This next passage is from a letter discovered next to a skeleton by Judy Hopps five days after leaving for Seaotter
Page One
Ex-Fedra Soldier James Iriden Dalton's suicide letter
6/16/18
My Pa always knew I was rotten from a young age. He'd go fishing all by hisself while he left me in the shed with a lock and key. He didn't even dare to keep me inside the house where Mama and my sisters would stay. I'd strip off bits of my own flesh from boredom. It barely hurt, and it tasted nice. I'm a carnivore after all. Any meat tastes good.
The first of a series of incidents that led to my less-than-ideal life came when I was five years old. Another cub, no younger than four, began putting superglue on my fur. Oh, that little fucker knew just how angry that would get me. On that particular day, Mama had forgotten to pack my lunch. I assume you know where my story goes. My family had to pay tons of dollars for his surgery, including a very expensive glass eye. I still remember how much blood there was. And the wailings, ohhh the wailings. I came to know that no blood would be tastier than the wail of a good prey.
Why could she see him?
She was losing her mind. There's no way he was there. Where once she had imagined him singing happily besides Clementine, now his presence felt unwanted. She wasn't even thinking about him. One minute she was whispering a name in Clementine's ear, and the next minute he was behind them both, in front of the red door, smiling at them both. The smile chilled her to the bone. It was not a pure smile of love, or even smugness. It was just…there, without any sound purpose.
"…udy? Judy are you okay?" Slowly the vixen brought Judy back from her trance. She blinked for a few moments and he was there no longer.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay. I just…saw something weird, it was nothing."
"Okay then," Clementine said, paying it no mind. "We should keep going. I'm not gonna lose the day sitting here."
"Yeah, let's move."
The rain kept pouring onto the concrete walls and streets of the neighborhood, but the duo trudged along, not really having the time to rest anywhere until they found their target. Gideon was out there somewhere, fighting an entire army alone. They would need to find him quick and prevent another grave from being erected. Judy wanted anything but that. No more deaths on her watch.
With some ingenuity on both their parts, the girls managed to climb a fence with the help of a trash container, reaching the gaping hole of a building in which they happily entered. There was really no one to tell them it was private property and that they should vacate the vicinities. Inside were a few items of interest such as ammo, rags, and even another workshop, which Clementine took advantage of by placing an upgrade to her shotgun's stability. With that, she counted three upgrades in total done to the weapon, proving to be an outstanding help in their upcoming fights. Her rifle was in pristine condition, and required no further upgrades as of now.
"This person sure had a lot of bikes," Clementine said, looking at the many two-wheeled vehicles hung along the walls.
"Probably belonged to a repairman or something."
"Well, he sure owes people a lot of bikes, wherever he is."
"Pretty sure most of the people he owes these bikes to are dead too."
"Oh, right. Forgot we were in the apocalypse for a second there."
"Good thing I reminded you, sweetie."
Like the good bunny she was, Judy took care of my baby, making sure nothing wrong happened to her. She made sure to stay extra safe and prevent her from going outside of Bunnyburrow.
"Huh?" Judy said outloud. Those were not her thoughts.
"What's wrong, Judy?"
"No-nothing's wrong. Just…didn't you hear that?"
"Hear what?" asked Clementine, confused. Judy could swear she saw another pair of ears behind her.
"Yeah, Carrots, you're kinda overreacting," said a voice behind Clementine, tilting his head slightly to look at her. Uhhhhhhh….
"Wh-what? H-how?" She pointed behind Clementine. When she looked back again, the figure that she thought was there was now gone.
"Judy, are you sure you're okay?"
Frustrated with the strange happenings, and the constant need to remind Clementine nothing was going on, she kept walking forward, ignoring some of Clem's calls. "Let's just keep moving, okay? We'll find Gideon, go back, and everything will be just fi-owww, ugh, fuck!"
"Mom!" the vixen hurried over to the bunny, who was kneeling on the floor grasping her belly in pain. "Are you alright?"
"J-just peachy," she managed to say. "Just…it was just a contraction. It was bigger than the ones I had before, but I can take it, ugh."
"Doesn't seem like you can," she accused.
"There, it's calm now. Ellie's one rough fighter. I think she wants out of there," she tried to lighten the mood.
"Not now, right?" Clementine asked alarmed.
"No, of course not!"
