by Tom Jones
After the fox finished his brief dilemma, he decided to take the left path. Arcades assumed that this would take him deeper into the complex, but he wasn’t sure how deep he already was. After all, the corridor that he was currently traveling down looked identical to the corridors that he already traversed. At least the floors were not too hard on his feet. The thought about the floor made Arcades remember that the anthro that he encountered was barefoot as well. Arcades wondered if the organization that designed these catacombs ever considered making the floor with a rough surface that would be extremely uncomfortable to walk on. The fox shrugged; However, he figured that most people trying to break into this facility would be wearing shoes anyways. Making the floors extremely rough would be a great area denial strategy, but Arcades decided not to think about it too much. He knew that for an idea that he would have, someone else would already have come up with the same idea. Due to the fact that Omega was able to completely break down the psyche of anthros meant that they had likely considered this idea before. However, it seemed that they ended up deciding against producing floors with such a hostile terrain.
Arcades made it to yet another security door. The fox was hoping this would be the last one he would encounter for a while. Arcades inserted his keycard and slowly let himself inside after audibly confirming that the coast was clear. This time, the geometry of the interior was starkly different from what the fox had just been progressing through. Arcades was met with one of the anthro cell blocks. The fox looked up and down to look at all of the anthros that Omega had caught and locked up in this area. The fox was not sure if this was the same cell block that he had previously explored, but he figured that the only way for him to figure out would be to retrace his steps that he had taken to find that conference room from before. Arcades wasn’t sure where he should start though, as the fox figured that most of the anthros would not choose to come with him to freedom. They were so used to what the Omega Foundation had in store for them, just like Cipher and Pixy.
Before the fox continued, he looked around to see if there were any Omega guards that were nearby. Since the fox had seen the guards previously in the cell block, he was wondering if they were still there now. After looking up and down the catwalks and the staircases, Arcades surprisingly concluded that there were no guards in this area. This made Arcades slightly suspicious; However, the fox knew that there wasn’t technically much for the guards to even look after. Since Omega’s methods of brainwashing seemed to have been effective, the anthros did not need the extra supervision provided by the humans. The fox concluded that the guards must have been tasked with transporting the anthros, and this was what Arcades had witnessed the previous time. However, the fox was not sure where the humans took the anthros. The fox was also not sure if he was even facing the same direction that he had been facing the last time. He did not even have a compass on him to confirm his direction, so he had to rely on personal bearings. Unfortunately for Arcades, he did not really have any personal bearings in this facility, and this was due to the fact that the facility looked no different than it did the last time. Arcades was not sure if this was a new area, or if the prison block was the exact same one he was just in days prior.
The fox moved in front of a few of the cells to witness what he did the last time: anthros broken physically and mentally locked up in cells that were just large enough to hold them. Even though the anthros were locked up in the cells, Omega still found a reason to keep them restrained. Arcades slowly shook his head. He wondered if the anthros could ever be the same as they were before they were locked up. This made the fox wonder if Omega bred some of the anthros specifically bred to be put into captivity. The fox decided that now was not the best time to be thinking about these possibilities. The fox wanted to proceed, but he did not know which way to go. Both directions seemed to be identical, and Arcades was now wondering if he was still facing the direction that he thought he was. Arcades began walking in the direction that he thought was forwards down the cell block. As the fox progressed down the cell block, he passed by anthros of all races, colors, and patterns. He wondered if he could still rescue them.
The fox reached the end of the cell block, and he was greeted by a security door yet again. Arcades knew that he did not encounter this security door during his first exploration, so he knew that he must have been in a new location within the facility. Arcades inserted his keycard, and the door swung open after sounding a familiar beep. The next area that Arcades found himself in seemed to be some sort of vehicle storage. Several Oshkosh L-ATVs were parked in the decently sized room, and they were sitting next to a few MRAPs and M1117 armored vehicles. All of the vehicles appeared to be armed with their respective mounted armaments, but the fox could not tell if the weapons were actually currently loaded. Arcades was not quite sure if he even wanted to know if they were armed or not. The fox did find this room strange, as it was positioned right next to a cell block.
