Chapter 11
The fortunate thing was that Walter's Grocery Store wasn't far from the Cornerian Army Center. The unfortunate thing was that the possibility of death was high. Fox knew how to get there quickly, and it was also lucky that traffic was oddly light. Once the blue car pulled into the parking lot of Walter's Grocery Store, the four jumped out of the car altogether.
They pulled out their blasters, running into the grocery store at full speed. Fox held his hand up for the others to stop; there was a trail of blood on the floor. Fox picked up a note at the start of the grotesque trail.
Can you catch me Foxie? Follow the red road to find out!
All four of them cautiously followed the blood trail down a few isles of groceries. Strangely enough, there appeared to be nobody there. Finally, they approached an unsettling sight: the body of the store clerk was pinned to the wall by a large knife. The words 'DEAD END' were written in blood on a white paper pinned through his chest.
Suddenly, Panther appeared behind them. Fox, Krystal, Peppy, and Wolf all spun around quickly to aim their guns at their enemy.
"Don't even try it, Panther," Wolf started. "You're clearly outnumbered."
Panther just continued to smile, and several guards appeared around him with machine guns. Fox instantly figured they were his few remaining henchmen before he had become insane. There appeared to be 10 of them.
"I'm so thrilled to see you could make it," Panther began. "For a moment, I was afraid you'd ignore my distress call!"
"It was YOU that called us?" Fox exclaimed.
"Of course!" Panther answered. "You're pathetically gullible and predictable. HAHAHA! I had to lure you out of your nest somehow, didn't I? I just forgot that it'd be so easy! Hehe!"
"What exactly are you after?" Wolf asked.
"I already told you, fool!" Panther threw back. "I'm going to kill every one of you, and Fox is my glorious finale! Hahaha! BLAST THEM, BOYS!"
Fox, Krystal, Wolf and Peppy, ran as fast as they could together, dodging the intense gunfire coming from all directions. After a moment, they all split up individually to try to take out the guards. Fox ran to take cover behind one of the grocery isles like his companions.
More laser-fire streaks hit the walls and floor, trying to intimidate Fox and his friends. Risking a look, Fox turned his head to see down the isle; two guards were running at full speed. Fox shot his blaster as quickly as he could, managing to shoot down one of the guards. The other tackled Fox to the ground.
As he was on the floor, Fox noticed the other three shooting at the rest of the guards. Fox threw a strong punch at his opponent's jaw, knocking him over. Fox kicked the guard hard in the head to make sure he stayed down. Another wave of laser-fire came at him; he narrowly avoided all the shots by ducking behind another isle.
Fox could see Peppy, Wolf, and Krystal had killed 4 more guards so far; that left four. Wolf was currently in a fistfight with a brawny guard, while Krystal and Peppy continued to shoot at two others. Fox saw a guard coming down a few isles away; before the guard could react, Fox shot him down.
It looked like Krystal had managed to shoot another one, while Wolf had just landed another kick on the brawny guard. Fox snuck up on the strong guard and kicked him from behind; the guard went tumbling to the ground. Wolf suddenly pulled out his blaster and shot the brawny guard five times. Fox turned to Wolf with a confused expression.
"For good measure," Wolf explained with a nod.
Suddenly, another gunshot rang out; this time it hit someone. Fox looked around until he found Peppy, clutching his chest in pain. Across from him was Panther, smiling with a smoking gun. Wolf began to shoot at Panther, who quickly left the building at that moment.
Peppy had fallen to the floor; his breathing was heavy. His pale red eyes turned to look at Fox one last time. Fox could tell that the old rabbit was trying to say something, but no words came out. A couple of tears began to slide down Peppy's cheeks, and his eyes closed for the last time. His hand was in Fox's as he died on the floor.
Fox's tears couldn't be controlled; this was truly the greatest pain he had ever experienced. Peppy had been a father to Fox, the closest thing that Fox had besides Krystal. Fox buried his head in Peppy's chest, his tears soaking Peppy's bloody jacket. Suddenly, the tears were gone and Fox stood up.
"Where's Krystal?" he turned to ask Wolf.
"Fox, the last guard took her; Panther and him are escaping!" Wolf answered.
Fox looked at Peppy one last time. It truly felt like Fox had lost two fathers at this point. He reluctantly accepted the fact that Peppy was goneā¦
"We're not letting them escape," Fox announced gravely. "We're going to rescue Krystal and we're going to finish Panther tonight."
