Chapter 17: Finnick

The future had never seemed more uncertain for the tired and vengeful vixen. The last few minutes and hours had gone by in a blur, a flash of light, a blink-and-you'll-miss-it.

Judy had been shot.

It was a fact that she couldn't get away from. It wasn't something that she could disprove by going to the source, because she was looking right at it. She was looking at her own fur, dressed in the sanguinity of her mother's blood. She was looking at Judy's half-dead, half-alive corpse-body. Her chest moved up and down, but the amount of blood had been enough to completely dye the gray shirt she had been wearing. It had even filtered into the cargo pants, making an eerie line all the way to her legs.

In a surprising and miraculous act of fate, she had not lost her pregnancy. Or at least, not yet, considering nothing had come out of her body except for blood and the one bullet that caused it. It pierced right above her right hip.

Then, the person she had needed the most at that moment. The vixen she had shared so many intimate moments with, had given her a slash wound that cut deeper than any other stab or bullet. While she cleaned her wounds, she left that one alone. She let it stain her cheeks with yet more blood, let it alter her furs and customize her appearance. She probably deserved more. In order to not pass out from any more blood loss, she fixed her other wounds, some just a few cuts and bruises, but then she started stitching the bullet graze that had pierced her forearm. She contemplated Nick's handkerchief as she inserted the needle into her skin.

"Hey, cub," said a voice at the foot of the door in front of her. It belonged to a tiny mammal. "Need any help?"

"You're still here?" Clem asked with distaste. "And don't call me cub."

"My fault. Didn't know you couldn't handle nicknames. Thought you would've had your fill with Nick."

"I did, and I don't need nicknames from anyone else, Finnick."

"Fair enough. Need any help with that?"

"No, ugh, I'm almost done," she told him, stitching the last part of her wound. After she put the utensils away, she sat melancholically.

"You're not covering those claws on your face?"

"No. Stop saying that like you care about me or something."

"You think you know me, girl. Nick was my friend too, ya know?"

She sighed, not wanting to say anything to that. She got curious about something else.

"How come you're here and not back at your shithole town spending the rest of your days?"

"Heh. You cut deep, kit," Finnick said, moving to sit right next to her.

"Answer the question."

"Well…I got beef with these assholes too. They actually came to my town. A full team of them. Not even the bombs or all the infected drew them out, so I had to flee. Managed to interrogate one of 'em. Said their base was in Seaotter, so now I'm here."

"So, you meeting Jesse…"

"By pure chance. Saved him from a few Wolves that cornered him in a house. He told me he was fighting them too. Told me about y'all…and about Nick."

"Yeah…"

"Listen, kit-"

"Stop calling me that," she protested again.

"Ugh. Listen, Clementine, what happened to Nick…it shouldn't have happened. I never hated the guy. Like I said before, he was one of the few people I'd call a friend. I admit he wasn't no saint, but I could tell he had changed, especially when he came to my town with you and the bunny. Wherever you go to give these assholes hell, I'll be there to help out. They don't hurt a friend of mine without getting a few claws on their face."

"I…actually really appreciate that, Fin," she said, not thinking about the fact she had shortened his name. He nodded.

"Hey guys," someone else made themselves known. It was Jesse, carrying his rifle, also wet in blood and water.

"How is she?" Clem asked.

"Skye or Judy?" he asked.

"A status on both would be nice."

"Well, Judy is stable, but I don't think she'll be waking up for a while. Clementine, you do understand we can't have her stay here forever, right?"

"Of course I do, but we can't leave without Gideon."

"I understand that, but it has to be quick. She cannot last more than a few weeks here before she starts needing serious help, never mind having to feed herself and the ones she's carrying."

"Y-you know about her being…?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "Skye told me."

"Bunny's pregnant?" Finnick asked. "Why'd she come here if she knew it was gonna be this dangerous?"

"She was stubborn. She wouldn't leave me behind."

"This wasn't our fault, Clementine. I want you to know that," Jesse said. "They struck first, and they're about to reap what they sowed."

She gave a weak nod. "How's…Skye?"

"She's shaken. She feels terrible about…" he looked at the fresh gash on Clem's cheek. "...and also terrible about Judy. It's rough for her right now. But she did give me some new info she found while you two were gone."

"What is it?" Finnick asked.

Jesse pulled out the bundle of photos that the group had found the day before, setting them on the table. "These are all the people responsible for Nick's murder, Fin," he told the fennec, catching him up. "You ever seen any of them before?"

Finnick looked hard at all of them, but shook his head. "I'm afraid I haven't. They do look like assholes, though."

"Especially her," said Clementine with a hateful voice and an icy gaze. She put one of her fingers on Abby's photo. "She's the one that tortured Nick."

"Well, fuck her then. I hope this is not all the info you got for us, Jesse."

"No, but it ain't Abby, unfortunately. It's about her," he pointed at the remaining arctic fox. "Nora. Her unit was assigned to a hospital. They were collecting supplies or something."

