Nick is awoken from his slumber by a commotion happening beneath his chin. The sleepy tod blinks, trying to remove the crust from his eyes. His mind rushes to catch him up to the events surrounding him.

The second that he remembers that he's in the middle of an apocalypse, he tries to sit up but finds himself unable to.

A dull ache comes from the flurry of motion looming below his vision.

He looks down and his heart stops.

A tall, familiar set of ears sway hastily in his face, threatening to smack him. But she's not looking up at him.

Judy's attention is focused solely on the hole in his chest, where numerous innards lay scattered around for her to feast on.

He feels another forceful tug as the rabbit sticks her entire face into the hole and latches onto some piece of him, her teeth getting to work mashing the organ into smaller chunks.

Nick, as pale as a ghost at the sight of his entrails being devoured by his best friend, can only gape. Why doesn't this hurt more than it does? Shouldn't this be agonizing? All he can feel is a faint soreness coming from the area.

"Judy…?" Nick whispers, a sense of betrayal washing over him. The bunny in question finally looks up.

Her face is soaked with thick red liquid, small chunks of unknown viscera leaking down her lips. But despite this, she gives him the same bright smile she always does.

She opens her mouth to say something, but the only sound that comes out is a very familiar buzzing.

Nick blinks. What is-?

The blood-covered bunny continues buzzing at him until the source of the noise registers in his mind, snapping him awake.

Nick's eyes spring open for real and his body instinctively shoots up into a state of alertness. His ears act as radars, trying to take in any possible sounds of impending danger. But there's nothing in the room with him.

It's still dark out. There's some faint whooping and cheering coming from the city below. Nick doesn't even want to think about what would make a zombie cheer.

The door to his room is still locked tight and the chair hasn't been disturbed.

He's safe. For now.

The tired fox sighs and leans back into the warm spot he had been working on while asleep. But something tingles his thigh and he finally notices that the buzzing hasn't stopped. The same noise that had been coming from Judy now sings its annoying tune from his pocket.

He reaches into the storage slot of his pants and tugs his phone out. The electronic device continues to sing its song in Nick's paw.

The fox stares at it with wide eyes, the name of the caller burning itself into his mind.

Mom.

With a trembling grip, Nick slides his pad across the screen and answers. It takes him a few tense moments to actually lift the phone to the side of his head. The voice that comes from the other line makes his blood run cold.

"Nicky? Nicky, are you there?" his mother's voice asks him urgently. How could he have forgotten his own mother? When the world went crazy, the only other animal he could worry about was Judy.

"Mom?" Nick answers in barely a whisper.

"Nicky! Oh thank goodness! I've been texting you for hours! Where have you been?" she frets into his ear.

"I'm held up in my apartment and- mom, do you know what's going on?"

"Of course, of course!"

"And...how are you?" Nick asks in a pleading voice.

"Oh, I'm fine sweetie," she assures. Nick's entire body relaxes and he lets out a massive sigh of relief.

"Thank you…" he says to no one.

"So how are you holding together Nicky?" her familiar voice asks sweetly. Nick lets out a tired chuckle, trying to ignore the fact that the dead are walking the streets below his window.

"Still breathing, so I got that going for me at least," he laughs. His mother goes strangely quiet at these words. A pit starts to form in his gut at her unusual behavior.

"Nicholas, MuzzleTime me. Right now," she demands. From her end of the call, some shuffling can be heard, most likely from the phone being adjusted in her paws.

The alert pops up on Nick's phone, asking if he wants to accept the invite to the camera chat. He hesitantly clicks Yes and nearly drops the phone when he sees what awaits him on the other end.

He wants to cry but the tears refuse to run. He wants to scream but the sound won't come out. The only thing he can do is stare at what has become of his mother.

Instead of the beautiful, loving eyes he was so used to, a pair of empty sockets gaze back into his very soul. One of her ears is missing and the top of her head has a chunk torn out of it. It despite her monstrous appearance, he can still tell that it's her.

His mother is one of them now.

Her muzzle bumps the camera as she tries to get into position. It seems like she's trying to get a good look at him, but forgets about a very important pair of organs she's missing.

"Shoot...honey, can you tell me what Nicky looks like? I'm a bit eyeless at the moment," she says to someone else offscreen. Who is with her? Why is she calling them honey?

The face of a complete stranger pops up into the MuzzleTime screen, his wide eyes taking in every inch of Nick's apparance. He's another red fox, like Nick and his mother, but as far as he knows, Nick has never met this tod before in his life.

"Huh, that's weird. Looks like your boy's still got a pulse!" the fox says as he looks in the direction of Nick's mother.

