GANG of HOPPERS
My brothers and I in the ZooKzin War
by Dori Hopps

Written by Dan Rush

(c) Zootopia 2016 Walt Disney Cooperation 

Chapter 16

Roya Island, part 4

November 22, 2041
Roya Island
“L" Day plus three
Rattleback Company two miles from the summit
0700 hours 7am

     Lance Corporal Opal Banyon, a light brown and white rabbit with a dark brown head tuft from rain forest, a rocket bunny in our fire team... died this morning or perhaps being the gambler he was, he might have preferred me saying...”My chips got cashed.”

     We were trying to rooter a pesky gun slit that was holding our team at bay on the promentory and Opal volunteered to rush it while the rest of us poured fire and lobed grenades to keep the gunners inside occupied. Opal made it to the left of the slit, popped the fuse on the satchel charge and tossed it in.... success....but the Kzinti snipers were also successful, they nailed Opal through the back as he jumped into our hole, his spine snapped in half with an internal severed artery.

      I looked at Owen and the others and shook my head...then I looked down at Opal and offered him a red ampule...

      “Nah....” He said softly as he pushed it away...”I want to....I need to think clearly.....can you write for me?”

Another letter.....as Nori cradled him and I wrote it....

    “Mom.....Dad? I don’t have much time....you’ll know soon enough. I want to say sorry for all the stupid things I’ve done...double sorry if anything I ever did hurt you. I joined the Marines so you could be proud of me in some way if it might fix all the other dumb things I know I did but never had the courage to tell both of you. I always loved you and everyone else. Just so you know? I’ve stashed all the money I’ve saved from my past winnings in my old toy box in the attic...I think you’ll enjoy them. I’m leaving now....hugs n kisses......Opal.”

     Another bunny.....another letter.....and now? Rain. Rain....mud....stink of all kinds from blood to gun powder to snit and piss. No time to give Opal a proper burial, not even a proper shroud. We put him in two plastic garbage bags and bind them with duct tape. There he sits at the bottom of the mud bath that’s become our current home in this monsoon strewn mess. Every step and slip has us no closer to getting to the objective. Even in the mist and pouring rain the “Litter Snitters” fire their rockets to keep pissing us off and tease us to stand up so another mammal flops backwards to mix his blood and drain in the gunk.

     “Hey bunnies!” You hear in broken Zootopian from the Kzinti. “You’re cannon fodder! You’re worthless excess on your society! Too many of you! You make wonderful stew!”

     We scream back at them till Owen’s slapping us off our heads...”It’s all a “psych out” stop playing into their games! Shut up!”

      I check Ori’s foot now wrapped in a protective bootie....still ok, still mending but he can’t get off the line to rest it. No one can get off the line right now because there’s no reserves to replace them. Plenty of us up and down the line hold places with a bandaged part of our body...even a wolf Marine not far from us remains determined and fierce even though his upper snoot is being held together by strips of ripped up linen. I run and dodge across a space of ten yards to quickly check him out....
  
      “Thanks Doc.” He says in a whisper as I unbind the strips to put a better bandage on him.

       “You feeling alright?” I ask as I check his temperature.

      “As much as I can with this.” The wolf replies as he points to his snoot. “I’d ask for a shot but I don’t want to dull my senses.”

       I give him a love pat and run back to my brothers. Then there’s a bright spot in the downpour...Ori pulls out that little handy dandy battery powered coffee maker of his and every bunny face goes “gah gah bushy tailed happy” as he passes small plastic cups to us. It’s not a whole lot of coffee but any is good for the moment at hand. We gulp our small fills, some keep swishing the hot sugary liquid in their mouths to savor all that good bean flavor then Powen’s gun blasts off a muzzle flash and we see a feral Kzinti’s head fly up from a shot through the skull and the beast slowly slides down the side of the muddy hill.

       “Damn! Do we have to kill them two or three times!” Nori snaps. “Can’t see two feet in front of my face....” Bear Bear snorts as he pulls out a gun brush to try and keep his BAR from becoming fouled up with dirt and muck.

