by M. A. Owens
He sheathed his sword again, unbuckled his belt, and threw the scabbard aside. We were doing this, I guess. I looked to Lady, hoping for some clue as to what I should do, but her icy gaze didn’t give even the slightest hint. If she thought I was going to jump between them, she could forget it. Not in my state, and not on my best day either.
Arn lunged toward Saul, and Saul dodged his first punch, bringing his own punch around to connect with Arn’s stomach. Arn was faster, redirecting his elbow into Saul’s face, but Saul’s legs didn’t buckle. He wrapped his arm around Arn’s neck and right shoulder, attempting to throw him to the ground. As his footing gave way, Arn wrapped his leg behind Saul’s, preventing the move from playing out.
I hadn’t expected this. I had a feeling Arn was good, but he was more than that. Maybe as good as Fire Claws. Maybe better.
Arn shoved his paw into Saul’s face, and extended his claws, digging them deep into his flesh. Saul countered with a knee to Arn’s chest, sending him stumbling backward. Saul roared, extended both claws, and lunged at Arn, who was still off balance.
In an instant, Lady appeared between them, just as they made contact. She punched Saul in the torso, sending him stumbling backward and dropping to his knees, clutching his chest. Arn leaped forward, but Lady caught him mid-air, swept his legs, and threw him hard to the ground. So hard I heard the air hiss from his lungs on impact.
Arn tried to speak, but could only groan. Saul wasn’t much better, but strained out a couple of words.
“Show off,” he said, smiling, falling backward on the ground, rubbing his chest with both paws while groaning.
“I didn’t expect you were so good at hand-to-hand combat…” I said, without thinking.
“Aside from Kerdy, there are none better. Yet, that still isn’t enough to be seen as anything other than a dirty dog by most of these cats. Despite that, I have decided I am one of them. Perhaps one day they will say the same of me.”
Arn struggled to his feet. “You’re wrong, Lady. I respect you already and always have. You are great warrior.”
“I don’t mean as a warrior, Arn. But don’t you think we’ve embarrassed ourselves in front of our guest enough today? We’ll have this talk another time. For now, you should leave. Kerdy criticizes me often for being too impulsive, but the two of you are worse. Trigger and I are level-headed compared to you two, and that says a lot.”
“Wow, I’ve never had anyone call me level-headed before. Thanks, Lady.”
As usual, Lady detected the sarcasm, but was not amused.
“I am willing to train you while you’re in the camp, when you have the time,” Lady said.
“I’d be honored to—” Arn began.
“I was speaking to Trigger, Arn. You’re already getting enough special treatment as it is. Someday, you’ll be the finest warrior we have, if you can learn to control yourself and stop being ruled by your emotions.”
The disappointment on Arn’s face was so severe he may as well have spoken it aloud. “I am grateful for your advice, Lady. Trigger, about what happened here…”
I raised my paws. “I won’t tell anyone, Arn. Relax. We’ll keep it between the four of us. I don’t want to deal with an angry Kerdy any more than any of you do.”
With their silence, everyone concurred.
Arn and I exited the tent. But the proud, arrogant cat from before had been replaced with a much different one, dragging his feet and slumping his shoulders. I couldn’t help but feel bad for him. Almost.
8
Arn groaned and rubbed his shoulder as we exited the tent.
“Hey, I would offer to race you back to the grub for seconds, but you look like maybe you’re not up for it. Maybe tomorrow,” I said, giving him a friendly elbow.
He stopped and stared at me, his expression blank and distant. Slowly, a smile crept onto his lips.
“You know what, Trigger… I deserved that. I gave you a hard time while you were struggling earlier. Accept my apology?”
“Sure, Arn. I’m the outsider here, and everyone’s being asked to treat me like one of the cats.”
“No one’s being asked to treat you that way,” Arn snapped.
I tilted my head. “But didn’t Kerdy say—”
“The commander has asked no one to treat you any way, just tried to convince them why you deserved to be treated with respect. I didn’t understand at first. It’s frustrating, given how hard we’ve worked for this moment, having a dog we’ve never seen before thrown into the middle of it. Our lives might depend on you.”
