FSE

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Chapter Fourteen

“TIme Runs Out"

By

Furry Sith Lord

Leggo and Merrik stood by nervously as Bear placed fake slave collars on their necks. He pressed his thumb against the plate on the front and gave them the orders that were told to all the pets.

They were then forced to remove the reporter outfits they were dressed in and stood there stripped to their fur. Bear and the humans watched them closely to make sure they were obeying the orders they were given. Both were relieved that Bear had actually used the fake collars he was given.

They still had to pretend that they were pets to the humans but with the fake collars they were free to carry out their mission. Time was running out and in a couple of hours the military was going to attack.

“Welcome to the family, boys,” Bear said with an eager smile on his maw. Leggo and Merrik remained mute. “I’m glad you wandered in to join us.

“I’m glad you wandered in to join us. While all species, even pets like you, are my children I made the humans more like my sons.

I recently took a pet from my son, The Great Storyteller, to use in my service. However I I never take it without giving twice back what I borrowed. You two will belong to Maxx when he returns.” Bear said so that the humans could hear him. They smiled as they glanced at each other then they chanted in unison.

“Praise be to Gawd.” They chanted. Bear smiled at this making the humans even happier that he was pleased.

Bear snapped his fingers and Dash appeared at his side in the speed that rabbits are known for. The humans were no longer surprised by how fast he moved because they had seen him move very quickly. They were finally used to it and it no longer bothered them.

Take these new pets to Maxx, The Great Storyteller’s home. You will put them to work cleaning until he returns.” Bear ordered. Dash grabbed the paws of Leggo and Merrik as he led them to Maxx’s home.

Once inside, they were free to talk to Dash directly.

“Dash, I need you to help round up all the pets and bring them here. Only you must keep it secret from the humans.” Leggo said after he hugged Dash and the little rabbit hugged him back fiercely.

“We’re running outta time,” Merrik said as he pressed his thumb to the plate on the front of Dash’s slave collar. “Alpha Lou Alpha Fifty Five.” Merrik said and a strange feeling came over Dash as all the rules that Lou had given him had vanished and he realized he could talk once more.

“Oh my paws, I can talk now?” Dash asked.

“Yes you can. We have very little time so I need you to listen up. In two hours the military is gonna attack. We need you to help us round up all the pets and get them to safety.” Leggo said.

“Can do, but where do we send them? Here?” Dash asked as he started to stretch like he does before a game of football or practice.

“The tunnels.” Merrik replied. “It will be safe if they go there since they will be sheltered from the bombs.”

“But what about the humans? If the military attacks, the humans will die.” Dash protested. Leggo reached out and put his paw affectionately on Dash’s shoulder.

“We want to save them but as long as they obey Bear and BH then there is nothing we can do. We can’t risk the innocent pets.” Leggo explained. Dash looked at his feet and Leggo felt a deep compassion for the boy as he understood his feelings. Merrik tapped his foot impatiently and glanced at his wrist as if he were wearing a watch.

“Your mom, your dad, and your father love you very much. Leggo said and Dash hugged him again. Merrik groaned but they ignored him. Leggo was referring to himself and his husband, Lou, when he said your father and dad. Dash had become another adopted son to the family even though he was not blood.

“Tick tock, tick tock Furs.” Merrik as they continued to ignore his protests.

“Go,” Leggo whispered and Dash saluted then ran off to herd up the pets towards the underground tunnels.

“Aww I wish I had a dad and a father that loved me.” Lyon whined as he watched the monitor that broadcast everything Dash was seeing. Lou calmly stepped up behind him and leaned in as if to look at the monitor and he slapped Lyon on the back of his head.

“Ouch!” Lyon cried though it never really hurt him. Tyger stepped up and smacked in the same manner. Lyon again cried out in fake pain. After a few seconds all eyes turned to look at Benyamin.

“Ben, you’re up.” Tyger said as he pointed to Lyon and Lyon smiled showing all his teeth.

“But I don’t want to.” Ben protested. The smile on Lyon’s face fell as he looked stunned.

“You’re part of the family and Lyon asked for it… so…. Do it!” Tyger ordered. Ben sighed and rolled his eyes as he went behind Lyon and lightly slapped the back of his head. Ben stopped and grabbed his head and examined it.

“What are you doing?” Lyon asked cautiously.

“Look how thick your mane is getting. You’ll be an adult soon… or at least you’ll have a full mane.” Ben said and this made Lyon smile again.

“Satisfied?” Ben whispered to Tyger.

