Zoo Keeper - ch18 - Inevitability
#18 of Zoo Keeper
Our foray was successful, we came back the next day with half a dozen people, most still human. Of the soldiers only two came back with fur on, a result of them trying to help someone before ensuring all the male cats nearby were dead, thankfully we heard their cries and brought a stop to the mating before they had their bellies stuffed with kittens. A few of the others ended up female when a big sprayed the side of the bus they were on, but on the whole, the mission was considered a success.
For my own part, I couldn't help but count them as my kittens now, they had fought beside me and stood their ground. When we got back to the base we were all in high spirits.
Dismounting I met the Sergeant, "Sergeant, I would be happy to report we have liberated six people and returned with them. We had some minor... situations, but all involved are dealing with it and we are ready to go bac-" his face showed pride but there was something else, it brought me up short. "Blake, what's wrong?" I asked.
"The fence didn't stop them, fully half the countries population is now at risk with most of eastern and southern Australia being lost by the end of tomorrow." he replied, the soldiers behind me heard and went dead quiet.
"But, this is contained to Australia right?" I asked, "At least it won't spread further."
"The cats have made it across Bass Straight to Tasmania and there is talk of some sightings in New Zealand." he said, "Why the fuck did they have to keep that thing alive?" he shouted.
I was silent a moment, to let people deal with this. At last though, I said, "We can't give up, contact the other military bases, get them to do what we are, give them all the information, we can't as a species just lay down and die!"
He looked down on me then, eyes wide, realising that I would not give up, "Yes Queen, I will get on it, who do we contact first?" he said.
"Start off with those where we think the 'front' is, priority to any asking for help." I turned to the soldiers and the new civilians gathered around, "Does anyone know where we might find more buses? If there was half a dozen people within a days drive there are bound to be more!"
--
"What's the status of this next planet brother?" I asked, addressing my companion.
"Developing, its on the 'no-touch' list, they haven't obtained real space flight yet, we... shit I have his beacon down there!" my brother replied.
"The fugitive? How have the locals dealt with him?" I exclaimed, brining up the details on my own monitor, "Oh, I see, not well. Looks like his progeny are slowly destroying them a... wait, is that a Prime one class mind I am reading? How could his genes have spawned anything of that magnitude?"
"Looks better, small clumps of population are resisting his damned progeny. You're not going to believe this, the group organising them are at the same location of that Prime one mind." my brother put in.
Turning our ship around, safe in the knowledge that the threat of the fugitive male being contained on a planet with no long range space capability. None the less we flagged the planet for later monitoring.
--
It had been hard work, our little camp grew to almost two thousand people. We built fences and pits and when those failed we made more, taller, deeper, wider.
Some of the army bases we contacted went quiet suddenly, it was not a good feeling to know that the people you had talked to were lost forever, but we had to live on.
For his part, Rough was the most amazing of partners, fighting beside myself and the soldiers, saving as many lives as he could.
Jake relaxed into her life, visiting Rough once a week for her 'check-up', she even was the role model several other soldiers followed, finding the feline reflexes were often the edge they needed to make themselves more effective at protecting people.
One thing became standard procedure, breeding.
We found Rough to be the biggest advantage here, it didn't matter how large our male population was, a simple pet of his coat, a rub of his chin and anyone was ready to bear a human child.
In time our population grew back, the cats were still around of course, Rough himself had passed on, but his children, all smarter and more gentle than their wild kin were not just tolerated to share a place beside this new turn of humanity, but were welcomed into it.
Well, thats it, they indeed, lived happily ever after.