~His head felt hot and sticky; the kind of feeling you'd get after lying in the sun for too long. Struggling to open his eyes the boy saw a single bare light bulb hanging over him; it had long since gone out. Propping himself up on his elbows the boy looked around the blank hospital room before he staggered to his feet. His white gown went down to his knees and swayed around as he turned to read the name tag above his bed. Jez, Roland….is that my name? He noticed the mirror in the room and walked over to it.

 In the mirror he saw a short boy with tan skin and fly away brown hair with green eyes and a skinny face staring back at him. I wonder what happened….how did I get here? In the reflection of the mirror the boy saw a closet and deciding that he no longer wanted to wear the white gown walked over to it. Pulling the door open he saw a white tee shirt, blue jeans, a red long sleeved jacket, and a pair of sneakers neatly stacked on top of one another with the name ‘Jez, Roland’ pinned to them. I guess that’s my name. Dressing in the clothes from the closet Roland walked out into the hallway.

 The hallway was completely deserted of people, but was littered with empty gurneys and pieces of paper. Walking down the hall Roland noticed several more hanging light bulbs that were out and hung in the stagnant air; wires were hanging out of the ceiling as well. Roland coughed a several times and felt his stomach do flip flops causing him to double over. Something in the air is making me feel sick. He saw a flight of stairs and decided to walk up them if it meant getting out of the musty hospital.

 Thinking it would be bright outside Roland was a little taken aback at the sight of the moon instead of the sun. Looking around the city that he’d emerged in Roland felt his breath catch in his throat. The city’s once tall and imposing skyscrapers had collapsed in on themselves and were covered in a thin grey dust; the windows were all blown out and the glass littered the streets. Cars were stacked up on top of each other; the bumper of one melted into the fender of its neighbor. The same thin grey dust seemed to hang heavily in the oddly warm night air.

 Walking through the city streets Roland’s sneakers left deep foot prints in the dust and he coughed several more times after inhaling too much of the dust. It seemed like he’d been on the edge of the city and as Roland walked towards the border bits of his memories started to come back like a poorly developed film. That’s right…the world was ending. There had been talk of the world powers bombing each other into submission via nuclear missiles and that had sent the rest of the world into a panic.  Not long before that a group of scientists had found another planet not far from Earth that looked like it could sustain life.

 ‘Let them bomb each other into oblivion if they want. We want no part of it.’ That had been the mentality of many people who had sought refuge with the thoughts of this other Earth like planet.

 This doesn’t look too much different from Earth….maybe I didn’t get out in time. Looking around the city in the bright moon light to Roland it looked a bit like San Francisco or maybe New York City, but he couldn’t be sure. The sound of someone rummaging about behind him made the hairs on the back of Roland’s neck stand up. “Who’s there?”

 “Me!”

 “Who’s me?” By this time Roland could feel the hair of somebody brush against his shoulder and slowly turned around. Roland had to struggle to hold in a scream when he saw a girl looking back at him.

 The girl’s skin was waxy and sallow looking and was covered in bright red burns; her eyes were red rimmed, but the whites were more of a sickly yellow color. “What are you staring at?”

 Roland noticed that clumps of the girl’s red hair was missing exposing her pale white, but burned scalp. What’s happened to her? Why’s her skin burned so badly? And her eyes…those terrible eyes are bright yellow and red. Opening his mouth to let out a scream there was only a dry cough that left his mouth. Why can’t I speak? I can’t make a sound.

 The girl cocked her head and reached forward to touch Roland’s face when he backed away. “Hey Puck, I found a kid who doesn’t have a furry face, but he’s not like us either.” From behind the girl came a boy with shaggy black hair and the same yellow eyes, but his face looked more leathery then burned.

 “So, what do you propose we do with him, Wynne?” The boy cracked several of his crooked fingers with their short brittle nails.

 “We could take him to the Grand Council. Your sister would know what to do with him.”

 Having no intention of going anywhere with Wynne and Puck, Roland began to back away when he noticed that Wynne’s back was turned not noticing that Puck could still see him. Waiting a couple more seconds Roland took off at a dead run towards the borders of the city.

 “Wynne, he’s getting away!”

 Roland could hear Wynne and Puck chasing after him, but something in the back of his mind told him that when he’d been in middle school he’d been one of the best runners and highly sought after by the track team. As he quickly approached the border of the city Roland heard Wynne and Puck shriek in terror before he saw them run back into the bowels of the dead city. That’s strange…why would they stop there? Shouldn’t they keep chasing me if they want to take me to their Grand Council? Turning back around Roland nearly bumped into a girl with curly brown hair, but there was something a little off about her.

 Peeking up out of the girl’s hair was what looked like a pair of bear ears, her hands were big with long curved fingers tipped with sharp hard claws. If Roland would have seen her from the back he would have seen that the girl had a stubby little tail the same shade of brown as her hair and ears. She peered down at him in mild interest and gestured at the man who’d been with her to come closer. “What do you think it is, Belbett?”

 Belbett, like the girl had a pair of ears coming out the top of his head, but his were more pointed and a sandy blond color. He also had a tail which was longer and was swishing ever so slightly. His face was covered in a light layer of fur the same sandy blond and his hands looked more like dog-like paws. “It looks like a mutant to me, Annabel.” Belbett flexed his claws in a menacing way. “Why don’t we just kill him before he can go report back those…people.” The last word came out a bit forced.

 Annabel slapped Belbett’s flexed paw. “He doesn’t look like one of them. He’s a bit too pretty.” She pushed Roland’s long bangs back from his face and pointed at him. “See, no burns no scars no scabs, boils, cuts, nothing. He completely healthy, but he’s not like us either.”

 Belbett still didn’t look convinced. “So what do we do with him if he’s not a mutant, but he’s not one of us either?”

 Annabel was quiet in thought for a moment. “Mrs. Earl’s a scientist she would know about creatures like him. Or maybe we could take him to Mr. Capello he’d probably know to.”

 Roland could hear Annabel and Belbett talking, but what they said made no sense. Mrs. Earl? Mr. Capello? If they’re like these two here I don’t think I want to meet them. The sound of Annabel’s voice snapped Roland out of his musing.

 “We’re going to take you to someone who can help you. Do you understand?” She saw Roland nod his head very slowly.

 He winced at the pain that shot through his wrist as Belbett grabbed onto him with those sharp clawed paw like hands. What’s going on here? What is this place? They seem like people, but those ears….and those claws they couldn’t possibly be human. Roland felt Belbett’s tail smack in him in the face as he began wagging. Propping himself up on his tip toes he saw a tall woman standing under one of the lamp posts as they entered another city.

 “Evangeline, what are you doing out past curfew?” Belbett tail only began to wag a bit faster hitting Roland in the face a couple more times.

 At first glance Evangeline looked like a normal curvaceous woman with short silvery white hair and wide dark eyes. However, as she walked closer she walked out of the light, but Roland saw several extra appendages on her shadow.

 “I might ask you the same question, Belbett and…” Evangeline cast a distasteful look at Annabel. “Shouldn’t the little cub at least be in bed at this hour?”

 It took every fiber that Annabel had to keep herself from lashing out at Evangeline. “Get out of the way Evangeline we need to go see Mrs. Earl and besides what you’re doing is illegal.”

 Evangeline waved a dismissing hand at Annabel when she caught sight of Roland. Leaning down she took his chin in her hand and forced his head in direction. “Well, aren’t you just adorable,” she cooed. The moon light struck Evangeline exposing something rather shocking about her appearance.

 From the waist up Evangeline looked like a normal woman, but from the waist down was a completely different story. Instead of having two legs she had eight long, thin, and elegant legs and on the each of them were a red pump. The tiny black shorts that she was wearing seemed to be custom made to accommodate the six extra legs so it must mean that she wasn’t the only one like this. She saw the shocked look on Roland’s face and threw her head back in a high pitched cackle. “Never seen an eight legged woman before?” Turning on those eight legs Evangeline showed him the large bright red hourglass tattooed to her back.

 Instead of wanting to scream Roland found that his throat had closed up and did the first thing that came to mind. He bit Belbett hard on the paw and upon hearing him yell (or was it bark?) in pain took off further into the city. Noticing that none of them were chasing him Roland slowed down a bit to look around the city.

 The buildings were so tall that they seemed to disappear into the star speckled sky and all of them were painted a blinding shade of white that made Roland wince when he looked at them for too long. As he walked around Roland quickly discovered that unless you were familiar with the city it would be very easy to become lost due to the similarity of the architecture. I guess it’s a pretty city now that I’ve looked at it long enough. I do wish I could find some people around though. I guess I mean normal people like me not with animal ears and tails or like those….mutated ones from the other city. Stopping for a moment Roland saw someone crawling out of one of the many dark alleys towards him.
 
On her knees was a girl with long lank black hair; a torn skirt hanging above her knees and she wore a stained sweater. On her back was a pair of ripped red-brown and black butterfly wings and coming out of her hair was two crimped antennae. She held out one scaly red-brown hand; her hair falling in her face. “Penny, sir? Can you spare a penny?” Her voice was cracked and rough sounding as she crawled towards Roland; blood was beginning to run down her scabbed knees.

 Roland noticed that the girl wasn’t looking directly at him and retreated back into the darkness when he bumped into someone.

 At first glance like with Evangeline this woman looked quiet human, but up on further inspection one would notice that she was indeed not human. The woman was very tall and had long light blond hair tied up in a high ponytail and wore glasses. However, her face was covered in tiny black spots, her skin seemed a bit see-through, and she had a tail nearly two feet long peeking out from beneath a short green coat. Pulling a rifle from her jacket she pointed it at Roland. “State your name and DNA type, stranger.”

 Roland jumped back from the rifle and put his hands up to show that he didn’t have a weapon. Opening his mouth to respond to the woman’s question Roland felt his throat close up again. What does she mean by my DNA type? I know my blood type that’s AB negative, but I don’t think I could tell her anything about my DNA. The rifle was shoved back in Roland’s face when he didn’t respond.

 “Can you not understand me boy? I need your name and DNA type!” When Roland still didn’t answer the woman reached into her jacket and pulled out a tool that looked a bit like a walkie talkie, but was silver and slim. She flipped the cover open and pressed a few buttons before speaking into it. “This is Agent Tjader; I need back-up on left side of town on the far side of L Street.”

 Roland tried to make a break for it when the woman was making her call, but the sound of the rifle cocking made him think twice. Why am I trying to run anyway? It’s not like I have any place to go.

 A few minutes later a man emerged from the darkness; his face was striped with black scales while his eyes were red with black slit like pupils.  “You called for me, Agent Tjader?” The man looked friendly if not a little strange with his snake eyes and striped face. He caught sight of Roland and looked between him and Agent Tjader. “Is this what you were calling me for?”

 Tjader wrinkled her nose at the man. “Don’t sound so unconcerned about it, Agent Utkin. Do you know what he is?”
 
 Utkin leaned down so that he could get a better look at Roland. “He looks like one of the human children from the old stories before the Dark Times.” He lifted Roland’s chin with one of his fingers. “Are you from around here, kid?” He saw Roland shake his head before looking back at Tjader. “There you see, Tjader. He isn’t from here so he wouldn’t have a DNA type.” Utkin heard someone coming up behind him and looked back to see Annabel and Belbett coming in his direction. “Don’t you two know its past curfew?”

 Belbett was much more of a smooth talker then Annabel was so he took the lead. “Agents Utkin and Tjader, it’s nice to see you again.” He gestured at Roland. “I’m so glad you found him. You see Annabel and myself found this poor mute wandering about in a daze on the outskirts of town so we thought maybe Professors Earl or Capello could help him find a way back to where ever he came from. So, do you think we could have him back?”

 Before Utkin had the chance to answer Tjader interrupted him. “You can’t have him. He’s a stray mutt he belongs in prison.”

 Utkin winced at the idea of sending anybody to their rather notorious prisons. “You know Tjader he’s an exotic specimen and I may not know much about science or anything like that, but don’t you think the people will much more interested in seeing him in the zoo?”

 Roland found himself wishing that he could interject even if he got the idea that he wouldn’t be listened to and found Tjader tug him in the direction of the zoo he assumed.

 

2: Chapter 2

~In the dead city another survivor of the Dark Times was stirring. A boy a little older then Roland was waking from his own slumber not in a hospitable, but in what remained of his home. The boy had blond hair and green eyes which were still slightly glazed over from sleep. Propping himself up the boy heard scurrying in the room across from him. Stumbling up from the coach he’d been laying on the boy saw Wynne and Puck scrounging about in the kitchen cabinets.  “What are you two doing in my house?”

 Wynne heard the boy first and nearly fell off the counter she was on. She looked back at the boy in shock. “You can talk!”

 “Of course I can talk. It’s a rather primitive accomplishment.” He looked in Puck’s direction. “I repeat the question. What are you two doing in my house?”

 Puck looked a bit sheepish since they usually didn’t get caught. Chiyo’s really going to be mad at me when she hears about this. “We’re looking for food there’s exactly lots to pick from down here.” He went back to searching through the cabinets and drawers.

 The boy walked a little closer to the pair to get a better look at them. He wasn’t as repulsed as Roland had been. “Do you know if this is Earth?”

 “What is Earth?” Puck looked a bit confused while Wynne ignored them completely. “This is the planet that my Father has lived on and his Father before him and his Father before him. We’ve lived here for at least the past several hundred years. Anyway, what’s your name?”

 The boy looked a little baffled by such a casual question. “It’s Maximilian.”

 “That’s quite a mouthful of a name you got there Maximilian. Mind if I just call you Max?”

 “Actually I do mind.”

 “Whatever Max, suit yourself.” Puck missed the annoyed look Maximilian gave him. “So, are you planning on staying here?”

 Maximilian looked around the house realizing quiet quickly that it had been looted through already. “It doesn’t look there’s a point to staying here. Where are you two staying?”
 
 Wynne looked skeptically at Puck who only gave her a blank look in response. “You don’t know about the civilization under the city?”

 Maximilian shook his head. “I just wake up from the longest nap I’ve ever had. Did something important happen when I asleep?”

 Puck felt his jaw drop open. “Maybe you should come with us. My sister is one of our leaders she can clue you in.”

 Instead of walking away from them Maximilian followed Wynne and Puck into the dead city.

