Still Running


TK’s sneaker was lying in a tranquil forest in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly four ATVs broke the silence of the forest and roared past. One of the riders gave and order and all of them stopped and gathered around that sneaker. “Bingo.” The pit bull said. That’s hers. She’s been here.” “Check for tracks, she can’t be far, the mongrel added. “Remember: If we don’t catch her, the boss will catch her himself.
“Nobody knows these woods better than us. We’ll get to her first.” The racoon interrupted him.”
“But he has tons of high-tech equipment and we don’t. So get moving!” The mongrel ordered. With that they spread out and started looking for tracks. Just minutes later the bulldog picked up her trace and the four goons were on the move again.
Meanwhile their prey was having a hard time making speed. “Ouch, ouch, ouch” TK mumbled between clenched teeth. She had been running full speed when she reached a field of dirt and stones. And running over stones hurts, especially soft feline feet. She regretted losing her shoes. Now she had been running and hiking for hours and her knee socks hardly offered her feet any protection at all. To make things worse she was starving. “There has to be anything pointy around here” She thought. The stones she was running over were pointy enough to hurt her, but not sharp enough to cut the ropes holding her arms behind her back. She hadn’t seen any glass or metal lying around either. She tried wiggling her arms, but that only increased the pressure on her shoulders, which were already pulled painfully far back. Her elbows were almost touching and pinned to her back as tight as her wrists. “Ouch” TK mumbled again. She didn’t know what was more annoying: The strict tie or the hard rocks and sticks she kept stepping on. “But the most annoying thing is probably that accursed bell,” she thought.
It rang in the rhythm of her steps, grinding at her nerves and posing a constant threat of being discovered. But all of a sudden both her steps and the bell stopped. The feline heroine crouched. She had just heard engine sounds. Hiding in the shrubbery she saw a high-tech jeep driving past. And inside the jeep she spotted –and her heart almost skipped a beat- Morgus and Sadarus!
“This is unacceptable. I’ve spent days and weeks building this feline-tracker and it keeps leading us in circles.” The Doc raged. “Don’t worry Doc, last time it lead us to a bunch of Lynxes, so it works.” Morgus tried to cheer him up. “Shut up and drive.” Sadarus ordered and continued fumbling with a toolbox in his lap.
TK stared after them in disbelief. “Sadarus is behind this abduction? And he comes for me himself, in the middle of nowhere?” TK was surprised.
After running on for a while she heard engines again, but the sounds came from behind. So those must be the abductors. She tried to climb up a steep hill, but the bushes and her tied hands gave her a hard time. By the time she reached the top, she slipped. TK didn’t hurt herself, but the bell around her neck gave a ring audible for miles. The cat-girl didn’t get up, she listened. Silence. The engines had stopped. She almost felt relief, but after a few seconds, the ATVs came back to life. “This ain’t good.” TK feared. She knew now, that they heard the bell and started running as fast as she could. And that wasn’t fast. She had her tail tucked back into the bell to keep it from ringing. And without her tail or her arms for balance, she couldn’t make good speed.
All of a sudden, she heard a yell: “I got her!” and knew the goons were upon her. She pulled her tail out of the bell again and ran as fast as she could, but she was no match for ATVs. “Where do you think you’re goin’ Kitty?” The bulldog taunted her. TK heard a hiss and saw a dart hitting the tree next to her. She knew that there was nothing that could put any distance between her and her pursuers now. Except for a steep slope. She spotted one leading down to a river. If she could reach that, she could slide down and swim away from them unless they would abandon their ATVs. TK mustered everything she got and dashed towards the slope. But her charge was cut short as one of her sock-clad feet was pulled from under her body. She felt a rope around her ankle. She tripped and landed on her face. “Great, now they throw lassos at me like I was a cow” TK thought. The impact knocked the air out of her and it that hadn’t, the mongrel would have take care of that. All of a sudden all four of them were getting off their vehicles and came for TK. The rat and the racoon grabbed her shoulders and pinned her to the ground. Meanwhile the bulldog was wrapping rope around her ankles. She struggled and thrashed like a madman, but couldn’t free herself from the goons’ iron grips. Soon her knee-socked legs were pinned together inescapably by several coils of rope while the mongrel stepped over her. With a wad of cloth. “Open wiiiiide” her demanded. TK knew that when they forced that cloth into her mouth, her helplessness would be complete and so she clenched her teeth in deviance. “Have it your way”, the mongrel said bored.
