FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The most coveted engine in the wastelands by those who know engines, a 6.9 or 7.2 liter IDI Diesel Engine will run on near anything and only requires a single wire to run. Because of this fact, vehicles equipped with these engines and manual transmissions are some of the rarest, and thus most valuable, vehicles a survivor can cross paths with.

The two Rabid brothers drove us about an hour and a half outside of Albany, well off the path Eirren had set out for us. They'd shielded their truck with copious amounts of lead foil and tape, however, some of the radiation from the blast zones still managed to infiltrate the trucks interior. Enough was getting through that it wasn't safe for Zack or the kids, so we had given the makeshift radiation suit to him and wrapped the kids up in the lead lined blanket, which kept what radiation that did make it inside the cabin away from them. The drive through those zones was scary, dark and required heavy use of the truck's four wheel drive due to the loose gravel and ice. I don't think I'd ever had my AR so close to me ever before, nor had I ever been that jumpy. It might have just been me, but I swear on my life there was something alive in those craters, several somethings in fact. I saw several Southern style shadows in the darkness of those craters, then I would blink and they'd be gone. I felt like I was just tired, or maybe getting slightly nauseated from the constant stream of radiation I'd been taking in the last few days. The ending of the ride had us pulling into the driveway of a brick house much like the one I'd camped in the night I'd met Eirren. The only difference was the fact that there was a light on inside, though I couldn't see inside due to the broads on the window. There wasn't anything else around for as far as I could see, felt like I was back to square one.

"Home sweet home", will said with a sigh as he rubbed his eyes.

"Feel like I'm back in Canada", I sighed as we exited the truck, "everything here is dead."

"Where isn't everything dead Arien?", Nat asked.

"This is a different kind of dead though", I whispered, staring into the rolling snow covered landscape that was lit with a blue hue by the moon and thousands of tiny stars that hung over my head in the crystal clear glass like sky, "it's like any talking here will wake up demons."

"Sometimes it feels that way", Will said, "come on, let's get inside, fuckin' cold out here."

My friends followed the two brothers inside. All except Eirren, she stayed outside with me, quiet for the longest time, then said what was on her mind.

"What's bothering you love?"

I sighed, "quite a bit sweetheart. Just realizing how far up shit creek we really are I guess. Stuck right in the fucking middle of Rabid infested wasteland with our only hope to get out being two other Rabids I don't even know if we can fully trust yet."

"They seem to have good heads on their shoulders", Eirren said, "they wanted to kill us they would have done it by now."

"That's besides my point", I replied, "they may not want to kill us, but how long will it be before they just can't contain it anymore and eat us alive?"

"So what if it does?", she asked, "we can handle a couple of Rabids, M16's or not. They all bleed the same."

I yawned, "Maybe you're right."

There was a long pause. When neither of us spoke, Eirren turned and walked back towards the house, then stopped and turned back around, putting her arms around me.

"What else is bothering you?", she asked, "I can tell it's not worrying about no damn Rabids."

I sighed, "there's a lot of things bothering me Eirren, you'll have to be more specific."

She pondered her next question for a moment, then asked, "Does it have to do with us?"

I nodded.

"Okay...", she thought some more, "Nero and Mya?"

"They're a big part of it", I sighed, "when we were at Hunter's house, I told him I didn't think I was ready for the responsibility of leading anyone other than myself through this godforsaken wasteland. At least by myself, if I fucked up I'd be the only one to die. In hindsight, sometimes I wonder if I should have even left the bedroom the night those bandits dragged you into that house I was shut up in. Took me till a few days after adopting Nero before I decided I'd made the right choice."

Eirren giggled and held me tighter, "too many movies about bandit queens huh?"

"Maybe", I sighed, "I made a dumb choice leaving home the way I did. What on this fucking Earth was I thinking?"

"Can't say I have an answer for that one", Eirren said hugging me tightly, "but I'm glad you were thinking like you did. If you hadn't, we'd all be maggot food right now."

I managed a weak smile, "that makes me feel a little better."

