FSE

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“Sorry I'm late.”

The vixen morph clamped a hand over her own mouth and grabbed the tree in front of her, then looked back at the dark-furred morph suddenly behind her and whispered harshly “I hate when you do that. Couldn't you send me a message that you were coming up behind me? And why are you naked?”

“It's a long story, but it explains why I couldn't message you.”

She looked around, “Where's Van?”

“I sent him to grab me some clothes from your camp.”

“I must be slipping.”

“No, he's getting better at silent communication, just not at keeping focused on his surroundings.”

“Well, you essentially took out my partner and got right behind me without me noticing. I need to do better at focusing on my surroundings.”

White teeth shone in the dawnlight, “I'm just that good. Looks like they haven't heard of us yet; no guards. What's that?”

The vixen looked past the tree to the camp down the hill and saw a man emerge from a tent and start to stretch. “They're waking up. Time to get started.” She typed out a group message.

Tall white ears sprung up beside a shipping container, then a rabbit morph jumped against it and ran across the campsite.

“Hope these guys care about not damaging their merchandise.”

The groggy man turned toward the metal bang, “Hey! Where'd that rabbit come from?” He grabbed a rifle and fired quickly.

“Crap. We've got to get down there.”

“Wait.” The vixen held her arm out in the way and watched the action below them.

The white rabbit morph darted back and forth looking panicked as more men and women emerged from tents, trucks, and RVs, then it bolted into the trees as more shots zipped past.

Three humans rushed into the trees after the rabbit with guns while two ran to the container and a woman argued with the first man.

“Ken got lucky.”

The vixen's phone vibrated briefly. “That's three down. Watch for Ike.”

A brown blur snatched the two by the container into the bushes.

The vixen flinched as she heard a shot and stared at the bushes below, then sighed in relief when her phone quietly buzzed in her hand.

The remaining two humans hurried toward the shot as a husky morph and a springer spaniel morph appeared around the vehicles behind them.

“Careful, Trigger. Okay, now we go down noisily.” The vixen stood up and charged down the hill yelling menacingly.

The humans looked up at the screaming vixen morph coming at them just before the two canine morphs tackled them from behind.

The vixen slowed and walked up to the dog morphs as they bound the humans’ wrists behind their backs. She gave a satisfied smile to the naked dark-furred fisher coming down the hill as she stood over them, “Perfect plan: no injuries.”

The rabbit and three more morphs carrying three bound humans came out of the woods and a large brown bear came around the shipping container dragging two more captured captors.

A white ferret rushed up to the fisher with a bundle, “Here are some clothes, Marco.”

“You missed your part, Van.” The vixen smirked.

“Sorry, May,” the ferret panted, “I thought I could make it.”

“Can I have my guns back now?” the husky stood up over the bound humans.

May sighed, “Why don't you look around and collect all of theirs first, Trigger.”

The husky nodded and grabbed the guns at his feet, then hurried off.

“I thought his name was Happy.” Marco pulled a shirt over his head.

May chuckled, “While we were training, he earned the nickname Trigger Happy. He’s a great shot, but likes them a bit too much and is kinda clumsy without one in his hand.”

“I guess that makes…”

The door of an RV kicked open and a big man yelled as he started firing. Everyone ducked and rushed for cover except the husky who dropped most of his collection to fire two quick shots as he charged toward the RV. The man dropped his gun and fell to the ground holding his thigh. Trigger kicked his gun away and pressed the barrel of the one he was holding against the man's temple.

“Is everyone alright?” May looked around to take inventory of her group as they came out of hiding: husky, spaniel, fisher, bear, rabbit, two cats, fox, and the ferret still laying behind the gathered bound humans. “Ike, help Trigger tie that guy up. Angie, patch his wounds. Cate and Jot, check all the tents and vehicles; we don't need any more surprises like that. Van, gather all their keys; we need to get that container open. Ken, Hime, Marco, sweep the trees just in case, quickly. Van, get up and get their keys. Van?” She rushed to the ferret and rolled him over to find his white fur soaked red. She shrieked and yowled, then glared at the humans in front of her now wide-eyed with fear. She looked past them to the RV, then snarled viscously as she ran over them and charged the man that killed her friend. Before she could reach him, she was struck from the side and slammed against the RV. She fought back against her attacker until she realized it was her fisher friend.

“Anna May! Stop yourself. If you kill him like this, you will regret it later.”

“I'll regret it if I don't,” she snarled.

“May.”

She stared at her friend’s face, then relaxed a bit. “Fine. Just let me make sure he regrets what he did.”

The fisher held his ground with a disappointed glare.

The vixen sighed, “I'll just talk to him.”

Marco stepped back, still unsure, but trusting his friend.

