Chapter 9: Feel Her Love

Emily carved the statuette slowly and with care, making sure it didn't have a single splinter of its model damaged or rearranged. It would ruin her pride as a Seraphite if she were to ruin the beautiful image of her joy, the person she and everyone else in the group vowed to remember. The Maid was the love of her life, the devotion of all of the otters who were graced by her love. Ten years ago, it would've been funny to think that she could love a vixen more than she loved herself, but now, as she looked into the beautiful wood-turned animal, she couldn't think of anything else more special or important than The Maid.

She had been taken from them too early. She had started her group of hope only a year after the Pandemic, and due to jealousy from the other animals, who couldn't possibly feel her everlasting love and affection, she was assassinated only three years later by FEDRA. From that moment on, Emily and her entire crew had promised to burn down everything that was created by the Old World, swearing to rid the world of the sickness that inhabited it, whether it be savage mammals or otherwise.

In their tenure, the Seraphites had managed to sway other mammals to their cause, which included at least one family of animals from every species alive today. The majority of the population were still otters, since their group had formed in Seaotter, but time had served well for them. They were wiser, better skilled, and prepared for anything.

She carved the last feature of the statue, a Seraphite's signature scar on each side of their cheek. She lit up seven candles, one for each day of the week, and set the statuette at its center atop a brown mantelpiece, a significant color for their species. She kneeled in the shrine and began to recite her prayer, the one she had given to each one of her followers. It was the Maid's parting gift. Just because she was gone didn't mean she wasn't with them. This prayer represented her protection. She was their orange-clad guardian.

"Emily?" She heard a male voice behind her. She sighed in exasperation, her eyes still closed.

"There better be a good excuse for your interruption," she said. "It is bad luck to leave the Maid's prayer unfinished." She was still kneeled at the statue, waiting for the male otter's report.

"We've located an empty boat by the coast," he said. She opened her eyes. "We believe it belonged to the apostate and his sister."

"How so?" She asked, her head slightly turning.

"That's the only explanation. A letter came this morning about them leaving on a stolen boat in the late hours of the night. Canoeing the entire morning would've gotten them here in a few hours." The male otter took the letter from his pocket, placing it by Emily's side.

She read it quickly and addressed the otter again. "But are we really sure? Did they leave any traces?" Emily finally rose from her kneeling position.

"We did see some fish carcass inside," the otter noted.

She sighed. "That's not nearly enough evidence, but it'll have to do. The Elders are counting on me to capture them as soon as possible. The storm is slowly approaching. Have a group of three search the area. If they're not here, we'll go deeper into Seaotter."

"As you wish, Emily. May She guide you," he said, approaching the door to leave.

"And may She protect you, brother." She saw him leave and kneeled again to continue her prayers until midday.

…

They were using a low-rise building as their temporary base. The coast area of Seaotter was mostly flooded, giving the otters great advantage when it came to mobility. It was also the area less frequented by WLFs. It was now late afternoon, and Emily hadn't heard from the scouting patrol yet. She needed to prove herself to the Elders, or she would be bunched up with the useless otters who only served to be wed and bear capable children. She did not want that. She was a warrior at heart and would rather end her life than to bed some random otter on the likely chance that it'll fruit strong offspring. Weak otters could do that all they wanted, but Emily was no weak mammal.

Those damn otters, she thought, sitting down by an open fire. What were they thinking, betraying The Maid?

She thought of the apostate and his whore sister. They deserved the ultimate punishment of execution for their misdeeds. No one could ever disrespect The Maid like those two had. It was simply unspeakable. Their ungratefulness and indifference towards their vixen hurt the entire community. She would make sure to bring them to The Elders, no matter what happens.

"Emily!" A young otter rushed to her in a panic. "A Wolf! There's a Wolf in front of the building!"

"What?" She asked him. She had no clue why Wolves would be here at this time. Were they attacking them? Was the war beginning now? It couldn't be! "Have you told anyone else?"

"Yeah!" The teen otter nodded. "Some of our brothers are watching him closely, but the Wolf isn't doing anything. He has his arms raised as if he's giving up."

"Do not get close to him! It could be a trap! Lead me to them, boy."

The walk from her room towards the outside was a tense one. She didn't think they were ready for an all-out attack by the WLF. They were still planning their next course of action. When she arrived, she saw many of her Seraphite companions with their bows at the ready, threatening to release an arrow into the enemy mammal. When she looked in their direction, she observed a moose on a boat with his hooves pointed at the air, just like the young boy had said. He donned the usual military attire and WLF patch that defined them, as opposed to the Seraphite's usual choice of brown trench coats.

"Hello there!" Called the moose, addressing Emily. His voice was that of an older man. "Are you the leader?"

She took her bow and nicked an arrow, staying cautious. "I am! What do you want? Do you plan to ambush us?"

"Nothing of the sort. Quite the contrary. I'm here to join you."

"The Wolf is lying, sister! He's scheming something!" Said one of the male otters pointing an arrow at his head.

