Chapter 15: J.I.D. (Hillcrest Part 3)
"He never sleeps, the judge. He's dancing, dancing, he says that he will never die."
-Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
The Traveler- Seaotter Day Two
The suburbs of Hillcrest almost retained its paradigm. A wide stretch of homes everywhere he looked, and trees as tall as power lines. Sometimes the illusion shattered by a few dismantled roofs or broken down doors, but it yet retained its sense of familiarity, of home. He missed his home.
As much as he'd like to refute this fact, he was having the most fun outside of the walls of Bunnyburrow. He remembered seeing a painting of a caged blue bird, never able to fulfill its true purpose of soaring in the blue sky, and that's how he felt. Birds are supposed to fly, just as he was supposed to be out here, making a difference. Whether it was a good or a bad difference, he didn't care, he just wanted to feel like he was part of this world. The death of Nick served as a great excuse to fly.
"Any luck finding the group?" Asked a porcupine, dressed in military wear. It seemed like he had used a knife on his quills to make them sharper. He saw traces of blood in some of them.
"No luck. These assholes are slippery," replied a capybara. "I heard they escaped the tunnel. How the heck did they do that? It's infested by savages."
"How are we sure that they escaped?"
"All we recovered was bodies from our comrades."
"Oh. At least we know they're close by."
The capybara loomed in his spot, seemingly realizing everything that had happened. He sat on a sleeping log. "What even is this?" He asked himself.
"Pardon?" Asked the porcupine.
"What are we even fighting about? We don't know who these people are! They clearly aren't Scars. They're using guns, for fucks sake. What if they're scared, like us?"
"Oh, I'm not scared," the porcupine said.
"Really? Not even a little bit?"
"Nope. I got my quills."
The capybara could only laugh. "You and your fucking quills, man. Either way, I don't think I want to fight this pointless war anymore."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying all of this is fucking stupid! The way we're going, we won't even have a home to protect."
"Winston, you better not be saying what I think you're saying," said the capybara, looking tense. He gripped his gun strongly.
"Wait, what the heck are you doing?" Asked the capybara, unholstering his own gun but keeping it down.
"I gotta confess something to you, Winston," the porcupine said with an aura of superiority. "Bogo gave me two assignments. The first one: accompany you into Hillcrest to try and find the trespassers. Second: We've been having a wave of traitors who leave to become Scars. I was asked to reveal them, and eliminate them. You're not one of those traitors, are you, Winston?"
"What the fuck? What the fuck?! I'm not a fucking traitor! I just want what's best for us! For our families, O'Quillen!"
"You think I don't? The last thing we need is more unrest in the group. If you don't think what we're doing is right, you can tell that grievance to Bogo. If you want to take matters into your own hands, then that's a problem." Promptly, the porcupine aimed his weapon at the capybara.
"Whoa whoa whoa hey! Calm the fuck down!" Said the capybara, also aiming his gun at the other mammal. "You realize you're the one causing the unrest?"
"Not if one of us dies, there isn't."
"I can just tell the others what you did. Make them turn against Bogo."
"And what, fight a whole army by themselves? A ragtag group of nobodies?"
"The trespassers seem to be doing just fine, and I hear there's only three of them!"
"They're lucky. Luck always runs out."
"Just think about this! I have a family, man!" The capybara pleaded.
That's when he came to notice the porcupine's trembling paws as he lifted his rifle to point at the capybara's head. "There is no choice, Winston. If it's not me, it will be a Scar or another of those things. I'm doing you a favor."
"You fucking psycho!" Winston did not waste any more time trying to stop the porcupine's killing intent, instead rapidly pointing his gun and shooting, to which O'Quillen dodged and shot as well. Winston's bullet pierced the shoulder of the porcupine, but his shot had been more accurate, entering the soft flesh of Winston's left knee. "Aaagh!" he cried as he fell, now incapacitated and in pain. He saw the porcupine walk up to him, also groveling from the shoulder pain, pointing his rifle at Winston's head.
"I'm sorry, Winn…your family will be taken care o-"
A loud bang and a splash of red appeared near instantaneously. A bullet had pierced the porcupine clean through the side of his head, opening a crater on the other side that had bathed Winston. The porcupine, now lifeless, propelled himself downward and fell atop Winston's chest, also creating a puddle on his military gear, tickling his ribs as the warm blood slid down into the floor below him.
"Hey, you," the observer told the capybara. "Take this," he threw some gauze at him. "For your wound."
"Wha-" the capybara was still processing these new developments. His friend was dead, killed by this new stranger who was now offering help. "Who…are you?" He weakly stated, taking the gauze and finally pushing the lifeless body off of him.
"Just a trespasser who decided to save your life. Now go, before I change my mind."
The capybara did as he was told, getting up with difficulty and running down the street back to the city, limping from his damaged knee. The traveler sighed, hoping he wasn't making a mistake leaving one of them alive. Taking a moment to spit on the porcupine's corpse, the fox kept following the trail, hoping to find his friends safe and sound.
Emily of the Seraphites & Peter of the WLF- Seaotter Day One
It was a warm night. A mess of moving, warm bodies entangled the room. Emily was enjoying the taste of moose, taking the lead as she pounced on him hungrily. Swaying side to side, moving up and down, the otter did not let up, making their lovemaking even more extreme, as their animal senses took over them like the very Nighthowlers they went up against. She was a predator, and she took her prey with delight. The moose was no prey either, sinking his claws into her tail and backside to increase her movements and to direct her where it would be his most pleasurable spot. She buried her claws into his chest as well, to remind him that she was still part of the dance.
"Not bad… for a traitor," she teased him, as she gripped the bed sheets with one of her paws.
"Not bad…for a cultist," he teased back, suddenly realizing it might be more of an insult than what she told him. Emily noticed his unpleasantness and just smiled mischievously, having more energy to increase her riding even more, which took the moose off-guard.
The bed, which was designed for only one otter to sleep in, was getting increasingly more tense as the heavy body of the moose went against his surface, making it creak, and even crack as some of the wood became splintered. Right now, they didn't care, having the need to finish this performance, which would soon be over for the both of them.
"Scream for me, Wolf!" she told him in moans. It had been her wish for the longest time to have one of those evil Wolves at her mercy. This was not the way she expected to accomplish it.
"I am no Wolf, Seraphite! What if they hear us?" he told her, also nearing his end. He referred to the other Seraphites that were sure to be either sleeping or taking guard in the night.
"They already have. They just don't care," she told him. She didn't care about the disapproving looks. This was her army to control, and if anyone had problems about this, she would kill them. "If you're no Wolf, then what are you?" She winced from the pain, that delicious pain she felt as his claws kept drawing blood from her back.
"I'm…." he whispered, but she wasn't able to hear the rest. She retaliated by drawing more blood from his chest, asking him again.
