FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Humanity: The Predecessors

Chapter 4

The next week of school went by slowly for our group of students, but finally it was time for the first field trip. This would be to a suburban ruin that was preserved in a dense forest thanks to the efforts of various historic institutions throughout the centuries. The students had made it to class and not a single one was absent. Mr. Shawnak took role, as usual, then he brought in a half dozen other adults into the class and introduced them.

"Class, I'd like to introduce our chaperones for this trip. First we have Mr. and Mrs. Gracewater, Ava and Linda's parents," he began, gesturing to the otter and meercat. "Next we have Mr. Gladsen, then Mrs. Prim, and Mrs. Medera. Huh, that's strange. Jeremy, isn't your father suppose to be chaperoning as well?" he asked the green and tan lizard.

"Yeah, he said there was an emergency at work that he needed to help sort out," the young reptile replied.

"Ah, I see. What a shame. I'm sure he would have enjoyed this trip." Then, addressing the entire class once again, he said, "Alright students, chaperones, if you all will come with me, the bus will be here shortly." They all filed out of the room, and Mr. Shawnak locked the door behind them. They walked to the main entrance to find the bus just pulling into the lot. The class quickly climbed on and the bus rolling back out of the lot in just a few minutes. "Okay everyone, settle down," Mr. Shawnak stood at the front of the bus, next to his seat. "This is going to be at least a two hour ride, maybe three, if we run into any delays, so enjoy the scenery as we go along, and try not to get too loud." He then sat in his seat, next to Mr. Gladsen.

Jax was sitting near the back of the bus, with Trick. Jax was looking out the window, taking in the familiar sights of the city he had lived in his whole life. Tall buildings on all sides, with the occasional opening of a small park or empty lot. The buildings weren't skyscrapers, by any means, but were still tall. The tallest rarely being more than 30 floors. He was listening to Trick as well. "Hey," Trick asked him, "so what do you think about that meercat girl?"

"What about her?"

"Well, do you like her?" Trick asked.

"She's not really my type. She's too shy and quiet." Jax replied, simply.

Trick crossed his arms and looked at his friend, raising an eyebrow. "Like you're not?"

"No, I'm not."

"Really?" Trick asked sarcastically. "Then that must be why you've never asked out anyone before, right? Because you aren't all shy and timid and quiet like her."

"Look, I know where this is going, and the answer is no. I don't want you trying to set me up with anyone in class. Or at all for that matter."

"Oh, come on Jax." He leaned over to his friend, trying to make him feel uncomfortable by getting into his personal space a bit. "There's gotta be someone here you thought about asking out." He gave Jax a nudge with his elbow. "Come on, who is it? Maybe it's a certain foxy you happen to know?" Jax just shook his head with a smile. "Oh, are you sure? I know you like foxes, bud. Saw your search history on your computer that one time, remember? You totally forgot to clear that off." Trick chuckled and added, "I just couldn't figure out if it was the vixens you liked more, or the guys." Trick's chuckles turned to full blown laughter, when he saw his friend getting red with embarrassment, while trying to look back out the window to conceal it. "Come on, Jax, I know you aren't gay." Trick leaned in to his friend again, and said, in a quieter tone, "If you were, you wouldn't have a total crush on my sister."

Jax gave the fox a surprised look, then shot back at him, "I do not!"

"Oh yes you do. Believe me, I can tell. I can set you up with her if you want."

"What!?! No! I-I mean no, that's not cool. She's your sister, anyway. Shouldn't you be against that sort of thing?"

"Jax, that's only the case with little sisters, not twins. You know that," Trick chuckled.

The class got quieter as the trip went on, everyone grew quiet and had fallen asleep, or just gotten lost in the beautiful scenery beyond the city walls. The walls were built hundreds of years ago, and were still maintained. The near complete envirodome, meant to protect the city from severe wind storms and thunderstorms that were frequent around it, and control weather conditions within, rested on top of the wall. It glistened in the sunlight, arching high into the sky to clear the city's tallest buildings. The envirodomes were one of the most amazing technological and architectural achievements created by anthros.

But perhaps, the even more spectacular view was beyond the city, in the surrounding lands. That is what many of the students had fallen silent for. Outside the city walls, which few witnessed in person, and fewer still saw from the ground, were some of the largest trees imagineable. Great old oaks, over a thousand years old. Many from before the humanthro war. These trees were immense, many rising above 30 meters (100 feet). Their branches, twisted and knarled from the wind storms, formed an almost inpenetrable mesh of plantlife, making transport on the ground near impossible. That is why they were above the treetops, on the massive skyway system. A series of highways, connecting cities together, high above the trees. Great arches curved over the top of the wide, six lane deck of the skyway. Each one meant to provide lighting to the skyway, and power to the nearby cities. The six lanes were seperated in the center by a magnetic railway, used for mass transportation between cities. In some places, there were off- ramps that wound down under the treetops. The bus turned onto one of these, and the skyway was soon lost from view as they decended below the canopy to the earth below. Once they reached the ground, it was a short trip to their destination. They reached a clearing where one of the great trees had died and been cut down. There was a building here. It had curved walls and a wavy roof, with a walkway from the second floor into the forest's branches. This was the museum that the class was going to be touring.

The bus pulled to the front of the museum and the class filed off to the entrance. The group's tour guide met them. He was an equine of a chestnut color, with a white splotch over his left eye. He wore a simple museum uniform, khaki pants and a navy blue polo shirt. "Hello, and welcome to the East Edge Museum of Humanity. I'm John, and I'll be your guide for today. Is everyone ready to get going?" Everyone responded in the affirmative, and the class was off.

They first walked through the main building, seeing various pieces of equipment used by humans. Most of it was unimpressive, as it was strikingly similar to some of their current technologies. One of the more interesting things they found were the old gasoline powered vehicles. A motorcycle, an old car with a running horse on the grill, and a damaged fighter plane. At the fighter, the class really paid attention, because it looked nothing like the ones they would see on rare occasions flying in and out of East Edge. "This is one of the more impressive exhibits in our museum, in my opinion," the guide was saying. "This fighter plane was shot down during the Humanthro war, and crashed deep in anthro controlled territory. Our ancestors located the wreckage and took control of it. According to the records we have for that time period, the pilot of this craft had deserted his human allies to help fight for anthro freedom and equality. He lost his life in the crash. Anthro forces secured the wreckage and brought it back to their base, with the intention of repairing it, but it was never finished. It was put into storage, and was eventually forgotten. Nearly 100 years later, it was rediscovered, and donated to a museum. Since then, it has been moved from one museum to the next, and is now a valuable part of ours."

"They actually piloted their own fighters?" Jason asked. "Why would they do that? Why not just keep it remotely operated?"

"Well," the guide replied, "At the time, they were only just beginning to switch over their combat vehicles to remote operation. Does anyone else have a question? No? Okay then, we'll continue our tour."

The class continued their tour, gazing at the various pieces of video equipment, computers, and memory storage devices. Even entertainment devices were on display. It turned out that video games were very similar to what they had, except there were a lot more physical components to them. Everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves, even Jack was in good spirits. He seemed very interested in human art. Their videos, pictures, music, stories, and games. He was surprised at how many things were actually based on human works.

After a couple hours, the class had finished their tour, and was getting ready to climb back onto the bus to head back to the city. They thanked the guide, and were on their way.