It had been a long day of work for Cassie. The transmission of the Master’s hay baler had broken again, so it was up to her and the rest of the pullers to help out. The call had gone out in the morning to anyone strong enough to pull a several ton machine back and forth against the grass so there would be enough hay in the winter. Even though Cassie was pregnant, she needed the money. She volunteered along with Ferdinand the bull, an ox named Anderson, a nigh-herculean Clydesdale named Bud, and a pair of strapping teenage cattle, Betty and Beatrice. All of them tumbled in the back of the box truck, sitting on benches or standing, hooves propped up against the inside while they took the forty-minute ride to the fields.

When they arrived, the hay baler was there, turned on and ready to go. The master had already devised a set of hauling chains and metal harnesses so that he could lash them together in a team. They took numerous breaks and traded off when people got tired. At lunch, they all sat down together and talked. Cassie found herself the center of attention, most of the talk directed at her rounded midsection. All of them asked questions about the foal that occasionally stirred in Cassie’s belly, especially the two teens, Betty and Beatrice. The older one, Betty, spoke about having a crush on a young cow she worked with and would occasionally look at Ferdinand with a certain bashful look. Beatrice seemed unsure. She, too, had started to have feelings towards some of the boys, but she seemed much more unsure than her cohort.

Cassie spoke about looking forward to having her baby, even though it would be a fatherless foal. An untimely heart attack had felled her husband, but rather than dwell in sorrow she elected to live day by day like she always had before they met. She assumed her offspring would lead a similar life, a life of labour and what she called “honest work” for the furless folk. After all, there would always be trees that needed planting, soil that needed tilling, holes that needed digging and buildings that needed building. They would survive.

The whistle sounded. The group rose from their seats around the wooden picnic-style tables and fastened each others’ harnesses before marching back to the machine. The rest of the work day was more of the same, occasionally punctuated by the giggling of the girls as they talked, trying to pass the time as they dragged the diesel-belching baler back and forth across the dry grass. Finally as the sun went down the master piled them all up into the truck and began the drive back to the main ranch.

Theo was just getting started on his evening shift, the bobcat leaving his small mobile home and climbing into his pickup truck. His padded feet were almost silent against the unpaved ground. It had been a slow start to the year, with nary an accident or disaster to cling to, sending him into a deep funk. It had been far too long since he had been able to act on his urges and it was driving him into manic depressive states. His balls were beginning to ache daily and if something didn’t change so he might have to start thinking taking matters into his own hands and create some some sort of opportunity for himself. ‘If the ship don’t come in,’ he thought. As he drove along, he made a right to head into town, following a box truck down the country road. He followed it for a few miles, idly trying to conjure up some prior fondling of a dying fawn-girl when he heard a bang in front of him. He watched in shock as the box truck started to swerve erratically and then somehow manage to begin to tilt as it headed into a curve. He watched as the truck hit a guardrail, seemed to hang there for a moment, and then flipped over into the ravine, the underside of the truck flashing in his eyes before dropping out of sight.

“Oh shit!” he yelled as he drove up to where the truck went over the side. He shut off the truck and hopped out in time to see the truck still rolling down the ravine, watching as a body flew from the wreck into the trees. Another quickly followed, flung from the back as the metal doors tore open. The metal peeled away like a tin of sardines and another ragdoll spilled out only to be crushed as the truck rolled over and over before settling in the bottom of the ravine in a cloud of dust. The silence afterwards was deafening. 

Theo hopped down over the guardrail and began climbing down the embankment, scrambling over the large boulders and rocks. Maybe there were survivors. Theo carefully dropped down the side, trying to dodge the debris of the wreckage and twisted metal, the broken side mirror and the pieces of orange plastic scattered about like shattered stained glass. The first person he came to was a massive brown horse, male, twitching on a boulder. His titanic build, white forearms and lower legs identified him as some sort of draft stallion. A Clydesdale, perhaps, maybe a Cob. As he came closer, he immediately went into triage mode, assessing the victims. He thought he had seen at least three, maybe four persons casually tossed out of the truck as it spiralled down the hillside. He had to make decisions about who could be saved, and who could not.

The stallion could not be saved. The massive horse body was broken, smashed across the rocks, his large head was cracked open, pale pinkish brain matter spilling out into the air and a large mass of tubular, slimy intestines were smeared across several feet, his body split open. Hanging limply inside the horse’s chest was a still beating heart, running with its own clock. Theo glanced down to the enormous cock which was stiff and trembling. He approached the angular head and inspected the open head wound closely, watching little capillaries feeding the horse’s exposed brain. Theo moved the head slightly, jostling the quivering mass. There was a loud snort that came from the massive body as he watched the equine begin to orgasm, the massive cock spurting white seed onto the rocks in a last ditch attempt to pass on his legacy. Theo felt a moment of sadness as he stared into the dark, unseeing eyes. “Sorry buddy,” he whispered as as he continued his hurried hike downhill.

