There was no way he could tell how long he had slept,
but there was one thing that was definitely different:
The unconsciousness that he had fallen into had given way to a normal sleep after a while,
even though it wasn't particularly long or restorative in any form.
Even as Andrew's consciousness glid over the border between sleep and being awake like a dead-tired swimmer,
he could feel that there was real relief on the other side.
Not too much had changed.
He still had a headache and he was still a little queasy;
at the very best the two weren't as bad as before.
And his knee had stopped hurting.
At least something.
It was surprising how undemanding you get when you're feeling bad enough.
He opened his eyes and at first he felt like he was still on the other side of the river in the burnt city,
because he was still surrounded by grey twilight that removed all color and blurred the outlines of things as if he were inside of a blurred black-and-white picture.
On second glance he realized that the explanation was much simpler.
It had gotten dark outside and the holey curtains that hung in front of the windows in the surprisingly large room he was in blocked out even more of the murky light.
If he recalled the few short moments before his senses had faded it was early afternoon.
Apparently he had slept a little longer than he had thought.
That memory let a different,
more alarming picture rise to the top of Andrew's conciousness that he hastily dismissed.
He already felt miserable enough without the tasteless jokes that his overstimulated imagination kept handy.
He blinked a couple more times to get out his stupor,
propped himself up on his elbows and carefully sat up.
Something glid off his chest with a rustle and as Andrew looked down he discovered two things:
He was completely naked and someone had covered him with a shoddy sheet that was bristling with dirt and smelled as bad as the bed he was laying on.
Lightly disgusted, but also at least just as embarrassed,
he sat up completely and swung his legs off the edge of the squeaking folding cot that he had woken up on and slung the grubby sheet around his hips.
The floor that he set his naked feet on was warm.
Andrew slowly turned his head to look around the room with more attention.
The pale twilight was making it hard to discern details,
but nevertheless he saw that the room was very big and furnished with a surprising amount of furniture,
although they were all very old and in not too good of condition.
Anything near enough to discern details seemed to be made exclusively out of metal and had burn marks on it;
apparently anything flammable hadn't survived the catastrophe on this side of the river either.
He heard a sound and turned towards the door that, like the windows, only had a sheet hung in front of it.
The scrap was pushed to the side and Katt stepped in.
Andrew could only recognize her silhouette,
but he could tell that she had stopped abruptly in the middle of taking another step as she saw him sitting on the edge of the bed.
``You're awake?''
``As you can see.''
Andrew started to cough and had to swallow a few times since his voice wanted to fail him.
``Wait'', said Katt. ``I'll get you water.''
Before Andrew could stop her, she turned on her heel and out of the room.
Andrew stared after her befuddled, but he actually was thirsty;
either way she had left so quickly that she would surely be back soon.
He stood up, slung the cloth closer around his hips,
and clumsily felt around the room for his clothes.
but he thought it would be more embarrassing to get \textit{dressed} in front of her.
He just barely made it.
As the sheet was pushed to the side in front of the doorway again he was busy tying his shoes and only regarded Katt out of the corner of his eye.
She hadn't come alone.
Behind her a second,
smaller shadow
--- probably her sister ---
stepped into the room,
but stood at the doorway.
Katt carried something in her hands and as she got closer Andrew heard a quiet gurgle that escalated his thirst to an almost unbearable burning in his throat.
Without tying his shoe completely he turned around towards Katt and downright ripped the metal container from her hands.
The water was warm and tasted a bit stale,
but he still gulped it down with large, greedy swallows,
and even though he emptied the whole cup he almost had more thirst afterwards than he had before.
So as not to waste even the last drop he licked his lips and just now noticed how rough and chapped his lips were.
The fever must have impacted him more than he had thought.
``Thank you'', he said and held the cup out to Katt.
``Can I have some more?''
``Later'', answered Katt.
``I don't think that you should drink too much at once.
How do you feel?''
The question was tinged with an unmistakeable astonishment to see him not only awake, but also standing and fully clothed.
She herself had also recuperated quite well.
She didn't necessarily look in the pink
--- she was too lean and the traces of lifelong hardship were dug too deep in her face ---,
but she seemed to have taken the previous day much better than he had,
which Andrew registered with a slight stab of envy.
``How you feel after a day like yesterday'', he said.
``Where are we?''
``Yessterday?'', asked Ratt from the door.
Andrew took a quick look in her direction and a strange feeling washed over him.
The picture from his memory wanted to push itself forward again, but Andrew hastily dismissed it again.
Ratt had an odd way to speak,
maybe even a speech impediment --- so?
``In my house'', answered Katt.
``Ratt and I brought you here.''
She made a gesture as he wanted to say something and continued.
``I would like it if you would sit down.
We know how strong and tough you are,
but that won't matter if you just collapse again.''
That was too much, even with all the thankfulness Andrew still felt.
Eventually she would have to stop getting on his nerves about her carrying him.
Twice, to be exact.
``Listen'', he started.
