Warriors Bio Bomb

Book 1: Alpha

It's time for the escape from the pound! How will Iceclaw and the band of cats from IceClan get out alive?! Just read to find out!

Chapter 9: Escape

We pelted through the building, blindly turning corners, never knowing if a dog was on the other side. It seemed our luck was holding out though, because even after about ten minutes, we ran into nothing. That is until we ran into the management room again. We skidded to a halt, and in front of us, was that same sadistic human, just sitting in the desk. The smile that played across his face sent chills up my spine, and before we could turn back around, he locked the door remotely. "Well well," he started, getting up and sweeping his bloody gaze across us. "You escaped, congratulations! However, it doesn't do you much good to run right back into the arms of your captors. Oh well, we were going to hand you to Alpha alive, but you've just become far to troublesome to keep around."

He pulled out a handgun, and I hissed a curse under my breath. Before he could fire though, Puddlefoot and Coal bit into his legs, and he howled in pain. The human kicked them off, and I rolled out of the way when he unloaded a bullet into the floor. "Great," I thought, "he's not afraid to use that thing…I was hoping to take advantage of inexperience, fear, anything to keep alive!"

I stumbled back onto my paws, and the human made a move for Moonheart. None of us could stop him, he tackled her, and held the gun up to her skull. "Here's the deal white-eyes, I'll let her go, in exchange for you. Can't guarantee that they'll stay alive when they leave, but I'll make sure that none of these filthy cats are harmed while inside the pound."

I wasn't about to trust him, but when I ran through my options, I learned quickly that this was my only one. Sighing in defeat, I padded over to him, and he released Moonheart as he said, "say goodbye."

He pressed the barrel to my head, and I closed my eyes. My life literally flashed before me, until the moment that seemed most vivid for some reason. I was sitting in my bed, reading a Warriors book to Moonheart, and she seemed to be helping me by acting out the parts. I laughed in the memory, and then a pain filled my heart…no, not pain, but a fire. I was confused, the pain should've at least been in my head, from a bullet being shot into it. Instead, when I opened my eyes, I was nearly staring straight at the human, his eyes were stretched to their limit.

"What could have startled him?" I thought, and lashed my tail in confusion, or at least, I would have if I had one. "I'm…human again? Wait, this isn't the time to think about this. He's stunned, time to take advantage of it." I landed a punch straight into his face, and he dropped to the floor, the gun landing with a loud clunk by his side. Without even thinking, I picked it up and slipped it into my back pocket, running over to the desk to find the button to open the door.

Puddlefoot leapt up onto the desk, and nodded, "I guess it took a life threatening experience to transform back didn't it?" I shrugged, reached under the desk, and felt the smooth surface of a button. The door open when I pressed it, and we all looked at one another.

"I may be human, but I'm still Iceclaw, however, I'll be of a little more help in this form." I said, and Puddlefoot nodded.

"Of course you are, I was just going to discuss an escape plan." He meowed, and looked to the door. "We don't have much time, let's try the air vent again. Can you change back?"

"I hope so," I muttered, and closed my eyes. It was extremely painful, feeling my ears shrink back into my head, to be replaced by cat ears. To feel fur growing out of every pore of my body, and my clothes felt like they were just being absorbed into my body.

When I was finished, I opened my eyes, and Puddlefoot had a slightly intrigued look on his face. "That was…disturbing." He said after a small pause, and he turned to the air vent. "Well, let's get moving, there's no time to waste!"

We all ran back into the air vent, and winded our way back out. When we all burst back out into the open, I watched as Puddlefoot nearly bowled Snowpelt over. He reacted quickly, and skidded to a halt in front of her. I wasn't so lucky.

Mudtail was standing right in front of me, as if he meant to go into the vent after Snowpelt, and I barreled straight into him. It took me a moment to rearrange my thoughts, but I quickly shook my head when I heard a shout from inside the pound. "They've escaped, find them!!!"

"Everyone, get back to the Den!" Puddlefoot shouted, and everyone bolted off in two different directions. Puddlefoot, Snowpelt, and Coal ran up the wall, using the ivy as a clawhold. Moonheart, Mudtail and I had to go around, because the dogs appeared on both sides of the building.

The three of us ran as fast as we could, but it was no use against the much larger dogs. They were threatening to catch us, and I whirled around, a sudden, and possibly stupid, idea forming in my head. Moonheart shouted out, "Iceclaw, what are you-?!"

I didn't hear anything she said after that, because I felt my tail shrinking back. The pain seemed to subside everytime I transformed, because before I even knew it, I was human again. There was no time to reflect on this, because three of the dogs also transformed and attempted to tackle me. "I hope I learned enough at the shooting ranges!" I thought desperately, pulling out the .22 Colt out of my back pocket and firing straight into the face of one of my pursuers.

His head almost literally exploded, but even though it was supposed to be a sickening sight, it filled me with a sense of satisfaction to see my enemies' brain scattered across the asphalt. I whirled around and shot the other two, and I saw the remaining dogs turn tail and run back to the pound.

I smirked and turned back to my companions, who had just stood by and watched. "I'll apologize to Moonheart later…" I thought, looking at her horrified expression. We all made our way back to the dump in silence.

I went to sleep alone that night, Moonheart insisted that the deputy should have his own spot, but I knew that I frightened her with my display. Thinking back, I even scared myself, how easily I had just ended three lives…I got up to my paws and looked around for Moonheart. She wasn't in the shack, so I assumed she was outside. Padding out, I saw her silhouetted against the moon, she seemed lost in a trance, which I broke by brushing up against her.

"Wh-oh, Iceclaw…shouldn't you be sleeping?" She asked, her green eyes fluctuating with feelings. It felt like I was looking into a hurricane.

"Shouldn't you?" I questioned back, but before she could respond, I pressed my tail against her mouth. "Look, I know why you didn't want to sleep with me today, it's because of the way I just killed those human-dogs. Thinking back, that was wrong, but there was nothing else I could do, I'm sorry if I scared you."

She used her tail to move mine, and intertwined the two. "It's just…I thought you should have at least felt fear when you did that. When I looked into your eyes, it wasn't fear I saw, but joy, satisfaction, I've been thinking about why that was…but I don't care, I'm sorry to have neglected you like that." Moonheart pressed up against me, and licked my cheek. "You saved me…all of us from that horrible place, that's all that matters."

"You know we'll need to assault Bio-Tech right?" I asked suddenly, and she nodded slowly. "I want you to be by my side when we do it…will you?"

She headbutted my flank softly, "did you even need to ask? Of course I will. We aren't going tomorrow are we?"

I nearly laughed at that, "no! I may have gotten a gun now, but I'm not stupid. At best, I have maybe five bullets left…at worst, none, no, we'll need more help. I could also use better firepower. For now, let's go back inside and get some sleep."

"Alright," she said happily, and padded back into the shack.

"When the time comes though, I will take down Alpha," I thought, following behind her.