The next person he encountered was a bovine, or what was left of him anyway. Unlike the Clydesdale who had merely had his head cracked open and been partially eviscerated, the bull had been rolled over not once, but twice on the way down. Pieces of him were broken up on the rocks -- a leg here, another leg there, his entire midsection smeared across multiple boulders. A few feet away, smeared on a rock was a rhythmically twitching heart, still weakly contracting, attached to some yellow fat and some blood vessels. The bull’s head was already dead, the eyes lifeless, a blue tongue sticking out, dying in the air. As Theo descended, he found the lower half of the bull, its large cock erect and spurting cum in its death throes, vainly hoping for a receptacle for his seed that was being spurt onto a rock to dry in the morning sun. He couldn’t be saved either. As he approached the truck on its side, he could three squirming forms laying on the ground, thrown around the truck’s still-spinning wheels.

Theo reached the bottom of the ravine. He could see driver’s cab now, crushed inward like an egg, the windshield spidered out and shattered. He looked inside of the cab and noticed that the driver was also a goner. The steering column was sticking out of where the canine’s heart should be and a large piece of crystallized safety glass was embedded deeply into his neck. One look at the dog’s eyes and Theo knew he was done. That was three dead already.

A moan grabbed Theo’s attention. It was quickly followed by a cough and then another moan. He climbed down from the ruined cab and started to look around. There was a teen bovine laying on it’s side, bruised and battered, breathing quickly. She was a black and white spotted cow, a ‘milker’ barely out of calf-hood. She was clearly dressed for work: a pair of denim coveralls, torn in several places and stained in others, covered the majority of her body. Her small breasts, still budding on her chest, were only eluded to by the unshapely garment. Her arms and upper torso were covered by short white fur interrupted by oddly-shaped splotches of black, and a similar hand-sized blot of black covered her left eye and most of that side of her face.

“Don’t move, honey,” Theo commanded, still in triage-mode, “stay still. What’s your name?” She was breathing, clearly hurt, but stable for the moment.

“B...Beatrice” she gasped. “It hurts, it hurtssss!”

“I know, Beatrice, I know. Who else was in the truck with you?”

“Be...Betty...Ferdinand,” she replied, “Anderson, B...Bud UNghhhhh…” Beatrice’s voice trailed off as she clutched her side in pain. 

“Anyone else?”

“Ca..Cassie...pregnant...check on her…”

Theo tried to do the math. That would be 6, including the driver, 7. He stopped for a moment and could barely contain himself. There would be three girls and one of them was pregnant. He immediately felt his cock twitch in anticipation. The wait had been worth it, but he had to check on the others first. 

“Ok, stay here Beatrice, I’ll be back.” Theo stood up and began to look for the four others. He only had to take a few steps before he found one of them “Oh!” was all he could muster. The ox had the unfortunate fate of ending up under the now-resting truck, his head crushed underneath the twisted mass of steel, completely buried. Only his back-end was visible. The ox’s tail was limp and trembling, but the testicles were visible from the back, swollen. There was the sound of water running suddenly as a back leg rhythmically jerked. Theo watched as the rear end of the ox began to quietly defecate. There was nothing to be done for the poor ox, his head was probably about three inches tall and spread about the ground underneath a block of unforgiving metal.

Theo stood up, walking around the truck. He found the mare first, laying on her side, her stomach clearly swollen underneath her dirtied overalls. “Cassie?” he asked as he knelt down next to her. 

“Yes! Yes!” she replied. Her eyes were frantic, but she was very much aware and seemed to be in good shape. Her colouring was similar to the stallion he had found earlier – white hands, white feathery fur around her ankles, a white strip down her nose, and a black, sweat-slick mane that stuck to her neck.

“I’m here to help you,” replied Theo softly, “can you move? Is there anything . . . oh,” his voice trailed off as he saw a piece of the box car; a piece of shrapnel, long and thin like an icepick embedded just under her right breast. “Does that hurt?” he asked, touching it.

“Ahhh...only when you touch it!” she snarled back. “And when I take a deep breath.” she replied, softening, looking scared.

“Are you ok?” asked Theo. “I need to look for one more, for... Betty?” 

“Yes, I’m ok for now,” spoke the mare softly. “Go find her.” 

Theo nodded. “Be right back!” he replied standing up. He looked around the rock and dirt field and didn’t see anyone else. How far could Betty have been thrown? 

Theo began to search in widening circles around the truck, trying to find the last missing passenger. As he searched, he would occasionally look up the side of the ravine towards the destroyed section of guardrail as a reference. He could see his car in the distance, a tiny thing, and he realized just how far down the truck had travelled. Betty could be anywhere on the rocky ravine on the way down, or flung yards away. He was about to start circling back to the wreckage when he heard coughing from a few yards away. He looked in that direction and saw an arm and hooved hand extending up over the low field of rocks. Theo quickly scrambled over and then knelt next to a brown, teenage cow. “Betty?”

Theo saw the heifer was in bad shape, struggling to breathe, gasping and coughing. Her brown eyes focused on Theo’s shape full of panic, her mouth opening as she made a bleat as she tried to talk only to be overcome by a fit of coughing. 

