[A/N] This is the end of this short little tale. I had intended to write it as a single update, but I wanted to keep this compilation to short chapters, and the story got a bit out of paw. It has taken nearly a year to complete it and I hope the ending is as emotional as the rest. Please enjoy and let me know what you think.


Chapter 10 - The Wall - Part 4

The apartment above the fox's tailor shop was a quaint wooden structure that had been built many years ago by the original owners. They had long since left the city for parts unknown and the place was showing all the signs of disrepair. A cold draft could be felt in the main room throughout every season of the year, while the floorboards constantly creaked and the bathroom door never properly closed.

A simple fireplace served as both the kitchen and the air conditioning unit for the apartment. Sitting in a loose pile next to the brick hearth was a stack of split and dried logs, while a pair burnt merrily inside the large opening. Hanging above the flames, a pot of stew bubbled away, filling the room with the warm smell of dinner.

In the little light provided by the fire, a red fox, wearing a cheap leather coat, stood over a half full suitcase. The case had several stains and scuff marks on the outside, but it was still in very good condition. Only a strong nose, like the one at the end of the fox's muzzle, would notice the faint hint of urine on the suitcase, but he ignored the smell as he carelessly loaded several more items of clothing.

Descending the stairs leading up to the third floor came an older vixen wearing a moth-eaten dress that had been the height of fashion in the years before the wall was built. Holding the rickety banister with both paws, she carefully climbed down the stairs, making sure to avoid that one wobbly step near the bottom.

"I made dinner mother," the fox tod called to the vixen before she reached the bottom of the step.

"Ugh," she groaned. "Not more stew?"

"Yes, mother," Nick said with a cheerful smile. "I even soaked some dried jerk before putting it in the pot with the special bag of ground rye that you like so much."

His mother sighed as she stepped over to the fireplace to smell their evening meal. "Your father used to cook us a real meal, not this slop. Do you even remember those days, Nicky?"

"Yes, he was a fox of many talents."

She fetched a small wooden spoon from a table that sat next to the hearth and took a taste from the hot, bubbly pot. "I tried to convince him to become a cook and start his own restaurant, but no. He wanted to make coats and dresses for the common mammals."

Dipping the spoon back into the pot, she took another taste. "This is pretty good, son. Did you put more than just pepper in it this time?"

Nodding, the fox stuffed a well mended pair of socks into one corner of the suitcase. "I sprinkled in a pinch of the spices that Old Man Grainger gave us a few summers ago."

"Really? What is the special occasion?" It was then that she noticed him filling the suitcase on his bed. Her jaw dropped as the spoon clattered to the floor. "What are you doing? And what is with that sickly sweet smile?"

The fox's smile grew as he stepped up and took his old mother by the shoulders and planted a warm kiss on each of her cheeks. "I will be gone for a couple of days, mom. You should be able to call on Terri or Rena if you need anything while I am away."

Glaring back at her overly happy son, she folded her arms across her chest. "Where could you possibly go? There is nowhere a fox like you would be welcome."

He gave her a tight hug. "Please don't worry about me, mom."

Letting go, he turned back to the suitcase and closed the lid. With a few flicks of his thumbs, he closed the latches before picking up the case and setting it on the floor.

"I take it by the expression on your muzzle, that you and Karen finally got together?" the vixen asked as her own muzzle began to brighten. "I am so happy for you, son."

Sighing, Nick rolled his eyes. "No, mom. Karen and I are not on speaking terms, and I am perfectly happy to never see her again. Have you seen the way she eats?" His muzzle turned to disgust as he mentioned that last bit of information.

Scoffing, the vixen replied, "There is nothing wrong with Karen. She is a perfectly lovely girl."

"Mom," Nick cried with both paws in the air. "Just because she is the last available vixen in the city does not mean that you can force me to date her."

The smile on the vixen's muzzle faded into thoughtfulness. "So if it's not a vixen that has caught your eye, then who. And where are you going?"

"I am not seeing anyone, mom," the red tod replied. "Please stop worrying so much, and eat your dinner." He pointed at the bubbly pot still hanging over the fire.

"Wait," she put a paw over her muzzle and gasped. "You fell for another tod, didn't you."

