Cato sat in a cafe, cup of coffee in hand as the small box tv, hanging at the top of the wall, was on the news station. “Dad, dad look!” Cato looked away from the tv to Mackenzie, “Yes Mack?” She was a small girl, light brown hair with brown, bright eyes to complement her locks. She was holding her favorite stuffed animal that looked just like their collie back at the house. The dog danced as Mack moved her hands side to side, a swaying motion. “That’s beautiful Mack,” Cato said with a smile as he glanced over at his wife. 

He turned his focus back over to the tv watching the news anchor as she spoke, “Everyone from government officials to citizens have gathered here to greet our new president as he is moving into the White House today. And here he comes now,” she said approaching the tall old man who would now be our leader for four years. But just as the anchor began to speak, rapid gunfire had erupted, followed by multiple screams somewhere behind the camera. 

“Run! Everyone get in!” the president shouted, showing people to safety inside the White House. There was a commotion of shouting, screaming and rapid gunfire. Then a beep, followed by color bars. 

The next day, still startled by the event, Cato sat on the sofa of his house and had the news channel on tv. “Sadly, all members of the government have been murdered, including the president. The number of killers were identified to be at least thirty to fifty, all snipers. Race has not been identified along with motives, but here is a future tip for everyone in the states,” the speaker looked at the camera, with sheer earnestness in her eyes. “Be prepared to survive, to have your heart broken, for all heck to break loose.” And just like that, the commercials played. 

“What does the lady mean, ‘be prepared to survive?’” chimed in a high pitched voice. Cato jumped, not knowing his daughter had been watching. He turned off the tv and turned to look at her. Mackenzie was hugging her stuffed animal dog with the family collie, Bella, tail wagging at Mackenzie’s feet. “Nothing sweetie, now go get ready for school. You’ve got a big day ahead of you.” Mackenzie turned to her room and headed in, preparing for school. Moments later she came back out, ate a bite of cereal, and headed out to the car with her mom. Cato and Bella were sitting on the couch watching tv when there was a sudden eruption of sound that shook the house. 

Cato jumped right off the sofa and threw open the front door as Bella followed behind him, yelping every few seconds. Cato ran to the streets to find that just down the block there were the remains of flames, still burning from the once towering buildings scattered yards away from where they were originally. Tears burned in his eyes as he realized what had just happened, but he wanted to see if his wife and daughter had survived. Cato ran, Bella still on his tail. He started looking for a black minivan, the one his wife always takes Mack to school in. Passing many black vans as he searched, none were found to be his.

After hours of endless searching, he decided he was defeated. Bella licked his face as he collapsed to the sidewalk, sobbing. By the time he inched home and planted himself on the sofa, night had already settled in. 

Death, the worst thing that possibly happened to any living being, had hit him, and grief was now his burden. However, days after the first bombing, he heard police sirens, fire truck horns, and ambulances. This was only the beginning of the invasion. 

In the decaying city, a dark shadow on a horse lurked around, a small dog trailing behind. The only sound was the freshly dripping rain slipping off the rugged edges of the broken and chard buildings, followed by the click clacking of the man’s beast. 

Cato was on the search resources during this grace period, then he had to go back into hiding. During these past three days a lot had happened. He snuck into a horse ranch out of town and took their blue ribbon horse, apparently he earned it for being swift in races for his breed, so he turned out to be fairly useful. He was an all back clydesdale horse and Cato ended up calling him Cyder. 

Along with stealing a horse, the bombing has become more recent. It started out once every week or so, but now it is almost daily. By being so random you must take every space between conscious and seriously. There is just too much to do in a day’s worth and you can’t afford to skip any grace period. 

During these, Cato takes his time searching for any hurt survivors and resources. Sadly, most of the survivors don’t make it too long. The ones who do somehow make it, normally leave to make sure the rest of their family is safe. 

When he finds people who need help, he uses this as an attempt to recruit a rebellion team. Most of which decline, knowing that not too many people would be willing to spare their lives to fight against the other apax continents. 

As Cato traveled through the cold air, fog emerged everywhere and the sun slowly rose. Then, abruptly, the faintest of sounds echoed in the broken valley of buildings and Cato quickly made his way to the source of the sound, jumped off his horse. 

