Hello again, Just wanted to say that I'll be busy in the coming weekend (2/9/17), so don't expect an update for a week or so. Also, writing this does actually take up a chunk of my time, so it's amazing I've been able to get three chapters out in the span of a week. I get about three hours of free time before I've to go to sleep to wake up for work. So you can see the devotion(?) I've put into this so far. Now, petty first world problems aside, back to the story.
Edit: Thanks Dr. Wolf, don't get too ahead of yourself, though. Like I (think) I said, I already have the story planned out to the end. Obviously, I'll have to add things here and there, as the "plan" if you could call it that, is really just like a connect-the-dot game (Figure out a to b, find out how and or why a got to b. Rinse and repeat). Why do I already have the story planned to the end? This YouTube video explains it better than I could- /watch?v=AkMh_lEjKxw – The uploader pinned comment at the very top is what I'm talking about as well.
TL; DR If I don't know how it all ends, it will crash and burn. And will be a lot less enjoyable getting there, for you and me.
Alright, enough text walls of nonsense, to the actual thing you came here for~
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Ryan looked at the female, "Well, yeah. Trust would be a good start. But, uh… Did you forget the part where there's a thousand of them out there?" He pointed to the doors. "I might have good self-esteem, but that won't stop bullets from killing me" he turned back to her. She slapped her hand on her face.
"No, you moron, you're not going to fight a thousand well-trained, well-armed, military personnel." She had that annoying monotone voice again. "You are going to work your way to the command center via grates, like you used to get here. They all connect throughout this entire place. Most of their men are probably scrounging around, working bottom to top to weed us out. They're only a floor below us, so you've only ten minutes, at the most."
"They're going to have said better-than-me-in-every-way-possible guys there too!" he yelled, then immediately covered his mouth. Shouting probably isn't the best thing to do in this situation. He started to go into thought for a few seconds, but saw something fly at him. He instinctively shot his arms to up catch it, lowering his paws to show a small pistol.
"No backup magazine, make them count." She deadpanned. One of her men gave her a map, and she traced where they were to the command center. "The vents connect to each room, so just take this with you and you won't have any trouble. Since you have fur and padded… feet and hands, you won't make much noise crawling. Once you get there, get rid of anyone guarding the place. I doubt they have many in there, mostly to watch any cameras that are still up to catch us. After that, on the far left side of the control panel, there will be eight large red buttons, labeled access one through eight. Hit ONLY, and I mean ONLY number six. That opens the one farthest from the hangar. We'll have to wait a few minutes for the enemy to… mostly go to the door entrance, a few staying behind. You have that much time to make it back here." Ryan nodded, making his way to the grate. She spoke up again, "Don't mess this up, I don't need to explain what will happen if you do."
"Yes mother" he smirked. He jumped up to the vent, grunting as he entered. He took the map out of the front of his shirt, opening it. Two left turns, five right, then three left… All in most likely five minutes, not ten. "Better get moving…" he tried to keep silent as he crawled, but the ventilation sheet metal still made a slight noise every time he shifted his weight, all he could hope for was that they couldn't hear it.
"This is…" he stopped to think, "third right turn, halfway there." He started to make his turn in the fork, but stopped dead in his tracks when he heard someone talking. It was in a language he had never heard, so eavesdropping was out of the question. The real problem was that if he could hear them, could they hear him? He thought for a bit, there was no time to turn back, and he couldn't wait any longer lest he run out of time. He decided to try his luck once again. He started to crawl, and the men below kept talking. He must have passed over a room, because it faded out within a few seconds. Finally, after an eternity, at least it felt like one, he made it to the command center. He peered past the grate, only three men guarding the room. He looked to the door, and saw a shadow behind it.
