Darkest Days

Prologue

Emmitt was nervous, and to be honest he had every right to be, this deal had been shady right from the beginning. Most mammals who Emmitt made less than honest or even illegal deals with were very straight forward. They were after opiates or high quality marijuana from outside the borders of the federal republic, usually he dealt with rare decorative flowers that no longer grew within the borders or were very hard to find. But un-sprouted bulbs of a relatively unknown and invasive weed, now this was a first for him, it took some time to find the right location where these weeds grew, took even longer to get someone out past the border to collect them, but in the end him and his guys did it and managed to get them smuggled back without incident.

Now they were all hanging around in an old rundown warehouse waiting for the client or more likely one of his lackeys to come and collect the product, but much more importantly to pay Emmitt and his guys who facilitated this little job. Usually Emmitt steered clear of this part, he much preferred to be the unseen middle man, not seen nor heard. But this job was paying allot of money, hard clean currency, enough that he could sent his two children to college when they finished high school. But it meant he had to be there to make the exchange himself. What was so important about these weeds, that meant they were so hard to find and this guy or whoever, was willing to pay so much, Emmitt couldn't say but he wanted the money so here he was.

They had been waiting for about an hour when an older model silver sedan drove through the open doors of the warehouse and stopped about three meters from where Emmitt and his guys were waiting. A middle aged ram got out of the driver's seat with a grunt before straightening up and casually walking towards where the group stood.

"So let's see the good fellas, I aint got all bloody night" the ram spoke with a bored and tired voice.

"How about you show us the cash first friend" spoke up Dave as he walked up to meet the ram, he was a middle aged raccoon and one of Emmitt's oldest friends.

"All right all right I get it"

The ram went back to his car and grabbed a black duffel bag from the passenger seat, he then casually walked back to the group and opened the bag to show a large amount of cash and gold coins inside.

"Satisfied?" the ram asked with a subtle grin on his face.

"More than" replied Dave, with the most business manual voice he could muster.

Dave turned to look at Emmitt and Gave a small nod and alarm bell started to sound in Emmitt's head. He had known Dave since childhood and could tell when his friend was uneasy or concerned no matter how well he tried to hide it. His shoulders were pinched up just slightly too much and he was rhythmically taping the claws on his left leg. As far as Emmitt could tell no one else had noticed or cared but to him it was a clear message, Dave was very nervous about this deal as well.

Wishing to get this over and done with as soon as possible Emmitt nodded to one of his guys who briskly walked forward and placed their own duffle bag in front of the ram and then unzipped it to show the contents inside.

The ram leaned over the bag before grabbing one of the bulbs and inspected it closely. Seemingly satisfied he handed his duffle bag over and picked up the one containing the un-sprouted bulbs, briskly turning on his hooves he moved back to his car and placed them in the boot.

Dave spoke up in his most friendly manner, "I never caught your name by the way friend, care to share, just in case we do anymore business in the future?"

Hearing this the ram walked back to near the front of his vehicle with a confident smile on his face, "you can call me Kevin if we ever meet again."

"Well Kevin it was a pleasure doing business with you, enjoy those flowers… whatever they are for anyway".

One of the others from Emmitt's group of four, a black and white furred pig named Kent who Emmitt had always thought had a tendency to speak before thinking, walked forward and asked in his usually blunt manner, " yeah what are throws For anyway we never seen them before?"

"Oh these, well they will help deal with a… pest problem my employer is currently working on."

Emmitt felt rather worried with that statement and looked to Dave who had fallen back in line with the rest of them holding the bag with all their cash, he raised an eyebrow at his old friend and gave him a questioning look. Dave shrugged his shoulders giving a small shake of his head in response.

Emmitt stepped towards the ram who was now standing next the right driver's side door of his car, and spoke in the calmest voice he could muster at that moment.

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"

Kevin looked straight into Emmitt's eyes with a scrutinizing stare, Emmitt held his own questing stare back at the ram doing his best not to show the nervousness that was just below the surface. Eventually after about thirty seconds Kevin broke off his stare and shifting his gaze to Kent. His expression relaxed and replaced with a rather too friendly smile.

"Oh I wouldn't worry about it, nothing but a pest problem I assure you."

Seemingly deciding that the matter was finished the ram entered his car without another word. He started the vehicle and began to reverse out of the ware house, once he was out the large open doors he turned right and drove off into the night.

The fourth member of Emmitt's group a young Jackal named Mark walked up next to Emmitt and spoke in a quiet voice.

"I don't like this we should leave no…"

Whatever Mark was going the say was lost as his head snapped back, and a spray of blood and brains flew back past Emmitt, about a second later his body crumpled and fell to the floor. There was pandemonium as Dave and Kent ran to find some cover behind anything they could find. Emmitt just stood there, looking at the body of the young jackal lying next to him on the ground, a large hole in the back of his head. Suddenly there were gunshots to his left, he turned to see Dave and Kent hiding behind some concrete Pillars, shots taking chunks out of there cover every few seconds.

