Animals We've Become/War in the Woods

War in the Woods is the tenth episode in Animals We've Become.

Plot
Fuck… I couldn’t believe he came to get me…

I could hear the sound of the monster’s snakeskin boots coming out of the woods. He clapped three times… “Well, well, well…” he said. “You’re going to start a war, are you?” he said.

Not gonna lie, Sonnie looked pretty fucking epic standing up to him. He stood defiantly with his hands on his hips, just like Captain America in his original 1940’s pose on the cover on the original comics. Way better than the current design to be honest. I never liked the MCU look, they should have stayed with the design from the original movie. He did kill Mohammed Al Jafar Qatar, the world’s most wanted, after all, I guess he is a real Captain America.

“You’re gonna let the boys go and let us walk out of here with our and their lives or else.” Sonnie bombastically says.

Colin stroked his beard. “Will I now…” He started pacing back and forth with his hand on his sword. “You know Sonnie… We’ve been watching you chaps for awhile now… my my, have we been impressed.” He stopped, looking stern. “You led the group back to a burned down supermarket, where they could have died…”

“I did what was best.” Sonnie replied, looking angry.

“You defended a monster… a murderer who raped a girl in your group. You took a policeman’s gun and used it to defend his life…”

“You weren’t there…”

“You split up with Mark after he confessed his emotions even when your leader told you it was dangerous because you were jealous of what he had.”

“What?” Mark asks. “Sonnie is that true?”

“What the fuck,” Donnie sighed, pinching his nose.

“Now’s not the time brother.” Sonnie says. “For every bird, there’s a branch.”

“You call me a monster, Winston “Sonnie” Hopper, but what about you? See, I know you better than anyone else… You see…”

“YEAH!” The man in the yellow hat said. “He knows you, dumbass! We all do!”

I heard a loud noise, and the black man fell down. I didn’t know who shot him, but then I saw Donnie with a lit cigarette in his mouth and a derringer held up. It reminded me of the cover of Red Dead Redemption.

“Okay.” Collin said, looking at Nick’s body, then back to Donnie Cruz. “I’m going to let that one slide. He was extremely annoying, but you listen here…” He grinned sadistically. “I know what you did… Meatloaf…”

Sonnie raised his gun, a shiny Colt Python. “NOOOOOOO!” He screamed, firing a round straight into Collin’s shoulder.

“ARGH FUCK!” Collin yelled, firing a round towards the group before retreating back. “KILL THEM!” He screamed. “KILL THEM ALL!”

I couldn’t see it well from where I was, still tied up in the truckyard. But it looked like Donnie Cruz fell… No… He couldn’t be… Donnie couldn’t die! He was my friend, our leader. He was a good man, and good men deserved more.

Everyone in our group fired back and the claimers returned fire. The giant man covered in chains whose name was Brent dealt the most damage. He had at least 20 guns on him and one of them was an StG 44 assault rifle. He was firing like a madman, making everyone go into cover except...

I couldn’t see him. I had to find him… I couldn’t let my family die, I had to figure out some way to help them. I notice then a figure emerging from the woods. Wait a second? Is that?

It was, it was AJ. He had snuck around the battle in order to untie me.

“S-sorry I’m l-late to the party.” AJ stammers as he stumbles towards me. I noticed that one of his crutches was missing. “D-don’t worry bout that.” He stammers showing me his shotgun. He was using it as his replacement crutch.

“I knew I could count on you.” I revealed. He slashed the ropes and I got to my feet grabbing a knife from a table nearby.

“Don-donnie thought you abandoned us. I did-didn’t believe him.” AJ reveals.

Donnie thought that? After everything we’ve been through? I’m gonna have to talk to him about this. I hope I’ll get the chance…

“Not to fast you spastic little bastard,” Collin growled. He came from behind me and kicked AJ’s crutch away. AJ fell over like a sack of potatoes. But he was wasn’t a sack of potatoes, he was a man… with cerebral palsy. Collin put a sword against his neck. “You stay right there you daft little downie.”

AJ looked at me, then looked away. He was crying and I saw the area around his crotch darken. “AJ…” I said. Collin put his grabber on the back of my neck and dragged me away towards the big trailer. Bullets were flying overhead. For a second I thought one hit me, then I realised it was just my anxiety. The British man banged on the door of the trailer loudly. “CHRIS!” he yelled. “CHRIS, WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!”