      “What I wouldn’t do for a good shower right now.” I said as I sat back against the side of our shell hole. “What I wouldn’t do for a good anything.” I shake my poncho and try to wrap myself all up in it if it would give me just a little wet-less comfort. I reach into my pocket for my “Pervatine” pack...a roll of “boost up” pills to reduce the growing sluggishness I’m feeling from exhaustion. Then I put them away because I know they won’t do any good and if you get into the habit of taking too many? You could become grossly addicted. Around me....I’m watching mammals pop Pervatine like its’ mint freshener.

      “Doesn’t this remind you of our camping trips in the north country?” Powen said smiling. 

       “Dad would have fried us.” I replied. 

      “Sure was the life.” Owen said reflecting. “Living like our ancestors with nothing but knives and one gun and nothing else against the “dummies” in the hills? Having to forage for our meals while being all “key’d” up on adrenalin watching for Hombrah and wolves?”

      “Gave that one dog a complete shock when you socked his puss.” Ori chuckled at Owen. “You still have that tooth don’t you?”

      Owen reached under his shirt and showed off the nice wolf fang he got for socking a “dumb dumb” with a pair of “Rabby knuckles” when we were all teens running naked and crazy over the North Country. 

       Owen then looked through his binoculars and twitched his nose...”Let’s move up everyone....fifteen yards on my order.”

       Own pulls out his radio paw mic and tells Captain Oakley that we’re moving up and then it’s all tails and humps as we scale over the muddy lip of our shell hole, guns up and ready as best we can keep them up as we fight to get our footing on the slick muddy ground...

       “Stay alert...” Owen commands as we all draw beads with our weapons and slowly progress up the slope...

       “Ori?” I ask my brother as I hold my paw out. “Give me some of those coffee beans to munch on, please?”

        Ori fills my paw and I shovel them into my mouth. Our surroundings are getting tougher to see through...a low flying cloud system is wrapping the hill top ahead of us in a white blanket that’s broken by occasional yellow and white flashes of sporadic gunfire. 

        “KACK! KACK!KACK!KACK!KACK!KACK!KACKCHOW!” A “six pointer” “Zinti Zip” machine gun opens up ahead of us about twenty yards and kicks up mud and rocks before our feet! We flop down in the gunk and Ori’s a blaze of cursing and swearing!

       “FLUCK THIS! I’M SICK OF DIRT IN MY MOUTH AND MUD PACKED IN MY FLUCKING TAIL HOLE!” Ori snarls as he jumps up with his grenade gun and sights true as the “Zip” cuts loose! Ori’s too pissed to give a snit as he waits while bullets are flinging by and around him.....

       “EAT SNIT ASS HOLES!” Ori yelps as he “pops” a grape through the air and it connects with the log and thatch covered pit and blows the “Zipper” hide hole to pieces! One of the surviving gun crew come running at us with his sword swinging through the air screaming murder....

Shinu! FILTHY LONG EARED PENIS SUCKER de shinu! Shinu!

      “OH PLEASE.....Ori snaps as he drops his grenade shooter and pulls his forty five side arm. “GUN BEATS SWORD YOU STUPID DUMB FLUCK!

      “BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!” Three rounds center of mass and the tiger crashes to the mud beside Ori, who then flops on his own butt to get dragged to safety by Powen as the rest of us scramble back to our previous hole!...

      “I’m sorry brothers.” Ori groaned as he sat grouchy and pissy. “I’m just so sick of this fricken carnival ride! I want my fricken refund!” He grips his grenade gun, pops in another “grape” shot and cuts it loose up the slope....”EAT THAT YOU FLUCKS!” He screams!

      And then we hear a lot of feline snarling and growling coming right back at us in a growing fury!

      “NOW YOU’VE DON IT!” Nori screams as he throws up his BAR rifle and cuts loose a burst at a squad of charging Kzinti in their feral forms! The whole line is up again...another suicide charge! Another desperate fight! More mammals mauled and torn up! More on both sides join the muck and stink....

      I run fifteen yards to help a wolf marine who’s been stabbed through his shoulder and flung through the air like a rag doll yet I know he’s still alive! I jump to his side and slap a wad of bandages into the nasty shoulder wound as he’s trying to reload his rifle....

      “DOC!” He screams as he throws me aside and stabs his K-BAR into the neck of a charging Kzinti! No time to think...the wolf marine grabs me and just stuffs me under the warm dead cat body at his side. I hear howling, barking, snarling, tearing flesh, gurgling....

