Post by Goldenstar on Mar 9, 2021 2:59:35 GMT -5
"The Family" Intro
"Damion, what did you do?!" A tall woman with blonde hair barely dodged out of the way of a large man with brown skin who was trying to lock the plated facility door with shaky hands. Behind it, there was something, some type of animal, snarling like something not of this world. The woman ran over and put her weight against is, her eyes wide with fear- her irises barely thin circles of icy blue around pools of black. "What in God's name did you do?!"
"God had nothing to do with it, Emma!" he snapped back, finally managing to lock the door. His brown eyes were wide with shock as he grabbed Emma by the hand and ran down the aisles of empty kennels and rows of cold, hard metal tables. "That won't keep him out long. He's smart... he's too smart. We made him that way."
"We can't just leave!" Emma shrieked as Damion pushed one of the tables up underneath a window and he stood upon it. He nearly fell from his nerves when the creature at the door let out a bone-chilling howl and then was silent. The next heartbeat, there was a terrible crash as it rammed its body- full weight of brute muscles, against the door and the paneling actually budged. Damion's face crossed with fear and he reared back with all his might, took his elbow, and slammed it into the window- sending shards of glass in all directions. A splinter slashed Emma above her eyebrow and she leaped back only to be caught by Damion's hand.
"Yes we can," he told her frantically. "We have to. We can make it out to the shed and there's a rifle. I'll shoot the damn thing but we have to make it there. Come on, Emma."
Now there were panic-stricken tears running down the woman's face as she let Damion pull her up on the table.
"I hope God forgives us... for what we've done... for what we've made..." she sobbed into her palms but then she was scared out of her skin and screamed when another crash echoed through the empty work room. This time the door didn't just budge but it began to actually bow. Sweat and blood rolling down Damion's face, he shimmied out of his white lab coat and threw it over the window-pane to protect he and his colleague from the broken glass. He kneeled down and helped Emma through just as a third crash resonated. This time, something got in.
A long, massive, gnarly black paw clawed under the door. Claws like nails, a muzzle followed beside it with teeth that seemed carved from slates of marble. The creature growled with absolute loathing, an ugly, icy blue eye catching Damion's gaze. Different species or not- the message was silent, deadly, and clear. Whatever this monster was... it hated him. And if it caught him... it would kill him. Damion jumped when Emma clasped her hand on his shoulder.
"Come on!" she hissed as she reached down to take his hand. With all her might she pulled and with all his strength, he scrambled, and together... the two of them cleared the window and Damion rolled onto the frosty grass- desperately breathing in gulps of air. When the sound of destruction and chaos came again, he leaned down inside, one hand on the window-frame, and pushed the table over- away from the window so the beast couldn't follow them up and out. He managed to get out of the room and back outside just as the last push came and the monster- beast that he was- was now inside the lab, marching slowly up the silent rows.
He was a terrible creature, something that had been a wolf long ago. Before the facility had begun its torture. New steroids for athletes that wouldn't be detected by normal urine tests. It made you stronger, faster, bigger, better. It wasn't until the sixteenth vial had been injected into Wolf that they realized... it had terrible after affects. Now, the poor brute had skin like marble and his bones ached inside. There was a ringing in his ears and his muscles burned sometimes. And he was mad. Mad all the time. He had never, back when he was a pup, been angry. But now? It never stopped. He had been boiling over, simmering for years in his anger and his pain and his hate. He, who had once been a normal black timber wolf, was now a huge, freaky thing with giant teeth and giant claws and a body that hurt all the time. And the only thing that made him not think about it... was the rage. That foul, festering, all-consuming rage. He had given in to it for the first time a week ago when he bit the "doctor" and then a few days ago when he clawed the nurse. But then today when Damion had come to give him his food and his "medicine", he had, had enough. He had tried to bite him too but he got out of the way. Instead the Wolf found his teeth against the side of his kennel and, much to his surprise and Damion's, his fangs had cut through them like they had been thread. He'd been on the warpath since then. Wanting to hunt something. To hurt something. To kill something... Anything to give into the rage that numbed the hurt. That numbed the pain. Wolf padded up to the window sill and stood on his hind legs, his paws reaching the top. It would take a while to figure out a way out. Rifle. He knew the word. A human weapon. Damion planned to kill him. Maybe that would be better. But he wanted to hurt him first. For all the things he had done to him... He would pay. And then, perhaps, he could rest. But only after. Not before. Wolf turned on his dinner-plate sized paws and began to pad away, trying to think in his mind how to get out before Damion and Emma could come back. He was nearly out of the room when he heard it- the faintest squeak- and he turned his great head.