"What are you, Wolf?" she screamed aggressively. She needed an answer.
"I'm yours! I'm infinitely yours!" That response made her quiver, and she felt wetter than she already was. She was about to explode. Her climax was imminent.
"Then…agh…as my property, I c-command you to finish in me. Drop all your weight on me!"
"W-with pleasure, Lady Em," the moose said, his mind only focused on one thing and one thing only, her warm and excited face as he gave her the night of her life. With a few more thrusts that made way for more wood to turn to dust, he released, burying all he had deep within her walls. Soon after, Emily climaxed, making her entire body vibrate from the intensity. They sought out each other's mouths, making their tongues dance in celebration. She took a hold of his antlers to intensify the kiss. When she was done kissing him, the otter took out his member from her cavity and prostrated herself on his chest, feeling incredibly satisfied.
"Why…?" the moose said, still panting and recovering from their act.
"Huh?" Emily replied, confused at what he was asking.
"Why do this for me?" he managed to speak clearly. "You barely know me."
"It's not that hard to understand, Peter. I needed release and you were the most viable person to achieve it."
"Is that all it is?"
"My true love is The Maid, Peter, I thought you knew that. She should be your true love too, if you wish to join us. You truly don't know the weight of those scars?"
"Aren't you…betraying the Maid, doing this?" he asked her.
"No," she replied. "The Maid was free, and so are we. As long as we fulfill our duties, who we bed is no business of the elders."
"And you didn't take a husband?"
"Do you see me with one? The life of a wife is something I'm not interested in."
"I see…" The moose stayed quiet, still in his original position, caressing the otter's wounds that had stopped bleeding by now. "I'm so-"
"Do not bother apologizing. I made you bleed as well."
He grinned. "Fair enough. You always seem to know what I'm going to say next."
"It helps when you're predictable, Deserter."
Emily didn't know how she had started to feel like she needed to sleep with Peter. She had never been interested in someone who wasn't an otter, and certainly not a Wolf. She had also lied to him. Just because she wasn't wed didn't mean she could just go around using her body as she pleased. In reality, if the elders wanted to, she could be married off at any point, but they'd never dare to do it due to her usefulness in the battlefield.
So why did she want to break the rules so badly, and with someone like him? It was a mystery to her, one that would probably outlive her. The war was imminent, after all. The chances of survival were slim.
"Ya know," the moose began to talk again, "There's something that bothers me a lot now that I look at you closely."
"My face not up to your standards, Moose?"
"It's not that. You're a very pretty otter."
This compliment made her blush. "S-so? Get to the point!"
"It would be even prettier with your whiskers. Why desecrate them like that?"
"It is the law," she told him, still blushing from the rush of flattery she was receiving. "Female otters don't need their whiskers."
"Well, they'd suit you. A lot."
"Shut up and sleep now, Moosebridge," she said, closing her eyes on his chest. "It's a hard day tomorrow. I have a feeling we'll be able to catch the apostate and her sister."
"What if I want to stay awake looking at you?"
"Ugh, I didn't know you were so soppy. Do whatever you want, just let me sleep. I'm exhausted."
"Okay, but stay awake a bit longer. I wanna tell you something."
"Fine, but be quick," she said, still in the process of sleeping.
"I wasn't lying when I told you I was yours," this comment made Emily's eyes open. "I'm very grateful about you saving me back then, even if I needed to cut my face off. I was willing to do anything to be able to be part of you, and it turned out I didn't need to do much. For that I thank you, and will forever be indebted to you. I will gladly die with you in this war."
"You make no sense, Peter," she told him, rising up from his chest and confronting him head on. "You betrayed your people so you could live. Why do you want to die now that you're here?"
"I never mentioned living," Peter said. "I disagreed with how the Wolves were running things, so naturally I left. I wasn't going to die for a cause I didn't believe in. In all honesty, I don't have anything to believe in anymore."
"Then why die for us?"
He took a moment to answer. "I'm gonna have to die someday. I might as well choose my fate."
"Even here, your fate is not set in stone," she told him, getting closer to his muzzle. "Seaotter is unforgiving and ruthless."
"I have been surviving in this city ever since this pandemic started. You can't run me off. Besides, I'm strong. I can decide where and when to die."
"In that case…" she closed the distance between their muzzles and shared another candid kiss with the older mammal, savoring his tongue like they had done so a few minutes before. After letting go of the kiss, she addressed him again. "Do you feel like dying right now?"
He smiled. "Absolutely not."
"Then…" she positioned herself back to where his rod was, ready to be used again by her entrance. "You wouldn't mind staying awake with me a bit longer? Might as well make use of our remaining time."
Peter Moosebridge smiled again and sat up on their bed, ready to continue their bout. He looked at her like he hadn't looked at any other mammal in ten years, not since his wife and child had died. He touched her face, scratching the whiskerless cheeks, and licked them lovingly. "I would not mind one bit," he finally told her, allowing her to take him in once more.
Sam the Apostate - Seaotter Day 2
She hated the fog the next morning, but she didn't expect the fog to be the least of her worries as she got ready to start the day. Looking upwards, she saw the rocky and blurry ceiling of their temporary hideout, and went quick to gather her glasses.
"Found you!" screamed a sudden voice, grabbing Sam from one of her feet, making her screech. She was dragged away from her glasses. Trying to release herself from the mammal's hands, Sam kicked at his noggin with all the strength she could muster, but it didn't seem to do anything to the larger mammal. With her less than ideal vision, she still couldn't quite see the perpetrator, but she could identify brown clothes that belonged to the Seraphites.
"Yara!" she screamed for her sister's help, as she kept trying to grab some distance from the enemy. She tried everything, from clawing, to kicking, to punching, but he remained unharmed. What kind of beast were they? She was shown the animal's strength when she was launched into the wall opposite from the exit. She managed to soften the hit with her paws, but the fall was still severe, hurting her knees from the rocky terrain. Looking up, she could see her adversary a bit clearer, a rhino with a sledgehammer. The place where Yara was supposed to be was empty, with only a bed in her stead.
The rhino was covering the exit, so she wouldn't be able to just slide out and run. She was going to have to fight. The rhino didn't seem to run toward her, covering the exit as much as he could.
"Your journey ends now, Apostate!" he taunted, while flailing his hammer around. She needed to get her glasses, and quick. Fighting without them would mean instant death for her, and she wasn't giving up just yet. Running towards her bed, Sam slid skillfully and grabbed her glasses, successfully getting out of the way of the swing from the sledgehammer, which would've turned her head to paste. Now, she needed her quiver of arrows and bow, but she could also fend for herself with her movement.