Emmitt turned to face the large open doorway that Kevin had driven through a few seconds beforehand and saw two figures moving straight for him. They were dressed in all black clothes and wore gasmasks over their faces, they had their guns leveled at Emmitt and fingers on the triggers ready to fire. Emmitt finally snapped out of the little stupor or shock he was in and ran behind another concrete pillar that was only three steps away from his current position. Just as Emmitt dived behind his pillar the black clad mammals opened fire.

Bullets took chunks out of the pillar as Emmitt sunk to the floor to try and figure out what he was going to do, he looked to his left to see Dave and Kent in a similar position, difference was they had there pistols drawn and were returning fire. Emmitt moved to the very edge of the pillar that was providing him with cover and peaked a look around the side, the two mammals that had had fired at him were now taking cover themselves behind some old filing cabinets to escape Dave and Kent's bullets. Emmitt looked to the large open door the mammals had come through and was shocked with what he saw. Two rhinos were steadily walking through the door with large metal shields held in there paws providing cover for more mammals that Emmitt could see following them through.

One thought ran through Emmitt's mind at this point, 'we are so screwed'.

He turned to his left again and saw that his friends looked just as scared and desperate as he surly did, it was then that Emmitt noticed Dave was pointing and shouting at him but he couldn't figure out what he was saying. He yelled as loud as he could back, "I can't hear a word your saying!"

Dave pointed his gun at the back wall and shot one of the glass windows that lined the wall behind them. Emmitt needed no further instructions and got ready to run. The black clad figures whoever they were, were almost on top of them and they needed to do something. Just as Emmitt got up to run for the now empty window sill something rolled across the flood next to where Dave and Kent were taking cover, it was a small green ball with some metal protruding from the top. It took about a second for Emmitt to figure out it was a hand grenade, instinct seemed to take over and he sprinted the short distance to the shot out window hoping his two remaining friends were following. Just as he reached the window and began to climb through the grenade exploded sending piercing shrapnel in every direction and throwing Emmitt threw the empty window.

Emmitt felt weightless as he sailed through the air, that didn't last long as faithful gravity kicked in and he plummeted towards the earth. The ground gave him a painful kiss as he landed face first in the dirt, everything hurt especially his shoulder. He moved his paw over the area where it hurt the most and was rewarded with an almighty stable of pain, moving his paw back he saw it was covered in blood. He looked behind himself to see the window he had just been thrown from, there was someone standing in the window, a rabbit from the looks of its fully erect ears, "pretty hard to miss that" he thought to himself. He continued to stare at the rabbit in a daze until he noticed something strange and rapidly moving towards him, it was a small green dot moving along the dirt directly for him, in a moment it was resting directly in the center of his chest. Realization hit him like a cold slap in the face and Emmitt rolled to his right a split second before the rabbit fired. Two rounds impacted the spot he had been in moments before hand with small puffs dirt erupting from the bullets.

After rolling Emmitt scrambled onto his shacking legs and began running before his rabbit pursuer could correct his aim. He didn't know where he was running to, he was hurt and loosing blood, there were mammals behind him that had a shoot first ask later preference, and his friends that knew where he was tonight were back in the old warehouse, probably dead or detained by these mammals. Panic filled his mind and he settled for just blindly running through the old abandoned industrial area.

Eventually he grew tired of blindly running from ware house to ware house, that being said it had only been a few minutes but still he was wrecked from this experience. He stopped dead in his tracks and began to look around for somewhere to hide so he could catch his breath, in the darkness he spotted a large stack of old industrial looking barrels and decided it was as good a place as any. He moved quickly as possible and crouched down behind the closest rusted barrel and tried to catch his breath, which was easier said than done as he began to hyperventilate.

A single thought kept running threw his mind, 'what the hell just happened…..what the hell just happened…..'

Emmitt's though was brought to an end by the sound of approaching paw steps. He held his breath and listened as best he could. The approaching steps began to slow more and more as they got closer. Whoever it was they were just a couple of meters away. With the cover of darkness He began to back away from the barrels, slowly inching himself away from his pursuer and hoping that whoever it was they couldn't hear his heart which was beating a mile a minute.

"You do understand as a hair I have impeccable hearing mister Otterton, I can hear you moving." Came a calm yet confident voice.