"You made the right choice love", Eirren assured, "without you, me, Nero, Zack and Mya would all be dead and Nat would still be living in Medusa's fog always halfway to another suicide attempt."

"I hope so", I sighed again, "not on good terms with my family right now."

"What do you mean?", Eirren asked.

"Day I said I was going back to Texas, my Dad called several shades of bullshit and laughed at me. Didn't think, not for a minute, that I was serious. Well I packed up that night, got all my equipment ready, and the next morning at like, six am, as I'm getting ready to get out the door, he and my Mom were awake."

"What happened then?"

"My Dad said, so you're leaving? I told him yes, I was. He asked me where the fuck I thought I was going. When I told him home, back to Texas, he looked me dead in the face and said, you walk out that door, you better not ever come back. He was serious about saying that. For the first time in his life he was serious about it. I went anyway."

"Fucking harsh", Eirren sighed, "from both of you. The ultimate fuck you from your Dad and you threw it right back in his face. How did your Mother handle that?"

I shrugged, "I imagine she spent the next 24 hours either crying or screaming at my Dad for what he had just done. They can deal with Rabids and bandits up in that shit hole they call a home for the rest of time far as I care. I found my family, I know where my place is."

There was another long pause, "let's go inside and see what's up, cold as hell out here."

Sighing, I took one last look at the snow covered landscape, then followed back inside the house. The rickety interior of the building and it's furniture reminded me of houses in Seven Days to Die. The house, though clearly cared for and maintained over the years, hadn't fully been spared the apocalypse. The rug', dingy brown, stiff and thin as a sheet of paper was still a mess though it'd been freshly vacuumed. The light fixture on the ceiling had seen better days and was just a bare bulb now, though the bulb in it seemed to be brand new, or had just been spared run time since the bombs fell in favor of candle light, due to how bright it was. The couch, old worn and grey, looked more inviting than anything else I'd seen since we left Khen's outpost, though it was resting on the frame instead of legs. At least it seemed that way. Two tables on either side of the sofa with much darker rings in the middle of their tops suggested that they had held lamps at some point and for a very long time. The TV, somehow still working, was connected to an old DVD player, though I didn't see any DVD's. The coffee table in front of the old sofa had a book shelf in it that was full of random novels and guides, though I couldn't see anything I'd find interesting at a quick glance.

"House is in pretty good shape", I commented standing on the welcome mat.

"My Grandma runs a tight shift", Will said appearing in the door way to the kitchen, which was dark, only lit by the green of the charging bay that held his and his brother's radios. Without his protective gear on, I was treated to an up close and personal, detailed look at how harsh it must be to be Rabid. Will's body was a sickening yellowish brown color. Every one of his veins was visible from the looks of it and he was a mess of scars, bruising and open gashes that looked like they could do with stitching. I imagined his brother probably didn't look much better. Even though I could tell he'd just gotten done in the shower, he smelled like complete shit, literally.

"Bro....why the smell like a dead body?", Zack asked.

"Yeah sorry about that", Will sighed "I got a wicked scraping from the sandstorm that blew through here, what you're smelling is various body fluids leaking from the holes some larger rocks left in my sides that have no business mixing."

"Shit man. Last storm I knew of blew through like what a week ago?"

"Something like that", Will answered

"And you've been walking around leaking body fluids since then? That can't be good for you brother."

"Not much I can do about it", Will sighed, "skin's too tight to stitch or glue anything closed and I can't cauterize or bandage anything because of how sensitive to adhesive and heat I am, so I just kinda have to let it heal on it's own. My grandma said you guys can make yourself at home in the living room, you can use the shower, long as your quiet, and there's a space heater in the corner behind the couch in case you all get too cold. I'll help you along in the morning."

"Thanks for helpin' us out Will", I said, "we would have had a hell of a time getting out of Albany without you."

"Don't thank me yet", Will said, "you may be safe right now, at this moment, but the danger is far from over, before you pass NYC, you'll meet the reason no one ever goes in or out of that horrible place."

"Maybe fill us in now so it doesn't kill us then", Zack said, "we've come this far, would be a huge pain the ass to get eaten."

