Dead end, section 2

         Black was the first thing I saw. Wait, I hadn’t opened my eyes yet. I slowly cracked one eyelid to find that I was looking up at a different sky. It was darker, the sun no longer directly overhead. I was just done registering that when I realized something else. I was still alive!
         I was lying down, but alive all right. I stood up, my muscles, stiff, protested my movement only slightly as I groaned. I looked around, dazed from just awakening. The sky I had been looking at was ringed with broken glass, and more crunched underfoot as I got to my feet. I had apparently smashed through the glass ceiling as I had fallen, but… Then why am I still alive? I wasn’t even sore, even though I had fallen five stories and apparently through a pane of thick glass.
         I looked around. I was apparently in another gallery, the paintings on the floor, plaster scattered from where it had fallen from the ceiling in great chunks. I hadn’t been in this room before; at least, I didn’t think so.
         “Hello?” My voice cracked, so I tried again. “Hello?” I shouted, “Is anyone there?” No answer. I figured that I might as well try to get outside, so I started walking around.
         The entire building seemed empty, my calls going unanswered as I wandered. Creepy… The fact that almost every room I went into was in shambles didn’t make it any less frightening either. Dust still hung heavy in the air and tickled my nose unpleasantly. Most of the lights were smashed as well, casting most of the rooms into eerie shadows. I stuck to the rooms with windows, and therefore sunlight, as much as I could.
         What few statues were still intact glared at me as I intruded on their territory, their eyes seeming to trail me through the half-light. In some rooms stone heads laid on the floor, their bodies sitting or standing some distance away. I didn’t stay in those rooms long.
         After a few minutes of wandering through random chambers I found what I was seeking: an emergency exit. I pushed it open, but no alarm sounded. That’s weird… Must have broken…
         I clenched my eyes shut as the unfiltered sunlight hit my face. I blinked them open again, giving them time to adjust to the sudden change.
         I had been right; the sun was much closer to the other horizon now, showing plainly it was late in the day. I found myself in an alleyway behind the museum. There were small cracks in the pavement below me and running up the walls as well. Trash cans were scattered around, their contents thrown everywhere. I carefully picked my way through the mess, stepping this way and that to avoid the garbage. I got out of the alley way and looked around.
         Further down the road I saw a lone figure standing in the middle of the road, the opposite side of the setting sun. I ran towards it, afraid it might vanish if I took to long.
         “Hey!” I shouted, “Over here! Hey!” The man didn’t turn to face me as I got closer. He suddenly reversed himself once I got close. “What’s going on? What happened?”
         “It’s not safe here!” The man had a wild look in his eyes as he said it, “Get someplace safe! It’s not safe here!”
         “What do you mean it’s not safe?”
         “Oh my God… A Demon!” The man whispered, looking beyond me to something I couldn’t see.
         “Demon?” I asked, “What do you mean, Demon?” I thought the man was crazy, or misspeaking. I mean, after all, who know what happened during that earthquake? The man pointed behind me, his eyes twitching wildly, and sweat pouring down his face.
         “Demon!” He screamed once again, before stumbling back, clutching his chest, and dashing down the street as quickly as possible.
         “What the..?” I turned around. There was someone standing on top of a nearby car.
         “Hey!” I yelled to it, “What’s going on?” She… Yes, I could see it was definitely a girl, looked down at me. I couldn’t see her very well; the sunset was right behind her. I took a step forwards. Without warning she jumped off. I kept expecting her to come down, but she just kept going up.
         “Holy…” I squeaked out. She had reached the peak of her jump about thirty feet up. She came down with alarming speed, zooming right at me. A war yell echoing off the nearby buildings. I stumbled back, falling as I did. I just noticed a long object in the girl’s hands. I couldn’t see what it was, just a blackened shadow. It smashed into the pavement where I was just moments earlier.
         The pavement cracked and caved in slightly from the blow, a spider web of cracks running from the grounds new wound.
         A metal pole was lodged deeply in the hole, right in between my spread legs. My eyes slowly traveled up its length, first the pole, then the arms attached to it. Then the girl attached to the arms.

