Hunting As a Cat

My tail thrashed around, making loud thumping noises inside my suit.

“Relax, there’s only two of them.” Apollo handed his rifle to Oliver, dumped his backpack on the ground, and unzipped his suit. “Follow my lead. I’m gonna teach you how a cat really fights.”

The Apollo who stepped out of that suit looked much different than the Apollo who had donned it days earlier. There was a gauntness to him that I had never seen before. He had large bags under his eyes and his shoulders hunched as though he had lost his boundless confidence.

“Stop,” I said. “The Miasma—”

“Is thin right now. Besides, you don’t think the humans made us because they have a thing for cat ears and tails, do you? No, they designed us to live out here. Now come on, you’re worried ‘bout bein’ useless, yeah? Let me show you how to hunt.”

My tail froze mid-swipe. “How do you know that? Were you eavesdropping on us?”

“You’re not the only one Lea talks to. Now hurry up. We don’t have much time before they get here. Place the suitcase in that clearing. We’ll use it as bait.”

No way was I going to go along with this. Taking off a protective suit outside the dome was suicide. But… true to his word, Apollo appeared fine. Maybe I would be too? Fat chance. He was probably just too oblivious to realize he’d already been poisoned. I looked to Lea and Oliver for help, but they didn’t move as Apollo grabbed my suit’s zipper and pulled it down.

Caught by surprise, I didn’t even think to hold my breath. My throat burned as unfiltered air rushed in, causing me to cough like I was trying to expel my lungs. Tears fell from my eyes with such speed and volume that I thought I would completely shrivel up and crumble to dust. I tried to push away from Apollo, but he kept a tight grip, and after thrashing for a few seconds, the coughing stopped and the water in my body stopped trying to escape through my eyes.

“There, see?” he said. “You’re fine. Follow me.” Without waiting for an answer, he jumped some five meters straight up and hooked his claws into a tree. There, he positioned himself behind a large tumor in an attempt to hide himself. His tail stuck out from the side, however, giving his position away.

This was crazy, but maybe it was crazy enough to work. When the humans crested the hill, their hoods would block much of their vertical vision. Maybe they wouldn’t see us. I didn’t like risking my life on a maybe like that, but I didn’t have any better ideas.

I did as he asked and placed the suitcase in the clearing then scrambled up to a nearby tree. From my perch, I could see the humans walking up the hill carrying rifles, and I knew that if I could see them, they could see me. But they didn’t give any indication they knew we were there. They just kept walking until they came upon the suitcase.

Soon as they spotted it, they stopped in their tracks and looked all around for any signs of a trap, but they didn’t think to look up.

That’s when Apollo made his move. Dropping from the tree, he landed on the closest militant, knocking him to the ground.

I followed his example and pounced on the other militant. He fell to the ground, but quickly rolled out from under me, and I had no idea what to do next. Luckily, he turned and ran, which triggered something in me. Before I knew what I was doing, I pounced on him.

Thrashing around, he tried to elbow me, so I jumped back and crouched down for another strike. He scrambled to his feet and turned to face me. Then, seeing his rifle on the ground, lunged for it.

Wap. Before he was halfway to the gun, I smacked him in the chest, sending him flying backward. This time, he hesitated before standing again. Must have been a surprise for him to be thrown around by a shorter girl. Sure as hell was a surprise to me to discover that he was so weak and uncoordinated.

That he was so slow.

Instead of running, this time he did something curious: He put his hands over his head and backed away slowly, yelling unintelligibly.

Yeah, that wasn’t gonna work. I stepped right up and swiped at his cheek, ripping open his protective hood with my claws. He shouted louder, as if I were going to spook and run. Was this what I had been scared of, what had haunted my nightmares? Without their guns, the men who destroyed my village were nothing, and I was going to prove it to him.

Frustrated that his bluster wasn’t working, he pulled his arm back. Had it hit, I’m sure his punch would have hurt, but it was so telegraphed that it had no chance of connecting. Easily sidestepping it, I delivered another smack to the side of his head. He froze in shock, so I did it again, much harder this time.

Perhaps I had grown overconfident, but I was having fun. All this time, he had been the predator, and I had been the prey, but now I was enjoying watching him realize who the real prey was. No doubt thinking he could outsmart me, he made a faint toward the rifle and then bolted in the opposite direction.

I was on him like a flash, and this time, my body knew exactly what to do. My claws gripped his shoulders as I sank my teeth through his suit and into his neck. Warm blood filled my mouth, but I held on tight, only releasing him after he went limp. As I pulled away, his hood tore completely off, revealing a face not too different from Oliver’s.

There had been a real person under that suit. Suddenly, it wasn’t fun anymore.

⁂

“I am never doing that again.” For the hundredth time, I spat on the ground, trying to wash the metallic taste of the militant’s blood from my mouth.

“Why? Because it reminds you of what you really are?” Apollo asked. “No ‘human’ could pull that off. Admit it, you’re—”

“Cut it out.” My words were equal parts speech and hiss. That must have surprised Apollo, because his ears and tail shot up. “So what if I have instincts? Everyone has them. Ours are just a bit different, that’s all.”

“Enough,” Oliver roared, causing me to bristle in a mirror image of Apollo. “Once we make it to the city, we’re going to need to watch each other’s backs. This feud needs to stop, now.”

“What’re ya talkin’ about?” Apollo asked. “We hand over the suitcase and we’re safe, right?”

Oliver shook his head. “Far from it. Federation’s still a long way off. People here won’t help us and can’t be trusted. Worse, we’ll stick out like sore thumbs among all the humans. Our enemies can’t operate openly in the city, but it won’t be hard for them to track us down.”

“Then why don’t we just go around?” Lea asked.

“Faster to go through, and we’re runnin’ low on food, but make no mistake, it’s more dangerous in there than it is out here.”