by Ricky Sides
He heard a loud meow abruptly sound off in the night beyond the periphery of his campfire. Then, from out of the darkness, he saw the ghostlike form of the grey cat materialize beside the mound of food and begin to eat.
Wrapped around his left hand was the string that would trigger the trap. Charlie saw that the cat was dead center of the snare. He jerked on the string, which released the bent sapling, causing it to whip into the air. As the little tree whipped skyward, a noose tightened around the cat’s body hoisting it violently into the air. The animal went into a frenzy of movement as it thrashed around in an effort to escape the trap.
Charlie raced toward the trapped feline with his homemade spear in hand. The cat hissed and continued its frenzied efforts to escape. Charlie was afraid that it would slip free of the noose before he could reach it. He knew he had only seconds before the animal managed to free itself. He thrust the tip of his weapon at the giant cat, managing to wound it severely, but then Charlie felt something slam into him from behind.
The old man toppled to the ground, losing his grip on his weapon as his right hand reflexively opened to break his fall. Something slashed the right side of his face, but then a strange mewling sound came from the ground nearby. Charlie felt the weight on his back disappear. Getting to his knees, the man grabbed his spear and spun toward the trapped cat. He saw the big white cat beside the wounded grey. She had managed to free herself from the noose.
The white male stopped and turned to face the veteran. Its ears were laid back and its eyes were open wide, reflecting the light from the campfire. Its mouth was open and its lips were curled back as it vented its warning sound, which was a mix between a hiss and a growl. The animal stared at Charlie with such intensity and ferocity that the old man stood transfixed.
The moment was fleeting, and when it passed, the cat turned to its wounded mate. Charlie felt blood oozing down his face. He backed away from the pair of cats. Shifting his spear from his right hand to his left, the man reached up to touch his injured face in an effort to determine the extent of his injuries. He winced in pain and held his hand before him to see if his face was bleeding. The fingers were covered in blood. Apparently, the big male had bloodied him good.
Charlie angrily moved to his shelter and retrieved the bow he had fashioned from the materials at hand. It wasn’t a good bow, but he hoped that it would be good enough to suit his needs. He took his bow and the single decent arrow he had managed to make and prepared to end the war with the cats.
Nocking the arrow, he moved a few feet back in the direction of the two cats. The female’s loud meowing had stopped. The agitated male stood over her as if he was waiting for her to get to her feet, but the female wasn’t going anywhere. Charlie could see that he had succeeded in severely wounding the animal. Now certain that the wounded cat would soon die, Charlie concentrated on the white cat. However, that animal was standing with its back to him, thus making a kill shot difficult, if not impossible.
As he moved around to the side to try to get a better shot at the animal, Charlie marveled at the sheer size of the beast. He estimated that it was approximately two feet tall at its back and an incredible four feet long. “No wonder it knocked me down,” Charlie thought.
He stopped when he thought he had reached a spot from which he could launch a good clean kill shot with his primitive bow. However, the female took notice of him and hissed in warning. The male turned to face Charlie, saw the weapon in his hands, and darted away into the night.
***
Jerry was driving back from the fruitless hunt for Talbot when he saw an old man walking down the frozen streets of Athens. He noticed that the man was wearing a military field jacket and carrying a stick. By the light of a streetlight, he also noticed that the man’s face was bleeding.
Jerry drove past the man and pulled over to park. Exiting his car, he walked out into the street to face the man. Charlie stopped when he drew abreast of Jerry and said, “You’re wasting your time if you aim to rob me. I’ve got nothing worth having but my wits.”
Jerry chuckled and said, “I’ll bet you’ve got plenty of that to spare old man. But I didn’t stop to rob you. I saw the blood on your face and stopped to see if you need help. By the way, my name is Jerry.”
“My name is Charlie,” the old man said. “I got clawed by a giant white cat when I killed its mate. I woulda killed it too, but it ran off. It’s out there, somewhere, stalking me,” Charlie responded.
“I’ll give you a lift to the hospital. I’d like to hear about those giant cats,” Jerry stated.
“You take me there, and I’ll tell you anything you want to know,” the old man said as he looked around them nervously.
“Hop in the car and I’ll have you there in minutes,” Jerry promised.
They both got in Jerry’s car and were soon on the way to the hospital. “You mentioned giant cats,” Jerry prompted.
“Yeah. They have been stalking me for three nights. I killed one the first night. The other two ate it. Tonight, I trapped one with a snare and speared it, but the biggest cat got away. It’s a huge white cat.”
“Where have you had these encounters?” asked Jerry curiously.
“At my camp near the railroad tracks behind the old Kroger building and south a ways,” Charlie answered. He was enjoying the heat, and felt he owed Jerry the truth.
“You’re camping in this weather?” Jerry asked.
“Not by choice. My camp is my home,” the old man explained.
“You’re going to freeze to death out there,” Jerry said with a worried tone in his voice.
The old man laughed and said, “Son, I can handle the cold. Right now, I’m in more danger of being eaten by a giant cat. It’s just a matter of time before that damned animal comes up on me when I’m asleep.”
