FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Prometheus War

Chapter 1: Down the Tiger Hole

The staccato beat of assault rifle fire echoes in the distance as the young couple shelter in the shadow of an unlit alley, their backs pressed hard enough against a brick wall to leave an imprint behind. The night street outside their dark shelter is lit only by the dancing flames of burning cars which cast a red glow with darker shadows over a scene from hell as dismembered bodies lay in pools of their own blood. The young man peeks out from their dark shadow only to pull back with a jerk, his body pressing even harder against the brick wall as if trying to merge with it as his breathing rises to a panicky rate. Looking to the young woman beside him with eyes wide in terror he whispers, "There are three of them only twenty feet down the road, looks like they're feeding on someone they caught. A woman from what's left." He covers his mouth with a hand and fights against the urge to vomit as a breeze brings the smell of rotting flesh to his nose from the street.

The woman's green eyes widen as her own breath comes faster, her ample chest heaving in panic, the stylish too tight fabric of her t-shirt threatening to tear. "What are we going to do Mike? How can we get out of here and somewhere safe? Is there anywhere safe anymore?"

The young man shakes his head, his wild blond hair waving, "I don't know Lisa, at least one keeps looking this way. If we try to move into the street they'll probably see us and that'll be it. One will scream, attract the others, and they will catch us before we get a block. We've seen how fast they move, it's inhuman." He looks back down the dark alleyway, "If we go back the odds are no better, the city is crawling with the infected. We need to get out of the city, there's no organized resistance against the infected left here. The police are dead or infected, the militias ran out or died trying to fight, and the National Guard was ordered out last week." They hear a distant scream and the rifle firing in the distance is cut off with a sudden finality like the falling of the headman's axe.

Lisa lowers her head to cup her face in her hands, long black tresses falling to obscure the tears she cries as she silently tries to catch her breath.

"What the..." Mike whispers as he takes another quick glance out from behind their concealment. His brown eyes grow wider at the sight before him.

Lisa snaps her head up expecting to see the infected coming around the corner after them, but Mike shows no sign of bolting. His muscles are locked in a mixture of surprise and terror as he witnesses something he can't explain. "What is it?" she asks as she crouches down to peek around the wall as well. When she sees the scene her own breath catches at the sight and she covers her mouth with a hand to hold in any sounds that might betray them.

A dark figure not taller than five foot and wearing full combat gear stands looking at the three infected as they continue to enjoy their feast. The figure is silhouetted against the fires, which makes it hard to distinguish details, but they both see that the figure's hands are empty of weapons though there are bulges that might be weapons at several points on his outfit. The unknown figure raises a device in one hand and flicks a digit over the screen which lights up. The young couple jump as the road starts to reverberate with Imagine Dragons' "Ready! Aim! Fire!".

As the music starts with the soft entry lyrics the three infected take notice of the newcomer and scream in unison. The alpha of the three infected humans charges at the figure as the drums start to beat the tempo and the warrior, with a strange an uncanny calmness, steps aside to avoid the charge of the first infected.

Lisa gasps and clamps her hands tighter over her mouth as her mind races. She pulls her hand away to ask in a harsh whisper, "He's not even holding a weapon, what is he doing?"

Mike doesn't answer for a moment as he notices the strange grace of the figure despite carrying what must be a hundred pounds or more of battle gear and armor. He can see the outline of a large handgun slung low on the figure's thigh and the firelight glints of the blades of knives strapped to his equipment harness. "Maybe he's a hand-to-hand expert?" he finally whispers back as the second infected's charge results in a spray of blood as the figure spins and delivers a drop kick to the back of its neck that seems almost impossible for a human to perform.

The remaining two infected start to circle the figure with more caution this time, something in their damaged brains tells them this is no simple food to be killed and consumed quickly, this is a fellow predator, one that has already killed one of their number. This is a predator to fear. The infected make several more charges with their poor coordination, but the figure seems to almost play with them as if he is a matador with a bull, dancing out of the way of their charges and blocking their wild swings with a casual ease as his arms and legs flash in blurs too quick for the two civilians to follow.

