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Cold air brushes against the slumbering Fox, stirring him from uneasy dreams about what may happen to him when he steps outside. Stranded, and very isolated, all Hound's thoughts circled what might happen if he ran into those terrible creatures. Just like the passengers of his flight home, he could not see them; if one were to find him, he will never know until feeling the sting of their serrated claws. Coupled with the bitter breeze, the thought forces him to sit up and rub his eyes to focus themselves. Blurred vision receding, Hound finds natural light breaking through the mesh of piping and wires: the 'door' is open. Sliding himself backward into the opposite wall of monitors, Hound looks around for whom may have opened it. "Maybe the door opened on its own," Hound thinks to himself, noting no one on either side of the room. The door swiftly closes, and the sultry atmosphere returns to the enclosure. The Fox cautiously stands, but is stopped halfway by the monitors' motion. Odd as the 'smart' monitors are, Hound quickly became accustomed to them following his eye level, but this was different: they seem to be following something else.

"What could they be following," Hound thought. "Could it be one of those things?" Hound knew that he couldn't see them before, so it seems like a strong possibility. Carefully straightening his back, the Fox skittishly trails down the wall, hoping the monitors on his wall don't give him away. Just like that, it hits him. "This can't be one of those creatures, because they could see us, right?" Remaining calm as his nerves allowed, Hound centered himself in the room - effectively keeping the monitors from adjusting themselves to his eye level. As he watches the round screens bob up, then down, as the unseen entity moved about, Hound recalls that the creatures in the surveillance footage didn't attack until the passengers were tagged electronically. He knew it could have just been something the cameras did (as some sort of face tracking) but then there were also info-graphics beside each as well. Concluding that he should have been eviscerated if the creatures could see him on their own, Hound wanders closer to his potential foe, keeping about two steps away in case it changed direction. Soon the line of monitors stop adjusting, and one appears to be the center of attention. Slinking to the monitor's front - a safer five steps back - Hound looks on with his invisible guest at a new reel of footage.

Vaguely familiar faces fill the screens, a different face per monitor. After some internal investigating Hound remembers where he had seen them: they are the passengers those 'things' pounced on during the crash. His gaze fixated on the pair of monitors in front, Hound feels something brush into him. Before he can react enough to move, the invisible guest plows the Fox over onto his side, landing atop him. The impact to the ground bruises Hound's elbow he tried to catch himself on, but he ignores the sting and scrambles away, lightly kicking at what he hoped was his foe's head. Bringing himself to stand, ready to flee the scene, Hound steadies his heart as he sees the Raccoon stewardess sitting up, holding her shoulder. Grateful to finally see what he hopes is a friendly face, the Fox scrambles up to the injured Raccoon, offering a helpful paw.

"I'm so sorry," Hound says, his ears lowered apologetically, "I wasn't sure if you were one of us or those 'things'."

Daintily grabbing his paw, the stewardess clambers to stand. Tearfully looking into Hound's eyes, she asks, "Where did you come from? You weren't in," she trails off for a second, glancing around the surreal room of smart monitors, "in this place. When I got here I was alone!"

Nodding once to her Hound looks to the room. "Yeah, about that. I was actually here when you arrived. We just couldn't see each other."

"What? How is that even possible," the Raccoon asks, drying her eyes on her cold sleeve.

"I'm sorry, I don't know much, or how to explain what I may know. How about we start over here: hello, my name is Hound."

The stewardess looks up to Hound, her breath coming in quick, elongated intervals, trying to stifle a runny nose. A few seconds pass and she calmly says, "My name is Leena." The familiarity of their introduction brings a slight smirk for both of them, easing the tense air.

"It's nice to meet you Leena, though I wish it were a better time and place," Hound lightly jests.

Leena's smirk broadens to a fuller smile, coughing lightly to release the old air pent up in her tension. "Yeah," she murmurs back, before continuing a bit more confidently, "somewhere not as cold would have been a lot better." Looking back to the Owl-eye shaped monitors, Leena's expression returns to the fearful confusion it once was. Motioning to the walls, she asks, "What is all of this? Do you have any idea what happened after the crash?"

Hound, following her gaze of the monitors, says, "The most I remember is thinking how I needed to try and find some kind of shelter, an outpost of some kind. I figured getting above the cloud bank and snow would help too, so I came up here. Aside from that I have no idea what all this is."

"How long have you been here," Leena asks, turning back to Hound.

Hound looks down at his wristwatch, remembering with a laugh and a sigh that it is broken. "To be honest, I don't know. My watch is broken and any sense of time I had is gone, since I've passed out not too long after I got here."

"What happened when you got here? Aside from that anyway," Leena says pointing to a dry mess of vomit.

"Oh that," Hound says with a bit of embarrassment. "There is a bit of a story for that."

"It wasn't just from physical exhaustion, because I sure feel like I could puke," Leena says sarcastically, attempting to lift the tension a little more.

His face now sullen, Hound somberly says, "Sadly no. It has something to do with these screens, though it was much different from what's on."

"They were playing something else?" The Fox nods twice and looks to the monitors, his expression souring. "What happened," Leena cautiously prods.

"The plane crashed, but it wasn't just off course. It was attacked."

