FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The sun had set in the distance, casting most of the town into darkness. All over town, citizens were heading home eager to catch the news. All of the reports claimed that an invasion was imminent, that any day now, a murderous army would be marching into their small town. The watch post was alert, gazing far into the distant night for any sign of movement, ready to alert the town for evacuation.

Fear gripped the people; news special after news special after news special was showing the increasing hate among the reptilians towards the furs. Although no number could be produced, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that these reptilians had the men, the resources, and the pure hate to wipe out every last one of them with ease. The cities of the reptilians were up to the north, massive cities packed up to the brim with residence. The furs had only one big city to the far south, the rest was small town connected to small town. A feeling of pride had risen among the reptilians, their outnumbering population gave them a sense of superiority, and they took it upon themselves to "cleanse" the rest of the planet of those who were not of their superior race. Crazed, corrupt politicians had emerged, dishing out ridiculous promises of life like kings, and perfection. They knew it was rubbish, but the masses loved them for it, and ate it up like candy, sweeping fear across the rest of the world. Huge precautions have been taken among the furs and other scales; watch towers built, alarm systems constructed, and family escape plans strongly encouraged by the local leadership.

Among the buildings in town, one store in particular was getting a lot of business lately, that of a large warehouse-like supply store, selling goods in large amounts to desperate families preparing for a long hideout. In the back of the store, Tom Hallok was maneuvering a large box of paper towels onto the shelves when his supervisor approached him.

"Oh for the love of god Tom, what the hell do you think your doing?" the supervisor asked in a curt tone.

"I'm back stocking the boxes like you told me to, Mr. Killan" Tom replied exasperatedly.

"And how you mange to do it wrong every damn time is beyond me..." Killan replied "This is the new box, why are you putting in front of the old ones?"

"Because I don't feel like maneuvering one box behind all of the others right now, I'm tired." Tom said, holding back a yawn

"I don't care, put this box in the back, the stock has to be rotated!"

"I really don't think the customers will give a damn what month their paper towels were from" he replies, growling his sentence angrily at his supervisor.

"Well I do, fix the boxes, and then sweep up or something" Killan moved towards a broom and lifted it "and keep in mind, this is the broom" he said in a mocking voice, gazing at the broom as though perplexed "this is how you sweep" he said talking very slowly, making sweeping motions and then staring at Tom with a look of false astonishment "got it?"

Tom had had enough, he thrust the box of paper towels onto the floor, kicked it, and walked away, and ignoring the furious yells from Killan, clocked out two hours early and started walking back to his home. Tom hated that store with a passion, but it was the only local place that would hire him, inexperienced as he was. He had been living alone for over a year, dropping out of high school during his senior year. His parents were constantly fighting, and not just the common bickering, but literally fighting, physically. Neither of them seemed to care about him whatsoever and had openly called him a mistake several times. One day he had enough, he told his parents he was leaving during one of their shoving contests, and walked right out the front door, no questions asked. He had lived with a friend until he was eighteen and could rent an apartment with no legal problems. Since then he had been living alone in a run down apartment complex, working for minimum wage.

Tom was almost positive that his actions at the store had gotten him fired, but he didn't care. His outbreak at the store was a rarity. Usually Tom would blindly follow orders and take Killan's criticisms without a word, but Killan had brought out the worst in him today. The way the world was turning out, the reptilians would be invading any day now, and money didn't really matter at this point anyway.

Tom sat back on his worn down sofa and turned on the news. Recently, the news was all that was available on television, stations realizing there was more money to be had in dishing out the fear to their viewers than their scripted comedies. Each one was giving constant coverage of the current situation, each one certain that the apocalypse was going to happen any second now. Tom watched about 5 minutes of a lioness reporter giving safety tips and evacuation strategies without really listening. He turned off the television and tried to get some rest, the busyness of his store had left him worn out for the last few weeks. With no trouble, he slipped into sleep.