Will sighed and walked over to the cabinet that the TV rested on. Reaching down inside, he pulled out glasses for us and himself, then out came a full bottle of Scotch. He filled the glasses to about ten percent full and then handed them around. I wondered what about this was going to be so bad it required drinking to get through it.

"This will require a bit of explanation", Will sighed chugging his in one gulp.

"Eh take your time", Eirren said sipping the alcohol, "time is something we all have plenty of."

Will filled his glass to the brim and drank it down again, "People call them Sand Demons. And, after seeing one myself, the name is well earned. I'm not sure what they mutated from, but they look like dragons that have lost all of their scales as a general rule. They don't look Rabid, so in a crowd they would stick out. Their skin is about as hard as steel and the only reason I killed the one I encountered was because I hit it with my Ford at damn near a hundred fifty miles an hour, but even after that the damn thing still didn't wanna die."

"Wow, wow, wow", Zack said interrupting him, "Let me get this straight. You've got an IDI Diesel in that Excursion right?"

Will nodded, "Built 7.2 liter, 800 horsepower V8 with a 6000 RPM Redline, six speed manual behind it, top speed of 205 miles an hour. Power goes to all four wheels all the time."

"So you hit this thing with 10,000 pounds of all wheel drive at 150 miles an hour...and it got back up?"

Will nodded as he finished a third glass. The room went quiet. I pondered what might happen to us if Will had hit this thing with the force of a five ton pick up and it had survived, somehow I didn't think my 65 grain 5.56x45 rifle rounds would do much other than amount to an angry bee.

"That's um...that's....", Zack began.

"It's fucking terrifying is what it is", Nat shuddered, "ten thousand pounds of truck traveling at 150 miles an hour didn't kill it...so..what did?"

"I have a sawed off single 3 ½ inch slug gun that I jammed into it's eye socket while the Ford was sitting atop it's body and pulled the trigger. Emptied a Dragon's Breath round into it's skull. It took ten minutes before I was feeling safe enough to back the Ford off it's body."

Eirren put her head in her hands. Nat, Zack, Nero, Mya and myself exchanged glances. I didn't quite know what to think. Something that could survive a hit from a five ton truck moving at a good clip, take an incendiary shotgun shell to the brain and then still take ten minutes to die wasn't something I wanted to meet at night in a back alley and unarmed. Being a dragon, I had a lot of power in my body too, despite not being in the best of shape, but a Ford Excursion to the face at 50 miles an hour is irreparably shattering bones, bursting blood vessels and giving me a concussion, at the least. At it's worst, I'm debating with my local priest if it's okay for the Veterinarian caring for my broken form to euthanize me so I don't have to suffer any longer. Silence fell over the room. Everyone was thinking the same thing. We couldn't ask Will to take us past New York City, not when he had a brother and grandparents to look after, but we knew facing one of them, if what Will said was true, meant death for all of us.

"Is there anyway to fight them on foot?", Eirren asked after a period of dreadful quiet.

Will shook his head, knocking back another half a glass, "I don't know. After I hit the one with the pickup, Tyler said he saw one in the distance out back and dropped it with a single .30-06 to the head from his hunting rifle, but I don't believe it. Hell, it took a pickup and cooking it's brain inside it's skull to kill the one I met."

"Do you happen to have a picture of it?", I asked, "so at least we know what to watch for?"

Will reached into the pocket of his shorts and pulled out his phone. He swiped at the screen with his thumb and then showed me a picture. It did certainly look like a scaleless dragon. It's skin was rough looking and this desert tan color, it had three small horns on each side of it's head, perfectly spaced apart from each other in rows. It wasn't very tall, maybe about a foot smaller than I was at only 5'5 and it had a massive bruise and imprint that read "Ford" around a bunch of grating from where Will had bulldozed it, which was the most shocking. Will had hit this thing so hard that the truck had stamped Ford's logo into it. It's ugly tan skin was cracked and bleeding, but showed no signs other than bruising of damage from the pickup. The cracks and blood looked to be caused by long exposure to heat and sand, rather than the deer guard of Will's truck. The way it was built, combined with the large, up right ears, massive claws and small eyes told me it was a night hunter, and hunted by sound and possibly smell. Perhaps, even keying off thermal imagery the wa ysome other reptiles did.

