The Girl Who Found the Sun

by Matthew S. Cox

  Raven shouted, “Get away!” as loud as she could while racing to Tinsley.

  Ariana zipped past Raven and leapt into Sienna who’d been running a half-step behind.

  The cat attacking Tinsley bit her around the left calf and backpedaled, dragging her off. The child looked up, making an ‘uh oh’ face. Raven’s screaming charge startled the cat cringing back from Cheyenne into running off. The one dragging Tinsley scurried faster, but couldn’t outrun her in reverse. Raven barreled in, fully intending to tackle the cat, but skidded to a stop by the child when the animal released her and backed up, roaring.

  “Bad kitty,” said Tinsley, still sprawled on her front.

  Raven scooped her daughter up and walked backward, staring into the cat’s eyes. Josh and Xan shouted behind her trying to scare the cats away. Ariana wailed sobs, shouting, “Mommy!” over and over.

  The cat that left blood trickling down Tinsley’s leg surged toward Raven. She tossed Tinsley to her feet behind her, shouting, “Run!” and pulled the katana out. Snarling, the cat reared up, biting at her face. She ducked and backpedaled, swiping the sword up to put it between the fanged mouth and her head. The bite fell short, but a paw slap to the shoulder shoved her sideways. She landed sitting on the street, the cat standing over her.

  “Get outta here!” shouted Raven, waving the sword back and forth at it. “Go find a deer!”

  It recoiled, seeming more alarmed at the shouting than the blade, keeping its head low. She rolled over onto all fours then leapt up to run, but fell again when the cat bit her on the foot.

  “Oof!” Raven landed on her chest, facing the overpass.

  Sienna clung to Ariana. Cheyenne and Xan swung human femurs like baseball bats, keeping the cats surrounding them at bay while Josh shouted and threw whatever he could get his hands on at them including rocks, bones, and skulls.

  Tinsley stood alone midway between Raven and the group, looking back and forth between one cat holding her mother’s foot in its mouth and five cats surrounding the others. Blood trickled down her left leg, but she didn’t appear to have too deep a wound or even realize she’d been hurt.

  In Raven’s mind, she pictured three of the cats noticing her tiny daughter standing there undefended and all going for her at once. Growling, she grabbed the pavement and yanked herself forward while kicking at the cat chomping on her boot. The instant her foot came free, she scrambled upright and ran to Tinsley.

  She slowed to a walk after gathering her daughter up into her arms. The warm, gritty touch of pavement under her foot revealed her left boot no longer had a sole—probably still in the cat’s mouth. Raven peered back at the one gnawing on the rubbery slab, then ahead at the other five cats. They alternated between cringing back and trying to get a nibble on one of the other kids or Sienna. Surprisingly, all the children’s shouting appeared to be making the animals hesitate from committing to an all-out attack.

  Cats chase shit that moves…

  If she crept away, she might get Tinsley to safety—but that left the woman she considered a sister plus four kids to the whim of five hungry cats. Dare she risk Tinsley’s life to save them? If she took off running, the other cats might instinctively chase her instead.

  She squeezed Tinsley, about to apologize when she spotted a storm drain a little less than a block away. They’ll chase me if I run. Gotta give them a chance.

  “Sienna! Drain!” shouted Raven, then dashed down the road.

  The cat dropped the boot sole and came after her, as did three of the others, peeling away from the group of kids plus Sienna. Another started to, but a hurled skull bouncing off its head redirected its attention to Josh.

  What remained of her left boot flapped about as she hauled ass for the storm drain, not looking back. The soft thumps of heavy cats closed in behind her; she expected they’d take her down before she made it close enough to dive in—so she launched Tinsley across the street in a slide for the drain opening and tried to run faster in hopes of drawing them away from her.

  Salvation came in the form of a wooden pole studded with metal climbing spars. She leapt for it, grabbed on, and climbed. Claws ripped at her poncho but didn’t break skin. Faster than she’d ever done anything in her life, she scaled twenty feet, then looked back to check on her kid.

  One cat crouched by the storm drain opening, intently interested in something inside. Three stood at the base of the pole, looking up at her. The other two chased Sienna and the rest of the kids. The larger of those two pounced Xan, dragging the boy to the ground. He screamed in pain, but managed to roll over onto his back.