“Bella, find.” he said pointing towards the source. The small dog bolted off, rummaging through the pile of charred rubble, nose trying to sniff out any sign of a person. But, she stood defeated, finding no one but a black raven eating at the remains of something unknown. Cato gave a defeated sigh as he scratched the head of his best friend and hopped onto the back of his horse, still searching for anything of use or people to help. Picking up a few materials he can use for fixing his base he turned for home. 

Being alone troubled most people, without communication with other people it would drive one crazy, but Cato had his memories and the animals and that's the way he liked it. 

Just as he approached his base, which was once called a home, a noise startled him. 

He turned to see an old man leaning against his house, huddled in a blanket, a red bloodstain on the blanket where his arm was and his eyes shut hid body shaking like his brain was shutting down his body from lack of food, sleep, and blood. Cato quickly jumped off of his horse and ran to the frail old man. He then picked him up and placed him on the back of Cyder and led them to the back basement door of his house. He quickly grabbed the key to the chained lock and pushed the key in and turning to unlock. He led Cyder in, making sure the old man would not fall off, as Bella followed behind and when all was well he shut the basement door, looping the rusted chain around the handles and clicked the lock back onto the chain, rattling it to make sure it would stay locked. 

As Cato turned his attention back to the frail man it seemed that he was slowly waking up, first his fingers twitched then his breathing quickened. Cato briskly took the old man off the back of the horse and  him onto a soft mound of blankets and pillows, where he generally kept the so to say “guests”. Like usual, when the frail man awakened and had taken in his surroundings, there was a scuffle. He began to push himself back, hitting the wall behind him. Acting like the strike of a match, helped him remember how much pain he was actually in, he grabbed his wounded arm and slouched a bit, still aware of his surroundings. 

“It’s alright,” Cato quickly said as he placed a bowl of soup he had left over from this morning on the floor in front of the man. He quickly clutched the bowl in one hand and slurped it down, taking his time to savor the cooled soup. After he finished it seemed that this stranger was now more as ease and less tense. “So, why have you come here?” he questioned in a curious tone. The shaky old man gave a terrified look, as if remembering what had occurred and caused him the pain he has now. 

“Well,” he began, voice trailing off as his words began to quiver, “I was making my voyage off to my daughters place she was staying at with her feonsay, she said it was one of the safest places around.” He looked around the basement that was actually more of a fort than a basement. “I guess she didn't know about this place.” he said trying to be funny but when he laughed at his own joke, pain grew in his arm. “Anyway, I was walking my way through the shadows. That's when they got me.” “Who, who got you?” Cato asked eagerly, trying to find out who exactly had done this to him. “Not who,” he said, correcting Cato, “what.” What could have gotten this man in the shadows, leaving him in this kind of shape, Cato thought and gave a confused look at the man, eager to find out what it was. 

“Dogs,” he said, voice shaky. Just as he said that, Bella’s head popped up from her bed over in the far corner, as if saying “I would never do that.” “They have dogs, huge dogs, Karelian bear dogs to be exact. They made packs of them. They taught them to go after the smell of human blood and to never stop until they get it.” The man’s eyes grew red from having to tell the tragic story of his wound. “One for them got to me, right on the arm, as you can tell.” he said, looking at his arm. “Speaking of, we better get that bandaged up, if you lose too much blood you could pass out.” Cato said as he walked over, grabbing the medic box he had laying on the wall beside the basement door. As he rummaged through, looking for the bandage wraps and antibiotic shots, the old man continued his tale. 

“It knocked me down, biting my arm as the others of the pack made their way towards me.” He zoned out trying to remember what happened, as Cato took his arm and began to stop the bleeding. “I was kinda glad the other continents had placed some mines under the ground because if they didn’t, well I would have been gone for sure. After that happened, I hurried to make my way to the nearest house and yours seemed to have someone occupied in it and knocked on the front door. But as I made my way to your back door, I had a rush of lightheadedness. So I leaned against the side of your house to get my strength back, unfortunately my legs could hold me up no longer and I passed out right then and there.” Cato had finished up bandaging the nam’s arm and asked a question to distract the man from the needle that was about to come. “At the place where you were heading, with your daughter, are there other people there?” 

“Yeah, loads of people. She told me they were taking in loads of people.” Just as the man was speaking, Cato gave him a quick show in the arm, just under his wound, to help stop any infection and blood clotting, and surprisingly the man seemed to have not been phased by it and continues on with his story. “I believe that they were down a couple of blocks from what I remember, but since I hit my head on the ground because if that dog, I can’t really remember exactly where she had told me it was.” Cato seemed curious about where these people were, maybe he could gather them all and form a rebellion group and try to fight back. After that they could try and start back the economy and hopefully others will join in as well. 

