Fallen World: The Complete Trilogy

by Tom Jones

  Arcades dropped to the ground, and he gasped for air; the fox had not been able to breathe for the past twenty seconds as his neck was squeezed by the human. Adrenaline was definitely going through the fox’s blood as well, but being deprived of oxygen for a third of a minute was enough to practically render unable to continue the fight. Jason was still holding his own against the human, but the wolf was not sure how long he would be able to continue the battle. Things seemed to be going better for him when he had the fox’s assistance simply because Arcades was another target for Terry to worry about. The human’s fighting style seemed rather unpredictable, and the wolf was seeing plenty of techniques and maneuvers which he had rarely seen before. The human was behaving in a sporadic manner: Terry threw plenty of punches and kicks in unusual ways, and Jason was focusing more on just defending himself rather than being on the offense. The wolf had taken a few blows to his torso, and he could feel himself beginning to lose the energy to keep up with the fight.

  Arcades was still on the ground while trying to get air going through his body again, and the fox also was trying to distance himself from the fight as much as he could. Arcades did not want to be seen by the human if he were to defeat Jason. Though the fox did want to go and assist the wolf, he was not sure how long he needed to recover enough to be able to fight again. In any case, Arcades was not even sure what he would be able to do for the wolf at this point. The fox had mainly prepared himself to defend himself, and he was not sure how long he would be able to last against an opponent which seemed to be so unpredictable. The fox was still on the ground, and he knew that he would not be able to stay on the ground if the human got the best of the wolf. Arcades tried to get to his feet, but he found that he lacked strength in his legs to stand him up. As a result, the fox scooted away from the human while still on the ground. Arcades was hoping that the noise made from him gasping for air would not unduly give away his position.

  Terry pinned Jason against the wall and used his right hand to hold the wolf’s neck on the wall. Meanwhile, with his left hand, the human delivered several blows to the wolf’s right torso before trying to strangle him with both hands. Jason’s arms flailed around in panic as he tried to do whatever he could to make the human stop his attack, but all of his efforts seemed to be futile. Finding himself losing consciousness from a lack of oxygen, Jason’s arms began moving slower and slower, and the wolf’s head began rolling around as his eyes began looking up towards the ceiling. After a few more seconds, the wolf seemed to go limp, and the human finally released Jason to fall flat on the floor. Arcades had witnessed the defeat of his brother, and he tried to hold in his panic the best he could. The fox desperately tried to stand up again, and he was able to get to one knee before he saw that the human was now coming directly at him. Arcades knew that there would not be a way for him to avoid the human now approaching at quite a rapid pace, so the fox tried to do what he could to brace for an immediate impact.

  That was when Arcades heard a gunshot sound from his right. The fox’s eyes shot to the right, and he saw Jackie was now standing inside of the house holding the SIG Sauer P365 that had been given to Jason just a few days ago. The vixen fired a second shot, and the human was struck by the handgun in the torso. The human lost balance and fell down before he was able to get to the fox, and Arcades began scooting himself away again to try and distance himself from his attacker. To the surprise of the fox, at least one round of 9x19mm was unable to stop Terry; the human stood up, turned towards the vixen, and lunged out at her. Jackie fired three shots in a panic, but only one of them struck her target. As the bleeding human grappled the dainty vixen, Jackie fired one last stray shot before she dropped the handgun in a panic. Arcades heard the vixen shriek in terror as she was grabbed, and he also heard the handgun fall to the floor.

  Using all of the strength he still had, Arcades finally got to his feet, and he was able to spot the handgun on the floor. The fox wasted no time limping towards the handgun, his body hurting all over from the treatment he received from Terry. Arcades found himself unable to look away from the vixen being senselessly beaten by the human. Right before the fox made it to the handgun, his legs finally gave up, and Arcades fell forwards, landing on his stomach. The fox began to crawl to the weapon using his arms, and he finally was able to reach out and grab the handgun. Arcades’ hands trembled as he aimed the handgun at the human, but he pulled the trigger with little hesitation. The fox heard a noise he would not forget: The handgun only emitted a click. Immediately, Arcades reached the slide with his left hand, and he racked it to eject a round which had not been struck properly. The round landed on the floor, and a new round was instead chambered into the pistol. Arcades pulled the trigger once more when he was finally aiming at the human.