"Oh, Clementine, you and your questions," said Nick, smiling again behind them. This time, though, she didn't even look at him. Ignorance is bliss. He wasn't there. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and got back up, moving forward, undareing to even look behind her. Thankfully, a distraction came in the form of a sheet of paper. It was another letter addressed to Borin.
Borin,
I'm so sorry. What those Wolves did to Sofia was horrifying. I can't help but feel somewhat responsible. I've been getting the town so riled up about standing our ground against the Wolves. When she started spray painting over their rules, I didn't discourage her hard enough. I kept it from you. I thought she'd stop.
I know you want to retaliate against the Wolves…believe me, I feel the same way. But we can't. Not now. We've got to be smart. Let things cool down.
People will be looking to you for how to handle this. You were a leader here after the outbreak. I need you to be a leader again. Let's not let everyone we fought for be in vain.
-Ulti
She knew. She knew her mental state would boil over at any second. So much violence was draining all of her being. She knew that all the senseless murder they were committing would bring about worse fates and circumstances than the ones they had been through. It wasn't enough having to kill hordes of savages, now they were onto entire groups of living, breathing, still-kicking mammals. Yet, somehow, she still had the strength to read the contents of this suicide letter. Morbidly, she'd call it a suicide booklet with the amount of pages that it stored. Five in total, but the book only contained four. Whatever happened to the fifth page would be lost to the ages, or to the ground she very much did not want to dig up any further. Who knew what other mysteries lay beneath such forsaken place? The story of James Iriden Dalton, or at least the one he had crafted about his life, was disconforting at heart, and did not do any favors to how she already felt about FEDRA soldiers. On the sixth day of travel, she read the second page.
Page Two
Among my siblings, I was always first at everything. First to go to bed, first to eat, first to wake up. I didn't have much of a semblance of an idea as to why, but it became clear to me at seven years old when I heard my parents conversing in the old run-down patio of our disheveled house.
"They fear 'im," Pa had said. "Him and his…antics."
"He can't help it," Mama said, always wanting what was best for me. "He's such a curious little boy."
"Curious? Woman please, he kills birds and eats them. Wouldn't be so fucked up if he at least cooked the poor things."
I took some liberties with that dialogue, but that was about the gist of it. You'd think people like me would know why we do these things, but we really don't. My seven-year old brain could not understand why I loved killing and eating raw things so fucking much. I'd cough up the feathers, but the rest went in my belly, beak and all. It got to the point where I developed my own reason for why I was the way I was: I had been possessed by a demon. To me, it made complete sense. Why else would I want to cut people open so much? I might've been a different kind of child, but I knew that wasn't normal. It was only normal back in the olden days, where us predators used to eat prey for our own survival. Now the only meat we got was chicken, birds, fish, and other kinds of cattle. I hated fish the most.
He also appeared to me on a dream, practically confessing his crimes.
"I'm truly sorry, Jamie," he told me. "But I do enjoy the taste of raw flesh. Unfortunately, my normal body prevents me from enjoying such delicacies. That is why I chose your body. Because we both have the same delectable taste in the finer meats. I too despise the taste of fish. How about I tell you my name? I'm JID, nice to meet you."
Good ol' Jay-Aye-Dee. We was inseparable. With that dream, I was basically given the keys to the city. It wasn't my fault! I was possessed. I could do whatever I wanted. If I was ever prosecuted, I could just blame it on JID. He didn't mind. He told me so himself.
Would've been nice If I had found a way to prove it, though.
The rain made her sick. The streets made her sick. The constant dread of dying made her sick. Hiding such feelings was Judy's utmost importance at that moment, and nothing she would think she sees or hears will prevent her from moving forward. Clementine kept a bigger pace, exploring and grabbing everything at her reach, from medicine patches to pills, to unopened candy bars in broken vending machines. The doe, on the other hand, focused on the pain. She had felt so much better before coming here, but now the cramps had scaled up, making her feel like she was walking with 10-pound weights tied to her legs.
"Y'know, I had this dream the other night," Clementine began speaking.
"Go on," Judy said with interest, as they finally came out of the workshop back into another piece of broken street, a liquor store right in front of them.
"I wasn't there or anything. It seemed like I was the spectator in a play. I was watching you and Nick perform it."
"Is that so? What were we doing?"
"You were trapped in some kind of pit, and this mammal…I don't know how well to describe them since I forgot their features, was at the top of the pit, saying something about fear always working. Seemed like a villain monologue in a cheesy spy movie."