"No, mother!" Nick exclaimed. He rushed over to the stairs and lifted the squeaky board and pulled a paper wrapped bundle from it's hidden compartment. When he pawed it to his mother, he explained, "This is my spare stash of jerky. Don't eat it all at once, and it should last a few weeks. Longer if you mix it in with the stew."

Nick planted another kiss on his mother's cheek before he picked up the suitcase and headed towards the second set of stairs that led to the lower floor. "Good bye, mother. I will be back in a couple of days."

Looking out the window, the old vixen saw how low the sun had sunk in the evening sky. Before her son could put one paw on the stairs, she called back to him, "Where do you think you are going at this time of day? It is nearly curfew. You won't be able to reach Karen's place before the guards start patrolling the streets."

With another loud sigh, Nick started down the stairs. "I told you, mom. I am not going to Karen's. And It is very easy to get around those idiot guards."

"Nicholas P. Wilde!" she declared, putting her paw down hard on the squeaky wooden floor. "You get back here this instant. This is exactly what happened to your father. He also thought he could sneak past the guards to help out a friend after curfew."

The tod snorted loudly as he descended the stairs, completely ignoring his worrisome mother. With his heavy suitcase in paw, he carefully stepped through the front door of the tailor shop and locked it behind him. In the space of several breaths, he was once again sneaking down dark and shadowed alleys towards the meeting place.

"And why are we doing this again," the beaver asked. He was a tough looking young beaver with a long front tooth that he kept sharp and dangerous looking nails tied around his large, flat tail.

"Because my sister asked us to help bust her friend out," the scrawny rabbit answered. Despite his thin build, this rabbit looked like he could put up a tough fight. In his paws were a pair of iron bands that held vicious looking spikes around his knuckles. He also wore a spiked collar around his neck like the local street canids often did.

Punching his fists together and chomping his teeth, the beaver grunted, "I would rather be busting heads that breaking some damn pred out from that stupid wall."

Following behind the two rough mammals was another rabbit and a hedgehog with a long, extendable ladder carried between them. Laying across the ladder was a cheap, moth eaten rug and a knotted coil of rope. Hanging from one leg of the ladder was a single lantern that had shutters to cover each of the window panels.

Leading the small group of ruffians was a doe rabbit in a brightly colored sundress. She skipped along merrily in front of the group while carrying a stone with a note attached. Looking back at her brother, she remarked, "Remember what we agree, Jake? I won't tell dad who broke his favorite lamp and will let you and the boys have one of Gideons fresh pies tomorrow after you help me rescue Nick."

Huffing, Jake threw his spiked paws in the air with a shrug, "Seriously, sis. Ryan did mom a favor by bumping into that end table."

Turning around, Judy pointed the rock at her brother, "Dad loved that lamp so much he put it in the front window for everyone to see."

"That lamp was such an eyesore for the entire neighborhood. I still can't believe mom let him keep that awful thing."

Judy scoffed as she returned to leading her troops towards the giant wall that split the city. "You and mom can never understand fine art."

"Was that the doe leg lamp you dad found in a junkyard last winter?" the brutish beaver asked.

"No one asked you, Bruno," Jake said, shoving his friend with the less spikey end of his fist.

"Bring it on, Jake," Bruno pounded his fists aggressively and swished his nail studded tail.

The other two mammals dropped the ladder and the rest of their gear and began cheering on their companions, "Get him, Jake."

Stomping on the stone covered street with a large, flat paw, Judy turned and glared at the aggressive males. With a voice she had seen her mother use, she yelled at the four of them, "Boys, stop this! We are close to the wall and need to be quiet or the guards will hear us."

"Fine," the buff rabbit huffed as he lowered his fists and gave the beaver a friendly pat on the shoulder. "We can discuss this after we break this guy out."

With the scuffle temporarily halted, the other two once again lifted the heavy ladder and began to trudge along the dark alley. The hooden lantern cast it's light in front of the small troop of mammals, illuminating the loose rocks and other hazards that could be found in the ruined part of the city. Buildings were broken and crumbling while smashed street lights had fallen across the path to block the way forward.

