>>>>[[[[NOTE: DAY 27]]]]<<<<

“You ready for this?” Shadow asked, helping me remove my shirt.

I was tired after a night of worrying. Listening to Shadow and Brynn sleep had not soothed me into dreamland. My worries and racing thoughts had hindered me joining the rhythm of their sleep.

I looked around the second testing room with the big water tank. More equipment and wires cluttered the gray space. As usual, the science peeps had not told me about what test was involved. Shadow helped me strip my clothes, and Burt stood nearby, somehow looking stoic and fierce at the same time.

“I don’t feel ready at all,” I said with a long exhale. “I just want this to be all over.”

“I hear you,” huffed Burt. “I don’t know if what they’re doing here will do any good, but at least they’re keeping my family safe down here.”

I felt satisfaction at the thought. I did that. I helped the furs I cared about. With me and those I cared for sheltered, maybe I could help the world be safe. Maybe more could be saved than would ever fit in the gray bunker.

A large kangaroo I didn’t recognize approached with light underwater breathing gear. Without a word, he started to attach it all to my body. He placed a full-face mask, output breathing filter, and a small earpiece, so they could pressure me with words while I had to concentrate.

“Thanks?” I said to his retreating back.

“They’re so rude here,” said Burt. “No wonder you didn’t feel safe. They’re not telling you anything.”

I nodded, looking at all the creatures in the room: three fins, four feathers, and about eight furs. The room was large, but they were still tripping over each other and snapping their tempers. Social skills weren’t high on their learning priorities.

A new fur I’d never seen before stomped in. “Alright, everyone. What’s the status?” asked the rhino as she filled up even more of the available space.

Galena snapped her beak. “Closer to being ready if all these furs would do their jobs.”

“I don’t want to hear it. Just get it ready. Can’t you get along for five minutes?” the big female growled. “This isn’t war. You’re not soldiers, so get along. Got it?”

“Yes ma’am,” came from a few creatures.

The rhino stomped over to me, the large flat feet taking the great weight above. “I swear. Soldiers a week off their food routine are easier to deal with.”

I snickered. The science team were not soldiers, but they responded to her. When she turned her attention to me, I felt my back straighten, understanding the force behind the little eyes.

“You the fox?” the big fur asked as Burt sidled closer to me.

“I’m a fox. Tyler. Who are you?” I asked, trying not to sound intimidated.

She huffed through her great lungs. “I’m in charge of this base, through secrets and all else. You may call me Ms. Stoss.”

“Uh, yes, Ms. Stoss,” I said, not blinking. My insides felt tense; she was a very large fur. Reminded me of someone….

“Don’t mess up, tiny thing, and we’ll get along fine,” she said, directing her attention to the science-y chaos.

“Okay?” I said with a raised eyebrow.

“I hate this disorganized mess. Do your job, tiny, and we’ll have no further issue. I’ve already bent over backwards to your requests. They end. No more, got it?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Right.” She straightened her gray uniform. “I’ll be watching. You don’t perform, you’re out, and everyone you’ve brought with you. Got it?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, eyes wide.

Her eyes narrowed. “Ms. Stoss. Enough with the ma’am’s.”

“Got it,” I said to her retreating back. My paw twitched. I wanted to salute, but had no idea how. Would it insult the large fur if I tried?

Shadow did salute her broad back, and a few snickers echoed in the large room. The rhino didn’t look, but stomped up to Galena. The feather was actually courteous, seeming impressed with the large fur. Moore wasn’t though, rolling his eyes while chatting with Ms. Stoss.

What a force of nature. She was like a hardass-version of Siku Radi. I hadn’t thought of her in days… weeks? My heart sank. So many were lost, and there were fewer to remember them. All the furs I’d lost, all the furs each survivor had lost…. How many had perished? How much of the world was-

“Tyler,” said Shadow. “Enough worries. You’ll worry yourself sick.”

I snickered and tapped his nose with a finger. “I worry about you too, Wulf.”

