Stray Cat Strut

Chapter Nineteen - Future

"Food!

Everyone needs it, everyone wants it. You run out, you're boned!

That's why you should buy the best!

And the best--and the rest--is all sold with the Estlen logo right on the box.

If you're not buying Estlen, you're a dead motherfucker!"

--Cancelled Estlen food promotion

***

"Lucy," I said.

"Cat!" Lucy said right back. She clattered towards me, crutches clicking away until she slammed into me. "You didn't die!"

I snorted and returned the hug before pulling back with a bit of a blush. We were sort of the centre of attention, all the brats, Marie and baldy looking our way.

"We can put the apocalypse on pause if you two wanna go at it," Junior said from where she stood near--but not with--the kittens.

"Shut up you," I said before scanning the group. "Nothing bad happened while I was off?" I asked. They were still in the area with the vending machine and washrooms. There were two ways to access the area and each had a decently tough-looking door blocking it off. If some aliens showed up they could run the other way, or hold them off. It wasn't exactly a chokepoint, but, well, we weren't exactly military.

The amount of junk food wrappers haphazardly tossed next to an overfilled trash can attested to that much.

Marie shook her head. "No ma'am. Everyone behaved appropriately. How did your scouting go?"

I grinned back, especially when Lucy leaned into my side. "Ah, well enough. There's a large group of people in the parking garage. Some security people, some normal folk. Most of the group that left the shelter earlier are already there." I smiled harder. "Even Bitchbot."

Marie raised an eyebrow, her expression turning confused, but the kittens groaned and muttered at the news.

"I uh, cleared the way," I said. They didn't need to know that what I meant by that was that I had moved all the bodies I found to out of the way corners and stuffed them into offices and waiting rooms before shutting the door. I didn't want the kittens seeing any more death than they'd already seen, and other than leaving me with the impression that my hand was dirty even after cleaning it twice, there wasn't too much of a cost on my end. "Are you guys ready to move?"

Judging by how fast they were to get to their feet, they were as eager as I was to get out of there.

The group formed up, adults and older teens on the edges and at the front and back, littler ones in the middle and myself at the front leading the group through the same corridors and passages I had just taken.

As soon as we were moving, Lucy walked up by my side and kept pace with me. "How did it go?" she asked.

"Like a milk run back home," I said.

Fetching things from the convenience store nearest the orphanage was an activity fraught with risk. The orphanage wasn't in the nicest corner, and the sorts of vagrants that hung around there weren't the nicest people.

It was still more fun than being stuck in the grungy old building though, so there were always fights to be the one let out to fetch whatever the kittens needed, despite the risk.

"How awful," Lucy said. "Any monsters along the way?"

"A couple," I said. "None on the way back. Saw a nasty worm thing that ate bodies too. Couldn't actually do anything about that one though. But, yeah, we should be safe."

Lucy was quiet for a bit. When we reached the first stairwell down, I held onto her crutches and allowed her to use my shoulder as a guide. It was kind of like being out on a normal day. Just the two of us and an unfortunate amount of kids making noise behind us.

"Where are we going? After, I mean," Lucy asked.

I shrugged a shoulder. Thinking about the not-so-close future wasn't on my list of priorities just then, not by a long shot. "I don't know," I said. "Back home?"

Lucy's nose scrunched up, a sure sign she wasn't happy. "Nah, the orphanage sucks, and we're getting too old for that place."

I rolled my eyes and handed her back her crutches as we reached the bottom. "I suppose I can use the crazy money I make from being an awesome-cool samurai to buy us a mansion or something."

"As long as I get my own room," Lucy said.

We grinned at each other.

"What about the other kids?" Lucy wondered. "Will there be room for them in your mansion."

"Our mansion," I corrected. "And sure, as long as you take care of them and Junior bunks in your room."

Lucy gasped. "You're just trying to get me to spend time in someone else's room," she said. "You devious pervert."

"I didn't say it," I said.

A cough from behind had me turning to stare up at a placid-faced Marie. "Pardon me, saint, but time is moving on."

"Ah, right," I said. "C'mon Lucy, you're stalling all of us."

"I am not!" Lucy protested.

We moved across another floor, encountering exactly nothing alien or awful, or keen on eating us, then went down the last stairwell to the parking garage.

The last door was clear, with the car they'd set to push into it off to the side and a few security types waiting nearby, chatting over coffee as if this was a normal Saturday and not the day the sky decided to open up and vomit aliens all over us.

Couldn't blame them, really. In fact, the smell had me wanting a cup of my own.

"Captain Cat," Simmons said as he jogged over.

I pretended not to hear Lucy's snort and nodded to the security officer. "Yeah, I'm back," I said.

"Good. We have trouble. And I think you're the only one that can help."

I sighed. "Right, cool. Is it urgent?" His look said something between 'yes' and 'no shit.' "Right, give me just a minute."

Turning to Lucy, I placed my hand on her shoulder, then I nodded to Marie for her to come closer. "Right. Get all the kids set up in one of the buses. Make sure we have a way out of here in a hurry, then sit tight. I'll figure out what's going on, and then, ah, I guess I'll figure out a way to leave this place."

Lucy gave me a thumbs-up and Marie nodded.

And then I was after Simmons to figure out which fire needed quenching.

***