  Josh had already committed to chasing the one away from the drain and was too far ahead of the others to get back in time to matter for the other boy. Xan caught the cat’s first attempt to bite his throat by wedging the femur sideways in its mouth.

  Cheyenne flipped in an instant from terrified to fearless, stopping short and brandishing her femur club at the cat nipping at her heels. Her high-pitched war scream caused the cat to cringe away from her.

  “Hah,” said Raven, giving the finger to the three peering up at her.

  The one in the middle sprang up, gripped the pole, and climbed toward her, giant claws digging into the old wood.

  “Shit. Of course you can climb.”

  Having nowhere else to go, she scrambled down to about twelve feet and let go, falling past the ascending cat too fast for it to get a swipe at her. She landed in a reverse somersault, but fear threw her back to her feet before she even realized she’d tumbled.

  Xan shoved something into his mouth while somehow managing to hold the cat back using only a one-handed grip on the femur.

  Josh’s screaming, club-waving fit startled the cat away from the storm drain. He stomped after it, pushing the animal farther away. Sienna tossed Ariana into the opening, spun around, and dashed toward Xan.

  An explosion of saliva and green chunks flew from the boy’s mouth, spraying the cat in the face. It promptly leapt back, emitting a startled grunt, shook its head, then pawed at its face while groaning, having lost all interest in Xan.

  He dragged himself away from the cat, bleeding from the leg where claws had gotten him.

  Cheyenne stood up on tiptoe and shrieked, “Go away!”

  Her cat cringed, neither attacking nor fleeing.

  The climber jumped down. Raven swung the katana at the three stalking up on her, shouting nonsense as loud as she could while retreating toward the storm drain. Cheyenne, upon noticing Raven, edged backward. Sienna grabbed Xan, hauled him upright, and more or less carried him to the drain opening. She lowered him inside, then picked up a hunk of concrete, which she threw at the cat menacing Cheyenne. As soon as the beast flinched, the girl whirled, throwing herself into a headfirst dive at the narrow opening in the curb.

  “Mommy!” shouted Tinsley from beneath the street.

  Josh ran toward Raven, waving the femur over his head and yelling gibberish. He appeared to be trying to distract the cats off her so she could dive to safety.

  Raven grabbed the back of his poncho and shoved him into the storm drain. “You’re still a kid. Get in there.”

  “Come on!” yelled Sienna while sliding in.

  Raven backed up another few steps, the cats all closing in on her—except for the one Xan spit on, which had lost all interest in everyone. The animal rolled around on the road, whimpering and pawing at its face. The remaining five appeared ready to maul her any second. She let out one last horrible shout, whirled, and jumped feet-first into the opening.

  A cat snagged her by the right shoulder, getting mostly a mouthful of poncho fabric, though the point of one fang sank into her skin.

  Josh stabbed at it with the femur. Raven’s left arm blurred into a series of frantic slaps at the beast’s nose. Someone grabbed her by the ankles and pulled. Fabric ripped by her right ear.

  “Let go!” yelled Josh, ramming the femur up out of the slot.

  “Mommy!” shrieked Tinsley.

  A
cat paw grabbed Raven’s left arm at the bicep.

  Sienna reached up and seized the animal, peeling its claws away.

  At the hollow bonk of bone on cat skull, Raven popped out of the animal’s mouth and fell into a dark, underground chamber.

  She landed on her butt at the bottom of a concrete cistern. Xan lay on his side, cradling his leg. Josh held the femur club in both hands, trembling from adrenaline. Cheyenne, next to him, clutched her femur more like a security blanket. She appeared mostly shell shocked, but didn’t shiver. Sienna sank to sit beside her, and exhaled hard. Tinsley leapt into her lap, clinging and crying.

  Raven’s left bicep and right shoulder burned, but she barely noticed the pain, too worried about her child.

  She pulled Tinsley’s poncho up off her legs, exposing a cluster of small scratches where the cat’s smaller teeth sliced. Seeing such superficial injuries should have been a relief, but she couldn’t stop thinking about what would have happened if the cat had gotten away with her.

  Unable to speak, Raven wrapped both arms around Tinsley and held on tight.

