It has been over half a year, and the Earth that Jake once knew has changed. The once cities of the world had been overgrown by plant life at a size and rate unimaginable to those who were once from this world. The planet had grown to three times its original size, and the wildlife had also grown in accordance. Some even gained sentience and began to fight for dominance over their new world. Without the oppression of humans, new lifeforms began to evolve, such as the squid men of the Pacific and the demon snake people of Australia. And then there were, of course, the Beastmen, who were now the dominant species on Earth. They consisted of what the humans used to call their pets, like dogs, cats, and even some others. The Australian Eastern Grey tribe was part of the Beastman tribe. All the Beastmen had two forms: one was their original format, and the other was a humanoid form. Each species' appearance varied; they had some human-like parts, but they were all distinctively beasts. For example, a cat in their humanoid form might have a face and body just like a human, but it would be covered in fur, and its most distinctive features would remain. The new species could roam almost all of the world; there were just a few locations where they could not enter. One example was the capital city of Victoria, of which the zone's size around it reached all the way down to Phillip Island. This included all of Port Phillip Bay, but it didn't extend north beyond the edge of Melbourne itself, so no suburbs north were included. When these zones were established, all the wildlife in these areas was forcefully pushed out. There was a civil war going on inside Australia. The cat tribes had a split on their place once the humans returned. One side took the position of total domination, and the other wanted to take on a position similar to what they were. Back when humans ruled the world, cats took on the role of a pet in the humans' eyes, but to the cats, they ruled over the humans through coercion. A cat would get everything they wanted just by giving the humans the idea of authority over them.

On the side of domination, there was a cat that went by the name of Greymore; she was the leader of the localized battle group. She had a scar that ran down over her eye and across her mouth, and she was missing one of her ears. Her tail was also cut off, leaving only a small stump. In an old rundown farm shed north of Shep in rural Victoria, a meeting was being held between two opposing commanders. One of them was the cat Greymore; the other was a fluffy white cat named Madz.

“Humans will never change; we cannot live with them unless we dominate them. We must make them our slaves. The system has given us the means to do it if they sign a soul contract that will make them ours to do with what we will till the end of time,” Greymore said.

“We can't do that. It is better if we continue to control them in the shadows. That way, when the time comes for us to leave this world, we can use the humans as the mouthpiece of our movement.”

“So you're happy for more of our kind to be tortured by their hands,” Greymore said.

“No, we are not how we used to be. We are not weak anymore; we can defend ourselves against them. We are just here to use them, get what we want, and in the end, kill them like our prey.”

“I don't like this, but at least it's better than those mutts. Who would have thought they would want to continue serving the human race as guardians after all they have done? What a joke,” Greymore said.

It was silent for a while before Greymore got up, and as she was about to leave, she said, “I may be able to control the cat tribe in this area, but I can't control the others.”

Thirty minutes after Greymore left, a young female short-furred black cat named Kiki walked in with a plate of food. “It's getting harder for you to deal with these crazy ones, isn't it, Mum?”

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“Yes, it is--" Madz's sentence was cut short as her head was thrown across the room. Her daughter stood there, covered in her mother's blood as she saw the figure coming out of the shadows. It was none other than Greymore, her mother's blood dripping from her nails. Kiki looked into Greymore’s sinister eyes. “Run, little kitten; it will be no fun if you don't.” The cat started retracting her nails. Just as Greymore's nails were almost fully retracted, Kiki ran. She ran faster than she had ever run before.

In the pack in the Strzelecki Ranges, there was a young male black kelpie with a white patch of fur on his chest and another patch over his left eye. He was named Erin by a human soldier he worked with back before the army was forced into policing its own citizens. He was going about his normal daily routine of patrolling the ranges for any invaders. He patrolled from one end of the ranges to the edge of the rundown military camp. As he got to the camp, his heightened sense picked up the scent of blood coming from within. Changing into his humanoid form, he began a search of the camp. As he reached one of the damaged buildings, he smelled the distinct smell of the enemy.

“It's a cat. Why is there a cat here? They know they're not welcome.”

Erin walked up to the door; there was a bloodstain on the handle and a bloody handprint on the wall. Erin pushed the door open and moved inside, sniffing the air. Erin could tell that the cat was deeper in. Moving further into the house, the smell of blood grew stronger until he reached the room the smell was coming from. He looked inside and saw a young female cat with black fur, its stomach torn open. Erin looked down at her. Her eyes were shut, and her breathing was ragged. Erin thought about waking her up but then thought better of it. “You idiot, Erin; she would be in so much pain she wouldn't even begin to be able to start answering questions. Just stem the bleeding and wrap the wound. I can take her back to the pack for answers when she can walk again.”

Two days later, the cat finally woke up, not knowing how she ended up in a bed. She tried to get up, but as she put weight on her legs, she hit the ground as if she was a marionette with its strings cut. Erin walked in after hearing the noise.

“What, were you trying to kill yourself? You might have just wrecked all that healing you managed to do over the last two days.”

Erin walked over to the cat, offering a hand up. The cat, being stubborn, slapped his hand away and tried to stand once more, but she couldn't even make it to her knees. She slumped over, her hands raised to her face.

“Can I have some help, please?”

Erin extended his arm once again, wrapping it under her arm and around her back, lifting her to her feet, then placing her back in the bed. Erin pulled the blanket up, tucking her in.

“May I ask what your name is and why you have come to this place?”

“I... I was being chased. This was the only place left that I could turn to. I needed to escape. That crazy bitch would play with me for a while, like I was a mouse. Then lock me up till she gets bored and lets me escape, so she can hunt me for fun.”

“How is it that she is hunting you?”

“Her name is Greymore.”

Erin looked shocked for a second before he frantically said, “When was the last time she found you? And how long does it normally take her to capture you?”

“Three days ago, and thirty days, give or take.”

Erin started to be even more frantic as he quietly said, “How many days has it been so far?”

“Twenty-nine days. I'm sorry.”

Erin looked at her for a minute, then looked at the door, then back at her. “Oh, fuck it.” He moved in close to the cat, picking her up, turned to the door, and kicked it off its hinges and into the face of a catman. The cat man's face caved in as Erin used the door as a launchpad for his escape. As Erin ran, strikes came at him from the shadows, tearing gashes in his sides. Erin ran as fast as he could in his humanoid form, which sadly was not as fast as his animal form, but it was still faster than a stupid cat.