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More from wrathofautumn
Chapters:
1)http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3296822
2)http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3311879/
3)http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3331352/
4)http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3376285/
5)http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3417877/
6)http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3496265/
7)
8)
9)
And slowly the story marches on!
Emma prepares her goodbyes with Moroni as she begins to embark on what will very well be a dangerous road back to her hometown in Provo.
Keep in mind everyone that there are LDS references because of the area they live on. It has nothing to do with my preferences or anything.
=====================================================
"Silent Echoes
Chapter Three"
The truck hummed over the freeway as the sunset turned its rusted metal frame into glittering gold. Emma watched the sun fall over the mountains with her tongue hanging out of the air, laughing silently to herself. Because she couldn't fit in the passenger's seat of the tow truck for obvious reasons, she had to sit in the back. Between the side railing and the crane, Emma's torso felt cramped. At this point, however, she didn't care. This totally beat wearing a seat belt and sitting in the car with air conditioning and listening to country music any day!
She could hear the music die down as Moroni poked his head out the door and said, "Holy on Emma, we're almost there!" Emma felt her body hurl to the left as Moroni made a sharp turn into the hospital's parking lot, the car's passing by like she had entered a junkyard. Glass and bones crunched under the trick's weight as Emma pointed to where her car was with some knocks on the back window. They had passed it the first time, so Moroni pulled a U-Turn and drove back.
Moroni glared at the license plate and let out a laugh. “A Honda, eh? They made a lot of good trucks until thirty years ago. Nowadays, Toyota’s the only real brand you can trust. They have a lot more mileage, I reckon. All right, Emma, let’s make this real quick-like.”
Grinding to a stop, Moroni jumped out of the car and moved the chain to fasten the car. "Emma, help me with this." He said. Climbing from her sitting spot, Emma landed gracefully on all four feet as she pulled the chain around the car and fastened it up. Giving Moroni thumbs up, he started up the machinery and raised the car onto its front axle, ready for transportation.
"Emma, my rear view mirror is broken; I need you to sight for me to make sure I don't hit any of the cars." Giving him an assuring nod, the foxtauress signaled as her friend shifted the truck into motion again, slowly getting the car back out of the lot. Slowly, the car turned, nearly hitting the car parked next to it, and it was freed.
Moroni shouted something to Emma, but she couldn't remember what. Her attention was directed to the field of grass just beyond the hospital. Something was moving in there. All her senses told her so. She heard its feet clawing against the grass, the scent of something foul and alien was in the air; most eerie of all, Emma could see a pair of red eyes staring through the brush, gleaming under the lamp post. She didn't know why but her body was trembling and her tail tucked between her legs. Was that thing watching the two of them escape?
"Emma! C'mon!"
Ears perking to attention, Emma leapt into the back, her nails scrambling against the rusted metal. The foxtauress couldn’t help but look back at those compelling red eyes. When she searched them, however, they were nowhere to be found. Was she seeing things? Her mind put the puzzle pieces together as they quickly made it back into Mt. Pleasant, passing by a few scavenging Survivors investigating already salvaged cars and stores. She hadn't dreamt that, had she? Could it have been anything like what those cops had hit?
Quickly pulling into the Gas Station, Moroni worked to open the garage manually. The sight had attracted the attention of several Survivors who were running up to them. Emma banged on the truck's hood frantically and a shotgun was fired in the air in answer, scattering the Survivors back to their hiding places.
"Blasted scavengers. They take whatever they can get their filthy paws on. Don't trust anyone out there you meet on the road." Moroni scoffed as he pulled Emma's car into the garage, sliding the armored doors being him. Lowering the Honda, he crawled under it to check for something. Of what Emma wasn't sure.
"We didn't crack the axle in half, thank goodness. Your transmission fluid and oil tank's need work though. Anyway," Moroni wiped his forehead with a good willed smile. "You hungry? I can fix us up some Wendy's. It'll take some time to get the machinery operational again and you'll have to give me a written order, I reckon. All well worth it. Yessiree, this is the best food we've got right now"
Emma gave an approving nod with a wagging tail.
