by Tom Jones
Alpha stood back, and Bravo cycled the action of the DP-12. Two hot shell casing landed on the ground next to the still bleeding body and two more rounds were now loaded into the chambers again. Alpha was disappointed that he would not hear the answers he wanted to get, but he did not regret the rather inhumane interrogation techniques that he had employed. Alpha knew that he liked it when he got to see anthros suffer. Alpha then took the DP-12 out of Bravo’s hands, and he turned to Charlie. “Hey, you’ve wanted to kill an anthro, right? Here’s a free chance.” Alpha tossed out the shotgun, and Charlie unwillingly caught it. Charlie hesitantly stood up, and he looked at the distressed wolf in front of him. The light gray wolf was completely defenseless and completely vulnerable. The wolf had no way to defend himself, even though his life now depended on it.
Jason heard what Alpha had just said and began to sob even harder. He began to plead with the human, “NOO! DON’T KILL ME! PLEASE! PLEASE DON’T KILL ME! NOOO!” Jason thrashed in his restraints again, but this only caused him more pain. However, he did not have any other options at this point. Charlie had previously wanted to kill an anthro, and now the opportunity was presented in front of him. However, the recent events followed by Jason’s pleading made him unwilling to pull the trigger. Deep inside, Charlie felt genuinely sorry for Jason, and he really did not want to kill him. Alpha stood behind him and pressured him to continue, “Hey! What are you waiting for? Waste this damn shitface already!” Jason began thrashing more when he heard this, but his struggles did not cause the tight cuffs to release. Charlie slowly shook his head before saying, “I can’t do this.” Alpha was disappointed and surprised, “What? Do you mean to tell me you’re showing mercy to an anthro?! Anthros deserve death and nothing less!” Bravo stood to the side of the room, and he remembered that he was carrying Jason’s Heckler & Koch HK45 in his waistband in case he needed to use it. Charlie looked at Alpha in his peripheral vision, and he made a decision.
Charlie quickly turned ninety degrees to his left, and he squeezed the trigger. The 12-gauge round tore through Alpha’s torso, and he was blasted backwards into the surveillance monitors. Even more blood now sprayed in the air, and Charlie watched in shock in awe as his former commander now fell lifeless on the floor. Bravo grabbed the HK45, flipped the safety off, sighted Charlie, and pulled the trigger. However, an audible click was heard. Charlie squatted as a reflex to hearing the handgun failing to fire. Bravo grabbed the slide of the handgun and pulled it back. A round was not ejected from the chamber, and this was evidence that the weapon was not chambered in the first place. As Charlie was aiming at Bravo, his former squadmate pulled the trigger. Charlie also pulled his trigger at the same time.
The .45 ACP round went right through Charlie’s unarmored head, and the round tore through his brain. Blood sprayed in the air yet again, and the human dropped to the floor. Bravo was peppered by the shotgun blast, and it tore apart his insides. More blood sprayed, but it was towards Jason’s direction instead. Bravo slumped against the table, and blood began to run out of his mouth. He was choking on his blood, but this soon stopped. The room was now silent, except for Jason’s weeping. Jason had never witnessed so much death in his life before, and he could not even process what had just happened. Jason closed his eyes as tight as he could, but the pain did not go away. His ears were now ringing again from the brief gunfight that had just taken place. Everybody in the FOB was now dead, and Jason was trapped there with no way to move. He flopped to his side, and he quietly sobbed to himself. He decided that he would accept the fact that he would most likely die of starvation or thirst in a room with five bloody corpses despite the fact that this was a terrible way to die. Jason continued to weep, and he could not stop thinking about Jack. He would never see his brother again.
“Alright, this looks like the place,” Arcades said as he stood in front of the FOB. He looked up, and he saw that the building was still in good shape. He didn’t know if anyone was inside. “How do we know that nobody is inside there, boss?” Johnny asked. Arcades replied with, “We don’t. All we can do is pray to God that He lets us live another day.” Johnny did not respond to what Arcades said. Arcades stood in front of the door of the FOB before saying, “Maybe we can find another way in. Let’s walk around the building first and see if there is a way to get in. I don’t want to waste time here if we can get in via an easier way.” Johnny tried the door handle, and he was not surprised that the door was locked. The fox looked towards the horizon, and he lifted the NVGs from his eyes. “Looks like the sun is rising. However, the storm is still going. If we get in that FOB, then we can camp out there until the storm ends.