       I lay still as a statue...my eyes fixed on the dead eyes of the wolf as a Kzinti in feral form is in lust devouring him...I can’t help it, my teeth start to chatter! I clench my mouth tight but the noise gets caught by that huge murdering beast. His eyes fix upon mine and a big paw reaches to drag me from under the body I’m stuffed under....

       Suddenly he stops.....his eyes roll up into his head and he falls flat to the earth. A welcome sight as I see Owen pulling his K-BAR from the Tiger’s head after he’s scrambled his brains....

     “This is a lousy place to play hide and seek isn’t it?!” Owen yelps as he grabs my paw and we cover the distance going forwards to join the rest of the company on.....a rapid advance?! We’re not stalled?! I’m thinking as it seems the whole line is a fast moving scythe of enraged mammals cutting the retreating Kzinti down without stopping for rest! A lion Marine to our side paries an attempted bayonet thrust by a Kzinti, slams his open maw into the tigers neck and rips his throat out in a bloody mess! Past him...I see a bull rhino Marine with bullets just flying off his armored skin pick up a Kzinti in a massive morf hand and just rips the head off like a wine cork!

      “The Southern line has broken through! It’s a route! Charge! Charge!” Captain Oakley is screaming at the top of his lungs, waving his side arm and throwing his paw wildly in a sweeping motion! “The top of the hill is there boys! Charge! Don’t stop! Don’t stop! Get up there!”

       Both sides are throwing artillery, mortar rounds and hand grenades at each other as Tigers, Lions, Bears and Wolves fly past us in their pent up fury...out goes the professional upright decorum of combat Marines, out goes all the infantry training and tactics...now it’s just wild beasts stoked up on rage and revenge looking to settle scores and make the enemy coward in terror for a turn. Long asked to suppress their predatory urges for the good of Zootopia, her predators unleash all their pent up blood lust in a rapturous slaughtering...

      “FIX BAYONETS!” Owen snarls as we near the crest. “FIX BAYONETS BUNNIES! FOR HOME AND FAMILY FIGHT!”

       Rabbits flock to us, flock to Owen as he fearlessly tops a bunker on the crest and shoots down a Kzinti with his magnum pistol then swings his carbiner from his shoulder and unloads a magazine into a pair of retreating tigers as our long eared swarm centers around him to form up a fire line.

      “Like clay pigeons!” One excited rabbit yelps to my left only to have his head exploded by a round from our left side!

      “Wheel left!” I scream and five rabbits gang with me to shoot down a pair of charging Kzinti! The whole top of the promontory is a mass of fog shrouded chaos and killing with bullets and bombs from both sides claiming friend and foe alike in singles and heaps of crying, gasping, screaming and dying forms.

       Nori tackles me to the earth...running a leaping Kzinti clean through his neck with a bayonet and blowing his head off with a burst from his BAR rifle! “Stay the fluck down!” He snarls as he climbs over the top of me and shoots and reloads as fast as he can until his gun barrel is practically red and melting from the amount of fire he’s pouring out of it!

     “GET OFF ME BEAR BEAR!” I cry and struggled but Nori won’t budge! I fear he’ll be killed because he’s grossly exposed! Then again? We were ALL grossly exposed on the top of that hill and the tiger’s are springing out of every “nook” possible! I’m thinking...”We can’t kill these bastards fast enough!”

     The remainder of the fight is just a blur for me, that’s how fast and violent it was. I was certain one or some of us were going to be dead by the afternoon once the madness had ended and the smoke and fog had cleared out.

       
November 22, 2041
Roya Island
“L" Day plus three
Rattleback Company on the Summit
1538 hours 3:38pm

      I didn’t give a damn and I had no shame...a busted water pipe was all I cared about at the moment. I took off my uniform, threw my leggings and my shorts over a twisted piece of re-bar and flopped on my butt under that wonderful stream of cold water and let it all hang out...my ears flopped over my face with silly contented smile on my puss....

      “Aaaaaaaaah....” I sounded with my stupid lolling tongue hanging out of my mouth  as I rolled around naked in feral form and shook myself clean of the gunk. “Gluck, gluck, gulp, gulp.” Oh that fresh clean water was so tasty!

      “Move over!” Nori snorted as he pushed on me! “Stop hogging it “Door Door”?! 

      “Get fluck off!” I snapped back! “You’ll get it when I’m done!”