"All right, you just go on inside and I'll get everything started!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Emma had never surveyed the Wendy's section until now. It was actually very organized and sanitized. The circular checkered tables and the fixed rotating chairs were all squeaky clean. There wasn't even a trace of gum on the plastic undersides! The dark ochre linoleum flooring was swept and mopped so efficiently, that there wasn’t a trace of any customer's shoe (or paw for that matter) ever stepping foot onto it. The railings for the customer waiting line were all cleaned up, and even Emma's sensitive nose, a strange enhanced sense she was getting used to, could not pick up a single foul odor in the kitchen. Either the kitchen had remained unused for some time since its last closing or Moroni himself had been keeping it clean.
Emma sat on top of a corner seat, her tail sweeping against the wall with a soft thump. It had been two hours since Moroni had started up the cooking machinery, and her stomach was growling. Not that she was going to complain about free food, given that she couldn’t even make a vulpine bark. Hunger was only second on her priority needs. Those red eyes still burned freshly in her mind. Would the sizzling and grilling attract the attention of that thing, whatever it was? Would the scent of searing cooked meat attract an entire pack of them?
"Order up!"
The "Employees Only: Do Not Enter" door slid open and Moroni strutted out with a smile and a tray in his hands. Sitting down next to her, he handed her a burger wrapped in foil and a large box of fries. Then he handed to her a giant cup with creamy ice cream with it. She first unwrapped the foil around the burger and had a look at it: square grilled patties covered with melted pasteurized cheese and topped with chopped iceberg lettuce, pickles, onions, ketchup and mustard all topped between two succulent sesame seed buns.
"No tomatoes?" Emma wrote.
Moroni gaped at her for a moment, and then burst out laughing. "You never liked tomatoes on your burgers."
Odd, Emma though, considering she was okay with ketchup. Heaving a shrug, she took a bite out of it, careful not to let some of it drip over her mouth. No cheeks, she had to keep telling herself. The burger was delicious! Something told her that this probably wasn't the best of food for her, but she didn't care. Malnutrition was often the best spice, and there wasn't a doubt that she hadn't eaten in a long time.
As Emma nibbled on her fries, Moroni said between bites. "It's good to have you here again, Emma, even if it is only for the night. It's been very lonely with no more people around to do business. If those vultures weren't so tenacious, I'd even enjoy their company too."
Everything seemed so nice here in Mount Pleasant. Much larger towns like Provo and Salt Lake City were no doubt in chaos, more connected with the outside world than remote farmlands like this one. Who knows? If Emma could get her family down, assuming they were still alive, maybe Moroni could have some more company. Putting down her fries for a moment, Emma wiped her handpaws clean of grease and salt. "I saw something back at the hospital before it got dark. It had glowing red eyes. What was it?"
Moroni swallowed his food and put down what remained of his burger and frowned. "Hmm, prolly one of the gadiantons."
A word came to mind from a book she read once in muddled memories. "You mean like the Gadianton Robbers?"
"These things aren't really anything close to the robbers. They're not human or even close to what you are. It's just a name I gave for them because of how…corrupted and evil they are."
"So it's a monster, then?"
"In a way." Moroni scratched his chin."It wasn't always a monster. At one time, it used to be just another animal wandering in this valley. When that pandemic came in, though, it did more than just make the local inhabitants go nuts. It affected the animals around us too, turning them into something far less than God's creations. Once harmless mule deer and cows grew sharpened fangs and poisonous horns, their bodies like that of an ox and its hooves like rakes. Foxes turned reptilian like and sprayed acid from their multiple heads. Cougars grew avian features and began to attack people from the skies above, hunting in groups. The local fish grew monstrous and terrifying, growing anglers to attract people into the water to their doom. Foul mockeries of God they are, these gadiantons. We're lucky that it didn't decide to chase after us."
