Fallen World: The Complete Trilogy

by Tom Jones

  The passenger agreed, “You said it, man. This shit fucking sucks. They should’ve widened the search area as well. The only reason that fox would be in any of these surrounding towns is if he’s a complete fucking dumbass, and I’m sure he’s not one of those if he was able to make the Majestic 12 give a flying fuck about his dirty fox ass.” The driver stopped at another red light, and he began to speak, “Yeah. Fuck knows why they decided to send us out here.” After a brief pause, the driver continued speaking, “Hey, what car do you think the fox we’re looking for would drive? They didn’t even tell us any of what to expect about that. Knowing what car to look for would be fucking helpful, wouldn’t it?” The passenger threw out a wild guess, “Uhhh… If I had to take a guess, I’d say he’d drive a Tahoe or a Suburban.” The driver was not thinking about the same model of vehicle, “Really? I was thinking more of a Toyota Tundra.” The passenger lifted an eyebrow, “What makes you say that?” The driver looked at the vehicle to his immediate left, and he could see that it was a blue Toyota Camry with a human in the driver’s seat, “Ehh… It’s just something that I thought up. Why’d you guess a Tahoe or Suburban?” The passenger waited until the driver looked back at him before he replied, “If I had to take a guess, that’s just what it’d be. I don’t really have a reason behind it.”

  The traffic light turned green, and the driver began accelerating once more, “Hot damn, this light didn’t last as long as the last one did.” The passenger did not see the issue, “What’s the problem with that?” The driver shook his head, knowing that the passenger misinterpreted the interjection placed at the start of his phrase, “No, I’m not complaining. I’m just saying that this light didn’t take as long as the last.” The passenger had a rough idea of where they were going, but he was not too sure what they were exactly planning to do, “What are we supposed to do when we get to that one field, again?” The driver replied, “No, we’re just going to use that as a place to park to launch our drone. People probably shouldn’t bother us there. It’ll make it easier for us to get our job done. We’re stopping there after we stop and get lunch.” The passenger remembered that there was a quadrotor helicopter in the trunk of the vehicle, “Why are we going to fly the drone? Nobody even told us what car we’re supposed to be looking for. That’s not going to make it any easier for us to find that fox we’re looking for. We’d have to spot him walking out in the open or something, and I think the chances of that happening are pretty fucking slim.” The driver briefly raised his right hand before lowering it back down on the steering wheel, making a slapping noise, “Like I said, we’re just here wasting time at this point. Just like you, I don’t expect to find this fox either, but we’re still getting paid to be here. We might as well look like we’re doing our job.”

  The passenger smiled, “Do you know what would be funny?” The driver entertained his colleague’s question, “What’s that?” The passenger started to speak, “What if we ran into the fox already on the way here, and we just weren’t paying attention and missed him?” The driver shrugged, “You know, to be honest, I wouldn’t give a shit. Neither the Majestic 12 nor the Knights Templar have given us a good enough reason as to why this motherfucker’s important to begin with. Literally all they told us was just to go and find him. All they told us was just what he looked like. We have nothing more than that. Anything else is just speculation and hearsay, really.” The passenger took a deep breath, “You know, I guess it doesn’t matter that they didn’t even give us a name, either. How many black and white red foxes live around here?” The driver tried to remember how many black and white red foxes he had even seen during his lifetime, “Um… I don’t think I’ve ever seen any in person. I think I’ve only seen one or two on the Internet at one point.” The passenger smiled and gave a playful nudge of the elbow to his colleague, “Hah, you fucking degenerate. I didn’t know you looked at anthros on the Internet!”

