Chapter 4: Sanctuary
Putting the cats to the back of our minds now that we are safe, we spent some time cleaning the injuries and bandaging my cut up a bit more substantially. We decided to get the lay of the land and see what we could scavenge from the area, looking around we could notice the pond close to the centre of the park as well as the club rooms from the local footy club 'huh how come they're still on the ground? I don't remember the park being this big. Hopefully there is some food inside the canteen I'm starving, all that running has really built up an appetite.
There are a few cars littered around the place as we make our way to the club rooms and we peer inside to see if anyone has anything that we could use. Yes, I know it is stealing and I hate to do it, but I don't think anyone would be coming back any time soon and we wouldn't be taking anything too valuable, just some spare clothes and maybe any medical supplies if there is a first aid kit handy, best case scenario would be some food but lets not get our hopes up.
A few cars had some picnic rugs and the standard fast-food rubbish but it seemed we are all out of luck on the supplies front as the cars were too bare. A bit disheartened we look to the club rooms to hopefully supply us with something that can keep us going. We each spread out around the building to see if we could get inside and I lucked out by finding the cleaners store room unlocked, 'he must have been inside when it all when to shit'. Looking around showed the usual assortment of cleaning chemical and mops/ buckets/ brooms you name it and they had it, seems like they kitted out the building when they finished the renovations and no one had the time to...lose anything yet.
Searching near the file drawers brought a pleasant surprise in a key safe which was ajar, thought my good mood suddenly fell seeing completely empty racks of hooks and no keys 'shit' there went that plan, Hopefully the other guys managed to find something…..'BANG'. Running outside brought me the sight of Daniels foot half way through the door to the main building,
"What the hell dude?"
"Well I got frustrated as I couldn't get in and just felt like kicking something, I didn't mean to spartan kick a hole in the door though." Rubbing his head in embarrassment.
Pulling his foot out showed a 30 cm across hole in the doors panel which inspecting it further showed some decently thick wood, 'how did he manage to do so much damage with one kick?'.
"At least now we don't need the key",
Reaching in through the hole I managed to unlock the dead bolt and door latch giving us access to the room, and with that we moved into the building, everything seemed un touched and fit in with the cleaners room being unlocked and them working. Moving around we noticed the store room to the left which most likely had the teams gear and uniforms and there were benches and chairs stacked up to the side of the door. We had tables over to the right that were folded up and your generic team signage behind that, finally we spotted the entrance to the canteen and with our stomachs grumbling we made a beeline straight to that door.
Reaching out to the fly screen door I tried the handle to find it was locked and the burgeoning hope I once had was dashed as I didn't think that Daniel would be able to kick his way through this one.
"Damn it, you stupid bloody door" yanking on the handle trying to get some movement.
"Woah woah calm down mate, lets have a look around, there might be some keys around here somewhere."
"I found a key safe but there wasn't anything in there."
"Bugger, so both boards were empty?" Daniel asked.
"Both boards?",
"Yeah man, there's a front and rear board, they generally keep the spares on the back one."
Feeling some more hope I went as fast as my leg would let me back to the cleaner's room and low and behold the board pulled straight out and the rear one had a few sets of spare keys labelled and everything. Finding the one for the canteen we made our way back into the main hall and unlocked the door to the canteen. The gentle hum of the fridges and freezer was music to my ears, moving into the room found the fridges fully stocked and the freezer full, 'they must have stocked up after the weekend, we lucked out there'.
Pulling some of the frozen meat out Daniel set to turning on the stove to heat up, and a few minutes later we have some chicken cooking, smelling like the most amazing thing in the world. Standing there talking about the day it just felt extremely surreal with how mundane our current situation was, going from being chased by angry shadow cats to standing around a stove cooking some chicken just made the craziest comparison. Trying not to worry about our future plans yet just enjoying the smell of grilled chicken it crossed my mind, 'where's Sarah?'.
"Um Daniel, did you happen to see Sarah outside anywhere?"
"Huh?....Oh yeah before my foot and door issue I saw her round the back looking around the area, she seemed oddly fixated on the pond"
Hmm that's a bit odd, probably a good idea to check on her while the meat is cooking, "Hey I'm going to look for her",
"Yeah sure thing mate, I'll hold down the fort".
