FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I woke around seven o'clock the next morning. At first, I thought the past few days may have just been a dream, but it was realizing my vest was at the foot of my sleeping bag that had jolted me back into the unwelcome reality that today was just another day of a mission that had no end. I pulled myself from my sleeping bag and dressed in the chilly air. The sun was shining brightly outside of the tent and the crisp air was thick with the chirps and calls of birds and insects. My movement woke Raf.

"Time to go already?", he asked sleepily.

"Not quite yet", I replied, "let's eat and take another look at that map before we get going."

Raf pulled himself out of his sleeping bag and rolled it up with his Therma-Rest, stuffing it back into the duffel bag. He quickly dressed and I began taking down the tent, shaking out all of the dirt and twigs before folding it back up and placing it in it's case and packing up the truck. I primed the stove and set water to boil for our last bag of scrambled eggs and bacon before spreading the map out on the hod of my truck.

As I inspected the map, I realized that it was nearly impossible to avoid all of Pennsylvania's largest cities. The route I had planed would take us directly into Harrisburg and then into Baltimore, Maryland. I had to go through at least one of these cities if I ever wanted to make it out of Pennsylvania, to say nothing of making it to Sliverton, Texas. It was risky, but a "necessary danger", as my Dad had always called it. Why the hell am I placing him in past tense?

From the map, it looked like the best way to go about this was to follow N. Weston Road, turn onto Alford Hill, get onto Depot Road and then follow State Route 11 back into New Milford and then get back onto Interstate 81 South. I sighed, in other words, trying to go around Scranton had been nothing but a bad idea and a waste of diesel.

I folded the map back up and stuck it in the center console with my M4 and then went to check on Raf and breakfast. Raf was sitting up against a tree with his face stuck in Borderlands 2 and the water on the stove was almost boiling over.

"Crap!", I yelled running over to the stove and pouring the egg MRE in, "there a reason you couldn't have poured the eggs in the water?"

Raf shrugged, "I was fighting pyro Pete the Invincible and winning."

I laughed, "I'll buy that."

Raf and I ate our eggs mixed with some of the spices and on crackers I'd found on the bus. It reminded me of the Egg sandwiches Dad would make on his days off. The crackers weren't anywhere near as puffy as the English Muffins I was used to, but they worked.

"So what did you find on the map?", Raf asked.

"That we were wasting our time", I answered taking a bite of my egg.

"Come again?", Raf asked, "we where what?"

"Wasting time and diesel", I replied, "the route we planed would have taken us into Harrisburg and then right into the center of Baltimore."

"So what's the new plan Cameron?", Raf asked.

"Were going to follow N. Weston Road to Alford Hill", I answered, "from there we'll turn onto Depot Drive and follow State Route 11 back into New Milford and then get back onto I81 South, which will take us through Scranton, hopefully without any trouble, by passing Harrisburg completely and then into Haggerstown, Maryland. If we stay on I81 we should be able to make it into Virginia by nightfall."

"I81 goes through some pretty wild areas doesn't it?", Raf asked.

"If by wild you mean untouched by humans", I replied, "then yeah, I was an idiot to try and get off it in the first place, it mostly runs behind the bigger cites anyhow."

Raf and I finished our breakfast, washed up in the river and then hit the road. We followed N. Weston Road out to Alford Hill. It was a wide 4-Lane road that snaked up the tree covered hill from which it took it's name. I drove through the winding pass, making liberal use of All Wheel Drive and then turning out on to Depot Road. Due to the fact that it ran along a newly constructed river shipping route, which came from a nearby Amazon Warehouse, I guessed how this road got it's name.

I drove up Depot Road back into New Milford and got back onto I81, which quickly took me out of the fairly small town and onto a long stretch of nothing but road and empty grasslands. About two hours into the day, Raf began making a new video log while I just tried to concentrate on the road ahead. The sun's arms lengthened as the time past. Carrying the day from a weak gray light, to a bright, hurt your eyes light. I pulled my sunglasses from the dash and reached into the center console, giving my extra pair to Raf.

