The Felidae

by Sydney S.

It all started with the mutation. Hard, dark knots formed under the skin on the middle joints of his fingers, his hazel eyes were becoming lighter, and his hair was ever darkening from its natural shade of brown. Alex was paranoid that someone would notice, but no one did, at first. His parents were the first to see their teenage son becoming more antisocial. He no longer wanted to be around his friends in case they saw what he was becoming - a freak. Alex spent a lot of time on his own, causing his parents to worry more and more, until they finally had to confront him with “the talk.”

“Alex, has something been bothering you? Is there something you want to talk to me about?” the boy’s mother said softly, as if trying not to scare a frightened animal. His heart started beating faster. “No, nothing,” he replied, a little too quickly.

His father just said, “Why have you dyed your hair? Are you involved in something?”

At first, Alex was honestly perplexed and had no idea what he was talking about, and then he remembered about his hair changing color of its own accord. At this point, a couple weeks after Alex noticed the first slight changes, it had become an inky black.

His brain worked in overdrive for an acceptable answer to this statement, “Um, well, you see… I just thought it would be a nice change, something different you know?” They seemed to believe it for the most part.

Alex always loved change, the normal kind anyways. He was always rearranging his room, changing his styles, and getting involved in new hobbies every other month. He currently wore his hair long enough to cover his eyes, but he brushed it out of the way. His most recently chosen style was dark jeans accompanied by plain t-shirts. He tested and tried every sport imagined until he had finally settled on cross country, but since last week, he’d been skipping team meets.

The argument went back and forth. His parents would note his strange behavior and worry about him, and Alex would just assure them that he was fine and give them a perfectly normal reason to believe him. They confronted him twice after that time before calling on therapy as their only hope for the boy. He knew he had to leave. There was no way his parents were going to force him to go to a therapy session. The psychologist would probably squeeze some truth out of him of what was really going on then the word would spread. He saw himself being dragged away from his parents by government officials who had declared him “dangerous” and “mentally unstable.” Then he saw himself locked into a padded room in a mental hospital while men in white coats studied him. No, he couldn’t allow that to happen.

At first he tried to talk himself out of it, but the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. His life as it had been was over, and there was no hope of its return. Alex packed a few essentials such as clothes and money in his sports bag, and left it on his bed. He paced his small room, making sure this was his final decision. It was so crazy, yet such a simple solution. No one could really understand what was going on when not even Alex himself could. He had to figure this problem out on his own. Confident in his decision, he picked up his bag and climbed out of window to the ground below.

The night air was cool, but not greatly so. A gentle breeze blew on his face as Alex walked on, in the direction of the city. The quiet gave him time to get his thoughts together. What exactly am I looking for? He wanted answers. Why am I this way? Why am I becoming this freak? What makes me any different? Am I supposed to run all of my life? To hide? I won’t have anyone. No one could be going through this. I’m alone… so alone. Alone. The thought rang painfully in his mind. What is it like to be truly alone? Hot tears sprang into his eyes, and he was ashamed of his weakness. He had chosen this path for himself, and he must continue it. But what is the path that I have chosen? The hopelessness of his situation came down on him. How am I supposed to find any of these answers?

Red-hot anger built up inside of him. Finally, he balled up his fist and slammed it into the fence next to him. Alex stood there, frozen in that position, when the pain he had expected on impact didn’t come. When the shock wore off, and he tried to move away, he couldn’t. His fist was stuck to the fence! Alex braced his foot up against the rough boards and yanked. Stumbling backwards, the startled boy tripped over the curb of the sidewalk and fell hard, hitting his head on the ground. He reached up to feel if there were any cuts when he felt something extremely out of place. The tips of his ears were pointed. They felt almost like animal ears. Like cat’s ears, he thought. His mind went from his ears back to his hands, and he wrenched his hands down to see them. Surprisingly, he could see just fine in the dead of night. Inch long claws had ripped through the thin layer of skin where the knots on the middle joint of his fingers had been forming over the past month. His fists started shaking and he relaxed them, and the claws were gone. This got his attention. Alex made fists again and watched as the dark nails slowly came out of his joints, then receded back in when he relaxed the muscles. He sat on the curb. What was happening? I’m becoming some sort of animal, a cat. That’s what it was. That’s why he could see so well in the dark. His ears, his hands, and all of the changes were because of this. He realized if he wanted answers it better be sooner than later. Alex got up and continued walking, considering the weird twist reality had just taken.