  The driver was beginning to get slightly annoyed, and he was also slightly offended at the same time, “Go fuck yourself. It was a news story or something that I saw about twelve or so years ago.” The passenger kept his smile on his face, “Oh really? What was the story about? Some anthro got fucked like they always do?” The driver shook his head, “Of course not. If I remember correctly, I think it was about a bunch of anthros that were getting arrested for something. I think it had to do with getting drunk at a beach while underage.” The description the driver gave was not helping his case. The passenger teased yet again, “Arrested? Oh, so it’s coming out now. I see what you mean. Don’t worry, I won’t judge you. I mean, there are plenty of humans who like to see anthros in chains --” The driver interrupted his colleague, “Shut your fucking mouth, asshole. I don’t fuck with anthros.” The passenger returned with a question, “Oh yeah? Then why were you looking at that?” The driver shook his head, “It was on the fucking evening news one night back when I lived in Crestview in the 2010s. What the fuck are you talking about? I didn’t ask for that shit.” The passenger asked about the initial topic, “So, you’re telling me that one of the anthros they had in this news story was a black and white red fox?”

  The driver tried to remember what he had seen, even if it was from over an entire decade ago, “I’m pretty sure, yeah. They focused quite a bit on him, too. It was kinda weird. The cameraman kept on panning down and looking at his feet and everything.” The passenger smirked again and chuckled, taking into account how long ago the driver reported seeing the broadcast, “Heh. You seem to have a pretty decent memory of this little broadcast, don’t you?” The driver realized that he was being teased yet again, “Ah, are you going to keep this shit up or what? You fucking son of a bitch.” The passenger only continued to smile; he was having fun, even if his colleague was not having fun being teased, “What if that guy was the same guy we’re looking for now? Wouldn’t that be fucking hilarious?” The driver sighed, “Well, that would be something, but what are we supposed to do about it? Are we supposed to go back in time and tell Sheriff… What was his name? Sheriff Asher? I think Laurence Asher was the Sheriff at the time. Anyways, are we supposed to go back in time to pull up and tell him that we’re here to take the fox off of him? Besides, we don’t even know if that’s the fox we’re supposed to be looking for in the first place.”

  The passenger spoke, “I guess since there are so few of those patterned foxes around these parts that it shouldn’t be that bad even if we didn’t get the right one. Are you sure that the fox you saw in that one news report was the same pattern as the one we’re supposed to be looking for?” The driver nodded, “Yeah, I can be sure of that. He had the same color pattern as a regular red fox, but he had black fur wherever you’d expect to see red fur. The bitch looked fucking scared shitless to be there.” The passenger rolled his eyes and retorted, “Well, I’d be pretty fucking scared shitless as well if I was a fox getting violated by the cops. Us humans don’t really gotta put up with that type of shit since many people will just give anthros shit just because they’re anthros.” The driver did not reply to his colleague’s response. After a small moment of time, the passenger asked a question, “So this news story aired on your local news channel?” The driver nodded, “Yeah. Crestview is in Okaloosa County, and it was the Okaloosa Sheriff’s Office that did that kind of shit. I think it was a yearly thing for them to do that. I don’t remember that happening until Sheriff Asher was the one who took office. Asher always had this weird face: One half of his mouth was permanently canted downwards, and it made him look creepy as fuck. I wonder if he had a stroke or something; I’m not really too sure how that happened. Anyways, I used to live there before I started working for the Templar.”

  The passenger could not really relate to the driver’s experience, “I’m from Ohio. I don’t think I ever had to deal with that type of shit over there. Anyways, that was like twelve years ago, so it doesn’t really matter anymore.” The driver shook his head, “All those motherfuckers can just go fuck off for all I care.” The passeng
er was thinking about the way his colleague described the very fox they were both supposed to be looking for, “I take it that fur pattern is pretty rare, isn’t it? Most of the time, black red foxes are entirely black. I think they call them silver foxes at that point. The ones that are both black and red usually have black where the white fur is supposed to be, and not black where the red fur is. I guess this fox has it backwards, huh?” The driver nodded, “Yeah. Part of me doesn’t even want to find him. After all, I really don’t feel like dealing with a dirty ass fox. Even if he doesn’t give us much of any trouble, I still don’t want to put up with keeping an anthro and taking him back to the Majestic 12. Fuck knows what they plan on doing with him.” The passenger agreed with the driver, “Yeah, I know. I don’t want to deal with that shit either. I’d rather that be somebody else’s problem to fucking deal with.” The driver decided he was done with the conversation for the time being, “Let’s just get on with our job. The quicker this week goes by, the less time we have to spend out here looking for this bitch.”

