The rain almost feels like hail as it pelts Shenzi's body. Her fur is soaked. Her heart is pounding so hard that she wonders if it's about to punch straight through her rib cage and flop down on the ground. But she keeps on running. Every breath fills her lungs with more and more pain. She wonders if her paws will start to bleed soon. But she doesn't stop running. The rain blurs the world around the three hyenas and they can barely see what's ahead. Where are they going? How long have they been running? Shenzi doesn't know anymore. At this point, she's not even sure why they keep running at all.
After all, Pride rock is far behind them now. The lions haven't bothered to follow them after the surviving hyenas scattered and fled in all directions. They had no reason to. They knew, just as Shenzi knows, that the hyenas had lost. They knew, just as Shenzi knows, that the power the hyenas had over the Pride lands is gone. He betrayed them, but without Scar, there is nothing left. Without Scar, they are nothing. And now, he is dead. Ripped apart. His flesh has left a smokey taste in Shenzi's mouth that refuses to go away. She wants to spit that taste right out of her mouth, but her throat is too parched.
"Stop! Stop!"
Shenzi's lungs ache and her words only come out as a hoarse whisper. But somehow, Banzai still hears her. He almost trips as he immediately stops. For a few moments, he just stands there, gasping for air. His eyes are wide and he blinks a couple of times before he collapses on the ground. Ed, on the other hand, keeps on running. It takes him a few moments to realize that he has left his two companions behind. Despite his obvious exhaustion, he gives them an awkward grin as he walks back on tired, unsteady legs. As he grins, pieces of skin and flesh from a lion can be seen stuck between his teeth. Shenzi looks away.
"Let's… let's rest for a while," she says between heavy breaths before she too collapses on the ground. Ed looks from Shenzi to Banzai and back to Shenzi before he follows their example.
None of the three hyenas say anything as they lie in the mud. They just lie there, listening to the pelting of the rain and their own exhausted gasps. As the pain in her chest slowly starts to fade, Shenzi realizes how thirsty she is. So she rolls over on her back, opens her mouth and lets the raindrops fall on her dry is some kind of irony to it all, she thinks. How long had they looked up at the skies these past few months, hoping and wishing for rain? And now that they finally got that rain they had hoped for, they lost everything else.
Banzai watches her for a few moments before he crawls over to a puddle to drink, Ed is quick to follow him.
"Damn it, Ed, find your own puddle!" Banzai exclaims when Ed pushes his head against him to also reach the water in the puddle. "They are everywhere! Why do you have to drink from mine?"
He pushes Ed's head away and Ed responds by pushing back. Banzai pushes him again and tries to drink. Ed puts his paws on Banzai's head and dunks it into the puddle. He lets out a wild guffaw as Banzai spits out water and coughs. Banzai growls and for a moment it looks like he's about to pounce. Then he just shakes his head.
"I'm too tired for this," he mutters.
Shenzi ignores them. The water doesn't quell her thirst and it doesn't get rid of that taste in her mouth. She straightens up, spits, and raises her gaze. Pride rock can still be seen in the distance, blurred into shades of blue and gray in the rain.
She's not sure how long she sits there, just looking at that rock. But suddenly Banzai sits down beside her.
"Guess we're back at the bottom of the food chain," he says.
"Guess so."
He shakes his head and opens his mouth as if to say something, but then closes it again. He repeats this two times before any words finally come out.
"Damn it… So what do we do now?"
"I don't know."
"But where do we go?"
"I don't know."
"Well, what do we do then?" he exclaims, stamping his feet on the ground in frustration.
"I just said, I don't know!"
Banzai sighs and his body seems to deflate as his moment of anger and frustration gives way to something else. His head sinks low and he stares into the ground. Shenzi glances at him with a scoff.
"You think there's any food to be found around here?" he adds quietly after a moment of silence.
"Doesn't look like it."
Banzai looks around, as if a gazelle might suddenly just walk right up to them, ready to be eaten. Ed looks around too for a moment, before he walks up to sit beside his two companions. There is an uncertainty in his eyes, but he still grins at Shenzi, a piece of Scar's flesh still dangling from the corner of his mouth. Shenzi looks away. She scrapes her tongue against the roof of her mouth, but that taste still lingers.
The pain in her chest has almost faded now. The darkest of the clouds have passed them by and are now slowly drifting off into the distance. The rain that felt like hail soon fades into a drizzle. Shenzi looks down on the muddy ground, and then back up at the distant Pride rock again. For most of her life, she had only seen it from afar. It had been a place they had avoided at all costs. Then, for a while, it had been the closest thing to a home she had ever known. Now it is a place to avoid again. She lets out a sigh. Home? She hadn't realized it had felt like home until it was already gone again.
The other two hyenas look at her, but they don't say anything. She knows they are waiting for her to speak, to tell them what to do, but she doesn't say anything either. What is she supposed to say?
"Soo…" Banzai says after a long silence. "You know what I think we should do?"
"Let me guess. Find something to eat?"
"Exactly!" Banzai doesn't seem to pick up on the sarcasm in her voice.