A hard, long week went by and still Alex hadn’t found any clues that could help him with his odd situation. His clothes were already ripping at the knees and elbows, and his hair was becoming long and shaggy. He let it fall down in front of his eyes to hide them. Alex had almost screamed when he saw his eyes in the reflection of a shop window a few days before. His pupils had elongated into ovals and they were bright green – more evidence of the fact that a cat was indeed what he was becoming. Gloves covered his hands to hide his claws. Sleeping on doorsteps at night further ruined the state of his clothes.

Alex didn’t know where to turn. He spent all of his time in libraries and places where he thought he could get information without attracting attention, but a few weeks later he had exhausted all of his resources and most of his money for food. His changes were becoming harder to hide as he had developed a tail. The long tail was covered in velvety, black fur. It wasn’t too hard to hide in his loose jeans, but it was a constant nuisance. Along with all of the changes, Alex began seeing people watching him, following him. At first he thought it was his imagination, but Alex began recognizing their faces. It was the same people over and over. The teenagers wore ragged clothing and appeared to live on the streets, so Alex decided to call them the Streeties to himself. Most of them were athletically built. Sometimes he even saw them together.

The Streeties stayed at a distance, just watching, seeming to wait for something. Once he walked by one of them and noticed a flash of amber eyes. Her short, fiery red hair blew about her in the autumn wind as she walked away. This girl fascinated Alex, but he only saw her once. He saw some more often than others. One was a Latin-American boy who looked about eighteen years old, had tan skin, and wore his hair in short dread-locks. His attire was usually a dark turtle neck sweater in natural colors, like brown or black, and faded jeans with holes in the knees.

Another was a girl small in stature that looked oriental. Her fair skin was smooth, and her long hair was layered to frame her face. She wore plain, short sleeve shirts despite the chilly air, and baggy pants like boys jeans. She was startlingly beautiful. Her lips were full, and her eyes were framed by long, dark eyelashes.

Finally, two Streeties confronted him. It was the boy and the girl he had seen so often. They came out of nowhere to stand on either side of him, and he almost cried out, but the boy covered his mouth and dragged him backwards into a deserted alley. There, he was released. Alex backed away from them until his back touched rough, cold brick. He tried to find an escape route as they watched him.

“You have two options,” said the girl in a soft, purring voice.

“Come with us,” continued the boy in a deep growling one, “or try to run, and we take you the hard way.” He finished with a slight smile, like he wasn’t entirely serious.

Alex began to ready himself for a fight but slumped to the ground instead. What was the use of running? He had no where to go, nothing to do, and no one cared whether he was missing or not. There were his parents, but anyone looking for him wouldn’t recognize him now. The mutations and living on the streets left him looking completely different from when he left his home.

“Why should I trust you?” said Alex, in a defeated voice, looking up at them with his reflective eyes.

The girl kneeled down next to him and took his hand. “Because we can help you.” Alex looked down to see she had removed his glove to reveal his claws.

Alex was dazed as he walked through random alleys and down numerous streets with the two strangers. They had introduced themselves after he agreed to come peacefully. Zi, the girl, and Gideon, the boy, had shown him things about themselves that proved they were going through a mutation much like his own. He was shocked and amazed that he was not the only one going through these changes.