Emma was speechless. The world that she was a part of now was even more dangerous than her muddled memories could come up with. Prowling gadiantons, scavenging Survivors, a deadly pandemic; was this the beginning of the end? Her eyes darted on the table, second thoughts coming to her mind. What if she was killed along the way?
Moroni stroked her handpaw. Looking back up, he smiled assuredly. "You'll be all right, though. These gadiantons only come out during the night. Mostly during the night. As long as you travel during the day, you should be fine. Come on, let's finish up here. You need to get rest for tomorrow and I have work to do."
Finishing off the last of her fries, Emma clumsily picked up her spoon and took a scoop out of her frosty. As the sweet taste of vanilla touched her tongue, she felt a little better.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Her bed was set up as a spring mattress, rolled up on the side by the cash register. The foxtauress had a hard time sleeping that night. Not that she was too anxious or that Moroni was being too loud or even that the mattress was bad; instead, it was because she couldn't figure out how to position her body to rest. She felt uncomfortable sitting down on her stomach and trying to bend her back forward. Lying on her back with her lower torso's underbelly was just as unsuccessful. After a couple hours of trying to sleep, the solution presented itself. Laying flat on her side, Emma was finally able to get some shuteye, and soon all the noises were drowned out till morning.
When Emma woke up, she padded off the mattress and into the back door to the garage. Moroni was drinking something out of a Styrofoam cup when he saw her. Putting it down on his workbench, Moroni beamed broadly. He looked terrible. "Hey, Emma. Sleep well?"
Emma gave a nod.
"Okay good. Now while you were asleep, I've been fixing up your car for you. I made some repairs and basic maintenance on your car while making a few adjustments myself."
He opened up the car door, having Emma take a look. The driver's seat had been removed and instead was replaced with a customized seating that was long and flat with safety belt made to brace the frontal part of a tauroid. Crawling inside from the backseat, Emma made herself comfortable placing her rump on what was once the passenger's seat and her forelegs against the accelerator and brakes. She was still able to grip onto the steering wheel. She grinned widely at Moroni, her tail wagging against the back seat.
"I thought you might like it." Moroni laughed, his hands on the front door window sill. "I've put five full tanks of gasoline in your trunk along with a week's worth of supplies and emergency stuff, including flares, flashlights, a spare tire, and a repair kit instruction manual. They don't build these Hondas like they used to. There's one last thing I need to give you."
Emma tilted her head curiously as Moroni brought her a strap of leather with a 13 mm semi-automatic handgun inside a casing, along with two clips of ammunition and a small box of ammunition. Placing the ammunition into the glove compartment, Emma then strapped the belt around her furred waist. "The safety's on, so it won't go off from shifting around. I hope you know how to use it?”
Truthfully, Emma didn’t have the slightest clue on how to shoot a gun, but something told her she’s had experience before. She gave a slow nod.
Moroni frowned. “There are two rules I've got to tell you about firing this. First, know who or what you're shooting. Don't go shooting your friends by accident. Second, always count your ammo. That's very important. There are about one hundred and fifteen rounds for that gun I gave you. That should be more than enough to ward off any bandits or gadiantons that try to stop you."
Moroni had done so much for her; Emma didn't know what she could do. Considering how society itself has no doubt collapsed along with the rest of the world, what her old boss and family friend was doing was unusually kind and generous. She was blessed to have someone like him help her to get to Provo, putting others close to him before himself. Somehow, his kindness would be rewarded.
The owner of the small gas station opened the doors, shotgun in hand, and signaled to Emma the road was clear. As the memories of driving came back to her, she shifted gears, reversing out of the garage and made a sloppy turn left. The sign ahead, flashing green, pointed her in the right direction. As he waved goodbye, Emma put it in drive and sped off out of Mt. Pleasant, leaving this strange paradise behind her.
