Despite these sudden bursts of excitement the weeks passed quickly and calmly. A feeling of lasting contentment seemed to be shared by all in the apartment. Maybe Josie and Vincent were right and there was nothing to worry about after all. However, one day something changed. We began noticing cardboard boxes being accumulated and Josephine Chambers was busier than usual working and filling these boxes with various items. The feeling of change began to prick me. I didn’t like what was happening although I couldn’t quite understand what was going on and why I didn’t like it. Vincent and Josie played and slept as if nothing were changing. I approached Vincent and asked, “Have you noticed our caretakers acting strange lately?” “No.” He quickly replied. I said, “I have a strange feeling that something bad is about to happen but I don’t know what. I’ve also been getting a strange vibe from Jeffery Chambers when he strokes my back. Its almost as if he’s apologizing for something he’s done or is about to do.” “Here we go again,” said Vincent impatiently. “With you, the bowl is always half empty. Maybe your right and something is about to change, but why does it immediately have to be a bad change? Why cant it be something good that’s about to happen?” Josie walked up to us inquisitively. “What’s going on?” she asked. “Ol’ Doom and Gloom here, is predicting a calamity,” said Vincent sarcastically. I felt irritated. “I was only suggesting that maybe we should be prepared for a change,” I responded defensively. Josie looked compassionately at me then said, “Don’t worry Christopher. Everything is going to be alright.” Then she rubbed her body against mine in passing and walked away. “See,” said Vincent. “I’m not the only one who thinks you’re worrying yourself unnecessarily.” “Maybe your right,” I said unconvincingly. I then turned to walk away. I thought back to the time when we first came to this apartment and of Vincent’s reaction to being in a new place. At that time our roles were reversed. “I guess this memory slipped his mind,” I thought.
One day there was a loud knock on the door. All movement in the room suddenly stopped and everyone looked toward the door. There was a long pause, and then the knock was repeated. This time Josephine Chambers sprang to her feet and went to the door. She opened the door and a woman entered carrying three metal cages, which immediately reminded me of my ordeal at the vet. I quickly ran under the desk and Josie and Vincent instinctively sensing danger followed me. “What’s happening?” asked Josie. I peeked out and around the corner to see Jeffery Chambers walking toward us. Jeffery reached under the table and began pulling us out by our legs. Although we were being forced against our will we didn’t dare strike out at Jeffery Chambers. He was our protector. “If he was responsible for whatever was about to happen then it had to be for our benefit,” we kept telling ourselves. After the three of us were placed into the cage a blanket was placed over the cage blocking out all light. We then felt movement as our cage was lifted and we were being transported. Our cage was placed into a vehicle and the next thing you know we are driving down the road. I recognized the feeling from when I came back from the vet’s office. After traveling forever and a day, I whispered to Vincent in the dark, “What are we going to do? Do you have a plan?” He just whispered back, “There’s really nothing we can do. We just have to wait and find out where we are going to end up. You know, like last time.” I had enough. I indignantly said, “I’m not just going to see where I end up. Not this time. This time I’m going to take action,” although I had no idea what action that was. I began pacing up and down the cage. “How could Jeffery Chambers do this to me?” I lamented. “Doesn’t he know how much I need him? Betrayal is a part of life I have come to accept. But not from you Jeffery! Not from you!” My eyes began to fill with tears and I felt something strange happening. The warm sensation that always accompanied my thoughts of Jeffery Chambers began to change. Anger began to bubble up into my heart. I felt an intense desire to revenge myself on Jeffery Chambers if it was the last thing I did. I could fill pressure building in my head as if it were about to explode then I felt that familiar ringing in my ears. My body began to spasm and you could hear my bones knocking loudly against the metal bars of the cage. I could hear our capturer say something as she moved the car to the side of the road. As the blanket was quickly snatched from the cage light fluttered in at us in all directions. Our cage was opened and I could feel the fresh sensation of outside air. It quickly revived me and I leaped out of the cage onto the woman that had abducted us. Instinctively she shielded her face with her arms but I was not aiming at her face. I jumped onto her shoulder and bounded off of her onto the moist pavement. She turned to come after me but she then looked back at the opened cage. I signaled for Vincent and Josie to follow me but they just stood there frozen. As she turned to lock the cage I darted into the woods that lie on the side of the road. I would never see my siblings again.