"That's what you saw on these," Leena feverishly asks. "Was it some kind of aircraft, or missile, or something?"

Shaking his head, recalling the details of the video he saw, "No. The plane wandered deep into this mountain range, banking around peaks like the pilot knew exactly where he was. Suddenly the plane just scraped against a peak, and that's when these 'things' leapt onboard."

"What things," the troubled Raccoon asks.

"I don't know what they were," Hound continues, "but they were mean. They had some crazy looking claws; tore right into the cabin like a razor against paper."

Glancing back to the monitors' feedback, Leena asks, "Wait a second. Aren't they passengers?"

The statement snaps Hound out of his horrid memory to confirm Leena's speculation. "Yeah," he quietly says, "They must have been captured!" Leena looks to ask more, but Hound continues talking, "There were several passengers that were captured after the 'things' boarded. Most of the others were killed."

Leena's eyes dilate with a sudden gasp, "Killed? How? Why?"

"I don't know, but it was surely awful to watch," Hound says, holding back the sick feeling rising in his stomach. "I couldn't watch for more than a few seconds, but it seemed they chose some to capture, others to kill, and a select few to let go."

Some minutes pass as Leena returns to the monitors, letting everything sink in, or attempting to. Before long, she asks, "Were we the only ones let go?"

Grateful that she understood where he was getting at - allowing him to think no further on the scene of carnage - Hound approaches just left of the Raccoon. "I'm not sure, but I am thankful to not be the only one alive." His thoughts moving at a million miles suddenly stop as Hound remembers the other three survivors. Snapping his fingers loudly, "We weren't the only ones left alive!"

"I didn't see anyone else when I left the plane," Leena says with doubt.

"You didn't see me either, but I was there. I opened the emergency latch," Hound implores, hoping Leena remembers the door removing itself.

"I saw the door fall off, but how was that you? You weren't there," the Raccoon exclaims.

"The best I can figure is our vision was somehow shielded from each other. I mean, neither of us actually saw those 'things' I told you about, right?"

"Yeah, that is true. All I saw was an empty cabin."

"There, you see," Hound excitedly barks. "For whatever reason, we were kept from seeing all of the happenings going on."

"Why can we see each other now though?"

Hound stills himself, thinking hard about her question. "I'm not too sure about that. I know I couldn't see you until we bumped into each other."

"I doubt that touching each other is what 'lifted the veil,' Hound," Leena says with a light laugh.

"Why not? It could have happened?"

"Because I didn't see you until you were standing, but I'm pretty sure you kicked my shoulder," the Raccoon says, pulling her shirt over to reveal her battered shoulder. "I'm glad you at least helped me up after that. I would have been a lot angrier if you hadn't."

Hound's ears fall backward with embarrassment, "I'm sorry about that. I just thought you might have been something else."

"Don't worry about it," Leena says waving her paw to dismiss the conversation. "So, maybe the 'invisibility' wore off? Maybe it was lifted?"

"I suppose. It makes as much sense as anything else today."

"So, who were the lucky others," Leena asks. Waiting for Hound's response, she looks over his shoulder as new light enters the room. Leena gasps briefly, pointing Hound to it and sliding back against the wall. Hound instinctively steps in front of his fellow survivor, steeling himself to be ready for anything, fighting or fleeing - perhaps both.

The wall of wires and pipes open tall and allow the entrant clearance. For a few seconds a figure stands in the doorway staring back to Hound and Leena. The tall figure steps further inside revealing itself as two of the other survivors: a Mountain Lion and a Seagull, the Seagull hanging off of him. "Can I get some help here," the Cougar calls out, "this one got a lot heavier after passing out."

Hound snaps out of his tensed stance, as he and Leena rush to help the tired Cougar. Hound takes the Seagull's other wing on his shoulder while Leena lightly presses the Mountain Lion's back, easing him to straighten up a bit. The four of them make it across the room, gently sitting the Gull against the wall. Standing with his back straightened, the Mountain Lion turns around to shake paws with Hound and Leena, but stops midway as he takes in the rest of the room. The wall of wires is now closed up, and the monitors continue to have the faces of the captured passengers running in the back.

"What the hell is all this," the Cougar asks, trying to keep his voice steady as the monitors track his eyes.

"First things first," Leena suggests, extending her paw to meet the Cougar's frozen shake. "My name is Leena," the Raccoon says, tossing a quick glance to Hound.

"Oh right," Hound says, snapping a shake to the Cougar's other free paw. "I'm Hound."

"Yeah, yeah... nice to meet the two of," the Mountain Lion trails off. "What is all this? What's going on?"

"Believe me, it is a long story," Leena says, placing her other paw gently on top of the Cougar's. "Let's just start from square one, since we're all in this together."

"Right, right. Name is Scruffy, and this guy is Trenton," the Puma says pointing to himself and then to the unconscious Gull. "Now that that is out of the way, what the hell is going on?"

"I think he can tell you more than I can," Leena says, motioning to Hound.

Taken aback by the sudden burden to recount, yet again, the events he witnessed, Hound takes a deep breath. The sick feeling returns to his stomach - though not as pronounced as before - as Hound confides, "I suppose I do know a bit about what's going on."