FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

1 Incident

I simply stared at the television in disbelief. Even having been warned before hand there were things you just couldn't help but look in shock and I was looking at one of those events. I tried not to act surprised or slack jawed because I knew any minute he'd come bursting through the door. I anticipated camera flashes going off, lights, a murmur of yelling voices all asking various questions. I had only once briefly looked out the bedroom window blinds. At least six news vans with their tall antennas pointing to heaven were parked along the road. The press had set up a tent further down the road on some public land so at least they were being slightly conscious of the fact there were in a neighborhood. Still the whole situation was surreal but then again how could it not be.

I stared at the television again the same scene being played over and over again with a ticker down at the bottom reading off the opinions of people sending messages via twitter and Facebook. Opinions that were probably shared by millions if not billions of people right now. The whole event had started out as something I had thought would simply blow over. A Youtube video that had caught me in action at the wrong place, the wrong time. After a few weeks I had almost hoped that the video wouldn't even show up at all, forgotten as a single moment but I had been so horribly wrong. I wasn't sure when or even where it started to go viral but as with anything these days it seemed to take only hours. Hours before every single person watching a television or access to a computer would know my secret.

The footage now showing on television seemed far more crisper, cleaner, and more real than the blurred motion jiggling of the Youtube video. Maybe it was the headline that got me to realize this wasn't a dream but my new found reality. The headline was bold and white above the constant streaming of opinion, facts, and the odd other news story was simply Monster Cop. The scene started out pretty normal, a person standing on a sidewalk filming a minivan that had crashed into a telephone pole. The camera zooms in on the unconscious mother blonde hair falling in waves over the steering wheel and the child strapped into a car seat in the back. A cop car is already there and I am talking on the radio attached to my shoulder. It was so unmistakably me as I was the only cop who is six foot two and built like a tank in the Portland Police department. Most of the guys were tubby with rounded guts or were lithe youthful people. The light blue short sleeved uniform seemed poured onto me and if I moved just right it would burst at the seams. I had been proud of my body. I worked out to remain fit even though I started out as a big man.No fat big but muscle big I don't think there was much fat on me. As I am talking on the radio telling the dispatcher the details as quickly as I can, the front of the minivan then begins to smoke. The camera shows me slowly approaching the van looking it over it. At that moment I smelt the gas and knew what was potentially going to happen. I heard the fire trucks wailing in the distance and thought they might just make it. Just as I am about to get to the front of the van the smoke erupts into flames and I realized I was out of time.. I raised my arms over my face as the van's engine catches fully.

. There's a moment where I am standing in the road as if the camera could show the grimace on my face as I am forced to do something I had done countless times before but never on camera. I wasn't even aware of the person shooting the film just twenty feet away. I was focused on one thing. The child crying in the back seat. It's innocent life hanging in the balance waiting for me to trade the comfort and security I had in my own life for it's own. There had been a fleeting voice in my head that told me to let them burn there's nothing you could do. The mother's dead anyway the voice had told me in that quick moment but it was a lie as I could see she was breathing. .

As in all things in life what happens next was quick and in a flash. The van's front end goes up in flames and in the distance you can see the red lights of the fire truck. I could hear the wailing of the fire truck's siren in the distance but at the rate the flames were going they would be far too late. I had to act and had to do something. The choice seemed so obvious to me and if I hurried I could save them instead of standing there waiting for death to claim two innocent lives. In a flash of motion I was in and out of the van grabbing both the woman and the child. It was so easy to rip off the sliding door and just grab them. I couldn't even remember slicing the child's protective car strap or the mother's seat belt. All I did recall was the job I had to do and the fact that any minute now I could be charcoal. The very next thing I knew the fire truck had arrived and is hosing down the flames with the white foam. I come out of the side of the road almost relieved to know that vehicle hadn't exploded. I have the unconscious mother slung over my shoulder. Clinging and wailing even above the fire truck and ambulances sirens is the small toddler whose tiny arms are grasping around my neck nearly choking me, something I'd never thought I child could do.

It was at that moment I turned and saw the camera. It wasn't a tv camera just a young man filming the scene not exactly surprising given that every phone now was prime to be an all in one device. I almost felt like waving and didn't give the camera much thought until I felt the cool breeze hit my chest and legs. I looked down seeing the torn pants from basically my thighs down. It looked like I was wearing strips of fabric like a kilt and less of pants. My boots were gone with my bare feet touching the asphalt. My shirt was torn. Looking down I saw my rounded pectorals covered in thick black hair. Up until that moment I had thought I could get away with it. Say my uniform was damaged by the fire. I figured I'd be a hero and probably still was. It was then I looked at the mother whom I laid down for the paramedics to look at. My arm was covered in black fur. My I turned my clawed hand around and saw the thick leather pads of flesh on the palm.

I put down the child and then looking up at the small crowd that stood there not staring at the fire or vehicle but at me. The child looked up at me and looked at my arm. Tears covered his round chubby cheeks. At first a look of fear was in his deep blue eyes and then there came the unexpected smile slowly crept around his cherub face. I smiled back down at the kid putting my now very human hand on his brownish blonde mop of hair giving him a reassuring pat.

"Corporal Chastel, please step away from the child," came an order from one of my fellow police officers.

I looked up to see Officer Pendergast reaching for his side arm. Pendergast was a blonde haired young man who had been on Portland PD barely a year. He was on the small side, about five foot seven and built like a swimmer. His lanky arms would fool anyone into thinking he was a wimp but he could outrun just about anyone except me of course. He did have amazing stamina and overall he was a good friend. I had given him several pointers early on when he joined the force. He was a nice kid, a nice kid who was reaching for his weapon.