Anthro VI

The ground beneath my boots puffed up in clouds of ash and soot as I walked; the dry surface crumbling beneath my paws. The air was thick and heavy, even though I had my respirator on, I could smell and taste the acrid stench of smoke and destruction. I didn’t even want to bare witness to the carnage which took over the one true planet that was a home to mankind; a place of life, perfection, and beauty.

Instead I stared at the ground, still in disbelief and lost; nothing looked familiar anymore and I was alone. The two shadows of Branson and Reeves had faded into the crimson veil of smog which composed the air, I had no sense of direction, so on I walked aimlessly.

“…Ray...?” a crackled, mechanical voice filled my mask. The words were broken in static but manageable for me to piece together the sentences, “Where are you? Are you ok?! Stay where you are, we’re coming to find you!”

“I’m…here…” I replied brokenly. I didn’t even want to speak, I just wanted to be left alone in silence, to find myself again.

A brightly lit blueish white light could be seen cutting through the crimson fog before me, and there stood two figures, one with his PES opened upon his arm, which I knew had to be Reaves. “Keep up with us you mutt!” the sergal spat.

“Hey! Easy Reaves, for the first time he’s finding out the truth, this is the reason he wanted to come!”

“I don’t give a damn why he wanted to come! You know the true reason why we are on this damned planet in the first place! Face facts boy, you either stay with us or we leave your ass behind!”

I couldn’t reply, only simply nod my head in understanding. I wanted to leave this place as well, and as soon as possible. There was nothing left for me here, nothing but the painful charred memories which slowly started coming back to me.

I followed closely behind, heeding the Sergal’s warning. Soon we came to the shell of an old black bunker, the dilapidated steel fence was broken in segments and strewed across the landscape surrounding the structure, it’s razor sharp coiled wires bunched and bundled up in knots upon it’s apex.

“Here’s where we need to be, my scans show that there is plenty of Uranium and Plutonium stored inside we can use to synthesize fuel. Open up your PES fellows and keep an eye on the readings, it will inform you if an area is unsafe as well as providing you valuable information which could save your life.” Reaves said.

I flipped open the small device and the screen came to life in that brightly lit blue-white tint which gave an iridescent glow. On screen, I could see various readings for different air composition types: Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Hydrogen and many others. I could see that Oxygen and Nitrogen; the basis of breathable air was low, and Hydrogen, Carbon Dioxide and Argon was more prominent.

Along with the air quality readings, I was also provided a digital scale from the PES inboard Geiger counter. Indicated as a series of thin bars which transitioned from green to red. The simplest and most universal connotations for levels of radioactivity dangers: green means safe, red deadly.

The bars lit up and showed yellow; indicating that radioisotopes were present in our area. I expected to feel something, nauseous or irritable, but didn’t feel anything other than anxious as we walked into the pitch-black interior of this structure. Its plated walls scorched in black soot, debris and ash. Rubble and remains of scattered paperwork and notebooks littered the floor; there was no sign of life, and no evidence of any organic entities.

As we dwelled deeper, the air became thicker and more ominous. I began to profusely sweat beneath the carbon fiber suit and my heart began to race. The lights from our PES glowed bright enough to illuminate the area 5 feet around us, giving us ample light.

“The storage unit should be this way; my reports are indicating that the humans stored enough highly energized substances to cause a second big bang event. Thank god they didn’t use all of it, otherwise we wouldn’t be here right now!” the sergal added with some humility.

I alone did not find it funny, instead highly insensitive. It made me realize that Reaves was not the evolutionary upgrade as I suspected, if he would have come from the same lines as I had – man to hybrid, he wouldn’t be making such a remark given the respect of his lineage.

There was a welded door at the end of a long hallway with bright yellow and black barred tape forming a neat ‘X’ across it. My PES lit up as we approached it, the sound of an alert which beeped and flashed upon screen.

“This is it! We found it!” he cheered gallantly.