"This hospital?" asked Clem, pointing at a location in the map. Jesse nodded. "Ready your gear, Finnick, we're going." Finnick did as she said, gathering up his backpack and weapons.

"Wait a second, you're gonna go now?" asked Jesse.

"Yeah, we have a lead. And like you said, we gotta finish this fast."

"At least you should rest for a moment."

"She could be gone by then."

"Clementine-"

"We know her location. Maybe Gideon does too," she told him in a lower tone.

"At least wait for me, I can go too."

"No. You gotta stay here and protect Skye and Judy."

"But-"

"Jesse," she spoke softly and approached him slowly. "I won't be able to focus if I keep worrying that something's gonna happen to them. If anything happens to either of them…that's it for me," tears descended. "Please. Finnick will be more than enough help for me."

Jesse looked at her, and then at Finnick, and then weakly nodded. "You be safe out there. Show them hell."

"Should be easy enough for us foxes," said Finnick, which puzzled them both. "After all, pretty much everyone thinks we come from the deepest pits of it."

Clementine and Finnick - Road to the Hospital

Gloomy vistas adorned the surroundings on the two foxes, slowly walking through the unexplored streets as they got further and further away from the theater. The rainy skies were still showing, announcing that they would not stop anytime soon. Clementine covered her stitched wound with the handkerchief again, and all her gear was up and ready to go, eager to taste more flesh.

"Alright, based on that map you showed, if we follow Route 5, we should get to the hospital easy," Finnick said, walking a few meters in front of her.

"Hey, who asked you to lead?"

"No one. Hurry up, girl."

"Can't believe I wanted him to help me," she whispered.

"I have long ears, Clementine. Now, be a doll and follow me. I've been scouting this city longer than you, so I have more spatial awareness. It's only fair."

Despite wanting to protest, she couldn't deny Finnick made sense. Someone with better accuracy would get them to the hospital faster, which is what she needed if she wanted to get Nora, and possibly Gideon.

"Fine. Lead the way."

"Glad you accepted. No take backsies now."

"What are you, 10?"

"If we go by fox years…"

She grinned. "Shut up."

They walked until they found a large metal gate with a checkpoint. It was a quarantine area that also read Hospital Access. The duo walked into the front of the line, which was currently absent of any users or guards watching it. Finnick's affair of entry was easy, as he was short enough to get in between two of the turnstiles of the checkpoint. For Clem, she had to do it the harder way, by pushing it until it gave in. It took some work, but she managed.

"Wishing you were tiny right now?" Finnick teased.

"Fat chance. That's the only advantage."

"Oh, I can think of many more. Let's keep going."

They started cutting in through a supermarket right by the quarantine. Clementine assumed they must've been using it to store supplies, but couldn't really know for sure. The store was emptied out nonetheless, its contents lost to time. She saw Finnick sacking all he could from the shelves, even so far as maneuvering to taller places to get useful things. It didn't matter that they were bigger than him, he would still take them.

"So, uhh…how have you been ever since we got outta your town?"

"Pretty happy. Lonely, just how I liked it. But then, like everything in life, something comes along to burst your happiness. A year after you guys came, someone else came along to ruin the peace."

"So, the Wolves weren't the first ones to enter your town after us, huh?"

"No the fuck they weren't," Finnick said. "Talk later, I hear savages in front of us."

"Dang, you do have good ears," Clementine whispered, beginning to crouch and pulling out her weapon.

"I'd be mad if they were big for no damn reason," he whispered, also crouching like her.

The savages Finnick had heard were holed up inside of another building to the left of the parcel of streets they had to cross. Clementine peered inside and saw it wouldn't be possible to just stroll through the street without at least one of the Howlers listening in on them.

"Break the window. Quietly, though," said Finnick.

"How the heck do I break a window quietly?"

"As quiet as you can, dammit," he told her.

She sighed, and with a bat she swung at the window 'quietly' and waited until the commotion from the savages went away. Soon enough, they all focused on something else. Both foxes climbed the window and immediately spotted a panther Howler, which Clementine took out with her knife. Finnick saw another Howler close to them. He skillfully climbed to the top of a barstool so that he would be at the fox Howler's level. Then he jumped at it like a rabid animal and choked him out with his rifle, which now that she looked at it was pretty huge for his smaller size. He made due, it seemed, so she didn't pry in that regard.

While Clementine made sure to look for any supplies, Finnick seemed interested in something more up his alley. He turned the valves of each of the kegs by the bar, and was disappointed that none had turned up with draft beer.

"Dude, you serious?" she asked him.

"Never hurts to try," he said, sighing and leaving the higher ground. "Any plans to move forward?"

"Kill anything you see."

"Heh. Sounds like my kind of plan."

And so they did. They passed through the very dark kitchen of the bar, which had the two remaining savages. Clem and Finnick did quick work with them, gathered some bandages, and left through the rightmost door where they approached another area. It was a two-story building that seemed to have many different ways of going inside.

"So, I'm kinda still out of the loop in all this," Finnick mentioned. "What the hell happened after I dropped y'all off?"

