We spent a cool night in the desert. Amazing how it can be so hot during the day and so cold at night. But we were prepared for it anyway, as best we could. It dawned another sunny day and the heat quickly returned. We had our breakfast and then began our trek across this sandy wasteland. We had no idea that the remainder of the team were behind us and headed toward the ruins as well.

Meowr?=You sure want to go where bad people are? “Yes Storm,” said Angel, “we need to go find a friend of Steve’s. Did you see a woman there that was a prisoner?” Meowr.=Me see her, bad people not treat her nice, not give her much food. I take you there, it not far now. “Thank you Storm,” I said, “and do not worry, we will all protect you from those people. Just stay close to Muffin and MC.” Meow,meow.=Yep, stay with us, we look after you.

Meowr.=Okay, I do that, now we go rest of way. So Storm sat on my shoulder, Muffin was on Kat’s shoulder and MC was on Jennifer’s shoulder. We only had to walk another 3 hours and the ruins were in sight. We lay down on top of a tall sand dune and scanned the area with binoculars. We could not see anyone which was kind of odd, they must have some guards posted. Or do they rely on this magnetic shield they have? We move over a bit to follow in behind another dune so we can hide better and get in closer to the ruins.

“Hey Charles,” said Henry, “that sandstorm uncovered more ruins and look what I found inside on building.” And he put a small gold cat on the table. “Hey, now we getting somewhere,” said Charles. “Think it is real gold?”, asked Henry. “Yeah, it is gold alright,” he said, “and worth a lot of money.” “Yeah, we can melt that down and sell the gold,” said Henry. “What? Not a chance,” said Charles, “this little cat is worth probably half a million dollars.”

“For that?,” asked Henry rather surprised. “Yep, there are lots of collector’s that want this stuff but the only way to get it is from people like us,” he explained, “so they are willing to pay a lot for these artifacts. We need to check around over there for a bit, then bring that woman over afterward.” Just then a man came running up. “People coming,” he said to Charles. “Get rid of them,” said Charles, “that’s why I hired you and your men. If there are any women, bring them here.”

The man disappeared over a sand dune. “I do not trust them,” said Henry, “they might take our treasure.” “I do not trust them either,” said Charles, “but for now they have a purpose, then we will deal with them.” Back to us…We had been sitting behind a dune making our plans and suddenly we found ourselves surrounded. We stood up slowly. Then I said “Meow!”, and we started to fight.

They each had rather large knives, but they were no match for the girls feet! Even the cats got involved, leaping on the backs of our attackers and scratching deeply. I was not doing so well, so I took out my dart gun and began firing. Soon the familiar “Thwock!, Thwock!” could be heard several times. Three men tried running and Storm ran and grabbed the bare leg of one causing him to yell and fall. Jennifer was right there and brought him back. I wanted to question him, but before I could a shot rang out and the man fell, dead.

We saw no one but we were ready to fire back. There were no other shots however, so obviously they did not want their friend to do any talking. Six of them lay dead, not counting the one they shot. Ken was also dead and Angel had been stabbed in the shoulder. She will be okay though. Meowr.=Me try to help you, human Angel, not fast enough yet. “You did great Storm,” she said, “you just need to get your strength back completely. Meow.=Yep, you did great job. Meow,meow.=Yep, we get you backpack like we have, it help lots.

Meowr.=Oh, that would be nice, me like those backpacks. “Well, they certainly know we are coming now,” I said, “so we can use our regular guns now.” We had just been using our dart guns which are noiseless. Kira bandaged Angel’s shoulder and we rested for a while before heading to the ruins. Hopefully they do not realize we are here to get Jessica back. They must be here hunting for artifacts, which are probably worth a fortune and they are using Jessica to help them. We might have to wait until nightfall so we can get in there without being noticed.

To Be Continued.

©2022 Steve McLeod.