I'm sitting in a cell right now, the bars having slammed shut behind me, the magnetic locks shutting me in, and all that I can see is those damn bars, bars, bars… and if I wasn't still a minor, I'd be hitting them…
I need a drink, and yeah, water would be nice too, but ugh… I sound so immature that it's not even funny…
"How you holding up, Nick?" the cheetah- Clawhauser, that's his name, right? right? - says, smiling grimly at me through another set of metal bars, the bars that separate our cells, and then there's a little bit of space between them… I wonder what would happen if I managed to wiggle into there… I mean, there is a drain cover right there that I could open up and drop down into, maybe that would be worth a shot…
I've got to do something, and well, Bellwether hasn't given us any food since I came down here almost a week ago- I think it was almost a week ago, is that right? I'm really starting to lose track with nothing but steel gray walls and a slowly dripping pipe right above my cell to watch to keep myself entertained…
In other words, I'm flocking bored, help me please!
"I'm doin' alright, Clawhauser, that's your name, right?"
"Yeah… but you can call me Ben… so what'd you do to get yourself in this mess?"
"Oh, just accidentally betray my family and the only friend I've ever had and then get myself sent here to probably be shot up with something and overdosed… sorry, that's really not the positivity that either of us are looking for, is it?"
"I'm not gonna say anything," Ben says, smiling, but it's so crooked, we all know that it's faked, and he drops it, letting it slump into a frown. "I got shot and put on desk duty. Then the Night Howler crap hit for the first time and I've been here since…"
"How old are you?" I ask, my words full of wonder- not the good kind of wonder though…
"Fifty-three," he says, and it's then that I can see all of the gray in his fur, all around his eyebrows, and gosh darn it, his whole mouth is ringed in gray, how the hell did I miss that the first time? "And I haven't been out of this cell for much longer than a few hours in just about thirty years… I need to get out of here, can you help me get out of here, Nick?"
"I want to promise, Ben, but I have to get myself out of here first, so- yeah… I really wish I could promise… but I can't, I'm sorry…"
"It's alright, Nick, I understand. I've watched enough young mammals cycled through here… your parents were two of them, I think… John and Marian, right, John and Marian Wilde?"
"Uh huh, that was them," I say, nodding. "They were here too…?"
"Yeah, they were, and I mean, I'd love to tell you about them, but let's not get ahead of ourselves here… how are we gonna get out of here, that's the real question," he says, sweeping and arm and pointing a paw towards the cells that we're trapped in… magnetic locks, and you don't know how to make an EMP with static cling, do you?" Clawhauser whispers, his voice barely above a whisper that I'm straining to hear.
"Gosh, I wish, but yeah, I don't," I say, feeling my teeth start to chatter as the cold air that floats around us, turning the whole room into a freezer box… maybe if we could get one here…? Yeah, that would be really nice…," I say, my voice a little nervous.
"You might wanna be quiet, Nick, she's always watching us," Clawhauser says, finger pointing nervously at a camera that's watching us up in one of the corners of the basement. "Always watching, always, always, always… so how are we gonna get our tails the hell out of here?"
"Uh, yeah, that's- that's a question that I don't have an answer to right now, B- Ben," I say, my tail curling around my legs as I slump to the cot that's tucked into the other corner, and I swear it's gotten colder in here, I can see my breath a little bit in here… I should take a nap, I'm hungry and being awake isn't gonna help me be less hungry any…
"You're good, Nick, I'm used to not getting to have anyone to talk to… so what got you thrown down here, anyways? Just trying to take a stand against the Mayor?"
"Oh yeah… basically…," I mutter, but Ben apparently can't hear me…
"What's that, Nick?" Ben asks, and I force myself up to a sitting position.
"What I said, Ben, was that, yeah, that's what happened… I got thrown into this mess because, well, my biological parents, they were messmakers against Bellwether when she first rose to power… you know, John and Marian Wilde?"
"Those were your parents?" Ben asks, clapping his paws to his mouth. "Oh my gods- we were all cheering for them here… my neck didn't stop throbbing for weeks…"
"I'm really sorry to hear that you got treated like that, Ben," I say, sighing. "That wasn't really excusable…"
"Nick," Ben says, tail swishing behind him, "it's in the past, and there's nothing you can do about it… please just let it go…"
"Ugh, I wish I could, Ben," I say, my own tail starting to swish now… "I really wish I could… and oh, great, the lights are starting to swing from the ceiling, what the heck?"
"Um, that's not good…"
"Yeah, you're not kidding," I mutter, the lights starting to swing faster and faster and faster, and then there's a boom behind me, and the wall gets thrown into my back, chunks of concrete tearing my skin… and as the world starts to fade to black, the last thing that I see is the light flickering out in a shower of red sparks...