Chapter 3

.

By the next day, Honey had settled in to her new cell. They called it a room, but she knew the truth. There was a nice comfy bed, her own bathroom, a little TV with all the channels along with some books, but it was still a cell. They said she had to be in here at a certain time and that they'd lock the door at night, so it was a cell. That, and the fact that the whole place was a prison. The honey badger knew that very well; she wasn't stupid. She had an area she could mingle with other prisoners in, and they could go out into a prison yard, which was surrounded by fences made to keep them in. They all looked nice, were comfy and pretty, and there were nice and innocent things to do. She snorted at it all. The sheep thought they were oh so clever, didn't they? Try and disguise it all with nice licks of paint and smiling staff and happy words. There were dumb cub games and activities, to keep all those prisoners happy and occupied but not too stimulated. She knew the facade when she saw it though. She knew their plot, and that she was being spied on right at this very moment. They were waiting for the right moment in time, the right chance, all so they could pounce and take her. Kill her or drug her.

She was scared. She was angry. She was determined.

She was going to get out of this, some way, somehow. It was just a matter of waiting for her opportunity. She'd already got that binturong tricked up, believing that she was going to cooperate with her! The sheepdog… -Might be an issue.

She sighed, bouncing slightly as she sat on her bed, looking over at her new uniform. Like all things, she knew it was a prison one, albeit much nicer than an official prison version. A comfy tracksuit, with a shirt and jacket, rather than a colour coded one-piece jumpsuit.

She looked up at the clock and grumbled. Breakfast would soon be starting, far later than she would have had hers, which bugged her to no end.

It…

It just wasn't right!

Breakfast simply wasn't that late! They'd taken her from her home, and were now doing things wrong, though she guessed it was all part of their nasty little plan. She'd been half tempted to wait it out, outside the canteen, waiting for it to open up. Then again, however much it made her cringe, she knew she had to adapt. Try and keep in her cell, not draw attention to herself, play along…

It was time to go now, and she hurried along, glancing from side to side just to be sure of things. She arrived just over fifteen minutes early and slumped down next to the door. Glancing through the clear bit of glass in it, she watched as the staffers set things up in anticipation. She also kept an eye out for anything suspicious. After all, if there was a sheep setting things up in there, she'd want to avoid anything it could contaminate.

Her ears rose and she turned to see a new arrival. A white rabbit, twitching about nervously, as he mumbled to himself, glancing up at a clock as he did so. "Late, late, late…"

"You okay?" she asked, cautiously.

He looked up and shook his head, his buck teeth chewing on his lower lip as he did so. "No-no-no… -Too much going on. I'm late for it all. Late for a very important date, you see. Yes, a very important date."

"What date?" she asked, before pausing, a bit of concern running through her. "Is it a wedding? My sister is gonna get married, and I plan to be a bridesmaid! It's a real long way away though."

"I… No, not that."

She breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good. It'd be really evil of the sheep to bring you in here right before that."

He paused, blinking at her. "Uh… -No, I… -Uh, I handed myself in. I was late, late you see. For a very important date. But I can't remember what it is or why. I just know I'm late. Very, very late."

"Right then," Honey said, a smile on her face as she pointed at him, chuckling. "You know, you're crazy, and I mean super duper crazy!"

"I… uh…" he mumbled.

"Probably things the sheep put in your stuff. Do you have any favourite foods here? Watcha having for breakfast?"

"Well," he mumbled, fidgeting his fingers against each other, I like hay wafers with some alfalfa, along with some tea."

Honey's face winced up, and she stuck her tongue out in disgust. "Blearghhhh… Even before I knew it was drugged up, I'd never eat that stuff."

Whatever she was about to say after that was cut off though by the door opening, a camel nurse letting her in. It really was far too late for breakfast, so now she could have it she raced in, straight towards the cereal table. Looking through it, she scanned for a box of Honey Chomps, up and down the table, seeing dozens of brands for dozens of species, before the horrifying reality sunk in; there wasn't an ounce of Honey Chomps to be seen. "No-no-no," she hissed, one of her paws clenching tighter. She couldn't frickin' believe it...

