Chapter 6

The animals shoved, pushed an rolled the various items of food back to the park. As it was now later in the afternoon then when they had initially set off, the once busy streets of Oakton had started to mirror a desert. Barely any people were around, and those that were didn't see the animals. It was Surly's job to ensure that. On through the grid they traveled with their prized haul, enough food to feed the park for the entire winter and then some, but with full arms came empty hearts.

Surly was the most frustrated out of everyone in the group as they made their way back to the tree. Even Buddy, his best friend in the whole world, dared not say anything to his companion as he fought a civil war within himself. He was utterly outraged by what had happened with Hayden, and he knew that once he needed to confront Andie about it, she wouldn't so easily forgive him. Surly was a leader, it was his solemn duty to assure everyone got home safely. Even Hayden, the only human that he had ever had some kind of relationship with, was to be brought to the mall and then escorted home without any hitches, But unfortunately for Surly, he'd lost her; bountiful nourishment for indefinite mouths, at the price of their friend. Buddy wanted to go back, but alas, he kept silent.

The sky was a glimmering gold with streaks of regal purple dabbed across it by the time everyone arrived safely back at Liberty Park. Once the threshold was crossed, the Bruisers immediately began collecting food from everyone and stacking it high for further transportation. Surly gave the order and soon caravans of animals were bringing different amounts of food they could carry, to the tree. Andie was atop the lowest hanging branch, and she watched as her fellow park residents plopped one drop of food after another into the hallow of the tree. She had ran ahead of the group after she witnessed Hayden's abduction, as without her there, Andie had no further reason to stay with the party. Her arms were crossed and her tail was curled up behind her, and there was a rainforest of regret dwelling within her green eyes. She watched as Surly approached the tree, and her ears folded back in anger. He arrived at the branch, and Andie turned away in a huff.

"Look Andie, I..."

"I don't want to hear anything you have to say, Surly. Your actions spoke for themselves." Moments into the conversation, and Andie had already placed Surly in check.

"Andie, you weren't inside the mall with us. At the critical moment she started acting out, and she nearly broke down. We had to leave her behind. We only had one chance to get it right!" He tried, but it was evident that he had failed... and his heart knew that fact far too well.

"You promised you would watch over her, Surly. And now she's been taken away by other humans to..." she paused before continuing "To who knows where! I thought you were selfish before Surly, but this," the purple squirrel held his breath for what she would say next as tears formed in Andie's eyes "This just proves to me that you really haven't changed. Now get out!" she finished before she began to cry for the poor little human girl.

Taking a hint, Surly and Buddy retreated sadly back to their tree and lounged aid the branches. Surly could sense that Buddy was hurting too, and that if anyone, Hayden had the strongest connection with the kind hearted rat. However, like Buddy had done earlier, Surly didn't say a word. He tried to debate an elaborate thesis to try an explain his choice of actions back at the mall but the former rouge couldn't bring himself to say anything to Buddy. He had already been saddened enough, and Surly couldn't find it within himself to make things worse then what had already been brought.

"I guess it might just be better this way." The purple rodent piped up "We don't have to worry about the food running out faster then planed. We took enough with the size of Hayden's stomach in mind didn't we?" Buddy just sniffled sadly and turned away, making Surly face palm himself "Alright, well... Then we don't have to worry about getting squished by her while we sleep anymore; I didn't want to say anything, but she's a roller." Buddy didn't turn around or make a peep as Surly continued "Oh, Well we don't have to worry about being stepped on by her big feet when she walks around anymore... Right?"

Buddy remained frozen. Surly sighed as he sat down and tried to think of another good reason for not having Hayden around anymore... When he realized something he hadn't considered before. None of these things had ever happened to any of the animals in the park as long as Hayden had been there. Sure she was a human being, but regardless of that she had always taken careful measures so she would never accidently step on any of the animals in the park. In doing this, Hayden also made sure that everyone was getting along. It was an unwritten rule Andie had worked out with her that she was he peacekeeper of sorts around the park.

