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This Forsaken World

By Mantrid Brizon

Episode Nineteen: Problems

The crackling of the campfire breaks the monotony of the chirping insects, the subtle pops of the flaming logs distracting him from the cold wind of the swamp air. Drawing his arms around his body, Kane shivers, his fur bristling through a gust of wind. How comfortable he'd become while living in Searchlight. It's a shame he has to set the swamp people against them, but they brought it upon themselves. Staring into the flames, Kane scoots closer, before taking up a coat he'd stolen from the family he'd murdered. Draping it over him like a small blanket, his empty eyes gaze into the orange waves.

"I miss you, Rodge... Why'd you have to get yourself killed, you little bastard?" He sniffles. "Don't worry though. I'll make sure they pay for taking you away from me... You should've seen what I did, bro! I bet you'd have loved to double team that little bitch with me."

Chuckling, Kane leans back, turning his eyes toward the sky. He knows that he's speaking only to himself, but it brings him a modicum of comfort. Though it's late, he finds himself unable to sleep. With nothing but time on his hands, and his dark thoughts to occupy him, Kane removes the coat. Collecting his makeup compact, he opens the case and finds a yellow paint pigment. Crushing it with his fingertips, he spits into the lid to moisten it, using his little brush to paint new designs on his forearms; a chevron for every victim slain, with a dot on either side for each one he's raped. For him, it's a tally to satisfy his morbid curiosity.

"I wonder how many of these it's going to take before they march against Searchlight? ... Maybe I should leave a survivor?" He thinks aloud.

Walking through the fields of her home, a Voeldahn with the features of a red wolf returns to the house for a drink. She'd been in the fields, picking oranges from the trees growing in the family's modest orchard, placed along the edge of the swamps. With fresh squeezed oranges and cane sugar for sweetening, it's far above the often-fetid water that the family would otherwise have. Entering through the back door, the wolfess makes her way to the kitchen, passing her mother.

"How's them fruits, Virginia?"

"Healthy, mama." Virginia replies, setting down a full basket.

"Oh! Well, my, my!" Her mother chirps, examining the harvest. "We gonna have plenty fer Mama Fi's tribute this time!"

Pouring a glass, of orange juice for herself, Virginia take a sip, leaning against the counter. As her mother collects the fruits from the basket, both women hear a gunshot. A solitary shot is never out of the ordinary, with gators and a potential raider wandering by; her brothers and father are hunters and trappers. Suddenly, however, there's another gunshot, and then another.

"Ahh! Pa! I'm hit!" A voice calls out.

In a panic, Virginia and her mother race from the kitchen, leaving the oranges as they roll from the counter and onto the floor. Dashing through the cabin, they enter the living room and race for a window. Peering through the dirty glass, they see a horrific sight. One of Virginia's brother's lay bleeding in the grass before the front porch, whilst her remaining two brothers and father fight off an attacker who takes cover behind a tree.

"Pa! Help me!" The wounded teen cries out.

"Stay down, Henry. We got's ya'!" Another brother exclaims.

Leaning around the tree, Kane takes aim, firing a single shot from a stolen lever action rifle at the comforting brother. A .30-30 Winchester round plows through his skull, killing him instantly; the window beside Virginia shattering as the lead missile blasts through.

"No! Walter!" The father exclaims.

Consumed by rage, the father makes his move, holding up his shotgun and firing shell after shell at the tree. Kane merely bides his time. The youngest son joins his father, firing an old .32 revolver at the tree. Running dry at the same time, the father drops his shotgun to retrieve his Peacemaker clone. Before he can do this, however, Kane pops out from behind the tree. The black wolf has been paying attention, sizing up his enemies from the moment he laid eyes on them. You cannot be a successful raider by charging blindly into fights. He takes aim and fires, a round striking the father in the chest.

Dropping dead, the terrified son, the smallest and weakest of the three, makes a move for his father's corpse. He intends to see to his dad, but Kane shows no mercy. After all, he might have funny ideas about taking that single-action revolver and fighting back. He takes aim at the boy, cycles the lever and fires. Moving the lever again, he ejects the empty casing, loads the last cartridge and fires again. Virginia and her mother gasp, staring in horror as the men of their family are laid to rest by a lone wolf. Dropping the empty rifle, Kane collects the Peacemaker clone from the ground beside the father's body.

