A Road to Somewhere

You have no idea how good a set of clean clothes and a shower feel after about a month. Dr Rainer turned out to be rather sympathetic to my story as it happens; the kidnap of a thirteen year old girl by evil scientists provokes that sort of reaction apparently, though I edited out some of the violence. Okay, all the violence. I was trying to appear the victim rather than some insane tiger. Which one I actually was is more or less up to you, just I wasn't going to think about it, something told me I wasn't going to be particularly happy with either answer.

Anyway, it felt good to get back to civilisation for once, though in this case it was more a matter of being dragged into civilisation. I was more than happy to settle for an open door, a direction to follow and the twelve pounds of meat Dr Rainer had in cold storage for the dogs. She, however, decided that she could be even more helpful so after a few hours of having everything I owned cleaned, preened and pressed I was loaded into the back of her pickup and before I knew it we'd already gone further than I had the rest of my journey combined. I've got to learn to drive; that or grow wings.

For some reason though I couldn't settle, maybe it was putting my fate in someone else's hands even for a few hours, maybe it was the fact I had absolutely no idea why she was helping me, or maybe it was that I'd been hiding under a tarpaulin for a quarter of an hour and was slowly beginning to broil in my fur. It took about thirty seconds for me to finally come to a decision, and I slipped out from under the tarpaulin, quickly discovering just how windy it is while you're going sixty miles an hour.

Actually it was kind of fun once I'd gotten a firmer footing and had managed to extract my claws from the ruins of the tarpaulin. There was another thing I was going to have to chalk up to instinct, claws, but standing on the flatbed of a vehicle going at sixty miles an hour down a country road is not a comfortable position for either a tiger or anyone with half a brain. I swung my legs over the side of the pickup and leapt onto the half step under the passenger door, wrapping my toes round it and for once glad that I couldn't where shoes anymore. My grip tightened on the bodywork as the wind tried to rip me away from the side and I briefly wondered whether I would have done something like this before I got crossed with a big cat. In fairness I probably wouldn't have, but it was more a matter of me being unable to do it rather than unwilling.

I opened the passenger door a crack and half leapt, half swung through the gap, grabbing and pushing the inner handle to catapult me into the front seat and slammed the door shut after me, trying to relax enough so that it would actually look impressive.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Dr Rainer demanded angrily the second I was inside and I rolled my eyes, trying to extricate my tail which had wrapped round my leg to avoid getting caught in the door. Add another one to instinct.

"I was boiling alive under that tarp," I explained shrugging. "Besides you said I could sit in the front when we left the town and I don't see any town out there." I emphasised that with a wave of my hand and the surrounding scenery which had given way to fields and a few sparse woods.

"I was waiting until we got onto the country roads," she said tersely, taking a deep breath. "You're not exactly inconspicuous."

"Point," I admitted. "But who's really going to believe that they just saw a tiger sitting in your front seat. With any luck we'll be gone before they give us a second glace."

"Yeah, well let's just say I don't particularly share your optimism," she said anxiously. She'd gotten decidedly twitchy after I'd told her the full extent of the Lab thing. That was part of the reason she was giving me the lift, the further away I was the further away everyone else was from danger. "And what on earth convinced you that getting into the front seat of a moving car was a good idea?"

"The fact that I can do it," I said simply, not admitting that I had absolutely no idea whether or not that trick was going to work, and that a fall from there wasn't particularly likely to kill me. That was another thing for my 'to do' list, find just how effective these healing powers actually were.

"Now that's just arrogance," Dr Rainer said after a moment, shaking her head.

"No," I countered, perplexed. "It's true, you just saw it."

"I know that," she said. "But you don't have to be so dismissive, it's rude."

"But it is true," I said with certainty.

"It wouldn't kill you to show a little empathy," she grumbled.

I thought about that one for a moment. I hadn't done anything particularly terrible to her that warranted guilt beyond involving her in this mess and that had only partly been my fault, so I didn't quite get what I was supposed to be empathising about; all I'd done was correct her.

"You do know what empathy is right?" she asked, cutting through my introspection.

"Sure," I said off-handly. "I've got enough gnawing guilt to keep me sated for years."

"No," she said sounding concerned. "Its not the same as guilt, it's about caring about what another person's feeling."

There was another long silence in which I mulled that over and finally admitted, in a small voice, "I don't think I know how to do that."

"Seriously," Dr Rainer asked in disbelief. "I thought you said you were human."

"What are you suggesting," I snarled and she flinched away slightly, remind me to kick my self later.

