Kat winced, pulling another thin shard of steel from her side. Blood soaked her fingers as she worked, shivering slightly as the water ran cold down her bare chest and back, blood staining her light grey fur, burn marks covered her while grime and soot slowly washed away with the spattering water. Splashing the wound in her side with more freezing water she gripped the flight suit at her sides and slid it further down to her hips, exposing more of the bloodied gash down her side. Bile rose in her throat again as she peeled away the suit, matted blood in her fur.
She froze. An ear twitched, flicking behind her, the only sounds in the empty house was that of the water splashing into the steel basin and the barely audible noise of someone stepping carefully on floorboards. In an instant she moved like a coiled spring, pounced at the stranger like a feral animal and slammed him down to the ground. In the same fluid movement the hidden knife at her thigh drew with a rasp of steel and she pressed it hard into Phantom's throat. For a moment she paused, panting labored breaths, pain flared up her side and all over as her battered body protested at the movement. Her chest heaved with every breath as bloodied water dripped from her bare fur down onto Phantom.
Pressing the knife harder to the exposed flesh of his throat Kat glanced up at the hallway through the open kitchen door, searching for signs of John or Spike. Glancing back down she shoved hard with her forearm into his chest, pinning him down with surprising strength, she growled <"Tell me why I shouldn't kill you right here?"> Kat paused and looked into his eyes, anger in her own, though they also showed fear and panic. The language of the NC was harsh and strange, bearing some resemblance of pre-apocalypse Russian. She sighed and hung her head slightly, muttering in broken English "Who are you?"