Butterflies in Winter

::Chapter 3:: Alone

Sleep was calling for Kit by the time he and Max began to make their way home. As much as he simply wanted to curl into a ball and sleep until time itself came to an end, he knew it wasn't an option. This was news which couldn't wait.

It took a couple of momets for him to realise really how bad his wounds had been.

Blood was crawling down both hind legs, and a scratch aboce his eye was blinding him from the time being as it seeped blood into his vision. He forced himself to ignore the pain, it would go soon enough, and he couldn't let it stop him from getting to where he needed to be.

His mind was racing with a million thoughts, as he tried desperately to make sense of any of this. Find some logical reason as to why the beasts, which had mostly stayed the same for nearly a decade, had gone through such a drastic change.

What had changed recently that had meant that they had evolved. What does it mean for us, if they're changing. What chance will we have? They've been killing us well enough until now, what if they now have the advantage.

Pushing away these thoughts, he tried to ignore the growing feeling of fear which had settled at the bottom of his throat. He couldn't let himself be bogged down this much by what he didn't know to be true just yet.

If he was already having thoughts of giving up, they would have no chance at all.

Once upon a time, Kit would never have been able to think of something like this ever happening to him. His life had been so normal, then he had taken the job at the power plant. And he had been here ever since.

Yet he wouldn't have changed any of it given the chance. Here his life had meaning, whereas back home he had been nothing, and he wouldn't replace his worst enemy in this place. It was too terrible even for the worst person to have to live here. For what appeared to be the rest of time.

They reached the bottom of the hill which would lead up the the lookout camp, when Kit froze.

He caught scent of something which sent a shiver down his spine. His heart stopped dead in his chest when he breathed in. His heart leaping into his throat as he stood still. As though a pane of glass had been suddenly placed in his path and stopped him.

Exchanging a glance at Max, who looked equally frightened. Kit quickly forgot about the pain in his form, and lunged up the hill with every bit of energy that he still had. Forcing himself faster and faster up the steep side of the cliff.

When he reached the peak, his knees buckled inwards and he choked a little. The camp was deserted.

And covered in the stench of blood.

Nose to the ground he began stalking around the destroyed camp, his tail low and the rage building inside him. As he searched desperately for any sign of what had happened here. Any indication of where his friends might have gone.

There had been a fight, a nasty one, that much was clear. From the way it was spread out, Kit assumed that his friends had been ambushed. He let out an angry growl.

So that's why no one answered my howl, he thought. The guilt beginning to rip him apart already, terrified of what could have happened.

He looked up towards Max, who had come to stop on a perch. The eagle was shaking in equal anger, but from the glint in his eye, Kit guessed there was also an element of fear to him. Kit didn't blame him. As had his rage not been splitting his brain in two, he too would have felt terrified.

A realisation hit him later then it probably should, and he paused. Then sprinted back down the hill, and in the direction of main camp. Where he had left the rest of them sleeping earlier that day. His tail between his legs.

Lying still, as though still sleeping peacefully. Was a large bundle of fur, "Marl." Kit choked on his words, as he pressed his nose into the fur of the puma. It had already begun to go cold, and her golden fur was stained with blood.

Not all of it is hers, Kit whimpered lowering his head to the ground. Now wishing that the sleep would overtake him, and now never wanting to wake up. She died fighting till the end. He'd have expected no less from the woman.

Max landed on two legs beside him, and promptly fell to his knees. He threw back his head and screamed at the top of his lungs. The noise which echoed from his throat as agonised, like someone had forced a knife through his chest.

Kit didn't know what else to do, and he did the same thing as his friend. Until their pained cries echoed against the dark night sky. It's darkness perfectly reflecting that of the two men, as they wailed mournfully to the crescent moon.

Both men had the overwhelming feeling that they would never have a happy thought again.

The pair screamed until their lungs went hoarse, and they simply sat in silence. Kit shifted until he was slumped on two legs again and he stayed there. He didn't move, he didn't think. Every part of him had gone completely numb.

"What happened?"

It was an obvious question with an obvious answer as far as they could tell, however, Kit hesitated to answer. He didn't want to face the truth, it was a terrifying idea.

For it appeared that they were alone, in a world where loneliness almost definitely meant death. For a second he looked like he was going to say something further, but the words didn't want to come.

Looking back at the way from which they had come, towards the lookout hill and the power plants towering in the distance. If it was only the two of them, everything they had worked for was ruined. There was no way that only he and Max would be able to protect this place for much longer.

It wouldn't be long before he and Max joined their lost friends.

"How... what could have done this?" it was the words of the younger man which jerked Kit from his mourning state. Part of him felt angry that this even needed to be a question, and a sharp retort prepared itself on his tongue, but Max didn't give him the chance to let it loose.

"They left Marlene here, if the rest of them are dead. Why did they bother moving the bodies?" Max thought far more logically then Kit was currently able to. "I think something took them, and I think the rest of them are alive."

Part of him alerted instantly, and he perked up somewhat. He thought for a moment, and then said, angry with himself that he had given into the fact that his friends were dead. He hadn't even stopped for a minute to look further into the truth.

"Look at Marl's wounds, no monster, at least none that I have ever seen, has left wounds like that. This was the work of something else."

"Humans."