The small group of mammals wound their way through the twisting ruins and over the remains of crumbling buildings while the sky overhead slowly turned from blue, to purple and eventually to a star filled black. No straight roads led to the secluded spot behind an old ruined apartment building that they were looking for, so they had to wind their way through the rubble.

Judy led the group through broken homes and crumbling shops that no one had bothered to repair or remove the rubble. Everything along the great wall had been long forgotten and nature quickly returned to consume everything. A jungle had not sprung up overnight but numerous weeds choked the once busy streets and tall trees now grew in the middle of long forgotten family rooms.

As the stars were beginning to twinkle overhead and all good rabbits were laying their heads on soft and fluffy pillows to begin their nightly rest, the group of miscreants arrived at a clear and otherwise ordinary section of the long wall.

Setting the heavy load of ladder, rug and rope on the ground, the hedgehog asked quietly, "Is he here?"

"Let me check," Judy whispered back. She jumped up onto an old and crumbling ledge that jutted out from the nearby building. Once she was as close to the top of the wall, she cupped her paws around the end of her muzzle and called into the night, "Nick? Are you there?"

The fox's ears perked up at the sweet, silvery sound of Judy's voice calling his name. He quickly stood up from where he had been sitting against the wall and lifted his muzzle towards the stars. "Yes, Judy. I'm here."

"How long have you been waiting?" she called back.

"Not long. Only about an hour, I think," he answered, lifting his suitcase off the ground. "What took you so long?"

Bashfully, the rabbit replied, "Sorry, we had to take a longer route to get all the supplies here without anyone spotting us."

Curiously, the fox asked, "What supplies?"

With a hint of scolding in her voice, like a mother would use on an unruly kit, Judy replied, "You will see in a minute, just hold your tail for now."

There was some scuffling and scraping noises from the other side of the wall and Nick thought he also heard several grunts while Judy continued to give orders. After a few minutes, he saw something flat and square being tossed over the sharp wires that topped the wall.

In the dead of night, with the fox's sharp eyesight, he caught his first glimpse of a rabbit. It indeed did have long ears that stood up from the back of its head like a pair of fluffy antennae on those new fangled television sets you could find in the homes of rich mammals. The soft head was round and shaped like a candy confection made from jelly that he used to love as a kit.

The beautiful sight caused the fox's jaw to drop as he was overwhelmed with blissful emotions. When he was again able to speak, the first words that came out of his mouth were, "You are very cute, Judy."

"Don't call me cute," a coarse and gruff voice replied sternly.

"That is my brother," Judy called as another, much more beautiful rabbit appeared on top of the wall.

Completely embarrassed, Nick tried to recover a hint of his lost dignity, "Of course, I knew that."

The first rabbit head looked at the second with a puzzled expression on his muzzle. "Is there actually anyone down there? I can't see a thing in this darkness."

Judy gave her brother a sharp punch in the shoulder, "Can't you hear him speaking? Now toss down the rope."

A second later, the fox saw a well knotted rope descend from the top of the wall to fall a few steps away. "Thanks," he cried back to the rabbits waiting above. With his heavy suitcase in one paw, he began to shimmy up the rope. His climbing skills were barely adequate to scale the wall, but with luggage in paw, he made terrible time and was forced to stop and rest several times.

Nearing the top, he heard a gasp from the male rabbit. "Your friend is a fox? You never said he was a fox."

"What difference does it make?" She asked, reaching to help her friend with his suitcase.

At that moment several gruff voices could be heard from an alley along with the pounding of large paws, "There is that fox, the old vixen told us about." Bright lights turned a corner illuminating a group of tigers and bears rushing down a narrow alley towards the wall.

"Oh, crap!" Judy heard her friend exclaim as he tried to scramble up the rest of the way, but his tired arms would not lift him any further.

"You there," one of the large predators called. "Get off that wall or we will open fire."

Judy jumped back onto the ladder moments before she heard a gun go off along with the sound of shattering stone where her paws had stood. Several more shots were fired and Jake joined her on the ladder, but Nick was nowhere to be seen.

She heard an "oomph" on the other side of the wall and small claws scrambling over stone.

