Bob's Life: Global Warming

Chapter 17: Night Skies

  This was just ridiculous.

The patrols were useless. More and more members came back worse for wear or unconscious from an attack, and the hospital wings were becoming more crowded than they should be. Each day was a blur of stitching wounds and giving out medicine. The members who weren't wounded yet were stuck in an endless cycle of building weapons, and Khadija noticed how they were becoming more like actual weapons-capable of creating wounds instead of distracting or immobilizing someone.

This isn't the Cat Cult she knew. The Cat Cult she knew was a place that seemed bright and cheerful, and always found a solution that wouldn't cause any harm to anyone. They all respected every single form of life, and would never even hurt a fly.

The Cat Cult she knew had a leader who was patient and kind-hearted. Not one who did nothing but plan for an attack on their enemies, willing to sacrifice the members just to carry out a risky plan.

Someone was bound to come back from a patrol, only to never wake up again. Unless Min was willing to stop this madness, everything will go down in flames.

"Khadija?"

She sighed, shifting so that their shoulders were touching. "I'm still here, Talise."

Khadija took on the role of helping Talise, one of the wounded Cat Cult members, adjust to a life without sight. Her face had been cut badly enough that they scarred-and her once bright eyes were now glassy and blind. Khadija was very accustomed to the dark, and she happened to be a medic so she was always somewhere near Talise at all times. She knew she should be grateful that she knew how to navigate without sight, but the fact that Talise was forced to give up seeing because of someone else's actions disgusted her. And the shadows she was used to didn't seem to be any good anymore. They seemed to surround them all, encircling them. Soon they will be completely swallowed up by the darkness.

"I'm still not used to this." Talise murmured, a hint of shame lacing her voice.

"That's perfectly fine." Khadija responded. "None of this is your fault, after all. And it's only been a week since, well..." She cringed at how bitter she sounded, when she meant to sound encouraging.

"Can you tell me where my badge is?" Talise murmured after a few beats of a stiff silence. "I want to get it by myself."

"Center of the table in front of you."

She felt the tabletop for the badge, which had the transgender pride flag on it. Khadija stopped herself from reaching out to help, letting Talise find it on her own. With a pang of guilt, she was reminded that she had stopped wearing her badge, putting it in one of the drawers instead of inside the fold of her sleeve. Maybe if it had a pride flag on it, she would still be wearing it. But it was just a cat, meaning nothing other than telling others that she was part of Cat Cult. She remembered wearing it proudly and refusing to answer the perplexed questions of neighbors, who questioned where she got the badge from. Now she didn't care. Why would she care about being part of something that let so many people get hurt for no good reason?

Talise faced Khadija, and Khadija felt a slight surge of pride as the young woman was able to find her without the medic moving. "Maybe we can go outside today."

"Outside?!"

Talise nodded, blind gaze set and determined. "Maybe if I learn to walk around in an open area, Min might let me go on more patrols."

Khadija winced, knowing that Talise probably felt useless being cooped up all the time. But at the same time, she didn't see the point of Talise going on more patrols.