  Claws scraped at the metal opening above and behind her. Soft growls and snarls of discontent hovered nearby. Xan couldn’t seem to stop drooling. He coughed, fanned at his mouth, and kept spitting. Josh held Cheyenne, patting her on the back while telling her they were safe. Ariana had gone from scream crying to staring mutely into space.

  Sienna crouched by Xan, examining his leg. She ripped his inside shirt off, out from under his poncho, and repurposed it into a bandage around his thigh.

  “How is he?” whispered Raven, still clinging to Tinsley.

  “Scratches on the back of his leg. Deep enough to need stitches but we don’t have supplies for that.” Sienna unwound the shirt. “Dammit. I need to rinse this off first. Too rattled to think straight.”

  “Chey?” asked Raven.

  “I’m okay.” Cheyenne exhaled hard. “Thanks.”

  Josh shucked the backpack off and pulled out a water bottle, which he handed to Sienna.

  “What did you do to the one that got you?” Cheyenne squatted beside Sienna, trying to help her clean Xan’s leg.

  “Kept a few of those burning peppers,” rasped Xan. “Chewed one up and spat it in the damn thing’s eyes. Maybe a mistake. I can’t feel my mouth.”

  “Pretty sure that cat got the worse end of that.” Sienna kissed him atop the head. “Fast thinking.”

  “Mommy’s got a booboo!” said Tinsley.

  “Just a little scratch, like yours.” Raven reached for the water bottle. “Let me see that when you’re done?”

  After rinsing the back of Xan’s leg, Sienna handed it over.

  Raven washed Tinsley’s calf. The tooth marks were shallow; thankfully the cat had been merely trying to carry her rather than eat. Still, she figured they ought to be covered for a couple days. Raven pulled her knife, sliced off a bit of her inside shirt, and tied it around her daughter’s injury.

  “What were those things?” asked Cheyenne.

  “Monsters,” said Tinsley.

  “No… just cougars.” Sienna raked a hand up through her hair. “I’ve never felt so happy to see something while wanting it to die at the same time.”

  Josh took another bottle from the backpack. “We have two left. Hope that stream is okay to drink, or we won’t have any water for the last day.”

  “It won’t be fun, but one day isn’t too bad.” Sienna finished bandaging Xan’s leg. “Now if you’ll give me a minute, I’m going to have a breakdown.”

  “If you break down, Mommy can fix you.” Tinsley smiled.

  “Heh.” Sienna held her face in both hands and sighed. “Shit… I can’t believe we survived that.”

  Cheyenne knelt by Raven and pushed her poncho up off her shoulder. “Mom, need to wash this, too. She’s hurt.”

  “Do cougarses always eat people?” whispered Ariana.

  “I really don’t know. I’ll check the books when we get back, and it’s cougars, not cougarses.” Sienna checked Raven’s shoulder.

  Having the puncture wound prodded felt like a hot spike stabbing her in the shoulder. Raven buried her face in Tinsley’s shoulder to muffle her grunt of pain.

  “That’s Mom.” Xan gave an exhausted laugh. “We almost got our butts chewed off by giant cats and she’s teaching us English.”

  Sienna dabbed at Raven’s shoulder, then cleaned the claw marks on her left arm. “It’s like someone stabbed you with a pen. Just the tip of the tooth got in. Guess we’re not at the top of the food chain anymore.”

  “Maybe nature is mad at humans for hurting it?” Ariana wiped her tear-streaked face. “I’m scared.”

  “Pigeons, wild men, rats, some bugs, and now giant cats.” Raven brushed Tinsley’s hair in a repetitive, calming motion—though probably soothed herself more than the girl. “Maybe we should stay underground.”

  “You don’t mean that.” Sienna rigged a cloth strip bandage around Raven’s arm. “I can hear it in your voice. You love it out here, and seeing nature coming back is a thrill. But, you’re freaking out that the kids got hurt.”

  “Damn right. Maybe I’m glad the Earth isn’t a poisonous mess, but seeing it is not worth shit happening to Tins… or any of the kids. Or you. I’m not my father. I’m not gonna go off and get killed and disappear on Tinsley like…” Raven looked away.

  Sienna took her hand. “You can be mad at him. Nothing wrong with that. Don’t mean you don’t love him.”

  “I dunno. I saw that thing starting to drag her off and…” Raven squeezed Tinsley.