He grinned, ignoring the stares of the science personnel. “I’m glad to have someone worry over me. Cade’s disappeared again.”

I sighed, messing with all the attachments and nodes on my body. “I don’t know what that fur’s up to. I don’t even know how he got in here, before.”

“He’s contracted with the military as some sort of special advisor,” said Burt. “I asked, because I was concerned about him near my boys.” The big bull dropped heavy hooves to our shoulders, grinning between us.

Shadow blushed for some reason under Burt’s affection, while I just grinned. Everyone else in the large room were finishing preparations, scurrying around.

“You ready?” asked Tehma, approaching. “Remember, you’re to whistle as close to what you hear of the frequency as it resonates through you. The full mask will allow you to whistle underwater. This is a big trial today.”

Finally a bit of explanation, though it amounted to almost nothing.

Tehma turned to the activity in the room. “We’re correlating a lot of information from the other two outposts in the world. But we’re at the forefront of research; the other two are mostly data gathering stations.”

I tilted my head. “What-”

“The trial?” Tehma laughed deeply from his great gut. “It’s hard to explain, but we have, possibly a chance to close the breach today. We hope.”

“In space!?” I said, with a gawking muzzle.

“Not exactly,” Tehma said with a grin. “We’re hoping with some of the technology we fins have still out there, we can close it. Frequencies and all need to be matched, and… well it’s complicated. There is a chance, however small though.”

I blinked. It could be over? The Curtain could end. I was about to speak, but Shadow got there first.

“But it could stop today?” my Wulf asked, his eyes glowing in awe.

I had to nod my agreement as he picked up my paw with a grin. Imagining it felt unreal – going swimming during midday, taking a walk in the park without watching for zombies, going for a drive without weaving around bodies. What would it be like? The world could rebuild over time, but perhaps not in my lifetime.

It felt big, too big in the future, and suddenly, too big now.

I gripped at Shadow’s paw, feeling my trembles though my arm. It could end, all of it, forever? It didn’t seem possible. It felt like when you’re sick and you think you’ll never be better. The Curtain wasn’t supposed to just… end, right?

Tehma nodded, through our gaping amazement. He grinned, showing those pointed teeth. “We’re hoping to end it. We were missing more Listeners and compatibility, but we’re hoping you’ll be just what this attempt needs.”

Moore stepped up from behind a bank of equipment readouts. “I doubt it. It’s more likely he’ll die like the last one.”

Tehma sighed. “Let’s not scare the little fox, good fur.”

“I am a marsupial,” the wombat grouched.

“All inclusive to me, Moore,” Tehma said with a deep belly laugh. “Come Shadow, best if you step to the side there.”

I nodded at the black wolf and approached the tank. I hoped the gear had no issues or became compromised during the Curtain. I could only hope. That and trust the varied intelligent, fallible creatures working on the crazy project.

I raised my paw to wave at Shadow from the rim of the tank. Ignoring the griping of the tech adjusting the mask on my face, I waved to Shadow a confidence I didn’t feel. My insides were a mess of gurgling tension.

It could be on me to end this, today. Just how heavy was that pressure? I might be crushed under expectations, under responsibility for the world.

Taking a deep breath, I slipped under the water when directed. I waited a few seconds before trying to breathe. It was hard to do, as underwater, I was more familiar with holding my breath.

Breathe. I did.

Voices called out, voices rising and excitement in their blurred movements, rippled through water-vision. I couldn’t understand the buzz of them under the water, but there was a waterproof earpiece for when they needed to tell me something. I looked at my paws, floating in the salty water, away from the tank walls.

My red fur; my black paws. I could end this. I might end this today. The water shifted the tiny fuzz of my black paws, creating a dark halo around the edges. My paws….

If it might end, I must do my very best, the utmost effort I was capable of. I tried my whistle, trying to match the song in my head. I was not one of those furs who would sing terribly out of tune with headphones set too loud.

