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Chapter I: Chasing Rainbows

Everything in Beltzgrad was uniform. The buildings all had a state-approved brutalist aesthetic; tall grayscale concrete monsters with small windows and high walls that were either poured out of the same molds or looked similar enough nobody would bother to check. Each street had a number and each avenue had a letter and with a few exceptions each number or letter was exactly 100 meters away from the next in the sequence. The trees planted in the streets were Thornless Honeylocust, and the trees planted in the parks were Elms. Choices were easy because there were none; brands were abolished and the state distributed everything. You would drive the car to the grocery store, buy the detergent and the cookies, maybe go to the bar and get the drink or two before staggering home to the house or the apartment, puke in the bathtub and pass out on the couch only to wake up with the hangover and regret the night before. Elsie walked slowly through the streets to work; not because she had time, she didn't, but because she was she was just too tired to run. Maybe it was the fatigue playing tricks on her but the monitors seemed excessively skittish today. The monitors were effectively no more than flying interrogators, most people called them finks. "HALT!" one boomed at her its iris flashing red, "Identify your self!"

"Elsie Nicole Vedas. Ident Number ENV-25-3463-179." There was a moment of silence while the monitor processed the information. It bobbed lightly in the cool morning air, its processing power caught between trying to stay stable as the breeze changed direction and communicating with the database that stored the information related to Elsie's identification number. "You're late for your employment duties, harvester." Elsie glanced at the top of her wrist for a moment as the number 05:32 crawled across the face of one of her two watches. "Only by two minutes" she replied.

"Irrelevant!" snapped the fink, "Your employer has been informed and today's pay has been docked 30%!"

"But-."

"Proceed to the hydroponics field and report in for work within the next 3 minutes or your contract will be terminated" The fink's iris changed from a deep red to a bright blue and it buzzed away. Elsie wasn't too upset, after all she didn't do her job for the money and she was only half a block from work.

Elsie's boss Walter had been waiting for her when she clocked in. The aged bulldog was always forgiving of Elsie's tardiness, even through she seldom had a good excuse. "I just got a in ping about you, Ms. Vedas." he said a low tone. "The bus broke down."

"You live six blocks away, Ms. Vedas." "Well then I was caught in a temporal rift and spent four years teaching a per-industrial village the merits of the steam engine, and just before they burned me for heresy the rift opened up again and dropped my back at home exactly 5 minutes late." "Knowing you that's the more accurate story." "I'm sorry Walt, honest I am. I promise I won't be late again." "I'm sure you will."

"You know me too well Walt." Elsie said with a smile as she tied her long ears back in a knot and began to stretch.

"Can't you just run here, Ms. Vedas? I can't tell you how many times I've seen you practically crawling to work, and if you came here at the same pace you move here I doubt you'd ever be late." "I just want save my a-game for the job," she said as she set a timer on the watch under her wrist. "You better get runnin' rabbit," she whispered to her self. "Hey I want ask you something," Walt said looking down at his phone.

"Five minutes." she said to him.

"I was just-." he began to say, but it was too late. She was already out the door and halfway across the massive hanger that enclosed the farm.

Roxanne was sitting with her feet on her work bench taking a short nap when Walter came wandering in. He tapped her on the shoulder and she snapped awake. "Bluh! I was just... bored." "Is there really that little to do right now, Ms. Metz?" He strolled over to his desk and gazed at the CCTV monitors behind it. "Sorry, Mr. Becker." She said with a shrug. "No work orders right now, just changed water filters last week, the computers are working fine, still waiting on those new transistors to come in before I can start upgrading the nutrient vaporizers." "Well there's this package full of circuit boards that came in this morning. Is that anything?" Walter pointed over his shoulder to an open box on his desk. "Oh! Yeah those are just some custom PCB's I ordered for a little personal project!" Roxanne rushed over and inspected the tiny circuit boards. "Guess it's best that I don't know whatever goofy stuff you make with the things you order under the farm's name." "It's all pretty harmless for the most part; laser pointers, transmitters to control lighting and thermostat and crap in my house, that kind of stuff." Roxanne hurried back to the work bench and flipped the on the switch on a power strip, causing a bank of lights to come alive. As her soldering iron gently hummed it set the tone of her mood like a tuning fork would set the tone of a choir. "I'm just going to ignore the part of that sentence where you said 'for the most part'." Walter turned around and pulled out his phone. "That... would probably be for the best." Roxanne pulled on a wristband with a long cable and plugged it into a hole on the bottom of her workbench, then she popped open a tool box full of electronic components and proceeded to pluck out all the various parts she wanted to use and carefully set them in a neat row next to her. "Hey could a picture I took with my phone be... like... tracked?" "Yeah probably, have you connected to the internet with your phone yet?" The vixen hunched over a large magnifying glass on a stand and carefully got her soldering work under way. "No." "Well so long as you don't do that you should be fine. Would probably be best to disable your wifi entirely if you're worried about it. Why?" "Just wondering." Walter rapidly tapped buttons on his phone. "Well I'm not one to pry. So I'll just leave it at that." "I'm sorry to lean on you and your girlfriend so much for... knowledge." His timbre turned somewhat somber. "whu-... uh." Roxanne put her iron down and turned to face the bulldog. "What? Where is this coming from?" "Well I'm not very knowledgeable about really anything, I'm just good with administration and numbers and stuff, honestly." He nervously pressed his fingertips together. "You guys know so much about so many things." "It-... it's alright, Mr. Becker, really it is. We're glad to help whenever we can." After a brief second of silence she continued. "An- And I think you're not giving yourself enough credit. You know a lot of practical stuff, whereas our knowledge is much more arcane and not really useful most of the time. Unless it's electrical engineering or computers I can't really tell you much about anything."

"I still feel bad about it."

"You shouldn't though. We've leaned on you for your knowledge plenty as well. Especially when it came to tax time." "That's true I guess... Thanks." "For what?" "For putting my anxieties to rest for a bit I guess? Just-... just generally thank you I guess. You're a model employee, Ms. Metz." He stowed his phone and grabbed a large accordion binder pulling files out of it. "Thank... you? Are you going to be alright Mr. Becker?" "Should be." He smiled at Roxanne, but she suspected that it was a false smile. "Well Ms. Vedas is better at this talking thing than I am... Maybe you two can have a good conversation later." "I hope so. In any case I should fill out this paperwork. You can go back to your laser pointers or whatever you're doing today." Roxanne nodded sweetly and turned around again, quickly getting lost in her work.

The screen overlooking the farm announced the workload: Raspberries and mangoes. This news pleased Elsie to no end. She was running low on red, green, and yellow paint and now she had access to the things she needed to make the proper pigments. She went to the mango grove first. Elsie worked her way from tree to tree plucking mangoes and tossing them into a satchel slung under her arm. At the same time she would pick a fruit she would grab a leaf or two off the tree and stuff it into her mouth. They tasted awful, made her break out in hives, and give her a stomachache; but the payoff was worth every excruciating moment, because by the end of the night she would have a fresh batch of vibrant yellow paint. After getting a full satchel of succulent orange and red fruits she would drop out of the trees and empty the sack into a nearby bin, then repeat the process. During lunch Elsie sucked on some ginger root and drank copious amounts of water to get rid of the taste in her mouth and to stop the mango leaves from coming up. Suddenly two thin black paws wrapped around Elsie's neck.

"Hiya E!" Recently Roxanne had been enjoying practicing sneaking up on Elsie, and she had been getting quite good at it. "Shit Rox! You scared the hell out of me!" Elsie said coughing up bits of ginger.

"Aww, I'm sorry hon." The vixen gave an exaggerated frown. "It's alright." The lop rested her weight on Roxanne's chest, and the vixen gave a contented sigh. "You're in a good mood." Roxanne nodded enthusiasticly. "Mm-hm! Watchoo eatin?"

"Just some ginger." "Stomach problems again?" Roxanne raised a knowing eyebrow. "Yeah."

"Well I have plenty of meds back at my place if you wanna come over after work."

"If this is another one of your plans to get me into bed again it won't work."

"Are you sure? After all I've caught you." Roxanne said while nibbling on Elsie's ear.

"Maybe some other time, I have to do some cooking tonight."

"Again?! You said that yesterday."

"What can I say? I like cooking." Barely audible beeps coming from Elsie's watch let her know that her lunch break was over. "Welp." said Elsie "That's lunch."

"Well if you change your mind and feel the need to see a foxy face and share a warm bed my house is always available. In the mean time you better get running, rabbit." Roxanne whispered into Elsie's ear then bit down on it hard.

"OW! Remind me again, why the fuck do you always do that?"

"So you don't forget me," she said with a smirk and walked away.

On her way to the raspberry fields Elsie stopped by the blueberries. They were not ripe yet but she didn't want them to be. She rolled the berries in her fingers; they were firm, and would make a good light green hue. She checked to make sure no one was around, then in one swift movement she stripped the branch of berries and hid the under ripe berries in a small hole in her pants. After that Elsie went to the raspberry field and began her work there; she stashed some of the ripe berries in her pants at the raspberry field, just as she had done before. Several hours later, after her work was over, Walter approached Elsie once again. "Hey Elsie, about that question."

"What's up Walt?"

"Your mother was marked as an objectionable tradesman wasn't she?"

"Yeah, she was, but what does this have to do with me?"

"I'll get to that. What did she do before the matriarch took the throne?"

"She was an artist, liked to paint a lot of surrealistic paintings, and she did street art quite a lot as well."

"She painted with... colors?"

"Look, Walt if there is a point please get to it. I have a lot of cooking to do today."

"I just wanted your opinion on something, but it can wait till later."

"Alright if you say so boss! How about some coffee with Rox and I some time?"

"That would nice Elsie."

"Call her tomorrow, I'll probably be there in the morning and we can make some plans." Elsie gave him a kiss on the cheek then bolted out the door.

The scent of mildew and stale coffee permeated Elsie's apartment. The afternoon sun was shining through the slats of her shades, creating beautiful shafts of yellow light as the sunshine reflected off the dust in the air. She reflected on the transcendence of the moment for a short time and set off to work on her 'cooking'. First she started to boil some water for the berries she had stowed, then she grabbed saucepan and went to the bathroom procure arguably the most disgusting part of her paint. Her body had been working all day to work out the poisons in the mango leaves, and now the excruciating toxins were gone from her body and ready to be turned into paint. After boiling the berries for a short time she placed them on racks and slotted them into a home-made dehydrator. At the same time she began to boil the liquid off of the deep yellow urine in the saucepan and pour some flaxseed oil into another pan and put it on the fire. A secret panel in the wall hid all of her pestle and mortars that she would use to grind all her dried pigments and mix her paints. Hours of careful mixing and grinding later and the paints were almost ready. For the final step she popped open a bottle of vodka, gulped down a slug, and added a small amount of liquid to each of the paints.

Elsie looked at her watch, 21:33. Curfew had been in effect for some time, so the only things on the street were finks and security officers. Elsie pulled on a black hoodie and leather working gloves, loaded up her backpack with cheap plastic containers full of paint, put on her mask, and climbed out the fire escape. Tonight she had the perfect wall in mind. She made her way from street to street careful not to draw attention from the finks. She climbed up a billboard ladder, jumped to a narrow ledge, and quickly began scaling the huge concrete building. There it was! The perfect wall! Elsie set a timer on her bottom watch; she pulled out her paints, donned a pair of rubber gloves over her leather ones, and started her art. What took days of preparation and weeks of planning only took minutes to execute. She savored each stroke, as the home made colors rolled off her fingertips and onto the concrete. She moved with lightning speed and razor accuracy, the ethanol in her paint evaporated carrying with it the scents of the pigments. She was getting entirely lost in her work as she labored, but the sound of finks grew into a tremendous hum. After Elsie finished her painting she stepped back to admire her work. It was her masterpiece. The perfect painting, on the perfect wall; it was a grand mural featuring a mob of animals tearing down horrifying visage of the matriarch and four simple letters: E-N-V-Y. That was all that anyone had left anymore, envy of those who lived in a time long past, but not enough ire to make a change. The beeping on her watch informed Elsie that her time was just about up. She reached into her bag and grabbed a long rope, and she used it to quickly tie a highwayman's hitch to a decorative hole at the top of the parapet. She tossed the rope ends over the edge of the building and skillfully rappelled down the side; after reaching the bottom she yanked on the other end of the rope and it came tumbling down to her. As she stuffed the rope back in her bag Elsie spotted a fink coming from a nearby alley. "Better get runnin' rabbit." She whispered to her self and she darted through the streets desperate to lose the swarm of finks and security officers barreling towards her at break-neck speeds. She needed an ally and an alibi, and fast!

Roxanne was watching the matriarch Simonne's weekly speech on television. The aged kodiak bear was personally reporting on the latest horrifying snuff picture from the defector's haven. "These people aren't normal! They want nothing more than to destroy everything that makes you safe!" she exclaimed "Look how they brutally murdered this young man! They lurk outside the city's gates waiting to catch strays." She pounded her fist against her chest and boldly continued. "Remember: if you stay in the den then mama bear will protect you!" Roxanne tuned her out as she went into her usual spiel about the importance honesty, hard-work, and above all servitude. She promised that all her rules were for the people's safety, and continued to remark as she always did that the people should celebrate the three-thousand-some-odd days since she took complete power and made the province 'better'. "What a load of crap" Roxanne said aloud as she turned off the television. She sat back in her seat chewing on some fruit and reading some sensationalized piece of tabloid news. She looked up at the clock on her wall and worried, her thoughts wandering to the world outside of her home and what might be happening that very moment. Suddenly there was a loud knock coming from her front door, and it startled her so much she let out an audible yelp. Just on the other side of the peephole there was a small figure, breathing heavily. The silhouette made Roxanne's heart leap. She opened the door and spoke quietly. "Hiya E."

"Hey Rox... how you doin'?"

"Better than you by the looks of it." Roxanne said gesturing to a deep cut on Elsie's upper arm. "Cooking accident."

"I bet... Good to see you, although it's not every day you get to surprise me."

"My ear was hurting and I needed to see your foxy face."

"Well you better come in before we get some uninvited guests."

"Thanks, babe." Elsie said while stepping into the house and Roxanne locked the door behind her. "Let me get my med kit for all your cuts, but first let's get that sweater off."

"You pervert." chuckled Elsie.

"It's to get a better look at that nasty gash on your arm... getting you topless is just an added benefit." Elsie hissed and bit her lip as the sweater rolled over her arm. "Aww... my poor honey bunny. How did that happen?"

"I was hopping over a fence and a fink came out of nowhere buzzing and howling. The little fucker got in my way and it was all I could do to cover my face"

"Tampering with, or disabling, a monitor is punishable by up to 7 days unpaid labor or a night in a recalibration suit" Roxanne said in a mechanical voice similar to a fink. "Hold still." Roxanne pulled a pair of tweezers from her bag and began to pull small shards of plastic from Elsie's arm. "Got any pain killers?"

"Sure, let me get some." Roxanne went to her cupboard and pulled out a bottle of whiskey and a couple rocks glasses, and poured a small portion into each glass. "Here, get this in your gut... and like I said keep still... this is gonna sting."

"Here's to life." Elsie said holding up her glass

"Here's to love." Roxanne said. Their glasses made a pleasant 'ding' and Elsie gulped down her whiskey, at the same time Roxanne poured the contents her glass over the open wound on Elsie's arm. The pain would have been enough to make anyone else scream, but Elsie just let out a slight whimper. "Well the cuts look worse than they actually are, probably take a little time to heal but you should be fine." Roxanne used a towel to expunge the blood and spirits from Elsie's fur. She took a deep breath as she somberly began to wrap up Elsie's arm in a bandage. "Why do you do this, E?" "What do you mean?"

"This... thing... you go out in the middle of the night with your home made paints, which even owning is even more illegal than grinding up a fink in your arm by the way, and you make gorgeous art but to what end? For what purpose do you do it? Who is it for?" "It's for the people, Rox. It's a push for a change, make a difference-."

"There was a time when artists like you could make a difference but not anymore; now your work is just gonna get photographed by some asshole from the police or, if your lucky, someone from the news outlet who can't even print the god damn thing. Then the picture is gonna be filed under 'objectionable material' in some government file with the word 'envy' scrawled across it. Then the building is going to get painted over or burned and rebuilt as a grand show of punishment just in case someone even thought about agreeing with you."

"Not this time."

"What do you mean 'not this time'?"

"This time I bombed the slam to top all slams: one of the high walls on the newly constructed ministry of royal affairs building in the plaza! It's way too big and important to be reconstructed, and the boring gray paint order for the building doesn't come in for another week!" Elsie gave a proud grin, but Roxanne merely shook her head. "I... I don't know if I should be more impressed or angry right now."

"Angry?"

"Yes! Because you go out and you raise hell and make life harder on everyone... especially me." "Look... Rox-."

"I care about you E; I care about you a lot, have since we were 12, but one of these days your gonna get caught, or seriously hurt, and I'm afraid that I couldn't be there to dress your wounds and take care of you... I'm afraid I would lose you... I'm afraid the world would lose you." For a moment the only noise that could be heard is the humming of monitors outside frantically scanning the streets. "I'm sorry Rox... I didn't know how much you worried." Elsie wiped the tears form Roxanne's face and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Well, you better come upstairs." Roxanne said with a sigh "let's get some rest and let your arm mend."

"Thanks for everything Rox... tomorrow I'll paint something just for you to admire, at least for a day." "That would be nice E."

Chapter II: Bolt From the Blue

Mica had been waiting for her next order for days. Her ghillie suit hadn't granted her much warmth, and the cold and isolation were making it difficult for to hold on to the fragments of what was once her mind. She wondered if the matriarch had discovered the Defector's Haven and she was all that was left of her comrades, then she began to wonder if the Defector's Haven actually existed. "No" she thought, "they must be real... I know who my delusions are". Suddenly a slender panther slinked up behind Mica. "I could kill you right now if I wanted to Mica." he said in a sinister voice. Mica stayed perfectly still and silent. "What... no snappy comeback?"

"You're not real." Mica said under her breath.

"How do you know?"

"You told me so, Deimos."

"What has Dolos told you?"

"It doesn't matter." "Do you know when your birthday is?" "Not now, Deimos. Please just go back in my brain." "Do you know that's where I came from?" "I have my ways of knowing."

"ohhh really?" Piss off she thought to her self. "That's not very nice" he replied.

"I didn't say anything," she whispered.

"Touché... fine, I'll go, but I'll be back." and he crept away back to the recess of Mica's mind. Mica was alone again. At least when she was hallucinating she had company, without the visions here there was nothing but the wind and the moon. There was a low grumble coming from Mica's stomach. Mica carefully reached into a pocket on her chest and pulled out a large stick of dried meat bit down on it. Just as slowly as she retrieved the jerky from her vest she slid her hand back into the trigger housing of her rifle. As the fibers of meat in Mica's mouth slowly separated a small ocelot girl crawled up next to her. "When did you count your targets last?" It spoke in the same tone that a concerned friend might use when asking when the last time you slept was. About 10 minutes ago, Voithós. Mica Thought. "Maybe you should count them again." Nine guards in the courtyard, six in the guard towers-. "Did you count two snipers on the roof?" Not yet. "Any patrols?" five, on the perimeter. "Any sign of general Nash?" no not yet, he's late. Suddenly Mica's earpiece chirped to life. "Mu, this is Alpha do you copy?" Mica quickly swallowed the jerky and replied.

"Affirmative."

"Your primary target has changed, prepare to receive new orders."

"What do you mean 'changed'? General Nash is no longer my target?"

"General Nash is now a secondary target."

"Secondary? Are you screwing with me? This hit has been planned for too long for him to be a secondary."

"He will still be there, but a new target has been confirmed and he takes priority."

"This better be fucking good."

"Your new primary target is Oliver Beltz" Mica hesitated for a moment.

"The heir?"

"Affirmative. Primary target now Prince Oliver Beltz, son of Simonne Beltz. Please confirm orders Mu."

"Confirmed. Oliver Beltz is now primary."

"Good... Alpha out." Mica looked at the time on the distant clock tower; It read as 9:52. There was a low level rumble as a large convoy of military vehicles rounded a corner and pulled into the courtyard of the complex in the valley below. One by one various soldiers and security guards emerged from the armored vans and jeeps. Finally the general emerged from his vehicle closely followed by Oliver. General Nash was an integral part of Matriarch Simonne's government, on top of that something deep down in Mica just wanted Nash dead; Oliver on the other hand was just a 22-year-old kid who had the misfortune of being the son of a dictator. Voithós offered more advice. "Deep breath, 'kay? Make the shot count." Mica carefully leveled her rifle and slowly exhaled. "You got this, just a smooth movement." Her grip tightened and the trigger began to slide back towards her palm when suddenly the complex lit up and huge bay doors on the side of the massive building opened up. A great swarm of monitors came pouring out of the gaping holes, obscuring Mica's shot just as it was let loose. The tremendous crack from her rifle did not go unnoticed; the snipers on the roof had begun to scan the area for the offending shot. Mica carefully pulled the bolt of her rifle back and another massive bullet was loaded into the chamber. Mica spotted glint of the moon off of one of the sniper's scopes, "Take care of the two snipers, they are the only ones who could spot right now." She squeezed the trigger and one of the snipers fell out of sight. With a quick movement Mica readied another shot and sent 41 grams of tungsten at over 900 meters per second through the fleshy gut of the second sniper. When the swarm cleared the courtyard was in a panic. Oliver was no longer in sight, but neither was the general, and there was a small stream of blood pooling under the convoy. "Patrol sweeping in your direction." Mica didn't know if the shot connected with the right target, and she didn't have time to stick around and confirm it. "Run." She slid off the back side of the ridge and darted off into the forest. As Mica ran through the woods her thoughts raced along with her. Did I kill them? Did I miss? Was I just shooting at another phantom? How much of this is real and how much is imagined? she needed to calm down and collect her thoughts. She came by an old rundown shack and decided that was as good a place as any to get some rest.