"May I help you?" a nurse asked. She was a tahr, almost like a deer but with a sheeplike head and with curved horns, like a goat. Any semblance to the evil mammals of white though was counteracted by the differences. As far as the flock was concerned, she was a pawn, a nothing, which meant she was as harmless as anyone here was to Honey. With that in mind, the honey badger looked up at her before pointing at the table.

"Uh, Honey Chomps?"

The nurse looked over and shook her head. "We don't have any."

"Well, get some," Honey said, a bit irritated. Wasn't what she needed to do obvious? She had honey chomps for breakfast, period. That was what she had. That was what she always had!

The nurse blinked. "I could put them on the order list. They'll come in on Saturday."

Honey gasped. "Tha… That's three days away! What am I supposed to eat until then?"

"There's plenty of other things you…"

"-NO!" the ratel angrily butted in. She'd tried to be reasonable, sweet lord she had, but she had her limits. This was simple; this was serious. They'd taken her from her home, they'd already messed up the time of breakfast, and now they weren't going to get her cereal for a few more days! She'd already suffered enough. She'd already bent over backwards plenty of times for them. It was all so unfair! Things were already messed up far too much when compared to how they should be, and Honey had had enough of it. "I want my Honey Chomps! NOW!"

"We don't work like that," she said, backing off a little bit as Honey began to breathe in deeply, her fists clenching. It wasn't fair. It really wasn't fair! "How about some honey on…"

"-I WANT MY HONEY CHOMPS!" she shouted, before marching forwards. The nurse tried to step back but Honey ploughed into her legs before she could react. The ratel pushed into her, throwing her arms out with force, the nurse trying to block it but failing. It was a simple shove, one that didn't really tax the mammal who did it, but it was enough to make the tahr lose balance and fall on her rear.

A hush came over the room.

There were more mammals in it now but everyone was quiet, looking at her, not that she knew. She was angry, she was upset, and she was running away and ignoring them as she raced back to her room. Her cell. The place that she was having to stay which wasn't her home, wasn't her bunker where she could be safe, but it was all she had as the dumb tears just began flowing and flowing and flowing…

It wasn't fair.

It just wasn't!

Everything was wrong, and stupid, and she remembered that it was the sheep doing this to her. It was those damn evil sheep, and knowing that helped her feel better. She was crying less now. She could focus her anger on the sheep.

This was their fault, and she could fix it.

Get back at them.

Especially with the help of the dynamic duo, Wilde and Hopps.

Through the odd sob, she smiled. She was looking forward to her revenge.

.

.

Amy read the reports and looked at the recordings before sighing. She'd been hoping that things wouldn't be getting too hectic too soon, yet right away she was seeing her new patient having a meltdown.

Well, more a tantrum, but still something one wouldn't expect from a mature adult mammal. Then again, from what she'd seen and heard, Honey Badger was not one of those. The question, or rather questions, was what she was, why she was, and what they could do about it.

Amy had theories, ideas, plans…

She had to check things out, but there was a roadmap she could follow, and hopefully these things would work out better than Honey's morning. So, she strolled down to the secure ward the ratel was staying on before checking in with the nurses. The tahr Honey had knocked down had made a report of the incident and was doing okay, more surprised than anything. All the paperwork and due diligence had been done, which meant that everyone was more or less covered. Amy talked a little to them, gleaning some more tidbits that she'd previously been unaware of, which she then chose to follow up on.

Finally, close to half an hour later than planned, she rapped on Honey's door before a guard let her in. He closed it behind her, keeping watch, as she settled onto the bed next to her patient.

…

"So," she began softly. "I heard you got a bit upset earlier on."

Honey was sitting by her, staring into the corner of the room, doing her best to ignore her.