An odd dream came to Tom that night. He was surrounded by people he had never seen before, each one looking terrified, and one by one, they would vanish, until only one remained. She was a young girl, roughly his age; he couldn't discern any features because at that time he himself found himself in a different place, outside among cliffs. A shadow in the distance was moving towards him, the closer it got, the more he could see, this mass approaching was an army of the reptilians, and he ran. As he ran he eventually found himself back at work, Killan was standing in the doorway, insulting him, whispering to all his coworkers and then cracking up. A burning fury filled Tom as he saw Killan mocking him. He approached him and punched him hard in the chest; he toppled over and started to scream. This was no ordinary scream, it blared very loudly, it wasn't possible for a person to make this sort of noise... Tom sat bolt upright, the noise was still blaring outside, along with the screams of terrified pedestrians, the alarm was sounded, they were coming.

Tom's heart started beating rapidly; he walked over to the window and peered outside. People were running past, screaming, panicking, it was hysteria outside, but Tom couldn't see any others, the invaders must not be quite here yet, just spotted, in the distance Tom could make out what appeared to be smoke, that would be their location. Leaping up from the couch, Tom ran into his bedroom, while running through the doorway his foot caught the doorstop and he crashed to the floor. His left shoulder hit the corner of the dresser hard, it hurt badly and gave his whole arm an uncomfortable tingle. He got back up, took some deep breaths and walked over to the side of his bed, grabbing a small box containing some of his most prized possessions, threw them into a duffle bag along with some clothes from his dresser, his wallet, and a box of granola bars. He hurriedly zipped the bag closed; only now realizing a damp spot of blood staining the fur on his shoulder. Ignoring his injury Tom slung the bag over his right shoulder and walked quickly to his front door, turned and took one last look at his apartment and, now exceedingly grateful that he lived on the bottom floor, ran out the door into the middle of the panicked crowd.

Tom turned and looked back at the smoke, noticing with alarm that it was much closer, there was maybe 10 minutes left before they made it to his location. Tom started running, where he was going he had no idea, but following the crowd seemed as good an idea as any, so he ran the same direction. The roadway was packed, cars were abandoned in the lanes, forcing others to abandon their own and proceed on foot. People started taking turns off the road, Tom didn't know where he should go, and he had no one to go with. Finally he fixed his gaze on someone in front of him, a panda girl he had seen around town a few times before, a slightly familiar face was better than nothing, so he decided to simply follow her.

The roads stretched onwards, the trees around them were thickening. The longer they ran, the thinner the crowd of people became. Tom's legs started to get very tired, his breaths getting more and more exhausted with every step, each heart beat starting to feel like punches in the chest. He took a glance behind him, there were a few straggling people running on, still no sign of the enemy gaining, Tom no longer saw smoke, so either they had stopped moving, or simply stopped burning, and he didn't want to take a chance, he willed his legs to keep moving.

Ahead of him the panda girl had started slowing down, she looked behind her, there was a look of helplessness on her face. Tom slowed down as he approached her, glad to have an excuse to rest his legs and catch his breath.

"Hey" Tom said to her, panting, as she looked over "are you going anywhere in particular?"

"No" She said exasperatedly "I don't have anywhere to go, I-I'm just running, where are you going?" she was breathing heavily, panic in her voice "Oh my god! Did you get shot?!" She screamed, eyes wide, pointing to his shoulder.

"What? No." Tom looked at his shoulder which had a much larger spot of blood on it than earlier, "I fell before, it's nothing"

"But the blood..." She looked back behind them, the look of panic still on her face "uhh... we should keep going"

"Where does this road lead? I've never been here before..."

"I don't know, but let's just go!"

Tom obliged, glad to no longer be alone. They proceeded at a fast paced walk, both too tired to run. The road continued to stretch out before them, people continuing turning, until them and one other ahead of them were the only ones on the road. A large blast could be heard in the distance, motivating the both of them to begin running once again. Tom was now starting to regret bringing his large duffle bag with him, his right shoulder was aching badly from the weight and he couldn't switch it to the other due to his cut. His legs were on fire; he had never run this long before in his life, his throat was starting to hurt too, making him realize with a pang of regret that he didn't bring any water. He started focusing on the guy in front of him, he couldn't tell at the distance but he looked like a canine of some sort, his fur was black, and he had a backpack on. He had been running nonstop for a while, and Tom assumed he was probably very tired.