Elsie pulled the warm covers over her shoulders and smiled as crisp morning air kissed her cheeks. One of her favorite things was laying in a warm bed on a cold morning, but when she rolled over she saw an empty bed beside her. Elsie fondly ran her hand across the sheets. The sweet scent of Roxanne's sweat hung in the air, and the warmth of her body still radiated from the now vacant bed. As Elsie put on a bathrobe she heard voices coming from downstairs. She slowly descended the staircase, as not to attract attention. In living room Roxanne was speaking with a security officer that was accompanied by a fink. "Is there anyone else in the building Ms. Metz?"

"In my home you can just call me Roxanne." Roxanne said sweetly.

"Just answer the question."

"Yes, I have company. So if you don't mind-."

"Who is your guest?"

"I am!" Blurted out Elsie

"And who are you?"

"Her name is Elsie-."

"I wasn't addressing you, Ms. Metz!" growled the guard.

"My name is Elsie Vedas, and that is no way to speak to a private citizen." Elsie said as she stomped up to the masked guard.

"Where were you last night at 9:35 pm?"

"First tell me what this is about." Elsie said curtly.

"This is about an incident that happened last night that involved several radical terrorists! Now answer my questions or I will be forced to bring you in for a full interrogation! Now, Ms. Vedas, where were you last night at 9:35 pm?"

"What did these terrorists do, exactly?"

"That is classified information, now answer my question! Where were you last night?"

"I was here, enjoying my evening with Roxanne."

"When did you arrive here?"

"I don't remember, not too late though."

"What do you mean 'too late'?"

"I mean I got off work, went home, took a piss, did some cooking, then came here to see my goddamn girlfriend! Is that enough details, or should I describe Ms. Metz's nipples?" The guard turned towards Roxanne.

"Would you object to a search of your house Ms. Metz?"

"She most certainly would." Elsie said quickly. "This is not your house, Ms. Vedas, and-."

"And nothing! This is more my house than it is yours! I was enjoying a nice morning and you come knocking on this door, trespassing on both Roxanne and my private life and our personal time, and you think you are in the right?! I think you should hurry the hell up and either arrest us for something that we didn't do and waste the governments time and resources or fuck off before I call your superior and get you into real trouble." The security guard stood still there as Elsie's words echoed in his ear. He carefully reached into his pocket and removed a slender black remote, and pressed a few buttons on it. "Stay out of trouble." He spoke through his teeth, and walked out the door. "Thanks for sticking up for me, E." Roxanne said quietly as she curled up on her couch. Elsie peered out the window until the guard was gone, then she drew the shades and sat down. Roxanne fell over onto Elsie's lap began to weep. Elsie scratched Roxanne's orange ears. "That guy was just an asshole."

"And I was a pussy."

"You're just too sweet to deal with those thugs, and that is nothing to be ashamed of."

"I'm a coward."

"You most certainly are not! The way you chased after me for all those years?! Every day you would come to me after school and ask me to go out with you. Do you remember what I would say?"

"Yes."

"What was it?"

"You used to say 'if you can catch me you can keep me' before dashing off."

"And every day you would run after me, little did I know you had figured out where I went each day." "You always would go to the little gap between the water treatment building and the gas station via the most roundabout route possible."

"Yep... and one day you came to me and asked me out and I ran, like every day, but when I got to the alley you were already there! You had followed the stream; running through the culverts, and sliding down the spillway just to get the drop on me." Roxanne began to chuckle a little bit. Elsie continued her story "That was either the stupidest or the most brilliant thing I had ever heard of! It was certainly the bravest thing I have ever seen someone do. I was so stunned I couldn't even think. You slowly walked up to me, wrapped your soaking wet arms around me and said 'now I get to keep you'."

"And I did."

"You sure did. Now, this is the second time in less than 12 hours that you have come to tears, and I simply won't stand for that!"

"I'm sorry... I just cry easily." Roxanne wiped her eyes off and sat back up.

"I know, but you also pick your self up, sometimes with a little help from me, and you get on with your life. I, for one, am glad that I am a part of your life."

"I'm glad of that too."

"Now, here's what is going to happen today: you and I are gonna go take a shower together, you make some breakfast while I make a beautiful portrait of the woman I love, we're gonna call Walt, have a cup of coffee with him, come back here, and have a nice quiet evening together."

"That sounds nice."

"Today is my day to be nice instead of just sound nice, Rox."

Chapter III: Green Around the Gills

Mica carefully pressed her ear against the shack's door. Then she walked around the building and peered in the grimy window. The shack had been vacant for quite some time by the looks of it. She went back to the door and tested the knob. It was stiff and would not give. She pushed back from the door and slammed her shoulder into it, to no avail. She tried hitting the door with her shoulder again. Not even a budge. She took a step back, lifter her foot, and put all of her strength into a ferocious kick. The rusty hinges of the door gave way and it slammed into the ground. Inside there was a mirror hung on the wall over a small sink, across the room there was an old moth-eaten cot, and a shallow fire pit with a long iron spit over it. Mica's earpiece powered up again. "Mu, Do you co-zzkxxz? Repea-zchss-o you copy? This is Alpha! Do yo-chzczkk-py."

"This is Mu. I read you, but your signal is garbled."

"We're get-qrzzzkz-of chatter from hierarchy, I need a SitRep!"

"The whole thing has gone to shit. I'm hunkered down in some shitty little house and I need an extraction."

"That's a no-go on the extraction Mu. We need you to stay pu-zvshhrr-om-xvttt-Tou."

"Say again? I did not copy your last." "We nee-szsh-to stay put until we-zkshhhh-."

"Alpha? Do you copy? ALPHA? Shit!" Mica figured she would follow the only part of the message she got. Without extraction she would have to stay put anyway. She went outside to gather some firewood. The shack sat on the side of the mountain that was surrounded pine trees. These trees were still too green and full of life to make a good fire. A bit further up the mountain there was a downed tree that had been struck by lightning. The lightning had carved a deep spiral burn in the tree along its sap line, making it easy to break apart into manageable pieces. As Mica trudged back to the shack large white flakes of snow began to drift through the air. Mica stopped for a moment and held out her tongue to catch a few snowflakes. She wasn't sure why, but the snow always made her feel more cozy than cold; she thought that maybe that it was a long lost memory, buried in her mind in a locked-off section of her brain. Every time she tried to think back too hard she would begin to feel nauseous, her extremities would numb up and sometimes her she would be in so much pain she would pass out. When she got back to the shack she placed the door back in its frame and got to work starting a fire. When Mica reached for her Zippo it wasn't there. Shit! She thought to her self. Where is it? I have never left home without it! Or did I imagine it? as she rummaged through her pockets she became frantic. She could see the lighter in her head, its dark blue inlaid sides, the rounded corners, the rose gold edges, the bright red dragon with the writing underneath. As she thought about it she began to feel a bit ill. No... It must not be real... or it must not be somewhere I can't think to. When she calmed down Mica remembered the box of matches that were stowed next to her jerky. They were all too wet to light, so she went to plan B. She popped the 9v battery out of her Geiger counter and grabbed some steel wool from her rifle cleaning kit and carefully struck a fire with them. The inferno grew into a decent size in no time. Mica went to the window close the shades so the fire would not be spotted. The snow was coming down hard now and showed no signs of stopping. Mica went to the sink, made sure it was plugged, and emptied her canteen in it. She took off her ghillie suit and began to gently rinse her face in the sink. The young wolf staring back at her in the mirror seemed foreign to Mica. She pulled back tufts of brown fur to reveal long scars that were only exaggerated by the flickering fire, as she ran her fingers across them their smooth surface they almost felt like they were an inch away from where they appeared on her body. Mica turned towards the fire and was startled to see Deimos standing there. She deftly drew her combat knife at took a swing at him. "Woah there, little wolf. You don't want to hurt your self." He said as he hopped back dodging the blade.

"Go away Deimos!" Mica screamed.

"I don't much feel like it."

"Oh for the love of-... Yes you do Deimos." Said a deep voiced tiger hunched over the fire.

"You think I just enjoy torturing her Dolos?"

"She's torturing her, Deiomos. We are her."

"Bullshit, why would she make us just to torture her?" Mica sat down and tried her best to ignore the broken bits of her brain arguing in front of her, but it didn't work. "Why would anyone willingly create someone else who is constantly torturing them? She isn't a masochist."

"Brains are strange places. She's always been this way."

"You don't know that! If she doesn't you don't." "She is starting to remember."

"Not fast enough!" Mica was starting to lose her self-restraint. "Shut up." she whispered.

"I want her to remember as much as you do, Deimos. But-."

"Do you really?"

"Shut up." Mica said a little louder.

"Yes I really do! But this is not the way to do it!"

"Just let me do my job! Let me give her a push in the right direction! Stop undermining my efforts!" "Shut up! Both of you shut the fuck up! Just go away! I don't need you! I don't need any of you! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" Mica was howling and wildly swinging her knife around. Deimos socked Dolos in the stomach; Dolos doubled over, dissolving back into Mica's psyche. "You too Deimos! Leave me alone!" Mica threw her knife at him, and it passed through his body and hit the wall behind him with a thunk. Deimos seized Mica's arms as she fell to her knees. "Remember! What did the zippo look like? It had an engraving on it! What did it say?"

"I'm not playing this game with you Deimos!"

"Just tell me what was engraved on the lighter and I'll leave you alone."

"It had my name!"

"Yes but what was the name?"

"It-it said Mica." Mica's stomach began to churn and there was a sharp stabbing pain in her head and chest.

"No! That was the name that Andrew in the Defector's Haven gave you! What did your lighter say?" "I-... i-it... I don't-." She began to black out.

"No! Stay with me! Don't black out right now! The lighter you had for years! You managed to tap into the memory accidentally, now finish the job!"

"It was bl-blue... a-and rose gold... and it-." Images of the lighter were flashing in her throbbing head.

"It was custom made! In big bright yellow letters it had a name! Your name! What was it! Remember! Say your name, woman! Say it!"

"M-my name i-... my name is" She could no longer hold on. Deimos faded from reality as Mica succumbed to the pain and passed out on the floor.

Roxanne was cracking eggs into a bowl as Elsie was setting up a makeshift easel on the table. Elsie set a large piece of cardboard on her kludged together easel; it was an inelegant but effective canvas for her to work on. Then Elsie went to the cupboard under the sink and began to rummage around in it. "What are you doing?" asked Roxanne

"Lookin.'"

"Looking for what exactly?"

"I'll know when I see it."

"And how do you know what you're looking for is down there?"

"Because I know you." Elsie said as her slender fingers tapped on the lids of the various cans and bottles in the cupboard. "Aha!" Elsie said as she emerged holding a light green can. The can's label said 'Super Clean' in big block letters and in a cursive subscript it said 'the super green product that get your $#@! SUPER CLEAN!' and the mascot was a bright green amorphous blob wearing sunglasses and a beanie; it was giving a wide semi-toothless grin and a thumbs up while bits of its arm and hand dripped off. Elsie pressed her palm against the bottom of the can and twisted. The silver disk that formed the base of the can came off to reveal a small plastic bag hidden in the can. "You should probably get a better stash can." Elsie said.

"What's wrong with that one?"

"Well for one thing this product hasn't existed for almost a decade." Elsie plucked the bag from the can, opened it up, buried her face in it and inhaled deeply.

The pungent aroma wafting from the buds in the bag brought a smile to Elsie's face. The lop pulled some wrapping papers from the bag and began to roll a slender cigarette packed with the intoxicating herbs. "Hey!" Roxanne shouted. Elsie looked up bewildered with the joint hanging out of her mouth. "What? What's wrong?"

"Can we not do two illegal things at once?"

"But I don't want to paint too fast! I wanna feel my way around this... canvas, and I need my muse." Elsie, standing on her toes, wrapped her hands around Roxanne's body and lit the joint on the stove.

"Your muse?"

"My muse is you, silly!" Elsie took a long drag from the cigarette while resting her chin on Roxanne's shoulder. Then she slipped the joint into Roxanne's mouth, and gave her a peck on the cheek. Elsie untied Roxanne's apron, the apron slid onto the ground and Elsie ran her paws down Roxanne nude body. Elsie closed her eyes and let Roxanne's smooth fur slide through her fingers, at the same time she buried her nose into Roxanne's shoulder and nuzzled her neck. "Getting high, felt up, and cooking all at the same time is difficult, E."

"I'm sorry about that, Foxy Roxy." Elsie said, and she began to scratch Roxanne's pubic mound and squeezed her breast. Roxanne shuddered slightly and giggled while Elsie nibbled on her pointy ears.

"That's not helping, E, and at this rate you will never get breakfast."

"I guess you can just focus on the one thing then. Besides I just needed to get a feel of your wonderful curves." Elsie said as she retrieved the smoldering pot from Roxanne's dark lips. "Make 'em good!" Elsie said and she gave Roxanne a sharp slap on her ass, went back to the table, and began to paint. Roxanne thought about picking the apron up off of the floor, but when she bent down to pick it up Elsie cleared her throat loudly, so she carried on cooking without it. For a while the only sounds in the house was the crackling of veggies in oil and Elsie's humming some old tune that her mother used to sing. After several minutes Roxanne placed two well-made omelets that were heavy with the intoxicating scent of onions and peppers on the weathered table. Elsie was so engrossed with her painting that she didn't notice Roxanne sit down and was so taken aback to see her when she looked up that she nearly fell over. "Dig in!" Roxanne exclaimed after Elsie recovered. Elsie attempted to continue painting with her right hand and eating with her left, but the pain in her left arm made her cringe. "Just eat right now. I'll change your bandage." "But... my painting." Elsie said in a tiny voice with strands of cheese hanging out of her mouth.

"Fine" Sighed Roxanne "try not to move around so much, E." "Thanks, Rox." Elsie said with a grin, and Roxanne cut up the omelet into bite-size pieces then went on changing the bandage wrapped around Elsie's arm. The pair of them got lost in the next few hours, they were completely engrossed with each other as they ate, talked, and relaxed.

Mica woke up with a start. The cold ground was unforgiving and bits of gravel were stuck in Mica's fur. She quickly brushed off her face and began suiting up again. The fire had long since burned out and the snow continued to fall. Mica's earpiece buzzed for a few seconds before a voice came from the other end. "Mica? Are you there?" said a nasal voice on the other end.

"Tau... how many times do I have to tell you? No names on the radio."

"Oh! Right! Sorry mic- er... Mu."

"What's the situation Tau?"

"Hang on. Let me get out my code book out" Mica listened to the sound of Velcro ripping apart and papers being shuffled for a few moments before she started to lose her patience.

"Tau..."

"Here it is! Now I just gotta-." He began to mumble.

"Tau..."

"Aha! Here it is! We have a Code Mike-Victor-One-Niner" Mica thought about it for a moment.

"How did you lose a motorcycle, Tau?"

"Shit! Wrong code, sorry! I'm having trouble finding the right code when the book is covered in all this-." He began to mumble again.

"All this this what, Tau?"

"I think I got it now! Oh no wait that's the code for out of gas."

"What is the book covered in, Tau?"

"Maybe I should check the-."

"Tau!" Mica said sharply.

"What?"

"What is the book covered in?'

"Oh... it's covered in blood"

"Holy shit, Tau!"

"Not my blood... at least not most of it"

"I don't care whose blood it is-."

"It's Phil's blood-."

"Just tell me what is going on, Tau. Why is your code book covered in your co-pilot's blood?"

"I'm trying to find the code-."

"Forget the fucking code book, Tau! Just talk to me!"

"My chopper went down on my way to rally point Charlie 7 to pick you up."

"Wha- How?"

"Hydraulic failure plus tall trees and high winds adds up to one busted chopper and a dead Phil."

"Are you ok?"

"I'm a little banged up but I'll survive... I hope."

"You hope?"

"Yeahh... My leg is... well... it's not very recognizable as a leg anymore."

"Why are you -."

"More like a used tube of toothpaste."

"Why are you so blasé about this whole situation?"

"Morphine is kinda crazy... and I think I'm still in shock about this whole thing."

"Shit Tau! Are you staying out of the snow?"

"Yeah, the back of the chopper was relatively un-fucked-up and I'm camping out here."

"I don't suppose you have your location on you."

"What if we're being tapped?"

"Tau! Just tell me where you're at!"

"I'm about half a click northeast of rally point Charlie 7."

"Can you see any landmarks nearby?"

"I'm about 200 meters south of some big ugly statue of an angel."

"Alright Tau, get your sidearm, sit tight, and try to stay warm. I'm on my way."

"Mica?"

"Tau for the last-."

"I'm scared Mica" he said with a sob "I don't want to die."

"You're gonna be ok Tau, I'll be there before you know it, and we'll get the fuck back home before you can recite the matriarch's edicts."

"Please hurry."

"Roger that. I'm Oscar Mike. Oh! And Russ?"

"Yeah Mica?"

"No dying... Mu out."

"I'll keep that in mind... Tau out" After consulting her chart for a moment Mica stowed it in her chest pocket and slung her rifle over her shoulder. Mica pulled the broken door backwards into the shack to reveal shin deep snow. She gave a light sigh and stepped outside. As she crossed the threshold a small voice chimed in. "Deimos is right you know? You need to remember."

"Do you really think so Voithós?" Mica said looking over at the small ocelot standing next to the door.

"Yes, but I also think Deimos just enjoys seeing you get hurt."

"Oh, and what do you think of Dolos?" "He just likes lying." "As much as I would like to discuss my insanity with one of my delusions I need to rescue my friend."

"Next time I probably won't be alone."

"I'll take my chances, Voithós, but for now It'll have to wait." Mica brushed her nails through Voithós's hair.

"I'm so sorry about all of us." Voithós whispered.

"If it's any conciliation you're my favorite crack in my psyche, you seem to be the only one who actually cares for me." Mica gave Voithós a kiss on her forehead and Voithós gave a slight smirk as she vanished. Mica took a moment to get her bearings and set off in the direction of the helicopter crash.

Chapter IV: Rose-Tinted Glasses

"Hurry up, E! Walter is waiting for us!" Roxanne shouted up the stairs.

"I'll be down in a minute!"

"That's what you said 5 minutes ago!"

"I'm almost done!" Roxanne paced around her living room for a bit before trying to goad Elsie again.

"Elsie! Can we please get going?"

"For fuck's sake Rox! Cool your tits! Just... just go outside and make a snowman or something"

Roxanne looked around the room, then pulled out a flashlight and peered into the fireplace. Carefully holding the flashlight in her teeth Roxanne gripped the grate and pulled back on it. The grate slid out of the fireplace with some amount of ease. Roxanne pushed her hand through the soot and felt around until she found a small hole, no bigger than an ant. She slapped her hands on her thighs several times making light gray streaks on the black denim. Roxanne took the small silver earring out of her left ear and carefully twisted it revealing a hidden compartment with a tiny key. Pinching the key between her thumb and forefinger she bent over and placed the key in the small hole in the fireplace. With a twist of the key a panel about 18 inches by 24 inches popped out of the soot covered floor. Roxanne pressed her thumb against the front edge of the panel and pulled up on its hinges revealing a deep fiberglass box filled with various canvases and pieces of cardboard each lovingly wrapped in wax paper. Roxanne pulled a piece of cardboard from the bunch and removed it from its wax paper refuge. The painting was of a lone figure in the rain. The sun shone with intense radiance under the figure's umbrella, where the rain could not venture. Roxanne lightly ran her fingers over the painting, feeling the art and how the paints was built up on the cardboard. Bringing the painting close to her face Roxanne inhaled deeply. She could smell the burned cork and blueberries in rain, and the ammonia and raspberries in the sun. The bitter-sweet scent of the paints reflected the truth of the paintings. Elsie's heart was in the lines of every piece she did, and her soul in its pigment. Every bit of Elsie went into making these hallowed works and the fact that they had to be hidden was so very heartbreaking to Roxanne. After scanning the painting once more Roxanne gently wrapped it in its wax paper and placed it back in the box.

Running her fingers over the sides of the art Roxanne selected a canvas and quietly unsheathed it. Inside was a painting of an almost empty opera house, on the stage was a pair of jugglers in jester outfits. A rat with a tears running down its cheeks and a deep gaping frown was the juggler on the right and on the left was a pig giving a boisterous guffaw. Instead of balls or pins the jugglers were juggling other animals, as they left the hand of the pig they would be joyous and full of glee and as the entered the hands of the rat they began to weep. In the lower right-hand corner of the painting was a big golden 'E', the same color as Elsie's fur, with ears coming off of it. Roxanne turned the painting over and removed a zip-top bag from the back of the frame, inside was a blue ribbon and a picture of Elsie, Roxanne, and Elsie's mother with the painting. Their youth was full of innocence and optimism, and it showed in Elsie's wide braces covered grin. This was one of the only pictures of Elsie or Roxanne from before the matriarch's election, and eventual coup d'état. Looking at the picture memories began to rush back to Roxanne. She remembered the first day in town after moving. Elsie was the only person who showed any interest in knowing Roxanne.