"You also said a few little hurtful things to another one of my patients. One who was minding his day, tried to talk to you, and you insulted him."

Slowly but surely, the honey badgers' ears perked up slightly, and she turned around, gazing at her through the corner of her eye. "Was this the grey bunny?"

"He was a white rabbit."

"Tch…" Honey grunted, before shaking her head. "Close enough, I guess. I didn't insult him though."

"You called him crazy," Amy pointed out. Almost immediately, the ratel's face snapped around to look at her.

"What?" she asked incredulously, her voice racing up in volume. "That? But… -I was just telling the truth. He is crazy!"

"He has severe anxiety issues, which tend to make him forget things," she explained, before frowning a bit as she remembered the sad situation he was in. "Forgetting things then makes him more anxious, and it just goes on and gets worse."

"That's just a real long explanation of the type of crazy he is," she justified, before a victorious smirk spread across her muzzle.

Amy frowned. "If you really think that, you could try to be more polite about it," she suggested. "Maybe just say that he has issues. He may not like being called crazy, you know."

"I…" Honey began to say, only for her ears to dip down. "I hurt his feelings, didn't I?" She looked down, chewing with her muzzle slightly. She looked remorseful to Amy, but irritated as well. "-It's… -But we're meant to tell the truth too, and… -and it's just dumb and doesn't make logic," she muttered, before pointing at the therapist. "I don't get why it's so easy for you, but for me it isn't."

"Well," Amy explained, "I'm pretty sure that you know that you have issues, just like he has. Issues that make it hard for you."

She nodded. "Yeah! I mean, my family all says I have this 'autism' thing, and it makes me act different. But, like, I just feel normal doing these things, and others are weird…"

"Weird in what way?" Amy asked, encouraging her on. There was a glint in the ratel's eyes.

"Well, they always tell me to tell the truth, but then say that I shouldn't tell the truth, which just doesn't make logic! Then they say I'm spending too much time putting things in the right order, as if they can't be asked…"

"So, making things not messy? Cleaning up…"

Honey chuckled. "Nah. I'm a horrible mess bug, pretty much. But certain things gotta be in certain places, or they look better lined up, or there's an order that things are best done in and other mammals don't see that! And then they get mad with me for doing it all the right way!"

"I'm guessing this whole breakfast thing was due to things being in the wrong order, then?"

Honey nodded rapidly. "Yeah. I have my breakfast at six-o-clock, on the dot, watching Sheep Propaganda Channel 6 while protected by my tinfoil hat, as I munch on my Honey Chomps. That's the way it is!" She paused slightly, grumbling. "And if you're gonna take me from my home, stick me in this jail cell, and mess everything up, the least you can do is have my Honey Chomps!"

Amy nodded, pausing as she noted everything down. "This isn't a jail cell."

Honey snorted. "I was locked in earlier. If it smells like a jail cell, feels like a jail cell, make logic that it is, doesn't it?"

"You're not in jail. You're in a hospital."

There was a pause as Honey thought, before she shrugged and stood up. "So, I can check myself out and go home then, I guess" she said, walking past Amy and grabbing the door. Opening it up though, she was met by the imposing figure of one of the wolf guards. "'Scuse…"

…

She frowned, before marching into a wall of wolf, shaking him badly from the unexpected and heavily underestimated impact. Recovering though, he put his paws on her shoulder, braced himself and held her still in the doorway. "I advise you get back in there," he warned. "You're on thin ice as it is."

…

"Fine…" she hissed, before grabbing his paws and chucking them off her. She marched back up to Amy and looked her right in her eyes. "Some hospital, not letting me go home, is it?" she barbed.

The binturong, slightly worried by her patients imposing gaze, kept her calm. "We can't let you go until you're better."

"And when will that be?"

"Well, I plan to put forward my diagnosis and recommendation later today which, once approved, means you'll be here until we feel it's safe to release you. That's when you admit your problems, and we've got you well on the track of getting better," Amy explained.

