REDEMPTION

— by Jeff Karamales

Chapter 36
Memory Crash
 

Four days of travel had put the colonists almost seventy miles from their original settlement site. The ground was higher and almost twice the distance from the coastline, the survey team led by Hector having found a valley in the fork of the foothills that eventually grew into the range that had been born of the geologic activity that had also spawned the volcano that had forced the colonists’ evacuation. The primary benefit that Richard could see as the wagon rolled into the new setting that had been selected was that there was a meandering river with clear water that would make it easier for the colony to get that precious commodity, and there were dense woods that would provide plenty of game on the eastern side of the waterway.

The actual vale that had been chosen was mostly flat with thick grass that much of the already transplanted livestock was helping itself to, causing Richard to smile a little as Amanda rode next to the wagon he was in on her favorite mount. That the grass was dry and dusted with snow didn’t seem to bother the different herds of goats, cattle or horses that were roaming a large portion of the immense field that had already been fenced off. It wasn’t until Elena reined in her horse and gasped that the silver fox was pulled from his approving contemplation of where Hector and his team had decided to reset the colony site while a miserable Amanda curled against his side.

“What’s wrong?” Richard asked.

The golden colored platinum fox shook her head slowly as her eyes widened far enough for the whites to show. “Istynna Pravda! I…I have never seen such!”

Turning where he sat and trying not to grunt with the strain it put on his still healing wound, Richard craned his head to look at what his second mate regarded. The first thing that the silver fox thought Elena was referring to was the location itself. From the river there was a gentle slope that disappeared over a wooded rise before continuing to the mountains that looked dark purple in the distance.

It wasn’t until the animal moved that Richard’s eyes also went wide. “Wow…” he breathed, not sure what else to say as a large figure seemed to detach itself from the nearest copse of wood while Amanda held his arm in tense silence.

The animal reminded the silver fox of a primitive form of wild cattle that he’d seen in a museum once, though it was almost as big as an Indian elephant with a twisting horn on either side of its head that had to measure a solid twelve feet from tip to tip. The shaggy fur was coarse looking and while there were some mats that were visible, the dark black and reddish-purple strands reached all the way to the ground.

Richard felt Mandy stiffen against him as her fingers dug into his arm through the sleeve of his parka when the creature pulled a dead branch almost four inches thick from a tree and began to grind it between huge molars, their vulpine ears easily picking the sound out of the crisp air.

“We are calling it an aurodon,” Hector said with a grin as he nudged his own horse close to the wagon that Richard and Elena rode in. “Sort of a combination of the European aurochs and a mastodon. Impressive, is it not?”

“Are they being…nice?” Elena inquired softly.

“Completely. Emanuella thinks that there won’t be any problem at all in domesticating them. Two of them with two passes apiece could plow the same size field we had this past season for crops that took a week to prepare. These animals are even more passive than our own cattle.”

Richard nodded, already imagining how much easier turning the soil for crops in the spring would be with a team of aurodons to pull the plows. He then noticed work on the far side of the few domes that were already built with several more halfway through their reconstruction. “Hector? What’s going on over there?”

“Ah. That,” the South American grey fox said with a pronounced lowering of his ears. “Rupert…Rupert wanted to make sure that the colony had plenty of protection. Joel was his friend, you see. He is taking your idea of the palisade from our simulation and using logs to build a wall. It might not stop something like the snow dragon, but it may slow it down enough to keep a predator from harming another one of us.”

Richard settled back into the wagon, the fingers of his right hand stroking Amanda’s arm through her parka. “You know, Rup’s been itching to actually build something. And even I can tell from here that he’s being meticulous as all get out. Do you think tha-”

Before the silver fox could say anything else Amanda let out a yelp, her eyes closing tightly as she curled herself into a tight ball, the arm that was around her mate moving to wrap around her belly.

“Riva! RIVA! I need help here!” Richard yelled as Amanda let out another scream of agony.