"Crap…" to shoot the grate bolts, he had to work his pistol and paw through the grate vents. But he had to get rid of the three guards. But that would alert the one outside, no doubt spelling disaster for his health. "Come on… think!" he whispered a bit loudly, too loudly, in fact. One of the men must have heard him, and turned to the grate. Ryan scooted himself back into the shadows to conceal himself. The guard took out a pistol, garnering the attention of the other two. Alright, this is bad. Going off the biological clock in his head, he literally had about a minute left to open that door. Half a minute passed by, before the guard said something, probably along the lines of "I'm probably just hearing things" and the three turned back to their posts. Ryan tried to think of a solution, he couldn't break the grate, otherwise he would be shot before he even got the second bolt. He couldn't shoot the guards, otherwise the one by the door would know where he was, ending in his death again.
"All to press a stupid button…" a light popped in his head. Would shooting the button work? I mean, the bullet would kind of press it, before drilling into the circuitry and destroying the panel. He peeked into the room, "No time to guess" he thought. He grabbed the pistol tucked into his pants, taking aim at the buttons. "Six… Six… gah, they're too far away to read." He was getting frantic. "Okay, if I were to number these… top left would be one, so…" he took aim and fired. A siren shot out of the speakers, a door was opening, he just hoped it was the right one. He backpedaled as fast as he could before they could figure out where the shot came from. He didn't care for making noise, as the constant beeping drowned out any noise he made. He was almost at the grate he had come from, and only heard faint footsteps. If he didn't hurry, he would lose the way they went. Scenting wouldn't help, the humans scent was everywhere in the place. He darted out of the vent, popping up like a spring and looking around. No one in sight. He made a mad dash to the open door, but was grabbed by the collar.
"Woah, woah, take it easy the-!" he stopped talking when he saw who had grabbed him. "You know, I would think you would be the last human that would stay behind for me" a huff was heard instantly after.
"I wasn't sticking around for you, there are others of ours that may be stuck in this place. Unfortunately, only you came up." She grabbed his arm and started running.
"What, not even a thank you for getting the button right?"
"That would be an insult to those two words"
"It's more of an insult not to say them!" they argued as they made their way down the halls. Gunfire was heard, and they passed by bodies of fallen soldiers, but they all looked like the ones trying to kill him. He didn't like the sight of the dead humans at all. It was one of the small reasons he quit the force, so he didn't have to be one of those who put a family member of a mammal in that situation. They finally met up with their group, they looked like they had just gotten done shooting, and started to run. They turned a corridor, and giant letter at the end of it spelt "Hangar A". They entered, the doors slamming shut behind them. Ryan was amazed by the actual aircraft in this place. There looked to be two fighter aircrafts, missiles hanging off of the wings with two guns protruding through the nose. He saw two seats on it, though he couldn't figure out why there needed to be two seats for the jets. He saw a different one, looking like a smaller version of one you'd get on at an actual airport, probably a good guess. They were already starting the engines to get out of there as fast as possible. His ears perked when he heard the female start a talk with one of her men.
"Good to see you madam, no one else came?" One of the men asked, making Ryan turn back. The female looked at Ryan, "No, just this" pointing at him.
"I have a name, you know. You know it too, in fact" His eye twitched at her animosity towards him.
"Must have slipped my mind" she shrugged. That was the tipping point for him, he clenched his paws, slamming his foot into the ground.
"Alright, that's it!" he finally snapped at her. Her eyes got a bit wide, and the other humans actually took a step back in shock at his outburst. "I get it, you hate me. In fact, I bet you wish I died on that little mission you sent me on. Fine, but I am putting my foot down! I've been nothing if not cooperative with you, tried being nice, tried explaining, and tried literally everything to get through to you! What do I get in return? The threat of being turned into some high schoolers science project and being thrown into a ditch afterward! I get no thanks for saving your sorry asses, something that BARELY constitutes as a sorry after sparing your life when you tried to kill me, twice!" he started to stomp towards her, but was blocked by her men, the rest raising their rifles at him. At this point, he could probably count on them leaving him there or using him to stall the others once they figured out that they didn't take the exit. He could hear himself breathing heavily, a slight strain in his throat started to form. He could tell the stress of being a captive for two days on top of all of this finally got to him.
