Caius's Arc

Chapter 1 of 10

Caius sat outside the coffee can he called home, running his claws over a shard of glass from the human ruins. He had been assembling evidence for weeks now — bits of metal, fragments of signs, anything that might tell him how humanity died and how to stop The Red from doing the same to his world. Footsteps approached. Too fast. Too uneven. Caius lifted his head as someone skidded to a halt in front of him, breathing hard. He knew the scent before they spoke — the one person he'd stopped warning, the one he'd protected by staying silent. A heavy bundle dropped at his feet. Leather binding creaked as pages shifted inside. "I found this in the ruins near the old market," they said, voice shaking. "Caius, there's a whole section on a disease that makes people go feral. The symptoms match what you described." Caius reached down. His claws found the notebook's edge, traced the brittle paper inside. Newspaper clippings. Dozens of them. This person hadn't just listened once and walked away. They'd been searching. Gathering proof on their own. The Red wasn't just his vision anymore — it was real enough that someone else had found its shadow in the human world's last records. "How long have you been looking?" he asked quietly. They didn't answer right away. When they did, their voice was smaller. "Since the day I stopped asking you questions." Caius closed his paw around the notebook. He'd kept them in the dark to protect them, but they'd walked into it anyway. Now they were here, shaking just like he was, holding evidence that The Red had happened before. He couldn't send them away now. He wouldn't. "I'm putting together a group," he said. "To go deeper into the ruins. To find out how to stop this." He held up the notebook. "I need people who understand what we're walking toward. You've already started." The silence stretched. Then: "When do we leave?" Caius felt the weight shift. One person. One believer. The journey had begun.