EXODUS

— by Jeff Karamales

Chapter 21
This is Who We Are
 

Todd Farbes realized a moment after the door opened that Wyatt wasn’t kissing the other savannah cat but was being kissed. His arms were held a little from his body and he was struggling to pull away without being forceful. Regardless, the damage was done though there was still time to remedy the situation and Farbes nodded imperceptibly as the two savannah cats parted, one with extreme reluctance, the other with frantic anxiety before Wyatt bolted for the door. Julie looked less guilty than irritated at the intrusion and only glared at the man as he held up the basket with various sundries. “I suppose the need for these is past?”

The female cat said nothing, her eyes looking past the human and into the darkness where the thing she truly wanted had gone. Still maintaining her silence, the Fur adjusted where the sleeveless pullover she wore hung off of one shoulder before flopping down onto the small couch, a sullen expression in her bright yellow eyes. Not moved by the display at all, Todd carried the basket to the small kitchenette and set it down on the counter before returning to the living room. He silently wished Wyatt luck before turning his head to regard the sulking Fur.

“You know that she’s his girlfriend, right?”

Julie looked at the man without any of her pique leaving either the expression on her face or the rigid set of her shoulders. Her tail, what little of it was available, flicked back and forth in irritation that the pair had been interrupted. “I know,” the feline finally replied.

“Then why do this?” Farbes asked. The Fur turned away, unable to look the man in the eyes, her shoulders shrugging a little in the loose fabric of her top. “Julie, it’s not your place to try and break them up. You’re better than this. I know. I’ve talked to you. We’re friends.”

The more the man spoke, the more the savannah cat tried to sink into the sofa, her ears darkening in embarrassment and shame until she couldn’t take it anymore. “But she’s not like us!”

Farbes actually scowled a little bit. “That’s your whole excuse? Halley isn’t like the rest of you?”

The Furs were intriguing to the man, which was one of the reasons he’d taken up Ásmundr’s invite to function as security for them. They were complex individuals, balancing their natures as both human and animal, and now that the series of memory wipes had been carried out, were discovering the people they could have been with guidance that, in a perfect world, should have been show to them before the embarked on their sordid criminal pasts. Like any of the young recruits he’d dealt with in his time in the US Navy, Todd Farbes tried to instill the virtues that were most important such as honesty, integrity and loyalty. Most of the time it was like dealing with energetic teenagers.Teenagers that could kill him in a fit of fury if he wasn’t careful.

“Julie, you know that isn’t right. You’re better than that,” Todd admonished gently as he sat down next to the catgirl and began to rub her shoulders. He’d already learned that contact was as important. If anything it was more important to the Furs, as it was to happy and healthy companion animals, and often had to remind himself that none of them were pets. They were, as Halley and Wyatt both pointed out, people that had been caught up in very extraordinary circumstances. “When you see two people that are happy together, be happy for them. You might want what they have, or even one of the people in a relationship, but you need to respect them and what they share. It’ll happen to you one day, you know.”

“When?” the Fur asked, her voice colored by a sort of sad meow as she spoke. “I…I feel so lonely and Wyatt’s just like me. It’s just not fair.”

Todd couldn’t help but smile at that last part, the lamentation of so many young people that life wasn’t fair. They were right, of course. Life wasn’t fair, and it never had been, and anyone that expected differently was in for a rude shock. He slipped his arm around the catgirl, much as he had his own little sister years before when she, too, was suffering the sting of her first crush. It was the right thing to do and Julie leaned against the man with a soft sniffle, her clasped paws between her thighs and turned her face into the broad chest, letting his presence sooth the pain in her breast.

“No. Life isn’t fair. Sometimes you wait for a while to get what others have, sometimes it happens before you know it. And sometimes,” he continued, brushing away the moisture that collected at the corners of the Fur’s eyes, “it doesn’t come at all. But you never try and get what you want by destroying what others have. You’re better than that.” He lifted Julie’s chin so that she had to look him in the eyes. “Aren’t you?”

