# Vandals to Vanguards

Author: Crummles
Tags: Action, Amnesia, Canine, Depressing, Depression, Desperation, Drama, Drugs, Emotion, Emotional, Fantasy, Fox, Gay Relationships, Girl, Insanity, Lagomorph, Lesbian, Love, Male, Mild Abuse, Mild Violence, No-Yiff, Novel, Nudity, Psychological, Rabbit, Rebellion, Sad, Squirrel, Suspense, Tragedy, Violence (Not In Yiff), Wolf, corruption, dystopia, heartbreak, hiking

In the totalitarian dystopian city of Beltzgrad a rebellious rabbit, Elsie, regularly breaks curfew to throw colorful subversive art pieces up all over the dull grey metropolis she lives in. Whereas Her socially awkward fox girlfriend and childhood buddy, Roxanne, just wants to work with her electronics and have quiet evenings with her, but nothing ever seems to go to plan. Meanwhile Mica, a talented young soldier for the radical resistance group called The Defector's Haven, struggles with tortuous hallucinations and an unknown past.
(some of the spacing and formatting shit might be a bit off because I just kinda copy-pasted from my pdf version)

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." 

Source: https://sofurry.com/view/1044029