Chapter 11

Chapter 11

There was trouble. Hamlet knew there was going to be trouble. That was one of the things he picked up while living with the Angel of Death and so many of his companions for so long. He also knew, when Mars picked him up on his way out the door, that he would have to act on this trouble eventually. It was just the bed was so comfy, and Evie was so warm. 

Previously, Hamlet had walked with them down that long, country road, little kitten legs moving as fast as they could. As they approached the hotel, Mars picked him up and put him in Evie’s purse, just in case the place didn’t allow pets. It was a lame hiding place, particularly because Hamlet kept pushing his head up to see the twins that were checking them in - and he was sure that one of them saw him, too. However, a few minutes later he found himself sleeping cuddled up next to Evie, because she smelled the nicest.

Hamlet took a big stretch and peered out the window. He briefly saw Izzy walk by with Tyler... he must have been more important than Hamlet initially suspected for Izzy himself to come by and pick him up personally. Hamlet didn’t care for Tyler, found him to be too loud, but at least he was allergic so that was fun for a little while. But then he saw something strange, he saw two men put bags over the heads of Mars and Kaplan, and drag them away. He couldn’t let this stand.

Unfortunately there was the little fact that he lacked the thumbs to operate the door.

His cat-instincts cut in immediately, and in one giant pounce he leapt from the window onto Evie’s sleeping head.

“Ow... what the...” Evie jumped awake. She looked at the clock and saw that she only had gotten about two hours of sleep.

“Mars?” she had a brief vision of him getting up, going outside, and telling her to stay put, but she didn’t fully remember why. She looked over at Hamlet, who was calmly sitting on the edge of the bed, tail slowly moving back and forth.

“Oh. You. I suppose you want some food,” she said, getting up and stretching. She was currently wearing Mars’ work shirt. It felt nice.

They had picked up little packages of Tuna at a store along the way. They seemed to be holding him over, at least for the time being, but since he also was willing to eat french fries and at least part of Tyler’s Burger at one stop, there was a chance that this cat didn’t have the most discerning of palates. 

She put one of the little things of tuna down, but for the first time since this trip started, Hamlet seemed uninterested in food. He walked over to the door and started rubbing it with his head.

“Look, I don’t know where Mars is. I’m not letting you go outside.” she felt a little hurt. Hamlet did sleep with her last night, she had hoped they had bonded a little. But then again, he was a cat with cat-logic.

Hamlet continued to rub his head against the door.

Evie sighed, cleaned up the tuna (much to Hamlet’s dismay) and tried to go back to sleep. Hamlet started scratching. At this point, she had enough, sat up fully and screamed at him to get away from the door. It was at that point that she saw the lights. Like from a police car. She threw the door open and looked outside at the police, ambulances, and various other events that were happening. She saw Hamlet run out the door, and quickly followed.

The Scenic Hotel was set up like many other roadside motels. A lot of rooms, all facing the outside, which cut down on the cost of having an actual, “lobby” or “hallways.” Unfortunately, this meant that rooms often faced the parking lot, or in the case of Evie and Mars’ rooms, the Scenic Overlook. This meant that Evie had gotten a good glimpse of what she thought was Tyler’s broken body as it was being heaved up the dropoff. This also meant that she was prepared to run towards him when she reached the bottom of the hotel stairs. Which, of course she did, and made the unfortunate mistake of asking Officer Daniels, who just got done telling another pair of idiots what happened, compounded with the third text to get milk today. What he didn’t need to deal with was a strange woman, barefoot and half dressed screaming hysterically.

That’s not to say she didn’t have a reason to mourn her friend. Just that it was the worst possible time to run up to a police officer. Which probably resulted in what happened next.

Evie, a running, screaming mess who vaguely matched the description of someone who had been carrying a knife and chased this guy off a cliff (namingly: a white female between the ages of 19 and 27) was now running towards a police officer finishing up several long shifts, two idiots, and an annoying boyfriend. Officer Daniels reacted, grabbing Evie by the arm and shoving her to the ground, face first. 

“Mmmph!” Evie said, face full of grass.

Meanwhile, Hamlet knew his duty was to somehow stop Mars and Kaplan from being kidnapped, because they were apparently important to his continuing to get milk for the next couple of years. So he immediately bolted in the opposite direction of Evie in an attempt to unleash his kitten-like fury on the attackers, including those two weirdo twins that were freaking everyone out.

Since it was early, the sight of an all white cat streaking out of the corner of his eye managed to distract Officer Daniels for a moment.

This was when Evie managed to get loose one free hand.

Then she punched. As hard as she could.

It was important to remember two things in all of this: There was mass confusion... a small white cat was running loose, two men had just been kidnapped, the Officer was confused, and a man just ran off a cliff... and then Evie was wrestled to the ground by someone she had never seen before.

There was also the angle factor. The fact that Evie had been wrestled to the ground, face first, with one arm behind her back in an awkward position. There was the fact that her face was pushed firmly in the grass. There was the fact that she had just woken up after two hours of sleep, and wasn’t fully awake yet.

So that’s why she punched Officer Daniels so hard. In the balls. 

That’s at least how she would try to explain it later, when she was being questioned by the police for her assault. 

Of course, that still allowed enough time for the two big men and the twins to wrestle Mars and Kaplan into the back of the truck. This also gave Hamlet enough time to make the mightiest leap he possibly could into the back of the pickup truck, and settle in next to who he guessed was Mars. Both of the bags looked equal. Come to think of it, as long as they brought food, Hamlet never really took the time to figure out which human was which.

Now, normally, forcing two men into the back of a pickup truck while literally every rescue truck and police officer was in the area would be hard. But at that moment, they were busy trying to attend to Officer Daniels and to Evie, who was now on top of Daniels hitting him repeatedly.

The men in the truck were worried for a moment, but then they saw the tableau currently unfolding and realized they were probably in the clear for a few minutes. Regardless, they sped off. Which normally would have meant that the nearby town’s resident busybodies would report them, but they didn’t have anyone really to report them to.

“Mars?” Klapan yelled over the bag and the wind.

“What?”

“It’s not all bad.”

“Why do you say that?”

“I think Hamlet’s with us.”