“Um…is it safe?” Branson asked worriedly. “Our PES’s are going crazy right now!”

“The suits and respirators will provide us protection from the exposure while we transition some of the compounds from here back to the shuttle…but we mustn’t linger here, let’s hurry and cut this door open and grab what we need and get the hell out before we suffer radiation sickness or worse!”

“Cut the door open with what?! It’s sealed shut!” I said sternly gesturing to the door.

The sergal soon began to look around the area, as if looking for something. He soon found what he sought, a small duffle bag hidden in one of the nearby labs underneath a desk. “We’ve been gathering radioisotopes from here for decades, each time we weld the door shut to keep the radiation locked in as much as possible and leave a ‘key’ hidden nearby for re-entry,” he said with a hint of satisfaction.

He unzipped the bag and pulled out a handle of some type, it was white and embroidered with carbon fiber patches, a trigger mechanism was embodied within the handle’s core and a round analog dial sat atop, nearby a hollowed slot. Just behind the dial was a meter, like the Geiger counter within our PES system.

The meter showed red, and I wondered if it meant it was counting the radiation level nearby. But looking upon my own PES system, the Geiger counter within, only indicated that we were in a yellowish-orange state, not quite red.

The sergal turned the dial, as if selecting something, and he pulled the trigger.

In a flash, a stream of blue-white energy surged from the hollowed slot in front of the dial. It was long and narrow, looking almost as if a blade of some type. It jutted out in front of the device about a foot and had a powerful, vibrant hum about it which sizzled the air around it.

“This, gentlemen, is our key…”.

Reaves approached the door with the energetic blade in tow, tilting the tip into the weld vertically bisecting the two doors. A harrowing sizzle could be heard, and the smell of melting metal made its way through the mask’s filters and into my nostrils.

The blue-white plasma blade cut through the doors like a hot knife through butter as the weld of the doors was severed, allowing them to be forced open. “Let’s make these quick fellas; the faster the better!” the sergal affirmed, kicking open the now freed doors.

Suddenly, I was hit with a blinding ache in my head. I felt as though I was going to pass out as my vision had been rendered to nothing more than an obscure filter of an orange and yellow hue. Instinctively I clutched the sides of my head with my paws and cried in agony. It was an uncomfortable feeling I had never experienced before.

I could hear nothing but a high-pitched squeal, as the PES system glowed brightly, and the Geiger counter was in the red zone. I could barely make out the two bodies as they approached me, their voices in the intercom system within the mask muffled but I could barely make out, “Ray! You ok? Look at me!”

I did my best to look at Branson, his silhouette and face shaded orange-yellow, his features faded, and his voice muffled, but I could see his eyes, and in them…concern.

“There’s no time! Let’s get what we need and go!” I could vaguely hear Reaves say, “He’s just having a reaction to the radiation, he’ll be fine! We’ll get him to the medic once we get back onboard ANTHRO”

Branson and Reaves worked quickly to gather up boxes and crates of stored materials from the storage room. I stayed in the hallway, walking away from the entrance, blindly stumbling in the darkness. ‘What’s going on?’ I thought to myself, ‘Am I going to die?’.

Very soon darkness reigned, and my body fell limp. I became numb, and weak. The last thing I remember is the sudden jolt and the sight of the floor mere inches from my muzzle. After that…nothing.

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My next installment for the ANTHRO series and  Thursday_Prompt submissions. This week's prompt was brought into focus using the keyword: Connotation.

"Connotation: an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning."

I am nearing the point in the story to reveal Ray, the protagonist, I've been working on a concept design for him with the help of a close friend and I think very soon it's time to reveal him as well as further progress his story, and his future as a hybrid wolf. Would love to also get some artworks done with him, to sort of solidify his story and concept as a unique character.

In this story we reveal some unique things about Ray and dwell deeper into his development. I'm excited to reveal my plan for his character and future in further stories following this one, and I hope you guys enjoy this story and follow along with me on his journey!