"Here", I said, "take these."

"You know Cameron", Raf said taking them and turning his camera on me, "even though there's no one around, we should do something for New Year's day."

I thought for a moment, I hadn't even considered that today was New Year's day, but Raf was right in a sense, new world, new day, new year.

"Your right", I replied, "I'll tell you what."

"What?", Raf asked.

"If I find a fireworks store of any kind, we'll stop and raid it and tonight before we go to bed, we'll set them off in celebration. Sound good?"

"Sounds awesome!", Raf said excitedly.

"Deal?", I held out my fist.

"Deal!", Raf said bumping it, "End of Log Entry Five, Journey Day Seven, Pandemic Day 37, Time is 9:21 AM, Sunday."

Interstate 81 curved and stretched it's way through the vacant landscape. I hardly saw any cars or exits and nothing pointing to a fireworks store. There's a surprise. It was around noon when I got hungry and pulled into a rest stop. There were only two cars and a single pickup truck, a Chevy Avalanche on off road tires and a roof rack.

"That's the same truck", Raf observed as we exited my pickup.

"Hmm", I said, "maybe I should pull the roof rack and tires off that one and put them on ours."

"Or just load our stuff onto that one", Raf said.

"Nonsense", I said, "gimme a half hour and I'll have those tires and that rack on my truck."

"I guess that mean's lunch is my job?", Raf asked.

"You guessed right", I answered, "set the stove up on one of those picnic tables over there while I get to work with these parts."

Raf hauled the food duffel out of the truck and carried it over to a picnic table in an enclosed area while I set my vest in the passenger seat of my truck and stripped down to my white undershirt before walking over to the other Avalanche. It was on tires that were about an inch taller than the factory tires I had on mine as well as having aftermarket rims made by Mountain Off Road. The rims shared a bolt pattern with my pickup, so switching them would be easy. The roof rack was made by Summit Racing and even with the light bar on the front of my truck, this rack would fit no problem. I also didn't fail to over look the tail gate mounted spare tire holder. Taking that would be as simple as swapping tail gates, which could be done without tools.

"Alright", I said rubbing my hands together, "looks like I need my torque wrench and hand drill."

I retrieved my tools from my truck and set to work. I put the other Chevy up on it's jack and removed the front tires. I then placed my truck on stands and swapped the tires, repeating the actions for rear wheels. It was close, but the bigger tires off the other Chevy fit mine. I then moved onto the roof rack. I undid six screws on each side of the rack and with some difficulty, lifted it from that truck to mine. I screwed the rack to my truck, swapped the tail gates, pumped more air into the tires, bringing them to 40psi and I was done. I took a step back to look over my truck. There was something about it sitting on those big off road tires that I found badass.

I smiled at myself and walked over to Raf. He was making a couple of Mac' and Cheese MRE's that made my stomach growl with it's smell. I sat down at the picnic table across from him and wiped the sweat from my face with my Shemagh.

"You get that stuff onto the truck?", Raf asked stirring his pot.

"Yeah", I replied, "the tires look like their new, gonna last a long time. The roof rack fits nicely and there was a spare tire holder on the tailgate. Since the trucks are the same color, I just swapped tailgates.

"Make's sense to me", Raf said, "lunch is ready."

I scooped some of the very cheesy noddles out of the big silver pot and stuffed some into my mouth. The noddles melted without even chewing. Raf had mixed some of the spices and breadcrumbs from our bus finds into the sauce, enchaining the flavor further.

"You did good on this little brother", I said scooping more into my mouth.

"I made a video log of how to enhance these MRE's with spices and other things too", Raf said, "I explained how you rolled the chicken last night in breadcrumbs and spices and fried it."

"Your a smart kid", I said, "those logs you do are a real good idea." I laughed, "hell you might even be able to make this trip on your own."

Raf laughed, "maybe if I could drive."

