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Two officers are getting ready for another warrantless run, waiting in a stereo-typical Ford interceptor SUV with the heater on.
Lieutenant Casey Anthony and Sergeant Christ Dorner.  Tax funded, tax payers.
Nobody elected them, and complete strangers to any community they are in.
The side of the vehicle reads, “protect and serve” with the UNSFTY logo on it.  There’s a cheap thin blue line sticker on the rear windshield.
In about a month, they were scheduled to be reposted to Raleigh from their Buckhannon tour.

“So, wagyu beef right?  Get this, one steak; $200,000…And it’ll keep going up in price until, snap, just like that, it’s gone.  I always wanted to try one of ’em out, back when it was like, what?  Roughly, 20 bucks a pound?  and never got around to it, and here we are; this fkn rain came and now what?  I can just forget it.  Regular steak, $10,000 per pound?  What in the flyin’ fk am i supposed to do with that on my Sergeant pay of 120k a year?  Whole months check for a pound of meat!?  Oh!  didn’t even add the delivery fees.  Get the fk out of here, Deer meat just isn’t the same and not worth what Burger King is charging; 25 bucks for a burger, and that gamey flavor in your mouth is just..  urgh… i needs my fatty beefy steaks..  …rumor has it that some cows that were being airlifted made it out the rain change though, so there’s that…”. 

The male sergeant looks to the female Liutenant and continues ranting, “I dont…You  think we can win?  i’m looking around, these places are being drained; buckhannon has what, 2 or 3 months left before it’s a ghost town or gets re-colonized by these terrorist fks?  All it took was for some masked dude out here to slash our fleet’s tires and it grounded us for a week…no mechanics…nobody running the tire shops, it’s fkd out here.  At this rate, I give Raleigh a year, tops, before it goes to these dodos as well, then what?”

The female Lieutenant cop responds to her male subordinate, annoyed, “you still on that?  What’s there to get?  Let’s get this money first, then you go buy your waggly steak whatever and stuff your fat face with it ya twonk.  If these furry fks win, then we join those ass-clowns; if you cant beat them, join em right?  And if the economy gets back, we’re in a better place.  simple.  Either way, win-win.  Fk is wrong with you, you still down or what?”.  The Lieutenant keeps her eyes on her phone; lucky charm bracelets dangling over her frail white wrists as she scrolls passingly over posts filled with make-up adverts, self-love memes and conservative algorithm headliners and commentaries. 
Her FN P90 comfortably tucked to her side.

The Sergeant pulls out his Glock 18C, confidently handling it in his white palms black hands, and makes sure it is cocked and locked in condition 1, “you saw how those buffalos shred that squad in New York?  Shts crazy, i’m not taking any chances.  And those horse humanoids aren’t that far off from those freaks, they’ll wreck your sht with one kick, and i’m not about to go down like that…
You think Lewis will be able to get us an arm slave on this run?”

The Liutenant responds in similar concern, “yeah i saw the video, i’m not taking any chances either…  i’m sure he’ll sweet talk the armory in getting us the one with the busted camera recorder off the books…   The liutentant looks up in thought, “if not, i learned how to manually reset the camera in a way that makes a common loop glitch, so no worries there”, she looks around the area in her seat, wondering what is taking the detective so long, “look, not trying to work all my life, making more than you isn’t enough for me so… let’s bag and tag this btch, split that milly three ways, and get on our way.  skiddoo with the doo, okay boo?”   She puts the phone away and shares her plan with the money, “You like chimichangas and sht right?  Gonna open one of them greasy Mexican restaurants, with the little tacky sombreros on the wall and the fish taco’s and yellow rice with the creamy cheese sauce and diced tomatoes and onions and sht…and yeah, gets me some of those cheap clueless wet-backs to build it and keep the kitchen running and tables clean, live off my cut, a le’ boss monsua seniorita, know what i mean?”