Huddled in the corner, behind the over-turned table, was the saddest scrap of fur he had ever seen. She was a rail-thin cat, a few years old, with patchy cream and tan fur. The little kitty looked up at him with big, terrified eyes. "P-Please," she whimpered, hunkering down to the floor as a small puddle of warm, yellow liquid began to spread out around her. "Please don't hurt me..."
The old Wolf wouldn't have. Couldn't have. He never would have thought to do anything at all to this defenseless creature who had done him no wrong. But now Wolf was angry. He was angry and filled with so much pain and so much rage that he wondered if hearing her little bones crunch would make the ringing in his ears stop. And he'd never had fresh meat before... stringy, she was, but it still would count. Wolf's red, ugly tongue lolled out of his mouth and he took a paw-step toward the kitten and she curled up in her mess and began to cry, covering her eyes with her damp paws. She was afraid. So afraid of him that he could smell it. The old Wolf... To hell with him. He's gone. There is only this. Only pain. Only noise. Only rage. The great brute began to stomp over to his victim, saliva running down his chin as his jaws ached for the kill. The poor kitty, so petrified, only sobbed as she knew the end was near. She let out a wail just as he was about to bite...
"Get your filthy mouth away from her!" the snarl came from nowhere and then from the row of tables, came a rocket of fur and claws. A black she-cat came flying across the lab and latched onto the back of Wolf's head with teeth and claws like knives. The canine roared in anger and threw his head back, romping in a feverish circle trying to rid himself of the pesky attacker. The next instant, another cat came and then another. The kitten, trembling, dared to open her eyes and saw that she was staring up into the milky gaze of a huge black tom.
"Come on, child. We're gonna get you out of here. Let's go now, no time to waste," he said as he used his big head to nudge the kitten. She slowly unfurled from her position but found she was shaking too hard to move. The next instant, a pretty red and brown she-cat came over and picked her up by her scruff. She leaped up on the counter nearest the window and set her down then went back and guided up the tom who had spoken first. He can't see! thought the kitten when she realized the molly was directing him for a reason.
A clattering sound and a yowl made the she-cat look back, only to realize that a brown and white molly was racing over with the black she-cat behind her- blood running down her face from a torn ear. "I got em in the eye but we gotta go now. The bastard won't be down for long and he's mad. Let's get the hell out of here!"
"You first," the red she-cat said to the brown and cream kitten and she nodded. She looked at the window sill and leaped, landing softly on the grass. She stood, shocked, when she saw seven other cats waiting outside. A pretty cream and brown molly with violet eyes filled the space in the window and reached out her paw.
"Papaw, rear back, take three steps, and jump. I've got you, okay?"
"Alright... I'll give my best..." the big black tom did as he was told. He reared back, gathered all his strength, ran three steps, and leaped. He hit the window-sill hard but his front paws landed outside and he scrambled. "Athena! Help me!"
"I've got you!" the violet-eyed she-cat gasped as she took the tom by his scruff. Her eyes stretched wide in horror when she realized that the Wolf had recovered and was racing over to the window. Without thinking, the cream and brown dappled kitten took Athena by her tail and pulled. Then the cat behind her took her tail and did the same and again and again until the blind tom, Papaw, was up and safe. And not a moment too soon. In the next instant, snapping jaws filled the window and Athena- the violet-eyed cat- hissed and slashed his muzzle with her claws. "Leave us alone!" she snarled, the fur along her spine rising.
