Chapter Twenty (Wendell)

Story by houndlover56 on SoFurry

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#20 of First Steps 2: Happy Trails


When we all wake up the next morning, I start thinking. How the hell are they kidnapping all of our friends? But then I realize it's because we leave them behind all the fucking time. Well from now on, we need to stick together.

Todd wakes up shortly after I do. "Good morning." I say.

"Yeah. It would be good if we weren't held here against our wills." He says, yawning right after. It's so cute.

"Relax, foxy. We're gonna get out of this."

"How?"

"I don't know." All I know is that Janelle and Toby are at some sort of prison on Brenner street, possibly being tortured, or even murdered right now. And there's nothing any of us can do about it.

I get out of bed and get dressed. But something is still off about what's going on. Why would they want to tell us where to look if they want to kill us? I think back to Rodger's message on Tom's laptop after we found Bruno and Angie. He said that he wanted me, Todd and Steele because he blames us for killing his brother. However, he should know that even though it was Angie who killed him, he's not getting away with any of this.

Todd sits up in bed as I put on my shirt. I can see a bit of his rainbow belly uncovered by the blanket. It's so adorable how he loves to do that. "So, what's next?" he asks.

"Not sure," I say, "I guess we should gather the others, see how Bruno's doing and then find a way to get out of this dump. Let's face it, I'm done with Camp Roadrock. I just want to go home, forget all of this and get married."

"I know. I'm so excited for that."

"I know you are." I climb back into the bed and snuggle with my fox. I kiss him on the head and say, "you're gonna be alright, Todd."

"How do you know?"

"Because I'd rather take a bullet than ever see you die." That's when he tears up and smiles at me.

"You'd really do that?" He asks.

"Of course. I took a knife for you once." I joke around, trying to get him to laugh. He somewhat does. Besides, I really did take a knife for him once when we were at Jodi's party and Allan came to harm us. It's amazing looking back at the past and all the craziness that has happened.

"Cute." Todd says.

"Adorable." I say.

"Sexy." I flip him over and pin him down to the bed face up.

"Oh no I'm not. This little fox is." I tickle him on the side and he laughs. He struggles but he knows that he's not going to escape my grasp. "You enjoy being a vulnerable fox don't you?"

"Yes!!!" I cried as I continue to tickle him.

"Such a cute laugh. I wonder what would happen if I did.. this." I bend down and kiss his neck roughly. Eventually, I nibble on it and me murrs loud. I sink my teeth in more and at this point, I'm biting his neck hard.

"Ohhhhhh, Wendell!!!" He cries but is barely fighting against me. So you can tell he's enjoying this.

My phone goes off and ruins our fun. Oh well, I'm not done with this fox yet. I grab my phone off the nightstand and answer it, still sitting on Todd. "Hello?" I ask.

"Wendell. It's Angie."

"Angie, what's up?"

"It's Tom and Dexter."

"What about them?"

"They're gone." The world stops for a minute. As if this is that stereotypical movie moment where bad news is delivered over the phone and the receptive to of said info gets a dramatic closeup while they drop the phone. Luckily I didn't drop my phone.

"What do you mean gone?" I ask. I get off of Todd and we both get out of the bed.

"I mean they've been captured by Rodger's henchmen."

"How do you know?"

"Their cabin is trashed just like my cabin when Jani went missing."

"Ok. We're on our way." I hang up and throw some of my clothes at Todd. "C'mon, we've got to go."

"What's wrong?" He asks.

"Angie just called. Dexter and Tom have been taken. We need to get to her place and fast." There's only four of us now. If we don't figure out how to stop these guys, they all could end up dead.

I help Todd get in my clothes and his shoes. I grab my pocketknife and bow and arrow kit and we head out. We sprint as fast as we can towards Angie's cabin. Along the way, Steele bumps into us and we tell him what's going down.

"Wait. What?!" He asks.

"Angie told us that they're missing. If that's true then we're down to four people and they half out friends." I say.

"Plus that's less numbers on our side to help with getting out of here." Todd says.

"That's it," Steele says, "no more wasting time."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"We're getting out of here. Tonight. I think I might have a plan. Let's get to Angie first though."

"Good call." We run the rest of the way there. When we knock on Angie's door, she opens it within seconds. She looks freaked out and scared.

"Guys. We've got another problem." She says.

"What's up?" I ask.

"Come in first." She opens the door wider and gestures for us to come in. Todd closes the door behind us. Angie walks over to the dresser and grabs something, then walks back over to us.

"Angie, what's wrong?" Todd asks.

"The problem is worse than it is." She says.

"What do you mean, cousin?" I ask. She looks at her paws. She's holding this piece of paper. Hold on, that looks more like the back of a photo. She holds it up for us to see the back. It says "Todd+Wendell+Steele= Their Freedom". When she knows we've read it, Angie turns it around and shows a photo of Jani, Toby, Dexter, and Tom. They're in wooden chairs in a circle, tied, bound, and vulnerable. All their mouths have been tied shut. They can only scream on the inside for help. The thought makes me really sick to my stomach. It also makes me want to snap Rodger's neck the first chance I get.

Angie puts the photo down and looks us in the eye. "What're we gonna do?" She asks.

"I know," Steele says, "we're going to find out friends, free them, then kill Rodger."

"But he's got like a dozen henchmen. How're we going to get past them?" Todd asks.

"They have seven to be exact." Steele says, sitting down on the bed.

