When my mind had finally caught up with itself after my panic ridden run I could see the sky was beginning to lighten, heralding the sun. It must have been at least thirty minutes since I lost myself then, maybe? I didn’t recognize where I was. My breaths sucked in and out in heaves, leaning on a house. This was... The city outskirts. I could tell from the prefabs, my rational mind was coming back to me. Thank goodness.
The crowd I’d run with was dispersed into groups of a couple dozen at a time, running to and fro down different streets. We’d gone from a herd of thousands to a mob running in any direction that might reasonably mean safety.
I pulled out my tablet, cluing into what little of our planetary communication’s network remained, trying to push the sounds of panic and the distant alarms still blaring from the city behind me to the back of my mind.
Bold lettering met my inquiry to the news. “Seek Shelter. Barr city shelters A, C, E, F, K unresponsive.” That did little to nothing to help my nerves, but- I had to keep it together. The closest intact bunker was about four kilometres to my south through open forest. Well- there was closer ones, but I wasn’t headed anywhere near in-city. The bombing had ended, but the smouldering ruin was in no good shape.
Almost as if to further cement the situation I heard the streak of in-atmosphere jets whooshing by. My head craning up to see as three of our interceptors bore down on incoming dots in the mid-atmosphere. Dazzling explosions and lights followed, and I thought I could see the Bala’ur ships crackling and falling to the planet surface in husks. My chest fluttered, and I let out a little cheer. “Get em! Yes!” Oh thank goodness... We weren’t out of the fight. We might still be alright.
I looked back down at my pad finally when the fight grew too distant for me to see in the searing sunlight, flicking to my messages and seeing a lit up text from Geal. It was timestamped at about forty minutes ago.
-“Yiv, are you home?”
-“Stay put. I’m only a minute away. I’ll come get you.”
That idiot. My eyes watered, where did he get the idea that we knew each other well enough for him to go playing hero? The world goes to the Bala’ur and his first thought was to save me? I’d seen the bombardment hits, the chances of him surviving were slim. My paw digits moved on the keyboard briefly.
-”Hope you’re safe, Geal.”
Before my sentimentality killed me I checked my other messages. Nothing. Our infrastructure must have been fractured to oblivion after the first couple bomb hits. Communication satellites were target practice for the raiders too. I breathed the first calm breath I had since this all started, looking around.
Alright.. OK. I was shivering with fear, the world was ending, and I had to traverse out of here and into the forest to get to a safe place. The plan in my head formed... With some amount of effort I willed my shaky, tired limbs to move. Climbing up the side of the habhouse with one paw over the other. My hind claws affording me enough grip to manage little leaps up to handholds until I was on the roof about two stories high. The sturdy not-quite plastic material under my paws assuring me of safety from the street level. At least those prowling grey shadows in the edges of my vision couldn’t get up here. Could they?
I shook my head to dissipate the thought. With that, my journey started, and I hopped from rooftop to rooftop. A couple others had had the same idea, no surprise considering our arboreal roots. I could spot a few on the houses across the street from me, and over the neighbouring street’s rooftops as well.
Jump, land, allow my legs to shock absorb. Take a quick run, jump, land. I was concentrating for a couple minutes before I heard the sudden crackle of something popping and whizzing. I pushed myself to lay flat on the rooftop. That must have been!... I hadn’t been paying well enough attention, there was a firefight just a hundred meters ahead. The buzzing of the sirens and the booms from the air had distracted my ears from setting off alarm bells. “By the Obelisk.” I swore.
There were shouts, I could hear some of my own kind giving off chirps and squeaks in what I recognized as military shorthand. Their vocalizations were crisp and clear, but I could hear the panic in their tones. Even if I couldn’t parse the meaning, the fight was going poorly for our side. I could hear death calls, pinging bullets flying off surfaces as they went wide, and the guttural calls of the enemy I’d yet to see face to face. All that left me was my imagination, and it nearly seized my mind again.
With a shuddering breath I stood up and leaped a house closer, hunching over and scurrying my way along the opposite side of the rooftops from the street, growing closer but staying well enough out of sight. I thought I was out of sight at least. By sheer bad luck or something else I heard a rocket flaring. There was a shout. “Get down!” but before I could even think to look where it was coming from something impacted the building I stood on.
The loss of structural integrity had caused the roof to suddenly and without mercy slant down like a slide toward the street, my hinds slipping out from under me as my fur coated rump and back made for an excellent surface to slip down on at high speed. “No- no no no no!” I could hear my voice as I squirmed to right myself and jam my claws into the angled roof, but it was too late, all I got for my effort was the gritting sound of my claws trying to stop my momentum before I tumbled off the lip and down to the road.
