The Vespidian
Arc 6, To Skin A Cat
Chapter 3
We walked along the desolate streets, where not even the mutant animals roamed. It was a little unnerving how quiet this place was, especially considering that this was once a very prominent part of the city. Glitter Kitten and the three munchkins seemed more interested in playing around than actually finding the drugs. Currently, Snowball was chasing a butterfly. It did not make much sense, considering that it was over a hundred million dollars worth of stuff, not to mention what this might do to her relations with the Angels of Hell. I might just be paranoid, but I think she is up to something. It just doesn’t add up.
“So where is the Sparkle Kat relative to where we are?” I asked, looking over the buildings. They formed walls, enclosing the street in a sort of maze.
She thought about it for a moment, then pointed to our left side. I clawed my way up a building for a better vantage point. Sure enough, it was over in that direction. The Three Headed Dog lay behind us from this distance it reminded me of pictures of the Colosseum over in Rome, more modern of course. After a long moment of inspecting the mental map, it seemed that the stash appeared to be at an angle from where we currently were. It looked like it would have been a bitch to get to if we had to just follow the roads.
I turned to tell them to follow and found Glitter Kitten, already waiting beside me. My reflexes jumped and I fell back. When the hell did she get there? I did not hear, nor even sense her. My cockroach like reaction time seems to be put to shame by the cat. She gave me a smirk, concealing a chuckle behind her hand.
“So?” she asked, extending a hand to lift me back up.
“I think it is over there. Not too sure how far, though, the map was not exact.”
“I see, I see.” she nodded, her tail flicked. “Alright, let’s get this over with, shall we? Try to keep up.”
She did not wait for my reply, before crouching down and springing forward. She landed three buildings over, which I can only assume was more than a thousand feet away. This bitch has hops. The Kittens got running starts and followed suit, though they only managed to clear a building. Still, they were quick little things. Ah, I just got left behind. It has been a while since I got to run around like this. That suit is really spoiling me with the flight function. Seems that a good stretch will hit the spot. My legs bristled and I set off after them.
Buildings quickly passed by from the blistering pace that the cat was setting. Most of the roofs were gravel coated and crunched angrily below my talons. The cats, however, did not make a damned sound. Could it be the pads on their feet, dampening the noise? Maybe I could learn the ways of the cat from them? If it’s something like that it would be impossible simply by anatomy, which makes me a little sad. Who knows, being quiet while fast does have an appeal to it. I am faster than the kittens, don’t even have to go on all sixes to do it either. I don’t even bother, trying to outpace Glitter Kitten. I know she is quicker than me.
She came to a halt, atop a teetering water tower that overlooked a wide open space below. The railing rusted off in several places and there were holes in the walkway. Down below it seemed to be some sort of park. Brown and gray mixed together from the dead plants and the hot concrete asphalt surrounding it. What looked like a large pond had long since dried up, leaving behind its empty basin near the center. Dead withered trees stood sparsely between the cratered ground where several explosions had gone off at some point. Tall golden grass shifted in the breeze. Insects chirped, but there were no birds to be seen, nor heard.
Ah, I have heard of this place. It was the old Memorial Park, it immortalized the Bronson family who started the city way back in the day. Or at the least it did, the statues had all been broken apart. Some were rescued when the fighting broke out, but most were not. As a result, they are now in a very sorry state. Just about all of them were nothing more than bases, not even the inscriptions had been spared from the vandalism or collateral damage. In its heyday this place was probably beautiful. Now it is just a sad reminder of what once was.
Seems odd that we would stop in a place like this. I was about to ask why, when Glitter Kitten raised her finger to stop me. She said in a low voice, “Be quiet, nyah, the Ferals are around here. They might be mindless, but they are strong, well, some of them anyway.”
Ferals? So close to her turf? I am surprised that she has not chased them all off. Oh, that reminds me. Something had been bugging me for a while. I whispered, “I was wondering, how many Ferals are there?”
Glitter Kitten thought it over for a second and shrugged. “No idea. Thousands scattered throughout the Slums most likely. They have little packs and fight over territory. There are less than a hundred of us with our minds still intact. The problem is nine times out of ten a newly converted person will go nuts. It is why the number is not moving, despite the fact that we kill them whenever we see them. Idiots come into the slums, not in our safe zone and get attacked and turn. Then there is also the full moon and everything down here gets crazy. Usually, I wake up and there are a few more mouths to feed than before.”
“It is that bad?”
“Sometimes, recently we have found ways around it. Only the Ferals rage out and attack the city. Well, mostly.”
“Who are the Scalies?”
“How do you know about them?”