  The dead city was nearly the size of the city above it and lacked the fine grey dust that blanketed the world above them. Most of it looked like the underground subways of New York and Washington DC, but small homes were carved out of the buildings on the sides. “So, this is where you guys live?”

 Puck nodded without answering. “The Grand Council’s quarters aren’t too much further. Like I said my sister can answer your questions better than I can.”  He walked up the steps of a large building that had once been a library and knocked on the door. He entered the room after a few seconds.

 Maximilian waited a few minutes before he saw Puck stick his head back out the building and beckon for him to come in. Hurrying up the stairs Maximilian felt Puck pull him into the building. “You actually got the Grand Council to see me?”

 “Don’t act so surprised I said my big sister was on the Grand Council I just had to put in a word with her. Now whatever you don’t speak until you are spoken to.”

 The Grand Council turned out to be a group made up of four men and six women; all of them wore white robes and sat a long table towards the middle of the building. Sitting between a young man with blue-black hair and a dark haired pale faced woman was a young woman with long black hair tied back in a yellow ribbon. Using the table to prop herself up the lady nearly fell when the man on her left tried to help her only to be pushed away. Walking towards Maximilian she had to dab away a bit of blood under her nose. “My little brother tells me you were asleep in one of the homes not far from here.”

 Maximilian thought that this lady could be very pretty if it wasn’t for the many scars covering her face and dark bags under her eyes. “Yes, Ma’am actually it was your little brother and one of his friends that woke me up.” He felt himself shiver a little under the lady’s gaze. Wonder if I said the wrong thing already.

 The lady gestured at the man who’d tried to help her to bring her chair and a spare. “I hear that you would like to know where you are and what happened to this place.”

 “Yes, Ma’am, but do you think maybe we could introduce ourselves first?” He held his hand out. “My name’s Maximilian you can call me Max if you want.”
  
 The lady delicately took Maximilian’s hand to shake it gingerly; the feeling of his rough hands against her soft skin made her wince. “Let’s keep things formal Maximilian. My name is Chiyo, member of the Grand Council.” She wiped her hand off on her robe when Maximilian let go of it. “Anyway, you have questions for me.”

 The next morning Roland woke up in the city’s zoo on a bed of straw. Yawning and stretching his sore body Roland noticed that he wasn’t alone. He looked over in the corner to see a girl who looked about his age staring at him.
 
The girl had gold oval shaped eyes, lightly tanned skin, and long amber hair with several different colored beads woven into it. She had her knees drawn up to her chest and was watching Roland like a hawk.

 Roland walked over to her a little hesitantly and sat down next to her prompting the girl to scoot away. “Hello….” He sighed in relief when the words finally came out of his throat. “Do you know why they put you in here? Or why they put me in here?”

 The girl shrugged, but suddenly looked alert when the door outside their cage opened to allow a woman in.
 
 The woman looked like she had some kind of feline blood in her. Her face was covered in a fine layer of fur that was black in the center and spread out across her face into a more cream color. The actual hair on her head was the rich dark color of the fur on the center of her face and was held back in a ponytail. A pair of black ears sprouted from the top of her head and behind her swished a long cream colored tail. Her hands and feet were both a bit arched with the fingers and toes close together so that they resembled paws. She more or less trotted right up to Roland and smiled at him showing a couple of very sharp teeth. “Are you the boy that Agents Tjader and Utkin picked up last night?”

 Roland nodded and noticed the whiskers on the woman’s cheeks. “If those were their names then yes they the ones who brought me here.” Something about those big blue eyes was a little unsettling, but out of all the ‘people’ he’d met here so far she seemed like the friendliest. “Would you mind telling me where I am?”

 “All in good time all in good time.” The woman accepted a clipboard from a man and flipped through a couple sheets of paper. “My name is Primrose Earl and your name is?” She noticed that Roland was looking a bit nervous around her. “You don’t have to be afraid young man I just want to know your name.”

 Licking his lips nervously Roland attempted to look away from Primrose’s odd cat eyes. “My name’s Roland, ma’am.” He noticed the man behind Primrose and decided to keep his eyes fixed on him.

 Noticing that Roland was fixated on her companion Primrose motioned for him to come into the room. “You don’t have to be afraid of him either Roland. This is my partner Ienzo Capello.” She pushed Ienzo in front of her. “Ienzo, introduce yourself.”

 Ienzo was a relatively tall man with fine brown hair and like Primrose his face was covered in fur, but in his case was tawny and white. His tall black tipped ears twitched as the girl changed her position on the bed of straw. Ienzo looked rather uncomfortable about the whole situation as his long tail swished nervously behind him instead of wagging. “Hello….” He chewed nervously on his bottom lip. “My name is Ienzo Capello; I’m an associate of Primrose’s.” Ienzo held his hand out to Roland who shook it a bit stiffly. Releasing the boy’s hand Ienzo looked back over at Primrose. “Primrose, I’ll speak to Erik about this for you.”

 Primrose imminently looked interested in whoever this Erik happened to be. “Do you mean him or one of his brothers?”

 “Does it matter?”

 “It does matter. Pius is too young his word carries no wait, Wulfric doesn’t get as much done as he should, but if you go to Erik you should hear what we want to hear.”

 “That depends I think. What exactly do we want to hear?”
 
Primrose let a bit of curly hair wind around her finger before she pulled her finger loose letting the curl pop back into place on the side of her face. “I’m hoping that Erik would allow us to keep the boy for studying after he’s already so graciously let us use the girl for experimentation.”

 Ienzo sighed under his breath and his tail hung dejected behind him. “You know those politicians Primrose. If the venture isn’t profitable they aren’t going to fund it.” He saw her stick her lip out at him and ran a hand through his hair. “However, I guess it’s worth a shot.” Turning to leave the zoo he felt Primrose hug his arm.

 “Thank you for buttering up Erik, Ienzo I know you’ll be great at it.”

 “What would your husband say if he saw you hugging me?” Taking advantage of Primrose’s confusion Ienzo shook his arm free and walked out of the zoo.

 Primrose turned back to Roland although she was feeling a little flustered. She’d always felt something a little stronger for Ienzo then friendship and while she was married with two children she found that the lack of companionship she got from her husband she could get from Ienzo. I shouldn’t think about Sebastian like that. He’s a wonderful man who’s given me two daughters and he’s just…busy with work a lot. I shouldn’t think about wanting to be unfaithful to him and with Ienzo of all people. I mean sure Ienzo is young, handsome, smart….no Primrose don’t think like that he’s almost ten years younger than you and he’s a dog. By this time Primrose had noticed that Roland was looking at her with a confused look on his face. “Oh, I’m sorry I was just trying to remember something.”

 Although Roland suspected that she was lying he brushed it off. “Could you tell me what happened to this place?”

 “Oh, right of course.” Primrose stepped into the small enclosure that Roland shared with the girl and sat down next to him. “So, several hundred years ago there was a nuclear conflict on this planet I’m not sure of the details, but a large percentage of the world’s population either died or became very sick with radiation poisoning. However, a group of scientists found that the animals of this world were surviving quiet well and sought to find a way to inject the DNA of these animals into the DNA coding of the people who were sick and dying. After several years of testing they were successful in creating the hybrids. However, not everyone wanted to be injected with the animal DNA and if I’m correct their decedents still live in the dead city outside our borders.”

 Roland felt his tongue dry up like a dead plant. “So, you, Ienzo, the guards from last night, the eight legged woman, and the two that found me are all hybrids?”

 “That is corrected. I have the DNA of a Birman cat. Ienzo has a Border Collie. The two guards were Agents Tjader and Utkin if you’re curious on what their names are. Agent Tjader has glass lizard while Agent Utkin has Red-Bellied Black Snake. The eight legged woman I believe you were talking about was Evangeline and she has the Black Widow. Then Annabel and Belbett the two that found you have Cinnamon Bear and Arabian Wolf respectively.”

 Even though Roland’s head was spinning he found himself wanting to know more about this strange world. “So, who’s on top in this world?”

 “I beg your pardon?”

 “I mean who’s on the top of the food chain so to speak. Who’s in charge for the most part?”
 
Primrose knew exactly how their society worked, but she wasn’t used to telling it to other people. “Well, the primates are the politicians the man who I’ve been talking about is one of them. The domesticated carnivores dogs, cats, and the like are the scientists. The undomesticated carnivores are the hunters. Annabel and Belbett are with the hunters since you know she’s a bear and he’s a wolf. The herbivores are farmers. The marine mammals make up the navy which is very small mind you. The marsupials are the educators and clergy. Reptiles are law enforcement and make up the army. Amphibians are both the middle class and the laborers. Fish make up the athletes. Birds are the architects and artist. Lastly we have the insects who are the so called undesirables.”

 “What do you mean by undesirables?”

 “You know the homeless, criminals, mentally ill, unemployable things like that. Evangeline is a prostitute so it’s not like she doesn’t have a job, but what she’s doing is considered criminal.”

 Although Roland’s mind was going several miles an hour he was finding that this place was a bit like Earth. “Do you have any pets?”

 Primrose bit her lip. “This is going to sound really weird, but let me explain myself. When we are born we are injected with the DNA of a different animal, but not everyone reacts well to it. Those people who don’t react well to it. Well, maybe it would be better if I showed you.”
 
 As he watched Primrose unlock the door to leave the cage he glanced back at the girl. “What about her?”

 “Oh, Salome will not be going with us.” She noticed the annoyed look Salome was giving her. “But I do know something that will give Salome a little smile.” Primrose reached in the pocket of her lab coat to pull out a small piece of wrapped chocolate which she offered to Salome. “Well, why don’t you take it?”

 The girl known as Salome narrowed her golden eyes at Primrose before spitting out a rather venomous answer. “Because I loathe chocolate.”

 Primrose looked unaffected as she put the chocolate back in her coat pocket. “Well, in that case I’ll be leaving.”

 Roland had to chase after Primrose who had an usually long stride. “Why are you keeping that girl in a cage?”

 “Salome is something of an experiment.”

 “What do you mean by experiment?”

 “I’ll tell you about that after I get your first question answered.”

 In the chambers of the one of the most prominent politicians was a man in his mid thirties with long black hair wearing a dark suit. Erik Adlersflügel had been infused with the DNA of a black-headed spider monkey when he’d been born and looked remarkably human save for the long black tail and the excess hair on the tops of his hands and cheeks. He’d been looking through a pile of papers while sipping from a glass of sherry when he heard a knock at his door. “Come in.” Erik’s voice was smooth and cool.

 Ienzo didn’t like having to talk to any of the politicians let alone one of the Adlersflügels who were known for being notoriously slippery. “Mr. Adlersflügel, I have something I wish to discuss with you.”
 
Erik took a long drink from his glass of sherry before putting it back on his desk; the glass didn’t so much as clink against the wood. “What’s so important, Mr. Capello?” His black eyes followed the young scientist’s every movement and didn’t blink once.

 Ienzo felt himself shiver under the politician’s unblinking black eyed stare. “It’s about the human boy that was found last night, Mr. Adlersflügel.” He didn’t hear a response, but instead Erik raised a thin dark eyebrow.

 “And? What about him?” Erik didn’t give Ienzo the chance to respond before he took another drink of his sherry and got up from behind the desk. “You know it never seems like you scientists have yourselves prepared for anything when you come and talk to me or any of my colleagues and that wastes your time and mine. So, if you don’t know what you’re going to ask me then go away.” He took another drink of the sherry.

 His temper frayed ever so slightly from Erik’s lecture, but Ienzo held his tongue. “Actually, I wanted to ask you if Mrs. Earl and I could keep the boy in our custody to study him.” There was that smarmy little smile of Erik’s that made Ienzo want to hit him.

 “What for? If the boy is human like you say then he is merely a survivor from the Dark Days therefore making him one of our ancestors.” He paused here for another drink. “Therefore there is no reason to study our ancestors so I would suggest getting rid of him.”

 “Yes, he may be human, but Mr. Adlersflügel I think----”
 
 “You think what Mr. Capello? That the boy could tell you what went wrong with his people? Why they slaughtered each other with abandon. Why they thought it was ok to heartlessly murder women and children simply because they didn’t believe in the same God.” This time he finished the sherry. “I think it would be best to eliminate him. The less we know about our brutish ancestors the better.”

 Although Ienzo felt he was fighting a losing battle he thought that perhaps he could persuade Erik to see things his way. “Mr. Adlersflügel, what I was going to propose was that we talk to the boy, gain his trust, and maybe just maybe he could tell us how to grow food in the dead city.”

 “Why the dead city?”

 “Well, you know just as well as I do about the food shortages and the farmers are doing their best, but----”

 “They’re lazy that’s why we’re having a food shortage.”

 “Anyway I thought that if he could tell us about the radiation we could come with a way to negate it, the buildings could be cleared out, and the farmers would have more space to plant their crops.”

 “That may sound good to you an idealistic young scientist and a dog at that, but you didn’t answer my question, Ienzo.”

 “I’m sorry Mr. Adlersflügel, but I must have not heard the question.”

 “Why plant in the dead city? After all there is the problem of the underdwellers that live there already.”

 “I trust the army could take care of that little issue. They might be hideous to look at, but that doesn’t mean they’re strong.”

 Erik wrapped his fingers around the now empty glass of sherry and leaned back against the desk. “Don’t get your hopes up, but I’ll talk with the others and see what I can do.” Quietly under his breath he added. “Stupid mutt….”

 Ienzo knew about the others that Erik was talking about, but was a little taken aback at the mutt comment and growled under his breath. He knew that they didn’t pass anything unless money could be made.

 Besides Erik’s family there was also Hastu Abascal, Jessika Goldschmidt, Martin Zimmermann e, Roman Frost, Tolson Webster, Zenon Lis, and Zhi Chen. Besides this small group there were children who were still in school.

 Well, Hastu he just goes with whatever the Adlersflügels say. Jessika and Martin are argumentative. Then Roman, Zenon, and Zhi have their own clique of conservatives. Tolson….he’s just a mystery. Ienzo forced a smile to his lips. “Well, thank you for your consideration Erik I’ll keep in touch with you on the matter.”

 Erik waved a dismissing hand at him before refilling his glass of sherry.

 

3: Chapter 3

~Back in the city Primrose had taken Roland to the lab where she worked.