Chapter 3 - You may not be interested in war but war is interested in you - Leon Trotsky
I walked deeper into the woods, as I heard my abductor approaching. She was relentless. No matter how far in I traveled, when I stopped for a moment I could hear her footsteps pursuing me. Finally I decided to break into a gallop. I would run fast and hard until I was sure she had turned back. So I ran for what seemed to be ages. I didn’t know where I was going I just knew I had to keep running. After I felt I had run a great distance, I began to feel safe from my pursuer. “She surely must have turn back by now. I have penetrated too far into this unknown area.” As the realization of how far I had penetrated began to sink into my mind, a new feeling emerged. The feeling of safety for having escaped capture quickly began to be replaced with feelings of insecurity. I stopped and hid behind a large tree. “I must listen to confirm that I am safe,” I decided. My ears moved slightly and adjusted to take in my new environment. I listened but all was silent in the direction of my pursuer. Gradually my ears began twitching and were drawn in the opposite direction. I could hear faint voices. I began walking toward these voices and as I did they became louder. It sounded almost like shouting but it was not quite shouting. As I continued to walk toward the voice I could here it distinctly now. The voice said, “That filthy mutt! Bandit is a grimy mutt!” Another voice agreed adding, “That mutt is skanless. I never liked that mutt anyways.” A third voice chimed in, “See mutts these days… They don’t understand. Ill snuff a mutt. I don’t care!” As the voices continued to discuss the subject of mutts and their views on them, the branch I was leaning against gave way and broke. I tumbled down the sloped ground and into the clearing where there stood a large group of cats, some standing others lying down lazily. The cats that were having the unintelligible conversation approached me, and the largest one asked, “What do we have here? What’s crackin mutt?” I just looked at him. “Was he asking me a question?” I wondered. Apparently offended by my silence one of the cats that was standing in the crowd but watching attentively as the scene unfolded ran up to me menacingly. “Do we have a problem? You’re too good to talk to us? Gonzo asked you what’s crackin? You think you’re better than us?” He shot these questions out rapidly without waiting for a response. He now began walking around me staring me threateningly in the eyes. I looked him in the eyes, not out of defiance but simply out of curiosity because I didn’t understand what was happening. Apparently making eye contact was the wrong thing to do because his face became changed. His eyes widened and his angry expression transformed into one of extreme rage. His eyes watered and turned red and he began shouting angrily “Mutts is crazy! They don’t understand! I’m no civilian! Ill snatch a mutt up!!” Suddenly Gonzo came to my aid stepping in front of the cat and saying, “Naw, he’s cool. He just didn’t understand me. What’s your name?” I replied “I’m Christopher.” Suddenly all in the crowd began to break out in loud laughter. All except the cat that threatened me that is. He paced off to the side, still fuming and trying to calm down. “That’s a stupid name!” shouted someone from the crowd. “He’s right it is a stupid name,” agreed Gonzo. “How bout we call you Bully? Because yo
u just punked that mutt Chavo and put him in his place.” Again thunderous laughter erupted from the crowd. This was too much for Chavo to take. He rushed at me bearing his fangs. I stepped back, ready to beat a retreat but before Chavo got anywhere near me he was pushed back into the crowd by three or four powerful cats. “You hungry Bully?” Gonzo asked, tossing a large chunk of mystery meat from an unidentifiable carcass at my feet. Everyone looked at me as if this was some type of initiation. The meat smelled really bad and part of it was discolored as if it had already begun to rot. “This is prime,” said Chavo burying his face in the side of the carcass. He noisily tore away part of the green flesh and began chewing. Again all eyes were on me. I bent down and sniffed a section that looked to be the freshest. As I wrinkled my nose I could see some of the crowd becoming angry. However as I sunk my teeth into the flesh and began chewing the anger dissipated and everyone looked very contented. I succeeded in forcing this meat down my throat trying not to breath in the smell of it. But it was impossible. My eyes began watering and my stomach turned. “You want more?” asked Gonzo. I quickly shook my head. “No