Chapter Text

Cole had worked "security" since he came to the city, some twenty years prior. He'd done it all, from club bouncer to overnight guard at a nursing home. Getting asked by a pack of Timbers to back them up in a job at a hospital called "Cliffside" wasn't exactly unexpected, there were a few around that had found the work suited them, but they occasionally needed the help of independent contractors to stop their own internecine conflicts from causing trouble on the job. Of course, it wasn't common for them to approach a "Loner", but he rather understood it once he got there.

For a start, unlike most jobs, it was outside the city proper. Secondly, instead of being given an address and making his own way, he had to meet the pack in a minibus Downtown and they would be driven as a group.. not his preferred way of working, but he'd given his word.

The bus turned up as he waited, the back alley meeting place wasn't exactly surprising, he's done his share of work for... less savory.. groups of Zootopian society. All it meant is that someone didn't want the group being seen in public. The driver was a grey furred wolf by the name of Larry, the more sensible of the two wolves in charge of the pack, and had been the one who made Cole the offer a few days before.

"Get in the back, Gary will give you the run down on the drive."

The older wolf tilted his head at that, his left ear flopping and the right torn to shreds long ago still spiking some. Unusually business like for the younger pack's Alpha, but he does as requested and climbs in through the open door, a white furred wolf nodding to the only free seat.

They were all young, unmarked by the sort of life this city could give, and eager to work.. chattering amongst themselves. All timber wolves, of course, barely off the train like their Alpha and Beta. From the smell of them, they had come in town from the woodlands together and lived in Rainforest... probably the lower level... lots of big spaces there for cheap, even if it did make them smell of rain and earth. He'd lived there for awhile, but preferred Tundratown, the cold was like the mountains he grew up in.

He took his seat, and the bus got moving, taking back streets and an overly long route out of the city.

"A lot of caution for a simple job, Gary?" he couldn't help but glare slightly, it was getting his hackles up at this point.

"Chill, old wolf, the doc says it's for patient privacy." The younger wolf actually looked utterly relaxed, and trusting, a grin constantly playing on his lips as he laughs and jokes with the rest of the pack.

Driving up the cliff road, Cole got his first view of the so called hospital. Perched at the mid point of a high waterfall, water rushing on either side of it, the building was far from benevolent looking.

"I've got a bad feeling about this."