"Come help my mom and I get some red!" Elsie said to Roxanne as their last class was ending. Roxanne was confused; After being home-schooled for so long she wasn't quite used to having conversations with people.

"I-... Red?"

"We need some more red and yellow and we could really use the help."

"I'm still-... I don't-... but-." Roxanne stammered.

"Look, I'll explain when we get there." Elsie seized Roxanne's wrist and dragged her along the dusty road. "So!" Elsie exclaimed.

"So?"

"Why'd your parents move to Lucid Brook?"

"It's kind of a long story."

"Go ahead and tell me."

"I...I don't know if I want to go into the whole thing."

"Then just give me the short version."

"Short version? OK... well my dad is the new pastor at the-." Elsie suddenly stopped and turned to Roxanne.

"Are you guys those people that think everything fun is evil?"

"Well... my parents don't approve of-." An intrusive beeping coming from the watch on Elsie's wrist completely derailed Roxanne's train of thought. "uh... my parents... they think... uhh..." Elsie hit a couple buttons on her watch and the beeping stopped.

"Sorry about that. What do your parents think?"

"I'm... confused..." The young fox nervously scratched behind her ear. "You were telling me what your parents think about... something."

"I know... my parents think I'm confused."

"What about?" Elsie raised her eyebrows into a concerned curve. "Girls mostly."

"But... you are a girl. Why would you be confused? Did they not have sex-ed where you came from?"

"That's not what my parents-."

"Did you try using a mirror?"

"No, I-."

"Although that might be kind of awkward. Maybe a camera?"

"It's just-." Roxanne was getting frustrated with the constant interruptions, but Elsie continued to interrupt over and over again. "No, a cameras no good, you have the same problems with positioning."

"That's not what-."

"I got it!" Elsie shouted, and smacked Roxanne on her shoulder. "Sometime you could come over to my house and study me! Y'know, get a close look!"

"I like girls!" Roxanne blurted out, then immediately clapped her hands over her mouth. It seemed like an hour until someone spoke again, but in reality it was only about 10 seconds. It was Elsie who decided to break the silence. "You should have kept your mouth shut."

"So... you're like my parents?" Roxanne's shoulders slumped and she began to well up.

"What do you mean?"

"You think...I'm...I'm an abomination?" Tears rolling down Roxanne's cheeks started to stain her shirt.

"I don't know that word. Why are you crying?"

"You think I'm a monster!" Roxanne covered her eyes, fell back onto her ass, and continued to bawl.

"What?! No I don't!"

"Yes you do! You hate me!"

"Why would you say that?"

"You told me to keep my mouth shut! Now you know what I am and you hate me!"

"No! I didn't mean to hurt you. What I meant was that if you kept your mouth shut you would have gotten to see me naked."

"So you don't care if I like girls?" Roxanne sniffled and looked up from her hands.

"Hey, whatever sinks your sub. I personally like both boys and girls; as long as you're cute I don't care." Elsie grabbed a hanky from her back pocket, squatted down, and started to wipe the tears from Roxanne's face. "And I must say," Elsie continued "you are one cute girl."

"You really think so?"

"I sure do! It sounds to me that you aren't confused, it's your parents who are." Elsie helped Roxanne to her feet.

"So you might go with a girl like me?"

"Maybe you should try asking me out."

"Would... you go out... with me?"

"Although you're the first girl to ask me out I'll tell you what I tell everyone else."

"What's that?"

"Are you ready to hear it?"

"Yes I am."

"If you can catch me, you can keep me!" Elsie turned tail and bolted away. Roxanne quickly realized what had happened and pursued Elsie down the road. Suddenly Elsie took a sharp turn off the road and into the forest, and although Roxanne was gaining ground on Elsie she was quickly becoming winded. In the forest Roxanne stopped for a moment to catch her breath, when she looked around Elsie was nowhere in sight. It suddenly dawned on Roxanne that she had no idea where she was, and she began to call out for help. "Rabbit! Where are you?! I give up!"

"That's not my name." Elsie said as she climbed down a tree near Roxanne.

"I'm sorry... I can't remember names very well."

"I remember you name... My name is Elsie."

"Sorry... Will you go out with me?"

"Not today, you couldn't catch me."

"So I only get one chance per day?"

"Most guys give up after two or three days."

"They just don't want it enough."

"Anyhow, Roxanne..." Elsie's watch started beeping again. After hitting a few buttons it fell silent again. "hmm... can I call you Rox?"

"Only if I can call you 'E'." Roxanne said in jest.

"It's a deal. Anyhow, Rox, we're almost there."

"Almost where?"

"Almost to the river to collect some red." Elsie took off her Satchel and began to root around in it.

"I still don't understand what you mean by 'collect some red.' Red what?"

"Yellow boy..." From underneath a mountain of wrinkled papers in her satchel the small rabbit produced a pair of bright blue rubber gloves still in their package. "Here put these on, you'll need them."

"Wait... I thought you said red, now it's yellow?" Roxanne said skeptically eyeballing the gloves. "Yeah... we need to get some yellow boy to make some red. Now put these on." Elsie waved the gloves at Roxanne.

"I'm still not sure what you mean, but I guess I'll play along." Roxanne plucked the gloves from Elsie's hand, ripped open the package with her teeth, and pulled them on. Elsie reached into her satchel and pulled out a pair of red rubber gloves and put them on. "Okay," Elsie said, "Let's go." Then she buckled up here bag, slung it over her shoulder, grabbed Roxanne's hand and led her through the forest. Roxanne looked down at their entangled hands. Elsie's gloves were old and well used; the color had begun to fade from them going from an almost white pink in the finger tips to a deep crimson on the other end. Roxanne's gloves were also old, and had deep creases from sitting in the bottom of Elsie's satchel. "uh... hey Elsie?"

"I thought you wanted to call me 'E'."

"I was just kidding about that."

"Well... just try it out, Rox."

"okay... hey E?"

"What's up?"

"How many people have asked you out?" Elsie blushed for a moment.

"Including you?"

"Yes." "A total of... One."

"So when you said that most people give up after three days?"

"I was just trying to sound cool..." Elsie looked down at the ground as they walked. "I don't think many people at school like me, so I just spend a lot of time alone." "Well if it's any consolation I still like you." Roxanne reached out with her other hand, and then used both her hands to squeeze Elsie's.

"Thanks, Rox... That means a lot," Elsie Squeezed Roxanne's hand in return, "Even if you are the new kid."

"Wow!" A deep booming voice came from above them. "I think you guys might give me diabetes, you're that sweet." They both looked up and saw a plump squirrel man sitting on a tree branch above them.

"Dad!" Elsie shouted, "What have I told you about spying on me?!"

"I'm not spying on you-."

"Then what are you doing?"

"Your mother sent me to find you; she was wondering what was keeping you... Who's your little girlfriend?"

"Roxanne is not my girlfriend dad!"

"Hello Roxanne. I'm Elsie's dad, David." He said as he leapt down from his tree branch. "It's a pleasure to meet you." David extended his arm to shake Roxanne's hand. Roxanne began feel her anxiety rise, and attempted to hide behind Elsie, this was made difficult because Elsie was almost a full foot shorter than Roxanne. David slowly peered over Elsie "Don't be shy." he said in a comforting tone. Roxanne slowly slid out from behind Elsie and extended her hand. As David and Roxanne's hands came together Elsie's watch began to beep again. "Is that the first or second?" David asked glancing at Elsie.

"Third." Elsie said fumbling with her watch again.

"Ah shit! Paige is gonna be pissed!" David exclaimed as he grabbed on to Roxanne and Elsie and began to run through the forest.

"That's a dollar in the swear jar, dad!" After a short time they came to a river and followed it downstream. As they ran downstream a large red building with the word 'MIDAS' stamped in large white letters across it came into view. As they approached it, it became clear that this was not one building, but an immense complex of very old buildings going up the side of the mountain. Near the bottom of the buildings a slender rabbit stood in the ankle deep water with her hands on her hips. "Yer late." she stated in a thick Irish accent as David, Roxanne, and Elsie approached the bank.

"Sorry, mom." Elsie panted for a moment.

"Who's this, then?" Nobody responded, instead they just wheezed and coughed.

"This is Roxanne. Be nice to her, Paige, she's shy." David said, taking deep breaths. "Plus I think she has the hots for our little girl."

"Daaad!" Elsie smacked David on the shoulder with whatever strength she could muster. Roxanne, feeling her anxiety swell up again, looked for somewhere to hide, but decided that she might as well just die of embarrassment right there because she was too tired.

"Hey your daughter is abusing me!" David said with a chuckle.

"Why don't get yer son to help ye?" Paige asked

"Heh- that's a good idea! I'll go get him!" and he began to jog away.

"While yer at it do us a favor and knick off to Roxanne's gaff and let her parents know where she is and that she might be stayin' with us for the night." Paige shouted at David before he got too far.

"Where does she live?" David shouted back.

"Where do ye' live love?"

"My house is on Miner Street near the library, right across the street from a park." Roxanne said pointing back in the direction they came from.

"Is it the color of dandelions, by chance?" Paige said raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"No way!" Elsie exclaimed "That house is just across the park from ours!"

"They live in that piss colored a-frame on miner that's been on the market for the past year." Paige shouted to David.

"The one across Pioneer Park?"

"That's the one!"

"No shit! I'll let them know." And David turned around and continued to jog away.

"That's another dollar you each owe the swear jar now, mom." Elsie said.

"Oi, don't you have some yellow boy to collect?" Paige said pointing to a peculiarly colored section of the river.

"I'm still confused by this whole 'yellow boy' thing." Roxanne said scratching her head through her rubber gloves.

"Take yer' runners off, and I'll show ye" Paige waded through the water and waved Roxanne over.

"Runners?"

"She means take off your sneakers" Elsie said as she kicked off her shoes.

"Oh... okay."

Roxanne carefully removed her shoes. Then she took her socks off, folded them up and gently placed them into her shoes. She took off her backpack and propped it up against her shoes. When she finally looked up Elsie and Paige were staring at her with a slightly confused face. Roxanne looked around her and noticed that both Paige and Elsie's belonging were scattered everywhere and the only part of the river bank not in complete disarray was her backpack. It was the one solitary island of neatness an ocean of chaotic disorder. "Well, are you coming?" Elsie shouted. Roxanne walked through the chilly river, carefully making sure there were no sharp stones to stick into her soles before putting her full weight onto each foot. When she finally got to Paige and Elsie she realized that the odd color of the river was coming from a nearby tributary. "This," Paige said holding up a small handful of a reddish-yellow powder "is yellow boy." After tossing the powder into a bucket on the shore next to her Paige bent down and picked up a small rock out of the river. "The water from the midas gold mine has a lot of iron in it and when it hits the fresh water of the stream the iron comes out and builds up on these stones." Paige pulled a dull knife out of her back pocket and continued to explain while demonstrating. "So what we do is we take a butter knife and scrape the iron off. Now why don't ye' give it a try." Paige handed the knife over to Roxanne.

"Why do you need yellow boy?" Roxanne said as she struggled with the knife.

"We make red paint with it."

"Why don't you just buy paint?"

"I do sometimes, but not if I can help it. Ye' see, I feel that if ye' make yer' own paint ye' can feel the colors and watch them go from raw product, to pigment, to paint, to painting. A part of everyone that helped goes into each painting. I'll be reminded of ye' every time I use the red paint from this pigment, and ye'll be part ah that painting as well."

"That's... sweet." Roxanne smiled and happily continued to scrape the rough stones.

"Well I'll leave the two of ye' to it." Paige walked across the river, kicked a towel off the ground, and dried her feet off.

"So!" Elsie exclaimed.

"So?"

"Do you get it now?"

"I think so... I certainly am less confused about a lot of things, at least compared to this morning."

"That's good!" Elsie grinned and slowly edged closer to Roxanne. "So, Rox..."

"Yeah, E?"

"Seeing as we live so close to each other we could always visit, right?"

"Well my parent's probably wouldn't want me seeing another girl all the time."

"They don't need to know about it every time."

"I'm not sure if-"

"Look, if you ever, and I mean ever, need someone to talk to you can come visit me and we can talk and hang out and whatever."

"... Thanks, E." Roxanne had never before felt happier in her life. Over the coming months Roxanne would frequently sneak out and visit Elsie. Roxanne got very good at sneaking around and often times she would come over late at night, spending the night with Elsie, waking up just as the sun came up to sneak back home before her parents could find out. It didn't take long for Roxanne feel closer to Paige and David than she ever did to her own parents. And every day Roxanne would ask out Elsie, and every day she would run, and Roxanne would chase her because she wanted it that much.

Chapter V: White Lies

Mica licked the at her palm full of fluffy white snow as she walked along the abandoned road; running her long ribbon tongue into the mound she pulled back spoonfuls of crisp cold water crystals, they pleasantly melted on the roof of her mouth and ran down her gullet. In her mind the muscular tiger and slender ocelot from the shack walked alongside her. She had an easier time dealing with Diemos or Dolos when Voithós was around to be a buffer. "Do you know how old you are today?" Dolos gave the wolf a sideways glance. She shook her head and continued to munch on snow and trudge up the steep street towards a huge abandoned, decaying house. "You are Thirty-Seven today... happy birthday by the way." He gently whistled 'Happy Birthday to You'. "You must not be a very good judge of age." Voithós sneered. "You just looks young for your age! I know your exact birthday and the fact you have such a young face is just good genetics!" Voithós sarcastically scoffed and rolled her eyes. "It's true Voithós! I can get to the memories she can't!" "If you can then hows about answer some questions for me?" Mica looked over at Dolos. "Like what?" He shrugged. "Like tell me about anything from my childhood, or life before the haven, or even life in the haven before last April?" "Well I can tell you everyone there hates you." Mica stopped dead in her tracks just in front of the wreckage of the house. "That's bullshit." Voithós scowled at the large tom. "And I mean everyone! Especially Russel, Phil, and Andrew!" "Dolos..." "Russel resents you because you're unstable and you frighten him," "Stop lying, Dolos." "Andrew resents you because your weekly check-ups are a burden on his already heavy workload," "This is not cool, Dolos." "and Phil resents you because... well..." Dolos leaned in close to Mica and whispered something in her ear, and her eyes widened. He stood back up with a disappointed look on his face while she struggled to choke back tears.

"Whatever he said it can't be true, Mica. Just ignore him." Voithós put a comforting hand on her slumped shoulders. "Oh it is most definitely true! I would say ask him about it... but according to Tau he's dead. So you can't even ask for forgiveness... Shame." "Please go away." She rasped quietly. "I have to save my friend and you aren't helping." She pulled herself up a broken staircase onto the porch and positioned her rifle on the railing. "He's not your friend, he's just the guy who pretends to like you." Mica rested her eye in the scope and focused on the downed helicopter across the valley. "Advise, Voithós?" "Approximately 800 meters to the crash," Voithós spoke in her left ear. "If you see that dumb squirrel, shoot him immediately."Dolos spoke in her right. "Wind approximately four knots to the northeast," "Put him out of your misery." "Make contact." "Lure him out." "Hey Dolos?" Mica licked her lips in anticipation. "Do me a favor. piss off." "No." Stated flatly, "You'll never ever be rid of me." Mica flicked on her radio and he instantly vanished.

Fear was forefront in Russell's mind; it weighed on him like a cinderblock on his chest. Just underneath the fear a sliver of boredom was began to grow. He slowly lifted his arm hoping that his watch would miraculously be not completely destroyed. Fuck. He thought to himself. How is it that I am the only thing that managed to survive the crash? He pressed his thumb against the shattered display on his watch and watched the dark liquid flow up and down. This amused him for just long enough to forget his grim situation, but reality came crashing down around him as soon as he tried to lift his leg, only to remember it was still pinned under a large piece of fuselage. Russell leaned over and dipped his left forefinger in the pool of blood that was once his copilot's head and wiped a deep crimson streak onto his sleeve. He counted 12 dark brown streaks next to it. Four hours since the crash.

When Russell was stressed he would sometimes find solace in mathematics, and the addition of a streak to his sleeve made him slightly happy as it gave him the next number in the fibonacci sequence. One survivor. One casualty. Two packs of cigarettes. Three sticks of gum. Five broken windows. Eight fingers on my hand. Thirteen blood stains on my arm. Twenty-one blinking lights on the-... wait... something is wrong... go back. He started over, careful not to miss anything. Suddenly a low rumble came from outside, and soon after two voices. One voice was gutteral and bitter, and the other was much younger sounding.

Russell leaned in towards the wall and tried to make out what the mystery visitors were saying.

"This must be the crash we were told to find."

"Are you sure?"

"Do you see any other wrecked choppers around?"

"No, but-."

"So shut the fuck up and radio it in."

"Outpost India Hotel this is patrol 17, do you copy?"

"...Well?"

"Repeat: Outpost India Hotel this is patrol 17, do you copy?"

"What's the matter?"

"I'm not getting a response."

"Fucking mountains... why do they have to suck so much?"

"Why do you hate the mountains so much?"

"Everything sucks more here; the snow is deeper, the temperatures are lower, the wind is stronger, it's harder to breathe, and quite frankly just living around here makes me ache."

"Some people like the mountains." "Some people are morons. Even our radio hates the fucking mountains."

"I like the mountains."

"Well you're a moron."

"No I'm not."

"Shut up, yes you are."

"Whatever... what do we do now?"

"Go in."

"We go in?"

"No you go in, I'll stand guard out here."

"Why can't I ever be the one who gets to hang around and do nothing but look intimidating?"

"Because you're about as intimidating as a wet hanky; now get in there or I'll cut your dick off." Russell slumped backwards and closed his eyes just as the bay door slid open. "Holy crap."

"What?"

"This thing is fucked up."

"Thanks captain obvious, how about don't talk unless you have something important to say."

"...Weird."

"This better be good."

"I only see 2 people here."

"So?"

"So the filed flight plan showed 3 passengers on the manifest... Where's the third?"

"I don't know; ask one of the other two assholes there, and while you're at it ask them why they suck at flying on course."

"I'm not sure if they are even alive."

"Mmaaayybe you should find out."

"Oh... yeah, I should probably do that."

"God you're thick 'I should probably do that'. I'm gonna go hang out over here so I don't catch any of your stupid."

"I'm not stupid!"

"Sorry I can't hear you over the sound of me not caring!"

"Asshole."

Russell listened as the young soldier shuffle around the wreckage while his fink hummed nearby. As the footsteps grew closer Russell could feel his heart beat faster. The glass on the floor popped and gave a deep grumble as the soldier's heavy boots shifted. Russell gave out a yelp when a pair of cold fingers touched his neck. "AH! Holy shit! You're alive!" The soldier jumped back and lifted his rifle.

"Please don't shoot me!" Russell covered his face with his arms and flinched.

"I-... I'm not going to shoot you."

"You're not?" Russell peaked out from behind his arms.

"No... Just don't make any sudden moves."

"Does flinching count as a sudden move? I'm kind of prone to flinching." Russell sniveled.

"I guess not...We're going to take you in for some questioning, stand up."

"I wish I could but-."

"But what?! I said stand up!"

"My leg is pinned! Please don't shoot me!" Russell flinched again.

"Sorry! I didn't know!"

"Why are we shouting?!"

"I don't know! Maybe it's just nerves!" The two of them breathed heavily as they calmed their nerves. "... So can we get this thing off me?"

"How do I know this isn't a trick?"

"What kind of trick could this possibly be?"

"I-... I don't know."

"Please this hurts more than you could imagine."

"Promise this isn't a trick?"

"I promise."

"Okay... what should I do?"

"Just pull up this big hunk of metal so I can try to crawl out" The soldier put his rifle down on a nearby console and gripped the fuselage on top of Russell, and Russell braced the front edge with his palms. "Okay I'll lift on the count of 3, you be ready to crawl out"

"Okay."

"One...Two...Threeee!" As the soldier rocked backwards the metal gave way and Russell managed to push himself out from underneath, revealing his noticeably deformed thigh. The pain of moving the 8 inches to the side was enough to make Russell to break out in tears. "Holy shit! You should probably take some pain killers or something!" The soldier exclaimed.

"I already have tons of pain killers in me." Russell sobbed and pointed to the nearby disaster kit, but the pain began to die back down as he wiped the tears from his eyes.

"Eww, your leg is super fucked up... let me get something to splint that." The soldier began to search the wreckage for suitable materials to use as a splint, at the same time Russell used his multi tool to cut open his pants and grabbed his disaster kit. The soldier came back with two long metal tubes and some short lengths of truncated cable. Russell pulled some gauze from the disaster kit and looked disparagingly at his thigh.

"We need to do a reduction on this bone before we splint it." Russell said. "You need to pull back on my leg so I can move the bone."