thanks.” Some of the cats dragged the carcass away and I could hear loud smacking noises as the majority of the crowd surrounded this meal. “Before you came we was talking about this mutt named Bandit. He thinks he’s better than us because we’s mixed breeds,” said Gonzo. “He’s a mixed breed too but someone told him he looks like a pure breed. Since then he walks around like he’s better. I fought that mutt five times and beat him twice.” Suddenly Gonzo began to get worked up just as Chavo had earlier. “Just talking about that mutt pisses me off. That’s it I’m fin to get dat mutt. You down?” asked Gonzo, looking to the cat on his right. The cat nodded. “You down?” he repeated, looking to the cat on his left. This cat also nodded. He then looked at me. “You down Bully?” I quickly nodded. He said, “So tonight we’ll meet at the rocks and we’ll whoop him and teach him a lesson right?” He was addressing everyone but he looked at me awaiting a response. “I can’t come,” I said. “Then you ain’t down!” exclaimed Gonzo. With that the cats marched off muttering to themselves, “He ain’t down!” I once again found myself alone.
Before I could decide my next move, another loud conversation caught my attention. Someone was definitely being shouted at this time and in a most humiliating way. “I said get over here now!” thundered the voice. I looked to see a multi-colored calico cat sternly pointing to the ground just in front of him. His gray eyes were locked on a white mixed breed dog standing some distance from him. The dog lowered his head in shame and slowly walked towards the cat. When the dog finally reached him the cat seized him violently by the collar and jerked his head down so that they were at eye level. The cat then quickly attached a leather leash to his collar and proceeded to beat him with the end of the leash. I shuddered as the humiliating scene unfolded. With one paw the cat was clutching the collar and with the other he was beating his victim. All the while he shouted, “When I call you, you come immediately! Do! You! Un! Der! Stand! Me?” With each syllable he loudly struck the dog in his face. I began frowning as I heard the poor dog yelping in pain each time he was mercilessly beat. Suddenly the cat looked over at me with indignation in his eyes. “What?” he shouted angrily. “He’s my property! He has to learn who the master is!” The cat turned and walked away, occasionally jerking on the leash as the dog followed submissively. I shook my head in bewilderment at what I had just witnessed. “How could an animal treat another animal like that?” Suddenly I noticed a crowd of animals that were gathering to my left. They were present even while the white dog was being beaten but I almost didn’t notice them as my mind was distracted. They seemed to be in dispute with some officials. Two large black cats were demanding to see their papers. “These tags are expired!” exclaimed one of the officials. “That’s impossible sir. We were issued these tags just a couple of hours ago,” protested a raccoon. “See for yourself. They expired fifteen minutes ago,” said the official displaying the tag prominently in the eyes of the raccoon. “You can’t remain in Cuyamonga with expired tags. I have to give you a fine and you need to get temporary travel tags.” Suddenly a fox who was among the animals exclaimed, “This is madness!” “Calm yourself,” warned one of the officials sternly. “It’s alright. Calm down,” whispered a jackrabbit. “It’s not alright! And I won’t calm down!” shouted the fox. “He wants to send us to the registry at the other end of Cuyamonga to get temporary travel tags so that we can pass through Lumpenproleteria. The only problem is that by the time we get to the registry it will be closed. That doesn’t really matter though because the temporary tags would have expired by the time we crossed Lumpenproleteria to reach Fostoria!” Someone asked, “Wait, why do we need to go to Fostoria?” “Because,” exclaimed the indignant fox, “The registry in Fostoria is the only location authorized to issue us permits to work in Cuyamonga! This is the fifth time I have had to go through this humiliating process which seems purposely designed to keep certain animals from settling in any one area!” “You were warned!” shouted the official. They proceeded to arrest the fox and place him in a cage. “Anyone else want to disturb the peace of Cuyamonga?” exclaimed one of the black cats. His eyes flashed across the crowd threateningly. “I didn’t think so. Now go and get your temporary tags before I have you all arrested for overstaying your permits!” I decided to duck behind a rock until these officials left the area. As I sat