"Hey ugly! Hey you big stupid dog! You want a snack? Huh? Come get me, ugly, I'm over here! Come on, come on!" the cry came back from by the door. Standing in the hole where Wolf had entered was a dark gray tom with tabby patches. His ears were flicked back and his tail was fluffed out and when Wolf turned to face him, face bleeding, teeth bared, he blew him a kiss. "Damn son! You is UGLY!" That was all it took, for the Wolf chased off after him and the tom turned on his paws and raced out of the room.
The next second, the red molly was ushering the other cats toward the window. "Johnni, you next... come on Lucy. You too. Alright, alright... is that everyone?"
"Except for you and that tom. We can't wait for him, Joy. Come on, we have to go..."
"He's my brother," panted a molly with brown and gray patched fur. "Please... He's my brother..."
"We'll wait if we can," Joy, the thick red she-cat, replied as she made the leap for herself. She looked down into the empty facility, her breaths coming in jagged waves. "We saved everyone we could..."
"Quinton, hurry!" cried the patched molly and she extended her paw down just as the black tom came racing back into the room. He was bleeding from a bite-mark on his shoulder but seemed unharmed otherwise. He bounded across the room, jumped on the edge of the up-turned table, and leaped- barreling through the window into his sister's arms. The Wolf came a moment later, snapping and snarling and cussing as he thundered through the alley and tried to shove himself upward toward the cats. They all jumped back but again the canine caught the claws of one of the members- the black she-cat who had attacked him first.
"You leave us alone!" she snarled. "Just go away!" Where was that human with his gun?!
Wolf growled something under his breath and fell back on all fours, blood running into his eyes from the scratch marks on his face.
"He said he wants to chew our bones. He won't stop until we are all собачья еда," this came from a very small gray she-cat and Quinton, the heroic black tom, tilted his head.
"WhattheHELL does that mean? Or did you sneeze? Gesundheit?"
"It means he wants to eat us," said the small she-cat again, her steely voice unwavering. "We should move on. I play no games with beasts such as dis."
"I agree, let's get steppin'," said Papaw, the black tom being flanked on either side by both Athena and the white and brown she-cat- the one they called Johnni. As the small army of felines began to move away, the little kitten stayed rooted to the spot. She could hear the Wolf pacing and breathing and snarling in the lab below, over-turning chairs and slamming into things with his rage. She could smell her urine and felt dirty and stupid. And scared... and alone. She sniffled and pulled out a pawfull of grass. To her surprise, she found a soft yellow paw moved in front of her and pulled out a clump too. When she looked up, all the cats had come back and were looking at her.
"Well? Are ya comin'?" Joy asked and she looked away and shrugged her shoulders.
"Do ya want to?"
She shrugged her shoulders again.
"Momma says I shouldn't talk to strangers," she murmured and Joy flicked an ear. Now that she was looking at this kitten... she realized she wasn't a kitten at all. This was a full-grown cat... several years old. But she was rail-thin. And covered in scars. And that innocent look in her blue eyes... she had a feeling this cat, for all intents and purposes, was just a kitten.
"Well... I'm Joy." She said softly. "And that big ol' black cat? That's Memphis. He was my cell-mate. We call em Papaw. Then that brown and white she-cat with the leopard markins', that's Johnni. The white and cream she-cat with the violet eyes is Athena..." then Joy trailed. She had only met all of these cats, spare for Memphis, when they were trying to escape the lab when Wolf went mad. She only knew some of their names.
"I'm Micah," said the brown and tabby patched she-cat. "This is my brother, Quinton." The black and orange-patched tom nodded.
"I'm Quin," said a red and gray tom. He winked at the little she-cat and she giggled.
"They call me... Mouse," said the small gray molly with a dip of her head. "Many nice to meet you."
"Trigger," said a dusty brown and gray tom.
"Alice!" cried out a white she-cat with yellow and gray tabby markings.
"Ella," said a cream and brown she-cat with a flick of her tail. "Hi."
