5 – Humans

  “Veli, how are you doing? Awaken, child—I know you’re done resting,” Tyunishi’s voice came from the dark room.

  The elder appeared through the blur of my tired eyes. He was sitting silently on the side of the bed, a fire going and a closed door behind him. It was a wooden shack, one of the few in the village. It was far warmer and more comforting than one of the village’s tents. I was alone with him, and it looked as if he needed to say something important.

  “The… humans,” I murmured.

  “Yes, they’re here and you can meet them soon. But first, I’d like to speak with you. I know that something happened this morning. Something that not you nor myself can quite explain. All of the elders felt it. And when I heard about what happened, I thought there may be a connection.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because,” Tyunishi answered as he went to a boiling pot of water and picked up a washrag, “I hope to understand what you saw, so that I might have an idea of what I observed myself. You were muttering about a ‘demon’ in your sleep, grabbing you. Tell me of this vision.”

  He put the hot rag on my head, and I instantly felt much warmer. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, looking at the flickering shadows created by the fire. I couldn’t hear anything coming from the outside—perhaps everyone was at a festival or meeting. Or asleep. How late was it?

  “I… don’t really know what happened, either.”

  “I’m sure you don’t, but tell me what you went through and what stood out,” Tyu asked patiently, his gray eyebrows up in curiosity.

  “Before I tell you, what about my parents? Have they been told yet, about me being here all day?”

  “Is that important to you? In any case, we simply told them that you were attending a private meeting to excuse this odd event. Right now, it’s just you and I.”

  “Well,” I breathed, “I went up on the mountain and began chasing an animal. I ended up near the cliff, and as I turned around… As I turned, this horrible image flashed in front of me…”

  “Can you describe it for me?”

  “Yes…” I wished he hadn’t asked. “It was something out of a nightmare. Our village was burning and everyone was in the field, all dead. A soldier in black armor looked at me with piercing eyes… But… I can’t be sure if he was human, because the very feeling I got from the flash was that this figure—this soldier, wasn’t human at all.”

  “Hmm… yes,” Tyu replied, getting up and walking towards the window. “I was taking an afternoon nap when I had a vision, followed by an obscure dream. As for my own vision, it wasn’t exactly what you saw—the figure was actually a fallen felile. He had become fraticidal, is what I mean to say. He was one with the enemy, and killed many of his own kind.”

  “And it all felt real?”

  “To my mind, yes. But I knew it wasn’t, or at least that’s what my conscience told me. Is that what happened to you?”

  “I… uh, when I fell in the water, I blacked out and this… monster was grabbing me, demanding I tell him about this ‘Valice’ thing or place.”

  Tyu turned around, his eyebrows raised higher.

  “Valice, you say?”

  “Yes… that’s what it said. Do you know what Valice is?”

  “I do…” Tyu sighed, stroking the hair under his chin. “But if that truly happened, then I cannot yet tell you.”

  I looked to the floor.

  “Veli, in my dream… a monster was attempting to get to me, it chased me, but I fought it off without really trying to. I can’t explain it entirely, and I won’t bother telling you my own wild theories. I will inform the other elders of your experience, as it may be a kind of omen of things to come… I don’t think we will be staying here much longer.”

  Tyu sat on the bed and said nothing for a few minutes.

  “When I was a child…” he suddenly started, “when I was only four, I was taken to the red world. What an accursed place… I was an orphan; someone that didn’t matter to anyone. I don’t know why they picked me. Perhaps it was solely at random. I had never been so scared in my life, from then on and up to today. They took us into a large laboratory, where we were experimented upon. Many children, many adults, a wide variety of people… all were subject to their cruel science.

  “Our captors… They… never spoke to us. They only ordered us around. If we raised our voices, we were punished. Most of the people, I believe, were scientists. Others were soldiers. Fearful, we could only obey.

  “Slowly, I could feel myself change. It was so very painful. I can say that every second that passed was another longing for the release only death could bring. In just a few days, we had turned into what I am now…

  “The older ones—there couldn’t have been anyone over twenty or so… they made a plan to escape. We were learning that we were built superior to our human counterparts, but lacked the weaponry to defend ourselves. There were many of us, I remember. But most of the others were infants. They were cloned; duplicates of others, to rapidly increase the size of their forsaken army. This means the infants were never human. I don’t remember the escape, really… But I do recall one man… No, never mind. Many years later, I arrived here, and became an elder of the village.”

  “So, then… there really are other felile as old as you, elsewhere? And they were once human, too?”

  “Oh, yes… Certainly. I don’t know how many other villages are out there, but there are others like me, from the original felile project. We escaped, found places to live, spread out, hid, and had children… What pushed us, I can’t put into words. I guess we simply wanted to live.”

