Christian the Beast
Christian laughed to himself as he
watched the humans killing each other. Pushed to brink of extinction
yet they still battled one another. Christian laughed again as blood
dripped down his chin. The battle had been going on and off for days.
It had driven most of the game away and drawn an inordinate amount of
infected. But the humans ignored the infected as long as they were on
the other side of a fence. Christian hated it inside the fences. The
current territory he sat above was called New Virginia. He laughed at
that though since it was actually only a small section of Richmond
that had been recovered and re-purposed. New Virginia was
experiencing its third civil conflict since the collapse. Christian
always showed up when he heard gunfire however, because when humans
fought it meant someone would want to flee. And that flight gave him
the opportunity for work. Humans would trade all sorts of
knick-knacks for safe travels outside their fences. Christian really
had no use for them, but he enjoyed the excursions and it was fun
making the humans squirm when they saw him.
It wasn't that Christian was ugly. In
fact if he had a species he would probably be a fine specimen of them
at their peak condition, but Christian had never met anyone else like
himself. He was similar to both man and cat. He stood around 7ft
fully erect, but his natural stance was a hunched nearly pouncing
position. He could see in the dark though he did not see color. He
could smell like an animal, yet he spoke like a man. His body was
completely covered in red and blond hair. He was nearly orange at
times. His ears were feline. His claws were definitely feline. And
his teeth were used for tearing meat. He would eat grains on occasion
and they work well enough, but he preferred raw flesh, much like the
venison he was eating as he watched the battle below. It was then
that he saw the signal.
Stalking silently through the streets
he arrived at the gate where his charges awaited.
“Do you have the payment?” growled
Christian from behind the group. They all jumped and spun around with
weapons raised. Christian simply spread his hands in a gesture of
submission. The group consisted of three men and a woman. The men
were all in their mid thirties. The woman however was probably about
twenty or twenty-two.
“Yeah we got your payment. Half now,
half when we 'all' arrive safe at Liberty Village.” the man holding
a weathered machete said. Despite his attempt at bravery in
renegotiating the terms Christian could smell his fear. Christian
however didn't care about the payment.
“Fine. We leave at first light before
the fighting starts. Any of you are late and they get left. You leave
precisely when I say or I leave you.” Christian jumped to the
window about ten feet above them and was soon on the roofs before the
group could protest.
Christian slept watching the stars. He
had heard that before the infection happened you couldn't see the
stars at night. Christian thought again and not for the last time
that the infection was probably a good thing, but Christian didn't
know anything before he woke up and the world was how it is now.
Christian slept well despite the continued gunfire throughout the
night.
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