by Tom Jones
Jason presented another objection to the fox, “Well, after all that happened, I don’t think you’ll be forgetting anything anytime soon.” Arcades looked back at the cell door, “I know. I guess you could say the Foundation has two possibilities associated with it: You either don’t know it exists, and you go about your day despite all of the anthros they’re keeping. Or you know about it like we do, and we’re not even able to stop them.” Jason shook his head, “Kurt, we were able to take down two facilities.” The fox replied, “Yeah? Those are just two. Jim told us they had at least two dozen of them all around the world. I lost my home, and we were almost trapped in the Foundation for probably the rest of our lives!” Jason stood in silence as he looked at Arcades placing his face into his hands. The fox spoke again, “I didn’t do a good enough job. If I did, then we wouldn’t be in this mess. We could be out there with Bobby right now. It was my fault that Omega was even able to identify me. I’m the reason why all of this had to happen in the first place.”
Jason tried to reason with Arcades, “You can’t really think about it like that, mate. What about the anthros that were liberated from that facility CDI assisted us in doing so?” The wolf did not know what happened to the anthros after the crew left to go to Facility Twenty-Four. Arcades began to shake his head again, “CDI doesn’t really hold anthros in high regard. They're probably not doing too much better than they were when they were at the Foundation.” Jason began to think about what happened at a different facility, “What about those anthros who died in that Omega facility in the Congo? Omega started just executing all of them.” Arcades rubbed some of his fur on his arms, “No way I can know anything about what happened to them after they died.” The wolf was still curious, “How do you know if they’re going to heaven or hell?” Arcades looked up at the wolf and replied, “There ain’t really anything I can do about that. It’s ultimately their choice if they repented or not. If they heard the Gospel and accepted it by becoming Born Again, then they are saved. Otherwise, they would be damned. If they never heard the Gospel during their lifetimes, then they will have their first choice right before the Final Judgement. I can’t do anything for them at this point.”
One part of Arcades’ statement caught the wolf’s attention, “There are more than one judgements?” The fox nodded, “Yeah. The first judgement happens when Christ returns and resurrects all of the believers from the past. The current believers come as well, and they all are given new bodies. Jesus will then judge each person according to his or her works throughout their lives, whether they be good or bad.” The wolf was rather curious still, “Really? What happens next?” Arcades adjusted himself on the bunk bed he was sitting on, “The believers get to live with Jesus forever from that point onward. At this point, Jesus has already returned to Earth and has wiped out all of the sin in the world. Satan is locked away for one thousand years while Christ rules Earth with His followers. In the meantime, all of the people who were not resurrected in this first resurrection will still stay dormant until the thousand years is up. After that point, Satan is let back out so the rest of the people can make their choice of who to follow. Everybody who has not been given a choice yet will have their choice here. After everybody gets to choose, then the final judgement occurs for everybody else.”
The wolf made another comment, and Arcades was beginning to wonder whether Jason was paying attention or not, “Locked away, eh? We’re locked away right now.” The fox shrugged, “Well, I suppose we are.” Jason looked at the cell door before looking back at Arcades, “Kurt, do you think you deserve to be locked up in here?” The fox ran his hand through some of the fur on his head, “I deserve worse than this, that’s for sure.” Jason questioned Arcades, “But for what? What did you even do?” The fox replied, “I’ve sinned in my life. One sin is enough to damn somebody to hell.” Jason then asked, “Didn’t you tell me at one point that you cannot work out your sins to be forgiven?” Arcades nodded, “Well, you can’t work to repay sin. The only way to provide payment for sin is by blood. That’s why animals needed to be sacrificed in the past. That was literally the only legal way to repay sin. We couldn’t pay off our own sins because that would require us to die. You cannot live and pay off your own sins. The reason why we can be forgiven without dying ourselves is because Jesus had no sins of His own to die for. Jesus died for the sins of the world, and His imputed righteousness is a gift and not something to work for. Those who have it are forgiven and get to live for eternity.” Jason objected, “If you’re saved, Kurt, then what is your issue?”