Hearing this Emmitt panicked, he turned and bolted in the opposite direction the voice had come from, not bothering to look back to see if his pursuer was giving chase or not. "Just keep running. Just keep running. Just keep running." He thought to himself as he ducked and weaved around obstacles as he flew past. Eventually the inevitable happened and Emmitt tripped on some old rusted pipes that had been abandoned on the ground. He landed face first in the dirt with a solid thump, smashing his glasses in the process, how they had survived this long was a miracle in itself. Lying on his stomach with his face still buried in the dirt he began to take stock of himself. His legs were jelly and not responding, he was badly out of breath and worst of all with all the frantic running his wound was bleeding steadily, he had bled so much the clothes on his back were almost completely soaked in blood. The adrenaline in his system was wearing off and he was beginning to feel incredibly tired.

Paw steps began to approach from behind him, he rolled onto his back and began to slowly get himself in a sitting position so at least he could face his pursuer. A few seconds past agonizingly slowly as the paw steps steadily got closer. Bile was rising in Emmitt's throat and he felt like he was going to pass out when finally a figure emerged from behind an old shipping container a few meters away and to his right.

It was a tall male hair covered head to toe in black combat fatigues, wearing a vest filled with what Emmitt guessed were extra ammo clips and a pistol strapped to his right thigh, he was holding some sort of compact rife in both hands and wearing a fabric face shield so only his bright blue eyes and the top of his head and ears were showing. He approached Emmitt slowly pointing his rife straight at his chest.

"Well I must admit I am impressed. You can run pretty fast for someone getting on in his years." Remarked the rife wielding hair. He then let out a small chuckle before continuing.

"You're even injured, now that IS quite impressive." The hair put emphasis in his words while looking over the otter who was sitting before him with his legs spread and hands propped behind his back to hold him upright.

After a brief pause the hair continued his monologue, seeming to be enjoying himself greatly.

"But you should have known better than to try and out run someone such as myself, it is rather a futile effort you know".

"Well get on with it then you peace of shit!" Emmitt yelled, fear could be clearly heard in his voice.

Emmitt's eyes were starting to water and snot started to form in his nose, he was terrified. The hair was now only a few feet away and was looking over the sight in front of him with great interest, he was tormenting the otter buy walking slower and slower as he approached. Emmitt's arms started to shake threatening to give way and drop him on his back if he wasn't careful, Even though he was scared, and knew he would have looked rather pathetic in the eyes of the hair he refused to brake his stare at the black clad hair that had probably just helped killed his friends.

"I'm sorry Mr. Otterton but it won't be that simply for you." The hair eventually responded in a very cool and pleased manner.

"What… what do you mean?" Emmitt managed to blubber out. He now had tears freely flowing down his cheeks and was struggling to stop himself from breaking down entirely after everything that had happened.

"Well you see my gun here is loaded with tranque rounds, you are more useful to us alive for the moment".

The hair walked closer while speaking in his casual manner till he was only a couple of steps from Emmitt, facing him directly. He moved his left paw from his gun and began to remove the fabric face shield from the bottom part of his face, which revealed the very sadistic yet satisfied grin he had. He pointed his gun directly at Emmitt's chest, smile growing larger to freely show his two buck front teeth.

Emmitt Knew there was no way out and no were to go so he did the only thing that came to mind, he moved his left arm forward and balanced his weight on this right, he the proceeded to flip off the hair then spat at his feet.

He cocked an eyebrow at Emmitt chuckling as he did so "charming Mr. Otterton".

The hair looked down the optical sight of his weapon and steadied his aim directly in the center of Emmitt's chest once again, he let out a steady breath and squeezed the trigger, at the same time bracing himself for the small amount of recoil he knew the gun would produce.

There was a dull bang as the gun fired and Emmitt fell on his back near instantly, pain shot threw his shoulder where his wound was, but soon everything was becoming numb very quickly and all the aches in his body were disappearing. He managed to look down at his chest and saw a small silver dart imbedded right in the middle. He lay his head back down as the world began to swirl around him, he thought of his wife and kids and how much he was going to miss them, but the last thought that went through his mind before he slipped into the warm embrace of unconsciousness was a very simple question. "What the hell did I get myself into?"

The hair walked over to the now unconscious otter lying on his back and checked his pulse, he was alive but bleeding from a wound on his back, otherwise no major injury's that he could see which was good. The people he was working for did specify they would prefer this one alive at the end of it, not to mention the bonus they had offered him if he were alive.

The hair spoke into his radio, "Charlee nine, this is bravo two I have the target alive and in custody, need a van for pickup, over."

His radio responded almost instantly "copy that, inbound to you location. Nice job Clarence, over."

Clarence smiled to himself while putting paw cuffs on the otter, "soon" he thought to himself. "Soon everything will be how it should be, and the world will be better for it."

END OF PROLOGUE.

Hi everyone this is my first ever fan fic, just something i thought would be fun to do when i get bored.

hopefully my writing will get better as i go on.

enjoy.