He began to grow excited about this idea and then stated, “Could we possibly go tomorrow and search for the hideaway you were speaking of?” The stranger seemed to ponder on this, thinking if it would be wise or not to do so. “I suppose so,” he replied. Today had been a good day for Cato, he gathered resources for repairing and found a survivor of this madness who also knew where a whole group of other survivors were. And tomorrow, they would set out to find them. 

Cato set off with this stranger ,who had recently informed him that he was called by the name Nyx. Cato had left Cyder and Bella at the base, he didn’t want them getting any ideas about them and their shortage of food. 

As the two of them walked down the eerie alley that was once a flowing city of people and now a ghost town of rubble, the sound of a cracking fire was in the distance. There had always been fires everywhere and it was no use putting them out either, the enemies could find that there was still life in that location and would set off more bombs, so it was best to leave them be. 

“I am fairly sure she had said in her letter that it was this left and at the end of the street.” Nyx said, trying to remember the directions that were in the letter. Cato nodded, “Remind me, why don’t you have the letter again?” “It fell out of my pocket between the time the dogs had gotten me and when I went to your house.” he replied. Cato nodded again as they turned the left and started heading towards the end of the street. “That’s it!” Nyx explained, “She told me there would be a purple handkerchief tied on a stick right outside their base!” he said with pure excitement. Cato was quickly alarmed by Nyx’s loud voice tho, knowing that someone had to have heard it, or something. The dogs. 

There was an alarm of barking in the distance and it slowly came closer by the second. Cato quickly grabbed Nyx by the arm and ran as he exclaimed “Run, common!” The sound of dogs was so close, Cato could almost smell the scent of unclean dogs. As Cato ran, he was too fast for Nyx for his grip slipped, at least 20 yards away from the hideout. 

“No!” a high pitch scream came, located around the direction of the purple handkerchief. Cato turned to see a young woman running towards the dogs and a man with a shotgun rifle trailing behind her. Not knowing how to react, Cato froze right where he stood, looking back and forth at the dogs, feet away from Nyx as he was laying on the ground struggling to pull himself back up again. From there, everything seemed to slow down for Cato, motion, sound and all. He watched as the couple ran out to the ruckus, he watched as the dogs attacked Nyx for the second time, he watched as the young man aimed his rifle for the group of dogs and as he fired, the piercing sound of gun fire ringed in his ears as moments later, one of the dogs plumatted, right on top of Nyx. The man quickly reloaded, taking another fire but missing, and repeating, this time hitting a dog, but it didn't fall, instead it ran away limping, and the others following behind for their leader were now wounded. 

As the final beast retreated the woman ran to Nyx and clutched his arm. Tears filled her eyes as the other man quickly made his way to her Nyx, then he turned to Cato, “Don’t just stand there, help me get him inside before they find out we're here.” And that what he did, Cato quickly scurried to the opposite side of Nyx and helped haul him up and towards the entrance of the secret base. When they approached the metal door someone on the other side quickly opened it, letting them walk down the stairs that led to yet another door. When they knocked on the wooden panel of a door, the one behind them had been shut with a click, locking him under the ground, unknowing of what to expect on the other side. 

The wooden panel slowly creaked open to find a huge opening, maybe from a fairly old speakeasy that had been remodeled as a bunker. Within the walls of this strange and new place, there were at least a hundred or so people, survivors, staring at the door, themselves wondering who was entering their bunker. 

“Please, someone, help him, he needs medical help and fast!” The stranger man said and the woman followed behind. There was a scurry of people, dividing themselves into a group of people and a smaller group of the people who were skilled in the medical field. There were four people in this group, two who seemed to be a surgeon of sorts and the other two looked as though they were an assistant. They quickly helped in holding up Nyx as they made their way through the crowd of people and down a hall, into a room that was most definitely used for ones who were hurt or sick. They laid him on a table that was in the middle of the room and had a pillow cushion on one end for his head. The group of medical people started to take over, putting wet rags on the wounds and tried to stop the bleeding. Cato on the other hand, slowly backed off, still in shock of what all just happened. 

