Scarlett's Redemption: rise of a new moon

Chapter 5

|| Chapter 5 ||
☬

By the time the smoke cleared, it was still dark, as the sun was setting. The surviving party were still collecting down the street in an empty parking garage. Scarlett stared at the rubble that remained in the distance. Twolegs had arrived in great big, red monsters with loud, blaring nonsense. They appeared to be shooting a powerful river at it.

Gravel was stuck in her paws. Some of her fur had been singed, and even her shoulder had caught on part of the wood at Louisa's window, blood now turning a dark red. Internally, she couldn't process it. She was there only heartbeats before.

The remaining cats collected in a huddle in the corner. There was Freakfly, Wheezy, Toadcroak, Damsel, Lion, Flynn, Crunch, Sassy, and Mama tending to the kits–

"Mama, what's happening?"

The brown-and-white tabby gently hushed the mewls of the three kits. "Now, now. Everything's alright. We just have to wait on Scarlett and–"

"Where's Big Bwother?" One asked.

"I can't see my sister either," another whimpered.

"Oh, they..." Mama drew in a shaky breath and cleared her throat, working around a wavering voice. "They got away, they might just be lost, I'm sure."

"Mama, are you crying?"

"Why are you crying, Big Mama?"

The kits reached up and licked at her face as she chuckled weakly. "I'll be fine, Little Ones. It's just a stressful situation..."

Scarlett barely knew how to react. In fact, she was still in shock. Staring with blank, wide-eyes toward the rubble, smoke still ribboning up from the remains. Where Louisa...where Louisa was...Louisa was...

"Scarlett?" She barely turned her ear let alone her head at the quieted voice. Khan was in her peripheral, watching her silently. "I know it isn't much, but I can help find somewhere safe for the lot of you...at least temporarily, before tomorrow..."

Blinking, Scarlett turned to him with a hollowness in her eyes. "Tomorrow...?"

Khan blinked saddening eyes that he soon lowered and nodded reluctantly. "I'm supposed to leave at dawn," he murmured the reminder.

As it registered, Scarlett fluttered her eyes a bit. "O-oh, right...um..." Pausing, she closed her eyes and swallowed around and odd lump in her throat before bowing her head. I can't breathe...Taking in a long, wavering inhale, Scarlett turned her face away from the tom so she wouldn't show too much emotion to him, let alone the others. "I...I guess that would be alright...maybe a little later, ahem," she cleared her throat and coughed a bit.

"Did you inhale any smoke?" Khan inquired quietly.

She shook her head. "Don't worry about it," she waved off quietly and then glanced at her fur, just now noting the white ash that clung to her. "We need water..."

Khan paused a moment before he went on by her. As he hopped down to the curb, he took off toward the scene down the street. Then another voice beckoned her before she could even open her mouth. "Scarlett, some scouts reported they saw what happened."

Turning to the cat in alarm, she watched as Damsel hopped up adjacent to her on the cement wall. "What is it, then?"

"They said they saw five or six cats before the fire started leaving from behind the camp, and they weren't BloodClan. And," she paused as if unsure, "they say they think they saw Ash among them."

For a moment, nothing. It wasn't possible. There was no way...

Unless...

One word. It was all it took to whisper in her mind, and the gut feeling that assured it, to get certain feelings alight internally. "Are you sure?" Damsel nodded. After a long pause, Scarlett's claws flexed out and hooked over the edges of her perch, scraping it slowly as her toes clenched. Almost gripping it. "I want you to take a scouting party out. Hunt him down. Come get me when you find him," she said, a certain tone lingering.