Arcades frowned as he looked down at the ground, “Jesus loves us enough to provide us a way to be forgiven without spilling our own blood. I’ve been forgiven, but I still feel like I should be punished in some sort of way.” The wolf did not have anything to say back to the fox. Arcades spoke again, “I know it wouldn’t be right either. It’s not supposed to be something that I’m supposed to feel, but…” Jason remained silent, and Arcades was wondering if he was even paying attention anymore. The fox called the wolf’s name, “Jason?” The wolf replied, “Yeah, I heard you, mate.” Arcades asked a question, “You don’t have anything to say to that?” Jason waited a moment before shaking his head and saying, “No, I don’t.” Arcades took a deep breath before using the nearby wall to support his back. Neither anthro had anything more to say for the moment.
“So, Jason. Which bunk do you want?” The fox asked as he gave the wolf the opportunity the choice to choose which half of the bunk bed he wanted to sleep on. Jason shrugged, “Yea? I dunno, mate. Which one do you want?” The fox replied, “I’d be alright on either half. I’m letting you choose which one you want.” The wolf looked at the top bunk, “How about I get the top bunk?” The fox nodded, “Sure, you can go right ahead.” The fox stepped back to allow for the wolf to climb onto the top bunk. Jason looked down at the fox as he moved his own tail out of the way, “Do you think Bobby’ll be feeling any better by the time he comes and gets us?” Arcades climbed into the bottom bunk, and he responded, “I hope so. I mean, I’m pretty sure that most of his trouble is due to all the crap that’s been going on. It really does suck. I can’t really blame him for it.” Jason continued to speak with Arcades, “For sure, but he has been cranky lately, hasn't he?” Arcades replied, “Yeah… He could be a bit better. Some people handle situations like these differently.”
Alpha 2 walked up to the cockpit of the Super Galaxy, and he could see that Alpha 1 was speaking with the Omega pilots. Alpha 1 noticed the presence of his colleague, and he turned to face him, “What do you have?” Alpha 2 replied, “Facility One is set.” Alpha 1 nodded with a smile on his face; he knew of the plan, “Excellent. How long until you think it’ll be until CDI makes their way inside and into the trap?” Alpha 2 then said, “I heard they’ll be coming sooner or later. We’ll be far away by the time they realize they’re walking into a trap.” Alpha 1 then shook his head as he thought, “But still… Damn… I find it pretty hard to believe the shit hit the fan over the span of a couple of weeks.” Alpha 2 agreed, “I know. All it took was one fucking fox to ruin the whole operation.” Alpha 1 was frustrated, “And we had the bitch too! The fuckin’ dickhead Site Director basically let him go. His biggest mistake was telling us to leave him with the fox.” Alpha 2 presented Alpha 1 with something else to consider, “Are you sure you’d wanna watch what he’d do to the fox?” Alpha 1 knew what Alpha 2 was speaking of, and it did not take long for the operative to express his disgust, “Eugh… I know we work for the Foundation in all, but I still don’t want to see that shit.” Alpha 2 replied, “You knew what you were getting into when you came to work for the Foundation in the first place.” Alpha 1 sighed, “I know… I just kinda get tired of seeing it. You know what I mean? What makes it worse is that many of those damned anthros want to be treated like that. Most of the anthros we intake come from Facility Eleven anyways. They fucking sign up for this shit. Of course, the Foundation doesn’t let them know they won’t be leaving, but most
of them end up accepting it after a while. Shit’s fucked up.”
Alpha 2 sighed as well, “I know… The Foundation makes so much off of the anthros that enter through Facility Eleven.” Apha 1 nodded, “Oh yeah, for sure. We empty their bank accounts, take all of their possessions, clear their names, and when we’re done, there’s nothing left. Makes it easy when we only accept anthros with as few outside connections as possible; nobody’s gonna come looking for them.” Alpha 2 was curious, “I wonder how those anthros get to a point where they’d be willing to go to Facility Eleven in the first place. That place is so fucked up; there’s a reason why it’s the only Omega Facility that’s not supervised by the human ISG.” Alpha 1 said, “Facility Eleven’s got that ‘informant’ fuckwit, and all he’s good for is fucking the anthros that decide they want to stay there.” Alpha 2 sighed, “Well, that’s what happens when you get an anthro to run the place.” Alpha 1 shook his head, “I dunno who’s worse, those anthros, or the Site Directors. Sometimes I have no idea how the Foundation found those fucks in the first place.” Alpha 2 thought about something else, “That reminds me, is the Foundation still gonna proceed with their program to replace all of the humans within the new ISG?” Alpha 1 considered current events, “It’s hard to say at this point especially since we don’t even know which facilities are compromised. They were at one point planning on sending the DNA to Facility Three to have that processed, but the Overseer has already ordered all Site Directors to Facility Zero. If the DNA isn't there already, then it’s on its way.”
