"High Ground"

Their trip to freedom was now put on hold as they carried the body back into town. They went straight to the only doctor in Perfection, a black fox named Martin Declawe who lived near the edge of town. They pulled up in front of a trailer home, next to a skeleton of another home that Martin and his wife was building. Nick rushed to the door, placing his hat down over his chest in politeness for the dead and the harsh reality he was going to have to give. He knocked on the trailer door and waited.

The frail white, albino bunny opened the door, surprised to see Nick.

"Good afternoon, Nicholas, is something wrong?" she asked in a small voice, almost like a whisper.

Nick frowned and nodded. "Yes Ma'am, I am wondering if the doctor is here."

"Of course, let me call him." She turned her head back inside and mustered the loudest voice she could, which sounded more like anyone talking normally. Immediately, the black fox came to the door. The couple were old, past their prime, which is why they retired and moved into someplace more quiet. Martin Declawe was a tall fox, a few inches taller than Nick, with broad shoulders to show the hidden strength he has. In his younger years, he worked in the military and dabbled in Detective work before settling down as a medic.

Martin crossed his arms when he saw Nick.

"Yeah? What is it now, ya slacker, snapped your tail again?" he said in his gruff, mocking tone. Recalling the time Nick accidently got his tail in between the truck door, breaking the tip of his tail. It was an embarrassing day all around. Martha immediately tugged at his white sleeved shirt.

"Martin!" Martha said harshly to him, making his sigh heavily at her. "It seems important."

Nick put back on his hat. "There is someone I need to show you."

Martin snorted. "Alright, where are they?"

"In my truck…" His eyes darted to Martha and back to Martin. "Just for you, Martha should stay here."

Martha's ears went up in alarm and clutched Martin's arm, who had his eyes narrowed to Nick. The red fox cleared his throat nervously when Martin peered up to see Finnick, sitting in the back, next to a form underneath a large tarp. Martin's ears went back when Martha pulled his sleeve.

"Is it really that bad?" Martha asked. "M-maybe I should help, I'm sure I can-!" Martin removed her paw from his arm and stepped out.

"No, you stay here. It will be just a moment, Cottontail." Her paw reached out to him instinctively when he went next to Nick. He turned back to her, holding a small smirk.

"Don't worry, go back inside Sweetheart, I'll be back."

His smile gave her an instant relief and smiled back. "Well, alright-don't be out too long, we still need to set up the foundation of the house."

"Sure thing." Martin watched her close the door and immediately glanced at Nick. "Who died?"

He asked seriously as they walked back to the truck.

"It's Bellwether." Nick replied. "We found her outside of town, on one of those towers."

Martin hopped onto the back of the truck and moved the tarp. His face remained like stone as he looked at her sun-baked face. He hummed in interest and reached out with his fingers, moving her eyelid open. He opened her mouth next, and pulled out her tongue. Finnick immediately covered his own mouth in disgust. Martin placed the tarp back over her face and got down from the truck.

"What you think, Doc?" Nick asked.

Martin dusted his shirt and turned to him. "Dehydration."

"That doesn't make sense, it would at least take a couple of days right?"

"Maybe even three and four." He said solemnly.

Finnick spoke next. "Wait, you're telling us that Bellwether died, in three or four days, because of thirst?"

Nick scratched the back of his head, a feeling of dread filling his chest. "That doesn't make sense."

Martin buried his paws in his pockets, shrugging his shoulders. "I don't know what to tell ya, I'm not a mortician, but what I seen, my best guess in dehydration."

They couldn't bury Bellwether right away, not until the mortician in the next town could get a look at her. Nick could feel the truck's heaviness as he sat quietly in his seat as Finnick drove, heading straight out of town.

Finnick nibbled on his lower lip before breaking the silence. "Do you think she hated this place so much that she wanted to kill herself?"

Nick turned to him in surprise. "No way, someone must have chase her up there! Maybe, she got drunk, started saying some things and some random animal must have done that to her."

"Come on, she wasn't afraid of predators or anything. Do you think they camped out below and waited for her to die?" Finnick shook his head. "It's too weird."