Whilst whistling a little tune, he casually approaches the fallen Henry, who groans and grunts in pain as he tries in vain to back away on his elbows. Cocking the hammer, Kane takes aim and fires, murdering the teenager. The cruel man approaches the front door, and Virginian contemplates running. She turns to her mother, to ask her what they should do, only to find that she isn't beside her.

"Mama? ... Mama?!" She whispers, heading toward the kitchen.

Emerging from the bedroom, her mother wields a double-barreled shotgun, the pitting metal and old wooden stock barely holding together after decades of neglect. Virginia moves into the kitchen as Kane swiftly kicks in the door, only to be greeted with a spray of buckshot. Where it not for the split second between seeing the women and her mother pulling the trigger, he may very well be dead. However, jumping to one side, he hides behind the wall while the mother unloads both barrels into an empty space. Struggling to open the weapon, Kane leans into the doorway, fires, cocks the hammer and fires again. He murders Virginia's mother in front of her.

"Bad girl." Kane smirks.

"MAMA!!!" Virginia screams in horror.

"Oooh!" Kane races inside. "Hello, there!"

"AHH!"

Virginia races for the back door, eager to escape, but Kane is far faster and world's stronger. The muscular wolf with black fur tackles her, shoving her quite painfully into a counter. An arm wraps around her waist, while his hand that holds her father's stolen revolver forces its way between her breasts, the hot barrel pointing upward, at her chin.

"Please! Don't hurt me, mister!" She cries.

"I can't promise that, but I'm sure as hell not going to kill you. Not if you act right..." He replies.

At first, Virginia is confused, but as Kane kisses her neck and grabs a breast through her top, she becomes fully aware of his dark intentions. He drags her back into the hall, forcing her to step over her mother's corpse. Virginia looks down, staring into her mother's lifeless eyes, which are as wide as saucers and focused on the ceiling. Pushing her into a room, Virginia falls onto the floor, racing toward a corner. She can hear the hammer of the revolver cocking, readying to fire.

"I said I'm not going to kill you, so long as you don't do anything stupid..." Kane growls, slamming the door shut.

Turning, she trembles with fear as Kane uses his free hand to open his pants. She can't believe what's happening, feeling her body tensing as he steps closer.

"You want it on the bed, or are you a 'fucked-on-the-floor' kind of girl?" Kane laughs.

He drops his pants, and in a panic, Virginia tries to race past him. However, Kane blocks the only door and the bedroom's windows are shuttered. The muscular Voeldahn's clawed hands grab her throat, shoving her against a one of her brother's beds. For a man whose pants are at his ankles, he races up to her with surprising speed. Setting the revolver aside, Kane grabs hold of Virginia, drags her from the bed and throws her down onto the floor. As he does, his claws poke into her clothes, facilitating a long, clean tear from top to bottom. Her ample breasts jiggle as she falls onto the ground.

"I like the floor, myself!" He chirps.

Turning her eyes toward her attacker, she stares in horror at the charcoal black flesh of his manhood, which gleefully rises for the occasion. It's surprisingly large, yet another fact that frightens her. She tries to crawl away, only for him to kneel down, grab her legs and drag her closer. He's so strong! Virginia begs for her life and her virtue, hoping to appeal to whatever morality this foul man may have, but he isn't listening. In moments, he's torn away her dress and old undergarments, poising himself to enter her. With what strength she has, she finds a random article, an old bottle, and cracks it against Kane's temple.

"Ahh, shit! You fucking whore!" He growls, pressing a palm to his head.

Virginia makes her escape, trying to rise to her feet. She takes only three steps before he trips her, dropping her onto her hands and knees. He grabs her tail, pulling hard and causing her considerable pain. Throwing his body over hers, she's forced into the dusty wooden floor, her body smooshed between his and the oak boards. Before she can recover enough to beg, she feels it. With a hand on the back of her neck and the other gripping the base of her tail, Kane forces himself inside of her. Unwilling and unprepared, he drives into loins that aren't moist or welcoming of his endowment, feeling the friction as he invades Virginia's body.

"Agh!" She cries out.

"Oh, shit! That's some hot pussy!" Kane exclaims with a cruel delight.

"N-no, p-please!" She squeals.

"Shut up!" He snarls, pushing her face into the floor. "Take it like a good girl, and maybe you'll enjoy it!"