“I dunno…”

“Of course you are.”

The pair sat like that long enough for the Fur to get herself under control and to promise that she’d apologize to Halley as soon as she could before the man inquired if she was over her scare of the evening. Before he left, Farbes promised that it wouldn’t happen again and had the savannah cat tell him about the reporters cornering her, the things they asked her or if they’d spoken about anything else within the Village. 

*** 

Wyatt caught up with Halley near the large deck for the pool that the Furs often gathered around and approached cautiously when he saw that her shoulders were shaking slightly. As he circled around, speaking the woman’s name softly he was more than a little surprised to find that she wasn’t crying but laughing quietly.

“Um…I’m not really sure how to take this,” the savannah cat said as he tilted his head, a quick ear scratch adding to his quizzical expression. “Why aren’t you flaying me alive?”

Instead of scolding the Fur, Halley closed the distance between them and slipped her arms around his neck while still chortling in amusement. “Because I have nothing to flay you for,” she whispered before imparting a chaste kiss. “I know that you weren’t a willing participant, Wyatt. If you had been you’d have been holding her as well.” The girl’s expression sobered slightly. “But, this does go with something that I was talking to someone else about. Something I need to understand can happen no matter how much I might wish otherwise.”

“What’s that?” the cat man asked, more confused than before. And angry woman he could deal with. An angry woman that caught him in a kiss with another he could deal with. This moment, though, was well out of his realm of experience.

“I’m not a Fur.”

Wyatt frowned and again tilted his head. “I don’t-”

Halley cut him off. “You’re not just a man, Wyatt. There is part of you that belongs to the feline portion of what you are now. That feline portion will work with the portion that is still human and react to others like you. I’m only putting out half of the things that you respond to and that will attract you, and you can’t help it. I can’t help it, either. It’s just the way it is. I knew this back on the island which was why I wasn’t upset when you were intimate with Julie the first time. I can’t blame you if you react strongly to someone that puts out all of the signals that you respond to, can I? Besides, Julie’s attractive, both to the human portion and the cat.”

“What?” Wyatt asked, even more mentally off balance.

“She’s cute, Wyatt, or hadn’t you noticed?”

The Fur swallowed hard. “I’ve noticed.” He quirked an eye at the young woman. “This isn’t what I really expected to hear from you. I’m still waiting to be slapped. And I’m curious to what you just said.” His ears perked up in wry humor. “You think Julie’s cute?”

Halley shrugged. “I experimented in college. It happens. It really wasn’t my thing, but I’m not a prude or an idiot.”

“Never said you were.”

“Wyatt. You’re being a little dense. Julie likes you, though maybe that isn’t a strong enough description of it. You’re both hardwired for certain stimuli that the other puts out. She’s like a state of the art entertainment system, but where I’m concerned, despite the strength of what we feel for each other, I’m just an old radio that fades in and out. You’re only getting from me a little bit of what you would get from her. I get this. It might hurt a little, but I get it.” She chuckled again. “I was trying not to laugh when I took off. That might’ve hurt Julie and she doesn’t deserve that. And the look on your face was priceless!”

“But I love you, Halley,” Wyatt said plainly.

“I know you do, baby. I know you do,” the woman said as her hands moved up to cradle the cat man’s face in her palms. “But sometimes love isn’t always enough.” When the savannah cat opened and closed his mouth in rapid succession as words failed him, Halley laughed. “Geneticist and psychologist, remember?” she asked playfully as she flicked his long whiskers playfully, causing the Fur to blink before moving his dewlaps and wiggling his nose to adjust the way his whiskers lay.

Wyatt was distracted from his confused irritation when Farbes came running up with Julie in tow, the man breathing a little heavy while the smaller savannah cat was completely fine with the short sprint from her apartment. “C’mon! We need to check the cold storage room!”