Ed nods enthusiastically, as if they hadn't discussed the lack of food nearby just moments ago.
"Ah, I'd do anything to sink my teeth into a wildebeest right now…" Banzai continues, smiling at the thought. "I haven't had a proper meal in ages. Well, except for ol' Scar of course…"
Both Banzai and Ed laugh. Ed finds it so funny that he stamps a paw against the ground.
"Not that," Banzai continued, still laughing. "Not that he was much of a meal, was he?"
Ed shakes his head, still giggling.
"Just skin and bone like the rest of us. And… and there wasn't much chance to get a good piece of him either. Not when the whole pack wanted to taste the flesh of a king. Wow, we really just ripped him to shr-"
"Shut up, will you?" Shenzi barks.
"You shut up!" Banzai barks back with a tone of both surprise and hurt in his voice. "What did I do?"
Shenzi rolls her eyes and opens her mouth to say something. Then she changes her mind.
"Nevermind," she mutters and lays down on the wet, muddy ground again.
She stares off into the distance for a moment before she closes her eyes. In that moment, she wishes that she could just escape from it all. Escape from the hunger in her belly and the cold mud that sticks to her fur. Escape from that taste in her mouth and from all those thoughts that fill her mind even though she can't even put any of them into words.
A wet paw, probably Ed's, gently prods her, but she doesn't open her eyes.
"Leave me alone," she mutters. "Just leave me alone."
"But…" she hears Banzai say. "But Shenzi…"
"Go and find yourselves some food," she mumbles. "I'll just stay here."
A moment of silence. Then she hears Banzai's voice again.
"Wh-what's up with you?"
She opens her eyes and glances up at him. He looks genuinely confused, and a bit worried even.
"I don't know." Her gaze once again shifts back to the distant rocks. "Maybe I thought we wouldn't have to go running for our lives again. Maybe I actually believed him when he said we'd never go hungry again. Maybe…"
She falls silent and shakes her head.
"Maybe what?" Banzai says.
Shenzi sighs.
"Maybe part of me actually believed him when he said he was our friend."
Banzai snorts and follows her gaze to also look at the silhouette of Pride rock. Ed still just looks at Shenzi. Shenzi looks back at him. For once, she's not sure how to read the expression on his face. She recognizes both his look of confusion and worry, but there is something else there too. Something almost sad.
"Ah, well," Banzai says. "Never trust a lion, right?"
"I guess…"
"Come on, Shenzi," he continues and pokes her in the side. "Who needs that lyin' lion anyway? Huh? We don't need anyone!"
"I guess…" Shenzi says quietly. "I'm just sick of it, you know? I'm sick of gnawing on bones. I'm sick of being exhausted, hungry and barely alive. I'm… sick of it all."
"Yes, well…" Banzai says with a shrug, apparently without knowing what to say next.
"Nothing is ever going to change, is it?" Shenzi continues. "We almost wiped out the entire lion dynasty. We took over the Pride lands. And yet here we are. Just as cold, hungry and miserable as ever. So what was the point?"
Ed lets out a soft whine and lies down next to her.
"The only thing that changed is that a lot more animals are dead now…"
She clears her throat and spits on the ground.
"...and that I can't get rid of this stupid taste in my mouth," she adds.
Banzai looks at her for a few moments before he walks away with a sigh. Ed rests his head on Shenzi's shoulder. She's not sure what he's trying to accomplish. Banzai just paces around for a while before he comes back up to them.
"You know what the point is?" he says, and now he sounds almost angry. "The point is that we survived. Who cares about all those dead lions and hyenas and whatever anyway? Who cares? They didn't survive - we will. We always do."
He lies down next to the other two with an annoyed snort. Shenzi isn't sure where this sudden outburst comes from. Now all three of them look away into the distance.
"I'm sick of just surviving," she mutters.
"Yeah, well, what else is there to do?" Banzai mutters back.
Ed just lets out a deep sigh. Shenzi thinks of words like friends and home. Trust. She almost scoffs as she thinks about them. Scoffs at how she had allowed some part of herself to ever believe they could be relevant words in her life. Those are not things survivors need to think about.
The mud sticks to Shenzi's body as she gets up on her feet and tries to shake off some of the water in her fur.
"Alright," she says. "I'm done. Let's go."
Ed immediately jumps up, ready to follow her lead. Banzai frowns in confusion.
"Go where?" he says.
"I don't know."
"But what-"
"For the last time, I don't kn-"
"Yeah, yeah, alright," Banzai says and gets on his feet. "Let's go then."
The rain has passed and it's easier to see where they are going, even if none of them have ever been there before. Shenzi turns around and takes a final look at Pride rock before she turns her back on it. She spits on the ground one final time. That smokey taste is still there, but maybe that's just how things are. Maybe that is just something you have to live with when you are a survivor.
Together, the three hyenas walk away into the distance. They don't know what they'll find or where they'll end up. But at least they know that they are survivors, and that they'll survive this too. Even if they have to devour those they'd otherwise call friends to do it.