FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I wasn't sure what I should do now. The idea of running back to the rest stop and grabbing that Hellcat seemed like a good idea, but was there gas in the tank? And if there was, how much? I'd never been in this kind of situation before. Losing friends in combat is one thing, losing my brother was something else all together. I remembered at the start of this journey telling myself that Agent Six wasn't going to take Raf from me, but in a way, it had. The man who had shot him had been driven to desperation by the results of the pandemic. Does he really have to go? Is this really how it's supposed to go? I sighed and checked my watch, 4:23 PM, it was well past the Golden Hour. Raf was stable, but who knew how long it would last.

There was nothing to do now but wait and hope if I was honest with myself. I kept myself occupied by swapping guns every ten minutes or so and practicing my reloading. I'd check on Raf every 5 or so minutes and every time I'd hoped to find he'd gotten somewhat better, but I was fooling myself with wanting to think that he'd get better on his own. He needed surgery to repair the damage, which met unless by some miracle I could make it to the hospital AND find a living surgeon there, our caravan had been reduced to two.

Hours past. I waited. The roads were stagnant, with out even so much as an insect running across them. The sky began to darken with the setting sun and there were vultures flying over head. The urge to get the shotgun and drive them off was near impossible to resist. Jericho's whines and whimpers persisted through the hours. He knew what was going on and was just as worried and scared as I was. The temperature begin to drop. I changed from my shirt and jeans into my Tri-Color Desert field jacket and pants with my Muticam underneath it. I had my vest and helmet on as well. The Chevy had since been closed up and the heater turned on. I stayed outside on guard duty.

The stars were bright out. I could see more than a few constellations and the full moon lit the entire Highway with a dim blue glow. Looking around, I could see many human sized shadows that appeared to be watching me. The crickets were chirping loudly and I could hear many owls wooing in the woods to either side of me. I was beginning to fall asleep, something I couldn't afford right now. I pulled open the door to the Chevy to check on Raf. He had covered himself in a wool blanket and looked like he was half asleep, fighting to stay awake.

"How you doing buddy?", I asked.

"It hurts", Raf said weakly, "it hurts so bad."

"I'll give you another shot of Morphine in a half hour", I told him, "the last thing I want is to overdose you."

"Have you ever been shot before?", Raf asked.

"A few times", I replied smiling a little, "but I've never been shot with a shotgun."

"Lucky you", Raf said.

I sighed. I should have taken that slug.

I shut the door and turned my attention back to the road. Empty. Sighing again, I opened the food duffel and pulled out a bag of puffy Cheetos. I opened it with a pop and threw one into my mouth. It was dull, flavorless. Or at least it seemed that way. Mental. I'm going fucking insane. I let out another sigh and leaned up against the truck. What would Dad do in this situation? Hell...for once, I don't know. Maybe he'd freak the hell out, just like I am. I ate another Cheeto, that was when I saw them.

Headlights.

At first I thought I was just seeing this. I rubbed my eyes.

They were still there. Rescue!?!

I looked inside the truck, Raf was seeing it too, I could tell from the way he was trying to sit up. I flung open the door of the Chevy.

"Cameron", Raf said, "do you see those?"

"I do", I replied.

"Is it rescue?", Raf asked.

"I fucking hope so", I replied, "where's the lantern?"

"In the tent bag", Raf said.

I shut the door and ran around to the back of the truck. I unzipped the duffel and grabbed the lantern. I turned it to fast blink and set it on the hood of the truck. Now there was the distinct sound of a diesel engine humming straight for us. As the headlights got closer, several, smaller orange lights came into view. That told me two things. One, that this was either a large pick up or two, a Semi Trailer. The truck started to slow down. I could hear the transmission downshift as it came even closer. Soon I realized that it was a flatbed. A flatbed of all things? The truck pulled to a stop and the door opened. I could see a girl who looked to be a few years younger than me with black hair sitting in the drivers seat. I held my rifle at the ready as she stepped out, just in case.

"Are you Cameron West?", she asked.

"Yeah", I replied, "that's me."

"What's your brother's condition?", she asked.

"He's stable", I replied, "why?"

"If you put him on my truck, I'll load yours onto the flat bed and we can be back at my settlement by morning, there's a small hospital there."

I wasn't sure I trusted her that easy.

"How do I know that you won't just run off with my stuff?", I asked.

She turned around and started walking back to her truck.

"Hey wait a minute!", I called after her.

"Why on EARTH would I drive for ten hours and waste all that gas just to rob someone that for all I know, is trying to lure ME into a trap?", the girl asked.

I could see that she was being honest with me, but still wasn't sure what I should do next.

"Look", the girl said, "either you trust me or you don't. Either way your brother needs help and with your truck down an engine,you've got zero chance of going anywhere. What's it gonna be?"

I put my AR on my back.

"I trust you", I said.

"I'm gonna turn the truck around", the girl said, "get your brother out."