I heard a rummaging noise from the inside of the trailer. The door opened and the huge bearded man stood in the doorway. His pants were still around his ankles. “WHAT THE F-U-C-K!” he yelled. “I TOLD YOU NOT TO YELL AT ME WHEN I’M TAKING A SHIT!!”

“We’re under attack…” Collin said calmly, stroking his forked beard.

“Oh… SHIT” Chris screamed back. Suddenly a bullet flew overhead, barely missing the huge red bearded man. “WHAT THE FUCK!!” He cowered in fear. Not gonna lie, I think I saw a dingleberry fall out of his ass into his pants. It kinda bounced like a kid on a trampoline. He pulled his pants up quickly. “Bossman, what do we do?!”

“Get your gun, my friend…”

“OK!!!!!” He yelled and ran back into the trailer, he emerged with a giant assault rifle. I didn’t even know what type it was, and I’m a weapons buff. He looked like something from Gears of War. “Lock and LOAD!”

The three of us headed into the forest surrounding the truck yard and watched the fight from a safe distance. Mark was in a pretty intense gunfight with Brent. Damn Mark, I didn’t know he had it in him. “Chris…” Collin said. “Go into the woods and flank them… I want Meatloaf alive, but you kill the others…”

“Bossman, are you sure?”

“Yes…” Collin replied, smiling sadistically. “Meatloaf is too valuable to kill. But I want the policeman’s head.” He looked down. My trusty axe was on the ground between them. He picked it up and handed it to Chris.

The huge man nodded. “Okay!” Chris grabbed the axe and walked into the woods.

Collin drew his sword and put it to my neck. “Stay here, boy… Like Meatloaf, I want you alive. But don’t you FOOKING think I’ll hesitate…” He smiled. “I’ll end you like the undead ended your girlfriend, mark my words…”

I clenched my fists. I wanted to end the fucker right fucking there. But I couldn’t. I was unarmed and outnumbered. Besides, this guy was nuts… there was no way I could fight against him.

He started to sneak up on Mark, who along with Amber, Sonnie and Stephanie was doing a good job of pinning him down. Collin snuck up behind him like a ninja and raised his sword above Mark’s head. “HAAAAAAH!” he screamed.

“WHOA WHAT THE…” Mark stumbled backwards, only just blocking the sword by holding up his Glock 19 sideways. He went in to slash him again, this time for good, but Sonnie jumped and held the madman down.

The big man covered in chains stopped his assault. “COLLIN NO!” he yelled.

This was my chance… I got to my feet and rushed him. I’m not that big of a dude, but I’ve got the will of a lion. A will that a monster like Brent could never hold down. No… I won’t back down. You can stand me up at the gates of hell but I won’t back down. Brent stumbled over with me on top of him. I punched him in the side of the head and then the other side. “FUCK YOU!” I looked down on him, but it wasn’t Brent’s handsome face… I was Ethan’s… Right there, I remembered what he did. I remembered the years of bullying I suffered at his and Jason’s hands. My blood fucking boiled. “FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU, YOU SON OF A BITCH!” I punched him again and again. But it was no use. Brent was way fucking bigger than me and even though I had the high ground, he easily overpowered me.

He pressed the barrel of his Ruger SR1911 handgun to my head. “Say hi to your Momma for me…” he said. I closed my eyes and accepted my fate...

“Stoo-stoop!” AJ’s raspy roared through the trees. We both turn our heads to see AJ stumbling towards us. He takes his shotgun and for a second I think he’s gonna shoot him but instead takes the barrel like a baseball bat and swings it into Brent’s central cheek. His blood poured into my mouth like a hose. Maybe it was because of all the adrenaline built up in me or the chaos of the environment around me but the taste of his blood sprung me to life with an animalistic roar.

“RAAAAAGH!” Brent roared and fell backwards. Now was my chance. I picked up his Ruger SR1911 and pointed it at him. “You wouldn’t dare…” He said. “You ever kill a man? You don’t have the guts… You’re nothing but a fly in my ointment”

That’s what I’ve heard my entire life. Bullies telling me I wasn’t worth it, that I wasn’t good enough. But I’m not the same man I was back then. I could do it… I COULD DO IT! “You’re wrong…” I said. And fired a single shot into his chest.