“Yeah, no pressure or anything, right? Swell.”
Arn laughed, then immediately grabbed his side with his paw, wincing. “Ouch. Right. No pressure. Really though, we’re all feeling the pressure. There aren’t enough of us to afford for anyone to be unimportant or sit this one out. Even the agricultural team are making heavy preparations. They could be targeted. We don’t know for sure what the machines will do once they begin this assault. We just know that it never goes well for us.”
“And Arc City gets to go on with life like nothing ever happened, none the wiser,” I said, frowning.
“Semantics. Could easily get overwhelmed this time and Arc City won’t know what hit it. At least we have a fighting chance. Sure, in some ways those dogs have it good. But if things really get bad? I’m not so sure. It’d be something from nightmares, and it’ll hunt down everyone in that city until the last life forms are extinguished. A few will escape. Maybe enough to start over, but maybe not.”
“Arn, maybe seconds aren’t such a bad idea.”
He nodded. “Alright, but let me make a suggestion.”
I couldn’t help but sigh. The last thing I wanted right now was suggestions. Even good ones.
“Yeah?”
“Take Lady up on her offer to train you. Even though the commander’s better, one-on-one training will take you further in the short time you have.”
A perfect example of brilliant advice I didn’t want to hear.
“I came to the same conclusion. Think Kerdy will approve?”
Arn shook his head. “You’re unfamiliar with our customs. The commander doesn’t approve or control anything most of the time. She has the authority but doesn’t use it. Everyone listens to her because they respect her. You thought our ‘prison’ was unusual, right? I heard about the one in your city. Lady and Saul can leave that tent at any time.”
“Gotta be some kind of penalty for leaving, Arn,” I said.
“Look at it this way… There are no walls out here, but there’s nothing but death anywhere you look, and everywhere you go. If you’re exiled from the group, there’s no way you’ll survive. Not even Lady, and certainly not Saul. We all depend on one another here, just to survive. Get it?”
“Just sounds like a different prison to me, Arn, but not necessarily a better one.”
As he opened his mouth to speak, a commotion came from the camp. Everyone was cheering at something, or for someone. Arn nodded, and began jogging back toward the main area, with me struggling to keep up.
“Nightshade is back!” I heard one cat shout.
“Hey Nightshade, did you bring us any souvenirs?” shouted another.
I tried to squeeze through the crowd, mostly getting jostled in random directions.
“Okay, everyone, calm down. You know how much I like attention. If you keep welcoming me home like this, it’s going to go to my head!”
I finally shoved my way through. The cat getting the celebrity treatment was all black, with violet eyes. The tips of her ears were dyed pink, and she had several piercings up her left ear, making it droop slightly lower than the other. She noticed me immediately.
“Trigger! Well, if it isn’t my new partner. Go on, everyone. Give us a minute to chat. Story time later,” she said. With that, she shooed the crowd away, which was met with many groans of disappointment. “Mind sitting on the ground with me? I just can’t wait to talk to you. So many questions. I’ve been dying to meet
you!”
Her last sentence came out as more of a squeal. Initially, I thought she was being sarcastic, like everyone else here that pretended to be happy to meet me at first, but I couldn’t detect even a hint of it with this cat. Seemed genuine.
“Sure thing, kid. Gotta say, I’ve been looking forward to talking to you too.” I sat down awkwardly on the ground. I looked around, but didn’t see Arn. He must’ve drifted away with the crowd. Probably to nurse his wounds.
“Oh, don’t start calling me ‘kid’, pops.”
I grinned. “Sorry. Habit. You probably want to know what it’s like in the city, right?”
She shook her head. “Nope. I grew up in the city. We’re kindred spirits already. What I want to know more about is you!”
“Me? Well, uh… what do you want to know?” I asked, nervously scratching the back of my neck.
“How did you train your investigative abilities?”
