Chapter 3: band of brothers

I sat there wondering who I am and why I’m here and where I am. All I remember is that haven’t had a correct perspective before the last day and I’ve been trying to figure it out for the past day, all I know so far is that I learned a language I never heard before and can speak it fluently and understand it perfectly, and that my fur has turned a unnaturally dark black with tinges of deep red on the elbows and knees and one red ring on my tail as well as a few small stripes down my back and my chest and below my muzzle had a grayish ting to it I identified by looking into the pond to identify them. I have no idea what to do after the “cloud” that I saw the first day I could actually understand things and after that I began changing, I grew taller I was able to stand on my hind paws and now I discovered that there was a town of some “creatures” there that was hit with something that destroyed everything and I believe that these people are evil and if they could invent something that destructive needs to fall. I set out for a place that I saw a few vehicles driving that way a few days ago. As I walked I saw no one else anywhere along the way and I began to wonder where they went, I began to see a structure in the distance surrounded by some type of wire with large barbs on it, I walked slowly around the perimeter surveying the base, there was one entrance and about 12 guards stationed around the base at one time. I heard a explosion at the other side of the base and all the guards got down from their posts and ran in the direction of the explosion and I took that as my chance to run inside, I dodged around a corner by the main building and hid behind a few crates and waited for the people to return from the explosion. After a few minutes they started coming back and I knew this is my chance to hurt them hard, a trooper was walking past the boxes I was hiding by and I extended my claws jumped out and sliced clear though his throat he tried to scream but his vocal cords were already pulled out and he couldn’t make a sound as he slumped to the floor blood spilling out of the wound. “Hold it right there and put your hands in the air” said a voice behind me, I put my hands in the air following his instructions and turned around. I was surprised a German Sheppard was staring back at me with a rifle held on a lopsided angle towards the floor “well who do we have here?” he asked “I don’t have a name or I don’t remember it” I replied “well everyone needs a name how about we call you shadow, your agility and speed of that attack made you look invisible almost as if you’re a shadow” he said “shadow…….. I think it’s a good name nice to meet you mister umm what was your name again?” I asked “I adopted the name Bang” he replied “Bang? Why are you called Bang?” I asked “you hear that explosion before?” he asked “yea I did” “well then you can see why I’m called Bang” he replied “now come on we have to get out of here before more people come and try to kill us” he said “ok lets go” I replied. We ran for a long time in one direction and before long we were out of breath. “So what do we do now” I asked “simple we find more of our people maybe there are more of us around here” he replied “ok but do we have a plan at all” I asked “I have no idea what do you thin………… listen you hear that?” he said. I heard it as well it’s a rustling of leaves over to our left about 20 feet away.” What is it” I asked “not sure I’m going to check it out” he said and pulled out his rifle and moved towards the door. “Wait don’t shoot I’m friendly” yelled a voice from inside the leaves, a fox jumped out of the pile with such lightning fast speed he was almost invisible for a moment. “Who are you” I asked jumping back as he walked up to us, “names dash” he replied “called me that after I learned I’m super fast and agile” “nice to meet you I’m shadow and this is Bang” I said gesturing towards Bang. “Nice to meet you guys, so you guys know where you are?” he asked “no you go any idea” I replied, dash pulled out a map and unfolded it “yea we are in a place called Germany in the northern part of it, Germany is part a large mass of land but there is a second large land mass on the other side of the ocean too, I came from this portion here” he gestured towards a portion next to Germany “this place France I came from the middle portion of it and traveled here searching for more of people like me, you guys are the first I’ve seen” said dash. “Nope you are the first we`ve seen since we met maybe if we travel together we might find out where they went” I replied. “Sure I guess ill join you guys but you may want to try to go more northeast that will get us to more populated areas and towns by the look of the map” dash said. Dash started towards us and I could finally get a good look at him, he was middle height and had a strange glint in his eyes and very muscular legs probably improved his running as well as a blue tinge in the fur were his veins would be, compared to me and Bang he wasn’t as tall and had a little more of a jumpy attitude to him.” ok let’s get going we need a safe place to stay before we head out” I said “oh I found a cave in the hillside that will be able to comfortably hold all three of us” dash said “ ok show us the way” I said.
