It went to shit so quickly.
It had been a little over six months since Trevor’s attack and Lewis quickly realised it was not an isolated incident. More and more stallions were succumbing to this strange disease and committing horrific atrocities, rape and cannibalism were the most prevalent, and it seemed that gender didn’t matter as Lewis found out when he herded the infected males together only for them all to erupt into a gladiator frenzy with the strongest Fluffies raping the losers then eating them alive.
Some of them did it the other way round.
There had been no accounts of enfie-babbehs yet but Lewis knew it was only a matter of time before it happened, the number of stallions – and it did seem to be just stallions who were affected – who were showing symptoms of Yellow Rings in their eye was growing more and more each day, whatever it was it was growing stronger.
Peterson was adamant at first about keeping things under wraps, since they couldn’t confirm where the disease came from he wanted to make sure that nothing came in or out of The Farm until they were sure it wasn’t anything on their end. When Katherine’s fluffy Lily was attacked in her home, Peterson realised that whatever this was, it was already hitting the feral population.
By that point the boys in the lab had named it F.A.07, though nobody was quite sure what it meant.
When Peterson called Lewis into his office about three month after the Trevor incident, Lewis knew it wasn’t going to be good news. In fact it was worse than even he expected.
“Carter, I know you’re the manager of this branch but that’s only allowing me to warn you about what is going to happen. We’re going to start taking in ferals again.”
Lewis felt his heart drop. “Sir you can’t, all the hard work we’ve put in…”
“Has been appreciated but right now we have bigger issues, we don’t know what F.A.07 is, Hell we can’t even find a Patient Zero because of the ferals being unable to stay still. So until we can work out what the hell is going on and how to stop it, I’ve made the decision to take in the feral Fluffies to try and lessen the spread of F.A.07. We’ll be putting them into the Bays that haven’t been refurbished yet.”
“Does that include Bay 4?”
Peterson sighed, recognising the look of growing distraught on Lewis’ face.
“No, I figured you’d have something to say about that, as far as we can we’ll keep Bay 4 closed. But I cannot promise that indefinitely.”
“I understand sir.” Lewis didn’t even look up at Peterson, he was afraid of what he’d say if he looked him in the eyes.
“I know you’re unhappy with this decision Carter, but it’s because of you that I’m making them and believe it or not that is a compliment. Do you remember coming into this office two years ago and breaking down everything that was wrong with this place? You stood there, without a regard for your career or even caring if I would listen and you laid it all out there about why this Farm was a mess; namely that we no longer cared about our own product. In the last two years your experiment has proven that giving a shit yields better Fluffy over a longer period of time; that they deserve love and respect like any other animal. Now we’re in a position where love and respect isn’t enough, we have to take action in order to protect them. If this was two years ago, I would’ve told everyone kill any Fluffy you see and burn its corpse or bury them all in a mass grave, but if we did that we might risk polluting the air, or the ground or the water supply, we could’ve done so much more damage but acting without thinking about how it would affect the Fluffies of this city. Now because of you, we DO care, and until we know what F.A.07 is and how to combat it, I will take in every Fluffy we are able to and quarantine them for their own safety, and we will keep them safe until such time as there is a cure.”
Lewis wiped a small tear from his eye, but he was smiling. “Thank you sir, it means a lot to me to hear you say that.”
“Hey, I might be a greedy businessman, but I have a heart. I won’t lie to you Carter, it’s gonna be difficult over the next few weeks or months, maybe even years. But we won’t let that stop us from doing our job, all we’ve done is change the parameters of our job slightly.”
“Understood sir, I’ll tell the others right away. I take it you want us to quarantine the stallions away from the mares?”
“Preferably yes but I understand you have some pregnant mares at the moment. Give them some time to meet their young, let them know their foals are healthy and safe before you separate them. If we can stay clear for no enough, I’ll even allow for some visitation between family members.”
“I think they’d like that sir.”
And with that, Lewis left Peterson’s office, trying to figure out the right way to tell his Fluffies they couldn’t see each other anymore.
While there were varying stages of pregnancies across the whole of The Farm, for Lewis’ main group it took a little over two weeks for the final foals to be born, Lewis then gave the parents an extra week to get to know their newborns and have them all recognise each other.
It also gave Lewis an extra week to mentally prepare himself.
When he clocked in on that final day, he had to fight back every fibre in his body from crying out, because once he started he knew he wouldn’t be able to stop. Drifting in a daze, he made his way down the hallways and walkways until he reached Bay 45, Lewis took a deep breath, opened the door…
And was met by Jackson, Flynn, Jennifer, their new daughter Maria, Alan and Daniel, all of whom were waiting for him.
“What the hell…?”
Daniel came over and put his arm over Lewis’ shoulder. “We knew this was going to be a difficult day for you, so we’re here to help make it a little bit easier.”
Jackson nodded. “You’ve done a hell of a job Lou, nobody saw this thing working…”
Jennifer smacked Jackson in the arm with her free hand.
“…ok I never saw this thing working. But I’m happy I was proven wrong and it’s not fair for it all to come crashing down because of something out of your control.”
