Before we begin, I want to give a thank you to ZAA's proofreaders for reading this one. And thank you to the people who have reviewed, given kudos, and followed.

CHAPTER 7: HAREFORD AND BADGERBURROW

The Martians were clearly in no hurry to advance onward, now confident that we had nothing they had to be afraid of. And every twenty-four hours would simply bring them more reinforcements, allowing them to push further towards Zootopia. In hindsight, the thought did cross my mind that had they just pressed on, with their reinforcements playing catch-up, then they would have reached Zootopia a lot sooner and still would have been a formidable force for conquest.

In that moment, though, I carried on, stumbling in pain, half-blinded by the steam, away from the flaming ruins of Haybridge. Zootopia was still at least one hundred and seventy miles away, and I no longer had a quick way of getting there, now that the truck was destroyed. Thankfully, I wasn't in immediate danger now the Fighting-Machines had retreated temporarily. I stumbled into an abandoned store, found the bathroom and doused myself in cold water to ease the stinging from the scalding. A first-aid kit was next to a mirror above the sink, and I took it, applying some burn ointment to exposed areas that still throbbed. Once I was done, I found a couch out the back, and I collapsed into an exhausted, yet haunted sleep.

I woke up after what I thought must have been hours. The fires of Haybridge had petered out. The sky outside was a dusky red, indicating that evening was falling. I checked my phone for the time and realised I had slept through an entire day. I resolved to find myself some new transportation. I remembered Jack, who had been caught with the other mammals fleeing Haybridge, and wondered if he had even made it out. He had to have been in the crowd when the Heat-Ray had been unleashed upon it. Surely, he had been burned.

Getting up, I resolved to find a vehicle to take me back, but first I needed supplies. I looked in the front of the store. Luckily, it had painkillers and bandages, as well as drinks and food, so I took what I thought I might need. Thankfully, I was still carrying my wallet, so I took out a few bills and slipped them into a slot on the cash register. I took a couple of the painkillers, downed them with some of the bottled water, put the remainder of my purchases into a tote bag under the counter and hauled it out. My next concern was transportation. There was a motorbike behind the store, its keys in the ignition. I wondered if whoever owned the bike had gone to ride it, been distracted by the oncoming Martian assault, and had instead fled on foot.

I went back inside, and scrawled a note:

Hi, I'm stuck in Haybridge following the attack, and I need to get back to Zootopia. I've left money in your till for supplies, and I'm borrowing the bike left out the back. I don't know if it's yours or not, but I will get it back here once I'm done. If you need to, you can contact my Chief from Zootopia Police Precinct One. Give him my name (Judy Hopps).

I slotted the note into the register, alongside the money I had left, and headed back outside towards the bike. I started it and rode away. If I was lucky, and I hoped I was, then I could make for Hareford at least before the Martians turned back this way and resumed their onward march.

As I rode through the streets of what was left of Haybridge, I noticed more than smoke crawling along the ground. There was a strange, red vine that had taken root. As I've said in the past, plant husbandry is a big thing in my family, so I knew a lot about the various different types of plants, but I had never seen anything like this before. I was prepared to write it off as some sort of weed, but it was far more aggressive than anything I had ever seen. When I stopped to look, I saw it was growing very quickly, spreading out and covering every scrap of ground, and snaking its way up the sides of buildings. Right before my eyes, single branches soon split into many as the red weed kept crawling, crawling, crawling…

It was obvious that this red weed had come from Mars, but I didn't know whether it had been brought over deliberately by the Martians, or whether it was simply spread so easily that it had been brought over entirely by coincidence. Either way, it had seeded itself in the places the Martians had already been, and had grown rapidly. If it was left to its own devices, it would surely overtake the plant life native to our planet – even faster-growing plants, like the infamous Japanese Knotweed – which can grow ten centimetres in a day and has strong roots capable of growing even through concrete, or forced rhubarb – grown first in frozen conditions to toughen the roots and then transplanted indoors into low light to force it to grow quicker. None of those could possibly hope to compete with the speed at which the red weed grew.

I could see the red weed stretched not just over the land, but over the river, strangling the movement of the water. And in the distance, I could see a solitary Fighting-Machine, with its back turned. So sure were the Martians that they were invulnerable to our weapons, that they felt comfortable turning away from the direction an attack was most likely to come from.

I rode east, away from the Fighting-Machines and the burning husk of Haybridge. I noticed the red weed had taken over the fields to the east as well, stretching towards the horizon. I couldn't help but marvel at the speed at which it had spread. It had clawed its way up the trees lining the fields and roads, turning what was once a green, vibrant land into a blood-red scene. It was as if I was driving through another planet. The thought came to me that perhaps this plant was what had given Mars its red colour.

As the road rose up a hill, I could see the tops of the tripods to the north of Haybridge, watching over something. There was smoke rising from behind the trees, in the same way it had back on Horsell Meadow, and I realised that another cylinder, the third one, had landed the same night I had been scalded. They were building something there, and I did not care to find out whether they were constructing more of their titans, or something else.

