The problem with now having a kitten to feed was that the stores didn’t even hold cat food let alone kitty litter so it was time to improvise.
Grabbing an oven tray from the kitchen I poured some rice into it.
One of the few things left in my sorry excuses for perishable goods.
Not exactly kitty litter but it would do in a pinch.
As far as meat was involved the closest thing even the uppers had.
Given that as I mentioned there were no animals to speak of was something akin to spam.
An artificially created slop of mush that jiggled like jelly at 40 pounds per ounce.
The uppers of course having the more refined quality of the mass produced protein leaving the slab of lard with a side of, “would you eat this!?” For us commoner folk.
Yet another perk of the refuned and devined.
They did have the decency to offer different flavours that imitated the real stuff.
At least I think it did.
Though it still hit the spot for the carnivores.
Just.
It still didn’t quite hit the taste bud as something you could live off full time.
What I’m trying to get at is.
What the fuck was I supposed to feed it.
“Rexy! Open up!”
Milly’s voice at my door snapping me out of my stupefied conundrum had the kitten antelope jumping out of my lap only to claw her way up the couch arm and sit with her eyes towards the door like she knew exactly what to do.
Animals are strange.
Sighing I unfolded my still aching limbs to let Milly inside.
“What happened? I heard a loud bang.”
“I’m fine Milly. It was just a vase.”
Her eyes lit up like rubies.
The red iris’s staring with awe at what now sat on my couch.
“Is that what I think it is?”
Closing the door behind her I chuckled as I watched her approach the four legged midnight silk stack.
“I don’t know. What do you think it is?”
“It’s a cat right? Like a real one. One that stays a cat it’s whole life.”
“It sure is.”
Kneeling before it’s watchful gaze Milly asked with eyes still fixed on the creature in front of her almost like she was scared that if she looked away it would disappear.
“Can I touch it?”
“You’ll have to ask her.”
“It’s a girl?”
Actually I have no idea what gender it is.
I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet but girl seemed as good a guess as any.
With the sweatest coaxing voice Milly spoke to the kitten like it could understand every word.
“Can I pet you? I promise I won’t hurt you?”
It really was like the kitten understood as she pawed her way towards Milly.
Slowly rubbing her back along her chest her tail tickling her nose in the process.
Giggling with joy Milly reached a hestitant hand out to stroke it’s ebony back.
A gentle touch afraid if she pressed to hard she might hurt her.
“She’s beautiful. What’s her name?”
“Why don’t you pick one.”
“Really?!”
“Sure. I trust you’ll think of the perfect name.”
“Hmm. What about. Midnight?”
“Do you like your new name Midnight?”
Midnight’s purr was loud enough to vibrate through the air like soundwaves that rebounded off the walls.
“She likes it!”
“That’s great Milly. Hey I have an idea. I have to go to the store to grab Midnight some food. Would you mind looking after her while I’m gone.”
“You mean it. I can watch her all on my own?”
“Of course you can. I wouldn’t trust anyone else.”
“Thanks Rexy. We’re going to become best friends.”
“You bet you are.”
Grabbing my things I turned to leave when Milly’s laugh sounded behind me.
“Aren’t you going to get dressed first?”
Looking down I realised I was still only wearing a towel.
“Shoot. Forgot about that.”
Milly’s laughter as Midnight crawled into her lap was as infectous as always.
Her whisper in into the cats ear making me smile.
“Don’t worry she might forget things sometimes but she’ll do everything she can to protect you.”
Quickly turning back at the door Milly’s words reminding me of the most important thing.
“Oh and Milly. The cat. Nobody can know she’s here alright.”
“Don’t worry I’m not giving anyone the chance to take her away from us. I Promise.”
“Smart girl.”
“I know.”
I chuckled at her confidence.
Only a child from the slums would have come to that conclusion.
It was both a blessing and a curse.
Seeing the broken vase on the floor I swore between breaths.
Fuck it where was my head at.
Grabbing a dust pan and broom I cleaned up the mess so that Milly wouldn’t hurt herself while I was gone.
I was just about to leave when Milly yelled out with a childish chuckle.
“Rexy! You’re clothes!”
“God dam it!”
Her laugh breaking into uncontrolable leg kicking chuckles that went quiet the second I closed the door to my room.
Emerging five minutes later I glanced at Milly with a serious but humerous look.
“Let’s keep that between us. Last thing I need is Seth finding out how forgetful I am.”
“My lips are sealed.”
“Good looking out bestie.”
Finally dressed to impress I left Milly with my new found house mate in black and made my way to the store down town.
Now since we’re sharing the many ways our lives down under can campare to an uppers life of fire crystals and sun dials made of gold.
Lets break down the term slums for the otherworldly impaired with a history lesson.
In the time before we evolved into the shifters of today there was no us vs them.
There just was we.
We were humans in the base form.
No turning into animals no shifting from one to the other just plain run of the mill human beings.
That was until one geneticist.
Let’s call him dick for all intense and purposes.
Well dick here thought what a great idea to splice the genes of animals with humans because why wouldn’t you want to share your DNA with a animal much smarter then you.
The posibilities were endless dick thought.
Regeneration, splice a lizard into the mix.
What’s that you crave the strength of a Rhino why not we’ll just throw a dab of that in as well.
The demand for the skillset that came with each splice blew out of control.
In just a few short years humans walked around with the genetics of multiple animals at once.
While they still had not gained the shifters gene they could do amazing things.
Like walk through fire, swim under water for hours.
Add to that the long term benefits of what Dick had started like the death rate plumitting.
Disease was almost wiped out.
People lived longer, there was less sickness, more oppotunities for a better life if you had the funds for the right animal parts.
It wasn’t until the next generation came along that things started to change.
The children of those gene spliced spermies and eggs were born with the ability to shift.
Back then it was hit or miss as to what form you took seeing as those that had been spliced every which way until Sunday had mulitple animals mutated into thier DNA.
This wasn’t the generation that meet our downfall into the split system of today.
No. That happened a few generations down the track.
When it became clear that our new way of life was a shifter world of animals as humans thier was a power struggle between the predetory forms and the prey.
Unable to fight thier animal instincts that the mutation had morphed them into they started hunting animals.
All animals.
They tore through them with relentless hunger for the kill.
The prey forms tried to warn them.
To stop them form destroying the lives that had created thier now shifter selves.
But they wouldn’t listen.
It wasn’t until there were no animals left that they realised something had to be done before they started eating each other.
Enter the creation of the slums.
At first it was a way to weed out the shifters who couldn’t control thier spliced DNA.
The ones that were too far gone to be saved in the new way of life.
As the years went by the animals within us proved to be more difficult to tame.
With each new attack the laws of society tightened the preverbial leash.
Not only were they casting out the trouble makers they started sifting through the ones that proved not to be contributing to thier way of life.
The shifter forms that hindered thier progress on the evolutionary scale.
They truly believed that now they had become one with thier shifter forms, in control if you would.
That they had evolved into higher beings.
Ones that would take the human race to an even higher future.
This meant seprating the undesirables from the more evolved forms of life.
If you didn’t fit the scale that was it.
Your place in the evolutionary plan for the future was proved non existant.
Now I know what your thinking.
Why do I live like this when my father is who he is?
Simple it’s the law.
When I realised I was bound for the slums I told my parents that if they ever tried to follow me I would never forgive myself.
I wasn’t about to drag them down with me.
Not after everything they had done for me.
So for each time I discribe a section of the slums with ebellished detail think of this history lesson and thank Dick for his work in genology for our lives in this sespool of rotting flesh.
Viva la evolution the future of our race.