At a lab in a remote part of South Dakota, alarm bells were ringing. The night watchman pushed the reset button and the bells were silenced. This happened every time there was a severe thunderstorm, and the watchman took it as just another false alarm. He checked the security cameras. "Damn...out again." he muttered to himself as he looked at seven screens full of static. He switched the channels back and forth in an attempt to clear up the interference. There was no change in the displays and they would most likely be out until the technicians came in the morning to fix them. Sitting down to read his newspaper, he failed to notice the fourteen shadowy figures crossing the driveway outside the main door, clearly visible through the glass entryway.

Lazarus led his small band of escapees across the laboratory compound to the west corner. After months of studying plans, camera locations and security patrol routes, he had decided that the west corner was the best place to jump the fence. All of the striped, furry and exhausted Amurians stood panting, cursing the humid air that made their fur cling to them in ragged patches, making them feel quite cold despite it's thickness; their tales twitching in agitation.

Lazarus decided to rest a bit before going on. It had been a grueling two mile run to get here, and his party was clearly winded. Despite this fact, they all looked around with wonderment at sights they had never seen before, and some of them sniffed at the air.

Lazarus looked around and felt the night air about him. He dug his clawed toes into the soil, marveling at the sensation. He reached out to touch a tree and ran his hand over it's white papery bark. Twelve years of confinement, which constituted his entire life to this point, made him very curious. He looked up, and was awestruck at the night sky. He'd seen pictures on the lab computers and read books on astronomy, but as he stood there he realized that all the learning he had did not compare to what could be seen with the naked eye.

He quickly wiped tears from his eyes "We'll take a few minutes here to rest, but then we must move on. It won't be long before it is discovered that we have left." Lazarus said in a shaky voice, a look of resentment crossing his muzzle, and he growled deep in his throat. Lyssa came up and wrapped her arm around her mate, running her fingers through his thick fur. "Where do you suppose we will go?" she asked him, trying to hide the uneasiness in her voice. She looked up at him with her slanted green eyes and smiled.

"I don't know...but there is so much out here...I never knew it was this big..." This time it was Lazarus trying to hide the uneasiness in his deep voice as he spoke "isn't it beautiful?!"

Lyssa hugged him tighter and rested her head on his furry shoulder "And just think...our children won't have to grow up here, like we did. Lazarus glanced at Luther and Ariel who were both sprawled out on the ground, panting. "I am so glad of that." Lazarus said with a relieved sigh.

Lazarus was glad that nature had bestowed such excellent natural camouflage to them, for like their wild cousin the Siberian tiger, they could hide in partial shadows extremely well and were quite adept for rough terrain. Thinking of his wild cousins always made him examine himself. His body was entirely covered in soft, thick, yellow gold fur intersected with a pattern of black stripes. His head was slightly humanoid, but his muzzle and ears clearly showed the genetic relationship to the tiger. His neck was thick and powerful, the muscles visible through his fur. His upper torso was long and well muscled, and his legs were evenly proportioned and well muscled as well. His hands were human-like in appearance, except the fingers were shorter and more powerfully built. The retractable claws at the end were unmistakable reminders of what he was, what they all were. He unsheathed them, thinking of the scientists that had caused the mutation in his genes that brought him to this.

He clenched his fists and growled softly to himself. Lyssa, seeing his anger flare, tried to calm him "Do not be angry, we are free now." she said quietly as she stroked his back.

He turned his head and looked down at her "How is it that you always know what I am thinking?" he asked as he held her tight in his strong arms.

Patting him on the back, she replied "How do you expect me not to? After twelve years with you, I probably know you better than you know yourself..."

After ten minutes, he looked to the rest of them. Mark, his half-brother came to him "Where are we to go, Laz?"

"Well, all the maps I looked at showed dense forest for miles all around, and the town proper is about twenty miles to the south." Lazarus said to the group "It may be wise to stick to the forest."

Luther came up and tugged his fathers' tail "Do you think there are others like us? Will we meet them?" he asked with the exuberance of the young.

Lazarus looked at his son. "I don't know...Dr. Stevenson never mentioned any others to us. Our wild cousins live in another place called Siberia and that's a long way away."