“Shhh! Don’t try to talk, just relax ok?” Theo implored but Betty was having none of it. It was clear that she was afraid and scared as it clearly hurt her to breathe. Theo knelt next to her and took stock of her vitals. Breathing for now, but struggling. His hand went up and touched her neck, burying the tips of his claws into her short fur and felt a rapid, panicky pulse. Betty’s back arched as she writhed in agony and again made a short series of bleating noises. “Shhh! Just relax Betty!” he said as his hands moved down, touching her side, his fingertips going over the side of her chest. Her flannel shirt had been torn away and only scraps of fabric remained, still tucked into her bloodstained blue jeans and held in place by a single suspender-clasp.

Theo’s heart sank. Instead of feeling a strong, protective rib cage around her breasts he felt a mush that was almost painfully hot to the touch. The entire side of her rib cage had been shattered in multiple places, much like the driver's cab of the truck. The hotness of her skin meant internal bleeding. Theo could only imagine that her ribs had splintered and were acting like little daggers, tearing flesh and viscera with each breath she took.

“Betty, listen to me, you’re going to have to stop writhing around! Listen to me! Listen!” Theo implored. Betty’s eyes were frantic and it was clear that she was lost in her own fear. Theo reached down and grabbed the heifer's head to turn it towards him so he could get her to focus on him. He felt something hot and sticky on his left hand and realized it was blood coming from her left ear. “Oh shit,” he whispered. “Betty? Betty?” he yelled and at that exact moment Betty’s eyes seemed to go away, losing focus before rolling back into her head, her eyelids fluttering as she flashed the whites of her eyes. She began to softly convulse, gurgling as the blood started to leak in a constant bright red flow from her ear. The convulsing spread through her, starting a coughing fit. There was a wet sound as something inside of her chest gave and she coughed up a bright red gout of blood through her mouth. She gurgled and gagged.

“Oh God,” said Theo. He briefly looked up at his car, high above the ravine, tiny and far away. If someone were to look down they would recognize a truck and people, but too far away to discern much else. His head swivelled back to Betty who was still convulsing and gurgling, her eyes still rolled up into her head. Theo took an inventory. Traumatic brain injury, intracranial bleeding probably from a torn artery judging by the colour of the blood. Massive thoracic hemorrhage and filling of the lungs. Cerebral anoxia and respiratory failure. She was as good as dead in a few minutes and there wasn’t anything he could do about it. She could be on an operating table right now and her chances of making it would be near zero.

Theo felt a familiar stirring in his loins and a deep longing as Betty continued to convulse. He put his padded paws together out of habit and gave her a chest compression but all that did was force out a giant glob of bright red blood out of her mouth. No, she was done. Theo slowly began to rub his own cock through the front of his pants, taking some of Betty’s blood and smearing it on the front of his blue jeans, turning the blue a dark purple colour as his right hand began to open up the buttons on Betty’s suspenders. undoing one shoulder strap, then the other one. His right hand peeled back the clothing, revealing two sweaty, heaving, shuddering breasts as Betty’s convulsions subsided. Her eyelids were slowly ceasing their fluttering as her eyes slowly wandered back into place, the light and seeing consciousness behind them snuffed out, just staring straight ahead. Theo grabbed a breast, tentatively at first, then hard, claws out. Theo then moved his hand, palm still touching flat against her quivering breast before snaking downward to between the heifer’s trembling, spasming legs. He groaned audibly as his fingers slid underneath the underwear and felt the telltale slit between her legs, absent of fur. He felt the dampness there, a dampness he had felt as girls died, a secret that only he knew. Theo pressed his fingers in, curling around to feel the dying throes of the girls cunt as Betty began to agonally gasp, the breathing centers deep in her brain slowly dying. Theo’s rubbing was now rapid but he stopped short of coming in his pants even as Betty’s silent gasping stopped and he felt the heifer begin to pee on his hand. Not yet he thought. There were still two more. He withdrew his now urine coated hand and casually wiped it on her pants before clipping the shoulder straps back into place. He looked into the brown eyes of the heifer teen that would never know sex at all before standing up and heading back to Beatrice’s gasping form.

Theo found Beatrice where he’d left her. “How are you doing Beatrice?” he asked softly. He saw Beatrice’s eyes widen in horror at the blood stains on the front of Theo’s outfit. Theo suddenly realized how it must look so he knelt down and began talking so she would forget. “I found Cassie, she’s okay for the moment but the rest…” his voice trailed off as he watched Beatrice fill in the blank. There was a sob and a half retch as she realized the gentle people she just spent all afternoon with were dead. “Oh God,” she mumbled.

“They don’t feel pain anymore,” he said softly. “I’m going to check you out right now, okay? Just stay calm. What’s your last name, Beatrice?” he asked, trying to engage her in idle chit chat. 

“Reynolds” she said softly. 

“And how old are you?” 

“Eleven,” she replied with a half-smile, “almost twelve.” 

Theo took his fingers still stained with Betty’s blood and put them under Beatrice’s chin, taking her pulse. It was strong and true. His hand started to move down. “It hurts to breathe?” he asked. Beatrice nodded. “Take a deep breath if you can and tell me where it hurts.” Theo watched as she took a tiny gasp and then yelped. 

“Over here, on the ...left side,” she replied.

Theo moved his fingers down to the left side of her body, and touched her ribs ever so gently. 

“GHHHHAAAOWWW! Right there!” she yelped again.

