¤BROKEN¤

Chapter 3

The four cats started to walk around the big area with Jessy in the lead. "There isn't really much to look at, it's really just a huge, gray, cube-shaped room with lots of cats in it," Jessy speaks out while continuing to walk.

"Ya, you'd think they could at least put up a poster or something to jazz this place up a bit," Mud scoffed in annoyance.

Kyle gave them a look of confusion asking, "Then what is the tour for?"

"To give you some needed info, plus there are a few spots to point out," Tip explained.

Mud nodded in agreement. "Ya like over in that corner is where you can get food and water, over in that corner is where you can sleep, and in that other corner is where you can socialize!" Mud exclaimed while pointing to each said place with a claw.

Jessy halted the group, and sat in front of them. "Also, that black door over there," she said while pointing to a wall near the food and water capsules, "that door leads to a lab I believe, and that grey door at the unused corner leads to the main building I believe, we aren't allowed to go through it, it upsets the humans and you'll be locked in a lonely cage for a couple days without food."

Kyle frowns at the door, "wow, harsh. What do they want with all of us anyway?" Kyle asks, turning to Jessy for an answer.

"Well I have a strong theory that they want to 'fix' us somehow, but I don't think it's in a positive way for us," Jessy responds to Kyle's question. 

After saying this, three men in lab coats came in through the black door, each of them carrying a long metal stick with a noose at the end of it. That's when all of hell broke loss. Cats dropped everything they were doing and began frantically running and screeching away from the men. The men gave chase as Kyle was pushed and shoved around violently by other cats. This included his three newly made friends.

Tip was nearly being trampled to death due to him being so much lower to the ground than other cats. Kyle lifts Tip onto his back to keep the little cat safer.

Kyle looks at Tip, "what is going on?"

Tip has fear in his eyes speaking in quick words, "no time to explain, run and DON'T LET THEM CATCH YOU!!!" Once finishing his sentence Tip looks past Kyle's head and his mouth drops open in terror. Kyle looks behind him to see one of the men heading towards the area him and Tip are in. He quickly runs in the other direction while Tip clings onto his back for dear life.

One of the cats a few meters away from the two gets a noose thrown down around its neck by one of the men. Kyle switches directions he is running to get farther away from the chaos.

After a few more terrifying moments of running around frantically, Kyle notices the cats around him start to slow down. Slowing down himself to catch his breath, he looks back. The men were no longer chasing the cats, but each had a cat at the end of their poles. The cats were trying frantically to break free but it was useless and they are dragged through to the other side of the black door.

Their cries could still be heard from the other side but were getting fainter as they went further away from the door. Kyle heard a sorrowful sigh come from Tip.

"Just like usual," Kyle heard Tip mumble as the small cat climbs off of his shoulders.

Tip turns back to Kyle, "thanks," he says as Jessy and Mud come trotting back up to them.

Kyle smiles back at his friend, "no problem."

Jessy smiles, "thank goodness you guys are all right, you can never really tell when your time comes around here."

"What do you mean? And what was with those cats being taken away?" Kyle asks. This place gives me a terrible feeling, and I don't think I'm going to like the answer to my questions. Kyle's thoughts were running wild with worries and fears for what this place had in store and what secrets lay beyond those doors.

The lights go out suddenly, filling Kyle with fear. Tip pats his paw.

"It's ok, it just means it's time for us to get rest," Tip explains.

Mud starts padding away quickly, "come on guys, before all the best spots get taken."

Jessy nods and starts to follow, " come on, I'll explain once we get settled in," she says as Tip and Kyle follow, with Kyle being at the end not knowing where these "best spots" were.

As they settled in on the cold floor, close enough to each other to keep warm, Jessy turns to Kyle as they all face inwards towards the little circle they made with their bodies.

"That happens every day," she starts explaining, "there are always a few cats that get taken out of this room daily. That's why the number in here is always decreasing so it makes you more likely of being a next target. I don't know what happens to the cats that get taken, but they are never brought back. Over a period of time we stop hearing their faint cries so I don't think something good happens to them," that sentence made Kyle gulp.

Mud cut into the explanation, "but a few days or something after they get taken, you start hearing these weird, almost mechanical like, noises that make your spine tingle," he finishes by straining his spine muscles and stretching his front legs forward while unsheathing his claws.

"You'll know it once you hear it," Tip added and Kyle nods. 

"We should get some rest now," Jessy says while resting her head on her front paws and closing her eyes. The others do the same, the quiet snores of the other surrounding cats becoming more noticeable in the now silent room. Kyle closes his eyes, but with the terrified cries of the cats playing over and over again in the back of his mind, he fell into an uncomfortable sleep.