FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Jacob's heart stopped when he heard the gunshot. He was sure a rifle bullet had passed through him. Both he and the humans were stunned however when one of the men tumbled over the edge and landed at Jacob's feet. Four more shots followed, dispatching the remaining raiders. Thinking quickly he tucked himself into a tiny alcove in the cliff face, his breath coming in gasps. He forced himself to quiet, he wasn't out of the woods yet.

Jacob could hear boots crunching on the cliff top above him, there were at least five of them by the sound of it, heading his way and he readied his rifle. The footsteps stopped at the edge above him, he tremored, his breath stopping as he stood completely still, hoping they would turn away. "Come out, hands up!" A gruff voice shouted down from atop the cliff. Jacob didn't respond immediately, calculating his options. Whoever was up there knew someone had been down on the path, otherwise the raiders wouldn't have been aiming their rifles down the cliff. He could run for it, but the ground lay flat at the bottom of the cliff, no matter how fast he ran he would be in the open for miles. Judging by the pile of dead raiders in front of him the people up there wouldn't have a hard time picking him off.

"We know you're down there. Come out or you're getting a grenade." There was nothing Jacob could do, he set down his carbine and stepped away from the cliff slowly, his paws high in the air. A small band of humans stood at the top of the cliff, four males and one female. They were marginally cleaner than the dead raiders sprawled at Jacob's feet and certainly better equipped, their military rifles well maintained.

"It's a fuckin' morph, go figure." One of the human males murmured. "Heading east out of the NCR look like, might be a scout for those filthy animals lookin' to grab more land." Jacob remained stationary, his face stony as the humans above him kept their weapons trained on him. He had come out of the NCR, that was true, but he was no scout and worked for no one, he didn't like working for anyone.

"I think we should kill him right here." A scarred tattooed man asked the one who appeared to be the group's leader, a large man with wide shoulders and a square jaw covered in a grizzly beard. "If he gets back to the NCR..."

"I'm no agent of the NCR." Jacob spoke calmly.

"Shut up, animal." The large man shot at him angrily. He paused for a few moments before speaking again, "No. He won't escape the Fort." He paused again while he looked Jacob over. "He looks strong enough. Were you followed, animal?" he barked at Jacob.

Jacob wondered what he was strong enough for. "Not by anyone friendly to me." He said simply.

"We can handle raiders." the woman spoke this time. Her hair was short and blonde, dusted with Mojave sand under her worn cap, her face gave her a fierce look and the way she held herself suggested she knew how to handle the assault rifle she held in her hands. "And a hostage might be useful if he has any NCR scouts behind him."

The big man nodded. "Sarah, take John and David down there and disarm him. Twitch and I will stay here and make sure he doesn't go anywhere." The tattooed one who had suggested to kill Jacob looked disappointed but remained where he was.

"Gotcha, Chief." the woman said and she led the two other men along the cliff towards the path that led down to the road. Chief's gaze searched the horizon for the fabled NCR scouts while Twitch kept his rifle pointing intently at Jacob's head as he grinned at him gleefully. Jacob would have to keep an eye on this Twitch fellow. He kept his paws in the air as the other three humans approached him from up the path. "Get that coat off him." Sarah barked at the other two, motioning towards Jacob with the muzzle of her rifle.

John and David stepped forward, watching him carefully, and grabbed his paws roughly and yanked his duster off of him. They patted him down and were about to pull off his boots when Chief spoke up, "That's enough, we'll go through everything when we get back to the Fort." Jacob breathed a silent sigh of relief. "We should get moving in case there is anyone following him." John and David released him and began to scoop up the rifles laying by the dead raiders and tearing through their pockets looking for ammunition. Sarah kept her weapon trained on him as Chief and Twitch descended from the heights.

Twitch whistled when he spotted Jacob's M4 laying in the shadows in the alcove he had hid in. "Look at this beauty!" he said triumphantly as he picked it up and held it in the light. Jacob's lip curled angrily as the human's grimy hands swept over the carbine. He had spent years shoveling shit in a farm collective, buying the parts piece by piece in anticipation of heading east. The human shouldered it and aimed it at Jacob's head and flicking the safety off with a snap. "Musta' stole it. Ain't no animal can keep a gun lookin' this nice."

"That's enough, Twitch." Chief said, pushing the barrel of the rifle downward. "We need him alive for questioning and work. Now let's get a move-on." Chief wrenched the rifle from a sour-looking Twitch, slinging his own over his back while he held Jacob's in his gloved hands.

The Mojave sun was hot on the dark bare fur of Jacob's arms as he walked down the road, surrounded by the band of humans. He wondered what this "Fort" they were heading to was and how long it would take to get there. It seemed like it was run by human nutcases at any rate. The group was silent, the humans searching the horizon in all directions for threats, all accept Twitch. He was busy having entirely too much fun jabbing at Jacob with the muzzle of his rifle, prodding him in the ribs and the back of his head. He ignored it and trudged on through the heat and dry wind.

_____

The sun bore down oppressively on the dozen shaken morph survivors that had made it out of the Vault. All of them had only read about the sun in books, and they never adequately explained just how hot it was as you walked through a parched valley in southern California. They had agreed to follow the decrepit road west in hopes of reaching the coast. Jacob didn't think they would make it. The survivors shuffling across the cracked road had nothing but their blue Vault suits and pip-boys, over half were children, and Jacob was the only one with a weapon which only had a few rounds left in it. He had hid it in his clothes and fur as best he could. It was the only thing he had left from his parents, and he was worried that the adults would fight over it like Daddy had fought the human.