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" The soldier wrapped hands hands around the squirrel's knee and got ready to pull. "No, but I don't really have a choice right now." Russell put the gauze in his mouth, and let out a muffled 'go'. Russell clenched his jaw and his screaming grew intense as he moved the bone in his leg into its proper place. After the reduction was complete he opened his mouth and as the gauze bounced down his chest he fell onto his back and let out a high pitched shriek and the soldier began to splint his leg.

"What the fuck is with all the damn racket?!" The older soldier shouted as he pounded on a nearby window. "Sounds like you're trying to skin someone alive in there!"

"It's the survivor, his leg is broken!"

"He was probably doing something illegal anyway! Just shoot him!"

"What?! No!"

"It's your funereal rookie."

"I thought we were supposed to help these guys!"

"That is your problem right there! You were thinking!"

"Why don't you just fuck off for a while?" While the two soldiers continued to argue through the window Mica's voice spoke in Russell's ear. "Come in Tau, this is Mu do you copy." Russell did not speak; instead he slid his hand down to his back and clicked the talk button on his radio three times. "Click twice for no once for yes, do you understand?" Click. "I have visual on one soldier outside the chopper, did he come alone?" Click-click. "Are you in immediate danger?" Click-click. "I'm gonna send some fireworks your way, can you reach your sidearm?" Click. "Click three times when you're ready, Mu out." Russell slowly moved his hand over to his pistol and cocked the hammer.

"Eight bullets." Russell said, momentarily forgetting he was not alone.

"What was that?" the young soldier looked over to Russell.

"What?"

"I didn't hear what you said."

"Oh that... I was just day dreaming. Don't worry about it."

"I'm gonna to have a cigarette while you idiots sort this shit out!" The older soldier shouted at the window. Russell firmly gripped his pistol. Click-click-click. The older soldier lit up his cigarette and immediately afterwards a bullet went through his jaw, completely tearing it off his face. Two seconds later a faint pop was heard. He spun around and his face ended up on the window with his tongue flailing about as he was gargling blood. The young soldier looked deep into his dark green eyes and another massive bullet tunneled through his forehead and shattered the window. The soldier's lifeless body slid backwards into the snow as another faint pop was heard. Mica had to go and fuck up my numbers! Russell thought to himself as he drew his pistol, and fired off three quick shots into the fink.

"Please don't do anything rash. I hate hurting people." Russell said with a slight jitter in his voice, yet his hand remained completely steady as he turned the pistol towards the remaining soldier.

"A-... are you a defector?"

"Yes."

"So, what are you going to do to me?"

"I'm not sure yet, but for now we're going to wait here for Mica... she'll get us home again."

"Who?"

"Mica is my young friend who managed to kill that other guy from a kilometer away."

"Oh... well what about in the mean time?"

"Help me find a new eight."

The deep thrumming groan of Elsie walking down the stairs abruptly pulled Roxanne out of her nostalgia and back into reality. Roxanne quickly rewrapped the painting and filed it back among the others. After Roxanne replaced the lid of her box, she kissed the palm of her hand and placed it over the key hole, and with one mighty push she moved the grate back into its rightful spot.

"Rox?!" Elsie's sudden exclamation startled Roxanne and she reeled back hitting her head on the top of the fireplace opening.

"Ow..." Roxanne brushed ashes off of her head.

"There you are! What were you even doing in there Rox?"

"Uh... cleaning... yeah... I was cleaning."

"Suuuure you where, and I totally spent the last 45 minutes being born instead of getting dressed."

"Look E, just drop it..."

"I wanna know what you are hiding from me!"

"I'm not about to just blurt out my secrets to you."

"Why not? You have been doing since the day I met you."

"Well, I'm not going to today."

"Come oooooonnnnn Rooooox."

"No E, I just-." "Please!?"

"No Elsie! Just trust me when I say it's best for both of us if you don't know!"

"Is it a dead body?"

"No."

"A brick of solid gold you stole from an orphan?"

"No Elsie..."

"Is it a dildo?"

"Elsie-"

"Is it a solid gold dildo you stole from a dead orphan?!"

"Stop prying Elsie!"

"Just give me a hint."

"It... It's just some stuff I'm hanging onto in case of... change..."

"Oh for fuck's sake Rox!" Elsie rubbed her face in frustration. "What?"

"How many do you have?"

"How many what?"

"Don't!... Don't play dumb with me Rox."

"... Twenty-Seven." Elsie shot her an angry glance. "I told you to burn those! If you get caught with them-."

"If I get caught with them then I will likely be interrogated, abused, and executed, and I will have died with no regrets! But if I get rid of them then the world will have lost the works of a great artist for no good reason."

"How can you bitch about me running around at night and risking getting caught, and have no problem risking your own ass?"

"Because I need a reminder of what it used to be like sometimes! And hopefully so will the rest of the country someday!"

"If that's the way you feel then we should go find the defec-."

"Stop right there, E! We are not discussing this again! I cannot be part of that!"

"Fine!" Elsie let out a long agitated sigh and folded her arms. "I love you, Rox." The tall vixen stepped forward and wrapped her paws around her small doe, and her love was almost immediately reciprocated. The two women squeezed each other tightly and the bunny hummed sweetly as Roxanne's dark lips pressed against her forehead. "I love you to Elsie... we better get a move on if we don't want Walt to think we ditched him"

Outside it was too cold for the finks to operate for extended periods, so instead of their usual humming about they stayed perched in charge ports idling their rotors and only moving out to broadcast the hierarchy's dictats or interrogate passersby. Elsie took a deep breath and let the cold air fill up her lungs, and they set out down the road. Not far down the road a fink lazily crossing the street turned towards the couple and loudly announced "Suicide is strictly against the law! If you attempt or commit suicide it will serve as an admission of guilt on the charges of high treason and your family, friends, and co-laborers can face fines, imprisonment, or even execution! Remember; your life could cost everyone!"

"Thanks... I guess?" Roxanne said incredulously.

"You are welcome citizen!" After a moment of silence Elsie cut in.

"So... can we go?"

"What is your business?"

"Banana croutons! Trimmed pubes make the air attack whistle!" Roxanne blurted loudly.

"Identify yourself!"

"Give me your perfume E." Roxanne whispered before shouting. "It's about time for the sardines! Can you smell tomorrow?!" Elsie slipped her perfume to Roxanne.

"What is your ident number?" Roxanne began discretely spraying perfume in the fink's camera.

"My supervisor is defusing quadratic equations!"

"What are you doing Rox?" Elsie whispered.

"With the right words in a random sentence someone will eventually directly take over this thing and we can get through this way faster." Roxanne whispered back, and then continued to shout nonsense and spray perfume.

"That burrito bomb is the skin of officer, pajamas!"

"Error! Please repeat your ident number."

"Ivan can sure bite Andrew's cold defector runners!"

"Error! Please repeat your ident number."

"Egg fan? Jump the foundry's grammar haven!"

"Stand by!" The fink said mechanically. After another moment a sentient voice came through the fink's speakers. "What seems to be the problem here?" Roxanne cleared her throat.

"I'm not sure, why?"

"I seem to have several red flags from the last few seconds of conversation."

"Don't quote me on this, but I think your fink- er, monitor may be malfunctioning, if you check the text logs it will show that I simply stated my business and then identified myself."

"There seems to be an obstruction on the camera lens could you wipe it off for me while I check these logs?"

Roxanne wiggled her thumb about half an inch in front of the camera, and rubbed the microphone under it with her other hand. "Is that better?"

"No apparent change and these logs show nothing but gibberish. Can you give me your ident number?" Roxanne gently gripped the bottom of the fink and began to pull it down.

"Sure thing officer! My ident number is- Woah! This little guy is starting to lose some altitude!" "Hmm... look this monitor does appear to be compromised and I need you to-."

"Uhh officer if you don't mind I was on time for an appointment but thanks to this debacle I'm now running late, can you just let me go?" Roxanne said angrily.

"I'm very sorry miss! Here I'm gonna have this monitor print out a late pardon for you, and in return I need you to drop it off at the nearest charge port for pickup."

"Sure thing officer!" Roxanne said now kneeling on the ground in front of the fink. After a couple seconds a small receipt buzzed out the back of the monitor and the rotors stopped moving.

"Thanks for the perfume, E. you can have it back now." Roxanne tossed the perfume back to Elsie, and then ripped the receipt out of the fink and gingerly picked it up. Elsie just gawped at her.

"Where the fuck did that come from?" Elsie asked.

"What? I'm just better with machines than people."

"I'll say! Why can't you be this innovative when an idiotic cop barges into your house?"

"I dunno... I just get... nervous... I guess." Roxanne quietly replied while setting the fink down on a vacant charge port. "So anyway... Walt must be wondering where we are."

Elsie let out a short sigh. "I suppose you're right, let's get going."

Elsie slid one of her arms under Roxanne's elbow and slid her other hand into her jacket pocket. "Oh you've gotta be shitting me." Elsie said quietly.

"What?" Elsie began searching her pockets one by one.

"Something is missing."

"What?"

"I said something is missing."

"I know what you said I meant what are you missing?"

"It's a little box with-, motherfucker where is it?"

"What?!"

"It's a surprise, okay!?"

"Geez, I'm sorry."

"Maybe I left it at my apartment."

"Ooh no you don't! You promised you we would go to this together! Anywhere you go, I'm coming with!"

"If you come along it'll ruin the surprise, and it takes me two minutes to get to my apartment from here, and if you tag along it will take five times longer, plus like you said Walt must be worrying. Just go ahead and I'll be there five minutes after you."

"Does it mean that much to you?"

"Yes, it does."

"Alright, but if you are 1 second over 5 minutes late I'm swear I'll punch you right in your screwed up arm."

"Thanks, Rox. You kick ass!" Elsie set a timer on her bottom watch and began to run away before Roxanne grabbed her arm and pulled her into a hug. Roxanne leaned in and whispered into Elsie's ear "You better get runnin' rabbit, or the big bad fox might just eat you up." Then she bit down hard on Elsie's ear and a single drop of warm salty blood dripped on her tongue.

"Ow! Not so hard!" Elsie exclaimed and pulled away from Roxanne.

"It's so you don't forget me."

"I never will. Trust me, you're unforgettable!" Elsie gave a warm toothy grin and bolted off. Roxanne savored the sight of Elsie running for a bit before continuing on her way, little did she know that that was the last time she would see Elsie's smile.

Chapter VI: The Blackout

With a spry bounce Elsie grabbed onto the bottom rung of her fire escape and pulled herself up. She was still slightly panicked as she jogged up the steps and opened up her window. Once inside her apartment she started to search the drawers of the desk in her bedroom. After her search came up fruitless she dropped down to her knees and pressed her face to the ground, then she lifted up the skirt of her bed and blindly thrashed her hand around in the darkness. Her hand suddenly tapped up against a tiny cardboard box, pushing it just far enough away that Elsie could only get her nails on the very edge of it. "Son of a bitch." She whispered to herself. While trying to finagle the box back into her hand she accidentally pushed it further under the bed. "Son of a bitch." She said. She dropped her hips to the ground and recklessly pulled herself under the frame and banged her shin against one of the bed posts. "OW! Son of a bitch!" She exclaimed. Elsie's reach was just close enough to get a good grip on the box, when it was securely in her hand she wiggled out from under the bed.

Her heart was still beating so hard she could feel the blood pumping in her head as she pulled herself onto the bed and opened up the box. She let out a long sigh of relief when she saw its contents were still intact. Inside was a small ring made of copper wiring, several resistors and capacitors had been salvaged from various old electronics and woven among the copper. A small paper ribbon was tied around the ring with the words "can I keep you?" inscribed on it. Elsie closed the lid of the box and slid it into her jacket pocket, and felt the ring rattle inside. She frowned slightly and grabbed the box again and set it on top of her dresser. She pulled open the top drawer and procured a roll of masking tape. At that moment her watch let out a loud beep. After turning off the alarm Elsie tore off a small piece of tape and secured the ring on the inside of the box. Elsie closed the lid of the box and gave it a little shake, satisfied that the ring no longer banged against the side she returned it to her jacket pocket.

Her heart continued to pound despite the ring being secured, and now her stomach was also in knots. Marriage between two people of the same sex was purely symbolic these days, but Roxanne still believed in it and that more than enough for Elsie to propose. Even though she knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that Roxanne was the love of her life and that she felt the same about Elsie, and even after she reassured herself over and over that there was no way Roxanne would say 'no' to her, Elsie was far more nervous that she ever was during any one of her late night raids. Thinking she was going to throw up Elsie went to the bathroom and knelt over the toilet. She rested her head up against the cold porcelain tank and let out a few deep breaths, but after nothing happened she felt confident that she was not going to vomit. Still breathing through pursed lips she returned to the kitchen and pulled open the freezer and grabbed a hold of the almost empty bottle of vodka. She reconsidered drinking the clear intoxicant as she wanted a completely clear head for what she was planning to do, so instead pulled open the fridge and grabbed a small jug.

Elsie pried the lid of the jug open and drank down the final dregs of milk inside, as the sweet liquid poured down the back of her throat her heart calmed. She licked the rim clean as small drops of milk gathered on it. After rinsing out the jug she set it down on the drying rack next to her sink. Elsie let out a long sigh and shook out her entire body, and then she walked towards her door. Before she reached the door her phone began to buzz next to her breast. After fishing her phone out of her front pocket Elsie glanced it for a moment as Roxanne's face flashed across the screen before hitting the answer button.

"Rox! Don't say a word, I know I'm running late, but trust me when I say it will definitely be worth it! And I am so so so sorry! I promise that I will make it up to you"

"But E, I-."

"Didn't I just say don't say a word?" Suddenly a loud knock came from the door in front of Elsie. "Shit! Now there's someone at my door, probably the fucking landlord again. Let me just get rid of him and I'll be there lickety-split." Elsie blindly hit a button on her phone and stowed it back in her jacket, as the knocking became more intense. "I'm coming, chill out!" Elsie shouted at the door as she pulled it open "What is it this time Ja-." Elsie froze in the doorway. The shotgun toting security officer standing in the hallway spoke through his teeth.

"Good afternoon Ms. Vedas." He loosened his neck before continuing, "Would you object to a search of your residence?"

"Well I-." The security officer backhanded her across the face, knocking her back into the apartment. "Thank you for being so co-operative Ms. Vedas." He said threateningly as he stepped inside and slammed the door shut behind him. "Y'see we have reason to believe there is illegal activity happening here." The security officer grabbed Elsie by one of her long ears and pulled her close. "Please know that we are not responsible for any property damage that may occur during the search." The soldier reeled back and slammed Elsie's face into the wall hard enough to make the flimsy wood cave in and fall away. Elsie's mouth began to fill up with blood, she gasped for air and ran her tongue across her teeth and felt a molar come loose. "What the fuck is that?" The soldier said peering into the wall, still holding Elsie with his free hand. "Answer me, what is in the wall?!" The soldier pulled Elsie's face up to his mask and shook her head. "Answer me, you bitch! What is in the fucking wall?!" He screamed at her. Without missing a beat Elsie closed her mouth and inhaled deeply though her nose then spit her loose molar on his face along with a viscous mouthful of deep crimson blood and saliva.

"Fuck you. That's what's in the fucking wall, a great big batch of fuck you."

"Now... that was not a smart thing to do." The security officer said as he brought his knee up into Elsie's lower gut, causing her to double over as he let go of her ear. He tore the mask off his face, grabbed a firm grip of his shotgun and cocked it. As soon as Elsie regained her footing and stood back up the security officer loosed a shot from his shotgun, the bright red beanbag hit Elsie square in the solar plexus and knocked the wind out of her. As Elsie laid flat on her back struggling to inhale the security officer calmly walked up to her and squatted next to her. "Y'know, I never understood why the matriarch put up with you faggots... I guess she felt even freaks could do their fucking job in a pinch." Resting his gun on his knees the security officer pulled his gloves tight then leaned in to Elsie's face. "If it were up to me, you would all be put down for good, but I guess seeing the shit that they do to you will bring me just as much satisfaction." Using all his strength the security officer punched Elsie in the face, knocking her out. After regaining consciousness a few seconds later the security officer's boot was resting on her neck as he rummaged through the wall. "Holy shit! You're Envy!" he said as he produced a plastic container of paint and a brush from the wall, along with Elsie's black book of sketches. "Well this is my lucky fucking day... I'll probably get a promotion and a medal for this shit. I'd even bet they'd give me any assignment I ask for after this." The security officer reached in his back pocket and produced a small black bag and a pair of handcuffs. "When you talked back to me this morning I figured I would just plant some evidence on you to punish you, but I never expected to make a bust like this. I suppose I should thank you for letting me do whatever the hell I want for the rest of my career." Elsie had no strength left to put of a struggle as the security officer rolled her onto her back and cuffed her hands. "Elsie Vedas, you are under arrest for unlicensed possession of controlled substances, subversive behavior, treason, violating curfew, assault of an officer, and resisting arrest." He pulled her up to her knees and rolled the black bag over her head. After being blindly led down the stairs of her apartment Elsie was tossed into the back of a car and the door was slammed behind her. Elsie sat in silence and was surprised to hear a sobbing sound coming from her front pocket.

"Rox? Oh shit Rox I'm so sorry, I must have hit speaker phone instead of hang up." Roxanne continued to sob though the phone. "You shouldn't have been put through this." "Elsie... tell me this isn't real."

"I'm so sorry Rox. I wish I could."

"Oh E, please tell me that everything is going to be okay."

"I can't do that, Rox." "Please! Pl-e-he-he-ease." "... Would you have married me, Rox?" "Of course! Just... please whatever you do don't forget me." "I won't, I promise, you're unforgettable... Just run."

Walter swirled the coffee around the bottom of his cup, and watched as the warm remains washed over the undissolved sugar crystals. After gulping down the last mouthful of sweet coffee he looked out the window across the shop. Roxanne had been standing out in the swarming snow for some time, and Walter was getting bored. He fished the phone out of his pocket and began to thumb through the menus until he found the saved pictures. One in particular he was eager to ask Elsie about, it was a slightly blurry photo of a rare piece of street art that Walter had managed to take before the security officers had had a chance to cordon off the area. The hiss of wind and jingling of bells on the shop door caught Walter's attention; he looked up to see Roxanne walking briskly towards him with her head down. "So what's Elsie's ETA?" Without saying a word Roxanne fell onto Walter and held him close and he could feel her wet tears dripping down his neck. "What's wrong Roxanne?" "I have to go..." she replied in a wavering voice."Should we reschedule?""Goodbye Walt, I'll miss you." She gave him a squeeze then stood up and walked towards the door. "What do you mean goodbye? What happened?!" As soon as Roxanne was clear of the door she sprinted away. After fishing his wallet out of his pocket Walter tossed a few bills on the table and ran out the door, but it was too late, Roxanne was nowhere in sight.

Without making any amount of eye contact Roxanne effortlessly snaked her way through the crowds on the sidewalks. After she had made a little distance the vixen ducked down an alley, wiped her tears on her sleeve, and squatted down behind a dumpster. She rolled her phone in the palm of her dark paw and popped the back open; after she took out the battery she removed a couple small electronic chips, pocketed the smaller of the two and dropped the other on the ground. She cleared a spot of snow then upended her purse onto the soaked concrete and snagged a smallish electronic contraption and her wallet from among the makeup kits and receipts. After sliding a long ribbon cable from the contraption into the larger of the vacant slots of her phone she threaded the cable under the battery and replaced the back, then she stood up, crushed the miniscule chip on the ground under her heel and set off for her home.

She had planned for the worst eventualities for years, but having been so abruptly thrust into such an execrable situation had left Roxanne's mind swimming in a tumultuous torrent of rage and sorrow. It was hard to see into her home's windows with tears in her eyes, so she took a moment to calm down and clear her eyes of lachryma. After a few minutes of investigation she was confident that no one was inside she snuck in the back door and tore off her sweater. She snagged Elsie's hoodie from the living room couch and pulled it on as she ascended the stairs to her room; she paused when she felt a draft on her arm. The fox paused and stared at her arm through the hole in the sleeve before she lifted it to her face and snuffled. The vinegary scent of sweat and blood was fetid, yet distinctly Elsie's. Roxanne began to well up again before she slapped her self across the face and spoke to herself in the harshest tone she could muster. "Roxanne Metz! This is no time for crying! You need to concentrate and get out of here! There will be time to mourn later!" She nodded to herself and continued up the stairs. In her closet she retrieved a large duffle bag and plain brown box with the word 'garbles' written on the side of it in permanent ink from the shelf above her cloths along with a long black denim duster. Inside the box was a home-made holster with several jury-rigged gadgets attached to it, an envelope stuffed with currency, a mask almost identical to the one Elsie would wear on her nights out only designed to fit over Roxanne's long snout, and thirty or so small round contraptions that appeared similar to the one she had previously fastened to her phone all sealed in tiny plastic packets. Roxanne rested the mask on her forehead, clipped the holster over her shoulder, stuffed the two of the envelopes into her back pocket, donned the duster and strapped it onto her legs and waist. Then she snagged a small fistful of the devices, ran to the bathroom and threw the garbles into the toilet. They bobbed on the surface of the water, and Roxanne watched as she flushed and the little machines swirled down the drain. She tugged the mask on her forehead into place, pulled the hood of her sweater over her head and pulled the draw strings tight, then gazed at her reflection in the mirror before heading out of the bathroom.