"Like The Spy Who Sheared Me?" Judy asked, referring to an old spy movie that the trio had watched a few years ago.
"Actually, yeah! Exactly like that. Anyway, that's not where the dream ends. The animal shoots Nick with what seems to be Nighthowlers."
"Like some kind of serum? Oh, man, thank blueberries no one has tried doing that."
"So, he goes savage on you, even so far as to put his teeth around your neck. Until suddenly… a twist happens."
"I am very much hooked on this dream," Judy smiled, entranced by the story and how well of a distraction it was to her pain.
"Turns out, you two hustled the animal on top, swapping the Nighthowler serum for some blueberries. You did a crazy impression of a dying animal. You did not sound very convincing, haha."
"Yeah, that does sound like me, actually. Well, I'm glad we came out victorious in that dream. Anything else after that?"
"No, actually. I think it all went fast forward after that, but I couldn't make out any of the details."
"Hm," Judy said, with many thoughts running through her brain. "Thanks for telling me about this, Clem."
"No problem. Not sure how I remembered it just now. Do you have any weird dreams sometimes?"
"Um," Yes, she thought. Too many. Sometimes I'm not even asleep when they happen. "Not that many," she lied. "Just a couple nightmares,"
"Yeah, me too," Clem said softly. "Don't think I'm ready to share those, though."
"Me neither, Clem," Judy sighed. "Let's keep making like a nose with the flu and run."
"That was awful, and you should be ashamed."
The liquor store was as empty as she imagined it was. A lot of mammals probably didn't hesitate to take all of them and drown themselves with the relief of drunkenness. Judy had been guilty of this at the beginning of the pandemic. With her entire family thought dead, she didn't seek much to live for. She joined the Fireflies out of desperation, and even then it took her a few years to become a stable bunny again. A few years more and she had everything, then a few more years passed and she lost it all again. History had a bad habit of repeating itself in the cruelest of ways.
Judy's heightened sense of hearing allowed her to listen to nearby danger. "Wait!" she whispered to Clementine, grabbing her arm and closing her eyes in concentration. "Two big ones. Below us." She pointed at a hole in the wall that lead to a lower area, where the painful grunts and savage roars could be heard.
"Shambler or Bloomer?"
"Not really sure. We can leave if you're not up for this."
"You know, I should be the one saying this to you," Clem remarked. "I'm going down there alone. No buts, Judy! You can support me from this vantage point if one of them gets close, okay?"
She sighed, knowing this time she couldn't really fight with her daughter on this. "Fine. Be careful, Clem."
"Always am," Clementine said, kissing her on the forehead and jumping down into the store's lower floor, which from her distance had some office desks and more empty shelves where the liquor should've been.
Judy knew better. She knew better than to be so scared about Clementine dying. She was a skilled fighter, and had endured an incredible amount of challenges and tribulations across her life. This would be a cakewalk for her. Still, her motherly instincts never went away, and ever since she was entrusted with taking her across the country about six years ago, they only increased tenfold. Hundredfold even.
Focusing on her fighting, she saw her pull out a Molotov cocktail and launched it at one of the giant savages, who seemed to be an elephant and a rhino this time. They were groaning, in the rough sound that was the staple of a Shambler. Still with this new information, Clementine remained focused, easily dodging the acid spores filled with nighthowlers that they threw at her. With another bottle of hellish fire, with the support of a few shotgun blasts, Clementine was victorious, and would live to see another day.
"She's grown so much from that scrawny little kid from way back when. Hasn't she, Judy?" said a voice, vibrating her entire being.
She dared not turn to the sound of it. It was so soothing, but at the same time, so horribly malignant. Despite knowing this was in her own head, she couldn't deny agreeing with it.
Yes. It. This wasn't Nick. The real Nick was gone, buried back in Bunnyburrow.
"She used to be so innocent too. Remember Jack Savage? That piece of shit destroyed her mind, turning her into a husk. I wish I could turn back time. Can you imagine? What if we just aged backwards? Like that Benjamin Foxton movie. Everything would be so much easier. Born as old people and die as innocent children? Who wouldn't want that?"
"Shut up, please," she whispered. "Get out of my head."
That seemed to do the trick, no longer hearing the ghostly monologue of the dead fox. It was perfect timing, as Clementine was back in the front.
"Was there anything worth it down there?" she asked, praying that the vixen didn't catch the distress in her voice.
