Nick and Zachy's misadventures will continue in this chapter, let's find out if it's any better than Judy's one
…
It was around 8-9 pm and the buses that Zachy said that he was sure should arrive at this hour, weren't anywhere to be seen, they had been in the middle of the road for a few hours wandering around waiting patient and impatiently for a bus to show up.
"Are you sure they come at this hour?" asked Nick sitting in the middle of the road breaking the position he needed to be.
"That's what I heard," Zachy explained, "I don't know if they shared false information but I promise you that's what I heard".
"Yeah, maybe they shared false information on purpose knowing you were listening".
"Good point there," said Zachy targeting a nearby tree -without shooting- with his rifle trying to calculate his aim.
"Are you sure you need that?" asked Nick once again referring to the gun.
"Pretty much… Half of the plan wouldn't work without it".
"But I still think it's a bit extreme".
"Nick, I've told you many times, this is the least 'extreme' thing we can do, a tsunami is more extreme than this and you know it".
Nick decided not to ask any more questions because at this point the reply was probably going to be the same
After maybe fifteen more minutes they spotted two lights at the horizon, the moment they were waiting for had finally arrived, they quickly returned to their required spots which were Nick simply standing in the middle of the street hoping to stop the bus and Zachy hiding behind him.
The school bus did stop and shortly after the doors opened revealing a polar bear in the usual uniform, along with a gun similar to Zachy's.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing here?!" the bear asked Nick who was with his paws in the air.
The fox didn't reply, instead, Zachy came from behind and without giving a second to react he shot the soldier on the spot running straight to the bus door targeting at the driver.
The moment Zachy pulled the trigger, Nick closed his eyes immediately and opened one of them after it was done, pulling his arms down he could only look disappointed at the hyena waiting for him to finish threatening the bus driver.
Zachy then made signs with the head to Nick indicating that they could get on the bus, being very surprised that it was an empty one considering that they guessed that it should have some children in it.
Already inside, Zachy took the driver communicator and told to head to the base, knowing that he was also one of them. The driver had no option but to go back to the place he was coming from –hence why it was an empty bus- with the two passengers going to the back of the vehicle.
"If you want to tell me anything, now's the time," said Zachy.
"What do you mean?" said Nick "If the guy who created the plan isn't sure that it's going to succeed then I suggest we abort right now".
"No, it's not that!" he replied chuckling "For example…"
The hyena pulled a picture that Nick recognized immediately being completely surprised that it was in Zachy's possession.
"Where did you find this?"
"At your house… Remember that picture".
It was the picture of young Nick with his mother in a Boy Scout attire Zachy retrieved back during the 3rd wave.
"Why would you hold on to this?" asked Nick slightly confused.
"I thought it was a nice object to carry on our trip… I mean, I doubt you brought any souvenir from the bunny and I certainly didn't bring any souvenir from Finnick… Sometimes is nice to have a memory of a loved one".
Nick didn't say anything and he just looked down at the picture with Zachy limiting to stare forward.
"Regarding the raid…" said Nick after a few seconds keeping the picture "I still don't fully get what I am supposed to do after… that. Just run around?".
"You can hide, run, play along, just grab the uniform and head out".
"Zachy, that's 90% risky, why don't you go and I stay on the bus?"
"Because I have a few reasons on why I should stay, one of them is because there's a very important place in this base that only I know where is located".
"So you're using me as a distraction?"
"That's…" began Zachy but stopped for a long time trying to know what to say next "An odd way of saying".
"Oh, Zachy c'mon!" Nick replied in frustration
"No, listen to me! The moment I finish what I'm going to do and I'll go directly to you so we can finish the raid but don't worry I have everything under control".
"The last time you had everything under control I almost lost an arm, you even admit it!"
"I do… because that moment was not under my control, it was improvised, now I know exactly what to do and-"
"Then why don't you tell me instead of being dramatic?"
"Because I… I'm telling you, you have to trust me, when you see it –if you see it- you'll understand!".
Nick accepted it but in a bad mood still doubting Zachy's plan, but the reason he decided to go with it was that he didn't doubt Zachy.
Since the beginning of the first wave, Nick freed him from the van he was stuck in then they agreed to look for their partners without knowing that it was a pointless search, they spent looking at the stars for several nights only having each other to be with.
The hyena also didn't want to let Nick go during the middle of the second wave and refused to leave him when the tsunami hit. It was after that moment that they knew they needed to be together and after the end of the third wave both Nick and Zachy knew that they couldn't be split.
When the fourth wave struck they were already in the middle of it without knowing, it wasn't until half a minute were they realized what they were in and Zachy, in the blink of an eye, did his best to save them both but, Nick was right, it almost cost him an arm.
Neither of them knew if a fifth wave was going to happen, but it didn't matter at this point, they had survived four of them right now and a fifth one wasn't going to make any difference. They began as rivals/forced co-workers, and then they became survivors working slowly to what they were now: Friends.
Nick wouldn't be on this bus without Zachy and Zachy wouldn't be on this bus without Nick.
"Hey!" shouted Zachy to the driver "Are we close? If you're leading us to the wrong direction-"
Nick gently tapped him in the shoulder interrupting his threat
"Just go to the front without screaming," he said smiling in a cocky way.
After a few short minutes, the empty school bus arrived at the base, with the red circles still in place and few children –new ones- already in the zone.
Inside the bus, they both found a sweater with a hoodie that they immediately knew Nick should wear if he was going to cover himself as a teen since he didn't look like one.