Whump. I’d landed hard, ensuring bruises on my thigh and side would form soon enough. None of that was my concern though. I was on my footpaws before I’d even had time to think, scrambling for the closest cover as whooping Bala’ur voices slammed into my ears from not too far away. Had they enjoyed that!? I didn’t even bother to look, just diving behind a chunk of the house I’d just been on. There was still gunfire on both sides, but the amount of chirps I could count among my kind were dwindling. They sounded just as afraid as I felt.
My chest was heaving again, this time from adrenaline and panic. This was the closest I’d ever come to dying and I knew there was a fate worse than dying even closer on its heels. Two snapping jaws on either side of my psyche, threatening- “Stop! Stop!” I thrust both my forepaws to my head, eyes shutting as I tried to block out all the horrible images.
A crackling voice met my plea. “...Close Air Support Briar-1 for south-southwest Barr is ready for tasking. Point me at em.” It sounded like a rudimentary radio device. My eyes popped open as I tried to find the source. “Briar-1 for tasking. Anyone there? I’ve got uhh.. only so much time.” I dived for the discarded speakerbox. Whoever had owned it previously mercifully wasn’t in sight. They’d probably ran. Hopefully.
My own voice responded back. “Yes! Yes! Uh- Briar! Please, t-t-there’s a street fight. The Bala’ur- they’re shooting!” A couple horrible gut wrenching seconds, and then the voice returned, as if realizing they were dealing with someone who had no idea what they were saying. “Alright, do me a favour? There should be a switch with a red dot on it, click that, and then point the top of the communicator at the ground where the Savages are.”
I balked. “W-why!? They’ll see me!” The idea was anathema. Even looking in their direction would send me running for the hills all over again like a wild animal. “It’s a guiding system. It’ll ping out your location, and show me where to bulldoze so you don’t get hit. I won’t know where to shoot otherwise.” Came the curt reply. No assurances, no pep-talk, he’d just answered my question and left it up to me. How could I do this? Did I have a choice? I wanted to live. I had to.
With a flush of unmitigated fear I breathed back. “OK. I’ll do it.” Before I scrambled my back up against the rubble I’d been hiding behind, slowly scooting my way along it until the street firefight was just a few whisker lengths away. All I’d have to do was poke my head out around the corner and point, right? With a monumental effort scrounged up in no small part by me convincing myself this was the only way to live I popped my head out. The sunlight made it hard to see, everything down the street was a silhouette of haze back-dropped by the bright sunrise. The Bala’ur had been fighting with their backs to the sun, and we’d been... Those clever bastards.
I couldn’t make their details out, but I could see the huddled cover their guns were making that racket from. I pointed best I could with only one of my eyes as the other strained shut from the light and held the trigger of the red button. A couple seconds later I heard the voice of the pilot come through. “That’s it. Just keep them lit up.”
A whooshing noise flashed by overhead as the jet cut a T across the road, I couldn’t see where it was after that, but I could hear it changing direction. My ear swivelling to track it... “Alright. I’d get down if I were you missy.” They didn’t need to say it twice. I backed up and stuck the communicator into my jacket pocket. Huddling tightly with my tail curled around my front.
Painful seconds passed. Ten... Twenty seconds. “We’re over-run! Flee!” Had come the call from one of our survivors. “Scurry!” Another called. They’d put up the fight for longer than anyone could have asked. And then- A thundering thk-thk-thk-thk-thk-thk-thk-thk noise peppered into the street, nearly deafening me as chunks of asphalt and... Something chunky and red splattered against a nearby overturned car. Whatever they’d shot, they’d shot a lot of it, and it was explosive.
A few seconds later the concussive noise of solid bvrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr sounded. It took a moment, but with numb amazement I realized what it must have been. A voice crackled from my hip pocket again. “Briar-1, gottem. Do me a favour and get to safety whoever you are. Good luck. -- Briar-1 is dry, returning-” The rest of the jargon was lost on me as I shut it off. I didn’t need it attracting attention to me.
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On fast paws I ran my way out of cover, only chancing a look down where the Bala’ur had been. The street was quiet, save for the sounds of the chaos going on in the distance. I needed to find those soldiers, they could get me to safety. “H-hello? Is anyone left?” I called. Curse the sun, my eyes weren’t built for this. When I spotted movement though... Ah the swampbrained dolts had really lost their nerve, and hadn’t realized they’d just been saved. I could see three or four of them retreating up the road back toward the smouldering city. I wasn’t going that way.
My ears perked, on high alert while I hunkered down by a hastily placed concrete block that had likely been used for cover. A quick look around confirmed what I’d heard. There were bodies. Bodies of my kind, some of them laying slumped in the alleys on either side, one of them half buried in rubble. Feathery bodies too, too mashed by the jet to be recognizable as the enemy, and- well the blood made it hard to make out anything. My breaths came through as dry. I could feel my stomach threatening retribution if I looked too long at any one of them.