"I'm Jane," spoke a pretty ginger she-cat with white spots. "Hello."
"My name is Lucy," said a brown tabby with a heart blaze on her chest. When she smiled, she had something strange on her teeth. "Hey everybody."
"Xandra. Lady X. Countess of the Stars." This greeting was cold and came from the black she-cat who had attacked Wolf first. She met the baby blue eyes of the other molly and gave a small nod.
"See?" offered Joy with a smile as she reached out a paw and gently cupped the she-cat's face. "So now we ain't strangers anymore. Welllll. Except for you, little'in. What's your name?"
"Uhm... 406..." she said softly. "406. Cage 7, cell Z. 406. 406. 406. 406..."
"No, shhh, surgar," Joy cooed softly. "What's your real name? Not the one those monsters gave ya."
"Uhm... I think... I think Momma called me... Garci."
"Garci. That's just pretty now idn't it?" Joy said softly as she motioned back toward the group. "Now we ain't strangers no more, are we?"
"I guess'not..." Garci said a bit more hopefully as she took a step forward. "Where are we going now?"
"Home, I recon," Papaw said as he turned his sightless gaze toward the horizon- in the distance... there were mountains. He couldn't see them. But he knew they were there. Somehow he knew.
"Home?" asked Garci as they, all sixteen of them, began to move- away from the lab, away from the Wolf, away from the tortures they had endured at the hands of merciless humans. "What is home? Where is it?"
"I don't know," Joy told her as she flanked the little she-cat. She met the startling violet eyes of Athena and the she-cat, who had been a stranger only hours before, gave a smile and a small nod. "But we're gonna find it together."
***
With blistered paw-pads and heavy hearts, the 'family' of sixteen odd-balls and lost hearts settled into the comfort of a rocky overhang. They had spent weeks now traveling through the two-leg town and now had come half-way up a mountain facing. They weren't sure where it lead... but they had narrowly avoided being ran over by cars, kidnapped by dog-catchers, plucked off by curious humans who thought they were 'cute kitties'... and of course, there was the overhanging presence of The Wolf. He was still tracking them and every-time they thought they'd gotten away from him, he just resurfaced again and was angrier and more feral. Up, out, and away had to be the best solution. Anywhere that was away from the violence and toil of the humans... had to be better. Even if it was unknown. In their time together, the dozen-plus of cats had gotten closer and closer- despite how hard some of them tried not to. Quinton and Micah still clung to one another like burrs on pelts but they had both gotten rather close to Lucy- who welcomed them warmly. Quin, unusual as he was, had started to pal around with both Athena and Trigger and was rather devoted as a caretaker to sweet Garci. Jane, Ella, and Alice had grown akin with one another from their solidarity as timid and shy spirits. Xandra, Joy, and Memphis had taken over as group leaders and often guided the others and encouraged them to keep going and promised solutions when things felt hopeless. Slowly, bit by bit, they were beginning to trust one another and were beginning to become something that may have been near family... Mostly.
But not everyone had merged so easily. Mouse, who seemed to be the most standoffish of the group, sat off by herself, licking her sore paws as Joy and Athena rounded up the others to keep warm as the sun began to set- spilling shades of red and ruby across the mountain-scape. Poor Ella was rail thin and shivering in the crisp cold of the night. Since they'd left the facility, the rest of the family had been shocked by the fact that, well... Ella simply couldn't eat anything that had once had a heartbeat. She hadn't even realized that there were "prey items" for cats to have in the wild. She longed for the harmless kibble of the lab and had eaten very little, only a few scraps of bread from garbage cans or leaves that looked tasty enough to be devoured. But now, her eyes were glossy and her frame was so sunken that you could see each of her individual ribs and the jagged lines of her spinal bones. Mouse watched her through harsh, critical eyes as she helplessly began to clean her dull, thin fur and seemed far too exhausted to even wash for herself.
"You really need to eat some'thing," she said in her half-growled voice. "Zhat isn't berries or people's trash."