“Maybe we can figure out what happened to those CDI guys.” Johnny removed his night vision goggles, and he also looked towards the horizon. The fox placed his gloved hand on Johnny’s shoulder to indicate that it was time to get going. Johnny nodded in acknowledgement and followed the fox. As they made it around to the back of the FOB, Arcades was constantly looking up and down the walls in order to see if he could get inside the base somehow. However, the back wall of the base was fortified almost as if it was a bunker. The fox stopped and said, “Dang… That wall is massive. I bet it could withstand an AGM missile.” Johnny continued to walk forwards, and Arcades hurried along to catch back up with him. As Arcades rounded a corner, he noticed another door. The fox moved forwards to approach the door and saw that the door had been deformed and the lock had been removed. Arcades got down on his knees to inspect the door, “Looks like someone’s broken in here. Let’s go and check it out.” Johnny did not bother to warn Arcades of the potential danger that could be inside, but he figured that Arcades already knew of the risks.
The fox stood back up, and he used his bare foot to push the door open. He shouldered his rifle, but he kept the safety on. After all, Arcades still did not plan on shooting anybody. Johnny set his IWI Tavor to fully-automatic and followed closely behind Arcades while staying out of the way of the fox’s bushy tail. When Arcades made his way up a small flight of stairs, his attention was immediately captured by blood on the floor. The fox lowered his weapon, “Woah. Stop. Look at that.” Johnny diverted his attention to the blood as well, and Arcades began to follow the trail of blood. Being careful not to step into the blood, the fox made his way to the door that the blood led to. The fox looked at the wall next to the door and saw that it was filled with holes. On the ground near the wall was an empty STANAG magazine and shell casings. Arcades took a risk and pushed the door open. When he stepped inside, he saw a smeared pool of blood, as well as three weapons on the floor. A Steyr AUG, a MK18 MOD 1, and an M4A1 SOPMOD Block 2 were all lying on the floor. Arcades looked around the room, but he did not see anything else but equipment lockers. Some of the lockers had dents in them, but Arcades assumed this was due to the rounds fired through the wall.
The fox stepped back outside of the room, and Johnny was already waiting for him. Johnny asked, “What did you find in there?” Arcades replied, “Two ArmaLite 15 variants, and an AUG were on the ground. A pool of blood was near one of the rifles, and some other blood was on the floor. There’s nothing else in there.” Arcades then noticed that the blood trail continued up the next flight of stairs. The fox pointed in the direction, “Looks like we may find whose blood that is if we follow that.” Johnny looked towards the staircase, and Arcades began to make his way to the staircase. At the base of the staircase was an OD Green plate carrier. The fox grabbed the carrier by the drag handle, and he looked at the reverse side of the platebag.
Upon examining the piece of tactical gear, the fox was able to see that there were several exit wounds in the vest. Arcades sat down the vest, and he slowly ascended up the stairs. Before the stairs took a turn, Arcades recognized a familiar helmet on the ground. “Hey, that’s an OPS-Core FAST helmet. That’s the same type as what I’m wearing.” Arcades picked up the helmet and examined it as well. “Looks like it’s not damaged. Whoever got shot probably did not get shot in the head.” The fox sat d
own the helmet before continuing again. When Arcades made it to the next floor, he saw the blood trail was leading into another room. Arcades advanced on the door very slowly and was keeping his ears open for any other sounds. As the fox made it closer to the door, he could hear a faint sound coming from behind it, but he could not figure out what the sound was supposed to be. He stood in front of the door now, and he reached out his gloved hand. Arcades lightly grabbed the door knob and turned it slowly. The fox entered the room.
“Oh my gosh…” Arcades was at a loss of words from when he realized what he was witnessing. Three dead humans were lying about in the room, and there was blood all over the walls, ceiling, and floor. Arcades then noticed the body of a deceased snow leopard, but he directed his attention elsewhere when he saw the decapitated body of the brown wolf. The fox looked down, and he was now looking at the source of the sound. Jason was laying in the middle of the floor and was still weeping. He was still forced in the position that Bravo had restrained him in. Arcades got down on his knees behind the captive wolf, and he removed his keychain from his back zipper pocket. Arcades grabbed the wolf’s handcuffs, and he said with a soft voice, “Hey buddy. It’s okay now.”
