Chapter 10
Wolf sat in a cheap plastic chair next to an equally cheap plastic table, the furniture looking more appropriate for somebody's backyard pool deck rather than a hotel room. A ceiling fan spun lazily overhead, providing the small rectangular room's only cooling. It wasn't anywhere close to being enough. Even while wearing nothing but a black tank top and black pants, sweat slid all through Wolf's fur, wicking the individual hairs into shiny blades. He wiped another hand over the top of his head, sending his mohawk and pointed ears askew, his tail beating up and down on the dusty floor.
This place was the Container Hotel, the establishment the mechanic Samuel had driven them to where they would wait until the shuttle was fixed. Like many people around the Boneyard, the owner of this inn believed in recycling. So he'd bought used shipping containers, stacked them on top of one another haphazardly, and turned them into cheap domiciles. When they first arrived here, Wolf got confused and thought they'd come to an abandoned shipping yard by mistake.
Anyway, being in a metal box underneath the hot jungle sun for most of the day was not pleasant, given how the steel absorbed the heat and radiated it throughout the room. The cheap insulation covering inside of these boxes didn't do its job well either. Every expense had been spared on rest of the furnishings too. Wolf looked at the two military surplus cots that served as the beds off to one side, the padding on the mattresses and pillows so thin you could almost see through them. The four of them had been hiding out in these little hotel pods for the past couple days, slowly going stir crazy.
The conditions didn't bother Rachel at the moment though, as the kitten rested on one of the cots directly underneath the fading orange sunlight streaming in through the window. She didn't seem to mind the heat at all, lazing there like she didn't have a care in the galaxy. Figured. Most of the cats he'd seen loved bathing out in heat that would melt a canine into a puddle. At least the sun was going down now, and the temperature was getting cooler. A breeze fluttered in through the window, stirring the curtains, almost making this place peaceful and pleasant to sit in.
Rachel yawned, stretching her fluffy arms wide and stirring up stray shed fur all over the place, the strands dancing in the fading sunlight. Wolf frowned, clenching his hands around the armrests as he prepared himself for what Rachel was about to say.
"Wooooolf…" She whined.
He grimaced at the sound, his teeth briefly exposed. It was how she'd said his name for the past couple days. Up until the first night here Rachel had been cooperative, being content to sit without complaining. Second day she was getting a little antsy. Now it was the fifth day and Wolf could sense the tension around her whenever she wasn't talking. He couldn't take much more of sitting in this hotbox with her.
Rolling his eye, Wolf looked at her. "Yeah, what Rachel?"
"I'm booooored… We've been stuck in this room for a million, zillion years now!" She bounced on the bed in frustration. The thin fabric on the cot looked like it would rip soon if she kept doing that.
"Hey!" Wolf held up a hand. "Stop that!"
In a huff, Rachel sat back down, fluffy legs dangling off the edge of the cot as her unseeing eyes turned in his direction. "You told me we were gonna get ice cream while we were here!" Her adorable fluffy tail twitched behind her.
Wolf blinked, tilting his head. "I don't remember that."
"Yes you did say that! You said it while we were landing here!"
Wolf's brow furrowed as he tried to think back into the past. He'd promised her that? Really? As he scratched the fur underneath his muzzle, it hit him. Yes, right before he'd buckled her in to prepare for reentry, he mentioned ice cream.
"Okay, you got me. I did say that." Wolf let out a long sigh.
"Can we get some now?"
Wolf stood and walked over to the window, pushing aside the blinds with his hand. Off in the distance the Gladius rose out of the jungle and cast a wide shadow over the rest of the Boneyard. He watched another white Cornerian military ship enter the makeshift spaceport, the latest of many he'd seen come and go from there. A small convoy of trucks pulled over nearby, ready to collect the men and supplies. The Cornerians mostly stuck to patrolling around the Gladius and their field HQ near the spaceport, but Wolf decided the four of them wouldn't take any chances while they were stuck here.