I got outside Haybridge, along the long, open road that connected Haybridge to the eastern town of Hareford and the village of Badgerburrow. The roads were deserted, with not even a sighting of the usual intertown traffic. Any mammal that had managed to escape Haybridge and the Martians had likely run for the hills by this point.

Within an hour, I had reached Hareford, and out of habit, I checked my phone. It was midday. I was still over a hundred miles out from my destination of Zootopia, but having a vehicle made closing that distance all the easier.

It actually took me a moment to realise that my phone had a signal – which it hadn't since the Martians had opened their cylinder back on Horsell Meadow. My first instinct was split between whether to phone Nick and let him know I was safe, or to try and contact my family in the hopes that they had survived the Martians' advance, and that they would be able to answer.

I chose the latter, and dialled Mom's phone.

'The number you have dialled is currently unavailable due to technical issues. Please hang up and try again later.'

"I should have expected it wouldn't have been that easy," I muttered to myself. Next, I dialled Nick's phone number. It rang for a short while, and then he picked up.

"Judy, is that really you?"

Nick only ever called me Judy when he was worried.

"Yes. I'm alive, and I'm… mostly fine," I answered.

"We've all been watching the news, right up until it cut out. I can't believe what I watched! And then we heard that Bunnyburrow had been burned to the ground. I thought you might be…"

"I'm a little battered and bruised, and I got caught in some steam, but I'm okay. I'm making my way back now."

"Judy, your family…"

"They're safe," I said, hoping that I had managed to keep any uncertainty out of my voice. "But, Nick… they destroyed Haybridge too, and I saw another cylinder. I think… they're coming your way. Even the army and the air force couldn't stop them."

"Where are you?"

"I'm in Hareford. I'll be back in Zootopia in a couple of hours."

"Well, be careful. The city's already in a frenzy over what's gone on out there, and what happened is over two hundred miles from us. And, hey. Just in case… well, you know how the cliché goes, so I'd better say it. I love you, Carrots."

"I love you too, you silly fox."

A small tear trickled down my face at the thought that I might not see Nick again. I hoped we could both get through this, but the Martians were relentless in their desire for exterminating all of mammalkind.

Kicking the bike back into life, I continued on through Hareford. The town was deserted, perhaps in anticipation of what was coming. Red weed had made it this far too, though it had yet to grow any further. Even if communications had been blocked while near the Martians, word of what had happened to both Bunnyburrow and Haybridge must have gotten this far, at least. I checked the gas metre, and there was enough to at least get me to the next village over, Badgerburrow, which would then put me on a straight course to Zootopia. Even if I had enough gas, I figured I should at least top up the tank, and so I found myself at a gas station not far from the route I needed to go to get there. Like the rest of the town, it was abandoned. I filled the tank up, headed inside and slipped another note and money into the cash register there as well.

Setting off again, I headed down empty roads, leaving Hareford and finding myself once again out in the country. It only took me thirty minutes to reach Badgerburrow, which was abandoned as Hareford was, but unlike Hareford, fires consumed many of the buildings. It was a much smaller village, close in size to the centre of Bunnyburrow. The red weed had not made it this far, but the familiar smoke rose from the north, indicating that another cylinder had landed – the fourth cylinder. It made sense as to why Badgerburrow now sat abandoned with that cylinder and its passengers looming over the village, and I guessed that the Martians within had similarly loosed the Heat-Ray from within their vessel as they had done back on Horsell Meadow. I couldn't stay long – I knew that, even though their allies were further to the west, it wouldn't be long before these Martians had their Fighting-Machines ready to burn the rest of the village away.

As I drove past one of the few buildings still untouched by fire, a place with a banner that read 'The Sett', I noticed something that caused me to stop: a single body, laying in the doorway of that building. I stopped, jumped off the bike and went over to them. It was the body of a female honey badger in what looked like combat clothing. Dried blood clung to the fur of her head. If she was left where she was, she would soon be overcome by the approaching red weed or cremated by the Martians. So, I decided I could at least spare some time to bury her properly.

I prepared to haul her onto a nearby grass, and so I was shocked when her eyes flickered open. She was alive!

"Wh… What…" the honey badger stammered, trying to push herself up to her feet.

"What happened here?" I asked. The honey badger stumbled as she stood upright, a paw to her head where she had been bleeding. She examined it.

"Green flash… then… a stampede…" She replied. "Must have gotten knocked out in the rush by that old goat that came in bleating about it… not much better than sheep, if you ask me."

"We need to get inside, now," I said. "The Martians have landed not far away, and they'll soon be here."

As I helped the honey badger inside, I considered our predicament. In helping her, I had extended the length of time it would take for me to get back to Zootopia. While I felt a yearning to get to Nick, to make sure he was alright, to help get the city prepared or evacuated, I had surely done the right thing in stopping to help this lone mammal.

I hoped that things wouldn't get worse. But hope is only so powerful.