An orange cat, guided by instincts, sought a place of refuge.
With beautiful green eyes she surveyed her situation. Perhaps she got lost, or perhaps abandoned… maybe she was seeking new territory for herself. Cats didn’t really look into the past all that much though, only the present mattered.
The wet rain had stared to mat her tangy orange fur, as she struggled through a tight opening underneath a wall. Though the rain did bring issues, it also clarified various scent markers and made the ground smell fresh for her. This place was well away from humans and yet close enough to take advantage of them. It seemed protected by barriers on all sides… a possible new territory to acquire.
Humans always made ‘strange things’… as cats considered them. They came in different sizes, large and small, noisy… often made of the ‘hard’ stuff, which tasted as tainted water with claws doing very little to mark them. Yet they could be adapted to serve a cat’s needs as needed… as was the case now.
The cat felt she had finally found a place she could survive, the human barriers being exceptionally sturdy. Hopefully, the way into this strange area would be limited to those of her own size or smaller… maybe a few humans would get through, normally the ones with the strange ‘door opening jingles’ … Hat was fine. One Human or two were so useful after all, leaving a trail of discarded food… too many humans, not very useful at all.
The cat continued her exploration… It was a heap of discarded items. There were strange shapes and distinct smells, with hues of shades and darkness. So many curious holes to hide in, heights to climb and areas to explore. It was like a playground to her… with no other animals around. She sniffed the side of the wall she had come through, noting no markers… satisfied she claimed the area with a quick brush of her fur, and of course scratching her distinct mark for all of cat-kind to know.
Now this place was hers.
She felt a certain satisfaction at that… but the cat now had to seek out potential threats to her new territory. Shelter was her primary concern… food was ‘rarely’ a concern to a cat given how well they hunted… if she wasn’t too lazy, anyway. She would rather acquire the tasty treats of those big wiggly-clawless-furless apes. Humans provided tasty treats!
Her ears twitched hearing a strange hum… it sounded like purring? No… it sounded like… human stuff. She usually associated that strange hum with ‘light’ inside a house… curious as a cat can be, she found herself wondering into a strange structure, resting on its side at the top of a massive pile of junk. It was like a box made of strange material… not metal? It smelled strange. “Meow…” Was this a good place to sleep? It didn’t have anything soft, but there was a sensation of warmth… it demanded further investigation despite looking quite alien.
Cautiously she rubbed her scent on the walls… at least the curous object belonged to her now. The hard walls themselves, were warm? Strange… She couldn’t see any way for it to be warm… but she wouldn’t be a cat if she didn’t take advantage of it.
There seemed to be a transparent dome of some kind above the ‘cave’. It reflected her own image back and for a moment she feared another cat was above her. She quickly rolled on her back, ready to pounce before she realised it was not a threat. Her whiskers twitched in slight embarrassment… Human trickery… she sometimes forgot about this trick but had become wiser to it. Humans made walls of water and ice without wetness, that’s all this was.
She approached the odd reflection… ah this was the source of warmth. The glowing light box… she pushed an odd stone before it.
“Teleportation cycle initiated.”
The cat heard a human voice… was she about to get a treat? She looked around in confusion, not seeing anything. Where was the human? Inside the box?
“Scanning subject…”
A light started to dance around her. She pounced at it… She felt the strange feeling of a lightning storm about to come… it made her whiskers quiver in antcipation. Was this place safe? She became anxious.
The door to the outside suddenly closed with an odd click. She was trapped! The cat started to claw at the closed passageway, trying to find a way to get out. “MEOW!” she cried out. Hoping someone would release her.
“Teleportation sequence countdown… Ten… nine… eight…”
That human voice. She meowed hoping the human would let her out. She was just a lost cat… and perhaps she would get a treat later. She was very confused by all this…
“…two… one…”
…and suddenly the cat was no longer aware of anything.
A computer system inside started to write out some urgent messages. ‘Malfunction. Telepod 2 not online. Safety protocol initiated. Subject stored in Memory block for re-materialisation.’ It froze like this for a while, before turning off…
“Come on it isn’t far!” A boy’s voice called out to his friends, eagerly running across the park.
“Wait up Matt!” Ricky groaned a bit struggling to keep up.
“Where are we going?” A girl called out too.
