Quick Brown Fox

The nonferal fox wakes up. She only sees darkness at first before feeling a fabric bag that is around her head. She groans and tries to get up from a metal chair but finds everything feels numb and heavy. Her arms are zip tied together. She grumbles to herself, “Where the Hell am I?”

After a moment to think, she lowers her head to her knees. Using her knees she is able to get a grip on the bag over her head and pull it off. She looks around the room and sees that she’s in a small closet. She lifts one of her legs up to her hand and grabs a pocket knife from the inside of her boot. She cuts the zip tie off and goes to stand up. On standing she quickly finds her balance is completely messed up. Falling onto the door that swings open, she hits the wooden floor boards and groans in pain.

She looks up at the room and sees the inside of a simple watchtower. There’s a desk, a bed, and large windows with a singular door ahead. She pulls herself towards the door but pauses as she sees the locks.

“...You’ve got to be kidding.” She looks up and down a line of eight locks along the door frame.

With a heavy sigh she's able to reach the bottom lock. She uses the tip of the knife as a screwdriver and slowly starts unscrewing the lock.

After what feels like hours, the bottom lock is almost done. She’s regained some of the strength in her limbs and stays low by the door, working on the next screw. As she is part way done she hears the locks suddenly unlocking from the other side. She falls back on the ground from being startled.

Each lock clicks open as the final lock falls off the doorframe and hits the ground as it was loose. She looks up at a tall owl. Hoax smiles down at her, “I came back right on time huh?”

She gets up to her feet and grips the knife tightly, “What did you do? Why am I here?”

Hoax steps closer to her with a stern tone, “You know why you’re here. You betrayed me and I won’t let you just run away.”

She she steps back as she bumps into the table, “I never betrayed you, I don’t even fucking know who you are!”

Hoax narrows his eyes at her, “We’re on the same team here. You and me against a burning world.”

He goes to grab her arm but is met with the knife being plunged into his shoulder. Hoax yells and lets go, “AHH-YOU LITTLE SHIT-”

She quickly runs past him, darting out of the door and onto a large wrap around porch with a wooden staircase that spirals down to the ground. She rushes down the stairs in hopes that Hoax isn’t close behind.

As she reaches the ground and runs to the tree line, there's a sudden pain in her arm as she winces. She continues running through the trees with a hand gripping her arm. Despite her efforts, air would still hit the wound as her feet hit the ground, continuing the painful stinging.

She hears Hoax’s yells echo out into the trees, “YOU CAN’T RUN FROM ME FOREVER YOU FUCKING HERITIC!”

She only ran faster now as panic pulled her heart beat into her ears. She now headed down a slope and quickly ducked behind large boulders surrounded by bushes. Her legs drop and burn from the running as she scoots her back to the stone. She desperately tries to calm her breathing as her vision starts to blur more. She looks at her arm where the dart had gone in.

Only able to make out a doubled image of what she’s looking at she attempts to reach for the wound and grab the dart.

The pain suddenly spikes, she takes a sharp inhale as her hand bumps into the dart, moving it to the side. She pauses a moment and shakily exhales, “f-fuck.”

She grips the dart and grits her teeth before yanking it out. Every muscle tenses up in an attempt to keep from screaming from the barbed ends ripping through the skin. She stays still and trembles before being able to breathe again.

Having closed her eyes from the pain she reopens them to see nothing but a colored mesh of visuals. Her sense of balance is immediately thrown off by the spinning sights as she slides to her side. Feeling as though gravity would drop her into the sky she stays laying on her side. Everything feels heavy and numb before walls feel like they close in around her.

Hoax mutters, “There you are.”