"Okay. I have this autism thing. Can it be fixed? Nope! So I'm here forever! Whoop-de-dooo! I'm in jail!"

She marched away from Amy, right into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her. Amy could easily use her key card to override the lock and march in, but she wouldn't do that. This would be a long and tiring process of building trust, given what she might need to do later. If Honey wanted some privacy, she'd get it. Amy though would sit by the door, listening in and waiting until she'd calmed down. She was angry in there and needed to work it out. As she did so, though, the binturong sighed. Much as she hated to admit it, bringing her in was the right decision. For all Honey talked about being in a prison here, the real thing would be so much worse for her.

.

.

She couldn't stand it.

Honey just couldn't stand it any longer.

She smashed her fists into the wall, feeling the cathartic pulses of pain that came with each impact.

They filtered through her rage and tears, and helped her focus.

A few slams of the side of her head into the wall did the same thing, only a bit better.

She still cried though. Sniffing, her teeth bared.

Why couldn't they tell the truth! Why was that damn binturong being so two faced? Just say that she was locked up already and be done with it. Everything in that moment was just too much for her.

She'd been captured. The sheep had her. She was in a damn jail! She wasn't a bad mammal, she wasn't, she knew that! It was them, testing her, and it was unfair.

Everything, absolutely everything, in the entire world was cruel and nasty and just not fair.

…

Honey felt a bit calmer now. She was able to wash her face, and looked up to see her red and puffy eyes. She needed a drink, so she went to the toilet. She wasn't going to trust the tap water, given all the stuff the sheep happened to put in it; fluoridation and brain-chems and all that. She'd dreamt about starting a war to stop that, in one of her many daydreams… She had no bombs though, slight problem there. It would likely also backfire. Worst came to the worst, and it might be the opportunity for them to implement the Dr Strangelamb ratio of ten sheep mammals to every non sheep mammal.

So, not good.

Really not good.

Regardless, she'd worked out that this place used rainwater recycling to flush the toilets and water the gardens. She smiled. Those regulations were put in by the green lobby, which was secretly run and puppeted by the sheep, trying to ruin and de-growth the economy. Soon the climate wall would be turned down to save energy, and everyone would be made poor by putting solar panels and stuff in dumb places like the rainforest, what with its clouds and leaf cover, even though the city got more than enough clean energy from its dam.

All part of a plan to make everyone poorer and get rid of the exotic species.

Then they'd mess up the grid, mammals without thick wool would freeze in the winter, and the sheep would be dominant.

-Not that the oil industry, or the housebuilders, or the conservationists, or the unions, or the bankers, or pretty much anyone else was any better.

Any movement with any real weight had been infiltrated to some degree or other. All serving the greater purpose.

But, in this case, they'd tripped over their own clipped-off tails! Thanks to their attempts to make everything more expensive, 'saving water' when they had plenty, they'd given her a nice free source of non-drugged water, so she wasn't going to die of thirst.

She looked at the toilet, then took off the cistern lid and drunk from inside it, before placing it back down, chuckling as she did so. Why was it that so many idiots thought she drunk from the pan? Now that would have been crazy.

She was feeling better now. However, she thought she'd stay in here. It was nice. Quiet. She frowned though as a knock interrupted that. That damned lying therapist. "GO AWAY!"

"Honey. I was wondering if you were feeling better?"

"Was, till you spoke up," she hissed.

"And why's that?"

"You're a liar!" she accused, shouting it out. "Trying to confuse me and all! You act like you're my friend, and you're trying to help me, but I know the truth!"

…

"Is this about the 'jail' thing?"

…

"Honey?"

"Yeah," she hissed. "Why don't you just say this is a jail, and the sheep have me locked up here, and be done. I can't go home, can I? You're keeping me in till you fix something that can't be fixed and I don't want fixed! I'm here forever, so it's a jail! Just say it!"

"Honey, do you know what a real jail would be like?"

"Like this…" she muttered.

"Well," Amy began. "How about I tell you."