Leo managed to grab the open driver’s side door and slam it shut beside him as he drove deeper into the desert. He watched in the rear-view mirror as the shaggy giant stampeded out of the parking garage. Not a minute later, faint fog began to seep out of the entryway; it might have been smoke from a fire, but Leo couldn’t see it very well.

“Dammit, Kitty, you better have gotten out of there…”

He expected a pack of vehicles to come squealing out after him, but he was followed only by silence and the darkness of the desert. Ahead, He could just make out his bike by the reflecting glow of the headlight as it appeared and disappeared among the dunes. He ramped up his speed in an effort to close the distance and heard the trailer ramp dragging behind him like a thundercloud. “That thing’s gonna be ruined…”

He figured out how to turn on the headlights in time to avoid plummeting into the crater of an exposed basement and saw that he had about half a tank of fuel left. What did this thing run on, anyway? Probably not the animal fat that powered his bike… He could convert the engine, but that would take time. Still, maybe with Gregory’s help they could fix it so they could keep the truck. Another vehicle would certainly speed things along, and this one had a lot of room in the back to carry their supplies.

He flexed his sweaty hands on the wheel, unable to stop worrying about Kitty, and Tom, too. When he got used to the way the tires reacted to the sandy rubble of the ‘road,’ and felt safe taking a hand off the wheel, he rummaged out a bottle of water and allowed himself a small sip. What a night.

Should he turn around and look for Kitty and Tom? What if they were injured?

“Come on, Gregory, stop already,” he muttered at the cracked windshield.

At that moment, he drove onto the cracked and pitted remains of what was no doubt a massive highway--or had been, anyway. In its day, the highway had been four lanes wide, and though much of it was burried in drifts of sand and rubbish, it seemed to be heading east. Leo hadn't encountered any major roads on his way to the ruinous city, but if indeed this road went east, then maybe it would present easier passage through the rugged hills that lie ahead. It had taken Leo a long time to get through them, and that part of the journey was his primary concern for the ragtag band. With the remains of a road to guide them, they could cut several days of travel off their schedule, which would mean their scanty supply of water might last...if they were very, very careful.

Dalton wasn’t expecting anything to come into the camp that hadn’t already been there, so when the shaggy beast began turning the place inside out and upside down, he and the rest of his men concentrated on trying to down the thing.

“What the hell is that thing and where the hell did it come from?!”

He didn’t hear anything his men may have said for Luther decided to fire up his hand held barbeque machine and attempted to roast the poor thing. That was a two fold problem. The thing hid behind a truck allowing the flame to nearly torch the poor man that had just been thrown from the stolen truck AND Dalton was certain that if that thing HAD been lit up, it would have run amuck throughout the camp causing more damage before it was dropped.

“HEY! I don’t think that weapon is ideal in an enclosed environment! Put that thing away…NOW!”

Of course any retort Luther had for the Sergeant was cut off as the first fires were shot by Kitty as she emerged from the storage area. Instinct caused his men to start firing back at her and he had to remind them of their objective.

“Don’t kill her!! DAMMIT! We need her! Pin her down and tranq her!”

His men, still distracted by the hairy beast and the now shoot out with Kitty, were taken as much by surprise by the explosion in the storage area as Dalton himself was. The young Sergeant flinched and ducked for cover before turning to see what the hell the explosion was from. When he saw the area that was now being lit up by one explosion after another, he knew things were out of control.

“HOLY SHIT!”

The first explosion was followed by a series of other explosions and Dalton knew their supplies were ruined. And that wasn’t the worst of it. Now, as his men tried to pin the Tiger hybrid down, he saw a thick fog begin to drift over the encampment. As the fog reached his men he saw them starting to fall over. The air rushed from his lungs and he felt his heart drop to his feet.

“GAS! GAS!! GET YOUR MASKS ON NOW!!”

Unfortunately, between the gunfire and the general chaos that was happening around them, most of his men didn’t hear him and those who DID were without their masks. As Dalton saw the fog coming even closer he knew he didn’t have his mask either and he was only seconds away from dropping like the rest of them.

As he saw Kitty heading for the exit, he pulled his rifle up and took careful aim down the sights. His finger slowly squeezed back on the trigger and just as he was getting ready to fire off the killing shot, he saw a flash from overhead and one of his men fell back. He only saw the dark silhouette as the thing darted away and just before he fell out from breathing the gas, he had only one thought: These hybrids were going to be very, very sorry.

Kitty ran as fast as she could ahead of Tom and it didn’t take her long to catch the scent of the truck Leo had taken off in. Tom had stopped just a few yards from the exit and waited for her to catch up to him. After a brief check on each other to make sure they weren’t injured too badly, and Kitty pulling the dart from Tom’s pack, the two hybrids took off sprinting after the vehicles they could faintly see on the slowly lighting horizon. As they sprinted along, they could see the giant, lumbering form of the beast that had turned the make shift camp on its ear.

Kitty came to a skidding halt and sniffed the air. She could smell a musty scent mixed with something that was similar to the Rex, yet not…and…she could smell…fresh blood. Alarm raced through her. Who’s blood was it? Leo’s? Or that…thing’s? There was only one way to find out. Letting her nose guide her, she found the blood trail, the same one Tom had just picked up on. Kneeling, she leaned down as close as she could to the blood and sniffed even more. IT wasn’t Leo’s. She knew what his smelled like. It wasn’t any she’d smelled before.