      “You think you’re a top snit huh!” Nori snarls and off we go tussling, biting, scratching and punching each other in the mud as Powen, Ori and Owen are sitting together making bets.

      “Awwwww.....sweet bunny love.” Ori snickers. “My paychecks on Dori! Kick his snoot in Dori!”

      “Oh? You wanna play huh?!” I snapped at Nori as we got to our feet and I swang for the fence on his nuts!

     “Oh! Swat to the nuts!” Powen yelped and grimaced as I nailed Nori between his legs and body slammed him into the mud! We needed the release, our fight attracting attention until Captain Oakley stepped up....

     “Ah-ten-shun.....COMPANY!” The Captain shouts and me and Nori scramble over each other to stand up...

      “Are you two done?” Oakley asks us. “Would you please get cleaned and dressed and join the rest of us if possible?”

      Nori pushes my head....”Dick face.”

      And that started another five minutes worth of kicking, biting and punching.

       Finally relieved of our tension....and a ton of fur....we joined the company and the Captain in a “circle twerk” to get the latest info on our progress and what news he recieved beyond our current world view... which wasn’t pleasant at all obviously.

       “We’ve taken the rocket base.” Oakley began which got cheers and sounds of relief....but a little premature obviously....

       “This is not over by far Marines.” The Captain said. “Though we’ve taken the island...we don’t own the mortgage just yet. The Kzinti..if it’s not obvious by now....have warren’d the snit out of this rock pile, there are tunnels all over this island and all of them have to be rooted out. Guess which mammals have the job? Take a wild guess?”

        We all sighed....us rabbits. Then again it wasn’t just rabbits, if you were by nature a hole digging mammal then you got the job. This was going to involve putting squads together to sweep through the tunnels. Just one of the issues and news the Captain was imparting to us...

       “What’s the current score box look like?” Oakley said as he took a squat on a block of concrete...”Let’s see? So far of our own invasion force, we have lost....36 percent combat strength. Company wise we’ve lost....29 percent combat strength. The enemy? They’ve lost....a lot, obviously. No prisoners....no surrenders.”

        Captain Oakley sighed....”Our battalion commander is dead. They made a big mistake of trusting a Kzinti prisoner, an officer who played “little bitch” really good. Both the commander and his two orderlies who were interrogating the prisoner were eaten. Only the private survived because the Kzinti swallowed him whole and he was cut out before digestion started.”

        “Cheese n Crackers fluck.” Ori groaned.

        “That’s about the feeling.” Oakley said. “The enemy casualties are monstrous but their willingness to die is absolute, they don’t care how they die, so long as they take as many of us with them as possible. We’ve been chewed up very well obviously.” Oakley said as he pondered his notes....

        “The Kzinti mobile fleet suffered a serious defeat trying to come to the aid of their troops here, that’s why the bulk of our naval forces pulled back from supporting us on the island. The Navy is taking it’s share of hard whacks in return, our ships are getting beat up. All in all by the Navy’s accounts....we’re breaking even with the “Zints”. Better news though from home, there hasn’t been any naval shelling now for two weeks and with us shutting down this rocket base, that should improve life for the home folks significantly. We should be expecting mail deliveries to start now since we’ve taken the surface of the island.”

       Nori smiled warmly...”Frith I hope Momma sent us some of her carrot and chip cookies...”

       “Some nips of Paw’s still would be even better.” Owen said. “I wonder who’ll run it now?”

       Powen sighed...”Please don’t let it be Cash? Ugh...if I wanted rabbit piss in my mouth? I’d do it myself.”

      “You’re sick.” I snorted.

      “No? That’s Cash.” Nori huffed back. “Who knows if he doesn’t piss in the still?”

      The Captain pointed to Owen...”Sargent? HQ orders the company form up three fire teams to sweep the tunnels under the promontory. You divie them up and see to their dispositions.”

      Owen saluted as I walked up to Oakley...”Sir? Allow me to look at your leg to make sure it gets proper treatment?”

      “You’re still hung up on shooting me?” Oakley replied. “Doc, it’s fine. It was a “clean-through” that hit nothing but flesh and muscle, you had no time for a proper shot and you saved my hump...I’m not angry with you.”

      “I still feel responsible.” And I did. Blame my mother who always enforced on all of us...I mean all two hundred some odd of her children... that when you do something wrong, you own up and correct it. “Please? Let me look at you Sir?”

