Chapter 2: Accidental Discovery
#2 of No World For Tomorrow
The next chapter in No World For Tomorrow. Updated as of April 11th 2012
Jillian had just entered the medical base perimeter and pulled her vehicle off to the side of the road. She would have to walk the rest of the way but that didn't bother her much. Sure beats having to work while getting shot at like in the field. This med base assignment seemed like a cake walk in comparison. She knew nothing about the situation happening in the city and right now had concern for the wounded who were being delivered to her position. Quickening her pace she hurried into one of the trauma tents and sees a soldier laying on the med table. Upon closer inspection she had noticed that half of his face had been melted. She had never seen anything like this before and quickly prepped herself to begin working. The wolf had fought the nurses and apparently was still in shock from whatever action he had seen. Carefully Jillian hovered over his head and hummed a tune. It took a short while to have the desired effect but the wolf stopped fighting. It was something about her voice that wolf had found soothing. Jillian placed her head next the soldier's ear and whispered something while one of the nurses administered morphine. She pats the wolf on the shoulder assuring him that he was safe and could get some rest.
Stopping for a second she watched as another soldier was rolled in. This one appeared a little more severe than the last. She had seen his blood trail coming from the outside of the tent to where he was placed. Going over to examine she carefully opened his uniform, as not to aggravate his wounds further and found his condition to be quite grave. His chest had shown evidence of severe thermal burning and most of the outer skin had melted and festered deeper into the wound. This one is in a bad way and she couldn't do much to help. She wasn't trained in burns of this magnitude. Jillian puts her head down and drooped her ears. Sadly she couldn't give the nurse any instructions. It pained her greatly knowing it was already to late to help this fox. The best she could do was morphine him up and keep him comfortable. The fox looked into Jillian's eyes and knew from her cold stare, it was already too late. Looking to the ceiling he cried a short cry and reached for her paw. Taking her warm paw in his own shaking hold he gave it a firm squeeze.
"Save who you can doc. And tell my wife and cubs I lo...v.........th......."
Jillian felt the fox loosen his grip on her paw and had finished dying. She sheds a tear knowing a father won't see his children tonight and that she would have to find his wife and tell her. Such was the unwritten code among brothers in arms. Taking his paw she placed it on his chest and crossed it with his other. Reaching up she closed his eyes and lowered her own head for a moment of silence. She never knew this fox but knew of that hell a mate goes through during their loved ones deployment.
Wiping her tears she turned to the wolf on the table. He seems to have stabilized and quieted down.
Grabbing a scalpel from the table she began to cut away some of the dead skin on his face. To Jillian it almost seemed like carving a turkey during the holidays. But the turkey was dead when she did the carving and her patient was still alive. Slowly she was able to make enough free space to slide a breathing tube down his throat. Carefully she taped the tube to his face and sets up his iv. This wolf would live to see another day thanks to her help. Taking a short break Jillian backed up and wiped the sweat from her forehead. She was beginning to perspire just a bit more than usual. But her break would be short lived as more wounded were rolled into the tent. Never before had Jillian seen so much wounded in such a short time. Sure she was a combat medic but whatever was going on was real bad. She could barely keep up with the wounded and had to keep giving the nurses suggestions and advice. The supplies were limited and she showed them how to make do with what was on hand.
A sound she never heard before in her life filled the air surrounding the tent. Suddenly she heard the screams of furries from outside and goes to find out what had made such a noise. A fox runs past her and she watched as more furries followed him. She found the situation to be a little more than weird since she seen soldiers among the crowd.
Now this was almost like the time she dropped a grenade into the toilet tank on base as a dare during Halloween. Every furry for themselves as the tank exploded and had shot water all over the head. Her commanding officers had their own version of fun making her fix and replace the toilets damaged in the explosion.
Given the current situation nothing could prepare her for what she seen. She watched a large disc hovering its way towards the med camp. It's silvery eye blasting plasma at groups of running furries while it hovered over those under it. She looked a little lower and seen a group of soldier sized things following close behind and shooting any stragglers in the furry group. Jillian stood in amazement but soon began to come back to her senses. She brushes past a few furries and helps in the evacuation of the camp. She only had less than a few minutes and she sure wasn't going to waste them dilly dallying.
Jillian watched the last truck leave with wounded and turned around to see that the large disc had gotten within the camps perimeter. Most likely the smaller ones were beginning to search the area below its gaze. Jillian crouched down and moved slowly as to not get the attention of the disc. Her plan had almost worked till one of the smaller ones had seen her. Jillian offered her paw in hopes they were friendly but her action only caused her to get shot at.
