Diary From The Carrot Union

Chapter 8: #TheRevelation

"So we'll just ship you and miss Violet to the FSA, and we get our payment! I mean, at least that's what Guava told me."

"Well, that was quick," I replied nonchalantly. "So this is it, huh? A kidnapping?"

I bit another piece of carrot and stared into the distance in silence, and I thought Joseph thought I didn't act as he expected.

"Well...I guess I owe you another apology," Joseph quickly replied, shuffling his tiny little feet uncomfortably on the ground, "But there's a second reason why we chose you from all people."

"Welp, what the hell can I do about it, honestly?"

Joseph mumbled quietly amidst my crunching sounds, and even Violet stopped her muffled complaints.

"Sorry, we are forced to do it, but the Oracle told me how our meeting would end. And well, the Oracle chose you because he knew things about your past."

"Again with this, Leon, again with this Oracle bullshit rhetoric. Don't you think it's not as believable as you think? Now tell me, Joseph, tell me what you're going to do about it?"

"Well, the oracle wants you to have this."

Joseph proceeded to go towards a nearby pile of crates and bags and started shuffling on it, finally stopping after a brief while and coming back with a very familiar red book. It was Imran's notebook - the one with the golden hoof and carrot, the one he offered just a day ago.

"T-Take it," Joseph offered the book close to my face, "The Oracle wants you this."

Comrade Imran? Is he the oracle? I knew it! Indeed that old buck has something to do with this! Curse that guy.

"J-just read it..."

"Read it?" I asked, "That's his plan?"

"Y-yeah..."

Like I have an option, well, here goes nothing.

The scriptures are fortunately well-written, so it's not much of an eyesore to behold. However, it contains exceptionally inappropriate language, which in inappropriate meaning is extremely counter-revolutionary.

But then again, this guy's probably some sort of deviant freethinker that upholds ridiculous ideals such as free speech and democracy, and boy, isn't that just very, very wrong! But as I read more and more of this, I started to figure out that this stuff isn't all foreign.

"What is this? The rise of the oppressed herbivores? The unbreaking of the animal food chain? Heh..." I scoffed, "Didn't you guys ever learn? This ideology's the same that made us trapped down this rabbit hole! All in all, the cats or the wolves would always oppress us, and there's no changing that!"

A clutter of disapproving murmurs erupted from Violet as I saw Joseph's expression changed. Cleary, it looked like I offended him.

"What do you mean, Mr Leon? Real Animalism has never been tried before! The Carrot Union is nothing but a fascist dictatorship that oppresses people in the name of Animalism!"

"Oh yeah? Name one Animalist country that doesn't have like one million animals dying of starvation every year?"

My rhetoric seemingly agitated Joseph, as for the first time since ever, the boy looked pissed off.

"Y-you see? You're always taking the bad points of Animalism and using it against me! You are wrong, Mr Leon! Your mind is clouded by prejudice!"

"THEN WHY ARE YOU SO PISSED IF YOU'RE SO SURE OF YOUR OPINION, Huh? You little floppy-eared Salad!"

"MPHHH!" Violet grunted again, clearly annoyed by our argument.

"How about we ask her, Mr Leon? We'll see if your opinion is valid, yes?"

"Fine, ungag her."

So angry, Joseph quickly ungagged her, and the first thing she did was to try and bite off her handcuff before yelling out in frustration.

"AaaaAaAHHhhH! I HAVE TO GET OUT FROM HERE!"

Her scream quickly attracted outside attention, and tall guard wolves rapidly entered the tent to shut her off, and boy does Joseph get pissed. Another argument soon broke out as Joseph was quick to vent his frustration on his comrade, albeit in a very refined and polite manner, while Violet was struggling for her life.

And I thought it was the perfect moment to escape...

So I quickly took off with my orange stick out to the back of the tent and high-tailed away.

Oracle my ass, Che Guava my ass, once I got myself out back to the city to that stupid buck, boy, is he going to get some!

I'll tell everyone I was in a hostage situation and that Lycan's daughter was getting kidnapped by this weird resistance fighter guerilla bullcrap, and get back to my job and my Svetlana!

I hid amongst the shade of the campfire, through the crowds of rabbits, right down the thick vegetation, back to the forest. I know it may be dark, but I thought the trek back home is not that far ahead, so I caught my breath and dug down a rabbit hole, anticipating them to sound the alarm as a hostage went missing quickly.

And soon after, I began to retrace myself back towards civilisation, following the bright lights of the metropolitan distance and escaped from that God-forsaken place.

****

It was a three-hour trek back to civilisation, and the first thing that greeted me was the bright shine of the tower light, and two gun barrels pointed back at me.

"Halt!"

"Stop! Don't shoot! It is me, Leon Roborovsky?"

The border guards quickly noticed my face and went straight to assist me.

"Mr Leon? Where have you been?"

"Kidnapped...They broke me out and kidnapped my attorney and me. They got themselves deep inside the jungle, said they wanted to take me for ransom."

One of them came with me with a warm towel and brought me back to civilisation.

"Don't worry, Mr Leon, you're safe now."

"Yeah, right, bring me to high command prompts. We got a girl to rescue."