there alone, I became absorbed in my thoughts. “What kind of place is this? I’ve never seen such strange behavior from animals before. True, this is my first real exposure to foreign animals but I would never have imagined that they could behave so strangely.” I suddenly became aware that I was not alone after all. Standing off to the side staring at me curiously was one of the cats that were present during my encounter with the hostile cats. “Hello,” I said. “Are you him?” He asked hopefully. This cat seemed different than the other strangers I had met. He had a calmer demeanor and a less aggressive manner of speech. I just looked back, not sure of how to answer considering that I was in a strange place with different customs. I now knew from experience that the wrong response or reaction could cause these inhabitants to fly into a rage. “Him?” I repeated inquisitively. “Yes. The Great One. According to the prophecy he will come from a far away realm and bring peace to the land. He will solve all of our problems and teach us how to live. So again I ask, are you him?” I was in a foreign land with hostile natives and nowhere to spend the night. I thought, “If I tell him I am this Great One, I’m guaranteed to be taken in by this creature and given the royal treatment at that.” I asked myself, “Am I capable of deceiving this naive creature?” Looking him directly in the eyes I replied, “No. I am not him. Sorry friend.” With that I turned to walk away. But he responded loudly “I don’t believe you!” Astounded I turned back around to face him. “What do you mean you don’t believe me?” He said, “I think you are the Great One but maybe you just don’t know it yet. You see you fit the description of the Great One. My name is Chauncey by the way, and it’s obvious to me that you are from another realm. When you were speaking with the citizens of Cuyamonga you reacted like a stranger. At first I thought, ‘Maybe he’s from the outer territories or possibly even one of Socrates’ spies.’ But as you continued to speak it became apparent to me that you aren’t even from Kliev. You must be from another realm. Tell me if I’m wrong. Where are you from?” Now obviously I couldn’t exactly answer that question with any accuracy being that I wasn’t exactly sure myself. My silence was all the confirmation he needed. From the satisfied look on his face I could tell there was nothing I could say that would convince him otherwise. “You see Great One,” he continued. “There’s nothing in the prophecy that says The Great One would recognize immediately that he is the Great One. Your not being able to recognize who you are, just confirms the prophecy.” “Tell me about this prophecy.” I implored. “I’ll tell you, on the way to meet the others,” he replied. “Others? What others?” “Oh you didn’t thi
nk I was the only one awaiting your arrival did you? There are animals waiting to receive you from Fostoria to as faraway as Kliev, which is Socrates’ territory.” “Where am I?” I wondered. “And who is this Socrates? This is the second time he is mentioning him.” However I had to pace myself. Hopefully all of my questions would be answered in due time. “You see,” Chauncey continued. “Once upon a time there was a prophet and he spoke of a cat that would change the world. He would put an end to the war, and all animals no matter what species, would live together in peace and harmony. All animals would be equal so there would be no more need to fight. At first he just spread the message to all of the inhabitants of Zarathustra's territory of Cuyamonga and only to cats. But as his message began to spread he began speaking to dogs, squirrels, rabbits, and birds. He spoke to any animal that would listen.” As we walked Chauncey would frequently slow down or stop altogether to explain a particular part of the story that he found intriguing. He stopped and looked at me with wide excited eyes. “Then one day the unthinkable happened!” He paused. “The prophet crossed into Socrates' territory of Kliev and continued to spread his message. Many animals listened to him and believed that what he was saying was possible. Of course not everyone accepted his message. Some animals benefit from the current state of inequality.” What Chauncey was saying was very interesting to me because I had my own thoughts on equality remembering back to those disagreements with Vincent and Josie. “Can you take me to that prophet? I would like to speak to him?” I asked. “Oh he disappeared a long time ago. Zarathustra finally tired of his prophesying.” He said this mournfully but also as if it were to be expected. As we walked we passed many disturbing sights. For example I saw