"Doesn't look like something you wanna meet unarmed", I said tossing the phone to Eirren.

"It's...tiny", Eirren sighed, "and this thing survived a 150 mile an hour hit from a five ton pick up?"

Will nodded, "I stress out every time I think about it. I met that motherfucker two and a half miles from this house."

I sighed, "yeah...that'll help me sleep tonight. Do you know where it came from?"

Will shook his head, "no, and thank god I don't, otherwise I might be tempted to go after it. Get some sleep guys, I'll take you to the state border tomorrow, not that long a drive, but I can't take you further than that. It's already a bit far to be straying from the house and I don't like leaving my grandparents home alone."

"I don't blame you", I said, "thanks for doing this for us, again. Most people don't have time for anyone that ain't family."

"I hear ya", Will agreed, "world's come apart at the seams, can't hurt to try and put a little bit of it back together."

"Here here", I said finishing my glass, the liquor going down easily as water, "good stuff there friend."

I set my glass down on the coffee table, so did everyone else. Will told us he was going to bed, and that we should too. He took the glasses into the kitchen, cleaned them out and then went upstairs. I could hear a fan come on.

"Guess he likes it cold", I said unlacing my boots and setting them neatly by my gear.

"I don't know about you guys", Eirren said taking a set of Rosary beads from her vest, "but I'm going to pray that we don't run into any of those literal monsters on our way out of state tomorrow."

"Me too", Zack said in agreement.

"Same here", Nat answered.

"Arien?", Eirren asked.

"Won't hear any arguments from me", I said, "let's do it."

And so we did, saying each set of mysteries of the Rosary, taking us a good hour to do. All of us falling asleep one by one, eventually, only Eirren and I were left. In the middle of the 4thSorrowful, she told me it was time for me to get some sleep and that she would finish up and take first shift of guard duty. There were few things I wouldn't fight someone over these days, and them telling me I could sleep while they did the heavy lifting was one of those things. I took off my fatigues and made myself a bed out of my spare clothes and fatigues, set my poncho over it and covered in my poncho liner, after all these years I finally understood the value of it. It wasn't the best sleep I'd had, nor was it better than what I'd been getting as of late, but I was able to do it, so I didn't complain. Waking rather late the next morning, I found myself being the last one awake, I could smell someone cooking something, though I didn't recognize the smell. The rest of my friends, minus Nat, were all gathered around the living room, either doing maintenance or organizing their equipment.

"Morning sleeping beauty", Zack laughed.

"What time is it?", I asked through a wide yawn.

"10:18", Eirren said.

"Eh, not that late, where's Nat at?"

"She went for a walk to get some air", Eirren said, "she can't take her helmet off without killing Will or his family."

"Right", I yawned again, "anyone have any idea how we'll go about things once we pass NYC?"

"We can just get on I-81 and follow that till I-40 and then get on I-75", Eirren said, "that'll take us to I-59 which takes us all the way to Houston Texas, where we go from there is your call, since your the Texan here."

"I know the way home from Houston. Damn, sounds so close, but in reality it's easily another thousand miles."

"Pre war would have taken two days", Zack sighed.

"Yeah, don't remind me", I told him, "I don't wanna be reminded of what things were like pre-war because then I miss it."

"None of us do friend", Will said coming into the living room, he had a small towel in his hands, "breakfast is ready, Sausage Eggs and bacon...but it's all MRE's."

"Better than no food at all", Eirren said, "thanks for the offer."

"Ah don't mention it", Will said, "your payment can be getting home in one piece."

"Hold us to it", I smiled as we joined Will, his brother Tyler and their grandparents in the kitchen. The two old New York Rats were still in one piece, but their age was showing in only various spots of black and bright orange still being visible, where as the rest of their fur was light grey, signs of triple digit aging. The male fox had a look in his eye that said he was a Veteran, probably seen some shit too. As we all sat down at the table, I looked to will's Grandfather.