Once they arrived Nick stored the picture in his left breast pocket, only to go to the front and find a "dead" driver.
"Did you kill him?!" he said trying to lower his voice
"What? No! I just put him to sleep, press on the neck very hard, that's the only advice I can give".
And with that, Nick put on his hoodie and gave all the bullets left in his gun to Zachy to avoid any accident, something that the hyena did not complained, once he got out he received a number with his head a bit up so it wouldn't raise any suspicion, not too long after his number was called approaching the red door with his heart going at a thousand miles per hour
If I had just brought her with us.
Was everything that Judy could think while waiting for the helicopter that was supposed to carry them back once the "shift" was over.
Around the 0200 hours many helicopters showed up to take back to the base to all the soldiers that just fought, Judy had sent her squad to a safe place while she returned to the only place she wanted to be away from, but the place she required to be in.
Right now she had a wound on her right side of the torso thanks to Dante but maybe the wound was a little bit too realistic. They managed to not hit any vital organs but it was still a clear shot to leave damage, luckily the helicopter arrived where she was, and she immediately ran to it.
The soldiers that were inside asked for the location of her squad but she ignored this simply telling them to 'get off'.
Once in the chopper, she didn't think only in Cotton but Finnick was also in her thoughts, if all of this was a farce with someone trying to cover something then probably what happened on that "operation room" was that she had been tricked into killing him.
Maybe shooting was not the best plan. She thought realizing that passing out was the most possible scenario she was going to feel in a few seconds.
"Isn't there a better plan?" asked Ryder.
"The best plan of them all would be to leave immediately but Jud made a whoopsie and we can't do it" explained Dante.
Of course the inevitable happened and Judy was "put to sleep" by nature once again on this wild journey.
This time when she woke up she found her in a bed but, unlike the previous time where she was in her home surrounded by her parents, now the environment she was in was what it looked like an emergency room meaning that her plan was slightly working.
However, sitting on her right in a chair was someone waiting for her to wake up that she was not expecting at all that he would be there.
"Commander Vosch?" was the first thing she said weakly having just woken up. Right now the 'parent' figure he had was no more, he just looked like your generic intimidating military commander
"Here you are Judy, safe but not unharmed, though I guess it was a lucky shot because none of the vital organs were damaged" said Vosch with his heavy tone as usual instead of the 'caring' one like he used when he talked previously with Judy. His stare was also different as it looked like he could kill her on the spot just with the eyes.
"Tell me about your Wild squad," he continued "You left the helicopters and what happens after?"
"Judy, are you sure about it? What if he asks you about… everything?" said Peyton a slightly scared "He could probably even be knowing what we're doing here".
"Then I'll guess I have to tell him the truth… or maybe a bit of it" she replied.
"Keep being sly, bunny".
"It was Dante sir" she replied.
"And why would soldier Dante shoot you?"
"Because… they turned against me".
"Against you?"
The more questions he asked the more difficult it became to keep the eye-to-eye contact
"I don't know how it happened but he said that this was all fake, a game".
"This?"
"The base, the training, the combat, that we were being trained to kill survivors and not aliens".
There was a short pause.
"And you weren't involved in their little conspiracy right?"
She shook her head, confirming the statement.
"Is as if they were overwhelmed by many things sir," continued Judy "Stress, pressure maybe the loss of the previous things…"
"You know, they disappeared," said Vosch switching the topic "Off the radar, they were gone".
"Well, they took their trackers out".
"They also took yours out apparently".
"I did it to follow their little game, when I had the chance I was able to shot Ryder slightly"
"And then?"
"Dante shot me".
"And then…?"
Judy stopped looking at him.
"Then I ran away"
"Doesn't seem like a convincing story to me to be honest" commented Peyton.
"Do you have a better one?" asked Thali.
"Not really but this is Jud's plan so…"
"Honestly, Hopps, you were very lucky to come to the helicopters without over-bleeding" Vosch continued with Judy noticing that it was the first time he addressed her by her last name.
There was a long and awkward pause with Judy believing it was pretty much over.
"It's surprising Hopps, you endured the pressure of the combat and the 'following the crowd' mentality, is almost-… so out of this world".
"But I am from this world".
"Of course you are, right? Because after all that's what it comes down to, who is and who isn't from this world Hopps, they take us down but we rise, they keep on fighting but we keep defending, they attack and we take revenge… It's only natural, prey versus predator".
There was a short pause with Judy being honestly intimidated by how his voice tone became heavier and heavier with each sentence, but intimidated was not the same as scared.
"Shame for them," Vosch continued referring to the squad "Dante's probably going to search help in those he tried to fight, maybe he'll tell everything about us and what we're doing here but I've sent my own squad to make sure that doesn't happen".
There was another pause but shorter with Judy trying so hard to not show any emotion.
"Oh and one last thing," he said leaving the chair "We'll have to take the… drugs out of your body for a full treatment".
"Full treatment sir?"
"You know, the combat can be tricky and the memory can go wild, so we need to make a complete check"
"But Judy, you can simply say that you killed us all, there's no need to be like this" said Dante.
"Ohmygosh D, she just told us, she needs a reason to not be directly taken to the operation room, she needs time".
"Are you going to plug me to Wonderland?" asked Judy.
"We are going to plug you to Wonderland".
This was a very intriguing chapter to write, the 'flashbacks' with the squad were also pretty fun to make as well.
We're getting closer and closer to the climax of the story… Two people are also getting closer to meet each other again