After finishing up upstairs she went straight to the kitchen and seized any and all alcohol she had in her pantry. One by one she opened up the bottles and splashed the contents on the floors and walls of her house and finally ended up at her fireplace. Roxanne dragged the metal grate out of her fireplace and dug through the soot until she found a large keyhole far back in the fireplace. Roxanne grabbed A key from her tool belt, and carefully placed it in the keyhole. With a twist the entire box popped slightly out of the fireplace, revealing two small handles on the side of the fiberglass container. With some labor she managed to free the box from the fireplace, exposing two long straps on the side. Roxanne slid the heavy chest onto her back, and ran back to the kitchen, and then she threw her bag over her shoulder and tucked the garbles under her arm. Just before leaving for good she grabbed one of her makeshift gadgets from her holster, a tiny squirt gun filled with a combustible liquid and a sparking mechanism on the front attached to the trigger. A squeeze of the trigger loosed a short lived yet brilliant flame that caused the latent alcohol in the building to ignite. The heat of her house beginning to become a great inferno was heavy on her back as she sprinted away.

Roxanne slowly approached the young fox in the park from behind. "What's your name, kid?" The fox replied without looking up from his bike."Thomas Messenger, my name is Thomas but my daddy called me Tommy. His name wasn't messenger though; mister gave me that name, that's what I do.""Mister who?"Thomas inhaled and tapped his fist against his forehead and rocked back and forth. "Mister... Mister... I don't remember, he's just mister to me. Mister told me what I do now. Mister knows best.""You look like you could use a little more money Tommy.""Mister says I did something bad, so Mister says I can't have too much money. Mister lets me have food though."

"How old are you, Thomas?""Mister says I was 12 when I did bad stuff, and I think that was 2 winters ago.""Where is your dad?""I lived with daddy before, in a house, Bur-." Thomas rubbed his palm against his forehead. "I don't think about before anymore." Thomas stood up and began to turn around, but Roxanne stopped him. "I need you not to look at me Thomas.""Well what's your name?""uhh... call me missus... I'm friends with Mister and he says you have been very good.""Really? Mister is happy with me?""Yes Tommy, Mister wants to give you a little test. I'm gonna give you a box of little packets and a list of cross streets.""Messages?""Sure Tommy, Messages.""Who's the recipient?""That's part of the test Tommy, you need put the messages onto the nearest car when you get to the destinations.""How?""Just like this." Roxanne grabbed one of the garbles and tossed it on his bike, and zipped on to the metal frame with ease."Okay.""How fast can you cover 100 blocks?""100 blocks. With traffic and the snow I can do that in about an hour. Mister says I'm one of the fastest messengers around. Can I look at you now, missus?""Hang on for second. Close your eyes." Thomas closed his eye and Roxanne spun him around, and fished a long metal device from her tool belt. "Hold still, Tommy." She began to pat down his chest until she felt a hard spot on it. She peered at it and could see the lens of a tiny camera in it. She pressed the button on top of her little device and a brilliant blue beam poured out of it, frying the sensor of Tommy's body camera. "Okay Tommy, you can look at me now." Thomas blinked a few times and rubbed his eye."Why are you wearing a mask, Missus?""Mister likes it when I wear masks." Roxanne held out the box of garbles. "Here are your messages; the addresses are inside the box. When you are finished come back here for your reward.""You'll give me my reward?""If you do well, your reward will be here waiting for you, Tommy.""Okay Missus, I can do that." Thomas fished a piece of paper from the box, put the box in his bag and mounted his bike. "Oh! And Tommy?" Roxanne shouted before he biked off."Yes Missus?""There will be a note just for mister with your reward, give it to him if he asks about today.""Yes Missus!" as he rode off into the blizzard Roxanne grabbed a packet of bills from her envelopes and placed it in the toolbox Thomas had left behind.

Roxanne was reclining under a tree staring at her watch as the seconds ticked by; occasionally glancing around to make sure no one was nearby. Eventually she stood up and walked over to the nearby set of binoculars. She fished a coin from her pocket and pushed it into a slot on the back of the heavy metal binoculars and gave the knob a twist. The binoculars whirred mechanically as she peered through them. It wasn't as if Roxanne didn't have a pair of binoculars of her own because she did, exceptionally good ones too, she just liked the pay binoculars; Maybe it was the weight, or maybe the white noise they created, she couldn't put her finger on it but something about them just made her feel almost at home. As she watched vigilantly for Thomas to come back to his little nook Roxanne reached into her coat pocket and retrieved her phone, and mindlessly ran her nails over its keys. After a little bit of time Roxanne spotted Thomas returning across the park, and just then the binoculars gave a little ring and shut closed. Roxanne powered on her phone and dialed emergency services; she took a deep breath before hitting send. She set the phone down under the tree and set off towards the checkpoint out of the city. In no time silence of winter was suddenly disrupted by the sounds of blaring sirens and buzzing finks and the entire city turned to panic. As Roxanne snuck up to the check point there were two men standing guard on the road. Roxanne let out a loud scream before stumbling towards them, covering her face with her hands before dropping to her knees in front of them. "What's wrong?!" one of them said panicked. "It's my husband! He's just been stabbed! Over there!" Roxanne pointed to where she came from. "Please help him!" "We can't leave-" "Please! He's dying and his murderer is getting away because you won't help him!" "We-... I-... Shit! Come on! The fink can watch the post for just a minute!" And they jogged past Roxanne. Roxanne stood up and pulled the flaming squirt gun from her holster and sprayed it directly at the fink. The flame licked the body of the robot and curled through its propellers, and it sparked, seized up, and fell inert into the snow. Roxanne bolted off into the blinding snow while the guards were busy looking for people that didn't exist. Escaping the city was the easy part as far as Roxanne was concerned, now she had a nearly sixty-five kilometer hike through wilderness, abandoned roads, and irradiated towns to get to safety, all during one of the heaviest snowstorms in recent history.

Chapter VII: Getting the Blues

"Aren't you worried about leaving behind tire tracks?" The soldier asked."Didn't I tell you that I don't want to hear your fucking voice?" Mica barked back. "The only reason you don't have a hole instead of a brain right now is because Tau asked me not to cap you as soon as I came in." "He does make a fair point though..." Russell offered from the back seat.

"This snow is accumulating fast enough that by the time they start to look for us our tracks will probably be covered, plus we'll ditch the car in one of the burner caves and take the tunnel back. Mind you this wouldn't be a problem if we still had a fucking helicopter!" "Who dosed your coffee with bitch this morning? I mean you are usually pretty grumpy and all, Mica, but today-." "Last night my mission went about as badly as it could have without me getting caught and today I found out that I have to go rescue the asshole who was supposed to be rescuing me! And on top of that he won't stop using my name in front of the enemy!" "Who is he going to tell? His dickheaded dead partner? We're going to the defectors haven, where he'll most likely be interrogated; then when it turns out he knows next to nothing he'll pressed into service. As far as I'm concerned he's not an enemy anymore." Russell leaned forward and extended his hand. "I'm Russell." "I'm Kevin." The soldier shook Russell's hand nervously.

"Thanks for helping me with the whole... leg... thing." Russell gestured to his splint. "You're welcome, I guess, shouldn't you get some rest?"

"Probably, but if I do Mica will most likely try to kill you." "I said I wouldn't and I meant it! Just get some sleep so I can get some quiet for a bit, okay tau?" Mica said sweetly. "If I wake up and he's dead I'm gonna be pretty upset, Mu." Russell said in a mocking voice. "Just go to sleep, or I will kill him!" "... alright." Russell leaned back and closed his eyes. It wasn't long until he began to snore lightly.

"So... Mica is it? Is that your real name?" "So, dead idiot, do you like having a dick?" Mica's voice turned bitter once again. She held up her side arm and pulled back the hammer with her thumb. "I'm just trying to pass the time." "You're awfully talkative for a POW." Mica put the gun down on her lap. "It was my first day out of-" "I don't care." "I'm just saying that I wasn't too-" "I'm just saying shut up so I don't shoot you in the face." Kevin opened his mouth to say something and immediately reconsidered. His eyes wandered to Russell as the squirrel snoozed in the back seat, then over at Mica who simply glared back at him from time to time. He continued to stare at Mica for some time and every time she glanced back her face conveyed more worry and anger. "Could you not stare at me? I'm trying to focus on the road and you're weirding me the fuck out." "What road? We're in the middle of nowhere." "Even more reason for me to concentrate on the area I'm driving into... Just look out the damn window or something." "Did anyone tell you how gorgeous you are?" "What did I just say about weirding me out?! Just stare out the window before something awful happens to you." Kevin's gaze lingered for a couple seconds before he complied and stared out the window next to him. Mica let out a long sigh and shook her head as she quickly and carefully serpentined through the dense forest. The snow was still coming down hard and the sun's rays were diffused across the cloud covered sky. Mica rolled down the window let the calm snowflakes and crisp sweet winter air wander into the Humvee. The snow effectively silenced the usual sounds of the forest, and the only sounds were the low rumble of the engine and the squeaking snow under the tires.

In the deafening silence Mica's subconscious began to re-awaken. Indistinguishable voices seemingly whispered to her though her earpiece. Suddenly one very distinct voice shouted through to her. "Say your name!" Deimos screamed at her. Without saying a word Mica slammed on the brakes, holstered her gun, jumped out of the car, ripped out her earpiece, crushed it in her palm. and threw the remains into the forest. When she got back in the car Deimos appeared in her rear view mirror. "Say it!" he repeated. Mica snatched her pistol and swung around only to see nothing but aspen trees burdened by the heavy snow, and an unconscious squirrel. "A-... Are you-?" Kevin stammered. "I'm fine, shut the fuck up." Mica stared out the windshield and continued on into the forest. "I-.... Okay." For some time it was silent again, but after about ten minutes Russel began to stir. "No, she's here with me..." he said lazily. "What do you mean?... Panic?... No I don't-... well it sounds kind of like our MO... lemme check." Russel punched the back of the driver's seat. "Mica! Turn on your damn radio!" He groaned.

"It broke." She said coldly.

"How did it break?" "Deimos..." Russel rubbed his eye sockets. "You've been seeing Deimos again? You really shouldn't be isolated for this long again."

"Why not?" "Because when you're alone for that long your mind goes soft, and you start to beat yourself up with Deimos." "Pfft, whatever. What's so important anyway." "Alex-" "Alpha!" "Sorry, Alpha wants to know if you know anything about what's happening in Beltzgrad." "No, why would I?" "Well you where just there last night." "I'm not omniscient though, what's happening?" "Lots." "Care to elaborate?" "Apparently there are tons of emergency calls coming in from all over the city, all simultaneously reporting everything from fires, to riots, bombs and murders? All of them seem to be false reports, but the calls keep coming in and moving around. Alpha is telling me that security forces are having trouble locking down the city because of the sheer panic this whole thing has created." "That sort of sounds like something we would do." "Yeah that's what I said." "Who the fuck did do it?"

Roxanne's feet scraped against the wind-swept ice like a dull butter knife against toast. Each step became more laborious than the last. The trees that had once protected this valley were nothing more than burnt stumps and withered husks, unable to halt the relentless gale screaming furiously from the west. Although Roxanne had stowed her mask and donned a heavy winter scarf in its place the snow-laden gusts cut strait to her muzzle as if it weren't there at all; mucus, saliva, and sweat froze under the scarf, stinging Roxanne's face and making it feel rigid and stretched. With her head down she pressed into the wind until she unexpectedly banged her head against a beam. Staggering backwards she looked up to see a faded wooden sign that read 'Welcome to Lucid Brook: where dreams turn to gold!' Just beyond they sign Roxanne could see the town she long ago lived in, no longer the lively small mountain town it was, it was now a carcass; bombed-out, vandalized and picked clean by scavengers and defectors who lived outside of the influence of the government.

This journey was not meant to be made by one Roxanne thought to her self as she pressed forward through the gloomy streets. The sun hung low under the clouds and blinded Roxanne as she surveyed the town. Cars and trucks where burnt out heaps in the middle of the road. Although all the once vibrant colors of the buildings had been sun bleached by years of neglect they still seamed more alive than the dull gray metropolis she had left behind. She finally came to the building she had been seeking, and it still seamed to be intact. She stood on the stoop and stared at the door in front of her. She ran her gloves over the grooves of the intricate carvings on the door, and eventually they found their way to the knob. The handle and hinges where rusty and stiff, but with some effort they surrendered to Roxanne. When the door opened the setting sun once again poured into Roxanne's face; the entire back wall of the house had crumbled away.

Roxanne sobbed heavily as all the emotions she had been bottling since before she left Beltzgrad let loose. "Hi Paige," She said to the emptiness "It's good to see you too, is Elsie home?... No, don't tell her I want surprise her" Roxanne ascended the rickety stair case and went to the first room on the left. Roxanne mimed knocking in the middle of the empty door frame. "Hey E, it's Rox... I know I already had my try today, I just want to spend some time with you." She entered the room and set down her duffle bag and fiberglass box before looking about the barren floors. Roxanne went to the window where she could see the skeleton of a large A-frame in the distance. "I saw your light on and I felt kind of lonely... can I spend the night with you?" Tears continued to pour from her eyes as she shed her winter garb. She kicked the duffle bag over to the corner where Elsie's bed once was, then laid down on the cold ground next to it and embraced it. "I don't care how long it takes me, one of these days I'm going to catch you E; when I do you will be all mine, and I'll keep you forever. Good night, Elsie." Roxanne bit down on a strap of fabric, then put her head down on the hard wood. She began to feel warm and drowsy as she was ready to embrace death in the place where the person she loved most would many a time rest with her. But Roxanne would not die, not here and not now. Chapter VIII: Plata O Plomo?

Roxanne woke up inside of a body bag, and when she tried to move she found she was restrained by zip ties. From beyond the bag she could hear two voices talking. "Where did you find her, again?" a deep voice groaned. "She was in the residential area of old Lucid brook." replied a nervous voice. "How did she make it so far into Lucid Brook?" "I guess she doesn't have a Geiger-" "Why didn't you report her as soon as you saw her enter our territory?!" "Well she didn't look like-" "I don't have time for your excuses, get out of my sight!" "Y-... Yes, sir." The sounds of footsteps was followed by a heavy metal door slamming shut and a moment of silence. The deep voice spoke again with a heavy sigh. "Get her out of there" Bright light spilled into the bag as it was abruptly unzipped, and a massive bull reached down and picked up Roxanne out of the bag. Roxanne began to struggle and scream through her gag as she was lifted up. "Woah! Calm down! It's okay, you're safe now!" Shouted the tall muscular puma in the corner of the dingy room. "For fucks sake, don't just wave her around in the air! Put her down." The bull grunted and gently set Roxanne down in a cold steel chair, and Roxanne looked around nervously as the bull cut the zip ties around her ankles. In front of Roxanne was a steel table with the bulk of the possessions she had with her on it, and across from her was someone else with a bag over their head. The puma in the corner took a long drag on his cigarette then he slowly approached the desk, and put his cigarette out in the ash tray on the corner of the table. "I'm gonna take the gag off of you, are you going to scream and shout?" Roxanne shook her head nervously. "Are you sure? Because if you do you will get hurt." Roxanne nodded. The puma reached over and took the gag off Roxanne. She rolled her tongue around in her mouth and frowned, staring down at the steel table in front of her. "I need to ask you some questions and if at any moment I think you're lying or withholding information from me Bruce over there is going make you hurt. Do you understand?" Roxanne nodded again. "No I need you to say that you understand." "I understand."

"Also you will need to do everything I tell you otherwise Bruce is going to make you hurt, and trust me, when he makes you hurt it's not pretty. Do you understand?" "Y-yes... I understand." "Good. Let's start with some easier questions. Who are you?" "M-My name is Roxanne Metz... My ident number is RA-." "I'm not a cop, I don't need to know your fucking ident number." "S-Sorry." "Please don't apologize, just answer my questions. Do you know who I am Roxanne?" Roxanne shook her head back and forth. "I'm Alexi, I'm in charge here, and keep things running. What is it you do, Roxanne?" "I used to work as a technician at a hydroponic farm." "What is a hydroponic farm tech doing way the hell out here?" The tone of the puma's voice became much more serious. "Well... I was running and-." "Running from who? Why?" "From Beltzgrad because-.""From Beltzgrad? How did you even get out without getting noticed?!" "With scrambles." "Is that what caused all that fucking chaos in Beltzgrad?" "Yes. The scrambles bounce signa-." "I don't need to know how they work, I have people who deal with that shit, right now I'm just trying to figure out if what you're saying to me is true or if you're just talking shit to me." "It's the truth! I swear that-." "Shut the fuck up." Alexi stated frankly while and scowling at Roxanne. The silence hung in the air as Roxanne quietly whimpered. "You see, I don't know if I can trust you, for all I know you're just another fucking spy trying to squeal to the government about what is happening here, and you might just be going through a fucking script. I like to know who is working for the government." Alexi went over to the hooded individual across from Roxanne and removed the bag from his head, underneath was a wolf who had clearly been beaten for a while. "Like Kevin here, he's a government stooge who is either very ignorant of a large portion of his organization... or he's very new." Blood crusted Kevin's terrified eyes and trembling lips and as he began to let out a low groan Alexi lashed out and socked him square in the eye-socket, opening some of the wounds again. "I'm not a big fan of unexpected guests, and well... to have two in one day has put me on edge, you understand. So how can I trust what you are saying is true? Because I don't know if I have the energy to do this all over again, and honestly I'd rather not have to hit people more than I have to." Alexi gestured towards Kevin as he twitched and blood dripped from his face in a spasmodic tempo onto his knees. Terrified Roxanne stammered. "T-the box I had with me!" "What about it?" "It's full of envy's art!"

"Bruce! Box!" Alexi snapped his fingers and pointed at the table, the bull grunted and hoisted the box from the corner of the room onto the table, and Alexi cut the bonds from Roxanne's wrists. "Open it..." he said coldly. Trembling Roxanne grabbed her earring and grabbed the key from it before carefully twisting it in the box and the lid popped open. Roxanne reached in to the box and removed a painting and unwrapped it gently and presented them timidly to Alexi. "Holy shit..." Alexi snatched the painting from Roxanne and examined it carefully. "How the fuck did you get these?" "I knew Envy." "You knew Envy?" "She was my lover..." "She was your lover? First, She? Second, Was?"

"Yes... she... My lover, Elsie Vedas, was the artist known as envy, and she was arrested this morning. That's why I needed to escape Beltzgrad."

"Sorry, what was that name?"

"Elsie Vedas? I usually called her 'E' though."

"How long have you supposedly known her?"

"More than twenty years, since we were both about eleven." Alexi grabbed an instant camera off a shelf in the back of the room and took a picture of Roxanne, after the picture whirred out of the camera he grabbed the box off the table. "I'll be right back, if she tries to run kill her." The bull nodded and Roxanne sat back down. For a very long time Roxanne sat silently crying as she waited for Alexi to return, when he did, he did not have Roxanne's box, and he still looked unhappy. "Well..." he paused for a bit. "Your story checks out." Roxanne let out a loud sigh of relief. "You know I can't let you go though, right?" Roxanne nodded. "And if you're going to stay here you are going to have to do everything I order you to do." Roxanne nodded again. "Well then... I guess welcome to the defector's haven." Alexi extended a paw, but as she went to shake it he withdrew it. "Except!... I still need to know that I can trust you, and that you will follow my orders."

