Lark's POV

I sat with Crowflight, chatting quietly, when I overheard Whitefeather telling Wildstar about something devastating. StreamClan all let out gasps and Wolftail hurried over, leaving Chippaw as he showed off his battle moves. Chippaw even seemed to be sad about the situation. Putting on my skull-protector, I leaped over the stream and trotted over to see what the commotion was all about.

"What's going on?" I muttered, flicking my ear.

"The fence caved in while Nightshade was hunting. Sh-she's dead..." Whitefeather answered, looking away with closed eyes. He didn't look convincing to me, but to everyone else he was innocent. I narrowed my eyes at him. When he looked back up, I realized he was really dull, lifeless, and cold about the situation. You liar. You killed her, didn't you? I wanted to confront him but I kept to myself.

This will be for another day. I vowed, glaring at the tom as he gazed up at me with fake innocence. "The infected Twolegs and dogs are coming. We have to hurry-" Whitefeather insisted, turning to run off. "Now wait just a moment," I growled, lashing my tail. "We should go back and save her. She could be just out of their reach."

"There's nothing we can do," He snapped, "We have to evacuate before they reach the camp!"

Everyone went quiet. The sound of their growls echoed from wherever they were to where we stood.

Wolftail's fur was on end, but he didn't say anything. He didn't look convinced either. RockClan had been eavesdropping from the looks as Silverfeather set up a patrol with her, Stormcloud, and Blossomfrost to go search for Nightshade. Wildstar turned to RockClan's territory and dipped her head to Marshstar, giving him a thankful and fatigued look. He bowed his head in return.

Tigerstripe nuzzled Blossomfrost's cheek and murmured something to her. She nodded and replied to him quietly. Her pale green eyes were filled with fear and amusement as she headed off.

I leaped back over to RockClan's territory and hurried in behind the patrol. Without realizing it, I was at the head of the patrol as my adrenaline heightened. It was hard not to call out for Nightshade as we hurried to the fence. The sound of growling and moaning hit us in the face like a wall before we even seen them.

Stumbling Twolegs, dogs, and cats of all sorts came towards us. At the sight of us they picked up their pace. "Head back!" I demanded when I realized they were coming at us like a moving wall. "We can't get to her, go, go, go!"

We bolted together back to the camp without stopping.

Panting, I ordered everyone in partners so they weren't alone. "Everyone head upstream and be quiet." Marshstar announced, agreeing with my ideas. Wolftail stopped by the stream and croaked, "You didn't find her, did you?" I shook my head softly and gave him an apologetic look. He looked away and grabbed Chippaw.

"I can run myself, I can run myself!" He squealed, squirming out of his grip.

"Sorry," Wolftail breathed, letting Chippaw stand beside him.

Ripplecurrent's kits cried out as they were woken up. I pleaded silently for the kits to be quiet, but they didn't. The sound of the infected Twolegs' groaning sounded like they were closing in on us.

"Wait! I know a place we can go!" Zinnia yelled before anyone could go anywhere. Without anyone really thinking it through, Marshstar and Wildstar told their Clans to follow them as they followed the small Bengal she-cat.

Everyone had at least one partner as we went nether upstream nor downstream.

Quietly and efficiently, we headed away from the stream. There goes our only water source, I sighed. "It's a good hide out, I promise!" Zinnia purred, trotting away. For such a small she-cat, she walked quickly like an adult cat. She was the size of Amberthroat, maybe a bit smaller.

Wildstar, Marshstar, and I followed blindly behind Zinnia until she leaped into a bush and didn't come back. The bush reeked of herbs. Everyone began exchanging confused glances, so Marshstar took it upon himself to check out the bush.

Zinnia's head popped out of the bush just as Marshstar's face neared it. He leaped back. "Come on, before the ill herd comes!" And then she was gone again. Marshstar and I pulled the bush apart with our paws and revealed a hole in the ground. The smell of Zinnia came from it, confirming she had gone into it.

"Everyone in, hurry," I meowed, holding the bushes apart with Marshstar. Wildstar waited for everyone to enter before going in. Marshstar waited a moment before going in after her, and then glancing around the thick forest, I headed in, too.

It was hard to get myself through the cramped tunnel with the amount of muscle I had and with the skull-protector I wore. This tunnel was for sure made for only one small she-cat... Marshstar's tail was waving in my face. All I could smell was fear from the cats in front of me. Most likely, it was because it was dark, cramped, and unknown.

The dark tunnel ended as we entered a large room with few holes in the top for a bit of light. Vines grew from the top of the room. The smell of herbs was extreme. As I looked around, I noticed that there were large patches of flowers growing under the patches of sunlight. Impressive. The room was big enough to hold us all but not for long. Thought it was fine for maybe three days, the Clan cats would become claustrophobic since they were used to being out in the open.