       Nori chimed in...”Seriously Sir? You better or Dori will hound you till you die.”

      Oakley smiled and chuckled....”Alright Doc if it will make you feel better and forgiven, go ahead.” Oakley looked around and dropped his pants...”So much for modesty huh Doc?”

     I checked the wound over after I pulled the bandage off and the first thing that worried me was the puss coming from the scabbing...

    “Sir?! Please lie down....”Corps-Mammal up!” I screamed for another Corps-mammal and soon a red English fox named Charlie McCray came running up with his pack...

    “Whatcha got? Good afternoon Sir.” Charlie regarded Oakley with a quick paw salute.

     “Milky puss.” I replied as I pointed at the scab on Oakley’s leg.

     “Obviously.” Charlie replied as he pulled a small package called a “cul-snap” from his bag and set to work getting a sample of the puss and getting back a quick result from the small “Quid-check” kit ... “It’s not bad....yet? Good thing you caught it now...”

      “Ok? How bad is it?” Oakley asked as Charlie quickly “prep’d” two medical needles.

      “You have on-set infection in that wound Sir.” Charlie said as he stuck the Captain with the first needle. “I’m giving you a shot of tetanus booster and Refleprilin to kill it. Consider yourself out of the fight for now, we’ll get you back down to the North beach to the aid station we have set up.” Charlie turned to me. “Get us a stretcher or a bigger mammal to carry him?”

      “On it!” I ran off as Oakley gestured to Owen...

      “Sarge? You got it for now.” Oakley said. “We don’t have a company Executive Officer. Set up those teams and take em through the Kzinti mole holes.”

       “Nothing to worry about Sir.” Owen replied. “See you soon. What happened to the Ex Oh?”

       “He didn’t make it onto the beach. His Gator took a round and sank like a rock. You just make those teams up wisely and tell them to be extremely careful...especially in the tunnels, Frith knows what those tigers “Boo’d” them with.

       Owen turned to Powen...”Go around, get the company formed up on me and let’s get to work.” He then turned to me...

      “I know....” I waved a paw thinking with things quieted down, Owen would much rather have me out of harms way...then again.

      “Can’t spare you, every team is going to need a medic so you’re coming with us.” Owen said as he gave my chest a little punch. We were going “Spee-lunk-ing” in “Kitty-kun Country”....wonderful.

November 22, 2041
Roya Island
“L" Day plus three
Rattleback Company on the Summit
1700 hours, 5:00pm

       The five of us stood around quickly chewing down our rations once Owen had dispensed with creating the teams in the company who were going to die the tunnels...the endless tunnels that probably held another thousand killer cats pumped up on something and probably foaming to death for their Zootopia provided feast. Of course it’s us five, as Nori often says you don’t bust up a six pack and leave one of the cans with the empty plastic rings. We we’re going to be a ten team on this assignment....the other five were....

Private first class Daldi and Private first class Vinchi, both of them rifle-mammals and English Red foxes.

Corporals Lemiwinx and Stanley...both of them Honey Badgers. Lemiwinx was a Grenadier and Stanley had a magnum Tommy Gun.

Sargent Solo Ludendorf, an Aden-knight hare who was an expert cave diver. He packed a Magnum carbiner.

       Owen took Captain Oakley’s map bag where on one of the topographic maps the Captain had identified several “Spider holes” Which the Kzinti popped out from as we advanced up the slope of the promontory. Owen gave the company teams their marching orders then led our team to one of the identified “spiders”.

      “Sulu?” Owen said to Ludendorf.

      “Sulu?” Ludendorf replied. “Sulu? That’s a catchy nickname, I like that.”

     “I don’t like wasting time on remembering long names.” Owen said as he pointed to the hole. “Got a rope in your back pack?”

     “Rope n hook....and some other things.” Sulu replied as he dropped his pack on the ground while Owen motioned for Powen and Nori....

     “Powen? Get you NVG’s on. Nori? Hold him by his ankles. Make sure our drop in is clear “Pow Pow”?

      Powen snickered as he prep’d himself. “If half of me is missing, you’ll know it’s not clear.”

      “Spoken like a true sacrificial lamb.” Nori snickered as he took a seat at the edge of the hole and waited for Powen to get himself set up...

      “If you start whistling and saying “Here kitty kitty” Nori? So help me...”Powen huffed.