"You mean when you told us to, and I quote, 'get the fuck out of your town'?"

He sighed again. "Yes. What happened next."

"That's a crazy long story to share over a beer or some good weed. But in a nutshell, we went across the country, survived plenty of hunters, a crazy pedophilic cannibal hare, met a few people, saw some of them die, met Nick's brother Gideon, found the Fireflies, got to the hospital, and…well…I'm still here."

"Wait a sec, Nick's job was to take you to the Fireflies? What for?"

"That doesn't really matter anymore. The important thing is, it was all for nothing. We ended up going back to Gideon's place and made a life there. It was good, for five years at least."

"And this group, what's their beef with Nick anyway? I never heard him ever get in trouble with the WLF."

"I don't know. Must've done something, though, because what they did to him…it wasn't right. It's never right to kill someone like that."

"And whatever happened to Honey? I thought the bastard told me he was doing the work alone, but it turned out to be a one-way trip."

"Don't call him a bastard," she told him harshly, but still answered his question. "He lied. He didn't want to take the job, but chose to do it for Honey. We had bad luck and she got bit. She went out protecting us from FEDRA."

"God fucking damnit, Nick. Sorry, Clem, but he had no right lying like that. She was my friend too." He gave an exasperated exhale.

"I liked her too. I guess in a way I wanted to forget that happened."

Finnick went silent at that.

When they first came into the building, Clem saw the sign that Scars had been there, in the way of a blood-stained message in the wall that she had become so used to. Feel her love, accompanied with the Seraphite symbol.

"Have you met these crazies yet?" Clementine asked the smaller mammal.

"Yeah, I've only seen them from a distance. Plenty of otters, but weirdly enough, I also saw a moose with 'em."

"That's weird. I only ever see smaller predators in that group. Either way, we don't wanna fight them. I saw the shit that they do to people. They disembowel them and hang their bodies like some sort of decoration."

"Freaky. Where do all these people come from anyway?"

"Always been around, I guess."

The duo was happy to note that the building they were currently in had no ill will towards them, harboring no enemies to get in their way. The building used to be shelter to a couple, as noted by the cozy room at the back of the second floor and the message left in a piece of paper:

Simon,

I hope you never read this note. I hope I can crumple it up, burn it, when you return to us.

It's been…I don't know how many hours since you left. I went out to look for you and these hooded people spotted me. They shouted at me, called me a sinner, then started shooting.

I ran back in and barricaded the door. All I can hear is the rain, but I'm worried they're still out there. Should I run? Should I stay? I feel completely paralyzed.

I'm sorry I got so sick. I'm sorry I let you go to the hospital by yourself. I'm sorry I didn't stay hidden like you told me. If anything happens to me, I want you to know how much I love you.

Please come back. I'm so scared.

-Paige.

"The Scars are insane," Clementine commented. "You think they're gonna be anywhere near the hospital?"

"Considering they're at war with the WLF, it wouldn't surprise if they're scoping the surroundings out for good vantage points."

"Shit. Let's try to avoid them on our way there."

"Easier said than done."

They moved forward, and the road was quiet still, not bringing the duo any comfort whatsoever. Since Finnick was closer to the ground, he always seemed to be looking for hidden accessories he could use. It seemed like he had really used his height for his advantage, not letting it slow him down or serve as a weakness. He turned to Clementine.

"So, were Nick and the bunny-"

"Judy," she corrected him.

"Were Nick and Judy a…thing?"

"Um, yeah. Very much a thing. The married kind of thing."

"Woah," he exclaimed. "That serious, huh? And the pregnancy?"

"They're his," she said. "They're his children."

"Shit. This turned even more personal then."

"Yeah. I guess you could say it did."

"I told him all those years ago, and he didn't listen," he huffed. "I told him where love would lead him, and he decided to be an idiot about it."

Clementine chose not to answer that. In a way, Finnick was right.

"Still, I can't blame him for wanting to start again," Finnick kept talking, surprising the vixen. "Sometimes, good things really do come along. The tricky part is to make them last."

"We've survived this long. As long as we're still here, there's always a chance."

"Do you truly believe that, or are you just telling yourself that to make you feel better? Lemme remind you we're on a deadly mission here."

"To get Gideon and get out," she reasoned.

Finnick chuckled. "You still think I'm stupid. I see that fire in your eyes, Clementine. You want havoc, and you want to end everyone responsible for causing you pain."

"And you don't?" She screamed at him.

"Relax, girl. I'm not judging you. You just remind me a lot of Nick back when I met him. When he lost his wife and child, all he wanted was to put a bullet in his head and get it over with."

"W-what?" She asked. While she knew he had taken their deaths terribly, she never expected to hear that Nick had been planning to end his own life.

"You're not the only one who's ever felt hopeless. Nick's therapy was the same as yours: To kill as many FEDRA soldiers as he could. Bellwether actually tried to recruit him into the Fireflies once, but he refused. That's when he realized how awful he had become, and tried to change for the better. Instead of a killer, he became a smuggler, and that's when you met him."