Pushing herself up, she looked over at Tom who was eyeing the back of the retreating creature. Tapping his arm as she stood up, she signed to him.

what is it? have you ever seen it? is it a threat?

Kitty stood there and watched the thing moving further out of sight, along with Leo’s bike and the stolen truck. Tom grabbed her hand and practically pulled her along into a sprint again. He was right, of course….they HAD to keep moving. They would deal with the beast when they crossed that bridge. Even now, as Kitty looked towards the East and saw the sky getting lighter with each passing second, she knew they would have to find shelter before the sun rose. It was the only way. There was no way any of them, but especially Gregory, could make it over the barren waste land in he scorching heat of day.

As Tom sprinted with Kitty at his side he said "I have sensed that creature before, I do not think it is a threat. In fact I think it may be a friend, misunderstood as we are." He too then loked at the horizon and the coming dawn. "I don't think we have seen the last of the creature. The day is coming we must find shelter soon for the others. Hurry, we must catch Leo and the soldiers will not be subdued for long. Their anger will be great."

Tom then reached into the inside a leather pouch that hung off his shoulder and pulled out a folded map. "I borrowed this from one of the soldiers." he said "Do you think Leo can read it? Some of it makes sense to me but not all."

Finally, when the steely cold promise of dawn appeared in the eastern sky, the motorcycle crept to a halt. Leo pulled up alongside them in his stolen truck and hopped out. Sand slithered around his boots. Gregory leaned forward, hunched over the handlebars like one exhausted. Skittles tottered off the seat on shaky legs and walked in a circle saying something too quiet for Leo to hear. Gavin appeared to be sleeping off the drugs.

“You okay, Greg? Skittles?” Leo asked.

“Fine.” Gregory replied.

Leo leaned over the console and saw that the fuel was almost gone. Fortunately, there was extra somewhere under Gavin’s rear end. He flipped off the headlights and the display went dark.

“Now what are we going to do, Guv?” Skittles crouched, huddled, looking like a lost child with his knees tucked up to his chin.

“If Kitty and Tom aren’t here in thirty minutes,” Leo promised, then amended it to, “fifteen minutes, I’m—”

“Twenty minutes,” suggested Skittles.

“Twenty minutes. I’m going back for them.” He began to pace, and when pacing wore itself out, he stood and stared westward, hugging himself against the chill wind. As minutes crept by, the sand turned from blue-black to pewter-gray. There was an open expanse all around, interrupted by little but humble piles of rubble sparsely placed and resembling lonely boulders. Dunes imperceptibly shifted in the pre-dawn quiet. The landscape made Leo feel almost abandoned, and he was glad he had company, even if that company was made up of the decidedly antisocial Gregory, the decidedly annoying Skittles, and a drugged up rat man.

“That’s it,” he declared. “I’m going to look for them.” He walked over to his motorcycle and gestured for the torpid-looking Gregory to peel himself off. “I’ll be better on my bike.”

“Look, Guv! Something’s out there!” Skittles hooted.

Leo spun around and saw the wiggle of two silhouettes creeping towards them. He walked out to the furthest edge of their impromptu camp and watched for three slow minutes until he could be sure. Then he flung an arm into the sky and called joyously, “Kitty! Tom!” He jogged out to meet them. “Boy, am I glad to see you two,” he told them breathlessly, mostly looking at Kitty—he couldn’t help it—though it was Tom’s shoulder he slapped. “Are you guys okay?” He looked them up and down to confirm that they were without major injury. His eyes lingered on Kitty’s. “Kitty…” he said foolishly. It was a good thing Tom was there, because Leo couldn’t say what he might have done if it had been just the two of them, the way his skin tingled at her nearness.

After accepting Tom’s and Kitty’s own greetings and reassuring them about everyone’s welfare, Leo gestured over his shoulder. “I found a truck.” He grinned and turned to walk back to the vehicles. “I don’t know how far we’ll take it, but it could really come in handy—especially for keeping us all together. I’m thinking me and Gregory can convert the engine, you know?”

Kitty signed something, about fifty-percent of which Leo caught, the rest of which Tom clarified as he translated her signs to mean, Sun come up soon. Need to find shelter.

Leo nodded happily. “Yeah, and I don’t think we’ll find much in the vicinity, unless we head back the way we came, and obviously we don’t want to do that. But my tarp makes a great tent and we can always draw down the canvas flaps on the truck.”

“Maybe you can find something on this.” Tom produced a map from his pocket. “I borrowed it from the soldiers.”

Leo unfolded the map and found himself staring at a topographical display of the desert surrounding the city. After studying it for a few minutes, he thought he made sense of it. “We must be about here.” He drew a circle over a vague space to the east and a little south of the city. “This would be the road we’re following,” he traced the line that headed north-east to the rocky highlands at the edge of the map. “Hm,” his finger paused at a tiny palm tree just north of the roadway and closer to the city than the highlands. “O-a-sis,” he puzzled out the fine print. “That sounds promising. And we might even make it there before the sun gets too high, if we all ride.”

* * *


The monster was hurt and iron-smelling blood glued his fur together in patches. His pace had long since slowed from tearing madness into a determined trudge. Though he was weak as a kitten now, he would not stop because he knew the hunter followed him.