"I'll teach you soon as you can reach the pedals", I said laughing.

Raf and I quickly ate the rest of the Mac' and Cheese before washing out the stove and packing everything back up. We searched the cars at the rest stop, coming up with a few cans of Beefaroni and Ravioli, but not much else. When we walked back to the truck, Raf pulled out his phone and started a new log as I retrieved my vest from the passenger's seat.

"Begin Log Entry Seven", Raf said, "Journey Day Seven, Pandemic Day 37, Time is 2:39 PM."

He began looking over my truck.

"This is our new pick up", he said, "my brother took these monster tires and roof rack from this truck over here."

Raf pointed to the other truck.

"There not monster tires", I said, "monster tires are any tires taller than 66 inches, these are only 25 inches."

"So mini monster tires?", Raf asked.

"There Off Road tires", I corrected, Bridgestone 25 inch deep treads."

"Translation", Raf said turning the camera on himself, "my brother was a serious off roader. End Log Entry Seven, Journey Day Seven, Pandemic Day 37, Time is 2:41 PM."

Raf stuffed his phone back into his pocket and we climbed into the truck. I started the engine and shifted into reverse, backing out of our parking spot and getting back onto the interstate. The truck rode differently with the new treads. It seemed to pick up faster and have more grip. I was an off road guy, so I could tell just from the way my vehicle felt.

"The truck feels different", Raf stated, "like it has more power."

"'Cause the rims and tires are lighter", I said, "engine just has to work less."

"Makes sense", Raf stated.

As the day went on, we cleared mile after mile of empty interstate. We kept Magnum 1 on the whole way. Raf was reading Michael Vey, Battle Of The Ampere, book three of a series he and I had been reading together for a long time. He tried to give me spoilers a few times and I responded by turning up the music so loud I was afraid of busting out a window or the windshield. It was around three in the afternoon when I spotted the sign.

"Schuylkill Mall, Black Cat Fireworks, Caterpillar Enterprises", Next Right."

Raf looked at me, his face overshadowed by a large grin, his eyes catching the sun and sparking. His expression seemed to say, "you promised". I smiled and switched lanes. I soon came upon the exit into the mall. The parking lot was full of cars, which was first. In the second week of the Pandemic, the UN had handed down a worldwide marshal law which included travel restrictions and jail time for anyone caught on a non-government approved route. I could see several World Health Organization trucks, three CDC trucks and a few military Deuce Cabovers. Good to gas up from. I could also see a CDC MCC and an Abrams main battle tank sitting in the parking lot in front of the mall. Judging from all of the hardware, this had been one of a few relocation centers in the state. The marshal law handed down by the UN had required everyone to leave their homes for relocation. Many like my father and I refused, deciding to stay and help the CDC as well as our military, which the UN was doing it's best to choke.

"There's a tank here!", Raf said happily.

"Were not taking the tank", I said laughing.

"Awe!", Raf groaned, "Please!?

It costs five gallons of gas just to start the thing" I said pulling into an empty parking spot.

"Your no fun", Raf said undoing his seat belt.

"No", I replied setting my vest over my shirt and grabbing my helmet and rifle, "I'm realistic, we'll search the mall for fireworks now."

"Your Jedi mind games won't work on me boy!" Raf said pulling his hood over his head.

I laughed as we walked up to the store. The burglar cages were guarding the doors and secured by Brinks hardened steel padlocks and chains, I'd need bolt cutters to get through them.

"Locked tight", Raf said sounding depressed.

I put my hand on his shoulder, "I've got bolt cutters in the truck."

I walked back to the pickup and unzipped my tool duffel and pulled out my big red fire department grade cutters before walking back to the store. Raf was taking a selfie of of himself on the tank.

"You ever drive one of these things in service?", Raf asked.

"Nah", I replied, "Dad did though.

"Ever ride with him?"

"Not on the tank", I replied, "I had to ride on a Hummer.

"Sucks to be you",Raf replied.