Wincing from the discomfort, she softly cries as Kane buries himself deep inside of her. He moves in and out for what feels like an eternity, but what could realistically be only a few minutes at best. Tiring of this, he suddenly pulls back, lifts one of her legs and quite violently rolls her onto her back. Looming over her like a demon, he laughs as he pumps his dark flesh into and out of the pink flesh of her unwilling loins. She looks down, horrified by the sight of the large organ violating her. Virginia grits her teeth through the stinging, seeing a small quantity of blood, a result of vaginal tearing. What she wouldn't do for this to be over.

"Get used to this, bitch, because we're going to fuck the lot of you... Mmm-yeah... You like it, too, don't you?!" He laughs sadistically.

"Nnnn... H-help!" She whimpers.

Sitting on her porch, Mama Fi takes a sip of sweetened orange juice, her old eyes scanning the horizon. Situated in the center of an old trailer park, the trailers having long since fallen apart, her people have replaced them all with log cabin homes. Taking up an old book, Mama Fi returns to her previous page, continuing the story that she's read a dozen times before.

"Good mornin', Mama!" Two soldiers chirp as they walk by.

"Mornin', boys." Mama Fi replies, never looking away from her book.

She reads a page, carefully turning the fragile parchment. As she sits and enjoys her book, she hears a commotion.

"Mama! Mama! Hey, Mama!" A soldier exclaims.

Looking in the distance, she can see one of her border guards, rifle in hand as he leads two young boys, possibly in their early teens, and a young woman, at least seventeen years of age. The young woman looks disheveled and downright battered; it immediately disturbs the old woman. Setting her book aside, she takes hold of her cane. Using the rod, she grips the silver, human skull that crowns the stick, the ebony wood shivering subtly as she rises to her feet.

"They needs ta see ya', Mama!" The guard insists.

"Help us, Mama!" Ferb exclaims.

"What happened?!" Mama Fi asks.

Seeing the commotion, a crowd begins to gather around.

"Them folks from Searchlight! They's killed our kin!" Tig begins.

"And they hurt this here girl and killed her kin, too!" Ferb adds.

"How do y'all know this?!" Mama Fi asks.

"We found our ma, and pa, and lil' Abi strung up in the trees like they's decorations or sum'thin'!" Ferb answers.

"We found this'un on the way here. Her peoples was killed too, and she was..." Tig hesitates.

Mama Fi and the others look to the crying Virginia, whose clothes look hastily chosen. A trickle of dried, crusty blood runs down a leg, staining her lighter, canine fur. It makes the womenfolk sick to their stomach, and the men burn with a rage. None have to speak to know what's happened to the young woman.

"They attacked you too, little lady?" Mama Fi asks with a sweet tone.

"Uh-huh." A weeping Virginia nods.

"We might'a been able ta' help her, had we come sooner." Tig remarks.

"I weren't gonna leave 'em up there for the crows!" Ferb snarls, shoving his brother.

"Stop!" Mama Fi yells at the distraught teens. "Now, how do y'all know it was the peoples in Searchlight?"

"They done pinned this to lil' Abi's..." Ferb hesitates to finish.

The crowd can see the shame and embarrassment, and none dare ask the wounded boy to finish his sentence. He merely extends a hand, revealing the postcard advertising Searchlight. A guard claims the postcard, foolishly holding it up for the crowd to gawk at before he passes it along to Mama Fi.

"And y'all know it was them? How many did ya' see?" Mama Fi asks, examining the postcard carefully.

"Why's that matter?! We already know what they done!" A man in the crowd demands.

"I'm ascertainin' the sitch'ation!" Mama Fi barks back. "Now, how many did y'all see?!"

"Well... None... We found 'em all after the fact." Tig admits.

"Then how do y'all know they's from Searchlight, and not plantin' evidence?" Mama Fi poses.

"HE RAPED ME!" Virginia screams at the top of her lungs. "That ain't fake, Mama! That's real!"

"... He? As in 'one'?" Mama Fi asks, raising a brow.

"He said he from Searchlight! He said to 'get used to this' as he! ..."

Virginia pauses, looking with shame as the tears flow freely from her eyes. A man in the crowd rests a hand on her shoulder to comfort her, but she angrily shoves it away. Though he meant well, this only cements the trauma into the crowd's hivemind. They grow more hostile and angry, and Mama Fi can see the trappings of an uncontrollable mob forming.

"He hurt me, more than once. He said he from Searchlight, and that we need's ta be ready fer more... He said he'd come back!" Virginia sobs.