  I had never heard the story as told through a personal experience. And now I was sure that it had really happened. Our small race was a mere experiment, and we were part of a far grander scheme of things—though we did not want to take a part in it. Unity with our creators seemed ever more distant. But why was he telling me all this?

  “Veli, you need to realize that this was a century ago. Times have changed. We fear and hide from the humans still, but we are in far greater numbers, and we cannot be silenced so easily. Many out there believe that we deserve to die, yes, but…”

  A knock came at the door, and Furnlo walked in—the chief of all hunting groups, and a very strong and tall felile. He had me placed in my troop after my brother was killed. Jeg had always been a friend, but I wasn’t training to become a hunter beforehand.

  “Sir, Veli. They are requesting your presence at the grounds. The greeting festival has ended, but the humans and other elders wish to meet you in person,” he said in his gruff voice.

  “How did it go? We only met briefly, as I’ve been tending to Veli.”

  “Better than expected, I suppose. Took some time, but most of the villagers have warmed up to them.”

  “All right, thank you, Chief. Can you get up, Veli?”

  “Yeah, my head hurts a little… but I can make it.”

  My stressed muscles brought me to my feet. I was still dazed, but I managed to stand up and was ready to get to wherever I was going next. Furnlo looked at me with the slightest hint of pity. I hated it when people felt sorry for me, though I suppose they sometimes had good reason to.

  “Very well, let’s go see them,” Tyu replied, helping me off of the bed with little effort.

  I grabbed my robe and threw it on over my recently dried underclothing, straightening it out and taking a few swipes at my messed hair as I walked with Tyu. Furnlo led briskly ahead of us.

  “I think I saw you talking with the humans earlier… I was awake briefly,” I said.

  “Oh, yes. They’re quite fascinating, and friendly. Nothing like the soldiers of their empire.”

  I swallowed and looked at the ground.

  “Do they… bring news of Kepper?”

  “Yes…” Tyu sighed.

  I didn’t reply.

  The night sky full of stars, we went past the festival ground, where the pile of wood that held a fire still had a few glowing embers. The snow in the area had been replaced with trampled, damp mud. I wondered how the village treated the welcome, as I never got to saw it myself. Jeg would have to fill me in.

  We approached the elevator to the elders’ meeting place, where Furnlo was waiting for us. We stepped inside, and without a word, he activated the lift. For the second time that day, I found myself entering the elder chamber unexpectedly. Upon arrival, I paused to take notice of the many beings that inhabited the room.

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  Seven humans sat on the ground, talking quietly with the elders, who remained in their chairs. One of the elders noticed us and signaled to the others that we had arrived. The humans turned around, and for the first time, I saw just what their faces looked like, free from any helmets.

  They weren’t monstrous in the least. They looked very much like us, surprisingly. Though they had no pointy ears or natural coats, there was still a resemblance, and none wore the armor that we had come to fear. I greeted them with a barely visible wave, and approached the group.

  Except for the oldest of them, they were relatively thin creatures. I couldn’t picture any of them being a soldier. And I had never seen clothing so varied and colorful, so very unlike our unifying and often drab robes.

  The group of seven stood to greet us. One was a small child, one a slender, pale man with black hair. Their leader, as far as I could tell, was big and strong, like Furnlo. There were three women, one of which wore what seemed like the bottom half of a robe, but cut off at the knees. Lastly, there was a boy almost my height who had a big, brown coat over his shoulders.

  “Veli, these are our guests. They have traveled a very long way over many roads, through mountain passes, guarded borders, and dangerous territory to get here. They are,” the elder pointed and announced names, “Ruby, Pelter, Jess, Rupert, Sasha, Martin, and the one near you is Vince.”

  “Hello, Veli,” a few of them said.

  “Hello,” I replied weakly.

  “Veli, glad you could join us,” Martin said in a friendly way.

  Tyu snuck past us and took his seat, where he whispered to several other elders.

  “Veli, while you slept, much transpired,” the senior elder explained. “We have learned many things, discussed some important events, and have decided to let the humans stay here with us until we leave. We’ve been informed that an imperial army has a strong presence in the south, and is planning to seek out all of the felile in Alaska. All three of the villages in the area will be evacuated within a week.”

  The elders had known all along that there were more villages nearby. I wondered why they kept it a secret.

  I asked the visiting group, “I was curious… do you know how many other villages are out there?”

  “At least a couple dozen, across the world,” Martin answered. “But they’re widely separated and hidden. For us, an entire city that harbors felile has vowed to take us in—that is, all of us who are fleeing from here. It will be a long journey, but once we reach it, we should be safe for a long time.”