Gideon’s eyes were amber, and his claws protruded from his knuckles rather than the middle joint of his hands like Alex’s. He also had tail of a tiger and unique tattoo-like stripes encircling his arms. Zi had green eyes, claws that retracted where her fingernails were, and, hidden underneath her thick hair, the pointed cat ears of a lynx, tipped with black fur. She had no tail like Gideon and Alex, but she had short, razor sharp canines on her top and bottom jaw.

Alex had so many questions, but Zi and Gideon told him to keep silent about the mutations until they reached their destination. They walked quickly, occasionally making small talk with each other to break the silence.It was evening when they reached the edge of civilization. They stood on a hill and paused for a minute to look out upon an expanse of wilderness. Zi and Gideon started to move forward into the trees, but Alex stopped.

“We’re going in there? At night?”

“Yes, trust us. We know what we’re doing,” said Gideon reassuringly.

Alex had no choice but to follow them. As they entered the trees, all the light was choked out by the leaves and twisting branches. Their cat eyes adjusted, but as they got further in, the trees became bigger and denser, and there was barely enough light to see by. It was over an hour before Gideon motioned for them to stop and looked to Zi. She pursed her lips and let out a clear, high pitched whistle. For a while, nothing seemed to be happening until they heard a movement to their right. Alex spun around to see a young man in his early twenties. With his dark skin and short dark hair, he blended in perfectly with the surrounding forest. When he came closer, Alex saw that he carried a sharpened stick at his side.

“Warren,” said Gideon.

Warren only nodded back. No more words were exchanged as he led them further into the trees. They arrived upon a clearing holding about fifteen people. To one side, roots climbed into the air where a gigantic tree had been uprooted. Underneath was an opening about five feet across. A fire blazed in the middle of the clearing, flooding it with warmth and light, and a few beds of leaves and homemade blankets sat at intervals around them. When Alex looked up he saw a small break in the canopy where a full moon could be seen.

The red haired girl that so intrigued him in the city stood near the trees in the shadow, and they brought Alex to her. Some of the other young people turned to watch, some turned back to what they were doing as if they had seen this before and were uninterested.

“This is the boy?” she said to Zi.

“Yes, the one I told you of,” she replied.

“Leave us,” she said. She had an air of control and power about her. The others listened to her without question and seemed to trust her.

When they were alone, she said to Alex, “I know many things about you. I know you are mutating into some sort of cat like the rest of us, I believe you are becoming Panthera pardus, the black panther, I know you have run away from home seeking answers, and I know you have failed to find those answers.” She paused, waiting for this information to sink in. Even though it wasn’t much, Alex was amazed at what they could find out about a perfect stranger, and at the mention of Panthera pardus, his mind exploded with questions. How could she possible know that? He opened his mouth to voice his thoughts, but the young woman raised her hand to silence him.

“But what I do not know,” she continued, “is who you are. I know nothing about your true self, and that is the only thing that keeps you from becoming one of us.”

“But who are you?” said Alex, no long able to restrain himself.

She gave him a wry smile and pulled him farther back into the trees. “We are the Felidae, a group of people who appear to be mutating into cats. We chose this name because Felidae is actually the scientific name for the cat family. Is it in our DNA or was it some freak accident? We do not know these things, but we are searching for the answers and for others like us. We do not find many, and our entire group is composed of only twenty-some young runaways afraid of the mutation. The Felidae first began appearing just over a year ago, starting with me. I too began searching for answers much as you did, but I found none. What I did find was Warren,” she pointed to the African-American who led them to this spot, “Leo,” she nodded towards a big male with hair like a lion’s mane, “and Blake,” she pointed now to another young man with short blonde hair, the tail of a cheetah, and cheetah spots that covered his forearms. The only thing peculiar about him was that his long claws never seemed to retract. “We vowed to remain together, because the Felidae was all we had.” She paused with a tone that signaled that was all the information he was going to get for now.