"Excuse me sir, but a question if I may?"

"Whatcha' got on your mind son?", the fox asked.

"You carry yourself like a veteran", I said, "some guys I knew pre war carried themselves the same way."

"Oh picked up on that did ya?", the fox asked.

"Yes sir", I explained, "I was just curious of my hunch was correct."

"It is", he said, "Specialist Norman Tyler. 36thInfantry."

He offered me his paw, I accepted, "Arien Kyvart, survivalist."

"So tell me Arien, what's got you and your family out this far?", Norman asked.

"Going home Specialist", I said, "Texas. Long way to walk, but it's home. It'll be worth it in the end when I can sleep in my own bed, assuming it hasn't been looted yet...and the house is still standing."

"If it isn't?", Will asked.

"I pitch a tent and rebuild from the foundation", I said, "lots of building stores out where I used to live. People don't tend to loot that kind of thing from past experience with disasters, hopefully most of it will still be there."

"Determination at it's finest", Norman said, "would have liked to have more animals like ya' at Normandy."

"D-Day?", I asked.

"Yes sir", Norman said, "first one off my boat. Sounds of Mg-42's never quite leave you."

"Did you see the mushroom clouds?", Eirren asked.

"No", Norman said, "but we saw the flashes from when Albany was bombed."

"That never leaves you either", I said, "though I suspect being at D-Day was probably worse."

"They know someone who was at ground zero of a nuclear strike", Will said.

"Do they?", Norman asked looking at will, and then to me, "my grandson likes to make shit up. Is this true?"

"It is", I said, "she's a pitbull named Nat. Not only did she survive a nuclear strike, but she survived Medusa."

"Medusa is a myth", Will laughed, "so is the Ghost that walks Ground Zero."

Eirren shook her head and Nero, of all people, spoke up.

"Medusa is NOT a myth!", he stated puffing out his chest and trying to make himself look bigger, "my Dad had to walk through it while mom flew me over the radiation zone! Aunt Nat was poisoned by that bomb!"

Nero was just looking at the wall as he yelled, but even so, Will seemed taken aback by him. So did his grandmother, while his Grandfather looked towards me.

"Your boy is blind ain't he?", Norman asked.

I nodded, "we found him hiding in a pickup at a gas station in Canada when I was passing through, dying of thirst and radiation poisoning. Would have been criminal to leave him behind."

"Seems like everyone you meet has the sickness nowadays", Tyler said speaking for the first time since we met him, "if you aren't Rabid you've got radiation sickness."

"Such is life these days", Eirren commented, "infusion kits are getting harder and harder to find, so it just get's worse and worse."

"Your Canadian too", Norman said, "can hear it in your voice."

Eirren nodded, "guilty as charged."

"Must not be a stranger to firearms to have made it this far", Norman said.

Eirren shook her head, "no. I've carried a Kalashnikov for most of my life, know the platform backwards forwards blindfolded and asleep. When the bombs fell I just unpinned all my magazines and dusted off my Dad's old Beretta M9 with an Autosear in it."

"I would like to shit on your Dad for his choice in handguns, but you get a free pass since what you basically have is a Submachinegun. I had an AR-15 with an Autosear in it many many years ago, but sold it for a down payment on this house."

"How?", Eirren asked, "auto guns only retail for like...a few hundred bucks?"

"Well mam, we had the National Firearms Act here in America, anything with Safe Semi Full on the side of the receiver was worth in excess of 50 thousand dollars. The bigger and older the firearm was, the more it was worth. I sold that AR-15 to a lady in New York for thirty two five before those bombs fell."

Eirren whistled, "nice chunk of change."

"Sure was", Norman said. And then, as if on cue, we heard full auto fire erupt very close to the house and as we scrambled to get up and get our weapons, Nat came screaming over the radio.

"HELP ME!", She screamed, "HELP ME! IT'S THOSE THINGS!"