Even though she was a young girl, Hayden still had ore then enough muscle to overpower any animal in the park; including Grayson. At the same time, many other thoughts of Hayden's time at the park and the actions that reflected her personality began to rampage across Surly's mind. Flashes of her smile, the soft kisses that she'd give the animals if they were hurt, the cool, almost whimsical sound of her humming to help put the kids to sleep; all of it came crashing down onto Surly as if he'd been uploading it via internet. His tail poofed up like electricity had zapped it and he sprang to his feet in a millisecond. He clenched his right fist and pointed up to the sky with his right index finger, smirking, and radiating with assertion.

"Buddy," his voice suddenly had a booming effect, like loud speakers. The rat hadn't acknowledged any of Surly's comments before, but the drastic change of his tone grabbed onto him, and he finally turned around and saw Surly in his pose "We're gonna go rescue our friend!" Buddy's smile became the sun for a moment, an Surly quickly felt his arms wrapping around him and hugging him tight. Buddy nearly squeezed the life out of Surly, but the squirrel simply patted his friend's head. "Okay, Okay," Surly huffed, his lungs vacate of air "Buddy, Please... let go..." Now Surly sounded like he was choking and Buddy instantly loosened up.

Buddy watched as Surly collapsed to the ground and reclaimed his breath once more, furthering his ambition. Once Surly had inhaled a sufficient amount, his ears sharpened, and he resumed his stance. "Alright then Buddy, let's go. Mr. Nutmeg's Mall ain't open all night..." And jus like that they flew from their tree towards the mall, nearly leaving fire behind in their wake. All the animas in the park were cozily nestled into their burrows and dugouts as the squirrel and rat leap over the wall that bordered Liberty Park and Oakton from one side. Gliding to the concrete sidewalk, they then scurried up a telephone pole, ran the length of wire and hopped off on the other side. Now on the roof, they began doing parkour from building to building using metal stair castings, brick lounges on the windows, and shills themselves to gracefully weave between the structures on the way to their ultimate destination.

Surly was nearly at home running the length of such a course with Buddy. To him it felt almost like old times together. Surly and Buddy, two outcasts doing something crazy, near stupid things together; and they loved every second of it.

The mall came into sight over the top of the last building, and Surly eyed it with determination. He had already decided what the plan would be. Sneak into the joint, break Hayden out of wherever they were holding her, and then scram. Simple, and easy to remember. "Ready Buddy? this cold get ugly." he reminded his companion, but the rat didn't even winch, he just started as sternly as Surly. "Alright then, let's go."

Getting off the building and running across the street, the two hustled back around the building, and luckily for them, the window was still open. Surly chuckled at the foolishness of the humans. Using some nearby box, the two jumped up onto the window ledge and fell down into the freeze room. There was a brief moment upon entering where Surly thought he had heard a voice calling out to him but he was sure that it was just the bad memories from earlier that day clinging to him. Sneakily crawling from one end of the room to the other, Surly poked his head out of the door and saw that there were no humans around. Baffled, he and Buddy climbed up out of the shop and noticed that the majority of the lights in the mall had been turned off. Surly was readying to speak, but that's when he heard a squeaking sound. Ducking out of sight, Buddy pointed out to Surly a tall man with a mustache wearing all black, and a shiny badge on his shirt. Recognizing it was a security officer, Surly told Buddy though gestures that they had to fallow him.

Agreeing, Buddy gave Surly the okay to lead, and they tailed the mall cop all the way to the other end of the mall, far away from the food locker where Hayden had been taken. Ordinary animals wouldn't questioned Surly's decision by then, but both rodents knew what they were doing. Soon enough, the cop found his way to a small corner o the mall with a giant counter. Surly couldn't read very well, but he knew it was the security depot. It had to have been, for there was a strong smell of Coffee beans and sugar reaching out from behind the door there. Surly gave Buddy another hand motion, and they easily slimmed down the mall rails from whence they'd ben fallowing the cop and trailed across he floor under the desk.

