by Tom Jones
More police vehicles began to arrive, and there was now a group of human police officers at the scene. One officer asked Arcades a question, “What is your name?” Arcades replied, “Kurt Hofmeier.” Jason then spoke to the officers, “I’m Jason Barter. I’m one of his employees.” Another officer was puzzled, “Employee? What company are you two from?” Arcades replied, “Fox Security, LLC. We were on a job in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but we were captured and taken here by the Omega Foundation against our will.” With all of the police officers at the scene, Arcades was wondering what was going to happen to the two of them. One of the officers spoke to both of them, “We’re going to have to take you both to the station.” Arcades knew what was going to happen next, so he took a couple steps forward until he was standing up against a police vehicle. Familiar with police procedures, the fox raised his right leg as he placed his hands on the rear panel of the car. The officer questioned Arcades’ actions, “What are you doing?” Arcades replied, “You’re not going to shackle me?” The officer replied, “Yeah we are. Give us a minute, so hold on. Put your leg down for now.” After Arcades placed his right foot back on the ground, the officer grabbed the fox’s arms and pinned them behind his back. With the fox unable to resist yet again, the officer removed a pair of Smith & Wesson Model 300-1 hinged handcuffs and locked them around Arcades’ thin wrists. After the fox was restrained, the officer used the post on the reverse side of the key to push the double-lock bars towards the keyholes in order to double-lock the restraints.
The officer looked to one of his colleagues, “Do you have any leg shackles in your car? I still need to put some on this fox.” The other human officer nodded and walked on over to his car before opening the trunk. Arcades watched the officer look around in the trunk, but he soon felt the officer pushing him up against the car, “Stay there, fox.” The fox frowned, but he knew that common policies in most of the United States required people to be restrained while in police custody; anthros were always supposed to be restrained more than humans were. Though Arcades personally felt that such policies were unnecessary, he kept his mouth shut since he knew that he would not be able to talk the officers out of their own training. The second officer soon returned holding a pair of standard Smith & Wesson 1900-1s. The fox immediately recognized the shackles since they were the model Arcades commonly preferred to wear. Before the officer could arrive within range to hand the restraints to his colleague, Arcades could feel his pants slipping down from his waist. The fox looked down, but he was unable to pull his pants back up. The officer did not notice the fox’s pants were slipping down until he looked down for himself and saw the pants now at Arcades’ ankles. Arcades felt embarrassed, but he did not know what to say. The officer looked at the fox’s now naked body, and he also saw the cage which contained Arcades’ reproductive organs. The officer scoffed under his breath, “Damned anthros…”
The second officer finally drew close, still carrying the leg restraints, and he spoke to the officer pinning the fox to the police vehicle, “Don’t bother pulling those back up.” Arcades looked at the officer and vocalized a response indicating he required elaboration, “Huh?” The officer did not reply with elaboration, “Step out of those, fox.” Arcades reluctantly complied, and he stepped out of the only piece of clothing he had. The officer stood with the restraints ready to apply, “On your knees, fox. Do it now.” Arcades slowly got down on his knees, trying to not scrape his bare knees on the pavement. When the fox assumed a kneeling position, he could feel the shackles locking around his ankles before being double-locked as well. With the fox now kneeling completely naked and restrained yet again, the officer ordered him to stand back up, “Get up.” Arcades got to his feet, and he looked down at the shackles he was wearing yet again. The fox noticed that the keyholes were not visible, so he knew that the police would make him kneel again when they were to be removed. Though Arcades was naked and chained, he at least knew that he would not be muzzled by the police like he was when the Foundation took him.
The officer opened the rear door of his cruiser, and he ordered Arcades to take a seat inside of the police car. The fox sat down, and he tried to get comfortable with his hands behind his back as well as his tail pushing up against the back seat of the car. After managing to get into a position which was good enough, the fox heard the opposite door open and saw Jason enter the car as well. The first thing Arcades noticed about the wolf was the fact that he was missing the shirt which the fox gave him to conceal his caged genitals. Jason’s hands were still bound in front of him, and Arcades figured the wolf was restrained in such a manner because the police were unable to open the BOA locksets to arrange his arms in the proper position. Jason looked to his right and saw that the fox was also naked, “Looks like we’re not out of it yet.” Arcades, still embarrassed and humiliated to be naked in front of more people than before, mumbled, “Yeah…” The officers closed the door Jason used to enter, and Arcades looked at the doors from the inside. They were lacking door handles from the inside, and the windows were caged up to prevent an escape attempt. The fox sighed. There was nothing he could do now but wait and try not to think about his situation.
