A large group of mammals, visiting the city as part of a tour group for the over 60's from Europe, had just finished their tour of the museum and were sat in a spacious cafe across the road from it. They were looking forward to a bite to eat before heading on to their next stop, while they waited for their food to arrive many of them were talking about the strange wolf that had been in the museum's new exhibit, he had been very keen to stay outside the place while also keeping an eye on it and when the staff had tried to talk to him he had given them the cold shoulder and even scared one of the younger staff members away with his rather sharp tongue. Their food had started to arrive and they were tucking in when they heard the wiling of approaching sirens and a marked ZBI cruiser slid to a halt at the base of the steps. A Lion got out and pulled something out of the back seat as two unmarked cruisers slid to a halt next to it and four other mammals got out, the five of them ran up the steps and into the museum as the tour group watched with interest.

In the entire time that Liam had known Max he had never once heard him panic before, usually when something was happening that made people panic he would go very quiet as he assessed the situation but this time something had really spooked him. As he had sped across the city from the carpet store he had received a call from Claire, Alex had updated her on what was happening and she said she would rather be safe than sorry as they didn't know what had spooked Max so she was sending assistance for him. He knew the four agents that had been sent, none of them were very experienced in the field but with their resources stretched thin with the raids she was scraping the bottom of the barrel looking for help, never the less any help could be valuable if it turned out to be something nasty. As they headed through the front door, with their paws on their holsters ready for trouble, they couldn't hear anything untoward going on. It was very quiet, there were a number of mammals on days out looking at the various displays but there was noone who seemed in distress, nor could he see Max. Liam relaxed a little and took his paw away from his holster and the others followed suit as they spotted it, he took out his cell and tried to call Max but he couldn't get an answer. Quietly so as not to spook anyone else, as some of the visitors and staff had seen them enter in a less than casual manner, he turned to the agents following him and said,

"Turn your radios to channel 42 and split up, search the area but keep it quiet. If you see anything call me"

They nodded in agreement, staying with their partners they each took a wing of the museum and began their search for Max. With both of the partners heading to the western wings Liam headed to the eastern wing, it didn't take him long to notice something that made him mouth wtf. Hanging to the side of an exhibit entrance in the eastern wing was a large banner with a female sand cat on it, it was the symbol on her staff that he recognised though. When it had been decided that Max would work with the ZBI the senior agents including him had been issued with a file. The file contained every scrap of information that they had on Max at the time, including detailed photographs of his wounds, the branding and the collar around his neck. Liam had committed the file to memory before destroying it, as per Jacks instructions, but there was no way he could be mistaking the symbol for anything other than those burned into Max. As he stepped through the archway into the exhibit he could see two mammals in their early twenties wearing green jumpers with staff written on them stood next to wide structural pillar as they peaked further in where Liam couldn't see. They were talking in hushed whispers but they weren't doing a very good job of keeping quiet in the empty exhibit.

"When's he going to leave?"

"I don't know. Did you hear what he said to Denise?"

"Yeah. Poor girls crying her eyes out."

"Do you think we should call the police?"

"He hasn't done anything wrong, he was a bit brash but he hasn't tried to hurt anyone?"

"He's probably high, or drunk"

"I dunno man, I couldn't smell anything earlier"

Liam quietly walked up behind them and cleared his throat, the two mammals a female and male jackal jumped out of their skins and had the look of a deer in a headlight when they turned to face him. Before they could say anything Liam put a finger to his mouth and shushed them, they nodded and stared at him wide eyed. Liam looked where they had been looking and spotted Max stood across the room from a glass display cabinet, he was staring at it intently like it was an adversary that he couldn't let out of his sight. Liam pulled out his ID and whispered to the two jackals,

"You two should probably go find something else to do"

"Its about that guy isn't it"

"Yes, nothing to worry about though. Now go on with you"

The pair made a quick but quiet exit. Liam called over his radio to the two searching groups and let them know where Max was, not knowing fully what this was about he told them to wait outside the exhibit and to stop anyone coming in. He gave it a few minutes for them to get to the entrance and when he was sure that noone else was here he cautiously walked towards Max.