From behind it, they could hear the cops talking. Even though it was muffled, Surly could understand most of it.

"Everything clear then?" said the cop inside

"Yep, looks like." replied the one they had fallowed. "With that done I think i'll head home, who knew doing nothing all day could be so boring."

"I know, right? Nothing ever happens here."

"Well, not quite." said the second cop. Surly leapt up onto the counter with Buddy and suck out of sight. He had a hunch they were about to start talking about Hayden. "Nothing happened on this end, but did you hear the story about the little girl and the animals over there?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. What happened there?"

"Well, the animals were stealing food, but we don't know what the girl was doing back there, we saw her come in on the surveillance taps, but why she was in the back room I haven't a clue."

"Shame. Where'd she end up?"

"Eh, it's on the papers somewhere back there. I can't remember. Anyway, i'll be seeing you."

"Alright, take care sir."

With that, Surly secretly watched the cop exit the counter and punch his card. He was off for the night, and out of their hair. The second cop though, that one remained, doing some extra reports by the looks of it, lingered over his desk. Surly looked and there was another door that lead into a back room. Presumably, that was where he'd find the info on Hayden's location. Unfortunately, the door was closed, and Surly didn't have the muscle to open it on his own. He'd have to wait until the cop opened it for him. And so there he sat with Buddy waiting. It felt like half an hour or so, maybe more before the cop yawned and got up, turning towards the door. With a quickly motion he reached out and turned the nob, sliding the door open. Surly and Buddy jumped out of hiding and swiftly bolted in after the man, and then slowly hid again after entering. The man turned adjacently and opened another door and closed it. Surly disregarded it. Now they had access to the papers. Surly crawled out of hiding and opened the drawer, looking though all the file names.

"Gah," he exclaimed "It's been a while since I've had to read anything. I hope I can make sense of all these letters. Let me see, recent files are mostly likely in the top drawer towards the front... so," he ran his finger across the length of the folders and came to he very first one. Pulling It out of the drawer and plopping it up on the desk, Surly looked over the may cases filed over the day. Surly was indeed having a hard time making sense of the human words, but the few he did understand he scoffed at. "Wow," that rent-a-cop was right. Nothing happens in this place. That thing with Hayden we pulled must have made their lives working here."

Scrolling thought the sentences, Surly thought he finally saw the word 'food'. He continued to read on and recognized another word 'steal'. After that, there was a series of words he knew, though not quite in the order they were placed in. They were 'Move', 'Car,' 'kid,' 'girl' and 'park'. Having put the pieces together, the imaginary light bulb over Surly's head rung like a church bell. "Buddy, Hayden's been moved to the police station a few blacks away from Liberty Park. They brought here there a few hours ago with one of their police cars. Duh!" he said and smacked his cheek "Of course they did. Why did I think that they'd be keeping her here? Eh, whatever. let's go Buddy!"

They sprang up to leave, but then they heard the knob on the other door turn. Going stiff for a moment, the cop came though the door and saw them. With wide eyes, he stared at them and Surly, in a panic, whispered to Buddy "Quick, defense maneuver 39!" in a flash, the two broke out dancing, as hey had done the first time seeing Maury's Nut Shop. Bewildered, the cop rubbed his eyes and they were gone.

"Whoa, I better get home, I'm starting to see things. This job's really overworking me." the cop turned the lights off and closed the door.

In actuality, Surly and Buddy had waited for the cop to rub his eyes, and in that moment had sprinted out the door and outside onto the street. Surly looked around, he knew where the police station was, but wasn't sure how to get there from the mall. "Hey Buddy, looks like we're going to have to go back to the park and start from there."

Buddy nodded. Surly did the same, and then they were off into the darkness of the oncoming autumn night.