Deathtouched – Chapter 35
Abby sighed despondantly as she headed back to her room. She'd taken pictures and videos of their children religiously since they came to Bunnyburrow so that she could share their growth with Zoe when she returned. With Nick and Judy though, she could Muzzletime them and they could see the kits in real time. Today Faith had started walking on her own and Abby's joy at this milestone warred with her sadness at Zoe's absence. Zoe, the doe that had entered her life so suddenly and gloriously. The doe that gave her unconditional love, a home, family, wives, a husband, and children. Zoe had given her more than she had dreamed of prior to their meeting. Abby loved Nick and Judy, she even loved Gabriel already, but Zoe would always carry a special place in her heart.
"ABBY!" Shouted a voice right next to her. Jumping, she turned toward the voice, her hand over her pounding heart to see Candace standing in front of her, looking at her worriedly.
"Chewsticks Candace! You scared my tail off!" Abby exclaimed, trying to get her heart back under control.
"I'm sorry Abby, but I tried calling your name three times already. You've been walking in a daze for the last thirty minutes; you've walked around the Hub twice."
"Sorry." Abby said as she looked down at the hallway floor. "I was just thinking about how much I miss Zoe."
Candace sighed and said, "We all do Love." And then pulled Abby into a hug. Abby melded herself against Candace and relished the feeling of being held.
"C'mon, you're going to spend the night with Gloria and me. And your tail is too cute to fall off."
x~x~x~x
"And right there is a guard post, there are several more, each spaced about a thousand hundred yards apart. We won't be able to get around it since the surrounding area is all farmland and almost flat, not even corn growing at the moment. There are four guards for each shift, night shift has two puma's and two wolves and are equipped with binoculars. They also have a weird looking cart of some sort nearby." Cadeus, a under-priest and one of their scouts drew in the dirt, showing them the general layout of the way ahead.
"And their patrols are more frequent, I would say we're getting close to the city." He added.
Zoe thanked the scout and told him to go eat and get some rest. She stared down at the crudely drawn map along with Gabriel, Elrick, Sigrid, and a few others. She looked up at them, each in turn, and asked. "I'm thinking that the weird cart is a vehicle of some sort, a car or truck." Zoe could see the questioning expressions on all of them except Gabriel, who nodded.
"A vehicle, such as a car or truck, is like a self-powered cart that doesn't require pushing or pulling. So, does anyone have any ideas on how to get past these guard shacks without being spotted?"
Reluctantly, all of them had to admit to a loss of any. Zoe sighed, staring back down at the map and then said, "Well, not the way I'd envisioned it happening, but it seems to me that it's time to knock on their door. Let's rest up tonight, then in the morning, we can eat and dress up in our formal robes. Hopefully, that will make an impact on the troops and get us in to see someone in authority. We'll pack up and hide what we don't want to take right now, just in case. Also, we'll keep the scouts out should their assistance be necessary."
As Gabriel and Zoe lay with each other that night, cuddling close together, he asked her. "Are you sure about this Z?"
Zoe sighed into his chest fur, relishing his scent. "No, but sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith my Love."
"I'm worried. For you, for our wives and husband, for our kids."
Zoe smiled as she nuzzled deeper into his chest, her paw coming up to rub him right in front of her muzzle. She loved how he addressed everyone as if they were already married. "I am too, and I miss them something awful. But unless we go forward, we can't go back."
x~x~x~x
The next morning, the group packed and buried everything they weren't taking with them, including Zoe and Gabriels dart guns and ammo. Gabriel helped Zoe get dressed in her High Priestess robes and kissed her after helping her put on her mantle showing the symbols of Melinoe.
After the kiss, he pulled back and, with a look full of love, said, "I love you Zoe Bree Darkwater-Hopps."
"And I love you Gabriel Liam Loper." Zoe told him as she raised a paw to his cheek, caressing his fur there with her thumb, giving him the same love filled gaze.
They kissed once more, a quick, chaste kiss, but still full of love and meaning. Then Zoe rallied the group of priests and, heading out of their hide, walked out onto the road and began walking down the center section toward the guard posts.
Less than an hour later, they could see a smallish type building on the horizon. As they got closer, they could make out a barrier blocking the road as well as a vehicle of some sort parked somewhat behind and to the side of the building itself, it was too large to be called a shack.