The rhino got tired of waiting and swung one more time, which Sam easily avoided. Taking advantage of this, she ran through his arm and slashed his face with one of her claws, making him close one of his eyes. She didn't let up her attack, also biting the soft skin of his head, trying to yank it off with all her might. The rhino grabbed her, but she still held on to the skin with her teeth. Thanks to the rhino's strength and the resilience of her teeth, Sam managed to take off that piece of skin.
"You bitch! Aagh!"
This moment of pain for the rhino was a great opportunity for Sam, as she managed to grab her arrows and bow. Aiming at his head, she tried to pierce that piece of exposed skin, only for the rhino to stop it with his arms. He took the arrow off, and threw it at her, managing to almost pierce her with her own weapon. Clearly, she needed to be smarter if she was to win this fight. Nocking another arrow, she aimed high and shot at the ceiling, distracting the rhino, who curiously looked at her aiming spot. With this opportunity, she climbed the body of the rhino with her usual fluidity and stabbed him in one of his eyes with another arrow, making him scream again. Before he could grab her and throw her, she jumped backwards into the ground, but not before still being kicked with his gigantic foot, which sent her back to the place she started. Now more weakened and with only one eye to see, Sam was more confident about winning this battle.
"Fuck the elders, I'm executing you here and now!" The rhino went berserk, gripping his hammer with force and swinging at her relentlessly. She could hear every swing and every boom as the hammer collided with the ground. She was desperately avoiding every single swing, knowing only one of them would certify her instant death. Through his onslaught, she couldn't see a suitable opening for her to attack again. He was pissed, and the adrenaline coursing through his veins was keeping him energized. She had just awoken, without much sleep, and an empty stomach to boot, rendering her barely functional. Still, she couldn't just die here. After going through so much, she couldn't give up now. With new fortitude in her heart, Sam layed on all fours and dashed forward, reaching the gigantic legs of her opponent. Her arrows be damned, Sam launched a mighty claw at his right leg, which drew blood as seen by the new reddish wash on her fingers and a painful groan from the rhino. Now at the presence of his back, Sam would not be able to climb on his brown trenchcoat far enough to reach his neck, so she decided to still make use of her smaller stature, by stabbing an arrow directly into his left glute, digging it in with force. She wouldn't stop there, as she rapidly delivered a strong kick to his groin area, making him fall in a deeper state of agony.
At that point, the rhino was a mess, crying and screaming as he desperately clutched his leg and groin, as if it would miraculously stop it from hurting. He was too weak to reach around for the arrow still stuck in his behind, making it an even more pathetic sight. The entrance was free. She could just run and let him suffer there for all eternity. But millions of scenarios started plaguing her mind. What if he got up? What if he alerted more people? What if he then, at a later time, was able to deal the killing blow to her? To Yara? She wouldn't allow that. As much as it would pain her to do it, killing him was the best outcome if she wanted to ever find a way out of that damned city. Slowly walking back to the mammal, the otter nocked another arrow, viciously pursuing the top of his head. This time, she wouldn't go for some skin. This time, she would stab deep, and furiously. Deep enough to slip him into a forever sleep.
Commencing her last maneuver, the mustelid climbed atop the mountain that was his back, readily preparing another arrow, the last one she would use on the animal. Gripping as hard as she could with her fist, she put the arrow over her head, and swung. On an unlucky act of fate, the rhino recovered swiftly and avoided her attack, which made her slip and fall from the rhino's now vertical mass, kicking her once again to the back of the cavern, sending her glasses flying away from her. Once again, her vision was only the white of the fog and her senses were only feeling the pain of the kick and the hardness of the concrete against her skin. The rhino picked up the hammer again, probably more pissed than he had ever been in all the years serving The Maid.
"Your blood…so filthy," he said slowly, as he grimly walked over to the downed girl. "Balance…must be…obtained." He was now above her, watching her spit blood into his boots as she could no longer do anything else. The hammer, who had been dragged along the entire floor, was now elevated on his head, with his two rough arms preparing to deliver the final strike. "Find your way home, Apostate."
"Aaaagh!" she heard from behind him, as a blur of brown and red covered the scenery, the hammer falling hard and heavy near her head. "Oh, goodness, Sam!" screamed what could only be the voice of Yara, her sister and protector. "Oh god Sam, I'm so sorry. I went out early to hunt for food and I was surrounded. The Seraphites got too close. We have to run now!"
As if the battle had never occurred, Sam got ready, instantly grabbing her quiver and bow as well as her glasses. If Yara gave an order, no matter the pain, she had to obey it. It was a matter of life or death, after all.
"Don't look behind you," Yara told her. "It's not a fun sight. Are you able to walk properly?" Sam nodded. "That's great. Sam, there might be more out there right now, but I need you to be brave. As soon as we get out of here, I want you to run. Run as fast as you've never ran in your entire life. This is serious! Do you understand." Sam nodded once again. "Well, then."
Just as her sister told her, Sam saw a streak of light pose itself on one of her feet, and quickly got herself to run. Yara was still in front of her, making sure Sam didn't lose her path. She could hear them. Hateful voices calling for their death behind them. Mostly just for Sam's death, but she knew they had no problem with killing Yara as well. This nightmare that had begun with her whiskers would go on for longer than she thought. It will go on for as long as it has to be. But there was no time to ponder.
So she ran.
Page 3
JID and I was inseprable.
Used tah run around them fields where the sun never set, and the whatchamacallits shined in the wind against the vastness of the land. Yeah I'm fucked up, but even I can appreciate what life gives me. At those moments, him and I didn't even feel like hurtin anyone.
First person ah killed was an young male otter. Ah was thirteen years old, and I had reached puberty. Thing is, my cravings were more towards the macabre than anything else hormonal that was going on with them teens back then. My sister was dating this otter, whose name I didn't even care to remember. Good guy. Wouldn't have had any problems with him if he had stayed a good guy. Sister came home one day beat to a pulp. He wanted sex and she refused. Mama tried to stop me from getting out the door, knowing what I was bout to do. I didn't wanna push her, but I wasn't gonna let no brownie like him do my sister like that. I didn't even need JID to root for me.
Came to his house, grabbed him by the helm of the ugly Bearstie Boys shirt he always used ta wear, and I clawed his face off. There wasn't nothing left of any of his facial features when I was done. I took a giant hook, stabbed one of his feet, tied the hook to a rope, tied the rope to a heavy rock, and let him fall in the ocean. Few days later they found him. Supposedly, they suspected the mobs were involved, an they left me alone. I would've gone to jail for her, though. No one was gonna touch my sister and get away with it.