  Terry was struck in the back, and he immediately stood up and let the screaming vixen go. The human turned around to face the fox, but Arcades shot another round at the human. The second round impacted the human in the upper torso, but he was still standing. Arcades fired one more round that impacted the human’s chest, and the human was now on approach to the fox. Arcades let out a desperate primal yell as the human descended upon the fox, and he fired his last round. The final round that was in the handgun landed directly in the human’s forehead, and it was enough to make the human collapse just inches away from the fox. A pool of blood was now accumulating around the deceased human, and all of the occupants in the room were practically motionless. Arcades’ breathing was uneasy, his hands were trembling, his ears were ringing, and his pistol’s slide was locked back as the fox looked at the aftermath of the brawl. The fox, still holding on to the empty handgun, scooted backwards again as he saw the human’s blood converging on his position. Even though the handgun was completely empty, the fox still tightly grasped it in his right hand as he realized that he had just had to directly kill somebody with it. When the fox was a safe distance away from the deceased human, he finally sat still to regain his strength and calm himself down.

  The fox had been so overwhelmed by the sudden situation that he almost forgot about Jackie and Jason. It was not until Arcades heard a faint whimper that he remembered that his two companions needed immediate attention. The whimpering caused by the vixen caught the fox’s attention, and Arcades finally discarded his empty P365 to attend to Jackie. Arcades was not confident in using his legs just yet, so he scooted towards the place where Jackie was lying. When the fox arrived at the vixen, he immediately placed his hands on Jackie’s chest to at least let her know that he was still breathing. Upon a quick visual inspection, there was blood around the vixen’s mouth, but Arcades did not know if the blood belonged to Jackie or Terry. Jackie’s eyes were closed, and there were definitely plenty of tears rolling down from her eyes. Arcades placed his hands on Jackie’s shoulders, and he repeated the first two words which came to his mind, “He’s done. He’s done. He’s done.”

  Arcades’ hands were still trembling as he held on to the vixen, and he tried to lift her upper body from off of the ground. Jackie did not resist, but she also did not put any effort in to sit up, either. However, the fox was still able to lift Jackie’s upper body from the ground, and he continued to hold her up as she refused to open up her eyes. Arcades did not know if Jackie was too injured to open her eyes, or if she really did not want to see what had just unfolded in front of her. Arcades briefly looked the vixen over to the best of his ability, but he was unable to determine the exact extent of her injuries. After all, the fur covering the body of an anthro was thick enough that it was often difficult to spot injuries. Most people had to look for fur stained with blood before locating any injuries. Arcades asked Jackie a couple of questions, “Can you walk? How bad are you hurting?” The vixen did not respond with words, but she did respond by reaching out and tightly embracing the fox while beginning to sob into his shoulder. Arcades returned the embrace, and he mutually embraced the vixen just as she held him. While Jackie was holding on to the fox, Arcades started speaking again, “I
took care of him. He’s done.” Jackie tried to speak in response, but she could not get anything coherent out past saying Arcades’ name, “K-Kurt!”

  “We’re going to be alright,” the fox said to the distressed vixen while trying to calm her down. Arcades spoke again after a second of silence on his part, “That man isn’t going to hurt you anymore.” The vixen still clung to Arcades. Even though the actual action was done and over with, Jackie was still caught up in the moment. The fox had been in numerous conflicts before, so he was not as affected by the situation like Jackie was; However, the fox was still not really prepared for the situation to go as it did. Arcades did everything he could to keep tensions low, but the situation still got out of hand. The fox then remembered that he and Jackie were not the only anthros harmed by the human. Arcades spoke the wolf’s name aloud, “Jason. I need to go and help Jason.” Jackie replied while still gripping the fox, “D-Don’t leave me here, Kurt!” Arcades then said, “I’m still here. I just need to know if Jason’s alright.” Even though the fox would not be abandoning the vixen, Jackie did not want to let go of Arcades.