"That's…insane. I didn't think Nick's life had been so tumultuous."

"You ain't mad about finding out how many people he killed?"

"I kinda had an idea already. Either way, there's no point in getting angry now. I just wish he was back."

"I wish I could punch him again."

Clem grinned. "I would have liked to see that."

"I bet, kit. I bet."

They went below a bridge that was still miraculously unbroken and kept on looking for ways to advance, which was sometimes tricky to spot due to the desolate and maze-like nature of the city. There was no straight path forward due to the ongoing destruction. Clem managed to find a way through by climbing on top of a truck (while also carrying Finnick on her back) and then going up to a platform leading to a window of the second story of a much larger building than the one before.

"Seems like a good place to explore, or take a crazy good nap," Finnick stated.

"No naps while on the job. Sooner we get to the hospital, the faster we'll be done."

"Sure, boss. "I'll just be resting comfortably on that couch over there while ya do your business." Without any warning or hesitation, he flopped onto a couch like he promised and closed his eyes.

"Dude! Really?"

"What? You can handle yourself."

"Doesn't mean you can just sit on your ass."

He waved his hand at her and turned away from her. She sighed, but continued exploring on her own. Looking around the place, she found some useful items for crafting some more upgrades, as well as a workshop where she could put those items to good use. Wasting no time, she put her backpack on the table and began to work.

She wondered what exactly to upgrade, as most of her weapons were already at the top of their game. She looked at Nick's revolver, the one that had accompanied her all the way from Bunnyburrow, and wondered if she could do any more to it. Despite being able to be improved, the sentimental value of it prevented her from doing so. Steps appeared behind her, much stronger than the ones Finnick would make. It took her too long to react.

"Aaagh!" screamed an enemy wolf, who slammed her onto the table and turned her around, grabbing her by the hem of her jacket. "Got her! Got her! We're not going back, understand?" His frantic screams only managed to piss her off even more, grabbing a glass jar from the table and breaking it apart on his face, sending him a few feet apart from her, giving Clem the opportunity to grab her backpack and tear his face against the kitchen table with her bat. More animals began showing up, piling up in the living room. It seemed like they hadn't seen the little menace yet. Surely enough, Finnick began helping in the battle, jumping directly at one of the bigger mammals and slashing their face. When one of the animals tried to get him with the butt of his rifle, Finnick simply avoided it and let the whole brunt of the impact fall on the mammal he was slashing, sending him to the floor. With this chance, Clementine blew the head of the mammal with the rifle.

"Bogo can go to hell!" screamed one of the Wolves. It made no sense to Clementine. Did they think they were some other people? Are these Wolves deserters? It took her just a second to remind herself that she didn't care about whatever conflict was going on, so she shot at that mammal as well.

"Please…you don't have to do this…" begged a mammal at Finnick's feet. She wouldn't tell him, but it was definitely satisfying to see someone like a bear fall down in fear at the sight of such a small mammal like Fin.

"I don't have to do anything, Smokey," said Finnick, with a wide enough smile to showcase his entire collection of teeth. "But I do it 'cause it's fun." With a quick slash into the neck, the bear was gone in seconds.

"What the fuck is wrong with these people?" asked Clementine, calming herself from the sudden attack.

"Your guess is as good as mine, but they didn't look like they were on the WLF's side."

"Yeah. They must've thought we were another group."

"Doesn't matter now. Let's get outta here before even another one tries to wander through here."

"Just one thing. Do not lie on another fucking sofa."

"Worked, didn't it?"

She didn't answer that, just opting to upgrade the revolver. If she had to survive, all sentimentalism had to go away. She upgraded the stability and the fire rate and continued on.

"By the way, I put a book on your backpack while you weren't looking," Finnick said. "Before you go crazy on me, I wasn't snoopin'. I just figured you'd make some use of it."

Right away, she looked inside her backpack and saw it was a book about organic chemistry. One of the highlighted chapters included instructions on how to build explosives/ She realized this book was probably how he gained most of his expertise in blowing up savages and mammals.

"Nice, this will definitely help. Thanks, Fin."

"You're mighty welcome."

"Ya know, you're being a bit too helpful to me, it's kinda weird."

"So I'm weird when I don't help and now I'm weird when I do help? You're weird."

"Well, can you blame me? You weren't exactly a great role model six years ago."

He sighed. "You know why I was being an asshole? Because I wanted y'all to hate me so that you'd leave me in peace. If y'all cared for me or some of that shit, you'd be concerned and try to move me somewhere I wouldn't have liked to. I told Nick this and I'll say it to ya now. To survive in this world, ya gotta close yourself off to everyone, because they are all snakes, waiting for the chance to strike against you. That, and things like love always end badly. Always. Believe me, kit, I have experience with that. Nick had experience with that. And now…now you have experience with that."

"I've been losing people my whole life, Finnick," she said, calmly. She was surprised at herself for not blowing up on him. "I lost my dad, then I lost my mom, then I lost my best friend. I regained all three thanks to Nick, and now I'm back to losing a dad, and close to losing my mom. And now my partner and best friend absolutely hates me-"

"Are you going somewhere with this?" he asked.