…
Judy & Clementine - Seaotter Day Two
Look for me there
Do it, you incessant hare
I will wait, no matter the hours
I will wait in the field of sunflowers
She was beginning to regret coming here, and she felt horrible about it. Judy Hopps, the resilient, never-defeated, always-hopeful bunny had reached her limit. Everything she was feeling was pain. Literal, physical, emotional, every kind and type. All she could do was walk, and be silent. She didn't want to speak to Clem, and Clem sure as hell didn't want to speak to her. So she went in her own journal, and started writing. Poems that made no sense, gibberish, scribbles, anything to get her to forget her state of mind. She mentioned sunflowers in one such poem, wondering what meaning it held. It was the first flower that came to her mind. It wasn't even her favorite. Looking up from the journal, she spotted the vixen, still walking across the quiet neighborhoods, scarce of any form of enemy for now, which she knew wouldn't last. Nothing is ever easy for Judy Hopps.
"Huh…" Clementine said. "An actual tattoo shop." She was looking at a building named Velvet Tattoo, which sported recliner chairs and eroded tattoo machines. It was clear she had said that to herself. Her bunny ears just happened to pick up the vixen's loud thoughts. As soon as she went in, she was out, not finding anything of value.
To the other side stood an equally run-down grocery store, in which Clementine also had no second thoughts about going inside. All Judy could do was follow at her own miserable pace. She could swear she could feel her baby's heartbeat just as clear as hers. Either that, or her heartbeats had become erratic.
"Hey, bookworm," called Clementine. Judy couldn't imagine she was talking to somebody else other than her this time, so she walked faster to get to her location. "Letter," she tapped the table where she found another message relating to the mysterious fox archer. It read:
Ulti,
It was Borin. I saw him shoot that WLF patrol against their own van. Jesus…I get it…they killed his daughter… but he just signed our death warrant.
We have one chance out of this… we turn him in. I know he's your friend… but if those Wolves shot that girl over some graffiti, think of what they'll do to all of us if they think we're harboring the killer of three of their own.
Let's meet at the usual place after curfew
-X
Before Judy could even try to summarize the letter to the younger vixen, she heard the sound of savages nearby. She didn't need to alert her either, as she was already crouching towards the sound. It was another Shambler, an elephant covered in terrible amounts of purple flowers and pus-like fluid coming out of every hole. Clementine acted accordingly against such demon, sending a molotov cocktail through the air, and landing on the vicious mammal's head, immediately sending it into a cacophony of despair, sending forth a rabbit runner against the girls. Judy put distance from both atrocities, but the rabbit savage was quicker, making Judy pull out her knife in self-defense. Before it could even attempt to grab it, the pregnant doe grabbed one of its ears and cut it clean off, making it clutch at the now missing limb with desperation. No one gets rid of pain; not even the savages. With an opening now given to her, the bunny put one foot in front of the other and thrusted forward with her knife, hitting the savage rabbit straight in the carotid artery. With the Shambler burned to a crisp, they could move again.
The girls were taking more altitude. Hillcrest only went up, yet to Judy it felt like they were walking straight into the gates of hell, the temperature getting warmer every step she took. Maybe she was coming down with a fever. That couldn't be good. A bed never sounded more appetizing than at that moment for the poor doe. Clementine kept doing her own thing, grabbing a few arrows from a nighthowler-infested corpse like she was flower-picking on a fine summer morning. Judy'd never been so apalled by the sights. She had been fine for the first ten years on this apocalypse, so why was she so squeamish now? The working theory always lead to the life that was growing inside her.
They climbed some stairs. Judy went up one by one while Clementine skipped some of the steps to get to the top faster. Not once did the vixen look back to check on Judy. Not even as they heard a sudden boom halfway through the steps.
"Whoa. What was that?" asked Clementine, possibly rhetorically, and continued up the steps even faster.
"What a damn brat she is. Just send her to me. I'll give her a nice talk."
"Shut up, Nick," Judy told no one as she regained her composure to run through the last few steps. The diamond-shaped Dead End sign had given away the fact they had reached a cul-de-sac, with a house at the far right barely standing on its own. In the middle of two houses, the two girls could see a line of tar-like smoke snaking into the air, most likely the source of the explosion they had heard.
"That must be Gideon," Clem said, taking a moment to take a good view of the trail line as it went up into the clouds. "Come on, Hopps, we're almost there."
I'm Hopps now? Judy thought. That name sounded so ugly when Clem said it. Almost like it wasn't really hers anymore. Did widows use their old last names after their husband died? Judy certainly didn't feel like calling herself Wilde. It didn't feel right. Not without him.
On the house to the right they could see a group of savage mammals, roaming and smelling and groaning around it, like an endless loop they couldn't possibly get out of unless they caught the scent of them. With a careful closeness, and with her silenced gun in front of her, Clementine shot at the three bodies without any difficulty or remorse. Judy just stayed back, useless. She gathered a tuft of grass and ate it, just to have something on her stomach. Without even alerting the doe, the vixen jumped through a white wooden fence down into the patio of a very well-kept bungalow, aging as fine as ten-year old corrosion and natural takeover would allow it. The fall was easy. Or at least it was for a non-pregnant bunny. Judy could not take that risk.
"Uh…Clem?" she asked timidly. While the vixen didn't turn back, her ears twitched at the sound of the doe's voice. "Too high."
"So you want help now, huh?" the vulpine girl commented nonchalantly.
"Please?"
If Clementine had a weakness, it was that. The face of discomfort, of helplessness, of sadness. Even if she wanted her to feel that way after everything they said to each other, her heart was still tugged. Just like Nick, her affinity towards rabbits went beyond what would be considered normal. She sighed, going up to the bunny and grabbing her paw to lift her up, carrying her with both arms and jumping back down onto the patio. Judy was not expecting that amount of warmth just yet. Clementine put her down gently and went back to her business, refusing to even mention that moment. Slow steps, Judy thought to herself. At least their relationship wasn't fully in shambles yet. Yet.
Entering the home, Clementine and Judy entered through a sliding glass door into a living room, dusty and dark but otherwise untouched. The vixen saw a letter on the coffee table, and didn't have to say anything before Judy snatched it up to read it. This time, it was a letter from Borin himself.
Yolanda,
I'm sorry. I won't be able to keep taking care of Alfie.
You were right about the Wolves. They turned out to be worse than the military.
What I didn't expect is that our own neighborhood would turn on each other. They all saw what the Wolves did to my poor Sofia. And what did everyone want to do in return? Appease?! I deserved Wolf blood…they should've joined me. Instead they conspired against me.
So I got them first…
"Oh no…" Judy said at the implication. "Borin…he…betrayed his own people. For not agreeing with him wanting to kill the Wolves." Clementine stayed quiet at that, still looking through the house to distract herself. Judy turned the letter over and kept reading.
I poisoned them, one by one. Not enough to kill them…just put them to sleep. Then I dragged them into a spored garbage. Ulti woke up. We wrestled. I shut him in there…but he bit me.
Those traitors are going to watch each other turn. They will suffer. I hope they think of me when they lose their minds.
