| abstract
| - Part six, Mission One, of Snowfall. The following story is rated Extreme. I cast my gaze over the cats sitting around the table in the cafeteria. School had ended for the day, and I had sent Lottie and Cheddar to collect up cats. “Why are we here?” asks a cat, bored. I glare at him and sway with exhaustion. I had gotten no sleep from the night before, as I was coming up with revenge plans. That cat sinks back into his chair, defeated. I yawn. “I have a plan to rid the school of twolegs, humans, whatever you call them.” I unroll a large piece of paper clearly showing all my ideas. The cats crane around it, fighting for the best viewing spots. I purr appreciatively. “So, which one shall we do?” A golden tabby sitting next to Lottie reaches out a paw and plants it on the idea saying ‘bug infestation’. “This is certainly going to give some kids a scare,” she growls determinedly. I nod at her and pace around the table for no reason. “However, how are we going to cope? Insect bites are hard to deal with.” The other cats nod at my argument and the golden cat fumes silently. “I was just counter-arguing her,” I remind the cats lightly. Soon a dark brown tom shyly places a paw on another idea. “I think the school calendar one is the simplest and easiest out of all of them,” he meows quietly. “All we need to do is change the school calendar for next week.” The cats around the table not and murmur with appreciation. “Decided then?” I chirped. Looking at all the satisfied and happy faces, I immediately knew the answer. I roll up the paper and lead the cats out of the cafeteria. “To the library!” I yowl. I slide onto a chair and drag the mouse towards me. The cats gather around the computer, watching me with unblinking eyes. “Nuts is a hacker,” Cheddar explains to them. “She knows her stuff.” I smile to myself and log on to Admin. “So does anyone know how to find next week’s calendar?” I ask as I scroll through the many files. A file labeled ‘Newsletters’ catches my eye and I curiously click on it. I read down the list of archived newsletters, and my gaze rests on ‘Spring Term Week Three Calendar.docx’. I click on it and a calendar opens up before me, displaying the dates of the following week. As soon as the message of seeing the calendar gets to the cats’ brains, I try to shut out the storm of cats’ voices flooding my ears. “Shut up!” I yell. “How am I going to hear you when you’re all talking over one another? Paws up, please,” I snarl as I glare at them. I scan the many rows of hand, and I select a black and white one. “Change Monday to ‘Teacher Training day,” suggests the tom. I quickly type it in and choose another paw. The calico she-cat clears her throat. “Julian’s idea was stupid,” she spits. The tom from earlier clearly looked hurt. “So was Christio’s from earlier. Just throw in a random school lockdown and stage a fake murder event. The school would have to be closed for a few days for the investigation. I’ve seen it happen before.” Everyone turns towards her. “You know how to do this stuff?” I ask her. The calico shrugs. “Yeah. Happened all the time in Harlesden.” I avoid the question of asking the location of ‘Harlesden’ and nod. “What’s your name?” “Trissie,” the she-cat nods. “Call me Trissie.” Cheddar and Lottie jump up beside me, and we all face the small crowd below us. “Well, Trissie,” I meow, “Welcome to the team.” We hold our breath as twolegs burst into the building. There’s barely enough space to breathe as Cheddar, Lottie, and Trissie, and myself shift around under the table where we are hidden. “So what’s been done so far?” I ask Trissie. She sweeps her calico tail across my flank as she speaks. “I’ve positioned the dummy where everyone will see it. A gunshot will sound on the lunch bell, and as everyone files out of their classrooms they will see the body, and a lockdown will be activated by you, Nuts. I have a laptop computer in the place where we will hide during the event. While the murder investigation is carried out, the school will be almost empty, so there will be more opportunities for gathering food.” I’m shocked at the amazingness of her plan. “And where will we be?” Trice purrs quietly. “It’s a surprise.” Possibilities run through my head as we wait for the stampede to clear. Could I really trust Trissie? What if she was part of The Hidden? “No, it’s not a surprise, tell me where,” I meow, slightly firmer. Trice hisses at me. “You’ll have to wait.” “But how can we know that we can trust you?” I spit, my fur bristling. “Do you want this to happen?” she retorts back at me. “I’m your