  Arcades finally decided that he could not spare any more time: The fox lightly pushed himself away from the vixen, but he did so in a way that he did not violently remove himself from Jackie. The vixen still grasped the fox’s shoulders, but she was now at a distance that she opened her teary eyes to view Arcades. Jackie now looked eye-to-eye with Arcades, and the vixen could very well see the look of concern on the fox’s face. The fox removed his hands from the vixen’s back, and he used them to lightly grab Jackie’s hands before removing them from his own body. Though Jackie was rather hesitant at first, she was beginning to realize that she was not the only one who was injured, so she eventually complied with Arcades and let go of him. Arcades reassured the vixen that he would return, “Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere. I just need to make sure that Jason is alright.” Though Jackie was not touching the fox, she held her hands out in the air towards Arcades, and she still looked up at the fox, “Don’t leave me here, Kurt.” The fox reached out to grab the vixen’s forearms for additional reassurance, “You’re alright. You’re safe now. I’ll be back once I get Jason.” Arcades released his grip on the vixen, and he attempted to stand up. Though he was hurting and still weak from losing air, he was starting to regain his strength.

  Arcades did not lose consciousness like the wolf did, so the fox figured that it would probably be a little while until Jason would be able to walk again. For the time being, the fox would have to basically make sure that the wolf was still breathing. Jason did fall unconscious from hypoxia, but he should not have any long-term effects if he did not lack air for too long after passing out. Arcades tried to recount what had happened as he limped over to the wolf: From what he could remember, the fox saw the human release Jason not long after he appeared to fall unconscious. If the wolf was not profusely bleeding, then he probably should not have anything too wrong with him. However, Arcades was not sure if Jason received any internal injuries during the fight. There were definitely a few moments where Jason could have broken some of his ribs at the very least.

  After limping to where the wolf was, Arcades got down on his knees, and he rolled Jason over to see if he was still breathing. The fox put his hand on the wolf’s chest to feel his body, and he could definitely tell that Jason was indeed breathing. Arcades also decided to check the wolf’s pulse for good measure, and he also was able to confirm that Jason was at least alive. The fox picked up the wolf’s limbs as he tried to look for any signs of bleeding, but he could not find anything. Jason was wearing a short-sleeved polo shirt and shorts, so it did not take long for Arcades to check the wolf’s limbs over. The wolf was wearing combat boots, so Arcades felt that he did not need to check and see if Jason’s feet were hurt. After all, the wolf’s boots appeared to be in decent shape. Arcades was still not wearing any footwear, and the fox was starting to feel that he was pretty lucky not hurting his own feet in the scuffle. Arcades untucked the wolf’s shirt, and he lifted it up to reveal the fur on the wolf’s torso. The fox felt the wolf’s stomach and chest lightly to check for damage, but he was not sure if he would be able to identify any internal issues if they were present.

  While the fox was still checking the wolf over, Jason began to wake up, and he opened his eyes to see Arcades with his hands on the wolf’s chest. Arcades thought he saw a head move in his peripheral vision, so when the fox looked over to check his suspicion, he saw Jason staring back at him. The fox immediately tried to speak with the wolf, “Jason, are you alright?” The wolf was slow to respond, but he was able to talk, “Eugh. I feel like crap, mate.” Arcades still knelt over the wolf as he talked with him, “What hurts?” Jason looked up at the ceiling before responding, “I can’t even tell right now.” When the wolf remembered what had happened to him before he fell unconscious, he tried to prop himself up to look around, “Where’d the human go?” Arcades looked towards the ground before directing his vision back at the wolf and replying quite nonchalantly, “I killed him.” Jason looked a tad surprised, “You killed him?” Arcades gave a nod and replied, “That’s right. If I didn’t, he was going to kill you and Jackie.”

