ROTWOTA: Book 2 - The Falling City of Anthros

Infiltration

June hadn't been in prison for even a full day, and she now wanted to get out faster than ever.
She couldn't stand being alone with another inmate that often acted like she wasn't even there.

Of course, she heard about visiting hours where her family could visit her while she was in prison. Except that wouldn't be until much later in the afternoon.

At this very moment, June and the others had been apparently blessed with going outside into the courtyard. And all was seemingly well among her and the other prisoners. Although while most of the other inmates just lifted weights or just did basketball, the young husky girl just kept to herself the entire time.

But some time later, Austin walked up to her looking rather apologetic. "Hey, June? I'm sorry for lying to you last night." He said. "Ok, but why did you steal?" June asked. "Well, it's because Kyle tricked us into helping him steal while my brother only truly went with the plan out of the idea that Kyle would pay us later since we didn't really have any money to stand on. So I really didn't get why we were being locked up here when we weren't really the ones at fault." Explained Austin.

"Well, here's the thing, even if you're not lying to me, you boys may need to understand something I was told called "Intention Vs Action" and it's where even if you're doing things with the right of mind, you still have to get punished for it when these actions turn out poorly. And I even didn't understand this for a time." Explained June. "Well, thanks for reminding me why it's necessary to be a lot like you." Said Austin. June felt rather surprised but flattered by this sudden comment, but she just gave a friendly smile and a bit of a thumbs up before.Austin did the same and the two went back to doing their respective activities.

For the rest of the time they were there, everything was normal, but when all the inmates were lined up to head back to their cells, it happened. Suddenly, gunfire and explosions were heard all around the prison courtyard. One of the guards had been shot dead, and the prisoners then scattered like ants but most were unfortunately unable to escape. And initially, June didn't know where to go. She just curled up into a ball and hid in one of the corners too afraid and scared to move.

But soon enough, her hand got grabbed by the snow leopard from earlier, and the two were forced to book it and run faster than they ever had in their lives to finally escape from the humans grasp. Eventually, they made it into the forest and away from the prison and the humans that destroyed it. Kyle and June were out of breath, but luckily Austin and his older brother showed up.

"So now what do we do?" Asked June. "Now we survive on our own with just us 4 and the resources we can find." Said Kyle. And so, the rest of the day was spent with June and the others trying to survive with nothing but each other. And thankfully, they didn't have to deal with the humans who had left them alone at that point.

But by night, the four survivors were sitting in the ravine where they planned on staying the night. But none of them felt like sleeping, especially June, she just couldn't think about the state her siblings, parents, and friends were in. Had any of them survived? Were any of them as lucky as her and the other three she was with?

She couldn't stop thinking, but she was eventually snapped out of it when she and the others heard a loud scream coming from within the ravine that was abruptly cut short. And in an instant, June led the others over to where the scream came from, and when they got there, it left them disturbed, but none of them as horrified as June.

It was a young anthro ferret's body wedged between some of the boulders at the bottom of the volcano. It looked to be a male and around the age of 10 or 11. But while no-one else knew who this was, there was only one young ferret boy that June knew. The young husky looked around for his chest to feel for his beating heart as it was wedged beneath the rocks. But after Cameron, Austin's older brother, helped her get it unstuck, she couldn't feel her friend's heart beating.

Landon was gone.

"My god who could've killed this poor soul?" Asked Kyle. But before anyone else could even answer him, the group heard voices coming from outside the ravine. "Eli, we should probably get back to base, the others may be waiting for us there." Said one of the voices. "Oh sorry Roxie. Don't worry I'm coming." Said the other voice.

Shortly after that, the voices were no longer heard by the group in the ravine. But what they did say gave June and Austin an idea. But they wouldn't reveal what that idea was until Cameron and Kyle fell asleep, and once they were, the two kids climbed out of the ravine. They walked over to where the voices were coming from, and sure enough, there were tracks, dog prints to be exact.

"What do you think? Should we follow them?" Asked June. "Maybe, it could even lead us to their hideout." Said Austin. And after a little more deciding, they came to the conclusion that they would indeed follow the tracks to wherever they would lead them.

Hours later, after following the tracks through the night, the 2 young kids finally arrived at a chain link fence with several restricted warning signs all over it. It seemed to  be guarding an area that had unfamiliar buildings all over, but curiosity got the better of the two. June managed to used a nearby stick to slowly bash a hole in the fence big enough for both of them to get through. And when inside, they slowly and carefully wandered around the area which they figured was the hideout the voices were talking about.

Some time later, they found a small bunker which was seemingly being used to get underground. Once they opened it, they walked down a flight of stairs and into a maze like-facility, walking past several stranger locked rooms in the process.

But sometime later, they came across an interesting room that had an open window which they could use to climb through and enter the room. Inside was a long table taht spammed the entire room with strange bottles and fluids all across them. But it was something that Austin spotted that really intrigued them.

"Hey June, come here and look at this." He said. "Yeah? What is it?" She asked. On the wall were 2 photos, one of a large black furred wolf with multiple legs and a strange tail, and the other of a bloody 1400 auto tank with a number 7 and the letters N&SCR on its side with its face redacted. Below were written the name of the beast and some details about it.

For the wolf it read "Shadow" and had the details of:
Keen sense of hearing, sight, and smell
Tail poison is extremely deadly and lethal and can kill in minutes
Highly aggressive and will often attack anyone on sight.
Hunts more frequently at night but will often attack during daytime

For the 1400, it's name was redacted and only read "Exp. 1476", but as for the details portion, it only read the following:
Formerly *REDACTED* of the North and South Carolina Railway
*NOT YET ACQUIRED*

"Not yet acquired? What does that mean?" Asked Austin. June was just as confused as him until she remembered about the creature she and Jake had seen in the facility.

But before she could tell Austin about it, an alarm suddenly went off within the facility sending the two kids into a panic. And they immediately hopped back out of the room before rushing through the hallways as fast as their legs could carry them.