The sergeant nods his head, “hells yeah, chimichangas, that’s what’s up!  I fks with that.  As for me; going to see if i can get me one of them cows cloned or something.  Way i see it, if i jump on this quick and open a beef farm, all’s i gotta do is sell them patties and y’all can watch me stack that cheese to the ceiling.  Bam!  Capitalizing mthrfkrs”

Officer Lewis pulls up on them in a large SWAT vehicle, grinning, “Looking toasty in there yoo-hoos.  We ready or we ready?”

Liutenant asks him if he got the arm slave, to which he winks and brags, “yeah that- and the wolf!  what can i say, me and the armory chick go way back.  So we rolling out now or what?  You ladies went to the bathroom, had your breakfast, powdered your nose?  We good twinkle toes?”

The three officers put their seat belts on, turn off the vehicle’s gps, and shift to business.

Officer Lewis had placed a tracker on Vic’s vehicle a couple weeks back and secured a stealth drone fly-over to confirm his living situation.
The evidence showed a discreet, illegally constructed shed near the NRQZ, and the presence of a female equestrian humanoid.
The gov offers 100k (roughly 65k after claiming and filings in your taxes for the next year) for turning in horse class humanoids.
The black market offers in the ball park of 3 million in untraceable crypto currency for a fresh face.
Officer Lewis was able to secure a whale buyer after posting a picture of Nala, and promised to deliver within 3 days.

Unaware of the police closing in, Vic and Nala are busy bodies preparing for the big trip today.

The buggy is loaded up and almost ready as they are jamming out to “the cream of clapton” in the truck’s CD-player,

” ♪ If you wanna get down!  down on the ground, cocaine!

She don’t lie, she don’t lie, she don’t lie….

Cocaine! ♪ “.

Dorothy was expected to stop by soon, and they were nervous about forgetting anything they may need, double and triple checking the area.

The mood was cheerfull and sad, bittersweet, oxymoronic.  With new horizons coming, they were forced to leave behind many big things they were attached to.

Nala made sure to pack her; yellow cloth, FRED, her quilt and pillows and some clothing, her favorite books Vic gave her and some comic books Dorothy and the kiddos shared.

Vic humbly had a backpack with his most presentable clothes, and key parts from his solar battery and electric generator system.
He kept his little bag of apple seeds Dorothy gave him right where she had put in, in his center chest pocket of his lucky overalls.
He felt better about himself and the general war and rain situation since seeing her that day, and the shadows that followed him for decades seemed to have gone on vacation.

Nala’s ears swiveled and honed in on vehicles in the distance incoming and alerted Vic.

Vic, alarmed, let Nala know that Dorothy’s vehicle is silent, so something’s not right.

Seeing the navy black vehicles take shape in the distance, Vic fetches his 1911A1 from the truggy’s glove box and begs Nala to hide in the chu chi foxhole immediately and to not come out no matter what.  No matter what shug.

Nala quickly uncovered and went into a large hole in the dirt, covering it back over with the camouflaged top.
It was cramped in there, she had a very small view of the outside, and could feel her heart beating in her throat, helping in keeping her quiet.
She had no idea what to expect.

Detective Lewis arrives in the SWAT Vehicle and parks it with the rear-doors facing the shed.

Hopping out and positioning himself close to the vehicle.

The other officers, also on scene, present themselves with unquestionable authority, weapons alert to the dirt, following behind closely to Detective Lewis’ lead.

“Well well well, Mr. Chapman!?  Is that you?  What a crazy surprise running into you here.  Do you remember me?”, the Detective points out enthused,

“What’s this?  Is this where you live?  My my my, that doesn’t look up to code at all now does it?  And is that another unauthorized domicile right next to this one?  What you got going on here, moving day?”,

♪ Layla!  You got me on my knees, Layla! ♪ 

“…Also, I’m here because of a noise complaint.  Is there anyone else here with you?”