I had not sung much since-

“The Event light approaches, be prepared, fox,” a voice crackled at me through the salty water.

“Tyler,” I corrected, trying not to sound testy with my tense nerves.

“No speaking. Begin now.”

I closed my eyes to tune out the movement around me, the node attachments and wires drifting in the water with me. I gathered my breath and whistled into the mask’s mic, hoping they’d planned for the wisp of air over the audio equipment.

Tyler. Focus.

I whistled, hearing a brief encouragement from the ear-buds. All I had to do was concentrate on the tune in my head and express it. I could do it. I could end this, all of it.

Tomorrow, I could be sitting with Shadow in the midday sun, enjoying the wind through grass and trees, uncaring of something rending our lives. Tomorrow, I could make arrangements to meet with my uncle, if he was still alive.

Tomorrow.

What day of the week was it? I could go camping -  for real -  with Shadow for a whole weekend. We might sleep late in another green tent and enjoy a tree’s sun-shadows on the green tent surface. Green? Maybe orange… or tan… or a mix of both.

“Focus, Mr. Evans,” said the voice of someone unknown through the earbuds.

Damn I was getting distracted. My whistling was faltering. I concentrated.

What I could feel of the Curtain? It wasn’t upon us yet, could I feel anything? Not really… I couldn’t tell. I could feel the tune, hear the harmonics, through my head and my being.

Concentrate, Tyler. On the sounds, the changes, the promise of more notes. The tune never ended, only changed and shifted. What did the tune represent as a part of the Curtain? Was it part of the thing in the Curtain or an expression of it’s existence, like exhaust from a car?

Now I was paying attention, I could feel the Curtain approach, could feel the shift in its strength. It grew in my mind, taking on a depth of its ‘sound.’ Sub-harmonics beneath made it beautiful in my mind, complex beyond what I’d ever heard in music.

The Curtain dropped over Furdom, dropping over the remote base we were all in.

The tune was fascinating, and thinking of it ending almost caused disappointment. Almost.

But I focused on whistling, keeping my mind off the excited chatter outside the tank and the earbuds squawking encouragements. I didn’t need it all, just the tune, in its grandness and wonder.

But in it all was the Thing, the IT. The entity of the Curtain itself. IT was not separate from the tune, but as a complete part of it.

“~Tyh-”

I faltered in my whistling. My name was called. Shadow?

No, the name came from my head, not the earbuds. But it sounded real. I counted it as real.

“~leh-r.”

It was my name, and I tried not to disrupt my whistle with a frown. It was strange, hearing my name. It was a voice, but voiceless, echoing in my-

The Thing! IT was talking, was communicating. What did it mean? IT was alive?

Intelligent.

Somehow, IT was intelligent?

But when it found me, rummaged around through me, I felt the wrongness, the discomfort in my very being and soul. It wasn’t at all like life I had ever encountered.  It didn’t have feeling of thought the same as anyone I’d encountered. It was wrong.

More encouragement came from the earbuds, spouting wonderment and encouragement. But I faltered. The wrongness washed through me.

Hungry? Wanting? Lustful? Wishing? Lonely?

What I felt of it was nothing I could pin. But wouldn’t an entity want another?

The sense of wrongness increased.

???

The Curtain writhed through me, in and out. I shuddered, barely aware of my body, a body writhing in the water. A sudden surging of something I didn’t understand passed through me. Something different and new. And I was gone.

***

I struggled, panic seizing what there was of my mind.

A voice asked something, rattling me.

Awareness came to me, but it was strange, distorted. I tried to speak but it came out a mumbled garble. What-? I struggled under the sense of chaos, hurting everywhere. It was dangerous!

“-ler!”

It was a voice, one I knew. I struggled to recognize who, to recognize who I saw, but my brain wouldn’t cooperate. I hurt too, but couldn’t tell where.

Everything felt off, strange. Voices soothed me to slow and finally stop thrashing. Discussions came around me, but no one could I understand. Words. They were words.