“Why don’t you sleep somewhere else for a couple of nights? I’m sure that in a couple of days the cat problem will go away,” Jerry stated.
“Why would you think that?” Charlie asked.
“You said there was only one left. How long could a giant cat remain in the city without being seen?” Jerry asked. “And, if it’s as aggressive as you say, it’s bound to get itself killed.”
“You missed the turn,” Charlie told Jerry.
“It’s okay. You look hungry. I thought I’d buy you a sandwich and coffee at Jiffy’s before taking you to the hospital. You’ll probably be stuck there for hours,” Jerry explained.
“Why would you do that?” Charlie asked.
“Word around town has it that you were once in the army,” Jerry admitted. “I’m in the military myself, and I’ve been hungry more than once. I don’t like seeing that look in another man’s eyes.”
“You’re a good man then. Thank you. I’m not going to lie and tell you I’m not hungry,” Charlie said.
When he pulled into the parking lot, Jerry asked, “Burgers all the way sound good to you?”
“That sounds great,” Charlie responded.
Inside the store, Jerry ordered two burgers and then he spotted chicken in the food warmer. “Throw in a couple of pieces of chicken and some of those fries,” he requested.
He paid for the purchase, and then Jerry slipped an extra twenty-dollar bill out of his wallet and dropped it into the sack with the food.
When he entered the car with the sack of food and coffee, Jerry said, “I got you some fried chicken too. It looked good and smelled great. You can eat in the car before you go in the hospital. I wish there was more I could do for you.”
“You’ve done more than enough,” Charlie said as he took a bite of the burger. When he swallowed the bite of food, Charlie said, “Oh, this is good. It’s been a long time since I ate this well. You can just drop me off at the hospital. I’ll eat outside before I go in for treatment. I’d like to savor this meal.”
“It’s too cold out tonight. You wouldn’t be able to enjoy the food. You eat in the car, and then you can go inside. Besides, I’d like to ask you a couple more qu
estions about the cats.”
Charlie nodded his acceptance as he took another bite of his sandwich.
“You said you’ve seen three of them, and that you killed two. Have you seen any sign of more than those three being in the area?”
“No, and I hope I don’t. Three of those monsters are enough. I don’t think you appreciate just how big these animals are. Tonight the white one knocked me down. I guess it got a running start and just pounced on me from behind. That’s how I got this,” Charlie said and gestured toward his face with the remnants of his sandwich.
“You’ve got fries in there too,” Jerry stated.
“Thank you,” Charlie responded and reached down into the sack. When he pulled out the fries, he also pulled out the money that Jerry had dropped in the bag. “You forgot your money,” the man stated and tried to hand it to Jerry.
“That’s yours,” Jerry said, refusing to accept the money.
“Why?”
“Call it a consulting fee, Charlie. The army is interested in getting rid of this cat problem. I’ve been hunting them for a few days now. I’d like to bring my team to your area tomorrow to see if we can terminate the problem animal before it injures anyone. But you have to keep this a secret. The army doesn’t like it when I blow our cover.”
“I won’t say anything. As to your team taking out the animal, I’d sleep peacefully at night knowing the thing’s no longer a threat. Kids sometimes walk along the tracks. I woke up last night from a nightmare that one of the cats had killed a kid. It doesn’t much matter what happens to me, but I’m worried about the kids.”
“It matters to me,” Jerry stated, referring to what happened to the old veteran. “I’ll bring the boys down that way tomorrow. They’re out of town tonight, but we’ll be there as soon as they get back tomorrow.”
“I’ll be expecting you,” Charlie said.
***
“That’s right. I said bring three cases of MREs and three wool blankets when you come back to Athens in the morning. Requisition them. The base commander will allow it,” Jerry stated.
“Henry wants to know if we’re going to have to eat MREs. Even he hates those things,” Sergeant Haskell said with a light laugh.
“No. I’ll explain tomorrow. Plan to pick me up at Patricia’s house when you get back to town. We’ll take the van to check out the area near the walking track and then we’ll head to another location that I got a lead on tonight.”
“We’ll be there early,” the sergeant promised.
Jerry had just hung up from his conversation with the sergeant when his cell phone rang. “Jerry, this is Robert,” said the voice on the line.
“Have you gotten the results of the inventory on the returned shipments?” Jerry asked.
“Yes, and it’s not good. Most of the food had already been sold,” Robert responded.
“Then let’s hope that the food was spread among so many consumers that it won’t have been served in sufficient quantities to cause the negative affects,” Jerry stated. “The company really should consider a limited recall in the Athens area.”
“They’ve flat out rejected that suggestion. The board of directors is afraid that a recall, even if limited to Athens, would have a drastic impact on sales when word of the recall hit the media,” Robert explained.
“That’s pretty much what I expected,” Jerry responded.
“What does Talbot hope to gain by pulling this?” asked Robert.
“Consider what we know at this point. We know he sent the formula to multiple nations around the globe. We know that he killed to do it, and that he killed again in an effort to cover up what he’d done. We know that he’s on the run. I think you’re asking the wrong question. I don’t think we should ask ourselves what he hopes to gain. I believe we should be asking ourselves what he is hoping to accomplish. By creating a scenario in which dozens of cats turn on their owners in a single city, he is guaranteeing media exposure. It would serve as a commercial for him in his quest to market the formula.”
