Differentials: Part 13 - Old 'Friends'
#14 of Differentials
Well, if anyone wanted the sadness to stop, I'm afraid you're going to have a bad time since this just gets even more morbid, and part 14 is even worse. It should start to get better after that, but until then I hope you enjoy :3 -
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As the group walked towards the town the surrounding areas slowly turned from residential to commercial, housing estates transitioning into various shops and supermarkets. The town was built on a basic grid, squares of buildings being separated by intercrossing roads. There was a large town square, made up of a 4x4 area of the grid, which was a large paved area dotted with market stalls wich were all centered around a large bronze statue of the founder of the town.
Everything seemed like a normal town, until you looked at the area at the foot of the statue. There was positioned a set of gallows on a large concrete platform, accompanied by a large metal pole on which there were hooks, presumably to hang the victim from while they were whipped or while wood was piled up at their feet and set alight, creating what was a bonfire with a sickly twist.
The fox wondered how often they were used. When he saw the relatively fresh patches of blood on the floor that looked about a day old, he assumed that they were used quite often, and definitely too often for his tastes. He wondered what 'crime' the poor Reklan who had been killed had comitted. From what he'd been told, it could have been because their ears were pointing in the wrong direction, or that their breathing interrupted a Human's coversation. Pretty much anything could be used as a reason to have a Reklan executed in this town.
"So what should we do first?", Sam asked. "I can point out the shops where you buy different things from, or I can tell you how to buy something. Everything's pretty much self-explanatory, the only thing you really need to know is where everything is so you don't get lost."
"Just tell us where the main shops are and what we can buy from them, and maybe tell us some other things you think are useful if you think of them", said Voss.
"Also we could talk about bargaining", Fionn suggested.
Sam looked surprised at the vixen knowing the term.
"You've went shopping before?", the dog asked.
"Yes, quite a bit. Nearly all the time I've bargained with the shopkeeper."
"Ok then, that's one less person to teach how to buy things, although I'm guessing you want me to tell you about how to bargain in this town?"
The vixen nodded, and the fox just looked confused.
"What's bargaining?", the fox asked.
The dog answered his question. "It's where you negotiate with the person who's selling the item and get them to sell it to you for less credits than they originally wanted to sell the item for. So it's basically you spending some time talking in order to get the same item for less."
The fox looked slightly less confused, although he was still unsure on how you actually convince the person to lower the price. Sam continued explaining.
"So let's say if you bring an item worth fifteen credits to the shopkeeper and ask them whether you could buy the item for ten credits, usually you could go back and forth until you could maybe get the shopkeeper to sell it to you for thirteen credits instead of the original fifteen, saving you two credits. It may not seem like much but let's say you were buying an item costing one hundred and fifty credits, if you managed to do the same as the fifteen credit item you could be saving twenty credits."
"However, in big stores like supermarkets you can't bargain because the person you hand the money to usually insn't the owner of the item and is told not to bargain. Also if there's a lot of people waiting for you to pay, it's not a good idea to make them wait any longer by trying to bargain."
The fox looked more confident on the idea of bargaining, and with both Fionn and Sam explaining things such as comparing prices between stores or understanding special offers the fox soon became confident that he could do it as well if he had a bit of practice. While they were talking, Sam went and pointed out the various stores and what they sold to the two foxes.
They had only spent an hour in town before Sam ran out of ideas for what they could do there. The three went to one of the Reklan-only benches and sat down, thinking of what to do next. However, they didn't have to think for long before something came to them, but it didn't seem good.
"Hey, guys! Guess who's over here", exclaimed a voice.
The fox identified the speaker as one of a group of teenagers that were walking towards the fox and his companions. The teenagers looked like they were around sixteen years of age. The one who had talked seemed relatively normal with short, brown hair and plain brown eyes. However, when you looked more closely you could see the faded scars of a set of claws that had been dragged through his face, one of them going through his dull, immobile left eye.
The fox had overheard Liz and Dan talking about what happened a few months ago and couldn't help but be struck with fear as he realised that this must be the boy whose father had caused so many Reklan deaths. Sam whispered an apology to the foxes before the teenagers got to them.
"I'm sorry about this. These guys always follow me and make fun of me for their enjoyment. I should've seen it coming really." The group was only a few meters away now. "Just do what they tell you to do and nothing bad should happen. If you struggle then it gives them more of an excuse to do things to you."