 Primrose saw a woman with long light blond hair streaked with black and brown with bushy ears and tail that were also black and brown. “Oh Beatrice, can I speak to you for a minute?” She tapped Roland on the shoulder and pointed at Beatrice. “That’s Beatrice Engel another colleague of mine. She’s young, but she’s brilliant and her daughter…poor thing is an example of what I was talking about. In case you’re wondering she has the DNA of a Main Coon Cat.”

 Beatrice like Primrose had fingers that were close together that resembled paws and a fur covered face, but her fur seemed thicker and longer. “What can I do for you, Primrose?” Behind Beatrice was a small girl who was flitting about. She saw Roland and had a look of surprise and fright n her face. “Is that a human, Primrose?”
 
 “Yes, Beatrice this is a human. I was going to show him what happens to those of us that don’t react well to the DNA injections.”

 The slightly nervous smile on Beatrice’s face vanished. “How dare you! My daughter is not a side show attraction for you and your little human to gawk at!” Beatrice turned and stormed off taking the hiding girl by the arm to take her from the lab.

 Primrose winced at Beatrice’s sudden reaction. “Well, that didn’t go as well as I would have hoped.” She made sure that Beatrice had left before leaning down to whisper to Roland. “Beatrice’s daughter Cora was one of those who didn’t react well to the DNA injections and what happens is they sort of revert…”

 “What do you mean by revert?”

 “They act more like animals then they do like people. Most of them are kept by their families as pets…sort of.”
 Roland was still trying to process what Primrose had just told him and could feel bile rising up in the back of his throat. “You keep your handicapped people as pets?”

 Primrose was already regretting her word choice when she the look of disgust on Roland’s face. “I shouldn’t say pets….they’re invalids though I don’t know what else to call them. Didn’t our ancestors keep they’re handicapped at home with them sometimes?”

 “We did, but we didn’t call them pets they were still parts of our family. Frankly I don’t think I want to be here anymore. You people are sick.” It didn’t hit him until just now that Primrose had referred to him as an ‘ancestor’.  “Wait, what do you mean by your ‘ancestors’?”

 Biting her lip as she realized the error she’d made Primrose quickly backtracked to try and distract Roland. “Don’t let it bother you that we call our handicapped pets I can assure you that they’re very well taken care of and want for nothing.”

 “What did you mean by your ‘ancestors’?”

 Looking around the lab quickly to make sure the other scientists were engrossed in their work Primrose took Roland by the wrist and began to pull him back to where they’d started.

 “Why are you being so secretive?”

 Primrose ignored Roland’s protests and questions until they entered what he assumed was her office. She locked the door before turning back to Roland. “You don’t know where you are do you?”

 “If you’re asking for a name of this planet I can’t tell you, but I’m assuming this the planet that the scientist were talking about sending us before the bombs were dropped.” He gestured at Primrose’s furry face. “You’re probably just one of the natives who are a strange animal person hybrid.”

 Walking over to a file cabinet Primrose pulled it open to retrieve a file full of photos. “Not exactly.” She put the file down on the table and opened it. “Take a look at these I think they’ll answer your question.”

 Roland began to sort through the pictures and saw among other things: the Statue of Liberty without a head and torch; vines crawling up her now bent over bronze body, Mt Rushmore lacking the imposing face of Teddy Roosevelt; Lincoln’s nose had been smashed in, and the Golden Gate Bridge had collapsed into the San Francisco Bay. “What’s this supposed to tell me? For all I know you could have had these pictures doctored. Besides when where they taken anyway? There must have been some kind of movement to fix up this up after all they’re national monuments.”
 
 Primrose could feel her temper growing thin at Roland’s persistent denial on the situation.  “Those pictures were taken in the past couple of weeks to show that the damage is so bad we can’t do anything to fix it.”

 “Wait, if these pictures were taken in the past couple of weeks how did you get from another planet to Earth so quickly?”

 “This is Earth. That’s how.”

 

4: Chapter 4

~Maximilian was still sitting across from Chiyo as he listened to her explanation on what had happened to the world. “So that’s how we got to this point. We finally dropped the bombs on each other.”

 Chiyo nodded her head. “I don’t think that our ancestors are particularly stupid, but were instead too violent for their own good. I figure man’s brilliance must go hand in hand with his idiocy. He’s a war like creature that must give war to everything around him even if his enemy happens to be his brother.” She saw that Maximilian still looked a bit skeptical. “You don’t believe in our point of view, do you?”

 “Its not that I don’t agree with you it’s that I see exactly where you’re coming from and it’s a little….scary I guess.” He heard Chiyo laugh and quickly decided that it wasn’t a very pleasant sound.

 “Have you wondered once where you are or who we are?”

 “No, I guess I haven’t, but you’ve already told me what happened to the Earth and that I am in fact there already.”

 Chiyo gestured for the rest of the Grand Council to disperse and waited until they were gone before continuing. “We are what are left. Or maybe we are all that ever was in the first place.” She saw the confused look on Maximilian’s face and decided to take a different approach. “After the bombs were dropped and the scientists found out that the animal DNA would help a person survive not everyone elected to have themselves injected with it. Those who chose not to have themselves injected became sick from the radiation exposure, but most of them survived. We are the descendents of those who chose to stay human.”

 Maximilian understood better now what had happened, but now he was feeling more curious about the hybrids that lived above the underdwellers. “Do you know what the hybrids are like?” He saw Chiyo’s lip curl a bit and wondered if he’d asked the wrong question.

 “It’s strange really….when they first started experimenting with the animal DNA sometimes the subject would die or they’d revert to more animal like behavior. In fact that’s sometimes still happens.  Anyway they let the politicians run their society completely, but we have our society controlled by only twelve people. Besides me the other leaders are Francisco Guerrero, Guildias Lindberg, Frida Boros, Yori Tsukuda, Jenny Knight, Cesare Abandonato, Yoko Fujioka, Hannah Thorirsson, Erhard Weber, and Eirian Maddox.”

 “Do you all have some part of the government that you’re in charge of?”

 “Of course; how else would it work? I’m in charge of out experimental science program. Francisco has the army, Guildias has the education system, Frida has health care, Yori has the financial system, Jenny has entertainment and none-educational media, Cesare is in charge of the news and educational media, Yoko helps get financial aid for families with small children….” She paused here for a moment. “Since our living space is small compared to the hybrids families are only allowed to have two children….of course there are slip ups.”

 “Since families are only allowed to have two children don’t you think they’ll pretend it’s a slip up so they can have more children?”

 “I wouldn’t be surprised, but we don’t believe it’s our place to terminate a pregnancy whether it be accidental or not. Anyway, I was explaining our society to you. Hannah is in charge of social services, Erhard has the police force, and Eirian supplies welfare for the elderly and impaired.  Everybody else goes to school from the time they are five until they are eighteen at which time additional education is encouraged, but not required. If they do not seek further education they work until they are between sixty and sixty-five at which point they may retire. So, that’s out society in a nutshell.” She paused for another moment. “However, most of us don’t live to see sixty.”

 Maximilian could feel bile rising in the back of his throat. “So, what’s the average lifespan for the people living down here?”

 Chiyo was about to respond when she heard the door open and looked behind her to see a tall blond man wearing glasses. “Oh, Guildias what do you need?” She gestured over at Guildias. “That’s Guildias Lindberg he’s the one who’s in charge of education.”

 As Guildias walked closer Maximilian noticed that Guildias’s eyes were glazed over and that he was in fact quiet blind. “Chiyo, there’s been a breakthrough with the-----” He must have noticed that Maximilian was still in the room and stopped himself. “The other scientists need you. There’s been a breakthrough with something that you’ve been working on for quiet sometime and they need you to see it.”

 Struggling to get up from her chair Chiyo turned her attention to Guildias. “Guildias, you mind showing our guest around?”

 Knowing that Guildias was blind Maximilian was wondering how exactly he was going to show him around. “I’m not trying to offend you, but how are you going to show me if around if you’re----”

 “If I’m blind? Don’t worry about that I’ve lived here long enough to know where everything else is.” He beckoned for Maximilian to follow him.

 As Maximilian walked through the halls of what looked like a subway station he saw there the whole place seemed drab. “So, does this place have a name?”

 “It has no name.” Guildias grabbed onto Maximilian’s arm and pulled him into a room on the side of the wall. “Now, you will see our God.”

 “Your God?”

 “Yes, our God.” Guildias released Maximilian and walked over to a small panel with three levers on it. One lever was red, one yellow, and one green. He reached over and pressed down on the yellow lever making sure not to even let his sleeve hit the green one.

 Maximilian saw the floor was in front of Guildias, but behind the panel was opening and something large and gold was beginning to appear from underground. He took a couple steps back when the idol fully emerged and felt his mouth go dry.

 By this time Roland was back in the cage at the zoo with Salome who still wasn’t acting like she was interested in talking to him at all.

 Primrose was in the lab working on another project when she heard Ienzo come back in. “Ienzo, did you talk to Erik?”

 “I did.” He saw Primrose look back at him expecting more of an answer then that. “He said he’d talk to the others about it.”

 Primrose sighed and leaned back in her chair. “He said he’d talk to the others? Do you know what that means, Ienzo?”

 “Of course I know what it means. It means that nothing is probably going to happen.”

 In the Office of Politicians, Erik had gotten the group together to discuss what Ienzo had told him earlier that day. He knew whatever he decided that Hastu Abascal and his brother Wulfric would agree with. If he could infiltrate the clique of Roman, Zenon, and Zhi he’d have their vote too. Then he could just rule out Jessika and Martin since they’d be out voted. Tolson….it would be good to have his vote as well, but it wasn’t necessary.  Walking into the meeting room he saw Jessika sitting next to Martin and was whispering something to him. He didn’t see Wulfric come up behind him and put an arm around his shoulder.

 Wulfric Adlersflügel was the older brother of Erik and also had four younger sisters who were still in school. There was also another younger brother who was also still in school. “Erik, why didn’t I see you at Olivia’s school meeting?” Wulfric like his younger brother also had the DNA of a primate in his case he had Geoffroy’s Spider Monkey.   “She was really disappointed when he you didn’t show up. Her algebra and chemistry scores have gone up.”

 “Well Wulfric, if I remember correctly I told you and Olivia that I would be unable to go because I had work to do.”

 “I had work too, but I still went. Oh, and Pius’s school meeting is coming up next week and you need to go.” He saw that Erik was starting to get annoyed with him, but continued on anyway. “Éclair and Godiva are coming home from university in a couple days too and you need to take the time to spend some time with them.”

 “Wulfric, you forget that we’re in a public place and we shouldn’t be talking about personal matters in a public place especially not at work.” 

 Wulfric was looking a bit upset by his younger brother’s uncaring nature about nurturing their younger siblings and raised his voice a little. “You really need to go to Pius’s school meeting Erik to check up on him and make sure he’s doing well in school.” He noticed that Erik wasn’t really listening to him and raised his voice again. “Remember the last time Éclair and Godiva came home you didn’t show up? Remember how mad they were?”

 “Wulfric, please you’re raising your voice.”

 “Then take the time away from work to be a big brother. Work doesn’t have to dominate your life.”

 Erik noticed that Jessika and Martin had been roused from their conversation and took Wulfric over into a corner. “Fine Wulfric I’ll take the time to go to Pius’s school meeting and spend time with Éclair and Godiva when they get home. Just please lower your voice so I can get this meeting started.”

 Wulfric huffed and went to take his spot between Jessika and Tolson.

 Roland was sitting opposite Salome in the zoo cage and was trying to get a conversation going with her. “So, how long have you been here?”

 Salome looked up at Roland, but then rested her chin on her knees. “I don’t know…a couple of months I think.”

 “Why are you in here?”

 Salome gave Roland a look of pure contempt. “Weren’t you listening to Mrs. Earl earlier? Don’t you remember her telling you that I’m an experiment?”

 Roland was beginning to feel a bit annoyed with Salome’s attitude and let himself fall back onto the bed of straw. I wonder how long it’s going to take to get some real answers here. Primrose doesn’t give me straight answers and…he glanced over at Salome who had gone back to staring at the wall. Salome doesn’t seem to care about anything, but herself.

 “Have you thought about running away since you’ve been here?”

 Roland hadn’t expected to hear Salome address him and looked over at her in confusion. “I guess I haven’t, but where would I run to?” Maybe the question hadn’t meant to have an answer. “Have you ever thought about running away before, Salome?” There it was. That little flicker of emotion on her face.

 “Every day…” She turned this time to face Roland. “Every day I wish I could run away. I don’t know where I’d go, but just the thought of being free gives me enough reason to try it.” Salome rested against the wall when she heard a creak of one of the stones falling out. She got off the wall and peered through the hole at the city behind it before turning back to Roland. “What do you say? Want to try running away with me?”

 It didn’t make a lot of sense to try running since he didn’t know where they’d go, but at the same time Salome was right. Why not run? See how far you could go. Roland knew a little about farming maybe they could settle down and start a farm together or something. “I don’t know how far we’ll get, but you know let’s give it a try.”

 Salome and Roland began pulling away the bricks until a small hole was formed. Salome turned back to Roland. “I’ll go through first. I haven’t been in the city much, but I think I know it better then you do.” She crouched down and folded back her small wings so that she could crawl through the hole a bit easier. Once she was through Salome thought about taking off and leaving Roland behind, but brushed it off and peered back through the hole. “Come on through kid it’s alright.”

 Roland followed Salome out of the hole and looked around the back of the zoo to find that there was a lack of security. “By the way Salome my name’s Roland.” He held his hand out to her. “I guess since we’re doing this together we should at least now each other’s names, right?”

 Salome shook his hand to acknowledge that she’d heard him. “I think the best way to get out of here is to go through the west side of the city and get into the area where the farms are. The farmers aren’t like the city people they’re kind and can keep a secret.” She saw an officer coming around a corner and quickly darted into the shadows; grabbing Roland as well.

 “I know who that is. That’s Agent Utkin.”

 “What’s so special about him?”

 “He’s a bit nicer than his partner Agent Tjader. I think we might be able to trust him even.”
 
Salome looked between Roland and Agent Utkin for a few seconds before throwing up her hands. “You think he’ll help us or something? Is that what you’re planning?”