The events in the underground place with all the men and their smoking sticks and fire were a blur now. How it all unfolded, he could not say. He knew only that he had gotten away, and that he had to go east. He hoped the animal people, the little ones, the caged ones…that they had gotten free.

He hung his horn-heavy head and marched against the sandy wind. It could not touch him through his thick coat.

For a man who always sought payment for his directions Plymuth felt he was a little too compliant to be trusted, so as he made his way down the stairs he had his triple barreled spear gun at ready. He stared into the darkness and though his eyes could see better than a man's in low light, it was still too dark for him to see and so he thought it prudent to waste some energy and use his clip on flash light which he mounted on his pack's strap.

The stairs entered into a corridor that stretched out to his left and right equally, but Plymuth could smell the cool of water to his right and so he proceeded in what was an easterly direction. Midway between the stairway and the end of the corridor, he came to a junction. To his left was a doorway, over which was a sign that read 'Pool' and to his right, a short hallway that ended with a door upon which was written with red paint, 'Water'. It was obvious that it never occurred to his illiterate friend the meaning of the red coloured words and had wanted to enter the pool area, but why? A trap perhaps. Letting someone or something else do his dirty work seemed to be his style.

Plymuth decided to avoid the door to the pool and headed down the short corridor to his right. He opened the door and found behind it a small room which to his knowledge probably would have been called the boiler room or something like that, he'd check his database later. In the center of the room was a hand pump, that looked as if it had been installed years ago, but still not as old as the ancient pipes that surrounded it . He cranked the handle a few times and out came a rush of stale air followed a gush of icy cold water. It ran on it's own for a while and he caught some in his hands to sample the quality. The water tasted good and so he topped up all of his canteens then he removed his hood and held his head under the cool soothing water. Damn he missed the sea or any body of water for that matter. There was one night he missed the ocean so much that he swore the dunes began to undulate like great waves and he could taste the salt on the wind. He stood up and let the water trickle from his shaved head and down his neck then he gathered his gear and walked back the way he came leaving his head bare. There was no one around that might take note of the tiny ridges tucked behind his ears which had always been undetectable until a young girl commented on them when he was on the Nuork train. Since then he made sure he kept his head covered less he be labeled as a mutant. There were far more advantages to being human in this world and back home he had managed to blend in without the need for a head covering, but people here seemed more conscious of mutants and thus more observant of oddities. All it would take was someone standing close behind him to take notice of the tiny slits hidden in the shadows of his ears and they may make the deductive leap that he was not human. Of course he based his conclusions on the observation of one tiny girl who had been leaning on the back of his seat. At one point her nose brushed against the back of his neck, and that's when she announced that he had "weird wrinkles behind his ears". The whole situation then could have gone bad, but surprisingly it didn't, still the whole experience left him more self conscious of his minute deformity that was in fact near impossible for anyone to spot anyway.

Standing back in the main hall, Plymuth stood before the door to the pool area and curiously peered through the glass window, shining his light down the hallway beyond. The reflection made it near impossible to see clearly, but he could make out the walls of the corridor which had an open doorway on either side and there was a strange blue light at the end of the hall. He turned off his light, and pressed his face up against the glass once more to allow his eyes to adjust to the dim light. By the faint blueish glow his sensitive eyes could see the hallway quite well, and it entered into a large room with what seemed to be a large rectangular depression in the floor. Probably the pool he surmised and as he tried to make out more details his view was obscured by something moving across the opening at the end of the hallway. It looked like a man, but it was far too thin and it shambled rather than walked, the body rigid and the head angled back at a disturbing angle. Plymuth moved back from the window as his mind tried to comprehend what the creature was and couldn't. He instinctively gripped his gun fearing the thing may have seen him, but it did not return to the hallway.

Plymuth considered just leaving the door closed and finding a place to bed down, but he knew he wouldn't sleep a wink until he knew what was lurking in that room. He turned the door handle slowly, as quietly as possible and swung the door inward, then reached round the other side to find that as he had suspected it was locked from the other side. There was a stop on the door and so he flicked it down and made sure it was wedged tight against the cement floor, then proceeded cautiously into the corridor. His nose was immediately assaulted by foul earthly stench that seemed to be coming from the end of the hall. Over the two open passages to his right and left were signs that read, 'Men's Changing Room' and 'Women's Changing Room', he quickly peeked into each but his attention was drawn to the familiar stench of death and the sound of trickling water from the pool area.

Leading with his high powered spear gun, Plymuth checked both sides of the doorway and so no sign of the thing, but just a few meters away from him he could here an odd sound emanating from the pool. It sounded like the creaking of wood and the hollow noises of dried branches rubbing against a tree trunk; strange haunting sounds. The entire room was illuminated by violet coloured lights, and he recognized them as 'ultra-violet lights' that they used back in some of the green houses of Avalon. The lights explained why he could see so well, but also presented more questions and so slowly, he made his way to the edge of the pool to spy what was casting such a foul odour. He looked over the edge and what he saw chilled him to the bone. The bottom of the pool was coated with a damp layer of mud, kept wet by the constant trickle of water flowing from a few busted pipes protruding from the side wall, and there standing in the earth were several man-like creatures. Plymuth instinctively crouched down and readied his gun, but the creatures did not move, but remained frozen in their uncomfortable contorted positions, most were buried up to their knees or reclined and partially covered with earth.