  The wolf could not see the human’s body, so he still had unanswered questions, “How’d you kill him?” Arcades said, “Jackie went back to the truck to get a gun. If it wasn’t for her… I probably would not have won that encounter.” Jason was reminded of the vixen who was in their care, “Jackie? Is she alright? What happened to her?” Arcades answered the wolf’s question, “She’s alright, but she’s shaken up. The human started beating her up, but I put him down before that got too bad. It’s you I’m more worried about.” Jason gave a smile to the fox, laid his head flat on the floor, and he said, “I’ve been through worse. I’ll be fine, mate.” Arcades placed his hand underneath the wolf’s head to give him some sort of cushioning so that his head would not be on the hard tile floor, “Anything broken in you?” Jason gave a small chuckle, “Hah. I think it’ll take a bit more than that to break me.” Arcades smiled in response and looked down at the wolf, “You sure about that? You passed out.” Jason took a deep breath before replying, still keeping his smile, “Good thing I have you here, then.” Since Arcades saw that Jason was alright, he decided that it would be best for him to return to Jackie, “I’ll go back to Jackie if you don’t mind. Are you gonna be alright here on your own? Jackie’s a little shaken up still.” Jason nodded his head while it was in the fox’s hand and said, “Yeah, sure mate. I’ll be fine.” Arcades had one more question for the wolf, “Are you going to be able to walk on your own?” The wolf replied with a smile, “He didn’t get me that bad, mate.” The fox nodded one last time before releasing the wolf and saying, “Glad to see you’re alright.” Jason spoke as Arcades stood up to walk away, “I’ll catch up to you in a minute.”

  When the fox returned to the vixen, he could see that Jackie was still sitting on the floor, almost assuming a fetal position. Arcades got down on his knees behind the vixen, and he reached out to grab her shoulders. When Jackie saw that the fox had returned, she grabbed him again, and she clung to him once more. The fox spoke to Jackie, “I’m back.” Jackie held on tightly to the fox, but she did not have anything immediate she needed to say. For the next few moments, Arcades continued to allow Jackie to embrace him, and he returned the favor by holding his arms around her body to comfort her. The fox began to speak to the vixen to break the silence, “I wanted to thank you for coming back to get that handgun. If it wasn’t for you doing that… I don’t think any of us would have made it out of that situation alive.” Jackie did not have any reply, but she still held onto the fox. Arcades felt that he would likely not get to have a conversation with the vixen coming out of the situation, so he decided that it would probably be best for him to simply remain silent and continue to hold Jackie until she calmed down.

  As the fox remained with the vixen, he heard the voice of a familiar wolf approach from behind him,
“Crikey. You messed ‘em up real good, mate.” Arcades looked at Jason, and he could see that the wolf was examining the body which was still in the same spot it was when the human keeled over. The fox asked Jason a question regarding his well-being since the wolf did not seem to be having too much trouble standing on his own, “How are you feeling now, Jason?” The wolf directed his attention at the fox and replied, “I’m a bit sore, but I’ll be fine. Got a bit of a headache right now as well. It’s nothing that I can’t handle. How about y’self?” Arcades said, “I got roughed up a little bit, but it’s not as bad as what happened to us two years ago.” The wolf watched as the fox held the vixen in his arms, and he also saw that Jackie was holding Arcades back, “Are you sure she’s alright?” Arcades nodded, “Yeah. Just a bit shaken up, and maybe a little roughed up. I didn’t see anything major, and she hasn’t really complained about anything specific. I think she’ll be alright.” The fox quieted himself to see if Jackie did have anything to say about her sustained injuries, but since she stayed silent, Arcades took the vixen’s silence as a sign that she did not have anything urgent that was in dire need to report to him.