"Sorry sweetie, not after that scare the other day." He shook his head, looking back at her. "The Venomians almost got us. I can still see them out there. We need to stay here until the shuttle's ready."
"But I really want some ice creaaaaaam!" she bellowed to the ceiling.
Wolf bared his teeth at the sound, his pointed ears curling backwards as she yowled out the last word. It almost sounded like an extended, shrill meow.
"This is like being stuck in the shuttle already!" she pounded her hands onto the edge of the cot.
While annoyed at her behavior, she did have a good point. Wolf considered these circumstances barely better than the long trip between Papetoon and here. And they'd need to spend at least a week or two more in the shuttle once they got out of here… Looking back outside, he clenched his hands in the windowsill, the claws on the ends of his fingers left little scratch marks.
"Woooooolf…" Rachel moaned again.
"What?!" Wolf growled, snarling. Would she stop saying his name like that already?!
"That man, Samuel, he said there were Cornerians out there."
"Huh?" He cocked his head towards her.
"Right before you brought us here, he said he was working on Cornerian ships. The Cornerians must be out there fighting Venomians. Why can't you go help them? You could make the town safe again and we could get ice cream!" She beamed a big smile at him, saying it as though it'd be as easy to run to the corner store to buy her something.
The lupine tapped his fingertips, the sound a staccato in the otherwise quiet room.
"Wolf?" She jumped off the bed, tugging on his shirt. "Why aren't you talking to me?"
He looked down at her, shaking his head. "No can do Rachel." Wolf gazed out the window again, cooking up another lie in his head. "I need to stay here and watch you."
"But can't George do that instead? He's really nice and I don't mind staying with him either…"
Wolf narrowed his eyes, not knowing what to say to that.
"Oh, and I thought most people from Corneria were dogs." She ran a hand through her long hair.
"Yeah, they are, mostly." Wolf wasn't sure where she was going with this.
"But I've felt George's and Alvin's faces. They feel funny… Like they're flat."
"Well, uh…" Wolf flicked his tongue against his teeth inside his mouth, as his brain scrambled for a reply. "George is a pug. Alvin's a bulldog. They're dogs, but they've got flat faces."
"Really?" Rachel's blue eyes lit up in confusion, as she rocked on the bed. "Well, Mom did tell me there were a lot of kinds of dogs at the base she works at…"
Wolf couldn't keep lying like this for much longer, not with how inquisitive Rachel was getting the longer this trip lasted. What was it people said about lies? How when you told one lie it tended to become more and more lies the longer things went on? Yep, that summarized what it had been like talking to Rachel all this time.
They needed off this damn planet ASAP, but there was nothing he could do until Samuel contacted them about their ride. His tail swished anxiously, pissed off there was nothing he could do to hurry things up.
"Fu—fudge it!" He muttered, catching himself at the last second. He'd almost forgotten a small child was in the room after all, giving an awkward smirk to Rachel.
"Fudge?" She smiled. "Oh, I want a hot fudge sundae right now!"
Wolf grinned. "A sundae doesn't sound so bad, as long as it isn't chocolate." He lifted Rachel off the floor, holding her in his hands for a moment. She felt almost as light as a stuffed animal toy and just as fluffy too, grinning as he held her aloft. Well, he knew it was a bad idea, but his patience was at his wits end and a sweet, cold treat sounded like the thing to cool their nerves. "Okay. You win princess. Let's go talk to Alvin and George, see if they want to head out."
"Yay!" Rachel threw up her hands as Wolf put her back on the floor.
Even though it was hot, Wolf reluctantly slipped on his duster and wide brimmed hat again, replacing his eyepatch with the shades once more. He checked his coat pocket, making sure the spare key for the ship was there…except it wasn't. He had a brief pang of panic, but remembered he'd handed over the key to the mechanic. He didn't feel good about giving it up, although he supposed it was necessary for Samuel to work on the ship.