From the moment the plasma round flew over her head caused her combat training to kick in. Unsheathing her field knife she cut a hole into the side of the tent and retrieves her rifle. Swiftly she took up position behind the tent. The clip hit the ground as she placed a new one into the feed. She knew better than to keep her weapon loaded around civilians. She had done it out of the caring for the safety of herself and others. Her superiors had scolded her a few times but she knew an empty weapon, especially your own, can't hurt anyone when used against you.
In a fluid like motion she chambered the first round and peeked out from behind the tent. Her rifle was most likely useless against the disc but not one of the smaller ones. At least she hoped it was. A figure jumps out from behind one of the tents and caused Jillian to react. She barely had seen down the sights and fired in retaliation. Her rounds connecting with the metallic armor like substance and ripping right through. Jillian stopped for a second and looked up as the larger machine targeted her location.
"Oh fuck me!", she yelled as she ran for cover behind a pile of sandbags.
A rocket flew over her position and collided with the disc. The blunt force of the explosion rocked it for a few moments and gave Jillian some more time to run away. Peering out from behind the cover of an overturned transport truck she watched as the jet made a strafing run. Its heavy machine guns tearing into the disc and escort behind it with a dramatic effect. Many of the rounds had pierced the outer shell and others were deflected but all of the smaller infantry units were wiped out. Despite the show Jillian stood ever more amazed as the disc managed to keep hovering. It had taken a rocket and a barrage of fifty cal rounds and was still able to function. Surely whatever crafted the machine knew what to expect in battle. Jillian dropped behind cover and looked for anything that might help her. After shifting some of the debris around she finds a rocket launcher. Quick to pick it up she gave it a look over and seen it was undamaged. Prying loose the damaged priming pin she stepped out from cover.
"Welcome to Neon City!", she said with a smirk and a prayer that the rocket would finish the job.
The rocket leaves the launcher in a puff of smoke and detonates on impact with the disc. After the smoke had cleared Jillian seen that she downed the hovering device.
Taking this time to investigate she drops the empty launcher and goes to confirm her kill. If she did kill this thing she could probably get a promotion or better yet, some more leave time. Step by step she walked over to the downed machine. Her eyes looking for any sign of movement as she got closer. At this range the machine would be up and in the air before she could find any decent cover. She had gone way out on a limb here and would try to be as cautious as she could. Jillian stopped a few yards away from the main body and kicks a fallen alien soldier to check for vitals. She kicked it once more and seen that it was beyond fubar. The force from her second kick dislodged the armor from the soft alien flesh and she stops for a quick look. It was unlike any thing she ever seen and shifts it around on the ground. It was a tough as Kevlar yet had a soft inner shell. It surely wasn't of this world and presses on past the alien.
As Jillian neared the disc she could see that the rocket had blown a rather large hole that lead into the inside. Jillian had to hurdle over one of the machines thick armatures and goes to look into the breach she had made. She could see holographic controls floating in the air over the console. As she looked closer she seen a bunch of signs that made no sense to her at all. To her it looked like someone let a cub loose on the console with a marker. There was gibberish here and there and she climbed into the hole to get a better look. A series of lights flashed on the console and had caught her attention. She seen what looked like to be a holographic map of Neon City and leaned forward to get a closer look. It all was so intricately done that it made her wonder how long they were here to get such a detailed schematic of the city.
Having seen movement from the corner of her eye and she pointed her rifle in the direction of an alien laying on the floor. She thought furries were full of shit when they spoke of alien life forms but here, before her was proof of life outside their world. Jillian watched as it reached towards her and slowly stepped back. Her finger itching to pull the trigger played on her mind for a moment. She stared at its eyes and it reminded her of a sharks eyes, black and void of all emotion. The size of this thing was about fox size but maybe even smaller than that. It had no distinguishable features to indicate if it male or female. Presently Jillian didn't give a shit and decided to let it finish bleeding to death or whatever it was doing. Lowering her rifle to the floor she stepped forward. She figured if the alien was dying there was nothing she could do anyways. The military neglected to train her in alien biology and universal gibberish.
As she examined the console Jillian could feel the things eyes follow her every movement. She had stepped in its blood or whatever the hell it was by accident and kicked it off her boot. Bad enough she was doing the dumbest thing a furry could do and get curious while the alien is still alive. She had to add insult to injury by removing its blood from her boot too. While looking at the console Jillian remembered reading in one of the history books about how foxes were killed by wolves lying in wait while the fox searched bodies for trophies. But in her case it wasn't for trophies it was for Intel. As far as she knew she was the only furry to ever enter a disc and live to tell the tale.