"That's what I was afraid of! Oooh Nicky! Why are you still fighting this? I know you've always wanted to be on your own, being your own fox, but...why? Don't you know how happy you'll be if you just accept this?"

"Mom...I don't want eating other mammals to make me happy," Nick says carefully. He doesn't want to upset his mother, after all he put her through over the years.

If she still had her eyes, she'd be rolling them right now. She lets out a huff and scrunches her blood-stained muzzle a bit.

"We ate things that were once alive all the time, Nicky. This isn't much different. Also, that's not the kind of happiness I'm talking about. Being like this is just...it's so nice, sweetie. I'm happy, everyone around me is happy and nobody is at each others' throats anymore. Well, not in the metaphorical sense. Everyone's in the same boat now, and it seems the world may have finally found its peace."

Nick listens, but is partially distracted by the fact that the other fox there with his mother is actually just the head of a fox. His head is actually in great shape for a zombie, but that comes at the cost of missing the rest of his body. Nick's mother has to hold his head and turn it toward whatever they're trying to see.

"Uhh, mom? Who is that?" Nick says once his mother finishes her little speech. She turns her face towards the head in her paw and the head gives her a tiny smooch.

Nick's eyes widen.

"Oho! Where are my manners, today? Nicky, this is Corduroy! I'm sorry I didn't tell you I was seeing anyone new, but it was rather sudden, really," she explains with a smile on her muzzle. A chunk of something falls out of her teeth. Nick has to suppress his urge to vomit.

Corduroy smiles pleasantly as he's pressed against the chest of the fox holding him.

"So you're...together, then?" Nick says out loud, more to himself than to them. His mother presses her cheek to the cheek of the fox head and they share a nuzzle.

"Yep yep! He's my eyes, ears and what's left of my heart!" she sings happily. Corduroy's cheeks turn a brighter shade of grey and he gives a few embarrassed chuckles.

"That's...great, actually. Glad to see that you're happy, mom," Nick says honestly. A feeling of longing wells up in his chest as he watches the two lovebirds shower each other in as much affection as two corpses possibly can.

His mother's empty eyes turn towards the camera again.

"Oh! By the way, I saw your father," she says out of nowhere with no buildup whatsoever. Nick nearly falls off the couch. His father was the last topic he expected her to bring up in the middle of the apocalypse. After the things that his father did to her before he walked out, he was certain she would never want to think about him again.

"Oh...yeah?" Nick stutters. His mother gives him a wide smile, baring her gore-covered teeth for him to see.

"He said 'Hi.' Well, kind of. It was more like a 'hhhhiiiiieeelp meeeeee' but I think I might have heard a Hi in there somewhere!"

The lovely couple shares a pleasant laugh over the descriptions of Nick's father getting devoured alive. Nick lets out a nervous chuckle but doesn't really see the humor in it. Cosmic irony, maybe, but little humor.

At least she's happy.

At least she's happy.

"What about that bunny you're always telling us about? Is she there with you? You two roughing it out for the time being?" His mother's voice breaks through the laughter and drags his mood straight to the ground.

Why can't he feel what they're feeling? That closeness, togetherness...love.

"No…" he says weakly. His mother's empty gaze morphs into one of concern and sympathy. Even Corduroy seems a bit put out by the news.

"Oh, sweetie, I'm sorry. I know it can't be easy, being separated like that...but...you know exactly what would fix that." Nick looks deeply into the black holes in his mother's head.

"...I'm scared," Nick admits, wrapping his arms around himself supportively. He really needs a hug from someone who won't tear into his neck. His mother hums thoughtfully.

"You could always just have Judy do it if you're frightened. It's a lot easier going into the dark when you got someone there to show you the way," she says, a sliver of her normal wisdom trying to shine through. Corduroy beams at this.

"She won't leave me alone. She says that she wants to be the one to turn me but I don't know if…"

He's cut off by the two foxes on the other side of the call letting out high pitched 'Eeee' sounds. Nick quickly turns the sound on his phone down, just in case any husks might be lingering around the hallways.

"My little Nicky finally got claimed!" his mother cheers and dances in place. She swings Corduroy around, who can't dance on his own so has to whoop and follow along with her movements.

"What? Claimed...claimed what?"

"Ooooh Nicky! I can't tell you how long I've been waiting for this day! It seemed like you just wanted to keep to yourself forever, but here you are! You finally found someone and all it took was the end of the world!"

She's laughing now so he can tell part of her joy is purposely at his expense. His face burns hot as he tries to process what his mother screamed into his ear.

Claimed?

Is that what Judy is doing?