“Well Miss Beatrice Reynolds eleven-almost-twelve, I think you might have a broken rib or two, but you otherwise seem fine.” he said, kneeling next to her. “You think so too?” Beatrice nodded. “I’m going to drag you into the shade of the truck, okay? Just be still.” Ever so gently and grabbing her shoulders, Theo leaned down and dragged Beatrice across the dirt and sand until she was in the shade of the remains of the box truck. Thankfully the side with the crushed ox was on the side facing the road so that Beatrice wouldn’t be scarred by macabre sight.

“There,” said Theo. His eyes glanced upward, perfectly shielded from the sun – and out of view from the road above. Theo looked down at Beatrice. “I’m going to see if I can get some water and some help, okay?” Theo walked out of the shade into the sun. His hands start to tremble. This situation was so perfect. He only needed to save one to keep up appearances. And he had two, no, three lives that were still here. Two would be more than sufficient. Saving a pregnant mare, well, that was additional heroism. Theo took a few crunching steps on the gravel, his head swivelling back and forth along the ground for something that would be sufficient. He was about to give up when he saw it, glinting out of the corner of his eye. It was a small piece of metallic debris that had been twisted off of truck. It wasn’t large, maybe the size of a hand chisel. But one end of it was pointy and sharp. Theo reached down to grab it, casting his shadow over it as he picked it up. He raised to eye level, examining it, turning it side to side and then taking his left index finger and touching the point. It would be sharp enough. Theo walked over to the side of the truck, just out of Beatrice’s sight. He would need to do this fast and quickly, lest she make any noise. After thinking about it for a moment, he had his plan.

Theo walked back to the shady part of the truck, kneeling, carefully keeping the piece of metal shrapnel just out of Beatrice’s view as he knelt down next to her. “I tried to look for some water but I couldn’t find anything. Someone will be here soon,” he said while thinking I sincerely hope not. “I need to look at your ribs, okay? That means peeling off your overalls. I need to make sure you’re alright and that you aren’t internally bleeding.” Theo waited until he got a nod and an “Uhuh,” from the young heifer. Theo reached up and unhitched the two top clasps of her overalls and slowly peeled the front of them down. Her budding breasts where there in front of him, the nipples pink and covered with white and black short fur. “I have to take them all the way off to make sure that I can see your whole side, okay?” Again a nod. Theo’s cock twitched. He gently lifted up one side of her hips, then the other in an effort to free more of the restrictive overalls. He stopped just short of her white underwear.

“Okay Beatrice, I’m going to examine you again, but I’m going to be touching your right side and see if any ribs are broken there. I want you tell me if it hurts. It’s important that you concentrate and give me accurate answers.” Theo reached for the piece of shrapnel with his right hand. His left hand touched her neck, pretending to check her pulse. In reality he was palpating the structure of her individual anatomy, feeling exactly where her carotid arteries were beneath the short fur and finding the gap in the supportive cartilage. He found the place quickly, just to the right of a little black spot on the side of her neck. Then his left hand moved down, purposely skipping around her breast and then moving his fingers to her first rib. He pressed gently as he shifted the grip on the shrapnel in his right hand. 

“Does this hurt?” he asked. 

“No.” 

His left hand moved down a rib. “How about this?” 

“Nuh-uh.”

Theo looked into Beatrice’s face and down to her neck. He could see the spot, pulsing just under the fur as blood surged underneath, driving blood and nutrients to her brain from a strong beating heart. He glanced up into her trusting eyes and his clawed fingers moved down to the next rib, pressing. “How about this?” he asked as his right hand suddenly slammed the tip of the shrapnel right into the spot in her neck, burying it three inches deep. The metallic tip speared through fur, skin, artery and trachea, cutting a perfect line through critical soft tissues.

“GlrurkKKkKkk! GLKkkLlKKkKkKK!” Beatrice’s eyes went wide and her back arched as she suddenly tasted blood in the back of her throat. Theo released the metal shard from his hand as her hands came up and started to claw at it, trying to pull it out. Theo looked down and heard her quietly gurgle, evaluating his handiwork. He had buried it deep and true. Not only had it speared her artery, it had also plunged right into her throat and vocal cords, making anything other than quiet choking sounds impossible. He hurriedly grabbed at the white panties and coveralls and yanked them off of her kicking, cloven legs, exposing her labia and cunt.

“I bet that hurts,” purred Theo as he stood up over the kicking, gurgling, writhing form of the young heifer. He quickly undid his pants, letting his stiff cock spring free, stepping out of his clothing while he watched Beatrice’s eyes and face register the confusion and horror of what was happening to her. Theo had to act quickly if he was going to be able to seize the moment. He dropped to his knees and dragged her body closer to him, lifting up her hips and resting her ass on his bare skinned thighs. Beatrice continued to choke softly as her vocal cords tried to move around metal as the blood meant for her brain spurted into the back of her throat. Theo moved his hands down along her inner thighs and then spread her labia open which were pink and starting to get wet. “That’s it,” he said, “lube up for me you dying cunt.” Theo waited a few more seconds, before taking his cock in his hands and then stabbing her a second time. “GllkkK! GLkKK! GLkkkk!” Theo watched as Beatrice’s eyes opened wide as she was speared again. Theo groaned deeply in pleasure as he felt her eleven-almost-twelve-year-old cunt spasm around his cock. He thrusted a few times just to feel the warmth and tightness of her before pushing in, burying himself deep and holding in her. He knew from experience that he wouldn’t have to do a thing now. She would do all the work.

