Down: The Fall

Chapter Thirteen: The Change

   A slight breeze blew across Graydons face bringing him to. His eyes fluttered not quite in focus yet. His leg didn't seem to hurt any more, and the chills weren't running up his body. He tried to sit up pushing the dish towel off his legs to get a better look. He bumped his head on something in front of him.

  His eyes came into focus and what he seen in front of him terrified him. A large gray cat sat directly in front of him staring him down. He could feel it's breath washing over his body. It ' meowed ' loudly as it moved forward and placed a paw on Grays chest pinning him to the kitchen countertop. He instinctively grabbed the paw on his chest. He pushed it to the side rolling the opposite way and throwing the cat off balance momentarily. It recovered quickly pinning him down again with its paw on his back. It dawned on him that this cat might just be playing with his food before it ate it.

  He'd already survived two supersized animal attacks in the last five days. He wasn't about to let some stupid house cat get him. The cat made him angry thinking it could eat him, he wasn't gonna let that happen.

  He pushed its paw off again and then jumped up and grabbed the bell dangling from its collar and held on. He slipped his arm between its collar and its neck and pulled himself closer. After wrapping his legs around the cats neck he then bear hugged it with his arms. He grasped his hands together on the back of the cats neck. He inter locked his fingers and squeezed.

  His thinking was to get a good hold were the cats mouth couldn't reach. He didn't know the work the nanites had done on his body while he slept. He didn't figure on the increase in strength he now had.

  At first he didn't realize how hard he was squeezing the cats neck. He felt the cat trying to shake him off so he just held on tighter. It started trying to claw him off then and he squeezed as hard as he could screaming as the cats claws ripped his clothes and back to shreds. Suddenly he heard a crack and pop. The cat fell over almost in slow motion. He clambered out from under it. It just meowed quietly and blinked as it stared at him.

  It took a minute for him to realize that the cat couldn't move. It was paralyzed somehow. He thought of the cracking sound, and the neck bones that had shifted under the grip of his hands and arm. Had he some how done this? But how?

     He had somehow snapped the cats spine at its neck. It lay there meowing softly as it stared at him unable to look away because it couldn't move its head.

  A few hours later the cat went quite and slipped off into oblivion or maybe some cat heaven. Gray patted it on its stiff head " sorry pal I didn't meen to do this to you, I just was trying to keep you from eating me thats all."  He knew the cat was just being a cat and he was just trying to survive and he just left it at that.

  He began to explore the house a little now that he was safe and able to. He found a pair of work boots setting by the fridge and took their laces. He tied them together and then made a loop and tied it to form a lasso. Graydon then went to the doors in the hall way. He twirled the loop around and around and then windmilled his arm flinging the loop up towards the doorknob. He tried this a few times before he finally got it around the handle.

  Gray climbed up the door much the same as he had the kitchen counter. He placed his feet on the wall and walked up as he pulled hand over hand up the rope. When he had gotten to the top he tied himself off and began twisting at the doorknob. He had surmissed that if he could snap a house cats neck then surely he could turn a door knob.

  This new strength amazed him. First his body had been healed from years of chronic pain and now he had some new kind of strength. The cat had been more than five times his size but he'd killed it with his bare hands. He thought about this as he tried to twist the knob.