"My point is, I don't regret loving the people that I lost. Their deaths were not in vain. They died knowing that they were loved. Knowing that they…that they made a difference, even if just in a single individual. That's why I don't think love is ever a mistake."

"Think whatever makes you happy," said Finnick. "I'll stick with what I believe."

"You know, if you didn't love Nick at least a little bit, you wouldn't have stuck with me."

"That is a totally different thing," he raised his voice, and Clem could swear she could see embarrassment in his eyes.

"Sure it is. Now let's go before it's too late," she quickly stated, leaving him with words in his mouth. He grunted, and quickly got back to the front, not allowing her any instance of dominance.

Clementine found another letter in one of the rooms on her way out. It read:

Hey Melissa-

I'm leaving this here in case you decide to join us after all.

We're moving on from the safe house at first light. I've stalled the others as long as I could, but Bogo has to be looking for us by now. The fate of the last group of deserters is still fresh in our mind.

The plan is still to head south and see if those rumors are true. Maybe it's all bullshit, but I'll take hopeful bullshit over Bogo's fanaticism any day of the week.

Remember who we were! The WLF took us in, but they're not our people.

I really wish you had left the stadium with us. Hope you still do.

-Ji-Sewe

"Well, this explains it. The group that just fought us were deserters. They must've thought we were there to take him to Bogo," Clementine explained, also making a face of clear disgust at the thought of them thinking she was a Wolf.

"You know who Bogo is?" asked Finnick.

"Seems to be the de facto leader of the group. Lot of people seem to hate him."

"Must be an evil leader if he doesn't let you leave your killer group."

"They're all evil. There's no point in thinking about why."

"Heard."

Soon after, another letter was discovered:

Darling-

I got everything packed, but FEDRA's already starting to put people on buses and I have no idea where you've disappeared to. If I'm gone before you get back, I stashed a few of my things in the safe. Maybe an overabundance of caution, but FEDRA'S been confiscating things due to "quarantine." All smells fishy to me. Combination is still set to our wedding date - I mean, it's been thirty years, but I assume you remember when that was, right?

See you soon.

Love, Ellen.

With the letter's help, Clementine got the combination for that safe, which granted her a few more drops of ammo for her revolver. With seemingly nothing else to sack, the pair moved out.

They went back to the same street they had come from, after merely minutes of scrounging around after their near-death experience. They came upon a gated area that was blocking their path forward. Besides the gate was another smaller spot with a door. She moved the handle to open it, but it wouldn't budge.

"Shit."

"Don't get your panties in a twist, I got this," Finnick stated rudely. As if he was playing a game to see how many times he could annoy her, he looked at her smugly as he easily walked through the gate. Due to his smaller stature, any path seemed accessible to the older tod. He went around and opened the door for Clem. "Wishing you were small yet?"

"Still no, Finnick. I'm sure I would've found my way somehow."

"Probably destroying the door like a savage."

"If it had come to it? Yes, yes I would've."

They went up some stairs and up to a ledge where they could better see the journey ahead of them. The hospital, to Clementine's dismay, was still very far from them. There were more trees, a lake, and destroyed buildings to get to before Nora got what she deserved.

"Fuck. I thought we'd be closer."

"Well, at least we know what it looks like. Watch for a big red sign."

"Heh. Yeah, at least there's that."

Clementine broke a window from the building to their right, and entered. The building had not been finished, as hinted at by the numerous scaffolding all around it. Slowly, she and Finnick went through each floor, hopping to each scaffold and platform they could jump on without breaking a knee. When they came down, they saw the brown markings resembling dried blood, telling her that a massacre had occurred at this same spot some few years ago.

After looking around, they got to an unlocked door that led to a very dark area. The first thing she could see with her night vision was a lobby, with a counter and computers on the other side. She stopped scanning too much and turned her flashlight on. In these situations, any form of light source is good, no matter how well she might see without them.

"Fuck, it smells like shit in here," said Finnick.

"And dead people," Clem added.

"Not always a good sign. Let's not be careless."

They entered one of the offices, which was filled with cuticles containing desktop computers. They smelled a fresh amount of blood in this area, and they didn't have to investigate too far to actually look at the source. It was a tiger, with the clothes of a Wolf, bleeding intensely from the rib cage area, or what was left of it. Some savages had been feasting on it, leaving it as a grotesque show for anyone who wandered in.

"Fucking Wolf," Clementine told the corpse. "Serves you right."

"Oh, shit," exclaimed the male fox, who was peering at the entrance from behind one of the cuticles.

"What, what's wrong?" she asked, heading to his direction in urgency.

"A fucking stalker. Those assholes sneak up on you like a motherfucker."

Oh shit, she thought. She had been lucky she hadn't dealt with stalkers throughout her journey so far, but now the time had come. In Clementine's opinion, stalkers could be even worse than Bloomers. Bloomers were huge, therefore being a bigger target. Stalkers, however, hid from you, and ambushed you in the dark. Even with good enough night vision, a mammal has to have good enough hearing and smell to detect them. This would not be easy.