***

Just as it had been during the initial set up of the Abeona colony, the Great Dome, operations and medical structures were the first up, though the medical dome this time was far larger with the equipment from two colony modules to draw from. Despite the luxury of excess equipment and additional supplies, it was the training of the professionals that was taxed as Riva Valerie, and Suzette struggled with the premature birth of Amanda Sterling’s kits.

Richard had been sedated to keep him from causing himself more harm as he wasn’t nearly healed enough and his nearly manic behavior at the fennec’s condition threatened his well-being. Still, the drugs that coursed through his veins couldn’t abate the fear and worry that filled the silver fox as Kizu Ananori kept the addled Fur from barging into the surgery theater.

Assisting the Asian red fox nurse were Elena, Hector, Rupert and Myao Shin, the young colony cook having found something between an older brother and the father he’d never had in the Adirondack Fur. It took all of the Vulps to hold Richard down when a weak, muffled scream reached them from the adjacent dome, the silver fox swearing at each of the others in turn with an almost maddened vehemence.

Then things went too quiet for far too long. When the framed plastic panel that formed the doorway between the two structures opened, all of the foxes looked up to see Riva step out.

“Mandy?” Richard asked desperately.

“She’s resting. This was very hard for her,” the bat eared vixen said softly. “We’re going to let her sleep for a while.”

“And the children?”

Riva looked at her friend for several long moments before shaking her head almost imperceptibly. “I’m sorry, Richard. It…it was too soon. Recent events, the trip here…things were just too much at once for her, I’m afraid.”

Groping without looking, the silver fox found Elena’s paw-like hand, not looking at the platinum vixen until she squeezed his fingers back in a show of empathetic solidarity, his bronze eyes finding her yellow-orange orbs as a steady stream of tears soaked the fur of her cheeks. She lowered her head, Elena’s expression pain filled and questioning, asking silently ‘why?’, to which Richard had no answer, and could only wrap his arms around her as she all but collapsed onto her mate, her body wracked by harsh sobs.

Without saying anything, Riva guided the other Furs away and began to move one of the other medical beds next to the one that Richard occupied. Once it was in place she placed a sympathetic paw on the silver fox’s shoulder. “As soon as she’s ready we’ll bring her out so she can be with you. Amanda will need her family with her.”

Richard nodded as tears of his own finally pushed past the drugs in him that were muddling his thoughts, unable to stem the grief that welled in his heart for the youngest of his vixens as the others drifted out of the dome, Rupert wordlessly heading to a spot to begin digging the graves for his friends’ children.

***

It was well after midnight when Amanda opened her eyes, blinking her dark brown eyes several times to try and abate the gritty feeling under her lids before she realized that she was nestled against Richard, her nose and long familiarity of sleeping next to him and his scent telling her she was in the safest place possible. As she saw the soft light reflected in his bronze colored eyes, the events of the day came flooding back and she felt the place inside her, physically and spiritually, that was now, so very empty.

“I…I’m sorry…” the fennec husked. “I lost us our babies.”

“What? No! It wasn’t your fault, Mandy!” the silver fox said as he pulled the much smaller vixen closer, Elena stirring and adding her own arms to the embrace. “Don’t you think that! Don’t you ever think or say that. It…it just happens, Honey. It just happens,” he said and nestled his head into her sandy blond hair, feeling her tuck against him as she curled up into almost a ball. “There was just too much going on and it was a little too stressful, that’s all.”

Amanda shivered in the warm hug from most of her family and hiccupped a small sob. “It’s just like before!” she hissed.

Elena lifted her head, her worried look meeting the one reflected in Richard’s eyes. “What is just like before?” the platinum vixen asked in a tremulous whisper.

“The children. When I was given the wrong medication to dispense. God’s punishing me for making all of them die.”

“You…you remember?” Richard inquired, his stomach knotting at the thought Amanda might remember the reasons for her memory wipe.

The fennec nodded. “S-some…some of it.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” the silver fox told the young desert fox with conviction strengthening his voice. “A nurse gave you the wrong medicine and you trusted her. She was arrested for that. Do you remember that part?”