I cut the lock on the fence and Raf and I entered the store. There was a welcome area that was set out with a couple of couches and coffee tables. There was a blue carpet underfoot and there was a sign on one of the coffee tables that had the lay out of the mall. There was all manner of trash strewn about from printer paper to cardboard boxes, leftovers from the mass hysteria that must have griped this place when humanity wasn't on the endangered species list.

"Food riots?", Raf asked looking around.

"Not quite", I replied, "The government rounded people up and brought them to places like this in the first days and weeks of Agent Six."

Raf just shrugged, "Where are the fireworks?"

I smiled and slung my rifle over my back, bent down and picked up a map of the mall. According to the map, the fireworks store was open and located near the food court, along with a military and outdoor store. I smiled, something for everyone.

"I call the fireworks!", Raf said snatching the map from me and darting off.

I smiled and bent down for a new map. I followed the atrium up past a Gales, Sears and an All Tobacco store. It grew darker as I went deeper into the mall. Most of the light came from the strobe on my M4 and the skylights that were placed about every hundred feet apart. At certain places in the mall there were stands, some mobile and some permanent that sold everything from make up to phone parts. I stopped at the phone cart and began looking over what was there. They had cases, Bluetooth accessories and even phones still in their boxes. I grabbed a new speaker for my phone and keypad for my tablet. I also grabbed a case and a new watch from a nearby stand for Raf.

I followed the map up the mall's hallways and eventually came to the food court. The orange and yellow arms of the sun stretched in through the windows and skylights and bathed the entire court in their glow. I spotted the military and outdoor store, Cold River Survival. I noticed the fireworks store near the other end of the food court which was next to a gym. From what I could see from across the court, the store was still stocked full. I didn't see Raf, so I assumed he was hidden behind a shelf, probably checking out some six foot long rocket, the pyro tech freak he'd once been.

I pulled open the door to the store and entered. The store had been mostly untouched. The shelves were still lined with all manner of survival clothes and equipment and the floors were void of trash. The gun rack's were empty, but there was a huge gun vault standing in the corner. No way I'm getting into that thing. Forgetting about the gun vault, I turned my focus on the rest of the the store. I could only carry out so much, so I picked and chose.

I rifled through the rack of survival shirts and pants before picking out a tan survival shirt and replacing my oil stained one with it. I also exchanged my old jeans for a pair of survival cargo pants. The fabric they used was soft but durable and more importantly I was comfortable in them. After getting some new boots, a belt, jacket and sunglasses, I checked myself in the mirror. I hadn't felt this good since I had gotten out. Feels like I'm Delta again. I switched out my pack for one of their Molle Gen 3 packs and grabbed a complete change of clothes and new boots for Raf. I grabbed all he supplies that would fit in my other pack as well as another duffel bag and then went looking for Raf.

The fireworks store was a small one, maybe 75% the size of the Cold River store. The shelves were lined with firecrackers from small, spinning Cornelia Flowers to massive Saturn Five Missile batteries. I saw smoke bombs in various colors from red to purple to white. Those may come in handy. I grabbed a few of the white smoke bombs and placed them in an empty clip on pouch on my vest. I placed two purple, blue and red ones in my pack as well. As I had also suspected, Raf was checking out a rocket that was taller than he was. It was a white and red Saturn Five that could shoot a mile in the sky.

"You don't expect me to ride with that nuclear warhead in the back of my pickup do you?", I asked.

Raf grinned at me, "You know we have to set it off, we could never afford anything this big before."

"True enough", I said, "but let's save it for the grand finale, we need a lot of little things to lead up to that."

Raf pulled a large brown paper bag from behind a counter, "I'm way ahead of you big brother."

I smiled as I looked in the bag, "This bag should be full, we crammed all that crap in my pickup, but we can't fill this little bag?"Dad would have said it was too full, but would have thought we needed more.

Raf grinned at me, "How full is full?"

"When the bag is about to break open", I replied smirking and dropping six small rockets in.