My eyes darted around, but I couldn’t recognize anything but shapes and colors, trying to form, but not making sense.

A paw held mine. It was my paw, being held, being treasured by someone. Who?

Mom?

There was something…. It couldn’t be Mom, but why?

I squeezed the paw in mine, feeling the comfort, the presence of another. Let me be. So numb.

***

A paw held mine, had held mine for a lengthy time of numbness. That paw was there, sweaty and tight, like it had never let go. I blinked my eyes, feeling clearer. Looking away from the ceiling, showed a medical room, all gray like the rest of the base. A white medical bed, all with white sheets. A black mass slumped against the bed.

I had no idea what had happened, and my memories weren’t placing together very well. Burt had come with his family. Shadow holding me in the bed during our early morning. Even a faded impression of going in to the testing room….

I blinked. It was too scattered, unlike the consistent beep of a heart monitor nearby.

It was Shadow who held my paw. His head laid on the bed, long asleep by the drool and the little snore disrupting his even breathing.

“Wolf hasn’t left you the whole time,” said a voice, hushed and purposefully quiet.

I turned my muzzle towards the voice, returning a gentle smile.

“Remember me?” asked the female lion. “I’m Doctor Floyd. I’m going to ask you a few questions while your friend sleeps.”

I nodded, groaning at the strange feeling in my head.

“Can you tell me your name?”

“Tyler. Tyler Evans,” I mumbled out of numb lips. I frowned. My tongue hurt, like I’d bitten it pretty good, but I didn’t remember doing it when I ate.

“How old are you?” she asked.

“I… um….” I should know this, but the answer wouldn’t form.

She nodded and made a quick note on her tablet, “Do you know where you are?”

“The base. A hospital wing - or whatever? Um… what happened?”

“Just another moment, Tyler. Can you tell me who… um… what is your father’s name?”

“Daniel Evans.”

“Good. Good.” She made a few marks and selections on her tablet, such a precious electronic item.

“The Curtain,” I said, starting to feel better, clearer. My mind put together more with the encouragement of being awake. “What happened? I was in the tank, whistling.”

“Tyler. I want you to think very carefully. Is there any history of seizures for you or your family? Epilepsy?”

“Seizures?” I asked, fumbling with the concept. “No. No, I don’t think so.”

“And have you ever had a seizure?”

“No.”

“Hmmm.” After marking a few more areas on her tablet with the stylus, she looked up, and I was a little stunned by her serious eyes. “Tyler. You’ve had a seizure. Whether it was-”

“I what?” I gawped at her.

At my words, the paw in mine tightened its sweaty hold. The wolf groaned, the big black head shifting on the white sheets. The paw tightened in mine again, and I sent my own tightness in response.

“Tyler, you’ve had a seizure, quite a bad one for your first. This type is called a tonic-clonic seizure. Seizures are more common than you might think.”

“Seizures?” I mouthed, feeling the sensitivity of my injured tongue.

“Just one, young fox.” Dr Floyd patted my spare paw. “Don’t worry, many furs have only one seizure in their lifetimes, due to certain stress on the brain. It doesn’t necessarily cause epilepsy, but you should be prepared for that possibility too.”

“But I had a seizure,” I said with disbelief, interrupted by getting swamped in wolfy arms.

“I didn’t know if you’d be okay,” he whimpered clinging onto me.

Dr. Floyd made another mark on her tablet. “I’ll let the science team know you require tomorrow off. Don’t let them talk you into helping them, Doctor’s orders. Wolf. You’re his mate? Don’t let him go in.”

“Agreed,” said Shadow with a firm nod, giving me a pointed look.

Dr. Floyd stood. “If you’re feeling better, young Tyler, I’ll let in the over-protective bull who’s been waiting outside. I swear, keeping him out has been like pushing at an elephant with a feather in paw.” Her tail swished in clear amusement. “Anything I can have the nurse get you? You bit your tongue, so I’d recommend soft foods if you’re hungry.”