“N-n-no…”

“I swear it’s true, Amanda. You weren’t to blame and the nurse tried to let you take the fall for her mistake. That…that’s why you asked for a memory wipe.” Richard pulled the vixen even more tightly into the circle of his body, cradling the fennec to him almost fiercely. “You weren’t guilty of anything! I swear it!”

“He is telling the truth, malen’kyy sestra. Dimitri told us of what happened. You are not being guilty of anything but trying to help others,” Elena said as she stroked the other vixen’s hair and ears.

It took almost an hour for both Furs to calm Amanda, that losing the kits wasn’t her fault. Riva heard the conversation from where she sat at her desk in a partitioned alcove and stood ready with a syringe of sedatives until she was reassured by Richard that they could handle this. After the worst of the emotional storm was over, the fennec looked up, her eyes raw and pain filled.

“No offense, but I wish Sofiya was here, too. I…I always feel better when all of us are together,” Mandy told the other two. “I love all of you so much…so much….”

“We love you, Amanda,” Richard replied, kissing the sandy colored vixen between the ears before brushing away the worst of her tears with his thumb pads. “You fill all of us with joy and happiness and we can’t do this without you.”

“Really?”

“Really. I have never lied to you, and I’m not going to start now.” The silver fox crossed his heart with a finger and raised his hand in a ‘scout’s honor’ pose. It was enough to elicit a weak smile from the traumatized Fur.

Amanda simply basked in the love that the other two tried to demonstrate, taking comfort from the touches and petting of her fur, her tail thumping the mattress of the bed a couple of times before she spoke again. “Richard,” she began in a whisper that was hardly louder than her breath. “I don’t want this to stop us from trying to have kids again. I want to be a better mother than mine was. Promise me this. Please?”

“You’ll be a great mommy,” the silver fox said with an affectionate hug. “We’ll try again as soon as you’re better.”

Even in the dim light it was impossible to miss the smile and look of gratitude the fennec gave her mates as she nestled deeper into the crook of the silver fox’s arm and closed her eyes, drifting into a fitful sleep she was also comforted by the presence of the other two Furs.

Richard received a slow, gentle nuzzle from Elena before she also snuggled against the male fox, reaching across his chest to touch the other vixen, mindful of her mate’s injury before also drifting off. The silver fox was only able to remain awake a few moments after that, the exhaustion compounded with his wounds and the lingering effects of the sedatives he’d been given ensuring that he followed his vixens shortly.

Once all three were asleep Riva returned to her desk, picking back up on the notes she’d been storing to her Personal Business Juxtapositioner. Despite the sad events of the day she couldn’t help but smile at the way the three vixens and the American Fur never let things tear them apart. If anything every trial and tribulation seemed to tie the four into an even tighter family group. It was with these thoughts that the bat eared fox smiled as her relief entered, passing off what had happened with Valerie Muir who would watch their patients until morning. Seeing the way Richard and the other two ladies acted towards each other made the Israeli Fur crave her own mate’s embrace something fierce.

As she made her way to the dome she and the Russian red fox shared that was close to the medical dome, she promised herself that Amanda Sterling would indeed get her wish of being a parent if Riva had anything to say about the matter.

***

Sofiya and her team arrived at the new colony setting five days after Amanda’s loss, the group looking tired with their parkas heavily smudged by ash, piles of the fine substance still caked into the nooks and crannies of the last of the equipment they brought in on their four wagons. Kurt and Siobhan looking on with idle curiosity as a slightly tired looking Elena pulled her friend off to the side and spoke with her at length. Even Matthew and the others of the team couldn’t help but look over when Sofiya let out a loud sob, her paw going to her mouth as her ears and tail fell before bolting to the dome that the platinum vixen pointed out.

“What’s going on?” Matthew asked in concern as he led his horse to where the others stood, all of them watching as their colony leader dashed off.

“Mandy lost her wee ones,” Rupert told the group as he took a break from leading a work crew on the palisade. “To hear of it, we near lost her, too. It’s been a little glum here to say the least.”

“Mein Gott, nein!” Kurt exclaimed with a sad look. “The poor Machen.”

