Cold, damp and dark. When he opened his eyes, he thought he was in Hell.
His hands were wet and freezing, and painful for some reason. He glanced down at them. He was wearing steel handcuffs. Why was he wearing handcuffs? And why were they soaking wet?
Groggy eyes blinked, trying to comprehend where he was. It was pitch black, a room with no lights nor windows. He had no idea what time of day it was, or even how long he had been here. Fortunately, as a cat hybrid, he could see pretty well in the dark. His head turned left and right, taking in his surroundings. He found himself in a wooden building, most likely a barn. Cages containing young hybrids crowded the room. They were in the same predicament he was, bound by steel handcuffs. Kitty knew exactly why they were all there, and it filled him with horror.
They were slaves, or at least they would be soon.
Kitty knew he had to get out. But what could he do? In a desperate attempt to save his life, as well as the lives of the other hybrids, he gripped the bars constraining him and tried in vain to break them. They were cold and wet as well. It was pretty obvious why when he though about it. Hybrids were susceptible to cold water. It made them weak. They couldn't even drink it without becoming limp and tired. Instead, they had to drink warm water. It wasn't pleasant at all, but you get used to it after consuming it all your life. Warm water didn't affect them, so bathing wasn't a problem.
Feeling hopeless, Kitty slumped back into the corner of the cage. His anxiety was through the roof. Who could blame him for feeling so scared? He had been captured, his family were possibly dead, and he had no idea where he was. He couldn't contain his tears any longer. The floodgates opened, and he began to cry in a hysterical panic.
As he lamented his situation, he heard yelling and banging from outside. Gunshots, followed by angry shouting and pained screams. Kitty shut his eyes tight, trying to convince himself it was only a nightmare and he'd wake up soon. What was going on now? By this point, he'd had enough. He was sick of all this stress and misery. He wanted to die and be with his family again.
The distressing noises stopped, replaced by utter silence. The barn doors creaked, signalling someone had entered. Kitty's eyes snapped open. Sunlight illuminated the barn. He squinted at the sudden brightness. He crawled over to the bars to get a better look at the visitor. He dreaded to think who was coming in, but he still wanted to see for himself.
To his surprise, it wasn't one of the humans who had captured them. A tall man, covered head to toe in black fabric, wearing a mask with a star on the forehead, stood in the doorway. Kitty blinked. Who was he? Was he here to hurt them? Or was he here to save them? Kitty was desperate for it to be the latter, but he didn't want to get his hopes up. He had seen the lowest of the world recently. In the back of his mind, he feared it could still get much worse.
The man glanced around at the hybrids. He turned his head and shouted to someone outside of the barn, "There's more in here."
More of what? Hybrids? Kitty frowned. How many did they take?
With a nod of his head, the man strolled into the barn and stopped in the middle, near Kitty's cage. "Don't panic. It's all over now," The man said in a gentle voice. Kitty noticed his upper-class English accent. He had met a few English people once, despite living in America. The man continued, "You no longer have anything to fear. Nyuujaku's here to save you all."
Joy consumed Kitty's heart, changing to shock when he registered exactly what the man said. Nyuujaku? As in the antichrist Nyuujaku?
He always thought Nyuujaku was a legend told to children to discourage them from doing anything illegal. The son of Satan, the unholy assassin Nyuujaku, feared throughout the world. Without proper TV, internet or radio in the refuge camp, they only knew things by word of mouth. It was said that he had a list of all the sinners of Earth, and one by one, he would track them down and kill them. He could teleport and blend into shadows. It was near enough impossible to escape him. There was a rumour he was killing many more people than he had to, people who had done nothing wrong. People called him a bloodthirsty monster, a menace to society. So why would he be saving anyone?
"Excuse me, sir?" Kitty asked, fighting back the anxiety of talking to the stranger. "Are you Nyuujaku?"
The man chuckled. "No, I'm not him. I'm just his helper." He pointed his thumb to the open doors. "The real Nyuujaku's outside, but he's a little busy right now."
Kitty nodded. His fear was depleting little by little. Maybe his fathers and Jack were still alive. These mysterious saviours could have saved them, too. He wished this was true. All he had left was his hope, the hope that he could reunite with the ones he loved. He smiled to himself. When he saw them again, he would hug them and never let them go. He had no idea where they would be able to call home now that they had lost theirs, but it didn't matter. They would be together.
Once the daydream he hadn't realised he was in was over, the man was kneeling in front of his cage. He ran his forefinger against the bars and tutted.
"They put cold water on the cages." He muttered to himself. "Cowards."
He stood up and marched over to the entrance of the barn. There was a panel there with several buttons. The man stared at it for a while before pressing a button. The cage doors unlocked and swung open. The hybrids left their prisons, and the man took off each of their handcuffs. He must have gotten the key from the kidnappers somehow.
Still a little afraid that this was too good to be true, Kitty hobbled out of his own cage. By now, the other hybrids were outside the barn. The soldiers who protected the camps greeted and helped them. Relief was all that Kitty felt, relief for himself and everyone else. He made his way to the man and he removed his handcuffs. He rubbed his sore wrists, noticing red marks left behind by the restraints. He raised his head to see the man watching him.
"Why are you staring at me?" Kitty fought back the urge to run away. The man was helping him, but he was acting strange, which made Kitty feel nervous. "Have I done something wrong?"
"Oh, no! It's nothing like that! Don't be scared." The man laughed nervously. "It's just that I don't know who you are."
Kitty raised an eyebrow at him. "I don't know who you are, but I'm not staring at you."
"Yes, that's true. But that's not exactly what I mean." The man shrugged before taking off his mask. Behind it was a semi-wrinkled face, one belonging to a man around the age of 50, with a grey moustache, slicked back hair and peach toned skin. He gave Kitty a kind smile. "My name's Richard Harvey. What's yours?"
"Levi Smith. But everyone calls me Kitty."
Richard laughed. "Very fitting nickname for a cat hybrid."
"Yeah, I know." Kitty returned the smile with a shy one. "My brother chose it."
"Did he, now?" The sad look on Richard's face made Kitty a bit nervous. "I apologise for having to tell you this, but, well," Richard paused for a moment, "Well, our hacker used her drones to find the families of all the unfortunate people here. We managed to find at least one living relative for everyone here, except you."
The blood ran cold in Kitty's veins. They couldn't find his family. Not a single one of them. Does that mean they didn't survive?. He couldn't breathe. The room was spinning. He needed to breath before he passed out, but that was easier said than done. He hadn't noticed he'd collapsed until Richard caught him.
"Be careful. Breath in and out, slowly." Richard helped him sit up.
After a few seconds, Kitty's breathing was steady again. "If you can't find them, does that mean..." He didn't finish his sentence. He couldn't bear to voice what he was thinking. If he said it, it would surely come true.
"Calm down. It doesn't mean anything bad has happened to them." Richard smiled. "We'll continue to search for them. But for the meantime, you need somewhere to stay."
The previously discarded thought that he was homeless hit him again. He didn't care about it before, but now he began to feel worried. He was all alone. He couldn't survive on the streets without his family.
Richard must have noticed the concern on Kitty's face. "Nothing to worry about. You can stay with me and my friends if you'd like."
As if the angels above had answered his prayers, Kitty smiled and accepted Richard's offer. He thanked him as much as he could, but Richard grinned and said it was fine. As they left the barn to travel to Richard's house, Kitty's anxiety returned. His hope had been lit and extinguished in one go, and he was feeling exhausted.