I’d still not heard any Bala’ur... So I chanced to pop my head up from behind the barrier. Was that?... “Are you alive?” I’d asked outloud, jumping from behind the block and toward where the Bala’ur had been. Sliding to a stop in an indent in the street that’d half collapsed into the sewer system under the streets. A Cyonian lay face down, his chest moving. Ahhh ff- I could feel the shadowy grey beings in my imagination stalking up behind me, making my neck and back fur rise. Did I really have time to play nurse?
If there were gods out there, they’d have best been watching my good deed. I rolled the downed soldier over, his body armor looked like it’d taken chunks of street to it from an explosion. A stitched name on the chest denoted a simple “Els”. Besides the bleeding coming from his head from under the sturdy metal helmet though he looked fine. I didn’t know how to tell if he was too hurt to wake up but... I pressed a paw to his chest. “Wake up.” I gave him a gentle shake. All that came back was the wheeze from my forcing air out of his lungs with the push.
“Aaa- c-come on...” This was a death sentence to try and help, but I had to right? I wrapped my paw around his waist and hoisted him up and over my back, taking on a more semi-quadrupedal posture to help support the weight. I also happened to yoink the little sidearm out of his holster, not that I knew how to use the thing. “Alright Els. Let’s at least get you somewhere you won’t end up eaten.” I muttered, beginning to carry him out of the crater he’d been taking cover in... or landed in. The sewers were a non-option from what I remembered reading about the Bala’ur. They’d smell him a mile away with the blood in an enclosed space, and the darkness favoured their eyes as much as it did ours.
The Bala’ur had been trying to cordon off the street out into the wilderness, so... That must mean it was the good option. Luckily, I was a silver tail and this poor fellow was white tail. The difference was subtle, and most non-Cyonians never noticed the distinction because of the black-on-white or black-on-silver ringtail pattern. Silvers were known to grow a bit taller, so he was in strong paws. Comparatively.
More minutes. His weight was beginning to tire me all over again. I’d been moving almost non-stop since the start of all this and... The treeline in the far distance hadn’t been growing closer. I opted to try and find some place to bunker down, at least until Els was better. I could use the rest anyway.
A short visual search and I spied a house with an open front door, plodding my way inside and kicking the entrydoor shut behind me. “Alright... Hhh... Just gonna play some house until I’ve got my breath back.” I managed, carrying the poor guy up the thin stairway to the second floor. At the least the construction for our short species height would impede them getting up there. They’d have to blow the wall out or come up a very cramped stairway to get to us.
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Setting him down in a bed that had hastily been vacated by its last occupant not long ago had been easy. As had been finding some food in the fridge, which meant I was gratefully munching on a fruit off and on. The home had no power, predictably.
Getting his helmet off and stopping the light oozing of his bleeding head had... Churned my stomach again, but I’d held on despite the peachy pink of his blood. I’d tied a rag ripped from a pillow case around another compacted rag to at least keep some pressure on it. I’d helpfully found an electronic telescope on him too, which... He wouldn’t be needing so I pocketed it.
My mind was running the numbers. I could go now, I’d gone far and beyond what anyone else would have done at a time like this. A tired sigh as I leaned up on the wall, letting my used muscles finally rest. The adrenaline, the constant stress, it’d all taken a toll on me. The distant explosions, the jets, all of it had died down. Or at least the sounds of them were dampened in here enough it sounded like they’d lessened. With a tired growl I flipped my tablet back out, jamming my pointer digit into it until I’d scrolled to find that yes, everything was down by now. I had no connection. Cut off. In just a matter of an hour or two we were on our knees. I had to wonder if it was this bad elsewhere. Was my homeworld on fire? How was the fleet? Was help coming?...
Tears welled, and I choked back a sob. Shit, I would have taken anyone right now to tell me it was going to be alright. Geal... You stupid twit. Why couldn’t you be here? As I sat there, quietly crying with my muzzle buried in my arms I realized I was grieving for all of it. My life, my family, even Geal of all people. I’d liked his company and never admitted it to myself. It felt terrible to leave that unfinished, to have never told him he was a good friend at least.
For now the threat outside seemed far away, and all I could do was wallow in my feelings. Alone. Well mostly, Els didn’t seem up for conversation.
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I blinked, eyes blearily opening. Where... Oh no. I’d fallen asleep, I’d literally cried myself to sleep. My head snapped up and I looked around frantically. It was still daylight out, and the distant sounds of warfare hadn’t stopped. “I-” My body was standing up, having at least caught some rest after its adrenaline fuelled day so far. I checked the time, it was an hour past noon. Oh. Oh no. I mean, I felt... Less horrible after letting it all out but that lost time was not good. I reached to the military radio in my belt satchel, turning it on.