"If you don't believe me, allow me to earn your trust," he lowered his arm slowly and reached his pocket.

"Stop!" Said Emily. "If I see a gun coming out of that, my men will riddle you with holes."

"Thankfully, it's not a gun. It's a knife. We're pretty far away from each other, even if I could chuck a knife at you, it wouldn't really reach you."

"Fine, then. Get it out. Slowly."

With the order given, the moose began to slide the knife out, raising it so that they could see he was saying the truth. To the surprise of everyone, the moose began cutting the left side of his cheek, making sure to reach all the way to his ear. He did the same with the right side. He had barely let out a moan to show his pain. "Now do you believe me?" He spoke decidedly.

She had never seen a Wolf so determined to join them. Sure, there had been many who deserted from the WLF and joined, but there hadn't been anyone brave enough to cut their own cheeks. She liked that attribute in him. "Very well, then," she decided. "You can join us." The moose nodded, revving the engine of his boat and directing it towards their hideout.

"Emily, you sure?" Said a Seraphite. "We have too much on our plate right now with the apostate."

"The Elders will be happy to know that our plans to start the war will come sooner rather than later. Seaotter is a hard place to get out of. They will be found eventually."

"I hope you're right. We should check on the deserter, see if he knows something."

"You read my mind"

He stationed his boat on the first floor of the low-rise, being received by more Seraphites with angry expressions. Emily did not blame them. Most of their families had been slaughtered by Wolves. She approached the moose, who kneeled to meet eye to eye. She raised an opened paw, which he shook with his hooves.

"What is your name?" Emily asked him.

"Peter," he answered.

"Why did you want to join us, Peter?"

"Because I'm tired of the WLF's bullshit," his bloodied face made a frown. "I joined the Wolves when they dethroned FEDRA, but they're equally as evil. I'd rather die than to spend another second with them."

"Well, if your enemies are truly the Wolves, then you can count me as a friend. Whether you are accepted as a Seraphite is up to the Elders."

"My life is yours," he lowered his head in gratitude.

"No, brother," with the help of his antlers, she moved his head back up, looking at his eyes. "Our lives belong to The Maid."

"Thank you. Truly." The moose stopped kneeling, grabbing a piece of paper from his backpack and handing it to Emily. "I didn't come here just to be a burden. I'm ready to fight."

What Emily had on her paws was a map of Seaotter, with several markings showcasing WLF locations of importance. It was a mountain of crucial information that would give them the edge for the upcoming battle. "This is incredible, Peter!" She told him enthusiastically. She decided the best location to hit first. They would start with something small, but deadly enough to truly scare the Wolves. She turned towards one of the otters on her left. "Carl, get everyone ready. We're leaving."

"Where are we going, sister?"

She showed him the map and pointed at their target. She decided to be loud enough to address the entire room. "We are going to the Channel 13 building. The storm is beginning, brothers, and it won't be our blood that runs first."

The streets were empty, not a sign of any Wolves nearby. They needed a break after their skirmish at the school. They were walking through the streets of Capitol Hill, as stated in the map of Seaotter. Their first area was a complex of apartments and motels, seemingly abandoned. Clementine was tired, and she knew both Skye and Judy were tired as well, but they had to keep going. They couldn't risk being caught if they were to rest in one of these houses.

"You good?" asked Skye behind her, noticing her downed expression.

"Yeah," she answered with a sigh. "I thought we were fucked back there, to be honest. Thanks for the save again, Judy."

"Of course, Clem. That's why I'm here."

"So…" Clementine began speaking. "Those are the Wolves…they're really armed."

"Yeah, they are," agreed Skye. "Do you think there were gonna be this many of them?"

"Gideon did say it was a possibility."

"And he still went after them," muttered Judy, her face showing clear distaste towards her brother-in-law.

"Does that change anything for you?" Skye asked.

"No," she said plainly.

"Clementine-"

"I'm being honest here, Judy," Clem interrupted her mother. "I can't say it changes anything for me. I'd still feel like those fuckers deserve to die."

"And I still feel like it's completely pointless," Judy retorted. "When we find Gideon, we're done. End of story."

"It did seem like you were enjoying yourself back then," she said sharply.

"There's no joy in killing, Clementine," her mother said. "This is only about survival, and protecting you is my only priority. Nothing about this is fun. Don't say that again, are we clear?"

"Yes, ma'am," Clem whispered. She felt bad about having accused her mother like that, but she just didn't get it. The pain in her heart manifested itself with rage. The more she remembered what they did to him, the more she wanted to do worse. She couldn't comprehend why the doe didn't feel the same.

Judy directed herself to the two again. "Keep an eye out for patrols. There were a bunch trying to smoke me out around here."

"How many?" asked Skye. Clementine still held her tongue.

"I passed two, but I got a feeling there were more."

"And once they realize we're out of the school…"

"...and that we killed their friends…" Clem added.

"They'll be out in force looking for us," finished Skye.

