Chapter 8: Eastbrook Elementary
"Stay close."
The tiger named Toby, donning a brown military suit, coordinated his steps carefully as he walked towards the Serevena, rifle in hand. There was blood everywhere he looked. Jordan, a black hare wearing a gray hoodie and blue jeans, as well as a worn baseball cap, was behind the towering mammal, watching his back for any enemies. Nothing like this had ever happened in his time as a WLF member.
"What the fuck happened here?" he asked the tiger, who was now looking at the corpse in the lobby, a clean bullet hole in between his eyes. There was not a trace of mammal life anywhere.
"Anyone alive?!" the tiger asked, not receiving any response back. The hotel was deserted. "Shit…"
"You think the Scars did this?" asked the hare. Toby shook his head.
"No. I don't see any arrows on these guys. They were killed by regular weapons. I also don't see their mark on any of these walls."
"They could've done that to throw us off somehow. Make us think it's somebody else."
Toby looked at him assertively. "And why the hell would they do that?"
"I don't fucking know, but who else would do this to us?" The WLF had been the dominating force of Seaotter. He didn't think anyone else would be dumb enough to go to war with them, except for the Scars.
"Not the Scars, that's for damn sure. Hello?" Toby called out again. "Is anyone still alive?"
Stepping over the dead wolf, the two mammals climbed the stairs to the second floor, greeted with another dead body. "God fucking damnit. They got Jason," said the tiger, going over to the fox on the wall, his eyes still wide open from the sudden impact of the bullets. "I need to call this in. Bogo isn't going to be happy," he said, kneeling in front of the fox, lamenting his death.
From the corner of Jordan's eye, a red light called out to the black hare. The light originated from one of the rooms, specifically Room 217. Aiming his pistol at the door, he slowly walked to it, pushing the door to open it. The red hue illuminated the carnage of the scene much more violently.
"Ugh, fuck!" he exclaimed, seeing the beaten corpse of his arctic fox companion. "Rick…"
Toby ran to his direction after hearing his scream, also horrified at the sight. "Jesus Christ…he's been tortured."
"Who in the fuck did this shit?" Jordan was pissed. He considered Rick to be one of his closest friends.
Due to his thundering height, Toby managed to look beyond the bed, seeing another dead mammal. Walking over to it, he couldn't take it anymore and just vomited at the sight. He coughed up and spit out the remaining stomach liquid from his mouth, wiping it with his forearm. "They got Growlie too."
Jordan went over to the other body, inspecting something on the ground. The wolf had written something in blood. "Whoever tortured them knows the East One gate code," he acknowledged.
"That's concerning," Toby said, thoughtful. "You think they managed to pass through it already?"
"It sure as hell seems like it," Jordan said. He had a feeling that this had to do with what they had done a few weeks ago. "Tell ya what, let's set up a trap near Eastbrook. Let's alert the other patrols so they can search Capitol Hill. I don't want any of these fuckers near Channel 13."
"What makes you think it's more than one person?"
"Just trust me on this, alright?"
Toby looked concerned about Jordan's sureness, then sighed. "Okay. I'll start calling Bogo." The hare nodded at him.
The tiger stepped out of the room to radio the Chief, leaving Jordan with his thoughts. If these assholes went for Rick, they were probably on the hunt for him as well. He pulled out a picture, looking at it fondly and with love. He kissed it and put it back in his pocket. "Not today, Leah," he said to himself. "I'll get back to you and have those murderers brought to justice." Despite being disgusted by the sight, he stayed in the room, reminding himself of what he would be fighting for, and what he would be trying to prevent.
"Hey, Jordan!" called the tiger from the entrance of the room. The hare looked back at him. "Bogo approved. Said we should be careful. Are you ready to go?"
"Yeah. Let's get those sons of bitches. We're gonna teach them that nobody messes with the WLF," said Jordan, determined.
They did it. It was such an easy job he almost couldn't believe it. The rabbit he subdued back in Bunnyburrow had escaped them, but she would be found eventually, and more so that two from her group were currently in his possession. They were keeping them in Eastbrook Elementary, an abandoned school in the heart of Seaotter.
