Ok, I got corrected on Moonfeather's pregnancy. Sorry about that! She's been pregnant for a moon and has one more moon to go, so she's half way there. So pretend she's been pregnant for a while, and looks pretty big.

Chapter 14

"What?" Moonfeather scrambled to her feet, her eyes on him. Now she was listening, now she was intent.

Faithpaw flicked his tail. "I've been piecing it together. For some reason, The Ambush can't reproduce with each other, and they're using outsiders to mate with. He paused. "They're not letting me out because I haven't mated with Sylicora yet, and they probably wouldn't let you out either, until your kit are born. And the new cat, Bird, or something, well, she got a male as a helper and I just caught them mating. I'm going to go to Akando and force answers from him. Then I'm going to get out of here!"

He sprang to his paws and started quickly off, down the main hall. The two guards stopped him as he approached.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going where I want," He snarled back.

"Have you mated with Sylicora?" Asked the she-cat.

"Get out of my way." Faithpaw pushed into her, but they formed a wall and blocked him.

"Don't make me do this," He hissed. They didn't move. He bunched his muscles and sprang at them, slicing his claws across their skin. Obviously they had no fighting training, and as he attacked them, they collapsed easily to the ground. He hopped over them and out into the main cavern.

The pool of water was rippling silver from the light that came from the ground far above. Faithpaw sniffed out Akando, finding him in a little cave attached to the big one.

He stood up as Faithpaw approached. "What are you doing here?" He growled.

"Never question me." Faithpaw crouched down and leaped onto the grey leader pushing him into the corners of the cavern. He whipped out his claws and put them at Akando's neck. He hated doing this, being this pushy, but he had to get the answers.

"What are you doing with us?" Faithpaw hissed into his face, making his voice soft and deadly.

Akando's eyes glittered, full of fear. "Need...mates," He croaked.

Faithpaw tightened his grip. "Explain."

"We...we have a disease here that everyone has. It spreads through mating and birth. Two infected cats can't mate with each other, it doesn't work. We...we were dying out, so we decided to bring cats in from out there...and mate with them..." He broke into wheezes. "Please...not so tight..." He grabbed Faithpaw's paw, which was wrapped around his neck.

Faithpaw jumped off him and blocked the entrance. "Tell me more! Would you let me free if I mated with Sylicora?"

"Of course not!" Akando laughed sharply, meanly. "You'd have the disease, and we don't want the disease to get out there, because then if we are to get more cats, they'd all my infested, and we couldn't mate. We kill you after you do the work."

"So you and Moonfeather both have the disease?" Faithpaw questioned.

Akando nodded. "I got it at birth, because of course my mother was infected from the father, who was infected. And I gave it to Moonfeather. And her kits will be infested, too. I hope she gives birth fast, so we can take the kits and get rid of her."

Faithpaw glared at him. "You didn't nee to say that in front of me. I'm guessing the disease works slow. What age is it that it starts like...killing you?"

"You may not know you have it, until you reach two years," Akando said weakly. "I am a year and a half...soon I will begin to fail." He hung his head and was silent.

"So the disease you have is spread through mating, and kits born to an infected one are infected. Does it get spread any other way? Like, touching, or rubbing?"

Akando shook his head. "Just mating and kit birth. Have you mated with Sylicora?"

Faithpaw shook his head viciously, wanting to show his hate for the she-cat. "NO!"
"Well, then you are not infected. Now, would you like to see some infected cats that are affected by the disease? Cat's that are two years or older?"

"I...I would," Faithpaw said. Akando stood up and started walking down a tunnel. As they moved, Faithpaw was thinking. The disease in The Ambush was obviously not the same one the Clans had faced, because this one worked slower and affected both toms and she-cats.

Akando stopped in front of a cave, but the entrance was blocked by a huge boulder.

"Cats don't go in here," Akando whispered, "Because the bodies can sense cats...and it tries to infect them." His eyes glittered solemnly. Two guards stood by the boulder, and as Akando nodded at them, they rolled the boulder aside.

A terrible stench hit Faithpaw hard in the nostrils, and he chocked at the awful odor. Akando just wiggled his nose, but made no other reaction. He padded into the cave. Light trickled in from one hole on the roof. Akando padded straight across to the other side of the cavern, Faithpaw at his heels. Akando moved a boulder aside. Behind them were several nests, and on those nests...

Were cats.

But they didn't look like cats. Faithpaw's heart rate quickened as he saw them. Every body was drained of blood, and all the fur had fallen off. One cat lay on his back, his belly huge and bloated, his skin white and clear. Horrible goo was running off him, dribbling onto the floor.

"See that goo?" Akando whispered. "Slowly, it will seek you out. One touch of that and you are infected. I can touch it, because I'm already infected, but you might want to avoid it, if you value your life." His face broke into a cruel grin.

Faithpaw looked back at the bodies. He could see greenish, shriveled organs through the massive belly of one. The face of another was terrible, eyes sunken into pools of goo, sightless and grotesgue...mouths with clear, sticky goo flowing from between the teeth...sunken noses...Another one was lying on its back, and the belly had been eaten away, leaving the ribs and a large concave area filled with goo.

"They get eaten alive by their own bodies until they die," Akando whispered. He cackled madly. "In half a year, I shall be lying here with my body bloodless, hairless, goo flowing from me..." His cackles grew louder, and then he fell silent.

And Faithpaw heard. He heard the whispers, the sounds...the bodies weren't dead. They were still alive. They were whispering, whispering horrible things he couldn't understand, but they were alive. He bent over and looked into the eyes of one, and the sunken, drowning eyeballs turned up at him...then a paw flashed up, strings of goo hanging from it, and it reached at Faithpaw's face...he jumped back as far as he could with a yell, stumbling on the ground.

"Akando! Let's go! I've seen enough! I get this now...it's horrible!" He looked up at the dark grey tom, but he wasn't paying Faithpaw any attention now. He was cackling, throwing his head back in his horrible laughter...and then, to Faithpaw's horror. He slammed his paws into the bulging, misty white, gooey belly of one of the infected cats. He cackled louder as the goo flowed up through his toes, drowning his paws. His laughs grew until they were booming around the cavern. He stuck his face into the belly, laughing as the goo covered him. He began rolling around the bodies, laughing and grinning and getting covered in clear, stringy goo. Finally he pulled away. Faithpaw just stared at him, wide eyed, terrified.

"Let's go," He whispered, his throat constricting as he saw the dripping tom.

Akando's cackling started up again as he headed for the way out. Faithpaw followed him at a distance.

"Sorry Faithpaw," He cackled as he slipped through. Faithpaw ran foreword, eager to get out, but the boulder was sliding foreword, blocking him. He hurried foreword faster, heart pounding.

"We can't have you out here after you know these things! Make sure to avoid the goo!" He cackled louder, falling over onto his back and rolling around, crazy with humor.

The boulder slid into place, trapping Faithpaw inside. He threw himself foreword, at the boulder.

"Let me out, you crazy, disgusting tom! LET ME OUT!"

That was a bit gory, so if you have trouble with gore, I'd suggest you start looking at fluffy bunnies to change all mental images you have. I actually thought that was super fun to write. And now Faithpaw's trapped with a bunch of living zombies who are dripping with goo that wants to seek him out and infest him! Everything is taking a turn for the worse, plus Moonfeather is pregnant and they're due in a moon!