The F.O.X. Project

Chapter 13: Crystal

Derelict houses and sidings with decaying locomotives littered the side of the track, surrendering to the overgrown forests around them. The remnants of the time before the plague.

The plague was a super virus that had escaped a facility in North Korea during the 2020s. It had swept over most of Eastern Asia before the USA got into political tensions with China and a war broke out. Most cities were left deserted, their populations wiped out by the plague, while the surviving cities were locked in a deadly battle of sub-nuclear warfare, wiping out surviving cities.
Trent imagined what these civilizations could have looked like, seeing the burnt out hulks of old cars and crippled steel girders jutting out from the masses of concrete. Most cities that had been wiped out by the plague were stripped down for resources to build the new ones. With the exception of Macropolis.

Macropolis didn't really need to be rebuilt and couldn't be due to its scarily well-coordinated population being pretty good at defending what was left of the old city of Tokyo. Inevitably, it was taken over and it's tallest structure, Vu Tower, was captured and transformed into a Control building.Vu Tower is now the oldest building on Vanet.

♦️ ♦️ ♦️

The T-30 Locomotive slid to a stop. End of the line.
Trent leapt out to examine his surroundings. He heard the minute snap of a twig coming from behind the train.
'You followed me?!' He exclaimed
'I was curious to how there is a Anthro this far back in time.'
'I'm sorry what?'
'A Fox. This far back in time.'
'Okay...'
'My name is Crystal by the way-'
Just that second, it dawned on her.
'You're the first Fox aren't you?'
'From what I know, I'm the only Fox.' Trent replied with slight confusion. Was this Fox from the future?
He shrugged and looked around. They were in a forest, birds chirped overhead and the faint thunder of the war could be heard in the distance. Trent's stomach growled angrily at him. He had worked up quite an appetite.
Walking to the back of the train he grabbed a small selection of food, offered some to Crystal and started to tuck in.
'So,' Crystal began, 'what is your plan?'
'Hmm?'
'You don't have a plan.' She breathed. 'In that case, you should head to Pacifico.'
'Pacifico is gone.' Trent stated.
'They are rebuilding it as we speak.'
'Fine. But how will we get there? The trains fuel cell is fried.'
'We run.' Crystal answered matter-of-factly.
'What are you talking about?'
'You may have realized by now that you can run fast, but your species (my species) can run for extremely long durations too.'
'I'll find a bag for food then. It's a long way and I trust your not bullsh*ting me and actually expect me to run nearly a thousand miles through barren wasteland and patches of tangled forest.'
'Ok but let's leave soon.'
Just then another train pulled to a halt behind theirs and Max jumped out.
'We need to go.' Crystal exclaimed as Trent finished packing a small rucksack and put it on his shoulders.
Max ran towards them. They set off at forty-five miles an hour, speeding through the forest, leaving Max, confused as hell, in the dust.

They broke out, running, across the Wastes. Large craters from the 2027 Light Wars rose up from the flat, barren landscape.
They pulled up alongside the huge endocrite tread tracks for BiRails to travel along. A nomad town lumbered across the horizon to their left.
'It's quite surreal.'
'Huh what?'
'Running this fast.'
'Oh yea. I've never seen this area before.'
'This is what's left of a country called North Korea.' Crystal stated.
They followed the BiRail tracks along the coast. Crystal pointed at a selection of large islands to their right.
'Those islands over there are called Oceania, there used to be an entire continent but it was destroyed when a barrage of projectiles landed in the surrounding ocean.'
'The worlds not much better now.'
'No but at least all the damage to the planet has been done.'
Their conversation was drowned out by a BiRail going past about a hundred miles an hour faster then they were running. Endless rows of black steel carriages flew by, thundering loudly on their tread bases and roaring when an engine car passed by. The end car passed by about a quarter of an hour after the locomotive.

As the sun set over the sea, transforming it to a beautiful shining gold, Trent and Crystal sat down and ate.
'Although this world isn't perfect, it's still amazing. DCC doesn't really care about most of our populations as long as we work so it's pretty nice.' Trent marveled.
'Yea. I haven't been here in ages.'
'It's nice.'
As the sky grew to a thick black tar, bright flecks of stars scattered across it like paint. The Milky Way, a stream of colour across the stars, shined its stunning purples and blues as they bedded down for the night. Their fur shielding them from the bitter cold.
'Night.' Trent said.
'Night.' Crystal replied.