“Why?” Wyatt asked, curious as to the scent of rage-fear that boiled off of the man. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t think those were reporters. I think they were after the equipment. The guys that cornered Julie were trying to find out what she knew or cause a distraction,” Todd replied in a sickened tone.

“You guys check it out,” Halley told them, disengaging from her lover and turning to where emergency lights still flashed near the main gate. “I’ll let Ásmundr know.”  

*** 

“Do we know if anything was taken yet?” Ásmundr asked in a flat tone, though the sparkle in his eyes belied the anger that was welling in him and the emotions he felt were enough to cause Wyatt, Julie and Kari, who had seen the commotion and joined the group, to bristle in response. While the two savannah cats looked as if their tails were full of static electricity, the strands of fur all standing on end with a slight puffing of the ruff around their necks, the African dog was in full blown hackles-up mode. Wyatt said that he thought at least four people had entered the locked storage area, Kari walked around on all fours and sniffed everywhere, starting at the door and working her way slowly inside.

“Yeah,” the she-dog said with a slight lifting of her lips to reveal teeth. “Definitely four guys.” She sniffed around some of the more portable pieces of equipment. “They looked at the stuff, but they didn’t take anything from here. These are too big.”

On the other end where a series of medical refrigerators sat, all of them powered to preserve the items inside, Halley began swearing furiously. Turning around to find the others looking at her, the woman gave them all a look of dread. “A lot of the samples are missing. Blood that was prepped from everyone when they were brought to the bunker.”

“Just blood?” Todd asked. “That might not be so bad.”

Halley shook her head. “It was prepared blood with the goetazine serum. It’s not ready to be injected because it needs the animal portion to complete it for injection, but it is human blood with the catalyst.” The woman shut the sliding glass door, noting that the latch still functioned but the lock was in pieces on the floor. “These guys knew what they were looking for. None of the animal based serum has been touched. Just the prepared human material.”

“So they can make a person look like they were combined with us before the change?” Wyatt asked.

“Worse,” Ásmundr said as he looked at the cat man. “If they knew precisely what they were looking for, it means they might have it in mind to…elevate regular animals. Force a sort of induced evolution to make something similar to all of you, but starting with regular animals.”

“This is so not good,” Halley added. “Lesko tried that. It was in her notes. They tried it with a couple of wolves, dogs and cats.”

Todd looked pointedly at the young woman. “What happened?”

Halley shook her head, her complexion paling more than it normally was and Ásmundr answered the question. “The subjects became ultra-predators. Killed the staff and the technicians before automatic containment protocols were enacted by the security system. The whole lab was flooded with chlorine gas. They saved the test specimens for research which apparently helped Doctor Lesko come up with the process for Wyatt and the others.”

Farbes hissed through his teeth while Kari’s ears perked up. “Process for us? Whaddya mean? Who’s Lesko?”

Halley smoothly distracted the she-dog. “For the volunteer program,” the woman said quickly. “You remember her. You said that she reminded you of your grandmother.”

Kari frowned slightly. “Yeah, I guess so,” the African dog replied with a slow shake of her head as she pushed herself upright. “Hey, Todd. I wanna see if I can pick up anything outside, ‘kay? One of these dudes was wearing some really stank cologne sometime in the past couple of days, ya know?”

Farbes nodded and gave the she-dog a smile. “Sounds good. I’ll come with you just in case they’re still about.”

“I can handle myself,” Kari replied with a wag of her tail.

“I know you can.”

Wyatt, Julie, Halley and Ásmundr watched the other two leave, the young woman rubbing her hands up and down her arms as all of the implications of the theft played out in her mind. “This could be bad if someone tries to replicate the process. Doing the reverse of what we did is unbelievably dangerous, Ásmundr.”

The Swede nodded slowly, his brow wrinkling in thought. “This couldn’t have come at a worse time,” the man said after muttering something in his native tongue.