"I won't eat a living thing," Ella replied dully, rasping her tongue over her bloody paw pads, wincing with each lash of her tongue. "I can't..."
"Unsinn," Mouse snarled, the gray and white molly sitting up quickly as she lashed her fluffy tail in aggravation. "You are a cat- a feline- a natural born carnivore. How can you reject that which is in your very nature?! You have fangs in your mouth- use them!"
"I just... I can't..." Ella looked away briskly, her voice short and shaky. Her soft blue eyes watered as Mouse's aggravated tone escalated to nearly a yell. Ella's anxiety spiked from being scolded so she missed the note of concern in the small molly's voice. "I-I'm sorry. I just... can't."
"You won't survive in zeh winter outside the lab. There are no humans to feed you here," Mouse spat, desperate for Ella to understand. Couldn't she see that this would kill her?! "You are weak."
"That's enough, Mouse!" Joy snapped, the pretty red and orange she-cat padding over with a sour look on her face. Her rounded ears flicked back and her long, thick tail lashed aggressively from side to side. Poor Ella blinked thankfully, the pesky tears in her eyes threatening to fall down her face. The pretty sand-and-cream colored she-cat hunkered down further into the jagged, uncomfortable grass, shivering with cold and hunger. She buried her face in her paws and tried to mask her sniffles. Mouse rolled her eyes, the gray and white molly looking up, unflinching, at the bigger she-cat and she bared her fangs.
"Do you want for us to survive? All of us?" Mouse hissed in a hushed voice, as not to upset Ella anymore or alarm any of the Family who were close enough to hear her. "Many of us, yes? Garci and Papaw and Lucy? Yes? Then we need to be strong. It may be a long time b'fore we find a place to settle and we will have to work so hard. We are all so new to zeh wild and new to each-other. If we want to survive, we need to work as a team and be strong. She..." Mouse, never breaking eye contact with Joy, motioned over to Ella with a nod of her head. "Is zeh weakest link. A cat who will not eat even to save herself won't survive. Look at her. She won't last till next moon."
"So we find food for her," Joy countered back slowly with a calculative tone, her voice dry and eyes deadly. Her bushy tail swished behind her and the tension gathered in her muscles made Mouse wonder if the two of them would come to blows. "We find berries an' leaves and whatever she can eat. Whatever she could possibly need. We don't let her die, we don't let her drown, and we don't treat her like a burden. She has a soft heart and she doesn't want to hurt anything. Being soft doesn't mean you're weak, Mouse."
Mouse snorted through her nostrils and shook her head in exasperation. "So we have to forage for her too? On top of trying to feed so many mouths, we have to compensate for her as well? A cat who won't pull her own weight shouldn't have someone carry hers."
Joy sighed and raised a paw to her face, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. She exhaled all the air in her lungs and set her paw back down, her warm irises a blazing green to meet the pits of amber in Mouse's own. "Have you never been down? You've never needed help before? Can't you show her a bit of compassion?"
The small she-cat flicked back her ears and her pupils narrowed into deadly thin slits. "Nein. I've been on my own my entire life, almost since birth. No mercy. No compassion. It was either do what had to be done to survive or you didn't. Period."
"Sounds like a lonely life," Joy said softly, a note of sadness in her tone, though she held the hardness in Mouse's eyes with her own. "But we're not living lonely lives anymore, are we suga?..." she twitched her whiskers. "Keep an eye on Garci will ya? I'm gonna keep Ella warm." Without waiting for a response, the chunky she-cat walked away from the smallest of the family and curled up beside Ella, using her fluffy tail and bigger frame to help break against the cold. Mouse watched her with those steely amber-gray eyes then gave a nod and a swish of her tail and headed off to do as she was told. She has never been told what to do by anyone before and while she didn't like it... Joy had a strength that she admired and she respected it enough to be compliant... For now at least. She laid down next to Garci, who was curled up beside Memphis. Her back to the rest of the Family, Mouse closed her eyes, listening to the soft sounds of the breathing of fifteen other cats as sleep came to whisk her away.