Beatrice’s hands flopped weakly around the shrapnel and then fell to opposite sides of her neck as the gurgling got softer. A blood bubble formed at her lips and popped, spraying bright red droplets of blood over her white and black face as she softly jerked around him. The medic in Theo was quietly tracking the time since he had stabbed her in her soft throat, counting down the moments of consciousness she likely had before her brain started to shutdown, starving for blood. Theo guessed that she had seconds at most before she would go into the darkness and never return. “Thank you Beatrice,” he whispered, gasping, “It’s been… too long…” For the second time in 10 minutes, Theo watched as a girl softly convulsed under him, watching her face struggle for alertness before her face softened and turned blank. Theo groaned as he felt her cunt milking him, dying, begging for what he had buried in his balls. The clutching and grabbing was getting frantic now as Beatrice began to agonally gasp, gurgling in short bursts. ‘Gurk! GURK! gurk!’ Theo tried to hold out for as long as he could before closing his eyes and letting it happen.

The orgasm crashed over him like a wave, the aching in his balls and cock relieved as he began to spurt deep into her quivering hole. Over and over he felt his balls tighten against him, followed by a massive spurt of relief and his seed. He felt something align in his world, a swirling of meaning as he filled her dying womb with the stuff of life even as the vessel he was filling was becoming barren and worthless. Dimly he heard the gurgling soften as he felt her death contractions subside. He felt a shudder across his thighs and then an eerie stillness, his universe reduced to the pleasure of his spurting cock. Theo kept his eyes closed for what seemed to be minutes after his cock had finally stopped twitching. He wanted to rest in this place, this afterglow for as long as he could. Finally he had to pull out. He opened his eyes and stood up, letting Beatrice slide off of him while he pulled up his pants. His underwear felt damp as he closed up his trousers. Next, he leaned down and awkwardly put Beatrice’s underwear on around her dripping, raped and now dead crotch. As a final act he pressed on her pubic mound and bladder, expelling the last bit of urine from her. That would discourage anyone taking a closer look. He could claim he removed the overalls as a part of an examination. Theo stepped away, taking big strides to where he had left the pregnant mare. He had two lives to save still.

The pregnant mare was exactly where he had left her. “You came back!” she exclaimed. “I thought you had left me!” 

“No no, I was just checking for others.” 

“Are they okay?” Cassie asked, imploring deeper. 

“Let’s, let’s not talk about them right now, help is coming and I need to focus on you and your baby.” said Theo, emphasizing the most important person there. Theo was having difficulty focusing himself, the glow of snuffing still buzzing in his mind. “You feel about the same?” he asked.

“T..thirsty and...scared…” she replied. It wasn’t really an answer. Theo knelt down to get a closer look at the mare. She was large and strong, with well-defined muscles in her arms and legs that extended from her overalls like tree trunks. There was a nervousness and restlessness to her that wasn’t there when he last saw her. He began to worry that he had missed something. He leaned a little closer to the shrapnel buried in Cassie’s right side. His hands moved along it and his mind flashed back to Beatrice and how she had gurgled and begged and…

No. He had to concentrate here. He brought his mind to bear as he stared at the blood-soaked denim around the piece of shrapnel. “Cassie, listen to me. I need to find out how deep this piece of metal goes, and you have to help me, okay? It’s going to hurt. A lot. So please don’t kick me. The first thing I need to do is to get most of your overalls off, you understand?” 

“Yes,” said the mare with a deep, but surprisingly meek tone. 

“Okay.” 

Theo set to work, undoing the straps near her shoulders and peeling the overalls down over her front. Unlike the last two girls, Cassie’s chest was well developed and large, her brown-furred breasts preparing themselves for many months of milk production. Theo tried to ignore staring at them and focused on delicately tearing the denim around the protruding metal from Cassie’s right side. He did a good job, with only the occasional wince as he managed to expand, then tear through the small hole the jagged metal had left, allowing him to fold back the overalls down and over her large belly before resting them just above her pubic mound. With the clothes out of the way, he could take a closer look. 

It was a thin piece of metal, maybe a support beam for the box truck that she had managed to get impaled into her body. He wondered how that must have happened and came to the conclusion she was thrown onto it before being thrown on her back. The skin around the metallic spear was sticky with dark reddish blood, which was slowly oozing as it moved inside of her. Theo tried to guess which path the metal took, but that assumed a straight line. No, he’d have to palpate to find it. 

“Cassie. Cassie! I want you to try and hold still now. This is going to hurt a lot but please, it’s important for me to know where this piece of metal went. Okay? You ready?” 

“Uhuh...ye...yes, I think.”

“Just don’t kick me in the head.” Theo smiled, trying to lighten the mood. Then he pressed his fingers to his side, using his two hands; the best, most sensitive instruments he had and began to guess and trace the path of the metal in Cassie’s body by pressing with his padded fingertips.

