Act 4: Dead Furries Aint Got No Tails
Chapter 10 Life Has Many Chances, But There is No Second Chance in Life
Another morning rises from the ashes of darkness, the sun brings life to the world with its light, reminding those creatures of the dark to hide for another 12 hours. But on a particular street corner, death not need worry about the light of the sun ruining its day as another life ends. Its stench, hidden by the sweet smell of late Spring dew in the air.
Up in the branches of a tree hangs the torn and shredded articles of clothing of its unsuspecting victim, a child, pre-teen in age by design but small in size. Hours before, little Gregory Lupus, Little Wolf as known by his friends, walked under that tree in the dark, carrying a baseball bat which was not used in a game. Or was it a game, a rite of passage and initiation, to join the local pack. But when he was under the tree, he was without his friends he was with earlier before. It would not have mattered anyway, death came slow and silent before striking quickly.
Look down and around, Repteal can see he was alone, looking big and bad for his tiny size. She notices that he has decided to stop under the tree for some reason, none of which she would have cared for as she smiles. Her long tail slowly stretched down the trunk, taking its time to get close enough to strike. Almost unnoticed, it slides against the tree behind him in silence.
She keep an eye on him, thinking, 'You probably snuck out to be with your friends, so that means you won't be missed until at least in the morning. Until then, you'll make a nice meal for me. So stay still my pretty, and this wont hurt at all...'
Like lightning, her tail strikes Little Gregory, wrapping itself around his neck and in a quick jerk- lifts him up towards the branches. His neck snaps before his feet leave the ground. The bat drops out of his hands, landing against the tree, as it if waits for the next batter to come along and pick it up to continue the game.
She makes a quick meal out of him, first removing his clothing and other artifacts of his persona quickly and violently, She throws them up into the higher branches as to not have them discovered immediately. His body she takes into her maw, swallowing it whole, a bit at a time. The muscles of her gullet crushing his bones, her teeth tearing away at his skin and flesh, Her jaw dislocating to accommodate his size and shape, her stomach acid quickly digesting what's left in a short amount of time.
She continues to lay on the branch with a smile of contentment and quick random thoughts running through her head to confuse any possible telepathically capable beings that may wonder by. Only two she gives any real depth of perception and understanding; 'Little runt should had bathed before he snuck out.', 'Tomorrow I act, since they will be looking for him, so I better be gone by then.'
But that was hours ago, in the hours of the middle of the night.
Before dawn, Repteal would strike again.
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[Translated from Spanish]
Approaching a small airport on the outskirts of a small village, a car pulls up behind the hangers and silently rolls towards the single floor administration building. Except for a few private and personal aircraft, nothing flies or lands here other than crop-dusters and a few personal bi-winged relics from a war long forgotten. A young lioness steps out of the vehicle and towards the building. She walk there, strutting her tail with all confidence of the world for she can not buy it, she has other options that she can use.
The driver takes the car and position it not far building, but away from it to draw too much attention. He steps out of the vehicle and walks around to the rear. Fanning out each key, he looks for a key for the trunk, taking a guess and inserts a randomly selected key into the trunk lock. It opens. Cautiously he opens the lid as he looks inside. Near by from within he grabs a stick which he uses prop open the trunk.
Inside, there are only two large duffel bags and a brief case. Inside the brief case there is a pair of small caliber arms, extra ammunition, sealed documents of identification, and 30 sealed envelopes of cash. The duffel bags contained a change of clothes for a week for the both of them. The door of the administration building closes behind her tail as he takes out the bags. Each duffel bag he hangs from his shoulders by their straps, the brief case he takes by the handle. He uses the brief case to knock in the stick that held up the trunk. The trunk slams down closed.
Carrying his burden, he walks towards the administration building and continues past it, just short of the hangers. She steps out of the administration building with a clenched paw, inside a set of keys. She hesitates for a moment as she looks for her companion and finds him nearby the hangers. Hastening her pace, she catches up with him while he stops by the hangers to view the activities going on about.
"Hanger 3.", she says as she stands next to him without looking towards him.