He had expected some sort of acknowledgement that Max knew he was there, a twitching of an ear or a change in his posture, but there was nothing. When he got within a few feet of him he called out his name, but there was no response. He just kept staring at the strange looking orb in the cabinet opposite him, now that he was closer Liam could see that the orb fit the description of what Max had said Sokolov used to bring them to this world. He was beginning to get a sense of what had set Max off on the phone, and he was getting worried that he looked so fixated on it. Deciding to snap him out of it Liam stood between Max and the orb and snapped his fingers a few times in front of his face, it took a few seconds for Max to come back to the real world and he shook his head a couple of times before looking Liam in the eyes.

"Are you alright Max?"

Max took a couple of steps back and turned his back on the orb,

"No. No i'm not. For the first time since coming here Liam I am completely lost"

"What do you mean?"

"Look around you Liam, notice anything familiar?"

He pointed at the symbol atop the staff in a case not far from the orb before lifting the front of his shirt up and showing his branding.

"Explain this to me Liam, cause I sure as hell don't have a fucking clue"

"Could be a coincidence"

"Coincidence? Liam do you really think that, look at the details, look at the writing. The tour guide started reading a passage that they found and I knew what he was going to say before he did, it's the motto of my bloody order. And that orb? It shouldn't even exist here"

"Why do you say that?"

"It's a Thirin artefact, they haven't even been to your world yet there's one here. And that women, the one that's been dead for thousands of years. She's my boss, the head of my order. Nothing here, none of it, makes any fucking sense, and I feel like i'm loosing my mind"

"Maybe there's an explanation for this"

"There's got to be something that's for sure, but what? Every time I try to work it out I feel my head frying"

"Alright calm down, lets look at it bit by bit. I know you have refused to tell us about your world since you don't particularly like it but I think we need to put that aside. You said our world and your world were similar yes? How similar?"

"I cant tell you much about outside this city, haven't had much of a chance to explore with everything going on. I only ever visited my version of this city once and that was only for a few days when I was hunting Sokolov. From what I've seen the layout is mostly the same, there's some areas where it differs and there are more high rises in mine, but other than the grime and the military checkpoints its roughly the same"

"How about the mammals, have you met anyone that is a mirror of someone from your world shall we say?"

"No, nobody I've met is the same"

"Are you sure?"

Max sighed and slumped down on the floor with his back against the display case of the sarcophagus,

"Believe me I'd know, everyone here's much happier than back home"

"Whys that?"

"We've been waging war against the Thirin for over 300 years, everyone's tired of the fighting and the fear. Everyone puts on a brave face but you cant go out of your house without wondering if today will be the day that they attack where you live or work. Their monsters, they kill everything in their path, young or old, strong or weak, it doesn't matter to them, we're all targets"

"That's a long time to fight a war"

"One day we're all leading a peaceful, or moderately peaceful life, when the sky tears open and shits out something from our nightmares. Destroys the city it lands on and takes a foot hold we still haven't been able to clear. Imaginatively the government called The Event, changed everything"

"That's why your dates are AE rather than AD isn't it"

"Yup, apparently not much has changed since then though most of our records have been destroyed. With so many of our resources being funnelled to the war effort we haven't advanced much, everything's put on hold till we win"

Liam looked at the displays slowly as he listened to Max, he muttered to himself as he thought,

"300 years...haven't advanced..."

The ringtone on Max's phone distracted him from his thoughts, Max pulled his cell from his pocket and looked at the caller ID,

"It's Vicki"

"Maybe she's found something"

He accepted the call.