"I remember stuff like that," I admitted after a moment, the growl out of my voice more or less. "It just doesn't make sense anymore." Dr Rainer glanced at me with a look of pity in her eyes and I fought back another snarl. Who needed empathy anyway, it just sounded uncomfortable?

"I'm going to sleep," I muttered, closing my eyes and curling up with my back to Dr Rainer. "Wake me up when we're close."

It's a funny thing but if you spend long enough in a car you get used to the sounds it makes and if you suddenly get hearing like mine it's extremely easy to tell if something's wrong.

"What's going on?" I demanded, sitting bolt upright as the engine roared.

"Some joker's right up my tail pipe," she snapped and I glanced over my shoulder to see a large unmarked black van that was practically driving with its bumper glued to our spare tire. It reminded me of a very similar unmarked black van that had first kidnapped me and Soph and the tinting in the windows only really confirmed my suspicions.

"Err, Doc," I said hesitantly as the van dropped back a little.

"I know, I know," she said edgily. "I can figure these things out."

"Can we outrun them?" I asked craning round the head rest again to get a better look.

"Let's just say I inherited this car," she said as an explanation and I winced.

"Gun in the back perhaps then?" I suggested as the van appeared to drop back, paranoia convinced me that it probably wasn't going to stay there.

"I'm a vet, not a freaking vigilante," she half yelled and I noticed her knuckles were going white on the steering wheel. "What the hell have I gotten myself into?"

I ignored that question, it wasn't particularly for me anyway and I suddenly noticed an Eraser leaning out of the van window, aiming a very large handgun.

"You may want to try dodging," I suggested to Dr Rainer, wincing in anticipation. There was no way this was going to end well.

"What are you…" she began just as the gun barked and I wrenched her down, ducking myself and already reacting to get out of the way of any broken glass.

A heartbeat later I realised that there was a definite lack of flying shards of death and hastily let Dr Rainer back up before we ran off the road.

"Missed?" she asked sounding frantic, swerving to avoid a hedge that was rushing up to greet us and I heard something thud into the back of the car, figuring it out a half second later.

"No, they're going for…" I began hurriedly as the gun barked again and there was an almightily bang followed by an ear splitting screech of what I can only assume was the wheel rim scraping along the road.

Dr Rainer fought for control as the car fishtailed wildly and I grabbed one of those little handles in the roof that seem only to be there for situations like this, hanging on for dear life. The engine roared as Dr Rainer tried to accelerate away, slamming the steering wheel right to try and counteract the burst tire, and I spotted the Eraser's van closing very fast in the wing mirror.

"Shit," I thought as the van slammed into the already uncontrollable car, and for the briefest moment we were travelling horizontally down the road which, if you've ever watched any action movie of any type you'll know, is not a direction any car will move in without protest.

The flip seemed to happen at an almost leisurely pace, the asphalt suddenly loomed in my window and I curled into a ball, fighting the urge to go limp which with hindsight might have been better for me. Glass exploded into the vehicle, tracing red lines across my fur and there was a scream of tortured metal as the door crumpled quickly followed by the roof.

I had my eyes closed by this point.

The g-forces were pinning me to my seat though it wasn't like I really had anywhere to go and I heard the front window shatter, quickly followed by the driver's and I felt the glass rain on my fur. A jolt shook the car as the tires hit the ground again and my head hit the roof with a crack, that was going to hurt in the morning, but the crash was far from over.

I dropped into the foot-well, my mind reeling from the blow and I think I blacked out for just a moment, though I think it would have been nice to miss the rest of the accident as it felt rather akin to being a penny in a washing machine. After the longest ten seconds of my life, bar maybe those first few moments in the tank, the car came to a rest. It was probably upside down though I couldn't particularly tell from where I was, and had long ago lost which way was up. There was only a narrow strip of light from where the door had fallen off.

I tired uncurling a bit but stopped, as my arms screamed in protest, I'd probably broken at least a few bones but with any luck they would fix up fairly quickly. Of course that was assuming my healing power was still working, which hopefully it was because otherwise I'd be in serious trouble. Especially as I think I managed to tenderise my brain during that crash.

I think I zoned out for a minute again after that, because the next thing I knew there was something big blocking out my ray of light and I couldn't hear the van's engine anymore. There was the sound of boots crunching on broken glass and an Eraser half yelling something angrily and I struggled to listen over the ringing in my ears, not to mention the pounding headache.

"I warned you," an Eraser growled to someone or other. "I warned you. We could all see they were out of control but no! You just had to ram them anyway."