May walked around to kneel in front of the big bound man and stared into his eyes as she struggled with her self-restraint. “You just killed… a very good friend of mine.”

The gagged man glared unrepentantly back at her.

“We were very careful not to hurt any of you, Despite how we feel about slavers.” She knew she wasn't going to win him over, so it was time to get practical, “Where are the keys for the container?”

The man grunted an incoherent retort.

May put her hand on his bandaged thigh and squeezed making him groan in pain.

“Hey!” the spaniel morph objected, “The bullet is still in there!”

“A good reminder of the one he put in Van.”

May looked back at Marco then squeezed again as she turned and growled, “Where are the keys?”

The man snorted defiantly.

May raised her hand to his face to display her claws menacingly. A gasp caught her attention and everyone looked up through the door of the RV to see a young grey female equine morph nervously clutching a sheet in front of her bare body. “Seriously?” the vixen snarled at the man, “You’re making it very difficult to find reasons to NOT shred you!”

“Found it!” The bear held up a key on a ring of others as he stood over the other humans.

May growled and punched the man under her, bouncing his head off the RV and knocking him out. “Angie, take care of the foal. Trigger, watch him. Ike, let's get that container open.”

Marco followed her to meet the bear at the lock. “I'm proud of you for not killing him, no matter how much he deserves it.”

“Don't speak too soon. I'm still deciding.”

The bear tossed the lock aside and lifted the latches to pull the container doors out.

They stared into the darkness as their eyes adjusted.

Ken stepped up behind them. “That explains why they didn't care about shooting a rabbit morph.”

Bunks were built against the walls, four high, and each held two young equine morphs with more sitting on the floor between them.

“There's gotta be a hundred morphs crammed in there,” Jot stared in shock.

“I count one hundred and ninety-eight,” Hime sighed.

“Angie has two in that RV,” Cate hissed, “That man is disgusting; all of them are!”

“Two hundred? Did anybody find any logs?”

“We found some computers, but they're locked.”

May stepped closer and tried to speak comfortingly, “Do any of you speak English?”

The second morph from the door sitting on the floor spoke timidly, “W-we all do, ma’am.”

“Do you know anything about where you came from?” She knelt down to look at him.

The young equine looked nervously around at the others for an answer.

Another spoke from a bunk, “It was warmer there.”

There were mutterings of agreement that were quickly silenced.

May stood up and offered her hand, “Let's get you out of there so you can stretch your legs. Ken, get the keys from… Van …and bring Chuck and the bus. Ike, see if one of those keys is for these chains.”

Marco helped guide the foals out of the container, “This is more than the bus will hold.”

May looked around the camp as she thought, “We can take the two RVs. I know we don't steal, but we need to get them all to safety.”

“How did they get them all here?”

A passing foal stopped and looked up, “My brothers and sisters and I came from the crèche on a bus. Some were already here and some came after.”

“How many brothers and sisters do you have?”

The foal looked down, “I don't know.”

“It's alright. Let Ike take those chains off.” Marco nudged the foal back in line. “They came in smaller sets straight from the labs? This is much bigger than we thought. We need to find out which labs are involved.” The fisher pushed past the line of foals and headed for the humans gathered in the middle of the camp. “Hime! Where are those computers you found?”

The fox hurried to grab a stack of collected tech and bring them to the fisher.

“Now, what belongs to who?” Marco tossed the phones on the ground and examined the rest while he watched the slavers. He dropped the fancy-looking ones to some muffled objections and picked a durable one because the woman that was scolding the man earlier scowled when he grabbed it. “Let's see what's in here.” He opened it and it asked for a fingerprint, so he walked around behind the woman and used her finger to unlock it. First, he headed to the settings to change the security; one last touch from her finger gave him unlimited access and he sat down to use it.

“Cate! Grab Jot and make sure there is enough water for everyone, then get them ready to go. It's a long way to safety.” May walked with the last foal until the bear removed his chains, then she looked at the white ferret still laying in the dirt and sighed. “Ike, help me take care of Van.”

The bear carried the lifeless morph into the woods and everyone stopped to watch his solemn march. He set the body down by some soft ground and started digging.

May knelt down and stared at Van's face, stroking his cheek as she started to cry, “He was smart and caring and eager and I didn't tell him enough and he didn't deserve this and…” She screamed at the tree beside her.

Ike stopped digging and waited for her to look at him. “He was my brother, too.”

The vixen smiled through her tears and nodded, “He was everyone's brother.” She wiped her face, then started emptying the ferret’s pockets. “He tried to always be prepared.” She examined a metal item she couldn't identify, then put it in her pocket with the rest of his things. “This shouldn't have happened!”

Ike stopped his digging again, “I can finish this.”