Alpha 2 shrugged, “Who is gonna be deemed responsible for all of this when it’s all over? The Foundation has raked in so much money from the financial elites who pay for the anthros. If the ISG had more resources, then we could be a full-sized army. Hell, we already have more members than some nations have for their own armies.” Alpha 1 remembered what had happened to One, “Y’know, they’re probably going to blame the Site Director.” Alpha 2 considered the greater picture, “What about the Overseer? Technically, he is supposed to be responsible for all of the facilities. We had to abandon all of the non green-tiered anthros, and they’re going to die. How many anthros does the Foundation now have in total considering all of that?” Alpha 1 tried to remember the number of green-tiered anthros, but even ISG Alpha-Omega was not in the loop concerning Omega Foundation statistics, “Probably a little bit under one thousand.” Alpha 1 then thought of something else, “Hey, remember those two anthros we took away from Facility Eleven before this all started? Those two anthros we put on the train?”
Alpha 2 knew what Alpha 1 was talking about, “Yeah. What about them?” Alpha 1 replied, “What happened to them? That fox took them away after he raided the train. That was when we lost Alpha 4.” Alpha 2 then said, “Oh, that's right. One of the other ISG units was sent over to where Fox Security was. They actually ended up finding them about thirty miles from the base. They were found dead.” Alpha 1 was surprised, “Really? Shit… What the fuck happened to them?” Alpha 2 said, “They had died due to the combined effects of thirst and starvation. Nobody told them they were allowed to eat or drink anything I guess. That’s pretty typical for green-tiered anthros left alone.” Alpha 1 shook his head, “You don’t think that’s a little fucked up?” Alpha 2 knew what the other operative was referring to, “Brainwashing anthros to the point where they won’t even feed themselves without permission? Yeah.” Alpha 1 sighed, “I guess there’s no way out of it. After all, there would be no way for us to quit. The Foundation would surely have us killed.” Alpha 2 shrugged, “And we’re the ones they hired to make sure nobody leaves the Foundation.” Alpha 1 then said, “Well, yes, until they replace us with their own anthros.” Alpha 2 chuckled, “Hah… It’s a fucking wonder that the Foundation’s made it this far…” The human paused for a moment before continuing, “You know, in a way, I’m kinda glad this is all happening. Makes our job a bit more interesting. Wouldn’t you say?”
Alpha 1 was rather mixed on the matter, “Despite the very hefty paycheck the Foundation gives us, I wouldn’t mind watching the Foundation crumble. Maybe it’s the only way we can get out of this hellhole.” Alpha 2 was not as confident, “They wouldn’t just let us go and live a normal life. They’d have one of their other front organizations take us in and we’d be working for them instead. The cycle begins again.” Alpha 1 thought of something else, “Hey, what would happen to us when they replace us with anthros?” Alpha 2 raised his eyebrows, “Oh shit… Do you think they’ll kill us?” Alpha 1 looked at Alpha 2 directly, “That’s what I’m saying! They wouldn’t need us anymore, and they know that they can’t just let us go.” Alpha 2 considered some options, “What if we staged our deaths? They’ll think we’ve perished, and then we can change our names and go separate ways.” Alpha 1 was skeptical, “I dunno about making that happen. That would look very suspicious on our part.”