Suddenly the night is shattered by two loud cracks and there are matching sprays of blood from the two remaining infected as bullets from above neatly blow holes through their heads and take most of their brains with them as they exit the shattered skulls. The crouching figure stands up and stares at the bodies while they drop to the bloodied street and shakes his head as he reaches up to his neck and the music dulls to a soft background noise. The figure, still black against the red firelight, looks up and flips a middle finger upwards at the unknown shooter. "I was fine!" the deep and masculine voice roars with a strange rumble to it.

Mike blinks at the brief profile of the figure, "Is he wearing some kind of mask?"

Another dark figure in full battle-rattle jumps from the roof of a three story brownstone across the street to land effortlessly with the still smoking rifle in her hands. "You were taking too long Tunes," a soft feminine voice with the same odd purr comes from the new figure. The masked and visored face turns to where the young couple still hide, "Besides, I know you were just putting on a show for the survivors. We've got three more zones to clear tonight and we should get them to a safety point first. We can't risk un-infected on our patrol, we need to get them to a secure zone." She looks off into the distance and shakes her head at the sound of rapid, panicked fire can be heard coming from a few blocks away. "Amateurs," she mutters.

"Survivors?" the first figure asks as he spins towards the alley where Mike and Lisa duck their heads back. "Sorry, didn't notice them, I was kinda focused on the targets." He glances at his partner, "And ya gotta admit, the music does set the scene."

As the two pull their heads back Mike starts to panic again, "There is no way that soldier just jumped from a three story building and landed on her feet without breaking anything. Even the new exo-suits the military has been experimenting with wouldn't allow a soldier to do that, the tech just doesn't exist yet."

Lisa gulps as booted feet crunch through the debris on the street and she whimpers, "They're coming this way."

"Come on out kids, we're with the US Military," the female voice calls out to them. "I've been watching you since you started hiding in those shadows, and I know you're still there. You two are so scared I can smell it from here."

Mike surges around the corner and confronts the two soldiers, "We're not kids! We're eighteen damnit! We can fight just like you!"

The first figure snorts and shakes his head as he crosses his arms over his chest, "Kid, to us you're both just a pair little cubs. We need to get you to the extraction point before we get back to our jobs, which is finding more like you and killing more like them," he tilts his head towards the dead infected.

Lisa peeks from behind the corner of the building and her eyes go wide at a movement in the shadows behind the female figure, "Lookout behind you!"

Both figures spin and sweep the area behind them with the barrels of their guns but the dancing light from the fire exposes nothing closing on the small group. The first figure turns back, his hands slipping the pair of large caliber handguns that had appeared as if by magic back into their low slung holsters. Mike notices for the first that that the legs of both figures look odd, as if they are standing on their toes and their legs are bent as if they are crouching. As he glances to the figure with the rifle he notices what caused the motion that made Lisa cry out, "What the HELL?!" He tries to back away and trips over the scattered liter to land on his ass. He continues scooting away from the two figures as a shaking hand points, "Why do you have a tail?!"

The female turns her head to look behind her and the long orange and black striped tail waves back and forth a few times before it wraps around her leg where she had been hiding it, "Why I guess I do kid."

Lisa clenches her fists in front of her mouth as she squeaks, "What are you?"

The tall female nods in understanding at their reaction, "There's nothing to fear kids. We're with Project Prometheus, and we're with SOCOM." There is a screech of infected from the end of the street and both figures turn to face the charging pack of infected. "Crap, too many of them, auto authorized!" she commands and the first figure drops his hands to the oversized pistols again. As she flips a selector on her rifle he brings the pair of pistols to bear on the closing targets. What happens next leaves Mike and Lisa stunned as the carnage begins and the music is boosted through speakers again as Fall Out Boy's "Phoenix" is accompanied by the bursts of fire from both figures and the screams of the charging infected.

In the dancing fire light the pair of soldiers starts firing off shots from their guns so fast that the weapons appear to be firing full auto. The rifle in the female's hands neatly puts rounds through the heads of the closing infected while the male's pistols bark back and forth as he puts shots through hearts and heads. With each squeeze of the triggers the muzzles barely move as the sights settle onto another target and the muzzles belch flame and lead again.