  “A city? That’s a big village, right? Where is this place?”

  “We were just getting to that. All right, please listen, everyone.” The humans took their spots on the rugged ground, as did I. He continued, “This city is across the ocean and is located in a place called China, a very large region where vast numbers of felile and humans live.”

  “What is this region like?” I asked.

  “For all we know, it could be a barren wasteland, a lush forest, or a heavily populated sprawl,” Rupert said. “Information on the area is difficult to find since the Empire controls what we can access and research.”

  “Actually,” Martin chimed in, “last I’ve heard, it was a bit of all of those. It might not be the Empire that’s trying to hide information about China, though. It could be the people who live there themselves.”

  “So that’s it, then—we will leave in a week,” Furnlo added.

  “We can be ready by then,” Tyu said. “For now, I’ve assigned you and your friends, Veli, to show our guests how we felile live. I want them to grow as close to us as possible.”

  I replied, “Sir… Why did you call me into this meeting?”

  The senior elder answered, “Every villager met the humans at the greeting festival. But when I learned of your accident this morning after seeing something inexplicable, I thought it wise to see you in person. Yes, Tyu has already told us that you too had a vision, and I’d like to know what happened. All of us had a similar experience, but yours is unique.”

  Once again, I found myself trying to recollect the event, and this time, it was with strangers. When I was finished, the elders conferred with one another, beginning a conversation that lasted for nearly ten minutes. An awkward silence pervaded everyone else, though it seemed that Rupert was lost in thoughts of his own for a while.

  “Sorry about that. Thank you, Veli,” Tyu said at long last. “We still have much to discuss about these omens, but for now, about Kepper…”

  I looked up, nervous about the information I was about to receive. One of the humans stood and spoke to me—Ruby, Vince’s sister.

  “Veli,” she said. “You… look so much like him.”

  “I, um… Where is he?”

  “Your brother was with us. He helped us escape Chicago. Hm, I’m going to put this simply… We don’t know why, but our government is closing cities behind impenetrable fields. We were fleeing the city as it was closing, but Kepper had to stay to make sure that we could make it.”

  “What do you mean? What happened to him?”

  “When a city is converted, its forcefield—the thin layer of energy that protects it—turns into a solid green barrier that we can’t pass through or even see through. It’s that barrier that he’s trapped behind.”

  “And you don’t know what the inside is like?”

  “When this happens,” Martin added, “all contact with those inside is lost, and as far as we know, there is no way back into the affected city. It’s impossible to know what just might be going on, I’m afraid. I’m sorry about your brother. But he did save all of us.”

  “But how can there be no way back in? None at all?”

  “There may be—there must be, but we have yet to discover it.”

  I stood up and leaned solemnly against the cave wall, running my fingers along my inactive plasma pike’s hilt.

  “Do you humans rely only on those fire-machines, or do your leaders supply you with pikes?” I continued, just to change the subject.

  “Our access to firearms, which is what you are referring to, is very limited, so pikes are indeed our lifeline. None of us is quite as skilled as a felile, but we are getting a little better with them, I believe.”

  “Veli…” Tyu turned back to me, “tomorrow, I want you to show Vince around, befriend him; we need all the help we can get. It doesn’t matter if we want to be part of this war or not, because we had no choice… It was inevitable. The Terra-Forces, whatever their plans are, want to kill all of us. They want to destroy the end result of that they attempted a century ago. But we can’t let that happen. We need to unite with the humans if we are to survive. We cannot live separated. May that be known…”

  “Yes, sir…” I replied, trusting in his words.

  Pelter and Jess were falling asleep, and everyone else looked very tired, so we knew it was time to go. Vince and Ruby approached me.

  “I guess that you should take my brother to your place. See you in the morning, Veli,” Ruby said before going back to her friends.

  “Hi,” Vince said.

  “Hello,” I replied. “Um, well… let’s go.”

  I could tell that we might’ve been compatible as friends already. He was my age, for one thing, but he also seemed to be soft-spoken like me. We arrived outside and headed to my small tent, guided by moonlight.

  “It’s so weird… being in a place where people live, that’s outside of the forcefields. And it’s so beautiful up here,” Vince observed.

  “Well… what’s it like? In Chicago, I mean…”

  “Oh, it’s… a really big place. And different. I mean, you live under a canopy of energy, right? It’s like being underwater; there’s always this soft, blue glow around that bends the sun’s rays. It allows an environment to be created because it keeps air in and everything. When I first stepped outside of it, it was so hard at first just to breathe. The air felt so… harsh and dead most of the way. But up here, it’s cold, and crisp, still full of life.”