Next to him, the panda girl stumbled and fell to the ground with a quiet yelp. Tom stumbled to a stop and tried to help her up, but she seemed reluctant.

"I can't" she uttered through her struggling breaths "I'm so...so tired, i can't..." She sat up and grabbed her legs in her arms, taking deep breaths with her eyes closed. Tom kneeled down and placed his bag on the ground to produce the granola bars, offering her one. She accepted gratefully and ate it quickly, rubbing her knees with her other hand. Ahead of them Tom saw that the man had stopped running and seemed to be looking to the right.

"Thank you so much" the girl said to Tom, dropping the granola bar wrapper beside her "My name is Joy by the way" she added.

"Tom" he said, extending his hand to her, which she shook feebly "guess a short rest won't hurt... But we should probably go into the trees here." Tom said sitting down completely, the two of them sliding back against the line of trees on the left side of the road. Looking around, he saw there was no sign of immediate danger.

"It's nice to know not all guy are pricks" Joy said resting her head against the tree "You don't have any water by any chance do you?" she asked

"Nah." Tom replied with a fain chuckle

"Damn it... i'm so thirsty, my legs hurt so much..."

"Yeah same here..." Tom looked ahead of them on the empty road, noticing something peculiar, "hey, where did that other guy go?" The man in front of them was gone, Tom could see miles ahead of them on the road, he was no where to be found.

"I don't know" Joy replied sounding puzzled "Maybe he went into the woods or something... Should we keep going?"

"Yeah, I think so" he stood up and held out his hand to help Joy up as well. After pulling her to her feet, the two continued down the path at a walk, unable to move any faster. They were still glancing back down the road at frequent intervals.

After a tiresome distance, someone spoke from behind a tree, making both of them jump a bit in surprise. The man was a light tan colored panther, dressed in a brown coat and pants, his back against a tree.

"You two, in here, you'll be safe" he said calmly to them

"What? Where?" Joy asked, all there appeared to be was woods.

"Here" He bent down and pointed to an opening in the earth, well camouflaged.

"What is this?" Joy asked

"A refuge of sorts, I'll explain everything to everyone once we close it up" He paused and looked across the road, "How's it looking Isaac?" He called

Tom was confused; he didn't see anyone there, then all of the sudden he saw movement as a fox wearing camo gave the thumbs up across the road. He was lying on the ground peering through the scope of a rifle up the road where they had come from.

"Adrian, we got 2 more coming, bout a mile off" said another voice above them, Tom looked up to see another camo dressed fox perched in the tree, with binoculars.

"Thanks Eddie" The panther (Adrian) said, and then turning to Tom and Joy "go on in then, make yourselves comfortable, once the baddies are in sight these doors shut, and stay shut"

Tom climbed into the opening and reached his hand out to help Joy in as well. The two of them walked down a few stairs and entered a large hallway. The place was dimly lit, the walls were all grey and bare, save for a few doors. "What the hell..." Tom thought to himself as they ventured further down the hall. As they walked they passed a few doors marked as "bathrooms" on their left, and to their right was a large room with several people inside, so they walked in.

The room was full of cots. Joy walked over to one and collapsed on it. Tom walked over and sat down on the one next to hers and looked around the room. He saw the guy who had been walking in front of them for a while on the road, lying down with his hand covering his face. Now closer up Tom could tell that he was a black furred husky. Taking another look around he noticed a mother and son wolf, the boy was young, around ten Tom guessed. Behind him, there were two girls around his age, one a raccoon and the other a coyote, talking to each other. Across the room he saw a dragon male sitting with his hands on his knees staring at the ground. There was an otter male sitting on the floor near the entrance to the room, rubbing his head with his eyes closed. There was male cat also around his age pacing the room and looking around curiously. The only other in the room was a collie woman kneeling before her bed with her paws up in front of her, praying.

The cat who had been pacing the room started walking over towards Tom.