Garrett was really getting into the book now. Normally, he'd read a page, look up and scan the area through the windows, and then read another page. But this book, 'Lady Catterley's Lover', was very engrossing, and he'd just gotten to the part where Lady Catterley and her gardener were finally about to do it. The erotic nature of the book was very enticing, but Garrett also felt that it was wrong of Constance to cheat on her husband because he was paralyzed from the waist down. As a soldier, he hoped his wife wouldn't do that to him if something were to happen.
Thus, it was several pages before Garrett looked up to scan the area, only to see a group of mammals walking down the middle of the road and not more than a hundred yards away. Garrett tossed the book down on the counter in front of him and grabbed the binoculars. It was a mixed group of mammals, predators and prey, all walking in a group. Which was rather strange outside of the walls of Omnivoria.
Then, he noticed the mammal in front of the group as if leading them. It was a rabbit with midnight dark fur with some kind of white marking on her head, and what looked like white eyes. If she's blind, how is she leading the group? Garrett thought. But he had a duty, so he yelled out, "Corporal!"
Corporal Neville Sinjin of His Majesty's Defense Force, jumped out of the rack where he'd been taking a nap at the sound of Garrett yelling his rank with a bit of warning in it. He grabbed his gun belt and buckled it on while coming out of the small room.
"What is it Private?" He asked as he looked out through the window and saw the group coming toward them. He knew right away what had happened. "Private, when this is over, we're going to have a talk about your dedication to your duty."
Garrett felt sheepish since Neville had been letting him read as long as he kept alert. Now that would probably be in the past sadly enough. Guard duty was boring enough as it was.
"Sorry Corporal Sinjin. The group consists of a mix of predator and prey species, being led by what appears to be a blind rabbit."
"Blind you say? Bollocks. Get Thaddeus and get out there, make sure they don't come too close. Take your rifles." Neville then opened the door to the radio room. "William, contact dispatch and let them know we have a group of mixed species mammals approaching our post, intentions unknown at this time. Then grab the binoculars and make sure these mammals are alone."
Neville exited the building just as Garrett barked out the command for them to stop.
Zoe could tell when they were noticed when two of the guards, the wolves to be exact, exited the building with helmets on and carrying rifles, which were brought up and leveled at the group. Both of them had grey fur, but with different markings. Zoe could hear a rapid cranking noise coming from inside the building, followed by a voice telling someone what was happening. When a tinny voice began asking questions, Zoe understood that it was some kind of telephone system.
When Zoe, who was in front of the group came within about fifty feet, one of the guards barked out. "Halt! Identify yourselves or you will be shot!"
Zoe could see the rifles and, probably because of a gift from Ares, noted what kind they were. They were similar to the German WWII Karabiner 98b Bolt action rifles with a stripper clip of approximately 5 rounds of ammo. Effective range was slightly over 550 yards, and they could fire about 15 rounds per minute. She let her sight slip through to the astral plane just enough to see their intentions, such as whether they planned on shooting them anyway. If that was the case, she'd have to end up taking steps and then figure something else out.
As if they had rehearsed it, the entire group stopped at the same time. Zoe raised her paws and said in a loud voice, not quite yelling, "I am Zoe Bree Darkwater-Hopps, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Zootopia, the High Priestess of Melinoe, Oracle of Apollo, and Chosen of the Gods."
Zoe had decided to leave the part about being Thanatos, Avatar of Death, out of her address for fear it would send the wrong impression.
Zoe smiled and continued with a slight pause. "We surrender."
A puma, whose uniform shirt bore two thin stripes on the upper sleeve, ordered them to come forward, one at a time, to be searched for weapons. Zoe went first, keeping her paws up. As the puma covered her with his pistol, the wolf slung his weapon and proceeded to search her, first waving his paws in front of her eyes, thinking she was blind.
Not having that happen since she'd first shown up in Zootopia, Zoe was a little startled but responded with, "Please don't do that, I can see just fine thank you."
The wolf glanced at the puma with the stripes on its sleeve then proceeded to continue with his search, pulling off her backpack. As his paws ran over her body, Gabriel began to growl, causing the other wolf to swing the barrel of his weapon over and point it at him.