      “Wouldn’t dream of it.” Nori replied as Powen slowly began to bend onto his back while Nori held onto his ankles....

      “When’s the last time we tried this out Powen? Stealing pies from Old fox Gray’s house? You know back then your ass wasn’t this fat?” Nori joked.

      “You realize you’re still on the slow bus?” Powen replied. Slowly...Nori lowered Powen upside down into the “Spier Hole”, our best shooting brother hugging his M-14 Magnum rifle till he could hold it out and sweep the tunnel around him...

      “Heeeeeeere.....kitty, kitty, kitty....” Nori snickered loudly. “Come get the nice rabbit meat kiddy kiddy...”

     “Shut the fluck up Nori.” Powen warned. “Ok! Pull me up! My bloods rushing to my head already!”

     Me and Ori jumped to grab Powen and pull him from the “Spider hole” as “Sulu” dropped his climbing rope through the opening...

     “Oh.....that was nice....” Powen said before he stumbled to his knees and puked from the sickness of being held upside down. “Ugh....that of course? Was not nice.” He said as Owen passed him a cantina of water.

      “Is the tunnel big enough for us to walk in?” Owen asked.

      “Yeah...but we’re gonna be stooping most of the way around.” Powen replied. I guess they made the tunnels so they could go feral footed. Gonna be difficult to carry battle rifles even slung on the back.

      Nori growled. “I’m not giving my BAR for anyone to hold it.”

      “You could take my Carbiner and I’ll carry my snell?” I said to Nori.

     “Nope.” Nori replied. “I trust my BAR better than a pip squeek short barrel.”

      “Then you cover the rear.” Owen said as he pointed to Nori’s nose. “Everyone gear up....we’re going into Kitty Country.”

       Owen was the first of us to drop down by “Sulu’s” rope into the four and a half foot tall cave. Imagine the reaction when the first whisp of big cat piss flowed into our nostrals....

     “Snit.” Daldi winced as he shook his head and reached to stuff his tail inside his pants....”It’s fricken thick...did they use latrines or buckets?”

      “Grow some nuts?” Stanley huffed. “You foxes are such prissy dicks.”

       “Bite me.” Daldi snorted at the Honey Badger.

       “Come and get it vulpy deuche.” Stanley snarled.

       Owen slapped Daldi and Stanley on their snoots...”Cut the snit! No talking, yipping, yapping or chirping down here. Ears up, eyes focused, brains in the game.”

       Ori threw my medical pack on my back as I slapped a magazine into my snell gun and racked the charging handle. We all pulled out our Night Vision monicles and clipped them to the brims of our helmets, except for the Honey Badgers who’s night acuity quickly adapted to our dim world around us. Even we smaller mammals found ourselves uncomfortably stooping over as we began to push slowly forward in a snaking line, one shooter after another going about a foot a minute.

       Powen took point, the lead rifle with Owen, Ori, Myself, Daldi, Stanley, Lemiwinx, Sulu and finally Nori on the tail with his big BAR rifle. We’d go a few feet, stop to use our ears and then go a few more feet and the laborious process of scan, evaluate and plan the next step would torturously come and go.

      The Kzinti didn’t put much lighting in these dug out tubes, perhaps an occasional light bulb some fifty or so yards but obviously they relied on their tiger sight to navigate this crazy labyrinth....

      Suddenly some fifteen or so moments into our “spee-punkery” we all almost fell over each other as Powen stopped our progress...

     “Huh?” Owen noised as he craned his head over “Pow Pow’s” shoulder.

     Powen pointed downwards...”Trip wire....” He whispered.

     Owen related the message back along the line and we all started to back up as Powen reached into his pant leg sack and pulled out a rolled up length of twine and a fishing hook.

     “Easy now.” Owen said as he rubbed Powen’s head as my brother slowly moved to hook the thin trip wire....

     “Get off my head and stop petting me like a pet.” Powen snorted as he carefully dropped the hook onto the trip wire and slowly backed away from it....laying out twine as he moved to join us all back some distance from what ever the Kzinti had laid out...

      Owen pointed us to form a combat circle with guns pointed to cover our front and rear....”Get set....” He said as he poked Powen with a finger.....

“BLOW IT!”