"Do you have experience with them?"

"Minimal. These bitches always hide in the dark. I always tried to stray from dark places."

"Well, it's your time to shine today. You think your height is gonna save you now?"

"Well, they usually go for the bigger prey first," he retorted, giving her another smug smile.

"I hate you. Let's get these fuckers."

Slowly and surely, they came out of the office. At that moment, the light from Clementine's flashlight flickered. The duo crouched slowly toward the next door, which lead to a small hallway where another corpse adorned the wall, this time a raccoon with nothing left but his legs and bushy tail, having formed a viscous pool of flesh and bones.

"Man…not good," said Clementine.

The door next to that hallway was a way into a bathroom, one that neither of them had any desire to go inside of. So they didn't, walking back to the door they came from, leaving the corpse to his lonesome rot. When they crossed another hallway, yet another body was lying in a wall, a fox with its limbs cut up. The door at the end of the hall was protected by two filing cabinets, but the window on top was open.

"Can you climb up there without help?" Clem asked the fennec.

"Yeah, easy," he said, putting a gas mask on. "You ain't got one?"

"Ah crap, I didn't tell you."

"Tell me what?"

"Just see for yourself," Clem said, climbing one of the cabinets and jumping through the window.

"Girl! Are you crazy?" she heard Finnick scream at her from the other side, and rapidly rushed to her aid. "You're gonna fucking…die?" he said, looking at her healthy self, unbothered by any of the very toxic flowers sprouting from the walls.

"I'm immune, Finnick. To Nighthowlers."

"Holy shit, so Nick's mission…"

"Yeah. They were gonna make a cure, but couldn't. Listen, you can ask me whatever you want later, but right now we gotta get the hell out of here alive. You with me?"

"Y-yeah, yeah sure."

"Okay, then," she said, pointing at yet another dead body of a panther. "I saw three of them eating that one. Let's be quiet. Watch my six."

He nodded, this time following Clementine through this very unexplored territory, making sure to check behind him every few seconds or so. Instead of going right towards the panther's body, Clementine took a detour to another office to their left. Finnick could hear the moans and grunts of the stalkers, and the putrid smell of their bodies, but Clementine said there were three of them, so all of the noises and the smells could be mixing up together, and he wasn't exactly sure where they were. Somewhere in front of us, he thought. He was feeling genuine fear in this moment, in the dark, guided by the flashlight and his limited night vision. Finnick was a man of action, not stealth. If there was a roadblock he could get to, and he couldn't go below or under it, he would blow it up. But you can't blow up something you can't see, unless you want to blow yourself up in the process, and Finnick didn't want to die just yet. With the low amount of light from both flashlights, the duo kept slowly trudging through the office until they reached the main area, a much bigger cuticle-filled location that seemed endless.

"How the fuck are we getting out of here?" Finnick asked.

"We'll have to keep going. There must be an exit somewhere."

The small amount of light coming out from under the small openings from the boarded up windows did nothing to appease them. The atmosphere was still tense, and the grunts and sobs and writhings just kept on intensifying.

"T-turn off the light," Clem whispered

"What?"

"They could follow the light. We have to be as quiet as possible."

"Didn't I just say our night vision ain't gonna be enough?" he said with conviction.

"Turn them off, Fin," she restated.

"But…ffffuuck, this better be a good idea."

He did as instructed, shutting off his light as soon as she did so. Now they were in total darkness except for their nocturnal eyes. Instinctually, he began to pay more attention to his other senses, analyzing the scent of the savages and the way they moved across the entire office. They were subtle, but if he focused, he could pinpoint where they had been before. His big ears were not just for show.

"There's two surrounding us," said Finnick. "One from our left and the other from our right."

"You got the one on the right?" she asked him, getting her bat ready.

"Yup. If they jump us, I'm ready."

The exalted groans of the two near them became louder, alerting the duo that the savages were ready to strike. The one after Finnick was a honey badger, and the one after Clementine was another fox. Finnick jumped onto one of the tables in the cuticle and jumped behind said badger, stabbing it repeatedly on their face until some of the flowers sprouting from its body fell down with it, forming a pool of blood. Clementine also fared well, giving it a few strong impacts with her bat, leaving it to choke on its own blood on the floor. More moans from the other stalkers reverberated through the walls of the office.

"I think we've been made," Clementine said.

"Gee, ya think?"

The group of three to five stalkers remaining ran toward them almost immediately. One of the stalkers, a rabbit, went after Clementine and actually laid a hit on her, which she returned tenfold, not even using her bat, but her own fist right on its face. "Run, Finnick! I'll follow behind you!"

Finnick once again listened to her commands, trusting that she knew what she was doing. Pulling out a cocktail molotov she launched it at the group, hitting two of them, one of them being the rabbit she had suckerpunched. The others were disoriented by the fire and the two got away. They were back to the same office from before.