They cut in between two buildings; the ground mostly grasses. The wooden edifications still held strong after all those years, only having the disgrace of being dirty and full of overgrown vegetation. Going through a left path, she could also see a public pool belonging to the condominium, half-filled with rainwater.

"I can't believe they just attacked like that," commented Skye.

"These mammals are not like us," said Judy.

"What if we'd been refugees?" she asked, trying to decipher their mystery. "What if we, I don't know, had intel they needed?"

"Doesn't seem like they care about that," said the red vixen. Skye did not seem convinced, but she let it be for now.

Further out from the pool, she could see a sign belonging to a motel in front of her, called Capitol Inn. She would've gone straight towards it if she hadn't seen a streak of blood on the concrete floor, leading to an opened apartment door. She was already going towards the danger; how much more dangerous can it get?

"Guys let's investigate here," she said to the bunny and brown vixen. "This blood's fresh."

With that noted, the two got out their pistols, ready to shoot if a savage mammal were to get in front of their faces. The inside was a very spacious two-floor apartment, its gray walls infested with humidity. The blood was leading them towards the stairs to the top floor, indicating that if they were to find danger, it would be up there. She inspected the first floor first, containing the living room, a bathroom, and the kitchen. After finding nothing, she was ready to go to the top. On the first step of the stairs, she looked back at her two companions.

"We're ready," said Skye behind her. She nodded, slowly climbing the steps behind her.

The blood was like a snake, slithered across the entire length of the stairs. Despite being almost halfway through them, she could still not hear anything. Maybe the blood seemed fresh, but it was actually old. Despite wanting to turn back, some good supplies might be stored on the second floor, and they needed everything available if they were going against an entire army.

Now on the final few steps to the top, she could finally hear some rattling, like someone was stumbling around and crashing against every bit of furniture in the house. With her weapon raised, she observed the area of the second floor. To her immediate right, there were two doors beside each other, but on different sides of the wall, separated by a corner. Looking behind her, there was another set of doors. She didn't know where the sound had originated from.

She was so distracted by what the second floor looked like that she didn't see the corpse of a brown-coated rabbit by her feet.

"Clem!" screamed Skye, pointing her to the set of doors at the end of the hall.

"Raaagh!" screamed a savage rabbit, running to Clementine at full force. The rabbit managed to jump into the red vixen's chest, sending her straight to the ground. As she was about to deliver multiple claw attacks to her face, Skye came in clutch by delivering an axe to the savage's brain. Clementine pushed the rabbit off of her and got up again.

"Thanks, Snow," said Clem, still heaving from the sudden shock.

"No problem. Shit, my heart's racing."

"Same."

"Gather whatever you can," said Judy. "We have to get to the tv station and find somewhere safe before it's night."

How many supplies are worth almost dying from a savage rabbit? Clementine didn't think there was an exact number for that, but what they ended up finding in the second floor of that apartment was clearly not enough. A few scissors here and there, some bandages, a bat that Judy got for herself, but that was about it. She didn't know what she was expecting. After years of this place being part of a Quarantine Zone, it was logical that it would be mostly picked over. It was still disappointing, no matter what.

She ended up finding a note by the bed of the room where the savage rabbit had come from. It read:

I'm bit. Trisha's dead.

We've been getting drunk on our patrols for a while. This was such a shit post- no infected, no Scars, far from everything…Her brother makes moonshine, so we'd drink and talk. Went that way for months. We were stumbling around the grocery store when these runners surprised us.

Let her brother know I'm sorry. I tried to save her. Tell my mom I love her.

Chevy.

"I'd be sadder for you if you hadn't tried to kill me, Chevy," muttered Clementine, storing the letter on her backpack. Sometimes she liked looking at the letters. It reminded her that every survivor was on the same page (no pun intended), struggling to get through the day as constant variables worked against them. A day could be fantastic, but that didn't mean that the next one would be just as good.

"Were these two rabbits WLFs?" asked Skye.

"Seems like it," answered Judy.

"Damn…that makes me wonder, why are there prey joined to this group? They seem very predator oriented."

"Maybe they decided that more mammalpower is good, whether it was prey or predator," replied Judy.

"Or they're emergency food…"

"Sunny, that's disturbing," said Skye, creeped out by what her girlfriend said.

"As much as I'd like to disagree, you know the story of the mammal eaters we found five years ago, Skye," Judy told her. "People will do anything to not starve."

"It's fucked up…"

"Tell me about it," Clem said. "I almost got chopped by one of them."

Finally outside of the apartment, the group moved along. Clementine decided to inspect the pool a little bit closer. She went to the shallow part of it, which contained little to no water.

"Marco!"

"Uhhh, what?" asked Skye.

"Come on, you're supposed to say Polo!"

"Are you okay, Clem?" asked her mother, worried for her sanity. She climbed back up to the solid ground, deflated.

"Trying to lighten up the mood here, guys."

With a sigh, Skye decided the vixen had a point. They couldn't be too tense if they had to keep fighting. Plus, she couldn't stand her girlfriend being sad. "Polo!" she screamed, provoking a snicker from both the rabbit and the red vixen.