     Powen jerked the twine and the tunnel in front of us shook with multiple blasts! The result leaving us all in a dust cloud as we winced to see ahead of us.

      After a few minutes....we walked up to the result of the “trap trip” to see multiple spikes, pikes and other pointy objects in-beaded in a complete circular arc around the tunnel circumference.

      I gulped my spit....”Fluck.”

      “Yeah....” Nori said as he reached to touch one of the deadly spikes but Ori batted his hand away. “That could be poisoned Big Bear.”

      Owen roughly gestured...”All of you keep your eyes moving. Not all of their tricks are going to be that obvious.”

     We kept moving forwards...each of us taking turns to mark our passing so we’d find our way back to the surface. Occasionally we’d run into a branch passage from the “main drag” that ran off to a bunker or a single shooter’s pit and of course you’d run into a Kzinti that got “clipped” out of existence. I’d check the bodies to make damn sure the tiger was “dead, dead, dead...” and one of our party would make extra sure by slitting the throat or “noodling” the brains. We couldn’t take any chances.

       “How you doing back there Nori?” I whispered as I turned to see Nori on his knees gazing down the length of the “main drag”...

       “Thirsty.” Nori replied.

       I reached into my med pack for a small sealed packet of drinking water...”Pass this to my brother?” I said. As a second thought, I pulled out a baggie of Vanilla wafers too. “And these too?”

       Nori gave me a wide smile back and we pushed on. Suddenly Owen threw up his paw and we all ducked for the ground! Guess who was lucky enough to dive into a pool of tiger piss?

      “Ugh! Oh fluck me!” I snapped! Corporal Lemiwinx slapped me off the head...

      “Shhhhhh Doc.” The Honey Badger snarled as he pulled out his K-Bar knife and wrapped his fingers and long claws around the hilt.

       A Kzinti soldier flew by a cross path in the tunnel in feral form not twenty yards from our team....then a fire fight ensued somewhere in the maze pretty damn close to us!

      “Form up! Form up!” Owen snapped as he tugged and pulled us into two back to back lines of rifles! “Don’t shoot till I command! Our guys might just haul tails our way! Wait till I tell you to shoot!”

      You could tell the Kzinti weapons from ours just by the shots or bursts. We Zootopians had the advantage in small arms with our auto rifles while the Kzinti were mostly armed with single shot bolt action rifles....as if a ten foot tall, fast moving tiger with big teeth needs a rifle to begin with?

       “They’re coming closer!” Powen yelped out! “Our side must be backing off!”

        A confusing goulash of booms and bangs were getting closer, now mingled with shouts and screams of mammals cursing or in agony or being torn apart! All of us tightened our paws on our weapons and gritted our teeth as the crashing echos of violence now bounced off our heads!

       Three Bunny Marines came tearing tail around the corner from a side tunnel at our front and quickly took their places on each side sending bursts of fire from their Magnum carbiners and a Thompson machine gun! “BURIS! GNAH! YOUR FLUCKEN COCK SUCKERS!” A rabbit Sargent bleeding from a terrible head wound snarled as he sprayed his Thompson magnum machine gun down the side tunnel!

      Owen waved his paw wildly to us....”UP! MOVE UP!” He screamed as he turned to wave to the wounded Sargent....”SIT REP! SIT REP SARGE?!”

     “SITUATION SERIOUSLY FLUCKEN NUTS!” The Sargent replied! “WE TRIPPED UP A NEST OF EM! Son of a bitch they mauled us good.”

      As the wounded Sargent flopped to the floor, I scrambled over everyone else as they found what place could protect them as they poured bullets down the side tunnel!

     “Oh fluck...give it to me real Doc?!” The poor bunny asked me as he gripped my shirt...“Feels like my brains are spilling out of my skull!”

      “You have one less ear.” I replied as I pulled a “sticky pack” to seal the gaping wound and wrapped a bandage and gauze pack around the rabbit’s blood covered head.

      The action devolved into a fire exchange of ducking and shooting mammals with Ori and Owen chucking grenades down the tunnel.....

      “By nest?! Did you mean a fricken bee hive or what?!” Owen screamed as I laid the wounded Sargent down on his back.

      “How the frick should I know damn it!” He screamed at my brother. “All I know is one minute we were strolling through the park, the next it was Grand Zootopia Tiger Central Station! FLUCK YOU, YOU SAND BOX EATING COCK SUCKERS! They greased half my team!”