"Our orders said neutralise any witnesses and capture the tiger," another Eraser replied in a surly tone. While my sense of direction was kind of rattled I guessed he was the one standing right next to me. "They say she's bloody un-killable anyway."

There was the distinct sound of someone smacking their forehead with their hand.

"Her healing was neutralised," the first Eraser snarled impatiently. "Hence she can be hurt. Hence we get our asses handed to us if she's dead. Getting the picture?"

"Okay, okay I got it," the second Eraser snapped defensively.

"Good. Now I'm going to find some way of getting this wreck the right way up. Stay here and make sure she doesn't escape."

"Wait?" the second Eraser cut in, obviously not the brightest bulb in the shop. "You want me to guard someone you think may have died?"

"Yeah," he shot back. "And I have to scars to justify it." Hmm, apparently I'd met him before.

I listened to the sound of retreating footsteps and attempted to roll my shoulders, it hurt like hell but I could move most of my limbs and none of them seemed to be pinned. In all honestly I'd gotten out of the accident rather well, and any bones I'd broken were already healing up nicely, even the lump on my head had gone down taking my headache with it. I rolled slowly onto my front, thankful for once for the pads on my hands which stopped me ripping my fingers to shreds on the glass, and eyed up the gap between the floor and the ceiling. I'm not entirely sure which one was which but I could see a pair of those heavy boots the Erasers seem to favour through it and I wasn't quite sure I could fit. The last thing I needed to do was to get stuck.

I read somewhere that if you can fit your head and shoulders through a gap you can get the rest of yourself through, it was quite obviously wide enough but I wasn't entirely sure my head was small enough. On the other hand my skull and neck are only remotely human these days so at worst I'd bang my head. I dropped onto my stomach and inched my way through the gap, hanging my head as low as I could and, the moment I felt there was space above my folded ears, burst out, scraping my back on the jagged metal as I did so.

The pain made me gasp and my concentration broke, my foot slipping on a clump of glass and sending me sprawling ignominiously at the feet the Eraser.

"Well, well, well," the Eraser said smugly, the last well accompanied by the click of a cocking hammer. "Look what we have here."

I looked up at him bearing my teeth and pulling my legs up behind me, sitting on my haunches in a very cat like way.

"Now don't move a muscle kitty," he continued and I began to lash my tail, unsheathing my claws and not taking my eyes off the Eraser. Anyone with experience with cats could tell you those were all bad signs, but apparently the Eraser was a dog person and I hadn't started growling just yet.

"Hey guys!" he yelled suddenly to the other Erasers, looking up and briefly taking his eyes off me.

Mistake number one.

Instantly I sprang, slamming my shoulders into the Erasers legs and neatly swept them out from under him sending him crashing to the ground. His gun thundered as he fell and I heard the soft 'ping' as the bullet ricocheted off the tarmac right where I'd been half a second before. I spun round just as his head hit the ground with a bang, and was practically on top of him half a second later, poised to strike if he moved.

"I would suggest not moving a muscle," I said calmly, not even out of breath. The Eraser groaned and tried to raise his head off the asphalt. I took a fistful of hair and slammed it back down. He didn't try and move again.

See, you don't even have to have made a second mistake.

I slunk on all fours over to the pickup, keeping my ears open for any Erasers sneaking up on me and tried to spot Dr Rainer through the wrecked vehicle. In all honesty she didn't look like she was in a good way, her seat belt had more or less kept her in her seat but she was decidedly unconscious and I didn't like the look of the blood pooling on the ground beneath her. It's times like that I really wished I knew first aid, and wasn't trying to fight off however many Erasers.

"Experiment!" the first Eraser's voice called out, right on queue and I rolled my eyes.

"It's Kit," I yelled back, poking my head over the ruined car to see the Erasers quite smartly crouching down, levelling their guns at the car. "Call me anything else and you'll end up like your buddy over here." I ducked back down as a bullet pinged off the under body of the car, okay so this wasn't going to end well.

"If you were smart you'd surrender," the Eraser barked as the echo faded away, and I glanced around. The car had more or less come to rest in the dead centre of the road and there were a good few feet between it and the hedgerows, I could possibly sprint it but getting shot would be likely and a serious problem. Also it hurts like hell.

"Why don't you come and get me?" I called back, sitting down with my back against the wreck. "I can wait all day if I want." That was a lie; I really needed to get Dr Rainer medical help and while I had no idea how I was going to do that, getting rid of the Erasers seemed like a good first step.

"She has to come out soon," I heard him mutter to another Eraser. Yes my hearing is that good. "He said she wasn't exactly patient."