“It needs work.” Both Lou and Tyger replied in unison. Lou cleared his throat before he continued.

“You are family now and as family you have all the rights and privileges my boys have.” He explained as he rested his arm on Ben’s shoulder.

“Come on bro, you gotta learn to play along.” Lyon said then Ben looked at him skeptically.

“But we’re almost outta time and you guys are playing?” Ben asked. Incredulously.

“Right now stress is our biggest enemy. It can undermine the best laid plans. It is important to have a way to relieve stress, even if they are minor ones.” Ben contemplated this as Tyger grabbed his paw and held it tightly.

“Remember no matter how much we fight, and play, our true feelings always shine through.” Tyger said. Lou and Tyger looked at each other and nodded their heads knowingly. Lou then turned to Lyon but before he could nod Lyon grabbed him and hugged him. Lou looked at first then accepted and hugged him back. Ben saw a smile on Lou’s maw and realized he had not seen this in days.

“Switch to camera seven.” Tyger said and Lyon pressed a button changing the camera displayed on the monitor. The view shifted to the military camp as soldiers were lining up side by side in full combat gear. Their rifles were raised and ready to begin fighting as drones were being fitted with bombs. Two tanks drove and parked in front of the infantry while they waited for their orders to move in and attack.

“Oh my paws,” Tyger cried as he looked at the army preparing. “It’s gonna be a bloodbath!”

“The humans won’t stand a chance.” Ben remarked as he held on tight to Tyger’s paw. Lou removed a cell phone from his pocket and Tyger saw his hoof shake briefly. Neither he nor his father had expected the army to go out so heavily armed versus the weak tribal humans.

“Alpha Bravo Delta Lambda.” Lou exclaimed into the cellphone. He was barely able to snap it closed when the cameras showed some drones flying over the military camp.

“What’s going on?” Lyon asked.

“I’m trying to delay them to buy us some time. Even if it’s only a minor setback we need all the time we can get.” Lou replied. They saw alarms sound as the drones dropped small grenades onto the army. The grenades let out a burst of energy and the camera went completely black. The EMPs immediately shut down all electronics as the camera they watched the army on went suddenly dark.

“An EMP?! I like the idea but that will cripple us as well.” Tyger said.

“I’m just hoping it will disable them long enough for Leggo, Merrik, and Dash to complete their mission. It’s not strong enough to permanently disable them but I have no idea how long it will take them to reboot.” Lou said.

“Damn,” Bear exclaimed as his air conditioners stopped working. He walked over to check the lights and his worst fears were confirmed. BH stood nearby and he lowered the hood of his parka.

“Are we already out of power? Maxx should be back at any moment.” He grumbled as Bear looked at him.

“I thought I felt a tremor. I think the army may have used an EMP on us. Check the rest of the city to confirm. If they did then they may be ready to attack at any moment.” Bear ordered. BH hurried out to carry out his orders. Bear knew it was the EMP Lou had told him about. Lou had informed him that if the EMP was activated then the army was about to attack. It was time to begin evacuating the city but he had to be careful because he could not let anyone know that he was working with Lou and his team.

“I forgot to tell you but in case of emergencies I had an escape route built for us.” BH as he quickly hurried back to mention what he had forgotten to mention before. Bear knew about this from Dash but he pretended he did not.

“Then start evacuating everyone out of the city. We move out before they can wipe us out.” Bear ordered. BH laughed suddenly and Bear felt his anger flare at this.

“Why would we do that?” BH chuckled. “The humans and the pets are cannon fodder. We can use them to distract them while we escape unharmed.”

“Idiot! If we needlessly sacrifice our army then we’ll have no way to rebuild The White Community. We need them to liberate our brethren.” Bear snapped.

“Bah, I’ve tried training them but they are too primitive. We don’t have 1000 years for them to catch up with the rest of the civilized planet.” BH replied.

“I don’t want to needlessly sacrifice them until I absolutely have to. Willing followers are not easy to come by.” Bear said.

“I’ll begin evacuation procedures immediately.” BH lied as he left the office. He had no intention of helping the humans. As long as Bear believed he had tried was all he cared about. He thought of excuses he could tell Bear about how the humans felt they would rather die fighting than to cowardly escape. To him the utter destruction of the humans did not matter to him.

Maxx looked up as the lights in the tunnel flickered then went out. He heard the humans muttering about the darkness but he waited to see if the back up generators would activate. He noticed that the lights were not coming back on and he reached out with his hooves to feel for the wall.