Vic is scared, hands up in defeat in front of him, standing between the officers, the sheds, and a hidden Nala, “I-I’m sorry officer, i don’t answer questions.  Am i under arrest, or, or am i free to go…?  …do I have rights?”

All the officers tense up, angered, that was not a reply they wanted to hear.

Officer Lewis keeps his initiative, unphased; “I was able to pull up your file, you were kind of tricky to find there sport, made me put in some real work.  Vietnam era vet eh?!  Wow, i can’t believe some of y’all are still around, they just don’t make them like they used to eh?”

Vic isn’t liking where this is going.

“Seeing that you’re a Vet and all, i figured we would take some precautions, you know?  You’re a highly trained weapon, a scary dude, have to be on high alert around people like you”, the Detective proceeds to open up the rear SWAT vehicle doors to reveal a 7 ft mechanoid bosstone dynamics atlas model robot with a mini minigun attachment, and a menacing wolf-appearing version of the same.
On the Detective’s command, the bots came to life, stepped out of the vehicle in an uncanny valley animation, and took positions on the flanks of the officers, making the confrontation effectively a 5 v 1.

The Detective gives his warnings, “Now now, as a Marine myself, i got a lot of respect for my vets.  I don’t want any trouble, i just want to do my duty and go home.  I’ll warn you though, i rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6, so lets just get through this the easy way sport.  We take you in, and you can tell your whole story to an honorable judge in Raleigh, that’s you’re absolute right.  Now, if you would please, you’re under arrest for constructing an unlawful dwelling on U.S. soil and for harboring an illegal humanoid.”  The detective couldn’t hide a squint, “Which, by the way, where is she?”

Vic shakes his head no.

“The quiet treatment eh sport?   Righty-o, let’s do this then.”  The Detective raises his left hand towards Vic, while his other hands rests on his un-clipped holstered gun.  The other officers raise their gun and aim in on Vic center-mass with advanced laser targeting technology.

Detective Lewis maintains his calm tone, “Mr. Chapman, you have the right to remain silent.  Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law, so I advise you to slowly get down on the ground and let us put you in these cuffs, i promise you, we’ll be gentle.  If you come with us, you and the animal will be safe; i promise, you can trust us.  We’re the good guys”

Vic can’t feel his body anymore.

The way he reckons it, if he’s able to focus and dump his clip on the Detective; Vic’ll die, but they’ll at least be forced to take one of their own away from here to a hospital, and Nala has a chance to live another day.
That’s the best case scenario, and there was absolutely no time to be undecisive.

Vic goes for his gun from his back pocket, pulls it out, and is immediately gunned down by Detective Lewis, followed by 5 loud weaponized enforcers.

Nala watched in helpless horror as Vic’s chest puffed out red mists and red splots everywhere as he fell to the floor.

Vic felt the little shadow people huddled all around him, hugging him, crying with him in his last brief moments.

Vic’s body was swissed up and hole riddled, his eyes were lifeless and his last breath bubbled out of his skin.

Blood flowed out and pooled under him like water.

The officers kept their weapons trained on Vic’s corpse and reloaded their clips while the bots remained in place and at the ready.

…

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The shock bomb was surreal to Nala at seeing her hero and best friend exist one moment and be destroyed in another. 
She learned today what Vic carried for a lifetime; violence is so fast, and so unpredictable.  Nothing made sense at all anymore.  She scrambled out from her cover in a frenzy, whaling and crying and placed her body over Vic to protect him, yelling at them to stop and go away and no more while she struggled to think of other ways to heal him and bring him back; frustrated at the futility of trying to put his blood back into his body.

The officers immediately begin to yelling, weapons pointed, “DON’T FKN MOVE FREAK!  YOU’RE UNDER ARREST, PUT YOUR HANDS UP AND PUT YOUR FACE TO THE FLOOR.  GET AWAY FROM THE SUSPECT!  PUT-YOUR-FACE-AND-HANDS-DOWN!”

