Scars (Part II of J.H. White's Puss in Boots)

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Escape

"You're a long way from home, aren't you?" he said mockingly. Kitty unsheathed her dagger and growled at him.

"I will end you," she snarled.

"Such malice," the dog replied, acting superior. "Maybe Scars was wrong about you."

"Scars is a worthless piece of trash, as are you," she replied angrily. She raised her dagger. "You're nothing but practice." She was about to stab him in his black heart when he held up a paw.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. I have an army behind me, and they would be more than happy to open fire." Kitty looked out the door's gap, and sure enough there were fifty-something dogs holding automatic rifles, ready to fire on the head dog's command.

"Fine," she said. "What do you want?"

"I want to be your personal chauffeur to Scars." He held up a body bag, just the right size for her. He would drag her across the entire desert as a prisoner, and that was the last thing she needed right now.

She responded to his offer by slicing his head off with one chop, and it made a sickening squelching noise as it collided with the ground. The dogs all fired, and she ducked behind a wall as several innocent bar patrons were ripped to shreds.

"You can't run, gata!" one of them shouted. "Keep firing!" There was no way Kitty could take them all. She had two options; try to get out without being seen, or run into the line of fire and try not to get shot. Both unappealing. The safer option was obviously trying to escape, so she walked slowly away from the fire, trying not to make a sound. The dogs could only see through the narrow doorway, so now she was invisible, and the secondary commander of the mutts noticed.

"HOLD YOUR FIRE!" he shouted. "She's not there, idiotas! She's trying to get away. Do any of you have a fraction of a brain? Storm the place!"

Kitty overheard his command and swore loudly as she heard rapid footsteps get closer. She ran faster over the dead bodies and found a back window which she started to thrust herself out of when her leg became snagged in a gap.

She tried to pull it out, but it wouldn't budge. The footsteps and gunfire got even closer. "No," she whispered, tugging harder. Nothing.

She pulled out her dagger and closing her eyes, cut a chunk out of her calf. She became nauseous as she tried not to look down at the sight of her mangled limb, but her leg was now free and she ran as fast as she physically could, away from the bar as the walls were ripped open by bullets.

She heard the dogs swearing in the background as the commander barked orders. She was probably about two thousand feet away when she decided she could safely rest. She sat down and took a look at her leg, groaning and trying not to vomit when she saw the damage.

It was horrific as the pain had assured her earlier. She cut off a strip of her belt and tightly wrapped the wound. It would heal, but it felt as if it could never be mended. The pain seared like the inside of the devil's mouth.

She stood up, trying to remain valiant, and pressed on for about another hour trying to follow the directions as best she could when she saw him in the distance.

Scars, his cape flowing in the dusty wind as he chugged liquid from a hip flask. "Kitty," he said, "you are brave. Stronger than most. You would really do anything to bring him back, wouldn't you?"

"I'd go to the ends of the earth. I would take your life and a thousand more to see him again. You have no idea the lengths I'd go, the lengths I've been."

"Oh, but I do. I'm inside your head." Kitty heard him inside her thoughts. "I know you, Kitty, better than you know yourself."

"Only the Almighty deserves to know what goes on in my head," she whispered at the voice. "Get out." He spoke to her again, but fortunately this time the voice was coming out of his mouth, not infecting her brain.

"I am sorry to do this to you, Kitty, but you must complete one final trial before you may strike me down."

"What kind of trial?" she asked impatiently.

"A journey through everything you love, and everything you fear. Welcome, my darling, to the SIM." He vanished and Kitty suddenly felt a terrible pain in her paws. She looked down and she was bleeding and bruised from where her claws had been extracted. "NO!" she cried into the darkness. Nobody was there to hear her.