FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Jacob awoke to find himself dangerously close to the edge of the bed and nose to nose with a sleeping German shepherd that had apparently decided in his sleep that the mattress was entirely his domain. Jacob only smiled and gently removed Joshua's paw from where it lay on his hip and sat up, rubbing his eyes. He peered between the boards over the window to see the sun hanging under halfway in the eastern sky and turned to check his watch on the bedside table, a few minutes past nine. He thought about laying back down, they were supposed to rest today anyway...

"Hi." Joshua said as he stirred awake. "What time is it?"

"Nine. We can go back to sleep if you want, we have all day..."

"I don't think I can sleep any more." Joshua said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he sat up next to Jacob.

Jacob leaned into Joshua, putting his arm around him and stroking his fur absent-mindedly, when he noticed the German shepherd's stiff morning erection and chuckled. "Got something on your mind?" he said with a smile.

"What? Oh, yeah." Joshua said, confused for a moment and then looked down at himself and then turned to Jacob, a grin on his muzzle.

"I should pay you back for that blowjob last night." Jacob said and before long he found himself on his knees in front of Joshua, who sat panting at the edge of the bed, with his ears flat and his muzzle full with cock as he bobbed his head up and down.

Joshua had his paw resting between Jacob's ears, moaning softly in mid-orgasm, when a knock came from the door. "Uh, guys?" it was Sarah.

Jacob choked as he swallowed a mouthful of semen and pulled his muzzle off Joshua's shaft. "Wait! One sec!" he sputtered, cleaning the rest off his lips before standing.

"Uh, Jake..." Joshua warned through his heavy breathing, but Jacob had already cracked open the door and looked outside.

Sarah's cheeks would have put a tomato to shame as she blushed bright red when Jacob stuck his head around the door. "Um, I have breakfast cooking... Uh, you got something... on your..." she pointed at the bridge of her nose and then at Jacob's muzzle.

Jacob touched a couple fingers to his muzzle and they came away sticky and white. "Shit!" he swore and snapped the door shut quickly while Joshua burst out laughing behind him. "Why didn't you tell me?" he demanded as he rounded on the cackling shepherd.

"I tried to." Joshua said. finally recovering after Jacob wiped his muzzle clean. "Oh, your face... The big bad wolf goes to open the door with his face covered in..."

"It was not *covered*." Jacob said and threw Joshua his pants before pulling on his own, telling himself all the while that it could have been worse. When he finally had his boots and shirt on he left the room with Joshua, leaving his duster lying in a heap on the floor.

"Hey, look... I'm sorry, I should have waited..." Sarah said uncertainly as they came down the steps.

"I'm surprised you're not giving us some sermon about how we're evil animal abominations for fucking." Jacob sneered.

Sarah's stony expression returned. "I never said it isn't disgusting, but I'm not exactly in the position to complain about it, am I?" she said coldly.

"No, I guess you're not." Jacob said as he sat next to Joshua on the sofa and began to eat, but stopped abruptly when he noticed the revolver sitting on the armrest of Sarah's recliner, realizing that he had left his weapons upstairs.

Sarah must have caught his gaze. "Do you really think I'm going to shoot you after making you breakfast?" she said.

"You never know." Jacob said uneasily and returned to his food, keeping a wary eye on Sarah. "I'm surprised you didn't take off last night. You could have found the supplies you needed and left, why didn't you?" he asked.

"The same reason you let us stop to eat at the gas station: I can't make it out here alone, with raiders everywhere." she said simply without looking up.

"Thank you for breakfast, Sarah." Joshua said, making both Jacob and Sarah look up in surprise.

"Welcome..." Sarah mumbled and they ate quietly until she set her empty can down. "So what's our plan today?" she asked.

"Rest." Jacob said and threw his can aside when he was finished and leaned back into the sofa.

"Just...rest?" she said as if she had never heard of the concept.

