first place we've seen that showed a Resistance signal, and we need to do something now."

The duo had crept their way through the woods after a few scant hours of rest. Aircraft had buzzed overhead with greater frequency, and the sounds of bombing had echoed from somewhere nearby. There had been no sign of any German troops on their side of the river, probably because of that bombing - it was likely they were heading for wherever those attacks were taking place. Even so, Gray had kept them well hidden in the trees until dark, when they moved ahead to investigate the town.

An empty field stretched out ahead of them to the house. It was the only home showing light, and sure enough three candles flickered in that enticing diagonal.

"If they are Resistance, what can they do for us, sir?" Chang asked. He crouched against a tree, peering over the field.

"Well, at the least, they can shelter us and get some proper bandages on these holes in my head. Give us food, maybe use their network to get us back through the lines."

"And if they're not Resistance?"

"You leave anything back at the camp? If they're not Resistance, you'll probably get to go back and pick it up."

"I liked that Red Cross blanket. Should we go see who's home?"

Gray almost smiled. The kid was loosening up - another six months of this or so and he'd be a reasonable ground pounder.

"Let me do the talking, Airman."

A white face under a pink night bonnet peered out the door in response to Gray's complicated knock. "Qui etes-vous?"

"Nous sommes des Americains, madame."

The cow gasped and shut the door. Gray frowned and was about to knock again when the portal swung open. A bull glared out at the escapees.

"Americans? Escapees?" he demanded in a heavy accent.

Gray nodded. "Yes, sir. We saw your lights."

"You are lucky. Most of our safe houses, they are no more. Come in."

The door closed quickly behind Chang and Gray, and the bull extended a hoof. "Charles Borde. I lead the Resistance in this area."

Gray introduced he and Chang. "Can you help us get back to our lines, Mr. Borde?"

"Yes, yes, I am able. You need medicine though." The bulky bull poked Chang in the middle. "And this one needs a sandwich. The Americans do not feed their soldiers?"

Chang winced. "We have been a little busy to eat, sir."

"No matter. Come, follow me."

They were shown out a side door and into the barn. Incurious eyes peered at them from the stalls as sheep chewing their cud watched the three walk by. A heavily manure-covered stall floor lifted to expose a hidden stairwell. Chang helped Gray down the stairs into a network of brick rooms.

Three other males met them, introducing themselves as Borde's sons. One found a kit of medical supplies and sat Gray down to treat his wounds. The others brought thick soup and bread for the two Americans.

"You will be safe here," Borde promised. "No Germans have come here in weeks - they are all so busy with running away that we are nearly free."

"How far are our lines away?" Gray asked, wincing at the sting of iodine applied to the hole in his trunk.

"Ten miles, Captain, and moving quickly this way. The fighting is mostly further south, and I suspect that instead of moving you to your lines the lines will move to you - and probably without fighting here." Borde smiled. "Rest, my friends, and we will be sure you are safe."

Gray shook the bull's hoof again. "Thank you, sir. You've likely saved our lives."

"Go back, get healthy and help us free France, gentlemen."

Chang watched Borde leave. "You think he's right, Captain?"

"Likely. We'll wait here and see what happens." The elephant winced again as Borde's boy moved on to his head wound. "Airman Chang, you've done a hell of a job. And you probably saved my life in the process. Thank you for that."

The shar pei flushed. "I couldn't leave you behind, Captain. You got me out. I had to return the favor somehow."

"Well, son, you did that in spades, and if anyone will listen to me when we get back on our side of the lines, you'll be up for a medal." Gray extended a hand towards the canine.

Chang shook, with a smile that smoothed out a few of his wrinkles. "Thanks, sir." He drained his soup bowl. "So what do we do until then?"

Gray shrugged. "I'm going to sleep. For a week. And then I'm going to go back to work once my trunk's back to ship-shape. War's not over yet, son."

"No, sir. Hope I can get a week or two back home before they put me back in a plane, though. I wouldn't mind having some of Mom's home cooking."

"Chang, you have no idea what home cooking is until you try my mother's curries. That'll put hair on your chest... well, you already have that but you know what I mean."

Chang laughed quietly, and after a moment Gray joined in. It echoed off the brick walls and dimmed the soft thump of bombs from the war as it slowly marched on.

"Tracks" (c) 2014 Tony Greyfox From a prompt by Carthage All rights reserved. Do not reprint without permission. Www.furaffinity.net/user/tgreyfox tony-greyfox.sofurry.com twitter.com/tonygreyfox