Nick nodded in agreement. His eyes fell on a broken wooden fence, of a small farm owned by Fred the Ram and his family. They grew the vegetables of the town and Nick could always see him plowing the field in the hot weather. His ears went up in alarm, when he saw the fence and no Fred.

"Hey...hey stop the car, Fred's gone."

"What?" Finnick turned and saw the array of broken fences. He slammed on the breaks and they rushed out the door, yelling for Fred. Nick rushed to a small shack that was Fred's home and went inside. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, which made him go back outside to the field. Finnick's ears scanned the area for any sign of Fred or his family. The two foxes knew that Fred had only one truck and that was parked right next to the shack, making the two turn nervous when they couldn't find him or the rest of his herd.

Nick's nose recoiled when a putrid stench infiltrated his nostrils. His eyes went back to the broken fences, surrounding a patch of dry dirt. He went forward and peered inside.

There was meat and blood everywhere.

Nick stumbled back to Finnick, who quickly saw what made him jump back. The two immediately turned to each other.

"What is going on?" Finnick whispered in horror. The two backed away, their eyes scanning the farm for any signs of life.

"Hey, look its Fred's hat." Nick said, walking over to a hole in the ground. The hat sat there in the middle of the hole, making Nick pick it up the tan colored hat. A face in the ground stared back at Nick. He screamed out when he saw the dissevered head of the ram, with his mouth open as if he was silently screaming. His dead yellow eyes staring back at Nick.

"What is going on?!" Nick screamed. "What is going on?!" He demanded, tossing the hat aside. It was time to go.

Nick and Finnick raced back to the truck. Finnick slammed on accelerator, kicking up dust and rocks as they drove down the empty highways. Nick was running his paws up and down his face, wiping off the streams of sweat, trying to evaluate what he had just seen. Finnick, on the other paw, couldn't stop shaking. Foxes of his type always seem to put up a front, but after seeing something like Fred's head in the ground, put him on edge.

"Okay new plan!" Finnick began, his knuckles turning white by how hard he was clutching the metal wheel. "We need to head into town, call the cops, have them catch this murdering psycho and then, we're outta here!"

Nick rubbed his hands nervously. "Ah geez, it might be one of those highway serial killers. We have to tell everyone in Perfection, maybe Honey could lend them some guns to protect themselves."

"Yeah, yeah...we will."

They went down a curve, a mile out of Perfection, and saw two porcupine highway workers. One was breaking the road with a jackhammer while the other, stood to the side. Finnick drove up to them, shouting over the jackhammer's noise.

"Hey! Hey! You two need to get outta here!"

The second worker nudged his companion making him turn off the machine and take off his ear plugs. He squinted his eyes at the screaming fox in confusion.

"What?"

"There's a killer on the loose! A real psycho! He's cutting animal's heads off! You got to get out of here!" With the warning planted, Finnick continued to drive towards town, leaving the two workers to glance at each other.

The porcupine with the Jackhammer, Lenny, waved their warning aside as he put back on his yellow ear plugs.

"They're pulling our chains!" He kicked the jackhammer on and began breaking apart the pavement. The other Porcupine, Benny, wasn't so sure. He inches himself towards their vehicle and grabbed a crowbar, chuckling to himself.

"Yeah, I'm sure they're just pranking us…" He gently patted the head of the crowbar against his paw, his eyes looking down the road for anything suspicious. Lenny, broke away the asfault, making the metal needle dig itself deeper in the ground. As the needle buried itself into the earth, a harsh shriek rang through his ear plugs, making him pull the jackhammer up, in fear that he may had snapped it. He tugged at the machine, stucked into the ground and before he could ask Benny to help him, red liquid bubbled underneath his machine.

The jackhammer suddenly took off, dragged away down the street and breaking the pavement. Lenny saw the cable attached to the jackhammer wrap itself around his ankle and knock him down and began to drag him down the road. He screamed for help, gaining Benny's attention but he was powerless to stop the runaway jackhammer from dragging his friend up the rocky hill. His screams went silent as Benny ran up towards the rocky hill.

"Lenny! Lenny?!" His eyes widened when he saw the hill shook and a landslide baring down on him.