"Okay, screw stealth," Clementine said, pulling out her shotgun. "Let's end these fuckers."

"That's my fucking language," Finnick agreed, pulling out his rifle. They nodded, and got out again.

As was true with most stalkers, they were now long gone, having retreated to wherever they were hiding in. The noises had mostly stopped, but he knew they were still out there. With Clementine he looked around every corner, opening some cabinets along the way to search for supplies. As they kept moving forward, they were blessed to see more light peering out of a window. While it was yet to be seen if that would be their definitive exit, it was nice to have some vision back. However, the new location looked to be more abysmal, straight out of an alien cosmic horror movie, where the midnicampup holichithias sprouted from the walls in horrid mounds of purple slop and pollen, with added blood from the multiple affected victims that had been poisoned by its toxin.

Out of a hallway came another spawn of evil, a wolf stalker, coming straight at Clem. She was ready, though, completely pulverizing its head with her shotgun. Another one came from her back, and Finnick took it out with a single shot from his rifle.

"We can exit through this window," said Clementine, breaking said window to smithereens and vaulting through it. Finnick followed. They were on a fire escape platform of the building, and what awaited them below was nothing but cold freezing water, as the bombings had totally destroyed that piece of street, leaving in its stead a huge chasm with river rapids. On a positive note, the hospital was much closer. The red sign had become bigger. "There's the hospital," she said. "Not much farther."

"That is if we can get through all this water down below."

"If we fall, we'll just swim in it."

"I don't think you have any idea what water with that much current will do to you. You're completely to its mercy."

"Let's not fall, then."

"Already planning on it."

Finnick followed Clementine up the stairs to the next floor of the fire escape. There was a gap she needed to cross, and she needed to get some altitude. With a bit of speed, the vixen managed to jump to the other side. "Can you do this, Finnick?"

"Yeah, just…give me a sec."

"I'll catch you, don't worry."

"You won't need to!" he screamed, walking backwards to gain some momentum. "Stupid cocky girl," he muttered.

"I heard that!"

"Maybe I wanted you to!" he screamed, gaining the confidence to run towards the emptiness. He took a leap, and just barely managed to reach the platform.

"Wishing you were taller?"

"Absolutely not."

The duo headed back inside of the building, to Finnick's chagrin. This time, the fall was unexpectedly high, as part of the floor had been destroyed, making them fall into the floor below, once again covered in flowers. Finnick was lucky he didn't think about taking his mask off for even one second. "Okay, the plan is to head down into the street," Clementine told him.

"And not die in the deadly river."

"That's self-explanatory."

They were back in the darkness. Seemed impossible to ever get away from it at that point. They crossed a gap in one of the walls and moved ever so slowly across the wooden floor. He could tell there were other savages around, but it was so dark he couldn't see them. The smell of the gas mask overpowered everything, and he could only truly rely on his vision, as the river raged outside, impeding him from even attempting to hear the enemies inside. They passed another gap, and shit hit the fan.

A gazelle stalker rushed Clementine as Finnick heard a Howler coming for them. Clementine pushed the stalker away and tried shooting at it with her pistol, but he knocked it away and kept rushing her, trying to push her down into the floor. Finnick tried to help, but the Howler was a massive anteater that had made its mission to chase Finnick. He tried opening his rifle to no avail, as the anteater also knocked it away with a simple arm movement. He jumped out of the way and moved to the other side of the room to gain some distance, and using a revolver, he shot at the anteater's backside. The protective covering oozed purple, but the anteater was still walking, flailing its arms around hoping to catch Finnick and devour him. Finnick tried to shoot again, but to his dismay, the chamber was empty. He scrambled to get more bullets as the animal lowered its distance. He figured one more would suffice. His heavy bullet pocket became lighter as he grabbed a single bullet, put it in the chamber, and held it against the anteater's dismembered mouth and tongue, destroying his brain from inside out. Clementine had won her battle with a single shotgun strike. Another stalker began approaching them, but Clementine had the upper paw that time, piercing its neck with her dagger.

"We gotta go to a less closed area, now!" She advised, going through more gaps in the dilapidated walls. More stalkers followed them, and Finnick kept shooting at them from behind, hoping to slow them down or kill them by pure luck. When they reached a more lit area, they took their time to at least off two of them as they were trying to pass through a wall gap. They came to a room where the only illumination originated from a suspiciously intact yellow door. Yet another stalker was hidden in the darkness, but Finnick had noticed it, making sure to use his machete to slice its head off. "Okay, time to go, Fin."

"Can't wait to not be in the dark again."

She tried pushing the door, but it didn't budge. "Aw, crap," she said. "Help me push this." Finnick did help, but she should've imagined it wouldn't have done much, but it was the thought that counted. She heard savages above her. They dropped down into the floor, ready to strike. At the sight of this, Finnick gave an even bigger effort on his pushing, as did the vixen. When the door finally opened, the two came in quickly and shut it with force, trying their mighty best to prevent the savages from reaching them. Their bloodied claws scratched the wood of the door and some of them had even tried opening the door with their mouths, biting into the door with extreme force.