“Um…” I hesitated, allowing Shadow time to release me and return to leaning on the bed. “Maybe a oatmeal? And I am pretty thirsty.”

“How about some berries in it? I’ll let your nurse know,” she said, stepping out and allowing the hulking presence of Burt inside.

The bull glanced all around at me, as if checking for lost limbs. He gave a sigh and sat on the stool vacated by the lioness. “Tyler,” he breathed. “I thought… I’m sorry, I didn’t-”

“Burt,” I said, waving a paw as I raised the bed to sit me up. I felt better after a few seconds, sitting up. “No one could have predicted it. It’s a seizure.”

“But it means your brain was that over-stressed.” Burt raised his muzzle. “I think you should stop. It’s too much to ask of you. You’re just risking your wellness and safety.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know what I’m going to do after this, honestly. A seizure….”

“Mate,” whispered Shadow. “Don’t go,” he whimpered, bowing his head. “Won’t let you go!” He firmed up his voice in a growl.

“I’m not going anywhere, Wulf,” I said, picking up his black paw and kissing it.

His eyes raised to mine, their depths binding to the light in me. His love for me was real. I knew if I refused, we would all be out of here as fast as they might boot us out. I supposed they could try to blackmail me….

I shook away those strange thoughts, needing to focus on the present, and I was too scattered. “Time,” I admitted. “I need to think about everything.”

A female cougar nurse stepped in, bearing a tray with berry-topped oatmeal. My muzzle filled with saliva, my ears perking up with thoughts of soothing goodness.

“I didn’t know what you’d like to drink, but I brought milk. There’s always water too,” the cougar said with a toothy smile. She seemed friendly and eased her way past Shadow and Burt without batting an eye.

“I like milk, thank you so much,” I said, digging into the simple food. It was a little difficult, working it around to the uninjured parts of my tongue, but so worth it. I fumbled it all around in my muzzle, and I had to giggle. “Remember our last oatmeal?” I asked, grinning.

“Tasty,” said Shadow, wriggling his eyebrows.

“If oatmeal is what will help, good,” the nurse said with an encouraging smile.

The cougar excused herself, and I sucked down some milk. My milk mustache was classic and so was my grin.

“You love it so much? You could do a milk commercial,” said Burt.

“Feels like forever since I’ve had milk,” I said.

“I’m sure it’s especially difficult to get now,” said Burt sitting down.

“All the more to appreciate it,” I mumbled into my cup.

“Indeed,” Shadow said, looking calmer with just the three of us in the small, gray room.

“Did they say when I can leave?” I asked, finishing off the last few bites.

Burt straightened his back on the stool before speaking. “A couple hours. They wanted to make sure nothing else had occurred and you were recovering appropriately.”

Shadow growled. “We should call everything off. It’s not worth it.”

“I don’t want to see you injured either,” admitted Burt. “With everything going on, safety seems not to be a great concern here.”

“Agreed,” growled Shadow.

“I need to think things through,” I admitted. “I-”

My brain spun with sudden memories of what had occurred during the last Curtain. The Thing, IT was really conscious? I could be the one to stop it, but at what cost?

I wanted to hold my head- no, I wanted Shadow to hold my head and…. I needed a break.

“Can we talk later?” I asked. “I need to bounce some thoughts on you both. I need to make a decision about… everything.”

I waved my paw in the air, gesturing my frustration. Shadow caught that paw in his. His soft lips met with my warm paw.

“Any time you’re ready, Foxy,” he said, slipping his arm around me in a close hug. “I’ll listen to whatever you can tell me.”

“Count me in too, little tod,” said Burt. “I can see something is very much bothering you, and I don’t like to see a family member burdened. So tell me when, got it?”

I smiled my relief, squeezing Shadow’s paw and glancing up at both him and Burt in my gratitude. “Later in my room? After dinner. I know we’ll all be tired, but… I need to make some decisions.”