“-tomated message repeats: All ground forces from Barr are to retreat to east-town across the river. The city is lost. Orbital containment has failed. To those of you trapped within: Reports from Caldoni, Ataln and Olympia are the same. This doesn’t appear to be a raid, you can’t afford to bunker in place. The Bala’ur are staying planetside and maintaining strategic bombardment as needed. The predators are staying. Refugee corridors west have been forced shut by-”
I snapped it off before it could continue. Eyes wide with alarm I looked to my sleepy companion. If the only escape west was shut, and the only place we were still fighting was across the river... That left me little options on where I could go. Crossing a river with hunter teams around was the stupidest idea anyone could ever have. The treeline south was becoming more and more like the only option. “Els, now would be a good time to wake up.” I said, almost more for my own sake than to actually hope it’d yield anything.
“I am. Have been for a little while.” A dry mouthed voice came back to me. He sounded like he’d been kicked in the gut, or maybe smacked in the head by concrete I supposed. Regardless, my heart jumped with relief. At least I had a soldier with me now right? He knew how to get out of here all sneaky- “O-oh good! How are you feeling? Do you need water? I’m Yivreen. We need to get out of here as soon as we can.”
He flicked his tail dismissively at me. “Not unless you’re carrying me. I tried to get up. I’m too dizzy to do much of anything when I move my head.” Came the sober response. Aah... I just couldn’t get a win today could I? “I can try-”
Again, he waved me off. “I was kidding swampfly. You’ll get yourself killed trying to do that.” This was... not how I’d planned for this to go. I’d wanted guidance, a plan that wasn’t just my mind blindly grasping at straws. “Well, what do I do then?” I asked earnestly, my own voice catching on the words.
He’d sighed, a beady nocturnal eye we all carried looking back at me. “You take that gun, take some of the extra bullets I have, you take your tail, and you go roof to roof until you’re in the woods. Then you keep going until you’re too far in for them to follow. If that broadcast was true, for some reason they aren’t levelling the cities entirely. The wildlands are the safest bet you’ll get. They can’t climb trees as well as we can.”
I locked my jaw. He was sending me away. I’d been thinking of myself and how he could help me, but... He was writing himself off as dead already, and I couldn’t really blame him. “I’ll try to find a working car first.” I muttered, collecting the extra ‘mags’ of bullets from him and headed out, despite his incessant protests and verbalization. “I’m telling you to get out of here-” I made sure to leave him water before I went out, for what it was worth.
The sunlight bore down on me even as I stepped out into the back porch of the home, my form again finding a good spot for climbing up to the roof to at least get a good look around. With careful paws I was hoisting myself, aaaaand- the sight wasn’t what I’d hoped for. All around us gentle fires burned. The fires of the orbital bombardment had simmered, but the flames of war were everywhere. Every couple dozen seconds I could hear the quick bark of those infernally loud guns belting out, probably marking the end of another one of my people. I thought I could also hear... deeper chirps and guttural verbalization on the wind. It had to be them, communicating long distances with their disgusting language.
With some reluctance at what I’d find I flicked out the telescope, setting it to ‘day’ mode so it’d dim the light of the sun for easier viewing. The sky was thick with smoke, and from what I could surmise our airforce was nowhere to be seen anymore, just a small, steady trickle of Bala’ur landers from orbit touching down near the city center, with others leaving like a looping convoy. I turned the scope in the direction of east-town, the smaller half of the city on the other side of the river it was hard to make out over some of the buildings between me and there but... It looked like there were still explosive flashes, I even caught sight of a lander using its bottom mounted gun on some target I couldn’t see, only for it to get nailed by a missile from the ground and tumble into the factory building under it. I’d jumped a bit at the vivid show of violence, but... I was quickly finding that if I didn’t start reeling my sensitivities in they’d get me killed.
“Balge nashka!” A loud, guttural voice barked at me from the street below. It couldn’t have been more than a couple houses down from where I was. My attention was suddenly not so centred on the telescope, but on jumping away from that voice to the opposite side of the roof. The raucous speech had been unmistakably Bala’ur! “No!” I shrieked. It was as if I could feel the smokey snapping jaws my mind continued to plague me with biting onto my tail, urging me to move.
The barking retort of a gun slamming its payload toward me came, and I felt the whizzing bullets just barely graze past the fur on my back as I narrowly dodged out of sight. That had been lucky. Not that I was considering it at the time. My body jumped down into the backporch, and I was putting precious distance between me and the predators by hopping the fences over into the next street. “I won’t!” Came the senseless denial of whatever they’d said from my voice.
I thought I could hear the patrol barging through the fence I’d just hopped, giving chase to me with their bigger forms. I didn’t dare look. Instead my eyes were ahead, plotting an escape.
I’m sorry Els.