dogs on leashes that were being led by cats. I also saw some cats on leashes and some in cages. I tried not to stand out too much so I tried to hide my look of shock at these sights. Suddenly just ahead a crowd started to form along a wide path that cut through the woods. On both sides of the path cats were pressing in on each other trying to get a glimpse of what was going on in the path. “What’s that?” I said inquisitively pointing my nose in the direction of the crowd. “I don’t know? Lets have a look.” Chauncey replied. As we approached we heard excited voices saying, “There he is!” Another voice replied, “Where? I don’t see anything.” And a third voice declared, “He’s even bigger than I expected him to be.” Chauncey nudged one of the bystanders and asked, “What’s going on?” The cat responded, “Hannibal just passed through here with some of his troops. Shame you missed it. Its not everyday you get a chance to see history in the making.” With that we continued on our way but just as I was about to ask Chauncey about what we had just witnessed I heard a loud authoritative shout directed at us. “Halt you two!! Where are your papers?” Two large black cats that marched in unison quickly approached us and began sniffing us threateningly. One of them seized Chauncey by his collar and began examining a metal tag that was attached. “You are from the lower district?” He asked gruffly. Before even letting him answer he commanded, “Be on your way!” “What about this one? He doesn’t even have a collar,” said the other official. “Better bring him with us. The leader can’t afford any loose ends at this stage of the campaign.” Chauncey protested, “Sirs this is…” “Did we ask for your input?” shouted the first official interrupting Chauncey in the middle of his sentence. Chauncey put his head down and sadly walked away. “Your coming with us!” commanded the officials in unison and they placed a black hood over my head. With that they led me away. I was marched to the point of exhaustion, up hills, down narrow paths and even through what seemed to be narrow tunnels. When we finally came to a stop and the hood was roughly wrenched from off my head I was in a room. It was very dark. The two officials were standing by the door. Sitting across from me was another official but you could tell from his posture and also the way the other two officials avoided eye contact with him that he was their superior. He looked at me and said, “We just need to ask you a few questions and I want you to think very carefully about how you’re about to answer these questions, because your future depends upon it.” He paused. “Now who are you and where are you from?” Truthfully at this point, I was unsure of how to respond. Was I Christopher, Bully, the Great One?” I meditated for a while and then said, “I am the Great One. I am from another realm.” Upon hearing my response the guards by the door burst out in laughter. It wasn’t the reaction I was expecting but at least it didn’t cause them to fly into a rage. The face of the commanding officer remained unchanged. He shot a sharp glance over at the guards and they immediately stopped laughing. “Leave us!” He commanded. And without another word they both exited and closed the door tight behind them. The commanding officer looked at me calmly with a serious expression on his face. “Let me tell you a story,” he began. “Once upon a time there was a superior breed of pure blood felines. They were perfect in body and mind and they ruled the world wisely and justly. The lower breeds looked to them for instruction and they gave it. The land was at peace and nature was content because all life forms were in perfect balance. Then one day a mutant cat with a sick twisted mind came along and decided to throw this balance out of order. His uprisings cost my ancestors the purity of our blood and our lifespan was greatly reduced as a result of the mixing of breeds. But as sad as it was, it happened long ago in ancient times. Now let’s talk about the present. A great cat was born in our day who recognized the injustice perpetrated on our breed. His name is Zarathustra. He could have resigned himself to just safeguarding this knowledge and insuring that future generations also had access to it. But this wasn’t enough for him. He set off to put right what was made wrong so many ages ago. Equipped with nothing but sure willpower, he was able to rise to glory and take control of the future of our breed. This was not an easy task but he rose to the challenge and accepted it.” He paused. “Now, one of the difficulties encountered when developing the master breed is that you have a lot of waste products, which