"Screw it, I don't even care anymore. You want to shoot me? Go ahead, it'll just prove a point that you're just a bunch of bigoted, paranoid idiots that are too scared to face reality. It'd be a lot less painful than dealing with those guys too, so we'll both get a happy ending." He started to walk towards the door he came in. He heard another siren start blaring, and a large swoosh of air was felt at his back. He turned to see sunlight pouring into the place. He could just walk out of the place, but the other humans may have others outside, and there's no way he could outrun them once they came pouring into the hangar. He figured he had to try to leave, as this was probably his only chance at escape, he'll deal with the whole humans taking over the world issue once he found actual civilization. He would have to survive to warn anymammal of that, anyway. He saw the propelled one shoot out like a rocket, and noticed there seemed to be some sort of mechanism that made that possible. Some sort of smoke, or maybe steam was pouring from slits in the floor. The two seater jets were still sitting on the ground. One had both seats filled, the other was empty, however.
"Tch" he lost interest quickly, mostly due to the anger he still had. Ryan started to walk to the open doors to make a trek back to any village that could give him a boat. He noticed he was gritting his teeth, and stopped himself. His ears slightly raised, almost thinking he heard a voice behind him, but didn't care enough to turn around and listen. It came again, louder.
"I said stop!" Of course, the female.
"Don't care, fuck off" he almost surprised himself, he didn't usually swear. He couldn't bring himself to care about it though, and kept walking to the open doors. He felt what he now knew was what they called a hand on his shoulder, which he abruptly tightly grabbed and threw off. He heard a slight wince, something along the lines of "damn hand hurts now". He started to walk again, when she shouted.
"God damnit, do you want to get out of here or not?!" Ryan finally turned around.
"I'm surprised you of anyone would even ask that. What, do you have some other impossible mission to send me on? Oh, better one, you need my leg to find a cure to all our illness? Hold on, I swear I saw a saw around here somewhere" he mocked looking around.
"Oh for the love of-! GET IN THE DAMN JET!" she stomped the ground, hands balled up.
"Oh no, I am not going ANYWHERE with you. I'll take my chances with the death squad over you." Pointing at her. He turned his head when the sound footsteps, more like thunder, started accumulating. They had at most a minute before the others arrived. He saw the female tug her hair a bit in frustration in the corner of his eye. Her face was almost as red as her hair.
"Rrraaah! Fine, don't say I didn't try!" she started to make her way back to the jet. The sound of running was getting louder, Ryan knew he would die if he didn't go with her now, but would he end up in the same place as he was? Death by a few bullets sounded better in that case. But what if she was actually going to follow up on her promise to actually let him go? She might hate his just existing, but she seemed… honest, if you could put it that way.
"Gah! Fine!" He ran to catch up with her, barely managing to reach her before she jumped up to the seat. The sound of the door getting slammed was heard. He saw the other jet shoot out, probably given permission by her.
"Finally got some sense into that small brain of yours?"
"I swear I will take back my not slicing your neck if you keep that up" she didn't speak again, either out of fear he actually would do that, or just tired of arguing. He didn't care which one, just as long as the remarks stopped.
He finally worked his way into the seat, the canopy lowering automatically. He heard the engine start powering up as soon as both were closed. He noticed one important detail, he had no idea how to put on the seatbelts, and the helmet obviously wasn't meant to be worn by him.
"Uh, okay. Just a seatbelt, can't be to hAAAAR-" he was pushed back into his seat as the jet took off. His blood felt like it was pushed into the skin of his back, coupled with barely being able to breathe, made for a bad first supersonic take-off. After a few seconds the forces slowed, and he could pull himself off the seat. He could hear her voice coming through the headset tucked between his legs, and picked it up.
"You know, if you're going to have somemammal like me on this thing, make sure you have a helmet that fits me. A warning would be nice too, I almost suffocated"
"Shut up and listen. My wingman is already ten miles ahead of us with the transport plane. I'm going to stay back here to delay any of them. Knowing them they brought anti air tanks moving in. As for your straps… I'll walk you through putting the straps on. You'll have to hold the air mask on, though."