Cassie started to whinny as his fingers pressed deep against the metal, trying to figure out the depth in her body and how long it was. Theo tried to ignore Cassie’s thrashing as he pressed down hard, feeling the metal oddly snaking around, left, right, up, down as he traced the circuitous path through her body. As he moved into her midsection, there was a deep equine scream from Cassie as one of her powerful legs moved up, then down, the hoof coming down on a rock and shattering it into three pieces. Theo gave one last push on her midsection resulting in a blood curdling cry of pain before he pulled his fingers back and leaned back, trying to process what his hands just told him.

The metal was larger and longer than he expected. It wasn’t a straight piece but more curved and random, like a twisted tentacle buried deep inside of her. It had somehow found its way deep into her body, twisting around, making several turns where her liver would be. A realization slowly came to him as he retraced the shrapnel's path in his mind.

Cassie would likely be dead in an hour.

The metal had twisted and turned right into her liver, dividing it into three torn sections. A lot of blood travelled through a liver, but it travelled very slowly. Theo’s mind assessed her condition She was looking paler. She was probably bleeding, deflating, like a bike tire with a slow leak. Theo was horrified. He had gambled on being able to save the two of them to keep up his reputation and cover and now there was a good chance that all of the crash victims would die on the bottom of this hill. His mind raced on what options he had and the answer always came back to ‘none’. Now he’d have to wait for someone to arrive and help. Theo’s eyes scanned the sky. It must be 8 in the morning. Someone would be driving by in the next hour, but would it be soon enough?

Theo turned to Cassie who was still breathing fast from all of the pain he had just caused her. “That really hurt!” she snorted, “did, did you find out anything?” Theo looked back at the mare and her look of concern, and hungry for information. 

“We’ll just have to stay here until help arrives Cassie. I can’t move you.” Theo paused, trying to keep the mare’s mind on other things. “How far along are you?” he asked. “How many months?”

“E...Eight, close to N...nine” stammered Cassie. 

“Is the papa proud?” Theo watched Cassie’s face change, a sad look blanketing her muzzle. Immediately Theo knew he had asked the wrong question.

“Papa’s dead. Heart attack. He was so...so young and handsome,” Cassie whispered. 

“I’m sorry Cassie, I am. But his legacy, his baby will be here. Do you have names picked out yet?”

“Thor, if it’s a boy. I’m thinking Meadow if it’s a - ghk - a girl.”

“Both are lovely names,” Theo replied, noticing the little gasp of air in the last sentence. He’d been watching the mare’s breathing start to pick up. He first noticed it a couple of minutes ago but didn’t say anything. He needed Cassie to stay calm.

“Is . . . help coming . . . soon?” she gasped, “Feel scared, kinda . . . cold.” 

“Yes, help will be here soon, just stay still and be calm, okay?” Theo took his hand and touched her cheek in a comforting manner. He hid the fact that the fur on her face was cool and clammy. His hand moved down and pressed against her neck, feeling her pulse quicken. Theo recognized the first stages of hypovolemic shock – not enough blood to feed all those oxygen-hungry muscles. His mind wrestled with a decision. Cassie might not make it, but her baby might. Should he try and do an emergency cesarean right here? No, he didn’t have the tools he needed. Even if he did, he would lose the mother for sure. He decided that his best chance for saving both would be to keep them together for as long as possible, even though that meant a higher chance of losing them. It was an all-or-nothing gamble.

Theo stayed with the mare as the minutes went by, the sun continuing its silent ascent up the sky. Theo could only watch as Cassie continued to bleed internally, her breathing getting faster. She squirmed a bit more. Theo wondered how much she felt and how self-aware she was. Cassie moved her arms a bit and was breathing fast enough that even the mare herself began to sense something was wrong, her face registering some uncertainty and unease. “Hey...what’s your ngh-name?” asked Cassie.

“Theo.”

Cassie’s reply was forced, punctuated by sharp, violent inhalations almost before each word.
“Th...Theo? Like the . . . guy on the . . . news? The hhk-hero guy from the burning b-building last year?”

“Yes. I’m an EMT. I was on my way to work actually,” said Theo. He was shocked by the recognition of his name. Hopefully it would calm her down some. 

“The...Theo, I’m scared I’m...hhgk-feel w...weird and w...weak.” She was having to catch her breath every few moments.

“I know, I want you to stay calm, okay? I’m going to tell you what’s happening so that you’ll stay strong and brave for your foal,” he emphasized. “Cassie, that piece of metal is wedged deep into your body, so deep that it’s punctured your liver. You’re bleeding inside. The good news is that it's bleeding very slowly. The bad news is that I can’t pull it out without doing more damage. So you’ve got to hang on and be calm okay?”

“W...what? No! I have to get my foal out now!” she yelled. To Theo’s shock and horror she began to grunt and push, gritting her teeth to try and start pushing out her baby. 

“Cassie! CASSIE! It doesn’t work like that, you just can’t just start labour by pushing! You might strain something and bleed faster!” he implored. Cassie wasn’t having any of it, her single-minded thought process had already come to a conclusion. She continued to grunt, baring her teeth, her eyes wide as she strained hard. “Cassie! Stop! You’ll tear something!” yelled Theo.