“But isn’t there more?” blurted Alex. “I’ve spent the last couple weeks thinking I was going to have to spend my days completely isolated from normal society because I am having some freak reaction and mutating into a cat! I don’t know about you, but where I come from people don’t just have weird sci-fi mutations everyday and take it all in stride. Just the idea that it’s possible still hasn’t sunk in and look at me! LOOK AT ME! I have cat ears, a tail, and bright green eyes with slit pupils! And these… things!” Alex shot his claws out of his hands and punched the tree next to him. The bark splintered away leaving deep gouges in the wood. He was exasperated and all of the stress since the mutation began was surfacing in this one moment. “Then I was kidnapped by you… you… people, and introduced to an entirely new society where I fit in perfectly but don’t understand one bit of it and all you are going to tell me is your names?”

“I know how you feel, and believe it or not I can’t give you these answers because, well, we don’t know much more than you do,” she said. Alex just stared at the ground.

“Now, who are you?” She said after a moment’s silence.

“My name is Alex. If you can’t tell me anything else, at least tell me this. Why do you think I’m turning into a black panther?”

“Warren, Blake, Leo, and I have done our share of research. We found that each individual takes on the characteristics of a certain species, and learned how we might recognize each of those characteristics in people. I’m not positive, but I think you are Panthera because of your black hair, tail, and ears. The only cat with those characteristics that we know of is the black panther, but I may be wrong.”

Alex found out a few things about the history of the Felidae from the red haired girl who called herself Ari. The more he learned, the more he realized he truly did belong with them. In turn, he told her everything she wanted to know about himself. These people were the only ones who could help him.

The first couple of nights were lonely and full of homesickness. All of his experiences of late came at him at once and overwhelmed him. How can anyone understand how I feel? Later, he felt ashamed at his selfishness of thinking these things. What am I talking about? I’m surrounded by people who understand! And many of them probably had to give up much more than I did.

He was allowed time to settle down in his new home before Ari gave him chores to do along with the others. The small opening underneath the tree led to a surprisingly large burrow that held sleeping space for all of the Felidae that did not want to sleep outside. After he had found a space to make his own bed and had scavenged for leaves and pine needles to make it, Ari quickly put him to work. There wasn’t much he could do because the older, more experienced ones like Blake and Leo had the jobs of finding food and going into the city for various things. Most of the others stayed in the forest to look for firewood to keep the constant blaze going. Some searched for edible plants in the forest. Scouts were always looking for a more suitable place for the Felidae to inhabit because with the last few additions to the group, the clearing had become quite cramped.

Days passed and Alex stayed on his own, just watching the others, trying to memorize faces, and figure out which species they were. Some were obviously mutated with markings or fur on their skin. Others were barely noticeable until you saw them use their retractable claws or the flash of their reflective eyes.

The one true friend Alex did make was Gideon. He was funny, intelligent, and always had that look in his eye that told you he was never truly serious. They did chores together and slept near each other in the burrow. Gideon seemed to be close to Zi, too. When Gideon and Alex had free time, Zi usually joined them. Slowly but surely Zi became his friend too. The three Felidae got to know each other well in the two weeks following Alex’s arrival.

“So where did you two come from anyway?” asked Alex to Gideon and Zi.

“Well, my mom is Oriental, but my dad is American,” said Zi, gesturing to her slanted eyes and high cheek bones, “I was born in China, but don’t really remember it. My parents moved east shortly after I was born, and we’ve been moving place to place all my life. Finally we ended up here, and a few days later, on my sixteenth birthday-” She placed her hands in the air and her claws shot out of her hands. “I became a Lynx canadensis, a North American lynx. I’ve been here for almost a month now.”

“My history’s nothing fascinating,” began Gideon. “My family immigrated here from Cuba for ‘a new beginning’ because we were having hard times there. That was when I was younger though. I became Felidae a few months after I turned seventeen, and I’ve been here for a year.”