“Eh, Thumper was talking about it with Den Mother.”
“Ah, mammals were not the only thing that mutates, people you know. Scalies are the lizard and snake people. There are very few of them, sane ones anyway. Humans are not compatible with reptiles and it makes them a bit… Predatory. As far as we are concerned, they can all die. Fuckers ate one of my Kittens. I am not the only one to have lost kids to them either.” she spat and looked away.
Crap, that took a sharp turn south. I looked down at the park. Everything was still, save the tall grass. Odd, there is no wind right now. I focused in on it and realized that there were little trails going through it. At ground level, they would be concealed, but from up here I could see it just fine. There was something moving around down there. Oh, it is a rat man. He looked a bit mangy and scrawny. It was not hard to tell that he was hungry. He made his way along, quietly, cautiously and for good reason too, he was not alone. To each side wakes in the grass made it clear that a pair of something was closing in.
“Run, you little rat bastard!” I screamed down at him.
He jumped at the sudden sound and looked around. Smelled the air, and he started to pale. His stalkers had frozen in place and waited. He ignored my warning and padded about with uncertainty. Why is he not running? I was about to yell at him again when it happened. The brush exploded with movement and the duo of hunters pounced out into view. Two cat girls. One was striped like a tiger and the other was a smoky gray color. They looked starved as well, I could see their ribs through their skin. The squealing rat man bolted away with them hot on his heels. I took a step to leap into action when Glitter Kitten grabbed my arm and pulled me back. She shook her head. I yanked and tried to get away, but she would not let go. I could only watch.
He was cornered off to our side in a small alley. The poor bastard lashed out, nipping and snarling at the two, but then they coordinated and attacked from both sides at once. His screams filled the air and the kittens cowered behind their mother. Good to know they have a healthy sense of fear. The fight was not over yet, surprisingly. He bucked and knocked the gray one off before sinking his teeth into an arm. She yowled and raked his face with her claws, blinding and disorientating him. The tiger striped one bit into the back of his neck and thrashed. It took only a few moments before I heard the neck snap and foam poured out of this mouth. His struggling faded to jerks and spasms.
If that had been it then I would not have felt so bad about not helping. There is only one reason that animals hunt and that is to eat. They tore into their prey ravenously and devoured whole chunks at a time. Blood quickly pooled and coated their fur. They feasted without a care in the world of what a horrible thing they had just done. I could smell it from here, the metallic scent of blood. Sub was relishing it, in fact, she enjoyed that whole scene and was even turned on by it. It is your snuff film fetish and vore shit at work. You got some serious problems, Sub. They really are just fucking animals. What the hell. I thought everyone was just blowing it out of proportion, but fuck. These things are dangerous. No wonder everybody is worried over this. Glitter Kitten might be right, they need to be put down or otherwise dealt with. There has to be another way, though. Surely they could be trained or something.
“You going to kill them?” I asked.
She nodded, “Too dangerous to let them roam wild. Especially this close.”
I did not question it, did not even try to stop her, not that I could anyway. She moved like a blur and had closed the distance between us and them in a second. The first did not even have a chance to react before she smashed their skulls against the ground. It burst open like a watermelon, splattering brain matter and blood. She ducked under a frantic and rage filled swipe. Her claws came out and she stabbed both hands into the undefended belly, ripping and gashing. The feral fell over, disemboweled and screaming incoherently. Glitter Kitten had mercy and finished her off by curb stomping the head into paste. She did not play with her prey, like I had been half expecting. Glitter Kitten wore an emotionless face during the whole encounter. It seems she is used to this, the killing that is. Well, at the least she did not enjoy it. Not on the outside anyway, no telling what she is thinking.
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She returned and I asked, “You don’t pull your punches, do you? Why didn’t you save the rat?”
“No point, feral as well.”
“How did you know?”
“Smell.”
“You can tell by smell?”
“Nyup, you can tell a lot from piss you know. It is why we mark things, nyah. For instance, you can tell if someone is injured or sick. All ferals smell like they are sick.”
“Piss? Don’t tell me you mark things too.”
“Of course I do. I mark what is mine that way everybody knows. It also helps keep the ferals out of our turf, scares them off you know.”
“Seems a little barbaric.”
“It gets the job done. Here, you got a good sense of smell, right? Take a good smell of them, so you know the difference.”
Reluctantly, I went down to the blood-soaked murder scene. Pieces of flesh were scattered all over the place. Fur and random bones poked out through all the red. I had seen some stuff in my time, but this was some rather grizzly stuff. I smelled. At first, I could only sense the tangy life juices and raw meat, but after about a minute or so I discovered the scents. There were four, one was easily recognized as Glitter Kitten. It was healthy and strong, however, the others seemed strange. There was something about them that I could not put my finger on, but they were just wrong. Can’t really explain it, even compared to the other cat girls from the Sparkle Kat it smelled spoiled. Like something was rotting.
