FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I yawn and stretch as I throw off my covers and pull on a shirt. I rub my eyes while heading downstairs for breakfast. The whitewashed walls burn my eyes like they always do in the mornings, with their brilliant whiteness as the sun reflects off of them.

My mom is in the kitchen, where a delicious smell is coming from, accompanied by the familiar sizzling of cooking bacon. My older brother is in the living room watching something on the TV. I walk over to the window wall--literally, a wall of windows--and stare out at the gigantic Lifeblood billboard outside our window. There's the usual minute of longing, then I turn and go sit at the dining room table and wait for breakfast.

My mom smiles at me over her shoulder at me. "How'd you sleep?"

I grunt, which she takes as 'good'. A plate of food is placed under my nose and I wolf it down--pun intended, thank you--and rinse my plate in the sink. "I'm gonna go Sink now, Mom."

"Alright," she says, then adds, "Honestly, I don't understand the why or how behind your being in there so often."

I smile sardonically. "I don't expect you to."

My brother catches my arm as I start past him. He leans up to whisper in my ear, "Tell him hi for me."

I roll my eyes. "Sure."

I undress (clothing gets in the way of the nerve simulators) and climb into the Coffin. I watch as the lid slowly closes over me, then feel the unpleasant feeling of the NerveWires sliding across my body like snakes and then biting under my ski to get the nerves themselves. Then come the AirPuffs and LiquiGels, and as soon as they come into contact with my skin, the blackness around me becomes fuzzy, then shatters like glass and gives way to the clear blue sky of Charlotte.

I check my watch. I'm a few minutes early, so I spend some time walking around town, smiling at the luscious green trees and clear blue water of people's personal ponds. I hear pops at irregular intervals, the sign that people are just getting up and are still entering the Sleep.

There's a pop right behind me and I grunt as a shoulder in my back throws me forward. "Seriously, Cain, someone is going to kill you one of these days for you doing that."

Cain smiles and gives me a hand to stand up. I brush it away and stand up on my own. "Jut says hi, by the way."

"I figured." Cain crosses his arms. "Will you you just tell him that I don't love him back already?"

"You know I can't do that."

"Why not?"

I frown at him. "He'll let me have it if I do. Heck, he'll kill me."

Cain grunts and turns, beginning to walk toward the nearest game Portal. "Why can't we just open a Portal here?" I ask him.

"You know perfectly well why," he snaps back at me.

I throw up my hands in surrender. "We've done worse in the past and not gotten caught."

"Luck has to run out sometime," is all he said.

I shake my head, nice and slow, a small smile on my face. Sometimes, I have to remember you get argumentative when you're angry. I end up figuring that I can't negotiate with him and follow as he strides to the nearest Portal, having to half-jog to keep up.

"So, what're we playing?" I ask.

"You decide."

"You know what I'm gonna chose. If you were gonna leave it up to me why not just choose what you knew I was going to?"

Cain looks at me out of the corner of his eye, a pained expression on his face. "Just do it."

We round the corner, and there the Portal is, right in front of us. I grin fiercely at Cain and dive headfirst. I feel his clawed hand wrap around my ankle just before I passed through--otherwise he wouldn't have come through to the same place as me. Unfortunately, this inhibited my landing ability, so the best I could do was break my fall with my hands and hope he didn't land on top of me. Which, of course, he did.

I grunt, then roll him off of me and stand up. "You're welcome for breaking your fall."

Cain ignores the sarcasm and heaves himself onto his feet. "You're right, I did know."

I end up selecting a Comp match on Mirage and we play the entire match.

Afterwards, we tumble out onto the ground, grunting. We're sweaty, bruised, and exhausted. Just because we are in a virtual reality didn't mean our bodies didn't get exhausted like they do in the real world.

We leave the game lobby and cross to the restaurant across the street. We enter and get seated. As I look across the room for possible enemies--the VirtNet was just like a hyper-expanded game of Grand Theft Auto 5--or muggers, I spot a familiar face across the room. However, not familiar because we were friends or something. I think it's familiar because of a hatred and rivalry that extends back to the time we first met.