Sighing with relief, Wolf and Rachel stepped out into the balmy Fortunan evening, their footsteps clattering on a catwalk connecting them to the other stacked units. When Wolf was about to reach the door of Alvin's and George's unit, he heard the telephone ring inside. How odd. Who'd be calling them? Wolf frowned, opening the door. When he stepped inside, he saw George resting on one of the cots while Alvin was the one on the phone.
"Yes, thank you. Goodbye." Alvin put the phone back on the receiver.
"Who was that?" Wolf asked.
"Nobody." Alvin chewed his lip, turning to face Wolf. "Just a wrong number. What do you want?" The gorilla sounded annoyed, like Wolf had intruded on something private.
Curious attitude to have about a wrong number, but oh well. Wolf brushed aside the attitude. "I'm taking Rachel out to get some ice cream. Was wondering if you two wanted to go."
"Sounds good to me!" George let out a happy laugh, rolling off his cot and holding his arms out wide to stretch. "Haven't been doing much all day except sleeping anyway. I don't think I'll need to sleep at all tonight now. You in Alvin?"
Alvin hesitated, looking back and forth between Wolf and George. Something about him seemed a little off, like he was scared but trying to hide it. "Um…sure, I can go too!" He hopped out of his chair, a big grin suddenly on his face.
Wolf frowned. "Are you okay, Alvin?"
"I'm…fine. Just a little nervous about going out into the town, after what happened the first day we got here."
"As long as we stay away from the Gladius everything should be fine." George glanced at Rachel. "I don't think we'll have trouble in the outskirts."
"Okay, well, let's go!" Wolf waved for the other three to follow, holding Rachel's hand so she wouldn't bump or trip over anything.
The four of them left behind the Container Hotel and set off walking along the dusty streets in search of an ice cream parlor. Would they find one around here, especially since they were away from the middle of the Boneyard? He remembered Ted's served milkshakes and sundaes when he'd seen the menu before, but that place was obviously a no go now. So the outer parts of town it was, the junked ships around here smaller and mostly converted into houses, almost like this place's version of the suburbs.
The setting sun setting bathed their surroundings in a pleasant orange glow, the edges of the sky tinted pink and purple as it descended further. A warm breeze whistled past Wolf. He had to admit while he hated being stuck in this place, it was gorgeous in a post-apocalyptic kind of way, the palm trees and ships making interesting silhouettes. A shame they couldn't wander around and check out the sights more like this. However, the fading sunlight was making it harder to see, and fast. The Boneyard didn't do street lights, the tall jungle trees around them blocking out what little light was left. As it got too dark to see, George pulled out a flashlight.
They were about to give up when they spotted a peculiar-looking trailer parked on the side of the road. It was painted bright yellow, and it looked like a giant industrial-sized fridge with a small stand attached to it. Could the fridge have been repurposed from the galley of the Gladius or something? A hand painted wooden sign advertised the trailer as Boneyard Pineapple Whip. Plastic palm trees lay huddled around the trailer, along with picnic tables and lights strung between the decorations. A patron or two sat amongst the tables, enjoying what looked like yellow soft serve ice cream.
"Hey Rachel, I think we found a place," George said. "Not quite ice cream, but pineapple whips look good. How's that sound?"
Rachel beamed. "Sounds good to me!"
They walked to the green and yellow parrot manning the stall. She grinned, standing up straight to meet her new customers. Within minutes they were all huddled around one of the picnic tables, each of them eagerly enjoying the delectable yellow dessert, the tangy flavor tickling everyone's tongue. It was a little sweet for Wolf though. Even a small serving of the concoction gave him a sugar rush, and he had to stop once in a while to wait for it to fade. Rachel however couldn't help but lap up the pineapple treat, going through her bigger sized cup like it was nothing.
"Mmm… Amazing how cheap this is." George took another spoonful. "They should be charging a lot more for it. And they should be way more popular too."