I picked up a large chunk of brain and my antenna squirmed, it was the source of the stench. I stared in wonder. Does this mean there is something wrong with their brains? Could the mutation destroy their brain cells or something, it is like they have… Rabies or mad cow. Wait, is this contagious? I think I heard about some tribe somewhere that ate the brains of their dead and it made them sick. Gave them a neurosis type of thing or was it Prions, I can’t remember. If something similar to that is going on down here, couple it with the animal brain taking over and it is a recipe for disaster.
It would be similar to a zombie outbreak, speaking of which, there was one of those over in Africa the other week. It was rather small scale and put down in less than a day, but it still made the news. It seems that even Sub lost her appetite after remembering that. Well, there is only one person I know who would have any idea about what to do to fix this, Dr. Arbor.
“Hey, you guys don’t like, eat the ferals right?” I asked, looking over at Glitter Kitten, who was keeping her distance.
She had a grossed out look across her face like she might throw up. “What the fuck. Why would anybody eat them? You are sick, you know that?”
“Hey, it is a valid question. Make sure nobody eats them. The feral thing might spread.”
“Wait, you think it is infectious?”
“It might be. Have you guys ever seen Dr. Arbor?”
She put a finger over her mouth, tapping it. “You mean that crazy, mad scientist who experiments on random stuff? Yeah, I remember that bitch. She shot me with a fucking dart like three years ago. Why do you ask?”
“She shot you? Can’t you dodge bullets?”
“Well, I can, but she got me while I was nyapping. Got me right on the ass too, it hurt. Then me and everybody else that she shot got sick for a week. I thought my kittens were going to die, since they could not keep their food down.”
“You have not seen her since?”
“Nope. Oh, hey. How much farther do you think it is to the stash?”
“No idea, it should be around here somewhere, though,” I replied, looking over the tall grass throughout the park.
It was only about four feet high, so not that bad, for me at the least. Glitter Kitten was only five feet tall, so it was a bit close and her head was the only thing poking out. The Kittens could not even be seen above the grass. It made me a little wary and I would have preferred to go around the park, but Glitter Kitten wanted to make sure there were no more ferals in the area.
Despite my gut feeling we continued along, wading through the grass. It did not take long to find an animal trail and start following it. The path wound through the park like a lazy snake and eventually led to a burrow. It was larger, more than eight feet across and piled up to a good five feet. We sniffed at the air and realized that whatever the hell was in there was not a cat and there was probably more than one.
Glitter Kitten’s face scrunched up when the stink hit her. “Never smelled this before. So be careful.”
Warily we approached the hole, with the kittens a good distance away up in a tree, just in case. Something in there stirred when we reached five feet from the entrance. It came barreling out, shaggy white furred back, the rest was black. Thick claws sprouted from the hands and feet. The face was narrow, much the same as the werewolves, but it was not a dog. It was a badger and it looked pissed. The badger person reared up snarling and swiping. I realized it was a girl. She was shorter than me standing upright, but she certainly made up for it with attitude. A standoff ensued when another, even larger one emerged. This one was even more aggressive and from the junk hanging down I could see why. It was a male, probably all hyped up on testosterone. We had a fight on our hands.
“I’ll take care of the big one, you deal with the little one.” said Glitter Kitten, lunging forward.
She tackled into the open stance of the male badger. Her claws raking through fur. She had gone for the legs and done some damage, but it was not enough. The badger howled and swung down, missing. Ah shit, are these endurance supers? I peeled my eyes away from Glitter Kitten’s fight to my own problems. The female charged forward, showing no fear despite the fact that I was bigger than her. Oh god, she is so angry! I punched down, sending her snout into the ground and stopping her momentum. I grappled onto her back and wrapped my fingers around her neck, or at the least tried, it was too thick. I managed to get my arm around it and lock it into position. Pulling with all my strength she wheezed and struggled below me. Her head dipped forward before smashing back and cracking me in the face. Involuntarily I let go, getting thrown to the ground as a result.
I shook my head and turned to face her, when a clawed paw slapped against my side. It hurled me a good five feet and cracked the carapace. Yellow stained the ground. These are ferals, I should not hold back. The problem is how the hell do I beat an endurance super? They have to have some sort of weakness. Maybe if I go for the eyes? It was worth a shot. She bore down on me and I rolled when she slammed her fists down, avoiding the blow. I managed to get some good distance by jumping back. It was just enough to get a running start. On all sixes, I bolted back at her and slammed into her side. She wobbled over, falling to the ground. I pounced onto her back, getting a good hold.
