Anthro- Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight of my book, Anthro

MORNING AT REDFUR SUBDIVISION HEADQUARTERS

 

Rayne woke early to the loud beeping playing directly into her ears. She had followed the rest of the rebels to a corridor on the far eastern end of the complex the previous night. They had led her to an empty room, written her name in permanent ink on a golden plate that hung right in her line of sight, and then did the same for Skarii in the next door to the right. That night, Rayne and Skarii had discovered that their wall was actually a sliding door, meant to join the rooms together. At that, Rayne had smiled.

 

Rayne reached over and pressed the “off” button on her alarm clock. The room was almost as simple as the one she had slept in back at the Order’s headquarters, but there were a few plants to give the room some color. There was also a full-body mirror on the door, where Rayne checked herself thoroughly before knocking on the sliding wall. When Skarii answered her, Rayne pushed the wall aside and ran into his arms. “Oh Skarii, I’m scared! What are they going to make us do here?” asked Rayne.

 

“I don’t know, sweetheart. The most they could use us for is training right now. We’ll have at least a month, since training can’t last less than a month. We’re only teenagers that just got out of high school, so we’re not qualified for some jobs. I can tell you one thing, hun: they won’t make us be doctors, so don’t panic,” said Skarii.

 

The young wolf didn’t look reassured, but to bring some light into the situation, she said, “At least the others were kind enough to give us a connected room.”

 

“As you were walking in here, Rocky told me that all of our rooms are connected in some way. He said it was a project that his group had come up with during their long stay here. This entire corridor is filled with connected rooms. A lot of them are empty.” The dragon slowly got up and tapped on the wall between his room and another rebel’s room. A small hole opened up in the bottom of the wall and Jericho peeked through it.

 

“You guys are awake. Good,” said Jericho. “We can show you around, but we only have two hours, so we’ll have to go quick.”

 

The couple closed the wall that separated their rooms, crawled through the hole, and went through various spaces in the walls to get to the other rooms. Some of the walls slid just like theirs, and slid back to look like they didn’t even slide in the first place. Others did the same thing that Jericho’s wall did. Each time they prepared to enter another room, they tapped on the wall three times, paused, and then tapped two times, paused, and finally tapped four times. A different pattern of taps was used to answer the first taps, indicating that it was safe to go through.

 

“Wow Jericho. You guys had this planned for a long time, didn’t you?” asked Rayne.

 

“We couldn’t risk getting caught in our plans. We meet about an hour before lunch to discuss our training and anything new that might contribute to the escape plans. So far we have mapped the main corridor and our corridor, corner to corner, including all of the cameras and alarms placed throughout the building. We have been here a long time, young one, but you have come here just in time. Our plan is beginning to unfold,” said Jericho.

 

“So do you want us at the meeting tonight?” asked Skarii.

 

“Yes, meet up with us an hour before lunch. Don’t forget the sounding and answering taps. Keep as much of your training for the day in mind so that you can tell us every detail you can think of. It will help, even though it doesn’t seem important. You’ll see why later, okay?”

 

Rayne and Skarii nodded. “We’ll meet you then,” said Rayne.

 

“Good. In just a few days, we’ll be back with our real leader,” said Jericho.

 

The group headed back through the walls to their rooms, tapping each time they had to go through a wall. Rayne thought the tapping took longer than just knocking and climbing through, but she knew that keeping the connections a secret was important, and she wouldn’t risk the rebellion for a quicker route through the rooms.

 

THE ORDER’S HEADQUARTERS

 

Fox sat in the library, troubled. Li still worked in the library, but Rayne was never there anymore. He ended the chapter in his book with a loud slam, getting shushed by the many occupants of the library. With a heavy British accent he said, “Sorry chaps.” The multi-tailed vulpine then left the library.

 

He sought out Burdock and found that the grey wolf was in his office. Fox knocked on Burdock’s door and was greeted with a welcoming handshake. When Burdock saw Fox’s troubled look, though, the grey wolf sat in a businesslike manner and asked, “What is the matter, Fox?”

 

“Rayne hasn’t shown up for work in the library for the past two days, nor has she been at meals. I knocked on her door and received no reply, so I opened it and found that her bed was empty. None of her possessions had moved, either. I just don’t know where she would have gone.”

 

“One of our members is missing?”

 

“Aye,” said Fox.

 

“Alright, Fox. I’m assigning you to this. Find Rayne and bring her back. She may need our help. You can take anybody you want with you,” said Burdock.

 

“I think I have the perfect person in mind.”

 

WHITEWOLF MANSION

 

Fox easily slipped past the mansion’s security systems. It was even easier for him to get past Enya Ray’s room without waking the young wolf up. Excited to see one of his best friends again, he pushed the guest room’s door open. Suddenly the vulpine’s heart skipped a beat. The beds were empty. Skarii had gone missing.

 

“Where’d ya go, dragon?”