Nobody made a sound as they walked. Not even the traumatized children let out a whimper. The only sound was the wind blowing sand across the surface of the parched earth and baking road surface. Jacob flinched when one of the adults, a gray fox, broke the silence. "There are buildings up there." He said, pointing to a group of dark spots beside the road in the distance. They continued on toward them, without supplies they wouldn't last long.

The abandoned buildings and houses were eerie, it seemed the people that had lived there had simply dropped what they were doing and disappeared, leaving their homes to rot for 200 years. The largest building proved to be a small general store which they approached quietly as a tight group. "Alan, you stay here and watch the children. The rest of us will go in and see what we can find." a sandy-furred cat said quietly to the gray fox who had spotted the town. As the cat and three other adults slunk into the store, Jacob stood with Alan and the other children in the shadowed side of the building.

Alan kept peering around the corner out into the street, looking for signs of trouble. Jacob and the others stood quietly, waiting and straining their ears for any sound when suddenly a yelp from the back of the group broke the silence. Everyone spun around to find a dishevelled coyote in torn and patched clothes some six feet away, gripping one of the children by the neck with a small revolver pressed into the gray fur of the cub's head. "Give me everything you have, or the kid dies." the coyote rasped menacingly.

Standing next to Jacob, Alan tremored visibly. "That's my son." he croaked, and then louder, "That's my son! Let him go!" Without waiting for reply the gray fox charged the coyote. Two shots rang out. Alan fell to the ground beside the group of children, blood seeping from two holes in his chest. There was screaming, and a loud crash sounded from inside the general store. The coyote glanced towards the wall of the building, frightened, and began to back away, dragging Alan's son with him.

The other adults raced around the corner behind Jacob, but there was nothing they could do to stop the coyote from dragging off the young fox. The coyote was now frantically dragging the cub backwards; Alan's son began to kick and yell, trying futilely to hurt the coyote. As if in slow motion, Jacob could see the hammer of the revolver drawing back as the coyote applied pressure to the trigger. Without realizing what he was doing Jacob tore open his Vault soon and suddenly he was pointing his pistol at the coyote. He fired, catching the coyote under the chin, causing him to tumble backwards limply. Jacob couldn't hear the new screams erupting around him as the pistol tumbled from his paws.

_____

Jacob jerked back to reality as he received an especially hard prodding to the back of the head. "We're here!" Twitch bubbled gleefully from behind him. A dirt road snaked off to the side of the highway, leading into a gulley. Beside it stood a sign creaking in the wind that read in peeling paint, "FORT ADAMS, UNITED STATES ARMY". They turned off the highway and followed the road into the gulley, passing a half crumpled rusted gate. They walked for a few more minutes before turning the corner and Jacob beheld "the Fort".

Nestled in a small valley stood a series of fifteen foot concrete walls surrounding a series of buildings, the places where time had crumbled the walls were covered with lopsided plates of steel. A series of concrete barricades protected the path to the large entrance gate, manned by a group of several human men, well armed like the ones holding Jacob prisoner. Men patrolled the walls on platforms and a couple guard towers stood above the other buildings.

"Hey there, Chief!" one of the men guarding the gate saluted, wearing a grin about his face as the group passed. "Bagged another one?"

"That's right. Need to bring him to the Warden right away." Chief replied curtly. The guard nodded and yelled up to the men patrolling the wall to raise the gate and they proceeded inside. Jacob peered around the encampment as he walked. Humans milled about, carrying clothes and food and other items about the buildings, some of which were old concrete, some ramshackle sheet metal structures. They all ignored him as if he didn't exist.

He was led inside a low building not far from the entrance. A short woman sat behind the rickety desk opposite the door, almost comically out of place in her garish pink dress with white polkadots all over. "How may I help you?" the woman spoke in a high sweet voice, seemingly unfazed by the presence of five heavily armed individuals.

"We need to see the Warden." Chief replied. "We found this...on the road. We think he might be an NCR scout." he said, indicating Jacob.

The woman nodded and pressed down on a scuffed plastic box, it emitted a quiet scratchy static as she spoke, "Mister Kelly and his scouting party would like to see you, Sir. They have a prisoner accompanying them." Jacob swallowed a chuckle as he saw Chief's face purple slightly.

A moment later the box buzzed again. "Let them in." a brisk voice issued through the static. Jacob was steered down a dingy hallway and through a door. A man in a clean, if archaic, suit sat behind a solid oak desk shuffling through a handful of papers. Short dark hair capped the man's tall forehead and thick horn-rimmed glasses sat before his piercing grayish-blue eyes. He looked up and set down his papers after Jacob and his captors had been standing before his desk for several moments. "Ah, Mister Kelly, back from your scouting mission I see."

Chief cleared his throat and spoke, his voice smoother and less certain than Jacob had heard before. This suited man had to be powerful if a man as large as Chief was this intimidated by him. "Yes Sir. Killed a few raiders and collected their weapons and ammunition. We also found this vermin."

The Warden peered at Jacob over his thick glasses for several moments before speaking. "You have reason to believe he is an NCR scout?"

"Yes Sir. He was carrying this." Chief said as he hefted Jacob's M4 and handed it to the Warden. "A waster wouldn't be carrying something like this."

Alexander turned the rifle over in his hands as he studied it, then set it down behind his desk. "You were not followed." he said. It wasn't a question.

Chief's paused, causing the Warden's eyebrows to rise slightly. "Of course not Sir. We were careful and moved quickly." Chief sputtered out quickly.

"Good." the Warden said. "You will have to pardon me, I am quite busy and don't have time for an interrogation at the moment. Mister Kelly, would you kindly take the dog to the Pound and," the corners of the Warden's thin mouth tweaked up slightly as he eyed Jacob, "soften him up."