"Well, we're going to have to go get one of those jugs of water from the grocery before dark, but other than that..." Jacob trailed off, thinking of what else might need doing, and then remembered his partially disassembled rifle upstairs. "I should take our weapons apart and clean them before we set out. Come on Josh..." he said and stood, eyeing Sarah's pistol once more.

"I'm not gonna shoot your boyfriend either." Sarah said with a frown.

Jacob opened his mouth to argue but Joshua spoke first, "I'll be fine, Jake. Go ahead and get your stuff." Jacob hesitated before heading to the stairs, glowering at Sarah the entire way. He quickly threw his bag over his shoulder and grabbed his duster and rifle and made his way back down the stairs and set it all down in front of the couch.

Jacob sat down on the floor and Joshua sat next to him, leaning into his side. Jacob set to work on his M4, comfortable with the shepherd's warmth at his side, and took his time to show Joshua how to take apart the rifle and taking extra care to clean it very thoroughly. "Hopefully you don't have to end up using this, but you never know..." He set the rifle aside and pulled out the 9mm he had found yesterday from his duster and looked it over, it had been a long time, but he had worked with one before and didn't have much trouble getting it apart. Joshua was quiet as Jacob cleaned and lubricated the pistol, watching him intently. After he was finished with the pistol he set it aside and pulled Joshua's rifle towards him and looked it over, he'd never worked with a G3 model before.

"I can help you with that." Sarah said suddenly. "It *was* my rifle until you bashed me in the head with it." Jacob eyed her and released the magazine and cleared the chamber before handing her the rifle as she slid down to the floor from the couch. Jacob found that his arm had slipped around Joshua and his paw was resting on his side as they watched sarah pull the rifle apart and clean it. When she was finished she held it in her hands and stared down at it for several moments before shoving it into Joshua's paws reluctantly. She then turned away and began to clean her revolver.

"Do you think we can go outside? Get some air?" Joshua stood and stretched.

Jacob frowned. "The town seems safe for now but I think we should still limit our exposure, don't want to take the chance of being seen when we don't have to. But maybe we could get the upstairs windows open." he said and got to his feet. After a few minutes of searching the house he managed to find a hammer and used it to pry the nails out of the boards covering the window of the upstairs bedroom. He shifted the bed over to the other wall and sat down with Joshua and looked out at the blue sky as he put an arm around the shepherd.

Joshua stirred after a while and suddenly proffered to Jacob something in his paw. "Here, I found this while I was searching the houses yesterday. I fell asleep before I could give it to you last night... I thought you might like it..."

Jacob peered down into Jacobs paw and found a shiny piece of metal, glinting brightly with reflected sunlight. It was a ring. He picked it up gingerly and studied it closer, finding inlaid within its stainless steel surface bright strokes of turquoise. He turned to Joshua to thank him when he hesitated and looked back at the ring. The stone laid within matched the hue of the shepherd's eyes almost perfectly.

"Go on, try it on." Joshua said excitedly and Jacob tried to slide it on, going from one finger to the next futilely - apparently the ring-crafter hadn't accounted for fur. Jacob felt his heart sink and Joshua slumped next to him, his ears lowering.

Abruptly an idea came to Jacob and after rummaging around in his pack some he found a number of thing paracord strands and took one and looped it through the ring and then tied it around his neck. "There." he said with a smile, which Joshua returned with one of his own.

They sat together quietly for a while after that, listening to the wind as Jacob kept his arm around the German shepherd. "Jake, what are you going to do when we get to New Vegas?" Joshua asked quietly.

Jacob sighed and frowned as he stared out the window. "I... I don't know. I guess I never really did." he said reluctantly, hating to admit any indecisiveness, but it felt easier admitting it to Joshua. "I just wanted a new start, I wanted to get away from the NCR... from everything that reminded me of Daniel." Joshua only nodded quietly, and the wolf turned his gaze on him, peering into his blue eyes. "I guess things are different now though..." he said, stroking the shepherd's side softly. "We'll just have to figure out something."