Moving outside I made my way around the building with the pond coming into sight and no sooner spotting the pond then I also noticed Sarah in the middle having a dip 'what on earth?', making my way over I noticed as I got closer the temperature of the surrounding area gradually increasing till it felt like a sauna standing next to the now lake. Seeing it up close now is pretty obvious this wasn't the original small pond anymore, and furthermore the whole structure had changed. Being perfectly circular, stone lined base and crystal-clear water, 'how peculiar'.
"HEY SARAH!!",
Finally noticing me she came over to me with a blissful look on her face, seeming more relaxed upbeat, surprisingly I also couldn't see any of the wounds inflicted by the shadow cats on her.
"Yes? What's up David?",
"Hey we were just worried about you and wondering where you were."
"Oh yeah sorry about that, as we were looking at the building I felt a wave of heat from this direction".
She went on to explain how when she made it to the pool a sense of contentment washed over her then when she entered the pool her whole body relaxed, it was only when knee deep that a rush of energy hit her. Mentioning to her about her lack of marks from the cats she looked down in surprise, "I mean I felt good just didn't know how good".
"And you don't feel anything odd?"
"No I'm absolutely fine you don't need worry, apart from feeling like I've had well over the recommended caffeine intake."
Thinking about what this could mean and the possible implications going forward I made my way forward to the edge of the pool and stripping off my shoes I gingerly poked my toe into the pool, just like Sarah had said upon hitting the water my body just relaxed and all the stress fled making me feel utter bliss. Not feeling anything untoward I gradually stepped into the pool and when I was just over knee deep maybe mid-thigh I felt energy rush up my body, not having felt this good the whole day, in fact I couldn't remember the last time I was just so relaxed yet energized; it was an odd feeling.
Staring down at my legs in wonder I watched the scratches and cuts just fade away, even the deeper laceration on my calf was disappearing, not as quick as the others due to how much deeper it was but before my eyes in a matter of minutes it was gone. I lay back into the water and felt it support me like the most comfortable bed you could buy yet couldn't even care about the implications right now, I stayed in the moment and enjoyed the feeling. Feeling Sarah float up beside me I looked over her and she had a smug shit eating grim on her face "see I told you it was good".
"okay okay, you were right."
Both of us just relaxing back in the pool I nearly surrendered to the bliss then I remembered about the food, "ah damn we gotta get inside, Dan is cooking some food for us."
"Aww can't we stay here a bit longer?"
"No come on, we need to tell him about this as well."
Making our way out of the pool we made our way towards the club rooms to find Daniel sitting down nearly finished all the food on the table. Looking up at us we could see he was a bit annoyed, "And what took you guys so long? You've been gone for nearly an hour?"
"Wait what?", looking at the clock on the wall and low and behold it was nearing on 10am. 'But I was only in the pool for a few minutes', looking lost Daniel seemed a bit confused.
"What happened" he asked.
We proceeded to tell him about the pool mentioning about how our wounds faded away and how relaxed we felt laying in the water. "Na you're bullshitting me, no way that could happen, besides you guys are completely dry; I wasn't born yesterday."
Sarah and I looked at each other utterly perplexed, this made no sense I found her swimming in the pool and I was apparently floating in there for close to an hour. Yet how were we bone dry?, it had to be something related to the ability of the pond. Looking closer it wasn't just our bodies that had recovered but our clothes looked freshly washed.
"Fine then if you don't believe us then let's go, we'll take you to it." Sarah grabbing him by the hand yanking him out of the chair and pulling him towards the lake.
"Alright alright, you don't have to pull my arm off."
"Don't be a baby",
Leading him to the lake, as we got closer you could really start to make out the difference in shape and size and it certainly got his attention as well.
"Hey this is completely different from before, much bigger and…..rounder?".
Coming up to the waters edge we could see him feel the difference even from the shore and he seemed a bit hesitant looking back at us thinking we were having him on. When his attention turned back to the water I noticed Sarah sneak up behind him and pushed him right into the water, being entirely submerged from the get go.
"Oi what the...…..WOAH what was that?", Seeing his reaction was priceless. Even from this distance now that I wasn't distracted by the water I could see the changes start to happen, his legs were healing and you could see him straighten as everything loosened up. Looking closely you could also see the dirt and dust fall away from his closes, there was also something else moving around him but it was too fine to see clearly. I couldn't remember feeling anything bad happen to me and Sarah didn't show any negative reactions. I felt the best I had in years, like a weight had lifted off my shoulders and now that I paid attention a lot of the long lasting aches and pains had also faded.