He followed the wall back to where he remembered they had kept some emergency oil lanterns in case of emergencies. When he turned on one of the lamps he saw a flicker of movement that caught his attention. He saw many of the pets gathered together and they were shaking in fear. He saw that the one they called Boots was closer to the front of the group.

“What are you all doing here?” He asked not expecting an answer since the pets were not allowed to talk. Dash suddenly ran up to him and was breathing heavily as he was out of breath. He reached out and grabbed Maxx’s hoof and pulled on it wanting him to follow.

“Okay, okay,” Maxx said as he let Dash lead him away to a private area of the tunnel.

“Maxx, I need you to listen to me, buddy.” Dash said as he kept his voice low.

“You’re talking?” Maxx asked incredulously.

“We don’t have a lot of time so I’ll be brief. I’m a spy that was sent inside. There are species that want to save the humans from BH and the military.” Dash explained as he rapidly spoke. He removed the earpiece hidden in his ear because he heard Tyger shouting at him. Telling him that he was betraying them and that Maxx could not be trusted.

After spending so much time with the humans and Maxx in particular he knew he could trust Maxx. He knew Maxx would help him gather the humans better than he could ever do and even though he was told not to bother, he had learned that there were good humans among them and that they deserved a chance just like the prisoners.

“I’m listening,” Maxx replied as he stooped down to listen.

“I got word that the army is going to attack any minute. My friends were sent in to help round up the pets and lead them to safety. We want to help the humans but they’ll never believe a pet. Can you try to convince them to surrender or something?” Dash asked.

“Who else is with you?” Maxx asked him sternly. Dash forced a smile as he heard shouts from the earpiece he tossed away.

“Abort, ABORT! Dash what are you doing?!” Tyger shouted.

Tyger threw the headset onto the keyboard in front of him as he rubbed his eyes. Lou leaned closer to watch the monitor but said nothing.

“Dash wouldn’t betray us!” Lyon shouted. Tyger stopped rubbing his eyes and turned to look at his brother. Lyon’s ears lowered and he looked ready to cry. Tyger reached out and put his paw on his brother’s shoulder giving him a light squeeze.

“I know. He wouldn’t do it intentionally but telling our plan to Maxx might be a big mistake.

“I’m sorry boys but we don’t have time to argue Dash’s motives. We need to move to another plan… Plan D perhaps.” Lou said quietly and they nodded. Lou then saw Ben glanced at his feet. Lou reached out and put his hoof on Ben’s shoulder.

“I know,” Lou said. “But we keep moving forward no matter what. How are we on time?” Tyger changed the view on the screen and they saw the army filing into place as they prepared to attack.

“Everything is back up and running. I estimate 30 minutes until they are fully up and running if we are lucky.” Tyger said as he examined the progress of the army on the monitor again.

“Any other tricks you can pull out of your pocket?” Ben asked and Lou shook his head.

“Fuck,” Tyger exclaimed as the tanks began to operate again.

“Aren’t you tired of being wrong?” Lyon shouted in panic.

“Is this another one of stress relieving imes?” Ben asked nervously as he watched his paws shake.

“You bet your ass it is.” Tyger remarked as he kept focussed on the monitor. “If we were able to get our systems back in operation they would be able to also.” Tyger said. Ben stepped up and slapped the back of Lyon’s head.

“Ow, jerk.” Lyon shouted as he rubbed the back of his head. Unfortunately, everyone else was too busy watching as the army begin to advance.

“Run to the tunnels!” Maxx shouted as the humans frantically ran about. He ducked his head as he heard a low whistling sound and a building near him was struck by a shell fired by a tank. Rocks and dust scattered and several humans ran out as they coughed uncontrollably.

“Is everyone alright?” Maxx shouted at one of the coughing humans.

“Elsa…the roof killed Elsa.” A human named Owwin said as he struggled while coughing from the dust. Maxx saw him struggling with tears as shock filled his eyes. Dirt streaked his face around his eyes as if he wanted to cry but the dust prevented him. Maxx tried to recall if Owwin and Elsa had any children but there was not enough time as another shell struck another building.

Maxx was hoping that there were no others trapped inside. He knew if there were they would be no way to rescue them until long after the army finished its attack. He started shouting to the humans to evacuate but his voice was drowned out by the screams of everyone around him.

Further away BH yelled as humans picked up rifles and nervously began to load them as they were trained.

“For Gawd and the city!” BH shouted and the other humans picked up the rally cry. The humans were not as loud as BH was as they shouted because they never faced an enemy like this.