"Good enough for me" Ryan said. After a few minutes of tugging, and some choice words, he finally managed to work the belts around him. He had to hold the air mask on his muzzle with one paw, though he managed to somewhat fit the helmet on his head. He had to tilt it back a bit, and his ears were extremely crushed, but a helmet is a helmet. He looked out to his side, seeing they were flying an a large circle. A few minutes passed, and he finally calmed down. A thought struck his mind "So, why did you bother coming back for me?" the thought of that moment just a bit ago still made him a bit livid, but her words compared to her actions just didn't make sense to him now that he thought about it.
"Thank you" was all that came from the ear piece. Ryan was a bit shocked, did she really just say that? He talked into the microphone. "While it's great that you finally said that, that doesn't answer the question."
"Doesn't it?" she replied. A sigh came a few seconds later, it sounded like she was going to say something else, but decided not to. Ryan continued to look out the window, he had never been this high in the air before, the clouds were literally only a few feet above his head. He sat back in his chair, surprisingly comfortable. He let out a breath of relief, maybe he could finally relax now.
Beep. Beep. Beep. A light came on the array of instruments, accompanied with an audible beeping. He looked at the flashing button, labeled only "WRNLCK", another started to flash, "WRNMSL" The frequency of the beeping grew quicker, turning into a flatline. After a few seconds it turned a few pitches higher, beeping insanely fast.
"That's definitely not gouAA-!" the aircraft took a sharp left, turning towards the ground. He felt the speed of the jet increase dramatically, with him barely keeping his arm in place to keep the air mask on. A streak flew past his window, exploding a second later. The jet rocked, making him almost drop his mask.
"Missile, had to evade." Was all she said. Ryan looked down in the direction the missile had come from, but he was too high up too see anything but dense jungle. He heard the dreaded beeping come on again, then he saw a puff of smoke from several locations on the ground. Ryan heard his earpiece chime, "See those switches on the top right of your panel?"
"There's a LOT of switches here!" he looked around, half of the freaking thing was just switches, some buttons, and what looked like a radar on it. The female spoke again, "There's a label, says CM on top of them, labeled one to four. See them?" He looked, spotting the switches. "Yeah?" he responded. "When I tell you, flip one of them, doesn't matter which one, just don't flip more than one at a time, and don't flip the same one again."
Ryan wondered what they were, he didn't know what CM meant. All he could figure, given the situation, was that they could be used to somehow either block the missiles, or make them miss. His earpiece sounded off, "Now!" Ryan flipped one of them, the jet jerked a bit to the left, and he saw a red reflection in the glass of his cockpit canopy. Flares, they were flares, he now knew. The missiles stopped going towards them, finding the flares a better target to hit, exploding when they got near them. Hopefully they didn't bring many more missiles, only three get out of jail free cards left. He saw another barrage of puffs from below, the warning of incoming missiles blaring again. "Get ready!" he heard. Ryan put his paw over one of the switches in anticipation, flipping one of them when he got the signal. The missiles again lost track of them.
"Look, as fun as evading something that would make me into a barbeque is, can we get out of here?" He asked after a few seconds.
"Not until we run out of flares or I get the message that the transport is in clear skies." She responded. Another barrage was launched, another switch flipped, more explosions. Ryan quickly grew tired of this charade, he didn't want to go from one life or death scenario to another one. He put a digit of his paw on the last switch, figuring they'd fire again. He looked at his panel for a second, a blip appeared on the screen. Two, three, five, ten, twenty, stopping at somewhere around thirty or so.
"Yep, we're done" was all he said. The female responded, "What? What's going on?" Ryan talked back, "This screen is a radar, right?" she responded with a yes, "There's like, a lot of blips on the thing. Don't you have one in there?" she said no, saying his role in the jet was to inform the pilot of incoming threats, so that the pilot could focus on the immediate dangers and prepare for what was coming next. "Well, there's enough blips popping up here to play whack-a-mole, so can we just leave now?" the jet jerked upwards, turning to the right and out of the circle they were going in. "I'll take that as a yes, finally we agree on something"
"I'm not fleeing from them" she stated. "I'm luring them back to another outpost, about one hundred miles from where we are. I've already alerted them, so just sit back and… do whatever you things do when you're not busy… doing whatever."