I'm already starting to lose mine…it won't be long now.
I hope you found peace somewhere outside of this shitty town. I hope you don't come back to see all of this…if you do…I'm sorry.
-Borin.
"He killed them all," Judy said to herself, incredullously. She could not believe such degree of hate. To kill all of your loved ones. It was inconceivable. There was never an excuse for that. Judy debated even mentioning anything else about this letter to Clementine, who had been very adamant in imagining Borin as a model fox, which he was anything but. Still, she couldn't blame the fox from the letters. He was in pain, and people make terrible decisions when in pain. In a dystopia such as this, grief was more dangerous than any savage. She thought about Nick, and how he would've reacted in that situation.
"He sure chose a terrible way of killing them," she imagined him saying. "If it had been me, I'd've used my own hands."
A door, still in its hinge but split across its midsection stood between the kitchen and the garage, telling Clementine to go through it. The cracks of the wood made it seem like it had teeth, forever waiting for an animal to go under its jaws, ready to clamp them down as hard as it could. Putting her flashlight in her mouth, Clementine crouched and moved through the door. While the animal that was the door certainly was not alive to pierce her flesh with its hungry wood, a fox, taller than her, wearing a full camo outfit. pounced on her from the side, pinning her to a table. Judy saw this and immediately rushed to help.
"Get off me!" said Clementine, clutching the savage fox's shoulders with force, digging her claws into his muscles. With a lateral rush from the doe, the fox fell in front of the two girls, instantly getting up to continue his vicious attacks. He growled at them, his mouth filled with dried blood. He ran bipedally toward them, but the duo was not scared. With coordination, the vixen slashed the fox in the face and kicked him to the side, giving Judy an opportunity to jump and also kick him with one of her meteoric legs. Judy was pregnant, but she would not allow herself to be useless, not until their mission was done. Who cares if Clementine wanted revenge? She wasn't going to let Clementine die, not on her watch.
With Judy's powerful leg strike, the fox went down again, being finished off with a dagger stab through the neck thanks to Clementine. "Good work," the vixen complimented, grabbing something from the back of the felled beast.
"Likewise," she responded, while getting closer to the corpse. "I think this might be Robin," Judy told the vixen.
"Robin? You mean Borin, right?"
"It's an anagram," Judy explained. "What do you get if you rearrange the letters in the name 'Borin'?
"Huh." Judy still saw the confusion in her eyes. She didn't know why it was significant.
"It's the name of the fox of legend I told you about, remember?" To this, the vixen widened her eyes, not noticing she was having a full conversation with the person she should be hating right now.
"It can't be a coincidence, right?" She asked with wonder.
"Yeah. Although this fox didn't live up to the name."
"He really…killed his friends and family? Just like that?"
"I'm sure it wasn't just like that, but he was in pain, and all he wanted was blood, no matter where from."
"I would never…" she tried to say, but lowered her head in silence, noticing something behind the dead vulpine. Rolling him over with one of her feet, she found his weapon of choice.
"Good thing you found those arrows out yonder," Judy mentioned. Clementine tested the new tool with interest, seeing if it was still possible to use it. It had been a while since she had even seen a bow. The standard weapon in Bunnyburrow was a rifle after all. The bowstring still worked, and the body had received no injuries in the tumble.
"Oh yeah, this'll do," Clementine said excitedly.
Pushing open the garage door, Judy could spot three mannequins with arrow targets drawn in their chests. They were of varying sizes, modelling a moose, a rabbit, and a lion.
"Hey Clem, this is perfect for you to practi-" Judy tried saying interrupted by the sudden noise of an arrow flying through the wind, hitting the rabbit's model straight in the chest. She moved on to the moose, this time hitting it straight in the forehead below one of its antlers, and lastly ending at the lion, hitting the big red dot that represented its heart. "Nevermind then. You're still a pro."
"I practiced as much with a bow as I did a guitar. Back in the day, anyways."
"It clearly shows," Judy complimented.
"What say we test these bad boys on actual flesh?" Clem said. Judy didn't like how she said it, but she would be lying if she said she wasn't excited to see what that bow could do.
"Lead the way."
Clementine nodded, gathering the arrows lodged in the mannequins, as well as some other that had gotten unused by Robin. At least, in a fitting way, his arrows would be used for its intended purpose; the death of Wolves.
Speaking of…
"I hear them, Clem," said Judy. "They're right outside this wall."
"Yeah. I can smell them."
"The hunt begins anew," Judy whispered.
I got tired of trying
I got tired of fighting
I got tired of losing
I got tired of dying
"Come on, you go over the wall first," said the vixen, already preparing to lift the bunny up. "I see tall grass. Run straight to it."
Judy nodded, stepping on Clem's connected paws and jumping over the fence with minimum difficulty. Right away she crawled into the tall green grass and saw an agitated ferret with a vulture running towards a hyena. Soon enough, she felt the touch of Clem's paw against her back as she layed prone on the ground.
"Hey, we got more tresspassers! A fox and a bunny!" The female ferret told the hyena. "Did you see her?"
"No, but the other fucking fox is nearby," relayed the hyena.
"Shit," commented the ferret.
"We're looking for three!" screamed the hyena towards the other Wolves who were sure to be rumming around the area.
"The fuck's all that smoke?" asked the ferret.
"He blew up one of our trucks."
"How'd you let that happen?"
"Just find them. I want those fucking tresspassers!" the hyena yelled again.
"Business as usual," the vixen quipped, moving right in the direction of a house. Every neighborhood was starting to look the same to Judy. Careful not to scrape her belly against the rough terrain, Judy moved slowly across, following Clementine's every move. If she stopped, she made sure to stop at the exact same time, using that moment of stillness to focus on her hearing. "I hear at least eight people all around us. This ain't gonna be easy."
"Nothing new in that department. Let's not die shall we?"
"Agreed."
They successfully approached the side of the house. Clementine abandoned her position in the tall grass to inspect the house through a window, only for Judy to yank her back down with her tail due to an approaching enemy. It was a rabbit and his vulture, walking around a few meters from them. Clementine nocked an arrow and put it in the bow, feeling it was time to try her new toy. Stretching the string all the way back, she released, hitting the rabbit straight through the head. The vulture was left confused, and quietly observed the state of its owner.
"Good work," Judy whispered to her. "We can go into the house now."
Clementine nodded, jumping through the window and landing on the wooden floorboards. Weirdly enough, they appeared to be on a second floor, as they could see a stairwell leading downward.
"More down there," Judy told the vixen. "Maybe three around the house."
"Thanks."
The vixen descended the stairs with care, making sure to minimize the squeaks and whines of the aging steps. Judy mimicked the vixen as best as she could, focusing on her feet. From time to time, though, she distracted herself by the few pictures hanged in the humid walls, of a family of otters happily spending their time in family. Terrible nostalgia washed over her again.