``I think that\dots''
The shadow at the door moved.
Ratt got closer and stepped into the grey light that streamed through the holes in the tattered sheet that covered the window,
and Andrew stopped mid sentence.
His jaw dropped.
The cup slipped out of his hand and fell rattling to the ground, but he didn't hear it.
He stared at Katt's sister with an incredulous look.
His memory hadn't been tricking him.
And it wasn't a nightmare.
In front of him a one and a half meter tall rat stood on its hind legs.
``But \dots that's \dots impossible!'', he grunted.
facing her sister but without looking away from Andrew's face.
She looked as if she was awaiting a specific reaction from him.
No.
As if she was \textit{afraid} of it.
``Bullshit'', hissed Ratt.
Her whiskers quivered like small nervous antennae as she shook her head intensely.
``He'sss playing usss!''
Andrew was far from overcoming his shock,
but he was at least able to look at the rat girl more closely.
Katt's sister wasn't really a rat,
at least not completely.
She was naked,
so he could see that she was nearly completely covered with thick brown fur.
Her build was more of a girl than a rodent:
She had hands,
her hind legs had turned into feet that were way too small on which she balanced with remarkable skill,
and she even had a long naked whip tail that was nervously twitching back and forth.
Her head was also a mixture of that of a human girl and that of a rat,
but the result was utterly astounding:
She was in no way ugly or even repulsive,
in the contrary she was cute in a way that was hard to explain.
``Yeah, whatever you mean'',
said Katt and pulled a face that made any further explanation unnecessary.
``Why don't you go and get something to eat for Andrew?
He must be dying of starvation.
And don't tell the others yet.
I want to talk to him first.''
Ratt nodded, but didn't move from where she was standing,
instead flashing a more malicious look at Andrew with her little black button-eyes.
Then she bared her teeth ---
just that they weren't rat teeth,
they were regular human pearly whites.
``That's enough'', said Andrew. ``Now its enough.''
Katt just looked at him questioningly,
but Ratt puckered up disparagingly ---
at least that's how Andrew interpreted it.
He hadn't exactly had much experience reading the facial expressions of a rat.
``You can stop with the theater now'', he continued.
``I mean: you've had your fun, but I'm good now.
You can take off your mask Ratt ---
or whatever your name actually is.''
Ratt stared at him with a murderous gaze and hissed threateningly ---
but Andrew had the feeling that none of it was real and that behind the staged anger in her eyes in actuality was only tediously ill-concealed mockery.
``The soup'', reminded Katt. ``and put a good amount of meat in it, he has a lot to catch up on.''
Of course Ratt didn't leave without giving Andrew another angry look ---
but she left.
Andrew looked after her until the curtain had closed behind her,
and even then he stared at the direction she had disappeared in for a considerable time.
``Everything okay?'', asked Katt.
``Of course'', mumbled Andrew.
``I just had a conversation with a rat, but I'm fine \dots I think.''
He tore his gaze from the door with some effort and looked at the girl.
Katt's uncomprehending look made it clear to him that the irony in his voice hadn't been understood at all.
He nodded again and this time in a serious tone
``Yeah. I was just \dots caught off guard. I didn't figure something like this would happen.''
Katt remained silent for a moment, then sat down on the edge of the bed with him
and laid her hand on his thigh with a strangely familiar gesture.
Her touch wasn't uncomfortable for Andrew,
in fact it was the opposite.
Even so he just barely could reign in his reaction to swat her hand away.
He was frightened and for the most part more confused than he had ever been before in his life.
``You're really from outside, right?'', she asked.
Andrew kept quiet.
He wasn't capable of thinking a clear thought,
much less \textit{answer} anything.
``Ratt still doesn't really believe it,
but I know that its the truth.
You were talking in your sleep.''
``And?'', asked Andrew.
`` What did I say?''
``To be honest I didn't understand most of it'', Katt admitted.
She laughed unsurely,
as if confessing it were embarrassing.
She raised her shoulders.
``But maybe it was just pointless mumbling.
You had a pretty high fever.
For a time I wasn't sure if you were going to survive it.''
``If I was talking in my fever,
how would you know that it wasn't all just nonsense anyway?'', asked Andrew.
Only a few stringy pieces of meat of an unidentifiable color swam in the almost colorless clear soup.
And the spoon looked like it had been places a spoon definitely didn't belong.
Nevertheless,
Andrew spooned his soup into his mouth until there was none left and devoured every last shred of the tough meat.
He only realized after he was done eating how hungry he actually was,
and the thin water soup seemed to not only not have stilled his hunger,
but had actually made it worse.
But after all the last meal he had had was breakfast yesterday morning and he had barely touched it,
since he was expecting to be able to eat on his father's Yacht by noon.
Andrew almost regretted having thought that.
Remembering the boarding school and his plans from yesterday showed him with brutal clarity how much his life had changed in the past twenty-four hours.