Alpha 2 looked over to Alpha 1, “What did Zero say?” Alpha 1 replied, “We’re going to Facility Zero with the rest of the ISG, and we’re taking all green-tiered anthros with us. Everything else here is getting burned to the ground.” Alpha 2 was surprised to hear the situation, “Holy shit, what the fuck’s happened?” Alpha 1 then replied, “CDI found out where some other Omega facilities are. They’ve already raided two more today.” Alpha 2 shook his head, “Shit… I bet that fucking fox who escaped had something to do with it.” Alpha 1 nodded, “Yeah, that motherfucker got away somehow.” Alpha 2 began to wonder, “Are we supposed to go out and catch him?” Alpha 1 shook his head, “That fox has been nothing but problems for us. We should just forget him and get out while we still can. CDI is gonna probably hit this facility if we don’t get going sooner than later. We’d just be wasting too many resources looking for him; time being the most important.” Alpha 2 had another question, “What if we do manage to find him?” Alpha 1 replied, “Then Zero has asked to see him personally.” Alpha 2’s eyebrows raised, “Well, shit…” Alpha 1 nodded, “Yeah, you know what’s up. We should go ahead and hurry up. We need to get the green-tiered anthros out of here.” Alpha 2 had one last question, “And then what? What are we supposed to do with everything else? We have more than green-tiered anthros at this facility.” Alpha 1 stopped and looked directly at his colleague, “Burn everything. The anthros burn with this facility.”
Bocchino staggered in the snow; he was not sure how long he had been walking for. The cat could not see anything in front of himself due to the violent blizzard which was heavily obscuring his vision, rendering what was left of his vision almost useless. After continuing for a few more meters, the cat stopped, and he looked back up at the snowy sky. Suddenly, the snowstorm dissipated, and the cat could now see a clear sky which was completely absent of clouds. Bocchino turned around, and he could see several CDI MiG-35M Super Fulcrums fly over his head only to spontaneously catch fire midair. The aircraft collided into the ground shortly after catching fire, and the crash resulted in a violent explosion which shook the ground. Bocchino then looked to his right, and he could see a massive vehicle he had never seen before emerge from a large gray building. The vehicle appeared to be a treaded vehicle, but the cat had never seen a vehicle which had six tread bases on each side. The vehicle shot off several missiles into the sky from concealed firing ports, and Bocchino looked to his left to see several more CDI colored vehicles fall out of the sky due to being hit by incoming missiles. The vehicles were both Mi-35 Super Hinds as well as more MiG-35M Super Fulcrums.
Suddenly, Arcades, Jason, and many human CDI members ran past the cat with weapons in their hands. The two anthros and humans all began to fire upon the large vehicle, but their attacks did not seem to be effective against the vehicle. The vehi
cle rotated a large cannon on its roof, and it began to fire on the large group of humans. Bocchino watched as Arcades was caught in one of the explosions caused by an HE round impacting the ice on the ground. The cat looked down, and he could see Arcades lying directly in front of him in a pool of blood. The fox spoke, and his speech was somehow coherent and rather calm despite the gruesome visual injuries to the fox, “Bobby, it’s up to you. Take it down.” Arcades reached out his gloved hand, and Bocchino grabbed it. Moments later, Arcades seemingly lost his grip on life, and his eyes stared blankly into the open sky. Bocchino let go of the fox’s hand, and he watched as it flopped down on the ground. The cat looked around the ground, and he could see numerous dead humans in the white snow. Bocchino began to walk slowly towards the vehicle, but the turret was not facing his direction.