The creatures were human corpses, but their hardened flesh seemed to have the properties of wood coating their skeletal bodies. Adventitious roots writhed around their bodies and out of their gaping mouths, a long stemmed flower grew. His colour vision was limited in the dim light, but Plymuth was fairly sure that the flowers all varied in colour, ranging from yellow to red. Studying them, he couldn't be sure, but it seemed that some kind of plant was growing inside the dead bodies of people and could animate them as he could now see at the far end of the pool some more of the creatures staggering around. They were slow, and weak judging them by the size of their limbs, Plymuth wasn't too intimidated. It seemed that they would most likely dangerous if someone allowed themselves to become trapped by a hoard of them, but so long as one kept their distance the creatures were harmless.

In the center of the pool, Plymuth was able to make out a fresh body, no doubt one of Texan's victims. Around it were several of the tree-like corpses. They were laying upon the corpse or crouched over it, with their dry mouths suckling off it's flesh. There were also the strange yellow flowers that were growing from the mouths of the other rigid creatures rooted atop the body, and some appeared to be withering and dieing.

The seafarer couldn't bare witnessing anymore and he turned back to the hallway, making his way back to entrance and slammed the door shut. The things gave him the creeps! He couldn't really be sure if they had any intelligence, and it didn't seem like they even realized they could leave the room, but just to be on the safe side he carried on down the aisle hoping to find a secure room to bed down in, preferably one with another means of escape if necessary. The sun couldn't set too soon for Plymuth.

With each passing second, Kitty was certain Leo was too far ahead of them and they would lose his trail. As the sky slowly got brighter, the wind from the west began to pick up and with it, the blowing sand would take with it the scent and tracks Leo was making. As she sprinted along with Tom making as many evasive maneuvers as they could, Kitty kept glancing over her shoulder. Tom was right, the soldiers were going to be very angry.

It was just about the time when Kitty was about to give up being able to locate Leo when she saw him on the horizon. He was stopped, along wit Gregory and the others and he was looking towards her and Tom. Her heart skipped a beat and she wanted to do nothing more than take off running as fast as she could right for him, but that was dangerous. She HAD to keep moving the way she was. It was the only way to be sure they escaped the soldiers.

In what seemed like it took forever, Kitty and Tom had reached close enough to Leo that he jogged out to meet them. Kitty gave the brightest smile she’d ever given when he met them and while she wanted to reach out and bring him into a hug, she knew she simply couldn’t. It was just not the right thing to do. Regardless of how much she wanted to. Of course it didn’t help when he spoke her name and looked at her the way he did. She damn near said to hell with it and reached out to hug him. It was only by forcing herself to remember the awkwardness of the last time they were close enough to each other to touch that she was able to refrain. Instead, she never took her eyes off the young man.

As Leo informed them of his procurement, Kitty eyed the truck with a little trepidation. Still, Leo had a point and if he could keep driving it, they could get further, faster in that thing. As she reminded them of the impending daylight that was about to expose them to the harsh rays of the sun, Tom showed Leo the map he took. As they decided to look into this…Oasis, Kitty thought they had made the right decision. Of course, that could have been because the first orange streaks of sunlight began to pain the sky. It wouldn’t be too long before the sun was up completely and with it, the danger of being cooked alive by it’s searing heat.

Kitty nodded her agreement to riding, even with her reservations, she knew it was far better than going it by foot. Especially with the extra weight she and Tom carried in their backpacks. She was moving towards the truck when she caught the whiff of the unmistakable metallic scent of blood on the wind. And it was close.

Growling, she whirled around and put her nose to the sir, sniffing. The blood scent was very strong and she had to fight her animal instinct to attack what ever it was. If Leo saw her do that, there’s no doubt he would leave her where she was. But she was hungry and she did need the water the blood would give her to keep from dehydrating. Flexing her hands, she crouched but didn’t spring. And it’s a good thing to. From the right, she saw the lumbering form of a large creature heading in the same direction they were headed, but not in the direct path of them.

Snarling, she kept her eyes trained on it and her body ready to spring at it any moment. Tom had caught whiff of the thing almost same time she did and was steady eyeing the thing as well. Finally Kitty recognized it as the creature that had emerged from the soldiers camp. Blinking, she relaxed slightly then started signing quickly to Tom.

creature from soldier camp….need to save it…hurt bad…..bleeding….easy prey for hunters. need to help it. HURRY

Giving Leo a quick glance, she darted off towards the large creature. Leo’s voice followed after her.

“Wait! Kitty! It might attack YOU! KITTY!”

It was moving much slower than it had before. No doubt the injuries it suffered were slowing it down and since they were moving faster than it, they must have passed it somewhere along the way. That still didn’t mean it wasn’t going to welcome her company. Moving parallel with the thing for a few feet, she moved so that she was in direct path with it and a few yards ahead then stopped, holding up her hands in front of her as though she were surrendering to it. The thing seemed to be concentrating on moving for it didn’t see her right away. Kitty was certain the thing was going to freight train right over her but it caught sight of her at the last minute and pulled to a halt.

Kitty and the creature stood staring at each other in what appeared to be a Mexican standoff. Neither moving. Kitty’s eyes studied the thing and could see the matted, blood soaked fur caused by the bullets the thing had taken. She gave a few different audible signals to the thing but it didn’t seem to register it had even heard her. Finally, out of desperation, she slowly moved her hands to see if the thing knew sign language.

no hurt you. help you. mean you no harm. friends. let me help you. yes?

