Shadow thundered his way through the forest, his anger making his paws pound the dirt with every step he took.

"Can't trust you with ANY fucking thing, Beta!" He shouted out loud.

..............................................

Scratch and his crew walked along the forest floor, talking about the plan while making their way back to the tower. Something caught his attention though. He noticed Thunderbolt was falling behind. He decided to go and talk to him.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Scratch asked him.

"Do you want to know what I saw that day?" Thunderbolt asked him.

"What?"

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Thunderbolt stopped and looked up at him.

"It was ME, but I wasn't myself....I was one of those ........THINGS. Falling apart, rotting, becoming someone I'm not. I don't want to end up like them, but I don't have a choice, do I? I'm never going to be free! I'm going to be like THEM! Forever! I'm not going to be me anymore!" Thunderbolt panicked.

Scratch nudged his friend. "I'm scared too. You're not alone."

"I'd rather DIE than become one of them."

"I understand, but right now, we need to keep going. We don't know for sure if we got a chance, but we got to be more hopeful. You get what I'm saying?"

Thunderbolt nodded.

"Are you going to be fine?"

"Yeah, I just need some distance right now."

"Alright....just stay with the group."

Thunderbolt smiled a little bit. "Will do."

Scratch walked back up to the front.

All of a sudden, Scratch heard the sound of yapping coming from Thunderbolt. He whipped his head to see what was going on. Immediately he noticed that there was a big black wolf pinning down his friend.

Scratch howled before jumping into action. He jammed himself into the beast, the beast yapped, then turned his head to Scratch.