Vicki was having a tough day, she had been in the labs since two in the morning going over the lab results for the unknown infection that was affecting the bombing victims so that the raid teams had the most up to date information. After finishing the report by six she gave it to Claire to look over, she approved the report and had it prepared for everyone but Vicki didn't have time to attend the meeting, she had to tend to her daily duties as head of the science division making her responsible for every lab under ZBI control of which there were several small satellite laboratories specialising in different fields, as well as lecturing twice a week at the academy for all prospective candidates wanting to work in her division. Like Claire Vicki took a paws on approach to everything, and not to be outshined by her who Vicki saw as a someone with a stick up her ass, she tried to get involved with everything, this meant lots of late nights and early starts and the cheetah in her late twenties was going through two packs of energy drinks on average a day. Today was no exception and by the time she had finished her lectures and stopped to eat a sandwich in the academy's cafeteria she was already on her sixth can when she received a call from Ileana Comtois, a good friend of hers from her university days. Ileana, a leopard with unusually light coloured fur and few spots, was herself in a high position. She was head of the Sahara General Hospitals Isolation Team and was responsible for the care given to and the containment of the victims of the bombing who had become infected.

"Hey Vicki it's Ileana"

"Oh hey, how have you been? I haven't spoken to you for months"

"Yeah it's been a while, I'm doing okay, yourself?"

"Busy as usual with everything happening in the city"

"I bet. Are you free this afternoon to come to the Sahara General? Around 3pm?"

"um ,i'm sure I can clear my schedule for a bit, what's up?"

"I'm sure you've seen the memo from us about the bombing patient that died this morning"

"Yeah I did, sorry to hear about it"

"Thanks. Because we still don't know what it is yet we're going to be conducting an autopsy later today, and me being the boss the administrator has decided that i'm doing going to be the one to do it"

"Ouch, is Philip being a hard ass again?"

"Everyday. Would you mind coming down and watching? It might keep him off my back long enough to get it done without me trying to kill him"

"Yeah I'll be there, it could give me something to work on as well"

"Thanks Vicki, we start at 3, don't be late. Au revoir."

"Bye"

Vicki looked at the time, it was 12:30, with half an hours drive to the hospital that gave her just under two hours of time to grade some papers before she would have to set off. After finishing her lunch and heading to lecture theatre that she liked to use for her office when at the academy she got to work on the huge stack of papers that had been accumulating in multiple cardboard boxes. She had a tendency to leave these things to the last minute and she was now trying to catch up on nearly a months worth of assignments and lab reports, usually she would manage it in one afternoon but with her schedule now changed she was rushing through them. She was so focused on getting as many marked as possible that she almost failed to notice her alarm go off, it rang several times before she realised that she wasn't imagining it and she realised she had to leave right now to get to the hospital in time. With little ceremony she swept the papers she had taken into her satchel and dashed out of the room to her car. On a normal day at this time in the afternoon she would have no problem getting to the hospital in time, only she hadn't taken into account what day it was. With so many raids being conducted across the city by the ZPD and ZBI they had closed of several main roads causing congestion throughout the city. This was made worse with a number of impromptu remembrance celebrations for the victims of last years bombing causing there to be more pedestrian traffic walking in and out of the roads causing a knock on effect for traffic. After a lot of shouting and swearing as her highly caffeinated system looked for an outlet she managed to get into the hospitals parking lot and wrangle a parking space. She dashed through the staff only entrance around the back which she used on several occasions when visiting on work related matters and signed in at the visitors book. As she ran through the corridors she almost ran headlong into an orderly who was pushing a cart of pharmaceuticals through a door but she managed to squeeze through the small gap just in time. Finding her way through the maze of corridors, that she was glad she knew like the back of her paw, she managed to quickly get to the changing room that lead into the autopsy room in the basement. She quickly dumped her coat and satchel and grabbed a doctors coat out and threw it on, she pinned her ZBI ID to it and headed into the observation room as she played with the collar of her coat that had become twisted. She wasn't really paying attention as she fiddled with the collar but a familiar and grating voice made her almost roll her eyes back in her head.