They walked in silence before Zi said, “To the tree? I’ll race you!” She didn’t even wait for an answer before she started running. Gideon’s long legs quickly caught him up to her, and Alex took off after them. He missed running track and it was good to feel the wind on his face again. They ran silently near each other with catlike agility until he saw the enormous trunk of an oak tree. Gideon, being much taller than Zi and Alex, leaped onto one of the lower branches and hoisted himself up before pulling Alex and Zi up alongside him. They climbed up onto bigger branches where they could stretch out and talk to each other.

“I wonder what’s going to happen to us,” said Gideon. “Will we just live out our days hiding in this forest?”

“Do you think we’ll ever find some answer to why we are mutating?” was Zi’s only reply.

Getting used to his new lifestyle and the company of Zi and Gideon had almost made him forget why he had run away in the first place, but now it all came back to him.

“Why doesn’t Ari let us go into the city? Why are just a few allowed?”

Gideon answered. “Ari says it’s too dangerous and we might be discovered. No one ever really questions her because they all need someone to look to when they don’t know what to do.”

“The city. What I would give to see it again,” said Zi to herself.

Alex wondered what it must be like to live in a forest for months like Zi, or over a year like Gideon. Before he could say anything more he saw Zi’s tufted lynx ears perk up through her hair, and she motioned them to be quiet with her finger to her lips. She stood frozen before crawling close to Alex. He noticed she smelled of fresh pine needles as she leaned in close to whisper in his ear, “I hear someone below us. Follow me and don’t make a sound.” She turned to Gideon and put her finger to her lips again and pointed down. They climbed from branch to branch until they heard voices.

“…chased me halfway through the city before I shook them off and came back,” said a male voice.

“Are you sure? Do they know about us?” said a female. “Do they know where we are hidden? We have to move the camp!”

“No, I don’t think they know where the burrow is yet or they already would have come to catch us off guard. It’s a good thing they didn’t or nothing would have prepared us for them. They are strong and fast. Even with my cheetah mutation they were as fast as I am,” said the male.

“We have to move soon, maybe to a different city entirely. This is dangerous. How did they know about us?” replied the female.

“I’m not sure, but there is something different about them. Something’s not right.”

Zi, Gideon, and Alex moved lower in the tree to see who was speaking. Zi’s eyes widened and Gideon almost fell out of the tree when they saw who it was. Ari was kneeling next to Blake. He looked horrible. Blood ran down his arm from a gaping wound on his shoulder. His white face was covered in scrapes and bruises, and he was gasping for air as if he had just run twenty miles.

Ari’s voice took on a much softer tone. “Do you think…do you think you’ll be alright?”

“Yes Ari, I’ll be fine,” he said with a pained smile. “Leave me here. You need to get a scout out to find a new place to move. Let’s get out of here as soon as possible.”

Ari bit her lip. “I can’t just leave you here by yourself. What if something happens? What if they come?”

“They won’t Ari. Now go. Please.”

Ari seemed undecided and lingered for a moment longer, and then left. Before disappearing into the trees she called out, “I’ll be back for you as soon as I can.”

Blake was left slumped against the tree.

The three climbed higher so they could talk without being overheard.

“What do you make of that?” said Zi, a bewildered expression on her face.

“Sounds like we’ve finally been found out, but by who?” said Alex.

“What should we do about Blake? Should we help him get back to camp?” stated Gideon. All three nodded and started to climb down when they heard a horrible growl and snarl of a cheetah break through the silence. Remaining hidden in the tree, they climbed down until they could see what was happening. Blake stood supported against the tree, and there was a man standing just far enough away to where he was cloaked in shadow.

Blake let out another snarl, but it was cut short as a dart protruded from the side of his neck and he slumped to the ground. The man walked forward but, from their position, his face was still hidden.

“Sometimes you can run, but you can never hide,” he said in a dangerously soft voice. He snapped a collar around Blake’s neck and proceeded to drag him from the clearing. Before Zi or Alex could stop him, Gideon lunged at the man. The man whirled around with inhuman speed and bashed Gideon in the chest. His body flew with a hard thunk against the tree and slid to the ground. Zi grabbed a hold of Alex before he could go after him.

