I Am A Flyer

Pretty Kitty

As soon as he opened his mouth to scream, the giant black cat moved. With an angry Rawrr!, it lashed out with a paw, its deadly claws scoring deep wounds on Jett's chest. He screamed, half with terror, half with pain, and threw himself away from the cat.

Unfortunately, his attempt to get away brought him to the edge of his bed - and beyond. Still screaming his lungs out, he fell four and a half feet to the hard, cement floor. If the giant cat wanting to eat him for breakfast wasn't enough of a wake-up call, then this certainly was.

Jett was now wide awake, and wishing very much that he wasn't.

With a wild hiss, the black animal leapt from the bed, and landed gently on all four paws. It was now right in front of Jett, baring its wicked teeth. Jett yelped, and desperately dived onto the lower bunk beside him. Rolling himself through, he landed on the floor on the other side.

The cat almost lazily followed behind, effortlessly jumping up onto the bed. Jett frantically looked around, hoping for an escape to present itself. His only option was the now-open barrack door. Obviously, the cat had come in through it. . . .

Or, someone had let the cat inside. And Jett had a very good idea who was responsible.

Rrraawwrrooww! Gah! He didn't have time to think! He had to run!

The door. It was at the other end of the barrack. He had a clear path, too. So. . .he glanced back. The cat was right there, slowly advancing, its yellow orbs fixed on him. Could he make it? If he ran as hard as he could, could he reach the door before the creature sunk its teeth into him?

It was either he try and find out, or stay and let the cat make him into mincemeat. He gulped. Well, here goes. Very slowly, he bent at the knees and waist, still eyeing the cat behind him. It had stopped moving as well, but it was crouched low to the ground. Its tail swished back and forth behind it in a mesmerizing manner.

Was the thing preparing to pounce? No way Jett was going to wait around for that to happen. He kept bending, leaning forward until his fingertips brushed the ground in front of him. He was in his own world now, completely unaware of everything but the cat, the door, and himself.

The other boys were gaping in a kind of frozen horror, not quite believing the sight that lay before them. There was this humongous killer cat in their barracks! And for some strange reason, it was completely ignoring the rest of them, and only focusing on the smallest, most harmless looking kid of them all. Wait. . .wasn't this the kid that the famous Raven had taken under his wing?

Ooohhh, so maybe this would explain why a giant monster was trying to kill him. . . or not. This whole thing was just strange.

Jett prepared himself to die. He really didn't want to, but he was smart enough to realize that he didn't have much of a chance. So with that grim thought in his head, he fixed his eyes on that distant doorway -

- and exploded forward in a sudden surge of movement.

The cat seemed to leap at the same moment, its front paws reaching out, its claws outstretched. It thudded into the spot Jett had just vacated, and took off after him. He could hear the cat coming, could hear its claws scraping against the floor as it came closer and closer and closer and -

"Aaagghhh!" Screaming his lungs out, he rocketed towards the door, somehow coaxing more speed out of his legs. As he rushed past, some of the nearer boys could feel a sudden brush of wind, as his passage had disturbed the air.

All too soon, he burst through the doorway. The outside world was quite dark, as the sun hadn't risen yet. However, large, bright lights scattered beams of light everywhere, with patches of dark shadows in between.