         She glared down at me. She was beautiful, she would be more so if she wasn’t about to smash my head into pulp. She had short red hair, and I mean RED, like fire truck red. It went down to her neck, maybe so it wouldn’t get in her way when she was fighting. She had very long, slender legs and arms. She had a shapely figure, not too large or small, and very athletic. She was wearing a tank top and shorts that only covered the top of her legs.
         “Holy crap.” I whispered. She was much more, or maybe less, than human. She had pointed cat ears on top of her head, but none on the side. Her fingers ended in small, but very sharp claws. The entirety of her legs were covered in orange fur with black strips running along them horizontally. She stood upon the balls of her feet, which also ended in claws. From behind her came a cat’s tail, long and thin. It was twitching and flicking back and forth. She held herself confidently, her stance showing her to be ready to move any direction at any time.
I looked into her face; her eyes were a deep emerald, staring into my soul. She had two markings running from her jaw to mid cheek on each side of her face that were a deep brown, just slightly darker than the rest of her tanned skin.
         She swung again, coming within inches of my face. I scrambled backwards on my hands and the heels of my feet. Adrenaline pumped through my veins, my mind yelling “GET UP YOU IDIOT!” Another swing came within an inch of my nose. She wrenched the staff back again, high above her head. I threw myself to one side, the staff cracking the pavement again. I managed to finally struggle to my feet.
         She didn’t stop, and I kept hopping backwards, ducking and weaving, as strike after thrust came. She wielded the short pole as a quarterstaff, switching from end to end easily. She used the middle as well, spinning it around as easily as a baton.
         “Why don’t you just die?” She yelled as I jumped over a low sweep that was aimed at my ankles. “I’m going to kill you eventually anyway!” She stopped attacking and I quickly put some distance between us.
         “Now that is the dumbest question I’ve heard in a loooong time.” I shot back. “Wh… Why… Who…” My wit had left me, and a wave of a thousand questions swept into my mind. At last I picked one out of the swirling mess and moved it to my lips.
         “What… are you?” I asked.
         “What do you mean, what am I?” She volleyed back “That is the dumbest question I’ve ever heard in a long time.” When she wasn’t screaming at the top of her lungs she had a nice voice.
         “Fine then,” I said, “It’s a dumb question, but just answer it!”
         “Jeeze! Don’t you think you’re being a little stupid? I’m the one with the weapon here! Where have you been the last day and a half?”
         “Say what?”
         “Where the hell have you been the last freaking day and a half!?” She shouted at me.
         “I got that!” I yelled back. “It’s been a day and a half since that earthquake?”
         “You have got to be joking me, of all the humans to run into, why did I have to get a complete idiot?”
         “I heard that!”
         “I wasn’t trying to hide it!”
         “You’re real nice…” Sarcasm dripping from my words, “Let me rephrase this then, what’s with the cat ears?”
         “You are such an idiot.” She held her head in her left hand.
         “Fine, I’m an idiot! Just answer the dang question!” I shouted back.
         “ALRIGHT!” She screamed then she took a deep breath. “I don’t know why I’m doing this, I’m gonna kill you in a second anyway. I’m a Demon, that means I’m stronger, faster, more agile, able to take a lot more punishment before going bye-bye, and apparently smarter than you, but some humans other than you might beat me out on the last part. The point is, I’m better than you, you’re a human, and you need to die… Right now.” She said it very calmly, then let out another war cry and flung herself at me again.
         I screamed (Yes I screamed, like a little school girl) and ran. I could hear her light foot-falls getting ever closer to me. She was having fun playing with me, like a cat with a mouse. How ironic. More blows rained down behind me, each missing by less and less each time.
         I was running as fast as I could, but she was getting closer if every second. My heart was pounding and my legs were burning, my lungs screaming for air. I was so panicked that I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going. I stumbled on a piece of rubble. I quickly regained my footing and kept running, hearing her get closer and closer behind with every passing second. There’s gotta be something that I can do to get her off me. I can’t fight! She’s so strong, she’s so fast! What can I do? Unfortunately for me, my attention was so focused behind me that I didn’t notice what was in front of me.
         Now, even in the most mundane of circumstances, not paying attention to where you are going can be dangerous. You could walk into someone, or maybe a solid object like a wall or streetlamp. You could even fall down some stairs or walk into the middle of a street intersection and get hit by a truck.