Matt, Ricky and Melody were friends, enjoying a bit of time away from school and even the supervision of their parents. They were young and carefree, and only ‘just’ old enough to play by themselves now… All of them were on the cusp of entering their teenage years and were thus entering new stages of their lives… still, it was hard to let go of some of the fun of childhood innocence.
Rick was a little out of shape, but not too much. He was a boy with black hair and lightly tanned skin. He didn’t play ‘outdoor games’ as often as his other two friends, friends he had known since… forever.
Melody was a very pretty girl with soft blonde hair. She used to have them in pigtails but had recently gone for a more mature straight length… she had always wanted to be a gymnast and naturally stayed in shape.
“It’s just over here!” Said Matthew eagerly. “Just climb the fence!”
Melody looked at the obstacle. Climbing it was no trouble to her at all, as she even did a summersault fall with incredible grace. “Easy!” She cheered.
Matt gave a high five to Melody as they waited for the third person to get through. “Your turn Rick!” He had stayed in good physical shape too and was surprisingly strong for his age and very agile. It helped him playing football.
Then there was… Rick. Rick didn’t quite meet the mark of such high achievements, favouring instead simple video game hobbies. Perhaps his friends were concerned and so dragged him for what was probably the ‘last’ time they could play a game of hide and seek. It had always been a yearly habit at the end of the summer holidays. The three kids would all go somewhere and play their childhood game, and promised to do so no matter how silly it might get.
It was a ritual that they said would ensure they always remained friends. Nobody would get bored of hide and seek, right?
Rick tried to climb up the wall a few times… but couldn’t. He just didn’t have the strength. “Uh- sorry I can’t…”
“You can! Come on!” The other two started to cheer him on.
Rick looked crestfallen for a moment, but on the urging of his friends he tried to find another way through. He saw a bit where the fence had broken and started to squeeze through that instead.
“Oh, careful the wire is sharp there!” Melody said concerned.
“Rather have skin cuts then broken bones,” Rick grimaced as with a lot of caution he slid through it. “Ah made it!” He looked around. “So what is this place?”
The three surveyed the surroundings. Broken pieces of furniture, and what looked like very odd scientific equipment. Was this place a hospital maybe? Some things looked quite… strange.
“looks like a junkyard…” Melody frowned. “You really think we can play here?
“Sure! Go hide anywhere you can. I’ll seek you out. I’ll give you to the count of sixty and remember no going out of bounds!”
So… they started the game. Rick looked around quickly. He was never good at these silly games. Why did he have to do this! He ran as fast as he could, seeing Melody already finding some rubble to hide behind.
The ‘out of bounds’ rules meant that he couldn’t run anywhere further then one minute from count down… so whatever he found he had to use at that point. He counted the timing going up a small hill of junk… eventually finding a strange looking… phone booth? No… it wasn’t that. It looked like a strange plastic shaped box.
Rick pushed the button on its door… and it slowly slid open. There was a computer terminal inside. “Weird… is this like an old internet phone booth?” Curious, he glanced around but thought it would be a good hiding place, and he could examine the strange computer inside. The booth was on its side though, with the door threatening to close again. He knelt slightly with the open door shielding him from view… he wasn’t going to lock himself in of course.
He tried to push a button. “Transportation initiated.”
“Wha-“
For a moment time froze. He wasn’t sure quite ‘what’ happened, as for a brief moment his sight had changed… he felt a little peculiar and quickly jumped out-
“Found you!” Matt giggled grabbing the boy around the waist.
“Whoa!” Rick jumped scared for his life.
“Haha, you’re such a scary cat sometimes,” Matt giggled. “What’s that?”
“I… I dunno… some kind of weird phone booth,” Rick frowned. “There’s some kind of message on the screen.” He tried to make it out. “Subject A Memory leak?” Rick looked oddly at the weird message.
At that point Melody came out of hiding. “Hey aren’t we still playing?”
“Well we found this weird machine,” Matt explained to her. “Have a look!”
Melody ran up the junk pile, looking at the strange internet booth on its side. “Hm… probably just a broken computer. Looks a bit old… I dunno. Surprised the power is even working on it.”
Rick nodded. “Well- we probably shouldn’t play here anywaaaaaay.” He gasped. That… that was weird. He hadn’t intended to slur the words out like… like that.
“Yeah, we’ll get in trouble if we get caught… let’s get out of here.” Matt agreed.