Will and Tyler ran upstairs to retrieve their firearms while their grandfather retrieved an M1 Garand in a plastic stock from underneath the table, checked to make sure it was loaded and then exited the house out front with us. Nat was running through the snow as fast as she could, spraying wildly behind her on full auto as THREE of the creatures Will had shown us last night were running, their massive paws covering their eyes, straight at her.

"Oh holy fuck!", Will gulped, "I barely survived one."

"Aim for the head", I said charging my AR-15. We couldn't engage yet, not without killing Nat. We waited, lining up our shots as she sprinted towards us, clearing the thick snow and joining us as she dumped her magazine and reloaded.

"Good to go!", she said as we let it rip against the creatures as fast as we could all work our triggers, unleashing a storm of lead the kinetic energy of which stopped the creatures in their tracks. While it stunned them, it didn't kill them. They laid there, lonely for a few seconds, enough to make us lower our weapons before getting up and coming straight back at us.

"Stay calm! Shoot for the eyes!", Will shouted, "it's their only weak point!"

Easier said than done. The torrent of head shots that came their way knocked them all down again, and when my AR clicked empty, it clicked in my head as well. Their skin was like a dragons, and if there was one thing us dragons were weak against? Shotguns and knives.

"Eirren! Use the Dragon's breath!"

"Got you!", she said slinging her Kalashnikov and drawing her shotgun, loading two of the remaining 4 Incendiary shells she had left while I went for my razor edged E-Tool. In that time, despite the rain of automatic fire from our friends, the three creatures managed to close the distance, turning the fight close quarters. The one that thought it was going to kill Eirren ended up getting the business end of Eirren's combination gun stuffed up against his neck and got his head blown clean off as a result. The one that rushed me got a lucky swipe in, slashing me to the bone across the right side of my face and nearly taking off my ear before I rammed the shovel into it's gut and twisted with everything I had, the razor bladed edges shredded it's vital organs and sprayed blood all over the pale sand under neath the covered area of the house. I ripped the shovel from it's stomach and buried it as deep as I could into it's neck. Because of how tough it's hide was, I couldn't deliver a lethal strike with a single blow. With my blade stuck deep into the creatures neck, I forced it onto it's knees, yanked the shovel out and slashed it again as hard as I could. The edge of the shovel stuck a good 4 inches into it's neck, only stopping when it hit the damn thing's spine. I pulled the shovel out again and struck a third time, this time with the tip. With the blade as deep as it would go, I began to pry, and pry and pry. Jerking the blade around as much as I could and with savagery I didn't know I possessed I tore the creatures head from it's neck and sent it flying into the snow.

My heart pounding and soaked in frigid blood, I turned to the remaining one, which was moving in for the kill on Nat and Norman, who were dumping ammunition into it, guarding Will and Tyler, both of whom had huge slashes in their stomachs, organs hanging out in some places. I grasped my weapon tightly and ran straight towards the creature, jumping into the air and body slamming it to the ground with all of my 480 pounds and drove the shovel straight through it's back, putting all of my weight on it to keep it pinned. The creature fought me savagely, reaching behind to swipe at me with a deranged roar, it nearly took my ear off, leaving it hanging by only a few grisly fibers. I could fell it hanging limp against the side of my head and the blood running down my neck.

"Eirren! Kill it, kill it right fucking now!"

Eirren came running over as the creature took another swipe, which I managed to dodge, further loosening my ear's connection to my head as I sank my claws into it's shoulder to keep it from swiping at me again. Nat joined me in holding it down as well. Zack had gotten Norman and his grand kids out of the way as Nat threw off her jacket and helmet and piled ontop of the monster with me. The radiation content in her body appeared to have risen, because out of the many deep gashes in her body, was a now white glow, as opposed to a normal yellow. Her flesh was even blacker and liquid Corium was leaking onto the creature from her open maw, starting fires when it made contact with the flesh. The smell of the burning and the angry, agonized screams of the creatures echoed miles throughout the wastelands as Nat stuffed her combination gun in the creatures mouth.