"Hanger 3 it is.", as he shifts the weight of one duffel bag on his shoulder to a more comfortable position as they start to walk together.
She leads them down the path created by the space between the administration building and its nearest hanger. He follows less than a step behind. Together they circle the hanger's main entrance and continue downward towards Hanger 3. The one they walk by has its main doorway closed, with a large number 10 painted on it.
Little activity occurs around them. A couple of planes flying over head, one a student pilot learns the control, another towing a glider to a much higher altitude. Down the path, a grey wolf and his eldest cub are hunched over an open engine compartment of a single prop plane. Dirty and worn engine parts lay on the floor next to boxes of replacement parts. They both pull on a large wrench that sticks out of the engine compartment.
They slowly walk up to the pair wrestling with the wrench. She continues on. He stops to take a look at their struggle. They continue on. He drops the bags for the moment. They stop to look at him as he approaches them.
"Engine mount bolts?", he asks them as he gets close enough to look at their work.
"You know it.", the elder wolf says.
"Then you need weight.", the lion says as he rolls up his sleeves.
"Weight?" the younger wolf asks.
"Ah..." the older wolf answers.
"Yeah weight, these engine mounts are torqued to over 200 kilograms. No average fur can twist a wrench that hard...", as the lion explains to the younger wolf as he grabs onto the wrench and hangs himself from it by lifting up his legs off the floor, "...now with some help from gravity... pull on it now.
The two grab onto the wrench and slowly pull. The bolt gives a loud screech and moan as it gets loosen. Eventually, its slowly twists until its free against its resistance. He stands up on his feet as his toes begin to touch the ground and gets up. They all stop pulling on the wrench.
"See what I mean?", the lion asks.
"Yeah", the younger wolf nods his head.
"Hope you can return the favor for me.", the lion says as he reaches into his pocket.
"Sure... what is it?", the older wolf answer, beating the first to the punch.
The lion pulls out a set of car keys from his pocket and tosses it at them. "Give it a good home, for I'm not coming back in a long while."
The elder wolf catches the keys in mid flight, "we'll keep it here for you."
"No, keep it. I wont be back for many years, so somebody might as well enjoy owning it.", the lion says as he looks at the younger wolf with a smile.
"Wilfred!", the female lion can be heard yelling from a distance.
"I have to go... wife's calling.", the lion says to his newly found friend. They both nods their heads as they wipe their paws clean of dirt and grime. The elder wolf offers a clean towel to the lion to clean his paws with.
The lion takes the towel to wipe down his paws before picking up the bags heading off to catch up with his companion. He takes a jogging start to catch up with her, as she continues to walk down the path towards hanger 3. He catches up with her as she passes hanger 5.
"You know we cant be caught, especially around here.", she says without looking towards his direction.
"Just getting rid of some evidence, that's all.", he explains back to her.
They stop in front of hanger 3, near a small control box. She takes a set of keys she's been holding since she left the administration building and fans them out. A strange round one catches her eye which matches a round key hole on the control box.
Inserting the key, she turns it to the right, which causes the large front metal door to open. They wait as it slides upwards until it reaches half way up. The male lion walks through the gate without needing to bend down. He only takes a few steps inside before dropping the bags he's carrying and starts to look around.
It is dark inside, with only the light of the sun illuminating the space within as the door opens to its full height. In the middle of the space is an aircraft, too large to be a single propeller driven plane, too small to be a corporate jet; totally covered by a large canvas tarp. He stands there looking at the mound of canvas, wondering what could be underneath.
She walks inside, passing him and the covered plane to an enclosed office space in the rear of the hanger. Near by are two smaller planes from an era long forgotten: a bright red Fokker Dr.1 and the other a Sopwith Camel. It does not take to long for her to get inside the office and turn on the lights in the place.
Her voice can be heard over a loud speaker system within the hanger, "Well, how about helping me out over here."