"Doctor Clawhauser, better late than never"

"Got caught in traffic, it's only 15:10"

"Next time if your going to be late don't bother turning up, we have a lot of work to do and I'd rather not have any delays because of a guest"

"If you have work to do then why are you here?"

"This is my hospital I go where I please. This infection is serious, it needs someone with competency to oversee it"

"Shove a sock in it Philip, you always were a blowhard"

"If you wish to remain here then you need to treat me with some respect"

"You know full well this is a ZBI investigation, if you want to make a complaint you can have a chat with Claire if you'd like"

Philip stiffened at the mention of Claire,

"Just be punctual next time"

Philip used to work in the ZBI labs with Vicki until their predecessor and head of the division retired, Philip had tried to convince Jack to promote him to take his place and had even tried to discredit Vicki. Claire had walked in on one of his discussions with Jack and didn't like what she was hearing, she verbally tore into him and it was one of the few times that everyone in the office had heard Claire yell in anger. Philip quickly tendered his resignation and he soon left to work at Sahara General. Vicki still didn't get on with Claire that well as they were complete opposites on most things outside of work but she definitely respected her, and she liked that she got under Philips skin.

The observation room was a semi circular room with glass windows that went floor to ceiling that was cantilevered above the autopsy room. It had enough room for around twenty mammals and was used mostly to teach new coroners and surgeons by allowing them to view a body being worked on without being close enough to smell it. There was an intercom built into a desk at the front of the room that linked to a headset that would be worn by the coroner or surgeon in the main room ten feet bellow. In the room was a single metal autopsy table that was large enough to accommodate an elephant, it was massively oversized for the lion that was lying on the table, he looked horrendous, his fur had fallen off in large patches and the skin that remained was blackened with rotting sores. Stood next to the table in a green hazmat suit with a full head respirator was Ileana, every inch of her body was covered in some sort of containment clothing and there was a cart of surgical tools next to her. Vicki couldn't see her face with all the protective equipment but she knew it was her, she stood next to the intercom and pressed the microphone button,

"Hey Ileana"

"Hi Vicki, was wondering if you'd make it"

"Sorry traffic was crazy, loads of streets are closed"

"Well you're here now. Mind starting the recording?"

"Sure"

She pressed another button on the box and a red light came on above the door that said recording in progress, Ileana could see a small screen mounted on the wall below the observation room that let her know that there was a video feed running and she began to dictate while she worked as Vicki and Philip looked on.

"It's 15:15pm August 10th 2025, Doctor Ileana Comtois conducting autopsy on patient 3 from the park infection group. Subject is a male lion believed to be in his late 40's, slim build, no markers for significant health problems prior to admittance. I'm going to begin by removing the fur covering the front of the subject to allow for detailed examination"

She took a set of electric clippers from the cart and flicked the switch, there was a rapid clicking as the blades moved back and forth rapidly and the strange sound echoed around the room as she methodically shaved every inch of fur from the lions body, she was extra careful not to disturb the nasty looking sores that he was covered in. She scoop large pawfulls of fur into bright yellow bags labelled biological hazard and made sure they were properly sealed before continuing. She picked up a scalpel from the cart and put the blade against the upper chest of the lion.

"I'm making a Y incision below the clavicles"

As she began to cut across the lions chest the lights in the room flickered and the monitor turned off. Ileana stopped what she was doing,

"Philip the monitors off"

"Audio recordings off as well, probably a power surge gimme a minute"

As Philip played with the system to try and get it to restart the lights flickered again and he shuddered.

"Christ its cold, I thought I had the heating on"

Ileana's confused voice crackled over the intercom as static played over the speaker,

"Guys is it just me or can you hear whispering?"

Vicki's eyes went wide as she realised what was happening, it was the same as last year. She yelled out into the microphone,

"Ileana get out of there!"

"What, what's going on?"

"Just do it! Get out now!"

