Chapter 6, Robin's Help

"No! No! Calm down! I don't mean any harm. In fact, I mean great help."

Skye struggled to get away, and soon he backed up until he felt the building's wall against his back. "I don't need help!" he gasped, "I'm fine! Get away from me!"

The cheetah backed away nervously. "Ok. I'm sorry. I didn't try to scare you, but I have to say some stuff. I know who you are!"

Skye shook his head. "That means nothing to me."

"Well…when I saw you well….earlier today…I recognized you instantly. But you're a lot bigger. You look pretty good, too!"

"Nobody saw me when I was small," He growled. "Nobody was there. I was all alone in a canyon with a cave and two swords."

The cheetah stared at him, then smiled. "That makes sense. I saw you right after you were born. I was there when you were named." He smiled. "I'm pretty sure that I'm your father."

Skye just stared at him. "So?"

The cheetah, or his father, looked shocked. "You don't even care?"

"Why would I? In fact, why would I like you even the tiniest bit? You dumped me when I was a kitten!"

The cheetah fidgeted, and Skye realized he was the one he had seen earlier that day, with the female cheetah.

"Well…that was partly your mother. She couldn't take care of you, because she had to leave. I'm sorry…I should have taken you with me."

Skye looked up at him. "What's your name, then anyway?"

"Robin," He said, and smiled.

"And that other cheetah is my mom, then, right?" Skye asked crudely.

Robin grew visibly uncomfortable. "Well….no..."

"What is she then? Your sister?" Skye asked.

Robin looked around and fidgeted. "Um…no…"

"Well what is she then?" Skye snapped.

"Like…a friend."

Skye snorted.

Robin looked around then gushed it out. "My mother…well, she said that I had to do something with my life, you know, she said I was a grown-up now, and had to do something, so when I asked 'what?' she said I should settle down with someone and start a family. So I'm doing that…"

Skye looked at him in disbelief. "You already had a family! I was your son!"

"But my mom…when I told her that, she said that because my mate was not longer on the world, she said to forget about her and get a realistic mate."

"My mother isn't on the world?" Skye asked his in shock.

Robin nodded. "She had to leave, or I would die. She's probably happy on earth now."

"Well, that doesn't mean you can just get a new mate, just because my mom is gone! She's still alive!"

"But I'll never see her again," Robin protested. "Plus, I love Mellissa. She'll—I mean she'd--be the perfect mother. And she loves me, and I've already known her for a third moon."

"A THIRD MOON?" Skye screamed. "That's like two weeks! You call that a long time?"

Shadows filled Robin's eyes and he lowered his voice. "Well….I've already mated with her."
Skye felt mad. "You're a really stupid father, and I hate you. Get away from me and stay away."

Skye stood up and walked away from the startled cheetah, leaving him behind.

XXX
Skye spent the next day snoozing under bushes and resting. He was enjoying this sunny, warm life.

One day though, when he was waking up, he looked up at the sky. It was smoky and grey, and filled with ash. Some animals walked beside Skye, talking.

"Isn't it shocking? Harpton was bombed last night. They still can't find the culprit. I don't know who would bomb Harpton though. It's so big! I hear it got the same treatment that one train got…I can't believe it, can you?"

Skye stared at them in shock. Harpton was a city, he knew that. Had it been bombed? Did it look like that train had, with so many dead and everything burning and twisted and mangled? Wasn't this the act of the Kinetics? And what were they anyway?

Skye stood up and headed to the Micemorsel Company with some money. He bought some carrots and settled down to eat them.

He was sitting near some animals. One dog, looking old and rather wise, was speaking quietly.

"The bombings are planned. I know it. How else would the bombs hit exactly just the cities and trains? A train is hard to bomb, and you have to observe it very carefully to even get a shot on it. And if you can't completely cripple the train with the first shot, you're out of luck. We're being watched, tracked, followed. Someone or something wants to wipe us out. They're bombing us at night, when we're not expecting. And the other side of the world, guess what? Two cities have been completely destroyed and one train. We are being watched."

There was silence after his speech. Skye shivered and looked around, expecting evil shadows to spring out at him and start flinging bombs into the air.

XXX

The next day the news continued. The animals flocked into groups. The ash and smoke was still in the sky.

Skye padded over to listen in.

"Wallpall, that town way down south, was bombed last night."

Shivers and mutters of fear went through the listeners.

"And not only that, another town nearby it was bombed too. Snowtown has been completely destroyed."
Skye stared at him in gripping, chilling fear and horror. Skye had been in Snowtown just days before it was bombed. But that wasn't all. Selena had gone back to Snowtown, and she had probably reached it before the bombing. Was she alright?