"Damn, you look beat" He said to him

"Yeah" was all Tom managed to say

"Whoa!" he said with sudden alarm "what happened to your arm?! Were you attacked?"

Joy chuckled weakly from the next bed as Tom looked back at his would to see that the blood had started flowing down his arm, making him look much worse off than he actually was. "No, i just fell down." Tom reached into his duffle, grabbed one of his older shirts, and wrapped it around his shoulder to stop the blood flow. "It just hasn't had a chance to heal with all the moving"

"When you were out there" the cat started saying, "did you by any chance see an older guy who looks like me, my dad, we have the same fur pattern" he trailed off, gesturing to some brownish splotchy patterns on his arm.

Tom shook his head, "no sorry"

"Ah..." he said, disappointed "we got separated a while ago when the alarm first rang" he stopped and sat up on the edge of Tom's cot "Names Frank" he said holding out his hand.

"Tom" Tom replied shaking it, looking up as a couple entered the room holding hands and looking frightened.

"I wonder how full this place will be before they close it up" Frank pondered

"The roads were deserted... Don't think many more will be coming..." Joy observed, still lying down on her cot.

Frank stood back up and chose a cot of his own on the other side of Tom, he yawned, "Whatever, hey if you see someone that might be my dad come in here, wake me up kay?"

"Sure thing" Tom said leaning back on his cot, he wasn't that tired, having slept prior to the alarm, but it felt good to rest his aching muscles. He gazed around the large room, the people had mixed expressions, some of relief, others of pure terror. Tom himself was unnerved by the situation; somehow, being boxed in didn't seem to be the best plan, and his mild claustrophobia wasn't really helping the matter. However, he had no idea what exactly this place was, or what it's purpose is, but whatever it is, it seemed to be safe, and at the moment, that was all that mattered. Tom rested on his side and curled his legs inward to help the aching, he took another glance around the room and his eyes accidentally met the eyes of the raccoon girl on the bed behind him, and he quickly looked away and closed his eyes, pretending to sleep.

* * * * *

Adrian leaned back against the tree and glanced across the road at Isaac, in his camo, being perfectly still and staring through the scope of his rifle. Above him, Eddie still sat, watching the road, keeping Adrian posted on what to expect. Both of the brothers had proven very helpful to him throughout this entire procedure, through the construction and now, helping gather wanderers.

"Damn, I really thought there would be more than this" Eddie muttered from his branch, "Like around a hundred at least, we must have only seen about fifteen"

"Seventeen to be exact" Adrian replied, he had kept count, "Not including ourselves"

"I mean, this is the main road, how is it that so few have taken it?"

"No idea" Adrian sighed, "no idea", his hope had been to help as many as he could, this place was deliberately built here so that everyone would pass by it, yet so few had actually come. He closed his eyes and wiped them with the sleeve.

"Got another one coming" Eddie said, "See em Isaac?"

Adrian saw Isaac nod across the road. "How far off?" Adrian asked

"Not far, and he's coming fast, he looks really spooked" Eddie observed

Adrian waited patiently until he could hear the footsteps of the person coming. He could hear fast struggling breaths, and heard fear in his breathing. Once the sound was loud enough, Adrian peered around the tree and gave a quick wave to the incoming person. The guy looked like he was in his late teens, he was a hyena, and he looked exhausted to the point of collapsing. Adrian extended his hand to him. "Over here" He pointed to the entrance, he stumbled to a stop and blinked in Adrian's direction "You'll be safe in here, there are beds in the room to your right, and the others are probably in there as well"

"Who..." He started to ask, turning towards Adrian.

"We'll explain everything later, just get inside and get yourself some rest."

"Th-Thank you" The hyena gasped, taking deep breaths and walking slowly inside. Adrian watched him stumble through the doorway then proceeded to lean back against the tree. He sighed and sat down on the earth to rest his aching back when he heard a blast behind him, it sounded a great distance away but startled him all the same.

"The hell was that?" He called up to Eddie, "you see anything?"

"Just some smoke, it's looking close" He said, sounding mildly anxious, "Should we seal it up you think?"