"Maybe sell a deluxe version of it in an expensive theme park so people have to pay like a hundred credits for the privilege of buying it…" Wolf grinned.
He'd taken off his coat with how hot it was, although with how isolated this place was away from the main part of the city Wolf felt like he'd be safe removing part of his disguise.
"Sure sounds like something Cornerian to me there." Alvin glanced at his cup of pineapple whip. "Take something like that and price it to the point where only the wealthy elite can afford it."
Wolf glanced at the gorilla. All of them obviously knew Alvin wasn't fond of Corneria, although he'd gone for days without talking about it. A little odd he chose to mention it now.
"Oh come on," George said. "Corneria's not bad. I'd like to work there once this all blows over. Maybe join an engineering firm. The crème de la crème firms are over there, like Space Dynamics."
Alvin glowered at George, but held his tongue. However, Wolf sensed something was boiling inside the gorilla beneath the surface.
George sighed. "But with my past history, I don't see it happening. Not with this…" He waved a hand in front of his face.
Wolf glanced over at Rachel, the young kitten still happily eating away her pineapple whip and not listening to what the grownups were talking about.
"I'd like to see you make it there too…" Wolf ate another bite. "The kind of work we do is too good for you George. You don't deserve to be on the run like this. You're a good kid."
"Really?" George smiled.
Alvin continued to glower off to the side, clutching at his plastic spoon hard enough to break it in his hand. A long silence held over the table, Alvin staring back and forth at the two of them. He looked like he had some words on the tip of his mouth but he didn't want to speak them.
"Alvin?" Wolf asked.
"It's nothing…" Alvin stuck his spoon back in his cup, the container now empty of the delicious treat. He stood, holding out his hands. "Here, I'll take your trash." He quickly accepted Wolf's empty cup. "George?"
"Sure, I'll help." George took Wolf's cup alongside his own.
The two simians stood, leaving the table.
~X~
They walked around behind the trailer, heading for the garbage cans back there. As they approached the receptacles, Alvin whispered to George. "Those cans look pretty full. We should go somewhere else."
George raised an eyebrow. "But there's plenty of room in them for our trash here."
"We should go find a dumpster or something." Alvin walked off without waiting for George. While he could feel the monkey giving him a weird look, George hurried to catch up, the two of them walking away from the light of the pineapple whip stand in search of another place to deposit their trash. After wandering the dark alleyways between the recycled ships, they found a dumpster behind an old freighter and tossed in their empty cups.
"Before we go back…" Alvin slammed the lid shut. "There's something I need to talk to you about."
"About what?" George asked.
Alvin looked the spider monkey in the eyes. He was about to take an awful big risk with what he was going to say. Even so, it was for George's own good. Alvin couldn't remain silent any longer, taking a deep breath and readying himself to speak.
"Okay…" Alvin slipped a little sheet of paper out of his pocket. "I need to show you this."
Giving Alvin a curious glance, George pulled out his flashlight and read what was on the page. On the paper Alvin had written the coded message he'd received from Venom back on the shuttle, shortly before they'd arrived at the Boneyard on Fortuna. Beneath it was the translated version, as best as he could tell:
Venom has not fallen yet! Brothers and comrades, we are regrouping and preparing for a second strike against the Cornerian imperialist dogs! Meet at the following coordinates for rendezvous within the next two weeks of receiving this message.
Underneath it listed the coordinates they needed to fly to, only a couple hours' journey from Fortuna, out in the middle of space.
"Okay…" George looked at Alvin, the flashlight's beam accenting the frown on his face. "Why are you showing this to me?"
Alvin gave George a hard look. This was it. Once he mentioned what he was planning to do, there was no going back. What happened next would be up to George, and whether or not he valued his own life more than Wolf's and Rachel's. He needed to show his friend the error of his ways. This was for George's own good, nothing more. That's what he hoped to get across anyway. Even so, Alvin knew he was facing an uphill battle.
