TURNING RED 2 : White Code

Chapter 5 - Forced Extraction

My life therefore follows its course in this dynamic, until the day we find ourselves with the police who come to show up at the residence, the kids of the old man who owned the manor have recovered the inheritance and the house and we have an injunction to leave the premises within 24 hours. Hard blow for all of us. This is where Chad explains to me why I am important to them, they are counting on me and on the tiger not to let us be dislodged. For them I act a bit like a... guardian or even a protector, that's why he was watching to see if someone from the legend was true, because to tell me the truth there was a case similar in 2002 in Toronto, the pandapocalyspe which led to the destruction of the Skydome. I vaguely heard about it at the time but wasn't interested in it. 4 years later nothing similar had happened again. My curiosity is obviously piqued, but that wasn't my main concern, of course I was going to do everything so that we could keep our home so I spent the day training and fighting, giving little break in order to be on top for the next day... which comes a little too quickly in my opinion. Here we are again with the police who order us to leave to which Chad replies that we refuse. It is from this moment that things degenerate, when the agents approach, determined to make us leave by force, I let the tiger out and I begin to beat them one after the other. I didn't think it was going to be that simple, plus they don't know how to react to what I am. Even when reinforcements were called they couldn't do much, after all this gift was intended to be able to defeat entire clans like the yakuza so in itself nothing surprising even if it's still quite impressive when I notice the strength that I possess and which grows again and again making me go even further than where I have been until now. The police withdrawing, the residence is in joy and spends the evening celebrating me, I am both proud because I allowed us to keep our home and at the same time not because deep inside me I know it's not good... but hey I tell myself that hunger justifies the means and I prefer to enjoy the party and the present moment. We all go to bed after spending half the night partying, some after drinking a lot. And I'm already thinking about my day tomorrow and trying to estimate how much money I'll be able to make.

I feel like I haven't slept... waking up that morning was really very abrupt, and I really should have known that the police weren't going to leave it at that. They raid while everyone is still sleeping in the residence, it's total chaos, no one understands what's happening, I get pulled out of my bed and put face down on the floor with my hands in the back, I try to turn my head to see what's going on, and the first thing my assailant says to me is "What is that??? » seeing as what he sees is the real me. Anger begins to rise... you'll see what I am! I don't have time to change form as I'm dragged out of the room to the entrance hall where others are on their knees with their hands tied behind their backs. Almost everyone gathered there, some must have had time to escape or hide. They explain to us that we are all under arrest for refusal to comply, illegal occupation blah blah, we are told our rights, that the house will be evacuated by force all followed by reproaches. The others give me sideways glances, I know that I must intervene to get us out of the... but the moment must be well chosen... It's an unexpected diversion which allows me to catch it, one of the agents of police arrive in the hall saying that we must evacuate urgently because someone set fire to the bottles of alcohol in the basement and that it is spreading very quickly and he does not believe so well saying a few moments later smoke begins to fill the room. This is where I take advantage of the total confusion to become the tiger and break the handcuffs that bind me, I jostle the agents in front of me and I break down the front door shouting at everyone to get out quickly, this that everyone does. I gain height by climbing onto the roof and I see my roommates dispersing into the night. I don't know that I will probably never see the three quarters of them again. A few moments later it was up to the police to evacuate the blaze which was consuming the house, I felt the heat gradually rising to the roof, I preferred to make sure that everyone had time to evacuate by concentrating on my feline hearing to possibly detect possible calls for help from within but I hear nothing of the sort, on the other hand I do hear the "Look up there!" » coming from the courtyard, where lots of faces turn in my direction, I then hear the voice of the commissioner say "it's yesterday's beast, shoot it down!" ". I suddenly become frightened and I quickly run towards the woods next to the residence, hearing the first gunshots behind me. I don't know how long I run, my objective being to put as much distance between them and myself as I know full well that with my increased speed it is impossible for them to catch up with me and I finish my race out of breath while climbing at the top of a leafy tree where I become the real me again. So I ended my night in a half-sleep on my tree branch and was awakened for good with the first rays of the sun. At this moment I don't really know what to do, because all my "savings"... had remained in my room and were probably charred... so I find myself... back at square one as on the first day when I was kicked out, with nothing and nowhere to go. And if there was only that, while going to town in my camouflage form to resume my "work" my eye is attracted by the front page of one of the morning newspapers, the headline is "A BEAST AMONG US" and in the image below we see the mansion on fire with the silhouette on the roof, the visual is not of good enough quality for people to recognize me in detail but sufficiently contrasted to distinguish the black stripes on my white fur and recognize the animal. I freeze in place, now that I appear in the newspapers, it will be as difficult to appear as a Tiger as as a Real Me, in itself my secret has remained well kept until now despite the fights organized in the shadows. .. besides when I think about it I'm really surprised that none of my opponents or organizers came forward to tell it... perhaps for fear of reprisals... or maybe we just didn't believe them.. . but now it doesn't matter anymore, it's on the front page of the newspaper so everyone knows it. I think the best thing to do in my situation is to leave and go somewhere else anyway I have to start all over again. I go to the nearest Daisy Mart and quietly steal a road map and leave the store. I need to blend in more and go to a big city, and according to what I can see the closest one in Canada is... Toronto... 330 km in 4 hours from train and I don't have any money... too bad I'm going to cheat, I have no choice. Come on, card in pocket and head for the station, it feels strange to me to leave from here where I have always lived, where I grew up but I have to face the facts, my life here has ended a long time ago. So it is with no regrets that I board and leave Windsor.

I'm not going to dwell too much on the trip, there's not much to say, except that I fooled the controllers again and I'll keep that to myself, understand that I'm not going to either reveal all my secrets. So here I am at my destination: Toronto. It's actually a very big city. Objective number 1: find somewhere to sleep and something to stay clean. I spend the day exploring the city, in the absence of a real roof I spotted an abandoned construction site at the end of a construction site also abandoned to shelter me and luckily running water still works but hey if I can find something better I won't say no, ah and what's more I'm starting to get hungry, I haven't eaten since the fire, as I told you I'm not the type to steal food normally except that here I don't have much choice. I spot a small grocery store with an outdoor fruit and vegetable display, I spot what interests me and I approach it when a loud noise makes me jump, some young people are having fun knocking over the trash cans of the grocery store making take out the furious manager. In surprise, I let the real me come out, a little involuntarily. A few glances turn towards me and I hear questioning murmurs among which I hear the word "panda" pronounced several times, I don't hang around and I run off very quickly before people have time to assimilate what they see. I arrive at my makeshift shelter and decide not to leave it for the evening. Have I been feeling stressed since the Windsor newspapers reported on the tiger? A little bit I have to admit, it seemed so normal to me that my particularity was not made known that I had never thought about the reaction of the general public if it became known, especially since at the residence I could be myself freely. So too bad I'll eat something tomorrow, now I'm going to sleep, my journey to discover the city has exhausted me, I try to find a comfortable corner in the cabin, preferably not too dusty... and I find my happiness in the end in a cupboard where I curl up in a ball, tail against my face and fall asleep.