Zombie Outbreak but Cats Chapter 1
Peanut Butter stared at the orange cat. She was distracted, eyes locked in on the outside. He knew Marmalade Jam still held hope that Riley and Elliott would come back, they’d cared for them for as long as they both could remember but they’d been gone for so many sunrises now, that Peanut had given up hope.
“Marms, come lay down, we can get in the bag and eat in a little bit. It’s going to be okay,” Peanut’s meow was soft and soothing, hoping his sister would listen. Instead, she looked at him with a sad green eye. The other showed nothing but the cloudy grey it’d been their whole lives.
“What if today was the day?” Her meow cracked. The sadness she felt must have been so strong. “They called us their babies, their kittens, they loved us. They’ll come home.”
Peanut let out a small huff and jumped beside her and looked out the window himself. He saw nothing but the same movement in the distance. Each day staying near the window grew a nastier and nastier stench he couldn’t pinpoint what it meant, but Marmalade had said it was the smell of death. Said a mouse must have died outside, Peanut didn’t think so though, it smelled so bad and got so much worse each day.
Marmalade let out the lowest whine before it led into the saddest purrs that Peanut had ever heard. He watched as she nosed the little ledge at the bottom of the window and tried to push it up. While it moved just a little, it was never actually enough to open. She tried again with her paws but had much less strength so nothing happened. She then pushed her face deep into Peanut’s fur sadness flooding the two of them.
Peanut had gotten used to just having Marmalade, but it never changed how his sister felt. She complained of being trapped, missing the feeling of their scratches under her chin. The days felt quiet, missing the warmth of the people who had lived with them, taken care of them, loved them. But Peanut knew deep down they didn’t love them anymore, they’d not have left them so quickly if they did. Or even been gone so long. He wished he’d make her understand they were gone.
***
The day had cooled off and Marmalade had began dozing on the top of their cat tree. Her scent was still filled with the worst sadness Peanut could ever smell but at least she was resting. At least he was there. He knew him just staying helped a little bit. But as he looked to the window one last time, he saw something sitting at it, the sun making the shadow harder for him to tell what it was. Quickly, he jumped back up, eye to eye with an unusually small cat. It’s blue eyes looking into his before he saw its mouth move. After a moment he realized it wasn’t even at him when a brown tabby jumped next to it and that cat’s eyes grew wide. The two meowed to each other, at least he thought until a black and white cat jumped up, then jumped back down with the brown tabby.
“Marms, something is happening!” Peanut shouted towards his sister. Her eyes opened slowly and let out a big yawn and stretch before he heard the thump of her paws hitting the ground. It was only another moment before she was beside him, staring at the blue-grey cat outside.
The cat outside’s eyes widened and she seemed to shout to the other cats with her. Peanut looked at Marmalade with curious eyes, but she looked mesmerized.
“Are they here to save us, Peanut?” Marmalade sounded so scared but so relieved at the same time. Peanut couldn’t help but intwine his tail with hers and rub his head against her. He felt her heartbeat slow instinctively at his love and he let out a small purr. All he really knew was that it didn’t matter, because they were together.
It was another few moments but then the front door just…opened. Two people walked in, they had every part of their body covered in thin scraps of fur, some had holes all over it. They looked dingy like they hadn’t washed in way too long. Riley and Elliott had never looked that way. That wasn’t what bothered Peanut Butter the most though, it was the smell coming from outside. The stench made him flinch and hide his head into Marmalade just to smell hers.
In another instance, Marmalade was gone. When he looked she was purring and rubbing against the new people’s legs and meowing nonsense, no real words just trying to get the people’s attention the best way she knew how. The human picked her up and began scratching her head, he’d not heard her purr so loud in a long time.
“Peanut! We’re rescued! We’re rescued!” Marmalade meowed loudly, the happiness that he had wished to hear for so long.
“It’s a good thing we found you,” came a new voice, the silver cat walking through the door. “The dead were beginning to grow closer. I’m Silver Sight.”
The black and white cat had followed her in but flicked his ears and went back outside without a word. He walked past the brown tabby who sat right next to Silver Sight and began to groom her gently.
“I’m Timber,” she purred.
Peanut didn’t quite care for the introductions. He hadn’t been the only one either considering the tom was still nowhere to be seen. But he wanted to be polite so he lowly meowed, “I’m Peanut Butter and that’s my sister, Marmalade Jam.”
The two cats nod and seem to even whisper to one another. Peanut didn’t like this. Honestly? He wanted to stay here with just his sister forever.
When he spied around, he saw one of the humans, likely a female from the looks of it, wearing what used to be a white long fur but was now an off red-brown color. He realized some of the stench didn’t come from outside, it was coming from the newcomers because of the red-brown stuff. He didn’t like this even more. Why did they stink?
He kept watching her and noticed she was meowing to the other one, excitement in the air. She was taking all the cans and putting them in a big pouch. He realized he wanted to know what else they were doing because it now seemed less like a rescue and more like stealing.
“Erm…what’s going on?” Peanut meowed nervously.
“We’re being rescued, Peanut! You see it!” Marmalade shouted.
“We’re looting,” meowed Silver Sight. “Well, they are. We show them spots with people or animals to save. Not just that but if we spot supplies we lead them over.” Silver Sight pawed at Timber, who was not listening to them. She seemed distracted by something else.
“They found a lot of cat food,” came Timber. “Like…a lot a lot. The humans here loved those two a lot. Apparently, just not enough to take them.”
Suddenly, Marmalade began to mew in a small, sad tone, “Riley was on the phone with someone before they left. Riley’s dad wasn’t on speaker but it was obviously a warning.”
Timber eyed the girl there, “Riley’s dad must have known her. That’s Rosemary, she came from a lab about a star or two over. She left to help her sister-“ she was cut short when Rosemary spoke and Marmalade was put down. “It’s time to go.”