He stands there unsure of what to do. From above, the sounds of electric motors can be heard, as the tarp slowly begins to rise up from the plane. Once it was raised enough to see the underbelly of the beast, he walks towards it and sees that it is not a single or double prop job. The idea of it being a jet intrigued him very much. The tarp continues to raise up above the plane where he can see that it was a Lear Jet L1. A first generation personal jet, built for just a handful of passengers and for its time- long range with high speed of 500 miles per hour. Its a lot smaller than what he's used too as far as jets are concerned, even his personal Lear Jet was twice as big as this.
She walks out of the office carrying a few items with her.
"Don't just stand there ooo-ing at the plane, come get these things!", she almost shouts out at him as she drops the items to the floor before heading back to the office for more. He walks towards the door on the jet and pulls on its handle, finding it locked, which intrigued him even further. Looking at the end of the handle where it met the door, he sees where the key fits into the door to open it. Slowly he inserts a claw into the keyhole to see if he could pick the lock, finding that he could only put in the sharp tip.
"You aint flying my plane, so don't even think about it!", she says through the loud speaker from the office.
"Your plane? When did you get this?", he yells back at her.
"Its dad's plane, but since he has not flown it in many years, I made it mine!", she saids through the loud speakers. Convinced that he cant get open the door, he walks to the items she has left on the floor and picks them up.
"Just like a woman, nothing but baggage", he saids to himself.
She walks out of the office with a small leather folder under her arm, walking towards the rear of the plane. She stop underneath one of the jets pods that made the image of Lear Jets their trademark. She presses her finger on a hidden latch and a rear door for the cargo hold opens.
"You can put 'the baggage' in there.", she says, pointing into the cargo bay. He was shocked, believing that she had heard what he said, and convinces himself that it was a coincidence. Quietly, he puts the bags and other various items into the cargo bay. As he does his chores, she walks to the front of the plane where the door was at, and unlocks it. She opens the door and walks right in, heading to the mid section of the plane where she takes a seat and wait.
He closes the cargo hatch, but realizes that its closing itself when he lifted the door a slight bit. The door continues to close on its own, as he studies it, looking for indentations or impressions on the metal but finds none. The job of making the door latch flush and invisible was done perfect. Once closed, he quickly heads to the open door and to the cockpit. Finding it empty, he smiles and heads to the pilot's seat.
He stops suddenly and stares at the seat, seeing that its 3/4 its normal size, and no way he would be able to sit in it with his large frame. He then slowly turns around to the co-pilots seat, and sees nothing there other than a chair and where controls should be, a large slanted desk area, with a map of Western European airways taped to it. At least the seat was of a normal size.
"Told you, you as not going to fly this thing!", she yells from behind in the passenger area, "Now have a seat!"
He turns around and sees that she's gotten up and is heading towards the cockpit. Having no other choice, he takes the co-pilot's seat and fasten the seat belts around him. She stands by the door of the cockpit and finds the exit door of the plane still open. 'Spoiled Lazy Bastard', she thinks to herself as she reached for the control to activate the door to close itself. While it closes, she walks into the cockpit and gets into her pilot seat.
On her left, she takes a key and inserts it onto a control console, turning it, it turns on the plane's electronics. Many modifications had been done to the plane, including major upgrades to the avionics from dash board dials and instrument panels to Fly by Glass hardware. The entire instrument board lights up like a large city in the night. He starts to fall in love with what he sees and wonders how he can make it his.
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She hangs outside the wall, clinging to it by the window from she entered earlier before. Quietly, she reaches in and remove the window screen with ease. Keeping to the shadows, she crawls into he room and puts the window screen by the wall and looks round the room.
In the room, she sees that another bed has been set by the larger one; its a fold-away type used for guests and over night visitors. Sleeping on it, is a little skunk-girl, about 4 to 5 years of age. The other bed remains untouched. She reaches over to the other bed and pulls off the top sheet, folding it and tying it into a large sling. With it in hand, she takes the sling and gingerly wraps it around the girl. The little girl protests in her sleep about being moved around. But with little effort, she has the girl in the makeshift sling. Pulling a small duffel bag from her vest, she starts to walk around the room, taking items that the girl may need: clothing mainly, a couple of stuffed animals, and a plastic floral pink drinking glass. Where the glass was located, she leaves a note behind. it contains a single set of directions, "Have the Woman-Skunk wait for my instructions!"