Raf grabbed a few Cornelia Flowers and Roman candles and stuffed them into the bag. I also picked up a big tank about the size of a poker set case. Sparklers, water dynamite, pop rocks, colored smoke, M60s, everything we could fit went into that bag. Once it was full, Raf grabbed the rocket while I grabbed the duffel and the brown paper bag and we exited the mall. We loaded the stuff onto the truck and soon we were back on the interstate.

The sun's arms lengthened as we drove along, bathing the sky in it's orange and pink glow. My new sunglasses worked wonders in keeping the annoying light out of my eyes and Raf seemed to like them too. Afternoon stretched into evening and soon evening gave away to night. It was a full moon out tonight and the starts were out, twinkling as if they didn't have a care in the world. Maybe this has already happened on their planets.

I stopped to gas up from a white Kenworth that was parked at an old Conoco station. The lights were flicking on and off inside the Gregg's Grocery, but the lights in the cover over the pumps were still on. There was a dead body laying inside the store and seeing as we had enough food and water, I decided against entering the store. I drained the rig of what little fuel it had left and drove from the station. As I did, I noticed tire marks on the road, accompanied by what looked like fifty caliber shells, in fact that's what they were. I pulled over and parked my truck, grabbing my M4 and stepping out. The shells were everywhere. Also everywhere was the smell of burned metal and gun powder. I followed the smoking tire tracks to a blue pickup truck that was wrecked in a ditch.

It was riddled with .50 caliber holes and the rear differential was nothing but Swiss cheese, well, more than the rest of the truck. The front end had been smashed and the rear axles had been snapped in half. Further inspection of the truck revealed only a torn, black fabric that felt like steel mesh. I also found muddy tire tracks, from a larger vehicle, heading in the same direction I was. Sighing, I retrieved plastic bags from my truck and gathered up all of the .50 caliber brass that I could before continuing on.

Raf had fallen asleep while playing Borderlands 2 on my Vita, so it was just me, the truck and the road, miles of it. The music was playing softly and the heater was on to keep the chill out. I had stopped a few times to check the map and from what I could tell we were nearing Virginia. I had been driving for about an hour since the gas station when I saw the "Virginia Welcome Center" Next Right."

"Sleeping there tonight", I said flipping on my blinker and switching lanes.

I soon spotted the welcome center and turned in. The parking lot was empty and the lights inside the buildings were off. Doesn't look like anyone's home.

"Hey Raf?", I whispered nudging him awake, "Wake up buddy."

"Hmm?", Raf asked rubbing his eyes as he woke, "We stopping?"

"For the night yes", I said killing my engine, "Let's eat and then we can set off our arsenal of fireworks."

Raf was instantly awake, "Cool!"

He hopped out of the truck and I followed. We set up the stove on the tailgate and made plain Mac and cheese for dinner. I set up a few lanterns and lit the punks for the firecrackers with my lighter. I pulled the bag of firecrackers out of the back seat and set them down in front of us.

"You go first", I said.

"Nah", Raf said, "I went first on Christmas, you go first."

I smiled and lifted an Areo Rocket out of the bag. I set the stick into a pipe on a decorative wire fence that stood in the grass between the road and the welcome center and lit the fuse. Yellow sparks filled the night around us as I stepped back.

"Explosives primed!", I said as I stepped back.

Two seconds later,the sparks ignited the powder in the rocket with a burst of light, smoke and a high pitched whistling sound. The firecracker shot from the pipe far into the air, leaving no evidence of itself behind. A few seconds later, the sky lit with a flash of blue light and sparks and a loud POP echoed throughout the silent night air.

"My turn!", Raf said excitedly.

He grabbed a Roman Candle from the bag and lit the fuse, dropping it into the pipe. A few seconds of sizzle and a yellow light inside the pipe had brightly colored balls of blue, yellow, green and orange illuminating the night and casting our shadow's on the truck and the truck's large shadow in the light of the lanterns. Raf looked at me, the expression on his face seemed to say thank you.