“YES, YES I NEED TO!! HUNGH! HUNGH! HUNGH!” grunted Cassie. She was struggling, taking in deep, painful breaths to try and get her body to bear down. “HUNGH! HUNGHHAHAAAaaaAAaaaa!” Cassie’s head suddenly whipped back. Theo realized something had happened but he couldn’t figure out what it was until he smelled a new smell and looked down at the overalls crumpled between Cassie’s strong muscular thighs and noticed they were dark and damp. 

“Oh shit…” whispered Theo. Cassie had managed to force her water to break. Amniotic fluid was now gushing out between her thighs. Cassie in her simple, stupid determination had created a crisis. Theo quickly began to strip the mare, grabbing the rest of her overalls and pulling them down and off her muscular legs, leaving her lower half naked, fluids still oozing. “Cassie! Listen to me, you have to conserve your strength, stop doing this or you’re both going to die!” hissed Theo. Cassie responded by shaking her head, her eyes trembling and nervous. Stress and fear had gripped her completely as she began to gasp and groan again, spurred on by the breaking of her waters. She was sure she could do this. “HNGHHH! HUNGHHhh! HUNGHhhh!” Theo, unable to think of a way to get through to her grabbed her head in both hands. “STOP!” he yelled. “Please!”

“No!” Cassie snarled back through gritted teeth.

“Okay, let me help then…” conceded Theo, given no choice but to try and help an impossible situation. “I’m going to check and see how far along you are…” he said as he slid his hand against her inner thigh, letting her know what she was going to do. She was still gasping and grunting, nodding a few times to let Theo knew that she understood. Theo took a deep breath and then plunged his fingers deep into her dripping slit, probing in as high as his hand could go. His fingers wormed their way up and then began to push and probe against Cassie’s cervix. Theo touched it, feeling for the knob and found exactly what he expected. Her cervix was softer which means she might have gone into labour in a few days, maybe a week, but entrance to her womb was bound up tight, the sphincter squeezed shut, the gate to her foal closed. She wasn’t even close to being ready to start labour. Theo pulled his fingers out with a wet slurp. “Cassie, STOP PUSHING,” he commanded, “you’re NOT HELPING!”

Cassie suddenly stopped pushing. Theo couldn’t believe that she would suddenly comply so he grabbed her head and stared into her trembling face. Her eyes were wild with fright, her breathing rapid and laboured. Theo instinctively thrust his fingers deep into the mare’s neck again, feeling her pulse rate climb. She was going into full hypovolemic shock, her self-inflicted labour accelerating her blood loss. Cassie’s head shook, trying to sit up suddenly as if she didn’t know where she was. “Baby! Foal!” she cried out. 

“Lay down, Cassie! relax!” barked Theo as his hand landed squarely on Cassie’s sweaty and cool breast, pushing her back down to the ground. 

“Baby-my baby-my foal-my baby,” stammered Cassie, her head shaking. It was clear that she was scared and afraid, confused as shock addled her already simple mind. Cassie was going downhill fast, her muscles twitching, her muscular arms and legs flailing weakly on the ground as if in agony. Theo tried to dodge some of her hooves and was not entirely successful as he attempted to keep her calm and still. At least she only clipped his ear. 

“My baby-my baby my b….bb….” Cassie’s singsong litany suddenly stuttered. Theo watched as her face suddenly looked confused, then blank, her eyes rolling up slightly and her head rolling to the side as she began to convulse. Something very wrong had just happened. Theo stabbed his fingers into her neck and to his horror, found no pulse. She had gone into cardiac arrest. 

“No Cassie, don’t do this, come on honey, don’t do this!” he yelled as he rolled the quivering brown mass of muscle onto her back. He knotted up his hands and began to press on her chest, compressing it, trying to keep blood moving up to her brain. “Come on,” he grunted, “stay with me!” Cassie was still breathing, sort of. Her hoof twitched occasionally. “Come on dammit, stay here!”. Theo pressed on her chest over and over, counting out a rhythm in his mind. At 30 he stopped and evaluated. Cassie took a deep gasp as Theo checked for a pulse. Still silent. He quickly resumed. “Come on Cassie, hang on, Thor needs you. Melody needs you. Come on!” over and over he pushed. He was about to the check her pulse again when Cassie groaned, her eyelids fluttering as her consciousness slowly flickered back into place. Theo stabbed his fingers into her neck again. A pulse was there – rapid and thready, but there.