“BRENT!” Collin screamed with tears in his eyes. By the look of it, he had almost subdued Sonnie and the others, he had his sword up to Mark’s neck and was going in for the kill. But he left them and ran over his lover’s side, falling to his knees and cradling his head in his arms. “Brent… Brently please… speak to me…”

Brent was coughing up blood, he looked into Collin’s eyes. “Collin…” he rasped. “Life… Life isn’t always what you’d think it’d be… You turn your head for a second and the tables…” He coughed. “And the tables turn… And I know!” He reached up and felt his cheek. “I know I did you wrong… But you’ve gotta believe me when I say that I’ll make it up to you… somehow… someday… I’m sorry I never loved you the way you loved me. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, Collin.”

With that his hand fell away, and the giant man wrapped in chains and covered in guns fell lifelessly in Collin’s arms. “No…” I could barely hear him. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!”

There was a darkness in his eyes, something I hadn’t seen since Ethan lost Sera. It was the same look I must’ve had… “You…” he said, letting go of Brent. “You… You… Hah… Hahaha” Was he laughing? What the fuck?! “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

He walked towards me, stumbling around like a god damned zombie. “Do you… do you? HAHAHAHA” His sword hung lifelessly in his hands. “DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU’VE DONE TO ME?! DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’VE DONE!”

“Step back motherfucker…” Sonnie said as pointed his Remington New Model Army revolver at Collin.

He didn’t care, he took his sword and raised it towards me. “You’ll never understand… you’ll never… never… HAHAHAHA!” He turned the sword towards himself. “I’ll make sure you never forget this Glenn. Remember Glenn? Remember what I asked you? Have you ever been scared Glenn, really really scared?! What did you say.”

“No,” I said definitely to the insane man before me.

“Heheheh” He replied. “And remember what I said…” He smiled widely, like some kind of lunatic. “You will… I’m gonna mess with your mind, Glenn. You’ll never fooking forget what you did…”

With that… he drove the sword into his neck. It made a gross GRRSSSHHH noise as he pushed it in up to the hilt. Even then he didn’t fall, he just kept smiling as he moved the sword from side to side, eventually driving it out the side of his neck. Collin’s head fell off his body and toppled towards me, still with that insane smile on his face.

Oh my God… I fell to my knees. I couldn’t get the image out of my head, the blood, the screams. Is this what it was like? Is this what it was like to be Sonnie. I tried to close my eyes but his smiling dead face was still there, blood all over his smiling face.

The firing of guns brought me back from my clouded thoughts. I turn to see Tom and Joe in a gunfight with a kid my age that I’ve never seen before.

“Trace!” Sonnie yelled as he leaped over a fallen log. He fired his revolver at the two of them, one bullet hitting Joe in the leg.

So that’s his name, Trace? Gone for a day and the group already replaced me?

“I’m getting out of here! This effort is no longer profitable!” Joe yelled.

“Wait fwo me dude!” Tom yelled reaching down into his sack and pulling out an acorn. He throws it desperately at Sonnie who doesn’t seem affected by it. I suppose in situations like this you have to use anything as a weapon, desperate times.

“Oh no you don’t asshole!” Sonnie yelled as he started reloading his revolver.

“I got them!” Trace yelled as he rushed towards Tom. He tackled the skinny man and began to punch him relentlessly.

“Stop dood!” Tom screamed. After hearing this Trace stopped only for Tom to shove him aside and make a slippery, scuttling run for Joe and his motorcycle. He was waddling with his hands in the air like a dwarf at the circus.

Joe ran through a dark room filled with truck parts and low hanging chains. With his hands infront of his head he dodged them… only just. After he ran out the otherside, I didn’t see him go, only the roaring noise of an old motorbike. Damn… I wonder where he went, what he’ll do. I guess I’ll never know what becomes of him...

“DOOD NO!” Tom roared like a dying animal, following the old biker into the room. He wasn’t as deft as the Hell’s Angel, however, and tripped into the low hanging chains. He swang from side to side, and the more he struggled the more he wobbled to the flow and got himself trapped. It reminded me of the villains death from the Disney Tarzan movie. “NOOOOOOOO!” he screamed again, the chains wrapping around his neck and waist and lower arms. “PWEEASE BWO, DON’T LEAVE ME ALOOOOONE!”

Like an angry bull, Sonnie approached him. He shot him once in the shoulder and put a giant hand over the wound. “How did he know my name!” He said. “How did you know?! WHO SENT YOU!”

“I DON’T KNOW DUDE, I DON’T KNOW! DON’T HURT ME AAAAAAAHHH!”

“TELL ME!” Sonnie screamed, pressing harder.