Nala clutches Vic’s lifeless body in lost fear, confusion, and in an unfathomable pain she never thought possible.
She hugged and squeezed Vic’s neck and screamed “no! no! no! no!”.
Whimpers for Jan Vic to come back and not be gone, that he was important to her.

She couldn’t feel her legs.
She was blinded from the salt in her eyes.
She could hear Vic in her head, commanding her.

RUN SHUG RUN

Nala throws a fist full of sand and blood at the officers and in a sloppy panicked sprint made her way out of there and up the road.

Despite being startled, the officers knew to hold their fire.

Detective Lewis orders the other 4 tools to go non-lethal; and to get in and pursue and secure the target immediately in the SWAT truck.

The chase is on.

The machines and SWAT truck are fast on her, catching up.

Nala jumps over a trap hole Vic had helped her make, located slightly off of her perimeter run routine.

The wolf mech, close on her heels, fell into the hole and was left behind as it re-calculated its priorities from chase mode to trap-escape mode.

The SWAT truck caught up with Nala sideways at her pace of 55 mph.

Sgt Dorner was driving while Lieutenant Casey and Detective Lewis shot bean-bag rounds into Nala’s back, sending her rolling uncontrollably into the dirt.

The vehicle stops abrubtly as the Detective and Lieutenant get out and attack Nala.

The Lieutenant shouts out, “TAZE TAZE TAZE” as she pops the probes into Nala and flood her with electricity.

Nala is frozen in terrifying pain everywhere, feeling her muscles tighten and stretch into itself; she can’t breath, and feels like her heart will explode at any moment.

The Detective goes over Nala, and beats her right foot furiously with a billy stick while screeching, “STOP RESISTING!  STOP RESISTING!”, shattering her knee and breaking her femur.

The three officers kick her for good measure before the Detective quickly gets everything back in order.

The humanoid atlas robot finally catches up and stands by next to the SWAT truck for further instructions.

Detective Lewis takes a deep breath and collects himself as he opens up the rear SWAT vehicle doors, and dishes out instructions, “Alright alright, let’s cuff her hands, then cuff her to the inside.  She’s a heavy one, so on 3 we 3 get her up and over to the truck.  okay?  okay then.  one, two, three”

They struggle together and get a severely battered and broken Nala into the SWAT vehicle.

The Detective orders the officers to turn off the bots to save on power, and to walk back and bury the body.

He told them he’s going to check the injuries on the illegal, make sure she’s fully secured, and store the bots back into the vehicle.
He’s gotta make some calls immediately on the package being banged up.
He’ll meet up with them soon enough, they’re to go police-call the brass shells, bury the evidence, and cover their tracks. 
And he calls dibs on Vic’s gun.

The lieutenant and sergeant treck back 2 miles to their vehicle and Vic’s shed.

They are feeling vulnerable but aren’t going to question their boss.

Dorothy and the kiddos arrived to Vic’s shed, and are destraught with what they see.

Spent casings, footprints everywhere, tire tracks and a red and blue, barely recognizable Vic.

They are panicking over Nala and not knowing where she is; suspecting that, yet hoping that, she’s not in danger.

♪  And the wonder, of it all, is that you just don’t realize how much i-♪

Xavier cut off the ignition on the buggy as the kiddos take off their shades and hoodies and perk their ears up and noses in the air, franticly trying to catch any hint of Nala.

Genosha remembers there is supposed to be a special tree platform, Xavier looks around with her and points it out from a nearby tree-line.

They rush up the Treetop spot and see a SWAT truck suspiciously parked way off in the distance and two walking officers approaching their location midway.

They report back to Dorothy, who is kneeling, crying over Vic. 

She had covered his upper body with her jacket, as he looked cold, and as lonely as ever.

“…Now cracks a noble heart.  Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest…”.

The kiddos tell Dorothy the situation is dangerous, we could all get hurt, and they are okay with that.

Dorothy tells them she’ll do anything for Nala, so at this time, it’s whatever it takes.