 

AFTERNOON AT THE REDFUR REBELLION MEETING

 

Several anthros of many species gathered in Rocky’s room that afternoon. Even the nocturnal rebellion members had gathered to hear what the new members had to say. Rocky had called the meeting in order of a turning point in the plans. The cheetah and his mate sat at the head of the group. Rayne and Skarii sat to his right. Directly across from them on Jericho’s left was a pair of female bats. The bats were identical, the one closer to Jericho slightly shorter than the other. Rocky leaned in and whispered in Skarii’s ear, “Those are the twins. They are inseparable.”

 

Skarii nodded and Rayne smiled at the bats. Neither of the girls smiled back. In fact, one of them snorted and turned up her nose. “If I wanted to talk to some low-rank newcomers, I would have talked first,” she said.

 

Rocky gave a warning growl and the room fell silent. Jericho stood up, walking into the middle of the circle. The fennec reached up and touched something on his neck, beginning to speak, “See this? We all know what this is. Rayne and Skarii got their versions of this thing during their training this morning. What is it? It’s a collar. That’s right. The humans don’t think that anthros should exist. They want us to go back to our original, primal states when we have fought so long to keep anthros alive. Being in our primal states makes our thought processes slow. Burdock could tell you what I mean by that.”

 

With that, every member of the rebellion bowed their heads except Rayne and Skarii. Jericho began again, “Burdock’s beloved parents were murdered by humans�"hunted own for their fur. Burdock hadn’t even switched to an anthro body yet. He knew that his parents hadn’t gotten the chance to make the split decisions that they could have had they been anthros. That’s why he started the Order. The Order is fighting for anthros to exist so that we can survive! Who is with me?”

 

Shouts arose all around. Even Skarii and Rayne lifted their paws and shouted, “Aye!” The war against the humans was about to begin. The anthro species would take a stand so that they wouldn’t be forced back into a primal state. There would be no more enslaving of animals to make them house-pets!

 

The meeting closed with the dispersing of the members into their own rooms. Each member went through walls, peeking through cracks made by sliding the walls only slightly, or holes made by opening pieces of the walls just a tiny bit. Soon after everybody had made it to their rooms, the humans came to the doors and announced lunch to all of the anthros who weren’t nocturnal. Everybody left their rooms and stood in the hall, lining up to head to the cafeteria.

 

The lunch line was closed off, and the anthros were redirected to their table. Confusion drifted between all of the members of the rebellion. As they made it to their table, they realized what was going on.

 

Dog bowls sat on the top of their table, filled to the brim with different kinds of animal foods. A name was printed on each of the bowls, matching the names of the anthros. Next to the food bowls, there were poles with water bottles hooked on. The water bottles were made for caged rodent species. Rocky snarled lowly before he was led to his place, and one by one the members were told to sit in certain spots. Shortly afterwards, a flash of red came through the door, and Desian was near the table.

 

“Do you like your new accommodations? I had the humans specially make each of these for you,” said the fox.

 

Rocky glared at Desian, but the vulpine menace was not done. With a snap of his claws, the humans stepped between each anthro and reached up to the top of the poles. Each one grabbed something, bringing a line down. It took Rayne only a few moments to realize what was going on. The lines were connected to the collars that each member wore. Two humans came up behind Rayne and Skarii and fitted collars to each. Desian grinned from where he was standing and said, “You are to eat in these conditions each day. It will give rise to the anger deep within you, making you stronger for the war ahead.”

 

Jericho looked up in surprise, “Wait, what? The war wasn’t supposed to happen for ages!”

 

“That lousy Burdock sent a spy to our location. We caught him trying to track our two newest members.”

 

With another click of claws, added to the swinging of doors, Fox was dragged in by several of Desian’s human minions. The vulpine didn’t struggle, but showed strength through reserving his energy. It didn’t mean he wasn’t going to make a snide remark though, so he said, “Tricked me, you cheating weakling. Woke up early to find my stuff missing from where I camped, surrounded by humans. No Kevlar, no weaponry. If you weren’t a dirty cheat, I would’ve gotten you. You hide behind your furless henchmen!”

 

“With numbers comes power, you rowdy vulpine scum. You put shame to foxes,” said Desian.

 

The humans near the table were dismissed to their rooms, so only the humans holding Fox remained. Between the two foxes’ bickering, a group of clicking noises went unnoticed. A snake from the rebellion slithered beneath the table on her belly, carefully biting each human with a slow, painless bite. Within seconds, her venom took effect, and the group of humans holding Fox fell to the floor with dull thuds.

 

Fox took his chance, knocking Desian to the ground quickly before shouting, “To Burdock!”

 

“To Burdock!” shouted the rebels. Since Desian was the only opposition in the room, they made their way easily to the exit that lead into the hanger. Fox pointed to a section of aircraft and asked who could fly. Several paws went up in the air, so the multi-tailed vulpine directed them each to a plane. Fox chose his very own to go stand by, and shouted, “Everybody find a plane to ride in! We don’t have much time, so separate quickly!”

 

The members did what they were told and climbed in with different flyers. With Fox’s lead, the planes started up. One by one, they rolled down the hanger runway, reaching the liftoff point and hitting the sky. The members were headed to Burdock. The war was about to begin.

Author's Note

Please review to the best of your ability.