He woke up from his deep sleep, giving his limbs a thorough stretch before checking his surroundings. The room was empty. A slim streak of light crept through a crack in the window blinds and pierced the morning darkness of the room. He blinked his eyes a few times to make sure they would stay open. "Gary", as the race called him, lazily crawled out of the bed and made his way to the kitchen. Gary inspected the entirety of the house and made sure he was in the clear. Once he was sure that the house was unoccupied, he made his way towards the exit.

As he made his way down the Brooklyn streets, he observed the humans passing by.trying his best to avoid any contact or notice. He had much more important things ahead of him right now. He made the turn onto Jay Street and into the corner alley with the long abandoned Dekalb supermarket and the tequila bar that always seemed to be empty. He made his way behind the lonely bar, and under the dumpster that sat near the back door of the establishment.

At first, he couldn’t see anyone there. and his heartbeat dashed for a bit, but then he saw him. The dark-grey character identified himself as "Mr. Tickles". His fur was grimy, and a newly obtained flesh wound ran down his left thigh, soaking the surrounding fur in dried blood.

“Follow me", he instructed bluntly.

Gary thought better of making an objection. He followed the tabby around the building and into the drainage sewer on the comer of Jay Street and Johnson. As they walked down the narrow pipes of the sewage system, Gary's curiosity got the better of him.

“What the hell is going on?"

The question was met with an almost instantaneous "Shut up" that ended the conversation on the spot.

The two felines continued down the sewage until they reached the base. The leader of their tribe awaited them, surrounded by a swarm of others who had been alerted.

The ambient of the dark subterranean area was made more pronounced by the silence in the room. The mood was clearly very depressing, but Gary was still oblivious as to what had taken place. The stern voice of the chief suddenly pierced the silence.

“Our covers' been blown" the leader announced, frigidly.

“Blown?” Gary thought to himself... He didn’t get it at first. What did he mean? It suddenly came to him.

The message stunned Gary and rang in his head like his human's alarm clock. The chief continued on with the message, delivering more details about the dire situation, but his speech was drowned out by Gary's racing thoughts. The only details he picked up were that a housecat somewhere in Italy had been caught. Apparently, the human race had attached some hidden devices to her and tracked her.

“Now that the humans are onto us", he faintly made out the chiefs voice again "we need to be prepared for anything. It can only be a matter of time before they learn more. The head minister is already aware of the situation, and our detectives and security committee are finding out everything we can do to prevent them from knowing any more".

The chief continued with his speech. but once again, the voice morphed into a blur in Gary’s head.

The thought was too much for Gary to comprehend. Thousands of years of progress.

hundreds of generations, they have spread to Shelters of the race all around the globe. They were on the way to finally seizing power from the destructive race, and it could all end right here.

Gary didn’t know what to think. The future now stood in a state of turmoil. He had no

clue what to expect, and no clue what to hope for. He knew what the human race was capable of,

and how it’s hostility and greed for power could lead to disaster. Gary's biggest gripe with the situation was that there was nothing he could do to possibly change the outcome. To him, it was all up to chance at this point.

Gary made his way back to his human residence. The walk was long and stressful. He tried his best to forget about what had just happened, but the thoughts were impossible to force out of his mind.

As he made his way back through the pet door and inside the residence, he continued trying to clear his mind. He made his way back onto the bed, and lazily spread himself across the mattress.

A few hours passed. and Gary was awoken by the sound the front door opening. His human entered the house and placed her purse on the couch. Gary felt his teeth clench and the anger within him build up. As he heard the woman making her way towards the bedroom. Gary jumped off and crawled under the bed.

“Gary! Oh Gary!" the woman called.

Gary’s face warmed up with anger but be contained himself and remained silent.

“Gary?” the woman called again.

Gary listened as the woman made her way out of the bedroom and to the upper floor of the house.

He knew he had to get out of here soon