"Amazing choice of words, really, couldn't have thought of anything better myself"
"You know I can eject your seat from in here, right?"
"Yeah, and when the beeping starts you'll have to jump with me" he heard a groan from her.
"Why did I come back for you…" he chuckled a bit, liking this sort of argument much better than the ones before. He felt the jet accelerate again, watching the radar in case more things popped up. Nothing came up, and seeing how fast they seemed to be going, they'd get to their destination fairly quickly. He decided to pass the time, he should try to figure out what he could about these so-called humans.
"So… Just want to clear some things up here. Are you just the leader of that little posy back there, or… you know, the leader leader"
"The latter statement" she said. "Why do you want to know?"
"So… why would you think it's a good idea to go to a quote-unquote temporary outpost, with only around twenty five people?" he asked. "I mean, being the leader and all, you'd think you'd be a bit higher on the don't-let-this-mammal-get-killed list" he scratched his chin, just something to help him think.
"I visit all the outposts at least once a year, we don't have a ton of them. Besides, once I heard we finally caught one of you b-…" she stopped herself. "Animals… I had to see you for myself. I wanted proof, is that good enough?"
"I would ask proof of what, but that's a bit obvious. Also, work on that speech stutter, that's not good to have when being some supreme dictator. By the way, where'd the other two planes go?" he said.
"Different location" was all she said.
"Mmm, secretive. Let me guess, you're going to test them for my virus? Better watch out, I can control that remotely"
"Shut up, we're almost there."
"Seeing how you were probably going to turn me into a potato, I think I have a right to know" he waited for a response, talking again when he didn't get one. "Look, the silent games aren't going to help either of us, just tell me."
"No, for all intents and purposes, I still can't-" she stopped for a second, sighing. "I mostly can't trust you. And don't ask me to thank you again, it was painful enough to say that already" there was that dreaded monotone voice again.
"Oh, you said that? Well…" he put his paws up in the air in quotation markings, "Must have slipped my mind" He knew from his position in front of her that she definitely saw his parody of her. Silence filled the cabins, both knew they would get into a heated argument if they kept going down that path again. Ryan could practically feel the glare she was giving him at his mockery, deciding not to pry any further. Half a minute later, a different voice in his headset came on.
"Warwolf 1-1, you're cleared for opening two, proceed when ready"
"Proceeding, by the way, I'm carrying some… cargo, tell the landing crew to not be alarmed by something in my other cockpit" she said.
"…Roger. If I may ask, what is said cargo?" his voice sounded a bit confused.
"Something that makes no sense to me whatsoever" was all she said.
"Uhm… okay, right. Opening two, whenever you're ready." He sounded suspicious at this point, but let the door open anyway. Ryan saw the ground open up slightly below them. The jet decreased its speed, lowering its altitude. He heard a pop in the back, "What was that?" he asked.
"Killed the engine, it's on purpose, don't worry" the jet buckled a bit as the speed decreased further, to where the ground stopped being a blur. He could clearly see the landing platform, but it seemed too small for them to land on, even at the speed they were going.
"Hey, don't you think we're going a bit fast?" he asked. The jet descended further, there's no way they'd be able to stop on the platform at that speed. He grabbed the edges of his seat to secure himself from the small amount of shaking. "Hey!" he yelled.
"Do you really think I can't pilot this thing after that little incident back there?" She accused. "Whatever. Just, when we get down there… let me do all the talking. I don't like bringing you here at all, let alone what everyone else will say. Despite what you've done, you're still an enemy. Oh, hold onto something." The jets nose lifted up to where all he could see was sky, then leveled out. He heard an engine start up, but it was coming from below him this time. He looked out from his window. The ground wasn't moving anymore.
"Uh… We're floating? This isn't a helicopter…" he continued to look out the window, they started to slowly go towards the ground, but didn't move in any direction.