 “I don’t know…..maybe. There’s nothing to lose in asking.” Roland began to creep over towards Agent Utkin when he felt Salome grab his arm.

 “There’s plenty to lose if he decides not to help us.” She noticed that Roland didn’t look like he was going to drop the matter. “Fine go and ask, but it looks like he’s not going to help I’m running. You do what you want at that point.”

 Feeling Salome let go of his arm Roland crept towards Agent Utkin, but stopped when he saw Tjader walking towards him as well.

 “Jaska, have you thought about my proposal?”  Seren’s voice still had an air of authority to it.

 Jaska looked a bit sheepish and frightened as well. “If by proposal you mean if I want to have dinner with you or not you just asked me not that long ago I haven’t had the chance to think about it much.”

 Seren’s face turned crimson. “Its not just dinner. We could go listen to General Matsuoka’s speech and then go get something to eat with the rest of the attendees.”

 “You know it still sounds like a date to me.”

 The woman with the DNA of a Glass Lizard was looking a bit angry now. “It’s not a date!”

 Roland was feeling a little confused about their conversation and was about to go back into the dark when he saw that Jaska had seen him. Is he going to tell Agent Tjader about us? It didn’t look like it. In fact Roland could swear that Jaska had moved a little bit to block him and Salome and from Tjader.

 Jaska watched Seren walk off in a huff before he gave a sigh of relief. He waited until Seren had rounded a corner before speaking. “You know you two could really use a better hiding spot then some corner ally.”

 Salome crawled out of the dark and was now crouched beside Roland. “Roland says we can trust you.”

 “That depends what you are expecting from me.”

 Roland decided to interject before Salome could since she wasn’t exactly loquacious. “We’re trying to get out of the city and need to find a way to get to the farms. Could you help us in any way?”

  Jaska wasn’t exactly surprised by their request. “I myself can’t help you since I like my job.” He saw both Roland and Salome hang their heads in disappointment. “You didn’t let me finish. I know some who can help you.” He gestured for them to come out. “I can’t take you anywhere if you’re going to hide in there. You know what maybe you two should stay there. I’ll bring them to you.”

 Salome saw Jaska leave around the same corner that Seren had gone around. “Do you think we can really trust him? What if he’s going to go call that woman back?”

 “I still think we can trust him. Besides I don’t think he likes her very much anyway.”

 A tense twenty minutes past before Jaska reappeared with the two hunters from before. Annabel had been much more willing to help then Belbett had and had taken a bit more convincing with him. “I think these two can help you more then I can.”

 Belbett sighed heavily when he saw Roland. “That kid again? Jaska, you said something about an escaped convict.”

 Annabel rolled her eyes. “Are you being serious, Belbett? You’d rather help an escaped convict then help some kid who wants to get out of here?”

 “Actually yes.”

 “You can ignore Belbett he’s just being difficult.” Annabel looked around quickly to make sure no one else was coming. “You two can come out if you want. We know where the farms are and can get you there quicker then Jaska can.” She waited until Roland and Salome had come out of the dark before continuing. “Its really not that far from the outskirts of the city you may not want to stay there long, but there are a couple of people we know who can help you.” Annabel paused for a moment to think. “There’s Yukiko she’s a bit young she has a good heart and Aubrey her farm is a bit old and doesn’t produce much, but she’s a good person.” She paused again. “Belbett who are your friends?”

 “Durai, Teo, and Trinidad. I’m sure one of them could do it.”

 Out of curiosity Roland was wondering what kind of DNA their possible help might have. “If it’s not too rude could you tell me what kind of animal DNA your friends have?”
 
 Annabel was quite in thought for a moment since they didn’t often dwell on what kind of DNA they all had. “I think we should get started if we want to get out of here.” She waved good-bye to Jaska who pretended that he saw nothing.

 The group traveled in silence dodging the light from the lamps before Annabel started talking again. “Yukiko has Yellow-Pine Chipmunk and Aubrey has Eastern Grey Squirrel.”

 Roland decided to try and engaged Belbett who seemed uncomfortable about the situation. “What about yours, Belbett?”

 “Durai has Pygmy Rabbit, Teo has Bushman Rabbit, and Trinidad has Marsh Mongoose.”He winced almost as soon as he’d said Trinidad’s name. “I was just thinking maybe we should pass Trinidad up.”

 Annabel also knew Trinidad, but not as well as Belbett did. “Why pass up Trinidad? He’s a good person.”

 “It’s Trinidad’s Cousin Sandra who’s the problem.” The woman that Belbett was talking about had been injected with the DNA of a Common Kusimanse and she was known for her close connections with the military. Sandra happened to share the farm with Trinidad. He suddenly stopped walking when he saw someone walking towards the group.

 The person was a young woman who happened to be a General in the Army named Hoshi Matsuoka.

 Hoshi Matsuoka was a pale faced girl with long black hair that was tied up in a braid and wore the green uniform that Seren and Jaska wore, but with more ribbons and medals on the jacket. Her DNA was also that of a reptile a spiny tailed lizard in her case. Hoshi was known for her war mongering ways and while she was well loved by a certain clique in the Army she was feared by most everyone else. She spied Belbett from the corner of her eye and waved cheerily at him. 

 Belbett shooed Roland and Salome into another ally before he turned to Hoshi; a smile was forced to his lips. “General, it’s so nice to see you again. How you’ve been?”

 Her scaly cheeks tinged a light pink as she scooted a little closer to him; her long spiny tail wrapped around Belbett’s waist in a loose grip. She felt him tense up a little. “Have you thought at all about what I asked you about?”

 Belbett remembered that Hoshi had invited him to a speech she’d be giving and that she’d wanted him to go out to dinner with her afterwards. Frankly the idea of going anywhere where it was just him and the General frightened Belbett immensely. “You know Hoshi, I haven’t really gotten the chance to think about it and the Geiger girl has been sick lately so I’ve been filling in for her so I really don’t know when I’ll have any spare time.”

 Hoshi could see Annabel from the corner of her eye and scowled. “Is that so? Or is it because you want to spend more time with your hunting buddy?”
 
 “You know that’s not true, Hoshi.” Belbett was feeling a bit nervous now from the look of pure anger that was forming on Hoshi’s face.

 The General was still spitting venom at Annabel before she stalked off into the night.

 Annabel pushed Belbett in the direction that Hoshi had gone. “Maybe you could go apologize to her and when I say apologize I mean distract.”

 Belbett really didn’t want to be alone with Hoshi since he was scared of what she might do to him if they were alone, but Annabel did have a good idea. “Hoshi, I didn’t mean for it to sound the way it did.” He began to walk after Hoshi after noticing that her pace had slowed slightly. “Come on wait up for me.”

 Hoshi stopped walking and turned back to Belbett with an annoyed look on her face. “So, what did you mean for it to sound?”

 “I was just trying to say that I need to find out when Geiger is coming back and when she comes back I’ll have a little bit more time off.”

 “Stop speaking in half sentences Belbett. What exactly are you trying to tell me?”

 Belbett could feel sweat beading on his forehead. “I’ll go out to dinner with you as soon as I can get some time off.”

 Annabel looked back over her shoulder to make sure Belbett was keeping Hoshi busy. “What’s taking him so long? All I asked him to do was distract her not make a date with her.”

 Hoshi saw that Annabel was looking at them. “Aren’t you worried that she will get jealous?”
 
Belbett glanced back at Annabel for a moment before turning his attention back to Hoshi. “Don’t worry about Annabel she doesn’t get jealous.” He decided to lay it on a little thicker. “Besides I don’t feel anything for Annabel. She’s a partner to go hunting with and that’s all.”

 Hoshi looked over Belbett’s shoulder again and felt a little relieved when she noticed that Annabel didn’t seem that concerned. “So, you’ll go to dinner with me after my lecture?”

 “Of course I’ll go with you.” Belbett watched Hoshi start to recede back into the dark to go home; his heart going up into his throat when she looked back at him and heard a giggle. He hurried back to Annabel, Roland, and Salome while giving a sigh in relief. “That had to be the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done.”

 Annabel rolled her eyes. “You sure about that, Belbett? You looked a little too suave to be scared.”  She heard Salome giggling behind her. “See, even she agrees with me. You know you can tell me if you have a crush on Hoshi.”

 “I don’t though. Hoshi is probably the scariest person I’ve ever met.” He quickly decided to change the subject. “We should hurry and get these two out to the farms.”

5: Chapter 5

~The rest of the journey was in silence until Annabel spotted someone as the sun was rising. She pointed at a woman with long grayish hair in a braid wearing a sweater, long skirt, and boots going out into a field. “That’s my friend Aubrey. You three wait here I’ll go talk to her.”

 Aubrey had the DNA of an Eastern Grey Squirrel and had lived on the same farm ever since she was a little girl. Her parents had also had squirrel DNA, but they’d been dead for several years now leaving the rustic farm to her. Aubrey’s ears were in the place they belonged on a normal human, but were profoundly longer and were covered in fur. She also had the standard long bushy tail of a squirrel and her front teeth were a bit big for her mouth. Like Primrose her fingers were close together to resemble paws and she had long patches of grey fur on her cheeks. Aubrey saw Annabel coming towards her and waved excitedly over at her. “Annabel, what are you doing out this way?”

 Annabel glanced around the old farm and didn’t see even any livestock. There weren’t even any chickens pecking around or the old hog that used to bask in the mud. She saw several small stocks of corn and a small field of turnips and potatoes and found herself wishing that she’d brought a gift. “Aubrey, I have a favor to ask of you.”

 Seeing the look of concern on her friend’s face Aubrey put her hoe down. “What’s the matter, Annabel?”

 “This is going to sound crazy I know it is, but at least hear me out.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “There’s this kid that Belbett and I met last night and from what I can understand he’s from the past….I think. Anyway he and this girl who’s some kind of experiment gone wrong broke out of the zoo and looked to Belbett and I for help and I thought maybe you could help us hide them until they can figure out where to go.”

 Aubrey looked thoughtful for a moment. “Why not…”

 “What do you mean why not?”

 “I mean why wouldn’t I help you? Granted your story sounds bizarre, but I don’t have anything to lose or anything to gain from helping them so I’ll help them.”

 Annabel felt like throwing his arms around Aubrey’s neck at that moment. “Oh Aubrey, you are a life savor. Do you know that? You are a life savor I don’t know how I could ever thank you.”

 “You can thank me by not putting me in this kind of situation again.” Aubrey picked the hoe back up and began to move it though the dirt to make space for more seeds.
 
  Watching Aubrey go back to her farm work instead of panic made Annabel feel a bit better about the situation. “Well, I’ll go get them so you can get to know each other.” She began to walk back off towards Belbett, Roland, and Salome glancing back over at Aubrey every couple of seconds to make sure she was still there.

 Belbett looked between Annabel and Aubrey for a few seconds before he opened his mouth. “So, how did it go?”

 “Aubrey is going to help us, but I don’t know how long she’ll be able to.” Annabel gestured at the farm that quiet obviously had fallen into disrepair not that long ago. “I don’t want to say anything nasty, but Aubrey does have a problem with alcohol that’s probably why her farm isn’t looking so good.”  She beckoned for Roland and Salome to follow her. “I wouldn’t worry about it though.”

 Aubrey had gone back to tilling the soil and sprinkling potato seeds as she went. She saw Roland and Salome peeking out from behind Annabel and propped the hoe against the empty barn. “Are these the two kids you were talking about?”

 Annabel nodded and nudged Roland and Salome forward. “This is Roland and….” She didn’t know Salome’s name and pushed them forward a bit more. “Why don’t you two introduce yourselves.”

 Roland put his hand out to shake Aubrey’s. “My name is Roland, ma’am.” He felt the fur on her hand tickle his palms.

 Salome on the other hand didn’t look as interested in making friends, but put her hand out anyway. “I’m Salome…”

 Belbett was shifting his weight in nervous as he kept looking from the direction they’d come from. “I think we should go, Annabel. We have work tomorrow morning. Don’t want to make anyone suspicious.”

 Annabel nodded in agreement. “Well, Aubrey we leave them in your care.”

 Aubrey watched Annabel and Belbett leave before turning to Roland and Salome. “Are you two hungry?”

 Roland hadn’t realized how hungry he actually was until Aubrey had brought it up. “Do you have something we could eat?” He didn’t even care what it was as long as it filled his stomach.

 The squirrel farmer led the children into her house which was small and looked like it had been carved out of a walnut from its concave shape and brown hard looking walls. Aubrey’s kitchen was little crammed into a corner with a couple of grayish dishes that had once been white. She ladled out soup that was made of turnips and celery in a thick sauce made of crushed almonds and other nuts and put the two bowls on the table. “I can’t promise that you’ll like it, but it should fill you up.”

 At first Roland was a little turned off by the conflicting smells of the soup, but the first spoonful made his stomach feel warm and full.

 Salome pushed the soup around in her bowl in disgust. She’d never had much of a taste for vegetables or nuts and with the wolf DNA she now found them utterly disgusting. Salome noticed that Roland was staring at her with wide eyes. “What are you staring at?”

 “Why aren’t you eating?” Roland ate another large spoonful wiping the remains from his chin. “Its really not that bad once you get past the smell.” He saw Salome continue to stick her nose up at the soup. “If you’re not going to eat it then I’ll eat it.” Roland reached over and took Salome’s bowl from her to begin devouring the soup.

 “Doesn’t she have any meat around here?” Salome got up from the table and began looking through the cabinets for something else to eat. After a few minutes of looking through cabinets and the pantry Salome sat back down in a huff. “She doesn’t have any meat.”

 “That doesn’t surprise me too much.” Roland said through spoonfuls of soup. “She is a squirrel and last I heard squirrels don’t eat meat.” He saw Salome shoot him a poisonous glare before he heard her stomach growl. “Do you want the rest of the soup?”

 Salome snatched the bowl away and began to shovel spoonfuls of it into her mouth. It was scalding the roof of her mouth, but it wasn’t bothering her too much since it was filling her stomach. She wiped away some from her lips with the back of her hand. “I guess it’s not that bad.” She shoveled in another spoonful. “A little gritty, but not bad.”

 Roland had never seen a girl put that food away in such a small amount of time and found that his mouth was open in shock. “You act like you’ve never been fed.”

