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Chapter Nine: Captured!
Slowly, Hige opened his eyes. The world around him was hazy and dark.
"Hige…wake up…Hige!" Toboe gently nudged the fat wolf with his foot.
The fuzziness disappeared. Hige could see his friend Toboe, his hands chained together with shackles.
"Where are we?" queried Hige.
"We've been taken in as slaves. We're in confinement right now." elucidated Toboe.
"By whom? Where are the others?"
"We've been captured by the Hojo Wolf clan. As for what happened to everyone else, I don't know."
"I hope they're all right…" In a few short minutes, the two drifted off into a deep, dreamless sleep.
"Hubb…I'm going to have to…take a rest" announced Kiba wearily, sitting down. A yelp of agony traveled throughout the woods.
"Someone's in trouble!" gasped Hubb, "It sounds like it wasn't to far from here. I am going to go look. Here's a revolver to defend yourself." The man threw the wolf a small Colt .45 and ran off.
"You! You were the one who killed Cher, weren't you!" questioned Blue, backing up against a tree. Marduk-21990 smiled evilly in response. She came closer to the half wolf, throwing needles ready in her hand.
"I thought the Flower Maiden was supposed to lead the wolves to Paradise! Why are you killing us? Blue inquired.
"I will lead you to Paradise alright…" replied the Marduk-21990. She raised her hand to throw the needles. A shot echoed. The needles fell out of the fake Cheza's hand, and blood trickled from a bullet wound beneath her ear. And then, she keeled over, dead.
"Oh Hubb! Thank-you for saving me! Thank-you" cried Blue, running over to the man, who appeared from behind a bulk of ferns.
"It was nothing" he replied, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "We better go back to Kiba. Even with the gun I gave him, I don't think he's going to last too long with that broken leg of his."
"Hey, you're back," said Kiba. He saw Blue beside Hubb. "I'm glad you're alive, Blue. Do you know anything about the others?"
"Well…" sighed Blue, recalling her memories, "Tsume…"
Back on the plane, the two were attending to their duties in the boiler room. Hige had done a double shift yesterday, which meant that they had to fill in his role for today.
"Hey Blue, do you really believe in all that Paradise junk? You know, Flower Maidens and Lunar Flowers?"
"ATTENTION ALL HANDS ON DECK! WE ARE DECREASING ALTITUDE AT FIVE THOUSAND METERS PER SECOND DUE TO ENGINE FAILURE! SECURE A PARACHUTE AT ONCE AND EXIT THE PLANE IMMEDIATELY!"
The two scrambled around the room in search of a parachute. At last, they found one near the boiler room door.
"Here, you can have this one," said Tsume, smashing open the glass parachute box, then handing the parachute pack to the she-wolf.
"But what about you?"
"I'll find one. Just make sure you get out of the plane okay."
"And, then what happened?" questioned Hubb.
"Those were the last words I heard Tsume say. He rushed down the hall to find a parachute, but I never saw him jump…"
"Anyone else?"
"No. I do not know. I guess all we can do is look for them," answered Blue. So the three got off their rears, and they once again took up the journey of finding their fellow brethren.
Light flooded the room, causing both Hige and Toboe to awake.
"Alright, both of you! Get up! Time for work!" a beefy, hairy man ordered, pulling on their shackles. The two wolf pups grudgingly rose to their feet and shuffled their way out of the room into a place like hell.
Moans and creaking filled their ears. Sweat and sulphur bombarded their olfactories. And the sight of underfed wolves pushing gargantuan turn posts clouded their eyes. A man with a long, nine-tailed whip stood on a tall metal square. He cracked the whip onto the back of any unfortunate wolf who fell behind in his or her work.
"Welcome to the Watagashi Mass Production Plant," greeted the hairy man who had woken them up. He quickly chained the two to a turn post and set them to work.
"What do we do?" Toboe whispered to his friend.
"We just push this for now, and hope the day goes by fast."
"Hey…if ya know…wha good fer ya…don't tawk," advised a fatigued worker nearby, "Save ya energy fer werk."
And then Toboe realized how deep of trouble he was in.
The sun slowly sunk into the horizon. Some turkey buzzards soared through the pinkish grey clouds.
"It is getting late…we had better find somewhere to sleep," Kiba pointed out.
"I think we just found one…" Hubb responded. In a clearing, the steel alloy ruins of the Saint Bovine lay scattered about. The fire that had been burning on the aircraft earlier had long since died out. Blue's nose twitched.
"I smell the scent of wolves," she remarked, "They must live in this forest."
"It smells like Hige and Toboe were here too," added Kiba, putting his wolfie shnoz to work, "The scent is wearing off though…"
"Well, let's check to see if they're onboard," Hubb suggested, opening one of the plane's external doors.
"Well, he's not in this room," sighed Blue, shaking her head sadly. She closed the door to the latrine. "Any luck Kiba?"
"Nope"
"What about you Hubb?"
Hubb came running into the room and gasped, "They're outside the plane."
"What? The others? Toboe, Hige, and Tsume?"
"No."
"What then?"
"Pawprints."
To be continued…