only hope.” I’m just about to tear out her throat when Cheddar steps in between us. “The plan is more important than fighting,” he tells us calmly. We both shoot sharp looks at him, and he smiles awkwardly and steps back. I take another look at the corridor from where I’m crouched. The floor is clear, and I taste the air with my jaws. “The coast is clear,” I whisper. We creep out, looking around. It’s like we’re on a secret mission or something. Then I realise that I am on a secret mission, and I giggle quietly. “Stop giggling,” Cheddar hisses, “Or you’re going to get us caught.” “Where are we going anyway?” asks Lottie. Trissie dismisses her question with a flick of her tail, and we walk down an endless labyrinth of corridors. Suddenly she leaps up into the air, and I look up to see her slither into a gap in the ceiling. Cheddar’s eyes widen in alarm, but I just stare at the gap in concentration. Soon a ladder slides down. “Climb up,” Trissie calls from above. I am the first to climb, and lend a helping paw out to Cheddar and Lottie, who gratefully accept it. The room on the other side of the gap is small, but it’s large enough to fit us all in. Trice opens up a packet of something and offers it to each cat, and I take a pawful. It’s not bad, but not good either. Enough to keep us alive until escape time, along with several bottles of water. Soon Trissie fumbles around for something, finds it, and opens it up. She shows it to me, and I guess it’s the laptop computer. “Log in,” she meows simply. I look at her oddly as I type in the username and password. Don’t be superstitious, Snowpaw, a voice in my head meows. I shake my head and wait for the screen to load. “You know how to find the alarms and stuff, right?” asked Trissie, worried. “I don’t know this kind of stuff. As soon as I heard that you were a hacker, this idea just popped up into my head.” I nod and continue to stare at the screen. “How long until it’s time?” “An hour. And I have the button to activate the gunshot sound. I was trained in electronics, but it’s not the same as hacking. You’re lucky, Nuts. Who taught you, by the way?” “Pi,” I meow casually, and Trissie gasps in delight. “You’re so lucky!” she squeals. “I love him! He literally lives in the main office! But as it’s occupied at the moment, where is he now?” I don’t know, I thought to myself worriedly, but I hope he’s not doing anything dangerous. I don’t want anyone to die. Pi groaned as another instruction snapped at him from the phone. Pi had requested a video call with Delta for some instructions on assembling the AK-47 he had received, and the higher-ranking tom was keen on perfecting it, as Delta was obsessed with guns. “Now point the gun towards one of the doors,” Delta ordered gleefully. “This is going to be so much fun.” Pi easily rotated the gun on its turret thing. He programmed it so it would range from the door on the left to the door on the right, slowly going back and forth. He smiled evilly. No one was going to escape. Alpha would be so pleased with the news. “Hey!” yelped Delta. “You’re too far ahead!” Pi saw him flip through an instruction manual. “Program it to start when hearing a sound.” Pi boredly searched for the lunch bell alarm sound, and pressed the button on the programming remote. “All done!” chirped Delta. “Are you in a comfortable place in which to watch the event unfold?” “Is inside a trophy cabinet good enough?” Pi asked, irritatedly. He hated how Delta could camouflage, while he had to squish himself inside unimaginable places. Once it was inside someone’s toilet. He shuddered at the memory. Delta nodded expressionlessly. “I have a countdown timer,” Pi meowed. “The bell will ring in five minutes.” “Good,” meowed Delta, and Pi caught a trace of the Russian accent Delta once had before he had developed an english one. “I’ll see you once the premises is cleared.” The screen went black. Pi shifted around a bit to make himself comfortable. Let the show begin. The water had been drained, the food had been eaten. We crowd around the laptop, waiting for the timer to tick down to zero. “Ten… nine… eight…” Lottie whispers excitedly. “Seven… six… five…” “Four…” we all chant together, “Three… two… one…” A siren wails, and footsteps pound along the corridor. Then the gunshots begin. Not one, like Trissie had predicted, but a lot. Screams of innocent children ring in my ears. I peer down and see a small stream of something shiny and red. Blood. I slowly turn to Trissie, with horror in my eyes. “What have you done?” I whisper.
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