"How the fuck do you that?" I ask, clenching my fists. Has he been tricking us this whole time?

"I've been spying on ten in the trees." The feline says. "Every night around 2 A.M., they all get together in the back of their pickup truck and they play card games."

"So?" I ask.

"So... they always bring their rifles with them."

"Steele, where are you going with this?" Angie asks.

"I'm saying. We wait until dusk, then we head out, kill the henchmen, find our friends and then destroy Rodger."

"Steele, there's no way we can kill seven armed furs. We're weaponless." Todd says.

"No. Angie, still have that flare gun?" When Steele asks this, Angie perks up a bit. She nods and Steele gets a mischievous look on his face. "You have perfect aim, right?"

"I have good enough aim. Why?"

"Angie? Don't you get it?!" Steele raises his voice slightly. "You shoot the gas tank with that flare gun and the truck will explode."

"That's murder." Angie says, crossing her arms and turning away.

"C'mon. They threatened to kill our friends. They tied you to a tree and tortured you. The put Bruno in a coma!" Steele points to our still unconscious friend. "They are going to get what they deserve. Are you with us?"

"Still not convinced." My pink cousin still refuses to accept.

"Fine. We'll never be able to save Janelle and Dexter then." The cat leans forward. "Your two best friends." Angie slowly turns back around and looks at us.

"Fine." She gives up. She holds her fist out and we all fist bump her. It's time for this war to end.

***

It's around 1:56 in the morning. We all are running in the woods towards the prison on Brenner street. Angie has the flare gun and I have my makeshift archery stuff. Steele and Todd are with us but we don't know what they're gonna do yet. Steele hasn't exactly told us the rest of the plan yet. But either way, he was coming since he's going to be my husband when we're done with this whole thing.

We eventually find the road. I'm a bit worn out but we're not giving up on this. We pass by some old abandoned building. Angie told us that that's the place where they found the dark photo of Janelle.

"How much longer?" Todd complained.

"Shhhh!!!!" Steele shushes my fiancé. "They're probably within earshot since they're heading to their truck right now."

"Sorry." We sneak back into the trees (carefully as there's still leaves on the ground). After several minutes of careful walking, we stumble upon another small building and a green pickup truck. I look at the bed of the truck. Sure enough, there's seven furs inside with playing cards in their hands. Two cats, a few dogs, a lion and a blue tiger.

"I'm gonna go around and distract them until they raise their guns," Steele whispers, "when they do, Angie, you use the flare gun and eliminate them. That'll ruin Rodger's chances of winning."

"Wait. That could be a suicide mission." I point out.

"I know. If I don't come out alive..." Steele puts a paw on my shoulder, "... it's been somewhat nice knowing you guys. Oh and... sorry if I dragged you into this. I should've done a better job controlling Ray and Allan back in Tennessee. I never did like bashing gay furs." He heads off to the left. We're about 35 feet away from the truck. Hopefully that's enough to where they can't are us. I look over and see Steele made about a 90 degree turn still about 35 feet away. Then what happens next happens so fast.

Steele shouts like mad and gets the other's attention. As they get out their rifles and shout Steele's name, Angie gets out from behind the tree, lifts the flare gun and fires. We quickly hide behind a big tree as the flames engulf 20 feet of land around the truck. The fire just barely reaches us, but thank god it doesn't. We all stare at its orange, hypnotizing look as the trees go up in flames. There's no way those guys lived through that, I thought. But where's Steele?

"Look!" Angie starts to run parallel to the inferno. I do the same as I hold onto Todd's paw. The heat increases as we continue to run. The inferno quickly dies down, revealing a little bit of what's left, but branches in the trees are still on fire. The trucks is all black and ash and half gone. The furs that were once in there, all reduced to nothing but a bunch of lifeless bodies. Killed instantly. Angie stops for a moment and looks down. It's Steele.

Just a few minutes ago, he knew he might die. Now, here he is. One of the rifles got blasted into his stomach. He's breathing now, but not going to be much longer.

I kneel down and talk to him. "Steele?" I get a barely heard moan in response. "Steele?"

"W..." I make out from him. "Wennnndell." He talks slowly. It probably hurts him to talk.

"Yeah? What's up?" Is the only thing I can say.

"K..." He struggles for some final words. "Kill... R... Rodger." His breathing slowly decelerates and stops. His body goes limp and I can no longer see reflection his his eyes.

I stand back up after seeing the horror before me. We all knew that getting out of here would require a sacrifice, and I know that I hated Steele's guts, but in a way, this is very sad.

I look up. Past the flames, the building somehow managed to stay intact. I know that Janelle, Toby, Dexter, and Tom are all in there, waiting to be rescued.

"There it is." I say.

"You think that's where Rodger's keeping all of them?" Angie asks.

"No doubt. C'mon, we've got to get them out of there."

"What do we do if we run into Rodger?"

"I'll kill him before he even gets to speak. Are you in Todd?" I ask. I get no response. That's when I notice that I'm no longer holding his paw. I look around frantically, fear and anger coursing through my veins.

"Todd?" I yell. "TODD!!!!!???" I yell at the top of my lungs.

"Wendell. Look." Angie points at the building. That's when I notice, right before it leaves my view, a rainbow tail going behind the building. However, it does look like Todd just walking inside. It looks like he's being dragged into there. Oh no. OH NO! He's gonna kill him!