 Wiping her finger along the inside of the bowl and licking it clean Salome put the bowl down with a satisfied look on her face. “They didn’t feed me much, but that lady Primrose would always bring me sweets or meat.” She wiped her mouth again with the back of her hand. “I guess I could be a bit nicer to her if I ever see her again.”

 Aubrey stuck her head in the house for a moment. “You can two can finish off the pot if you’re still hungry. I’ve got some work to do so pardon me if I’m not the best host.”

 Salome jumped up from the table and dumped nearly the whole pot of soup into her bowl. She began to shovel more into her mouth with gusto while Roland watched with his mouth open.

 Back at the lab Primrose was getting ready to check on Roland and Salome when she saw Erik standing outside her office. “Erik, what can I do for you?”

 Erik didn’t look all that interested in meeting with Primrose, but he had the need to oblige in his promise to Ienzo. “I spoke with my colleges about your little experiment that you have with Ienzo.”

 Primrose quirked an eyebrow. “You mean Salome?”

 “No I mean that little boy that was found wandering the streets. We discussed it for a good long time and it’s been decided that you may study the boy, but not for any long amount of time.” 
 
Primrose looked both relieved and a little confused. “Well, that’s wonderful, but what do you consider to be a long amount of time?”

 “Not any longer than a month.”

 Primrose’s smile slipped a notch. “Why so short?”

 Erik looked like he was getting quiet board with the conversation and twisted some of his long hair around one of his fingers. “Well, from what we know about our ancestors they were easy to read for the most part so it shouldn’t take any longer than a month to figure out something about him. Shouldn’t it?”

 “No, I guess it shouldn’t.”

 “Well, now that we have this figured out I have a matter to attend to.” Erik wished he could find some kind of excuse not to go to Olivia’s school meeting, but if he didn’t go to this one then Wulfric would want to take his head off. Family matters are calling once again.

 Primrose watched Erik leave and quickly turned to go into the cage where Roland and Salome were kept. “Roland, I have good news for you. We’ve been allowed to-----” She saw that the cage was now empty; a small hole was in the wall just big enough for someone of Roland and Salome’s size to squeeze through.

 Maximilian was lying on his bed in the room that Guildias had provided for him. They pray to a bomb….they pray a damn atom bomb. He sat up and leaned against the wall. Those fools….they don’t know what they’ve got. If they ever got it in their heads to set it off at their enemies they could destroy the Earth. The sound of someone knocking at the door brought Maximilian out of his dazed worried thoughts. “Come in.”

 The woman who came into the room had long blond hair and a heavily burnt face. “You’re the boy my husband told me about.” She left the door way for a minute only to return with a tray of food. “I thought you might be hungry.” The woman saw the confused leery look Maximilian was giving the food. “If you’re worried about looking like us after eating the food don’t be.”

 As he continued to stare at the food Maximilian hadn’t realized how hungry he was and began to devour it. He saw the look the woman was giving him and swallowed before he wiped his mouth.  “Sorry….it feels like I haven’t eaten in ages.” He was feeling a little nervous under the woman’s burnt gaze. “Is there something you need from me?”

 The woman shook her head. “I’ve never seen someone who looked so….perfect.” She heard Maximilian cough and began to pat his back.

 “Perfect? I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not perfect.”

 “I guess that wasn’t the right word, but you see all the people who live here have some kind of physical or mental flaw. Like me…I’m burned over 90% of my body. My husband is blind. My children get covered in boils ever so often that must be popped so that they don’t become infected, but you look so healthy and normal.”

 Maximilian wanted to point out that he also wasn’t living in close proximity to an atom bomb all the time, but held his tongue. They think the bomb is a God and they are my hosts. I don’t want to say anything that might offend them. “What’s your name?” He asked instead.

 The woman shook her head. “My name is of no importance.”

After the woman had left Maximilian flopped down on his back remembering what the bomb he’d been shown. It had been large, golden, and shaped like a bullet. On one of the wings were the signs for alpha and omega. It had been sitting in the back of an old decrepit Army truck with no tires and peeling paint. Maybe I could do a little poking around. Maximilian got up from the bed and walked out of the room. As Maximilian wandered down the hall he heard noise coming from the room with the idol in it. Quietly, he crept around to the door and gently pulled it open to see Guildias standing at the pedestal with his back to the door. What’s he doing?

In the room that Guildias had entered the rest of the leaders as assembled. When he sat down Guildias reached forward and removed his eyes from their sockets breathing a sigh of relief as he did so. He turned his attention to a man with olive hued skin and dark eyes. “Francisco, have you heard back from your spies that ventured into the hybrid’s city?”

 Francisco had just finished wiping off a layer of makeup to reveal that his skin was covered in deep pits. “I have.” He was silent for a moment until he heard the woman next to him make a noise of impatience.

 “So, what did you hear?” Jenny asked. All though Jenny was in charge of entertainment and non-educational media she knew one of the spies that Francisco had sent into the enemy territory. “Don’t leave us hanging, Francisco. Tell us what you heard back.”

 “I was just getting to that if you can give me a minute to get this damn makeup off.” Francisco took another minute to wipe off the rest of the makeup. “I think there are two who could better answer your questions.” He got up and walked over to the door Maximilian had been standing behind and opened it.

 Quickly Maximilian darted around a corner to avoid being seen. He peered around to see a woman with long curly red hair and a boy with brown hair wearing overalls walking towards the room’s opening.

 Francisco escorted the woman and boy into the room. “Maggie, Pip I’m so glad the two of you could make it. Would you mind enlightening the rest of the council on what you found out in the hybrid city?”

 Maggie stood beside Pip at the head the table that the group was seated at. “For the short time we were in the hybrid’s city we have found out that they are short on land to grow food.” Her skin was the same bright shade of red as her hair and was peeling terribly.

 Yori, the head of the finance department looked confused. “What does their land shortage have to do with us?”

 This time Pip spoke up though the gash around his mouth.  “There’s talk that they are planning to invade.” This of course brought raised angry conversation.

 Hannah, the soft spoken head of social services spoke up over the hubbub. “Why don’t we try compromising with them? Some of us could go to the hybrid’s city and tell them what we know and we could talk about letting them use some of our land for farming in exchange for something that we need from them.”

 Her response was a scathing reply from Cesare the head of news and educational media. “What do those filthy animals have that we need?”

 Maximilian could still hear the group arguing about what to do about their new problem and deciding that there wasn’t much of a point in continuing to listen quietly slunk away.

6: Chapter 6

~Later that night in the white city there was a meeting going on with the military and the politicians as well as anyone who was willing to attend; bright lights filled a large stadium. General Matsuoka was standing on the ground with her numerous badges and ribbons glittering in the stadium lights. “We all know what we need to do. The only thing we need is funding from out esteemed political allies.” She had her gaze fixed on the simian politicians who were squirming uncomfortably in their seats.

Martin Zimmermann, a common chimpanzee had one leg crossed over the other as he pushed his glasses further up his nose.  “Who does she think she is? Asking us for money. Just because we’re politicians doesn’t mean we have money just lying around.”

Jessika Goldschmidt, a golden snub-nosed monkey glanced over at Martin from the corner of her gold eyes. “Well, we do have money lying around. Remember the tax increase last year? All of us profited from that handsomely if I recall correctly.” She felt the girl sitting next to her lean over onto her arm. “Phoebe, pay attention and get off of me.”

Phoebe was a blue monkey and Jessika’s niece. “Aunt Jessika, I’m so board. Why can’t we go home now?”She felt her Aunt push her back upright. “I want to go home now. I’m board.”

“Phoebe, be quiet and pay attention. This is good for you since one day you’re going to be a politician.” Jessika heard her niece sigh heavily and tried to ignore her, but ended up giving in and pulling out a box of crayons and coloring book. “Here, take this and be quiet.”

In the part of the stadium where the military was sitting a set of triplets were sitting with their teacher. Hanne, Hemming, and Herman had the DNA of the green iguana, Cayman iguana, and lesser Antillean iguana respectively and were sitting in a semi-circle around their teacher. Hanne tapped the teacher on her shoulder. “Miss Darbinian, I’m confused what’s the General talking about anyway?”

Feray Darbinian was a water adder, but unlike the rest of her scaled colleagues was warmer blooded then cold blooded. Metaphorically speaking of course.  “Hanne, if you’d been paying any attention you would know that the General is trying to convince the politicians to give funding to the military.”

Hoshi turned her attention to the rest of the crowd, but could still see her followers from the corner of her eye. “The only way we can take the land we need for food is by force. The only thing we can do is invade.” She could hear the military starting to get energized behind her. “Invasion is the only thing that will help us get out of the mess that we’re in. The only thing that counts in the end is power. Naked merciless force!”

In the crowd Primrose was sitting next to her husband when she heard the thunderous applause from the military for Hoshi’s speech. She noticed that her husband had stood up to applaud with the rest of the group, but stayed firmly seated.

Sebastian a Kurilian bobtail cat and Primrose’s husband had been gone at a conference for the past two weeks and had just recently returned. He glanced down at Primrose and whispered down to her. “Primrose would you please stand with the rest of us?”

 “Only for my principles.”
 
 “All right for your principles and mine, but please stand.”

 Primrose stood up stiffly, but kept her arms folded over her chest instead of clapping with the rest of the crowd.

 As the evening came to an end Hoshi spotted Erik from within the crowd and waved over at him. “Erik, I was wondering if I could talk to you about something.”
 
 Erik wished it would have been able to stay away from Hoshi during the course of her speech and afterwards and bit his lip at the sound of her voice. “Yes, General what do you need?” Although he was already sure of what she was asking for. From the corner of his eye he saw one of his colleagues and waved over at her. “Sheila, do you think I could discuss yesterday’s meeting with you?” Erik saw Hoshi look crestfallen and said in mock sympathy. “I’m sorry General, but I can’t talk right now, but I’ll speak to you later.”

 The next couple of weeks passed quietly with Roland and Salome still living quietly on Aubrey’s farm. However, after Hoshi’s speech a couple of hunters were sent out to the dead city to look around and make sure their unwanted neighbors were still living beneath the city. It was Annabel and Belbett who went out this time accompanied by a young Amur brown bear named Cheyenne. Much to Annabel’s chagrin Belbett gave Cheyenne a gun all though the boy wasn’t sure on how to use it. Cheyenne tugged on Belbett’s jacket sleeve. “Mr. Falk, what should I do if we see one of those things?”

 Belbett didn’t bother to look at Cheyenne who had been overcome with shaking. “Let us take care of it. Whatever you do don’t do anything stupid.”

 Unknown to Annabel, Belbett, and Cheyenne hiding in the rubble strewn city was Maggie and Pip. Both of them were hiding deep within the city and had been watching the group since they entered their city. Pip took a couple steps forward to try and get a better look. “What are they doing here? I thought they were too scared to come into our city.”

 Maggie pulled Pip back down. “You stay here. I’ll go out and try to reason with them. Maybe I can get them to turn back and leave us alone. Either way this will make for an interesting report back to the council.” Maggie quietly crept from the rubble and began to make her way over to Annabel, Belbett, and Cheyenne not knowing the whole time that she had a gun pointed on her.

 Cheyenne saw movement in the distance and aimed the gun in that direction. “There’s something over there.” He wrapped his finger around the trigger and was about to squeeze it when he felt Belbett put a hand on his shoulder.

 “Don’t shoot. We don’t who or what that is and they aren’t acting like they mean to harm us.”

 “It could be one of those monsters.”

 “Or it could be nothing.” Belbett turned to leave and while keeping his hand on Cheyenne’s shoulder wheeled him around as well. “Don’t let it bother you Cheyenne. It’s probably nothing.”

 Maggie was balanced on a pile of garbage, but when she went to climb down her foot slipped and she slid down and landed a little too close to the other group. She swore quietly under her breath and scrambled behind a collapsed building, but while doing so alerted Cheyenne to her presences. 

 Not heeding Belbett’s advice Cheyenne shot in the direction the noise had come from and was swiftly hit in the back of the head by Annabel.

 “What did Belbett just tell you about firing that gun?”

 “I’m sorry I got scared I heard something don’t tell me that there’s nothing there because there is something there.”

 Maggie swore under her breath and could feel blood seeping through her shoe. They think they can shoot me and get away with it? She reached for her gun when she remembered that she’d left it behind that day. I guess the best thing to do is to retreat and report back for now. The best she could Maggie began to slink back into the city spying Pip from the corner of her eye and went over to him. “They shot me.” She brandished her bloody foot at him.

 Pip’s eyes widened at the sight of the blood. “What are we going to do? We’re not armed.”  He heard a gun cock behind them and turned around to see Annabel, Belbett, and Cheyenne standing behind them.

 “Get to your feet and come with us.” Belbett had taken the gun from Cheyenne and had it pointed at Maggie and Pip. “Don’t make any sudden movements.” His tail was up and his ears were leaned back. He saw both Maggie and Pip get to their feet and put their hands up. “Go on.” He gestured for them to begin walking in front of the group.

 Over the course of the next couple of days word spread throughout the city that two spies from the dead city had been captured. Word also got out to the small farms surrounding the city. It was late one afternoon after lunch when Aubrey was out finishing in the fields for the day when she saw two people coming towards her. She put the hoe down and wiped sweat off her forehead when a gangly marsh mongoose and a common Kusimanse came into view. “Trinidad, Sandra, what are you two doing so far from your farm?”

 Trinidad was one of Belbett’s friends and Sandra his cousin was the same Sandra that Roland and Salome had been warned about. “Aubrey, did you hear? The authorities caught some spies from the dead city.” He gestured at his cousin. “I was going to head into the city with Sandra to see if we can hear anything else. Want to come with?”

 Aubrey usually kept to herself and stayed on her farm, but this was interesting news. Although she did still have Roland and Salome with her and needed to make sure that they would stay put. “Hang on a minute.” She went back into the house where Roland and Salome were eating breakfast. “I’m going to go into the city for a little while, but naturally the two of you can’t come with me so I’m going to trust you two to stay here.”

 Roland put down the piece of hard bread he’d been eating. “Sure, we’ll stay here.” He may have said this, but a different thought was going through his head. Waiting until Aubrey had left the kitchen Roland turned to Salome. “Why don’t we go out exploring a little bit?”