She stopped for a second and seen something that caught her eye. Leaning down she picked it up and seen that it was a remnant of a wolf tag from the fox and wolf wars. She cleaned off the blood and grime from the tag as best she could and read the name "Black Wolf" She hadn't heard that name in a long time and thinks back on history. The only Black Wolf she could think of was Stone Black Wolf, the disgraced leader of the wolves. She thought for a bit and wondered how this could have any relevance to the present. Still it was something and she placed it in her uniform pocket.
A noise from behind her caused her to spin around in reaction. She aimed her rifle at the alien but was surprised to find it gone. Jillian knew she was fucked the moment she broke eye sight with the thing. Turning her back to the entryway and Jillian slowly backed out of the room. Jillian had seen those movies where the alien, monster or whatever the hell it is jump the unknowing main character from behind. She was damned sure it wasn't going to happen to her.
As she neared the blast hole she felt something bump her boot from behind and she falls backwards. Terrified she fires her rifle into the air as she hits the ground. She then thought how odd it was that she didn't feel the drop out of the disc. It was almost like something had broken her illustrious fall from grace. Jillian rolled her eyes and shifted her position onto her stomach. Looking to her right side she seen what had broken her fall.
Jillian had landed on top of the alien and its soft body broke her fall. Standing up she tried to wipe whatever had came out of it off her tail and uniform. To her it had the consistency of a runny nose and smelled like ass. Looking down upon the alien she felt kind of violated and shakes her head in disgust. Jillian didn't know if that was it's blood or come think of it she really didn't want to know what it was.
It took Jillian awhile to get used to the smell while she hauled the alien to one of the tents. She stopped every now and then to walk away. This thing was beginning to smell even worse than before and her nose almost couldn't take it anymore. Sure it was an alien and she didn't know what to expect. But she wished that this one didn't stink so bad. The breeze shifted the air and she sighed in relief. It caused the smell to drift down wind. Jillian took a deep breath and carried the alien into the tent. She planted its body on the table and heard a squishing noise. Ignoring the sound she leaves the tent and goes to find a seat outside.
She had a found an ammo box to sit on and decided to take a short break. But mostly she didn't want to smell that thing again. Her gaze shifted to the road as a military convoy approached the med camp.
Jillian felt an urge to smile but holds back and sits in disgust as she smelled that disturbing scent again. She ran her left paw across her tail and smelled it. Jillian's eyes opened wide and she quickly rubbed her paw in the dirt. Maybe the dirt would cover up the smell on her paw. The damn thing had left its "Like Roses" scent on her uniform and her tail. Surely anyone with a nose would smell the thing on her. And by the look of things she would have to make up an excuse in case the males asked her why she smelled so bad. God she felt even more violated and disgusted than before. Slowly she stood up and walked over to the convoy of soldiers.
She stopped to salute Captain Rivers and stood at attention.
"Private Jillian McKnight, Field Medic sir.", she said as the captain walked by her.
She noticed him stop for a bit and smell the air.
"What's that smell soldier?" asked Rivers. The smell had obviously hit him like a tank round and made him wonder what it was.
Jillian shook her head, let out a deep sigh and proceeded to tell the captain of what had transpired. Rivers looked on in interest while the soldiers behind him laughed their tails off. He shakes Jillian's paw and taps her on the shoulder.
"You did a fine thing for your country.", said Rivers.
After having heard Jillian's story he followed her into the medical tent and seen the alien on the table. This was very intriguing and he examined the alien a bit closer. Jillian covered her nose and asked, "Do you know what it is sir?" Rivers just looked at it and didn't reply. Jillian having fought the urge to puke finally loses it and headed outside.
She had barely cleared the tent and vomited. Covering her stomach she tried to regain her composure but vomits once more. Looking down upon her vomit a soldier pats her on the back.
"It hasn't even been an hour and already your sick. Damn those things work fast.", said the soldier as he looked at Jillian's back and tail. "I wonder private how could you get sick when it was a little back door action. Seeing as how it's the wrong hole and all."
Jillian spit to the side and reared up, "Fuck you man. That shit ain't even funny."
Captain Rivers exited the tent and stood by the soldier, "Load up the subject for transport. And grow up Daniels.", spoke Rivers as he walked back to the truck.
Jillian looked at Daniels face as he walked into the tent. Then she heard him yell from inside, "Good god girl! You killed this thing with your ass?! Man from the smell I think I know why it died. And is that what I think it is!? How long you been moonlighting with E.T. here?"
Jillian shook her head and walked by the soldiers going to see what he was talking about. She hopped onto the back of the transport and knew it was going to be a long ride back to base with their "discovery". God forbid the next soldier who gave her some lip. Would surely receive some prompt down time and a half. Taking her tail in her paws once more she spit into her fur and tried to wipe out the smell that haunted her.