The things glowing eyes seemed to bore straight into her and Kitty was almost certain the thing was getting ready to lunge at her any moment. Once again a Mexican stand off took place and Kitty was wondering if maybe Leo was right.

Leo hadn’t found Kitty just to lose her again, and when she went running off towards the huge, hairy hulk, he ran after her, calling her name. He stopped a few yards away as Kitty and the creature stared at each other, cautious and halting as if they walked through a mine field. Leo’s hand was on his gun, ready to do whatever was necessary to protect Kitty. He heard Tom’s loping footsteps coming up behind, muffled by the sand that was beginning to shine like silver as dawn tipped the highest points of the distant ruin city pink.

The monster’s nostrils flared, huffing in the air the way a thirsty man quaffs water. If it understood any of the noises Kitty made or the signs she sketched, it gave no indication. At last, the beast raised its horn-crowned head and wailed softly, a sound both sad and frightening, like the noise a trapped animal makes.



The creature lifted a hand—Leo was surprised to see it had a hand and not a paw—a hand with thick black nails, backs of the fingers matted with the same brown fur covered his shambling body; a stretched and awkward giant’s hand. Leo tensed as the beast reached for Kitty, as though to grab her. “Kitty,” he said with a warning note, and scrambled towards them, half-skidding down a sandy bank.

At Leo’s movement, the monster recoiled his hand, dancing cautiously back from Kitty and Leo both. It made another language-less sound and raised both arms to shield its chest and head.

“Easy, easy.” Leo said, recovering himself and showing an empty, steadying hand to the beast—mutant?—what was it, anyway? “We won’t hurt you if you don’t hurt us, okay?” He darted a look at Kitty. “I don’t think he understands.”

The creature lowered its arms slowly, looking from one to the other, then up the shallow ridge to Tom and the vehicles. Then he hung his head again, like one defeated, and began to edge around Kitty, lethargically shuffling eastward.

Leo looked at Kitty. “I guess it doesn’t seem dangerous, exactly… But I’m not sure what we can do.”

Tom , approached the creature slowly with his head subserviantly down and reach out to touch the creature. As his hand lightly brushed the creatures fur, it stopped and looked down at Tom. Ton then gentley guided the creature twoards Kitty, Leo and the vehicles. A silent animalistic bond of trust seemed to have been established, as they slowly made their way towads the vehicles.

Once they arrived Tom motioned for the creature to climb into the back of the truck.

Leo watched in impressed silence as the creature followed Tom to the truck. He traded a look with Kitty, and the two of them followed the wolf man and the shaggy beast, who was a third again as tall as Tom, and at least three times as wide at the shoulders.

“He’s huge,” he told Kitty. “I wonder why he helped us escape? Do you think he meant to?”

Kitty scrutinized the hairy hulk with a charming furrow on her tiger-striped brow.

The creature had reached the tailgate and his placidity fell away as Tom indicated he should climb on. The beast staggered back with a howl and swatted at the canvas-wrapped frame, causing the whole truck to rock.

“Oh, no…” Leo uttered.

But Tom managed to placate the monster again, through submissive postures and gentle touches, and when Tom crawled onto the back of the truck himself and beckoned the creature, it seemed to have second thoughts. Finally, it lumped its huge form onto the truck bed, causing the vehicle to sink down about an inch.

Leo’s chest deflated and he shook his head. “Oh, man,” he sighed. “Just when I thought our band was complete…”

As the thing reached out to Kitty, she was reaching for it as well when Leo intervened. While she knew why Leo did what he did, she was extremely frustrated. Leo didn’t know the thing would react like that and neither did she. Still, she gave a soft growl as her frustrations mounded. To make matters worse, she could see Gregory’s glare peering around the truck and she even heard him say something like ‘great…another freak’ but she didn’t have time to get into with him.

When Tom stepped in and took over, coaxing the creature towards the truck, Kitty was relieved….for a short time. When the creature started backing away from the truck after swatting at it, she sighed heavily once again. No doubt they were going o have their work cut out with this thing. And it was loosing blood with each move it made. How it remained upright thus far, Kitty would never know.

Once again, with Tom’s intervention, the thing was coaxed into the truck and with some more maneuvering, Kitty and Tom were able to get the thing settled. Kitty shrugged off her back pack then popped her head out from the canvas and looked at Leo. She held his gaze for a long moment before she mouthed and signed the words thank you. Then she gestured for him to hurry up and drive. Leo nodded and tried to get Kitty to calm down.

“Alright, alright….I’m going….give me a sec, will ya?”

With a few tries, Leo had the truck fired up and before long, they were rumbling along. Back inside the tarp covered truck, Kitty let her eyes adjust to the dimmer light then she slowly began probing the fur of the creature, looking for the wounds producing the blood. It didn’t take her long to find them as the creature moaned and howled when her gently probing fingers discovered the hole the bullet made. Thankfully, the things fur was so thick it prevented the bullets from going too deep and believe it or not, she was able to use her claws to extract the bullets. The creature was in obvious pain each time she dug the bullet out and Kitty was certain if not for Tom’s submissive and gentle touches and gestures, the thing would have swatted her away like she was a pesky fly.