I padded around the den. On the left side, near the end of the den, was a small hole. I ducked my head in under and sniffed. Zinnia hurried over and I shot my head up. "That's my sleeping den," She mewed. I nodded and examined the herbs. Shadowflower and Smoketail seemed to have found it as well. They were muttering things with their heads low.

"Do you see anything new or are you just happy to have herbs?" I asked with a sarcastic edge to my tone.

They turned to me and Shadowflower answered first, flicking her tailto each bundle of herbs in the ground, "There is a lot of catmint, lavender, feverfew, snakeroot, and raspberry leaves, which is all for diseases, and then we have celandine, chervil, comfrey root, a bunch of goldenrod and marigold, horsetail, lamb's ear, juniper berries, rosemary, tormentil, poppies, tansy, and there is enough cobwebs around this place to soak up the blood in all of our bodies!" Smoketail nodded, "It's amazing."

I nodded in agreement. "Just to be safe, I grew them and saved them in here!" Zinnia purred.

Backing away, I decided to leave the two medicine cats so they could talk to Zinnia. I headed over to where Wildstar and Marshstar were talking. They bowed their heads to me and I did the same. Before I could say anything, all went eerily quiet. My fur stood up as the sound of the infected Twolegs, cats, and dogs passed by. They passed by with loud moans and groans. I unsheathed my claws, preparing for the worst. Eventually, though, the sound of them staggering by quieted.

Ripplecurrent's kits began to whine and cry. It took all my will-power not to tell them to shut up. "Ripplecurrent, I'm bored," Lionkit groaned, "I want to play out in the sun!"

"Shush you three!" Their mother snapped. Pebblekit slapped Lionkit's tail as it's tip twitched. Lionkit turned around and snarled at him, then turned back to complain to his mother who was laying down. Pebblekit hit her brothers tail again and then jumped back to try to get Lionkit worked up. "Quit it!" Lionkit squealed. Then the both of them began tumbling around with each other.

Ripplecurrent rolled her eyes and laid her head down to take a nap. Stormcloud sat beside her quietly, watching his kits play around with amusement in his eyes.

"Can I play, too?" Hollowkit mewed, padding over groggily from Ripplecurrent's stomach. The small black-and-white tom was almost a moon younger than Lionkit and Pebblekit. The two siblings didn't seem too interested in the young tom because they didn't answer. "You can play with me, Hollowkit!" Dreampaw mewed, hurrying over. "I can teach you some battle moves, if you would like?"

Hollowkit nodded eagerly, his blue eyes lightening up.

"Lark?" Wildstar meowed. I looked back over to the two leaders when they said my name. "What do you think we should do?" I gave them a confused look and without even having to ask, they answered my question. "Should we stay only one night and then leave to find a new place or what?"

Taking off my skull-protector, I narrowed my eyes at my paws to think. Thinking about my decision in the long run, I thought about the problems, the solutions, and the best answer to their question.

Going back to the small stream: we could run into more infected Twolegs since the fence is down... Maybe we should prop something against it? But what? Thinking that decision through, I knew us cats - no matter how many of us - could never put up a new fence or even get the old, broken one back up.

Going through Twolegplace: we could for sure run into some flesh-cravers, but there would be more places to go through and jump onto. We would be out of good water or prey sources, though. This might be the best option... Since it's the only reasonable one I can think of.

I blinked away my thoughts and explained to Wildstar and Marshstar what I thought was the best plan: to go through Twolegplace with as many herbs as we could carry and as much prey as we could swallow. "If Zinnia can make us immune, then we will do that tonight." They nodded in agreement with their eyes narrowed in concentration.

Marshstar lowered his head. Wildstar and I did the same as he muttered, "So, what do we do with Zinnia?" I looked from Marshstar to Wildstar to see what they thought.

"She may be annoying, but if she can make us immune, maybe she should stay with us. What if something happens to Shadowflower and Smoketail?" Wildstar flicked her ear as she finished her input.

I nodded, understanding her argument. "We should keep her around until she becomes a threat. She seems young right now, so if she grows out of her "clueless phase" then we might have to get rid of her," Marshstar dipped his head and then Wildstar did.

"What are you talking about?" Zinnia mewed, bouncing on her tiny paws. "It isn't any of your business. You're only young, so don't worry about it."

Zinnia tipped her head to the side when I mentioned she was only young. She narrowed her eyes and replied, "Young? I'm almost 14 moons old, silly!" I shot Wildstar and Marshstar a glare over my shoulder. They looked just as shocked as I was.

***

Sorry for slow updates, guys.

Hope you enjoyed, enjoy you're week!

P_A83 out!