He reached for the captive feline’s nose and started to tickle it gently. Not long before TK had to sneeze, and as soon as she did, the mongrel took his chance. He stuffed the cloth deep into her mouth and secured the package by pulling a long strip of cloth through her mouth and knotting it behind her head. Next he took another strip of cloth and tied it tightly around her muzzle, sealing it completely.
By the time he was finished, the bulldog had already wrapped ropes around her legs above and below her knees. And so the young cat-girl could do nothing but wiggling her hips left and right while the racoon contacted Sadarus via cell-phone.
About ten minutes later Sadarus arrived. TK had been blindfolded, but immediately recognized his voice. “About time, you kept me waiting long enough.” After a few quarrels about the payment, TK was lifted up. She froze as she knew who was holding her now. It was Morgus and he was probably still mad at her. “Hey shrimp! Thought you’d seen the last o’ me, huh?” Morgus teased her. “Enough with the chatter” the Doc interrupted him. “Through her in the back and start driving.” The cat-girl tried to struggle, but it was futile. She was tossed into the back of the jeep and off they went.
Hours later the car stopped. TK couldn’t tell how long or what way they were driving. She had heard muffled voices and assumed, that the back of the jeep must have been soundproof.
She was pulled out by her legs and Morgus threw her over his shoulder. She was being carried inside a building. There she was placed in a cell and her blindfold was removed. She was lying on the floor when the doc entered. “So, TK, I’m glad you’ve finally come to appreciate my hospitality.” “Mmmph!” The young heroine realized that she had no choice but to endure the doctor’s taunts. “We can do this the hard way or the easy way.” He announced, not breaking eye contact. “Either you let my assistant here” he started, pointing to Morgus “put you in some proper restraint-equipment.” He waited a few moments to let it sink in.. “Or you can stay in that tie for a few days. Those shoulders and elbows must be hurting, don’t they?” TK would never willingly allow Morgus or Sadarus anything, but she had no choice. Not only her arms were killing her, but her stomach, too. And so she agreed.
Half an hour later TK was sitting on a metal chair in a cell. The cell was completely empty except for another chair just like hers next to her. TK couldn’t believe she was wearing her new restraints. She was still dressed in the jogging outfit she had been wearing all day, green tank top, green gym shorts and white knee socks. But in addition to that, she was now bound with leather cuffs. One pair of these wide, comfortable cuffs was locked around her ankles, the D-rings were connected by a chain, just long enough for her to take short steps. A second pair of cuffs, a little wider was secured around her thighs. Her hands were encased in leather mittens, rendering them useless. These mittens were locked at the wrists and attached to the cuffs around her thighs. This position was much more comfortable than the last, but just as effective. As if that wasn’t enough, she was wearing another pair of leather cuffs around her upper arms. These were connected to a leather belt around her waist, disabling her from even moving her elbows away from her body. Behind her back this belt seemed to be connected to the chair she was sitting on with chains. She could hear them rattle every time she shifted her weight. “But at least they removed that humiliating bell,” the tigress thought to herself. Instead of a cowbell, TK neck was now wearing a leather collar matching her cuffs. It wasn’t less humiliating, but at least it wasn’t making any noise.
Also, the goons improvised cleave-gag had been removed and replaced by a wad of cloth and a black leather muzzle muffling her every sound.
After wiggling and twisting and pulling at her bindings for about twenty minutes, TK realized that the cuffs were just too strong and too tight. And so she waited in silence.
The captive heroine was lost in thought when all of a sudden and without warning the door flew open. Sadarus entered the room in slow, deliberate steps and faced TK. “Let us skip the small talk, kitten,” he started. “I’ve looked far and wide for suitable test subjects and you’re the most promising one around. That is why you are here: to be tested against competition. By studying you performance in my lab I will prove my theory of performance evolution. “I’m here as a guinea pig for some crazy theory?!” TK thought, her muzzle ensuring she kept those thoughts to herself. Meanwhile the chains behind her back made sure she wouldn’t jump the Doc. Being referred to as a test subject drove the cat-girl mad. She pulled at the mittens sealing her hands away with all her might, but in vein.
“So,” Sadarus continued, “Meet your competition.” With that Morgus walked in, pulling behind him a second prisoner by her collar, restrained just like TK. The cat-girl’s eyes widened and her tail stopped it’s wag when she saw, who that prisoner was.