      “That usually happens when you’re not careful.” Powen replied between carefully popped off shots. “I see seven of them about forty yards down Owen. They’re tucked in a sloping defilade in the tunnel.”

      Ori whipped his grenade gun from behind his back by it’s sling and popped open the breach. “Not any flucken more they are...range me Pow Pow!”

      “Count fourty to fourty five yards! Can you arc it without hitting the over head?” Powen asked as Ori popped in a grenade shell, slapped his weapon closed and aimed along his sights....

      “Do I get a sloppy kiss for a bunker shot?” Ori asked with a grin.

“KAPLOOB!”

      Ori high arced a shell over the distance...it scraped the overhead just above the start of the downward slope, came strait down, struck a Kzinti off the forehead and exploded behind his back!

     “Fricken bastards....” Nori snarled as he took advantage of the confusion created the moment the shell exploded! He and the two Honey badgers booked it down the side tunnel about half way to unload their weapons on the big cats as they stood to charge or escape another grenade shot!

    “What the frick are all you slackers doing?!” Nori yelled back at us as he and the two badgers exchanged shots with the Kzinti. “Get your butts up here!

      Everyone around me took off, leaving me with the poor rabbit Sargent who thought loosing an ear was the end of the world....

    “Doc? Please? Just end it? Put a shot in my head?! give me some dope?! Put me to fricken sleep! I can’t live with one ear....I can’t......”

     “Slap!”....”You’re a Sargent of Marines?! Ears don’t make a rabbit.” I hard patted the sobbing rabbit on the chest. “Your heart makes you a rabbit! Stop the fricken snivel drips!”

    “I got my boys killed.” The rabbit cried. “I got them all killed...”

    “The Kzinti killed them! The Kzinti have been killing our kind for a whole year! We could all get killed and eaten in the next five minutes so what do you want your family back home to hear? That you died sinking your claws and teeth in a cat or groveling while you got fricken ate?!”

     I gripped the Sarge by his shoulders...”I’m sorry Sarge...but for the love of Saint Cottontail? Suck it up you sniveling little bitch!”

     The Sarge looked back at me stunned....

     “Come on Sarge? Deep breaths....you want to kick my tail in? I’m all yours...” I said as I wrapped my paws on the sides of his head...

     “Thanks Doc....I fricken needed that.” The rabbit said as he wiped his eyes. Fluck me....I wanna go home....I just wanna get home!”

     “That’s why I’m here.” I replied as the Sarge pointed around...

     “My gun Doc? Where’s my gun?” The rabbit asked as he fondled around. I grabbed his Thompson and wrapped his arms around it. “Sit me up some place so at least I’m useful?” He asked me.

     I pulled him and propped him sitting up again the tunnel wall...”You tactical now Sarge?”

    “I’m at least half a hare.” The Sarge replied as he cocked his rifle. “I hope they can make a reasonably good replacement ear. Lucky me I get something that looks like it belongs on a brothel whore huh? Me and my retarded luck. Stupid....I lick my own feet for luck and they screw me.”

    Nori came running back up the tunnel...”We got twenty or so wiped out. Looks like the remainders “booked” it back further down.” Nori looked at the wounded Sargent. “Sorry Sarge...only three of your “babs” (babs: slang for a crop of rabbits) made it.”

    The Sargent sighed....”I know....I....”

     “You start getting all depressed and mouthy and I’ll slap your teeth out of your lips?” I warned the Sarge. “What now Nori?”

     “Owen says we go no further down. We’re setting charges to collapse that section of the tunnels.” Nori replied.

     I was shocked....”We’re.....we’re going to bury them inside?”

     Nori growled back. “After what we saw as we passed down that tunnel? I don’t give a flying fluck about their situation....nor should you.”

    My kind hearted nature was trying to burst through. I could think of nothing more horrible that to be buried alive to a slow death. But Nori pushed on me with his big paw...

    “Don’t push your luck “Door Door”.” Nori said as he shook his head. “Owen will drop kick your fluffy butt all over the place. Let’s pick up this Sargent and get him top side.”

     I hesitated till Nori slapped me off the head....”Door, Door? Don’t you dare? I will sit on you and slap you silly now get moving like Owen ordered you.”

    War absolutely, absolutely without question........sucks.

end of Chapter 16