Theo was taking in gulps, wiping the sweat from his brow, his attention drawn to movement in Cassie’s massive belly. He saw a ripple underneath, then another ripple as he put his hands on her large swollen midriff. Inside he felt the foal kicking, clearly distressed and frantically squirming inside of its mother, reflexively trying to get out, sensing that something was wrong and it could no longer stay in its mother’s warm, wet embrace. Theo began to push on Cassie’s belly, down towards her legs, applying gratuitous amounts of fundal pressure to try and speed up the delivery. It was the absolute worst way to help, but the stubborn horse had robbed him of all other options. Theo’s eyes flicked to Cassie’s face. Her mouth was open, gasping quickly as she shuddered, the tone in her arms and legs going flabby as he felt little tiny contractions under his hands. “That’s it Cassie, help me here, hang on, stay and help me,” he pleaded as he continued to help massage and push. Theo leaned over, taking his hand and quickly shoving it back up her birth canal. Theo gasped as he felt a hard head wedged in there. Theo couldn’t believe it but there it was. Theo figured that maybe as her body relaxed, so had her cervix, allowing her foal a small chance to escape a shared demise. “Hang on Cassie, hang on, just a little longer…” Theo encouraged, trying to hurry and push the baby out, leaning the entire weight of his body on her stomach, pushing this way and that as he felt half contractions and spasms as well as the frantic kicking of the foal underneath the hairy brown flesh. Theo heard Cassie panting near him, trying to keep herself oxygenated as he tried to squeeze the foal down.

Theo was making good progress until there was a lurch and the contractions suddenly turned into unorganized shivers and spasms. He turned to Cassie’s face again. Her eyes seemed to be jerking again, convulsing. Theo pressed his index fingers into her neck and felt nothing. She had arrested again, just as the foal was almost down far enough to pull it out by the head.

“Cassie, NO! NO! NO! STAY!” he yelled as he began to frantically compress her chest. Cassie’s eyes looked confused, as if to say what’s happening to me? Theo counted off the seconds as he watched her face go blank and then start to gasp, slower. Even he could recognize the final stages of circulatory shock. If he got her heart started again it might only go for another minute before stopping again. But he needed that minute. It was a game of literal inches. If the foal would move just an inch or two further down the dying mare’s birth canal, he could grab the foal under the chin and yank it out. “Fight you fucking mare, fight!” he yelled, surprising himself by slapping her face, causing it to whip around side to side. Cassie’s eyes trembled in response and she gasped again as he continued to compress her chest. He stopped again, checking. A pulse was there, barely. Turning now he moved his hands down and began to use the same compressions on her womb, trying to push out the weakly kicking foal. Every third or fourth compression he felt Cassie’s womb contract weakly, giving the foal an extra push.

“Keep fighting for your foal Cassie, keep fighting,” mumbled Theo. His face was salty and sweaty, matting his brown-sugar fur and making it glisten in the dappled light. Cassie began to jerk again, convulsing, the womb going slack under his hands. He stopped and felt for a pulse and found none. He could try to compress her chest, but it would be no use. Her blood was likely now stagnant, clotting in her blood vessels. Theo gave a final hard push on her now flaccid womb, feeling the foal sliding an infinitesimal amount. The foal kicked weakly inside, its dying mother trying to drag it with her beyond the pale curtain. Both or neither, he remembered. Or was it?

Theo scooted on sore knees to a spot between Cassie’s trembling and flaccid legs, spreading them apart before taking his right hand and plunging it as deep as it would go into the nearly dead mare. Was the foal far enough down? Had he done enough? His fingertips slid just under a chin and slipped again. Cursing, Theo kept trying, so close to being able to yank the foal out and-

There. Theo solidified his grip and pulled his arm back, slowly dragging out the foal from its dead mother with both hands. There was a wet slurp and then silence as he pulled it out. Agonizing moments passed before he heard a weak cough. Had he managed to get it out in time? Theo swung the foal around to get a closer look, his eyes glancing between it’s legs. “It’s a girl, Cassie! It’s Meadow…”

Cassie wasn’t listening anymore. The foal was moving, but there was something slow and laconic about it. He knew little about equines and didn’t know if this was normal or not.

A voice from above interrupted his study. “Hey! Down there? Are you ok?”

“Yeah!” replied Theo. “We have a survivor; a baby foal! Everyone else is dead! Call the hospital and have them dispatch an EMT from county! Tell Dan this is why I’m late, he’ll understand!” he yelled back.

Theo looked down at the pitifully gasping foal next to him. “You’re going to make it, kid.”

- - -

Lafayette Times

Theo Aesculapius was at it again yesterday at the scene of a devastating and tragic accident on the Low Valley Highway. A box truck containing John Brown, owner of Brown ranch, was killed along with several workers when the truck carrying them blew a tire and rolled down the embankment. The only survivor was a newborn filly, apparently born en-route and saved from certain death by the heroic actions of the off-duty feline EMT.

- - -

“Michael.”

“Theo.”

“Sorry ‘bout your brother.”

“No worries, I know you did everything you could. It was just an awful thing. I loved him and I know you tried.”

“Thanks.”

“Did you want to see her?”

“Yeah. Where is she?”

“Over there.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. She’s the spitting image of her mother. She’s. . . different, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ll see. Meadow! Meadow! Come here for a moment will you?”

Theo watched the young mare unhitch herself from her pulling harness. There was an odd, slow gait as she walked up.

“Meadow,” said Michael, “This is Theo. He was the one that saved your life. Would you like to say anything to him?”

“Meadow,” replied the young mare. “Meadow.”

“That’s right sweetie. Why don’t you go back to your work now?” said Michael softly. Meadow turned and walked back to the cart, her eyes blankly staring ahead as she re-hitched herself to the plow.