Chapter 4: realizations
We went over to the cave which was about 30 meters from our hiding location and it was surprisingly large considering the opening was a small crack that opened into a large expanse with a small spring inside. “So this is where I’ve been staying for the past few days” dash said as we all slipped inside “wow how did you find this place? “I asked “it was by accident actually I stumbled onto it when I was running from a group of hunters and have been hiding out here ever since” he replied Bang interrupted “so anyone have any idea how we are going to get to this populated area you were referring to?” he asked “yea there is a parking garage a few miles north of here were we can steal a car and drive there” Dash replied “how do you know all this stuff?” asked Band “I came from a high population of humans and learned a lot about them and how they live, I also learned how to hotwire a car, that’s how I got here I hotwired a car and drove most of the way and ran the rest of the way here” he replied. “wow the first people I met were at the compound” I said “I only met the humans with guns and have been fighting” said Bang “ok well lets rest and we can get moving later tonight” I said “sure” said Dash and Bang in unison. I slumped down in a pile of leaves and began to slowly go to sleep.
It was pitch black outside when I woke up and began rousing up Dash and Bang and we collected the small amount of food Dash had stored up over the past few days. We started walking north following Dashes lead we walked 3 miles to a dark structure and followed Dash as he jumped over the barricade to a pickup truck “give me a second” said Dash he crawled underneath the seat and began pulling wires and reconnecting them in different positions until the car lights came on and the car revved up “ok guys get in” said Dash. Me and Bang hoped into the back seat “here you’re going to need this incase we have any issues” Bang said as he pulled a gun and a holster and handed it to me. “this is loaded and It packs a punch it’s a .44 magnum and can bring down anything” said Bang “thanks but why did you wait until now to give it to me” I asked “because I didn’t think I could trust you until now but I guess I’ll have to trust you guys to survive” replied Bash “well you better start trusting us or we`ll leave you I can`t have any untrustworthy people here I need you to help us and we`ll help you we are a family now and we watch each other’s back” I said “ fine ill trust you guys but one show of untrustworthiness and your all dead” Bang snapped back and then lied down to rest, I stared at the sun which was starting to rise to the east.
“Get up you guys were walking the rest of the way” yelled Dash from the front seat of the car, I sat up and looked around we were in a dark back street surrounded by trees, I nudged Bang hard in the gut “whaa- ouch man that hurt” he said as he got up rubbing the spot I hit him. “Why did you hit me?” he asked using a very angry tone “I hit you because you weren’t waking up and we have to get moving” I replied “now let’s get going Dash is scouting the area and It looks clear for the moment” I said jumping out of the back of the truck and surveying the area, no movement except for dash who was 5 meters to my right using a pair of night vision binoculars to survey a town a few miles away. I walked over beside Dash “so what we going up against?” I asked “looks like just a few local militia and a lightly armed troop carrier if we are careful we can get round them and continue onward to the meeting spot” he said “meeting point when was a meeting point involved?” I asked “oh yea a few nights ago on a portable radio I got a secret message telling all of our kind to go to this town and they will bring in a troop carrier to take us away to more of us” replied Dash. “Ok when were you going to tell us about this?” I asked “I was going to tell you guys about it when we’re are at a straightaway and it was safe but I guess you know now” he replied, I walked up so we were face to face “look here” I said “we have to trust each other and this is strike 1 and I only have a small tolerance so anything you want to tell us now?” I asked “actually yes this meeting point is a military drop point and considering how I found you guys your wanting to fight so I thought we would go to it and help discover what happened and if we can help at all” said Dash. I stared at him with disbelief that he though we wanted to do the exact same think that was on his mind with the rest of us, I stared him straight in the eye “never keep anything hidden from us again because if you do ill shoot you square in the heart” I showed my new pistol “got it?” I asked “understood completely” he replied in a scared to death voice and sulked off to go plan our next move, Bang walked up next to me “wow by the looks of it you really scared him” he laughed “what the hell did you do to the guy” he asked “turns out we are going to a evac point and will be joining a fighting force against the humans” I replied. Bang stared at me with an awestruck face” there really was a fighting force?” he said “well it turns out that there is” I replied “I thought that was a joke the guards were telling” he said in a distant voice “what?” I was surprised he knew about this too “I heard the guards saying most of the southern territories have already fallen due to some force and I thought it was a joke” he said still in a very distant tone . “ok well we still have to get across the town to get to the evac station so let’s get moving, go round up Dash and ill grab our remaining gear” I said and started walking to the truck as Bang went to go find Dash who must have went to go recon the perimeter . The sun which now has fully risen was illuminating the forest and I promised myself we would finish this mess no matter what.