He cleared his throat. "I want to go there…rejoin Venom. And I want you to come with me."
George's eyes widened. The silence felt deafening between them for a moment.
"You're not kidding, are you? You're serious?"
Alvin nodded. George stood rooted to the spot, paralyzed by his friend's words. He looked around vacantly, as if his brain were having trouble processing the words.
"Listen to me…" Alvin laid a hand on his friend's shoulder, offering his comfort. "What we're doing with Rachel, it's a fool's errand. I know it was your idea to do this, but it's my responsibility as your friend to call you out when you do something stupid, okay?"
"I can't believe I didn't notice before." George shook his head. "That's why you were so quiet. You had…you had this with you the whole time!" George waved the slip of paper around with the notes.
Alvin furrowed his brow. Looked like George was going to need some convincing, although this didn't surprise him. He had a few more cards to play.
"If you don't wanna rejoin Venom, that's fine. You can keep the shuttle after you drop me off at that rendezvous point. Do whatever you want afterwards."
"But you're stabbing Wolf in the back here, and Rachel too!" George narrowed his eyes. "Going back to Venom's a stupid idea too! Do you think Venom can win after what the Star Fox team did? With Andross dead and gone? Hell, for all you know, this is just a Cornerian trap to round up anyone stupid enough to check this place out!"
Alvin's breath held in his throat. He hadn't thought of that. Even so, taking a chance on this rendezvous sounded like a better choice than going to Katina, as he was about to explain.
"Look, Katina has the biggest Cornerian military base outside of Corneria itself, and Rachel's mom is somewhere in the middle of it. She's an army nurse, remember? You think getting hunted by soldiers here is bad? Try making your way through a place where there's entire towns of Cornerian soldiers, all of them looking for people just like us and trained to take us down alone if they have to. You won't get far with your face like that, like you said…"
George's bald, monkey face scrunched up.
Alvin knew he'd struck a nerve, and pressed his point. "I've been to prison, George. A work camp on Macbeth. It was hell. Up before dawn, not in bed until well after the sun had set. Nothing but slaving out in the sun, or down in the hot, hot mines. Everywhere you go, banging and scraping and roaring machines, the heat boiling you alive while you go deaf from the noise and parts of your brain turn numb from inhaling poisonous fumes. And nothing but mushy white nutrient supplement to eat, only just enough to keep you going but never enough to fill you up. And fights…fights all the time. Do you think I got these muscles just because I like to work out?" Alvin flexed his big gorilla arms. "Hell no. It's for self-defense. Otherwise someone would knock my punk ass out each morning and steal my shit. My food, my shoes, my extra clothes, anything they could get their grubby paws on. I put up with that shit for years. The guards don't care. You go to Katina, you'll end up in a place like that. You're not cut out for it. You're way too scrawny. You'll get eaten alive. Are you still sure you wanna go through with this little pro bono charity mission of yours?"
As if to emphasize the point, they heard a low, rumbling sound. Accompanying it was the distinctive chatter of a radio, the words indistinct. They recognized the sound from before, inside the Gladius. Taking a look at each other, George turned off his flashlight, the two of them ducking behind the nearby dumpster, pressing themselves against the cold metal and huddling together in the shadows. A white APC bearing the Cornerian flag drove past their alleyway, a few Cornerian grunts in full gear hanging off the back. One waved a flashlight around, the beam almost touching Alvin's foot before he dragged it back behind the garbage container. Indistinct radio chatter echoed through the street along with the engine noise, the two of them waiting a few minutes while the sounds faded away.
Alvin looked over at his friend while they waited in silence. George looked as frozen as a statue. While it was a close call, the APC rolling by seemed to be giving him a harsh dose of reality…exactly what Alvin wanted. He could see the gears turning inside his friend's head, probably weighing the cons of going ahead with this stupid plan he'd suggested back on Papetoon. Maybe this would work out after all…
"Wolf, Rachel…" George sighed, rubbing a hand over his head. "I can't abandon them here. Then Wolf would end up in prison instead, and Rachel… Who knows what'll happen to her with no one to take her home?"
