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Part 7
Dark Brother paced the hallways wimpering, wishing with all his heart he was human. With a plaintive yowl, he'd race down the corridor and throw himself against the door, but it wouldn't budge. Staring at his paws, the huge cat began to cry- very human tears running down his feline muzzle. If only I had human hands, Ta Bahata...I could have saved you.
Rune was gone...Dark Brother did not know where. But he knew what the world outside could be like. Each time the side doors to the old building opened, more people were brought in. Torn, beaten, starved. The world outside chewed them up and spit them out again. Even the smallest wound, if left untreated, the world made fatal. His Ta Bahata herself was proof of that. Her simple inability to cope with the dust in the air had blinded her, perhaps for life. Dark Brother had seen the strong enter the world outside...only to return as broken shells.
With a final feline scream of agony, Dark Brother collapsed on the floor, exhausted from ramming the door and feeling dead inside. His Ta Bahata had fallen so many floors down...straight to the street below. It was almost out of the question that she was alive..But he had to know for certain! He had to!
"Is Winter out there," garbled a strange voice from behind. Dark Brother lifted up his head to meet the speaker, tears still streaking his muzzle.
The black furred Myche he had seen on his first day to this place sat on its rear haunches behind him. Most Myches had fur in an elaborate pattern or colouring...but this one was all black. Even its mane was the same jet colour. The only varriation was the metal dome that replaced half of its head, and the various other metal attachments across its body. Around the metal, the skin was tough and pink, old scars that had never fully healed away. The Myche had been torn apart in the same place which had put Dark Brother and his Ta Bahata together. It blinked its one organic eye at him, as if it had asked a question. Dark Brother ran a paw across his face, wiping away the tears before answering. Is it?
Raising its pointed muzzle to the air, the diode that replaced the Myche's other eye rotated and clicked. "Kerro thinks we are in the country called Russia...But that is not why."
Dark brother sighed and put his head back down. He had no time to listen to insane ramblings. He needed to find a way to open that door...He needed to find Aslilin- Needed to save his Ta Bahata-
"The black cats only hunt in the snow," Kerro said, his voice a metalic rasp. "Most black cats in cages in Russia. Who let one out?"
Blinking momentarily, Dark Brother began to realize what Kerro was aluding to. What?
"Yesss," The Myche turned and began to walk away, tail swishing in time as it moved down the corridor. "Yes, even blind black cats hunt in the snow. Very big storm coming...It always snows in Russia..."
With a fire blazing in his green eyes, Dark Brother screamed and threw himself at the door again, clawing against the metal with his massive talons and trying to bite with his fangs. He needed to stop Aslilin more than ever now- She was alive. She was going to kill something.
With a snap, the metal actually began to splinter beneith the feline's claws. Blood spilt from cuts on Dark Brother's paws and pooled on the ground. Ignoring it, the feline continued to shred at the door. Gashes spread across his face, legs, chest and head. Blood rained from him in a crimsion downpour but there was no way he was stopping now. He needed to break through and reach Aslilin. He knew the amount of damage she was capable of. He was not scared to die- but he needed to stop her.
She didn't need to see their faces, she could smell them.
Filthy, stinking, sweating, and horny. She could smell that too. Males, maybe as many as six from the way the air currents moved. The small stubbed hairs on the back of her neck inched upwards, and she slitted her blind eyes, dropping down to all fours and growling.
"Ooo, wild one..."
"Hey, baby..."
They desired to mate with her. They mate with her? Humans ruin her further, deform her further? Aslilin would have lashed her tail had she posessed one. The idea was abusurd, hilarious. Her face did not show these things, though. Not that it mattered.
A click. Weapons, then? Her ears perked up and she swirled expertly on all fours to meet the origin, her lower legs out behind her and folded, ready to spring or run. Fight or flight. She had no fear of dying...
"Better comply, there, honey, or things could get ugly."
Aslilin growled low in her throat. Comply?
"How'd you wind up in such tatters, sweetheart? Shows off..ah..quite a bit...heh heh heh." That voice came from behind her. She ignored it for the time being. Her cloths must have become torn when she leapt through the window, or landed in the dumpster outside. She did not know where they were ripped. She did not care. For all she knew, they were gone completely. She would have liked it better that way.
There was a rhythmic pat-pat-patting sound. Probobly the weapon being thrown from hand to hand casually. Still, it didn't concern her yet. "Not the type to talk much, huh raven-hair? That's okay, we're not the types to listen anyway."
Someone moved towards her and she backed instinctively away on all fours, snarling. The humans thought this was funny. Moving backwards, blind, she bumped into another one of them. He reached down and grabbed her around the chest, monkey hands squeezing. She did not like that. She did not like that at all.
The man was thrown several feet, Aslilin's hand and feet moving in a blur. Ta Bahata said I must not kill them, for I am no better. But still... She felt the air twist. She knew it twisted. The man flew further, flew up, screamed and came down with a crack. Alive, dead...She did not care. She had felt the reality twist again and winced internally. No one must touch her, she must touch nothing. She contaminated what she touched...the gloves Rune had give her fit snugly, and she took solice in that...
"Got a problem with your hands, raven-hair?" One of the other humans didn't seem afraid at all, even after seeing what had happened to his friend. The others smelled of fear, but did not leave. Aslilin blinked. Had he seen how she hid her hands...? "Take off the gloves, boys."
Bodies piled on Aslilin, someone sat on her and pinned her down, someone held her arms out. She screamed and thrashed, but the gloves peeled away. She writhed, throwing the human sitting on her by sheer force, and curled up around her hands. She could not touch anything!
Their smell changed...Aslilin snarled and twitched on her side, curling further, as they were suddenly quiet and stepped away. Stinking...filthy...humans...
One of the humans, the one who knew about her hands, laughed. "See, what'd I tell you all? She won't move. Freak-girl's afraid to let people see her hands." The voice was familiar suddenly...it was...who was that, the human from long ago? The one who had met her and called her...
A kick in the ribs made Aslilin roll away, still hugging her hands and growling. Something wet that stank of human hit her face- saliva. One of them had spit on her. "Demon."
"Give..." Aslilin's voice rasped, she wasnt used to using it. "Give me back my gloves!"
"Sure thing, sure thing raven-hair," She smelled them getting closer, felt them near her. They were choking the air, sucking up all her oxygen. "Soon as we get what we want..."