A fox stalker on their side got the drop on them, pushing Clementine into a near window, the force being enough to slightly shatter the window. "Get offa me!" the vixen shouted at the stalker. Finnick climbed on the fox and began trying to choke it to get it away from her. When she managed to push the stalker back, the fox only increased his velocity and pushed her again, this time completely shattering the window and sending the three of them into the river. Finnick cursed internally. Their objective of not jumping into the river had not paid off. He felt himself sinking. Deeper and deeper.

Clementine fell headfirst, in what would be her second foray into the water on this day. She managed to recuperate and rose to the surface. "Finnick? Finnick?!" She called him, but he didn't seem to be anywhere. Beginning to panic, she looked down into the water again, finding where he had gone. The fox stalker was pinning him by one of his legs, making Finnick sink more and more. Clementine breathed in as much air as she could and began to swim downward, her dagger ready. Her legs kicked the water like she had never kicked anything in her life. When she reached the two, she held no mercy for the fox and put the dagger deep into his ear, blood leaking and spreading like wildfire into the river, grabbing Finnick in the process and getting them both to safety, or what they had left of it. The water sent her into a large tube, possibly leading to the sewers. She tried to hold on, but the current was just too strong. It reminded her of a comic she had once read, of a fox cop who sacrificed himself for a kit and got thrown into a dangerous canal such as this. It ended with him being found safe and sound, and Clementine hoped it would be the same outcome for them. Despite the water dragging her down every chance it could, she still held on to Finnick. She wasn't going to lose anyone else, and she meant it. The river had begun to settle down, and it was clear that they were both in the sewers. She took that time to look at Finnick, who had his eyes wide open in shock. When they reached a place where they could put their feet in land again, she launched herself to it, putting Finnick by her side.

"Holy…fucking…shit," Finnick said, still winded and appalled that they were both still alive.

"Seriously. Fuck this city."

"T-thank you, Clem. Really. I don't know what I would've done without you back there."

"Don't sweat it, Finnick. It's what my dad would've done."

Finnick's face softened, warmed up by her declaration. "Your dad, huh?"

"Don't think too hard about it," she said, blushing. They spent about five minutes just laying there, thinking about all they'd endured.

"I think I'm ready to keep going," Finnick said, smelling his fur and groaning. "Fuck, I need a bath."

"Heh. Me too," she rose up, inspecting herself to check that she didn't have any injuries. "Come on, we're close."

The sewer was the quietest part of their journey so far. Despite the one savage that was stuck to a wall and scared the shit out of them, everything had gone smooth sailing. She remembered how her and Nick had found a society that had almost thrived on a sewer such as this, and started to become depressed as she remembered Mr. Manchas and his son. Tragedy really had followed her and Nick everywhere they went.

Without much difficulty, the duo found a ladder that led straight out of the sewer into yet another building, this time with the sky visible. "Alright, where the hell did we end up?"

"Hey, before we move on," Finnick said. Clementine turned around to look at him. "Sorry for being an ass all those years ago. Wasn't right."

"Why are you apologizing now?" she asked him.

"Well…'cause you didn't leave me back then. You could've saved yourself but instead you risked your life to save both of us. I can't say I would've done that five years ago, heck even a year ago I probably would've left someone behind to save my own ass-"

"Finnick," she interrupted him. "It's in the past, okay? You helping me now is enough redemption. We're good." She spread her paw out to him, and he accepted it, shaking her paw firmly. "Besides, even though you were a grumpy mess, I could tell you cared for us. Even just a little bit. Maybe Nick knew it too."

"I'll raise a glass to that. Now, let's keep going, the hospital's probably closer now."

"Yeah," she agreed, heading out of the building by using some stairs and the main gate, which had been completely torn open. Conveniently enough, a map of the area was posted right in front of them, and they indeed were closer to the hospital than before. "If we cut through this park, we'll reach the hospital," she told Finnick.

"Let's do it, then."

The park had been reduced to a full forest filled with giant trees that covered most of the visibility. However, little things were visible through the cracks, like a golden light that could only be described as fire. Either an explosion, or someone was making that place their refuge.

"Fwee fwee," a strange whistle was heard.

"Oh, fuck, I've heard this before. Not good."

"What does it mean?" Clementine whispered.

"Not sure, but it's creepy as fuck."

Walking further into the greenery, they saw the horrendous sight of a wolf hanged by a lamppost with his guts hanging out, recalling how the bodies had looked back at the TV station. Another very bad sign. Clementine climbed a small plateau and…

"FWEEET!" A much more aggressive whistle than the one before, and a projectile that Clementine did not see coming until it found itself lodged deeply in her shoulder, sending her backwards into the ground.

"Clem!" Finnick came to her aid, but the damage was done. She was getting up, agonizing, with the arrow still inside her. There was no doubt anymore. She'd seen them use arrows on the Wolves too. The only other group dangerous enough to fight an army.

Clementine was finally in the presence of The Seraphites.