“I’m not sure I understand,” Halley said glancing around the rest of the room to see if anything else had been disturbed.

Ásmundr rubbed at the bridge of his nose. “We’re supposed to fly to America next week for Senator Bingham’s trial before a subcommittee. The Americans are less concerned about the Furs for the moment than they are the gross breach of trust one of their presidential hopefuls. It will also be the first official interview for Wyatt and Ramad on what it’s like to be Furs.”

“An interview?” the male savannah cat asked with a sickened feeling causing his tail to droop.

“Newspaper, Wyatt. Not televised. Though I believe some of the networks are hoping to get visuals of you. After what happened in Geneva, the world wants more.” The Swede looked at his watch and shook his head. “Ulfi passed on that you wanted to stay here?”

“I thought I would. I tend to feel a little better when I’m around the others sometimes,” Wyatt told his friend.

“I don’t think that’ll be too much of a problem. I’ll be traveling quite a bit and trying to arrange some things that need to happen here at the Village, so perhaps that’s for the best. I’m also going to be pulling in more security from some of my other holdings. I don’t expect a repeat of tonight, but there’s no reason to take chances. Then again I was hoping to keep the location of you and the other Furs secret a little while longer.”

“Great,” Wyatt moaned. He shook his head. “When will this end?” he griped.

Ásmundr smiled in sympathy and put a hand on the Fur’s shoulder. “There is something, but it can wait until another, more appropriate, time. For now, enjoy some downtime and time around the others and don’t worry about things. I’ve promised before that I will do everything in my power to keep all of you as safe as I can, to protect all of you, and I don’t plan on failing to carry my end of this promise.”

Wyatt smiled and looked at the man. “You know, you’re looking a little frazzled. Why don’t you get out of here?”

“I plan on having Ulfi drive me home. I’ll get the copter tomorrow night.” Ásmundr turned to leave before pausing and giving Wyatt and Halley a knowing look. “And how did the boat handle?”

“Like a dream,” the savannah cat said with a boyish grin. “Like nothing else I’ve ever taken out on the water before!”

“Glad you enjoyed it,” the Swede said. “Now that it’s got your seal of approval I’ll go ahead and buy it. I might even try to learn how to fish if I can ever clear the time.”

Wyatt nodded and watched the man depart before stepping the few feet that separated him from Halley and slipped his arm over her shoulders as she continued to look around. “This is bad, Wyatt,” she muttered. “Whoever took the serums made from you and the others can do a lot of damage.”

The savannah cat nuzzled her ear and neck in an attempt to comfort her. “Ásmundr let the authorities know. They’ll find who took the stuff, hopefully before they do anything stupid.”

“I hope so.”

“C’mon. Let’s go relax for a bit.” Wyatt turned the girl towards the door, noting that one of Farbes’ fellow guards stood outside and was talking to the man and African dog Fur. They all nodded at the couple as they passed, the savannah cat waiting until they were out of earshot before whispering to Halley. “You know, the bathtubs in the apartments are pretty big. I got some of the shampoo you like. Maybe I can wash your hair for you?” he offered.

As the different individuals headed off in various directions, no one paid attention to the lone female savannah cat looking first at Wyatt and Halley before watching Todd and Kari moving off into the night, the man and she-dog a little more close than normal a moment before a hand reached out and took a paw. When she wiped an eye with the back of her paw-like hand and turned back to her apartment it was with her tail dragging on the ground, ears flattened and whiskers pointed downwards. 

*** 

While investigators worked on solving the break-in and theft from the Village, Ásmundr, Wyatt, Ramad, Halley and others from the Swedish Riksdag flew to the hearing being held against Senator Bingham. As far as the two Furs were concerned the process was similar enough to the sentencing of Andre Bolivar and several other upper echelon officers of the TCC, though with the senate subcommittee there was a bit too much in grandstanding. When the fourth committee member used the proceedings to push their particular agenda, Wyatt wanted to scream in frustration. Because of the senatorial grandstanding, the hearing was dragged out for a little over two weeks.