Falling to her knees, a few womenfolk gather around her, calming her and comforting her. Mama Fi's heart breaks, and the crowds anger grows.

"What we gonna do 'bout this, Mama?!" A man demands.

"We gonna send some peoples ta' talk to 'em." Mama Fi replies.

The crowd is left dumbfounded. They want blood. Why won't she give it to them? Can she not see the evidence before her very eyes? Have they finally failed her in her advanced age, or is she becoming senile? Many in the crowd demand action, including the orphaned boys and the molested young woman. Their voices drown out Mama Fi, who raises a hand high to quell them. Seeing that none are listening to her, a guard fires a shotgun into the air, startling all and causing the traumatized girl to jump a foot. She cries like a child as she has a sudden and vivid flashback to her torment carried out the day before.

"Let Mama speak!" The guard demands.

"Thanks, Buck... Now, I know y'all want blood! I want blood, too, but I want guilty blood! Y'all don't 'member the world 'fore this, but I do! Back when there was cars and lights and televisions, them black boxes ya' see hangin' on the walls, people was real slick! Some of them peoples is still slick! Real cunning, like... One man can kill three, 'specially when two of them's is womenfolk and unarmed! Pinning a card to a body don't make it a sanctioned act by the peoples in that town! This poor girl said she saw one man kill her family! I think we need's ta' step up our guard, bring the farmers closer ta town square, and send peoples ta' negotiate with April." Mama Fi speaks.

The crowd murmurs, many of the disgruntled yokels looking between each other. The silently question their elderly matriarch, who has yet to steer them wrong in the decades she's been ruling.

"I know that ain't what y'all want ta' hear, but if'n ya' think that ridin' into Searchlight and shooting peoples will do anything but bring rivers of blood like y'all've never seen, then y'all're wrong! Get's yer people secured, come into town square and let me handle this'un for ya'!"

"Yes, Mama..." The voices growl.

Mama Fi motions for Buck to come closer.

"Get me some scouts, and find me a real smart girl ta' go with 'em. I 'spect April will appreciate that more than some guy tryin'a tell her what's what." She quietly instructs.

"Yes, Mama." Buck nods.

With soldiers set aside, Mama Fi has her people prepare for a lockdown. Guards are doubled and her scouts pack their bags with supplies, readying to march out to the smaller clans and individual families strewn around her territory with instructions to come to town square. It takes a few hours of preparation, as it'll take her teams multiple days to walk to the outlying lands. By the end of the day, they're nearly ready to leave, and Buck returns to Mama Fi's home. He knocks on her front door and announces himself before letting himself in. Mama Fi sits on her old couch, just inside of her living room.

"Well?"

"The scouts is ready ta' go and bring in our peoples, and I got's another scout party ready ta' go ta' Searchlight. We found us a real smart girl, too, like ya' asked for! She always readin' them old books." He answers.

"Good! Send 'em right away. I feel like if'n we wait, we gonna regret-"

"Mama!" A voice interrupts her, yelling from just outside.

Racing for the door, a concerned Buck unslings his rifle. Peering outside, he turns back to Mama Fi.

"Mama! Mama Fi!" The voice calls out.

"We got's a problem, Mama."

Racing up to her, Buck helps the old woman up from the couch, treating her as if she were made of glass. She walks slowly toward the door with the aid of her trademark cane and her bodyguard's steady hands. Emerging from the house and standing on her front porch, Mama Fi and Buck find one of the scout leaders standing before the home. He rests his hands on his knees, gasping for breath.

"What's wrong, boy?"

"Mama! Some peoples just left! They's takin' guns and goin' ta' Searchlight!"

"WHAT?!" Mama Fi screams in a rage.

"The gate guards let 'em, 'cause they wanna help. They done took off on us! I tried ta' stop 'em, but they weren't listenin'. I came as fast as I could!" The young man explains.

"Them damn fools... They gonna get us all killed..." Mama Fi grumbles.

Turning toward Buck, she grabs his bicep with startling strength.

"Send all our remainin' scouts and stop 'em! Do whatever ya' gotta do ta' catch up!" She instructs.

"Yes, Mama!"

Leaping off the porch, Buck grabs the weary boy by the shoulder and drags him along. They race to the barracks to collect the soldiers and carry out Mama Fi's orders. With one hand gripping the silver skull of her cane, and the other hand gripping the wooden railing of her porch, Mama Fi takes a deep breath to calm her frazzled nerves.

"I do hope they can stop 'em in time..."