"Backup will be here soon," yet another Eraser pointed out. Okay so much for my waiting until they got bored and tried to take me on hand to hand. I eyed up the nearest hedge more carefully, I might be able to make it without one of them shooting but I would have to be going pretty fast and I didn't have a huge amount of room for a run up. Not to mention that they may well be expecting something like that.

I rocked forward onto my hands, deliberately letting the tip of my tail show over the top of the vehicle and stalked along the side. There was a tense moment where I waited for the pot shot but it didn't come and I sat down very deliberately right at the edge of the car and waited a moment, straining to hear the Erasers. A gun clicked softly and I twisted round, practically gluing my tail to my leg so they wouldn't spot what I was doing and waited a heart beat.

Then I ran.

The wreck flashed by in a blur of red paint and twisted bodywork and I sprang, suddenly appearing out from the opposite side of the car, bullets pinging off the metal and asphalt as I sailed through the hedge and was away.

"No one move!" I heard the first Eraser roar as I skidded to a stop, dropping on to my stomach as I did so. "Do not split up. She'll come to us."

Okay, someone tell me when the Erasers started using their brains? Seriously I'm sure they weren't this smart the first time I fought them. Maybe they were wising up, or finally taking me seriously.

I crept down the line of the hedge; the Erasers were beginning to fan out regardless of the bossy one's orders and it was only really a matter or time before one of them actually thought to look over the hedge. A cursory glance told me the field I was in was pretty barren; it was essentially just ploughed with a few shoots of green which translates to, 'no cover'. That was particularly annoying as I could see the trees on the other side of the road, damn my sense of direction.

I kept walking until I was about a hundred yards away and at the end of the field, the Erasers were getting decidedly twitchy in their positions around their van. They were probably thinking about what would happen to them if I got away without them even trying to catch me. As soon as I felt they'd waited long enough to be completely rattled I put back my head and roared.

I still can't say how satisfying it is to do that, nor why it's so satisfying, but I didn't have any time to waste resting on my laurels, I was already tearing back down the field, desperately trying to keep as silent as possible and trying to figure out just what the Erasers were doing based only on my hearing.

It sounded like it was working, I observed, hanging a left and running a short distance into the field. The Erasers all seemed to be facing my roar and none of them were quite paranoid enough yet to look the other way, I wouldn't be coming from there anyway.

The echoes had barely faded away as I rounded on myself and took a steadying breath. The Erasers were only a dozen yards in front of me and none of them were looking my way. I wasn't going to get a more perfect opportunity.

To the Eraser's it must have seemed like I'd sprung out of thin air, actually I just jumped the hedge, but I consider it my job to freak them out as much as possible. I slammed into the nearest Eraser, hooking my claws into him, driving him to the ground and his head hit the asphalt with a sickening crack as I hastily untangled myself from him, readying to spring in one fluid motion.

The next Eraser had barely noticed me as I struck, knocking him backwards and taking a wild swipe at his throat which missed by millimetres, four parallel lines of red blossoming across his throat. He staggered backwards, desperately trying not to fall as I hooked my claws into him, hanging on for dear life and rather obviously balled my fist right in front of his face. Unfortunately for him, his attempt to grab my hand was foiled by my pinning one arm to his side and him holding a gun in his other hand.

There was a smack as my fist connected and he dropped like a rock, stunned or out cold I didn't particularly care which. A bullet roared over my shoulder and I dropped along with the Eraser, a shot biting into him instead of me and proving that Erasers can be useful after all. I desperately tried to figure out what was going on, the Erasers had retreated back and were surrounding me, all of them with their pistols trained on me. It didn't look like I'd be able to run and just how many bullet wounds I could heal at once wasn't particularly something I wanted to find out.

"Aren't you going to give me a chance to surrender?" I asked, glancing round and creeping my hand over to a dropped gun.

"Being shot doesn't seem to bother you," the first Eraser pointed out with a snarl, pulling back the hammer of his gun.

"Meh," I said shrugging. "It still hurts." I brought the gun up suddenly, training it on the lead Eraser and winced, waiting for the shots to come. Nothing happened.

"Five against one," he pointed out levelly, unperturbed by the muzzle pointed at him. "I'd drop it if I were you."

"You want me to drop it do you?" I asked, smirking as they fell into my plan. "Okay."

I hurled the pistol at the Eraser nearest to the van and was after it like a whippet out of a gun, leaping into the air before they'd even realised I'd moved and neatly caught it in my jaws. The poor Eraser never knew what hit him as I slammed him into the side of the van, knocking the wind out of him and ramming my claws into his throat. I dropped as shots thudded into the vehicle, hastily grabbing another dropped gun and leapt upwards. A splinter of pain shot through my side as a bullet traced its way across my flank but by then I'd hooked my hands over the top of the van and pulled myself to safety.