"I will I swear!" "Well I'm about to find out." Alexi went to the back of the room and retrieved a hammer from the shelf. "Take this." he said extending the handle of the hammer to Roxanne, she shook as she slowly grabbed it. "I have no more use for him." Alexi gestured towards Kevin. "Kill him..." Alexi jerked his head backwards and Bruce stepped behind Roxanne. "I-i... B-but." Roxanne looked back and forth between the hammer in her hand and at Kevin. "Kill him! That is an order!" Alexi whispered sternly, Roxanne welled up and shook her head slightly. Alexi clicked his tongue and Bruce quickly reached out at grabbed Roxanne's left hand. With one hand he jerked her ring finger strait back towards her elbow. There was a loud crunching noise as the bones in Roxanne's finger dislocated and broke in Bruce's palm and she shrieked loudly, she fell to her knees and let go of of the hammer, but Bruce continued to stand gripping her finger tightly. With another swift movement Bruce produced a pair of sheers and from his back pocket and began to cut into finger he was clutching. Bruce haphazardly pulled at Roxanne's hand to get a better angle with his sheers. The pain continued to intensify as each hard tug of the sheers cut through layers of skin and fur and eventually into the sinew between her phalange and metacarpal bones. Thick scarlet liquid gushed from her hand down her arm and neck, soaking her fur and staining her shirt a deep burgundy. After six or seven rough yanks on the tendons the sheers closed with an audible 'snip' and Roxanne's finger came off into the muscular bull's hand. Roxanne's shrieking died down as she recoiled her wrist into her other hand and stared at in through blurry tears. She instinctively gripped her wrist tightly to try to get the bleeding to slow. Alexi squatted next to Roxanne and spoke softly as she whimpered. "I do remember telling you that it wouldn't be pretty if Bruce had to hurt you... and I really hate it when people don't do what I ask the first time." He leaned over and picked up the hammer. "You're losing blood at a pretty good rate, and I'm not too sure how long you can still stay conscious quite frankly." He gently rolled the hammer in his palm. "If you decide not to do what I tell you to do again, you will have a very painful death... So tell me, Roxanne, which one of you is going to die first? You?" Alexi held out the handle of the hammer to Roxanne. "Or him?" Trembling, she let go of her wrist and grabbed a hold of the hammer again. Struggling to her feet she stumbled over to Kevin. He looked up at her and let out an emaciated wheeze. "I'm so sorry." Roxanne sniffled, and the wolf serenely closed his eyes and gave a tiny nod as if to say 'I understand.' Roxanne's grip tightened as she raised the hammer high above her head and brought it down on his temple in a sharp movement. The canine loudly whined and gasped so Roxanne struck him again, causing one of his eyes to come out of the socket and rest on his cheek as he coughed up blood. Unable to deliver a single definitive death stroke Roxanne began to desperately strike him over and over, and his skull disintegrated under the weight of the hammer. Each swing was accompanied by furious squawks and crunching, and each backstroke was escorted by long ribbons of cerise fluid and radiant white nuggets of bone. The vixen continued her assault until a cascade of slushy cerebrum was dribbling out of a sizable hole and the canine stopped convulsing. Roxanne stepped back and panted laboriously. She dropped the now blood drenched hammer onto the ground, and it gave a dull clatter as it tumbled on the concrete. It felt like there was a flame in the throat as she stood in horrified awe at what she had done. Tears began to blur her vision and the vixen fell to her knee; she wailed madly while twisting her fingers in the hair that just over her face, caking her fingernails in blood, brain matter, and skull fragments. "Quite the opulent showpiece you've made, girl, couldn't have done better myself." Alexi took a picture of the still warm corpse of Kevin and looked down at Roxanne. "Welcome to the Defector's Haven, Roxanne." Alexi handed the picture he just took to Bruce as he walked out of the room. "Get this to the comm room so they can spread it around. Drop her at the sick ward on the way, have her patched up."

Roxanne lightly tugged at the IV in her arm. The saline, glucose, and morphine coursed through her veins as a short effeminate ram finished wrapping her hand in gauze. "oh you poor darlin'." He said in a sweet southern drawl as he fastened a metal clip on the gauze. "You've been through so much. Ahm sorry about Alexi's temper. It's best to stay on his good side." Roxanne rolled her head on her under-stuffed pillow as a cool breeze wafted over her nude slightly damp body. "Are ya'll sure you don't want a blanket, darlin'? It wouldn't be no bother." Roxanne weakly groaned. "I guess."

"alright sweety, rest up, an' feel better."

"Thanks... uh-..."

"You can call me Andrew, sugar."

"Thanks Andrew... I'm so numb."

"That's jus' the medicine, honey, it's keepin' yeh from hurtin'."

"I meant mentally, not physically."

"I know that feelin' fer sure." Andrew gently pulled a sheet up to Roxanne's shoulders and pulled up a chair next to her. "Ah been workin' as the doc here long as it's been 'round. Seen a lot of faces come an' go... seen a lotta good folk too nice to die croak due to nuthin' but bad luck and ah seen a lotta folk too mean to live survive things that by rights nobody shoulda' survived, and just like using medicine to be numb rather than be in pain sometimes our brains are in so much pain they go numb rather than feel the pain."

"There's nothing left for me. I just want to die."

"I'm sorry 'bout yer losses, and I'm sorry 'bout yer situation... I can understand why you might wanna not go on, but things are gonna get better... Ah'm no good at sayin' the right things to make someone feel better. Mah brother Phil would know what ta say, he got that from momma... But at least I can be here fer ya... even if ye don't wanna talk."

"I hardly know you, though."

"Well shoot, that don't mean we can't learn more 'bout each other. Why don'cha tell me more 'bout that girl you were head over heals for? How would she try to cheer you up?"

"Sometimes she'd sing to me..."

"That's nice. Anything in particular?"

"Usually folk songs her mother taught us."

"Ah'd love to hear one if'n yer willin' ta sing." Roxanne nodded slowly and took a deep breath before singing a simple tune:

Red is the rose that by yonder garden grows/

Fair is the lily of the valley/

Clear is the water that flows from the Boyne/

But my love is fairer than any.

Twas down by Killarney's green woods that we stayed/

When the moon and the stars they were shining/

The moon shone its rays on her locks of golden hair/

And she swore she'd be mine forever.

Red is the rose that by yonder garden grows/

Fair is the lily of the valley/

Clear is the water that flows from the Boyne/

But my love is fairer than any.

it's not for the parting that my sister pains/

it's not for the grief of my mother/

it's all for the loss of my bonny Irish lass/

that my heart is breaking forever.-

Roxanne began to choke on tears, and was unable to continue. Suddenly a masculine voice from behind the privacy curtain next to Andrew began to sing the final chorus.

Red is the rose that by yonder garden grows/

Fair is the lily of the valley/

Clear is the water that flows from the Boyne/

But my love is fairer than any.

Roxanne blinked a couple times. "That voice sounds familiar!" Roxanne reached for the curtain, but was unable to reach it. Andrew slowly pulled it back to reveal an extremely tired squirrel, his leg in bandages and suspended from a metal frame attached to his bed. "Rus?!" Roxanne gasped deeply.

"Hey, Rox." he waved lazily. "I sure hope I'm not hallucinating."

"I can see her too Russel, sugar, yer not hallucinating." Andrew went over to Russel and checked his IV bag. "I take it y'all know each other?"

"Roxanne is my sister's girlfriend."

"Well I'll leave y'all two alone so y'all can catch up." Andrew gave them each of them a kiss on the head. "just holler if y'all need me, and I'll be 'round lickety-split."

"Thanks, Andrew." Russel waved at Andrew as he walked out of the room. "So... Rox, what's new?"

Chapter IX: Black and Blue

The man sitting in the center seat of the long table cleared his throat and pressed the record button on the tape recorder in front of him. "Let the record show that this the 15th hearing concerning Elsie Vedas has officially commenced." The masked chairman banged his gavel on the table. "Bring her in." A nearby guard knocked on the steel door next to him, causing a loud echo in the cold barren concrete room. After a moment the door ground open and a small entourage of soldiers came through dragging the emaciated rabbit in on a leash; she was wearing nothing but a collar, black hood, and plastic handcuffs. The soldier holding her leash stopped her before an aluminum chair. "Sit!" he demanded as he shoved her into the seat and violently pulled the hood off her. Intense lights shone on her drooping head, making silhouettes of the five figures seated across the room as the chairman spoke again. "Thank you, corporal, your men are dismissed." The man who escorted Elsie in waved his hand and the rest of his associates marched out of the room. Chunks of the rabbit's fur were missing leaving her badly bruised skin bare, the frigid air gave the exposed skin goose bumps and made her breath hang in the air. "I have the reports as per usual, sir." the officer held up a folder.

"I'd prefer to hear the report's findings in your own words, corporal." "I'd very much like to see the report!" one of the other board members objected. "Very well, approach." The chairman waved the officer over. "Yes sir." The officer carefully handed the chairman the folder. He looked over it for a moment or two before passing it down the table to the others. "The report states-." "Everything in its due time, corporal." The chairman interrupted the officer. "Yes sir." "Could the defendant please state their full name for the record?" Elsie did not respond, and after a long moment of silence the chairman loudly cleared his throat. The officer slapped her across the face. "Speak, cunt!" Elsie licked her dry lips; they were rough, chapped, and bleeding after being cut up by her sharp broken teeth. She spoke weakly in a defeated tone. "My name is Elsie Nicole Vedas." "Thank you." The chairman said in a calculating voice. "Alright corporal, let's begin with recent infractions." "Since last hearing Elsie Vedas is hereby formally charged with fourteen additional counts of sedition, obstructing the administration of justice, misprision of treason, misprision of a felony, aiding and abetting, and treason. She is also formally charged with two additional counts of attempted suicide, and seven counts of destruction of government property." "Destruction of government property?" The board member holding the report chimed in. "Blood stains things pretty easily, sir, evidentiary pictures are on page eighteen." He flipped through the packet and nodded. "I see." "The detainee also continues to be antagonistic and refuses to assist in creation of governmental promotion." "Have you procured any intelligence on the whereabouts of the terrorists Roxanne Metz, Russel Vedas, Alexi Espina or the rest of defector's haven yet?" One of the board members queried. "No, sir. All the information she has given us on that subject is fabricated."

"Have you tried any additional interrogation routines?" "We have tried all ten approved interrogation routines already, sir." "Is that what I asked corporal?" "No, sir." "It would behoove you to answer the questions I asked, corporal." "Yes, sir." "So have you tried any additional interrogation routines?" "Yes, sir." "Elaborate." "We have introduced the use of electric discipline to our regular routines as well as unhinging as an occasional stand-alone routine." "Unhinging? I'm unfamiliar with that term." "Allow me to demonstrate it for you." The officer grinned under his balaclava. "No! Please, no!" The terrified doe screamed as the officer yanked on the leash, dragging her to the ground, and cut her plastic handcuffs. "Where is the defector's haven, you whore!" He placed a heavy boot on her rear and leaned over, grabbing a hold of her wrist. "Tell me where your fuck buddy ran off to and this all ends! You can make it stop!" "I don't know where-!" The officer quickly pulled back on her arm and with a loud pop it came out of the her shoulder socket, she shrieked loudly as he let go of her wrist and the limp arm hit the concrete floor with a heavy thud. "Tell me where they are, you bitch!" he leaned over and popped her shoulder back into place, and she shrieked again. "Where are they?!" "I don't know-ho-hooo" she sobbed. "Wrong answer!" He raised his hand to slap her and the chairman interrupted. "Thank you, corporal! Please have her seated again, this is not the time for a full interrogation." "Yes, sir" The officer breathed heavily as he dragged her back into her seat. He spat on her face, "Cunt." and got ready for a back-hand before being interrupted again. "Corporal! Enough!" He froze and puffed briefly before standing up straight. It was abundantly clear by their body language that several members of the board were extremely uncomfortable with the demonstration. "Sorry, sir." One of the board members coughed slightly before speaking. "So is that all to, uh? Unhinging? Was it?" "Sometimes we leave the arm out of place for a while and it might reduce itself, but more or less that's how that goes."

"Can that cause permanent damage?" "Doc says it shouldn't so long as we don't do it too often or pull too hard, but we do it on her non-dominant arm just in case." The chairman spoke up again. "Why, in your professional opinion, do you think she would fabricate information?" "For relief, sir, to appease the interrogator." "Why do you think, corporal, she wouldn't just give you correct information for a more permanent relief?" The board member with the file asked with an exceptionally articulate tone. "Because-." "Is it possible that she honestly doesn't know?" "Yes, sir." "How likely?" "Very... sir, but it's still possible-." "Thank you, corporal." The board member leaned over and through his mask gave the chairman an 'I told you so' look. The chairman cleared his throat and took a contemplative moment before speaking. "Do any of the rest of you have further questions for the corporal?" The disruptive board member held up his hand with two fingers up, and the chairman turned off the tape recorder with a sigh. "Go ahead number four." "Thank you. I have quite a few questions for you, corporal Tartarus. Off the record." "Sir..." "During what stages of Elsie's detainment did you receive the most useful information?" "During the third fourth and fifth interrogations, sir." "What routines did you use during those inquiries?" "None... sir." "Who preformed those examinations?" "Special agent Cooper, sir." "What tone did he have?" "Tone?" "Was he threatening or intimidating?" "No, sir." "Would it be fair to say he was friendly to her?" "Yes, sir." "Is Cooper still working here at all?" "No, sir. With all due respect you know the answers to these questions already." "I'm trying to illustrate a point, corporal, so just answer the questions." "Sir." "How many inquiries did he preform on Envy before he left?" "Six." "Did he say anything about the volume or quality of information at all?" "He said that she had likely divulged all the useful information she had access to."

"What about other detainees? Was he still working with some just before leaving?" "Yes." "How many?" "Five, sir." "What about the other six?" "He said he had gotten as much information he could from them." "When did Cooper leave? before or after you started using interrogation routines?" "After." "What reason did he give for leaving?" "Officially he had transferred to a different facility." "But what reason did he give?" "He... he said that we ruined the rapport he had with the detainees." "Do you enjoy torturing detainees, corporal?" "Interrogation routines are-." "Lets not pretend this is something that it isn't, corporal Tartarus... those 'routines' you've been using are torture." "But, sir interrogation routines-." "Yes or no! Do you enjoy torturing detainees?!" "Interrogation routines are-." "Corporal Tartarus!" "Sir!" "Do you enjoy torturing detainees! Yes or no!" "Yes! I enjoy my job!" "I would argue that your job simply inflates your ego and satisfies a sick lust far more than it benefits the state. Convince me, and by extension the rest of the board, otherwise." "The information procured by interrogation routines has been integral to the security of the state.""Information such as-." the board member looked at the packet and read aloud. "a plot to bribe key staff members at the Beltz estate to urinate and defecate in the cisterns of the palace's toilets whenever the matriarch or her family occupy said palace?" He looked back up at the corporal and Elsie chuckled under her breath though her tears. "Please enlighten me as to how information on such a sophomoric and quite frankly humorously unfeasible plot is integral to the security of the state." "Well not that particular plot, sir, but-." "Perhaps you mean her plot to recruit new vandals to her cause by-" he looked back into the report. "quote 'politely asking pregnant women for custody of their child once it reaches adolescents' unquote?" Elsie snickered louder than she had intended to, but hearing someone else read her absurdities out loud was incredibly entertaining to her despite the atrocities the corporal and his men had carried out on her. He scowled at her and swiftly punched her in the cheek, knocking her out of her seat again. "Shut the fuck up, you cunty faggot! I'll fucking teach you to-." The chairman and the inquiring board member shouted out at the same time. "Restrain him!" and the guards in the room seized Tartarus, and after they had wrestled him off of Elsie they placed him in cuffs, gagged him, and dragged him right up to the table. "As far as I can tell corporal you are a PR time-bomb. You are a liability that is not nearly worth the risk of having around. You were the one who specifically requested this post after your promotion! It seems to me that you have been determined to be Ms. Vedas's personal tormentor since you arrested her." number four turned towards the chairman. "I move that corporal Tartarus and his men be detained until such a time that punitive actions brought against them, the extent of which to be determined by us at a later time." "I second that motion." A different board member affirmed. The chairman cleared his throat before speaking. "Very well, it has been moved and seconded that we detain corporal Tartarus and his men until such a time that punitive actions be brought against them, the extent of which to be determined by us at a later time. Is there any discussion?" The board members let out a low level murmur with no clear discussion happening. "Very well, all in favor signify by raised hand." all five hands went up at once. "All opposed like sign." and no hands went up. "Seeing none the motion carries unanimously." He banged the gavel. Elsie laughed manically and rhythmically tapped her finger nails on the aluminum seat. The entire room was so puzzled that everyone simply stared at the clearly demented rabbit in the middle of the room. She started to sing to the beat of her nails tapping. "We played the drum!/ Men and women died because you lied,/ but we played the timeless drum!/ All the government cowboys must come before the law!/ For all the world will judge their broken promises, blankets, and bombs!" One of the guards pulled Elsie back into her seat, and she glared at the officer across the room as she continued to sing. "I heard a haunting melody it was written for the rain./ A woman sang her tragedies away./ I heard a fighting melody it was written for the sun!/ And the songs of suffering people have grown strong/ from the broken promises, blankets, and bombs!" The chairman banged his gavel and interjected."Ms. Vedas, that is quite enough." She ceased singing but continued to chuckle sporadically. The chairman sighed and gave number four a very long look, it was impossible to tell exactly what he was thinking about due to the mask. Eventually number four looked back at the chairman and held his hand out as if he was holding a large invisible orange between his thumb and forefinger, and the chairman nodded. "Take corporal Tartarus to Ms. Vedas's cell until further notice, as of now he is under arrest and to be treated accordingly. As for his men detain, isolate, and interrogate them them, no routines. If they claim to simply be following orders execute them in the morning, if they admit to wrong doing we'll send them to Tansy as a gift. As for Ms. Vedas..." The chairman glanced back at number four who subtly waved his fingers dismissively. "get her dressed and fed... after a warm shower. When you have her comfortable put her in a good cell with a coloring book and a box of crayons for now... That's all, give us privacy." The guards in the room quickly escorted the struggling corporal and the cackling doe back out of the room. When the room was empty the chairman set the tape recorder to record again and let the room stay silent for a long moment. "I'll take that as a 'no' then. Very well, Elsie Vedas you are hereby found guilty of all charges found in the initial report along with those in the following four reports, all other charges are formally dropped." He banged his gavel on the table. "Hearing adjourned." The chairman stopped the recording, and slumped back in his seat. "Seems as though we have a facility to restaff." "Put Cooper in charge." number three interjected. "I agree. He deserves a big promotion, let him hand-pick his subordinates pending our approval." Number two suggested. "No more sadistic beat cops." Three replied. "Clearly that was dumb choice." "Came down from the top; Beltz said 'he did good, treat him with a few favours' and that basically just means 'kiss his ass and let him do whatever for a while' but I think we're in agreement that he's used up all his goodwill." The Chairman explained. "But what happens to envy now?" two queried. The entire board turned towards four and stared at him expectantly. He thought for quite a while and took a deep breath before he spoke.

Andrew carefully set his food tray down across from Roxanne and took a seat on the particleboard bench. Roxanne didn't even look up from her mug of dark coffee, blankly avoiding looking at the paperwork spread out in front of her. "Howdy, darlin'." "Hey." Roxanne replied weakly. "More schematics?" Andrew squinted trying to look at the paperwork upside down. Roxanne nodded slowly. "Mind if I take a look?" He put a finger down on one of the papers near him, and she shook her head with a shrug. He pulled the sheet close and examined the diagram. The sheet described the mechanics of one of Roxanne's many gizmos, an updated version of her fiery squirt gun. The blueprint was undeniably magnificent in its simplicity and immediately recognizable for its usefulness, yet for every aspect of the build Alexi had notated imagined short comings of the incendiary gadget in red ink. The asinine notes ranged from the belief that the spray bottle nozzle was 'too hard to get a hold of without drawing attention' to the opinion that the child's toy that composed the base was 'not cool enough'. On the bottom Roxanne had notated a references for which file to look in to find all the various versions of the same device she had drawn up over the last seven or so months. "How many ah these projects are ya workin' on at right now?" Roxanne somberly held up four fingers while still staring into her coffee. "How ya holdin' up darlin'?" "I'm-..." Roxanne couldn't speak, she just sat with her mouth open unable to find the words. "... Still?" Andrew raised an eyebrow as he speared a few choice leaves of his salad with a fork. Roxanne nodded slowly, pulling her lukewarm mug closer. "Do ya'll socialize with anyone 'round here, yet?" "Mostly just you and Russ." "Speak ah the devil." Andrew pointed over Roxanne's shoulder with his fork at Russel before biting the lettuce. Russel hobbled over with his own lunch tray in one hand and his cane in the other, the tray landed with a clatter on the table causing a few neighboring patrons of the mess hall to look over before going back to their respective meals. "What's up?" Russel queried as he settled. "Ol' Roxanne here still ain't bein' sociable like with nobody." Andrew covered his mouth as he spoke with a full mouth. "Well why not?" Roxanne shrugged, and continued to stare down into her cup.

"I just-... I don't know... I think everyone just hates me." "Nobody hates ya, sugar, If'n ya'll don't believe me ya'll can ask Mica. She'll tell ya honest." "What? Why?" Roxanne looked up at Andrew. "She can't help but to be honest with people she's known forever." Russel stated flatly. "Mica is physically incapable of remembering more than six months at a time." Russel tapped his temple. "As far as she's concerned you've been here forever, Phil never existed, and I've always been a crippled jackass." Roxanne gazed longingly across the mess at Mica as she ate alone. "... Wish I could forget." She unconsciously began to cry, and Andrew and Russel sat in uncomfortable silence, unsure as to what to say. Mica looked up from her meal to see Roxanne seemingly staring at her and crying, she froze mid bite and just stared back with a mix of inquiry and discomfort. She gave a stupid half-smile and waved her hand a little, but when it became clear to her that by now Roxanne was spaced out and just happened to be looking in Mica's direction she turned back to her meal, hunching her shoulders and intentionally averting her eyes from Roxanne. Roxanne spotted Alexi enter the mess out of the corner of her eye. Quickly she wiped her eyes off and chugged the rest of her coffee. "I should get back to work." She grabbed a grubby rag from her back pocket as she stood up and hastily wiped out the bottom of her mug. "Ya'll don't gotta leave so soon, darlin'." "It's fine." She said through her teeth. "Are ya'll alright, sugar?" Andrew and Russel gave her a concerned look "I'm fine." Roxanne clipped the mug on a carabiner on her hip, and hastily gathered the papers on the table in front of her. "Rox, clearly you're upset-" "I'm fine!" Roxanne snapped as she turned and began to leave the mess. Russel snatched up his cane and tripped as he pursued her out of the mess. She was fumbling with her locker when Russel finally caught up to her. "Rox, wait." "What do you want?" Roxanne continued to put the combination into her lock of her locker. "I'm worried about you, Roxanne." "I wouldn't if I were you, it's a waste of energy." She swung the door of her locker open, nearly hitting the squirrel in the face with the thin metal door. "Well it's not going to stop me from worrying about you." "Why, though? I'm a lost cause. A waste of skin and fur."