May stood up and tried to control her tears, “K-keep his clothes, too. … He won't need them anymore.” She growled at herself for letting it happen, then stormed back to the camp. She marched straight to the man bound by the RV and stomped on his wounded leg, making him scream into his gag. “ You are the worst piece of filth on the planet! I get that you thought you were defending yourself when you killed my brother, but what you were defending is disgusting! It's bad enough that you're selling people as property, and your friends will have plenty of time to reconsider that. That's right, morphs are people and most of them are smarter than you! But you…” She held her claws in front of his face as she struggled with the words. “You forced these innocent children to have sex. You raped them!” She raked her claws through his shirt and chest and snarled back at his muffled scream.

Angie rushed in and grabbed May's arm, but the vixen shrugged the spaniel off and punched the man twice in the face before Marco and Trigger pulled her away.

“I don't want to see that thing anymore! Tie that monster up on the other side of the RV and make it as uncomfortable as possible!” She shook herself free and turned to the rest of the humans. “Did any of you know what he was doing?”

Most of them shook their heads fervently, but the woman in charge just looked at the ground.

The angry vixen lunged in and grabbed her shirt. “You let this happen! You knew and let him do it.”

“May!”

“You wanted him to do it!”

“May!”

“You’re as bad as he is and I should kill you both!”

“May!” Marco grabbed her shoulder and glared back when she turned to growl at him.

May shoved the woman down and took a few steps away. “Put them in the container.”

Marco grabbed her shoulders and looked into her eyes, “May, you’re losing control.”

She grabbed his arms, “They're monsters, all of them.”

“I know.” He tried to be soothing, “I would be reacting just like you are, but you got there first and I need to protect you from doing something you will hate yourself for.”

May sighed and hugged her friend as she tried not to cry again.

“Do you really want to lock them in the container?”

May pushed out of the hug, “We don't have to lock it and the auction is scheduled for noon, so somebody will find them.”

“Right, but that means we need to get out of here before anyone starts showing up.”

May turned back to the camp, “Let's get loaded up before anyone else comes! One more check through the tents and vehicles; grab food and water. We have a lot more mouths than we planned. I should set up a new rendezvous and cover.” She pulled out her phone and dialed.

Ike came back carrying Van's clothes and Marco grabbed them before he got to May. The fisher helped direct the large crowd of young equines, getting as many female foals into the RVs as could fit somewhat comfortably and packing males onto the bus three and four to a seat. It was far from ideal and they had to take a van and a pickup with a camper cover to fit everyone. There wasn't enough water or food for the whole trip, but he made sure all the foals got some.

“Listen carefully,” May waved everyone closer, “We’ve arranged a couple more buses and drivers and they'll meet us near the Utah border, but that means we have a few hours of driving across Wyoming to get there. We will just have to hope nobody notices that morphs are driving, especially while we're still in Colorado. Chuck will drive the bus as planned. I'll take one of the RVs. Then we need volunteers to drive the…”

Everyone raised their arms and stepped forward.

“Alright. Pair off and pick a vehicle. Let's get out of here.”

“Hey Trigger,” Ken grabbed the husky’s arm and walked with him, “I thought I saw you fire twice earlier, but the guy only got hit in the leg. Did you actually miss?”

The canine grinned as he pulled a revolver from his pocket and handed it to the rabbit to show a bullet lodged in front of the hammer, “May insisted on 'disarm and disable.’”

“You are one smooth…”

Trigger tripped and fell nose-first to the ground.

“…dog,” Ken smirked and shook his head, then helped his friend up.

Trigger took the gun and shoved it back in his pocket, then pulled out a rag to clean his nose.

“Ride with me in the pickup,” Ken shook some keys.

“I have to get my guns from the bus first,” the husky finished brushing himself off and started walking.

“Good idea.”

“Let's get moving! Stay on the interstate and nobody stops till we get there. I just sent the spot to everybody. Good luck!” May climbed in the RV and sat in the driver's seat. Raiding the camp was easy compared to this. If it was just fifty or so assorted morphs, with a human driving that was easy to explain and nobody would even think it strange, but a caravan of assorted vehicles overloaded with equine morphs with more morphs driving… If anybody noticed, they were done.

Marco closed the door and stepped over foals to sit in the seat beside her. “All set. Chuck will take the rear and everyone else will follow you.”

The vixen started the engine and put the vehicle in gear. She turned sharply and started out, but clipped the corner of a tent and knocked it down as she drove through the camp and past the bus to continue down the dirt road back toward civilization. She noticed the yelling just before her phone rang, but it stopped when Marco took her phone to answer for her.

“Nevermind,” Ike’s deep voice came through clear, “but we should probably stop before we get to the road to clean up your RV.”

“What's wrong back there?”

“I just think the police might get curious about the hand and foot hanging from your bumper.”