The soldiers moved forward with their rifles ready to attack any humans that get in their way. They were mostly made up of German Shepherds and Rottweilers and they walked with a deliberate slow manner.

They had been briefed on how the humans were so they expected them to put up no resistance. A handful of human males charged at them and fired rifles of their own. The soldiers quickly reacted by killing the humans as their own armor blocked the bullets the humans fired.

“How in the Tail did these hairless apes get their hands on rifles?” One of the soldiers asked as he looked down at a dead human. He still held a rifle in his dead hands and the clothing made up of dead animal skins now were full of holes. Most of it centered around his waist and a large puddle of blood was forming under him.

“Phish ish to eashy.” One of the soldiers replied. He was missing his front teeth that had been broken when one of the hairless apes rushed him and hit him in the mouth with the back end of a rifle.

A female human threw a homemade molotov cocktail from an upper window from a nearby building. The soldiers screamed as flames erupted around them. She quickly hid as the unaffected soldiers shot at the window.

They saw another woman appear in another window holding a similar molotov cocktail. She was shot before she could throw it at them. The bottle shattered as it fell from her hands to the ground onto a driveway next to the building.

The soldiers now began to examine the windows now that they knew what to expect from the humans. The soldiers now became more cautious because the briefing had not explained that the humans were more dangerous that previously explained.

The walked with slower movements now and they no longer thought of the humans as being as weak and pathetic as they were originally led to believe. The attacks with the rifles and molotov cocktails had shown them otherwise. They now saw the humans as a threat, even if they were a minor one.

Thee humans were still just target practice but they were targets that could fire back. They were a threat but not one that could disable the army. Or at least that was how they appeared.

Bear crept along the tunnel as he watched Leggo and Merrik usher in the last of the pets to safety. Human women and children quickly followed while several wounded men were being carried now that they could not walk on their own. Bear growled causing the humans to shutter in fear as he saw the number of wounded.

He heard as the humans cried as they saw their comrades being killed in front of them by the military might of the army. The humans were amazed at how the army seemed invincible even after all the training they had received. Many theorized that they were going to be completely wiped out.

A few begged Bear when they saw him and begged him to save them. There were questions about what they had done to anger him that he had not used his powers to destroy the army. He looked at their pleading eyes through the dim light but he remained silent.

He did not have the heart to tell them that BH had tricked them through their beliefs. He knew he was not Gawd but he was a fake. He hoped they were beginning to understand that their Gawd beliefs were misplaced. BH had used it to manipulate them into doing his bidding. Bear showing up had just changed the white wolf’s plans.

At the end of the tunnel that led to the outside a team was waiting that Lou had hired. They would immediately free the pets from their slave collars. The former pets would pick up the slave collars and place them on the humans as they exited the tunnel after them. The humans were led to a holding pen while they waited to learn what Lou was going to do to them.

Bear hoped that species would come to accept the humans and help them integrate into society. It would take time to banish their primitive ways and that may only come about by their children. Still the crimes they had committed would need to be paid for and how society would accomplish this was what he feared.

All the negative press would make it difficult for the humans to enter society. Though slavery was still practiced, how the humans treated their slaves was the subject of much debate. Turning slaves into pets was considered to be cruel and humiliating. Slavery in modern society was considered to be a necessary evil but it was done in a more humane way. Although this was the continuing topic of much debate.

“Gawd, help us! Please!” Bear heard the humans beg. They cried out in fear as they were collared but he just lowered his head as the cries haunted him. He had little hope but at least they had been saved.

He listened to the gunfire in the city and wondered if any of the remaining humans would be spared and captured or would the army kill them. He felt so helpless as he waited to see how the army would react to the humans.

He could almost hear his heart pounding as the sounds of gunfire lessened the longer the battle went on. He suddenly looked around as he realized he had not seen BH. He wondered if the wolf had been killed with the other humans that resisted the army.

He thought back to the numerous horrors he had committed when he worked for C.I.Z.A. He was used to being haunted by the cries of his victims and the cries from the humans were nothing new. Still each had bothered him greatly and this led him to quit C.I.Z.A. in order to find a better way to deal with rare white fur species.

One of Lou’s workers stepped up to unlock his collar but Bear refused. He was going to wait for Lou to keep his end of the bargain and he hoped the cries of the humans would be more memories that he lost. He no longer wanted to remember all the misery he had caused. It was too painful and he could no longer stand it.

To Be Continued…