As soon as they both stepped out of the stairwell into the first floor, they could observe a leopard, his head popping out momentarily through a window before the sound of his noisy steps moved to the entrance. The duo quickly hid behind a small kitchen cabinet in the middle of the room, scoping out their options. Clementine knew what she was going to do as soon as the leopard turned his face to a door in front of them, opening his back freely to any of her attacks. With extra dexterity, the vixen launched herself at the leopard and stabbed him in the neck, quietly shushing him and placing him gently on the floor, like tucking a small child to bed.
"One less," said the vixen. "How we doing, Judy?"
"You said it," Judy said. "One less. I hear movement pretty much everywhere you can look."
"One at a time, then," Clementine replied.
Passing through a sliding door, Judy heard another animal-bird duo prancing behind a wall to the other side of the complex of houses around them. They submerged under another patch of tall grass that was enough to hide them from view.
"Right in front of us, Clem," Judy said. "Easy shot for you."
And indeed there was. Not even in front of them. He was at least ten meters away, walking around the front yard of a different house altogether. Still, Judy was right. It was a stupidly easy shot to make with her silenced pistol, which alerted no one as the jackal descended to the ground with a gaping hole in his throat. Fearing being spotted nonetheless, she receded into her cocoon that was the tall grass.
"We should go back to the house," suggested Judy. "We're far too exposed out here."
"Yeah, you're right," Clementine said, who had been looking for every which way they could go without being seen. Going back to the house was their safest bet. Doing a finger motion, she asked Judy to go around with the door while Clem climbed the window next to it. They met back at the middle cabinet where the leopard's body was still in the process of draining all its blood, making all kinds of shapes across the floor. Clementine was focusing, however, on the other door directly in front, which would take them to higher ground and into another house.
"Someone's on the first floor," Judy told her, already knowing what the vixen was thinking. "Watch out for the turkey on the left, we can avoid it."
"Got it." She moved slickly, elegantly climbing the small concrete wall that would get them into the neighboring house's yard. Judy had more difficulty, but made it to her all the same. Sure enough, the enemy was in the first-floor house, about to spot the two. Clem made good use of her time and shot another silenced bullet to the now-deceased raccoon. Judy's rifle stood cold on her back.
The pattern repeated. The duo moved through the house, found nothing of importance while walking as low to the ground as possible, spotted a mammal, Clementine killed said mammal, and they kept moving to the next house over.
"Second floor," Judy whispered. She didn't need to say more for Clem to understand.
"Evie's fucking dead! Search the area, we got company!" A nearby mammal said. Judy cursed beneath her breath. They were on high alert now. The situation turned ten times more tense.
"Just tell me if they get too close," said Clementine hastily, moving up to the second floor one step at a time. Judy grabbed her tail, pointing it to the right to signal where she heard the Wolf. Moving forth to the right, Judy made a mental note about the opened window that led to one of the roofs. They couldn't go through that yet, as it was riddled with animals below it.
Clementine followed the course of the house by opening a door to a small room with an unmade bed, crawling to the bottom of it. As always, Judy followed her, staying on the rightmost side adjacent to a gap in the wall that led to the next room. She could hear the steps of the Wolf quietly approaching their way. She saw Clementine getting the bow ready, but in a split second, Judy felt her leg grabbed and pulled very harshly by a mammal twice her size. Naturally, she screamed, trying hard to be released from its grasp. She saw it was another hyena. "In here! Got the bitch!" She screamed to the others, managing to put her long paws on her neck. "It's over, Shetani!" She exclaimed while she pressed hard on the bunny's weakening body. "Utukufu Kwa WLF!"
What the hyena failed to spot was the very sizable hole that had been created in her carotid artery, which was now splurging blood all over the floor and the side of the bed. The vixen pushed the hyena away from the bunny and stabbed her neck one more time. The hyenas dying words were puzzling for both girls: "Janga na shetani. Mungu…hatakuokoa."
They had no time to ponder, already hearing the loud steps of mammals heading their way. Clementine grabbed Judy out of the floor and took her through the hole in the wall, finding yet another bed. "Fuck this," the vixen said. "I'm not staying here another second, we have to get out now!"
In that same moment, a badger was moving through the hole, and Clementine took the opportunity to shoot him down with her silencer, making him fall quietly on top of the downed hyena. Clementine took Judy's paw and passed them through the wall again, where another turkey-mammal partnership was beginning to show from the stairs. The turkey moved to them with the quickness of its wings, ready to cut Clementine in the face. Judy acted accordingly and kicked the bird strongly, launching it through a window. As soon as the mammal was in view, the archer fox sent an arrow that went through his left eye and came out through his right ear, hearing his body hit most of the steps as it ragdolled to the first floor. With her shotgun, she aimed to the bottom of the stairs, finding another enemy moving the other mammal's body. She waited for him to look up and shot again, blowing off his left leg.
"Okay, Judy, I'm really going to need you to use your rifle, even if it hurts. We won't be able to make it if you don't," said Clementine, agitated. Judy nodded, and grabbed the rifle in her hand. "Good, now please trust me!" Judy had no time to ask what she meant as the vixen grabbed the bunny from her hip and jumped out of a window, landing on the soft wood roof, before launching herself again to the ground, breaking her fall, and letting Judy down slowly.
"Warn me next time!" Screamed Judy.
There was yet another house in front of them, with a few more animals inside. They knew they were coming, but Judy and Clem were also ready. Judy Hopps, who had been relatively dormant due to her situation, felt at home again using her rifle freely, even through the pain of her contractions. She managed to down two, a turkey and an okapi, as Clementine swiftly got rid of the other three.
"There's still more, let's just run!" Judy said, hearing many more animals calling for their heads. They had to crawl through a hole made at the base of a garage door, and they found themselves having to go down, as the garage ended in a cliffside view of more houses below. Thankfully, they were able to slide down without much hassle. They fell on more tall grass leading to a patio, and the vibrations of the ground let Judy know they were still not alone. Looking up, she noticed two cheetahs climbing over a fence.
"Why are so many squads getting pulled in for two trespassers?"
"'Cause of the fucking school and the TV station."
"I thought that was Scars."
"Think these trespassers might be working with them. Don't drop your guard."
"He's here!" Screamed another soldier inside the house. "I saw him go into that house! Get in there, go!"
"They found him!" Said one of the cheetahs. "Should we go help?"
"No. The devils are here. Hold your ground."
"Are you seriously calling them that? You know Muti is a cuckoo."
"Yeah well, they sure are pains in the ass, whatever the fuck they're called."