Chapter 5: scattered remains

We began our walk down to the town where we were going to hijack another car to take us the rest of the way to the evac point. I looked up and saw the first of scattered homes on the outskirt of the town and we started walking the perimeter looking for a easy target but there weren’t any cars “Dash you said there were cars here were the hell are they!?” I yelled at him “don’t worry if all else fails well steal the APC but there will be cars in the center of down most likely so let’s start moving” he said “wait” I said “ look at us we aren’t at all looking like these people they will notice us clear off the bat lets go check one of these buildings” I walked over and bust open the door of a house, no one there, ok this is good I walked over to the closet and pulled out 3 travelers cloaks with large hoods. “here put these on so they won’t recognize us” I said and tossed them the coats “wait” Dash said “won’t our tails show” he asked “well you’ll have to hide it just try to stay balanced without it for a little bit” I said realizing how uncomfortable it was to not be able to use my tail for support. “God how can humans stay up?” I swore at myself, “ok lets go before we fall over and give ourselves away” I said and started walking to the center of town which was surprisingly empty “were is everyone?” I asked, they each shrugged, there we only a few people walking on the streets and most were the militia Dash spotted earlier. “Come on I think I see a car” I said and walked towards a rusting pile of metal by the looks of it “you want to try to find others” I asked “no there is no time we have to get moving now” said Dash and started to hotwire the car. It revved up and we hoped in the back “ok let’s get moving” I said. He hit the gas and we raced of towards the opposite direction of the rising sun and continued thought the city dodging houses and other objects “you guys hear that?” asked Bang, I listened it was a humming sound not coming from the car “yea I hear it what is it?” I looked back and the light armed APC came speeding around the corner and began to spurt machine gun fire at us. “Shit get down” yelled Bang pulling my head down “Dash for god’s sake step on the pedal and get us away from the APC. He raised his gun to the window shattering it and started shooting rounds at it “Bang its metal how will it help?!” I asked in a panicked tone “simple distract the driver so he crashes” he replied and went back to opening fire on the APC witch was starting to swerve “Dash hard left now!” yelled Bang. Dash turned the wheel very fast turning it cutting a street I didn’t see a second ago, the APC tried to copy the maneuver but crashed into the building caused it to partially crumble on top of the APC. “Yea!” Bang and I yelled in unison “ok now all we need to do is drive to the evac point and we are home free.” I exclaimed exited that we were finally going to meet more of our kind finally, then I began to wonder, how many were friendly to others?