"I refuse to accept that, Roxanne! You are one of the smartest, most resilient people I have ever known and-... and-... could you look at me?" They both stood stock still in silence for a long moment until Russel lost his temper at the vixen and slammed the locker shut again. "Roxanne!" He froze and stared at Roxanne as tears rolled down her copper cheeks. "Rox, please talk to me." He gently put a hand on her shoulder, and tried to pull her close, but instead she buckled at the knees as she turned and slammed into the lockers; Russel was unable to keep is balance and he fell over into the lockers as well and together they slid down the cold metal and sat on the concrete ground. The squirrel pulled his morose vixen companion close and she gently leaned against his bust. "Roxanne, I'm here for you. I know it's been rough ever since you got here, but something's clearly happened in the past few days-." "Hope."

"What?" "Hope happened." Roxanne began to sift through papers in her folder. "Call me crazy if you want, but it seems as though hope is usually a good thing." "Not when it's literally impossible to achieve the things that hope inspires." Roxanne finally found the piece of paper she was looking for and handed it over to Russel. "Then hope becomes an shot of pure distilled anguish." Roxanne pantomimed opening a flask and taking a drink. Russel read out loud from a highlighted portion of the sheet as he squeezed Roxanne close. "Prisoner 25-3463-179 to be transferred to facility R89 for recalibration... Is there something I'm not getting?" "They found her... That's Elsie's ident number, Rus." "Well that's great news! We can intercept the transfer and-." "That report was from a week ago, it's too late." "Did you tell Alexi when you found out?"

"I asked him about it as soon as I heard... he called me a dumb bimbo and put me in the white room for two nights, told me I needed to focus on my work more than chasing a piece of ass that was retarded enough to get caught." "Harsh." "His words." "Fuck him!" Russel reached into his jacket and grabbed a real flask. He took a slug and passed it over to Roxanne. "The worst part is knowing that she's still alive. I didn't expect her to be detained, just executed." She stared down into the flask without drinking from it. "Why do you follow him?" "What choice do I have at this point? Can't exactly go home again, you've seen the state it's in." Russel gestured for the flask, and Roxanne handed it back. "But I mean... in the first place. If even you think he's a monster why did you join the haven?" "Well the same reason so many people voted for Simonne, idealism. I guess I was enamored by Alexi's passion, and his tenacity. His ideals of having a society led by no one person, stripped of rules and animosity. He would bang on about freedom so much you couldn't help but want the anarchy he preached." Russel took a small swig from his flask before stowing it again. "But it's not long until you remember that the prisoner's dilemma is a thing with real world applications and soon enough everyone is fucking everyone else over just to get a slight edge. No doubt mom would have seen through Alexi's facade, she knew better than we do. 'You need a bit of everything' she'd say. Right now we're stuck with two extremes, it's like only ever getting a choice between eating tasteless rice cakes or just pure sugary frosting for the rest of your life; you can't survive on either alone and you'll get pretty sick of whichever you choose after not too long."

"I didn't want to choose, but Alexi took that from me when he pressed me into work here." "What did you expect when running from Beltzgrad?" "I expected-... I don't know... I expected to die on my own terms, in the home I loved the most, the home that would help me escape... them." "Your parents hated us." "You don't know the half of it, I still remember them arguing with mom-... with Paige in our living room for hours. If there was one thing to be said for my biological parents it's that they made the adjustment to the new government seem familiar and relatively easy." "Is that why you stayed, why you convinced Elsie to stay?" "I stayed because it was more stable, sure it sucked and we had to give up a lot, way too much... but there was always the prospect of things changing for the better. We'd think 'maybe Oliver won't be so bad' or 'maybe some of the rules will be relaxed soon', a few of them did but an equal amount of them were made more strict. We gave up so much freedom for the illusion of safety." Roxanne wiped her eyes on her sleeve as she continued. "But that didn't matter to us, as long as we had each other. Even if we weren't allowed to live together because we were gay, even if we had to constantly worry about getting arrested because of you and mom or some other arbitrary reason... we had work, steady meals, shelter, but most of all I had her, and she had me." "They arrested you because of me?" "Couple times... we had to sign a document saying that we fully rebuke you and were you ever caught we would testify against you." "Would you have?" Russel inquired, but Roxanne remained silent. "It's okay." "I'm sorry, Rus." "No, I'm sorry I was still a burden to even after I went into hiding." "It was life." Roxanne sat up and grabbed the radio transcript from Russel's hand and waved it slightly before stuffing it back in her folder. "This is death." "That's it, I can't stand for this shit." He struggled to his feet. "Elsie would probably say that you can't stand period." "Har fucking har. I may be a crippled, borderline useless, turd, but god damn it I'm not gonna sit by and watch you suffer any longer." He began to stagger away. "What can you possibly do about it at this point, Rus? She's already been stuffed in a recalibration suit by now, it's not nearly as easy as intercepting a-." "I'm going to make a psychotic, suicidal, rescue operation appealing to Alexi."

Chapter X: Dealing With the Brass

The humvee pushed through the muddy almost dry river bed with ease, the low rumble of the engine mixed with birdsong carried through the forest. Russel was more determined than he ever had been his entire life, and it showed in his face as he drove along. Roxanne nervously looked around in the cabin as the world outside became a blur. In the back Mica was nonchalantly chewing on some jerky and loading loose bullets into magazines, inspecting each one before pressing it into place. "Try to relax, Rox, this might be your last chance for a while." Russel patted Roxanne on the leg.

"But what if-."

"No if's today, Roxanne." She gave a heavy sigh and nodded.

"Okay, no if's." She took a few more deep breaths, then looked back at Mica. "Are you nervous, Mica?" She shook her head and continued to load a magazine with bullets. "Do-... do you see anyone right now?"

"Well," She spoke with her mouth full, "I see you two."

"Well do you see anyone... else?"

"Do you mean am I hallucinating right now?" She looked up and scanned her eyes back and forth. "A little."

"Who do you see?"

"Does it matter to you at all?"

"I'm just wondering if you're going to be okay for what's coming."

"Well, a more appropriate question is have you ever fired a gun before?" Mica tore the jerky in her teeth and swallowed what was in her mouth.

"Well my little-." Roxanne began to reach to her tool belt. "I mean a real gun, not one of your squirt pistols."

Roxanne shook her head. "I don't really want to shoot anyone."

"Perhaps you'd prefer a hammer, Rox?" Russel grinned at Roxanne, but she just scowled back. "That was uncalled for, I know, but in all seriousness you should have a gun. Everyone else in the building is going to be armed, and this isn't exactly like picking up milk at the the store."

She contemplated for a little bit and eventually relented, thinking to herself that even if she didn't intend to use the gun if it made Russ happy she'd do it. "You're probably right." Mica pulled her bag aside and waved Roxanne to the back. "Good, I'll give you something easy to use." While Roxanne crawled back Mica presented a weapon that almost looked like a toy with its compact size, sleek design, and plastic parts. Roxanne noted to herself that this was the first time she'd actually seen Mica smile without someone first telling her a joke. Without making room for interruption Mica began to excitedly describe the weapon in the same way an astrophysicist might passionately explain the life cycle of a star; she spoke so fast that her words began running up against each other as she pointed out every little detail of the firearm. "This is a personal defense weapon, more stopping power than an SMG, but more compact and maneuverable than a carbine. It's fully ambidextrous; if you're a lefty you hold it like this, a righty will hold it like this. Safety is this little wheel just below the trigger; three settings: safe, single shot, full auto. To reload the magazine goes on top here, then you pull on this little knob here and your set to rock and roll. The magazine has 50 rounds in it; now that might sound like a lot but with this little guy's rate of fire you'll get just over three total seconds of full auto fire for a mag. You'll have three mags meaning you have a total of 10 seconds of shooting hog-wild, so try not to go too nuts. The spent brass drops out here, and because this gun was designed with fit guys in mind originally they didn't account for breasts; as a result hot brass will hit your tits, it's much more annoying than dangerous so long as they don't get caught on you. Also don't expect the enemies to stand out in the open waiting for you to shoot them. Even skilled foot soldiers will probably only hit one shot out of 500 in open combat. That said this won't really be open combat, these facilities tend have a lot of small hallways and tight corridors, so if a firefight breaks out it'll be more room to room and their numbers advantage will be a little blunted. If you just stay in cover a lot you should-."

"Mica!" Roxanne interrupted, and Mica stared with her lips pursed like a child caught with chocolate on their nose. "Just... let me try it out for a bit."

"Yeah-... yeah... okay." Mica chuckled and gently handed the gun and a clip to Roxanne. Mica wasn't lying when she said it was an easy weapon to use and after just a couple minutes of practice out the side window of the humvee, and some more pointers from Mica, Roxanne was able to hit the things with a fair deal of reliability. Soon Roxanne returned to the front seat. The wolf in the back seat looked about before speaking.

"So-." her voice cracked, she cleared her throat and tried again. "So which of you has been part of the haven the longest?"

"That would be him." Roxanne gestured to Russel.

"I defected right after Matriarch Beltz seized power."

"Have you been there longer than I have?"

Russel nodded. "Indeed I have. You'd have been a pre-teen if you got to the haven when I did."

"So how old does that make me?"

"We guessed you're around sixteen or seventeen when we found you, so you'd be twenty-one or two now." The ruddy squirrel took a deep breath and continued. "You probably want to know about how you ended up at the haven again, don't you?"

"I-... yes. How did you know?"

"You always always ask about your age before asking how we you ended up there. Anyway let me tell you I guess." Mica sat on the edge of her seat and listened intently.

"Some years ago we were raiding a caravan for supplies, pretty standard operation for the most part. One of the supply trucks managed to break through our line, Alexi had me take Phil and Andrew in a jeep to pursue. The truck turned off the road and the trailer slammed into a tree." Russel pantomimed a trailer hitting something with his hand. "Pshh! And the doors swung open. We could see that the trailer was full of these big metal boxes, figured they were munitions or something so we continued the pursuit. Suddenly the truck hit a huge bump. Ka-thunk! Doompf! One of the crates fell out of the back. Just then Schoom! Kshhhh! The truck slid into the ravine and crumpled on impact. We went and checked out the crate to find you in it; scared and bruised. Turns out some of the crates in the truck had kids in them. You were the only one to survive. Andrew joked that your fur looked like a chunk of mica, and the name kinda stuck."

"Very dramatic story." Roxanne said with a smirk, "well practiced."

"Hey you tell it seven or eight times you'll know it pretty well too."

"It's nice that you still take time to tell it."

"Well just because Mica can't remember anything but combat doesn't mean that she doesn't have the right to know what we do about her."

"Well what about before?!" Mica said urgently. "Who am I?!"

Russel shrugged. "Who knows?"

The seasoned soldier sipped whiskey and smoked a cigar in the hazy windowless office. The old rottweiler mindlessly turned a large coin over in his palm a few times, rubbing his thumbnail across the engravings. A knock came from his door, and he quickly stowed the coin in his front pocket. "Enter!"

A younger leopard entered, stood at attention, and saluted. "Sir, Major Boon reports."

The old soldier returned the salute. "At ease."

Boon relaxed and continued to address his superior. "The cadets have arrived, Colonel Nash."

"Thank you, major. I'll be out momentarily. Dismissed." The major nodded and waked out of the room. The colonel put out his cigar and stood up, and made his way to a full length mirror. He straightened out his jacket and grabbed his hat, gently tucking it under his arm. After inspecting his reflection for a minute he found it acceptable and walked out of his office.

The clicking sound of the door to the colonel's office closing echoed in the concrete hanger. Major Boon was standing by the door and shouted as the colonel entered. "Atten-Tion!" In the hanger there were two dozen youth in a line in military dress uniforms all standing at attention along with a captain on one end of the line. Colonel Nash surveyed the boys and girls one by one as he paced in front of them. "At ease." At once everyone in the room took a small step to the left and clasped their hands behind their backs. The colonel cleared his throat before speaking emphatically. "This will not be an average commissioning ceremony, but you are clearly not average cadets. Young soldiers such as yourselves are almost never commissioned strait out of high school, unless they show exceptional talent... to be offered a commission while still in middle school is truly unprecedented." Colonel Nash turned towards major Boon and nodded. The major stepped forward and opened a box of small brass pins and large coins, each coin had a decorative enameled dragon and each individual soldier's name engraved on it. "Atten-Tion!" the Colonel ordered and all the young soldiers clicked their heals together and stood at attention once again. Colonel Nash went to each of the young animals; after pinning a brass arrow on their lapel the rottweiler would hand them a coin as they shook hands, then he would salute them and they would return the salute. After doing this each for soldier he returned back to the front of the room. "Congratulations lieutenants. At ease." Once again the soldiers returned to their resting positions. "Don't let your heads get too big, though. While you are technically lieutenants right now you will still have a long road in front of you. A long, dangerous, painful road in front of you; and that is before you come remotely close to seeing any combat, or commanding any troops. I have a bit of an unofficial title would any of you happen to know it?" The silence was uneasy and was lasting far too long and the colonel began pacing again. "Don't be afraid to speak up if you know. Someone here must know what they call me." Again there was silence.

"They call you 'the crimson brain doctor' or-... or sometimes it's 'red matter'... sir." A young wolf girl eventually spoke up.

"That is correct, lieutenant Charon!" He spun on his heel. "Do you know why nebulous 'they' bestowed me with such a name?"

"Well, weren't you a neurosurgeon before you joined the army?"

"A neuroengineer, actually, I still am and I'm damn good at my job... Continue."

"We- uh- well it's said that you tested a new kind of weapon on prisoners, a-and several of them had their brains and spinal chord explode into a red paste." "Correct again! That is what the rumors stated. The truth is far less terrifying. It was not a weapon, I did not test on prisoners, and nobody's brains exploded; I was attempting to expand the memory and improve reaction times of the average brain, they were all willing volunteers, and only in three out of a thousand tests did anyone's brains turn to red goop, out of the other nine-hundred-ninety-seven the worst they got physiologically speaking was a head-ache and a nose bleed. But the moniker stuck, and if you have a ferocious nickname and an overblown folk-tale about you then it tends to be a bit of a boon in the military." He patted the young wolf on the back. "Relax, kid, you're doing good." Lieutenant Charon smiled subtly and her commanding officer continued. "The reason this story is relevant is because of what you volunteered for, lieutenants. I guarantee that all of you will hate me regardless as to whether this project is successful or not, and I would be surprised if at least one of you didn't try to kill me. Nobody wants to be hated, but it's just part of the price I'll pay. You will all pay your own personal prices, and in return you will be better trained soldiers than anyone else in the world." Colonel Nash waved his hand and the bay door in front of the fresh lieutenants groaned open. A half dozen forklifts wheeled in each carrying what looked like a the unholy child of an iron maiden and a supercomputer. "These are what we are tentatively calling knowledge cabinets. It's a highly refined version of the very research that got me my nickname; it's designed to train every part of your mind and your body. You are going to be put into groups of four: One of you will be specialized in combat, one in strategy, one in interrogation, and one in espionage and subterfuge. In theory the spy and interrogator pass intel to the the strategist who will be the only direct support for the fighter. The fighter will end up spending more time in the cabinet than the rest of the group combined, but that is not something to be happy about as you will soon find out." The rottweiler cleared his throat and waved over major Boon, who was carrying a stack of files. "I've gone on long enough for now. Today you will get your assignments, and a little time to celebrate your commissions, tomorrow you get to step into the cabinets. Understood?"

"Yes, Sir!" the entire line of young soldiers replied. The dog flipped open the top folder and read aloud.

"Good, step forward as I call your names. Group one is as follows: interrogator... Duncan Deimos; spy... Peter Dolos; strategist... Ophelia Voithós; and finally fighter... Zoe Charon."

Russel, Mica, and Roxanne stood around an blown up photograph of a massive hangar and dilapidated runway next to it. Russel pointed to the fence outside the hangar. "This will be your best possible point of ingress to the grounds. You'll have half an hour to get there before I start the distraction, but that should be plenty of time." He moved his fingers around the hangar. "Personnel entrances are here, here and here."

"What kind of locks do they have?" Roxanne queried.

"I have no idea, probably just simplex locks? This is a minimum staff facility, without a huge amount of security. It's supposed to look abandoned, this is the kind of post you get as punishment."

"Right. Sorry."

"No need to be sorry. Honestly I don't know why Alexi doesn't want us to break in here to get Envy. It's a fucking gingerbread house."

"Doesn't? Don't you mean-?" Mica cut in.

"I know what I said, Mica." He rested an arm on her. "You're a good kid, and the haven isn't doing you any favors."

"What do you mean?"

"We're running... from all of it." Roxanne stared into the photograph. "The haven, the hierarchy, everything. Once we do this op we head west and don't stop until the car dies and our legs give up on us."

"What about me?"

"Well Rox and E could use a bodyguard, I'm sure." Russel squeezed the canid close. "They'll take good care of you." Mica optimistically gazed deep in his eyes and nodded, suddenly she frantically pushed back from the older squirrel, and her eyes darted around.

"Stop it." Her throat became hoarse as she choked on panic. "It's not true." Roxanne and Russel kept their distance as she curled up and clutched her pointy ears down against her temples. "Stop it!" Her loud blurt caused her companions to rush to her side.

"Shh! It's okay, Mica, it's not real." Roxanne hummed and stroked Mica's back.

"Shut up, everyone just shut up!" Mica rocked back and forth in her arms. "If Voithós were here you'd-... No!... They wouldn't do that!... I don't care if I die anymore, Dolos!... Stop asking me! I don't know, Deimos!"

"Mica, it's alright, everything is going-." Mica suddenly doubled over onto her knees, folding one arm over her belly and throwing her other hand on the ground, she wretched a couple times before before half-digested beef jerky and stomach acid spilled out on the ground. The dark brown wolf sobbed a few times into the pool of vomit, as she ran her sleeve across her lips to sop up the lingering puke.

"Are you happy now? Please... just go away and leave me alone... forever... I don't need you."

"We're going to take care of you, Mica." Russel said in a comforting tone. "This is the last mission you'll have to do."

"Everything's gonna be fine, Mica." Roxanne offered as Mica panted heavily. As she clamored to her feet she was helped by her squirrel and fox compatriots.

"I'm getting worse, aren't I?" Mica stared contemplatively into the sky. Neither of the other two said anything aloud, but that said more than if they had spoken. "I-... I'll be fine... they're gone now... let's do this while I have the reprieve."

Chapter XI: Red In Tooth and Claw

The crickets and cicadas chirped loudly as twilight set in. Mica and Roxanne were at the fence waiting for Russel's distraction to begin. The old squirrel's words bounced around in Mica's mind. 'if you get back to the car and if I'm not there, just go without me.' She wasn't used to that much vagueness in her orders. If I get back, and if you're not there? Fuck you! You mean when I get back and when you're not there. It was in that moment she realized why he had continually talked about Roxanne and Elsie taking care of her. Russel's distraction began and it was just as Mica had feared; She could see him in the imposing bomb suit they had brought along, ambling towards the front gate with an equally intimidating light machine pressed against his shoulder. She knew he couldn't be accurate at a range further than a few meters, or mobile in any sense in that excessive protection, but clearly he didn't intend to run. The men in the stout concrete checkpoint were so surprised that a terrifying tank of a man was suddenly at their door that they didn't have time to react before a storm of bullets rained in on them. The heavily armored squirrel pushed past the doorway and hunkered down in the checkpoint as marines came from all around the compound to put the tiny fortified building under siege. This was going to be as long as a firefight as possible if Russel got his way. The young wolf had to summon all of her self restraint stop herself from rushing to help her friend.

She looked over at Roxanne; The vixen had been diligently cutting through the chain-link fence and had already almost gotten a good sized hole all the way around. She seemed un-afraid in a way Mica hadn't seen before, as if another mind had taken over to separate herself from feeling grief. As a chunk of the fence fell away Mica refocused her mind and silently lead the charge into the complex. The pair of canids kept low to the ground as the swiftly trickled across the huge disused airfield; The soldiers in the compound were too focused on the checkpoint across the courtyard to notice them. When they reached the back security door of the hanger it was just as Rus had speculated: a standard mechanical simplex lock on a massive fortified steel door. Roxanne reached to her tool belt and grabbed a heavy rare-earth magnet in a bag and slapped it haphazardly onto the side of the lock; after jiggling the handle a couple times the handle caught and the latch slid open with ease. The irony of having a breach-resistant bullet proof door with a lock that could be opened by anyone with a strong magnet and five seconds to spare was palpable to Roxanne. Once inside the dull grey complex a storm of footsteps could be heard rushing through the halls towards the front door while the high-alert alarms blared. Mica silently cocked a few guns and got them in a readily reachable position. She tapped Roxanne on the shoulder and pointed to her gun; she sighed and rolled her eyes before also cocking her gun, and they continued through the soulless halls. "Do you know where you're going?" The young wolf whispered, and Roxanne responded with a yes-and-no head wobble.