"Ugh," said the red vixen, beginning to wake up. Jordan kneeled where she was tied up, by the leg of a table. The arctic vixen that was with her was tied to the other leg, a few meters to her left. She was beginning her process of waking up as well. He remembered the red vixen pretty well; she was the one that left him with a permanent scar on his cheek from her own knife, after all. He had a bone to pick with her and whoever had killed Rick so savagely. To accelerate the process, he gave her a small slap on her right cheek, bloodied by Toby's show of strength. He was always a grunt who went too far when it came to his burliness. She tried to free herself as soon as she came to, trying to force the rope to break, until she realized it was too tight and hard. Not even her claws were long enough to reach the rope around her wrists.
The vixen looked up at him, with a face that would turn any weakling to stone. Weakling is not something he would call himself, so he looked at her back with the same intensity, his head bobbing from side to side. He kneeled closer to her face in daring fashion.
"Didn't think I'd ever see you again," he said, looking hatefully at the vixen, which stayed quiet. A few more rattles were heard as the vixen kept attempting to free herself. He imagined turning her face to a pulp the same way they had done Rick's. He needed to calm himself. It wasn't time for that yet. He needed information. "How'd you find us?" he asked her. She was about to respond until someone else talked for her.
"We asked for the rabbit with a bitch scar across his face," said the arctic vixen, awake at last. She was staring at him with raging eyes. Jordan chuckled.
Hmm, that's funny," Jordan said, grabbing the back of the red vixen's head, pulling out his switchblade and pressing it onto her neck, creating a small trail of blood that ran down to her clavicle. She moaned and began inhaling and exhaling rapidly. "How many came with you? Hmm? Just you three?"
"Don't you hurt her, you sicko!" screamed the arctic bitch, also trying her mighty best to escape the rope's tightness. He almost laughed at their powerless states, begging to be released. Being the dominant animal, especially on predators, always gave him unimaginable pleasure. He was enjoying this, as hinted at by the sudden tightness in his pants.
"You can't stop this," the red vixen said confidently, an angry expression still visible. He pressed it tighter against her neck, provoking another painful moan.
"Jordan!" screamed Toby, walking up to him from the entrance of the classroom. "You're supposed to be out looking for the other one! What the fuck is this?" he asked, ignorant about his deepest desires. With some reluctance, he released his grip on the vixen, slowly retrieving the knife from her neck. He stood up to face him.
"You know that smuggler that we killed back in Jackson?" he told the tiger, stabbing the knife onto the table on top of the red vixen.
"The fox, right?" asked Toby. Jordan nodded.
"Yeah. Well, this fucking girl was there when it happened," he said, pointing at her angrily. "Gave me this scar," he pointed at the slash that traveled from his muzzle to the bottom of his left eye.
"What?" Toby said, perplexed. Jordan got closer to him.
"They're coming after us. That's why Rick was fucked up like that. We gotta get her to Bogo, and we gotta tell him exactly what's going on," he said, pacing in circles around the big mammal.
"Yeah, well, I just got off the radio with Bogo," said Toby. "And we got a new mandate."
"Hmm?"
"Kill all trespassers," said Toby, pulling out his tiger-sized revolver that would turn the red vixen's head into a brain donut. Alarmed, the hare quickly climbed to the top of his body to confront him head on, moving the revolver away from the red vixen. He was gonna have his fun with these girls, and Toby wasn't about to cut it short.
"Whoa whoa whoa hold up, hold up, that doesn't make any sense," he said, trying to grab his revolver to take it away.
"It's a direct order, man-"
"No, let's talk to her," he interrupted the tiger. "Let's figure out what she knows."
"I don't give a fuck what she knows! You saw what she did to the others."
"You have no idea how many people she might be with," he reasoned. He had to give a really good excuse. If he didn't think of something, these vixens would be killed in a useless way, without first being interrogated by him. He couldn't fight the tiger physically, so he had to try to convince him. "This might be an ambush, Toby-"
"I don't care how many people she's with," Toby said, the hare still positioned on his left shoulder. "We will find them. We will kill them." Jordan was getting exasperated. Toby was getting on his nerves.
"Can you just think for yourself for a quick second-"
"Jordan, get the fuck out of my way," Toby said, grabbing the hare from his hoodie and dropping him on the floor, ready to pop the vixen's head. with his revolver. Jordan kept trying to reason with him, unable to convince him, hearing a loud shot that meant the vixen's death.