Chapter 6: crash landing
“about a hour more and we`ll be there guys” Dash yelled from the front seat, I sat up listening to a humming that was getting louder coming from the south “you guys hear that?” I asked, Dash pulled the car over “could be a night time watch better hid just in case” he said as he drove the car into a small brush, I walked out and looked in the direction of the noise and could make out lights, funny I thought stealth aviation craft don’t use lights, it was closer now and I could see that it wasn’t lights we saw it was fire coming out of the engines. “guys we have a plane going down not a stealth craft” I exclaimed as it tumbled over our heads and started hitting the trees about 500 meters away and slid until it was a few miles away. “come on lets go check it out maybe there were some friendly’s inside” I exclaimed as I jumped in the back seat and Dash jumped in the front and Bang standing half in the car and half out, it took us roughly 10 minutes to get there due to all the debris left by the crash and when we got there it was a mess. The main hull was shattered and the wings were all but gone “I don’t think anyone could have survived that do you?” said Bang, Dash was still staring at the crash “guys there’s something alive in there” he exclaimed in a terrified voice, I turned and saw what was disturbing him, a figure barely noticeable was slowly coming towards us. “Oh crap it’s going to be some mutant or something else the humans created I know it” Dash exclaimed, I kept watching it had a human like stance but something wasn’t right about it, he finally emerged from the shroud of smoke and it was , a leopard by the looks of him and he had a large gash on his left arm and a few cuts elsewhere he was still walking towards us when he stumbled and fell, I ran over to him and carried/dragged him to the car “what are you doing shadow there is no way we can fit another person in the car” he protested “yea well I say we take him with us you fix him up considering you know most of this basic medical treatment and ill drive and Bang can sit in the trunk with the top open” I said. “but you don’t know how to drive” he said “I’ve watched you long enough to figure out how to drive a car a hour to the evac point so let’s get moving” I said is I layed the leopard down on the seat “I need you to tend to his wounds and make sure he stays alive, they’ll probably have medical attention there that can fix him up better” I said, Dash went into the back and grabbed a small medical kit and began applying gauze to the wound to halt the bleeding. The leopard began emitting a ear splitting scream “for god’s sake shut him up or well crash” I yelled, Dash grabbed a bottle of anesthetic and put some on a towel and put it to the leopards mouth, there was a gurgled scream then he was out again for awhile. “what will we call him when he wakes up” I asked Dash as we were about 20 minutes from the evac site “I’m not sure how about, shroud he did appear out of a shroud of smoke it makes since to call him that” he said “hmmmm shroud I guess that will do” I said and reverted my eyes back to the road I could see the flat cleared area by the waterfront they were using as a pick up and a small gathering of small specks that I assumed were people waiting for the pickup. We arrived at the evac zone to be greeted by an eagle that went by the name of sergeant.gatewall “so you guys ready to fight these bastards to the death” he asked me “I guess we are considering we are here but ummm we have a injured friend in the back seat is there anywhere that they can give him medical aid?” I asked “yea we have a med station over there” he gestured towards the house with a red cross on it “thanks sir” I said and began to carry/drag shroud over to the building while Dash and Bang got our map set out for where we are going. I stumbled into the house to come face to face with one of the doctors “hello I’m dr. rangefinder he said and helped me carry shroud over to a empty bed “ so what the issue?” he asked, I pulled out the gauze “this is, we found him in a plane crash and he got hurt bad” I replied, he examined the cut “well the cutting off blood loss did help him he needs to disinfect the wound and I can stitch it up so it will heal faster” he said and walked over to grab some antibacterial lotions and began to put them on the wound. His quick and sharp scream faded into a bliss of oh and ah until the doctor game him some type of gas that knocked him out then he seemed to go mental. “Uh is he ok doc?” I asked “yea he is fine it’s just the gas it makes your mind go into a strange half coma so he is a little off of it right now” he said as he began to stitch the wound together using a needle and thread. I had to wait awhile for shroud to wake up due to the doctor giving him a little too much and causing him to pass out but after he was up and figured out how to walk correctly he seemed fine. We walked out of the med center towards the rest of the group “so where did you come from and how did you get on that plane” I asked shroud “well I remember I was being hunted down the streets of some city and I saw the plane taking off so I snuck onboard and waited for them to land somewhere else, but one of them discovered me and I had to kill them all so I tried flying and I crashed and the next thing I know I’m here” he replied . so you think we kidnapped you so far don’t you?” asked Bang “a little bit and a little no I was surprised to meet you guys and glad that I have people here now maybe we can be a team in this army we are going to” he said “yea it may work we already shown we work together well maybe I can get a request in when we get there” I said. By then sergeant gatewall came up and said we were to get ready to board the first chopper that lands, I acknowledged and got my friends ready to go, I looked in the distance and saw the first chopper, It was unusually long with two propeller blades the sergeant said it was called a Chinook and was stolen from the human armed forces after a raid. The Chinook landed and we all hoped in and strapped ourselves in to the many seats that were available “well this is how it starts I’m guessing?” I asked “oh no we still need to board a plane to get the American front but the Chinook will take us there” said Dash. I tilted my head back and sat starting at the roof of the chopper and at some point fell asleep dreaming of what is yet to come.