  Walking out of the bank after completing their business, Arcades spoke to the wolf, “That’s done. Now we should find a Wal-Mart or something so we can buy a tarp for the Mustang.” Jason asked a question, “Kurt, are we just supposed to leave the Mustang there? Why can’t we move it somewhere else? How do you know that nobody’s going to walk on down to that little field and find your car full of firearms?” Arcades stood in front of the 4Runner and he waited for both of his accomplices to stop walking before he replied, “Truthfully, there is no way for me to know that. All we can do is just pray that it’ll work out for us. If we trust in the Lord, He’ll take care of us. Besides, do you have any better ideas of where to move it?” The wolf raised both of his eyebrows and shook his head, “Ah, I can’t say I do, mate.” Arcades gave a nod, “Yeah? Well, that’s mainly our only option at this point. Putting a tarp over it will prevent the guns inside from getting all wet, and it’ll also probably look inconspicuous to anybody just passing by. It should be easily overlooked.”

  After the brief conversation, the three anthros boarded the 4Runner again, and the fox put the key into the ignition to start the vehicle. After all, his 4Runner was one of the last production models to feature the keyed ignition as opposed to the wireless key fob ignition. As the fox turned around to reverse out of the parking space, he could see that Jackie was looking out the window. Arcades got the vixen’s attention as he reversed, “Are you feeling tired, Jackie?” The vixen shifted her attention over to Arcades and replied, “No, not really.” Arcades did not hear the vixen say much throughout the day, so he felt that he should ask about her well-being, “Anything we can do for you? You’ve been a bit quiet today.” Jackie shook her head, “I’m fine. I just don’t have much to say.” The fox left the vixen with a reminder, and it was one which he had repeated more than once, “Well, if you need anything, don’t be afraid to ask us. We’re here to keep you safe, and that’s what we’re going to do. We’re serving you.”

  The vixen did have a question for Arcades, but she asked it after Arcades had already turned back around in his seat to look out the windscreen, “Kurt, do you know where we’re sleeping tonight?” The fox replied after he pulled out of the bank’s parking lot and merged back with regular traffic, “We’ll get a hotel room for tonight. It shouldn’t be an issue: I’ve already seen a few of them around these parts. We’ll be stopping by one of those once we buy a tarp, cover up the Mustang, and get some food. Anybody have any ideas for lunch today?” Jason was unfamiliar with the area, so he could not think of anything. The wolf did make a suggestion, “Kurt, how about you give me your phone and I can see what I can find on the map?” The fox waited until it was safe for him to reach into his pocket and pull out his Samsung Galaxy phone, “There you go, Jason. Just make sure you don’t delete that one marker I placed. That’s the location of where we parked the Mustang, and I’d hate to try and find my way back by memory.” Jason smiled, “Oh don’t worry mate, I won’t get rid of it.” The wolf proceeded to look for restaurants they would be able to eat at.

  “This looks like it should work. I don’t think anybody would fuck with us here,” the Templar driver said as he pulled off of the road and drove past the treeline. The passenger looked around the area, “Ain’t this convenient? A little clearing in the middle of the woods. A perfect place to launch a drone, right?” The driver did not reply, but he did stop the vehicle in the middle of the clearing. With the Ford Explorer now stopped, he finally spoke, “Let’s just get on with it.” With nothing else to be said, both agents exited the SUV, and they proceeded to the rear door of their black Ford Explorer. The driver opened the door, and inside was a DJI Matrice 210 RTK V2 drone. The passenger removed the unmanned aircraft from the Ford Explorer, and the driver took out the radio controller that the UAV used. After calibrating the control surfaces to make sure that they were synced with each other and checking that the power cell held plenty of charge in it, the drone was ready to take flight. The driver moved the camera around, and he was able to see his surroundings from the drone’s camera. Finally, the driver gave the UAV throttle, and he heard the sound emanating from each of the four rotors as they picked up speed. The drone took flight, and the passenger watched as the aircraft flew off into the sky.