Kitty found three bullet holes and three different times s distinctive “CLANG” of the bullet hitting the metal bed of the truck was heard, even over the noise of the engine and the bumping and rumbling they were experiencing. The most difficult part now was going to be stopping the bleeding. Kitty tilted her head left then right as she tried to figure out the best way to do that. Finally she decided to use what they had on hand and while she didn’t particularly like using pieces of the truck, she was left with little choice.

Reaching up behind Tom, Kitty tore off a long strip of the tarp then ripped it into smaller pieces. Carefully placing the smaller pieces over the holes, she pressed them down as best as she could then used the creatures fur to help hold them I place. At least until they could get someplace she could properly treat his wounds.

When Kitty was done, she sat back and wiped her hands off on an old rag she found in the back of the truck then wiped the sweat from her brow with her arm. The thing seemed to drift back and forth between fully awake to semi conscious. No doubt the loss of blood was a bit much, even for a lumbering beast like him. Looking over at Tom, she gave him a smile and signed ‘thank you’ to him. Satisfied Tom wasn’t in danger of being overtaken by the beast, she signed she was going to join Leo in the cab for a bit.

Moving to the rear of the truck, Kitty eased a corner of the flap up just enough for her to look behind them and to each side. Seeing nothing but barren waste land, she slowly eased her frame out of the truck then vary carefully moved up the side, moving on a thin metal rail, until she reached the cab. Opening the door, she jumped inside then closed the door. Leo nearly jumped out of his skin and reached for his gun before he realized it was Kitty.

“Jesus, Kitty! You damn near got yourself shot! Next time, warn me your doing that, will ya?”

Kitty blinked then grinned at Leo who shared the grin with her.

“Is tall, dark and hairy doing well now?”

Kitty’s gaze never left Leo and she nodded, signing slowly and mouthing the word at the same time, she waited for him to look her way after each check of the road so she could explain, as best she could, what was wrong with the thing.

removed bullets. thing lost blood. resting now with Tom. will check in little while.

This was the first time, since the very first time they met, they were alone and Kitty felt a little self conscious about it all. There was no doubt she was nervous at being in Leo’s company alone like this. Well, not so much nervous as she was anxious. Still, she seemed to fidget before she finally looked over at him again and signed the words thank you again. There was nothing she would love better than to scoot over to the center of the seat to sit close to Leo and feel his body heat so close to hers. Again she refrained from doing what she wanted to do more than anything and merely smiled at him when he looked her way. When he smiled back, she could swear she felt her heart flip flop in her chest. She’d come so close to losing him….again…only to narrowly escape with him and seek this new home that called to her…even now.

Finally she forced herself to look away and look out the window so she didn’t make Leo nervous or uncomfortable at her stares and forlorn looks. Besides…..the more she thought about it, the more she was certain he had a female waiting for him back where he came from and for her to even think of being anything other than a friend or survival acquaintance was nothing more than day dreaming on her part. This, unfortunately, is where the panther brothers were right. There was no place in a human’s world for the likes of her in any capacity other than servant or slave.

Plymuth didn't want to hang around the pool long enough to discover what Texan had planned for him. He had lied and told him to walk past the pool to find the water, so whatever was behind the doors on the other side of the room was obviously more dangerous than the slowing moving walking corpses. It occurred to him then, as he walked down the basement hallway, that one of the stationary things did not have the shape of a human, but some sort of big dog and he began to wonder if there were other undead animals lurking in the shadows. For what ever reason, for which he was thankful, the creatures if they did exist didn't attack and he wasn't about to go back in there to validate his theory.

Plymuth wound his way through the corridors of the windowless basement and just about every door he checked lead into one of three large rooms, which were more like halls. He felt a little vulnerable in the open space, but then in one of the halls he found a kitchen with two doors at either end that he could bar and use one or the other as an escape if required.

It seemed that people had stayed in the room before, and there was still a good supply of wooden boards stacked by a stove that was being used as a fire pit. Plymuth threw some wood into the stove and ignited the tinder with his solar lighter that produce a charge capable of setting fire to paper, card board and the like. In no time the wood began to burn and illuminate the kitchen with its flickering amber glow.

Plymuth made sure the doors were secure and since both of them opened inward he stacked a bunch of cans before each one so it would be impossible for anyone to quietly enter the room. Unless they were able to see through walls and the door an intruder would have no idea the simple alarms were in place so he would be able to rest easy. He then laid his blanket over the mattress that had been set up by the 'fire place' by some other visitor and sprawled out across the surprisingly comfortable bed. Plymuth eventually fell asleep after convincing himself that were the walking corpses in the pool area going to escape into the basement they would have done so long ago.

There was a moment of strained silence in the cab of the truck as Kitty looked out the window and Leo concentrated on driving. From time to time Leo would steal glances at the human feline silhouette next to him, but before she moved her head, he made sure he was looking ahead at Gregory rumble along with Skittles and Gavin both riding along with the strange, goggled man.

Finally, after another painful silence, Leo broke the silence and looked over at Kitty between glances at the road to make sure he was on track and not running over Gregory.

“You sure you’re OK, Kitty?”

Kitty looked over at Leo and held his gaze for a moment then nodded. Tilting her head, she gave him a puzzled look then signed as she mouthed the words, helping him learn her sign language again.

why? i not look ok?

Leo shook his head and quickly explained.

“No, no…that’s not what I meant. I just want to make sure you aren’t hurt and either not telling me or thinking it’s nothing. How’s the wound in your side?”