"Who're you looking at?" Cain asks, following my gaze. "What is going on between you guys that I don't know about?"

"Nothing you need to know about," I say, holding my hand under the table as I text a friend of mine.

Not too long later, a man dressed in black walks in and gets himself a seat next to the wall on the opposite side of the room from me. He glances at me once, but other than that, he shows nothing of his relation to me or Cain.

Cain notices the small smile on my face as I watch the mugger, who is doing a surprisingly good job of disguising himself as an ordinary passerby. "That your work?" he asks, disapproval apparent on his face.

"Yeah," I say.

"Seriously, though, what the heck is going on between you two?" Cain says, still lost.

"Let's just say that there's no love lost between us."

Cain shakes his head. "Have you two met before?"

"Yes, and not on the nicest of occasions."

He shakes his head again, but doesn't ask any more questions, which I'm thankful for. I wasn't in the mood for answering questions. Eventually, the lunch rush begins to clear, and Cain and I head out with them.

I wait outside and half-watch what's happening inside. The waiters all move into the back, since there are only two people inside. That's when the mugger strikes. He knocks the other man unconscious and takes a wad of cash. He runs outside and discreetly tossed the cash to me, but continues to run as if he has the money. I jump into a car with Cain following and speed off.

I drive a little while, thinking the whole while that I'm safe. However, I'm constantly checking in my rear view mirror for pursuers.

Finally, my nerves settle down and I ease off the gas, beginning to drive at a more normal speed. I stop checking the mirror, as well. Which turns out to be a mistake.

"Um, Colton?" Cain says, twisting around in his seat. "We have company."

Cursing, I take a look behind us as well. There's a bright red Zentorno (copyrights to Rockstar) following close behind us. I stamp on the gas--thank God I have an Adder--and the car shoots forward. The Zentorno continues to gain on us, slowly but surely. We are driving on a road between the ocean and mountains, and I decide it's time to get a bit dangerous.

There's a gap in the fence on our right, so I swerve to hit it and we start going up the mountain. The unexpected move takes the Zentorno by surprise and he flies past it before coming around and following us. I realize there's no way to evade him--the Zentorno has better speed and endurance, so at these speeds the Adder will explode first. We rocket off of one of the hills, and I prepare to bail in the next big jump.

"You have a parachute, right?" I ask Cain.

"Yeah, why?" he shoots right back.

"Equip it, and be ready to bail when I give the word."

He puts it on without question, then stops and takes it off, the outs it on me. "I have wings, remember?"

I laugh, realizing that I actually did forget. "No, apparently I don't!"

He laughs too, right as we fly off another cliff. "Now!" I shout, and fling my door open and jump out, immediately opening my parachute. I swing to my left to try to avoid the Zentorno that flies over the cliff a split second later, but it wasn't fast enough. I feel a slight jerk sideways as the strings are severed, and a split second of weightlessness. Then the fall begins.

I try to scream, but the sounds are ripped out of my throat before I can make them. I see the ground nearing me, but the feeling of the wind flowing through my fur, my tail whipping in the high-speed wind, felt so good.

Then I remember what's happening, and I start to twist myself in an attempt to get my feet pointing to the ground. If only I could land and roll a few times, I would still survive. It won't be possible, however, so I close my eyes and prepare for the death.

The breath whooshed out of me and I felt a few ribs break, but there wasn't the sudden sharp feeling of pain that accompanied death in the Sleep. I start to struggle, thinking I was being pulled in to the Zentorno. I heard a grunt and the grip around my chest tightened, crushing my ribs even more, and I let out a cry of pain.

"Sorry," a voice says into my ear, "but you're gonna fall if you keep struggling."

I breath a sigh of relief--as well as I can with crushed lungs and ribs--and say, "Cain." Then I pass out...