Just yesterday at this time he was the son of a rich industrialist,
living well looked after and far from any dangers,
who's brightest outlook was going on a two week long Mediterranean cruise with a man who was his father,
but that he barely knew.
Since then he had been kidnapped and their plane had been shot down.
Someone had shot at him with laser guns.
His best friend was dead, shot in front of his eyes,
equally meaning- and causeless.
He had only avoided being eaten by ravenous killer insects by a hair,
and now he was in a city that had been hit by an atom bomb a long time ago.
Had he forgotten anything?
Oh yeah, his food had been brought to him by a upright walking rat with a speech impediment.
``Wassss it good?''
Andrew almost let a full second pass before he realized the question was for him,
and that Ratt had meant the soup with that;
and then it took him another second to decide how he should answer.
If she was being sincere and he gave her his honest opinion he would probably snub her,
and he didn't want that.
But he wouldn't put it past the pair of sisters to play a mean prank on him and would be laughing later,
that he had gulped down their old dishwater out of politeness and the afterward had even acted as if it were tasty.
He answered with a head movement that was intentionally so vague that Ratt could decide its meaning herself.
It was just absurd that he was still hungry enough that he had to control himself not to ask the rat girl for another portion.
``And now tell us!'',
Ratt asked him.
Her tail whipped around nervously and tapped a beat to an imaginary beat on the floor.
``Tell you?''
Andrew turned to Katt with a questioning look,
not to her her sister.
``What?''
``Of outsssside'', answered Ratt in Katt's place.
``If you're really from outsssside, you should know what it'ssss like out there.''
``Let him catch his breath first'', Katt came to his defence.
``He isn't even all the way awake!''
``I think he slept long enough'', answered Ratt.
She bent forwards and sniffed Andrew's face,
but he wasn't sure if she was just following her nature or taking the joke as far as she could.
``I don't think he smells like someone from outside.'', she hissed.
``Nope, not at all.
He smells more like a dirty spy.''
``Ratt, stop it'', sighed Katt.
``I am just as curious as you,
but we should give Andrew a chance to fully wake up.''
Andrew gave her a quick thankful look,
but he was also somewhat puzzled.
Katt's skittishness confused him more and more.
It made the girl even more unpredictable,
and if it weren't more confusing already Katt added:
``I can imagine that he has a lot of his own questions.''
``Then you should hurry up and ansssswer them'', hissed Ratt.
``A couple of the otherssss are already on their way here and they might not be assss patient assss me.''
Andrew payed attention to that.
``What do you mean?''
``People like you aren't exactly loved around here,
that'ssss how I mean it.'', answered Ratt
--- and this time Andrew knew exactly what those words meant.
``Ratt exaggerates'', Katt intruded.
With an angry look in Ratt's direction she added:
``As per usual.''
Ratt reacted by sticking her tongue out at her sister,
shamelessly grinning the whole time.
``Go away and take care of Bat'', said Katt.
``And keep the others away from us for a minute.
Please.'',
she added after a moment and with audible hesitation.
Ratt stared at her sister for another heartbeat with her provocative eyes,
but then she threw her head in her neck and strutted out the door insulted to a level that little sisters of all time and of all people
(and as Andrew was beginning to suspect, species) were capable of.
He waited until right after Ratt had left the room,
then turned around to Katt with a worried look.
``What did she mean with that?''
``Ratt loves exaggerating'', answered Katt,
but Andrew felt that it wasn't the truth.
Katt was suddenly noticeably more nervous than before her sister had come in.
She stepped back and forth in place uneasily for a moment and then continued without looking him in the eyes.
``It can't hurt to be a little careful, you know?
A couple of the others \dots weren't happy that I brought you with me.
And one of two \dots''
``\dots think I'm a spy,
I know.'', Andrew finished her sentence when Katt didn't.
``Maybe it would be good if I knew who's side I was apparently spying for?''
Katt hemmed and hawed for a moment and Andrew could see that she was straining
to find a good excuse or some pretence so she wouldn't have to answer him.
She didn't need either of them.
The curtain was pulled to the side and three so completely different figures stepped in,
that Andrew had to reign himself in with all his might not to cough from the appalling view,
even though he somewhat knew what to expect.
At least he believed he had known.
The first one was about as big as him,
just as emaciated and haggard as Katt and looked like a normal human at first look,
but had something unmistakeably dog-like to him that expressed itself more in his behavior than physically.
Directly behind him a figure stepped into the house who's gender Andrew couldn't have possibly guessed.
In contrast he could very easily identify the species who's DNA had snaked its way into its human ancestors.
Sleek reptilian scales spanned over a flat,
nearly expressionless face,
and just like on a snake his long split tongue moved mistrustful in his direction,
seeming to take in as much information as the yellow reptilian eyes that stared at him coldly.
Their eyelids were even thinner than Katt and the Dog-man's and trembled with every movement as if they had no bones or a couple dozen additional joints.
The third creature was so big that it had to bend down to get through the door to step inside,
and when it stood back up Andrew couldn't hold down an unbelieving cough.