Until it didn't. Looking clearly at the scene again, Toby flopped onto the ground, his brain turned to mush. One of his eyes, now detached from his skull, rolled on the floor towards Jordan's feet. How the hell did that happen? It all occurred so quickly, his hare brain was barely able to comprehend it. The falling glass on the floor had answered everything he needed to know. The shot came from above. He rose himself onto a table and unloaded his weapon at the sky without looking, breaking the glass from the roof and successfully dropping the mammal responsible for the murder. It was the rabbit they'd been looking for. He knew it. He knew she'd return somehow. Jordan felt like he had hit the jackpot. He now had three members of Jackson at his control.
"Judy!" screamed the red vixen. The rabbit was on the floor, catching her breath from the high altitude impact. Jordan checked his body for any injuries, realizing he was unscathed. It didn't seem like he had shot the rabbit either, only having been able to destroy her source of footing. It was better this way. Now he could get all three for himself. He will torture them and tell them just how much they failed.
Jordan approached the body of the tiger. "If only you listened to me. Idiot." He now turned towards the two agitated vixens. "You shouldn't have come here," he told them, as he made his way to the still recovering bunny. She was trying to get up, but was brought to the floor once again with a swift kick by the hare.
"We meet again, cotton tail," he said, grabbing her neck as he sat on top of her. The bunny kept trying to slash his paws to get them away from his neck, but Jordan didn't even feel it. He was too focused on choking her. Yes, he thought. Tremble under me. The bunny stopped slashing, becoming too weak to even struggle below him, but still managing to give him a killer stare.
"Fuck…you," the bunny said, spitting on him. The trail of saliva ran from his forehead until it reached his mouth.
"Bad idea. This just got me more pumped, bunny," he said, tightening the grip on her neck. He really shouldn't be feeling this good, but he is, and he will relish this feeling for as long as he lives. Her face as she slowly succumbed to the unconscious was exquisite. There was nothing quite like it. He would have so much fun with these prisoners. So. Much. Fun.
"Ah!" he yelped as one of his ears was grasped aggressively, his baseball cap flying out of his head from the suddenness of the grab. The aggressor's claws were digging into his flesh violently. Impossible. Both vixens were restrained, and the school was filled with WLF's. How could someone do this to him? He didn't need to ponder who it was. He took a good look at the red vixen for a millisecond before she stuck his own knife on the side of his neck. The pain didn't come instantly, weirdly enough. He just felt cold. He began gagging on his own blood as the vixen took the opportunity to stab him again, this time directly onto his trachea, finally releasing him from her grip. The cold hard floor covered with shards of glass touched his black fur, the metallic scent of his blood the most prevalent on his nose.
Maybe he could call Leah for the last time. In this world, one can never really stop fighting, even if the future looked bleak. The radio was in another room. Maybe if he crawled slowly, he could try to keep the blood inside. Yeah. That will probably work.
With determination on his mind, using his paws to stop the blood from flowing out of his neck, the black hare moved an inch, and then he died.
Cold and helpless.
A lot was happening at once. First, she was captured by the WLF and was going to be tortured by a crazy hare. Next thing she knew, a huge tiger (The one who did her in) was about to blow her face till next wednesday. Literally a minute later, not one minute more, that same tiger got his brains blown out by his badass bunny mother, who was now in peril as she fell into the hare's blackened paws. She could not allow anything to happen to Judy. That asshole was going to pay with blood. Firstly, she had to escape from this stupid table. She looked at a shard of glass by her feet, stretching as much as she could so that she could grab it. Dragging the tiny sharp object towards her, Clementine grabbed it blindly, positioning it directly on the rope, beginning to cut it. She had to hurry up. She saw Judy spit on the hare, which only seemed to exacerbate him more. Looking at her choking mother, Clementine quickened her motions, going up and down with the glass until the rope gave out, setting her free.
Without even getting up, she grabbed the knife that she knew was stabbed into the table and ran with hateful commitment, first getting the hare away from Judy by clawing at his ear. "Got you, motherfucker!" she said, stabbing him twice on the side of the neck and once on his trachea, letting him go to suffer on the ground. Judy coughed while still lying down, touching her neck for comfort. She got up and immediately took her gun into her paws and aimed it at the dying lapin.