Judy was curious at the mention of devils. Is that what they were being called by the WLF? The nerve of them. They weren't the ones going around destroying entire towns and families. She saw Clementine, and it seemed like she had gotten the same idea. With an arrow, she killed one of the cheetahs while the other kept searching unknowingly. Judy tapped her on the shoulder, letting her know there was another Wolf behind them, this time a gazelle and a turkey vulture. She killed the gazelle with another arrow and ended the turkey with a newly-crafted silencer.
The remaining cheetah was freaking out, now noticing he was all alone. He quickly entered the door to the house blackened with soot of explosions past. The girls entered the home and followed him slowly. As soon as he noticed the dead body of the wild dog, Clem was upon him with a stab in the throat, seemingly her favorite spot to kill an animal.
"Don't hear any right now. We should resupply from whatever we find here."
"Yeah," Clem agreed, already looking for anything that could serve them. "What did you think that hyena was saying to us?"
"I'm familiar with that language," Judy told her. "It's a dialect belonging to tribes on the other side of the world. Most of those tribes are hyena-dominated, so that's where she might have been from. As to what she was saying, beats me."
"Any guesses?"
"See what these assholes called us? Devils. My guess is we already have some sort of reputation out here. Gideon too."
"Well, let's make sure the legend grows," Clem said defiantly.
They came to a big and expansive building spanning a few miles, infested by the WLF. With fear of getting into a fight they knew they couldn't win, they slid around every corner they could to remain invisible, killing only if truly necessary. Triumphantly, their cover was never blown, and it remained so until they reached a window where the black cloud of smoke was getting ever so close to them.
They heard another shout. "I saw him! He went down that street! He's not getting past us." They were so close now. Gideon would not slip away from them this time. They had to find him first. Jumping from the window, as they so usually did, they were met with a small trail that ended on a chain-link fence. Moving towards it, they were met with the sights of a turkey trying to break in, and their owner following behind. "Fuck," Screamed Judy, before Clem grabbed her and took her down into another house, landing on the basement.
"Smoke them out!" They heard, as a loud blast followed by smoke made a gray mist out of the entire area, with a load of more soldiers coming down to meet them. Judy took her rifle between her paws again and got ready. Choosing the shotgun, the vixen also prepared for the battle. Judy took one cover near one of the doors, and Clementine covered near a hole in the wall. Both waited for the right moment and shot at the masked mammals who tried to get them through the mist. Judy's aggressor got dangerously close, but with a hop from her strong legs, she managed to evade his attack before popping a rifle shot right on the bigger mammal's head. Clementine's attacker was quicker, being another cheetah, but it still didn't match to the power of Clementine's close-up attacks, using the butt of her shotgun to break his muzzle and her dagger to cut through his skin. After slamming his body against a wall, she finished him off by pushing his head on the concrete, leaving behind a blood-stained crack on the deteriorating material.
Their fight-or-flight still activated, the two outsiders climbed the stairs of the house to hopefully reach a way out, and find wherever the heck Gideon was. Coming up at the end of the stairs, they were about to cross a hallway before another soldier turned up. "Tresspasser in here," she said, about to chase after them, before an object hit the ground.
A massive boom was heard, and the floor almost cracked as the two saw a cloud of red where the soldier should've been. Someone shot a grenade of some kind at them.
"Gideon?" asked Clementine, her heart running for miles at the sudden explosion.
"Gideon. Let's go, before he escapes us again!" This time Judy took the lead, being very excited about finding (and beating the shit out of) Gideon. Not caring about the height, she dropped from a window onto lower ground and kept running, hearing more cars and people from all around. She made sure to look behind for Clementine as well, who was worriedly following her.
"Go! Go! Don't let him escape!"
"We've got them surrounded! Close in!"
Those were most of the voices of the WLF, thinking they'd be good enough to trap them all. Now with all three reunited, they'd be able to find safe passage back to Bunnyburrow. Nothing else could be able to stop them.
She jumped from another ledge down into a grassy terrain, before being grabbed gently from the back, a white paw covering her mouth. Clementine dropped in to help but also got caught by the neck, getting a sharp knife pressed against her throat.
"Dude! Take the knife off of her, that's fucking overkill!" the white-pawed mammal told the smaller one, who grunted and still kept the knife on her neck.
At the sound of that voice, Judy stopped resisting, and the mammal softly let go of his paw on her mouth. Slowly, she turned around to look at them. It was not one, but two foxes. One of them was a fox she thought she'd never see again. "What the hell are you doing here?"
James Iriden Dalton
Jame Iride Dalto
Jam Irid Dalt
Ja Iri Dal
J Ir Da
Ju I D
Jud is De
Judy is dea
Judy is
Last Page
James Iriden Dalton
I bought a five-minute hourglass the day it happened. It was one of those awful Time Your Poop nonsense hourglasses, but my seventeen-year-old self actually thought it was funny. JID seemed to think so too.
I don't think anyone else could've predicted what came next.
My hourglass didn't make it to three minutes before the explosions began. Before the infection started taking over everything I saw. Before I saw my family get devoured by a group of savage bunnies. Not even their bones were left when those pieces of shit were done.
It was my first time killing bunnies. It was my first time fulfilling my true calling as a fox. I did to them what they did to my sister, to my Ma, to my Pa, only I couldn't swallow their bones before I passed out.
Weeks later, a group found me amongst the rubble. Turns out, they were FEDRA, and they really wanted me in their ranks. I don't think I was in a position to refuse. God knows what they would've done to me, and despite consuming a generation's worth of rabbits, I felt like shit.
I never stopped eating meat after that. Raw. Bloody. I was a flowerless savage, seeking out whatever I could feast on. Rabbits were still my preference. I don't think FEDRA even cared, as long as I kept on killing the fireflies and settling disputes between the QZ survivors, which meant even more killing.
JID disappeared from my mind completely, when I realized he was just me, making it all up to excuse all my horrible crimes. I don't care none about them anymore, considering where I live in and what I've endured. I realized a fact that saved my life for a few years: In a lawless world, the living dance, and the dead sleep. And boy, did I dance.
If you find my body, please do wake me up. I will probable be up to dancing some more.
-J.I.D.
The Living Dance
"Finnick?!" Clementine exclaimed and asked. "Is that you?"
"Tell everyone where we are, if you must," Finnick said sarcastically. "Shut up, girl, for fox sake."
"Okay, okay, jeez."
Judy could not believe it. The person who was holding her was none other than Jesse, somehow accompanied by the grumpy fox they had met six years ago, and he looked…bathed. Presentable enough to look like a normal citizen, compared to how much more animalistic he looked when they first saw him. She turned back to Jesse. "Well? Why are you two here?"
"You think I was gonna let you do this on your own?" Jesse answered earnestly. "Where's Skye?" He said worriedly.
"She's safe," said Clementine. "Can you let go of me already?" She told the fennec.
"Why isn't she with you guys?" The arctic fox pressed.