"Not exactly, but chances are the recalibration suits are in the main hanger, so if we just keep heading towards the center we should find her."

"Alright if that's what you think is best."

"Do you have any better ideas?"

"I don't, but if Voithós gets an idea I'll let you know."

"oh-...kay?" Roxanne raised a skeptical eyebrow and nodded slowly. They went past office after office until they rounded a corner and found themselves in an excessively wide hallway. At one end of the hallway was a heavy wooden commercial door and at the other was a simple double-wide swinging door. Roxanne looked at a compass on her tool belt and turned towards the heavier door. She pointed at it and Mica nodded and lead the way down the hall. This door had a biometric scanner next to it instead of the simplex locks they've been seeing so far. Roxanne gave the door a little nudge, and she could feel the tiny magnetic lock keeping it in place. "Do you know how to get through these?" Mica queried as she took a combat position and aimed her gun down the hallway and again Roxanne gave a noncommittal head wobble.

"Maybe, let's find out." Roxanne ran her black paws around the corners of the scanner until one of her long nails caught a seam. She gasped with delight, grabbed her multi-tool with her free hand, and folded the thin knife out with her teeth; she wiggled knife on the scanner until it slid into the seam and the under side plate. She tugged at tool, but could feel the blade begin to bend. "hmm." she pondered for a second and looked around. "oh! Do you mind if I-?" She tapped her finger on the combat knife on Mica's hip, she shook her head and the vixen carefully removed it from the scabbard. "Thank you." She slid the much longer and thicker carbon steel blade into the scanner, down to the bolster; she gave it a couple tugs and, satisfied that it was holding strong, she walked around the other side of the scanner. With her back to the wall she put a boot against the knife's handle and pushed hardily. The tiny clips holding the side plate in place snapped with a loud pop and it fell along with the knife on the linoleum with a clatter. The vixen rushed over and slid the survival knife back into its sheath on her companion's hip. "Thanks."

"Sure thing." Mica looked over as Roxanne sorted through the wires until she found a usb port. Roxanne fumbled with a thumb drive from a pocket on her tool belt. "Is that like an electronic lock-pick?"

"Not exactly." The fox popped the thumb drive into the usb port and it whirred for a second and the scanner went black. "It's a simple board full of capacitors that dumps a ton excess energy into the system and the motherboard, wherever it is, just fries." When she reached for the thumb drive she hesitated. "I think I'll just leave it in there."

"Buh-? Why?"

"Hopefully it'll start a fire somewhere in the complex... somewhere not right here."

"Uh-... okay?"

Roxanne pressed against the door again and the magnetic lock, no longer having any power, gave way. "Alright, let's go." The pair of canids pressed through the doors and just on the other side were rows upon rows of huge copper-colored upright coffins, each attached to a stack of servers and each server further connected to a bank of monitors at the far end of the massive atrium; the wires rolled together in a single thick rope of insulated cables. Mica's felt a sharp pain in her temple almost instantly upon seeing the recalibration suits, and he knees stiffened up making it difficult for her to move. Her voice trembled as she spoke. "Th-these... Th-these a-are-..."

"Recalibration suits."

"No!" She put her palm against one of them. "This is a knowledge cabinet."

"A what?"

"We called these knowledge cabinets!" Her crown buzzed as the pain continued to radiate down her spine.

"What? Who's 'we'?" Roxanne stepped forward and put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I don't know! I don't know how I know this!" She punched the recalibration suit in frustration and left a sizable dent in the side.

"It's okay, Mica. We need-."

"How do... what's the point of... what did you call them?" It felt like someone was slowly inserting a pair of knives made of ice into her skull.

"Recalibration suits?"

"Yeah... what do- or... why-. How?" Mica stammered and pressed her forehead onto the large metal contraption in an attempt to soothe her anguish. Roxanne stepped back and gazed at the huge machine and gave a heavy sigh.

"Nobody knows for sure how they work, but what we do know is they somehow erase parts of your brain and replaces what it erased with information for whatever job they want to use you for." She welled up slightly and shook her head. "They take your surname and give you a label in its place. They take away everything that makes you you bit by bit, and sometimes they don't even replace it with anything but white noise and psychosis... The longer Elsie's in one the less of her there is until everything is gone." She gagged on desperation. "A-and that's why I need to find her while there's still something to be found. Please come along and help me, Mica, before troops show up in force and make Russel's sacrifice meaningless."

"I-I... I can't stay here... These awful things make me hurt."

"Mica, please-."

"I'll distract them."

"What?"

"Draw them away from you, let you find Elsie, and get out." Mica stumbled towards the door they just came in from and slowly found her footing. "I'll meet you by the car."

"But what if-."

"Then you leave without me."

"I can't do-."

"You can and you will if you don't want another person who cared about you to have had a meaningless death."

"Mica, please-." But it was too late, the wolf was already out the door and down the hallway.

Not bothering with being quiet or carefully getting through the door locks anymore Mica simply kicked down doors and fired a few shots into the ceiling. Her ears worked back and forth and she could hear soldiers barking orders and shuffling to get into defensive positions, and she would adjust accordingly; wheeling around unoccupied corners she would fire through the thin walls while sprinting at top speed, her harassment continually unbalanced the soldiers and forced their movements into a compact ball. A few of the troopers became separated from the rest of the group and Mica punished them for their refusal to fall into line with blind shots into their unarmored knees and thighs, causing them to collapse with shrill screams. Useless cattle. she thought as she pulled the pin on a grenade. Where did you learn to fight? The playground? The brown and tan mass of armed animals came into view as she passed a narrow hallway. Maybe you will remember hot potato, then. The baseball sized bomb rolled out of her fingers and into the group of soldiers, hitting a bewildered deer on the nose. Just as Mica cleared the opening she dove onto the ground and covered her ears; the grenade detonated, setting bits of shrapnel to tear through the column of men and walls, leaving tiny holes in the plaster in the hallways adjacent to the blast. Mica sprang to her feet, and sprinted past the hallway to see if anyone was still around. She was pleased to see that anyone not killed in the blast was injured enough, or at least smart enough, to stay on the ground.

The pain the recalibration suits gave her had receded and the danger of the situation made her feel comfortable in her body again. She chuckled to herself and hopped on her toes a couple times as and adrenaline coursed through her body. "Find the commanding officer, put this to an end." Voithós's voice offered in her ear. Mica nodded and grabbed one of the more coherent injured soldiers, a short groaning chipmunk who caught pieces of shrapnel in his shoulders. She forcefully dragged him to his feet and he let out a pained cry as she pinned one of his arms behind his back. "Take me to the-" She gave a robust cough and her voice began to crack. "Take me to the CO."

"Whu-." She twisted his arm further, making him cry out again.

"No talking, no screaming, only leading." She pressed her pistol against the nape of his neck. "Move... or die." He led her around a couple corners until they came to a windowless plain looking wooden door. "Through here?" He nodded. Mica dragged him a couple steps back and shoved him forward through the door, and dove off to the side. Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang! Lead smashed into, and through, the soldier's face and neck and he fell with a lifeless thud. .44 magnums rounds. She instantly identified the shots fired. Good aim... Likely a revolver, let's see if he has another round in his chamber. She deftly grabbed a packet of dried meat from her chest pocket and tossed it across the broken door. Bang! Another bullet zipped through the baggie, sending jerky everywhere. The brown wolf's ear twitched as she could hear the sound of spent cartridges jingling on the ground. With incredible speed Mica bolted into the office with her gun at the ready. She fired a few quick rounds on either side of the desk at the center of the room and shouted. "Throw out your gun, and put your hands up or the next round is going to going through your skull!" After a second the officer hidden behind the desk tossed his revolver out the side, it skittered across the floor, and slowly a pair of onyx paws rose up. "Put your hands on your head and stand up." Mica rasped. The finely dressed officer carefully complied, and rose to his feet. As he silently turned around Mica's eyes widened and the pain began to return. He gave out a sharp gasp. "Zoe?"

Suddenly finding herself alone Roxanne froze in fear. After a minute of dumbfounded staring she managed to shove her emotions back down into her passive mind and let the useful part of her brain take the lead again. She quickly ran down to the bank of monitors and counted herself lucky that the door lock was run on a different computer system than the one that ran the recalibration suits. Projections of all the prisoners minds were on monitors. Roxanne's amber eyes jumped from screen to screen, then suddenly they stopped on one particular monitor. The left side of the screen showed a pair of golden paws digging a rectangular hole in the ground, while the other side showed fuzzy flashes of images of golden arms resting on the shoulders of a young red fox; a blurry gymnasium full of youthful silhouettes gently bobbed in the background, and the allusion of a mirror ball rotated high above. In the top-right corner of the screen, in bright red bold letters, the word overwrite silently flashed over and over.

Roxanne became furious and she loudly cried out as she seized the monitor and tore it off the stand, throwing it on the ground she bashed the monitor repeatedly with her bare fist until her knuckles were dripping with sanguine fluid. She puffed and grabbed at the cord from the monitor, violently yanking at it. The shiny black tendon led back to the thick rope of wires, and Roxanne frantically began to follow it; snapping the wire helter-skelter out of its plastic restraints. She had to squeeze behind recalibration suits to continue following the wire, occasionally getting her feet tangled up in the servers and momentarily losing her balance before continuing.

Finally the fox found the server that was the origin of the monitor's cable; hurriedly Roxanne scrambled over the server and found herself stood in front of the great metal sarcophagus that enclosed her sweetheart. The deep pop of a small explosive elsewhere in the compound made her pause. She desperately hoped that the noise was a result of fire started by her killer USB, or at the very least caused by Mica and not used on her. Roxanne took a deep breath and stepped up to the recalibration suit, unsure where to begin, but hesitant to just start pressing buttons; after all when dealing with a machine that directly tampers with someone's brain it's best to exercise caution.

She inspected the panel of buttons and switches attached the recalibration suit, carefully inspecting each label she figured that there wouldn't be an obvious 'stop' button but she was perturbed to see that all the of buttons and switches had vague single word descriptions like 'convert' 'assault' and 'warm', and sometimes they were obscure words that she was unsure of; words like 'guerdon' 'manumit' and 'meliorate'. Her fingernails ran over a switch marked 'unseal' on one side and 'hide' on the other, and with a deep breath she pressed her thumb against it and flipped the tiny metal switch from hide to unseal. The doors of the suit hissed and groaned as they slowly slid open, and thus Elsie was put on display.

The rabbit seemed completely unaware of her surroundings, her face was framed by a metal brace as she hung there gently mumbling with her eyes darting from side to side behind closed lids. She would occasionally convulse in her restraints as needles on tiny pistons would reach out and poke at particular muscles, training her body how to do her new menial job. As happy as Roxanne was to see the lop she still had no idea how to get her out, but she knew she wanted the machine to stop no matter what. First she took the fencing tool off of her tool belt again and deftly snipped all the wires from the server to the coffin causing lights inside it to turn off and warning lights on the control panel to start flashing; then she tore off her jacket, wrapped it around her still bleeding fist, and began striking the exposed machinery inside, shattering the plastic walls and snapping needles off their bases. The metal restraints that held Elsie in place groaned as Roxanne broke the walls around them and began to violently tug at them, rocking the whole machine; but despite the damage she had done and the vigor with which she pulled the suit refused to surrender Elsie. Sweat from the fox's tawny brow mixed with the tears on her cheeks and the salty solution caught the corners of her lips, staining her palette with the flavor of grief. Her muscles screamed to stop, her lungs scraped and seared, and her limbs quaked and tensed; yet she continued to try. As her body surrendered to fatigue so did her mind. Roxanne embraced Elsie, just able to get her arms around her slender torso she rested her head on her chest and squeezed tightly with heavy sobs. Speaking softly she confessed to her unconscious lover.

"What have I done, E? I've gotten everyone killed for nothing... Oh what plans we had for the future. Somewhere far from here we'd live. You... me... Mica... Andrew... You'd have liked Mica and Andrew, too... You are so loved, E. Rus willingly died for your sake, and Mica... poor sweet Mica... So skilled, yet so tortured by a past that nobody knew... She didn't even know you apart from stories we'd told, but even she loved you enough to die for you... and now it's all gone to rot. All I can do now is be with you one last time." Roxanne stepped further into the recalibration suit and bit down hard on Elsie's ear for a quick moment. "How I've missed the feel of you in my arms, and the taste of you on my lips." The foxy woman pressed her face into the lop's shoulder and waiting to be taken away or shot. Suddenly all the alarms in the facility ceased and the speakers crackled to life. A deep authoritative voice came through. "Stand down, everyone stand down!" There was a long pause before it spoke again. "Ms. Metz? I know it's you, and I know you're in the compound... I would very much like to speak with you. I'll be waiting in my office... One of my men is on his way to you and he will escort you unharmed when you're ready."

Roxanne dragged her feat as the soldier wordlessly escorted her up to the officer's suite. She periodically looked over her shoulder, wistfully longing for Elsie's company again. They finally came to a wooden double door that had its latch broken. The soldier stood at attention next to the door and saluted at Roxanne. "Is-... is this office?" The soldier didn't say anything, instead the young hound put on an expression of pure contempt and rolled his eyes. Roxanne gently knocked, but even with that little force the door swung uneasily on the hinges and lightly rapped against the frame.

"Please come in!" the deep voice called from within. Inside the office stood a tall panther dressed in a fine uniform, on the desk next to him was a large flat panel monitor with video of an old doberman man shown from the waist up; the doberman was also dressed in a fine uniform, and he was drinking a dark liquor out of a rocks glass and holding a smoldering cigar. Mica was unconscious and tied down to the chair behind desk. As Roxanne walked into the windowless room her heal caught on something wet and slid forward, making her lose her balance for a moment. She looked down to see a pool of blood that trailed off into the nearby corner where a faceless corpse lay. Taking a deep breath she continued into the office. The doberman offered his greeting through the screen. "Ms. Metz, I presume! I'm General William Nash, and this is Major Duncan Deimos." The slender panther nodded a greeting.

"D-did you just say Deimos?" Roxanne's gaze shot back and forth between the major and the general.

"Indeed I did. The major was just telling me about the unauthorized trouble your little group was giving him, why do you ask?"

"That's... that's the name that Mica gave to one of her hallucinations."

"Mica?" The deep voiced panther inquired. Roxanne pointed over at the passed out wolf in the chair. "Her?"

"Yes. That's Mica... at least that's what we call her."

"Her real name is Zoe Charon." The doberman cut in. "don't worry, though. She'll be fine."

"What are you planning to do?"

"About what?"

"Well... I don't know. I just thought that's one of the things you're supposed to ask when confronted with a villain." Roxanne's avoided eye contact as much as possible.

"You think I'm the villain of your story?" William chuckled. "If that's what you want to think of me then that's fine... Well I suppose if you want my plans in one quick sentence then I'm planning to do is send Zoe back to the haven and have give Alexi a strong talking to." Roxanne shifted uncomfortably in her shoes, and remained silent. "You must be wondering how I know Alexi and why I might be talking to him. Well you see the haven is an illus-."

"I don't care." Roxanne said coldly.

"But you were the one who asked about my plans."

"I don't care though." She turned around and faced the door she came into. "I just don't care about anything anymore. All I want is Elsie."

"Well then you should be thanking me."

"Why on earth would I do that?"

"I saved her from torture, and right now I'm freeing her mind of the memories of that torture."

"Along with the memories of everything else."

"It's an unfortunate side-effect, yes."

"What about me?" Her head sank.

"I'm not sure yet... You'll be detained for a bit while we figure that out. Something relatively comfortable, and for no more than a few weeks."

"Can I see her one last time?"

"I suppose. If you think we're done here I'll have Major Deimos Escort you to her suit again."

"... Tired of these escorts." Roxanne walked out the door and started back to where she just came from. The major ran out the door and caught up to her in no time, but he simply walked beside her. "Go away."

"I can't do that."

"... do you know how much you torture Mica?" Roxanne shot Duncan a sideways glance.

"What?"

"You must have really fucked her up back in the day for her brain to name that particular hallucination Deimos."

"Zoe was one of my best friends, actually."

"If you being friends makes her fear your name so much that she flinches at the mention of it then I'd hate to see what you do to people you think are enemies."

Duncan scowled and spoke through his teeth. "If you're not careful then you'll find out."

"What?" Roxanne stopped mid stride and turned towards the panther.

"Nothing."

"No you said that I'll find out what you do to enemies. Well let me tell you something, shit-head. There is nothing else you could do to me at this point. My entire life I've been so fucking passive, but now I don't have anything to lose to monsters like you." She gave him a hard shove.

"I'm not a monster."

"Well you're certainly not a fucking person! At this point there is nothing that you could do for Mica to even stand to hear your voice or see your face again!"

"Her name is Zoe-."

"No! She hates everyone that called her that! To those who actually care about her she's called Mica! Not like you'd give a shit you fucking monster!" She shoved him again.

"... I am not a monster."

"Call yourself whatever helps you fucking sleep at night I guess! You know who doesn't sleep easily at night, though?! Mica! Constantly she's tortured by monsters named Dolos and Deimos!"

"It would be wise to watch your tongue-." "Or what?! You'll kill me?!" Shove! "Go the fuck ahead!" Shove! The vixen stared directly into the tall panthers narrow mustard eyes, and he remained motionless. She inhaled deeply and spit a viscous loogie in one of his eyes. Flinching he wiped his eye and stared at the phlegm on his fingertips. "That's for all the thing's you've done to everyone you've ever met. You..." She leaned in close and whispered menacingly. "monster." With a lightning fast movement Deimos's hands were suddenly wrapped around Roxanne's neck, and squeezing tightly.

"I. AM. NOT. A. MONSTER!" He bellowed and shook the fox in his hands, gripping tighter each shake. The edges of her vision became dark and everything was getting blurry as her brain was running out of oxygen. Roxanne's hands flailed reflexively and suddenly caught on something plastic hanging from her hip; her gun! Fumbling, her hand found a hold on it and she rolled the plastic safety on the bottom of it with her middle finger. She brought the firearm into his gut and squeezed the trigger. With a sound similar to someone shuffling a deck only much louder all fifty rounds of the clip were unloaded into Deimos's abdomen, turning it into hamburger. Yet as he breathed his last breath the muscles in his hands refused to release Roxanne. She could hear the muscles in her neck straining under the pressure of the muscular panther's powerful grip, and the thyroid in her neck creaked and popped. The world faded from her sight and soon all was black once and for all.

Chapter XII: Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously

I was asked to come to the facility at the behest of General Nash some days ago, but it seems as though that between then and now a small group of defectors had attacked. There was a row of graves being dug by some of the facility's fresh calibrates near the edge of the forest and I insisted on seeing the whole thing up close. The driver said that seeing such things up close wasn't for suits, but my curiosity simply would not be quashed by a brush-off like that. There's a reason I was employed as an auditor and my stubborn insistence to see things with my own eyes is one of the things that makes me so good at my job. After some convincing he finally relented and pulled over. The calibrates all wore the same jumpsuits and worked in diligent silence. The compound's chaplain was out blessing about a dozen and a half dead soldiers, each carefully wrapped in a flag and rested on a cot. Several yards away a single calibrate was digging a pair of graves that was clearly separate from the others. My curiosity adequately piqued I wandered over to the rabbit woman digging the graves and watched for a while. I don't think she noticed me the entire time she was digging. It was fascinating how efficient these calibrates are at the jobs they're calibrated for. I'm guessing she had some extremely heavy recalibration because she could barely remember her first name when I asked her. Soon a young troop rolled a dolly with two corpses on it next to the grave and shouted at the calibrate in the hole; told her to hurry up and bury the two poor souls on the hand truck. The word 'scum' came up a surprising amount of times for a three sentence, one-sided conversation. On the hand-truck was what I would estimate as a male squirrel in his late 30s, it was hard to tell from all the charring he had, and a fox female of about the same age who must have died in a much less catastrophic way. Finding her hole adequate Ms. Undertaker pulled herself out of the hole, but she hesitated when she saw the fox woman.

I can't say I've ever seen a calibrate cry like that. She sat and stroked the woman's ears while weeping. I asked her what was wrong and she claimed to know the fox woman, yet could not remember why. I tried my best to console her, but she was inconsolable, simply repeating "what does it mean?" over and over. Eventually one of the misters came over to take her away, but she refused to let go. What does it mean? What does it mean?! Over and over again she fanatically shouted until the mister finally got her back into a truck to go back to the compound. A different undertaker was sent over to finish the job, and he dutifully, if unceremoniously, proceeded to bury the pair. My driver told me we were running late so we got back in the car and set out.

The rabbit undertaker stared out the back window of the truck in front of us as it bounded along the road. My driver asked if I was satisfied with what I saw, but I couldn't say yes or no. I could see the rabbit woman was desperately wanting to see the fox again, and she was still asking 'what does it mean?'. The question will likely haunt me for the rest of my life. At the compound I was greeted by the general via a satellite link, and after we dealt with business I relayed the whole encounter to him as it was still nagging me. He mentioned that if he was thinking of the right calibrate that she has had a particularly rough few months. As for her question he mused: "What does it mean? Not a thing, not a goddamn thing at all."