Pariah furrowed his brow. The sweet, melodic voice of the mysterious woman resonated in his mind. Furrowing his brow, the young man opened his eyes to the world only to be met by darkness and a faint pressure around the eyes, a blindfold. Unable to move his arms, rope bound his wrists together. "Leo. Fox?" He waited, but no answer came.
"You're a long way from home." A mature, hoarse voice retorted.
Pariah remained silent for a moment, unable to place the voice. "A captive or capturer?"
"Captive. I was brought here only a day before you. I've counted the time."
The young man pondered the situation. "Where are we?"
"Haven't got a clue, mate."
"Why are you here?"
"Caught during a hunt." The stranger's voice nearly whispered.
"By whom?"
"By whom? How proper of you." The man chuckled. "By the sinner Reticle. The same for you, I presume?"
Even though he couldn't be seen, Pariah nodded indiscriminately. "There were three of us. Reticle's skillset was something we were not prepared for."
"Haha, you can say that again. Reticle possesses an extensive mastery of ranged combat, never missing his mark. Everyone who encounters him thinks it best to get close, but he is also exceptional at hand-to-hand combat. Without my weaponry I was unable to kill the bugger."
Pariah dedicated the stranger's words to memory. "I see."
The sinner next to me relies heavily on various weaponry. Based on his wording, I suspect he is a skilled combatant, but he's by no means a pugalist. If we break free and it escalates to a confrontation, the advantage is mine.
Pariah cleared his throat. "These feel like old wooden chairs based on the stability of the legs. We might be able to throw ourselves back and break them."
"I wouldn't count on it, mate. These buggers are waiting for us to squirm, it's part of their game."
"Game?" The young man tilted his head towards the sound of his voice. "That means they are watching us in silence?"
"I wouldn't be tickled pink if they were yanking their meat rods in the corner to our dismay."
This man isn't elaborating on what he said formally. He's hiding something.
"What faction do you belong to?"
The man fell silent for a moment. "Bloody hell, were you dropped on your head by ya mom?" The man's British accent enunciated more prominently, "We are from the same faction."
Pariah thought carefully, "I do not belong to a faction. I was working under Leon Morgan."
"Never heard of 'em. Did you not call out for the fox? As in the Red Fox."
"Are you allies?" A hint of hope suffused Pariah's voice. Even if they started as enemies, they quickly pulled together to defeat a superordinate threat. If the Red Fox and the stranger belonged to the same faction, their allies might come to their aid, extending their rescue to Pariah and Leo if fortune favored them.
"You can say that. I never cared for that slimy fox, but he gets the job done, the dirty bastard." The man snickered at his wry remark. "Most likely, Reticle was hired by an opposing faction of ours. The options are numerous, but if I had to guess, we were taken by a subdivision group of the Berserker's known as the Poachers."
"Poachers? A subdivision of Butchers? Is that in corrolation with the serial killer?"
"You don't know about the other factions? You must be a newbie. The Poachers are zealous finatics obsessed with the killings of the Butcher. To our knowledge, the Butcher works alone, and these fanboys have no connection to the man himself. They belong to a small, isolated group within the Berserker faction. They are our second biggest adversary among the sinners."
Pariah committed the man's words to memory. "You belong to the animal faction? What's your mask?"
The man fell silent once more. "For all I know you could be a bugger trying to squeeze me for information?"
Pariah retorted, "Something tells me you know that I'm not. Tell me."
"You are persistent. I'm the Hound. I wear a black dog mask. What about yourself? It must be some animal-inspired get-up to get caught by the crosshair himself."
"Rabbit. A black rabbit."
"Little rabbit caught in a snare, would you look at that. What were you doing, prancing around with the conniving fox?"
"It doesn't matter. Let's find a way out of here and work together to escape. Were you alone? If this place contains prisoners from the animal faction, there are plenty of allies to release."
"No chance, kid. I take it you've never been in a situation like this before. You sound grounded, but you also sound young. If we are lucky enough to escape, we won't have time to release everyone."
"You take it I've never been in this situation? Is this normal for you?"
"It happens more often than you'd think. Just stick with me, and I'll get us out."
"How chivalrous." Pariah retorted flatly.
"You sound cold for a damsel in distress." He joked wryly. "Alright, princess. Let's get out of here."
"How do you propose we do that?"
The Hound, extending his left thumb, rubbed it against the ropes binding his hands. The subtle sound of slicing robe reached Pariah's ears. Shortly after, the cutting of more rope occured, followed by footsteps moving behind the young man. Feeling the rope around his wrists cut, he quickly moved his sore arms, pulling off the blindfold. Feeling his wrists, he stood up, letting the blood circulate. Upon seeing the hound, he wore a brown leather long coat and a dark burnt orange vest underneath that covered a tanned button-up. The black dog mask was stiff and covered the head, acting like a dog's head, the glass eyes concealing his own. "Not bad, ay mate?" He held his thumb up, revealing a small piece of metal sewn into the glove for a fingernail.
Pariah examined the cold room with stables and hay around them. "Is this a horse stable?"
The Hound crossed his arms leaning against the gate of a stable. "Cows, pigs, goats, horses, anything. This is the animal farm. One of the holding places for those in our faction or the unfortunate fellow like yourself who happens to don an animal mask by coincidence."
"You knew all this. So why did you lie?"
The Hound gave a sly smirk hidden beneath the mask. "That's what sinners do. In this world, lying can be the difference between life and death. So I advise you get good at it."
Pariah nodded indiscriminately. "Good to know, but why did you not attempt to leave sooner?"
The Hound snickered dramatically before pushing off the wall gently with his foot and uncrossing his arms, facing Pariah. "I am here for you, little rabbit. It's my mission to get captured to infiltrate the animal farm and await your arrival."
He remained silent for a moment. "How did you know? It was my first mission when I was captured. Reticle said he was there for me."
"Don't you worry about that, mate. Our leader tends to know things one typically shouldn't. Be grateful someone else is looking out for you, or you would have been Berserker meat soon."
"Will I meet this leader of yours?" He tried to probe for any information in this mysterious world.
"Slow your roll, champ. Once we get out of here, I will bring you back to base. We can take it from there. Maybe register you with the group. We don't have a black rabbit."
"I'll have to pass. I need to find Leon Morgan and escape. Since Red Fox is a member of the faction, I can leave him to you."
The Hound shook his head, walking past the Black Rabbit to the stable doors. "Suit yourself, I'm just an errand boy." Opening the door, the night sky revealed itself blanketing lush green grass. Not far to the right of the stales was a barbed wire fence where ten fat pigs slept in the mud in front of the trough. "Fat bastards waiting to be fed, just like blokes in society."
Pariah followed behind him, watching the pigs paying no mind to the Hound's words. "Are there any other stables nearby?"
"Most likely. We'll take a quick look around for the old blokes. If we don't succeed, we need to hit the road."
Pariah nodded, continuing to follow behind the Hound. "How far is the hideout?"
"You ask a lot of questions, little rabbit. I would keep quiet if I were you."
The young man obeyed, unsure if the Hound was a man he could trust. "Let's check out that building first." He pointed across the field to an old farmhouse.