“I don’t think he would make it too long without proper equipment.” one of the two doctors stated, a concerned look on his face. “Well, we have to try.” the second replied. The first one nodded, “Let’s put a heart monitor on him and begin to clean the wound, hopefully he stays through all of it.” One of the assistants led Cato and Nyx’s daughter out of the room before they began. In the main hall most of the people left, going upon their daily business. The young woman sat down on a nearby sofa as the young man from earlier sat beside her and took her hand. Cato wean over to a chair, feet away from the two. 

“I just wanted to thank you for bringing him here.” The woman said after moments of silence. “I knew he wouldn't make it too far without someone to guide him.” “It was no problem, he was in a bad state when I found him, almost as bad as he is now.” Cato replied, an awkward tone in his voice. “I’m Mary, by the way.” she said, “And I’m Ayden.” the young man said, trying to be as friendly as possible. “Cato,” He replied. 

After spending a fair amount of time talking about each other's story of how things came to be about them and sharing thoughts and ideas of rebellion, the doctors walked into the room. Mary quickly approached them, saying something Cato couldn’t hear. One of the doctors shook his head, as the other tried to comfort her. She quickly pushed away and ran into the room where Nyx was in, only to come back after what felt like hours, her eyes streamed with tears and had grown red. Ayden ran over to Mary and gave her a comforting hug, telling her ,“It’s alright, he’s in a better place now, he will be safe there and waiting for you.” “I suppose so,” she said, trying to be on a higher note, as she wiped tears from her eyes. She turned to Cato, “You are more than welcomed to stay here as long as you need to.” “Well, actually, do you mind if I bring my pets here, I will only keep them here with me for a few days, just until I get a group of people to join my rebellion.” 

“How many do you have?” 

“Only two, they don’t need too much food and I am sure I can find a place for them to stay.” 

“I guess it is always nice to have animals around. You're welcomed to bring them.” 

“Thank you, they will be good, I promise.” 

Cato held Cyder by her lead as Bella followed behind, keeping guard, sensing something was not right, like always. The only sound was those of Cyder’s hooves and that monotonous sound of water dripping from the fallen buildings. 

“Were almost there Bella, stop worrying so much.” Bella replied with a huff, meaning something along the lines of, “I’m your dog, I am supposed to be worried.” Cato gave a quick laugh at her, “Well, you got that right.” He said with a smile. Approaching the entrance of the base, Cato suddenly felt a knot in his stomach. Something was not right, he and Bella knew that. Slowing down some, Cato listened for anything out of the ordinary but ended up to find nothing as Bella looked around nervously. 

When they reached the entrance, it was cracked open. Cato quickly gave Bella the end of the lead, “Stay here and don’t let Cyder get away, I’ll be back.” Bella gave a small whine but stood her ground. “If anything happens to me, run home, don’t try and save me, just run.” She sat down to confirm her orders. “Good,” Cato gave her a quick pat on the head and slowly peaked his head through the door, coast clear, so far. When he reached the second door, it too had been left cracked open. Slowly pushing it upen and peaking around the corner, it gave a squeak from the old door hinges. Looking around at the lobby area, Cato found it empty, not a single sole in there and his stomach grew sick, wondering what had happened to all of these people. “There were so many of them,” he whispered to himself, “Who could have possibly done this?” 

“Us,” A strange voice answers as it comes behind Cato and the next few seconds happen so fast, it can only be explained as a blur and loud thud, followed by a quick but sharp pain, then, everything goes black. 

When Cato finally woke up, everything was dark, his head hurt and he had been tied to a chair. There is a faint voice speaking some exotic language, Cato couldn’t make it out. Then everything became clear, the old man, the dogs, the base and the random person who was there. Whoever was there, they had kidnapped him and brought him here. ‘Wait, Bella and Cyder.’ he thought, ‘Where are they?’ 

“Hey! Who's there?” he called as he discovered a whole in the cloth bag and caught sight of movement. Then it got quiet, they mumbled some and there was a shuffle of feet on the ground coming closer to him. “Hey, back off!” Cato yelled, turning his head left and right, as he tried to get a better view of who was there and what they planned to do. Then one of them pulled the cloth bag off his head roughly. A blinding light quickly greeted him and he could no longer see the shadows of the enemies. 

“Tell me, how did everything start for you? I want to know everything.” he questioned, his accent was definitely from somewhere far away, nothing Cato has ever heard. 

“It wasn't always like this.” Cato answered, a blinding light shining in his face. “No fear, no bombing, no stealing or hiding everything we own. It was all peaceful.” Sweat gleamed on his forehead from the light’s heat and the foes sat and listened.