In my case, the thing I failed to see was not something, but a lack of something. Specifically, it was a lack of ground for me to run on.
A surprised yelp escaped my lips as I tumbled forewords, losing my balance. I tumbled down into… Water? If I had been thinking clearly, I would have remembered that there should have been no significant body of water within miles of here. But then again, I wasn’t supposed to be chased by a psychotic cat Demon either.
I was quickly swept out into the middle of the raging river, brownish water swirling and whooshing past me. I somehow managed to grab onto a branch sticking out of the water and stopped myself. I nearly let go as the current grabbed and ripped at my helpless body, trying to suck me down into its murky depths.
         “Well, well.” I managed to open my eyes despite the waters attempts otherwise. The Demon was standing on the bank, her hands on her hips. “Isn’t this interesting?” I would have snapped back with some withering retort, but I was a little too busy clinging for dear life to that tree branch. “Not going to say anything back?” Now that I couldn’t say anything she was going to have a field day mocking me until my grip broke and I died. What a fun way to go!
         “Now, I could just knock you off now…” She looked warily at the water, then snapped her attention back to me. “I’d chase you there too, but I don’t wanna get my fur wet!” She yelled, “My name’s Katt! Don’t forget it!” I barely heard her over the roar of the water rushing by my ears. I then heard a sound that was a lot more threatening than Katt. There was a crack, and I could do nothing but stare as the branch I was clinging to started to splinter. With a snap it broke, leaving me open to the waters. The river gladly obliged, pulling me downstream.
         I was yanked forcefully under the water, the brown fluid filling my mouth. I flailed randomly for a moment, too panicked to think. Suddenly my mind kicked back in, big time. Get your head above the water.
         Now, I was probably one of the worst swimmers that this planet has seen, but I did have swimming lessons. I quickly kicked until my head broke the surface of the water.
         I gasped down air, still fighting to keep my head above the waves. I looked around. I had been swept far quickly, Katt already out of sight. The river sliced through the city, tall buildings overlooking it on either side. It was like someone decided that it would look better with water here, and didn’t care what was in the way. I laid back in the water, closing my eyes. I let myself drift like that for a while, just letting my mind work on what had happened.
         Demon? What the heck is that supposed to mean? I mean, she didn’t exactly look like a creature from Hell! Sure was strong enough though. So what happened while I was unconscious? I mean, not all that much can happen in a day and a half, right? My thoughts drifted uncomfortably to 9-11. Ugh… But, that didn’t make girls have cat ears! And why am I in a river? There isn’t supposed to be a river here!
         It was about an hour later when I opened my eyes and finally decided that I should just stop thinking about this until I could talk to someone who didn’t want to kill me. I tried several times to get to one of the banks, but the flow of the river kept me stubbornly in the center. As I tried, I looked around, and almost went under again. There were no buildings on either side of me! But I was in the middle of a city!
         Apparently not anymore, for as I looked ahead I saw trees. Big trees. The loose smattering of trees around the banks quickly turned into a full blown forest as leaves dampened the sunlight from overhead. The canopy had turned the golden-orange evening into an eerie twilight, complete with the coos and caws of birds and the steady flow of the river. I closed my eyes and listened.
         I had almost drifted off to sleep again when something else nibbled on the edge of my ears. A slightly louder roaring than the rest of the river. I sputtered and righted myself again, my eyes nervously scanning the bank for signs of anything living. But… The sound wasn’t coming from the bank. I realized it as the sound grew louder. You’ve got to be kidding me! I turned to face downstream and my fears were realized. It was a freaking waterfall!
         I tried once again to paddle franticly to shore, but had no success. I tried to swim back upstream, but all that did was tire me out more. The edge of the falls was getting ever closer, the roar drowning out all other sounds, consuming my world. I was suddenly on the edge, then over it. I was falling in a rush of water, my vision white and blue and green. I think I was screaming, but I couldn’t tell. I fell for what seemed like a long time, probably more than a hundred feet, but I finally hit the water. When I did, darkness rose up to meet me. Seems that I was losing consciousness a lot lately…