“STAY STILL!” HANNAH SAID, her face blurry in front of my eyes.

I groaned, the pain flooding over me anew, I would have thrown up if I could muster the energy. I hated throwing up.

“Stop moving!”

“I can’t help it,” I mumbled. “What happened?”

“That alley cat, Liona, tried to gut you, that’s what,” Hannah spat out, pressing something cold against my belly. I managed to stifle a cry, taking short breaths until I felt like I might not die of pain.

“Where are we?” I asked finally.

“Inside one of the train cars,” Hannah replied, sitting back on her haunches.

My eyes were starting to unblur, and I could see huge shapes moving in the darkness. 

“Hannah,” I cried out, alarmed.

She glanced over her shoulder. “Horses. They’re harmless.”

“Harmless?” I repeated doubtfully, running my eyes over the animals, their eyes were those of prey, but their sheer size made it hard to see them that way. Also, you may not know this, but large prey animals produce very large piles of litter. Like, cat-sized piles. Wally-sized-cat piles. We were surrounded by these piles.

“I figured Bast would be too scared to come after us in here,” Hannah answered, as I tried very hard not to inhale, “and the horses haven’t eaten their way through their food supply yet, so they seem docile … for now.”

I winced, lying back on my side with effort. “You got me in here? How?”

Hannah pointed at a grate in the floor. “I dragged you under the train car, but Helios pulled you through the grate.”

“Helios?” I asked.

“Pleased to meet you, Pickles,” nickered one of the huge mammals, a speckled specimen directly above us.

“I … pleased to meet you as well, Helios,” I managed to answer before fading out again.