 Salome put her milk glass down and wiped the remains from her upper lip. “Didn’t you just tell Aubrey that we’d stay here?”

 “Well, she’s going into the city and we don’t the area too well so I think we should go out exploring.” He saw Salome’s lip twitch. “Come on Salome I know you want to.”

 “I know I want to, but you told Aubrey we would stay here.” She drank the rest of the milk.

 Roland twisted in his chair before getting up and walking over to the window to look outside making sure that Aubrey was gone. “Well, I’m going to go take a look around. You can stay here if you want to.”

 A few minutes later Salome had finished her breakfast and was missing the company. Getting up from her chair she walked into the front room and pulled the door open. “Roland? Roland, where are you?” She heard no response and stepped outside the door. “He couldn’t have gotten too far.” Nervously, she walked a little further away from the house and called out again. “Roland? You’re not being funny Roland now where are you?” By this point Salome was getting cross with him. “Fine, if you insist on playing games I’ll come look for you, but I’m going to be very angry with you when I find you.”

 

7: Chapter 7

~Aubrey’s farm wasn’t that far from the hybrid city and it didn’t take Roland long to get to the outskirts of the city. He saw that a large crowd had gathered and were whispering about something. Probably talking about whatever Aubrey is here for. All though this wasn’t his best idea Roland walked over to a young man with curly hair wearing glasses and if Roland wasn’t mistaken there was webbing between his fingers. “Excuse me, do you know what’s going on today that has everyone so excited?”

 Haris was a glass frog and since he was in amphibian was part of the not so desirable laboring middle class. “I don’t know myself that’s what I’ve been trying to figure out for the past thirty minutes. Everyone seems to know something, but aren’t willing to tell. Hang on let me see if I can find someone with the authorities they probably know.” With that Haris disappeared into the crowd in search of someone from the police.

 Roland waited for a few minutes until he saw Haris coming with back with a familiar police officer.

 Seren Tjader had been having a nice time with Jaska all though she’d had to babysit Hanne, Hemming, and Herman since the teacher had gotten sick. “Well what do you know?” She was leering down at Roland. “I thought something was off the night you escaped. Never thought you’d come back to the city though. You must be one stupid kid.”

 By this time Salome was getting closer to the outskirts of the dead city. Not knowing that she’d gone the wrong way Salome quickly found herself to be lost. “This isn’t the right way. What direction did Roland go?” She stepped over a piece of rubble, but stumbled and fell down. Getting up from the ground and brushing the dirt off Salome looked around the city for a few minutes. “This is a strange looking place. I wonder if Roland used to live in a place like this.” She thought she saw something run in front of her and squinted through the dirty air. “Who’s out there?”

 Maximilian had been exploring the city when he’d gotten curious about what it looked like outside and had decided to venture out. He saw Salome wandering around the city and crouched down behind a car to watch her. I wonder if she’s one of those hybrids the council was talking about. Quietly, he crept out from behind the car and walked a little closer. She looks human, but it looks she has wolf ears, a tail, and wings. There’s no way she’s human. I wonder how she’d react if I tried to talk to her. Clearing his throat Maximilian took another step towards Salome when he accidently kicked a rock alerting her to his presence.

 Salome spun on her heel and turned to face Maximilian. Since she had no weapon she picked up a large rock and raised it up over her head like she was going to throw it at him. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

 “I could ask you the same question.” Maximilian put his hands up in a defensive posture. “I’ll answer your questions if you answer my questions first.”

 Lowering the rock Salome tried to relax herself. Maximilian wasn’t posing a threat why should she be afraid? “My name is Salome. I’ve been living on a farm outside with the city with a friend of mine. We heard some news from the city and my friend decided to go into the city to see what the news was about. I was looking for him, but I’ve lost him. I guess I ventured into this city by mistake. Where ever this city happens to be.”

 Maximilian began to lower his hands when he realized that Salome probably wasn’t going to throw the rock at him. “Ok Salome, my name is Maximilian. I’m not sure how I came to this place, but I woke up in this underground city several weeks ago and have been living in this place that is referred to as the dead city. The city that you’re talking about….is it where the hybrids live?”

 Salome deciding that Maximilian wasn’t a threat tossed the rock down. “Yes. Why are you trying to get there? I wouldn’t blame you if you were trying to get there. All I have heard about the mutant city is that it’s a hell hole.”

 “No, I’m not trying to get into the city, but some of our spies have disappeared and we suspect they’ve been taken to the hybrids.”

 “I guess that’s what the news must have been about.” Salome thought about going back to the farm there and then, but she still didn’t know where Roland had gone and was starting to get worried. “Do you think maybe my friend came down here on accident?”

 Maximilian hadn’t been on the surface for very long and thought it likely that someone could have snuck in without being noticed. “I guess it is possible that someone could have gotten in without being noticed. Would you like me to help you look for him?”

 “Yes, your help would be appreciated.”

 A few minutes later Maximilian had led Salome down into the dead city. He noticed that she was looking a little apprehensive. “You don’t have to look so nervous. The people who live here are actually really friendly. They wouldn’t hurt you.”

 “The only things I’ve heard about them is that they’re monsters.” Salome stuck close to Maximilian when she thought she saw someone watching them. “Do they like to hide around here and just watch you?”

 “They like to lurk around don’t be surprised if one of them comes out of the woodwork.” As he said this Wynne and Puck walked seemingly out of nowhere making Salome jump.

 “Where’d they come from?”

 “I told you they like to come out of the woodwork. Don’t let it bother you.” Maximilian waved over at Wynne and Puck. “Any sign of Maggie and Pip?”

 Puck shook his head. “I guess the rumors that they were taken into the hybrid city are true. We’ve been looking ever where for them and haven’t seen hide or hair of them. I hope those animals don’t mistreat them.”

 In the hybrid city Maggie was sitting alone in an interrogation room. She looked around the dark stone room only looking back at the door when it opened up. She saw a young man wearing glasses walk into the room. “Can I trust you’re here to integrate me?”

 Clyde was a horned wood lizard in charge of interrogation. He ignored Maggie’s question and sat across the table from her. “Who are you and where are you from?”

 Maggie crossed her arms over her chest. “I am not going to give out my name, but you know where am I am. Your hunters captured my friend as well as myself on our own territory.” She didn’t look at all afraid of Clyde and in fact looked a little snooty with her nose turned up. “My friend will tell you the same thing so there’s no point in keeping us here. You might as well let us go.”

 Clyde looked a bit frustrated and steepled his fingers to rest his chin on. “So, you’re not willing to cooperate with us? That’s a pity. I’m sure your friend will be much more cooperative.” He got up and left the room.

 Roland had been put in a room similar to the one he’d escaped from, but this one had reinforced concrete walls. He jumped when he heard the door open, but felt relieved when he saw Primrose enter the room.

 “Roland, why did you run away?” Primrose walked over to Roland and crouched down beside him. “I was taking good care of you wasn’t I? We even got permission to study you. You would have been treated very well.”

 “I needed to get out of there.”

 “Where’s Salome?”

 “I don’t know.” Roland turned his back to Primrose. “Is this all you’re planning on talking to me about? I’m very busy staring at the walls.” Before he gave Primrose a chance to answer Roland interjected. “Did you really think I’d be content with you studying me? I’m trying to find a way to get back home. I wasn’t going to get there stuck in a lab.”

 Primrose sighed feeling defeat set in. “I think I can help you. I mean if you want my help I’m willing to give it.”

 “I’d be willing to take you’re help as long as you promise not to stick me in another cage.”

 Reaching into her bag Primrose pulled out a needle. “This the DNA of a Thai cat in it. If I inject you with it you’ll take the characteristics if that animal and by doing so will blend in with the rest of the population.  It won’t be instant will take a few weeks at least for it to work its way through your whole system. Won’t be entirely without pain either.” She saw the skeptical look on Roland’s face. “Normally this is done at birth, but it should still work. So, do you want to do it?”

 Roland was quiet in thought for a moment. “Fine, let’s do it.” He rolled up the sleeve of his jacket and bared his arm to Primrose as she put the needle to his arm. Roland bit his lip as he felt the needle slide into his arm and tried to relax knowing that soon he’d be a different person.

 Primrose pushed down on the plunger of the needle and waited a few seconds before pulling it out and put it back in her bag. “Well, it’s done. Now don’t be alarmed when you start to change I can assure you its all normal.” She got up and walked out of the room.

 In the next room was Pip who as being integrated by Clyde. “Did she tell you anything?”

 Clyde looked perplexed at the question. “No, your partner is keeping her mouth shut. Can I assume you’re going to do the same?”

 On the contrary to Maggie’s cold behavior Pip leaned back in his chair and has his arms at his sides instead of crossed over his chest as she had. “I’ll tell you anything and everything you want to know.” He spread his arms wide. “Go on shoot.”

 Clyde all though surprised was also relieved to hear that Pip would be cooperating, but it was also bothering him. “Why are you being so cooperative when your friend is doing everything in her power to make things difficult for me?” He heard the chair groan under Pip’s weight as he leaned back on the chair legs.

 “Because I want to go home. The sooner I answer your questions the sooner I can go home. Right, isn’t that how it works?”

 Removing his glasses and polishing them on his tie Clyde took his time before he responded. “That is the way it works for you, but only for you.” He saw the puzzled look on Pip’s face. “If your friend wants to go home she’ll also have to cooperate as well.”

 Pip wanting to help Maggie quickly backtracked. “I can assure you everything I tell is the same things that she could tell you.”

 “Then let’s get started. Where are the two of you from?”

 “The dead city.”

 Clyde took a breath when he realized that Pip was indeed going to cooperate. “What were the two of you looking for when you were captured?”

 “We weren’t looking for anything. We were watching your people that were in our territory. By the way one of your people shot my friend in the foot. Did she ever receive medical attention?”

 “She did. Luckily for her the wound wasn’t very bad and bullet went right through. Second question, have you ever been in this city before?”

 The questioning went on for several hours with Pip fully complying with all of Clyde’s questions. After the questioning session was over both Pip and Maggie were released. A couple of hours later they returned to the dead city and sought session with the council.

 By this time Maximilian was introducing Salome to the council. “This is Salome. She’s from the hybrid city, but she’s not like them at all.”

 Cesare raised an eyebrow in suspicion. “Then what’s she like?”

 “She’s just a normal person who happens to have animal DNA inside her.”

 Francisco also looked skeptical. “Maximilian, she’s a hybrid we can’t trust her. For all you know she could be a spy sent in by them to see where we live and how they could take over.”

 Salome was peering out from behind Maximilian, but was feeling a little disgusted by seeing all deformities on the mutants. Why would they think that I’m a spy sent out by the city? I still don’t know what those spies of theirs were doing in the city in the first place.

 Chiyo on the other hand looked perfectly relaxed about the idea of Maximilian bringing someone from the hybrid city into their city. “I say give her a chance. There doesn’t seem to be anything malicious about her.”

 A few weeks passed with Salome living in the dead city and Roland going through the changes in the cell in the hybrid city. The process had been painful as Primrose had warned him. His fingers had fused together to form paws as well as his toes. His eyes had changed colors from blue to yellow. There was thick fur on his face and whiskers had sprouted on his cheeks. However, what surprised him the most was the appearance of a long fluffy tail. Roland was currently admiring the tail when he heard the door creak open and saw Primrose standing in the doorway.

 “There you are.” Primrose looked cross and had her arms crossed over her chest. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

 Roland looked confused at Primrose’s outburst. “What are you talking about? I’ve been here the whole time.” He could feel his tail brush against his leg.

 Primrose walked out of sight for a minute and found Seren Tjader in the hall. “Why do you have my nephew in that cell?”

 Seren looked just as confused as Roland had. “I’m sorry Mrs. Earl. What are you talking about?”

 “My nephew. You’ve had my nephew locked up this whole time. I’ve been looking for him high and low and this is where I find him.”

 “I can assure you that I don’t know what you’re talking about. That boy has been locked up for weeks.”

 Primrose looked like she was getting quiet angry. “Agent Tjader, you will release my nephew right now.”

 Seren all though she was still feeling confused about the whole situation walked down to the room and opened the door. “Boy, your Aunt is here to get you.”

 “Robert you come with me.” Primrose seized Roland by the arm and pulled him out of the room. “I’m very disappointed in young man. After everything your poor parents have gone through. They left you with me and you’re all ready getting into trouble.”

 Roland stayed quiet until Primrose had led him out of the hallway. “Robert? So, I’m your nephew now?”

 “That’s just our story in case we get stopped. You’re my troublesome nephew that I took in after the unfortunate death of your parents and now you’re still causing me trouble. Now keep up with me so we don’t look suspicious.”

8: Chapter 8

~About an hour later they arrived at a large house towards the edge of the city.  As Primrose opened the door to reveal that the house was sparsely decorated and sitting on the floor in the entry way were two girls. One of the girls had short reddish brown hair and was wearing overalls while the other had long reddish brown hair and wore a dress; both had feline characteristics.

 “Mom, you’re home.” The second girl with the longer hair got up from the floor and rushed over to Primrose, but stopped cold when she saw Roland. “Who’s that?” Her nose was wrinkled as she looked at Roland who was now hiding behind Primrose.

 “This is my friend Roland.” She gestured at the two girls. “Roland, these are my daughters Marigold and Cassandra.” Primrose turned to the longer haired Marigold first. “In case you’re wondering Marigold is British shorthair.” She then gestured to Cassandra. “Cassandra is a Brazilian shorthair.”

 Marigold walked around behind her Mother to get a better look at Roland. “Where are you from, Roland?” Coming up behind Marigold was Cassandra who looked equally curious.

 Roland peered out from behind Primrose feeling a little anxious. “I’m not from around here.”

 Primrose heard a timer go off from further within the house. “Dinners ready? I thought your Father wasn’t home.” She walked out from in front of Roland. “Roland, why don’t you stay here and play until dinners on the table.”

 Marigold waited until her Mother had left the room before turning back to Roland. “What kind of games do you like to play?”

 Before Roland had come to this world he was a fan of fighting video games, but he got the feeling that video games didn’t exist. “I’m up for whatever you guys are up for.”  

 Marigold looked excited and suddenly dashed up the stairs. “Hang on you guys I’ll be right back.”