"Like I said, better tech than yours. And remember, no talking, don't look at anyone… just, don't let anyone know you exist until I let you come out. Hide the best you can until then"
"Right, I'll just pop into this convenient hole in the jet that just happens to be my perfect size. I'm not exactly small, you know" the jet bounced up and down, coming to a halt. He saw the ground start to close, and the pad began to descend. "So… just to get this out of the way, no experiments, right?" No response, "Right?" he asked again, with no response. He let out a nervous laugh, tapping on his seats armrest. He felt the pad stop moving, seeing a large amount of workers make their way to the jet. The canopy behind him opened, and he saw her get out, jumping to the ground. He ducked into his seat, trying to make himself as small as possible. "Right, because they totally won't notice half my head sticking above the glass level. Come on, She said she'd let me go. Then again…" recent events didn't bode well for his trust in her, all he could do was wait, though. There's no way out of the underground area except that moving pad, and he wouldn't get another chance to escape if this was an actual permanent settlement anyway. He heard a metal tink, and some footsteps a moment after, must be a ladder. "Well, this is it." He said aloud. The canopy opened, and he felt his helmet get knocked on.
"Hey, time to wake up" he heard her say. Ryan looked up at her, letting out a huff "Like I could sleep after that, a stretch would do me wonders, though"
"Stretch later, you've got to get going. If you've forgotten, we have a lot of polts coming at us." She pointed up. "So come on, we don't have any time for your shenanigans. We'll wait out this battle, and send you back when it's over" she stepped down from the ladder, Ryan sitting up a second later. He looked out to the open area, seeing just about every human glaring at him. "I said hurry up! Did your ears get blown out by the missiles or something?" he heard her yell. He darted his eyes to her, groaning as he worked the seatbelt off and stepped down the ladder. As soon as he touched the ground she began talking again.
"Listen closely, because I'm only going to say this once." She lifted a single finger, pointing at him, "I don't like you, and I have every right to hate you. You animals nearly annihilated our species, and then just forgot about us. From our records, you are just savage beasts that would kill us given the chance. I've tried to have you killed twice, and sent you on a mission that I assumed would kill you as well." Ryan was confused, did she think he had short term memory loss? "Despite that…" she lowered her finger, crossing her arms instead and taking a deep breath "Despite that, you didn't behave like we thought you would. You kept saying again and again that you didn't want to hurt us. You might be telling the truth, or it could be that you've always had a gun pointed at you." Her face softened a bit, "Whatever the case may be, except for the attempted murder of me, you never tried anything violent." She paused for a bit, which only confused Ryan more.
"…Is there a point to this? I was there, remember?" he raised an eyebrow. He was about to speak again, but she raised a hand telling him to stop.
"What I'm trying to say is that you might be telling the truth. However, we cannot and will not risk an if scenario like I said before." Her stern face returned, staring at him again. "I'm going to keep my promise and send you back. But!" she stressed that word quite a bit, "You are not under any circumstances to speak about us in any way, shape, form, or anything. So help me if you break this promise I will attack you and your entire world until you are dust. Believe me, we are capable of that, several times over"
"Then why haven't you attacked us yet?" he bluntly stated.
"Because we want to have a planet to return to, those weapons are a last resort. We may not care for your kind, but we care for the planet." She pointed at him, then the ground. Ryan sighed, she seemed like she was finally letting her walls down, but it now seems he was wrong. He noticed several jets move onto the platform, probably meant the other jets are almost here. He and the female walked off the platform, onto stable ground. She started to walk away, but Ryan wasn't finished with their conversation yet.
"Hold up" he said. She turned around, and Ryan could feel the glares return once more. "Look, I know I won't convince you to go above ground, blah blah blah. But can you at least admit that your opinion of us has changed?" it was his turn to cross his arms. She gave him a blank stare, blinking once. She didn't say anything, and turned around. "Hello? A response would be nice!" he yelled.
"You could just be a spy" she said. Ryan's eye twitched, and his mouth started to hang open a bit. He slapped his paws on his face, screaming into them.
