by Tom Jones
Jason looked ahead as he thought, and he could see that the two anthros were walking on a pathway that was taking them away from the beach. The wolf was not sure if he wanted to tell the fox that they were moving away from the beach, but he decided to ask the question he had queued in his head, “So I didn’t do anything wrong?” Arcades replied, “Not necessarily. However, you should remember this: Salvation is not based on how much wrong or right you’ve done in your life. When you think about it that way, you’re not really trusting in Jesus for your salvation, are you? We have to remember that it’s not about what we can do or have done to be worthy of salvation. Of course, we should avoid sinful acts and flee from temptation, but we shouldn’t put ourselves down for things we’ve done in the past. God is still willing to forgive you for whatever you’ve done. Yeah, I’ve done many sinful things in the past, but God has given me the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is who sanctifies you. God is still perfectly merciful. None of us deserve to be saved. I’m not saved because I deserve it anymore than you do. Salvation has always been a free gift of the Lord’s grace.”
Before the wolf could reply, he heard a voice call out from behind, “Excuse me, sir.” Arcades did not initially pay attention to the voice since he did not believe it was directed at him, so he continued walking. The voice sounded again, and it was closer this time, “Sir, excuse me.” Jason saw a human coming up to approach the fox, and he could see that the human was trying to get Arcades’ attention. The wolf spoke to the fox, “Kurt, there’s someone trying to talk to you.” Arcades continued walking, and he was not sure what the wolf was mentioning, “What?” Jason looked to his left, and both anthros stopped walking. Arcades turned to his right in order to see who was walking up on them, and he could see that it was an officer from the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office. Immediately, the fox’s eyes widened, and he felt a terrible feeling in his lower torso. The deputy stopped in front of the fox and could see that Arcades’ face was full of fear, “Sorry to bother you sir. You don’t happen to be Kurt, do you?” The fox was frozen in his spot; he did not know how to reply. The officer realized that Arcades was a bit startled, “I’m Lieutenant Nicholson. You look like somebody I’ve met before.” The fox still did not know how to reply. In his mind, all he could remember was his arrest from over a decade ago. Nicholson recognized the fox’s frightened face, and he was almost certain that he was talking to the same fox from that event, “Is your name Kurt?”
Arcades realized that he should probably give an answer of some sort, even though he was not legally required to give his name to the officer, “Y-yes…” Lieutenant Nicholson replied with a nod, “Didn’t we have a run-in like ten years ago?” The fox somewhat recognized the human’s face, but he did not remember the names of any of the officers involved in his arrest, “Uhh…” Jason watched the situation play out, and he was not sure if he wanted to intervene or not. He was rather surprised to see Arcades get freaked out over this encounter, but he did just get done listening to the fox tell the story in his own words. Nicholson knew that Arcades was not going to calm down by himself, “This is just a casual conversation. You’re not in any trouble.” Arcades’s reply to Nicholson was not exactly fantastic, “W-what?” If a regular person reacted in such a way to a similar police encounter, Nicholson would find it suspicious, but this particular instance was only giving the human more assurance that he was talking to the same fox he previously detained. Nicholson tried to de-escalate the situation again, “Calm down, Kurt. I’m not here to take you away again.”
Arcades finally realized that he was coming across as being very frightened, “Oh… I-I’m really sorry. It’s just that experience was -- uh… It was erm… It was very…” Arcades could no longer string together a coherent sentence. Jason was amazed by how the fox was acting, and he could tell that this specific officer was genuinely terrifying the fox. Jason decided that he should just intervene now and speak to the officer instead, “Are you the guy who arrested him back in 2018?” Nicholson turned his attention to the gray wolf, and he was rather surprised to see that Jason knew what he was trying to talk to Arcades about, “Yeah, how did you know?” The wolf replied, “He literally told me about the whole incident right before we got here. It’s his first time coming back here since that happened.” Arcades was frozen, and his eyes were very wide. His breathing became rather labored as he looked at the first person who had ever restrained him. Jason spoke on Arcades’ behalf once again, but he gave a somewhat aggressive response since he was not happy seeing the fox upset in the way he was, “That episode greatly fucked with his head, and you’re just making it worse for him.”