I nodded and went to the passenger's door of the Chevy while she walked back to the flatbed.

"Cameron?', Raf asked, "what's going on?"

"Rescue", I replied, "were gonna go with this girl to her settlement, she says she can help you."

Raf didn't answer me. I managed to get a jacket on him as the girl backed the flatbed up in front of the truck. I gently lifted Raf to my shoulders and carried him to the flatbed. I opened the back right door and climbed up, laying him in the back seat. Jericho hopped in with him and sat by his side as I went back to help with hauling the Chevy onto the bed.

"Mind shining that lantern under here?", she asked, "I can't see for shit."

I grabbed the lantern from the hood and held it underneath my truck. The girl hooked the chains to the truck's bumper and then went back and pushed a lever. There was a loud grinding noise as the winch pulled my Chevy onto the bed. Once it was loaded, we tied it down and then climbed into the truck. The interior was warm and in the dome lights, I got a good look at it.

It seemed as if it were once an off roader transport. The interior was done in tan and silver. The seats upfront were seats out of a 240SX and the back was a bench seat out of a Chevy C-10. The steering wheel resembled a racing wheel and had a yellow symbol on it that read "Ford F550" The truck was running an automatic transmission and the speedometer capped at 140. The radio was playing almost to quiet to hear.

"Alright", the girl said putting the truck in gear, "let's get going."

"Let me know if you get to tired and I can handle some of the driving", I said.

"Will do", she said yawning.

"I never got your name by the way."

"Abbie Lewis", she said.

"I owe you Abbie", I said, "big time."

"Your welcome", Abbie replied, "I've been wondering since the world went to crap if I'd ever meet another survivor that didn't want to eat me."

"Eat you?", I asked.

"Yeah", Abbie replied as the truck hit fifth gear, "a couple of people came to my settlement a few days ago. At first they seemed harmless enough, but looks are very deceiving nowadays. Turns out those harmless people were cannibals. What gave them away was the smell of burning maple syrup."

"Stinks like fuck don't it?", I asked.

"You know the smell?", she asked.

I nodded, "11 years in Iran and Afghanistan. Burning bodies was like a Bi-Weekly occurrence."

"I spent a few years in the reserves", Abbie said, "only time I ever got called up was to help with riot suppression about an hour from where I am now."

"Yeah", I replied, "I went back to Delta Force with my Dad when the parasite hit my town."

"Where did you live?"

"Marid Maine", I answered, "it wasn't as bad up there as it was further south, but it was still pretty bad."

"The riots sucked down here", Abbie said yawning, "as if people raiding Walmart wasn't bad enough, we had the UN trying to "control the situation"."

"Yeah", I said, "it was like a thorn in the ass up where I was. My Dad and I were trying to arest someone who had tried to Molotov the CDC mobile command center when a UN guy interfered. The guy, who was infected, spit at us and it hit my Dad in the eye", I sighed, "he died about a month ago."

Abbie didn't answer. We sat in an awkward silence for a few minutes before Abbie spoke up again.

"So what exactly happened to your brother?", she asked.

"30 gauge slug at about six yards", I replied, "it looked really bad."

"It's probably worse than it looks", Abbie replied, "my Mom was a doctor, so hopefully I picked up a thing or two from her."

"Yeah", I said leaning against the truck door, "that made me feel better."

"Sorry", Abbie said.

"Oh don't worry about it", I told her, "I'm so out of it right now that I doubt anything will make me feel better accept a decent nights rest, but I anit gonna get that anytime soon."

Abbie sighed, "get what sleep you can, it's damn near midnight and I'll probably have to stop for fuel soon."

I sighed and reclined in my seat a ways. Knowing full well I wasn't going to be able to sleep, but closing my eyes anyway. I tried to empty my brain and relax a little, but I just couldn't, I was too worried about Raf. Jericho had somehow managed to get to sleep and so had Raf, Abbie even seemed like she might have to pull over soon and take a nap.

The drive pressed on. About two hours or so after Abbie had picked us up, I felt the truck start to slow down. I cracked open one eye and could see a gas station that was still lit. Abbie put on a blinker and pulled the truck in next to the diesel pumps and stepped out, letting a gust of cold air into the cabin. I sat up a little, watching her as she grabbed a Colt 1911and a flashlight from underneath the seat and going into the store. I saw the light flash the window a couple of times and after a few minutes, she walked out with a brown paper bag that was about half full. Of what, I didn't know. She stuck it in the back seat and then filled the truck and soon we were on the road again.

The hours past slowly. Sometimes I would open my eyes after having dozed off, thinking that maybe I'd slept for an hour or so only to find it had been ten minutes. Hour upon hour past. Abbie had the radio on some ambient music that was making me so tired that I finally managed to get to sleep. What seemed like about ten minutes later had the truck pulling to a stop.

"Huh?", I asked yawning.

"Were here", Abbie said.