It was her nemesis, the black and white lunatic tigress Sonya! The villain seemed just as surprised as TK when she saw her foe. She was wearing black jeans and a red T-shirt, the same outfit she had worn when the two girls met for the first time For some reason though, they had removed her shoes while not taking anything else off her, revealing white socks. Morgus lost no time attaching Sonya’s belt to the second chair. “Didn’t see that one comin’, huh?” Morgus mocked the helpless cat-girls who were trying to stare each other down.
“Ladies, you have something in common,” the Doc interrupted them: “Determination! And that’s what I want to see from you now. I know there have been certain… hostilities between the two of you in the past, but I hope those won’t bother my scientific research.” He waited for a few seconds and looked at his prisoners. “Have I made myself clear?” That threat drove TK mad, but her bindings and muzzle did their job and contained that anger. A quick look over to Sonya revealed that she, too, would much rather have her hands on Sadarus’s throat than attached to her thighs.
“Let’s start with something relaxing,” Sadarus continued.” We’ll have a friendly quiz, so I can test your general education. Correct answers will earn you points, while incorrect answers will earn you shocks.” The cat-girls’ ears twitched in unison. “Electro shocks?” This guy it nuts” TK raged.
While Sadarus was speaking, Morgus attached clamps connected to a generator to the cat-girls’ tails. A second set of cables ran to the bottom of their metal chairs.
And then he unbuckled TK’s muzzle. He slipped it off her snout and she spit out the wad of cloth that had filled her mouth for far too long. “Who on earth do you think you are?! What kind of sicko… AAAHHH!” The tigress’ outburst of rage had been cut short by Sadarus. At the push of a button he sent a shock through TK’s body, not harmful, but painful. “Now watch you manners, young lady, or you’ll get your muzzle back. And I’m sure that would put you at a slight disadvantage in our game.” The doc explained calmly. “And why would I wanna take part in your little game?” TK shot back, her flaring rage contrasting Sadarus’ calmness. “Because only good test subjects get something to eat” He responded. Being referred to as a test subject almost made TK growl at the doc, but at the mention of food, it occurred to TK that he could basically let them both starve right here and so she bit her tongue. TK hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, which seemed days ago; and Sadarus had made sure, Sonya entered this contest just as hungry. Meanwhile Morgus had ungagged Sonya, who didn’t even try to insult Sadarus, intimidated by the shock TK had suffered.
Soon after, the Doc started reading out questions about science, geography, simple math exercises, and various other categories. TK was feeling ridiculous. She was sitting comfortably in a chair answering quiz questions as if it was the most normal thing in the world, while she was bound inescapably and strapped to a generator ready to torture her. And as if that scenario wasn’t odd enough, her nemesis was sitting next to her, doing the exact same thing. But TK had no choice but to endure the crazy quiz show. At least her opponent was Sonya, so it wasn’t too hard.
Although Sonya seemed to be quite informed about celebrities, she was no match for TK’s well-trained mind and in the end the young heroine was able to claim victory.
“Well, congratulations, you are the winner of the first contest” Sadarus mocked TK after the quiz was over. “Next I will test your endurance.” The young heroine was still bursting with energy, hoping to find an opportunity to pay the diabolic doctor back. Sonya on the other hand was lying half-senseless in her seat, spent after the countless shocks she had received for wrong answers. Sadarus’ henchmen had no troubles putting the muzzle gag back in place over her snout.
While TK was once again left to wait, Sonya was unbuckled from her chair and led outside by a leash on her collar. TK was able to struggle in all directions, but couldn’t slip out of any of her leather bindings. Several frustrating minutes later, Sadarus and Morgus came back, this time to lead TK out of the room.
“First things first” the Doc said, holding up TK’s muzzle-gag before her. TK clenched her teeth defiantly, staring daggers at Sadarus. She was taken completely by surprise when she felt a sharp pain going through her whole body instantly. Apparently a henchman must have activated the generator again, shocking her. Sadarus lost no time stuffing TK’s mouth and placing the humiliating muzzle back over her snout. “Don’t forget your place, Kitten.” He hissed. “You’re a test subject in my lab now.”
Before she could even recover, TK was freed from the chair and a leash was attached to her collar. Then she was lead out like a dog, and just like Sonya had been led out before her.
