FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Melancholy Hearts

Chapter Three

Amias unlatched his data pad from the docking area on the bus, letting him get up from his seat and join the line of people getting off. He had just gotten back from his work, construction, and was heading for the daily speeches. They were located in a large courtyard in the Market Zone, his city being the exact same design as Taj's.

"Hey, no pushin'! We all know you're all excited for the speeches, but you need to wait your turn to get scanned." An Enforcer stood at the front of the bus and scanned the line, making sure everyone was moving. The line continued out of the bus and to the gateway to the courtyard, where the data pads would be scanned and identities would be verified.

Amias was fine with the speeches, it was easy for him to zone out the annoying speech and focus on other things including stretching and relaxing his body. Construction was a never ending workout, one that in his mind had no reason. Why we need to build more slums if there aren't enough people to live in them? he had thought to himself quite often. They would constantly add more floors to different houses all over the Residential Zone, but they would either never find people to live in them or would soon become vacant for unknown reasons.

This day had gone by slowly, and it hadn't helped that he had gotten barely any sleep the previous night. He shivered thinking about the night, and quickly put it out of his mind.

Better to focus on the future instead of the past.

He hadn't had great relations with his parent, and the few good ones he did have were tainted with memories of the government enforcing laws on them. They had left him when he was old enough to work. Or, as he believed, they were taken away by the government. He no longer remembered them very well though, having been more focused on important things.

Like Taj.

He had made it to the gateway after a couple minutes passed, each one creeping by as if it didn't want to say goodbye to this word. He was greeted by another enforcer that took no pleasantries to get his data pad. He reached for Amias's arm without any warning and grabbed it, showing no kindness or care, scanned it with a small phone looking device and waited a couple seconds. A small but pleasing beep sounded and he let go of Amias and went onto the next person in line.

Amias stepped into the courtyard and moved out of the way of the flow of people so he could stand and look. Look at anything and everything, yet see nothing. He had seen it all before, but he still took the time once or twice a week to see if anything new had been added. The courtyard had benches that closely resembled church pews, each with two or three inches of an opening for tails to go through, each on stretching from one side of the open space to the other. There weren't enough, however, for every person to sit, so many simply went to one of the walls that surrounded the place and rested up against it. Amias chose this approach, not wanting to join the mosh pit of people trying to find seats.

There was a stage at the very front of the courtyard that was guarded by almost twenty Enforcers, each one carrying a Bergif at the ready. A short and somewhat chubby fox wearing a tight black and white suit came onto the stage and moved toward a microphone in the middle of the stage. This was where Amias zoned out.

He began to think of all the things going on in his life. It happened every time he zoned out, so many times that he had begun to think his life was quite normal, and if anything, somewhat boring. Besides his normal escapades to see Taj, the whole thing was sluggish and dull to him.

His schedule was the same as anyone else's. There was nothing special about his life, at least there wouldn't be if that one day hadn't happened. That one day he found out there was life beyond the walls, a place where rules didn't have to be followed.

But that was a story he didn't look back on often, just to keep it special. A story for another time, he would always tell himself.

His mind went to something that had happened the night before. Something that happened almost all the time, but it had never happened so close to him, so close to his home.

He had woken up in the middle of the night, as he often did, and decided that his mouth was to dry for him to go back to sleep fully. He made his way to his fridge, located in the room next to where he slept, and grabbed a glass of milk to soothe his parched throat. After that need was satisfied he sat down on the depreciated couch and switched on the TV, not feeling sleepy anymore. The news flashed to life, being the only channel that was broadcasted. A dark red female fox was speaking about the weather forecast for tomorrow's work hours, making very bad jokes and fake laughs every little while. Amias could feel his eyelids getting heavier with each pass second, and was about to go to sleep when something happened. Something he never thought could happen so close, yet so far away.

He heard a door slam below his home, located of the third floor, along with muffled screams from the same spot. He immediately lost all sense of being tired and rushed to his dust covered window, ripping the curtains out of the way. When he looked down, he almost fainted.

Four enforcers stood below, each with their guns trained at a group of people. People Amias knew. They were his neighbors, the ones that lived below him. There were five of the, two adults and three children, all boys. The family was on their knees with their mouths covered in tape, or at least that's what Amias could see. They were faced away, and after a brief period of waiting four loud bangs came to life, along with the sight of four bodies falling. There was one child left, one that saw everything. After no more than a second of silence there was another loud bang, and he fell too.

Another fox settled in next to him in the courtyard and Amias nodded at him, gladly removing his mind from the dark subject that it had been stuck, but the man didn't acknowledge him. It wasn't unusual for everyone to ignore each other. In fact, Amias thought it was a good thing. If you weren't attached to someone, you couldn't miss them when they disappeared.

He had kept to that rule when it came to the neighbors, but it wasn't too hard to feel something when children are killed. And to him, there seemed to be no reason for their murder, but it didn't matter. Not when the government says they were in the wrong. He returned to his thoughts.

Amias closed his curtains and ran to his room, and hid in the closet. All he could think was what if he was next? Why would they be doing this? Why hadn't he done anything? Could he have even done anything?

He spent the rest of that night awake, praying for the silence to stay, praying for the light of day to come. With each small creak the house made he would jump out of his own fur in fright, only to squeeze himself tighter to his hiding place.

The next morning, when he boarded his work bus, all he could think of was the spot where the concrete was slightly stained.