Nicholson once again tried to diffuse the situation by pointing towards a little fence that divided the sand dunes from the rest of the beach, “How about we sit over there and work this out?” Jason looked at the fox, and he could tell that Arcades would not be very responsive. The wolf looked back to Nicholson, “Look at him. He’s bloody terrified. What the fuck did you do to him? The fuck’s the deal?” Nicholson shook his head, “Following protocol. We do that to all of those anthros.” Jason replied while becoming a tad more upset himself, “Taking pictures of his feet and posting that shit online is fucking protocol? Who the fuck is the shit cunt who came up with that fucking idea?” Nicholson was surprised to hear that the wolf knew about Fulgrim’s pictures, so he was at a loss of words. The Lieutenant sighed and said, “I didn’t take those pictures.” Jason replied, “Who the fuck did? Fucking dumb cunt!” While the upset wolf continued to bicker, Arcades was beginning to feel a bit dizzy. The fox put his hand to his forehead, and he could feel that his head was becoming very warm. When he removed his hand from his head, he could see that his fur was becoming wet from sweat.
Arcades realized that Jason was still cursing out the officer, “J-Jason… That’s enough.” However, the fox’s words were not loud enough for the wolf to hear, so Jason continued his angry remarks, “Fucking assholes, you cunts are. What the fuck did you think you were doing? Who the fuck comes up with that type of protocol? You guys are fucking sick cunts! Fucking oath, you stupid cunts.” Arcades raised his voice, “Enough!” Both Jason and Nicholson diverted their attention to Arcades. The fox stood still, though he was having a hard time doing so from being so dizzy. Arcades began to make his way to the wooden fence which Nicholson pointed at earlier. The fox was slow due to his dizziness, and it did take him a little while to arrive at the fence. Jason and Nicholson both followed Arcades, and they stopped talking for the time being. Arcades finally sat down at the fence, and he pushed his tail out of the way so that he would not be sitting on it. Jason stood aside and looked down at the fox. Nicholson asked the fox a question, “Are you OK? Do you need medical attention?” After Arcades took some breaths to calm himself down enough to speak, he said, “I’ll be alright… It’s just that I wasn’t expecting to see you out here.”
Nicholson replied, “You recognize me, don’t you?” The fox looked directly at the human, and he gave a quick nod, “Y-yeah, but I don’t think I ever got your name. Not that I would’ve been able to ask it anyways with that muzzle over my mouth.” Nicholson crouched down to meet the fox’s level, “I’m sorry about that, Kurt. My sergeant at the time made us do that. He’s not working with us anymore.” A few tears began to form in the fox’s eyes, but Arcades tried to hide his upset state by placing his face in his hands, “Why did you do that?” Nicholson did not know the best way to calm down the fox, but he still tried, “Nothing against you personally, we just had to do our jobs. We’re just following protocol.” Arcades shook his head, and when he looked back up, there were a few tears coming down his face, “What type of treatment was that? How can you justify that? Who in their right mind thought that was a good protocol?” Nicholson sighed, and he did not have a good answer to reply to the fox with. The human waited for a few moments and then said, “I’m sorry you feel that way, but that’s what Sheriff Asher wanted us to do back then.”
Arcades sim
ply could not accept such an explanation, “You treated me like I was some type of… I don’t even know what to call that! I wasn’t even treated like a person, and I was treated worse than an actual feral animal as well..” Nicholson knew that he could not change the past, but he did say, “It’s nothing personal against you.” Arcades knew that Nicholson was telling the truth, but the situation still bothered him. Though he did not personally hold anything against any of the officers, Arcades’ main problem was that he still felt as if he was well-deserving of the treatment he received. However, the fox knew that Nicholson would be unable to assist him with that sort of issue. Arcades took a moment of silence to wipe the tears from his eyes, and he finally spoke once he calmed down, “What’s your name, again?” Nicholson replied, “Oh, I don’t think you heard me. I’m Lieutenant Carl Nicholson. I was the officer who detained you, but I wasn’t the one who took those pictures of you. That was Sergeant Fulgrim. He’s not at our department anymore; he retired a couple years ago.” Jason took a step back and thought about his words to the officer. The wolf decided to make some amends as well, “Hey, mate. Yeah, perhaps we kinda started out a bit sour.”