TK was walked into some sort of gym. The room was cramped with all sorts of benches, home trainers and computer monitors. The walls were lined with weights, mattresses, sports gear and mirrors. The tigress was walked to a treadmill, where she saw Sonya again. Her black and white nemesis was still wearing the mittens and cuffs, pinning her hands to her thighs, but the chain between her ankles had been removed. What struck TK’s eye was the medieval-looking heavy iron collar she was now wearing, which was connected to the wall in front of her, right below a screen on the wall. The wall was blank all around, so Sonya had nothing else to stare at than the screen. What was also interesting was the length of the treadmill. It was long enough to walk about five steps on it, comfortably, when it wasn’t running. Next to Sonya’s treadmill, there was a similar one, no doubt reserved for TK. The heroine was lead up on the belt and chained to the wall with a heavy iron collar just like Sonya.
“This is how it will work:” Sadarus explained.” As soon as the belts start moving, you should start running. On the screens in front of you there are two bars.
The green one resembles the speed of your treadmill. If you want it to speed up, run on the front third of your belt.”
TK looked down to see markings on the base of her treadmill, marking three zones.
“While you run in the middle, the speed stay as it is. If you run forward, the speed will increase, and if you run on the back third of the belt, the treadmill will slow down. But you shouldn’t go too slowly,” he added with a wicked smile.
“The read bar shows the lead your opponent has, if she was running faster than you.”
The cat-girls exchanged glares. “So this is all about running faster than the other, huh?” TK thought. “Like I have trouble keeping up with Mrs Maniac there.”
“When the red bar is full,” Sadarus continued, “that means that your opponent has extended her lead to half a mile, which activate this generator.” His hand was resting on a big metal machine. “It’s connected to your collars.”
TK’s heart sank. The crude iron collar around her neck seemed to double in weight. She turned to see Sonya yanking on hers a couple of times, cursing into her muzzle-gag.
TK closed her eyes and took a deep breath through her nose. She intended to use the few moments before the doctor’s machines would come to live to calm down and gather her thoughts.
“The Doc said, this would be a test of endurance. That could mean anything from half an hour of moderate jogging to an all-day-and-night-marathon. I’d better start slow. But not too slow, I bet Sony can’t wait to zap me.” Again she felt the weight of the cruel collar almost crushing her. But she swept despair aside and forced herself to focus. “But if I hurry up, I could have Sonya shocked.” The thought of paying Sonya back for all she had done to her made TK’s tail and ears twitch. For a moment she was overcome by her desire for vengeance.
But again she focused and calmed down. Her tail returned to its normal wag. “This is how this exercise is set up. It’s fuelled by our hatred for each other. The only way we can make it through, is to swallow our hatred, find a slow pace and both stick to it. I just hope Sonya’s smart enough to get it.”
Another quick look at Sonya told TK otherwise. The mad cat-girl seemed to be grinning wickedly under her leather muzzle.
“So much for cooperating…” TK thought.
Her train of thought was interrupted by DR. Sadarus’ words: “Initiate the experiment!”. Immediately the treadmills came to life and the girls started running. “One more thing, ladies. Don’t even think about getting off the belts.” He casually added, pointing to his neck.
“Great, so if one of us falls, she’ll get shocked for touching the ground?!” TK was disgusted by the cruelty of this exercise.
Her screen showed, that Sonya had already accelerated her treadmill. “She’ll never keep up that speed. Shows you what crazy girl knows of running.” TK was confident of winning, now that she saw Sonya making a mistake. “But I have to be careful. I’ve been running all day, that’s not good conditions to start a race.”
TK allowed Sonya to extend her lead and kept jogging comfortably for several minutes, although running with her hands strapped to her thighs felt really strange to her. “At least Sonya has the same problem,” the tigress thought. She checked on her opponent again and noticed with satisfaction, that the manic grin under her muzzle-gag had already faded. That bolstered her courage and she kicked her treadmill up a notch.
The red bar on TK’s screen was now slowly declining as Sonya was no longer able to keep up her initial pace. With renewed spirits and glad that her plan seemed to work out, TK was making good speed and was finally able to think clearly again, shaking of the panic that seemed omnipresent today.
“I have to escape. But how? The Doc himself makes no mistakes, as far as I know. I can’t rely on another blackout. The henchmen will probably be the weakest link in the chain. But how can I exploit that? I don’t even know how skilled and clever they are. TK was almost lost in thought when she noticed Sonya dropping out of her pace. Her foe was now breathing heavily through her nose, running at the very front of her treadmill.