"Give it a little more time" Isaac called over from the other side of the road, speaking for the first time since the attack started, "I doubt the invaders will be moving any faster than a walking pace, there's still time"

"Alright", Adrian stood up and leaned against the tree to give himself a decent view of the road while staying concealed, he saw the smoke in the distance, the sight of it made him somewhat uneasy, and clearly the feeling was mutual for Eddie as well.

"Isaac" Eddie called, "Isaac maybe you should come over to this side"

"I have a better vantage point over here" Isaac replied

"But, I mean, if they start coming and they see you cross the road..."

"We have time"

"But what if there are a few ahead of where the smoke is?" Eddie called, sounding more anxious than before, "What if the smoke is the back of the enemy lines?"

Isaac appeared to be considering this, and then he quickly stood up, ran across the road, and took position next to Adrian, pointing his rifle up the road in the direction of the smoke.

"Thanks bro" Eddie said, calmly, looking back through his binoculars

"If it gives you piece of mind" Isaac said, "But you better hope I won't need to shoot, I can barely see..."

"Whoa" Eddie interrupted, "We got another one coming! Holy... she's running fast, you see her Isaac?"

"Yeah" Isaac said, then muttering "barely"

Adrian chanced a look around the tree and saw in the distance a figure moving down the road.

"Damn, she looks twice as spooked as that other guy" Eddie observed. Another blast sounded in the distance sounding closer.

"And I'm assuming that's the reason" Adrian added, "How far off is she?"

"Not far, and coming in fast, maybe a minute or two" Eddie said, "She's running faster than any... oh... oh shit..."

"What?" Adrian called up, panicked

"I see one!" Eddie called, sounding panicked himself, "Shit, Isaac I see one on the road!"

"Where? I don't see anything?" Isaac said frustrated

"O-on the left, there!" Eddie shouted, "Near the trees! Isaac he's chasing her!"

"I see him!" Isaac shouted, and started taking aim with the rifle

"Wait what are doing?" Adrian said to Isaac, "You shoot and they'll know we're here!"

"He's alone" Isaac said, continuing to aim, "and anyway, they see the girl vanish over here and they'll defiantly know something's up, better to chance this", and with that, Isaac fired.

"You missed!" Eddie called

"I know, shut the hell up!" Isaac called, reloading frantically, and started taking aim again, "Adrian, get the girl she's almost here"

"Right" Adrian said, looking behind the tree to see an approaching canine woman, a look of pure terror on her face, "Hey" He called to her, she looked and slowed down. Adrian gestured for her to get behind the tree fast, which she complied, just as Isaac fired a second shot. The sound made her jump and look down at Isaac, not noticing him initially.

"Got em!!" Eddie cheered from the tree, "The bastards down!"

"Quick, in here" Adrian said to the girl gesturing to the entrance, "oh wait" he added, "Before you go inside, we're there any other survivors behind you?"

"N-no" she gasped, "It-it was j-just them, everyone else ran-ran ahead of me"

"Okay you heard her boys" Adrian called to the brothers, "lets seal it up" Eddie, jumped down from the tree branch and lowered his binoculars. Isaac quickly stood up and started walking to the entrance after the canine girl. Adrian let all of the others pass, before walking around the entrance to make sure that all of the camouflage was in place. After touching up to meet his satisfaction, he took one last glance up the road, to see the shadowy figures of several more enemies approaching. He quickly shuffled through the open door into the tunnels, pulling shut the massive door behind him and turning the lever.

* * * * *

The entire room was in a commotion, Tom included. The blasting sounds from outside, and then what sounded like gunshots had gotten everyone into a panic. Tom walked over to the door and peered out to where he had come inside to see the two foxes run inside along with another girl. A few moments later, the panther Adrian hurried inside himself, and pulled the entrance closed. Everyone was talking amongst themselves, the sound of the chatter mixed with fear and confusion. Adrian pulled hard on the lever, making sure it was sealed off completely and then took a few steps back, breathing deeply and staring at the door.

"If everyone could stay in there for now, we're going to get everyone together so I can explain what's going on." He called out to the group of huddled people, pointing to the room with the cots on the right, and walked off with the 2 foxes, instructing them to round everyone up.