 Roland watched Marigold run up the stairs before looking back at Cassandra. “Do you know what kind of game she’s talking about?” He saw her shrug. I wonder if it has anything to do with a ball of yarn. Roland heard Marigold coming back down the stairs and sure enough she was holding a ball of yarn.

 “Let’s play with this.” She sat down again and rolled the yarn over to Roland’s feet. “This game works best if you sit down.”

 Crouching down Roland passed the yarn to Cassandra who then passed it back to Marigold who passed it on to Roland. The game continued in this fashion for several minutes until Primrose called them for dinner.

 Dinner consisted of fish with some kind of mashed vegetables. Roland ate a small piece of fish, but felt like spitting it out when he was overwhelmed by the taste of pepper. He looked across the table at Sebastian who seemed to be engrossed in the paper that he was reading when he noticed that Marigold was staring at him. “What?”

 “What do you think of the food?” Marigold had already finished eating and was now washing her face by licking her paws and rubbing them on her face. “It was good wasn’t it?”

 Roland put another bite of fish in his mouth and struggled to swallow it. “Of course it’s good. I haven’t had fish in a long time.” He felt a tickle come to his nose from the pepper. “What kind of vegetable is this?”

 “Its called a starch squash.” Primrose responded as she took another bite.

 “What’s a starch squash?” Roland didn’t notice Sebastian look up from his papers or that both Marigold and Cassandra were peering curiously at him.

 Primrose swallowed her squash; the expression on her face remaining the same as if she hadn’t heard Roland’s question. “It’s the result of a potato being cross bred with butternut squash. We have many different kinds of hybrid fruits and vegetables that we’ve gotten through years of experimenting. Our diet is a lot more exotic then what our ancestors used to eat.”

 Roland ate another spoonful of starch squash and found that it was surprisingly good. It had the familiar taste of a potato mixed with a squash, but it had a bit of an odd aftertaste.

 “You don’t have to finish the fish if you don’t want to.” Primrose whispered leaning over to him. “Marigold, don’t do that at the table.”

 Marigold who had been licking her arm sighed and stuck at her tongue out at her sister who had began laughing at her.

 Later that night in the dead city Salome was walking through one of the underground tunnels when she heard a noise coming from behind a door. She took a few steps closer to the door and gently nudged it open to peer through when she saw the bomb coming up from under the ground. What is that? It looks like a giant bullet.

 Guildias was in the room with the bomb again this time joined by Chiyo and Francisco. “There’s something I’d like to discuss with the two of you.” He leaned forward so that their heads were together. “Have either of you thought about going to war with the hybrids?” Guildias somehow must have noticed that Chiyo swallowed hard and Francisco’s face had gone pale. “Can I take it that neither of you have thought about this?”

 Chiyo looked away from the group to make sure that they weren’t being eavesdropped on; not noticing the slight crack in the door where Salome was listening. “Guildias, if you’re thinking that we should go to war with the hybrid city you better have a good reason for it. Better yet you should tell the rest of us before making any rash decisions.”

 “Yes, yes I was getting to that. I thought that before I said anything to rest of us that I should get a few on my side. So, what do you think?”

 Francisco glanced at Chiyo before turning back to Guildias. “I think we should do it. They might have better weapons then we do, but we have something they don’t have.” He looked up at the bomb. “The bomb may be a holy weapon of peace, but if we launched it at their soldiers we could probably do a lot of damage.”

 Salome could feel her heart going up into her throat. All though she didn’t know what the bomb was capable of just judging by its sheer size it probably packed a punch. She began to creep away from the door when she saw Maximilian coming around a corner. “Maximilian, have you seen what they got in there?” She asked in a hurried whisper.

 “Of course I have. It’s their….they claim it’s their God. Nothing to worry about.” He tried to sound nonchalant about it, but there was a slight quiver to his voice. “It’s not like they’d use it or anything.”

 “Oh, yes they would. I just heard them talking about going to war with the hybrid city and one of them looked up at that thing. Whatever it is.”

 “Just because they looked at it doesn’t mean anything.” Maximilian began to walk past Salome. “Either way I wouldn’t worry about it. They know what could happen if they decided to use it against anybody.”

 “Why? What would happen?” She saw Maximilian freeze in mid step.

 “Well, it would probably set off a chain reaction and I’m not sure about this, but it could destroy at least this city if not the hybrid city as well. Who knows really those were the biggest bombs around in my time before I left it.”

 “So you don’t know?”

 Maximilian was silent in thought for a moment. “No, I don’t know about this exact bomb, but I can only assume that it can blow up at least a city.” He saw Salome give him a hard look. “Like I said don’t worry about it. They don’t want to lose their city so they won’t set the bomb off. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to bed.”

 The next morning in the hybrid city Roland woke up early. Sitting up in bed he looked out the window to see that the sun was just barely in the sky. I wonder where Salome is. I wish I could find her. He crawled out of bed and pulled off his pajamas before pulling on the familiar tee shirt, jeans, and jacket. Maybe I could convince Primrose to let me go out on my own today so that I could look for her around the city. Roland opened the door to his room and quietly walked out in the hallway.

 The house was eerily quiet as Roland walked down the hallway and down the stairs towards the kitchen. Peering into the kitchen he saw Sebastian sitting at the table with a cup of what was probably coffee reading the newspaper.  Trying to walk past Sebastian, Roland heard put the paper down.

 “Who are you, boy?”

 Roland stopped in mid step to look back at Sebastian. “I’m Primrose’s nephew. Didn’t she tell you that?”

 Sebastian’s lip curled. “Primrose’s brother has no children.” He got up from the chair and put the paper down before he started walking over to Roland. “So Robert, if that is your real name. I suggest you watch yourself.” He went around Roland and proceeded to walk out the door.

 Roland felt his heart rise up in his throat at Sebastian’s hostile comment. There’s no way he could know about me. Unless Primrose told him, but she wouldn’t do that. His ears drooped and his tail went between his legs. Maybe this is the best time for me to try and get out of here so I can look for Salome. He began to walk towards the door when he heard someone coming up behind him.

 Primrose had to get Marigold and Cassandra up soon, but was going to start breakfast first when she saw Roland standing in the kitchen. “Roland, what are you doing up so early? I wasn’t going to get you up until I sent the girls off to school. I thought I’d take you around the city today.”

 “Sure, that sounds like a good idea.”

 A short while later Marigold and Cassandra were sitting at the table eating breakfast; both still looked like they were still half asleep. “Why can’t we go around the city too, Mom?” Marigold asked.

 “Because you two of have school that’s why.”

 Cassandra put her spoon down while glancing over at Roland. “Why doesn’t he have school?”

 “Because your cousin is on holiday. Now, finish your breakfast or you’ll be late.”

 A few minutes later after Marigold and Cassandra had left Primrose set a plate in front of Roland with what looked like a  pale red grapefruit and a piece of toast with butter on it.  “Primrose, could I ask you something?”

 “Ask away.” Primrose took a drink from her cup.

 “Don’t think that you have to help me, but I need to look for Salome.”

 Primrose put her cup down and dabbed at lip with a napkin. “I’m going to take you around the city today. You can keep your eye out for her during that. If she’s in the city I’ll help you, but if she has somehow gotten out of the city I can’t help you.”

 Roland nibbled on the edge of the toast. “Any help you can give me is appreciated.”

 After finishing breakfast Roland and Primrose left the house and started into the city. “You’ve already been to the lab and I don’t suspect that she’d go there. Why don’t we start at the beach?”

  “There’s a beach here?”

 “Of course. Where do you think the navy does its training? All though it will take a while to get there on foot so we’ll have to use public transportation.”

 A few minutes later they’d boarded a bus heading towards the beach.  The beach itself wasn’t very big and looked deserted. Under the water came a few bubbles before a head broke the surface of the clear water. The woman who had stuck her head out of the ocean had tan skin and long black hair that was tied in two pigtails. She had tufts of fur on her cheeks and big flipper like paws.

 “Mrs. Earl, what are you doing here? We were just getting ready to practice some maneuvers.”

 Primrose gestured at the woman who still hadn’t come out of the water. “This is Daisy. She’s a spotted necked otter.”

 Daisy swam over to a dock and pulled herself up out of the water revealing that she wore a wetsuit. Her feet were also broad and flipper like and had thick black fur on them. “There something I can do for you, Mrs. Earl?”

 “I’m just showing my nephew around the city. He’s from out of town.”

 Daisy turned back to the dock and jumped back in the water. “Well, I’ve got to get back to practice. There’s talk that we might be going to war soon.” With that she disappeared under the water.

 Primrose raised an eyebrow at the mention of going to war. “That’s odd….who would we go to war with? The only potentially hostile place around is the dead city, but they haven’t made any moves like they’re going to attack.”  She tried to push the idea out of her head. Don’t worry about it Primrose. There’s no way that there would be a majority with the politicians who’d vote to go to war. “Come on, I’ll show you the athletes next.”

 A little ways away from where the navy was training under the water it looked like there was more activity, but all that was seen was bubbles coming up to the surface.

 Like Daisy had down before this time two heads popped up out of the water. One of the people was a woman with long red hair and the other a blond man. The woman spoke up first. “Did, you come here to watch us practice, Miss Scientist?”

 Primrose didn’t know any athletes that well. “Actually I was showing my nephew around the city.”

 Roland noticed that both the man and the woman only had their heads sticking up and wondered why they didn’t come out of the water as Daisy had done. “Why don’t you come out?”

 The woman wrinkled her nose at the suggestion. “Don’t you know anything? We have gills. We can’t breathe out of the water.”

 At that moment Roland remembered that Primrose had told him that the athletes were fish. “Do you think you could show us some of the moves you’ve been practicing?”

 Both of them looked flattered at the idea of showing off some of their new moves and disappeared back under the water. A few seconds later the woman sprang out revealing that instead of the fish tail that Roland had been expecting two legs that were covered in thick blue and red scales. She came up in a wide arc before splashing back into the water and was followed by the man who also had blue and red scales. The two of them continued to jump out of the water and would do back flips and flip flops in the air before disappearing again.

 After the performance was done the woman swam up to the shore. “So, what did you think?”

 Roland had never been very graceful in the water and tended to sink like a rock whenever he got in a pool. “That was amazing. How long have you been practicing?” 

 The man was about to respond when he saw General Matsuoka approaching and sank back under the water followed by the woman.

 Primrose quickly grabbed Roland by the arm and hurried away.

 They boarded the bus again and went back into the city. When they arrived at a church Primrose was still thinking about what Daisy had told her about the idea that they could go to war. Still the only possible candidate she could think of where the people in the dead city.

 As they approached the church Primrose saw General Matsuoka leaving. What’s she doing here? The General never struck me as being religious. Instead of engaging Hoshi in a conversation Primrose let her pass and entered the church. “This is the main church in the city. It’s where you go on Sunday to pray.”

 “That sounds like what churches were used for in my time too.”

 Primrose saw a young man with grey hair and a long grey tail with big feet walking towards the back of the room. “Doyle, do you think you could spare a minute?” She gestured over at Doyle. “That’s Doyle; he’s a western grey kangaroo and the leader of the church.”

 Doyle walked over to Primrose and Roland although he looked a little nervous. “Mrs. Earl, what can I do for you?”

 “I was just showing my nephew around the city and wanted to introduce him.” She waited until Roland and Doyle had exchanged pleasantries before bringing up what was bothering her. “I saw General Matsuoka on my way here.  Was she just here?”

 “Yes, she was here. She was seeking guidance about a matter.”

 “That matter wouldn’t happen to involve a conflict would it?”

 “Mrs. Earl you know I can’t tell you that.”

 Primrose chuckled trying to look nonchalant about it. “Of course, don’t worry about it. There’s just something that’s been bothering me lately.”

 “You know you can always talk to me, Primrose.”

 “I’ll keep that in mind. Well Doyle, thank you for your time, but I think its time we moved on.”

 Once they were out of the church Roland looked up at Primrose in confusion. “What was that about? Why are you so interested in that General person?”

 “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure its nothing.”

 As they continued to walk down the street Primrose saw a group of labors sitting on the side of the street beside a half built building. A man with curly hair and wide eyes with webbing between his fingers saw Primrose and waved over at her. “Primrose, did you come to see the new building we’ve been working on?”

 Before Primrose had the chance to say anything a girl with a pair of big black and white wings as well as white feathers coming up her neck came bustling over. She walked over to the building and with what looked like no effort flew up to give it a closer inspection. After coming back down she looked a little flustered and walked over to the man with the webbed hands. “This is all wrong. Tear it down and start over.”

 “But Terra do you know how much money this building has already cost us?”

 “I don’t care. Tear it down and start over again. This is nothing like I envisioned. It’s horrible to look at and I won’t have our city sullied by such a hideous building.”

 The man watched Terra walk away still in a huff and sighed under his breath before he turned back to the rest of the crew. “Well, I guess we’re tearing it down.” He looked over at Primrose. “Sorry you had to see that. Terra is just so picky about everything she designs.”

 “Don’t worry about it.” Primrose looked up at the building. “It’s not that bad looking. What was her vision for it I wonder?”

 “As far as I could tell this is how she wanted it look. Ah well no matter. I suppose we’ll have to tear it down and start over again. Wish I could visit more, but we have a building to tear it down and….” He sighed heavily. “And rebuild….again.”

 Primrose turned to Roland after the man had gone back to his work. “Well, I guess that’s it. That’s the city in a nutshell.”

 Roland hung his head in disappointment. “We didn’t find Salome.”

 “I guess we didn’t.” Primrose crouched down beside him. “I held up my end of the deal so I’m afraid if you want to continue looking for her you’re on your own.” She got up and began to walk back in the direction of her house.

 

9: Chapter 9

~In Erik’s chambers he was meeting with General Matsuoka. “I see your points General Matsuoka and while they make sense I’m still hesitant.”

 Hoshi clenched her fists. “Why? I’ve made my point and you agree with me so why not go through with it?”

 Erik took a drink from his mostly empty glass of sherry. “Because going to war is a big decision and it doesn’t solely rest with me.” He got up from behind his desk and began to walk towards to door. “You’ll have let me discuss the matter with the rest and I’ll be in contact with you.”  Watching her march out in a huff Erik breathed a sigh of relief. Now all he could do was talk to the rest of the politicians. If he didn’t and Hoshi found out there would be hell to pay. Erik got up from behind his desk and walked out of his office and down the hall when he saw Sheila coming the opposite way. “Sheila, do you think I could talk to you?”