Nicholson turned to the wolf and decided that making a resolution was probably the better option over not having one at all, “I’ll say. However, I do understand where you are coming from. I didn’t think it actually bothered him that much.” Arcades looked up at the officer and asked, “Why did you make contact with me?” The Lieutenant looked back down at Arcades and replied, “Honestly, part of me just wanted to make sure that there were no hard feelings from that event, but I guess that didn’t exactly happen.” Arcades shook his head, “It’s not your fault. It’s more of my fault. You didn’t necessarily make me feel this way… I just let it get to me, perhaps.” The fox did not feel he was saying the right things. After a somewhat awkward pause, the fox continued to speak, “You’ll have to excuse me. It’s hard for me to explain everything at once.” Nicholson spoke up after Arcades finished speaking, “You don’t have to explain it to me.” Arcades took a deep breath and waited another moment before saying, “I know, but that specific day started something for me.” The human’s curiosity was struck, “What’s that?” Arcades was debating on telling the officer the truth, but he was not sure if it would make the conversation more surreal and outrageous than it already was.
After another moment of silence, Arcades finally decided to talk, “Let’s just say that it was that event in particular that led to me looking into… Well, I call it the art of being restrained.” Nicholson was definitely not expecting the fox to give him such a response, “What is that supposed to mean?” Arcades, now almost all the way calmed down, continued to speak, “I own a bunch of restraints now, and I used them on myself before I met that guy.” When the fox indirectly mentioned Jason, he nodded towards him. Nicholson looked over to the wolf and then back to the fox, “Really? This is what happened? Just because you got arrested that one day?” Arcades gave a rather slow nod. Nicholson was not exactly following this little trail of events, “I’m not even sure how that happens, but I guess I’ll have to take your word for it.” The fox only returned with, “Yeah… Take the word of a fox…” Nicholson ignored the fox’s last sentence. He was partially unable to hear it, anyways, “I do have one question for you: Why do all this because of that episode?”
Arcades looked at Jason before taking a very deep breath. When the fox looked back at the Lieutenant, he said, “I wish I had a clear answer for you, but I don’t really have one. Part of me believes that I deserve it, but another part of me knows that’s not necessarily true.” Nicholson definitely could not understand what the fox was trying to say, so he started working on a way to get out of the conversation, “Yeah? Well, no hard feelings right?” Arcades took another breath before replying, “I don’t hold anything against you. It’s just the way you approached me gave me an unpleasant flashback.” The Lieutenant then asked Arcades, “If it still makes you that upset, then why did you bother coming back here?” The fox replied, “I wanted to come back and make sure that it wouldn’t happen again. It would give me some closure to it.” Nicholson could not exactly understand Arcades’ reasoning, and he was about to quit talking to the fox and return to his job. The conversation was becoming too much for him to want to deal with, “Just as long as we’re OK, then I guess there’s nothing to worry about.” Nicholson stood up and faked checking his watch, “I think it’s about time for me to get back to work. It’s been -- nice seeing you after all of these years, Kurt. I remembered your name because the sergeant wouldn’t stop mentioning you for the longest time. Not too many black and white red foxes you see coming around here.” Before the fox could reply again, Nicholson was already walking away from the scene.