  “It usually isn’t. It’s only this nice when we get a fresh batch of snow. It’s like it brings in a new breath of life. If the weather doesn’t change for a while, the air becomes acidic. In some ways, it’s like our world is dying. And not just from pollution, or some sort of unknowable corruption, but from something else we can’t see. Maybe.”

  “We barely saw anything living on the way here. But slowly, the environment did change a little, from the wastelands around the old roads we took all the way through rural Canada to actual forests…”

  “Do humans live outside forcefields?”

  “Oh, yes. But from what we’ve seen, they’re outcasts and criminals mostly. And there was an occasional self-protective town surrounded by a wall, where we got food or slept. See, the Terra-Forces simply banish the unwanted into the harsh countryside when prisons become overcrowded. We had to watch out for gangs and other groups on the way.”

  “Sounds rough. So… what did you think when you saw Kepper?”

  “I was…. amazed, really. You felile are really quite beautiful people, and your resilience, your push to survive, is something else.”

  “Vince,” I suddenly asked, “you’ve never had an experience like I had, right? I can’t believe they made me say all that in front of you…”

  “… No,” he said after a long pause. “But… I can easily picture what you went through. I’m no stranger to nightmares.”

  We said nothing else until we got to my tent. I let Vincent use my bed; I’d be fine with a bundle of extra blankets and clothes on the floor.

  I often had restless nights where I’d leave my bed, anyway.

  “Well, this is my place. My parents live elsewhere.”

  “I see. It’s… cozy.”

  “Where are yours, Vince? Your parents?”

  “They’re both dead,” he said softly.

  “Oh, I’m… I’m sorry.” I felt guilty for asking.

  “Ruby has taken care of me for a long time. And it still doesn’t seem too far back when I found out that she was in the Resistance.”

  “Right… I’ve heard some about this so-called rebel movement, but I think there’s a lot of confusion for the ignorant on the subject. Who’s who and all of that. What do they do, exactly?”

  “Expose the corruption and lies of our empire… We’re not very influential, though. If you ask me, it’s a losing battle. But I have no choice but to be a part of it and help my friends.”

  “And what are those on your legs?” I had wanted to ask since I first saw him.

  “I broke them both a while ago and had to wear these, but I think they can come off soon. I hardly notice them anymore. It’s annoying when you get an itch, though,” he said and nearly laughed.

  “Anyway, don’t get too used to the village. We won’t be staying much longer. If your empire’s army is as close as it sounds, then we’ll have to move if we want to survive.”

  “I guess I’ve gotten used to not being in one place… But I’m sorry that you have to leave your home.”

  “It’s okay. This will be the third time we’ve relocated, so we’re used to it. It’s our people that matter most. But I am kind of eager to see this new felile city. Er, actually, I guess it’s a city for both races, isn’t it? So…” I took a breath and forced out, “Have you ever heard of Valice?”

  “That place or thing mentioned in your dream? No.”

  “I can’t get my mind off it—I want to know what it is…”

  “But if you knew, you’d have the information that monster in your dream wanted.”

  “I realize that,” I sighed.

  “I really wish that I could do something, but I feel so helpless…” Vince explained. “This whole war, the strength of the Empire; it all feels so overwhelming. Normally, I’d still be in advanced school. I’d be graduating in a few more years, going on with life. But now, nothing is so simple.”

  “Felile have a lot of teachings and morals. One of them is that ‘there are many secrets to be learned, and we will only find them with patience and understanding.’ Maybe once we know what we need to, a time will come when you, and all of us, can change things.”

  “That’s what we fight for too, I believe. To learn those secrets.”

  “Also, Tyunishi once said… ‘A single exposed truth can turn non-believer into fighter, and give him all the courage and power in the world.’ That’s not a moral, though—yet. He’s just well versed.”

  “Yeah, thanks to him, we’ve learned so much about each other. There really isn’t that much difference between us after all. But in the end, the Terra-Forces have the power and the means to manipulate people. They can make the public think what they want them to think. If they depict you as a monster, then that’s what you are. It’s all so… absolute.”

  “Then that needs to change. Maybe your team and our village are the beginning of something bigger. Anyway, good night,” I said, settling into a wad of fabric on the floor. “Tomorrow, I’ll teach you everything you should know about our way of life. Everything I know, at least.”

  “I look forward to it,” he replied, tiredly.

  Hours passed, but I didn’t sleep. When the night sky outside lightened, I went out, climbed the mountain I had gone up the day before, and watched the early winter’s slow sunrise. My eyes finally became heavy as the oranges began to mix with the blues on the ranges below.

  If I ever saw that monster again, I would fight back.

  I would also fight for the truth—because now I was part of the lie. And acceptance, no matter how ugly, was one of our basic virtues.