Rupert nodded in agreement. “It’s been difficult. Apparently the loss caused something in Amanda’s memory wipe to come undone. I didn’t think something like that was possible, but Etienne said that a traumatic enough event can undo some of what was done with a wipe, especially if one of the events was particularly bad. Seems that losing her kits made her remember what happened at that hospital she worked at, though not a lot else. Still sad as hell, though.”

“How are Richard and the other girls taking it?” Matthew inquired, concern evident in his posture and voice.

“They’re coping one day at a time. Now that Sofiya's back it will lift some of the worry from the others. Poor Elena’s been running herself ragged trying to take care of the others, but I think it’s because she’s trying to distract herself from all that’s happened.” Rupert shook his head. “I don’t think that she’s been taking it well either and keeping herself busy so as not to think…or feel too much.” He let out a breath explosively before calling to a couple of the other Furs and gestured to the horses. “I’m going to get them over for something hot to drink. Can you take care of their mounts?”

Emanuella and Conchita nodded as they took the reins of the horses, motioning Myao Shin, Lu Chin Yao and Victor over to help. “We’ll park the wagons by the corral so you all can figure out what to do with the dome supplies and get the animals brushed and turned out,” Emanuella said, giving the others a subdued smile. “Welcome to Abeona Part Two.”

As the rest of the team was being taken care of, Sofiya all but burst into the dome that had been built for her and her family, nausea roiling in her belly at the news that Elena had delivered. Her eyes fell upon Richard lounging on the pallet they all shared while Amanda took care of redressing the bandage on the silver fox’s side. Both looked up at the blond vixen’s entrance and the couple of steps she covered before kneeling next to Amanda.

“Oh, kokhanyy,” Sofiya whispered before pulling the fennec into a fierce embrace. “I am so very sorry!”

As Richard looked on, it seemed that Mandy had kept a little of her grief within that could only be alleviated by Sofiya, and the fennec vixen wilted within the arms of the red fox, the grief that had resolutely held on bleeding away as Elena also came and joined the family group.

“Shhh,” Sofiya whispered as she held Amanda with one arm, her other paw-like hand stroking the fennec’s hair. “There will come a day when you will be a mamma, and a very good one.”

“You don’t blame me?” Amanda asked in a small voice.

“Of course not! This has been a very crazy time for all of us. This is not anyone’s fault. Not yours, not Richard’s. No one’s. But there will one day be children for all of us to be loving.”

The fennec wiped at her eyes. “Do you really think so?”

Sofiya nodded. “I do. As soon as you are feeling better and are able, there is no reason that you cannot try to be having more babies. I know that you will be making very beautiful children.”

The worry that had gnawed at Amanda had been the possibility of Sofiya rebuking her, but the contact and reassuring, gentle words had allayed those fears. It wasn’t until the fennec had had sufficient hug time that she pulled back and noticed the state that the red fox vixen was in. “It looks like you had a rough trip. You could use a bath!” Mandy declared in a far lighter mood.

“The cloud of ash was almost catching us. I was afraid we were having to leave some of the materials, but we succeeded in loading the wagons just in time,” Sofiya told the others as Elena finished making tea for the other foxes and began doling out cups. “It was very frightening.”

“Well, it just so happens that I was getting ready to give Richard his bath,” the fennec said winsomely. “And I like putting my hands all over you as much as I do him…”

Sofiya feigned a shocked expression having become used to the Scottish Fur’s equal opportunity affections, though nothing that could have been considered truly terrible. “You are a naughty vixen,” she admonished, though the smile indicated it was simply one of the ways to two females teased each other.

Amanda lowered her head demurely, though the wicked grin she sported and the all too enthusiastic manner that she reached for the overly large zipper to the red fox’s parka said otherwise, one of her favorite pastimes being to lay completely unclothed, save the fur each sported, saying it felt more natural and right.

As Elena joined in on the fun, Richard couldn’t help the smile as he thought that perhaps everything would turn out alright after all.

— NEXT CHAPTER —

Unless otherwise noted, all material © Ted R. Blasingame. All rights reserved.