"Muhala motherfucker", Eirren growled as she pulled all three triggers at once. The creature's head disappeared in a spray of blood and bone, soaking and peppering us all. With it dead, I pried the shovel free. I stood there for a second, trying to catch my breath. The shovel slid from my hands after a few seconds, falling to the blood soaked snow with a thud. I backed up against the wall of the house. My black fatigues were soaked, I was cold, shaking and no doubt was going to lose my ear with the way it was just dangling, but oh my hell I was glad those things were dead.

"That was just three....imagine a horde of these", I shuddered slumping to the ground, "no way we could kill more than three of these, no god damn way we could."

"At least we know how to kill them", Eirren sighed as she turned her attention to helping Norman with will and Tyler. Zack helped too, while Nat stayed out here with me. She picked up her jacket and put it on, grabbed her helmet from the snow and sat by me.

"Looks like your mutation or...dare I say, powers, have stepped up a notch."

Nat looked at her glowing black and white hand and sighed, shaking her head, "since when is being so radio active you drip literal liquid radiation a plus?"

"Helped out not 40 seconds ago", I said looking towards her.

She sighed, "yeah. I just hope my suit can take it."

"Seems to be holding up fine...didn't it use to be brown?"

"It is brown", Nat said.

I shook my head, "looks like black and gold to me...but maybe that's just the pain in my ear talking. The ringing is super loud right now."

Nat studied her suit, apparently uttering words of confusion, I couldn't tell. After a moment of silence, she placed her helmet back on her head and zipped her jacket, sealing her helmet to it. The eye pieces now glowed a magnificent shade of blue rather than the emerald green they usually did. She stood up and helped me get to my feet.

"Let's get that ear of yours fixed", she suggested, "bad idea to let it dangle like that."

We went inside, where Eirren, Zack, Norman and his mate were all working on patching Will and Tyler up. According to Norman, while they were very deep slashes, none of their vital organs had been damaged, so they'd live.

"I'm sorry for having put your family through this Norman", Nat sighed, "if I had just ignored my urge to go for a morning walk...."

"Not your fault", Norman said, "they would have snuffed us out if ya'll hadn't been around. Look, I'm not staying here another day. I'm going to take my car and head towards Eire with my family, so to that end, my Ford Excursion is yours. Use her well, get home safe, in return, I only ask that you hang around 'till we're ready to leave. Shouldn't be more than a couple of hours."

I nodded. Nat helped me fix my ear, which in the end turned out to be cut pretty cleanly and it was easy enough to save, though easy, it was far from painless since she cauterized it back into place. Easily the most painful thing I'd ever been through in my life, but since Will and Tyler had just about been disemboweled, I wasn't going to complain. I went into the bathroom to clean up and change, while the other's helped Norman and his family pack up. When I joined them again, everyone was ready to leave.

"Safe travel's Norman", I said offering a handshake.

"To you too Arien", he said handing me a key with "Ford" stamped into it, "get home safe, try not to crash it or get it stolen."

I nodded as Norman stepped into his old Ford Taurus. The starter awakened the engine and the car pulled out of the garage, heading back the way we'd come just last night. With them gone, I turned my attention towards the Ford. The old, 1985 Excursion had been well taken care of and survived as if it were almost brand new. It had some dirt on it, but that was to be expected. The pitch black paint blended into the rubber of the big tires and rims while chrome trim ran throughout the length of the vehicle. The truck was sitting on semi truck style wheels, riding on a Buddy Club suspension kit in the front and rear and seemed to be riding on some kind of military tread that had a generous amount of sidewall and treading. It didn't have anything too flashy in the way of cosmetic mods, providing you ignored the heavy looking deer guard, perfect for smashing things, and the headlights which pierced your soul with their demonic glare. From the outside in, the headlights were a blend of Neon and LED's. Each unit had three distinct Neon Bulbs that had a half sphere mirror in front of them to reflect light back into the VERY heavily polished copper mirror that the actual bulb was half way depressed into. They were a bit difficult to see, but each of the copper mirrors had a halo of six LED lights around it that were angled in a way that the light they emitted would bounce off the edges of the sphere mirrors and back against a polished chrome back plate that had been so carefully detailed that I could make out the detail of the bricks in the house across the street in the reflection. Along the top of the headlights was another strip of about 50 LED's that appeared to be your standard daytime running lights, and underneath the main assemblies were the turn signals. The way the units were slanted, combined with the angles of the front bumper, hood and eye lips gave the Truck a face, and a quite unsettling face at that. Like someone had just waked in on their mate who had four other males in bed with her, on valentines day after spending a bunch of money on gifts no less.