"Peace!" Turning her head toward Gabriel, she added. "Gabriel, this is necessary."
The wolf sniffed her, making Gabriel growl again, but stopping when Zoe looked back at him once more. The wolf then looked at Gabriel and said, "You smell like him."
Zoe smiled. "I should, he's my fiancé and mate."
The wolf, startled, drew his head back and then looked at the puma. "Her and the coyote are mates." he stated unnecessarily, causing the other two to look at each other in shock.
The last guard mammal exited the building and informed everyone that transport was on the way to carry the mammals to Headquarters for interrogation.
Zoe winced and said, "Well, that sounds like it can be painful."
The puma snorted. "We're not Predburg, we don't torture prisoners."
Zoe smiled at the puma. "That's good to know. It should make things easier. May I have your name?"
The puma looked at the bunny, not sure what to make of her. "You can't read my name tape? I'm Corporal Sinjin of His Majesty's Defense Force."
"While I can speak your language, being able to read it is something else."
The one wolf finished searching her, including the pockets of her mantle where she kept the photos of her family she had brought with her.
"You, the tigress, come here and prepare to be searched!" The wolf that had searched her snapped.
Sigrid looked confused, so Zoe called out. "Sigrid, he said to come and get ready to be searched."
The puma looked at Zoe, then at Sigrid who started slowly coming forward with her paws up as well. "Does your companion not understand our language?"
"I don't know." Zoe answered. "These are the remains of the priests that escaped the pogrom your ancestors were involved in. They've been in hiding for the last 420 years or so."
Zoe looked up at Sigrid. "Sigrid, can you understand what they're saying?"
Sigrid shook her head, "Not really. Some of the words sound familiar but..."
Zoe turned to the Puma in charge. "She says that some of your words sounds familiar, she just can't make out what they mean."
"Then how do you speak our language so well?"
"As I said, I am The Chosen. I have gifts from the gods, and one of them is that I can understand any language that is spoken to me, as well as reply in the same language."
"Well, I don't know these 'gods' you speak of, but that is an incredibly useful talent to have."
Having found a possible source of information, Zoe tried a few probing questions. "If I may say, you don't seem all that surprised to see predators and prey mammals coexisting."
"It used to be that way." Corporal Sinjin said. "But it all changed about a hundred and fifty years ago."
"So, you don't eat prey animals anymore?"
The puma looked at her and answered, "That's a bit complicated, and I'll leave it up to my superiors to answer that."
Zoe smiled wryly, at least she'd gotten the answer to a major question she had, that of the state of predator/prey relations.
It was rather slow going, getting all of the group searched as the wolf, whose name turned out to be Thaddeous, was rather meticulous in his duty, doing all but a body cavity search. When he finished, he yelled to the puma in charge. "They're unarmed Corporal!"
Neville thought it rather strange that a group may have passed through Predburg territory unarmed, but the how and why was above his paygrade. He had them sit together while Garrett and Thaddeus kept them covered with their rifles. While the weapons were no longer pointed at them, the two wolves looked ready to swing them back into position at a moment's notice.
Zoe tried to make small talk, but they refused to answer any questions, just saying that they were going to be taken and interrogated. While Zoe didn't feel all that comfortable with the prospect of being interrogated, it was a long cry from being told they were going to be arrested and thrown in jail.
About forty-five minutes later, Zoe heard the sounds of vehicle engines in the distance. 'Hmm, sounds like gasoline engines. Large engines, probably trucks of some sort'. She thought. The engines quickly became louder so that the mammals that didn't have bunny hearing could hear the engines, turning their heads toward the noise.
When Zoe caught sight of the two trucks, she noticed how eerily similar they were to the old U.S. Army 2 ½ ton cargo trucks known as deuce-and-a-half trucks.
They stopped about thirty feet from where the group was sitting, and a lioness exited the lead truck on the passenger side. She was dressed in a crisp uniform matching the guards at the post, but she had three stripes instead of the two that Corporal Sinjin had.
Corporal Sinjin trotted up to her, snapped to attention, and saluted.
"Report!" The lioness snapped, returning the salute.