“Seems like she’s about to get zapped,” TK figured. “A little sprint and she’ll be done for.”
But she realized that this was exactly how Sadarus had this planned out. And that she would be playing into his hands. He planned on the cat-girls shocking each other till one couldn’t go any farther.
And so she let herself fall back, paying close attention to Sonya. Her nemesis seemed to cheer silently as the red bar on her screen started to decline again. Sonya looked over to TK to gloat and was confused at what she saw. TK hadn’t run out of breath, she was still running steadily staring her strait in the eye. But not the angry, challenging stare she had seen so often in the past from her favourite abduction victim. TK’s eyes showed mercy and Sonya had no choice but to accept the fact that TK had spared her on her own free will. Sonya’s eyes stared back in disbelief. Her ears went flat as she realized that she had actually been beaten. A couple of moments later she stopped accelerating her treadmill, unsure what TK was planning, but eager to find out.
And so both girls slowed their pace and jogged side by side in an unstable cease-fire.
Soon after Dr. Sadarus entered, followed by Morgus and several henchmen. He was obviously angry. Apparently the girls’ cease-fire didn’t go well with his “theory of performance evolution”.
TK smiled under her gag. Even tied up like this, she was able to give the Doc a hard time. “Enough for today.” He coldly announced. “We’ll try this again in the morning. Get them fed and washed up.” The machines stopped.
The henchmen reacted and tied the girls’ feet with the ankle-cuffs again. Then they freed the girls from their heavy iron collars. Finally they attached leashes to the leather collars both of them were still wearing and lead them out of the gym.
They were walked into another empty room. The walls were lined with closets. In the back there were two doors of bulletproof glass leading to two padded cells.
“So this is where we’ll spend the night,” TK figured. She had been held in a similar cell before, also at the hands of Dr. Sadarus.
“Lie down!” one of their guards ordered. Before the girls could comply, the other henchmen forced them on their knees and pushed them over, so that they fell on the floor face first. It was a feeling of utter helplessness to TK. She wasn’t even able to protect her face against a simple fall like this. Sonya whimpered, while TK let out a growl.
The henchmen ignored them and TK could feel one of them pulling up her sock-clad legs by the chain between her ankles. Then she heard something clicking. Moments later she was able to hear the rattling of chains from above and felt a pull on her ankle-cuffs.
The young heroine was being pulled to the ceiling by her feet and so was Sonya. Soon both cat-girls were hanging upside-down, suspended by their ankles, their heads about on the guards’ knee level. As she looked back at the henchman in front of her, he heart skipped a beat. He was kneeling before her and was holding a scalpel right before her face. TK started squirming and wiggling in panic as the man moved the razor sharp knife towards her throat.
She couldn’t move away from the knife, she couldn’t get free, she couldn’t even put up a fight. Her mind raced as she didn’t dare to imagine what would happen next.
But all he did was to cut through the fabric of her tank-top.
TK felt nothing but a rush of relief for a moment. They weren’t going to kill, torture, or mutilate her here, just strip her naked….
Seconds later that relief was replaced by fury. “STRIP ME NAKED? WHAT THE HELL?!” she was enraged now, pulling on the leather straps embracing her body. She could already see her hands on that pervert’s throat. But fortunately for the henchman, not even this outrage was able to break the restraints’ grip on her slender body.
“Take it easy,” he tried to calm her down. “I’m only going to take off the top and the pants. I’m not going to hurt you.”
“BUT I’M GONNA HURT YOU AS SOON AS I’M OUTTA HERE!” TK cursed into her gag, hardly even listening to the henchman.
Meanwhile two other henchmen had grabbed Sonya’s upper arms and tail, while a third on was cutting away her T-shirt. The black and white tigress was neither in any condition to fight back, nor did she try.
TK on the other hand did try. “Hold still or you’ll just make it harder for both of us,” the henchman in front of her demanded. He used his free hand to grab her chin and push it down, holding down her head. Being forced to face the floor and expose her throat like this, hanging from her legs, TK felt more than vulnerable, she felt her helplessness almost overwhelming her. The tigress focused hard, not to give in to the henchmen’s pressure, but couldn’t do anything at all.
Two others seized her upper arms and tail. Now the man holding TK’s head down started again, to strip TK of her clothes, while the heroic tigress could do nothing but watch shreds of green cloth and fall to the floor just beneath her face.

To be continued…