Now What?

Someone once said, "It's good to be a cat. One look down and you see something cute."

She lowered her head, looked at her round, furry paws and yelled in her mind, "Which fucking son of a bitch said that?"

　　Yes, she had been reborn as a cat.

　　A white furred cat.

　　Is this a curse?

　　She hung her head, shaking her left hind leg in dismay, and thought.

Just yesterday, she was still a human being. Laying on what she thought would be her deathbed. And now woke up again in this state.

　　Is this retribution?

When someone needed help, she would often just pretend that she didn't notice or care about it. Why spend her precious time on a stranger. Still, it was not something that she would considered to be evil. Not something that she should be punished for.

　　"Why me," she sighed.

The woman, now cat, lay her head back on the ground, her body shaking with a strange, trembling energy. The sensation was strange and unfamiliar, was it because of her new and unfamiliar form?

She felt a strange warmth emanating from her fur, and a dull ache in her legs and tail.

　　A tail.

　　I have a tail now.

　　Fuck.. this is to weird. It feels like an extra limb. An extra hand that i can only see when i look 　　back.

She could feel her heart beating in her chest, and with it came a strange new awareness of her surroundings.

But what she saw around her was too strange for her mind to comprehend. The world was a wasteland, broken and twisted, the earth scorched and ruined by some unknown event.

Everywhere she looked she saw billowing clouds of smoke and ash, and the remains of what had once been a suburban town, now reduced to rubble and ruin.

The air was thick with the smell of death. Everywhere she looked there were human shaped corpses, some still and some writhing in agony, all of them unrecognizable due to the ravages of time and the elements. They all look old. Old and withering. In the distance she could see what appeared to be a small herd of humans, scavenging the rubble ignoring any body they come across.

The woman tried to call out for help, but all that came out was a strange, raspy meow. She had been transformed into a cat, and she had no idea how to communicate with the humans coming closer. She tried to move her limbs, but the effort was futile. She was helpless and alone in this strange new body.

Panic set in as she realized the situation she was in. She had no way of knowing who she was or how she had come to be in this place. In a desperate attempt to get help, she tried to meow louder, but all that came out was a pitiful whine that echoed off the ruins that was shielding her from the shining sun.

The humans in the distance stopped and looked in her direction. They cautiously approached, holding weapons in the form of spears and large knifes muttering to each other in hushed voices.

　　Dammit. Why do these people look so weird??

One of them tentatively reached out and poked her on the side with a pole. The woman shrank from his touch, but he didn't pull away. Instead, he carefully reached a mud stained gloved hand over and picked her up and cradled her in his arms. Taking both of her paws in one hand.

The man's brown eyes were kind, and she felt a strange comfort in his presence. He said something to her in a language she could not understand, but his tone was gentle and reassuring. The other humans gathered around them, their faces a mix of awe, confusion, and fear.

The woman closed her eyes and prayed, hoping that somehow she would find her way back home. But deep down she knew that her home was gone, she did not recognize her surroundings or these people.