"Forget them!" Alvin grabbed George round the shoulder, pointing back the way they'd come. "Wolf doesn't care about us. He doesn't care about Venom anymore. Only thing he's loyal to is a paycheck, nothing more. He told me himself back on Papetoon!"
"But if that's true, why would he want to help Rachel?" George shook himself free from Alvin's grasp. "He's not the same person he was when we first met him, Alvin. Yeah, he's rude, he likes to boss people around, but…if he wants to make sure Rachel gets home, after everything we've did to her, I can get behind that."
"But he thinks Rachel is more important than we are, with all the danger he's putting us in. I mean, he made you kill for the first time to save his life. Did he ever give you thanks for that or anything?"
"…no." George looked at the ground.
"Exactly!" Alvin jerked a finger at George. "He doesn't care about us. Only himself and that girl."
"Suppose I go along with this…" George shook his head, grumbling under his breath. "How do you even plan to get out to those coordinates anyway? The shuttle's still under repairs."
"No, you're wrong." Alvin grinned. "That phone call I got earlier? That was Samuel. He called our room by mistake. He told me the shuttle is fixed now. All we have to do is go over to his shop, take the key from his lockbox, and leave in the shuttle."
"You were hiding that from us?" George's eyes widened. "I can't believe you're seriously going through with this! Have you gone crazy? Listen to yourself, man! I don't wanna be this…this…" He clenched his hands. "…outlaw type guy anymore!"
"You don't really have a choice, unless you wanna go to jail. That's the truth, George." Alvin gestured towards the street where the APC had passed by moments ago. "No matter what you think, we're criminals and fugitives as far as those soldiers are concerned. Sooner you accept it, the better. You're better off rejoining Venom with me."
"No…" George shook his head, standing and looking down at Alvin. "I'm better than what other people think I am. You're just stuck in the past." He waved the sheet of paper with the codes in front of Alvin. "I'm telling Wolf everything."
No. Oh hell no. Alvin could not have that. It'd ruin everything! He jumped to his feet, trying to snatch the paper back. George skillfully leaped backwards, using his smaller size to evade the gorilla's powerful but slow arm. George spun around on his feet, dashing through the dark alleyway back towards the whip stand.
Alvin pulled out his blaster, drawing it on his friend as he ran away. Yet the blaster shook in his hands, George running out of sight before he fired a shot. Damn it damn it damn it! He knew this was a dumb idea! Why'd he gone and tried to talk to George anyway? Why'd he think it'd work out any other way than this? Well, it was too late now, and things were about to get really ugly really fast. Alvin took off running after the monkey, hoping he could catch George before he blabbed anything stupid. But he'd just rounded the corner by the whip stand when he heard George calling out to the others.
"Wolf!"
"Well that took a while…" Wolf raised an eyebrow as the simian approached. "What happened?"
"Alvin's planning to steal your shuttle!" George pointed at Alvin as he approached.
Wolf stared straight at Alvin, glancing downwards at the drawn blaster in his hand
"Alvin…" Wolf cast a dark glare at the gorilla, reaching for the blaster under his coat as he stood. "What's George talking about here?"
"You just had to go and blow everything wide open, didn't you George?" Alvin waved the gun in his ex-friends direction. "Now, I'm gonna have to go and do this!"
He snatched Rachel right out of her chair, pulling her up by the scruff of her neck, easily lifting the kitten upwards with his strength. Rachel cried out, the skin on the back of her neck painfully being pulled out. Alvin pointed his blaster straight at her head. Wolf finished drawing his blaster, but now it was too late. He had Rachel between himself and George and Wolf now.
"Stop!" Alvin screamed at Wolf and Rachel, holding Rachel off of her feet by grabbing an arm round her midsection, using his other hand to point the blaster.