_____

It was late afternoon when Jacob and Joshua finally descended the stairs and got ready to go back to the grocery for the water. Jacob shrugged on his duster, he thought about leaving his bag, after all, it would just be a short trip and should be back in under thirty minutes. He decided that he had been too complacent as it was and threw it on. He grabbed his rifle and opened the door and led the others outside. He peered at the buildings cautiously as he walked, suddenly and unpleasantly feeling less sure of the safety that the town afforded.

The grocery sat just as it had yesterday and they entered through the double doors at the front. "Josh, keep an eye out, we'll get the water." he said and Joshua nodded. Sarah led Jacob towards the back of the store, weaving through the aisles.

They had just reached the water jugs when suddenly he heard Joshua yelp, "Jacob, help!" from the front of the store. Jacob jumped and spun around, ears perked and rifle shouldered. He tore off, Sarah just behind him as he lept over overturned shelving.

"That's close enough!" a familiar voice barked from the double doors at the front. It took a moment for Jacob's eyes to focus on the faces of the three dark figures contrasting against the bright sun outside.

"You!" Jacob snarled. It was the Warden, standing ten feet away, his suit ragged and torn with wear, and he had Joshua by the neck with a 10mm pistol pointed at the shepherd's head. Next to him stood Twitch, his equipment in somewhat better condition, pointing his rifle at Jacob's chest. "Let him go!" Jacob bellowed in anger, lining up his rifle's sights with the Warden's head, dangerously close to Joshua's for such a shot.

"Come on, Sarah. We've been following you, waiting for an opportunity to rescue you." the Warden said as Sarah caught up to Jacob. "We saved you when the raiders attacked you in the morning a few days ago."

"That was you?" Sarah said, her eyes wide as she froze in place next to Jacob. "How did you make it out?"

"The escape tunnel, just like..." the Warden began to answer.

"You killed the two girls! I'm going to fucking rip you apart with my bare hands!" Jacob roared, taking a step forward threateningly.

"As if you care!" the Warden snarled and Twitch took a step back out through the doors and into the sunlight. "Don't think I don't know. You've just been waiting for an excuse to leave them behind."

"That's not true." Jacob said lowly, knowing perfectly well that it was and angry with himself for it.

"Sarah, we don't have time for this, we have to go..." the Warden said without taking his eyes off Jacob.

"Go? With that sorry excuse for a human?" Sarah suddenly snapped, pointing at Twitch. "Never! He raped me! Thirteen times! And you fucking let him!" she had leveled her revolver at Twitch now, who wore a sickening grin on his dirt smudged face.

Jacob calculated the odds quickly, if his aim was true, he and Sarah should be able to take the Warden and Twitch down without harming Joshua. He looked into Joshua's eyes, there was fear there, horrible fear, and Jacob desperately tried to reassure him silently.

"What? I thought you enjoyed it. The way you screamed in pleasure under me..." Twitch said silkily as if reminiscing over fond memories.

"Sarah, now is not the time." the Warden cut Twitch off. "The raiders are less than a day behind us, if we don't move now they'll catch us! And I can control him now!"

"Just like you could control him then?" sarah spat, her revolver trembling slightly in her hands. "He's more of an animal than these two ever will be!"

A sudden crack from across the street split the air and Twitch stumbled forward onto the floor now spattered with flecks of blood, one leg collapsing as he swore loudly. Reflexively Jacob fired within the same second, taking advantage of the distraction, and the bullet tore through the air and whizzed by less than an inch from the Warden's head as he turned to look for the source of the bullet that had struck Twitch.

Joshua tried to wrench himself free, nearly succeeding. The Warden grappled with Joshua and more bullets peppered the ground around him, kicking up spats of dust. Unable to line up another shot, Jacob threw caution to the wind and dropped his rifle and leapt forward. "Fuck this!" the Warden swore as he saw Jacob rushing at him. Before the wolf could reach him, the Warden fired the 10mm pressed against Joshua's skull. The shepherd's eyes rolled back up into his head as the bullet passed through his head and he fell to the ground limply.