As the dog finished off his sentence he quickly bowed his head to the approaching Humans, the two foxes copying the dog's actions.
"Well, well, well", the teenager said in mock sternness. "Looks like the mutt has got some new friends? Where did you find them? No civilized creature would ever go near you."
"I bet he found them in a dumpster", stated another of the teenagers.
"Yeah, and raised them by getting them to feed off his very own milk", said a third.
The comment made the whole group snicker, but the Reklan definitely weren't amused. Sam looked as if he wanted to curl up into a ball and become invisible, whereas the fox wanted to rip the teenagers' heads of, the only thing stopping him being the fact that he would be severely punished if he did, no matter what the justification was. The first teenager continued the 'conversation'.
"So what are their names then?"
Sam answered him with silence, his gaze fixed on the floor. However, he was forced to answer when a hand gripped the scruff of his neck and yanked it upwards, a repeat of the question being asked by the teenager.
"What are their names?", he asked with a mock kindness which you knew would give way to anger if you did even the slightest thing wrong.
"Voss, and Fionn", replied the dog, struggling to meet the eyes of his tormentor. He could have easily broken free, but that would give them an excuse to have the Reklan punished or, even worse, killed.
"So it's cock-sucker and bitch, right mutt?", the teenager answered.
The fox nearly growled at the disrespect given by the teenager, but all the dog did was whine while the hand on his head pushed up and down, forcing the dog to nod.
"Do cock-sucker and bitch have to go back to their masters anytime soon, 'cause we wouldn't want to get them angry, would we?"
Sam shook his head, answering no to both questions, all the time trying to return his gaze to the floor with little success. Even if he had said that they needed to be back soon, the group of teenagers wouldn't have cared. A few seconds of being told off was nothing compared to the enjoyment they got out of their victims.
"Guys, do you think we should have some fun with mutt and his friends?"
The group simultaneously shouted out an enthusiastic 'yeah!' as the first teenager continued talking.
"And I think we could have some extra-special fun with bitch, don't you think?"
The fox could no longer hold in his anger and a sharp growl escaped him, much to the amusement of the Humans.
"Why are you so angry, cock. Is that piece of filth your mate?"
The fox growled even louder, not bothering to hold it back anymore. He lifted his head and stared his tormentor directly in the eyes, who was only slightly taken aback, probably because he was used to getting these looks all the time from the Reklan he 'played' with. If only he could rip out their throats right now, the fox thought. Then the world would be free of one more set of dick-heads.
"Oh, I see. Then maybe we could fuck you instead. While your friends are watching, of course."
The fox's growl faded. The more he resisted, the more that they made fun of him. It was as if they fed off of the Reklan's hatred towards them. The fox soon noticed that two of the larger humans had detatched from the back of the group and were walking over to the two foxes.
Voss gave Sam a questioning look, but all the dog did was reply with a stare of dismay. He'd obviously experienced this many times before and knew what horrible thing to expect. However the fox didn't, and that just increased his worry as the teenagers lifted the three Reklan off of the bench and started walking them over to the town square. The leader of the group took it upon himself to explain what was happening.
"There's going to be an execution in about ten minutes. We want to make sure that you get the best view of what's going to happen. I think it's going to be a burning today. I've always loved burnings."
The fox was revolted at how someone could enjoy such an inhumane practice, and then inwardly laughed at what he'd just thought. Inhumane. And it was the whole Human race that was doing it. as the fox was led towards the execution platform he passed by a few market stalls and looked at what they were selling.
Most of them seemed to be selling postcards or souveniers of some sort, and then the fox realised that they were all souveniers of Reklan executions. There were miniature models of gallows, stakes and various torture instruments. The postcards all had pictures of some form of execution device on them, or sometimes the mutilated body or severed head of a Reklan. Voss had thought that just perfoming the executions was the worst thing he'd encountered, but making it a tourist attraction as well?
As he was walking the fox noticed a postcard lying on the floor, the picture of a burning stake facing up at the fox. Curious, the fox picked up the small peice of card and turned it over. The back of the card was a plain, glossy white but had someone's writing in the middle of it. The fox hadn't been taught properly how to read but he knew quite a bit. After a while of interpreting the words he made out the message:
'We had a brilliant barbecue last night -
Your son, Jim'