1)http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3296822
2)http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3311879/
3)http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3331352/
4)http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3376285/
5)http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3417877/
6)http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3496265/
7)
8)
9)
And slowly the story marches on!
Emma prepares her goodbyes with Moroni as she begins to embark on what will very well be a dangerous road back to her hometown in Provo.
Keep in mind everyone that there are LDS references because of the area they live on. It has nothing to do with my preferences or anything.
=====================================================
"Silent Echoes
Chapter Three"
The truck hummed over the freeway as the sunset turned its rusted metal frame into glittering gold. Emma watched the sun fall over the mountains with her tongue hanging out of the air, laughing silently to herself. Because she couldn't fit in the passenger's seat of the tow truck for obvious reasons, she had to sit in the back. Between the side railing and the crane, Emma's torso felt cramped. At this point, however, she didn't care. This totally beat wearing a seat belt and sitting in the car with air conditioning and listening to country music any day!
She could hear the music die down as Moroni poked his head out the door and said, "Holy on Emma, we're almost there!" Emma felt her body hurl to the left as Moroni made a sharp turn into the hospital's parking lot, the car's passing by like she had entered a junkyard. Glass and bones crunched under the trick's weight as Emma pointed to where her car was with some knocks on the back window. They had passed it the first time, so Moroni pulled a U-Turn and drove back.
Moroni glared at the license plate and let out a laugh. “A Honda, eh? They made a lot of good trucks until thirty years ago. Nowadays, Toyota’s the only real brand you can trust. They have a lot more mileage, I reckon. All right, Emma, let’s make this real quick-like.”
Grinding to a stop, Moroni jumped out of the car and moved the chain to fasten the car. "Emma, help me with this." He said. Climbing from her sitting spot, Emma landed gracefully on all four feet as she pulled the chain around the car and fastened it up. Giving Moroni thumbs up, he started up the machinery and raised the car onto its front axle, ready for transportation.
"Emma, my rear view mirror is broken; I need you to sight for me to make sure I don't hit any of the cars." Giving him an assuring nod, the foxtauress signaled as her friend shifted the truck into motion again, slowly getting the car back out of the lot. Slowly, the car turned, nearly hitting the car parked next to it, and it was freed.
Moroni shouted something to Emma, but she couldn't remember what. Her attention was directed to the field of grass just beyond the hospital. Something was moving in there. All her senses told her so. She heard its feet clawing against the grass, the scent of something foul and alien was in the air; most eerie of all, Emma could see a pair of red eyes staring through the brush, gleaming under the lamp post. She didn't know why but her body was trembling and her tail tucked between her legs. Was that thing watching the two of them escape?
"Emma! C'mon!"
Ears perking to attention, Emma leapt into the back, her nails scrambling against the rusted metal. The foxtauress couldn’t help but look back at those compelling red eyes. When she searched them, however, they were nowhere to be found. Was she seeing things? Her mind put the puzzle pieces together as they quickly made it back into Mt. Pleasant, passing by a few scavenging Survivors investigating already salvaged cars and stores. She hadn't dreamt that, had she? Could it have been anything like what those cops had hit?
Quickly pulling into the Gas Station, Moroni worked to open the garage manually. The sight had attracted the attention of several Survivors who were running up to them. Emma banged on the truck's hood frantically and a shotgun was fired in the air in answer, scattering the Survivors back to their hiding places.
"Blasted scavengers. They take whatever they can get their filthy paws on. Don't trust anyone out there you meet on the road." Moroni scoffed as he pulled Emma's car into the garage, sliding the armored doors being him. Lowering the Honda, he crawled under it to check for something. Of what Emma wasn't sure.
"We didn't crack the axle in half, thank goodness. Your transmission fluid and oil tank's need work though. Anyway," Moroni wiped his forehead with a good willed smile. "You hungry? I can fix us up some Wendy's. It'll take some time to get the machinery operational again and you'll have to give me a written order, I reckon. All well worth it. Yessiree, this is the best food we've got right now"
Emma gave an approving nod with a wagging tail.
