A Soviet's Struggle

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Xiao froze in the busted wooden doorway, held in the grips of both fear and panic. She hyperventilated, her almond eyes widened as her heart thumped against her chest. In front of her lay the Shrike - or rather, what was left of him - in a dried pool of blood. His supposed avian status being completely unrecognisable from the blow he took to the skull. Splattered around the scene were dry speckles of blood and rotting grey matter - which had time to mature overnight from the humidity of the German summer air. The felidae took a step backward and swallowed her saliva. She called for Mariya - yelled for her even - to no response inside the dormhome. Without giving it much thought, the Tabby turned and ran across the street to Brittney's dormhome, figuring the feline would be up during the morning hours. Panicked, Xiao bashed her fist on the door, screaming bloody murder to rouse Brittney.

After a few moments, the door to her feline friend's dormhome swung open. However, the Tabby was met with the Siamese's boyfriend - Roberto - who dawned a bathrobe and a cup of coffee in his hand, still in slippers. Shocked at the distress his friend was in, he cocked an eyebrow and asked if she was alright.

Through hysterics, the feline simply asked to use the landline, a desperate plea in her voice. Roberto agreed, stepping aside to allow the Tabby refuge. As Xiao entered, Roberto caught a glimpse of the scene from his girlfriend's neighbour's home across the street, but not enough to immediately tell what exactly you were looking at. He shrugged, closing the door and following the Tabby inside.

Xiao scrambled for the landline, shakily punching in the numbers "1-1-0" to the dial. Xiao pressed her forehead against the wall, attempting to focus on her breathing patterns. In her feline ear, the phone rang for a moment, before being connected to the other side:

"This is the emergency line, what is your emergency?"

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Mariya eyed the squeaky cart as it stopped by her cage. The greasy, burly man let out a wheeze as he grabbed a plate from the bottom of the cart. He rose, scooping grits, a handful of carrots, and a slab of mystery meat onto the plate. He walked over to the "food tray" area of the cage, which conveniently had no guillotine blades near it; but had the downside of being on the opposite side of the lock. The man grunted as he eyed the barely picked plate from early morning breakfast, taking it out and slipping in a new plate. His human face made eye contact with Mariya, who had watched him the whole time up to this point.

"Eat." He said, rising and making his way back to the cart. He grabbed a bowl and poured some water, putting that, too, into the food tray spot. Finished with Mariya, he pushed the cart to the next cage, the one in front of her. Mariya crawled over to the tray, her shaky paws picking through most of the plate for the carrots - the one thing she could trust wasn't made of anything animalloid - and ate. She had been here for weeks - about two and a half - and had already seen a drastic loss of weight. Low blood sugar was already evident with persistent headaches and shaky limbs; her muscle mass slowly eating itself from the inside.

Her crocodilian friend, who she had learned was Yani's missing father, minded his own business, waiting for the cart to make it's rounds and come along his side of the room. He sat squatted over his bucket, an unfortunate thing every animalloid had to go through, quietly thinking to himself as he passed his previous meal, attempting to keep himself as clean as possible.

Mariya frowned at the sight, turning her back to him to drink the water. As she drank, she ran scenarios through her head. How would she get to Schröder? Surely, a puzzling thought. She would need to make her move once out of her cage; as she wasn't too keen on losing a finger, or acquiring a nasty wound. It was only common sense, too, that this cage was also equipped with some sort of alarm if she attempted to bust the cage down with her feet. Not to mention, she had also seen the amount of people here: too many for her to take on alone.