The cat now began to run forwards in the snow towards the vehicle, and he watched as the cannon on the vehicle began to rotate in order to fire upon him. Bocchino began to scream as he charged towards the vehicle, and he grabbed an M67 frag grenade from his belt before pulling the pin and dropping the safety latch. Bocchino threw the grenade with all the strength he could muster, and he watched it as it flew through the air before it somehow caused the vehicle to implode and then explode. Once the vehicle was in pieces, Bocchino looked around the ground, and he could see that Arcades was still dead. Bocchino returned to the deceased fox, and he grabbed Arcades’ head to look into his dead eyes. Bocchino started to shake Arcades, “Kurt, wake up!” The cat shook Arcades harder, “Dammit! I said wake the fuck up, you fucking faggot! Fucking bitch!” Arcades still did not return to a state of living. Bocchino stomped on the fox’s head and shouted, “Well fuck you too, then!”
Bocchino awoke in the middle of the night, and he looked around his room as he was wondering why he was in a boat rather than a snowy area. The cat caught his breath, and he realized that he had been sweating. Bocchino shook his head, and he fell backwards back onto his bed. “Motherfucker....” Bocchino muttered under his breath as he looked at the ceiling of the room. The cat shook his head again as he quietly talked to himself, “Why did I say that to him?” Even though Bocchino knew he was dreaming, he still wondered why he spoke to Arcades in the way he did so. Bocchino wished that he did not have to stay on a boat for a week, but he knew that he did not really have an alternate way of returning to the United States. The cat also was trying to figure out what was that vehicle he was imagining in his dream. In a way, the cat was reminded of some futuristic vehicle from a computer generated sci-fi movie, but at the same time, Bocchino did not remember seeing a vehicle of that type ever before. The cat was wondering what he saw, but he figured that it was just something his mind came up with. Bocchino laid back in the bed, and he attempted to get some sleep again.
Chapter 11
Logistics
Arcades paid attention to the detective who was questioning both him and Jason, “So, let me get this straight: You went to this ‘facility’, and they spoke about -- bombing your house?” Arcades replied with a quick nod, “Correct. They ended up carrying it out sometime after we left to go to England.” Jason looked down at his now free ankles, and he was glad that the police had cut off the restraints which Omega had applied to him all the way back in the Congo. The detective asked another question, “Uh-huh, so why did you need to go to England?” The fox replied, “I didn’t feel safe staying in the US. I knew that their paramilitary organization would end up finding me if I were to stay. That suspicion was confirmed when I returned to see that my house was indeed bombed. I knew a place out there where I could stay hidden from Omega for some time.” The detective presented the fox with another question, “What about the other people who lived with you? Did they make it out alive?” Jason spoke up after the questions were asked, “Yes.” The detective looked over to the wolf, “What did you see?”
Jason began to speak his story, “Well, that’s where I lived too.” The detective raised an eyebrow in a moment of slight surprise, “Oh really? I thought you two were just coworkers.” Arcades spoke up, “Where I live is where I work.” The detective now directed his attention from the wolf to the fox, “You live at your workplace?” The fox nodded, “Yes. Most of the people I had employed lived elsewhere. It was only me and Jason who lived there. He didn’t really have a place to stay, so I let him live with me.” The detective took note of one specific phrase Arcades said, “Had employed? So what happened to them?” Arcades answered the question, “I came back with my recordings of my infiltration at one of Omega’s facilities, and they decided they would basically not be coming with us to England.” The detective was particularly interested by the first part of the fox’s response, “Recordings? You have evidence?” Arcades nodded, “Yes. I wore a helmet camera when I infiltrated the complex. I uploaded my videos to the Internet before we came back to Facility Five.”
The detective became curious, “Facility Five? How did you know it was called that?” The fox replied, “Partly because one of the members of the paramilitary organization there defected and joined me.” The detective quickly followed up with another question, “Is this former member part of your company now?” The fox shook his head, “No, well… Not officially. This all happened over the course of a few days. I don’t even know what day it is now. We were blindfolded and placed on an airplane.” The detective’s face clearly displayed disbelief; he did not believe a single thing either of the anthros told him, “Oh really?” Arcades replied, “Yeah, but we’ll probably get to that in a bit.” As the fox talked to the detective, Jason looked down at the pants he had been given. The pants were the same dark blue colored pants which would have been given to inmates at the jail. The largest difference for the wolf was that he was wearing a white t-shirt rather than a matching blue shirt which would be worn by inmates as well. Jason looked to his right, and he looked over Arcades. The fox was wearing the same attire, but he was still not wearing shoes. Though both of them had been given an orange pair of Crocs, Arcades did not decide to wear them.