  “Air please,” rasped Tinsley.

  “Yeah. You got off easy. I had four kids scare the shit out of me. Freakin’ three of ’em ran at the damn cougars, I damn near died.”

  Cheyenne looked down, guilt all over her face. “Sorry. I dunno what happened. Went from as scared as Ari to like angry.”

  “I wasn’t scared,” whispered Ariana, before crawling over into Sienna’s lap. “I was really scared.”

  Sienna clutched the nine-year-old like a big doll.

  “There’s a lot more animals out there than we thought.” Josh gazed up at the hole. “The air is awesome. I don’t feel tired all the time.”

  “Or dizzy.” Cheyenne tapped her head. “I always wanted to sleep before. And it’s so weird being in a place where not everything smells like boiling poo.”

  Xan laughed. “I think we could’a left the Arc a long time ago.”

  “That lady you work with thinks people did leave.” Cheyenne picked up the water bottle Josh half drained and opened it.

  “Yes. Lark could be right.” Raven loosened her grip on Tinsley a little. “So many animals and plants around, the Earth had to have recovered quite a while ago. Maybe we stayed underground for too damn long… but—”

  Sienna shook her head. “No guilt. Staying there wouldn’t have been any better for your daughter’s health than cougar teeth. Not sure what would surprise me more between us finding people at this place you want to go or finding everyone back home still alive when we get there.”

  “Uhh.” Josh pointed at Xan. “His leg’s messed up and we’re almost out of water. We might not be able to go home.”

  “Why does everyone keep saying scary things?” Cheyenne grabbed two fistfuls of her hair. “I’m already scared.”

  Josh paced. “Not trying to scare you. Just being honest. We can’t turn around and go back now. The place is real close. Even with him limping, we can get there in like two hours.”

  Raven brushed a hand at her satchel. What did Dad want to tell everyone about?

  “What if there’s nothing there?” Cheyenne hung her head, her face disappearing behind her long, dark brown hair.

  “Wrong question. What if there are people there, and they’re friendly.” Josh folded his arms.

  Xan raised one arm, pointing straight up. “They could be bad guys.”

  “There is no such thing as countries or corporations or presidents anymore.” Josh
shrugged. “If anyone is there, they don’t have any reason to be mean to us. But, even if they do want to hold us like prisoners or something, they might have a doctor.”

  Raven lifted her face from Tinsley’s frizzy hair. “And what if they’re a bunch of ferals?”

  “Living in a giant silver ball that looks like a space ship?” Josh smirked. “That doesn’t make sense.”

  “We don’t know what that thing is. Could be something people made before the Great Death.” Raven exhaled out her nose. “But it doesn’t look like it’s falling apart. Dad wrote something down… the last thing he said. Something shocked him so much he didn’t even describe it because he wanted to get back to the Arc faster. He had to tell everyone something… but that could mean a warning as easily as good news. We should at least look from a distance before turning around.”

  “Bull.” Sienna prodded her. “You weren’t about to turn around. What you were gonna say is we wait here while you go check it out. We already discussed that. If they’re going to take prisoners, they get all of us or none of us.”

  “Yeah.” Raven hugged her daughter close.

  “Mommy, you’re squeezing me so much I gotta pee.”

  Everyone laughed, though none too loud.

  A large concrete pipe led away from the cistern. Raven briefly considered suggesting they go down the pipe and try to put some distance between them and the cats, but didn’t want to risk ending up lost underground or caught in a cave-in.

  So, they waited.

  Eventually, Ariana calmed enough to stop sniveling and shaking.

  “Sorry about your dad,” whispered Sienna.

  “Thanks, but, I kinda knew already. He left a notebook with Daniel, asked him to give it to me if he ever stayed gone for more than two weeks.”

  Sienna blinked. “Old Daniel? The guy who just died?”

  “Yeah.” Raven jabbed her fingers at the dirt beside where she sat, sad all over again about the old man’s passing. If that idiot Noah had listened to me, Daniel wouldn’t be dead. Granted, almost no one survived even to eighty years of age, much less past it. Everyone had more or less been expecting him to go at any minute already. “That notebook was basically Dad apologizing to me for getting himself killed and saying how sorry he was not to be there for me. He’d never leave and not come back willingly.”