"That's it, I tried. You want to be paranoid, everything's a conspiracy! Yep, I'm a spy alright! You figured me out! I let myself get captured, I could have broken out of that metal chair in a second, I just enjoy sleeping on tiled ground! I let myself be belittled by you because you still believe in some twenty five year old bullshit because I just can't get enough of it! By the way, we have an army marching over here, we can phase through the ceiling and shoot laser beams out of our eyes! Give this lady a trophy, she figured it all out!" he yelled out for everyone around to hear while clapping. "Wait, no. You didn't figure it all out. In fact, you're at square negative one! But you know what, I'm not even going to try anymore. That head of yours and everyone else here is about as thick as a boulder. So go on, keep living in fear of us, I'm obviously just a big monster out to get you, can't you tell?" he ranted.
"That's enough!" she yelled back. The ground crew continued to stare at them, appearing to gossip amongst themselves. Soon, the lift started up, grabbing the attention of Ryan, as he saw the fighter jets starting their vertical thrusters. He heard her start talking again. "You are the first contact that we have EVER had. You think I'm going to take ONE animals word that all the others would be just peachy about us revealing ourselves?!"
"And I told you to go up there and take a look for yourselves! You keep living in this fantasy world where everything is out to get you! I keep telling you this, but like I said, your head is as thick as a boulder! What if I'm the ONLY contact you ever get? Are you just going to keep living like this, then? Doesn't at least one of you want to go up and see?!"
"I told you, we have spies up there. They keep their distance, never seen, never heard. We will not risk anything!" she argued back. Ryan felt a headache start to form, nothing was ever going to get to any of them. There's no point in continuing trying to convince them.
"You know what? Fine. Keep living down here. I'm done with you, I've tried to help, but it will never get through to you. So just send me back up, I won't say a word." He said. She acted as if she was about to say something, probably figured he was going to continue to argue.
"Well? Aren't you going to show me out? Wouldn't want some beast aimlessly walking around the place. Might hurt someone, right? Your little video said so, and that could never ever change." He saw her grit her teeth. Seeing that, he backed off with talking, both gave each other a look of anger.
"You'll never understand." Was all she said.
"Oh no, quite the opposite. But like I said, I'm done with you. You're hopeless, so just point me to the exit, I want to leave this place as soon as I can. I'll swim across the ocean if I have to."
"No, if those gets get through our anti air defenses and jets, they'll aim for you. And believe me, you won't walk away from a bullet the size of your index finger times two." She started to walk.
"No, I'm done being near you. You act like you're finally opening up, coming to your senses, but then just close back up."
"Would you just shut up already? In case you haven't noticed, there is a battle going on up there. You won't last long alone." She said. Ryan was about to say something else, but didn't. He already made up his mind to leave, no matter what, right now. Once out of here, he would just try to convince himself this was all a bad dream. Everything would be normal, he would go to sleep and wake up in a nice bed. No crazy underground humans, no looming threat of destruction. Ryan started to walk to an open door, but she stepped in front of him, arms crossed.
"Get out of my-" he was interrupted, a worker ran up to the female. He looked frantic, full of panic.
"Madam, we've just received word that several bunker busters have been launched. We need to go into shelter incase our defenses can't shoot them down."
"How long until impact?" she asked.
"Ten minutes. There's enough to break through the entrance cover."
"…Alright, send all non-vital staff deeper into the complex." She told him.
"And what about me leaving?" Ryan said. She looked at him, in thought for a good ten seconds.
"Like I said, you'll have to come with-" she was cut off.
"Nope, don't care. Just point me to the door, I'll live through the missiles and jets." He waved her off.
"No, you'll die if you go up there right now!" She retorted.
"And why would you care? You've made it pretty damn clear you already want all of us dead anyway. So me going up there should be a good thing, right? So point me to the door, now." He said. The female looked like she was trying to think of something to say, but couldn't find any words. Ryan could swear she was having some internal conflict, but he wanted to leave. Get away from all of this, go back home. Given enough luck, the humans would stay underground, and never bother him or any other mammal. He stared at her for a good ten seconds, waiting for her to say anything.