Chapter 7: first contact

We hopped of the chopper at the airstrip to be rushed onto a waiting KC-130 bound to the Americas, we strapped ourselves in and started to endure the 5 hour flight across the Atlantic “so wonder what it will be like to go into a large combat zone and fight with you guys” I asked “I think it’s not as big as it sounds I think we are going to be part of the cleanup crew to help clear out any remaining rebels in the area” said Dash “they took control of south America that’s all I know central America might have fallen but north America is putting up a fight” said Bang who spend the hour before we left in the briefing hall listening to the data on the American front. “Well all I know is they are exaggerating a bit here just to get us wanting to fight back so let’s give them what they wanted and prepare to put up a good fight” I said enthusiastically

We arrived at the base at around 3 in the morning and it was pitch black outside, I wasn’t sure we landed until the hatch opened and they had us get out . we walked over to the squad operations desk and put our names in for a squad post and it went though, we all cheered considering now we would all be working together would make it a lot more fun. They went us to our barracks which was mainly a room with straw on the ground to make into a cot or a nest or whatever your species sleeps in, I slumped down on the wall and fell asleep instantly. A sharp horn blowing woke me up and I jumped out of my sleeping stance and stood up fast ready to kill, I remembered were I was and lowered my stance. He motioned to me and my squad bravo team to follow him to the briefing room. The briefing room was a large room with a holographic depiction of the city, “ok bravo team I’m giving you guys a challenge today” he pointed towards to outskirts of the town “this is where a lot of activity has been reported I want you guys to go investigate and maybe take a few down along the way, understood?” he asked “understood sir!” all four of us said in unison “good now head to the armory and arm up” he ordered and we moved out heading to the armory to meet the armory warden a deep black/green lizard who spent most of the day chewing on the grass “what can I do for ya” he asked “special operations mission” I said and handed him the documents “ok looks good go on in and arm up” he said and went back to his nap. We walked in and began picking out the weapons we preferred, I grabbed a M4AE, Dash grabbed a MP5 and put on a silencer, Bang grabbed a MO4E machine gun and a few RPGs, and shroud went over to the rifles and picked up a AUG
“ok let’s get going they are willing to give us a chopper lift to the location and we find our way back” I said and started walking towards the littlebird and hoped into one of the seats, the other three followed and got ready for a long exiting day. we jumped out at the start point and were to start moving on a path that will lead us back to base but take us though the zone. “Ok let’s take cover in a building and plan our next move” I said and gestured towards an old brick house about 20 meters away. We ducked inside and pulled out the small holographic model of our zone, “ok we are here” I said and pointed at a small building on the northern side of the zone “we need to move thought here to the southern portion” I said and drew up a route taking us though buildings and a few street crossings “ok let’s get going” I said and used the butt of my gun the know over part of the back wall that lead into a alleyway that lead into a large building, we stalked though the building searching for any sign of movement ,nothing, “ok let’s move onto the next block I said and ran out taking cover behind cars and began to move across the street, out of no were a tank comes flying onto our street and starts lighting us up with gun fire “get down!” I yell “Bang get the RPG out and take that tank out before it kills us!” I shouted over the gunfire tearing across the cars. He readied the RPG and fired, a miss too far to the left “dammit give me a second” he said readying his second shot, he propped it up again and fired, it hit the tank clear in the connector to the turret and blew the two pieces apart. A few troops ran around the corner to take us out but Dash and Shroud took them out with rapid succession. Ok let’s get moving before more come along “ I said and began walking towards the office building they caught up by the time I kicked the door open and walked in, we activated the flashlights on our guns and began searching the area for any disturbances, none “ok last area is a walkthrough on the street so I want you all ready and watching for any contacts” I said as I walked out onto the street that we would use to walk back to base. No movement of any kind just the breeze against my face and it gave a cooling affect that relaxed me for the moment. Everything looked like it was going as planned. That’s when the gunfire started………….