As the hoard closes to twenty yards the crouching male shouts to his partner, "Out! Closing to engage!" As he drops his pistols she steps back and continues to fire while he charges with inhuman speed at the infected. Unlike the first time, there is no grace to this fight, only rage. The female continues to fire off shot after shot, infected dropping before they can overwhelm the male roaring as he snaps necks, spines, and rips out throats in a shower of blood. The couple watches the ferocity and cringes as they see the blood soaking the figure as he rips the hoard apart with his gloved hands.

It's over in minutes, the gunfire, the rage, even the keening of the infected. All that is left from the fight is the crackle of the fire and a panting male humanoid bobcat standing in the middle of a mangled ruin of bodies as blood drops fall from his hands and he hunches over trying to catch his breath.

The female reloads her rifle, "Any get through?"

The bobcat shakes his head, causing a few drops of blood to splatter outward, "No, it's all theirs, not mine." He takes a deep breath and stands straighter, leaning back to look up, "I'm fine."

She steps up to him and frowns as she passes her open palm over his back before consulting a device on her left forearm, "Take a power shot, you're blood sugar is low and you could use the electrolytes. You know the risks of going into a blood rage like that if you haven't taken a booster first."

He nods and pulls a small tube from one of the pouches of his vest. Unscrewing the metallic test-tube sized container he lifts it to his lips and tosses his head backwards, taking the thick liquid in with one gulp. He smacks his lips before lowering his head and opening his eyes to look right at the pair of young humans. "You two, get up, we need to be moving," he snaps as his eyes reflect the firelight.

The female humanoid tiger nods before she faces her partner, "Calm down Tunes, they're just frightened." She turns back to the young couple and speaks in a more reassuring voice, "Come on, we have a safe zone where we are supposed to bring all survivors and it's only half a mile away. We need to get you there before another pack of infected finds us."

Mike and Lisa cast glances at each other before Mike turns back to the tigress and nods, "Let's get going."

The lynx, Tunes, stoops to retrieve his pistols and pulls a pair of magazines from his harness to reload the emptied weapons as he takes point and starts off into the night. The two humans cast furtive glances into the darkness around them as the tigress takes up her position behind them. Lisa looks back at the larger female, "Who are you? What are you?"

The felinoid female keeps looking around for threats as she replies, "Call me Touch, everyone else does." She pats the receiver of her rifle, "Because I like to reach out and touch someone. As for what we are, we are so far the only people immune to the plague. The infected can even bite us, and it doesn't do more than hurt for a while." She holds up a hand to prevent the other questions the girl obviously wants to ask, "Wait until we get to the safe zone. There'll be an orientation and explanation then." There is a distant screams of infected and the Tigress snaps her head around, the muzzle of her rifle tracking where her eyes lead. "Be quiet now, they're attracted to sound."

The male in the lead sets a brisk pace and his head tracks any movement that catches his eyes. He comes to a halt and snaps an arm up, fist clenched, bringing the other three to a halt. "We're being watched," he mutters into his headset and Touch nods with silent agreement.

"Militia perhaps?" she asks but the lynx shakes his head. "Tunes, I really don't like it when you get that feeling," she says and she flips the selector on her rifle to full auto again.

Tunes crouches and pulls a pair of knives from their scabbards strapped to his calves, "I got it, keep the survivors safe. I'll only need a minute." With a spring of his oddly joined legs he leaps into the shadows and a few moments later there is a soft rustle followed by a quiet gurgle.

Touch lifts her rifle only to lower it again as the lynx steps back into the hellish light of the street as he wipes the blood from one of his knives. "Smart one?" she asks.

He nods, "It already had someone back there it was dining on. It wasn't going to attack us this time with food so handy, but I'd rather take it out now than have to face it when it's hungry."

She nods in agreement, "Let's get going again."