"There ya go," said Clementine, satisfied.

Capitol Inn was not like the fancy apartments that came before that probably cost a fortune to live in. Passing the street, the girls found themselves in the run-down two-story motel with many boarded up doors and windows. She wondered why an apartment complex and a motel were so close together.

"Something keeps bugging me," Skye said. "Why didn't they kill you guys when they had the chance?" she asked, referring to Clementine, Judy, and Gideon.

"I don't know," replied Clementine. Judy remained silent.

"Seems reckless," commented Skye. Clementine was currently walking down the street to the left of the motel.

"Maybe they're dumb."

"Maybe…" his girlfriend said, with doubt easily discernible from her face.

She went towards her. "What?" she asked.

"Could be that you just…weren't who they were looking for, so they let you go," Skye reasoned.

"They did beat the crap out of us," said Judy. "That hare we killed, Jordan, kicked my face in."

"Yeah, but why do you think they didn't finish-?"

"It doesn't matter," Judy interrupted her. "They fucked up, and now they got an angry fox going after them." Make that two angry foxes, thought Clementine.

"They did…" Skye agreed, letting the wind be the only sound once again.

Going forward to the left of the motel, Skye observed an interesting banner by the side of one of the walls. "Hey, check this out," she called to the girls, who were quickly on their steps to meet her. "Seaotter traded one shitty ruler for another."

It was a tarp held in the wall by screws depicting the rules of the citizens living under the WLF. From how desolate the place was now, it most definitely did not work out.

All WLF soldier instructions must be followed.

FEDRA Collaborators will be executed.

Permission required for leaving assigned zone.

Curfew will stay in effect until further notice.

"How old do you think this is?" asked Clementine.

"At least a few years," the brown vixen replied. "They probably put it up right after everything went down with the military. Must've been scary for all these people. First the outbreak, then FEDRA, then the Wolves."

"Wonder how many stuck around and joined these WLF fuckers?"

"Good question," said Skye.

"People will follow whoever they think can get them to survive the longest, especially the scared mammals who had already lost so much," said Judy, speaking from experience. "They might've preferred to join their cause instead of being against it."

That makes them just as guilty, Clementine thought. She didn't want to say it outloud. Judy had joined the Fireflies out of fear and thought she could help the world heal with them. She didn't know what would happen or even how they would handle it.

Clementine began coursing through an alleyway that served as the separation of the motel and another apartment complex. She wanted to check if she could enter some of the houses that she knew would be locked in the front.

"So, how are we going to handle Leah?" asked Skye.

Clementine turned to the vixen and easily responded. "Find out what she knows. Find out where the others are. Go from there."

"And where Gideon is, since that's our main objective," said the doe.

Clementine sighed. "Yes, Judy, that too."

"You gonna ask her why they did it?" Skye softly asked.

Clementine found a broken window of one of the houses and began to climb it. "Yeah," she answered Skye. Despite wanting to refute it, Judy was also mildly curious about why they had done it. Nick couldn't have died for no reason.

The two girls let Clementine search the rooms by herself. Skye kept on asking questions to the mother and daughter. "Any of this… jogging memories of stuff Nick said about his past?"

"Nothing new," the vixen replied from inside the room.

"Same here," said Judy.

"What are the chances he did stuff that you guys don't know about?"

"High," the doe and vixen said in sync. "But Nick was secretive by nature," Judy added. "That's how he lived the world. His world, at least."

Clementine found an open door that led them back to the motel and motioned the girls to get inside as well. It saved them a few steps of travel back to the main area.

"I wonder what Gideon's making of all this…" pondered Skye.

"He'd probably know more about all the people Nick crossed," replied Judy. Skye hummed in thought.

The motel was just as scarce when it came to supplies as ever, as the first floor was concerned. She could clearly observe that all of the second-floor rooms were barricaded, and she didn't have the strength nor the need to search every bit of them. She kept looking around before they went along to the second floor, and something did catch her eye. A balcony on the building to the right of the motel was blazingly opened. Clementine figured there was no harm in looking. The second floor of the motel was not close, so she couldn't just jump from one floor to the other. Getting closer to the balcony on top of her, she saw a garbage container with wheels that could serve as her way up. Grabbing one of the handles with both her paws, she tried to pull it towards the balcony, with difficulty.

"What are you doing with that?" asked the gray doe.

"It's stuck," Clementine said, still trying to pull it.

"Maybe try getting it off the curb?" suggested Skye. She hadn't seen the elevated part of the street holding it in place. Sliding it to the right, she finally managed to move it. With a few more pushes, she posted the container close to the balcony, and it was the perfect height for her to reach it.

"Careful there, Clem!" screamed her mother.

"I'll be back in a sec."

"We'll keep watch here!" said Skye, now directing herself to the doe. "She sure loves climbing inconspicuous places," Clementine could hear her saying.

"Tell me about it," Judy replied. She didn't hear any more of the conversation as she got deeper into the room.