Skye padded away, not wanting to hear more. He mingled with others and tried to calm down. This bombing was getting really serious.

Skye slept in the bushes that night, tucked up against the building. He awoke frequently in the night, and when he did, the huge, big moon was always a little higher in the sky. Skye stared at its calming, crying face and smiled. He liked the big moon.

But something seemed wrong. As he looked at its silver face, a small black speck started hurtling toward him. It disappeared over the buildings.

Then there was a huge, shattering, horrendous boom. Smoke and debris flew into the air. Skye stood up as some other animals emerged from their holes, trying to see what was happening.

Suddenly, these large, round, black things started hurtling through the air and hitting the ground with horrific booms. Each time, a mushroom cloud of fire, smoke and debris exploded into the air.

Skye scrambled from the bushes as terror seized his chest. Animals all over were running in terror. Skye screamed as a black bomb exploded six yards away from him. Asphalt flew through the air and rained down. A big chunk of it hit an antelope, and it fell down with a scream.

Skye turned and ran. It seemed safer ahead. He dashed foreword and raced along the pavement. Other animals collided with him. Dust filled the air, and he coughed in it.

A little family with some young animals raced past. A bomb fell right on them and they disappeared.

Skye fled between the buildings. He heard a splashing behind him and looked over his shoulder. Oil was raining heavily from the sky, thick and black. It splattered over everything, coating it dark. There was fire in the bushes, and when it touched the oil, it raged foreword, licking up all oil in its path. Skye ran foreword as fast as he could.

Some bombs hit the buildings, and chunks of solid bluish rock fell from the sky. Skye ran and ran in desperation as smoke and chunks of asphalt and building rained down upon him. There was so much hitting him, and there was so much fire. Everything was everywhere. He kept tripping over dead and wounded animals or falling into the holes the bombs had created. He kept looking at the big moon too, and taking courage and strength from it. But it was sliding from the sky quickly.

Skye ran on. He stumbled into a place that was slimy with oil, but it had not yet been bombed, and there was no fire. But there were no animals either.

Where are all of them? Skye thought in shock. He was safe for a moment here, but he knew not for very long.

Suddenly, there came fire, creating a circle around him and trapping him inside it. The burning flames came steadily closer, threatening to choke Skye in their heat.

"HELP!" He screamed. Nobody came. He began to run, wildly, hoping that the flames would pass by him easily. He felt them scorch his back, and he screamed, falling down. Oil covered him fur and fire beat down on him. Debris and rock and everything…it was all coming at him…

Suddenly, he was being pulled away, out of the flames. He grew limp and weak as he was dragged along the scarred asphalt. Then the fire and the oil and the bombs were gone.

He looked up, and saw the sky above him. Just half of the big moon showed. The sky was getting dark.

"Here, stand up." A quiet voice was whispering into his ear.

Skye whipped his head around and saw the young cheetah that had called himself Skye's father. Skye just stared at him, then staggered to his feet.

He looked foreword and saw the city. It was only thirty feet away.

And it was broken. The buildings were broken, shattered things weakly pointing to the sky. Smoke and dust rose silently. The glow of fire lit up the whole area, making everything alight with a pale orange glow.

The bushes were little piles of ash, with just a few feeble sticks still standing. Everything was washed with rubble, and then of course there were bodies strewn about everywhere.

There were almost no survivors. Two pandas huddled close by, and a horse that had broken both its hind legs struggled on the ground next to them. A mountain lion gritted its teeth with frustration as it tried to stand up with a gaping wound on its side.

Skye looked over at Robin nervously. He was staring at the crumbling city, his eyes reflecting the fire.

From the darkness came the greyhound police. They dashed foreword. A few vanished into the city. Some started searching the outskirts of the area for survivors. One came over to Robin and Skye.

"Were you in the city when it was bombed?" the police asked.

Robin nodded.

"Are you injured?"
"Slightly."

The cop glanced around. "Did you by any chance see who bombed the city?"

Robin shook his head but Skye stood up. "I saw the first bomb. It was a big black thing that just fell straight from the sky."

"You did not see where it was fired from?"

"No."

The cop fidgeted. "Have you seen many survivors?"

"I think the few out here are the only ones," Robin meowed.

The greyhound cop nodded. "We do not know what these attacks are from. We do not see how Kinetics could possibly be the ones behind it all. I must go." He ran off.

Robin watched him, stony faced, then looked up at the sky for a long time.

"Skye? Was the bomb just coming from the sky?"

Skye nodded. "And it was easy to see too, because the moon was so big and bright."

Robin just stared at the sky more. Finally he spoke.

"I so see a way the Kinetics could be behind it. In fact, it's too obvious."

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