"Yes Sergeant!" Neville barked out as he dropped his salute. He then began to relay everything that had happened once they caught sight of the mixed group of mammals. Garrett was relieved that Neville left out about his reading on duty, maybe his pastime wasn't in dire straits after all.
As he reported, several other mammals, all predators, exited the trucks. To Zoe, it looked like there were enough mammals to have four of them in the back of each truck, probably to prevent any escapes. Not very trusting these Omnivorians.
After Neville had finished his report, the sergeant looked at the group and asked, "Who's in charge here?"
Zoe stood up and answered. "That would be me ma'am. I am Zoe Bree Darkwater-Hopps, Ambassador Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary from the city state of Zootopia, here to speak to your leaders."
Naomi was startled when the blind rabbit with dark fur and a weird marking between her ears stood up. To find predators and prey in such a large group wasn't normal, especially given how they were dressed. She noted the markings on the front of the robes of the majority of the mammals, some of which looked familiar but didn't recognize the markings on the clothing worn by the rabbit doe, which was different from the others. The only other one not matching was the male coyote, who was wearing what appeared to be rather normal clothing, if not of a style that Naomi was used to.
"My orders are to bring you to headquarters where you will be questioned. Don't attempt any violence or try to escape, if you do, you will be shot."
"We don't plan any violence, and we will happily tell you what we know. There's no need for threats Sergeant."
"No threats ma'am, a warning."
They were divided up between the two trucks and Zoe assumption was proven correct as four soldiers sat in the back of the trucks, two in front and two in back. There was a bit of an argument when they were going to put Gabriel in the truck away from Zoe. When Sergeant Tihms found out, she was astonished. A predator and a prey as mates? And the actions of the doe weren't those of a mammal that couldn't see. She couldn't see Predsburg coming up with such an elaborate ruse, but orders were orders.
Private Smyth was sitting on one of the bench seats with his rifle in his paws, his eyes on the strange mammals in the back of the truck with him. Strangest of all was the dark furred rabbit with the white eyes and white bird marking between her ears, snuggling against the side of the coyote, the only one of the group not dressed in a robe. He was burning up with questions, but his orders were not to speak to any of the mammals under any circumstances.
The bench seats weren't very comfortable but at least the roads were paved, so the number of bumps were minimal, and they seemed to be making good time. Thus, it was about thirty minutes later when they pulled into what could only be called a fort. Concrete walls with machine gun nests at intervals. Zoe's eyes widened when she saw what could only be tanks.
The trucks slowed to a stop, and everyone got out, the larger mammals helping the smaller ones down. There were several buildings in view, one very large with a lot of mammals in uniform going in and out with two guards on either side of the double doors. Several large buildings that appeared to be warehouses, a motor pool with vehicles of all sorts parked. One building that seemed more of a bunker, turned out to be their destination. A chain link fence about 12 feet high and with barbed wire mounted on the top rail surrounded the building. Zoe noted that the fencing was designed to keep mammals in, not out. A stockade she thought.
Zoe was sitting on the cot of her cell, eerily reminiscent of the cell she had spent some time in when she had first arrived in Zootopia. Only this time, the door was closed and locked. From the sounds she could hear, the rest of the group were in their own cells. Zoe had to admonish Gabriel to not cause a scene when he began to protest not being able to share a cell with her. They had tried talking until the guards had ordered them to stop, probably not wanting them to try and get any stories straight between them. It didn't make sense to Zoe, but she'd abide by their orders, for now at any rate.
Zoe fell into a meditative state and let her astral self go. Her stomach twisted at the misery and other negative emotions she felt emanate from the walls of the prison. She flowed through the bars of her cell and could see members of her group, as well as a few mammals that were in partial uniforms. Finding Gabriel, she could see the worry and fear for her, his love and devotion he had, and she loved him all the more for it.
"Hey, Hymie, looka here, dark meat." Zoe heard with her physical ears.
Her astral self returned to her cell to see two felines, a lynx and an ocelot, standing at the door to her cell looking at her.
"Cor mate, she looks good enough to eat!" Hymie stated, causing both felines to laugh crudely.
"Yeah, I haven't had rabbit in a long time."
"Wally, you haven't had meat that didn't have feathers on it in a long time mate."