"Haul was good, not great," she said, getting some bullets out of her pocket. "Some rifle ammo for you."
"Thanks," Judy said quietly, grabbing it out of Clem's paws. The doe was ready to keep moving as far away as possible.
They had to keep moving across the liquor store to reach another building at the other side of the street. When they were there, it didn't take long for both of them to figure out what type of center it was.
"A daycare? Next to a liquor store?" Clementine asked.
"Step 1: Drop your child off at the daycare," Judy said, in a deep voice. "Step 2: Drown in your sorrows."
"Hahahaha, stop it," the vixen said, demanding the doe to stop eliciting happy noises from her yapper.
"Step 3: Pick up your child and repeat the steps tomorrow."
"Are you somehow already experienced in parenting?" Clementine asked.
"When you live with over two hundred young brothers and sisters, you get to be the mom to a few of them. I was happy to do it, but boy was it stressful."
"I imagine. I feel like Cotton and her litter are already too much to handle."
"Hehehe. She makes up for it by being so cute."
She tried not to, but she made herself sad thinking about Cotton and the rest of her new younger siblings. Cotton had already taken it horribly when she heard the news about Uncle Nick not coming back. Now Uncle Gid, Sister Judy, and Cousin Clemy were on the run, heading straight to the ones who had taken Nick from her. She wondered what Bonnie was telling her.
Was Bonnie crying herself to sleep every night, worried sick that her daughter had already been killed? Too many thoughts, all at once. Thoughts that would once again be calmed down by a twitch of her ear. "I hear savages outside," Judy told the vixen, who stylishly removed the revolver from its holster.
"Let's try to actually be quiet this time," said Clementine. "Follow me."
"Aye aye, cap'n."
Hopping over a window, the duo moved slowly to the back of an old military Humvee, a savage closely walking in front of them. Judy slid herself to the left side of the car following the vixen, her paws connecting with a rough texture, belonging to a bright yellow 'A' that had been painted on the car. The full message spelled out 'Come get me Assholes'. Seeing that the savage had moved up into a nearby alleyway, Clementine kept moving, gesturing to Judy to quicken her pace as well. Now on the other side of the street, Clementine led her to the inside of a bike shop to wait for the mammals to move up. Judy could tell that Clementine was being patient and careful this time around, wanting very much to prevent any unnecessary altercations.
Moving on to the next store, the girls noticed it was a fur grooming shop, now destroyed and moldy inside. Judy remembered going with her older sisters to get extensions or dyes. Judy always chose the typical grooming, knowing that being a cop wasn't about the looks. She always accepted herself as she was anyway. Caught up in her thoughts she had come to realize she was now inside of the store, particularly in the back of it, where her vixen was about to step through the other side thanks to the open back door. Before doing this, she handed her a piece of paper near a table, talking once again about the archer fox. It read:
Ulti-
You know our hearts will always be with Hillcrest, but after Sofia's shooting we've decided to head to the stadium with the others. We've got our own kids to think about.
-The Clawmans
PS- saw Borin a couple hours ago. We tried talking to him, but he seemed off. Please talk to him.
I hope you guys will join us…
Giving it back to Clementine, Judy saw her put it on her backpack and join back into nature through the passage in front of them. Now at the back alley of all the stores, Judy could still hear the soft wailings and growls of the half-conscious savage mammals.
"I'll go back to kill them, stay here," said the vixen, which rewarded her a soft grab on the shoulder from the doe.
"Why? We're already past them, let's just leave!" Judy whispered, still holding tightly to her bluish shirt. She knew Clementine could handle them, but she was scared of being alone. She'd get in her own mind again, and she didn't know what machinations it would create that would be done solely to torment her. She also didn't want any unnecessary violence on Clem's part. She was already killing so many people.
"What if we're getting chased and we have to haul ass that way? We don't want to be surrounded by these ash holes," Clementine reasoned. It was a good one. Judy had no rebuttal to that.
"Ugh, fine. Just be quick."
Nodding, the vixen climbed through a trash can and hopped over the wall dividing themselves and the beasts. In just a few seconds she heard a hard stabbing sound and the sound of a savage mammal choking on their own blood. Judy took this opportunity to check on her own surroundings, which just consisted on more buildings surrounded by even more vegetation. Another curious sighting was a door being blocked by a trash can.
"Open the door."