"Whoa," said Skye, still tied up to the table.
Clementine approached Judy, touching her shoulder. "Are you okay?" she asked.
"I'm fine," Judy responded, still massaging her neck. She was still breathing heavily, touching her stomach uncomfortably. "Untie Skye, quickly!"
Obeying her mother, Clementine went towards her girlfriend, easily cutting the rope. "You okay, Snow?"
"Better now that that fucker is dead," answered Skye, touching her pained wrists and getting up. "You good? That cheek looks pretty bad."
"Yeah. It barely hurts," the red vixen said. "We should go."
"I'm with you on that. How many people do you think there are?"
"A lot," Judy answered. "It was hard sneaking through them."
"Are you alright, Jude?" asked the brown vixen, going towards her mother-in-law, kneeling on her eye level.
"Yeah, Skye, I'm good," she smiles weakly. "I'll be better when we're out of here," the doe said, still catching her breath.
In a hurry, Clementine started rummaging through the hare's clothes, hoping to find something of value. She found a note and a picture of someone she knew well.
"Look, Judy," said Clementine, showing her the picture of a female wolf. "She's one of them."
"Clementine, look at that later, we have to go!"
"Did you see a TV station on the map?" Clementine ignored the comment, reading what the note was saying.
"I don't fucking know! Come on!" Judy said, handing Clem her backpack. A bullet shot through the glass of one of the room's windows, alerting the group. They hid behind a desk decorated with pumpkin stickers.
"Shit! It's all three of them!" screamed one of the Wolves. Two more bullets from a revolver were released, shattering yet another big window from the room, hitting the metal desk they were behind.
"We'll cover you, go around!" said Judy, giving her a rifle she confiscated from one of the tables. Clementine nodded, going to her left towards a small white desk. Judy and Clementine kept shooting at the two mammals, a female honey badger and a deer. This gave Clementine the momentum she needed to flank the two unsuspecting animals. Covered behind a white desk with blue tarp on top, Clementine unstrapped her revolver and shot, hitting the honey badger clean on the head. The deer went down just as easily, one of its bloody antlers falling off from the damage.
"Good job, Sunny," Skye said, getting out through the rightmost door of the room, joining the canine. "I found this pipe, it should be useful," Skye handed Clem a pipe with metal blades that used to be scissors. Handling the pipe with her left hand and her gun on her right side, Clementine nodded at the group and continued moving forward, opening a double door into a school hallway.
"It was this way, move up!" an enemy fox said, popping out of the other end of the hallway, a larger group following right behind him.
"Shit…" Clementine stated.
"Clear the rooms!" said another fox.
The trio saw how most of the animals had entered the rooms in the hallway, with some of them covering the exit. Clementine saw that there was a library to her left and a classroom to her right. The classroom was the most adjacent to her, so she decided to lead the group that way. As if they had heard her, she saw a harlequin rabbit running to the room and hiding on one of the tables. Trying to kill him unnoticed, Clementine tried to get closer to the table, but would be ultimately unlucky as the rabbit popped out of the table, instantly noticing her. With his gun ready to shoot, the rabbit aimed at Clementine's head. The gunshot was redirected with a clean shot to the shoulder from Skye, with Judy finishing him off with a precise bullet to the neck, bathing the warm overgrown grass in blood.
This had alerted everyone, prompting Skye to go back and engage with some of the mammals in the hallway. Judy joined Clementine in the classroom. The way to the next classroom was uninterrupted, so mother and daughter began slowly walking to the next area, staying low. Clementine saw a spotted hyena trying to run up at them from the other room, and with a quick sprint used her new pipe to smash his face in, stabbing his lower jaw with force. Some teeth stayed stuck to the blades as she let them out of the dead animal.
Judy, still in the earlier room, caught a glimpse of Skye's opponent, one of the foxes, getting closer to her position, relentlessly shooting at the brown vixen's barrier with shotgun rounds. From her position, she shot at the mammal once, breaking the window that was shielding them. Her second bullet hit the canine straight on the mouth, sending them to the floor.