"Go after that traitor," a large mammal order. "I will deal with this." There was a heavy tug on the rope, pulling it free of the rabbit's paws and nearly lifting the ladder into the air.

Quickly, Jake sliced at the rope before he, the ladder, and Judy were hauled over to the other side by a giant predator. A loud roar followed the cutting of the rope, and both rabbits leapt from the top of the ladder and began running into the night. Hot on their tails were the three other members of the group that had tried to rescue the fox.

Shouts and terrifying roars echoed across the ruins as the small mammals fled from the huge guards. None of the guards chased after them, but they ran as fast as they could back to the old abandoned store where the small gang hung out when they weren't getting into trouble.

The very next evening, Judy returned to site to see that the ladder, and the rug were both missing, but the lamp had been smashed into tiny bits. In her paw was the same rock that she had used to communicate with Nick for the last two years. Tied to the rock was a new note with a sincere apology for what happened last night.

Springing into the air with determination planted across her muzzle, she launched the rock and it's note over the wall in the hopes that the friendly fox would find it like he always did. With the note delivered she returned home to wait for a reply.

A week later, she returned to the usual drop spot, but found no note written in a sloppy paw tied to the rock. She even called out to the darkness but no one answered. Waiting all night she would occasionally call his name until the sun rose and tears welled up under her eyes.

With a loud sigh she trudged home to get some sleep, but returned to the wall the next night to wait for her fox. For three more weeks she waited every night for the fox to return. On the last night she found another rock and tied a new note to its rough surface before tossing it over the wall.

Several weeks passed with her tossing more notes over the wall, but none of them ever returned. Eventually she started only coming by once a month to tearfully place her paw on the wall and toss over another note. After a long time she was only sending one note a year, but she still wept for the friend she had made on the other side of the wall.

Ten years had eventually passed and she had nearly forgotten what had transpired that terrible night. She was now running the store while her parents spent most of their time taking care of the grandkids. As a homely doe, she had never married or had any kits of her own, but spent her days focused on expanding the family grocery store into a large supermarket that sold everything from clothes to household electronics.

At the end of her shift, the store's baker greeted her as they were both clocking out. He was a portly red fox with an overly friendly smile. She had known the predator almost her entire life, but they had never got along in their childhood. After their schooling years, the fox had eventually grown into a pleasant and friendly mammal.

"Good afternoon, Judy," Gideon greeted warmly.

"Hello, Gideon," the rabbit doe said while she tried to smile, but it was the anniversary of the last time she had spoken with her friend from beyond the wall. She had forgotten to write a new note this year and the memory always made her feel glum.

"Hey, Judy," the fox tried to cheer her up. "Have you seen the news today?"

"What is that, Gid?" She asked with a sigh.

With a huge grin on his muzzle, the fox rubbed his paws together excitedly. "It's been all over the news. They are tearing down the wall and the predators on the other side are free to come and go as they please."

Judy frantically patted the baker's arms as a warm light grew in her eyes. "The wall is coming down? Maybe I can go find him." She punched in her time and ran for the door without even saying farewell.

A cool breeze blew through Judy's ears as she raced through the streets. As she neared the wall a large crowd of mammals had formed, but she was easily able to pass by the taller ones. When she finally arrived at the spot where she and Nick had stayed up all night talking, she saw a pair of rhinos swinging very large hammers at the brick and stone wall.

Standing among the crowd, Judy watched the rhinos bash at the wall and slowly remove the rubble. Nearly half an hour passed as they cleared that small section of wall. Once they had passed, she could see the broken and crumbling buildings beyond.

She walked up to where the wall had once stood and looked down on the ground. Scattered across the cobble and brick surface were dozens of small rocks, each with tiny pieces of paper attached and their own pretty little bows.


[A/N] Yes, I did intend for the story to have a sad ending. This is my first attempt at a tragedy as was deliberately written as such. Many of the short stories in this compilation are experiments and a way for me to practice different styles of writing.

Stories like this are the reason I decided to add the Hurt/Comfort tag because I occasionally find romance in sadness.

Up next is a sweet little chapter that I hope you will like. I had intended to publish it today, but The Wall ended up being a lot longer that originally planned so the next one will be on March 4th.

Thank you so much for reading and leaving comments.