"Huh?" she asked, looking everywhere for the source of the sound. Even with her keen ears, she couldn't search for the sound if it came from somewhere completely alien.
"Make yourself useful. Stop standing there. Our daughter is out there, saving your ass while you're just here, sulking. What kind of mother are you? Open that door, see if there's something there, goddamnit!"
The voice was harsh, but… "You're right," she told him. Her senses told her not to, but her mind was made up. She began walking toward the room. "Can't be…useless," she said to herself.
"Good. We're both in agreement then. Open that door. Open it now! Before she comes back. It'll be a surprise."
"A surprise," Judy smiled. "Like…the dinosaurs."
"Exactly like the dinosaurs, Judith. Now, do it fast, before she even notices. Quick!"
"Right," she told herself, heading straight to the blocked door. The trash can was heavy, not daring to look inside to see what was making that weight. Thankfully, the wheels still worked. With some difficulty, she got it out of the way in mere seconds, glad that her strength, despite her biggest handicap to date, was still partly intact. With a smile wider than the ocean, she grabbed the handle to open the door…
"Surprise," said a smiling sinister voice. She could see the shape of who it was, a handsome fox she once knew. But that's all it was, a shape. A grotesque caricature of what he once was, smiling at her inside the room. It didn't take long for the savages hiding inside to go after her as well, making the shadow disappear without any trace. A betrayal of her own mind. Judy could not believe it.
The savages, a zebra, an otter, and a gray fox, attacked instantly. Despite being caught off guard by the relentless beasts, Judy was still able to jump out of their way before they even got a chance to place their paws on her body, giving her enough leeway to take out her rifle from her back.
She shot once, hitting the otter. "Bang! Straight in the head!" said the voice, returning again to torment her.
"Shut the hell up!" screamed Judy, turning towards the place where she thought the voice had come from, instead finding nothing once again. The onslaught of the remaining savages did not let up, and the unfortunate distraction did not give Judy enough time to reload her gun, scrambling to take out the empty casing as the zebra savage punched her shoulder with one of its hooves, sending the rifle into the ground.
Taking out her knife, she was ready to- "Knife fight, everybody! We got a knife fight!" the voice spoke again, taunting her even more. Containing herself from screaming at it for a second time, Judy ignored it, being able to stab the zebra in the neck without any problem.
The gray fox was the last one standing. With its sharp eyes and salivating maw, he looked at her with an almost calm expression, making it seem like it was thinking what it's next move should be. Judy stayed still, waiting for the fox to attack so that she could deliver a final blow with her dagger. Savages were never that smart, so this one would be no different.
Until it started talking.
''You don't deserve that child," he said, in a voice belonging to the deepest pits of hell. It made her whole body shake, making her almost drop her knife. "That child should die with its father!"
One second, he was screaming at her. One second later, she was on the floor, pinned down by the mighty paws of the gray fox. Her knife, now about ten feet away from her, was too far away for her to even reach. He was growling, dropping saliva all over her face, dampening her already tear-swollen eyes. Why did he speak? How did he speak? How much more of this can she take?
The fox was strong, and she felt her arms weakening, struggling to give out. If she did, the fox would have a clear line into her neck. What was it that I used to say back then? she thought. Oh yeah. Blood, blood, blood, and…death!
She always did suck at playing dead.
With an awakening of strength that surprised even her, Judy kicked the fox away, releasing her from the struggle, which in turn gave her the opportunity to pick the knife.
She picked the knife. She saw the fox, still recovering from the impact of her kick. She handled the knife with skill, walking slowly towards him. She stabbed the knife into its leg, but she did not give the creature a second to think about the pain, taking the knife out and stabbing it back in, this time into one of its kneecaps. The fox was more angry than in pain, but this did not stop her. Taking it out again, she stabbed its crotch, this time twisting it around and then slashing towards her, ripping open the jeans that it was wearing. The blood splashed her face, but this did not stop her. She cut its belly open, relishing the movement of its intestines exiting his open belly like snakes. This time, she could see the fox's distress in her face. He almost had a pleading look, asking her to stop.
But this did not stop her.
"Who's the dead one now!?" she screamed as she slammed the knife into his head, tearing its skull wide open. Its left eye had taken a trip into his cheek, still hanging onto its socket by miracle workings. This wasn't enough. This wouldn't stop her. He wasn't dead yet. He would come back, to tell her she didn't deserve to live. To tell her that she didn't deserve to find happiness again.