"All right, you just go on inside and I'll get everything started!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Emma had never surveyed the Wendy's section until now. It was actually very organized and sanitized. The circular checkered tables and the fixed rotating chairs were all squeaky clean. There wasn't even a trace of gum on the plastic undersides! The dark ochre linoleum flooring was swept and mopped so efficiently, that there wasn’t a trace of any customer's shoe (or paw for that matter) ever stepping foot onto it. The railings for the customer waiting line were all cleaned up, and even Emma's sensitive nose, a strange enhanced sense she was getting used to, could not pick up a single foul odor in the kitchen. Either the kitchen had remained unused for some time since its last closing or Moroni himself had been keeping it clean.
Emma sat on top of a corner seat, her tail sweeping against the wall with a soft thump. It had been two hours since Moroni had started up the cooking machinery, and her stomach was growling. Not that she was going to complain about free food, given that she couldn’t even make a vulpine bark. Hunger was only second on her priority needs. Those red eyes still burned freshly in her mind. Would the sizzling and grilling attract the attention of that thing, whatever it was? Would the scent of searing cooked meat attract an entire pack of them?
"Order up!"
The "Employees Only: Do Not Enter" door slid open and Moroni strutted out with a smile and a tray in his hands. Sitting down next to her, he handed her a burger wrapped in foil and a large box of fries. Then he handed to her a giant cup with creamy ice cream with it. She first unwrapped the foil around the burger and had a look at it: square grilled patties covered with melted pasteurized cheese and topped with chopped iceberg lettuce, pickles, onions, ketchup and mustard all topped between two succulent sesame seed buns.
"No tomatoes?" Emma wrote.
Moroni gaped at her for a moment, and then burst out laughing. "You never liked tomatoes on your burgers."
Odd, Emma though, considering she was okay with ketchup. Heaving a shrug, she took a bite out of it, careful not to let some of it drip over her mouth. No cheeks, she had to keep telling herself. The burger was delicious! Something told her that this probably wasn't the best of food for her, but she didn't care. Malnutrition was often the best spice, and there wasn't a doubt that she hadn't eaten in a long time.
As Emma nibbled on her fries, Moroni said between bites. "It's good to have you here again, Emma, even if it is only for the night. It's been very lonely with no more people around to do business. If those vultures weren't so tenacious, I'd even enjoy their company too."
Everything seemed so nice here in Mount Pleasant. Much larger towns like Provo and Salt Lake City were no doubt in chaos, more connected with the outside world than remote farmlands like this one. Who knows? If Emma could get her family down, assuming they were still alive, maybe Moroni could have some more company. Putting down her fries for a moment, Emma wiped her handpaws clean of grease and salt. "I saw something back at the hospital before it got dark. It had glowing red eyes. What was it?"
Moroni swallowed his food and put down what remained of his burger and frowned. "Hmm, prolly one of the gadiantons."
A word came to mind from a book she read once in muddled memories. "You mean like the Gadianton Robbers?"
"These things aren't really anything close to the robbers. They're not human or even close to what you are. It's just a name I gave for them because of how…corrupted and evil they are."
"So it's a monster, then?"
"In a way." Moroni scratched his chin."It wasn't always a monster. At one time, it used to be just another animal wandering in this valley. When that pandemic came in, though, it did more than just make the local inhabitants go nuts. It affected the animals around us too, turning them into something far less than God's creations. Once harmless mule deer and cows grew sharpened fangs and poisonous horns, their bodies like that of an ox and its hooves like rakes. Foxes turned reptilian like and sprayed acid from their multiple heads. Cougars grew avian features and began to attack people from the skies above, hunting in groups. The local fish grew monstrous and terrifying, growing anglers to attract people into the water to their doom. Foul mockeries of God they are, these gadiantons. We're lucky that it didn't decide to chase after us."