"She's listening to their radio frequencies, okay? It's closed, and in an empty part of town."
"We should skip the pleasantries, folks. Escape first, talk later!"
"No, why are you here? I thought you'd never leave your town!" Clementine told him, who had already lowered on the ground.
"He says he knew Nick, and he has a bone to pick with the WLF too," Jesse explained. "I found him…well, we found each other, near one of the FEDRA walls. We've been cooperating ever since."
"Okay, that'll do for now," Clementine said. "You better not pull the same shit as last time. I can actually shoot you now."
"Bite me, Red. Just take care of that bunny and let's keep going."
They entered another house, watching each other's backs. Judy noticed Jesse was limping. "How hurt are you?" She asked him.
"I'll be okay. Your friends out there rushed us. No warning, no nothing."
"Please tell me you didn't come here alone," she pleaded. Jesse looked at her with a frown, which she returned.
"You can give me shit about it later, okay?"
"I look like no one to y'all?" Finnick asked, offended.
"When it comes to size," Clementine mumbled.
"You know I have big ears, right? I heard that."
"Shut up, Finnick," Jesse said. Surprisingly, he listened to what the fox said as they kept on walking through the house, still watching out for the enemies. They heard something pull over, and they came to a window to inspect it. It was a group of soldiers descending from a vehicle. "See that truck?" Jesse pointed.
Judy became aware of his train of thought. "That's your plan?"
"We need to get more distance," he explained, holding his pistol with two paws, getting ready to leave through the door. Finnick was ready to leave through the window. "You guys ready?"
"Yeah," Clementine said, holding her silencer pistol. Jesse nodded to the fennec and then back to the girls, walking back out into the danger. With a surprising amount of teamwork, Jesse stabbed one of them from the back while Finnick rapidly climbed and pierced one of them with his dagger. Clementine saw two of the soldiers exploring the wreck and shot one of them with her silenced gun, while Judy finished the last one with his rifle. With all of them gone, they rushed to the small truck, Jesse entering the driver's seat and Clementine taking shotgun. Being a pickup truck, Judy and Finnick had to scoot in with the two foxes. Jesse was starting up the car, but it was having trouble turning on.
"There! In the car, shoot!" They heard other soldiers behind them, shooting instantly and damaging the window.
"Jesse, get us the fuck out of here!" Screamed Finnick as he returned the shots back at the Wolves.
"I'm trying, okay-aaghh," he yelped. Clementine looked at his side and saw a coyote trying to choke him with a pipe. Judy saw this as well and stabbed him in the neck with her dagger. Jesse looked at her thankfully and kept revving up the engine while the bullets kept piercing the body of the truck and more holes kept being drawn in the glass. Judy joined in on the shootout, using her rifle to perforate some of the bigger mammals. When Jesse managed to make the car work, his first action was to reverse it, managing to pin a red panda between two cars. Taking advantage of this, Finnick and Clementine shot him in the head.
A Humvee that tripled in size became known as Jesse began to accelerate forward away from them, but the fortified vehicle was a monster, able to catch up to them in a matter of seconds. It grazed Jesse's side of the car and was now running in front. Two hyenas at the floor panel of the car began shooting at the four. Clementine was quick with the trigger and shot at them with her revolver, grazing one of them. The Humvee diverted into a house yard, which made it more difficult for the vixen to get a clear shot at the mammals. The car came around and got back in front of the pickup truck, giving Clem the perfect visibility to shoot one of the hyenas in the head. It wasn't long before the driver started to freak out and moved to the right to hopefully evade more of their shots. They were safe, but not for long, as Judy's quick aim was able to pierce the skull of the remaining hyena. As a last-ditch effort, both the driver and passenger got parallel to the truck.
"Shoot the driver!" screamed Finnick. The vixen aimed her gun almost as quickly as the driver, but her trigger finger determined the winner. A splatter of blood covered that side of the car as the passenger scrambled to take the wheel. Jesse did his part and rammed the car with the side, making it roll over.
All actions bring forth a reaction, so as cause of Jesse's maneuver, their own truck started drifting off-course, eventually landing in a telephone pole. The whiplash of the impact was enough to send Judy to the very front of the car, hitting her head with the dashboard. It wasn't enough to draw blood, but it was enough to disorient her, dizzying her vision.
"You've done enough, Carrots," a very warm voice was telling her. "Let go of the gun."
"Judy, shoot at them!" said Clementine, pointing at a soldier who had come out of the woods, pointing straight at her. She thought she was only imagining it, but it was true. The barrel was looking at her intensely. She grabbed the rifle, looked at the enemy, steadied her aim, looked through her scope…and dropped it. She heard the gunshot
It was all so clear now. All of the nostalgia. Those strange letters. The game she used to play. The sunflower fields. The weird message. She remembered it all. It was like her mind had been freed. It was so weightless.
Judy is Dead. That was it. The kids she played with, they kept screaming JID over and over, and she never guessed what. They were calling out whenever she had been killed. Although she was terrible at playing the part, Judy was the one losing the most at the game. After all, she could never stay still.
She did not feel dead at all, though. She was always terrible at it, after all. You're supposed to stay still when you're dead. You're supposed to sleep. But she felt tired no longer. It was actually the opposite. She had never felt more energetic than she was at this moment. She took hold of those beautiful orange paws, the ones that could only belong to one person, one beautiful, amazing, incredible fox. He was wearing a police uniform. His badge was fully visible, and it spelled his full name. Nicholas P. Wilde. He did it. He graduated for her. And now they were both happily moving along the sunflowers, who dressed them with their warmth. Judy didn't care about her indecision towards her own clothing, which kept constantly fluctuating between her actual survivor clothes or her police uniform. Judy didn't care about the children watching and chanting JID! JID! JID! as they ran around and toppled each other like the immature playful jerks they were. Judy didn't care for Nick's face, which sported a hole where his right eye should be, and more than a few bruises on his muzzle.
Neither did she care about the screams. What were those screams anyway? Where had she even been before. She figured, if she had forgotten, it mustn't be anything good. She was where she should be. She was where she should've been from the start. Judy didn't care about the slowly forming black mass of liquid that began to form around them. It was almost transparent, and it had no effect on their mobility as they paced around the field on their romantic waltz. This is all that mattered. All that Judy cared about. She wasn't dead. Dead people don't move as beautifully as she does, or behave as candidly as her husband was, grabbing her paw with his left and her hip with his right. They were dancers in the night, performing an incredible ballet among all the blood and the dust.
Maybe she's wrong. Maybe the children were saying something else. Why would they chant that she was dead if they knew she had no experience in that regard. No, no, it must have been something else. The dead sleep, and the living…what do the living do? She cried, kissing her fox one time out of infinity more, and a minute later, she understood.
Judy isn't dead.
Judy Is Dancing.
TO BE CONTINUED