So far, she saw nothing. On her way to the kitchenette of the apartment, Clementine opened one of the drawers and found a note, addressed to someone named Viv.

Viv- we were robbed last night. It was Jimmy. I hope he acted alone. If you guys are in a rough spot you can talk to me. I care for you and your son. Now more than ever we need to be looking out for each other. There are enough criminals running this city.

She turned the paper over to inspect the last few words.

Add a little salt and some water to these and it almost tastes like the real thing. It's not much, but hopefully it'll help…get you to the next drop off, at least.

-Rowl

As usual, she saved it in her bag and continued rummaging. She found a room with some posters of rock bands that definitely belonged to a teenager. She figured it was the Jimmy mammal mentioned in the letter. There was nothing of interest in this room. The other one to the left of it, however, stored an object worth the entire climb to this balcony. On top of the master bed of the room were a few gears for weapon crafting, as well as useful tape. However, what really made this worthwhile was the other object, a white bottle with a mouse trap wired to it. Mouse traps weren't commonly used anymore, since mice were now civilized people that had their own small towns, but it began being used again when it came to savage mice and other small predators like shrews.

"The fuck is this?" Clementine asked herself "Some kind of bomb?"

A flammable sign to the right of the mouse trap told her that it was indeed a makeshift device of destruction. A trap mine, and now Clementine knew the parts to make more. Satisfied with the acquisition, she joined the girls back outside with a quick jump.

"Was it worth it?" asked Skye.

"Yeah. Pretty good haul." Clementine wasn't going to show them the bomb yet. Whenever the time called for it, she would use it. Now they were ready to keep going, making an easy climb on a fence, getting them on the other side of the motel.

"I can still kinda see the buildings," said Skye, as the skyline loomed in the horizon. "How do you wanna go about this?"

"Uh let's see…" she looked at their new area, which was much more free roaming. To her instant right were some red buildings she could go in between, but her left was much emptier. She made the decision to go that way, cutting through a blue laundry establishment from the back.

The patrols Judy was talking about showed their faces. "He was the worst, you're nuts," said a Wolf in the distance.

"Sunny. Wolves." Skye whispered, warning her of the incoming danger. To her immediate left, she could see a tigress with a pipe on her hand through a broken, almost managing to spot Clementine.

"Shit," she said, moving to one of the blind spots of the room she was in.

"At least he made something other than fucking burritos every third day. I'm sick of it." Wolves in another part of the area were normally conversing. She saw the tigress had moved away from the zone, prompting Clementine to move further towards the door, inspecting what was outside. She could see a Halloween store to the other side of the street, but trying to go explore it now would be unwise.

"You know how many times I got food poisoning? Why do you think I took up fishing?" She kept hearing the Wolves talk, but could not pinpoint the exact place they were speaking from. Clementine looked at Judy for help. Her mother seemed to know what Clementine was thinking, so by lifting a single finger from her right paw, she showed Skye where she heard them from. They were in front of the store.

"Agh, I'm getting hungry," said a male soldier.

"Yeah? Stop talking about food then," replied his companion. Clementine decided to go more towards her right, away from the door to the outside of the laundry department, reaching a sort of garage where a broken-down car was parked permanently.

"Ugh, where the fuck is this rabbit?" said one of the Wolves, irritated.

"Somewhere in this area."

"And we're sure she ain't a Scar? She was riding an ostrich."

"Not a Scar."

"Well, then Scars will probably kill her," he said, sure of himself.

"Let's just do our job so we can go back and eat, okay?" said the other Wolf. The red vixen didn't need ears to tell that they were now on the roof of the store, scoping the area looking for Judy. Being below the store was the trio's most strategic position at the moment. Now out of the garage, Clementine looked for the tigress. She needed to be taken down stealthily, since her strength would most likely overpower them pretty quickly. She didn't need to look far as she saw the tigress looking in their direction, but they miraculously managed to dodge her view. She was now walking away from them, a perfect opportunity for Clementine to enact a finishing action on the unsuspecting feline.

Entering the front of the store where all of the laundry machines are, she walked slowly towards her target, the doe and brown vixen following her trail and watching her back. On the other side of the store, Clementine laid down on some tall grass to escape from the tigress' view once again, waiting for her back to turn to the red vixen. She was now facing the initial door the girls had seen her through, and it was a perfect opportunity for Clem's sneak attack. Grabbing her from behind, before the tigress could react to her, a stab from Clem's knife was delivered, making the tigress gargle in her own blood. Since her knife was too tiny for the tigress' big neck, she decided to give her three more cuts in the neck to make sure.

A wolf came out slowly out of the door in front of the girls, being alerted instantly and getting out his pistol. At the same time as he shot his weapon at the red vixen, he was headshotted by Skye's silenced weapon. If it had been a second earlier, they would still be in stealth mode. Clementine rushfully ran towards the door, attempting to enter the laundry department to try and lose their trail again. As she ran to the door, a raccoon showed himself with a revolver in his hands ready to make a new hole inside the vixen. She would prove too quick for him, as she delivered a devastating hit with her pipe, destroying the raccoon's head and weapon in the process. The rust of the pipe hadn't resisted her strength.

