Light opened his eyes, waking again to the familiar brown fluff that was his mother. What was not familiar though, was that she was sitting up, green eyes alert for something. Usually, she tried to not move much when her kits were asleep around her, but something had warranted enough of her attention to make her move enough to wake her kit.
"Mama? What's-" his sleepy question was cut short by his mother slapping her fluffy brown tail across his mouth. The light from his stripes dimmed slightly as he began to get nervous. Something out in the streets bumped a can, sending it rolling through the entrance. The small piece of tin knocked over a few other things, among them a rock the size of Light's skull, a chunk of rebar, and some paint cans in a noisy calamity that took nearly twelve breaths to settle.
"M-mama?" Thorn whispered, his own brown body sitting up next to her. The noise from the cans had woke his siblings, and cast them all into a pit of anxiety and restlessness.
Liddy was sitting rigid as a rock, green eyes narrowing and darkening considerably. The brown she-cat stood and crouched low, with her belly brushing the ground, and began to move forward silently. Together, the three kits watched their mother approach the entrance to the crippled twoleg nest with her body low and stiff. Her muddy brown stripes helped to hide her among the dusty stone pieces surprisingly well. Liddy paused, turning her head to the side to give him a warning glance.
Be quiet. Something's out there.
The brown kit lowered himself down once more, ears lowering nervously alongside his form. Light began to shiver, the white kitten's stripes glowing brighter as he subconsciously tried to warn off the unseen foe. Shadow, having a stronger sense of protection than Thorn, turned and laid himself out across Light's smaller form, hoping to use his weight as a comfort, and his black fur to hide the light coming from his runt sibling.
Liddy turned back to the entrance before her, and the small white kit could see, through his brother's fur, Liddy stiffened at what she saw. Her green eyes were as wide as possible, the whites showing on all sides.
"R-Riverstep… no..." she breathed, before turning and sprinting to her kits and scooping Thorn up in her mouth. Her form was a chestnut blur as she bounded up onto a large stone, stood on her hind legs, and threw Thorn up onto the ledge to the second floor of the twoleg nest. The mahogany she-cat turned as of on a swivel and launched down to the floor again, scooping up Shadow this time.
Light froze, completely exposed on the floor. The young tom curled in on himself, wishing he could hide in plain sight. Why?
There was a growing shadow on the floor by the entrance of the building. It was tall, and thin, and limping heavily on it's front leg. It carried a vague cat shape, sporting triangular ears and a long tail hat dragged the ground behind it.
"Carry the fire… to stones… and the bees…. The BEES! Kill 'em. The blasted bugs…. Claws… fire in the head. JACK-A-BIRDS! THAT'S IT! HAHAHAHAHA!!" it cackled, throwing it's head back to laugh. Light could see a place in the shadow's head, right behind it's mouth, where the light shined through. He had a hole in his cheek, this creature.
By now, Liddy had just barely put Shadow up with his sibling, who had shoved himself in a small nook between two bits of rubble. As she turned, she caught sight of Riverstep, a large maine coon tom who had been a part of her clan in the forest. He was sick with Black-Bite. The massive, festering rot wound on his forepaw was painfully obvious. He was foaming at the mouth as he cackled, staring down the only living creature he could see.
Light. Light was still down there, his fire-bright stripes a dead giveaway. She should have thought to grab him first. He was the most vulnerable. He was the weakest, the slowest, and the most obvious in this dark world.
Riverstep lunged, ragged claws unsheathed to their limit. Liddy swallowed, and leaped. Her claws meeting his face well before his own could make contact with her child's.
"LIGHT RUN!" she howled, her throat aching as she knew, already, that she would not win this fight. She would not survive it. To her horror, Light remained where he was, frozen in fear.
Riverstep thrashed his head back and forth, desperately trying to throw the she-cat from his head, but her claws were buried too deep in the flesh of his head. Liddy pushed her claws in deeper, hoping to break through his skull and destroy the remains of his brain. A gruesome end, but…
No different then what she would eventually face. Riverstep flung himself sideways, smashing her form against the wall.
"GAAH! R-Riverstep, please. If there's anything left of you in there, wake up! Please!" she begged in vain as she was thrown against the wall again. Her claws came loose, and she was sent skidding across the cement floor.
"Blasted bees, their claws, my head. Little bumble-bee! Hee-Hee! Come here, let me SQUASH YOU!" the mad tom yowled, lunging at her fallen form. His ragged claws sliced down her shoulder, knocking her back. Her body slammed into the form of her youngest kit, flinging him back against the wall. As As Liddy tried to stand up, her fuzzy, acheing brain registered a wiggle beneath her, and a shadow falling across their forms.
Light was trapped beneath her, and Riverstep was looming over her. She was merely a meat shield between them.
"Little bug. Quit stinging me!" the maine coon yowled, lunging down at her. Blood sprayed the morning air.
Light shivered in the dark, his siblings pressed close around him. The older two toms looking down at the bloody kitten with concern and fear. Light, usually a chatterbox, had been absolutely silent since Liddy's death. In truth, all of them had been silent, but Light seemed to have shut down completely. He didn't react when his siblings tried to warm him, clean him, of give him a scrap of food they had found.
His green eyes were dull and dead. Thorn and Shadow both feared for their sibling. Liddy had told them stories of how kits would see scary things, and be silenced for the rest of their life.
"Light," Thorn began, "Please say something."
The white and gold kit didn't react, sitting more still than a stone. The elder kits felt their hopes sinking.
"…. Mama..." a small voice escaped the white kit.