The fox inserted the key into the hole and turned it in the direction that he would normally turn the key to first release the double-lock. However, Arcades did not feel the double-lock resetting back into place. The fox then carefully moved the cuffs upward to face him and saw that they were clamped tightly around the wolf’s wrists. Arcades heard the wolf grunt in pain before continuing to weep, “Whoops. Sorry about that buddy. Here. I’ll get these off of you.” Arcades looked, and he saw that the handcuffs were wrapped around the chain from a pair of shackles. Arcades grasped the key and turned it in the other direction. The metal restraint opened, freeing the wolf’s first wrist, and Arcades began to open the other side.
Once the handcuffs had been unlocked, the fox removed them from underneath the chain of the shackles and sat the cuffs aside. Arcades went to remove the shackles, but the wolf’s tail was in the way. “Here, can you sit up, so I can remove these from you?” The wolf sat up, and he buried his face into his now free hands. Arcades unlocked one of the shackles, but the keyhole on the other shackle was facing the opposite direction. Arcades moved around the side of the wolf, and he saw that Jason was trying to avoid looking at him. “Calm down now. It’s all over. I’m almost done releasing you,” Arcades said softly as he was trying to keep Jason calm. The fox finally found the keyhole, and he twisted the key. The shackle opened, and Arcades finally was able to remove the pair from Jason’s ankles. Arcades tossed the restraints aside, and Johnny made his way into the room.
“What happened in here?” Johnny asked as he took in the view of the room. Arcades figured that the wolf was not in a talking mood, so he spoke instead of the wolf, “We’ll have to figure all that out later.” The fox sat in front of the wolf, and he placed his hands on the wolf’s shoulders to comfort him. “It’s alright. You’re safe now,” the fox reassured. The wolf did not open his eyes to view Arcades, and he did not even know that Arcades was an anthro since the fox was wearing gloves. The fox decided that the best course of action would be to wait until the freed wolf was ready to talk. Arcades rested down on his knees, and he pulled his tail around to make sure that it did not touch any blood. He then looked up at Johnny and said, “Go check out the rest of the building. I’ll probably move him to a different room.” Johnny acknowledged by turning around and exiting the doorway before continuing down the hall.
The fox shuffled around on his knees and was trying to get into a more comfortable position. The wolf still had not even bothered to look at him yet. As Arcades looked at Jason, he noticed that the wolf’s face was bloodied. “Hey, come with me, and I’ll clean you up,” Arcades offered as he began to rise to his feet. The fox stowed his rifle out of the way, and he reached his left hand underneath Jason’s arm. “Come on, let’s go,” Arcades spoke gently. After a moment of reluctance, Jason began to stand up. However, he was still hiding his face with his arm. Arcades guided the wolf into the hall, and he was looking for a room that he could use to render aid to the wolf. The fox saw Johnny exiting a room and he asked, “What room is that?” The human responded, “Crew quarters.What, do you need to take him in there?” Arcades led Jason towards the room, and the fox responded, “Yeah.” Arcades guided Jason into the room, and he sat him down on the side of a bed.
Arcades’ started by unbuckling his helmet and removing it. Before he sat his helmet aside, he removed his M2 Frames, and he placed them inside of the helmet. After finding a stable location to place his helmet on, he began removing his plate carrier. The fox removed the Multicam JPC 2.0 from his torso, and he sat it right next to his helmet. Arcades unbuckled his Multicam rifle sling and propped his Salient GRY against the wall. He then reached for his vest, and he began opening a pouch on the back of the JPC that had a medic emblem on it. Arcades removed his Oakley gloves and placed a pair of blue disposable gloves on his hands instead. He looked around the room, and he was looking for anything that he could use to get the wolf cleaned up. He spotted a sink that was behind him. Arcades approached the sink, and he wetted a soapy paper towel. He then began to approach the wolf. “Hey, we’re gonna get you cleaned up” Arcades said as he was telling Jason what he was going to do.
Arcades knelt down and lightly grabbed Jason’s arm to move it out of the way. Jason did not resist, but he still whimpered to himself. Arcades looked at the blood that was on the wolf’s face. “Let’s get this blood off. What do you think?” Arcades reassured the wolf as he began to wipe the blood off of the wolf’s face. Jason still did not open his eyes, and he was wondering if what was happening was even reality. He felt that he should have died with his brother, and he wondered why he was the one who was left alive. After several minutes, Arcades finally had cleaned up the blood from Jason’s face, and he even avoided getting blood on his untainted white combat uniform. After the fox disposed of the paper towels, he asked, “Are you hurting anywhere?” He did not get a response from the wolf. Arcades grabbed Jason’s arms, and he inspected them for damage. When he got to Jason’s wrists, Arcades could feel several indentations that were caused from the way the wolf had been restrained. The fox knew that these marks would soon be gone from the wolf, as Arcades had to deal with them himself previously.