The kiddos explain their plan, they ask Dorothy to drive up, low speed, and distract the officers incoming from furthest distance possible.

They think Nala is up ahead.  While they take down the distracted guards, they ask her to please go further up, follow the tracks, and hopefully find Nala who might be at the SWAT truck.  They don’t know what’s out there at the truck, but the prints suggest they have arm slaves.

They’ll catch up.

Xavier grabs his paintball gun from his backpack inside the nissan leaf, and quickly loads it with a mix of chilli powder (oleoresin capsicum) and baby powder rounds.

Dorothy was worried about them, the most immediate part of the plan.  They are clearly dangerous; the kiddos assured her, she can trust in them.
She tells them she loves them, just in case, and they give her a hug and kiss, and run off into a nearby field as the signal for Dorothy to drive up the road.

Dorothy rolls slow until she sees the two officers in the distance, who in a panic immediately raised their weapons and aiming in approached Dorothy shouting commands for her to stay in place.  Dorothy put her hands up in her car and saw the kiddos outmaneuver the officers in a split second.

From behind them, they were being furiously peppered with paintball rounds by Xavier hiding behind a nearby bush, blinding and gagging the officers with the baby powder and red hot chilli pepper mix.

as they turn around firing blindly, Dorothy can see Genosha stealthily jump on the male officers back while shanking him in his throat and chest area, going down on the floor with him using his body as a human shield.  The female officer continues to receive a barrage and is knocked down from the barrage of pain and inability to breathe, squirming on the floor, screaming in frustration and for having shot herself in the foot.

Dorothy drives past this scene as Xavier and Genosha finish the officers off.

In the SWAT vehicle, the detective had hastily fastened Nala down in a forced position of submission.

He aggressively reasoned with her that he doesn’t have to be rich to enjoy the things rich people get to get, and that he’s going to make Nala pay extra for not being in mint condition for this sale.

He unzips his pants and had grabbed a begging and crying Nala by the ponytail when he hears shooting and screaming outside.

He opened up the doors and exited out to see an senior woman outside, with a hand in her purse.

The Detective immediately raises his left hand towards Dorothy, while his other hands rests on his un-clipped holstered gun.

“M’am, i’m going to have to ask you to-“

The detective in a flash quick drew his gun, pulling it out moments before Dorothy shot him 3 times in the chest with her .357 Chiappa Rhino. 
The Detectives bulletproof vest absorbed the impact from the magnum and knocked him off balance to the ground.

Dorothy then went to take his weapons away, both of them, and shot the officers hand clear off while it was still holding his shooter.
She then shot him in the crotch, twice, before reloading her revolver and shooting him 6 times in the face and neck.

She stepped over his body as she quickly made her way inside to release a distressed and whimpering Nala who could not stop crying and saying thank you and that they killed pona jan Vic.  uncontrollable sobbing.

Dorothy comforts her, hugs her tight, the kiddos arrive and console as well, for a minute, before they help each other out and Nala into Dorothy’s vehicle.  They cram in and go back to the shed.

Dorothy and the kiddos took turns burying Vic where he was, and consoling Nala.
Sharing the burden.  Sharing the suffering.

Dorothy puts Vic’s gun in her purse for safekeeping, until Nala feels better, she knows he would have wanted her to have it.

Xavier takes a moment to learn to drive stick shift and drive Vic’s truck.

Nala whimpers before they go, she wants to go in the truggy, even though it’s a bother to everyone, and even though it hurts her to move.

She wanted to smell and hear him one last time.

They help her lay down inside the truggy.

She smells him in the vehicle.  Can almost feel him there still.  Ashamed she couldn’t help burry him.  Grateful for everything he taught her.

Jan pona Dorothy had given her many pain medications, the shared plan was to tough it out until they made it to safety.

Xavier turns on the cd-player, then follows Dorothy out on the 6 hour trip.  To the Charlotte-topia.

She can hear him inside of her.

♪  Would you, know my name?  If i saw you in heaven….? ♪