“I’ll come back for you,” the man said to Gideon’s unconscious form and dragged Blake out of sight. Zi and Alex waited to make sure he was truly gone before rushing to their Gideon’s side.

“Gideon! Gideon!” Alex shouted, shaking Gideon’s limp body, begging him to wake up. Hot tears spilled down Zi’s face.

“Alex we have to get him to Leo and Warren,” she sobbed. “They’re the only ones who can help.”

It took hours of constant heaving to get Gideon’s tall form back to the clearing. They supported him under the arms across their shoulders, but even then he was a heavy load. Finally they got back to the clearing.

“I can see it! I can see it, Zi! Almost there,” gasped Alex. His muscles were cramped and sore. Something seemed out of place though.

“Alex, it’s the fire! There’s no fire!”

She was right. The clearing was dark. Just a few embers burned where the blaze once stood. The few beds that had been around it before were trampled.

“What happened?” breathed Zi. They left Gideon at the side of the clearing and ran into the middle. Zi went over to the burrow and let out a shriek. Alex spun around to face her, just to see her collapse with a dart in her side.

“Zi!” He hadn’t taken two steps when he felt a dart sink into his arm. Alex just had time to see a face with inhumanly cold, steely gray eyes looming over him before everything went dark.

A hard, cold surface pressed against his face and all of the muscles in his body ached and his head throbbed with pain. What happened? Then it came flooding back to him – Zi, Gideon, Blake, and the strange man. His eyes snapped open to see Gideon lying on a stone bed, identical to his own. Another was attached to the wall above it like a bunk bed, but it was empty. He sat up and saw he was in a small, dark room with a single door containing a barred window. He looked over to see Zi sitting next to him on the bed.

“Oh you’re alright! I was so worried! I wasn’t sure if-” she began, but the rest of her words were drowned out as she smothered her face in his shoulder and hugged him. They sat there just holding each other for a few minutes while Zi regained her composure and Alex shook off the last remnants of the drug that was fogging his mind. He stood up and walked over to Gideon.

“Do you know if he’s asleep or…?”

Zi shook her head. “That man hurt him bad, but his chest is bandaged and it looks as if someone took care of him.”

Alex looked around the stone-walled room before arriving at the door. When he tried to open it, it sent a jolt of electricity into his hand.

“Yeah, I meant to warn you about that,” said Zi sheepishly.

“Oh, now you tell me,” he snapped back, his hand still tingling from its encounter with the handle. He peered out and saw that he was in a hallway filled with doors similar to his. Just across from their cell looking wistfully out of the window, was Warren.

“Warren! Warren! What happened to us? Where are we?” whispered Alex.

Warren looked up with somber eyes. “We’ve been discovered. These people seemed to know everything about us. I don’t know how. They knew exactly where to find us. Took us all out in one hit. Poisoned darts were flying everywhere. After everyone was unconscious they snapped these collars on us and took us here. I have no clue where we are.”

Alex’s hand went to his neck. Sure enough, a cold metal plate circled it. Zi and Gideon had one too. On closer inspection of Zi’s collar he could see tiny figures engraved on it.

Zi An Cheng / Age 16 / Lynx Canadensis

Gideon’s read:

Gideon Edward Admon / Age 18 / Panthera tigris

“Zi, what does mine say?”

“Alex Joseph Reagan, age 16, Panthera pardus-melas. How do they know these things?” she whispered.

Alex just shook his head. Behind him, he heard a groan and the soft sound of cloth brushing stone.

“Gideon!” shouted Zi and Alex together. He looked at them wearily, but he was his old self again.

“What’d I miss?”

