The little red fox tasted blood from having bit his tongue.

The hounds bayed far too close for comfort as the fox got back to his feet.  Explosive pain seared through his left front leg.

He must have broken it after falling down the sharp edge of the ravine, but he couldn’t stop now.  The river was close and if he could make it across he would be able to lose the hounds this time.

#

"Thousands of years ago when the philosophers of ancient India and China discussed reincarnation I’m pretty sure they never anticipated anything like this."

The burgundy blazer looked two sizes too big on the shoulders of the guide as he walked ahead of the group.  He paused in front of a row of shiny steel chairs that faced a large graphical display depicting people hunting various small animals.  He waited for the entire group to catch up before continuing.

"The belief in rebirth was so strong that back in the year 2007 the Chinese government enacted laws to regulate reincarnation.  They basically made it illegal to be reborn into another body after death, without permission."

A couple people chuckled as the guide continued.

"But that was a long time ago and advances in science during the last hundred and twenty years have brought the concepts of reincarnation out of the spiritual realm of fantasy and into the scientific realm of fact."

The guide tugged at the shoulders of his blazer trying to straighten them out.

"Now before we get started, who can tell me the purpose of a facility like this?"

The guide looked around the small group waiting for someone to raise their hand.  He looked over most of the group before finally settling on the thin man with wire-framed glasses standing at the back of the group.

"Come on don't be shy.  What we do here is very important."

The man with the glasses looked at the floor to avoid the guide’s eye contact.  Nobody else offered an answer so the guide continued with his standard introductory speech.

"A little over fifty years ago the government enacted the anti-hypocrisy laws, as they would later be called, and made any law that directly violated another law invalid."

"In essence, the judicial system could no longer sentence someone to death, because murder was considered illegal."

"With the death penalty abolished prisons started to get more and more crowded.  And rather than build more prisons our legal regulators decided to give lesser crimes a lighter sentencing."

"The end result, to everyone’s dismay, was an increase in crime.  With fewer criminal activities resulting in imprisonment people went right back out to commit more crimes after being arrested and released."

"Today, because of facilities like this, crime is almost nonexistent.  I say almost because crime happens wherever there are people, but believe me when I tell you, there are zero repeat offenders."

"At the end of the last millennium criminal rehabilitation was thought to be achieved through imprisonment over an extended period of time but, as we all know, it was met with limited success."

"Now, rehabilitation takes place in a matter of hours with a proven one hundred percent success rate."

A short fellow raised his hand and waited to be called on.

"Does it hurt?"

"That is an excellent question."

The guide removed a small little gray box with a single red button on it in the pocket of his oversized blazer.

"It's against the law to harm any human.  This brings us to the reason we are all here today."

The guide pushed the little red button and the large digital wall behind him shimmered as it changed from artistic depictions of hunting into a clear plexiglass wall showing several separate chambers where people, ranging from one to several, were donning hunting gear.

"On the other side of this wall are the victims of your various crimes.  They have been given the opportunity to be part of your rehabilitation and will be hunting the animal that we transfer your consciousness into.  Your spirit, if you will, for those of you who still believe in such things."

The guide pointed to the sparkling metal chairs.

"You have each been assigned a seat number.  If you will please find your seat, the chairs will automatically secure you into them to avoid any possibility of injury during the transfer process."

The thin man with wire-framed glasses walked right to the chair on the end as if he had done this many times before and settled in.

In less time than it took to register he had settled into the shiny metal chair, his arms, chest and legs were immediately held in place by electromagnetic suppressor fields.

He looked into the empty chamber in front of him as the guide in the oversized coat walked up to check that he was securely in place.

"Welcome back Dr. Philips."

The guide reviewed his notebook.

"I see that you are scheduled to be a fox again."

"How many more times do I have to die?"

"The standard sentencing is one death per victim.  And until we catch that monster you unleashed upon us all, the authorities fear there will be many more victims."

"Why am I being rehabilitated when I never actually killed anyone?"

The guide leaned in close and hissed just barely above a whisper, "Maybe you should've left Jack the Ripper back in 19th-century London where he belonged."

The guide stood back up to his full height.

"Enjoy the hunt Dr. Philips."