Flynn put his arm around Jennifer and smiled at his sleeping daughter. “We wouldn’t have this family if it wasn’t for you Lewis, damn right we’re gonna help you through today.”
Jennifer nodded. “You’re not going through this alone Lewis, no chance in Hell.
Alan simply smiled and waved, clearly still tired from the nightshifts.
Lewis looked out over his friends, he could feel the tears starting to form in his eyes, but it wasn’t until he felt a soft tapping on his legs that he was pushed over the edge. He looked down at what was hitting him and saw Martha smiling at him, she fell onto her bottom and lifted her one front hoof at him.
“Woo-ish hab sadies, Mawtha gib huggies, make fings betta.”
Lewis lifted Martha off the floor and held her close as he broke down in tears, barely feeling Daniel envelop him as well. It wasn’t fair, he didn’t even care about his own efforts anymore, he hated that he had to tell these families that they couldn’t see each other, that fathers wouldn’t be able to see their children grow up, that sons had to be taken away from mothers for their own safety, it went against every instinct he had built up over the last two years.
And there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.
When Lewis finally calmed down, he wiped his eyes and looked out over his friends, even the Fluffies were coming out wondering why Lewis was having ‘sad wawas’.
“Thank you everyone, this is going to be the toughest day of my career and I don’t think I would’ve been able to do it without your help. I guess I should go ahead and do it then.”
With his feet feeling like anchors, Lewis made his way to the front of the room, just in front of his desk. But rather than looking out over the Fluffies, he sat down and motioned for them all to come forward and sit with him, in just a few seconds, 24 Fluffies – plus the new foals who were now starting to become Talkie babbehs – sat in a semi-circle around Lewis, all of them looking up at him curious but respectful. Martha took her place by Lewis’ side and he began.
“Guys, I bet you’re all wondering why I’ve told you all not to have babies anymore until I said otherwise.”
There was a chorus of yes and nods.
“Well… it’s because something has happened, outside of here there is something that’s been turning other stallions… it’s turned them into meanies. They don’t want to be meanies, but something in the air has been giving them thinkie place sickies and they turn into meanies, giving hurties to Fluffies they love and care about.”
The Fluffies gave a collective gasp. Emma cried out with tears in her eyes. “Dat’s su cwuew, Fwuffies am fow huggies an wuv.”
“They are Emma, but they’re sick and they can’t help themselves. Unfortunately because of this, I have bad news for you all, until we can stop the thinkie-place sickies, we’re going to have to separate the stallions from everyone else.”
That got them all riled up. “Bu Babbehs need daddehs.” Horace cried out. “Nu wan wose speciaw-fwiend.” Wailed Betty. “Dis am nu faiw.” Screamed Isaac. “Wai du daddeh hab tug u way.”
“Becoz daddehs am da wuns gibben huwties.” Kane broke through the panic. “Woo-ish say onwy stawwions hab finkie-pwace huwties, daddehs hab tu gu tu keep mummahs an babbehs safe.”
Isaac snorted. “Bu I-sak nu hab finkie-pwace huwties.”
“Nu yet, wha du if I-sak hab sickies an huwt Fee-ona an babbehs? Neba fowgib sewf, Woo-ish nu wan spwit up Fwuffies, bu du fow safe-tee.”
“Kane’s right guys, I love each and every one of you, you’ve all shown this place that love works, that we can do more to help Fluffies and you’ve helped save the lives not just of the Fluffies in this building but even Fluffies outside. If things were different I’d have you all stay together for the rest of your days. But things aren’t different, we’re in a horrible situation and I have to make a horrible choice, but I promise you all, I will make sure that you can visit each other, and we will do everything we can to bring you all back together, it might take several forevers, but this sickness will end someday.”
After asking a few more questions from the Fluffies about F.A.07 and what was happening to them, Lewis gave the Fluffies a final playday together, despite the sour mood everyone had a great time, huggy-tag was played by Fluffies of all ages, Lewis brought out some new blocks and balls for them all, some of the mares cooed at ‘wittew Mawia’ as Jennifer giggled at the attention. For a brief moment everyone forgot about the virus, and they just had fun together.
When the time came for reality to crash back down, Lewis didn’t rush anyone, he gave the stallions all the time in the world to say goodbye to their mates and their foals, not a single Fluffy had a dry eye, several of them howled at the thought of never seeing their special-friend again. This was the saddest day in their little lives and the worst part was none of them knew when it would end.
Once the final good bye had been shared, Lewis and the others placed the stallions into their carrier cages and took them to their new home, Lewis made sure they were all close together so at least they’d have friends with them even while they were alone in their temporary home.
As he lifted them all into the holding pens, Kane looked up at him. “Woo-ish pwomise see speciaw-fwiend an babbehs gain?”
“I promise Kane.”
“Den Fwuffies wait.”
Finally, it was done, Lewis had the stallions set up, Martha was looking after the mares and it was just about lunchtime, Lewis turned to his friends, all still standing beside him, and smiled.
“Anyone else fancy a drink?”