"Oh god!" screamed one of the Wolves. Clementine kept her position in the other room, waiting for other possible victims. She caught the sight of the other fox, hiding behind the table she was currently in front of. Going around the table, she saw the mammal peeking their head to check for her, but never realized she was behind them. With a swing from her pipe, the metal blade was pierced deeply into the hyena's head, a nasty sound of a skull breaking alienating any other sounds from the room. When Clementine took out the pipe from the fox's head, a swarm of blood escaped the newly made hole as the fox flopped on the floor.
With no mammals currently in sight, Skye took the opportunity to craft a makeshift silencer for her weapon with a plastic bottle, heading forward in the hallway. Another hyena started walking towards the room where Clem was in. Skye used this opportunity to try out her new invention and quickly shot at the hyena's back of the head, killing them silently. There was one animal standing, a wolf, going through the library on the left. Distracted by the sound of a broken bottle in front of him, the wolf went to check it out, only to feel someone climb on top of him and bite them on the ear. His mouth widened with a scream, which allowed the bunny on top of him to stab their mouth with a knife, slashing his cheek in half. He was finished off by a slit on the throat and a final kick to the head from the angry bunny. Skye witnessed the entire thing.
"You good?" Judy asked the two girls, panting.
"Yeah," Skye responded. "Do you recognize any of these guys?" she asked the two girls.
"No," they responded simultaneously. Judy took this moment of calm to sit down for a moment to catch her breath, wiping some of the blood from her fur. One droplet of blood managed to slide through her cheek like a tear. She observed Clementine exploring the library of the school, scoping for supplies or other important materials.
"Let's keep going," said Clementine. The two other mammals agreed and continued down the hall to the left.
The new area was filled with light, thanks to the caved in ceiling that let in the colors of the cloud-covered sky. It was good that it had not been that long since they had fallen under the Wolves' claws. A patch of long grass rested on the ground, leading to a ramp that could get them to the open area above them.
"Watch it," warned Skye, alerting both girls about the new stampede of Wolves coming from the top.
"I want everybody down here now!" screamed one of the Wolves.
"Great, more of them," whispered Judy sarcastically.
The tall grass kept them hidden as they crawled towards the pathway up. They could hear the footsteps of the mammals around them, but the girls didn't dare to lift their heads, knowing that they'd be surrounded from all sides. With the vixens' keen sense of smell, they could sniff out the scent of the mammals, which were mostly predators. It seemed like the WLF kept more predators than prey in their patrols.
"Where the fuck did those shots come from?" she heard a male WLF say.
"I dunno. Search the courtyard!" screamed a female WLF. "You, hold the cafeteria, I'll cover here."
"Right," said the WLF, obeying her orders. The girls just kept on crawling, trying to reach the back of a container to scan the area. As Clementine kept moving, she saw a striped foot in front of them, belonging to a tigress. She looked up at the mammal, which had coincidentally looked down. For a split second, they looked at each other without saying a word. The tigress reacted soon after.
"Holy shit!" she said, shooting blindly at the grass, only missing Skye's head by one millimeter. Skye defended her girlfriend and sliced her foot with the axe, allowing Clementine to give the tigress a taste of her pipe, one of the blades entering from her eye and coming out of the back of her head. The sound of the gunshot had alerted the others.
"Evie!" screamed one of the Wolves. "You're fucking next," they shot multiple rounds at the trio, but they had already managed to barricade themselves with some of the black containers at the scene.
"Fuck!" screamed one of their enemies in frustration.
Both Skye and Clementine pulled out their rifles, Judy deciding to see if she could flank and kill some of them. Seeing a weasel by the tall grass a few meters in front of them, she shot a rifle round, failing to hit the target as he unexpectedly dodged it. Skye was ready for when he popped back up and effectively shot him in the heart. Judy, now closer to their way up, managed to sneakily annihilate two other predators by kicking one of them in the throat and shooting at the other one in the head with her rifle. She looked at them with a nod, and then looked up in surprise.
"Guys! Above you!" screamed Judy. "More of them!"
"What the fuck's going on?" one WLF had said, joined by a few more mammals overhead. "Get the trespasser!" he ordered, prompting the crew to start firing at them.