The fox walked in front of the vehicles, and he was quick to notice that all of them were completely unmarked; However, a few of them were painted with different color schemes. The Oshkosh L-ATVs were painted black much like the ones that he had encountered during his previous escape. The M1117s and the MRAPs were painted in flat dark earth, and this was the same color scheme that the US Armed Forces had their vehicles painted in. The fox walked around the vehicles while still looking for some means to identify them in terms of their original operators, but this search ended up negative. Omega seemed to have erased all visible exterior evidence of a possible previous operator. The fox was beginning to wonder if the Omega Foundation ordered the vehicles directly from the manufacturers themselves since he could not locate any exterior clues regarding the previous owner of the vehicles. Much like many other topics, the fox would not currently have the answer to this question.
The fox spotted another door that would bring him to a different area. Arcades walked towards the door, but he stopped walking as he thought that he was hearing footsteps coming from behind the closed door. The fox perked his ears up as he listened to make sure that he was the only one walking; However, the source of the noise was not his own feet. The footsteps continued, and they even seemed to be getting louder. Arcades knew that he had to hide, and he had to make it fast. The fox quickly sidestepped out of the door's way, and he hid in between one of the L-ATVs and an MRAP. The fox heard the door beep, and he could see some light travel through the doorway as he spotted two pairs of boots traveling along the floor. The fox held his breath as he watched two humans pass him that were wearing UCP. They were carrying XMP-1s as well.
As the fox was waiting for the men to exit the room that he was in, he heard them stop in front of the next vehicle over. He heard one of the humans speak, “Yeah. Did you hear about what happened in the UK?” The other operative replied, “They killed Hofmeier there, didn’t they?” The first operative spoke again, “That’s right. Unfortunately, it came at a heavy cost. Our CDI spies in the UK were killed as well. Apparently, the anthros that we sent there to stage the terror attack detonated their incendiaries too early…. You could guess what happened next.” The fox continued listening, “Shit… Sounds like they really wanted this Hofmeier guy.” The first human continued, “He was the one responsible for the leaks that came out of this place. He exposed a fuck-ton of what goes on in here, but lucky for us, he didn’t even get the half of it.” The second human chuckled, “Hah, that’s a damn relief. Anyways, everything goes back to normal for us?”
Arcades raised an eyebrow. He didn’t know that the Omega Foundation considered him a dead man, “That’s right. Since he’s dead, he can’t reveal anymore information about the Foundation. That means we get to keep doing what we have been.” The other human replied, “That’s some good fucking news to hear.” Arcades listened as he thought the conversation was winding down, “Yep. Anyways, we’d better get to work here. One of these black cars here needs some repairs. The crew that drove it the last time said that it was riding prett
y rough. That’s actually the reason they called off the search when Hofmeier somehow escaped this place.” Arcades looked at the L-ATVs that were in front of him, and he realized that they were indeed the vehicles that pursued him during his first escape. “Did they tell us what they think is wrong with the car?” The first man replied, “They think it was something to do with the suspension. Come on, let’s take a look at it.”
Arcades quickly looked for a way to conceal himself. He knew that his stealth would be compromised if the operatives looked underneath the vehicle and saw an anthro standing in the garage. There was no hiding it either, due to the fact that Arcades was not wearing any shoes. To make matters worse, Arcades’ big bushy tail was also easily visible. The fox’s heart sank as he did not see any ledge for him to stand up on to reduce his chance of being spotted. Arcades also knew if he were to move now, then he would definitely be seen due to the fact that moving objects always drew more attention. As the fox was running out of time, his heart sank as he realized it was already too late, “The fuck is that? Is there an anthro in here?” Arcades heard one of the men start to walk around the side of the vehicle, and he knew that his time window was closing fast. The fox kicked off the side of the armored vehicle, and he tried to quietly climb to the top. Unfortunately, the sound of his foot kicking off of the metal door made an audible noise.