"Judy!" the voice said, but she was ready this time. The voice wouldn't win over her. No matter how much it pleaded for his safety. Grabbing her knife with two paws, she put it over her head, ready to stab the fox deep into his chest. "Judy, stop!"
It wasn't the voice. It was Clementine. Turning back, she saw the terrified expression in her face. Finally noticing what she was doing, she saw the bloodied knife, and the bloodied carcass that once was a fox.
She threw the knife aside and barfed, mixing her fluids with the infected's putrid blood.
Depending on who you asked, the fog of Seaotter could be two things. It could be a blessing. A sanctuary in which one could wander around without problems, very seldomly fearing for any savage attacks, or mammal attacks for that matter. That didn't mean that lines weren't blurred at times. Sam had seen the worst of the Wolves, but she'd also seen the worst of the Seraphites. Living in her island, away from any sort of civilization, made her unaware and inexperienced when it came to savages. She had only grown up with the so-called radical violence. She guessed the savages were the iradical kind by definition.
Back to the subject at hand. The fog of Seaotter. Sam and her sister were running away from their own society, and as one does when they try not to get caught, they hide, and the fog served them well. Still…Sam hated it nonetheless.
"Do you have another rag that isn't as dirty? My glasses might give me an eye infection," she said, struggling to wipe away the mist that overtook her eyes every step she took in the endless smoke city. She wouldn't call this a curse, but it sure was getting old. She needed to see, and protect her sister as much as she was protecting her.
"No, I'm sorry," said Yara, walking in front of her, her paw stuck on her bow tightly, watching for any Seraphites in the area. This land was Wolf-less, as far as they knew. "Just a little more. We can rest by one of the rock giants."
Sam knew that 'just a little more' meant about a few more miles of meandering and tedious streets, coupled with a few far in between moments of relief where it was all inundated. Yara prevented her from going in the water unless strictly necessary. It was still raining incessantly, so any wrong movement of the clouds could be able to turn everything on its head. She understood, but she still couldn't deny how bothersome it was. She didn't let Yara see her discomfort. She was already going through great lengths for her. No one would ask for more.
Lucky for her, the sun began to hide, which let Yara know it was time to rest. Looking around for a safe place to stay the night, the older otter went with the decaying-not to mention tilted- concrete giant. No one would guess they were there, which is one of the reasons she chose it.
"Don't be scared, Sam," Yara told her in an encouraging voice. "It's been like this for years. What are the chances it's gonna drop today?"
"Less than zero, I bet," Sam said, in a robotic voice that fit her tired body. She was too exhausted to protest, so she immediately sat on the cold floor of their new hideout, taking off her bow and quiver for the day. Yara, still in the same spot, looked awkwardly at Sam and then began to make a fire, only taking her about ten minutes to start it. As was the case with their species, being wet was no problem, but the cold of the night could still be enough to freeze them.
As the lit fire cracked the wood and vibrant sparks flew upwards to the ceiling, the dark blue hue changed to a warm yellowish aura. Yara proceeded to sit next to Sam, grabbing two salmons from her bag that she had been able to hunt that morning, offering one to Sam. Licking her lips and salivating at the sight, Sam did not hesitate to devour the excellent aquatic delish, leaving it down to the bone in a matter of minutes.
"Are you okay?" asked Yara, who hadn't taken a single bite of her own catch.
"Um, yeah. I think so."
Yara chuckled. "You think so? You don't know if you're okay or not?"
"I'm okay in some parts. I'm definitely not hungry, which thanks by the way."
"Don't mention it. It's the least I can do for making you walk so much."
"But…we're walking the same distance," Sam said, confused.
"Yeah, but…you're just a kid. You have shorter legs."
"I do not," Sam said defensively, making Yara snicker.
"Still, I should not be doing that to you. I just…want us to be out of the city as fast as possible."
Sam could hear it. The grief in Yara's voice. Whether it was about their group, her mother, or Sam herself, didn't really matter. "Are you okay?"
Yara took a second to think about that answer. "No," she said plainly, putting the fish down into the ground. "None of this is okay. None of this is fair for any of us. We shouldn't have…we shouldn't have had to run away from home just because you wanted to be you. I hate that we have to do this at all. I just want this all to end. This isn't fair to you. Here I am, dumping all my shit when it's you who must be feeling the worst-"
"Hey," Sam said, stopping her from going on any more tangents and placing a paw on her depressed shoulder. "There's no reason to mope now. For as much as we want to, we have to stay strong. The journey ahead is still tough. I promise I'll be with you, no matter what. We'll deal with this together, like The Maid would want us to."