When Nicholson finally left the area, Jason shook his head and spoke aloud while still looking in the direction in which the officer went, “W-What the fuck was that? What a fucking shit cunt. I can’t believe this shit! This fucking shit is bloody --” Arcades looked up at the wolf and interrupted him by saying, “I think that’s enough, Jason.” Jason now realized what he was saying, and he immediately apologized to the fox when he turned to face him, “I’m sorry mate. I just thought that the bloke didn’t handle that encounter nicely. I can’t believe he tried justifying doing that to you. It’s messed up.” Arcades looked up at the wolf and replied, “I know it’s messed up, but there’s not really much we can do about it.” Jason was beginning to feel a bit guilty about the way he approached the topic while on the ride to the beach, “Kurt, if I knew it made you feel that way --” The wolf was interrupted by the fox, “It’s not your fault. Besides, you saw me almost ten years before you ever even met me.” Jason did think about how strange that sort of context was in his head. The wolf returned to discussing the officer, “How did the bloke still remember your name? I think he made up that part about his sergeant telling him about it.” Arcades shrugged while still sitting on the ground, “No clue. Maybe he also got intimate with those pictures. Some people do end up liking stuff like that” Jason immediately felt guilty again, “Kurt, I --” Arcades interrupted the wolf again, “I know you’re sorry. You don’t have to keep apologizing for that. You’ve already been forgiven for doing that, and I wasn’t even referring to you, either.” Jason took a seat on the ground directly next to the fox. The wolf exhaled and said, “Do you think we should just stop talking about this? It’s not really helping anybody at this point.” Arcades just stared ahead in silence. After a few moments, he finally spoke, “Perhaps. It’s probably for the better. It’s not like either of us can reverse the past. Those pictures will stay on the Internet as well. Nothing we can do about that.” After the fox finished speaking, both anthros just sat on the ground in silence.
Arcades and Jason continued sitting on the ground in silence when they saw a vixen start to walk by. The vixen looked to her left briefly, and she saw the two anthros. Arcades saw the vixen’s face, and he could not help but recognize her from somewhere. The vixen looked forwards again before slowing down and looking to her left once more. The vixen, a standard- patterned red fox, looked directly at Arcades. Jason was looking down at the ground, but he then moved his eyes upwards when he saw that Arcades was looking at someone. The wolf spoke, “Kurt, what are you looking at, mate?” When the wolf spoke, the vixen began to move forwards to approach Arcades and Jason. The wolf saw the vixen approaching from his peripheral vision, and he turned his eyes to look at her. Immediately, Jason could also notice something familiar about the vixen. Arcades still sat in silence as he looked at the approaching female fox.
The vixen finally stood about a foot away from both of the sitting anthros, and she spoke, “Is that you, Kurt?” Arcades was not sure how to respond, but he did notice something very eerily similar about the female fox he was looking at. The fox replied, “That’s me.” The vixen smiled and spoke, “Kurt. It’s me, Jackie.” Arcades could not believe what he was hearing, and neither could Jason. The wolf was the first
to speak, “Crikey. Is that so?” Jackie turned to look at the wolf, “I’m not in the Foundation this time, Jason.” Arcades interjected once the vixen finished speaking, “I can tell. I don’t think the Foundation would let you come all the way out here.” Jackie kept her smile and replied, “It really is you guys!” The vixen sat down on her knees directly in front of the two anthros and said, “Funny running into both of you out here.” Arcades sparked a smirk on his face and gave his head a shake before replying, “This is the third time. I don’t know how we keep running into one another.” While still sitting on the ground, Jackie began playing with her tail and directed a comment towards the male fox, “I guess the question is: Who is looking for who?” Arcades shrugged, “Your guess is as good as mine. However, I will say it’s nice seeing you not in the Foundation’s custody.”
Jackie had a question for Arcades, “What happened to Bobby and Jim?” Arcades replied within a short frame of time, “They’re not with us anymore. Bobby works in construction and Jim’s a civilian helicopter pilot now. Jason is the only one who’s stayed with me.” Jackie looked at the gray wolf and then turned back to the fox to ask a question which either of them could answer, “What made you two stay together?” Jason answered the question before Arcades could, “I work at Kurt’s gun shop. It’s the company he made out of his old one. We both happen to live there as well.” Jackie looked intrigued, “Oh really? Where do you have that at?” Arcades replied this time, “In Alabama, outside of Foley’s city limits. A rather humble shop if I do say so myself. It’s nice and calm out there… Well, it was before this happened.” Jackie was definitely curious as to what event the fox was referring to, “What happened, Kurt?” The fox took a deep breath before speaking, “We believe that the Foundation has sent somebody to come and get me. I guess they’re still not happy with the way we got rid of their facilities.”