 Sheila continued to walk in the attempt to ignore Erik, but had to stop walking when Jessika crossed her path blocking her. Instead she turned around and faced Erik. “Erik, I’m kind of in a hurry so could you make it quick?”

 “Sheila, I’ve just been approached by General Matsuoka with the idea of going to war with those who inhabit the dead city. I told her that I must talk to the rest of the politicians before I could give her a diffident answer. I trust your council more than anyone in my inner circle and wish to know what you think of this idea.”

 She was quiet in thought for a few minutes. “I don’t think my opinion will make a difference with you. You say you trust me, but I know better. We’ve never seen eye to eye on any matter and if I tell you that I think we shouldn’t go to war then you shall do the opposite.” Sheila turned around again and began to walk away. “You are our leader and need to make up your own mind with no help from anyone.”

 Erik watched Sheila walk away before he turned around and went back into his office. Closing the door behind him he sat back down behind his desk and rested his chin on his fingers. I guess Sheila’s right. I am the leader and the decision rests with me. Besides I can already think of something productive we could do with that the land. We could be facing a food shortage in the coming years and if we could take the dead city away from those creatures then we could use it for farm land. His fingers went towards the phone that was resting on his desk. I think I will call the General and tell her I’ve made up my mind. Erik looked out the window and saw that it was dark; his fingers leaving the phone. I’ll call her tomorrow morning and tell her that war it is.

 The next morning Erik arrived early to his office. He picked up the phone and dialed the General’s number receiving an answer after only a couple rings.

 “Hello?”

 “General Matsuoka, its Erik. I need to talk to you about the matter you brought up yesterday. If you could come in this morning I think this will be something you want to hear.”

 “I can be there in about a half hour.”

 “Fine. I’ll be here.”

 The next half hour passed quietly with no one else showing up until Erik heard a knock at his door. He got up and answered it to find Hoshi standing on the other side dressed in her finery.

 “You wanted to see me?” On her lips was a cool smile of triumph. She knew she’d gotten her way.

 “I think you know what I wanted to talk to you about.”

 Hoshi only continued to smile. “Do I? Tell me anyway.”

 Erik knew full well what kind of game Hoshi was playing, but if she wanted to play then he’d have to go along with it. “It’s about the matter of going to war.”

 “What did you decide?”

 Erik found himself wanting to squirm out of Hoshi’s intimidating gaze. “I’ve decided that we will be going to war with the dead city.” He saw the grin on Hoshi’s face grow. “Get your troops together and the invasion will start tomorrow. I suspect you’re already ready for an invasion.”

 “Of course we’re ready for an invasion. However, the army isn’t as big as it could be so I’m asking permission to use some of the hunters in the army.”

 “Of course. Take your pick of the hunters.”

 With that Hoshi left the office with a slam of the door leaving Erik to think about what he’d just done.  What have I done? I just gave the General more power then she can handle. Now she’s going to round up more people then she needs and probably slaughter all of those who live in the dead city. I can’t let her do this. Erik got up and hastily went out the door and luckily found Hoshi who had just started to go around a corner. “General Matsuoka, do you think maybe I could accompany you on your invasion?”

 Hoshi thought for a moment before she nodded her head. “Yes, I think it would be a good idea for you to come with us. Perhaps you’ll be able to talk some sense into those barbarians if need be.” She turned around again and started to walk off. “We leave at sunrise tomorrow.”

 Erik watched Hoshi leave and felt his heart rise up into his throat. This could lead to something very bad happening. I’ll have to keep the General on a short leash.

 Early the next morning Annabel and Belbett were standing with the army getting ready to leave for the dead city. Both of them had been picked by the General to join the army along with a Malayan tiger named Jasmine and a red wolf named Nikita. Jasmine’s tail was twitching as she watched the rest of the army. “What need does the army have with us hunters?”  Her ears were laid back nearly flat against her skull.

 Nikita also had his tail between his legs and didn’t look at all happy about the situation. From the corner of his eye he saw a Thai cat boy. “What are you doing here, boy? Shouldn’t you be at home?”

 Roland had snuck out of Primrose’s house after hearing about the impending invasion and had decided that it would be to his benefit to sneak into the dead city to look for Salome. “I volunteered to join in the invasion.”

 Jasmine raised an eyebrow at Roland’s comment. “Why on earth would you do something like that? This invasion is a death trap. The only reason we’re here is because we got drafted.” She huffed before looking forward again. “We’re hunters not fighters.”

 Any further conversation was silenced by the arrival of the General and Erik. She looked over her troops with a thin smile on her lips. “This is better than I expected it to be. Now let us be off to take what is ours.”

 Annabel saw Roland from the corner of her eye and had to double take when she recognized him. “Kid? What are you doing here? You shouldn’t be here.”

 Belbett also saw Roland and ducked in front of him to keep Hoshi’s gaze off of him. “She’s right you shouldn’t be here. Do you know where we’re heading?”

Roland hadn’t expected to see Annabel and Belbett there, but was feeling relieved to see some friendly faces. “I’m looking for my friend Salome. We were staying at the farm house when she ran away and I think she went to the dead city. Which is why I’m here.”

Annabel still looked weary of him being there. “Well, keep your head down and get out of here the first chance you get.”

“I plan to.”

Hiding in the dark not far from the makeshift army was Maggie and Pip; the two spies from the dead city. They began to creep back into the shadows making their way back to the dead city to report what was happening. Back across the empty plains they went, down into the dark twisting tunnels, deep into the bowels of the dead city.

Maggie didn’t bother to knock at the chamber door of the leaders instead she simply pushed the door open and walked in quickly followed by Pip. “Its happening….,” she said breathlessly. “The hybrid army is coming to attack us.”

Francisco sighed heavily and turned to the rest of the group. “Our army is too small and under trained to be able to battle the hybrids.”

Chiyo looked down at the table. “Then we are defenseless. All we have is our bomb.” She got up from the table. “I’ll speak with Maggie and Pip about where they last saw the hybrid army. The rest of you go around and tell our citizens to get inside. They will learn why our city is called the dead city.”

By this time the army was moving across the empty plains.

In the dead city Chiyo was talking with Maggie and Pip about what they’d seen. “You say it looks like their army has grown?”

Pip nodded his head. “It looked like they borrowed some of the hunters and added them to the army. Don’t know why they bothered though if they knew anything about us they would know that our army is miniscule.”

“They’re bringing weapons with them too.” Maggie added in.

Chiyo reached into the pocket of her robes and pulled out a small vial of clear liquid. She grasped it firmly in her hand before putting it back in her pocket. “Thank you for your report. Go find your families and get inside. I do believe our end is coming.”

As Maggie and Pip left the room the hybrid army was entering the upper level of the dead city. Roland took this opportunity to sneak away from the rest of the army remembering the hole that he’d crawled out of. He shimmied back into the hole landing in a crouched position on all fours. Looks like no one has been in here since I left. Why would I be surprised? I don’t think the people that live here venture this far up to the surface very often.  He cupped a hand to his mouth. “Salome? Salome, are you here?” He only heard his voice echo and bounce back at him.

Maximilian and Salome were making their way to Maximilian’s house when he saw Guildias walking in the opposite direction. “Guildias, what’s going on? Why does everyone have to get inside?”

Guildias slowed his pace, but didn’t turn around. “We’re under attack by the hybrids that live just outside our border. It would be safest if you got inside. When they come they will find no one.”

“You mean we’re going to bury our heads in the sand like cowards? Why not fight back?”

“We don’t have the strength to fight back.”  Guildias ignored anything else Maximilian had to say and continued walking through the halls prompting the other people to get into their homes.

By the time Roland slipped into the main living quarters of the dead city it was completely deserted. “Salome? Are you here?” Again he received no answer.

This time Salome did hear someone calling her name and looked back in the direction the noise had come from. “I think there’s someone still out there.” She got up from the edge of the bed she’d been sitting on and walked over to the door. “You think we should go check it out.”

Maximilian knew that if Guildias caught them they’d probably get in trouble, but the idea of someone still being out there made him curious. “I say we go out there and see who’s still out there. Let’s just stay clear of Guildias if we run into him.”

A few minutes later the two of them were sneaking out of Maximilian’s room. Salome could still hear who she suspected was a boy calling her name. “I think I know who that is. Roland? Is that you?”

“Salome? I’m over here.” Roland called back as he made his way towards Salome’s voice. He continued following the sound of her voice until he saw a shadow. “Salome,” he called out nervously. “Is that you?”

Salome gestured for Maximilian to stay behind her before she darted out from around the corner. “Roland!” She looked surprised at the sight of his furry face and backed away. “What happened to you?”

“It’s a long story. How long have you been down here?”

“A couple weeks.” Salome motioned for Maximilian to come out. “This is my friend Maximilian. Maximilian, this is Roland.” The sound of someone coming around a corner got the attention of all three of them and they darted back around the corner in time to see Guildias coming around.

By the time Salome and Roland were reunited the hybrid army had made its way down into the dead city to find it completely deserted. Hoshi turned to Erik. “Looks like they ran before we got here.” She saw the entrance to another room and walked over to it. “How much you want to bet that they’re all hiding on the other side of this door?”

Belbett’s nose twitched. “Something smells like death. There’s something dead on the other side of that door.”

Hoshi heard Belbett and walked a little more cautiously towards the door. She motioned for Erik to stay behind her before pulling the door open.

The room was empty expect for a bed in the middle. Lying on the bed was a woman with long black hair wearing a white robe. 

Hoshi walked over to the woman and tapped the arm that was hanging off the side of the bed. She lightly gripped the woman’s wrist to feel for a pulse. “She’s dead. Let’s keep going and hope that the rest of them did the same thing.” She turned to the rest of the group. “Let’s split up into two groups.” She waved the army into two groups. “You on the right go back the way we came and take the route we didn’t take. You on the left come with me.”

As the army began to disperse from the room Belbett stopped beside Chiyo and grabbed a handful of her hair to sniff. He deduced that the woman was where the dead smell was coming from and quickly ran off to catch up with the rest of the group.

Roland, Salome, and Maximilian had gone out into the dead city to look for a way out when they heard footsteps. Roland and Maximilian both got out of the way, but Salome was much more curious and turned around the corner only to come face to face with a hybrid soldier.

The soldier panicked and fired his gun at Salome hitting her in the forehead.

Roland saw red. He ran at the soldier and head butted him in the stomach knocking him on his back. Grabbing the gun from the soldier Roland shot him at point blank range in the head.

The sound frightened another soldier who’d been coming causing him to drop his gun and run away.

Maximilian could hear more soldiers coming and shook Roland’s shoulder. “Come on we got to go.” As they went around the corner Maximilian saw the gun lying on the ground and scooped it up.

 He’d left Salome dead on the floor; the blood on her forehead had still been warm. As Roland followed Maximilian through the winding twisting halls of the underworld there was only one thought going through his addled mind. They did this to Salome. They should all die every last hybrid and mutant. None of them deserve to live! Only the sound of Maximilian’s voice snapped him out of it.

 “Come on Roland we need to hurry. We can’t let the mutants set that bomb off. You know what will happen.” Maximilian’s voice had gained a tone of urgency.

 “Right…of course I’m coming.”

 In the holy temple Guildias of the Grand Council was standing before a set of controls with three levers. He reached forward behind a red and green one to push down the yellow when he heard Erik and General Matsuoka enter the room. He turned gracefully; his long white robes fluttering out behind him and his face shining with defiance. “I warn you war mongering strangers my people’s God is a powerful one. Do not force me to call for it.”

 Hoshi gazed up at the golden bomb in contempt; her long spiked tail twitching behind her. “Your God, eh?” She raised her rifle and shot at Guildias several times hitting him where his spleen should be and stomach.  The General smiled in triumph as she watched Guildias crumple to the floor and roll down the few steps. “Your God didn’t save you did he?” She raised the rifle again to begin shooting at the bomb, but all of the bullets simply ricocheted off.

 Erik hastily chased after Hoshi and grabbed her shoulder to try and stop her. “Hoshi! Hoshi are you mad? That weapon was created by our ancestors you can’t shoot it down with a mere clip of bullets.”

 “If we can’t shoot it down we’ll pull it down.”

 Erik watched in horror as a handful of the soldiers began to try and push the bomb down by forcing their weight against its cobalt body. He heard someone crawling on the rocky wall behind them, but was quickly distracted by the retching coughs of the soldiers who had began to breath in the toxic gas now leaking from the bomb. “Stop this madness, Hoshi! You’re going to kill us all.”

 Hoshi saw the control panel that Guildias had been using and reached for the green lever. “Don’t worry I’ll stop it.”

 Roland by this point was crawling around another wall, but stopped in shock when he saw Hoshi reaching for the green lever. Although it probably wasn’t the brightest thing he could have done he picked up his rifle and beat on the keys of the organ that was in front of him.

 Erik saw Roland, but couldn’t recognize him from the distance. “Hoshi, there’s someone on the wall!”
 
 A sudden terrible pain shot through Roland’s middle as several bullets went through his stomach and he fell from the wall.

 Fearing this was the end Maximilian pulled out his own gun and began to shoot down soldier after soldier. One of the bullets went through Hoshi’s neck killing her almost instantly. However, when he was trying to reload it he lost his footing and slipped from the ledge Seconds later Maximilian hit the ground hard his head making a horrible cracking sound against the stone floor.

 Erik now saw Roland crawling towards him; blood staining his once white shirt. “You are the human child that Primrose was talking about. What are you doing here?”

 Blood began to seep from Roland’s mouth as he turned his gaze up to Erik. “Please help me.”

 “You are evil! You’re nothing, but one of our self-destructive ancestors and you’re evil!”

 Roland hadn’t noticed it before, but for as human as Erik looked when you got close he could see that Erik had fangs instead of teeth and through his rage it looked like he could tear someone apart. “You’re such a bastard….” Keeping his eyes fixed on Erik, Roland stumbled over to the control panel and still staring at Erik pressed the green button.

 The soft rumbling of the bomb began to fill the room.