Tom walked back inside and sat down on his cot once again, looking around. As he sat, more entered the room, some he had not seen before, some people who must have been exploring the rest of this place. Too nervous to begin talking to anyone else, Tom remained seated, separated from the majority near the door. Joy had started conversing to the two other girls behind him, and Frank was near the entrance talking to each person as he or she entered, most likely asking for his father. As Tom continued to watch the door, he felt someone place a hand on his shoulder, he looked up to see the collie woman smiling weakly down at him, a look of concern on her face.

"You alright son?" she asked him, gently.

"Yeah, I'm fine" Tom replied unconvincingly

"Are you sure? You're looking a little down"

"No... I'm fine"

"We'll alright then" She said, "If you ever need anyone to talk to, my name is Ellen" She gave him another smile and then proceeded to walk over to the otter man who was still seated against the wall, and started talking to him.

Now slightly embarrassed, Tom leaned back against his pillow and waited, he watched the others talking until one of the two army foxes returned, followed by the other and Adrian. Joy had proceeded back to her own cot and was focusing her attention fully upon Adrian, as was the rest of the room.

The older looking fox approached Adrian and whispered something in his ear to which Adrian looked very disappointed.

"Alright" He began speaking to the crowd, "I guess I should start by explaining what this place is. Two years ago, when these enemies first started showing an interest in exterminating us, I started working on a project. Being an architect, I designed this place we are all in right now, with the purpose of making a refuge or safe house for anyone who needed it once we were invaded. It was finished some time ago, and with the help of Isaac and Eddie here, we started filling it with beds, equipment, and so forth. We've pulled as many people in here as we've found and once those reptiles were in sight, I sealed the door shut. Make yourselves comfortable, we're here until rescue, which honestly does not seem very probably..."

"Wait a minute" called a raccoon man from near the doorway, "You mean to tell me we came in here permanently, I mean, we're not leaving?"

"Do you have a better idea?" questioned Adrian, "There is no where else to run, the invaders will occupy the entire continent without a doubt"

With that, the man fell silent. Although the plan seemed feeble, it was true, there was no other option. If the invaders take the entire planet, which it was believed they would, what else was there to do but hide?

"I only wish more people had taken the main road, so few found this place" Adrian added feebly

"Well, I hadn't even heard of it" called a raccoon girl with blue hair, "Why didn't you tell anyone about this place? More people could have been saved"

"We were going to once we finished stocking the rations, but they invaded a lot sooner than we had hoped"

This statement caused a lot of concerned and fearful chatter.

"Wait a minute" called a coyote male who seemed to be in his late teens, "Are you telling us that there's no food in here?" He stood up, looking angry, "Did you really expect monsters like that to operate their invasion on a schedule?!"

"No, there's food" Adrian assured him, "There just could have been more"

"So what are we supposed to do?" Asked the wolf lady, holding her son.

"Like I said, make yourselves at home, feel free to explore the place..."

"Excuse me" Interrupted an older feline "but shouldn't there be a bit more organizing done here? This plan of yours seems very messy."

"Yes I'm getting to that" Adrian replied, "Would anyone eighteen or older come join me over here?"

With that a majority of the room stood up, Tom included, and joined Adrian. Looking back, Tom saw only 5 people remaining seated; the young child, another male fox who appeared to be in his early teens, the raccoon and coyote girls who had been behind him, and the coyote boy who had spoken out.

"Alright" Adrian said, "Now since there's so few of us here, everyone is going to have to pull their weight somehow. Let's start by going around and saying what your occupation was before all this started. Um, how about you?" he pointed to the black furred husky.

"Um, I'm Phil, and I was a deli worker" He said awkwardly

The older of the army foxes, Isaac, scribbled this information on a small pad.

"Ok you?" gesturing to Ellen, the collie woman

"I was an accountant"

"And you..." this continued, taking note of Kate (the canine who entered last) the cashier, Mike (the otter) the journalist, Adam (the dragon) the bartender, Cindy (the mother) the psychiatrist, and of Joy, Mia (the blue haired raccoon), and Zach (the hyena) who were unemployed, before coming to Tom.