"I know you're out there!" said the only Wolf left. Once again, she didn't need Judy to be able to hear the wolf shouting from the roof of the store. "Okay…where'd you go?" he asked himself.

"I'll get him," whispered Judy, climbing a brown van that served as a walkway to the roof. Judy could see it was a boar, still looking at his surroundings with a rifle at his hand. She intended to end him clean and simple, but by turning around to look at her at the wrong time, he chose a much worse death. With her instincts activated, she ran as fast as he could to the boar, aiming his rifle at her. With a big leap, she stabbed his stomach with force and ended it with a stab on the neck, making this their first victorious battle in Capitol Hill.

"Any left?" Skye asked.

"Don't think so," Judy said, her ears twitching, looking for sounds of other mammals.

"Good," Skye said, breathing deeply to calm herself down. Clementine went ahead and took the pipe that now laid on the floor of the dead tigress, a fair trade after having lost her other pipe to the raccoon's head. "You recognize any of them?"

"None," Clementine said. Judy concurred. The WLF was a big military, so finding eight people by random encounter was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. The group moved on to the Halloween store in the front of the laundry department.

"Man, this QZ is huge, right?" asked Skye.

"It's pretty massive," Clem agreed, coursing through the many spooky articles that were still left in the store. This did not bring her as much joy anymore due to her bad experience with Halloween stores. She lost Angel in one of them.

"You think the Wolves are spread out all over it?"

"I sure hope not," answered Clem, continuing to look through the store.

"Anything in here?" Skye asked.

"Just Halloween stuff," Clem replied drily. Judy understood what was going through her head at that moment.

"Some of this stuff is funny-looking," said Skye.

"I'm not really a fan." Clementine made sure to search thoroughly but quickly enough to leave. Her mind was already grieving. She didn't want to keep remembering sad memories. The t-shirts, the masks, the overly ridiculous trinkets and toys…it was all too much. She went back to the laundry store, who she now saw was named Daydream Cleaners, to check for more supplies she might have missed. When she saw nothing else of interest was there, she kept treading on.

They could see a street that led to a successfully barricaded wall in front of them.

"We gotta cut through that gas station over there," said Judy, pointing at a building to their left. "That's where I went through on my way to the school."

"Did you see patrols there?" Asked Clementine.

"Unfortunately, yes. Doesn't seem like they're there right now, though. Otherwise they would've heard the gunshots."

"Hopefully it'll stay that way," said Skye.

"With our luck? Doubt it."

"Positive affirmations, Clem," said Judy.

With their new destination decided, the girls trudged through the literal urban jungle that was Capitol Hill, seeing the many buildings and establishments damaged after ten years of solitude and abandonment. The only things that looked relatively new were the graffities on the walls, one of them spelling out More Than a Zoocide. She wondered what that meant.

Now closer to the gas station, Clementine ducked, checking to see if the coast was clear. Seeing that there was no movement in the gas station, she got back up, warily walking towards it. A service center for cars sat unused in the gas station. It contained a workshop table, which Clementine took advantage of by fixing the stability of her semi-auto pistol. She also went ahead and extended the magazine tube of her pump shotgun to increase the shell capacity by two. As soon as she was done, a new voice was heard.

"Been thinking about asking for another transfer to the cages," spoke a male voice outside of the gas station.

"Clem, another patrol," whispered Judy. The vixen hid herself to the left of the workshop table, which was beside a window and facing the half opened garage door of the service center. The talking patrol continued to be heard outside.

"Don't do it, man. The smell in that place will make you drop weight immediately," spoke another voice, female this time.

"I think it'd be a good opportunity. Beat up on those fuckers, get facetime with Bogo." Clementine saw the two animals from the garage door, a female zebra and a male cheetah.

"The shit he asks you to do to them, though. When they're fucking crying, it's…it's rough."

"Careful, to our left," whispered Skye, who had spotted a gray wolf walking in front of the window they were hiding behind.

"I'll be fine," replied the cheetah outside.

"Alright, if you really want to," said the zebra. "I'll put in a word for you." The three girls could hear the patrol getting closer, now inside the grocery store that connected to the service center. Judy could hear their steps getting closer and closer to their hiding place, surrounded on all sides.

"Appreciate it," the cheetah said.

"Lemme give you some word of advice, though," the zebra said, now walking to the door of the grocery store. She couldn't see them, but Judy had a good idea of where they were based on their steps. "Get the information and be done with it. Don't get carried away."

"Depends on the Scar. Am I right? Heheh."

Not even having a rabbit with them gave them enough luck for the patrol to just walk past them, as a hyena began entering the door of the service center, immediately gasping at the sight of the group.

"Holy shit!" Was all she managed to say before Clementine beat her with her new pipe. It only took one strong hit for the hyena to fall to the floor unconscious.

"Spotted them! Here, here!" Screamed a gazelle outside of the door, who was greeted by Judy's bat on her face. Just like the hyena, it had only taken one hit. The doe's strength wasn't just on her legs.

