Survival of the Wild - New World

Chapter Three - Ezra the Red Wolf

Ezra bounded over a fallen log, its wooden skin thick with green moss. She crashed her head into a massive grey wolf, knocking him off the black rock he'd spent the day sunning himself on. He tumbled to the ground, then swiftly jumped back to his feet in shock, glaring up at Ezra as she gazed down on him from atop the rock.
"What the hell are you doing, Murphy?! Why aren't you getting ready?" Ezra asked urgently.
"Get ready? What for?" Murphy licked his lips and lifted his muscular, grey back leg and scratched behind his ear casually.
"Are you kidding me? Dallas just gave us both a speech about it! You were there!" Ezra scolded her irritating cage-mate. 
"Sorry, what? I couldn't hear you over the shouting!" Murphy leant forward dramatically as he raised his voice sarcastically.
"Shouting? What are you yapping on about?" confused, Ezra glanced around.
It was dusk, so there wasn't much going on except the distant car engines and beeping from Maine's roads. All she saw was the surrounding electric fences that held her captive inside this cage, and the zoo she was held in was closed by this time. Except for the few over-time workers and the other animals in the zoo, all was quiet. 

The Wolf yearned to be free and live her own life where nature intended it. She was wild at heart, no doubt about it. The red she-wolf wanted the privilege to hunt her own prey, not have old corpses tossed into a cage for them while the visitors watched her eat with flashing cameras and screaming children. She wanted to travel for miles, to seek out her own pack - her own family. But none of that was possible here. The only thing Ezra was, was a human's play-thing, a play-thing with nothing but a singular memory that set her opinion of mankind. One of her earliest memories was her being torn from her mother. She remembered having to watch her little sister, Blythe, being hurled into a fast-flowing river as Ezra was being manhandled and shoved into a tiny cage at the back of a vehicle. She never saw Blythe again after that...
But that's where she met Murphy, but he'd never told her where he had come from, even though they were just puppies at the time and barely understood what was going on, something had scarred Murphy, and it had haunted him ever since, Ezra could sense it. One thing she could never understand about Murphy, though, is that he somehow was able to accept the fact that the Wolves were just an experiment, entertainment for those at the top of the food chain - humans.
However, the one thing the two canines did have in common, was that they both shared the same hatred towards mankind.
They'd been locked in a box their entire life, and Ezra felt that now, finally, it was her chance to ultimately fulfil her dreams. 
The only downside was - Murphy had changed dramatically since they got taken to the zoo. Before, they were both closer than anything, but now it seemed like he wanted to ruin her excitement at any opportunity! Ezra felt resentment toward her former companion, it's as if he now enjoyed his easy-going life; being fed by humans that never gave a care in the world; sunning himself on a rock all day, every day; getting a plump stomach without the effort of hunting. Over time, Ezra had simply grown sick of seeing his arrogant mug. 

"Murphy! Don't ignore me!" Ezra snapped.
"Sorry Ezra, duty calls. Toodles!" Murphy gave a flirtatious wink before plodding off, tail waving in the air, towards a different sunning rock.
Ezra wondered why he was even going to another rock, it wasn't even sunny! He'd be better off 'sunning' himself inside the den!
"You are such an ignorant mutt!" she snarled.

Ezra hopped off the black rock and strolled towards the den. She entered, her chest still filled with irritants toward Murphy's ignorance.
"It will be here soon Ezra, just be patient will you!" Dallas urged her without even looking up from the bones he had been clawing at.
"I haven't even come to talk about that! What are we going to do about Murphy?" she asked.
"What do you mean? Murphy is coming with us," Dallas looked up at her with his head to one side.
"He's acting as if he didn't hear a word! He's being so ignorant and careless!" she complained.
"Well, that's not my problem now is it?" Dallas stopped glaring at Ezra and went back to clawing at his bone. She felt taken aback at Dallas' answer, but ever since it's gotten closer to 'the time', he's grown more and more selfish.
Although Ezra was pretty much used to Murphy's arrogance by now, she felt anger from hearing a similar attitude come from Dallas. He was their alpha, after all, he was supposed to help and care.
"Fine!" she snapped, "I'll deal with it myself. Not like I need you, anyway!" Dallas whipped his head around and glowered at her in shock.
Either he hadn't realised that what he said was wrong or he just hadn't expected Ezra to be so sharp with her leader. He parted his jaws to retaliate, but Ezra pivoted briskly on her petite paws and stormed out of the shelter.
The Red Wolf was growing impatient.
Suddenly, she recalled how Dallas usually gains his information - from the enclosure beside them. Gulping, she thought about how she had no clue on what was inside that enclosure - but she had to get answers. Ezra knew that there was much more going on than what Dallas had been letting on.