Facade

Chapter 6- Meow.

"Hello? Anybody home?" I blink out of my train of thought as Lana waves her hands in front of my face. We're walking to my house, she was going to stay over a while. I stay silent and blink a few times as I hear Lana let out a big huff.

Did I actually agree to hang out with that guy. I've never even met him before. Wait, I never even got his name, he never got mine. I let out a breath of disbelief, well that was a topic of discussion that was inevitably going come out. It was fine to talk to him, he was nineteen after all.

"What are you sighing about? I should be the one sighing, you've been silent all this time. What's going on in that head of yours?" Lana raises her eyebrows and asks, adjusting her backpack strap.

I bite my lip, should I even tell her? I mean it wasn't that important, though she would probably freak out that I actually held a conversation that was mainly one sided with a guy.

"Fine," she holds her hands up as hops a little, "you want to keep your secret to yourself for now. I'll get it out of you sooner or later." She grins as she walks along ahead of me, humming a tune. I think this is the best quality about her, she never prys when someone doesn't want to talk and for that I'm really grateful. Somethings just needed a little bit more time.

"Thanks." I smile as we cross the street, passing by a lady that looks disgruntled. What ruined her morning? Or afternoon for that matter. Just as we're about to turn around the corner a cat appears, making us jump back. It's sleek fur reflects the sunlight as its marble eyes stare at us, as if it wants something from us.

There were no strays here, ever, I've never seen one. I look at Lana as she shrugs, either of us have no idea. Just as we're about to move on a mew springs out of nowhere, I look at the cat, it didn't meow.

Suddenly another cat comes out, then another and another and so on. Was this attack of the cats? I take a step back as more start coming, all the differnt sorts of colors make a diverse palate on the sidewalk.

"What in the-" Lana says as she takes out her phone to dial the authorities that would probably call the Jopers.

The gray cat from before appears at my feet as it rubs itself onto my leg, as it turns around I see a little red on its fur. Did it get paint on itself? I bend down to clearly see the mess on the cat. We Are Real. I widen my eyes at the message that was painted on the cat and take a step back as it scurries off from my movement, running back into the midst of cats. What is this? Who is real? Was it-

My rapid train of thought is interrupted as I flinch at the multiple mews that come out as the cats begin to disperse few at a time, they occupy the streets and traffic completely halts. People come out of their houses and cars to see the utter chaos, kids on the streets point and try to pet the cats but their parents grab them and back away.

A few moments later and the Jopers come rushing in from all sides, they too look completely puzzled as emotional incapacitated as they are, they don't know what to do. I feel a hand grab my arm and see that it's Lana as she starts pulling me along. We gently push through as cats scurry off, me to the direction we were going before.

"I really don't want to be here to make a report." Lana huffs as we pass the last of the cats and we slow down. Where did all those cats come from? Even the shelter doesn't have this much cats.

I keep my thoughts to myself as we stay silent until we make it to my house. I quickly greet my parents as Lana does a more formal address and we go up to my room. I plop onto my bed as I give a breath of astonishment, letting everything out, "what was that?"

"You know," Lana says, as if she's stating the obvious as she takes a seat in my chair by my desk, "them, the outsiders." The outsiders? They were a complete myth, they don't exist.

I scrunch my eyebrows as I shake my head, no way, it's not. "What? you've got to be kidding me. You know as much as I do that nothings out there. We don't talk about it but we know." There was nothing out there, just a barren wasteland. They told us that there was no signs of life out there, that nothing even could exist out there on the other side of the wall.

"Do we?" she says as she raises her eyebrows and waves her arms. "What was that then, what was that message?" I open my mouth to rebut but close it, what was that message? Who was it intended for? Us? The public? I mentally shake my head, I can't entertain the possibility of the outsiders when there isn't any possibility of them.

"What if they're just hiding everything from us?" Lana goes on, she sees that I have her undivided attention for her to ramble about the misdeeds of our government. "I mean, have we ever really even seen what's beyond? We can't just take their word. What's if it's not actually a desolate wasteland?"

There was no way that they would lie to us. No way, right? I scrunch my eyebrows as I think of the likelihood and Lana smiles, she sees that she has me wrapped in her theories and continues. "What if the message was to show us that they really do exist, that there're people actually living out there?"

What reasons do they even have to contact us? What did they want? Did they want us to fear them? I turn my thoughts turn to the government as I push the thought of outsiders into back of my head, intent on leaving them there. Do they even have a reason to lie to us? We live in the safest place possible why would they need to lie that it wasn't safe out there? It was a no brainer that we would stay in here regardless.

No, they don't have a reason to because they didn't lie at all. Outsiders aren't real, no one can live out there. The government didn't lie to us, how can I even consider this?

"It was probably just a prank." I shake my head as I try to convince myself with Lana rolling her eyes. She knew what I was trying to do, it was just a mechanism for not believing things. Pushing out other ideas that might've caused this which just might be true.

"With that many cats?" Lana says as she tries to show that my scenario is ludicrous.

"Yea, they could've gone to all the shelters." I nod as she puts her hands up and spins around in her chair. Yeah. They could've easily went to the shelters one by one to get all the cats. It was surely an easy task.