  With nothing to do for himself, the passenger stood aside as he looked around the surroundings: There was plenty of foliage around, and there was no shortage of trees to be practically seen in all directions. However, there was one entity that stood out when compared to the otherwise natural setting. The passenger spoke as he looked at the out of place object, “Hey, is that another car here?” The driver was more focused on flying the aircraft, “Don’t fuck with whatever you’re looking at. Leave it alone.” The passenger shook his head, but he was not seen by his colleague, “No, I’m talking about the lone Ford Mustang that’s just parked out here in this clearing.” After enabling autopilot, the driver looked away from the screen he used to see the drone’s view, “What the fuck are you talking about?” The passenger pointed directly at the Ford Mustang, “Over there. It’s just a gray Ford Mustang that’s just sitting out here.” The driver could see the abandoned vehicle, but he could not see anybody else around. The driver spoke, “This is probably somebody’s property. We should be fine as long as he doesn’t come back to give us shit about it, and if he does decide to give us shit about it, we’ll fuck him up. Either way, that car’s probably just abandoned there.”

  The driver went back to pilot the drone again, but the passenger was not really satisfied by his colleague’s statement, “Why would somebody just abandon a Ford Mustang out here?” The driver was not really interested in entertaining his colleague’s questions, “Not a damn clue. Don’t fuck with it.” The passenger stroked his chin as he studied the car from afar, “It looks awfully in decent shape just to be left out here. What a waste of a car.” The driver looked up briefly from his UAV’s controls, “That car’s probably fucked seven ways to hell. It just doesn’t look all fucked up yet. Either that or you’re too far to see that it’s fucked up.” The passenger continued to ask questions about the car, “How long do you think it’s been out here for?” The driver did not even bother looking up from his drone control system before replying, “Probably been here for a month or two. I bet the guy who owns it probably ran out of a place to keep it, so he just left it here.” The passenger shook his head, “What a damn shame if you ask me. It looks like a nice car.” The driver shrugged as he continued to fly the UAV, “Well, some of those Mustangs aren’t that expensive. That may be one of the cheaper models. Besides, it’s probably fucked up on the inside, and the owner thought it wasn’t worth enough to fix it. Whoever owns this property will eventually either get rid of it or sell it to somebody, or he’ll just leave it to rot until the end of time. It doesn’t really matter.”

  The two humans fell silent again, and the passenger peeked over his colleague’s shoulder to see him fly the aircraft. After watching
the flight for a few minutes, he asked a question, “Where are you right now?” The driver replied, “Downtown. There ain’t too many pedestrians on the sidewalks, and most of them are humans. I have only seen a couple of anthros, and they’re not what we’re looking for. I don’t even think they were canoids. I’m pretty sure they were feloids of some sort, so that’s definitely not what we’re looking for.” The passenger then asked, “Well, it’s not like you were expecting to find the fox out there, right?” The driver nodded, “Yeah, I’m just wasting time. I’ll let it fly for a few more minutes before flying it back here. I’ll check a few sidewalks while I’m at it, but I don’t think we’ll be seeing anything interesting. If anything, we’d have better luck driving around like we were earlier, but we’re just out here just to kill time at this point.”

  After another ten minutes of flight, the driver felt that he had flown enough to report to his superiors, “Welp. That should do it. I’m bringing the drone back now.” The passenger was glad to hear his colleague say such words, “Good. I’m sick of sitting out here with nothing to do.” The driver retorted as he continued watching the UAV on its way back to their location, “It’s not like we’d be doing anything else out here. We’ll still be driving around the roads for a while while we look for this guy.” The passenger sighed, “I guess we’ll have to keep each other from going bored then, right?” The driver shook his head and sighed, “This is going to be a long fucking week.” The passenger presented his colleague with an ultimatum, “Would you rather find the fox and get out of here, or spend the week doing nothing?” The driver did not like either outcome, “I really do not want to be the one that has to transport that fucking fox, and I also do not want to just fuck around and do fuck all this week.” The passenger shook his head; the two humans were not really in agreement with one another.