When the final sentence was handed down, one of Bingham’s contemporaries even screaming for his death by hanging for breaking public trust, the former Louisiana Senator, along with most of his staff, was sentenced to six consecutive life terms without the chance of parole and remanded to the Federal Penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. After the drawn out show on Capitol Hill, Wyatt and the other Furs received Presidential Pardons as a way of trying to publicly smooth over what they’d endured even though it was simply one more popularity ploy in the upcoming Presidential race for the incumbents to maintain their hold on the White House.

Unfortunately for Wyatt and Halley more images of the two of them together began to surface and as newspapers all over the country began to paste the pictures of the savannah cat helping the young women during the incident before the hearings in Geneva and speculated wildly about their relationship. It became even worse when tabloids, with heavily doctored pictures of the pair holding an artist’s rendering of what a mixed child might look like, began to appear on supermarket racks with the ‘Tell-All’ story of Wyatt and Halley that Ásmundr began to seriously consider an actual televised interview and said as much to the two Furs and geneticist.

“An interview with a reputable journalist will help stem the tide on some of these baseless rumors,” the tall Swede said as Wyatt paced the main salon of their hotel suites. “And these tabloids aren’t even as bad as some of the things that are floating around the Net. Tonight’s interview with the Post should help, though.”

“What do we care what these people think?” the cat man asked as his fur bristled in irritation and his tail thrashed angrily behind him. “They’re just newsstand rags!”

“But people take them as the gospel, Wyatt,” Halley interjected, heading off the Fur’s rant. “Even the most outlandish story has its believers.” She looked from one Fur to the other and Ásmundr. “I think that I need to speak to Wyatt alone. Would the two of you excuse us?”

Ramad eyed the couple quizzically but acquiesced as he followed Ásmundr into the next set of rooms, leaving his friend and the girl alone. The security detail, a whole platoon of Secret Service Agents furnished by the Treasury Department also stepped out when Halley directed, taking up positions in the hallway outside the suite. Wyatt watched as his lover stepped to the bar and began to gather the necessary items and ingredients for a martini.

“What’s wrong?” the savannah cat inquired as he followed a few moments later, leaning on the bar and looking at the woman who began to shake the mixer as if she were choking someone.

“We can’t do this anymore, Wyatt,” the girl whispered, sighing in frustration and setting the stainless steel mixer down hard before leaning against the bar with her head lowered. “We just can’t.”

“Can’t what?” he asked, puzzled and starting to feel a sort of sinking in the pit of his stomach.

“You and me,” she answered just as softly. “We can’t be together.” When Halley looked up there were tear tracks on her cheeks. “People…people just wouldn’t understand, Wyatt. They’ll think that what we have…they’ll think it’s wrong. They’ll say it’s bestiality and unnatural.” The girl swallowed hard and fought to stand straighter. “I don’t want to see you get hurt because of me.”

The dread the savannah cat had been feeling was replaced by anger, a slow, smoldering burn that also hurt, almost like a betrayal of everything they’d shared together. “You’re breaking up with me because of what people might think?”

“That’s only part of it. It’s a lot more complicated.”

“So explain it to me,” the Fur replied hotly.

“Damn it, Wyatt! There are people out there that wouldn’t have any problem killing you for being different! Throw the fact out there you’re screwing a human and what do you think they’ll do? Hmm? It’s just more reason for them to hate you, to hate me, to hate all the others and anybody else that’s tied up in all of this!”

“I thought you loved me,” he whispered, the hurt clear in his thrumming voice and in his eyes.

“I’m doing this because I love you!” More tears followed, coursing down her flushed cheeks and feeling hot and bitter. “Do you know what it would do to me if you got hurt or killed because of what I feel for you? It would kill me, too! I’m not going to let something happen to you because I was too selfish to let you go when it’s the best thing for both of us, and you know it!”