"You know how it goes, the upper crust gets first pick, the blighters."
"Maybe we let ourselves in and get a taste, yeah?"
That was when Zoe re-entered her body and let her mundane eyes open, staring directly at the two cats. She accessed her Thanatos aspect, letting her eyes glow. The two guards felt an icy chill begin to seep into them.
"Uh, we need to finish rounds Hymie."
"You'd be right, you would."
It took everything the two had to keep from running screaming down the hall, resolving to not even look at the rabbit if they had to go back to the cells. Zoe let her aspect slip away as she heard the two of them rapidly depart, their breaths shaky.
Hours later, Zoe found herself in a small room with a table and three chairs, two on one side and one on the other, in which she was sitting, all of the furniture sized for small mammals. The walls were bare cinderblock, painted a light grey color, and had a single electric light bulb hung on a wire from the ceiling. Zoe guessed that the room was intended to make mammals uncomfortable and open to being questioned. She was a little disappointed, however, to note that there wasn't a two-way mirror on the wall across from her like she'd seen in many different cop shows her dad and her used to watch together. She wondered if there was going to be a good cop/bad cop duo questioning her.
Zoe's musings disappeared when the door opened and two mammals walked in, a female sea otter with shoulder boards sporting two golden circles on each, and an older looking fox with six stripes on his sleeve, three looking like the 'V' she'd seen on other uniforms, and three upside-down ones on top, making it look like he had a three-layered diamond on his sleeve.
Both mammals sat in the other two chairs as the officer put a folder on the table between her and Zoe. Zoe tried hard to keep a smile off of her muzzle, having seen this intimidation tactic on the shows she'd watch with her dad.
"I'm Captain Alford and this is Sergeant Bertram. We will be asking you questions, and you will answer them."
"Of course, Captain. What would you like to know?"
x~x~x~x
Roderick closed the door after Captain Alford exited and both of them looked at each other with trepidation in their eyes.
"Do you think she's telling the truth?" He asked.
"We'll have to interrogate the others to be sure, but I don't believe Predburg could come up with something this elaborate. Not to mention, everything in me is telling me she's being truthful. I recognize some of the emblems on their robes, and they match up with the symbols for the old gods that we used to worship. Add in their gear we inspected, and they are years ahead of us in tech. I mean, colored photographs?"
"So, what do we do?"
"As of right now, I'm classifying everything as Top Secret. This stuff is beyond my pay grade, so I'm going to shoot it up the chain of command. You are under orders to not speak of what we've learned until they've been countermanded, understand Sergeant?"
"Yes Ma'am! Orders received and understood!"
Lisa sighed. If she was correct, then the solution for the centuries old stalemate with Predburg may have just fallen into their laps, and they may be able to win the war after all. Pulling herself together, she gathered her staff and began issuing orders.
oooOOOooo
Nick was worried about Judy. She'd been spending hours after work on some project she'd taken on, hardly sleeping, much less up for anything intimate. Given that she was a bunny with an above average sex drive, that was highly unusual. No matter how much he cajoled her, nothing worked. She was losing weight and was almost listless at times, falling asleep at their computer most nights. Nick was about to do the most drastic thing he could think of, talk to Chief Bogo about the issue.
Nick was sitting on the couch, contemplating how he was going to approach the chief, when Judy suddenly yelled, "THAT'S IT!"
Nick jumped and rushed over to where Judy was sitting. "What Love? Are you okay?"
Judy was more animated than he'd seen her in weeks as she began to rapidly print out sheets from their computer. "I'm fine Nick. I may have just solved the Afflicted case!" And then she looked up at him, her eyes shining. His Judy was back.
A/N: Well, my muse has been pushing me to work on this story, probably because we both can see the end of the story on the horizon. So, it's probable that I'll be working on more chapters until it's completed. I won't try to guess how many given my abysmal record of estimating such.
I haven't abandoned any of my stories, I promise. The issue is, I have even more stories percolating in the back of my head. So many stories, so little time. I'm going to try rotating stories when I'm done with this one. I have to admit that some of the issues I've had so far come from switching gears from third person omniscient to first person. I found myself trying to write my third person stories from the protagonists' perspective.
Until next time,
Speaks with Spirits out.