“Shit, he’s trying to get away. Go and get him!” The man saw Arcades jump from where he was laying. The second operative readied his XMP-1 as he rounded the corner to see an empty space between the two vehicles. The operative spoke, “What are you looking at? There is nothing here.” The first man stood up and quickly stepped to the side of his colleague. The man spoke to his coworker, “You didn’t see that? A pair of black anthro feet and a tail just hopped upwards!” The man went to reach for his XMP-1, but he realized that he had left at the side of the vehicle. He mistakenly announced this, “Dammit, I left my weapon right next to one of the cars.” When Arcades heard this, he knew that he would have to make a break for the weapon.
Disregarding the fact that there was already an armed man outside of the vehicle he was hiding on top of, the fox hopped over the roof of the MRAP and landed on the L-ATV. Both men now clearly saw the fox, “Woah, shit! A fucking fox escaped!” Arcades hopped off of the L-ATV, and he dove for the XMP-1 that was propped up against the driver’s side tire of the L-ATV. Arcades clutched the rifle in his hands, and he remembered where the safety was from when he previously inspected the weapon. The fox flipped off the safety, and he tried to locate the switch that would change the weapon from KE to HE ammunition. He knew that the HE ammunition magazine was currently occupied by bean bag rounds since that’s what the ISG utilized the last time Arcades was escaping. The fox attempted to stand up, keep his balance, and ready the weapon all at the same time. The fox could hear the same man shouting again, “OH FUCK! HE’S GOT MY FUCKING GUN!” The operative that still had his weapon moved between the space between the two vehicles, and he tried to sight in Arcades.
The fox was not sure if a bean bag round or a lethal round would be coming towards him in the next few seconds, so he didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger. The fox heard the noise of the 20 mm round firing rather than the 5.56x45mm round. The next thing he knew, the guard that was aiming at him collapsed to the floor and started screamed, “AHH FUCK! AHH SHIT!” Arcades sprinted towards the two humans while still holding the XMP-1, and he did his best to kick the weapon away from the human that was now lying on the floor. The fox looked down, but he did not know where he hit the man at. The unarmed human scrambled for his secondary weapon, but Arcades was quick to stop this by aiming the XMP-1 at the man. The operative paused and looked over the fox. Immediately, the human noticed that Arcades was not dressed in the same attire as the anthros that were kept in the facility, “Wait, hold up. How the fuck?”
The fox said nothing as he kept his bare foot on the neck of the man that was lying on the floor. Arcades took a knee, and he placed his knee on the chest of the man while placing his other foot on the man’s hand that was closest to the rifle. He wanted to keep as much control of the situation as possible. As the fox silently held his rifle at the standing operative, the downed human began speaking aloud, “Aggh… Damn fox shot me in the fucking helmet… Aghh!” When Arcades heard this, he put some more pressure on the man’s neck. The fox did not want to cause any damage to the human, but he did not want the humans to cause any damage to him either. The fox continued to hold the other human at gunpoint.
After some quick thinking, the fox had an idea, so he decided to test it out, “Gimme the keys to the L-ATV.” The human raised an eyebrow, “What the fuck did you just -?” Arcades interrupted the human, “Give me the keys to the car!” The human had a plan in mind to kill the fox, but he knew that Omega would very much rather have a fox captured rather than killed. The human reached into his pocket, and he fished out the keys to one of the Oshkosh L-ATVs. The human held the keys up, “You want these, don’t you fox?” Arcades continued to hold the rifle at the ready, as he already could tell that the human was up to something. The fox felt an idea coming, and he decided that he would do something as well. The fox watched as the man jingled the keyring in his hand, and he worked on carefully aiming the rifle at the man’s helmet. The fox pulled the trigger, and the man collapsed to the ground much like his colleague did. The spent shell casing from the bean bag round landed on the ground next to the man who was already downed. The fox grabbed the second XMP-1 that was on the ground, and he ran with both of them to the second human that was now lying on the ground.