Kitty had all but forgotten the wound and when Leo mentioned it, she looked down at her stained shirt, lifted it high enough to expose her abdomen. Checking the now dirty bandage for fresh blood, she was both satisfied and relieved it was still on the mend and hadn’t suffered any additional damage. Lowering the shirt, she looked over at Leo and smiled.

no trouble…all good. your shoulder?

Kitty pointed to his shoulder then and raised her brows. Leo smiled and nodded as well as he worked the steering wheel of the truck to keep it going the direction he wanted it to go.

“Good. Good. It’s itchy from time to time, but I’m sure it’s just part of the healing stage.”

Leo grew quiet for a moment then quietly said what was really on his mind.

”I was afraid those guys were going to….well…it’s over with now.”

Kitty gave Leo another puzzling look trying to figure out what he meant. Leo was remembering what the panther brother had said to him about how the soldiers were going to treat Kitty and even now he could feel his anger growing.

Kitty saw the look o n Leo’s face and she’d never seen anything like that before from the young man. He was so caught up in what ever it was he was thinking he didn’t even look over at her again. Kitty was worried at this change in Leo and she wanted to make sure something hadn’t happened to him to cause him to react this way. Reaching over she tentatively touched his arm. Leo snapped his head over to look at her with that same angry look on his face but when he saw her looking at him, he blinked and relaxed his features, giving her a smile again.

“Sorry….didn’t meant to ignore you.”

Kitty wasn’t convinced he was alright and tried to get him to explain.

what happened back there? they hurt you?

Kitty’s brow furrowed as she thought of the soldiers hurting Leo. Leo shook his head and quickly laid Kitty’s concerns to rest.

“No, no….they didn’t have the chance.”

Leo looked over at Kitty and saw the look on her face knowing she wouldn’t be satisfied until she had the truth from him. And why shouldn’t she? Maybe it would help her defend herself against something like that if there ever came a time she were put in that sort of situation. Not if Leo could help it, though…but still.

“Alright…look…..the panther brother…he told me the soldiers…well….they wouldn’t care if you WERE hybrid. You were female with all the right parts and they would gladly see if they all worked. Rather you wanted them to or not.”

Kitty sat looking at Leo as though he’d just smacked her across the face. She never even considered something like that. In the past, the men have either been too sick to try anything like that with her or she had killed them before they had the chance to try. In the sort of situation she was just in, it would have been easy for the soldiers to do what ever it was they wanted to her with the drugs they used.

Leo saw the look on Kitty’s face and he reached out, taking her hand in his and squeezing it gently to try and comfort her.

“It’s OK, Kitty….they wouldn’t have gotten a chance. I wouldn’t have let them.”

Kitty slowly let her gaze slide down to look at Leo’s hand as it covered hers. Instinctively she slowly turned her hand over and laced her fingers with his. When he didn’t pull away right away, she let her gaze slide to his face and he was steady looking at her. Time slowed and for a moment in time, it was just the two of them. Leo caught in her gaze and she was caught in Leo’s. The only thing that broke that concentration between the two of them was the jerking of the steering wheel as the truck veered off the road and into thicker sand that caused Leo to quickly avert his attention back to the road and let go of her hand so he could have both of his on the steering wheel. Leo laughed nervously to try and break the tension.

“Whoa….almost got us stuck.”

Kitty blinked and felt the heat rush to her cheeks. Once again she’d put Leo in an uncomfortable situation. When would she ever learn she couldn’t do that? Finally she let her gaze turn to the landscape around them and she furrowed her brows even more. The sun would no doubt be causing the land to turn into an oven soon. Hopefully they would reach this…Oasis before it reached its zenith. And before Gregory had another delusional spell.

Thankfully, they were putting the ruined cityscape behind them and heading out into more open places making it difficult for them to be taken by surprise. As they rumbled on, she saw a faded road sign and she tried to read it but it was difficult with the missing letters. The picture appeared to be, at one time, a picture of a pool and people lounging around it but it was so faded and half ripped off she couldn’t really tell.

“Re x and Rej n e at the Oa s. Your va t n des a on”

So, they had reached Oasis. Leo’s reading skills weren’t yet polished enough to puzzle out the weather-worn sign as they drove by, but the sight of a giant palm tree, false and paralyzed, with paint chipping off, suggested this was the place. “Here we are,” he said to Kitty with a smile. Wouldn’t it be nice if they could always travel together like this? Almost like people used to do, once…

Leo was a bit disappointed for his time with Kitty in the cab to end—who knew when they’d get a moment alone again?—but it was a good thing they were here, judging by the way Gregory was weaving on the bike. It was a lucky thing the old Honda was equipped with a sidecar, or Leo doubted the bike would have remained upright. His heart lurched at the sight, and he breathed a sigh of relief when Gregory finally came to a stop.

“Look at this place!” Leo exclaimed as if it was truly the vacation destination of a lifetime. He hopped out of the truck and surveyed the boarded up building footed in shifting sands. “It’s perfect!”

The hybrids peered around cautiously, but Leo could tell by the way Gregory was beginning to shiver and mutter to himself that they had to get inside without further ado—to say nothing of the fact that, now that he was out from the shady shelter of the cab, the sun was starting to burn his scalp and nose. Leo was no fool, though, and he listened carefully at one solid hunk of metal that must have been the door before daring to touch it. He glanced at his companions and then raised a knuckle to rap lightly. “Hello?” He ventured. There was no sign of life.