Lewis was able to swing for an early day thanks to the emotional turmoil so he took the car home and Daniel drove him to the pub, Jackson, Flynn, Jennifer and Alan all met them there, Jennifer wasn’t drinking cause she was breastfeeding and Flynn had a shift later but the rest of them all shared in the sombre mood.
“I still can’t believe that’s it.” Alan said after a moment of silence. “I honestly thought you were gonna change the world Lou.”
“Can’t win all of them Al, one day you’re saving the lives of Fluffies, the next you’ve got a Fluffy T-Virus biting at your nuts.”
Daniel took a sip of his cola. “You still no idea where this thing came from? Sounds like something that Josef guy would pull.”
Lewis shook his head. “I thought that as well, but I talked to Katherine and she said it wasn’t him. After what happened to Lily I doubt she’d lie.”
“So what do we do now?” Flynn asked with a sorrow in his voice. “Do we just go back to work and pretend like this isn’t happening?”
Lewis took a drink from his glass and smiled slightly. “No, we don’t pretend. We can’t change the fact that F.A.07 has fucked us over, that we’ve put in years of effort for something that got torn down in a few days. But we have something now that we can’t let go of; Hope. Hope that there’s an end to this, hope that when we can go back to normal we can pick up right where we left of, hope that if we can change people’s attitudes to Fluffies once, we can do it again. Today sucks, today has been one of the hardest days I’ve had to go through, but I’m not letting that destroy any hope I have.”
Jackson raised a glass. “To Carter’s Creature Comforts; may it comfort again someday soon. To Carters!”
“TO CARTER’S!”
The table cheered and clinked glasses together, Daniel leaned in and gave Lewis a peck on the cheek. Lewis still felt awful about tearing the families apart, but he held true to that feeling, that they could return to their work soon enough.
If they built it once, they could build it again.
Over the next couple of months, Lewis did notice a change in The Farm, the dour mood had permeated throughout and depression hit the Fluffies hard, there was less singing, less cheering, even play-time didn’t have the same effect.
Peterson was true to his word and allowed visitations between families, Lewis tried to arrange these as much as possible even though it always ended in tears. Still, he knew the morale boost was necessarily for the Fluffies in order to push through their isolation and see their families again.
But every day, Daniel and the other drivers brought more and more Fluffies in, Lewis felt pangs of PTSD seeing the hundreds or even thousands of Fluffies that were now housed in the Bays, it was like they were back in the old days. Lewis knew Peterson was right, that this was for the Fluffies safety to limit the spread of F.A.07 as much as possible, but that didn’t make it any easier to witness.
A few months after separation day, Daniel called Lewis to come down to the loading bays and meet some new arrivals. Curious, Lewis went down, in the back of his mind he was scared of meeting some more disabled Fluffies, with everything going on he couldn’t take them to Beast who was having his own difficulties at the moment.
Lewis found Daniel downstairs with a box in hand, he quickly gave him a kiss before looking at his new find. “What do you have there?”
“Let me show you.”
Daniel placed the box down on a nearby table and let Lewis look inside, he saw four Fluffies, a deep blue unicorn with an orange mane who was missing their front right leg and – from the scarring around their genital area – their penis and testicles, a lilac earthie mare with a green mane and one eye, a white unicorn mare with a pink mane and a pure black Alicorn. From their differing sizes Lewis guessed that the blue unicorn and the lilac earthie were the father and mother respectively, the blue stallion had his hoofs wrapped around his mate who was weeping, Lewis could make out ‘Bad mummah wose babbehs’ from her muttering. The white unicorn was nestled between her parents, shivering with fear, only the black Alicorn remained unfazed, even looking a little pissed off with the situation.
Daniel pointed to the members of the family. “Lewis let me introduce you to Cobalt, Lavender, Rose and Spike, I found them in an alleyway not far from here, apparently they ran away from an abuser.”
“Hell of an abuser to do that to them, castration and amputation don’t usually let their prey go. You lot are very brave to have survived that.”
“That’s not even the best part Lou. Spike, why don’t you tell my friend Lewis here who it was that hurt you.”
Spike snorted in anger. “Dummeh Joesep gib famiwy huwties, gub bruddas an sissy foweba sweepies, su Spike gib meanie Cwimson foweba sweepies, gib dem tu Joesep tuu if see him gain.”
Lewis couldn’t believe it, Daniel had found a Fluffy family that had actually been able to escape Josef Mongola with their lives. With a smile growing on his face, Lewis reached in and stroked Spike on his head, the little guy flinched at first but soon leaned into Lewis’ touch.
“I know Josef Spike, I know how mean he is. I promise you, as long as you are here I won’t let him harm you or your family again.”
“Spike nu knyo if can twust hoomin.”
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe here.”
Lewis picked up the box and carried Spike and his family upstairs to their new home, explaining the rules of F.A.07 isolation as he walked. Lewis didn’t know it yet, but this little family was going to be the saving grace when it came to the fight against F.A.07, had Lewis known that then he would’ve done more to keep them safe and prevent the heartbreak that was about to befall them.
But that’s a story for another day.
I have one more quick epilogue chapter rounding thing out, which I’ll hopefully have up later today, and then I’ll give some more info about the next series.