"Waaaah!" Rachel screamed. "Alvin! You're hurting me!"
Wolf's blaster wavered as Alvin held up the innocent kitten in front of his face, denying Wolf a clean shot.
"Quiet!" Alvin shouted into Rachel's ear.
The poor kitten whimpered at the sound of his harsh words. Meanwhile, out of the corner of his eye, Alvin saw the parrot server at the pineapple whip stand grab a phone and take cover behind the counter. He had one guess on who she was dialing, and it wasn't the kind of attention they needed right now. They'd be up to their necks in Cornerian soldiers soon.
"Let her go!"
Wolf's barrel shook, aimed in the general direction of Alvin's head. He wasn't sure if the lupine would go for the headshot, but just to be safe Alvin held Rachel higher, protecting his face.
"You know Wolf…" Alvin started. "I can't believe I used to look up to you. You were the best pilot working under Andross. A few weeks ago, I bet you would have shot this girl in a heartbeat!"
Rachel was crying, tears rolling down her face and dripping onto Alvin's arms.
"Now look at you! One little girl and now you're too scared to do anything! I can see that gun shaking in your hands!" Rachel kept screaming, batting away at Alvin's arms with her claws as hard as she could. Alvin grit his teeth, grunting as he held onto the little girl. "Stop you little brat or I'll put one right through your brain!"
"Alvin!" George cried out. "Rachel's got nothing to do with this! Let her go!"
"Nothing? Nothing?" Alvin turned towards George, fire in his eyes over his betrayal. "She's got everything to do with this! She's the entire reason we're here right now! We shoulda put one right in her skull back on Papetoon! She's been nothing but trouble for us ever since we got out of there!"
"Alvin…" George sniffled. "Don't do this! We're your friends!"
"Some friend of mine!" Alvin shouted. "You and Wolf wanna risk everything for this stupid girl! Just because she's cute and no other reason than that!"
"You've gone crazy!" George called out. "Andross is dead! Star Fox and Corneria won! There's nothing you can do to change that! Let Rachel go!"
A familiar rumbling sound could be heard, with the sound of tires crunching over gravel and mud. The white Cornerian APC from before rumbled into view, a few soldiers jumping out of a hatchway in the back. Seeing what was happening, they moved to form a perimeter fast, blaster rifles raised.
"Put your weapons on the ground!" one of them, a burly boxer dog screamed out. "Lie down! Hands behind your head!"
Alvin glanced between the soldiers, looking over at Wolf standing there with his blaster still pointed at him. What would he do now? Did he just screw all of them? Sweat rolled over his face, as he tried to think of a way out of this. But he got an idea. A brilliant one that'd get the heat off him instantly. It was a gamble, but he knew he had to take it if he wanted to escape this without being captured.
"That's Wolf O'Donnell!" Alvin shouted to the soldiers. "He was trying to kidnap this kid!"
The soldiers took another look, turning their weapons on the lupine as they recognized the face from the wanted posters behind the disguise.
Seeing his chance, Alvin took off running, the whole time waiting to get a blaster bolt in the back, yet one didn't come. Rachel was wailing away in his arms, crying and begging to be let go, but Alvin didn't hear her. It was time to get out of this stinking place, take his rightful spot back in the proud Venomian army. And this kid could be useful if he needed her as a hostage later…
~X~
A/N: This is the third fic in a row I've updated after waiting months if not years to get back round to it. Hopefully I won't have any more cases of that going forward. Updates should be at a more regular pace, now that I've only got Hazardous Contents and Love is Blind to work on.
Anyway, hope you guys don't mind the long wait and I hope it's not too hard for you to get back into this story. I think I can finish this story in about 5-7 more chapters. We'll see. It could be a while still, because I want to bounce back and forth between Hazardous Contents and this story for the near future. Also, there may be a special project or two I put out while I'm working on these two. Stay tuned for that!