Once filled, she takes the belt of the duffel bad and ties it around her waist. Reaching over to her sling, she picks it up slowly as to not wake up the girl and puts it around her neck and shoulder. The girl stirs within the sling for a moment.
"Ssshhh.... little one. You'll be safe with me.", she whispers. The little girl smiles and begins to suck on her thumb in her sleep.
She slowly walks over to the window, taking the screen with her and slowly climbs out, placing the window screen back on its frame. She climbs down the side of the building and starts to walk down the parking lot adjacent to the building, stopping by a green 2-door car, it's windows tinted black. The local law enforcement had placed several tickets on the vehicle's windshield. She reaches over them and throws them onto the floor.
Opening the passenger side first, she takes the sling with the girl inside and puts her in the rear seat, where a child seat was there. Without waking her, she puts the girl into the car seat and fastens the seat belts around her. Once done, she flips back the front passenger seat back into its position and walks around the vehicle. to the driver's side.
She opens the door and gets inside, fastening her seat belt, closing the door and turns on the engine. It started quietly and smoothly, with almost no vibration or twisting of its power against the frame. She reaches over to the floor shift and puts the car in gear while holding down the brake. Releasing the parking brake first, then slowly off the foot pedal, the car silently starts to roll out of its space. Once onto the parking lot's drive way, she drives to the edge the street, reaching for a nearby panel that she flicks open with her finger. In it there are several dials and buttons- two of them had words written on a window dial above them. One saying "Green", the other says "Illinois" Reaching over, she twists the two dials until they both now says "Red" and "Indiana". Then she reaches over to the door controls and lowers the windows 1/2 way.
As she drive onto the street, the car changes colour from green to red, and the license plates flip over. With the sun rising behind them, one would think what they witnessed was an optical illusion played on them by the red light from the sun.
She waits by the intersection, waiting for the light to change. Once it turns green, she drives away. On the opposite side of the street, a police car races away from them with its sirens blasting.
"The game has begun", Repteal thinks to herself with a smile as she continues driving.
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[Translated from Spanish]
The jet poises still at the end of the runway, awaiting instructions to take off.
"LL2573, wait until SC4530 has landed and has cleared the runway." a voice says on the communications radio in the plane.
"This is LL2573, how much longer will that be?" the female lion says.
"SC4530 is in the glide path, and should be passing you over head any second.", the voice on the radio says.
A twin engine Beechcraft flies over head of then and lands 1/2 way down the runway. it rolls down the asphalt strip, slowing down before turning away on one of the several side paths that connects to the runway.
Her paw reaches for the throttle controls and pushed them to the 'FULL' Position. The Jet lurches forward as it starts to roll, picking up speed as it runs along the runway. Half way down the runway, the jet begins to lift off the ground without any orders from the control.
"LL2573 to tower.", the female lion says to her headset microphone.
"LL2573- go.", a voice says on the radio speaker.
"There will be a slight deviation to our flight plans.", she answers.
"What kind of deviation?", the voice on the radio says.
"None Of Your Business!", she yells back at them as she pulls back on the yoke, making the jet almost stand on its tail at a steep angle and shoot up towards the sky.
"BOOM!", a muffled explosion can be heard in the distance.
"What was that?", the female lion says to her companion as she looks at the speed indicator, noting that it has not past 600 kph.
"Solmarie, that was the evidence being gotten rid of.", the male lion look at her.
She turns to look out the window. At 2000 ft, she can see a smoldering pile where the car was parked at. Emergency vehicles are beginning to enter the airport area.
"Wilfredo- you are one sick cub.", she says to him.
"Flattery will get you nowhere.", Wilfredo answers back.
The plane levels off at 5000 ft and continues on with its flight to Bermuda.
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Ring!... Ring!... Ring!...