"No!" Jacob bellowed and seven years' worth of pure rage exploded within him. He roared as he smashed into the Warden, bloodlust filling him as he knocked the human to the ground. He didn't hear the sound of gunfire all around or the thump of a bullet from Sarah's revolver slamming into Twitch's back as he swung around to return fire. He heard only his own roaring and the Warden's screams as he held down the hand gripping the 10mm and began ripping out the man's throat with his claws. Blood gushed everywhere from the gaping wound as the Warden gasped in death.

Jacob wrenched the 10mm from the dead man's hand and turned to Joshua's lifeless form, still oblivious the bullets passing perilously close and Sarah's return fire. "Joshua!" he cried and turned the shepherd's body over. He dropped the pistol and clutched Joshua's head with his paws, searching desperately for life in his eyes, heedless of the bleeding wounds on either side of his skull. "No! You can't do this! You can't leave me too! I need you!" Jacob howled.

"Jacob, he's dead! You can't help him!" Sarah yelled, shaking Jacob violently by the collar of his duster. "We'll get killed if we stay here!"

"No!" Jacob roared as he looked up at Sarah. "I will not leave him!"

"He's dead!" Sarah fired off another couple rounds with the dropped G3 towards the rooftops across the street. "And you'll die too if you don't fucking move!"

Jacob stared down at Joshua's lifeless face for seemingly an eternity, all their time together flashing before his eyes, from their first meeting in their cells to the afternoon spent together. He could almost see Joshua desperately urging him to move, to run, to save himself. Jacob's survival instincts suddenly clicked on and he released the shepherd and grabbed the forgotten pistol and dived into the store away from the incoming fire. He swept up his rifle as Sarah retreated towards him, firing away at the rooftops, and scrambled to his feet and began to run to the back of the store.

"This way!" Sarah yelled as she ran next to him. They tore through the store and Jacob hardly noticed Sarah scoop up one of the water jugs as he dashed into a back room where he found a fire exit and slammed the door open without slowing down. "Up the ridge!" Sarah exclaimed as she ran out the door behind him, her rifle clutched in one hand and a water jug under the other arm.

Together the scrambled up the rocky slope out of town without looking back. Without realizing it Jacob had shoved the 10mm into a pocket and had his rifle properly shouldered once more and was sweeping the crest of the ridge above for threats unconsciously out of long honed instinct. It felt like forever before they finally reached the top and found is deserted. From there they ran flat out into the desert, heedless of direction, only putting as much distance between them and the raiders as they could.

_____

Jacob had slowed to a stumbling walk now, a half dozen yards behind Sarah, too tired and numb to focus on where he placed his feet and repeatedly ended up tripping. The raiders had ran after them for a long time, just visible in the distance, but they were more tired than the survivors and were forced to slow their pace. The sun hung low in the sky now and Sarah was leading onward.

Joshua couldn't be gone, he had survived so long and through so much, he couldn't possibly die so suddenly in one instant. He had made Jacob realize who he was and given his life some sense of purpose once more. It was as he was thinking this that his foot caught a rock that he failed to see and fell as he lost his balance. He laid there, not wanting to get up.

Sarah stopped and turned. "Jacob we have got to keep going, the raiders are right behind us." she said as she walked back to where he lay.

He looked up at her. "Maybe if we go back... maybe the Warden missed and... and..." Jacob struggled to find some reasoning may prove that Joshua still lived.

"Dammit Jacob, he was shot in the head! You saw it!" Sarah said in frustration.

Jacob sat up. "He can't be dead..." he said as he looked down at his paws, the fur red with dried blood.

Sarah sighed and crouched in front of him so she was eye-level with him. "Look, I know he meant a lot to you, but don't you think he'd want you get away? To survive?" she had stuck out her hand to him, offering to help him up.

Jacob stared at her hand and then up into her eyes for several long moments. "You go ahead. I'm going back for him."

"Jacob, you have to accept that he's dead." she frowned and then lowered her voice as she brought her face closer to his. "Do you remember what he said about you? You're a survivor. Now it's time to get up and survive."

Jacob stared at her outstretched hand for several long moments before grasping it.