“AAAAAH NOOO PWEASE BWO! PWEEEEAAAASSSEEEE!!!!”

“WHO SENT YOU!” Sonnie kept squeezing, blood was pouring all over. Sonnie… he was like an animal… a monster… What an animal he’d become… His eyes were fierce. “TELL ME! WHO SENT YOU!”

“JOOOOOOHHNNNN TASSSSOOONNNIIIIIII!!!”

Stunned, Sonnie let back. “John Tassoni… You… You mean… JT Myers?”

“Y-Your o-old army cap-captain?” AJ stuttered. “W-what the h-hell?”

“Collin…” Little Tom could hardly breath. It made me feel bad. In the end he was just another bullied kid… A bullied kid who took the wrong path, who could’ve been something more. But instead he ended up with these sons of bitches. Under all the blood I could see he was wearing a One Piece t-shirt. I always liked One Piece… maybe in a different lifetime we could’ve been friends. “Collin… Collin was his brother… He sent us to get you dude… he said… he said…”

“I don’t fucking care,” Sonnie said, coldly. He held up his gun to Tom’s head and with a stare that could kill.

“PWEASE DUDE PWEASE!” He screamed, begging for his life. I could see his eyes tearing up. He looked at him like a dying child. Then, he weakly whimpered; “I’m… I’m afwaid, dude…” a single tear ran down from the corner of his eye down his cheek. Seeing the boy in pain made Sonnie start to second guess himself. But it was too late. His stare became blank. He had died.

“God dammit…” Sonnie were almost tearing up himself. He ran his fingers own Tom’s face, closing his eyes in respect. “GOD DAMMIT!” Sonnie repeated before punching the wall, denting it.

“That guy… he was insane…” Trace said.

“You were merciful.” Sonnie says putting his hand on Trace’s shoulder, turning him around to face him.

“Was I not supposed to? We’re not animals y’know.” Trace reasons.

Sonnie sighs, “Kid what if he had killed you then? Huh? You can’t be merciful in this world with bad men like that out there. If you were to have died out there, I would’ve felt that’d be on me. I can’t have that on my conscious.”

“I’m sorry Sonnie.” Trace sighed.

“Hey, mistakes were made but it’s the answers we get from those mistakes that make us who we are.” Sonnie explains. He turned towards me. “Where are my manners.”

Sonnie and Trace walk towards me.

“Glenn Richardson, meet Trace Oxford.” Sonnie says.

He extends his hand and I shake it.

“I’ve heard a lot about you.” Trace says.

“I hope they were all good things.” I laugh, no really I did.

“D-Don’t worry Glenn. I wouldn’t let-let anyone.” AJ smiles.

I walk over to AJ and give him a brotherly hug. “Thank you AJ, you’re the best friend a guy could ask for.”

“Same to y-you Glenn.”

“Heh, gay.”

We turn to see Ethan stumbling towards us, his stumpy arm hangs at his side.

We both smile, “Good to see you got your sense of humor back.”

“Wish I got my arm back.” Ethan mutters.

“Are you okay?” Amber asks walking towards Ethan. Her smooth legs almost seemed to glow with the moonlight. Why didn’t she ask me that? Sure I didn’t lose my hand but I could’ve.

“I’ll be okay. Just need some pain pills or something.” Ethan says.

“Pills here!” Mark yelled as he threw a container of pain pills at Ethan. Ethan caught it with his remaining hand. “Found these in one of their trailers.”

“Good work Mark, you’re so reliable.” Amber says, grinning ear to ear. What’s going on between them?

Ethan downed the whole bottle and threw it aside. Damn, that was kinda badass. He stumbled into the room with the low hanging chains and yanked his jacket off little Tom’s body. “Claimed… motherfucker.”

“So… Sonnie,” Trace said. “John Tassoni Myers… He led your squad during the Blood In The Sand campaign. Is he still alive? Is he after us?”

“I dunno…” Sonnie said, looking up to the sky. “But I’ll never let him get this fucking family…”

Deaths

 * Nick
 * Brent
 * Collin
 * Tom

Trivia

 * Tom throwing an acorn at Sonnie was inspired from the scene from Saving Private Ryan where a soldier is seen throwing his helmet at a Nazi as a last resort.
 * The episode has the most amount of deaths so far.
 * This episode is the longest episode outside of the webisode, Blood in the Sand.
 * The showrunner confirms that Joe creates the next generation of Claimers a few weeks after the events of this episode.