"ah shit"

She dropped the scalpel on the table and shuffled towards the door, the protective equipment was heavy and greatly reduced her ability to move quickly. She was halfway to the door when the lights went out completely, there was a loud clang as the cart fell over and its contents scattered across the floor, Ileana spun around to where the sound was coming from but couldn't see anything in the pitch black. Suddenly the lights came back on in full and stood only at arms length from her was the lion, the large incision she had made was seeping thick jet black liquid. It's eyes were solid black and it snarled at her as she screamed in fear, it lunged into her and forced her back slamming her into the wall. She lost her footing and fell to the ground, as she tried desperately to crawl to the door it grabbed her by the scruff of the back of her clothing and pulled her up, she waved her arms at it and tried to get free but it's grip was like a vice. With its other paw it tore the front of her protective suit open and bit into the base of her neck before throwing her to the floor. There was a sickening gargling as she tried to breath, blood pulsed from the many puncture wounds. It happened so fast that Philip and Vicki could do nothing but yell as they watched, frozen from the shock of seeing her friend attacked Vicki couldn't move and it was Philip who was first to get out. He barrelled out of the observation room door and ran towards the elevator, by the time Vicki had recovered he was already down the other end of the corridor. She called out for him to stop but he ignored her, he reached the elevator and pushed the buttons wildly until the familiar ding signalled the door opening. He didn't wait for her and pressed for the hospitals second floor, where the security office was. As the doors began to close Vicki was still halfway down the corridor, he breathed a sigh of relief as they drew closer together, it was short lived however as the lion puppet charged out of the corridor that lead from the autopsy room as it roared gutturally, Vicki slid to a stop as she just saw the start of the lion savagely beating Philip as he yelled in pain before the doors closed. Her heart was beating like there was no tomorrow, but it only beat faster when she heard a gargled snarl from where the lion had run. Slowly trudging round the corner in a badly damaged protective suit was Ileana, her eyes were blank and greying, her white shirt below the suit was covered in blood but her wounds were now seeping a dark ooze that looked clotted and was falling off her in clumps. Tears welled up in Vicki's eyes as she watched her friends lips purse back in a snarl at her. She barely had enough time to react as Ileana charged at her, it was only due to Vicki's nimbleness and the inflexibility of Ileana's suit that stopped her from being pinned to the wall. Vicki ran as fast as she could towards the locker room where she had left her stuff and slammed the door behind her, she flipped the lock just in time as Ileana slammed into the door causing it to shake in it's hinges. Vicki grabbed the locker closes to the door and put her whole weight against it and after hitting it with her shoulder a few times it fell against the door frame with a loud thud preventing the door from opening. She could hear the relentless onslaught Ileana was waging against the heavy wooden door, her snarling was barely being muffled by it at all. Vicki's tears were streaming down her face as she grabbed her bag and tipped it out onto the floor, it was full of junk that had found it's way into there and she hadn't gotten around to emptying it, she rummaged through the pile and found her cell, there was only one person who she knew had killed one of these before and so shakily she scrolled through her contacts and dialled Max. It rang for what seemed like forever before it was answered. In the museum Max was sat on the floor against the sarcophagus display while Liam stood not far from him, his head resting against it as his head swam with confused thoughts, his mind quickly focused however when he heard Vicki's voice, it was full of terror and it was obvious right off the bat that she was crying.

"Max you gotta help me!"

"Vicki what's wrong?"

Liam turned around with interest and Max put he call on speaker so he could hear,

"There's been another one, it killed my friend"

"Another what?"

"Puppet, there's another puppet. It's one of the bombing victims, it woke up and..You gotta come help"

"Where are you?"

"Savanna General autopsy level, there's more than one Max it's spreading"

Max and Liam could clearly hear the sound of Ileana as she continued to try and break down the door.

"Are you safe?"

"For now, I don't know how long the door will hold though. It's the infection, whatever was in that bomb.."

She yelped and the line went dead.


AN - More to come soon.