I lay on the roof panting and spat out the pistol, that hadn't exactly been the sanest thing to do but then again I'd handed in my pass for sanity a long time ago. I rolled onto my front and looked over the guns, from what I could tell they would work and I reckoned the safeties were off, though I wasn't entirely sure my hands were big enough to reach the trigger and hold the stock at the same time. Too bad, I didn't have another plan.

"I wish I had a grenade," I heard the first Eraser mutter; echoing my thoughts somewhat and I crept to the edge of the roof, taking a pistol in each hand.

"Give me the keys," he demanded. "I'll get her off there myself."

Suddenly I poked my head over the lip of the roof and opened fire, literally just hanging my arms over the side so they didn't have any part of me they could shoot back at. Now while it may be true I have no skill with firearms whatsoever it's pretty damn hard to miss at ten feet, even if I was shooting tomb raider style. Both pistols clicked empty just as at long last a bullet clipped one Eraser on the shoulder, and I hurled myself from the roof, crashing into another Eraser who thought he was far enough away from the van to be safe, smashing his head into the ground with yet another crack.

I rounded on yet another Eraser who was already bringing his gun round and charged at him, not leaping for once and feeling a bullet whistle over my back. His leg crunched as I bit down deeply on it, tearing it out from under him and helping him crack his head on the road as he fell, knocking him out cold.

"What was that you said about surrender?" I asked the final Eraser, who also happened to be the first Eraser, rounding on him.

"It's something you should probably do," he said smugly, his gun pointed firmly at me. He was admittedly standing just a little too far away for me to rush him properly and I was kind of out of clever plans, so maybe that attitude was justified.

"After you," I said with mock graciousness, attempting to bow while standing on four legs, something that's interesting to watch to say the least.

"Ah, but I have the gun," he pointed out.

"And I have the body count," I shot back. "Still think you'll win?"

"Gun beats…" he began and I fainted running forwards, cutting him off mid banter and dived left as a bullet ricocheted off the tarmac in front of me, accelerating towards the Eraser with a barely suppressed roar. Something slammed into my back as I charged and I desperately fought to keep my footing, leaping forwards despite the dagger of pain from what felt like a shattered rib.

The Eraser looked honestly surprised as I crashed into him wildly and sent him flying, hitting the asphalt with a smack, and struggling to get to his feet as I tried to do the same. It turns out getting shot really messes up your ability to land on your feet. I had the advantage though; I didn't have to go up as far. Another swift, hair grab and slam routine had him out cold and I finally could relax, or more precisely start paying attention to the various wounds I'm managed to acquire.

First things first though.

I limped over to Dr Rainer and, after checking she was still breathing dragged her out of the wreck. In all honesty you really shouldn't move someone after an accident, but I didn't particularly think it was healthy for her to be hanging upside down from her seat. A quick search in the foot well managed to net me her cell phone and I reluctantly dialled 911.

"Ambulance please," I said in my most human sounding voice, the moment someone picked up the phone.

"What seems to be the problem?" a friendly voice asked after a momentary pause.

"There's been a car crash at…" I began, probably with not nearly as much urgency as I should have had, and the realised that I didn't have a clue where we were.

"Okay I don't know where I am," I admitted. "But I'm using a cell phone."

"Okay, we can trace that," the women on the other end of the line said hurriedly, keys rattling in the background. "How many people are injured?"

"Just one," I told her, glancing round at the Erasers in various states on immobility and began to wander over to one that was showing signs of stirring. "She's breathing but unconscious."

"Any obvious wounds, blood loss?"

"Let me check," I said, clocking the Eraser on the head with a rock and hurrying back to Dr Rainer. "Nothing big," I confirmed. "Lots of scratches though and I know she hit her head."

"Right," the woman confirmed. "An ambulance is on the way, don't move her and help will be there shortly."

"Will do," I told her and hung up.

I sighed as I put down the phone next to Dr Rainer, she really shouldn't have been dragged into this mess and I should've at least done her the curtsy of staying with her until the ambulance arrived but I couldn't afford anyone else to get in trouble over me. With that in mind I began to pile the Erasers up in the back of their van and after a very quick crash course in driving, parked it half a mile away, setting out over the fields with no particular direction in mind.

I never did find out what happened to Dr Rainer, apart from what happens to everyone who tries to help me. I heard the sirens though. So I'll assume she was alright.