"I was just a stock boy" He said timidly, as Adrian moved on to the older feline.

"I'm Bill Freemen." He said, expecting this to be obvious information, "I was mayor!"

"With all due respect, we probably came from different towns" Mia said to him

"Alright, how about you" Adrian said pointing to frank

"Uhm, well, I kinda just helped my dad out with mechanical stuff"

"Mechanic? Ah good, we need someone like you" Adrian said sounding a little relieved. Tom noticed a slight glint of pride in Frank's eyes at this acceptance. "What about you two" he said referring to the last 2 un-interviewed people.

"I was a defense attorney" Said the raccoon, male "My name is Joe"

"I'm Sarah, and I was a nurse" said the cheetah woman, holding hands with Joe. Tom notices wedding rings on their fingers.

"A nurse?" Adrian said sounding very pleased, "You have medical training?"

"Well, yes" Sarah replied

"Pretty well rounded for a small group" Eddie said from the side, "got lucky eh?"

"Alright then" Bill spoke out, "Now if you all don't mind, I think I'm going to do a little organizing around here" he said, gesturing to the beds. "You two" he called pointing to Mike and Zach, "Help me spread the beds out for two sides to separate the ladies and men." Mike and Zach looked at each other in disbelief. "Well, come on now" he said until they complied.

"Um, certainly that doesn't apply for us" Joe spoke up to him, displaying his wedding ring with one hand and his wife with the other.

"Well naturally..." Bill replied and went back to his ‘organizing'.

The cheetah Sarah now approached Tom.

"Are you alright?" She asked him

"What?"

"Your arm, were happened to you?" She said, pointing the bloodstained shirt covering his left shoulder.

"Oh, no I just fell" Tom replied, now starting to feel ashamed that his wound was a product of his own stupidity and not a heroic battle injury, "I think it stopped bleeding"

"Alright, but keep an eye in it, if it starts to hurt come and see me" and with that she rejoined her husband back by the other side of the room. Tom was about to walk back to his cot when Adrian called.

"Tom and Phil can I speak to you two?" Tom walked back over to Adrian accompanied by the husky whose name was now known to be Phil. "Will you two give me a hand tomorrow? With all the rushing, the food storage room is a little unorganized, and I thought you two would be the best to do it, being a stock boy and our future cook"

"Wait" Phil said, "Cook? Are you serious?"

"Didn't you say you were a deli worker?"

"Well yeah but..."

"Then you're the cook", Adrian said with a tone of finality, "so that's a yes?"

"Sure" Tom said, and Phil nodded.

"Great thanks" Adrian said, now rushing over to Sarah

"Can't exactly say I was expecting that" Phil said, accompanying Tom back to his cot

"Why not?" Tom asked "You do cook don't you?"

"Yeah but still, now all of the sudden I'm the cook" Phil said, putting emphasis on the "the" to make it sound like an important position. Tom managed a chuckle as he returned to his cot, just as it was being moved to the side by Mike.

"Sorry" Mike said to him, "but the orders of Mr. Grey fur over there require this"

"No problem" Tom replied casually. As Mike pushed the cot, Tom noticed his pack had fallen to the ground. He walked over to retrieve it and as he stood up and turned back around he accidentally bumped into the raccoon girl.

"Oh, I'm so sorry" She said smiling to Tom

"That's ok" Tom said

"So what big important job did you get over there?" She pondered

"Oh I get to organize the food tomorrow" He said grinning

"Ooh, lucky you" She said, chuckling, "I'm Stacy"

"I'm Tom"

"Nice meeting you Tom" Stacy said, starting to walk away, "I'm gunna go catch up with Lauren. Maybe I'll see you tomorrow if you're not too busy with your big important job", she walked off.

"Ok, bye" Tom said so quietly he knew she didn't hear. He turned and approached his cot once again feeling a little embarrassed. Out of the corner of his eye he could see an amused Phil laughing to himself. Finally feeling tired, Tom lied down on his cot and tried to fall asleep.