“I see what you mean,” Robert said. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
“We now have proof positive that other species are affected by the formula,” Jerry said. “Patricia wanted me to remind you that the two of you never did get to do that rodent inspection and that you should now consider them as a potential source for serious security issues.”
“Oh hell,” Robert said. “I’ll get a team on that the first thing in the morning.”
“Be sure to inform me if you spot any signs of an issue with that angle,” Jerry requested.
“Count on it,” Robert said, and then he said goodnight.
“Now, where were we?” Jerry asked.
“You said after you called your men you wanted to discuss the abnormal behavior of the animals,” Patricia reminded him.
“Oh yeah. Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t cats supposed to be solitary hunters? I’m asking because today we saw them hunting in groups.”
“Yes they are solitary hunters, but that’s ordinary cats. The big cats do hunt in groups at times,” Patricia stated. “They have to in order to secure prey large enough to feed them. Therefore, it might be a mistake to attribute that aberration to a personality disorder. They may instinctively realize that in order to secure enough food to survive, they have to hunt in groups to bring down prey large enough to make the hunting effective. Any predator must consume more calories than it expends hunting, or face starvation. By hunting in groups, they diminish their caloric intake, but save much more than they’d lose as a lone hunter attempting to bring down large prey. Their normal rodent prey would be insufficient to sustain them.”
“Thank you for that explanation. I’ll be sure to reference the alteration in their behavior in my report,” Jerry said, and then he asked, “What about confusion?” He went on to explain about the dog’s confusion he’d observed during the incident that afternoon.
“During the testing, one of the early symptoms that accompanied the increased aggression was a sort of confusion. Not all of the test subjects displayed that confusion, but several did, and in all cases it was a short lived side affect,” Patricia explained. “Jennifer thought it was their normal behavior at odds with their more aggressive behavior, which was just beginning to manifest.”
“But their normal behavior always lost to the aggressiveness?” he asked.
“Yes. That was the ultimate outcome with all of our test animals. However, we only had forty-eight cats in the test. Granted, they were from a wide variety of feline breeds, but you should know that such a small number isn’t conclusive proof that all felids would react in that manner.”
“Felids?” queried Jerry.
“Sorry. That’s the same as feline. Felid is the technical term.”
“So it’s possible that not all cats would experience the side effects?”
“No. That’s not what I mean. Some might not experience all of the side effects. But all would experience some. For example, if the diet is rigidly controlled, then it’s possible that some will not show visible signs of rapid growth. But in that situation, I’d almost bet that the animals would be even more aggressive because hunger triggers the aggression. By the same token, it’s conceivable that someone could over feed an animal to the point that it never became hungry enough to exhibit the hyper aggression.”
“That would create a really big cat,” Jerry speculated.
“Morbid obesity would be the outcome,” agreed Patricia.
“Now for the most important question of all, if these animals reproduce, will their offspring be normal or will they exhibit the aberrant behavior and size of their parents?” Jerry asked.
“Jennifer and I discussed that very issue, and we think it most likely that the offspring would be normal at birth. However, we think that the surviving offspring would become more aggressive than normal because they’d learn that behavior from their mothers. That assumption is based on the hyper aggression not diminishing over time, o
nce the mothers are off the feed. If the mothers’ ravenous hunger doesn’t subside over time, then there would be a higher mortality rate for their offspring. That’s because the mothers would have to hunt more frequently and when the kittens are left untended, they’re at their most vulnerable.”
“But they’d be normal in size at birth?” Jerry asked.
“We think that would prove true, because the basic DNA of the animals on the food is unaffected. However, there is also a probability that the mothers’ milk would be laced with concentrated growth hormone, which would cause the animals to grow to enormous sizes, and if that happens, then it would likely trigger hyper aggression as well. Since they’d be sustained by that milk for six to ten weeks, their growth rate would be phenomenal. In theory, the first generation of offspring would surpass their parents in size, and be even more aggressive, but that’s all theoretical. We lacked clinical trial data to back up that supposition.”
“Would a second generation also be affected in a similar manner?” Jerry asked.
“Our best guess is that the majority of the second generation would revert to normal, provided that there was no further exposure to the contaminated feed. However, we do feel it is possible that a small percentage of a wide spread population could experience a genetic mutation that favored the enhanced size, but that would require millions of affected animals. Therefore, considering the small number of test subjects involved, we feel it is highly unlikely that a second generation would retain the enhanced size, but the hyper aggression could be conditioned into that generation by the parents,” Patricia explained.
“That leads us to another matter. In normal cases, male cats leave a pregnant female and seek out another. Unlike lions, the fathers do not stay with the females for the birth of their offspring. For this reason, it’s logical to assume that at least a few of the toms would have been driven off by the others and will be out there somewhere alone. They’ll be seeking mates, but their offspring, should they breed with a normal cat, should be completely normal. They won’t learn the over aggressive behavior from the father, because he’ll move on and look for another receptive female,” Patricia explained.