“Agh! Fuck! No, shit!” The human cried out in pain. He was lucky that Arcades was not aiming lower; Otherwise, his nose would have been most likely broken. Instead, he would only walk away with a headache. Since Arcades’ hands were both full, he noticed that the keyring looked as if it was large enough for him to stick his toe through to pick it up. The fox quickly stuck his toe through the ring, and he was able to successfully grab the keyring with his foot. Arcades turned around, and he could see that the humans were scrambling to their feet. The fox tossed XMP-1 that was still set to safe on the floor, and he began shooting the humans with more bean bag rounds. After a few rounds delivered to each of the humans, they now decided to stay lying on the floor to avoid getting shot again. Arcades could even hear them groan from the pain of projectiles traveling at a rate of 1,200 feet per second.
The fox realized that the HE munitions magazine for the XMP-1 that he was currently using was now depleted. The fox quickly dropped the magazine, and he grabbed the magazine from the second XMP-1 before inserting it into the rifle and pulling the HE charging handle. After Arcades finished doing this, he had another idea. The fox got down on his knees right next to the other XMP-1 in order to lower himself to reach the rifle while still being able to aim at the humans. The fox quickly sat the XMP-1 on his lap, and he grabbed the weapon that was on the floor. Arcades removed the STANAG magazine from the KE compartment, and he pulled both charging handles in order to empty chambers of both the HE and KE modules of the XMP-1. Arcades placed the STANAG containing 29 rounds into his shorts pocket. He did not have time to find the last round that was lying on the floor.
Arcades tossed the empty XMP-1 aside, and he got back to his feet. When the fox stood up, he was able to feel that the keyring was still holding onto his toe. He did not yet transfer the keyring to his hands, as he still needed to hold the two men at gunpoint with the XMP-1 that he was currently using. Arcades began slowly walking to the other side of the garage as he was trying to keep a clear line of sight with the two humans that were lying on the ground. With every step that the fox took, he could feel the metal keys going underfoot, and this feeling was not comfortable for the fox. Regardless, Arcades brushed off the discomfort and continued. After he felt that he was close enough to one of the corners, the fox looked to see if there was a way to open the garage. Arcades noticed that he was standing right next to a red button. The fox pressed th
e button with his support hand, and he heard the door behind him was now starting to move.
The fox now knew that he would have his chance to take the L-ATV, so he held the XMP-1 in one hand while he lifted up his foot to grab the keyring from his toe. The fox grabbed the keyring, and he placed his foot back on the ground in order to keep his balance. Arcades ran towards one of the L-ATVs, and he tried the key. Fortunately for the fox, the first vehicle that he tried ended up opening up the driver side door. Arcades stepped inside of the vehicle, and he quickly locked the doors. He knew that the vehicle was armored, so this would buy him seconds at best. Arcades placed the XMP-1 in the passenger seat with the spare magazine, and he inserted the key into the keyhole before turning it in order to start the vehicle. The vehicle successfully progressed through its ignition sequence, and the fox now saw that the garage door was wide open. The fox shifted the military vehicle into drive, and he stepped on the gas pedal. He did not know where he was going, but he knew that he would take down Facility Five if it was the last thing that he would do.
The L-ATV drove through another sector of the complex. This time, the fox now had the attention of the Foundation. Several men armed with XMP-1s scrambled to get out of the way of the vehicle, but some began to fire on the car. Fortunately for Arcades, the L-ATV was not affected by the KE rounds that the XMP-1s fired. Arcades’ objective now was to inflict as much damage as possible to the complex before they would be able to stop him. As the fox continued to accelerate, he began to remember a song that he used to listen to. The lyrics involved the phrase, “Gas, gas, gas! I’m gonna step on the gas.” He felt that it was fitting for his current situation, so he played the song in his head. Arcades noticed that several Omega operatives stood in front of a door and began shooting at the vehicle to no avail. The L-ATV was even mine resistant, and the armor was stronger than that of the M1114. Arcades knew he was protected for now, but he wasn’t sure how long he would make it.