We awoke early the next morning. The main part of the storm was over with, but the wind was still blowing strong throwing that sand around. It was very dark outside, it was hard to see even the closer buildings and ruins without the aid of the moon shining. I go back inside. Kat comes to me, “Angel is burning up, she will have to stay here and I will stay with her. I gave her some medication, hopefully that will bring the fever down a bit.” I dig in my backpack.

“Here, clean her wound with more of this,” I said, “it is possible there was something on that knife too.” “Yes, I was thinking that as well,” said Kat. Her and Kira cleaned out Angel’s wound again and put a new bandage on it. “It did not look infected,” said Kat. “They infection might be deeper inside though,” said Kira. She is studying to be a nurse which will be very helpful to us. But right now we have a serious problem. “Kat, you and Kira stay with Angel for now while the rest of us look around,” I said.

That leaves Jennifer, Kristina, myself and the 3 cats to look around the place and try to find Jessica. We all have something to eat first and then make some plans. Storm wanted to stay with Angel, but I told him that going with us will help her more than staying with her. He felt better then. I asked him if he could handle a backpack like the other cats. He said that would be okay now, he has gotten his strength back quite well.

I carry an extra one now just in case, actually 2 extras, but we left one back in the plane since we needed to carry other supplies too. Storm led us through some tunnels to another room, then off through another secret door to a tunnel that led to another old stone building. The roof of that one was gone too. He then showed us across an open space was the main building used by the bad humans and that is where Jessica was being held.

We went outside and off to our right to another building that seemed in good condition. Storm said this stone building was not here before. Perhaps it was uncovered by that first sandstorm we had. We looked around, there were a number of artifacts laying about, some were good, others broken. Storm was digging in a corner and uncovered a small gold cat with ruby eyes. “Now that is something that would be worth some money,” I said to the others, “good work Storm.”

He rubbed against me so I cuddled him a bit. Meow,meow.=There is door here. We all started looking for a way to open the door. “Hey Steve, put that gold cat in here,” said Jennifer. At the top of the door was a spot that fit the cat perfectly. I then turned it and the door opened inward. I removed the cat and we all went inside. It was a room full of artifacts, many gold items and other things. But there did not appear to be any other door in the room so we left and I used that same cat to close the door.

Then we went to the building next to that one. It had a similar set up for a door but we could not find an artifact that would fit that spot above the door. It was starting to get daylight now. Meowr.=Human people come this way. Jennifer and I picked up some of the artifacts and started to walk out of the building. We were surrounded right away and taken to their main building to meet their boss. It worked, now Kristina and the cats can get back and warn the others.

They did make it back and they carried Angel into that room further down the tunnel, but now what? They were trapped! “If only I could use this phone,” said Kat holding it in her hand, “hey, I have a signal.” She immediately called Rock since she figured he would be leading the rescue team. “Where are you Kat?”, asked Rock. She told him and also that Jennifer and I were taken prisoner, plus Angel was very sick. “Hang on,” said Rock, “we are not far away.”

To Be Continued.

©2022 Steve McLeod