CH1c

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JULY 8TH, 2011

There was no way out except for the way back out onto the street. Seline was trapped in that alley. The police cars were still whirring across the narrow passageway into the darkness. Their sirens were still ringing. Seline pressed her back against the wall as hard and flat as she could, so she might just go unnoticed in the shadows. She closed her eyes for a few seconds to try and see if she could collect her thoughts. What happened? Did she really hurt those children? But she didn't remember anything! She sure was exhausted though…and all that blood.

"Hey!"

Seline's underdeveloped claws dug into the spaces between the bricks into the walls as she tensed up. She closed her eyes tighter and held her breath. She didn't want to die.

A flashlight tore through the darkness and beamed right into her face. She had no choice. She opened her eyes.

The light made it hard to see, but she could hear the handcuffs jingling on the officer's belt. She was caught.

"Found 'er."

Seline pushed herself off of the wall and fled out of the alley, shoving the officer out of the way with as much force as she could muster. That was probably a worse idea than staying in the alley. There were police cars surrounding the entryway, and a team of officers were standing outside of those cars with nightsticks in their hands. A few of them even had their firearms aimed directly at her.

She grit her teeth and tried to force herself to think of any excuse, any reason they should lower their weapons and just let her go back to her master's village. No words came. She put her hands up and hung her head. Her large, rounded hyena ears swiveled downward and her tail curled inward.

"You have the right to remain silent!" shouted an officer from the circle surrounding her. That was okay. She didn't have any last words she wanted to share with them.

She closed her eyes, preparing for death.

A sharp pain erupted in her shoulder just as her eyelids touched. Her canine instinct was to immediately nurse it. Her eyes flew open and she reached up with her opposite arm and clenched her shoulder.

'What!? Those…those COWARDS!' ran through her mind. She was starting to get really sleepy… They had fired a tranquilizer dart at her! There it was! Sticking out of her shoulder with a red, fluffy tail.

She wobbled forward a few steps, then when her legs went numb, she collapsed onto the dirt road. She tore out the dart with the last bit of strength she had and weakly threw it back at the league of officers.

"Pathetic, these infected."

"They make me sick."

Seline snarled, but her face was going numb, so the noise softened to a whimper. She felt so sleepy. And they were all getting closer, with their nightsticks and firearms still pointed directly at her.

"It wasn't me!" she choked out in her shrill, raspy voice. "I swear to God, I didn't hurt anybody!"

Nobody responded to her. Nobody believed her, anyways. She couldn't fight the tranquilizer anymore. She was out like a light.

That was when the officers began to savagely beat her.