Before they could answer, footsteps sounded in the hall. Zi and Alex helped Gideon over to the window so they could all see what was going on. Outside of it, curious and frightened faces filled the windows of the other doors. Across from theirs were Warren and Leo, and in the one next to it were Ari and Blake. They watched as soldiers came to the doors and, one by one, chained the Felidae and led them out of the hallway. When they opened Warren and Leo’s cell, Leo jumped out of it, enraged and roaring. He swiped at the soldiers with one of his massive clawed fists. Before he even made contact with the soldier he collapsed on the ground as an electric shock wracked his body. He convulsed and lay still.

“This is what happens to those who are not obedient to our cause. We do not wish to harm you but will if we must,” said the soldier in a loud voice. He was holding some sort of remote-like object. It must have been what triggered the electricity.

The soldiers chained Leo and Warren and led Warren out while dragging the unconscious Leo down the hall behind him. The lock clicked in the three friends’ cell and they backed away from the door. First Gideon was chained and led out by one soldier, then Alex, then Zi. When the soldier roughly grabbed her arms and threw her out of the cell, she lost her balance and tripped. The soldiers began to laugh quietly as she struggled to get up. A low growl crept up through Alex’s chest and out of his mouth. The soldiers abruptly stopped laughing, but they didn’t look frightened in the least. They just shoved the three down the hall and out of the door.

This is where “the training” – or what the soldiers called Kamfev Betingr - began. Each soldier took control of a group of Felidae and set them to work. Luckily, since Gideon, Zi, and Alex were in the same cell, they ended up in the same group for Kamfev Betingr. Their soldier trained them hard. The cruel man literally whipped them into shape first in hand-to-hand combat, then using daggers as weapons. The blunted practice instruments inflicted bruise upon bruise against their partners. Alex tried to go easy on his only companions, but when he was discovered, he was forced to watch helplessly as the other was whipped or punished in some way. It made Alex’s insides writhe when he saw the whip cross Gideon’s back, and his heart ached for Zi when she cried out in pain from the soldier’s blows. Alex had his own collection of cuts and bruises from the horrible whip. Lines crossed his back and when he was hit, the older marks opened and bled once again.

Every night they were put back in their cells with a small meal that barely sustained them, before they laid down on their stone-shelf beds and fell asleep from exhaustion.

Two weeks after they arrived in this horrible place, the soldier came to their cells and collected Gideon, Alex, Zi, and Tate.

“Today is different,” he said once they had arrived in one of the training rooms. The walls were lined with weapons and other torture devices. The entire room gave a feeling of unease to all of the Felidae.

“First we are going to try a little experiment,” he continued. “You,” he pointed to Alex. “Come.” Alex followed warily. He had no other choice. Gideon was chained to the wall by his collar, but Zi was left standing. Suddenly an electric shock pulsed through his body. It was gone as soon as it came, but it left him doubled over and breathless with pain.

“Alex!” she yelled and came to his side.

“Hit him,” the soldier ordered her.

“What?” she shouted in surprise.

Another electric shock pulsed through him, but this one was longer, more painful, and caused him to drop to his knees.

“Stop! What are you doing?” she yelled angrily.

The man’s only response was to shock Alex again. He collapsed on the floor and yelled. He would do anything to make it go away but could not. Finally, the surge left his body. “Zi, do it,” he said in a gasping, wheezing voice. He struggled to his feet and took her by the shoulders. “You have to hit me. Do what he-” But once again he felt the current pulse through his body. This one didn’t end. A scream tore from his lips when he couldn’t take it anymore. Pain exploded on the side of his face, and stars swam in front of his eyes, but it had ended. Why had it ended? He looked up from his place on the floor where he fell. Zi’s hands were curled into fists and she was staring at the soldier with cold, infuriated eyes. The soldier brought his hands together slowly to clap three times.

“Very good. The others usually had to pass out from the current a few times before I got the message through. I think we have a real fighter here.” Zi looked away and helped Alex to his feet. Kamfev Betingr continued much in this way. The tests continued until they attacked each other before the first pulse came to save each other the pain.

Another week came and passed. Their bodies became thin and muscular as their training became more challenging.