A bullet grazed Clem's shoulder as she went back into the dark-clad roof of the hallway, trying to check for a strategic way to kill these mammals. Judy wasn't faring as well, having been separated from the two vixens by her own volition, now engaging in a direct gunfight with the mammals, hidden by one of the growing trees of the courtyard. Skye had been able to stir them away from Judy by shooting at them, downing one of the mammals above her, which redirected their full attention towards the red and brown predators.
Clementine wasn't safe by the hallway, another shot ringing in her ear as it pierced one of the walls of the school. She ran in the direction of the mammal who had shot at her and lunged at the tall grass, expertly shooting at the mammal that hadn't noticed her coming, the rifle bullet entering the fox's right arm and leaving through his skull. His fall was slow and satisfying. While lying on the grass, she took a moment to patch herself up on the shoulder, continuing to hear the fighting of her two most important mammals. It was time to stop fucking around.
Skye took her silent pistol and killed the last mammal who had spotted them, shrouding the three girls in darkness once again. She could see Judy still behind a tree, watching carefully for the last few who were now looking for them in the grass.
"Keep up the pressure!" said one of the Wolves.
"Where the hell did they go?"
"Right fucking here," Clementine said, her back to the ground, with her shotgun pointed at the maned wolf. He looked horrified before the explosive round tore his face right open, looking like a red flower. With the sounds of choking, the wolf went down. Skye manifested her inner lumberjack and attacked the remaining enemy, a raccoon, with her axe, slicing open part of his face like it was just a tomato slice. The fight in the courtyard was over.
"Fuck, there's a lot of them!" Clementine said in frustration.
"I did tell you there were a lot," Judy deadpanned.
"Let's get to the ceiling," said Skye. The girls nodded and climbed the ramp towards the top of the school.
Now on the roof, they were in an area with ventilations systems and solar panel structures. The rain from before was still going on, making Clementine lift her hoodie up to shelter her fur from the wet drops. The bunny and the brown vixen did it as well.
"Have a look here," said Skye, pointing at a table with supplies. "Fuck these Wolves. Steal their shit." Clementine smiled and did as instructed, getting the energy bars and weapon parts for crafting. From the corner of her eye, Clementine observed her mother, clutching her chest and wheezing.
"Judy?" the worried vixen approached the doe. "What's wrong?"
Judy was about to respond before a door burst open, also seeing some more mammals appearing from another elevated part of the roof. "Oh no," she said.
"What've got? Anything?" Commented one of the Wolves. The trio hurriedly went below one of the solar panel structures, a gap that fit all three of them and served as a nice hiding spot. As long as their enemies didn't look down, that is.
"Where's Adriene's patrol?" asked a soldier. The girls could only observe their feet as they walked close to them. She could see some hooves as well as canine feet.
"Fuck! Fuck!" screamed that same soldier, finding the mess the girls had left behind. "Hey, you two! The trespassers are gone!"
"What?" asked another Wolf.
"You seen anything?"
"No."
"Cover the roof. I'll check down there."
"Y-you sure they're not on the street?" asked a female enemy, the hooves making it seem like it was a deer. "Did you look?"
"How would they get down there?"
"I don't know," said the deer. "Has this been called in?"
"Greg went out to Capitol Hill. He should be back with those guys any minute now."
Clementine could see a male fox checking below on the courtyard. "Where the hell did everyone go?"
"This doesn't feel right," said the deer.
"Rachel, come with me," the fox called to someone. "Let's check down here."
Two of the Wolves went down into the courtyard, giving them leeway to escape without having to fight them. The female deer had stayed on the roof and was still scouting for them, rifle in hand. Clementine crawled out of the gap and hid behind the solar panel, seeing where the deer was going to go next. Sprinting towards her, Clementine grabbed the deer from behind, slitting her throat with her claws, leaving a nasty uneven gash. She didn't know why she had done it, but what was done was done. She pushed the deer to the floor and left her to die slowly.
"It's clear, let's go," she whispered to the group still hiding below the panel. Crawling out of it, Judy witnessed the corpse of the deer, as well as what had caused it. She looked horrified at Clementine's bloody claws. Clem saw her staring and hid the paw in her right pocket, moving towards the exit. Skye gave Judy a look, but they didn't say anything, following her into the unknown.