Did she claim him?

But that can't be right...she's his partner. Plus, with how many animals are being infected, there's no possible way that they're all because of some sort of claiming ritual. Most of the deaths he's seen were just random hunger followed by violent ripping.

"I...I don't…" Nick stutters.

"It's so romantic! Turning for the one you love! It's like Moleo and Juliet if they both came back after they died!"

Nick is sensing that she's gone off and lost herself in her own little world again. At least he knows for sure that it's actually her.

"Okay, mom, got to go, we're not together, BYE!" Nick stammers and goes to end the call.

"W-wai!"- Booboop

The screen goes black, leaving the upset tod looking at his own reflection. He can't help but compare his face to that of his mother's. He has all of his skin and blood intact. His mother was missing both her eyes and several other chunks. Corduroy was missing his entire body. So why is it then that the reflection in the phone looks back with such a miserable expression?

Surely, the one left alive should be the happy one. Apparently, in this new world of chaos, up is in, down is over and left is blue.

It doesn't make sense. But maybe it doesn't need to. They're happy with the way they are now and Nick is admittedly happy for them too. He hadn't seen his mother smile like that in ages.

He just wished he didn't have to see the remains of his father dripping from her grin.

The phone lights back up with another call request. He goes to silence it for the rest of the night until he sees that it's Judy calling this time.

His heart beats a little faster, but it's no longer in fear or apprehension. Nick is just happy to be reminded that even after dying, she's still around. In a way, she never really left.

She just changed a little.

And got stinky.

He swipes the screen to answer the call and places the phone back up to his ear.

"Nick! Are you okay?" Judy sounds a bit winded, even though she apparently doesn't need to breathe anymore.

"Yeah? What's up, fluff?" he responds a lot more casually than he would have before. His warmer tone towards her seems to catch her by surprise and she takes a few more moments to reply.

"Uuuuhm...nothing, just saw that you were online. Thought you were supposed to be sleeping, so I was worried. Had to make sure my favorite fox wasn't trying to call for help or something, right?"

Another wave of warmth.

"Yeah," Nick agrees, thankful that she can't see the bashful grin on his face.

"Mmkay. So why are you awake, then? Couldn't sleep?"

The memory of his nightmare flashes back into his head, making him flinch. She doesn't need to know about that, it would only make her feel bad.

"Nope, my mom called me and woke me up," he replied. It's technically the truth, the nightmare isn't what startled him awake, it was the ringtone.

"Your mom? Huh! Mm...how is she…?" By the way she's asking, Nick can tell she's being careful with her words, as to not upset him.

"She turned, if that's what you're asking," he says calmly. He can practically hear the cringe coming through the call.

"I'm sorry, Nick, I didn't mean to…"

"No, it's okay. She's pretty happy, actually. Even met someone nice in the middle of all of this."

Judy chokes on the remainder of her tongue.

"R-really? Wow! Who is he?"

"Ohh, no body you would know, I'm sure. But he makes her happy and that's all that matters to me," Nick says. His pleasant tone throughout the whole call has apparently broken Judy. Despite her usually being the one to render Nick speechless, this time it's her who is stunned into silence.

"Good...well, uhm...just wanted to check in on you. Miss you here at work, by the way. Just brought in a badger who tried to steal the wallet of a sheep he turned. We had to wait for the sheep to finish turning so we could return the wallet."

Nick stares at the far wall, unsure of how to feel about that.

"G-good work. Miss you too, by the way."

"Hope to see you at work soon!" she cheerfully declares before hanging up on her end.

To go back to work, he would have to…

Another call?

Nick swipes the screen without checking the identity. There's nobody on the other end at first, just a faint, ragged breathing.

Then a voice speaks up.

"I'm coming for you, Wilde. Don't try running. I've been waiting for my chance to pay you back for what you did, and there's no better time than the end of the world. Just sit tight."

Nick's brows crease at the very obvious attempt to fake a deep voice. The owner of the voice very obviously speaks in a very high pitched, squeaky tone. And who would have a vengeance against him at this hour?

"Hold on...Bellwether?"

"Oh mutton chops!"

Booboop

...What in the world?

Another call.

Nick swipes before the first note of the ringtone can finish.

"What?!"

"YEAH I'LL HAVE UHHHH BONELESS-."

Nick yelps and throws the phone down as an overly loud, heavily distorted voice plunges itself deep into his head. The voice continues ordering it's strange meal even without Nick on the other end.

Nick can do nothing but stare at the ceiling with both of his paws rubbing his head.

The world has fallen to chaos.

Absolute chaos.

Why does everyone have his number?!