Kat's Era by Amy Fawcett and Taran Chahal (read aloud books .TXT) 📕

up for. Afterwards, he had told them his idea. He would kill three people, for food. The three least useful people. Unfortunately, it seemed that that was Hitoshi, Kat and Lily.

They ran.
☯

Kimi sat and listened to her brother and the two girls - Kat and Lily – talking about food provision. She rubbed her eyes. It was tiring keeping secrets from Hitoshi especially, but Kat was also very persistent. There were some things that she couldn't even hint at. Like the hidden weapons locker. Somehow, she had to lead Kat, Lily and her brother to the weapons without being ratted out, and before the other survivors found it. It was an impossible job, and Kimi was worried that she had already doomed them all, by simply being found by them.

She shivered slightly. Unlike Kat and Lily, she had only just made it through her few weeks at the orphanage. She had never shown any talent at martial arts and had a rubbish aim with firearms. She was slightly squeamish, and terrified of heights. Hitoshi had covered for all of her failures by helping her out when the guards weren’t looking. However she was quiet and could go unnoticed easily, by just fading into the background. That, she supposed, was her only talent.

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“I’ve got a headache,” claimed Kimi as she walked to the door “I’m going to go for a walk”

She didn’t look too happy. Lily and Kat glanced at each other. Something was wrong.

“I’ll come too” said Kat, looking Kimi in the eye “We can go and try to catch some fish, see if their are any left.”

For an instant, an irritated expression crossed Kimi’s face.

“No!” she said, a bit too forcefully “no... I mean, it’s fine, I’d just rather be alone”

Kat nodded and turned back to drawing a detailed map with a piece of charcoal. It was of the island, and showed all of the traps that She, Lily and Hitoshi had set up earlier in the day and possible hiding places. Around the edge, where the unknown areas were (they hadn’t managed to walk round the whole island in just one afternoon) Lily was doodling ‘here be dragons’ with little cartoon dragons as a joke, and Kat kept smudging them out.

“Imouto, take care” called Hitoshi, but it was too late, she had already gone, and his words were blown away by the wind.

A few seconds passed, then Kat stretched and yawned.

“Rii-ight,” said Kat “I’ll follow her, make sure she doesn’t get into any trouble.”
And with that, she heaved herself off the floor and soundlessly loped off, on Kimi’s tail.

Lily, again, looked at Hitoshi apologetically, but this time, she just continued drawing dragons on the piece of bark, and after a while Hitoshi joined her, and they doodled in semi-companionable silence.
☯
It was cold. As soon as she had been out of sight of the hut, she had sprinted off, to put distance between her and Kat. She wanted to be alone, and she knew Kat would follow her. It didn’t seem like Kat trusted anyone, least of all Kimi.
She leant against a nearby tree. She couldn’t do it. She wouldn’t put her brother in danger. She decided that she wouldn’t lead the other survivors to the weapons locker. She just hoped no one would be punished for it.
☯
Kat slumped against a similar tree. Was Kimi up to something? She had absolutely no idea. She decided that she had to stop being so paranoid. She could trust Kimi. She could.
Kimi was strolling back towards the shelter. Kat sighed. What a waste of time. She jogged silently back, having found nothing out, and feeling at least a little depressed.

As she walked in, Lily looked up from where she was doodling with Hitoshi, and raised her eyebrows.

Kat shrugged. Lily rolled her eyes and shook her head, as if to say ‘useless!’ then grinned. Kat gave a slightly forced grin back and resumed her position at the map.

Two minutes later, When Kimi walked in, everyone looked up from their positions at the map and asked how her walk had been, she looked vaguely worried and sad, in equal measures, and said that it had been good, and yes her headache was better.

Later, as they went to sleep, they could feel the tension in the air. Everyone was worried but didn’t want to say anything about it. Kat uneasily went to sleep, only to wake up sweating and shivering several times during the night.
☯
The next morning, Kat strolled out of the camp while it was still dark to find that the whole area surrounding crawling with survivors, all carrying sharpened branches and bits of flint. The only reason the camp hadn’t been found yet was pure luck, but also the fact that Kimi had a talent for finding good hiding places.

What surprised Kat most of all was that all of the survivors looked really freaked. Even Aleksy, who wasn’t carrying a weapon, had a glint of fear in his eye. Kat scowled and walked back into the camp.

“We’re surrounded,” she whispered “Kimi, we have to make sure that they don’t see you. We’ll distract them, and you’ll run to the nearest hiding-place I’ve marked on the map. Be back here by nightfall.”

“This could get dangerous,” Lily intoned “remember, they’re aiming to kill, and Aleksy is a psychopath. He probably enjoys killing.”

Just as Lily and Kat were about to walk out into the clearing, Hitoshi spoke up.