A silver door was at the end of the area. Clementine kneeled and opened it carefully, not wanting to be surprised by any more enemies in the room. It was empty. She grabbed some more supplies and found a note. It read:
From here on out, kill all trespassers. Will send additional units to locate the other woman. Return to the FOB by EOD. Bring all available supplies.
"You came at the right time, Judy," commented Clementine. "That damn tiger was about to kill me."
"I saw. I'm glad I wasn't late."
"I don't even wanna think about what that hare was going to do to us," said Skye. "He had such a perverse look in his eyes. Nothing like you, Judy."
"Not a fan of killing rabbits, but that hare was a fucking jerk," said Judy.
"More than a jerk. He broke your nose and kicked me in the chest, as well as helped kill Nick. He had it coming."
"Did these people have it coming?" asked Skye, referring to the piles of corpses they'd left in the school.
"Of course they did," replied Clem. "They gave us no choice."
"I guess you're right."
Continuing a sharp hallway, the trio moved left, finding a door to the other side. To their misfortune, it was locked.
"Fuck," Clementine muttered.
"What about this?" asked Skye, signaling the girls to come look at a place above them. It was a vent to their right that led to the outside. With both of her arms, Skye raised the vent to her head, letting Judy and Clementine go in first. From the outside, Clementine helped hold it as Skye climbed out to them.
"Get down," Judy said, getting prone as they heard a car pull up below them. It was a new patrol, and they were on their way into the school.
"Come on! Inside!" said one of the Wolves.
"Oh fuck," Judy said. "They have turkey vultures?"
"They have what?" Skye asked, confused.
"They're the birds with the best sense of smell. They can smell very far away, even if we're not carrions."
"What's a carrion?" asked Clementine.
"Dead mammal skin. They love to eat those."
"Oh…we better get the hell away from them, then."
"Finest idea you've had today, Clem," said Skye. "There has to be a way down to the street somewhere," she said as she stopped proning. The entire patrol had already entered the school and they were free to move again. Moving to the right, they could see a few school buses to the horizon, also making sure there weren't any mammals hidden in windows.
Right beside the school, they could see a white building that consisted of many rooms for mammals to live in. It was an apartment complex, and it was close enough for the girls to jump through. Judy jumped towards the closest balcony first, making sure that the vixens could also accomplish this jump.
"Okay, girls. Jump carefully," she gave them the go ahead. Skye made it safely, but Clementine had some doubts. She didn't want a repeat of the wall from earlier that morning.
"Come on, Clem. This is an easy jump," Judy encouraged her. "If you get a headstart, you'll land fine."
With these words from her mother, Clementine filled herself with confidence, and with a running start, she landed perfectly on the ground, just like Judy had said. Her heart stopped beating fast, and they kept moving. There was nothing of importance in the abandoned apartment, so their focuses were placed on getting to the street. Going through a few rooms, the girls found the door to the exit, which led right into the street.
"Alright, the coast looks clear," Clementine said.
"Yeah," agreed Skye. "I think we're good."
Clementine used this opportunity to go through the photo and letter that she snatched from the hare. Both items had been bloodied by the hare. "Check this out," she told the girls. She handed Judy the photo, with Skye looking over her shoulder. It was a female wolf. Skye whistled in surprise. The female wolf wasn't particularly unattractive.
"She's one of them," said Judy.
"Hmm, well, fuck her, then."
"Read the letter, Judy," said Clementine. Obeying her daughter, Judy unfolded the letter and began to read it outloud.
"Jordan, Bogo's got us posted up for two weeks at the TV station. Scars spotted in the area. Here's something to hold you over. Leah."
"Guess Judy isn't the only rabbit with a thing for predators," Skye tried to joke, falling flat on the two tensed up mammals.
Clementine pulled up her map, touching a region of it with a tower with a number 13 on it. "TV station," she told Judy.
"You think she's still there?" asked Judy.
Clementine shrugged. "We gotta find out, right?"
Judy nodded, looking at the map in thought. "So…it's by all these tall buildings," she looked at their current environment, finding their way to go. "That way," she told the two girls. To the left of the exit they could see the many tall buildings that the map represented.
"Okay," Clementine nodded, aware that their journey today was not quite over. "Let's go get Leah."