Story of a Girl - Part 2

By Brooke Clifford

1254 moved slowly to one of the guards, the stupidest one outside at the moment. “I want to start training,” she said lowly, the guard looking at her oddly.

“Not today, 1254.”

“It’ll benefit the Research, you know. And you want to benefit the Research, don’t you?” she asked, and the guard pondered this for a bit.

“Well… I don’t see how it could hurt. Let’s go.” The guard took her to a gym, where there were all sorts of modified exercising machines. She sighed a bit, waiting for him to turn around, before she took off her pants and t-shirt. 1254 felt very humiliated for this; there should be no reason as to why she had to take off her clothes in front of another individual. Quickly putting on sleek, tight-fitting shorts and bra, she then tapped the guard on the shoulder, where he nodded and brought in a researcher.

“1254, I see you’re willing to train, now. What a wise decision,” he said quietly, bringing her over to a treadmill. “I’m going to put little suction cups on your body to record various things, so don’t be alarmed,” he said, and proceeded by placing them on her chest, thighs, neck and stomach. She sighed, before stepping onto the treadmill. A large screen rolled from the ceiling as the treadmill turned on, and she began lightly jogging to warm up her muscles. Simultaneously, the screen showed her skeleton- a normal skeleton, but with more bones in the spine, and many in her tail. It also showed her heart rate, her pulse rate, and scientific things of that nature. The researcher just watched and occasionally recorded the information either by audio or written report.

After about five minutes, he raised the speed, so that she was now running. She didn’t comment at all, but let her breathing fall naturally, trying to stick it out for as long as she could. Being part cat, it wouldn’t be too hard; her half-family had plenty of stamina. Soon, she was sprinting, and she kept that pace for a while. Finally, the researcher slowed the machine to a stop. “Good,” he commented, “Your speed is even. Let’s see your agility,” he said, tossing her a pair of gloves. She sighed, breathing a bit heavier than normal to regain her breath.

Another guard soon came in, wearing a protective suit, lest she try to attack him. Again. The cat anthro sighed a bit, cracking her shoulders and stretching her arms as a means of warming up. “Whenever you two are ready,” she muttered, before the guard threw a punch. She easily dodged it, sidestepping and curving her body backwards. His leg went up into a high kick, to which she grabbed his calf, pulling it next to her so he came crashing down, before she rammed her elbow into where his spine would be, as the padding was there to protect him.

When he regained his balance from being slammed into the ground, she leaped onto his back, teeth attempting to dig into his skin and rip out the soft flesh. Ten small little razors extended from her fingertips; cat’s claws pierced right through the padding. The guard yelled for mercy, trying to grab her. Being lightweight, her feet went up to his shoulders, and she bounced off of him, flipping down onto the ground lithely. The researchers stared in amazement, wondering how a half-human half-cat creature could possibly attack a guard so, and even pierce through the layers and layers of protective padding. “Mercy! Uncle! Stop!” The guard yelled, breathing heavily and down on his hands and knees before the researcher.

“Pull yourself together!” The researcher called, “we’ll end this. Thank you, 1254; you are to return to your cell now.”

The days continued into weeks, where soon, 1254 was sprinting longer and faster than she had been. She would also be testing her ‘agility’, or rather –combat- skills, with not one guard, but up to five before her month had soon come. She sighed, sitting under the tree that she and Telell frequently met under. And finally, Telell and Firé came, both smiling and seeming very eager to escape.

“Okay, here’s how this is going to work. I’m going to cause a distraction, giving Firé here a chance to melt away the bars of his cell,” Telell said, eying her partner in the just crime.

He nodded, and looked to 1254, “Neko-chan, I’ll come and free you. We’ll move toward the exit, fighting off any guards that might be there.”

“What about Telell?” 1254 asked, getting up and looking back and forth between the two.

“I’ll be fine, Neko-chan; those bars are easy to pry off,” Telell mused with a grin, her ivory hair blowing in the wind.

“From there, it’s an easy escape into the city. I don’t know where we’ll stay, but we’ll figure it out,” Firé said, and the girls nodded.

“Tonight, under the twilight sky. We’ll be free!” Telell nearly screamed, had Firé and 1254 not slapped their hands over her mouth.

It was time to put the plan into action, so to speak. Telell, whose cell wasn’t far from Firé or 1254’s cells, started making a riot, screaming and wailing and thrashing about in her mini-prison. All the guards moved to her, in case she would lash out on any of them as 1254 would frequently do. Firé grinned, his hand had glowed a light red, before he put his hand to the cold iron bars. They turned red hot within mere seconds, and they melted away to form a hole big enough for him to climb out of. He crept over to 1254’s cell, repeating the process and helping her out. She gave a grin, before a guard seized her from behind, making her yelp. Teeth quickly sunk into his flesh, making him scream loudly, before she licked her lips of his blood.

“Let’s go!” Firé shouted, “We won’t have much time now!” 1254 nodded, following her friend as Telell soon came up behind them.

“You’re leaving without me??” she asked sarcastically, a grin about her.

“No time for talking,” 1254 growled lowly, ears pressed to hear behind them, “They’re coming after us. And from the sounds of it, there are a lot of them.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter Neko-chan,” Firé pointed out, nodding ahead of them as a large, iron fence barricaded their path. “All we have to do is make our way through and we’re in the clear!”

But that wasn’t before shots fired out. The three turned around, before Telell was on the ground, flinching in shock. She had been shot with a taser gun.

“You’re in for it, now!” Firé shouted, turning to an army of guards, the numbers seemed somewhere in the hundreds. All either of them could see was a mass of black, with the occasional shiny object. They were ready to shoot the two, just as they had Telell. 1254 looked to Firé, who still had a grin about him. When fire runs in your blood, chaos is bound to happen. His fingertips produced flames, which he simply blew forward, creating a flamethrower effect, scorching the first few guards. It seemed that was their opening move, and now, it was the guards’ turn.

They charged toward the two, screams and shouts echoing throughout the area. 1254 and Firé charged as well, letting the slaughtering occur in mass numbers. Firé set three guards ablaze, and he grinned as they danced about, flailing their arms in efforts to save their lives. Their efforts were merely in vain.

1254 was encircled with guards, the four or five that were surrounding her slowly closing in. She simply stood her ground, “You lot really are a bunch of morons. I’ve fought with you, and I would have killed you then, had that damn researcher not stopped me,” she growled, before her claws pierced through the flesh of a guard. “Oh well, I’ll enjoy the bloodshed tonight.”

Her hands swiped this way and that, blood being sprayed everywhere. They couldn’t match up with her agility; they were weighed down too much by their equipment and protection. So instead, she merely killed them all. But that wasn’t very successful, for as soon as the last one fell, she fell as well; flinching and twitching as Telell had. Firé, too, was on the ground, muscles spazzing in response to the tasers.