“Wait.” he said, with a tone so commanding that even Kat stopped immediately “You can’t just go charging in without thinking. We’ve got to distract them so that Kimi can escape, but also so that they are less likely to have a chance of killing us.”

“Then you could turn them against each other. It’s still dark, and it will be for at least an hour - all you have to do is get a fight started - they’re tense enough as is, and anything will set them off” Kimi cut in with a stroke of genius “Then all we have to do is slip past them while they fight!”
☯
Aleksy stalked through the nights, cutting through the darkness with the burning branch that he’d taken from the fire only a few minutes ago. Before that he’d been unarmed, but had felt uneasy, so had taken the branch for insurance.

“They’d better be here!” Jadzia hissed in his face “Or we’ll have to eat you instead”

Even though Jadzia was his girlfriend, she seemed to hold no respect for him whatsoever, even after he had saved her from being killed. It didn’t matter anyway - He knew that they’d be somewhere around this area, after all, this was Hitoshi had claimed to have found his sister, and, even then, he had half believed him, he had just preferred to show a disbelieving face, to show his power to the other survivors, so that they wouldn’t go against him.

The branch extinguished suddenly. Aleksy gasped as he was plunged into an overwhelming darkness. As he stumbled around in a blind panic, someone slapped him sharply across the face, leaving a burning mark.

“Scared of the dark? coward.” snarled a voice that seemed to come from behind him.

Aleksy spun round and struck out at the darkness, almost falling over from the strength of his own attack into thin air. The voice laughed.

“Can’t find me Aleksy?” it taunted “Betcha can’t catch me!”
As the voice faded into the distance, Aleksy ran blindly after it, into the black early morning.

Aleksy soon saw what was happening. In a large clearing at least twenty people were fighting, from what he could hear. Someone had tricked them. His blood was boiling, but he knew he had to keep a level head. He was going to kill Kat and her stupid friends, for ruining his fun. He would kill them, and he would enjoy it. He set off to find them.
☯
Kat arrived back at the camp just after dawn broke. She was sweating heavily but was grinning broadly. Her smile soon died when she saw the state of the others though. Kimi was fine but was very pale, as she knelt over Hitoshi, applying a bandage to his head. Lily was slumped against the wall with exhaustion.

“He got caught on the head with a branch,” She mumbled incoherently “Once we took out their fire, they all started panicking and waving their sticks round. Lucky that they didn’t take out his eye”

“He’s OK though?” asked Kat.

“Yeah, its only a flesh wound, and a bit of concussion. Won’t kill him.” Came the answer.

Kimi, on the other hand looked like she was suffering from shock. Kat got her and Lily to lie down, and took over looking after Hitoshi. It wasn’t as bad as it looked - there was a lot of blood, but once it was cleaned up, the wound wasn’t particularly deep, as Lily had said.

Once Hitoshi had been bandaged up, and there was nothing else she could do for him, Kat washed her hands in the river. There was still fighting going on in the clearing. That was a good sign. It meant that it would take them longer to lick their wounds before they started a stronger, better planned onslaught.
☯
She was wrong. The few people that had avoided fighting their allies through sharp wits and level heads were angrier than ever and were already organising their second attack

Kat woke up to the entire shelter collapsing on her head. Hitoshi cried out, and Kat saw that one of the branches that had been holding it up had collapsed on top of him. Kat helped him up and they all scrambled out from under the ruins of the shelter.

Immediately, Aleksy and some other survivors launched their attack, their eyes red with fury, and foaming at the mouth like wild animals. As soon as Kimi saw them she dived into the bushes and lay still, holding her breath as she watched her brother, Kat and Lily meet the attack with strikes of their own. They were good, but they were few in numbers and had no weapons. Aleksy and the others were fast beating them down, not with superior strength, but with their sharp sticks and pieces of flint, which could inflict greater damage from a distance.

Kat, Hitoshi and Lily realised this and swiftly retreated into the forest, grabbing Kimi on their way. They ran till their sides ached and their throats burned. Kat looked particularly furious most likely because she had never run from a fight in her life and was not used to losing. Kimi glanced at Kat’s angry face and decided that now was probably a good time to tell them about then weapons locker. She had decided not to show the other survivors, so why shouldn’t she tell her brother and her friends? Kimi stepped behind Hitoshi, her brother’s bulk enough to shield her if Kat really lost it.

“I should have said something earlier but...I’m sorry but...” Kimi’s courage broke in front of Kat’s fierce glare.

This was all Kimi’s fault, thought Kat, she was a coward, and seemed unable to do anything but whimper and cry.

Kat opened her mouth to shout at Kimi but was cut off by lily.

“What is wrong with you!” she yelled, “just let her speak and stop being so selfish for once!”

Kat felt sick, Lily had