Faction: Biohazard

Chapter 1

    Kenny was wandering through a shady land. He had no clue where he was, and even with his sharp night vision, he couldn't see far into the darkness. All he heard was the wind rushing through the trees with agility. Shadows morphed slowly around him into indiscernible shapes. As he cautiously crept through the darkness, he heard soft echoes around him. He couldn't make out the voices, but they slowly became louder and louder with each passing second. Finally, he entered a clearing, all of which he could see, but nothing beyond. From the other side of the clearing, two cats slunk forward, and he knew who the cats were instantly. On one side was a bone-thin and sickly cat with grimy white fur, with patches where the fur had clearly fallen out. His tail was scraggly and bent towards the tailtip. The other cat was a cream colored tabby with quite a bit of white on her, also with grimy and tattered fur. She was also scrawny, though her body was in much better condition than the other cat's, and she wasn't as thin. One of her ears looked as though something had ripped it off. Both had completely hazed over eyes that lacked pupils or life. The two reeked of death, but the two of them were also foaming slightly at the mouth. Kenny was stuck in place out of complete terror and awe. The smell was overwhelming, and yet he couldn't respond. The voices around him were chilling. The two cats slowly approached him, and he tried to step back, but couldn't move. "Kennnnnnyyy..." The white cat said in a broken, raspy and quiet voice. As the cat spoke, his mouth only continued to foam slightly. Kenny now was fighting not only to move, but to breathe as well as the smell was as if death himself appeared before him...

He suddenly shot up, gasping for air. He stared around the car he was in and sighed in relief. Rain lightly tapped against the roof of the car, and a figure besides him stirred. "Kenny..?" The other creature mumbled and propped himself up. Kenny turned to look at the badger who had been asleep besides him. "Are you alright?" The badger asked him. He sighed, "I'm okay, Dusty... Just a nightmare... That's all." Dusty sighed and rested his head on the tom's side. "Are you sure? Do you want to talk about it maybe? I'll stay awake and listen for you. You know that." Kenny rolled his eyes. "I'm fine, Dusty... I promise." Dusty let out a huff of dissatisfaction with that answer, but didn't argue. "Alright. Well, try to sleep anyhow. You need it. You've been having these damn nightmares for days now, and I can't imagine it being good for your sleep schedule." Dusty was right, and Kenny knew it. He sighed and closed his eyes, falling back to sleep.

"Hey... wake up..." Dusty mumbled softly and accidentally poked Kenny a little too hard. The cat responded by hissing and waking up, turning to focus his angry, dark blue eyes on him. "What the hell did you poke me that hard for?" He stood up, ears flattened. Kenny knew it was an accident, but Dusty knew it hurt him when he poked him like that. He was tempted to swat his paw at the badger's leg just as a warning, but decided against it. "It was an accident, thorny ass." Dusty narrowed his eyes. "Anyways, Jethro wants to see us and the rest of the faction." The badger turned and left the car. Kenny sighed and followed shortly after, squinting his eyes against the blinding light of the morning.

The other animals were already at the gathering spot. It was around the front of an almost destroyed bus. The hood and front half of the bus was the only thing that stayed intact. They were clamoring loudly about... Something. As Kenny sat besides Dusty, he overheard Stella the fox talking to Marina the chicken. "That raccoon... You don't think it'll try to attack me, right?" Marina asked, a slight tremble in her voice. Stella curled her tail around the frightened bird. "Marina, I won't let anyone hurt you, alright? You know that. I promise." Jethro soon hopped on to the hood of the bus and voices fell silent after a few moments. "Biohazards, I have called this meeting to discuss two important matters. The first is an update on the disease. It has been a few months, and it has done nothing but get worse since the beginning of winter, and I do not want it to spread. For this reason, unless I give permission to do so, traveling outside of the junkyard is forbidden. Outsiders are also not allowed to enter the junkyard without my permission. You will be punished if you choose to break this rule." Animals mumbled and some shifted in uneasiness. Jethro waited for the silence before continuing to speak. "As quite a few of you know, we've had a problem for the past several nights of an intruder wandering into our territory and stealing not only our food, but other resources of ours as well." The animals began chatting away angrily this time. Jethro put a paw up and waited for the noise to die down once again. " I am instating a small patrol of nocturnals to keep an eye on the junkyard, and hopefully we can deter, if not catch the raccoon. The first patrols will be Dusty, Fern, Gray and myself. I will pick new patrols daily." Dusty piped up from the crowd, "This is fine and all, Jethro, but how do you know this is a raccoon and not a much bigger threat like a bear?" Jethro narrowed his eyes. "Dusty, the prints I found in the dirt and on some of our storage cars are not even close to the same size as a bear. Besides, a bear would leave damage where they roamed and we would've heard it. Raccoons are sneaky bastards and like to steal shiny things and pick locks with their little paws." Kenny stared at Jethro, rather surprised by his sudden rude response. Jethro had been doing this more and more. It began to bother him. "Meeting dismissed." Jethro lept down from his spot on the bus roof and the animals disbanded.

As Kenny wandered towards the car where the food was kept, his mind slowly wandered to that dream he had the night before. It was so jarring to see his relatives in his dreams like last night. This dream had been recurring for the past few nights, and had occurred so often that now it impacted how and when he slept, his emotions, and it even affected his sense of smell and taste. He could no longer get a whiff of fresh air without smelling a faint trace of that smell of death. Tracking had become harder for him because of this. He didn't enjoy the taste of his food anymore, as that had been tainted by the smell as well. Just the thought of the dreams made him lose his appetite quickly. He turned away from the car where the food was, instead opting to see if there was any supplies he could collect. He found Jethro and approached him. "Jethro! I would like to run out and fetch supplies for us." He told him. Jethro nodded. "You have my permission. Be sure to return by sunfall, otherwise I will have to send a patrol after you." "Alright, Jethro." Kenny said before he left the junkyard, trotting along the gravel path that led into the forest.