***
"Come on! Let's go, sunshine!" the maroon and gray tom hissed to Mouse as he nudged her along. Up the slope of rocks, part of the family had already begun to climb. Lucy, Garci, and Memphis were in the front- the old black and gray tom with someone on either side of him- Johnni and Trigger. Mouse went to go after them when she heard someone cursing behind her.
"Come on, Ella!" Joy hissed, grabbing the weakened she-cat by her scruff. "Come on!" But the poor molly, so dazed from lack of sleep, hunger, and fear, was barely able to put one foot in front of the other. The Wolf made his way up the facing and shook his pelt. His eyes locked on Joy and Ella- two morsels for the taking- and he let out a howl that nearly froze Mouse's blood in her veins. She stood for a moment, one foot on the next outcrop of stone in front of her, with her head turned back- staring at the two cats coming her way as fast as they could and with that monster thundering behind them. It took only a heartbeat for her to make her decision. Cursing under her breath, Mouse tore backward down the mountainside and raced to Joy's side. Together, they took Ella by her scruff and lifted her along, racing with all their might- most of the time the sandy she-cat's paws didn't even touch the ground. Joy leaped up the rocks, massive bounds at a time with Ella hanging all but lifelessly from her jaws. Mouse followed behind, nudging the she-cat up if she fell. She looked back, eyes wide to see the Wolf was barely four yards away now- so close she could see the moss in his fur and the red staining his muzzle. Another decision was made.
Mouse said a prayer- to what, she wasn't sure- and leaped back down the face, sending a shower of pebbles and stones after her. She tucked and rolled, sliding downward. She jarred left and slid directly between the Wolf's front legs. She scored her claws across his feet and watched as he went crashing backward. She jumped out of the way, managing to narrowly avoid being crushed by his massive frame as he spilled down to the bottom. Mouse dug her claws into the rocks and propelled upward, her tail fluffed up to twice its normal size. She kept going, heart racing, bound after bound, blood roaring in her ears. She could hear the Wolf snarling behind her but he was winded and far beneath them now. Her muscled burned from the upward climb and she worried her adrenaline would fade and her body would give out. And she couldn't see any of the others. Had they abandoned her?
Her legs on fire, Mouse forced another leap but lost her footing on a smooth stone. With a cry she teetered backward but then a sleek form shot out of nowhere and grabbed her by the waist and pulled her forward. Toppling over the side of the cleft to a plateau below, Mouse gasped for desperate breaths. She stared up into Quinton's beautiful multicolored eyes and nodded her head in gratitude. All around the flat, the rest of the family was taking deep gulps of air. Ella was spilled out on her back but rolled over when she saw who the black and copper tom has rescued.
"You made it!" she panted. "You saved me..."
"A... bit... of compassion, no?..." Mouse said through gritted teeth, finding Joy's blue eyes by the eldest member of the Family. Memphis, his tongue out of his mouth, tossed his head around and drank in all the scents.
"Is everyone here?"
"Yes, everyone," Athena accounted. "All of us."
"Good," said the blind tom as he pushed to his paws. "We have to keep going... we need to put as much distance between us and him as possible. We can't waste the daylight. I'm used to the dark but y'all aren't and mountains ain't easy in the daytime. Come on now, let's keep gettin'..." he nudged sweet Jane to her paws. "Home is out there and we gotta find it."
"Walk beside me?" Ella asked softly and Mouse, though she narrowed her pupils, gave a small nod and pushed to her aching feet. The small she-cat gave an acknowledging nod to the rail-thin molly as the group formed into a tight line and began to head out. Joy in the front, Memphis behind her with her tail on his shoulder to guide him, Garci behind him with Xandra following her. The siblings, then Lucy, Johnni, Alice, Jane, Quin, Trigger, Lizzie, then Ella with Mouse in the rear. As they went, Mouse looked over her shoulder and out around the mountains. Half looking for Wolf, half reminded of the landscape of her homeland... partially looking for berries or food for Ella.
Perhaps a bit of compassion would do them good.
Wherever they were going.
Wherever home was.