Alpha 2 shrugged, “Yeah, you’re probably right. Remember the pilot we used to have? Jim MacReady? Do you think he’d defect if he was still alive?” Alpha 1 thought before replying, “I dunno. He never really approved of what the Foundation did. You know, most of the ISG doesn’t approve either. They just know that they can’t leave, so they’re kinda forced to keep on going.” Alpha 1 continued speaking after a short pause, “We’re not too much different from the anthros that we keep as prisoners. Though we have guns, we are still powerless against the Foundation at large. It’s like a false sense of security in a way. Though we may get to see the light of day more than the anthros do, we’re still caught up in the same shit they are. We’re the ones who have to deal with their shit as well as the Foundation’s shit. We may not get fucked like they do, but we’re ultimately prisoners just like they are. We can’t really leave the Foundation. I bet you most of those ISG guys who died in that staged Berlin Siege were glad they got killed.” Alpha 1 began to go off on a tangent after mentioning the NSS, “That was a fucking stupid idea the Foundation came up with. That’s probably how that fox found out about the Foundation in the first place. That’s the problem with doing things in the open like that. He probably got ahold of some sort of evidence one of the ISG guys dropped. They mixed our guys in with the NSS guys who were clueless to what was really going on.”
Alpha 2 considered the situation from a different perspective, “What if the way things are going is actually the best for us? Think about it; we might be able to slip away from the Foundation while all of this shit is going on. After all, the Foundation knows that they cannot show themselves in the public view too much; otherwise, it would be all over. We’re fighting an invisible war, and the Foundation knows it. The war has to stay invisible. Otherwise, the elites who buy the anthros are gonna get fucked, and the whole scheme will come crumbling down.” Alpha 1 remembered Arcades, “On the topic of that fox, that fucker looked scared shitless when he was transferred over to us.” Alpha 2 shook his head, “Fuck me… I wonder where he is now.” Alpha 1 replied, “That motherfucker is damn lucky he got out of there in one piece. What do you think they would’ve done with him if they found him before he escaped?” Alpha 2 remembered how they first saw Arcades, “Definitely nothing good. He’d probably undergo some of the worst shit the Foundation could come up with, and we know some pretty fucked up shit the Foundation does to its anthros in the name of ‘training’.” Alpha 1 shook his head and vocalized his disgust again, “Agh… Fuck… Who the fuck deserves that kind of shit in the first place?” Alpha 2 sighed, “Just another perk of working for the Foundation. You get to have shit like that happen. It fucking sucks…” Alpha 1 sighed, “Alpha 4 is probably the luckiest out of all of us. At least he doesn’t have to deal with this shit anymore.” Alpha 2 nodded, “That’s right. Now if only there was a way to escape the Foundation and keep our own lives.” Alpha 1 sighed one more time, “Maybe we’ll figure it out one day.”
Alpha 2 tried to lighten the mood, “Do you ever wonder what it would be like to meet that one fox on better terms?” Alpha 1 was not sure if he unders
tood the question, “Hmmm? What do you mean?” Alpha 2 replied, “What if we asked the fox how he unraveled the entire story of the Omega Foundation?” Alpha 1 shook his head, “I’m not too sure he’d be willing to talk with us at all. Especially after how we treated him bringing him to Facility One in the first place.” Alpha 2 shrugged, “You think he maybe figured out that we’re supposed to treat all incoming anthros the same shitty way? He’d probably understand why we treated him like that.” Alpha 1 blinked a few times, “Perhaps… I’d kinda like to see that too. He’s been up close and personal with both the ISG and the Foundation as a whole. He’d probably have a lot to talk about with us, the humans who brought him to the Foundation.” Alpha 2 smiled, “Maybe one day we’ll get to sit down with him and have a long talk. After all, it couldn’t possibly be too hard to find him again now would it?” Alpha 1 shrugged; he had nothing else to say.
Bocchino found himself standing in the middle of a small platform seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The cat looked around, but he could not see anything in the distance, for the place he was in lacked lighting. The cat was holding a Heckler & Koch HK416A5, so he looked at his weapon to check and see if it featured a flashlight mounted onto one of the RIS rails. After believing that he had located a mounted flashlight on his weapon, Bocchino pressed the button to toggle the light. The flashlight did not activate. The cat tried to see only his own eyes in the dark, but he still could not. Bocchino decided to call out for a few people he knew, “Jim? Kurt?” After a few seconds of no response, the cat tried once more, “Jim?! Hey? Where are you guys?” Bocchino still did not receive a response. The cat shook his head in impatience and ironically said, “Fuckin’ motherfuckers. Always gotta leave me behind. What pieces of shit…”