The detective donned a pair of blue latex gloves, and he grabbed a plastic box with the word ‘evidence’ marked on the lid. He opened the box, and he removed both of the devices which Omega had locked over both of the anthros genitals. The detective questioned, “Why did they make you wear these devices?” The fox shrugged, “I mean, I don’t think I would be able to answer that for you. I think the video I took at Facility Five might provide some insight, though.” The detective was still in a state of disbelief, “Uh-huh… Where did you say this Facility Five place was again?” The fox replied, “Salt Lake City, Utah. At least, that’s where it was.” The detective questioned the fox again, “What happened to it?” Arcades spoke, “CDI came out and took it down.” The detective slowly nodded before further speaking, “Did you hear that CDI was attacked by an unknown threat?” Arcades shook his head, “No. When did this happen?” The detective placed the cages back in the evidence box after he studied them for a few more seconds. He spoke after he closed the lid on the plastic box, “I’d say about half a week ago. It was a place not too far from Salt Lake City, actually. There were a number of dead anthros and humans found at the scene.” Arcades knew where the anthros came from, “Those are the anthros from Facility Five.” The human detective did not believe the fox, “And how would you know that?” Arcades began to further explain his story, but the fox knew that he was not making any actual progress.
“Jim, how long did the captain say we were supposed to be on this boat still?” Bocchino asked the human as he walked by. Jim stopped to answer the cat’s question, “Bobby, we still have three more days here.” Bocchino shook his head, “Fucking shit, man. This whole fucking journey’s been boring as shit!” Jim shrugged, “I don’t know what I can tell you, Bobby. We’re out in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean.” The cat was already impatient, and he knew that he would be bored to death for three more days. Jim continued along, for he had nothing else which he had to say to the cat. Bocchino looked
at Jim as he walked away, and he was wondering where the human was going. The cat got Jim’s attention again, “Hey! Where the fuck are you even going?” Jim paused, and he slowly turned around to look at Bocchino. He waited for a short moment before answering the cat, “I’m just walking around. Ain’t nothin’ to it.” Bocchino shook his head and shrugged, “The fuck?” The human disregarded the cat’s last response, and he continued about his way.
Bocchino still attempted to speak with Jim as he proceeded to walk away, “Where the fuck do you think you’re fucking going?” The cat emerged from the room he was in, and he looked to his right to see that Jim had already left his vicinity. Bocchino sighed, and he knew that there really was not anything Jim could really do for him. The cat decided that he would check out Arcades’ belongings in order to see if there was anything the fox had to keep the cat occupied for the next three days. Bocchino walked out of the hallway, and he was now on the deck of the ship. As he traveled down to where the vehicles were stored within the ship, he began to think about Arcades again. The cat thought about what happened at Facility Twenty-Four, and he remembered how he really wanted to pin the deaths of the anthros on Arcades. He shook his head in regret as he thought about the situation again, and he wished that he had intervened before both the fox and the wolf had been taken away by the mercenaries. The cat sighed as he continued, for he knew that there would be nothing he could do until he would be able to until he returned back to the United States.
Bocchino entered the compartment which held the four vehicles they were bringing back to the United States, and he tried to remember which vehicle had the most of Arcades’ belongings inside. After a brief moment, the cat remembered that practically all of the fox’s equipment was stored within the HH-60 Pave Hawk. Bocchino lifted up some of the fabric covering the helicopter to prevent it from gathering too much dust during the week trip, and he opened the side door to let himself in. As Bocchino entered the helicopter, he let the fabric drop, and he noticed that nobody would be able to see in or out of the helicopter due to the fabric. The cat could not see himself since the helicopter cover blocked practically all of the light which was inside of the ship. Feeling for the cabin light switch, Bocchino bumped into a couple of Arcades’ items before he was finally able to toggle the cabin lights.