Now in the gap room between the grocery store and the service center, Clementine looked to the open door of the store, seeing the gray wolf from before. With her rifle, she aimed at his neck, failing to take the shot due to the wolf's quick work at spotting her and shooting, making her cover herself behind a small table. Trying again, the vixen shot at him successfully, the bullet landing on his neck.

"Shawn!" Screamed the zebra from before. They couldn't locate her yet. "Hit them from behind!" She ordered the others.

Clementine was not going to allow them to be flanked, motioning the girls to follow her as she ran along a hall to her left that also connected the store and the service center. Now at the back door to the grocery store, she could see clearer. There were only two left standing, the zebra and the cheetah. The cheetah was currently inspecting their previous location, about to walk into the hallway she had just ran through. The zebra was searching the grocery store, a shotgun in hand.

It was time for Clementine to try out her new weapon. Silently taking it out of her backpack, she placed the latch of the mouse trap forward into the mechanism, set to go off as soon as somebody touched it. She strategically placed it by their end of the hallway, and hopefully awaited for it to work. Both Judy and Skye were looking at the contraption with curiosity, not knowing what it was going to do. They didn't even know where the vixen had gotten it from. Unless…

Their minds went haywire when a massive shockwave and cloud of dust painted the entire hallway red with the blood of the cheetah, his guts sprawled over the walls as the top half of his body remained mostly unscathed.

"Colin!" the zebra screamed at him, not knowing yet what had happened to her partner. The girls rapidly changed their location, now hiding behind one of the empty stalls of the grocery store as they waited for the zebra to take the bait and check for her dead partner in the hallway. When she began to enter the door where the cheetah's corpse resided, Clementine gave her a taste of her knife as she growled into the zebra's ear, ending her life for good. The lines of blood trailed vertically against her black stripes.

"See any more?" she asked the still shaken girls.

"No," answered Skye. "Where did you get that bomb?"

"From the balcony," Clem answered.

"I'm the trinket master, you should've let me see it first," said Skye, disappointed.

"Sorry, Snow. I know the parts to make it, I could show you later."

"Never seen you fight like that," commented Judy. Clementine elected to ignore it.

"How many guys did they send looking for you?" she asked the doe.

"Too many."

Leaving the graveyard that was the gas station, the group traveled to a bookstore right in front of it that contained many different flags. Naturally, the Animalian flag was flowing right at its center, with a light blue, white, and pink flag on the left and a multicolored one on the right.

"What are those flags?" asked Clementine.

"I thought you knew what those meant, Clem," said her mother. "That to the right is the pride flag. It's used as a symbol for all the animals that are gay, bisexual, trans, interspecies, etc. It was a way to protest the ones who didn't want us to exist."

"So this flag helps us against fuckwads like Gerald," commented Skye "I like it."

Judy continued her lecture. "That to the left is the transgender flag. I assume you know what that means." The girls nodded.

"Did you know you were attracted to predators, Judy?" asked the curious red vixen.

"No, I didn't. Like I said before, I never had a significant other before Nick came along. I did have my crushes on some bucks when I was really young, so I guess I'm bispecies."

"Woah, I have to know about those crushes," said Skye as they began entering the bookstore.

"Nothing much to it, really. I never acted on them since my true love was being a cop and all."

Clementine snickered as Judy told the story, remembering that she had told both her and Nick how adamant she was in becoming a police officer. They felt really bad when they realized the pandemic happened only a week before she was supposed to be leaving for the academy. Her dream that she had been working towards for so long had been stripped away in a single night. She didn't wish that on anybody, and certainly not on someone as purehearted as her bunny mom.

Their warm conversation came to a halt as Judy heard something at the end of the bookstore. "Shhh. Howlers. I hear them." To this, the girls kneeled, carefully going towards the sound.

"Can you feel how many there are?" asked Clementine.

"Two. Maybe three. Let's approach this carefully." The red vixen agreed, her feet sliding along the floorboards of the dirty store. Going down a small set of stairs on a checkout area, she could see a white door where the sound of the howlers was more prominent. She opened it carefully to make the minimal amount of noise and instantly saw a panther howler walking around the room's darkness. She armed herself with a plan to take them out with the least danger possible, first throwing an empty bottle in the middle of the dark room and waiting for the mammals to congregate there. The next bottle she threw at them was certainly not empty, making the entire room glow in yellow heat, their cries of pain giving Clementine the signal to close the door and guard it with her shotgun in case one of them decided to pop out.

"Good thinking, Clem," whispered Judy.

After a few seconds, the screams subsided, but one howler was still heard making noise. With the same caution as before, she opened the door with one hand, her shotgun still ready to shoot in the other. When she opened it, two of the howler animals were seen burning up, dead on the floor. She couldn't see the remaining one, so she walked deeper into the room. Realizing the howler wasn't there, Clementine grew confused, until Judy tapped her shoulder.