"Screw it, I'll find my way out. If I catch any of you following me, you'll regret it. Like I said, I've had enough of you" he said walking to one of the openings. The female didn't turn around, he didn't care to think of why, only thankful he didn't have to deal with any humans. With the incoming rockets, the guards and non-vital personnel were probably in some sort of panic room. He only saw three humans left on the platform, and passing none as he ran through the narrow corridors. It must've been a good three minutes of running, and even though the signs were written in English, he didn't know what led to what. Stopping for a second to catch his breath, he looked up at the sign in front of him.
"You're... kidding… me." He panted, "One giant circle…" he was back at the platform. The female and three humans had left already, most likely already in the panic room. "Let's see, ten minutes… three running, a good four arguing…. Leaves three to find the way out" he looked at a large switch on the wall, labeled simply open at the top, close at the bottom. Only problem was that there was no way it lifted fast enough to get him above ground. That, and the rockets were headed for said lift, so he would be right in the crosshairs. He ran back the way he came, taking it a bit slower to not miss any hidden passageways.
"Come on already! Why isn't there a map in this place?" he shouted aloud. He turned a hallway, but was rocked off his balance. The entire placed felt like it was shaking, "Wait, did those rockets already hit?" the ground shook again, and as much as he tried, he failed to keep his footing. The last thing he remembered was his head aiming for a metal pipe running across the wall, then a large pressure on his chest.
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"It's been three days, why haven't they sent anyone down to look for him yet?" a fox sulked. "He said he would get a team, or at least something…"
"Violet, sulking isn't going to miraculously bring him back. Just be like Fang over there, he's on what, his fourth shot of rum? It isn't even midnight and he's going to start a party" he laughed, but quickly went to a serious tone. "Poor taste in humor aside, he's really taken it hard. Seems you have too"
"You didn't know him that well, Romen. He's not one to just go off into some random place. He would've at least told me about it"
"Might've figured you were leaving anyway, wanted to bring a souvenir back"
"Yeah…" she buried her head in her arms.
"Hey, cheer up. I might not know much about the guy, but don't give up on him" he paused, "Not until next week, you can give up then" he smirked. Violet shot up, giving him a punch to the shoulder.
"Not funny, at all. If you weren't a lion twice my size, I'd throw you across the bar" she leaned her head on one of her propped up arms. She looked down at the bar table, a shot of tequila in front of her, but it sat there for over an hour now. She heard a buzz in her purse, a call from her boss no doubt.
"Dark humor is the best humor. Helps to deal with stuff like this" Romen said. He looked back at Violet, who had her phone to her ear. "Who's that?" he asked.
"Shh" with a finger to her mouth to emphasize. "They what? When? They found him? Really?!" her smile couldn't have gotten any bigger, "That's great! Huh? His… backpack?" and instantly turned into a frown. She was silent for the rest of the time, ending the call after a few more minutes, letting the phone nearly drop from her paw. She caught it just in time, and put it back in her purse, zipping it slowly. Sitting in silence, staring at the table, a blank stare plastered on her face. Romen watched her, knowing what she had just heard, and what was about to come. Loud erratic thumps came up behind them.
"Ey guys! Check out the-" his mouth was instantly covered by Romens giant paw. Fang looked like he was about to protest, but saw Violet. He pulled away from the suffocating grip, a look on his face that he got the message "Oh… I'll uh. There's a thing over here, yeh" he pointed in a random direction, and walked away. The two sat there for what seemed like eternity.
"Look, Violet. You should go home, venting it at a bar is the worst choice you can make. Trust me on that" Romen broke the silence, he only got a slow nod from her. She got up from her seat, Romen following soon after. They stepped out of the bar, and walked to their cars.
"You sure you can drive, Romen?" Violet broke her own silence.
"Only had a few light ones, not even buzzed." He leaned against his car. "Look, I might've not known Ryan that well, but I know you. I've seen how you react when you lose someone. If you need anything, just give me a shout" he got off his car, seeing a slow nod from her. She was barely keeping it in, and would probably break down as soon as she got in her car. Befriending her since grade school, he saw how she acted when her mother died. Seeing her like this, he must've meant just as much to her. Sighing, he opened his door and got inside. As he drove away, he saw her face going the opposite direction in his mirror.
"This is going to be a long week…"
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