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The story may contain sexual activities and situations that are to be read only by readers above the legal age of consent. All characters are above the age of 18. The story is not to be read in locations where such stories are illegal. If you are not of legal age, or live in the wrong place, please do not read.
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John Stevenson was sixteen years old when the pandemic struck. The news media reported that it started in upstate New York when some lab animals escaped from a lab. He remembered watching the National Guard trucks rolling by as they headed to a national forest. There were charges and counter charges about which lab the animals escaped from in the news. He remembered hearing his father saying to his mother, "It's the government I tell you."
Over the next two years he watched helplessly as civilization crumbled around him. First it was the airlines being grounded after a plane took off from LA and flew to Singapore. When it landed, everyone over the age of twelve had turned into the cat creatures and fled from the plane causing mass panic. Then countries started shutting their borders in a frantic attempt to stop the spread of the plague. But by that time it was already too late. Trains went next and then all mass transit. Only government vehicles were allowed to cross state lines. Schools shut down as the panic spread while food supplies became scarce and gasoline could not be bought at any price.
A mass exodus from the cities started. However, the cat creatures were waiting and infecting anyone who came near them. It was debated long and hard if in fact the mutated humans were intelligent. It seemed from observation that they shunned even simple tools and spent their time hunting, sleeping, and copulating.
On the day John turned eighteen he joined the army rather than wait for his number to be called up. While he was in basic training, he was too busy to worry about the state of the world. Again when he went to sniper school, what the sergeant wanted was much more important than anything else. He, like others attended training sessions that talked about the virus and the changes it made.
For one thing, the virus was incredibly fast acting. Within six hours the changes were profound, the human intelligence dropped to that of a sub human and the creature reverted to basic animal instincts without anything more than a primitive language. What he came out of the class with was to always wear his nose filters and never let one of the cat mutations get within fifty feet of him.
He was two weeks into the northern deployment when he heard about the campaign. They, the army, were going to form a line and take back New England. They would push the evil kitties, as John and his mates called them, to the Hudson River where the combined forces of the American and Canadian army's would crush them between them. As one of the scout sniper teams his job was to scout ahead and direct his platoon towards the cat women.
So far it had been easy. The evil kitties always ran away and it was easy to herd them like cattle. A few shots in the air was all it took for them to run away. They were about fifty clicks from the river when John and his partner Steve caught sight of about fifty of the cats milling around in a small glade. According to doctrine Shorty called in the coordinates and they settled in to watch the show.
Right on cue, the platoon rushed up in a semi-circle shooting in the air and jumping up and down acting like fools. To John and Steve's horror, the cats, instead of running, attacked. They watched helplessly as their platoon and then other reinforcements were decimated before the last cat was killed. Over the radio they heard frantic calls for air support from all over the battalion. The evil kitties had struck all of them at once and although they were unarmed, they killed three humans for every one they lost. As suddenly as it started the attack was over and the remaining cat women faded into the forest.
That ended the mass attack by the combined forces. There was one bright note, although they were unable to help their mates, as one of the cat women ran past, Steve managed to tackle it and John knocked it out with the butt of his rifle. That was the first and only living cat woman taken that day.
Dutifully they turned over their prisoner to the military police before going down to see what they could do to help others. The carnage was horrific. Not one of the humans that the cat's reached was still alive. While most died of their wounds, others ate a bullet instead of turning into one of the creatures. All they could do was go around and gather dog tags.
John and Steve were still helping put bodies into bags when a hummer roared up. It was the MP's and they had orders to take the pair back to headquarters. "What's going on?" Steve had asked once they were on the road.
"The general wants to hear firsthand what happened." One of the MP's answered.
Once they reached headquarters, they were ushered into a large tent. Off to one side they saw the cat woman bound to a chair and snarling like a wild beast. Instead of a general, they gave their report to a Major. The Major didn't believe them and said, "Do you expect me to believe this," he gestured at the cat. "Was part of a coordinated attack?"
Out of the blue the cat woman spoke with a southern accent, "You will let me go now."
All movement in the tent stopped as they stared at the cat. "What did you say?" The major spoke up.
"You will let me go. My sisters are coming to free me. The Goddess has said so." The cat woman then looked pointedly at John and Steve before growling low in her throat.
Without a thought the pair took a step back. The major turned to them and said, "That's all... return to your unit."
John opened his mouth to ask "What unit, their all dead." But Steve stopped him. Once they were outside they looked at each other, "Did you know they could talk?" John asked.
Steve shook his head, "No and what was that about sisters and Goddess?"
"I don't know and I bet the brass doesn't ether."
They finally got a ride up to where their company was stationed and reported in. The next day as they prepared to move out they heard about the attack on the Command Post. Every single human had been butchered in the night and the captive freed.
Over the next year, John and Steve were moved around; chasing this and that group of cat women. From the Everglades, up into the high Rockies, they scouted movements. Every time they made it back to camp they heard of another case of a cat woman being captured and how the Goddess would set her free. Inevitably a mass of cat women would attack and overrun the camp. Even when they flew the captive hundred miles away before questioning, the other cat women would find her.
Over time a picture grew of their culture. It seemed all the cat women were ruled by one woman. The one called the Goddess. She ruled from somewhere in central Canada and was protected by the fact that she was divine. This led to every sniper team being sent out with few supplies, a radio and orders to find and kill the one called the Goddess.
John and Steve worked their way into Canada slowly. They used all the skills they had following a small band of the killer kitties. "Killer Kitties" had taken on a whole new meaning to them in the past year. It took them almost two weeks to travel a score miles. It seemed the band they were tracking was nothing more than a hunting party. Finally, they hit pay dirt when the band of cat women did not stop in the afternoon but instead picked up their pace.
They stopped in a small glade and made a fire. As the pair watched, the small band of ten cat women grew into almost fifty. It was some sort of gathering. Steve radioed in their position and what they had found. After listening for a minute he shook his head and shut down the radio. "Just watch and follow," he whispered to John.