"I hear it on the other side of the wall," she said, her ears perked, moving with the sounds of the howler. The howler had been smart enough to know where Clementine had thrown the bottle from, and now it was on their way to flank the group. Opening a different white door that led her facing the store again, she saw the howler moving towards their early position, still giving its characteristic growl to check for its environment. Once again, she used stealth to end the encounter.

"It really scares me how smart they can be sometimes," said Skye.

"They might be infected, but deep down they are natural predators," commented Clementine. "It's part of their instinct to know how to track their prey."

"Well, let's hope our tracking instincts are always one step ahead of them."

By the counter of the checkout area, she found a note. As with all previous ones, she decided to be nosy and read it.

Fran - It's happening! Early Sunday morning. Keep your people off the streets (but careful what you say, if Bogo finds out I talked I'm fucked). Whole thing should be quick - not a lot of FEDRA left in your neighborhood.

As we clear neighborhoods, we're moving everyone to the base. Mammals shouldn't freak, it's temporary- help us keep track of good guys vs. bad guys. Can't wait to sleep in the same bed with you again. No more sneaking notes in that stupid studio

-Rebecca

Just as before, she saved in her bag and continued searching for supplies.

"These WLF guys went up against the military over a half decade ago," explained Skye. "Why are they still so amped? There can't be that many trespassers that come through here."

"I don't know," Clementine said honestly. "City still looks like it's filled with supplies. I can't see why people would need to fight over it."

"Feel her love," Judy muttered suddenly, which directed the two vixens' attention towards her.

"What?" Asked Clementine.

"Maybe they're fighting against that cult. Remember the painting we found by the entrance of Seaotter?" The girls nodded, prompting the doe to continue. "We're in WLF territory right now, and we have yet to see a single one of those paintings."

"They keep mentioning Scars… could those be it?" Realized Skye.

"It's a possibility," agreed Judy.

"Ah shit," Clementine said. "If we arrived here in the middle of a turf war, it's not going to be pretty."

"Which is why getting Gideon is our top priority," Judy said. "We gotta let those fuckers kill each other. Let them have their war. It doesn't concern us."

"I agree, Jude," nodded Skye.

"For once, me too," said Clem, now redirecting her attention to some of the books in the store.

They'd been so preoccupied with the howlers they hadn't even seen the contents of the books the store had been selling ten years ago. It contained many lascivious pictures, whether it was half naked girls or half naked guys, specifically the cowboy kind. They were also either the really huge mammals like tigers, or the really meek ones, like rabbits. Skye was looking at each cover with interest, to no one's surprise.

"Clem, look at this one," Skye said, putting a book on her face titled Sorority Secrets. The cover depicted two vixens in their underwear, one of them resting on the bed and the other one standing up behind her, looking at the other with malicious intent. "It's us, right?"

Sometimes she wondered what Clementine saw in Skye. Was it her curves? Her personality? Her wish to die by her hands someday? Probably a mix of all of them. She didn't understand how she could say things like that and not be embarrassed at all. In front of Judy, too. A hole needed to swallow her right now.

"C'mon. Let's stay focused," she said, hiding her face from both mammals. She could see Judy snickering. She was a traitor to the highest degree.

Skye began to laugh as well. "You're too easy to embarass, Sunny. But you're right, I'm done, I swear."

"Me? Embarrassed?" Clementine said, still walking away from them. "Whatever do you mean?"

"Oh, look at this one, Skye!" Said Judy, grabbing another book from a shelf. It was a groupies book, with two vixens and a male arctic fox. "You gonna include Jesse in the mix?"

"Oh sweet corn, Jude!" Screamed Skye in embarrassment. Clementine looked back at her mother. The doe gave her a wink as Skye covered her much more noticeable blushy face. "How could you do this to me? We're supposed to embarrass her together!"

"Sorry, Skye, but I gotta protect Clem from your devilish ways from time to time."

"Finally, acting like my mother for once," she said with a smile, which of course made Judy smile as well. And maybe tear up a little. Bunnies and their feelings. Skye laughed just the same, reminding Clem they were now a family. It also reminded her that they were incomplete. Perhaps forever. "Okay, you guys, fun's over. We got a fox to catch."

"Right," they both said, accompanying her out of the store.

"I can't wait to chew out that stupid fox. Leaving Vicky like that was unforgivable," Judy said.

"I think we should let her wife do that for us, Jude."

The doe sighed. "You're right. But I'm still gonna kick him in the nuts." Skye cackled at Judy's promise.

When she said she wanted to come to Seaotter alone, she didn't think about how much more depressing it would feel if she was by herself. Theoretically, she'd be dead by now, but if she was still alive, killing all of these mammals, whether they were good or bad, wouldn't feel as justified. With them around, she had a purpose. She had to protect them no matter what. If she were to lose somebody else, she doesn't know what she would do. I would die for both of you, she thought, stealing glances at her two most dearest effigies. She couldn't say it outloud, but it's exactly how she felt.

Their faces glowed like the sun, and she would enter the darkness in order to keep them on the bright side.