“Don’t you see what they are doing to us?” said an outraged Zi when they were back in their cells. “They’re turning us into animals! We attack each other and hardly think of it! What’s next? We can’t keep this up. Slowly but surely they are turning us against each other!” She slumped onto Gideon’s bed.

“What are we supposed to do? Let them shock us over and over until it kills us? We can’t do that! We can’t give up!” argued Gideon.

“Then what should we do? Sit here and wait for death to come, fighting each other like mindless beasts?” continued Zi.

“Stop! STOP!” shouted Alex finally. Zi and Gideon turned to look at him. “It doesn’t matter what happens as long as we are still on the same side. I think they are trying to divide us. Why? I don’t know, but we can’t give them what they want that way. Ari told me something when I first came here. We have to hold on to each other, because that’s all we have right now. We can’t let them destroy that.” Zi and Gideon looked guiltily at each other with an unspoken apology. Zi sat down next to Alex and he put his arm around her. “Let’s just see if we can wait this out. If not, we’ll figure out something.”

Before the others had time to reply, soldiers could be heard marching in the halls. They chained the Felidae and marched them out of the hall to the opposite door then the one to the training rooms. Zi looked questioningly at Gideon and Alex, but all they could do was shrug at each other. They were led to an enormous room the size of a large cathedral. At one side was a balcony with a dozen men standing on it. When he looked down to where the soldiers were leading them, his mouth dropped open. There were mutants, hundreds of them. There was a deadly silence as they all looked at each other in shock and awe. All of them were between the ages of twelve and twenty five. Felidae weren’t the only kind either. There were so many species – wolves, hawks, eagles, falcons, lizards, crocodiles, hyenas, horses, bears, and so many others. They were grouped together by species and chained to individual posts. It seemed the Felidae were the last to arrive. After they all were secured, movement could be seen on the balcony. A man moved forward. He had dark hair and a close cut beard to match. His cold, gray eyes looked out to the entire crowd of mutated humans. The thing that really got the crowd’s attention was his wings stretched out on each side of him. With steely grey feathers to match his eyes, they must have been near twenty feet across. Then he spoke.

“You all have been brought here for a single reason. The Empire has created you, and you are now ready to be harvested. You will be our future army, but not all of you. The weak will be sought out through a series of tests and trials called Verssu Batalha. Verssu Batalha consists of gladiator-like battles where you will fight each other to the death. The last hundred alive will be our ultimate warriors to conquer your human nations and others worlds as we please. Kamfev Betingr is over, but Verssu Batalha has just begun,” A shiver ran through the enormous crowd but no one spoke. “Your lives truly have become survival of the fittest.” With this last sentence he shrank back into the shadows with the other men. At first all that could be heard was a shocked silence as it occurred to people what they were hearing was true, and then the sound of more marching soldiers rang out. They began escorting people to individual cells outside of the cathedral. Alex was separated from Zi and Gideon in the crowd and thrown into a dark room by himself.

Hours passed as he thought about what they had just heard. They created us? And now we’re being ‘harvested’? What does that mean? And they want us for their army? To conquer other worlds? Who are these people? Then his mind went to Verssu Batalha. The only thought that came to him was, I’m going to die.

Whether days or weeks passed, Alex didn’t know. At one point his door swung open to reveal a man with chains.

“You’re up,” he said in a rough voice. The chains were forced around his wrists and a dagger was belted to his waist. A rough wooden shield was attached to his arm with leather cords. “Anything goes. Start at the whistle,” said the man. Alex was led to a set of dark, oak doors. A booming voice and wild cheers could be heard behind it. The doors cracked open, and for a moment the light blinded him. Then he saw his opponent. Her dark hair was long, and it framed her face with thick, black curls. She was startlingly beautiful with bright green eyes. Not this, anything but this, thought Alex as he stared into the solemn eyes of his opponent.

Zi and Alex faced each other, waiting for the fatal blow of the whistle.