Feathered Fiends

I leant against a tree at the edge of the forest, hopefully concealed by a large bush and unfurled the map. I quickly found where I was; it helped that I'd snuck a look at a road sign on my way out and then scanned the map for my home town. There was the forest, looking much smaller on paper when I wasn't being chased through it. No sign of the lab, but I wasn't really expecting that to appear on a road map. After far too long I spotted my home town hiding in the top right hand corner and resignedly measured the distance. Five thumbs and a claw so about… I consulted the scale, one hundred and ten miles.

I groaned, and that was as the bird flies. Good grief that would take me a week; and it wasn't like I could get a lift so I'd be walking the whole way. Actually now that I thought of it a compass would have been useful but it was too late for that now, and I couldn't just go back and ask for one.

I stuffed the map into my backpack and slung it over my shoulder. All in all it wasn't such a bad situation. I had water, I had a map and food wasn't going to be an issue so now I just had to find Soph and then… Well I'd deal with that when I got there.

Speaking of getting there, I set off, walking upright to stay in practice; I never thought I'd have to say that. I'd follow the roads and maybe cut across a few fields if I felt confident until I figured out some way of finding north. I knew there was some trick involving the sun and your watch but I couldn't remember it, and didn't have a watch. I shook my head, sighed and concentrated on keeping my feet.

Midday found me dozing in the sun on the corrugated iron roof of a barn. Not the most comfortable place ever but it was warm and I was tired, plus I think real tigers are supposed to have grown a winter coat by this time of the year and my fur was still quite short. I hadn't even thought to grab a coat. There were hundreds of coats in the lab, why didn't I pick one up?

A cloud passed over the sun; I shivered, opened my eyes and irritably regarded the thick black bank of clouds creeping slowly over my head. Perfect, now I wasn't going to be able to go any farther because I'd get soaked. I grabbed my backpack from where I'd been using it as a pillow, slipped it on and took another anxious look at the clouds. How long did I have to find shelter? Maybe only a couple of minutes; I should have listened to my instincts.

A flash of lightning lit up the sky and I winced as the thunder rumbled. A flock of six birds was briefly silhouetted against the clouds. Probably trying to get back to their nests before the storm broke and I couldn't blame them. A second bolt of lightning flashed above my head and a tingling spread across my feet, in retrospect standing on a metal roof in a thunderstorm was not a good idea.

I took three steps, realised something was odd and paused, looking back into the sky and straining to spot those birds again. Something was wrong about them, they were moving far too fast and now that I looked more carefully were far too big just to be a flock of pigeons but I've never heard of birds of prey travelling in flocks.

The flock dived all at once and rushed towards the ground. No. Not towards the ground. Towards me. I started running, I didn't know of any birds that hunt humans so it was safe to assume they weren't birds. I craned my neck back to keep the weird birds in sight and tried to keep my footing on the uneven roof. It was funny but now they were closer and had their wings folded they didn't so much look like birds and more like. People.

I skidded to a stop right at the edge of the roof and looked more closely at the dark shapes. Sophie had wings, was there any chance at all that she may have found me? There was another flash which lit up the flying shapes and the rain started coming down in stair rods.

I recognised them all too well and groaned. Erasers with wings. That was just what I needed. I watched the leading Eraser swoop down through the rain ahead of the others, pulling up sharply and rocketing along the roof aiming for my head. I didn't move, just watched, gauging distances and trying to ignore the fact that my bag wasn't waterproof. Then just as he was about to crash into me I leapt backwards, arching my back and watching him pass scant inches above me, and lashed out claws outstretched.

And caught air, so instead of tearing into his wing like I planed his wing smashed into my right wrist and I felt bones break. The impact sent me flying, spinning wildly and having only just enough time to squeeze my eyes shut before hitting the concrete below with a bang. I lay there for a stunned moment wondering what happened to cats always landing on their feet. It mustn't count when falling a storey and a half. I tried to get unsteadily to my feet and hissed in pain as I put weight on my wrist; that was definitely broken.

I sat back down and checked to see if anything else was broken, my back was agony from where I'd landed on it but I assumed it wasn't broken as I was still moving. Something smashed into the side of my head and I went sprawling, somehow managing to fall on my inured wrist. I snarled in frustration and got clumsily to my feet, walking on all fours was out of the question so I stood on two. Why hadn't I heard that coming? I can always hear these things coming.

The rain drummed persistently on the concrete, drowning out all other noise and I rolled my eyes; it was no surprise I couldn't hear anything, but that just left me with… I spotted a shadow moving fast through the rain and threw myself out of the way just as an Eraser came screeching by. Sight. And with the rain that wasn't much use anyway.

I needed to find some kind of cover; I was too exposed here and I couldn't watch every angle. I sprinted towards the barn and flattened myself against the wall, squinting through the rain. I couldn't see a way into the barn but at least they wouldn't be able to sneak up on me. I glanced up to make sure of this and looked back down just in time to see six dark shapes melt out of the rain.

I snarled, baring my claws and trying to let my wrist hang loosely so they wouldn't know it was broken. The Erasers stopped short, just out of my range and my eyes flickered between them, I could try running but I'd never tried outrunning Erasers upright before but could I really take on six, while injured?

"I thought she be tougher than this," the one on the far left announced loftily. I narrowed my eyes at him and flicked my tail. Well, if I was going to fight, he'd be the first to go down.

"Yeah," another agreed boorishly. "Her sister gave us a longer chase." The first Eraser shot a daggered look at him and so did I. If any of them had even touched Soph they were all going to suffer. Thought that did mean that Soph had definitely escaped but had she been recaptured?

"She squealed a lot more as well," the first agreed after a moment with a malicious glint in his eye. My growl deepened, I was vaguely aware that he was trying to bait me but couldn't care less. I just couldn't get the image of Soph cowering in her cage

"Stop," I told him, still growling and trying to stop myself from springing. This would've been a great time for some ultra fast healing to come along but nothing happened

"Or what, you'll cry?" he shot back. I bared my fangs at him and he showed his own.

"What have you done with her?" I half roared. "I swear if you've hurt her I'll…"

"Don't worry," he said reaching for something under his coat. "No one's going to hurt her where she is now."

I roared in rage and anguish and charged at him, failing wildly with my left hand and letting my right hang painfully at my side. He caught my left wrist with ease and I barrelled into him knocking us both to the floor and feeling something stab into my stomach.

I brought my hind feet up and started tearing at him with them; I knew what he'd done but I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of me collapsing without a fight. He cuffed me round the head and my vision span, and went on spinning. He still held my wrist in a death grip but I could feel the damage I was doing with my claws, I just couldn't quite remember why I was doing it.

I collapsed, still vainly clinging to consciousness. The rain was drumming on my ears and I was conscious that my fur was soaked through and that felt very important for some reason. I couldn't concentrate on anything outside of me anyway.

"Get this bloody thing off me," I heard a voice yell angrily very close and yet somehow very far away at the same time.

I knew I'd been drugged and I knew I was in serious trouble but my last thought before I passed out was.

'Sophie.'