My stinger stabbed down, scrapping against her tough skin. It was too hard to pierce, plan B I suppose, sorry for this. My claws dug into her face, gouging out her eyes and all I could hear were her agonized screams. I felt a pain in my heart, this was wrong. I know it is not right, but what else can I do? I winced, damn it. No use thinking about it, best to just get it over with, it is her or me. Her struggling increased as my fingers went deeper into her eye sockets. She was blinded, but certainly not out. She raged and threw me off, rampaging in a circle, lashing out in every direction. I started to feel really bad about this, it feels like I am torturing her.
Glitter Kitten was already done with her rival. He lay dead, neck crushed. “Nyah, you want a tip? You gotta be quick, don’t let them suffer like that.”
“I know that. This just doesn’t feel right.”
“What are you worried about? They are ferals. It is just an animal, kill it and let’s see what else is around.”
Glitter Kitten’s voice attracted the raging badger and she charged, arms swiping. It took the cat all of a moment to lay with her hands on the ground, winding up for a kick. She launched herself feet first. The blow connected right into the stomach and blood poured out of her mouth, along with foam. She nearly toppled over, wheezing and gagging. Why won’t she just go down? Just die already, fuck. Glitter Kitten made it rather obvious that she was not going to finish the job, and it was up to me to kill her. She just sat there, watch and waiting. Uneasily I approached the unsteady badger, it is just better to put her out of her misery. I grasped her head with all four arms and twisted. A crack echoed through the park and she fell, writhing and convulsing on the ground. Finally, it was over when she stopped moving. I don’t think I can be proud of this. There has to be another way.
A small whimpering sound came from the den and my mouth filled with bile. It was no wonder they attacked us, they were defending their children. Three little badger kids crawled towards their mother, they were about as big as Glitter Kitten’s smallest kids. In other words, they were not even two yet. My face paled when she moved towards them. I took a step back, I don’t wanna kill children. This is so fucked up. I wanted to try to reason with her, but I could smell it, the stink of a feral.
“Wait, Glitter Kitten! You can’t kill kids.”
“They are ferals. How many times do I have to tell you? They are animals. If you see a rabid dog on the street you put it down. That is all there is to this. Besides, even if we left them alone, without their parents they will starve. Killing them is a mercy or would you rather they slowly wither away, or be eaten by some other animal?”
“But surely there is another way!”
“There is not. I have tried, feral is feral. There is no coming back. They might be small now, but give it a few years and they will be monsters.”
Glitter Kitten strangled them and kicked me flat when I tried to stop her. Their screams rose and fell into silence. The kittens had slunk their way over, sitting beside me as I moped. Some hero I am, killing a mother and letting her children get killed. I am a failure. I could feel tears running down my face. The three cuddled around me, trying to make me feel better. It worked a little, but I still felt like shit. Glitter Kitten sat across from me, having scoured the den for anything of value and collapsed the tunnel with the bodies inside, effectively burying them.
“Well, sorry to break it to you, but this is our everyday life. It is the law of the jungle, kill or be killed.”
“I think this was the honey badger on the map, so nearby is the stash, should be over there,” I said, reluctantly pointing north west.
“Well, come on then and let’s get this sorted out. When we get back to the Sparkle Kat, drinks are on me so don’t worry about it.”
“I don’t know if drinking is going to deal with this. I just want to sleep.”
“Then I will let you sleep when we get back.”
I lagged behind her as we continued on. The next area was a junkyard. Piles of metal and crumpled cars made walls with avenues to walk around. There were wererats here, but they were scared of Glitter Kitten and did not even try to come out. We wandered aimlessly through the junk. The kittens played with a Frisbee that had been thrown away. One even found a basketball that was half deflated. I opened an old refrigerator and jumped back, when a skeleton with a fedora on fell out. Glitter Kitten sniffed around. It seemed that she was on to something and so we followed behind her, along one of the many paths. Broken bicycles and old training equipment lay, strewn across the ground.
The road dead ended by a bus crushed beneath a crumpled up sedan. She circled around before stopping beside a tarp covered cargo container. Glitter Kitten gave it a long look, ripped the covering down and pried it open, snapping off the lock with her claw. The fading sunlight glared off of the white wrapped bricks. It seems we found what we were looking for. Seems a little anti-climatic really. I was expecting some sort of trap or something. It is a good thing really, after all, I have had enough shenanigans for one day. Somehow, though, I felt this was far from over.