I laughed. “The answer’s going to bore you, I’m afraid. I was just terrible at it for long enough without quitting until I became better. That’s really all there is to it.”
She held up her paw. “Ah, but that’s where you’re mistaken, Trigger. That ‘without quitting’ part, and it’s not even that. It’s the why you didn’t quit.”
“Because I couldn’t stand living in a lousy, corrupt city where the worst got everything, and the few good cats and dogs got worse than nothing. Would rather get tossed into Arc River with stone shoes than watch it all go by, sitting behind a police desk, hiding behind the badge. When I was a cop, most were on some gangster’s payroll. It would be different now, but that’s how it was then. Couldn’t accept that.”
She laughed, and her piercings jingled against one another. “Well lucky you. You got both! You got to make a difference, and got thrown in Arc River for your troubles.”
I sighed. “Both is what most people get when they try to make a difference in that city. Arc River may as well be called the River of Heroes. That’s where the majority end up.”
She reached out and poked me in the chest. “But not all of them stay there, right?”
“Nah. One was lucky enough to get dragged out by a Doberman super-soldier and thrown into a science fiction story, with no way of knowing if it’s all some kind of twisted dream.”
Nightshade tilted her head. “Come on, Detective. We both know your imagination isn’t that good.”
She had a point. I couldn’t make this up if I tried… and I certainly wouldn’t try.
“Now I’ve got a question.”
Her face beamed. “Ready!”
“With a name like Nightshade, and with all this weight on your shoulders, I really wasn’t expecting someone so… happy, and positive. Polite, too. You called me ‘detective’ even though you didn’t have a reason to and it’s not part of your customs.”
“That’s not a question, though.”
I nodded. “True, that’s not a question. If you came from the city, I know you couldn’t have a cheerful story. You’ve probably had a harder life than I had. From what I gather, your life is in danger every day and the work you’re doing sounds like one of the more dangerous jobs. If you miss something, or make one big mistake, you could doom your entire species.”
“And yours,” she added, with a smile.
“Right. So how do you stay so cheery about it all?”
She leaned forward. “How do you stay so gloomy?”
“Answering questions with questions. I like it. Some of who we are just comes from our bones, I guess.”
“Close enough.” She stood, reaching out a paw for me.
I took it. She really did look like little more than a kitten. If I’d seen her in the city a few years ago, I’d have just assumed at a glance that she was some know-nothing punk up to no good. Funny how things change when you look from another angle or ask even one or two questions. Most didn’t bother. No wonder kids like that slip through the cracks. No wonder we’re in the shape we’re in now. We fixed ten things and messed up twenty more. How many punks in the wrong place at the wrong time, rotting in Arc City Prison, could’ve been Arc City’s Nightshade? Dogs like Patches and Petey are moving it in the right direction, but what if it’s too late to turn the momentum of history around?
“Um, Trigger?” Nightshade asked, waving her paw in front of my face. “You’re lost in some kind of worst-case, end of the world, everybody’s going to die scenario, aren’t you?”
I laughed. “We just met, and you already know me well.”
She smiled. “Looks like you and I are going to be two opposite sides of the coin that buys us out of this mess. I was just thinking about how awesome the party is going to be when you and I discover the secrets needed to win the war.”
“I’m not a fan of parties,” I said.
“I think if you help save the world everyone will forgive you for not attending the party,” she said, giving me a playful shove.
“I don’t know. You cats seem the type to take celebrations pretty seriously, but thanks for clearing that up.”
She giggled. “There’s that sarcastic sense of humor I’ve heard about.”
“Oh yeah? From who?”
“The commander, of course.”
Now that was a surprise. “Kerdy? You mean, she actually thought my jokes were funny? I could count the times I saw that cat smile on one paw.”
“The commander has emotional control you wouldn’t believe. Comes with her age, I guess.”
“Oh, come on. She can’t be that old,” I said.
Nightshade raised a brow. “Oh, so no one’s told you, have they?”
“Told me what?” I asked.