Emma was speechless. The world that she was a part of now was even more dangerous than her muddled memories could come up with. Prowling gadiantons, scavenging Survivors, a deadly pandemic; was this the beginning of the end? Her eyes darted on the table, second thoughts coming to her mind. What if she was killed along the way?
Moroni stroked her handpaw. Looking back up, he smiled assuredly. "You'll be all right, though. These gadiantons only come out during the night. Mostly during the night. As long as you travel during the day, you should be fine. Come on, let's finish up here. You need to get rest for tomorrow and I have work to do."
Finishing off the last of her fries, Emma clumsily picked up her spoon and took a scoop out of her frosty. As the sweet taste of vanilla touched her tongue, she felt a little better.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Her bed was set up as a spring mattress, rolled up on the side by the cash register. The foxtauress had a hard time sleeping that night. Not that she was too anxious or that Moroni was being too loud or even that the mattress was bad; instead, it was because she couldn't figure out how to position her body to rest. She felt uncomfortable sitting down on her stomach and trying to bend her back forward. Lying on her back with her lower torso's underbelly was just as unsuccessful. After a couple hours of trying to sleep, the solution presented itself. Laying flat on her side, Emma was finally able to get some shuteye, and soon all the noises were drowned out till morning.
When Emma woke up, she padded off the mattress and into the back door to the garage. Moroni was drinking something out of a Styrofoam cup when he saw her. Putting it down on his workbench, Moroni beamed broadly. He looked terrible. "Hey, Emma. Sleep well?"
Emma gave a nod.
"Okay good. Now while you were asleep, I've been fixing up your car for you. I made some repairs and basic maintenance on your car while making a few adjustments myself."
He opened up the car door, having Emma take a look. The driver's seat had been removed and instead was replaced with a customized seating that was long and flat with safety belt made to brace the frontal part of a tauroid. Crawling inside from the backseat, Emma made herself comfortable placing her rump on what was once the passenger's seat and her forelegs against the accelerator and brakes. She was still able to grip onto the steering wheel. She grinned widely at Moroni, her tail wagging against the back seat.
"I thought you might like it." Moroni laughed, his hands on the front door window sill. "I've put five full tanks of gasoline in your trunk along with a week's worth of supplies and emergency stuff, including flares, flashlights, a spare tire, and a repair kit instruction manual. They don't build these Hondas like they used to. There's one last thing I need to give you."
Emma tilted her head curiously as Moroni brought her a strap of leather with a 13 mm semi-automatic handgun inside a casing, along with two clips of ammunition and a small box of ammunition. Placing the ammunition into the glove compartment, Emma then strapped the belt around her furred waist. "The safety's on, so it won't go off from shifting around. I hope you know how to use it?”
Truthfully, Emma didn’t have the slightest clue on how to shoot a gun, but something told her she’s had experience before. She gave a slow nod.
Moroni frowned. “There are two rules I've got to tell you about firing this. First, know who or what you're shooting. Don't go shooting your friends by accident. Second, always count your ammo. That's very important. There are about one hundred and fifteen rounds for that gun I gave you. That should be more than enough to ward off any bandits or gadiantons that try to stop you."
Moroni had done so much for her; Emma didn't know what she could do. Considering how society itself has no doubt collapsed along with the rest of the world, what her old boss and family friend was doing was unusually kind and generous. She was blessed to have someone like him help her to get to Provo, putting others close to him before himself. Somehow, his kindness would be rewarded.
The owner of the small gas station opened the doors, shotgun in hand, and signaled to Emma the road was clear. As the memories of driving came back to her, she shifted gears, reversing out of the garage and made a sloppy turn left. The sign ahead, flashing green, pointed her in the right direction. As he waved goodbye, Emma put it in drive and sped off out of Mt. Pleasant, leaving this strange paradise behind her.
Category Story / General Furry Art
Species Wolf
Size 50 x 50px
File Size 39.5 kB
Comments