"Looking like the same model of headlights Hunter used on his Charger", I said aloud as I inspected them further, "if they work even half as well as they look then we'll have an easy trip no matter how dark it gets."

I tried the handle, the door was unlocked. The interior of the car was tan with silver accents, reminding me of my Dad's old pickup. There were AWD badges that looked completely aftermarket, but also suspiciously factory. There was a "Excursion" badge on the tailgate and front bumper as well. There was a 15 inch tablet sitting above the AC controls and there was another "Excursion" woven into the tan fabric on the passenger's side dash broad. I also noticed that the shifter went 1,2,3,4,5,6,. A very interesting point of the truck were four, full size seats, rather than two full sized ones up front and a back seat, like most normal cars had. The front and rear seats were both by Recaro and they were some nice looking racing seats with deep buckets that were super soft to the touch, didn't think I'd mind doing a few thousand miles in these. The steering wheel was custom too. It reminded me heavily of the one in my Dad's old 240SX with the flat bottom, but it had a silver and black coloration instead of red and black. The shifter looked mostly stock, but it was nice to look at nonetheless.

"Kay...this couldn't be any better of a gift than it is", Zack said as he admired the sleekness of the pickup. He pointed out as well that the bunker on the back of the truck had been carpeted and made an integral part of the vehicle.

"No kidding", I said reaching inside and popping the hood to take a peek at the engine. I set my AR on the driver's seat and walked around to the front of the truck, pushing the hood open from the side, finding something that made Zack start to drool.

The 7.0 Liter V8 was easily the biggest engine I'd ever personally laid eyes on. Dark black winkle finish paint on the block blended nicely with the red accents on top of the crank case cover, all of the wires, the roll bar that crossed the top of the engine and all of the metal pipes and hoses that crossed around the engine bay. It wasn't hard to tell just by looking that the engine was putting out some serious power, even if you ignored the massive Turbo charger that was hanging right over the front differential and the giant intercooler that rested behind the radiator. The engine bay was super clean too, all of the wires were tied up and there wasn't a trace of dirt or grime any where. That would change soon.

"Damn this thing is clean", Zack said, "where has this truck been all my life?"

"This garage probably", Nat giggled, "we gonna get going?"

"Might as well. No point in hanging around here", I suggested.

We packed our gear into the back of the Ford, kept our sidearms close by and piled into the truck. I pushed in the clutch, made sure the transmission was in neutral and turned the key. The V8 under the hood woke up with the cammy, intimidating rumbling sound that I'd come to expect from tuned Japanese engines. Blue smoke wafted from the exhaust into the crisp morning air and the idle seemed to carry for miles, disturbing the normal peace and quiet of the wastelands. I put it in first and let off the clutch, giving it a little bit of gas and got a shove that I wasn't quite ready for that about had me slamming my brakes.

"Mmmm", I pondered, "that's some serious bite for a diesel."

"Will did say it was 800 horses going to all four wheels", Zack said, "I expected a shove, but not one that fierce."

"That's going to take some getting used to", I said turning onto the main road. I carefully put my foot into the pedal, testing to see what the vehicle was capable of. Turns out, 800 horses worth of diesel isn't to be fucked with by an amateur such as myself. Even on the ice and snow, the truck had so much grip and was so sure of itself that even slight pedal travel was enough to shove us into our seats. It was okay though, over the coming trip, I would have plenty of time to master it. Eirren called out directions from the passenger's seat as, in paranoid silence, we headed along the route that would take us within spitting distance of NYC. Heaven help us all.