A striped paw reached inside a bag and starts shuffling through it.
Ring!... Ring!...
Finally, it finds a small cell phone inside and takes it out.
"Good Morning, Zig Zag Productions, Zig Zag speaking...", Zig Zag says.
"Shut the hell up Bitch and get me Sabrina!!!", a female voice says in hysterics.
"Amy, calm down, she's right here with me...", Zig Zag explains.
Amy can be heard shouting off more obscenities as Zig Zag hands over the phone to Sabrina.
"Amy, what's the matter?", Sabrina says with concern.
"Tabitha's been kidnapped!", Amy says hysterically!
"Wait- search around the room, you know how she like to hid-...*", Sabrina starts to explain to her friend.
"Shut Up! She's NOT IN THE HOUSE, THERE A NOTE AND SOMEBODY CALLED WANTING TO TALK TO YOU! THE POLICE ARE HERE AND EVERYTHING!!!", Amy yells.
"Oh my God...", Sabrina starts to say.
"SHUT UP AND GET YOUR BUTT OVER HERE!", Amy yells at her friend.
"I'll be there right...-", Sabrina started to say, but the line gets disconnected. She just stands there, scared alone and confused with her emotions.
"Everything alright?", Zig Zag says.
"No- Tabitha's been kidnapped.", Sabrina explains in a hollow voice.
"No....", Zig Zag begins to respond, "Lets get you home."
Sabrina just stands there, not wanting to move. Zig Zag takes her by the arm and pulls her hard to get her walking.
"DK- You and Jameeka keep an eye on the Prince here.", Zig Zag orders her friend as she opens the door and quickly walks out with Sabrina in tow. The door slams behind them.
Jameeka looks at Darke Kat confused, "What do you think happened."
"Something very serious, for Zig Zag to leave like that.", Darke Kat answers.
Jameeka reaches over to some papers that lay next to the phone.
"What do you want- Pizza or Chinese?", Jameeka says as she looks at the papers in her hands.
"I got no money.", Darke Kat answers.
"Well, we could flash the delivery boy, or screw his brains out...", Jameeka starts to answer.
"I aint flashing no one.", Darke Kat complains.
"Alright then- we could use this...", as Jameeka holds up a plastic card. On it is says 'American Express : Corporate Card', along with a few numbers written along its face and Zig Zag Productions under the numbers.
"Where did you got that?" Darke Kat asks.
"Zig Zag gave it to me, she has not asked for it back.", Jameeka explains.
"Well, if she has not asked for it back, " as she snatches the card from Jameeka's paw, "we girls can do a little shopping after lunch."
Jameeka smiles at Darke Kat, "Looks like its gonna be Chinese-the pizza joint does not accept plastic."
"What about our Prince here-?", Darke Kat asks.
"He can get his own food, he has money...", Jameeka says.
Darke Kat is shocked by her answer, but shocked in a positive way.
Jameeka reaches for the phone, "OK girl, what shall it be?"
"I have not decided yet...", Darke Kat complains.
"Well, we could have Pizza, but we're gonna have to flash and screw the delivery boy when he comes.", Jameeka says, holding in her laughter.
"How old are you again, girl?", Darke Kat asks.
"Old enough to know what she has to do in order to survive.", Jameeka explains.
"Chinese then...", Darke Kat starts to say, "fried crittah wings with rice and rib tips for me."
"You sure you don't want to flash and screw the delivery boy?", Jameeka says with a smile.
"Hush up girl- besides I got me my own boyfriend to flash and screw.", Darke Kat says.
"Critter wings with rice and rib tips for you then... ooo! they got sushi!!!", Jameeka exclaimed.
"You ever had sushi?", Darke Kat asks.
"No- but its expensive, so it must be good....", Jameeka says, "I'll have that!"
Jameeka reaches over to the phone to make the order.
"You better hope that card is not max'ed out, or you'll be flashing and screwing the delivery boy...", Darke Kat explains with authority.
"I see nothing wrong with that...", Jameeka says as she starts to dial the phone to the Chinese Take Out Restaurant.
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