Watching Dan float around in the water we decided to leave him to it and made our way back to the club rooms for some food, though I wasn't as hungry as I was originally when we arrived. Not thinking much of it we came to the table and sat down, really seeing just how much food had been left and feeling kind of bad for leaving him waiting for us to come back, I know if that was me I would have been pretty anxious thinking something had happened. Eventually Dan came back to the room seeming much more relaxed and joined us at the table, "ok yep you were right guys, that felt soooooo good".
"Wait what did you just say?" Sarah asked eagerly.
"Umm….. I have no idea what you mean"
"Yes you do!, you said I was right Hahahaha".
"No I didn't, I said you both were right, you only get some of the credit HA!"
Shaking my head I just watched on as they bickered like two little kids. We pretty much got into a routine for the rest of the day, got some r and r and more soaking of course and thought about our further plans beyond today, though we did have a little problem. Seeing the day go on and the sun gradually moving towards the horizon had me thinking about a particular cat related issue.
"Hey guys, what are we going to do when it gets dark?"
Looking at me in confusion Sarah piped up, "what do you mean?"
"Well we know that the cats don't like the sun, but that's not going to be a problem much longer is it?"
Looking at me in horror as the thought crossed their minds, we had to come up with something that could keep them away or keep us safe. We couldn't hide inside the building as someone had left a foot shape hole in the middle of the door, and with the sun no longer restricting them then they were free to tear at anything that we might put up in front of them. I didn't think we had seen the entirety of their abilities in the short time we came across them and in our chase, I mean they are shadow cats…s.h.a.d.o.w cats. If their abilities resemble their shape at all then who's to say they can't change their body to fit through smaller gaps or even god forbid grow bigger.
Wait if shadows are vital for them and they hate and stay away from the sun, then what about other forms of light? Could we turn on the exterior lights of the club house and use those?
"Hey I think I know what we could do, you know how they don't like light and stay in the shadows?....."
I went on to explain my plan and how we would go about it, by facing all the lamps we had outwards creating a ring of light around the building hoping that it would be thick enough to prevent them jumping over. Coming up with a I like to think of solid plan, we put it into place and after an hour of so and with maybe thirty minutes of sun left we were as prepared as could be. Moving into the main hall and barricading the doors to the building we hunkered down and watched as the last of the light faded and waited for the inevitable arrival of the shadowy predators.
We waited....and waited... it had been an hour at least and there was nothing, no scratching at the door, no yowling or growling, just the silence of the night and the crickets chirping and bugs swarming. Looking at each other we were confused, 'what happened, surely they haven't given up?'
"Umm so is this suppose to happen David?" Sarah asked.
"Ah no, no I don't think it is."
Moving towards the door we pried the barricade off and peered out, and there was nothing. We couldn't see anything moving out there apart from the grass waving and bugs flying around. No sound, no running or sounds, just the peaceful still night time sounds we were used to.
"Maybe we can go check outside?" Daniel said.
"I mean we may as well, it doesn't seem like there is anything out there at all" Sarah agreed.
"Yeah let's go, but we need to be careful there must be something going on".
Moving the tables and chairs out of the way we slowly opened the door and peered out, without any change we stepped out and looked around. No cats or wriggling shadows and any feeling that we had before when we encountered the cats was non-existent. Picking up some flash lights we had left near the door we headed out, maintaining a constant circle of light around us in case of any surprises but with none coming we moved towards the edge of the clearing. When we were about 20 metres or so away, we heard them, the growls we remembered too well and within another 10 metres we saw them.
Pacing along the edge of the tree line just watching us, the tension was palpable as we could see the sheer anger on their faces as they watched us. Looking at each other in confusion we assessed the situation and couldn't make anything of it, for some reason they couldn't enter the clearing. There was something stopping them from approaching any further and as long as we stayed out of the tree line we were safe, thinking of the cats in particular had me testing out a theory and lifting my flashlight I tried to catch one of them. Though they were too agile and managed to escape the beam of light whenever I moved it around, Daniel seeing what I was up to took part and within a minute he had tagged one of the cats. The light brought out a pained yowl from the cat and we could see the hindleg of the creature burnt and discoloured.