With a significant nod at Kitty and Gavin—who were the only ones really free to act if there was trouble, given that Tom was occupied by keeping a handle on the moaning and sluggish monster and Skittles was acting as Gregory’s human crutch—Leo pried open a secret compartment he’d found on the large metal door. He was rather smug about it—as if there was a secret compartment anywhere on earth that could fool the master treasure hunter!—and inside was a handle, sure enough.

Seeing both Kitty and Gavin tensed and ready, he pulled the handle, preparing himself to pivot behind the door as it opened, in case there was a trap waiting beyond. The handle felt stuck, but with a pop, suddenly turned. As the sands gave way beneath his feet, Leo realized with a yelp of alarm that this was a different sort of trap entirely: nothing behind the door, but a trapdoor in front of it.

Leo careened down a chute with barely enough time to curse himself for his stupidity—well he was exhausted, wasn’t he? And he had been thinking about Kitty, and—before he found himself freefalling in queer, violet-tinted darkness for about half a heartbeat. Then, with a solid ‘squelch!’ he hit a giant vat of mud.

His butt sunk in up to his waist, and his arms up to his elbows, before he was able to scramble upright. The dark soil was heavy, glued itself him, and smelled foul and fetid. “Ah, crap...” He flung his arms to free them of chunks of the slimy matter. The air, warm and humid, clung to him like a veil. “I’m okay!” he called up to his doubtless worried companions, to let them know that he was still alive.

Then something moved and he was aware of soft sounds of rustling vegetation that he hadn’t heard since leaving home. As Leo’s eyes adjusted to the dark, clusters of faint and ruddy flowers emerged around him, quivering like the tongues of snakes. He turned in a slow circle and realized a forest was shambling nearer to him, surrounding him. His heart froze as he saw a human figure moving. “Who’s there?” he rasped thickly. And as the person came nearer he saw it was a corpse.

He stumbled back, drawing his glock and his machete. The ripe graveyard stench filled his nose. “Oh, sweet mother of mercy…” A tendril slithered through the darkness as brushed his earlobe, and Leo whirled, hacking with his machete. “Agh! I knew this place was too good to be true!” Leafy fingers and sickly sweet flowers closed in from every angle…He had to cut a path out, or he was done for! Mud sucked at his boots and he couldn’t move quickly enough.

When Kitty got out of the truck, she made sure she got two of the Ruger .9MM from the backpack she got from the soldiers. Checking the clip and pulling the barrel back to cock the gun as Tom did the same, she looked around carefully letting her nose twitch slightly as she sniffed the air as her eyes scanned the area. So far, everything seemed to be good to go. But Kitty knew better than anyone things weren’t always as they appeared.

Kitty thought this was something out of an nightmare. First Leo was standing there, smiling triumphantly and the next, he was being swallowed up by the ground. The first thing that slipped into Kitty’s mind was one of those disgusting, slimy worm monsters she’d encountered the last time she ventured from her bunker home. But when she didn’t hear any high pitched screech and only heard Leo’s voice calling back he was OK, she realized it wasn’t that. However, the fetid stench that assaulted her nose told her there was death and decay where Leo had gone and that most certainly couldn’t be a good thing.

Kitty looked over at Tom and signed quickly to him that she was going down the chute Leo had traveled down to join him and that Tom and the others needed to get inside and possibly meet them from that angle. Of course everything changed in a split second when she heard the alarm in Leo’s voice.

“Agh! I knew this place was too good to be true!”

Without a second glance at Tom, Kitty slithered into the chute, feet first, and holding a gun in each hand, she landed in the mud with a distinctive sploosh The rancid smell she caught a whiff of earlier was enough to make her gag but she quickly recovered when she saw the danger Leo was in.

As the strange looking corpses began closing around Leo, Kitty fired off a round at each one. Snarling and hissing like a cornered cat, she couldn’t understand why they didn’t really stop. What the hell were these things? And why were they determined to get a hold of Leo and now herself? Vine like appendages reached for the two of them like silent assassins. Even as Leo severed one of the vines, it seemed like two more came up to take their place.

Firing off more rounds until both of her guns were empty, she finally had to toss the guns aside and, with claws extended, began slashing at the things in an attempt to shred them before they could get themselves latched onto Leo or her.

One of the vines grabbed a hold of Leo’s ankle and jerked him off his feet and started dragging him away. Kitty dove towards him and was able to grab a hold of his forearm and pull. The vines had a bit more strength than she thought and it was all she could do to hold on. Leo held on for dear life with his free hand as he hacked dangerously close to his ankle with his machete to loosen the vines hold on him.

Unfortunately, while all of this was happening, this gave the other vines ample opportunity to move and close in and the next thing Kitty knew, she felt one of them wrap around her ankle and begin to pull. Leo, feeling the resistance coming from Kitty, looked over with complete horror and saw how the vines had closed in around them.

“Don’t…let….go! You hear me, Kitty! Don’t let go!”

Kitty shook her head even as she was struggling against the pull of the vine and the pull she felt from a new vine that grabbed a hold of Leo trying to let him know she wasn’t about to give up. Not as long as she drew breath. Dammit! This was a losing battle. There was no way they could get out of this. Not without help from Tom. Bowing her head, Leo thought she was giving up and he opened his mouth to say something when she lifted her head and let out one of her loud roars hoping Tom could hear her.

“RRRRRRROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!”