The night wound on with sparks of every color and size lighting the night sky, whistling, buzzing and sizzling piercing the silent, cold air around us. We set off the Cornelia Flowers, which spun from the gases of their burning powder like a bullet flies from a rifle. They emitted any manner of amazingly colored sparks from green to yellow to blue. The tank that I'd found rolled from two jets of white flame that spewed from the back once the fuse went in. Once it came to a stop, multi colored sparks poured from it's little barrel while one big pop and then a burst of yellow lit up the area for miles. Just like a real tank. We set off the Saturn Five missile batteries and lay back in the grass as they flew. Their whistle reminded me of the turbocharger on my truck. The 300 rockets launched two at a time and the launches lasted for nearly five minutes. The sparklers were kept going until they'd run out and Raf and I had fun with the water dynamite by tossing them at an abandoned Ford Fusion. At around eleven thirty, it was time for the big Saturn Five.

"This is gonna be EPIC!", Raf said nearly clapping as I hauled the twenty pound firecracker out into the street.

"I'm tempted to strap this weapon of mass destruction to that Ford", I said pulling my lighter from my vest, just to see if it will move it.

I lit the fuse.

"Raf get back!", I said excitedly as I retreated to the truck.

"This is gonna be awesome!", Raf said happily as we stepped back.

The Saturn Five sizzled with it's fuse for a bout thirty seconds. All the while, curiosity about what this big bitch was going to do when she went off was filling my head. The fuse ran out and all went quiet as the rocket's fuel ignited and off it went. It flew for thirty seconds before exploding with a loud bang and sending the biggest shower of colored sparks and fireballs everywhere. Two more secondary explosions went off and filled the area with blasts of green, blue and yellow light.

"I wish Dad was here", Raf said.

I put my arm around my brother and pulled him close to my side, "I'm sure he's watching over us Rafael, Mom too."

I looked up at the showering sparks. In the midst of it all, two brightly shining stars stood out. I wasn't superstitious, but when I was little Mom had always told me stories of how past relatives watch over you from heaven. Did I believe in heaven? As a practicing Catholic, I did. Did I believe that those stars were Mom and Dad's souls? As a solider, I did.

Raf yawned, "That was worth it."

I smiled and hugged him, "Yeah, you can't buy fun like that, let's get cleaned up and hit the hay."

Raf and I washed up in the men's room of the rest stop and set up our Therma-Rest's in the back room of the Welcome Center's office.

"Where are we now Cameron?", Raf asked.

"Just came in to Virginia", I stated, "I'll have to look at the map again before I know what town, but I'm to tired to do it tonight.

Raf yawned, "Yeah me too. Night Cameron."

"Night little brother", I replied.

I pulled out my notebook from my pack and underneath yesterday's entry, I wrote.

Today, overall, was a good day. We made it into Virginia today, got new parts off another off road Avalanche and even kicked off the New Year with a fireworks celebration. But today wasn't without it'd fair share of troubles. I had stopped to gas up from a Kenworth at a gas station and found a truck that had been ripped up by .50 caliber rounds. It seemed as if the shooter had targeted the truck's differential, as the bullets were tightly grouped in what little remained of the part. I also have reason to believe that this .50 caliber weapon in question, due to the amount of shells present, was a MaDeuce and was mounted on a large vehicle, possibly even a military Humvee. It's sad really. Even the apocalypse hasn't stopped us from killing one another. So far, I've only seen one would be bandit and he turned out to be just a desperate kid who needed a good meal and some meds for a broken leg. However, that in of itself does not negate the possibility of other bandits who will try to kill me and force my little brother into slavery. I can say though, that it won't happen, not while there's a breath in my body and a single bullet left in my M4.

I closed my notebook, tucked it into my pack and with many thoughts weighing and fighting to keep my exhausted mind going, I could fight no longer and let sleep take a firm grip on me.