take the form of sub-animals or vermin. I’m sure you noticed some of these, as you walked throughout the territory. These sub-animals have a corrupting influence on society and especially on our youth because the young are so impressionable. For example did you notice that some of these lower breed cats call each other mutt?” He said this word ‘mutt’ with a look of utter disgust. “Do you know what this means?” I shook my head. “It is a diminutive slur for dogs. But they are not ashamed of it. They actually call each other mutts as if being a mutt is something to be proud of. Other animals have picked up this habit and now lower breed cats, and vermin from many species can be found calling each other mutts.” The commanding officer shook his head in irritation. “Another example of corruption is the way these sub-animals cross the highway defiantly almost daring vehicles to strike them. Flattened corpses can be seen littering the highway. One would think this would serve as a caution and a reminder of our mortality but on them it has the very opposite effect. In the twisted minds of these sub-animals, the danger adds to the allure of crossing defiantly. The corpses serve as a proof of their courage and boldness in crossing the dangerous road. Our youth admire this boldness and aspire to be like these sub-animals. Have you ever heard such nonsense?” exclaimed the commanding officer. “These are just two examples of corruption. There are many others. You may wonder why we don’t just eliminate this corrupting influence. Believe me, there are many who feel that this is the only solution. But you see…” The officer shrugged. “There are too many of them. Exterminating so many animals at once would create too much of a scandal. In his wisdom Zarathustra has devised various means of cleansing our breed without creating too much resistance. One of these means is called Anesthesis. An operative was selected from the higher breeds of our society and he was given a message to deliver to the lower breeds. This message was specially scripted to be very appealing to these lower breeds. It talked about love and peace and all kinds of other absurd nonsense that only a lower being could accept. His mission was to spread the message to the cats in Cuy
amonga only. But as he recited the scripted text to the inhabitants over and over again and saw their reactions to it, something unexpected happened. He began believing the message. He spread it with more zeal than before and he even began adding to the text. Against orders he spread the message across species. We still aren’t sure how he accomplished this because according to our files he should not have been able to speak the languages of these various species. Just as we were about to send troops to have this traitor arrested do you know what he did next?” Reluctantly I responded “He crossed the border into Kliev?” The interrogator continued, “Yes. And now that brings us to you. We’ve spoken about the past and present. Now let’s talk about the future. More specifically your future. Most suspects we interrogate are possible insurgents but when asked who they are they always lie. This is the first time we ever interrogated someone who claimed to be the leader of an opposing form of government founded by a known traitor whose sole aim is the overthrow of our leadership. Now do you want to revise your statement?” I swallowed nervously and said; “I’m not the Great One.” He stood up angrily and thundered, “There is no Great One! You’re not special! No one is! The question is who are you?” “I’m Christopher,” I nervously replied. “See? Now was that so hard?” he asked in a calmer voice. He sat back down. “Where are you from Christopher?” I looked down at the floor. “So you’re not talking huh? Well, we have ways of making you talk.” I thought, “So its to be torture than. I can handle torture.” And I began to remember all I endured at the hands of the terrorists who removed my bladder stones. It seemed as if the interrogator were aware of my thoughts because he said, “You may think you’re capable of withstanding what we have in store for you but think again. Once we begin, you’ll wish you had never been born.” With that he stood up and walked toward the door. It opened and he walked out. I walked over to the door and put my ear against it. The voices were muffled but I distinctly heard someone say, “He’s no threat. In fact after some reeducation he may even make a useful citizen.” I walked over to the corner of the room and lay down facing the wall. Exhausted, I quickly fell asleep.
Breed The Secret Design To Maintain Racial Inequality Among The Despised Classes Page 3