Yara's eyes widened but still managed to squint when she heard Sam mention The Maid. Sam knew that her sister no longer held the same faith. Yara put a paw on Sam's shoulder, copying her own movements. "Look at you," she said with pride. "You've had to grow up so fast, Sammy." She put her other paw on her cheek, carefully caressing her fur on top of her most recent wound.
"It's not my first time changing who I am," she said quietly, smiling at Yara as she moved up to hug her. The otter sisters shared a silent cry together, enjoying the time of peace that they had. The coming days would be horrible for the pair, but for now they had each other. They would confront everything together. No one would take them apart.
Sam still hated the fog the next morning.
She didn't expect the roles to reverse so quickly.
Usually, it was Judy who gave Clementine the silent treatment and then reprimanded her later for stupid stuff that she did. Now, it had all been her own reckless doings that had gotten them in this awkward spot.
What is a daughter even supposed to think, seeing her pregnant mother completely dismembering a savage fox who could've easily been killed in an easier way? 'Nothing' was apparently the answer, because Clementine had no words to utter. She just snapped Judy out of whatever messed up place she was in her mind, and just told her to stay close, with surprising and foreign eyes, like she was looking at someone completely different. She was not to blame, of course. Judy did not feel like herself either.
"You need to tell me what's going on," the silence ended with Clem. "What you did back there…I have never seen you do something like that…you scared me, mom," Clem said, her voice shaky. The doe's heart shut down for a second, distraught by the usage of that word, this time with coldness instead of the warmth that always overtook her whenever Clementine said it.
"I…don't know," Judy said. She kept moving with her head down. Wrong answer.
"She doesn't know," Clem repeats, sniggering to herself. She turned and looked at Judy angrily. "Well, if you won't tell me anything, then I won't tell you anything, and you best believe I'm gonna keep to my promise and hunt Abby on my own."
"What?!" Judy asked with a scream. A bombshell had been dropped on her lap. "Who do you think you a-"
"A more capable leader than you right now, that's what!"
Another striking statement, courtesy of the mammal that the bunny loved most in the world. She couldn't refute that statement. She was pregnant and seeing ghosts. Also apparently a terrible need for blood.
Blood. Orange fur. Hearing aid, broken. Crunch, crack, splash. A swing, a death. A kick, asleep. Awake, grief. All of the feelings came back and hit her like a speeding train. No matter what, she couldn't escape Abby's hateful gaze.
The same gaze that her daughter now sported.
"So I don't care what you say, Judy," the vixen continued. "I'm going after Abby, and I don't care that you don't want me to. You'll just be another step in my way. I will kill them all. I will do to them as they did to Nick. It's what they deserve-"
"Why do you care?" Asked Judy.
"Huh?"
"Why do you care so much?" Judy looked at her with a challenging face. "Do I have to remind you about the party? You pushed him away! You hated him, and then he died, and now you hate yourself! You're not doing this for him, Clem! You know this!"
Clementine almost looked defeated. "T-there's a reason for that-"
"Oh yeah? What fucking reason, huh? What was so bad that you had to estrange him and despise him for an entire year?"
"I didn't hate him!"
"Sure didn't look like it," Judy spoke, not allowing her to even breathe after she was done talking. "You pushed him, and it took all of me not to knock some sense into you the next morning. So do whatever the fuck you want! Go get your stupid revenge and come back to hate yourself in the morning. I hate Abby just as much as you, Clementine, but even a dumb bunny like me knows that Nick is still back in Bunnyburrow, six feet below, dead. Dead, Clem!" She started crying. "And as much as I want him to be back in my bed, killing anyone won't bring that back. It's just memories now, and if I die here, then all of those memories die too. I don't want that. I want to remember him, Clem. I want to live to remember him. I want to tell his kids what his father was like!"
That was all. She crumbled, then and there, no longer able to support herself on her two feet. Clementine did not make a single step forward to try and console her, just looking at her with the iciest eyes, the green of them glowing in the rain.
"If you're really serious about telling them…" Clementine began, walking away from Judy's crying spot. "You better tell them about how much he enjoyed murdering innocent mammals."