“Is it?” the cat man retorted hotly, wishing he knew what to do to keep the inevitable from happening. “Is it best for us? Or is what’s best for you?”

“Is that what you think?”

Wyatt shook his head and shrugged. “I don’t know what to think, Halley! If you had doubts or worries you might have mentioned them a little sooner! Or maybe you should’ve just left me alone when we were still on the island! Instead we’ve been together this whole time and life has been good and I feel like I might actually matter to someone, but with what you’ve just said all of that’s just been pissed away!” The savannah cat’s chest heaved with the roiling emotions that filled him, the pain of being told he wasn’t allowed the one thing that had given him strength when it seemed all was lost. “Why? At the island. Why did you start this if this was where it was going to end up?”

“I didn’t think any of us were going to make it,” she answered softly, deflating from the tension of the confrontation, almost as if she’d resigned herself to the worst. “I didn’t think we’d make it this far.”

“But we have made it this far and now it’s time to end it,” Wyatt said as his nostrils flared as he took deep breaths to remain calm. “Right. That makes perfect sense.”

Halley swore vehemently, her fingers tightening on the edge of the bar with enough force to redden and then pale her knuckles and the flesh under her nails. “Isn’t there enough going on without painting a big target over your head? Is being with me worth your life?!?”

“YES!” the feline roared. “It is!” Wyatt closed his eyes and swallowed down the hurt and anger knotting his stomach and tightening his throat. “I was on death row! You think after that and the things that Lesko did to me I’m afraid to die? I used to be. I used to be afraid. Not anymore! And I’m not afraid to live or to take a chance, Halley! I’m willing to face a lot of things because I love you!”

The woman slowly stepped away from the bar and held her hands up as she shook her head, tears flowing freely. “I can’t, Wyatt. I can’t do this.”

“Because you’re afraid.”

It’s more than being afraid!” the girl snapped. “It’s knowing that I can’t be everything you need! It’s knowing that no matter what you’ll be attracted to Julie or Tonya or one of the other Furs! It’s knowing that no matter what I want I can’t be with you like they can! That I can’t have children with you!” Halley began to tremble. “Do you know how that feels?” she asked in a hoarse whisper. “To want to be with someone as long as you can but to know that in the end you just don’t measure up? It hurts, Wyatt…it hurts so much!”

He tried to step closer, his arms open and inviting and Halley wanted nothing more than to accept the invitation, to feel him wrap her in his warmth and strength because he made her feel safe, that anything was possible when he held her. But to give in, to do what her heart and soul screamed for her to do really would paint a target on him for every person that saw the savannah cat and his kind as an enemy and she couldn’t do that to him. Instead of falling into Wyatt’s embrace, she turned and fled, feeling like her heart crumbled into dust and spilled out onto the floor with every step.

The door shut as the woman fled, the sound as final as a gunshot. Wyatt could only stand and stare, the moment feeling like it was happening to someone else, as if he were watching events in the third person. He knew it was a mild form of shock, the things that Halley had said blindsiding him, and he wondered if it had really happened. Less than fifteen hours earlier they had made love, the time spent some of the most tender and passionate moments they’d shared in their entire relationship.

Without thinking, moving automatically and not consciously, Wyatt stepped behind the bar and pulled out a tall glass from the selection and emptied the contents of the shaker before downing the entirety of the concoction in two deep swallows, bypassing the need for a straw rendered moot as he simply tilted his head back and dumped the drink into his open maw. It was dry and, to the savannah cat’s mind, good, but far from enough. Without pausing, the Fur grabbed the nearest bottle, an upper shelf vodka, removed the cork and cap combination and tossed it across the room before upending the blue tinged bottle.

— NEXT CHAPTER —

Unless otherwise noted, all material © Ted R. Blasingame. All rights reserved.