Arcades then saw all of the blood that was on the wolf’s Kryptek Mandrake shirt. He then said, “Probably not the best idea to wear a bloodied shirt, huh?” The fox unzipped the ¼ zip shirt, and he removed it from the wolf. He sat the shirt on a nearby counter, and he said reassuringly, “We can find you another shirt here before we go.” Arcades was surprised to see that Jason’s pants were not fully covered in blood, but almost everything in the room that he found him in was bloodied up. Arcades looked down, and he remembered that Jason was not wearing any shoes. “Did you come here with shoes?” Arcades asked. Jason slowly nodded after a moment of silence. Arcades removed the disposable gloves and then said, “Alright. I’ll try and find them for you. Just wait here, alright?”
Arcades left the room, and he saw that Johnny was coming back up the stairs after looking through the base. Johnny stopped and asked, “Does he speak English?” Arcades then replied, “Well, he didn’t speak to me, but I’m pretty sure that he understands English. He passively responded to what I was saying to him, and he did give me some nonverbal responses. I did not see him look at me, and he kept trying to hide his face. I guess he must have witnessed everything happen in that room we found him in.” Johnny then noticed that Arcades was not wearing his kit and the only gear that he still had on was the dump pouch that was attached to his web belt. “Where did your stuff go?” Johnny asked the fox. Arcades responded, “I took off my JPC so I could get to my medic kit on the back of my plate carrier. I left my stuff in there.”
Johnny asked, “Wait, what are you doing out here?” Arcades then said, “He came here with shoes, but he’s missing them.
I’m going back in there to go get them for him. If you’re finished looking around this base, I think you should keep an eye on him in there. Maybe try and get him to talk. Or maybe it’s too early, and he’s still feeling the trauma from what he witnessed in there.” Johnny nodded, and he entered the room that Arcades had just exited. Arcades proceeded into the room where he first discovered the wolf. The fox opened the door, and he braced himself to see what he already saw earlier. Once again, Arcades took in the sight of bodies of both humans and anthros all contained in one room. Typically, there were either bodies of one species in a single place. Arcades looked to his left, and he noticed a pair of black combat boots laying on the ground. The fox picked up the boots, and he was happy to see that they were not covered in blood either. However, he still could not confirm that the boots belonged to the wolf. He scanned the room, but did not go in further since he did not want to step in puddles of blood. He didn’t see any other shoes in the room, so he decided that it would be best to exit. Arcades closed the door behind him, and the fox took a sigh. He never liked seeing people die, even if they were humans.
The fox opened the door where he moved the wolf to and saw that Johnny was examining Arcades’ rifle. Arcades smiled and asked, “Do you like that?” Johnny continued inspecting the weapon, “Yeah. What does this cube symbol with the S inside of it mean?” Arcades replied, “It’s the logo for the company I got it from. Salient Arms International. I first heard about them way back in 2014. That rifle is called the G-R-Y. It’s pronounced like the word ‘gray’ is. I put an EOTech XPS3 sight on it, and I also have an EOTech magnifier behind it. It has Magpul furniture and even an EOTech PEQ box.” Johnny gave an impressed look on his face. He then pulled back the charging handle, and he watched as a round did not fly from the ejection port. Johnny asked, “Was this not loaded?” Arcades smiled and said, “I don’t keep it loaded. I don’t shoot people, you know?” Johnny then looked at the front of the rifle, and he saw a muzzle device that he had not seen before. Arcades noticed what Johnny was looking at, “That’s called the Jailbreak muzzle. It was made by Salient Arms. It’s supposed to hide the flash from the left and right so people who are standing next to the gun don’t have gas and gunpowder blown in their face.” Johnny then said, “That’s pretty interesting.” Arcades continued, “You can even take it off, and I have a SCAR-L flash hider underneath that in case I want to put a suppressor on it. Suppressors screw right onto the barrel with that flash hider.” Johnny placed the weapon on the ground and propped it against the wall like it was when he found it.