Fast Food Furries Book 1

Chapter 7a: The Pursuit

of course the next chapter immediately after deciding to split them up into two parts each is by far the shortest one yet. whatever I'll keep doing it for consistency.

—————————————————

Damien

—————————————————

Mach had proceeded to explain everything that had happened—how Big City Mouse slowly corrupted Harambe and eventually turned him against him.

"Jesus," I said. There wasn't much to say. "That's... I'm sorry. Did you come back to try to change his mind one last time?"

We were still walking through the tunnels, heading vaguely in the direction of Harambe High. Nobody had followed us down here, but it was surely just a matter of time.

"Something like that," said Mach, averting his gaze.

I sighed. "But now... with the news of his death... He never got that last chance."

Mach shook his head. "He had every opportunity to do the right thing. He was lied to and manipulated, yes, but the onus of his actions ultimately lies with himself."

"So the best thing we can do now is to stop Big City Mouse," I observed.

"Damn right."

"We'll have to turn at some point, right?" asked Mach.

I hesitated. "Uh, you're asking me?"

Mach looked to me. "Uh, you're asking me?"

"We don't know where we're going," I sighed in realization.

"We do not know where we're going," Mach reiterated with a nod.

"Head to the surface?" I asked.

Mach was about to agree but paused. "No. The ERC is swarming the surface. We'll move through the tunnels for now and head up once we're closer."

And so we kept walking. We were both exhausted as it was late at night, but we couldn't stop. We were consistently hearing mysterious noises from elsewhere in the tunnels, and were pretty sure it was the ERC peeking in to see where we had fled to.

Before long, after many winding tunnels, we had forgotten what direction we were even facing. Still we trudged along, silently agreeing that our best bet was to keep moving to avoid the heat. Time and space became a blur, and by the time we surfaced, the dim blue of dawn was creeping into the sky and we were in a wildly different part of the city from Harambe High.

"Great," Mach groaned, rubbing the bags from under his eyes.

We had arrived in a pharmacy within a quaint residential area, and I took a seat on a bench outside to rest my legs after hours of walking. Mach plopped down next to me and his eyes immediately drifted shut.

On another bench just a few metres away, there sat the coiled up form of a mega-rat, staring blankly at the scenery and declining to move at all. I could immediately tell it was one of the "enlightened" ones, who achieve such through a complicated procedure and consequently gain immortality. Unfortunately, the mega-rats live such vapid and soulless lives that their entire perception of life and reality rots away upon enlightenment, damning them to, quote, "a hellish ten thousand years yearning for death." Feeling a small pang of sympathy for the disillusioned fellow, I returned to the store and rifled around until I found a book of crossword puzzles and a pencil. I tossed them on the bench beside the mega-rat, whose trance was broken and replaced with delight upon seeing my gift. They flipped open the book and got to work. Mega-rats LOVE crossword puzzles.