Once more the small group resumes their trek through the fire lit ruins of a once prosperous city. A short time later they reach a run-down warehouse district that was obviously in disrepair before the collapse. Opening a covered phone box next to one of the warehouse doors lynx mutters a few words into the handset before replacing it.

The humans jump as they hear a rumbling and are surprised to find the doorway lifting rather than sliding sideways and an illuminated tunnel shows itself. "Quick," Tunes says gesturing for them to enter, "They only keep the door open for a few seconds to prevent and infected wave from swarming in."

The four slide in soon as the door is open enough and as they clear the threshold the entire corridor starts to settle back below ground level. The two felinoids finally remove their helmets and relax as they march down the corridor, the humans between them. Seated at a desk at the end of the corridor is a young woman who greats them, "Tunes, Touch, glad to see you found more survivors. We'll take care of them from here. We need you out there now; team four has lost radio contact. We don't know if it's hardware or worse. They were last in grid G6. Assumption is that if it's hardware they will be making a beeline for the compound. Get to that area, find them, and stay in contact.

The two felines nod and replace expended magazines with the supplies on a nearby table.

The young woman turns to the teenagers and smiles, "Sorry for that, but I need them out there again. We're too few to afford to lose a team to the infected." He holds out her hand, "I'm Kaye." The two shake her hand with nervous apprehension. "I know you must have a millions questions," she hands them a printed sheet. "That will give you the basics. We've been able to rescue about three hundred survivors so far. You'll have a few days to get your heads back together, but then you need to help out however you can. If you can fight, you can volunteer to join the teams, but I warn you, few pass the requirements to join Project Prometheus, and we don't let non-members wander outside of the base. Their immunity is the only thing that gives them a small bit of protection to the virus."

Mike frowns, "We're prisoners then?"

The young Asian gal shakes her head, "No, certainly you didn't have to come here. You could have decided to stay topside and you can leave anytime. But," she says holding up a finger, "If anything happens to you up there we are not responsible. This is a military operation, but we're small, less than two hundred trained personnel, and half of those are scientists, doctors, and medics." She nods towards the departing felinoids, "There are only 80 successful members of Project Prometheus out there, far too few to save the world at current."

"At current?" asks Lisa.

Kaye nods, "If we can recruit and train more, there is always the chance we can take back our world from the infected, but it's going to be a hard battle."

Mike looks at the printed sheet of paper in his hands, "What is Project Prometheus?"

"A form of gene-spicing that was developed to try and cure cancer, some scientists decided to try and create the ultimate soldier for the military. When the virus broke out a month ago we shifted our focus to splicing animal DNA with human, it makes the resulting soldiers immune to the human only virus that is ravaging the world. But it's not a cure to the problem. The process is intensive, and ten percent of the candidates didn't survive the process despite being in prime physical condition. We think we can screen for what caused the failures, but that's just it. Not everyone can be processed like those two," she waves up the corridor where the felines disappeared. "We need them, and we believe they can even interbreed with pure humans, but we can't all be like them."

Mike gives Lisa a considering look, "I was ROTC in school..."

Lisa grips his arm, "Mike, you can't be serious. I know your training helped us survive until they found us, but you're not a soldier. You were doing ROTC to try and earn a scholarship."

Kaye interrupts them, "Sleep on it Mike, you've got no duties for the next two days." She hands over plastic cards with the picture and names on them, "You're in bunkrooms four and seven. Even are for men, odd for women. The chow hall is in the middle of the living ring." She points down the corridor, "Go three hundred meters and take the third right. You'll find your bunkrooms easily enough."

The two take the IDs and nod in thanks as they walk off, numb from the recent revelations and horrors they have seen.

Kaye watches them for a minute then returns her gaze to the bio-scan readout for the two, 'Mike, you're a prime candidate. Lisa... I'm not so sure.' She saves the file where the doctors and scientists can review if either of the two young humans wishes to volunteer. 'Let's see what happens in the next few days.'

All characters unless otherwise stated are the intellectual property of Chris Gilman [aka. Goliath Wildcat] Story © Copyright Christopher Gilman 2014 all rights reserved tell me what you think