“Kerdy is, well… special. Most of our medicinal advancements have come from analyzing her biology, studying her genetic code, and so forth. She may look like the rest of us, and mostly she is, but there’s one tiny difference.”
“What? That she’s ever so slightly grouchier than the other cats here? I’ll agree, that is quite a feat.”
She put her paw over her mouth, hiding her grin. “Okay, besides that. She’s not originally from here. She was from an adversity zone, not too much unlike yours, but there were kings and queens, knights, swords and armor, and all of that. They knew no more about the real world than those in Arc City. Those who helped rescue her from the horrors of that zone’s final days called her by a different title than commander. They called her Immortal Queen.”
I put both paws on my cheeks and slid them down, pulling my face so hard Nightshade probably thought I was trying to pull off a mask. “Immortal Queen? You’re kidding. Now you’re trying to tell me she’s going to live forever.”
“Probably not forever, but this happened over two-hundred years ago. So… at least a very long time.”
I held up my paw. “Alright, stop. Just hold on a second. Immortal? Queen? I’m going to need to sit back down.”
9
Seems that the one thing I thought I knew, the one thing in common between this world and mine, was something it turns out I knew nothing about. Kerdy. Immortal Queen? Warrior, of course. Commander? Not surprised. Immortal and queen were two things that didn’t really fit in with what I thought I knew about her. Then again, none of this did. More and more, this felt like a dream. Someone would soon come along, pinch me, and I’d wake up in Black District hospital, all kinds of tubes coming out of my mouth. The doctor would tell me—
“Do you space out like this often, Detective?” Nightshade asked, waving her paw slowly in front of my face.
“Unfortunately, I do. Especially when I have to spend so much time in my own head trying to make sense of one outrageous revelation after another. So, is Immortal Queen some kind of trumped-up nickname? Maybe when she was younger and wanted to look special, she had this embarrassing story she told other cats to impress them? Before you answer that, I’m going to go with ‘no’. You’re about to tell me she’s actually immortal, and she was the queen of a distant kingdom for a million years before humans
went extinct. Of course, she can’t be that old, or we’d know all these secrets about the machines already, and about what happened to humans. That puts her being born somewhere long after those events, but long before any of us were born.”
“You know, I kind of just told you. I could also just answer questions. You don’t have to figure everything out, you know?” Nightshade said with a wink.
“If it was a story everyone was comfortable telling, I’d have heard it already. I have a feeling that, even if I ask, you’ll leave a lot out. Well? Am I wrong?”
Nightshade straightened up, her smile fading. “I mean… Well…”
“She’d have told me herself. My guess is she’s not happy about this story, doesn’t tell it, and doesn’t like to find out others are telling it.”
Nightshade’s smile brightened up again, slightly. “It’s true what she said. Nothing escapes you, does it? You’re right. If I’m going to leave parts of the story out, you’d be better off asking her directly or piecing it together on your own. I won’t disrespect you by pretending I can outsmart you. After all, if I could outsmart you, that would mean Kerdy misjudged you, and you wouldn’t be of much use to me or our mission. I believe in the commander, all the way. Her judge of character is impeccable, and she hasn’t been wrong yet.”
“There’s a first time for everything, Nightshade.”
“Sure. Maybe someday she’ll be wrong. But not today, and not with you. Are you ready to be briefed on our next target?” she asked, patting me on the shoulder.
“Are you ready for me to not understand most of what you’re saying, and are you ready to answer about a hundred questions?”
“Ready!” she shouted, pumping her fist into the sky.
Maybe Nightshade had a cheerful optimism that even I couldn’t drag down. For both our sakes, I hoped that was the case.
I nodded. “Then brief away, partner.”
She beamed at the word ‘partner’, as though the honor should be hers. She acted as though she was my partner, and not the other way around.
“Right! I just returned from a weapons depot a few miles out. We controlled this location about one year ago, and when it was hit, we didn’t get to move everything out in time. The good news is more supplies and, in a few weeks, and if we can spare the numbers to operate it, more and faster weapon repairs and upgrades.”
