Squishy

Story by bobthecreep

Here's a little something I cooked up during the outage. Nothing too serious, I plan on just having fun with this in between chapters of my other story.

Thick blankets of snow crunched under Katie's boots as she trudged in the direction of the little box stuck in a building full of other little boxes she called home. What a day for a storm. Everything seemed to be working against her since she woke up that morning. First, her alarm didn't go off thanks to a brownout sometime in the night. Then, once she finally woke up and made it down to the parking lot with less than half an hour before she was supposed to clock in, she found her dumpy old sedan had been buried under probably tons of snow. Thanks to that, she had to run all the way to work, climbing over drifts, falling into hidden potholes and dodging plows. All for a job that just barely made her enough money to pay for a studio apartment every month.

Now, the night seemed even darker than usual thanks to the heavy cloud cover overhead dumping its constant payload of ice. Even for the early hours of the night, there were hardly any cars and even fewer people on foot; not even streetwalkers dared to venture out in these conditions. The cold air was unperturbed by Katie's multiple layers of clothing, reaching her skin through any available crevice. She couldn't feel her feet or her hands and they were only getting more numb with every step. A hot shower and a good night's rest under several blankets sounded like heaven on earth right then.

With her building one crosswalk away, warmth was almost in Katie's grasp. Ascending one particularly large pile of dirty packed snow, she tumbled down the other side, landing face down in fresh powder that did little to cushion her nose. She pulled herself upright, reluctantly removing her right hand from the comfort of her left armpit and wiped a gloved finger along her upper lip. What an excellent way to end an already excellent day, she thought to herself, now I have a bloody nose. It wasn't broken, so she pinched her nostrils shut and continued toward her building.

Her numbed feet moved faster and faster as she got closer to home. She even tried to run but that proved to be too awkward in this weather. Finally, one more corner and she would be safe and warm. Just as she turned, Katie saw something out of the corner of her eye down the alley separating the apartment building from its neighbor. It wasn't at all unusual for homeless people to be anywhere in this city, but anyone outside at this time had to be nuts, Katie included. She watched for any more movement down the dimly lit alley, poised to bolt if she had to. Nothing happened for a moment though, just as Katie made a move to keep walking, she saw something move again.

Very cautiously, she stepped into the alleyway, trembling a little from both the cold and a fair dose of nerves. The farther she moved into the dank darkness, the clearer she could both see and hear whatever it was moving. A small pile of stuffed trash bags placed against the apartment's wall seemed to be shivering from the cold. Katie carefully moved closer to it, expecting a stray cat or a rat to jump out from underneath and take off for one of the other dark crevices this city held. A little closer and nothing, just more trembling. She pulled off the bags one at a time, keeping her nose pinched until she reached one particularly heavy one. Sighing, Katie pulled her hand away from her face and brought it to the bag. She could feel the thick warm blood quickly drain from her open nostril and fall toward the ground. Just before the crimson drop landed in the snow below her, Katie saw something dart out and then quickly retract, almost like whatever she was trying to rescue caught it.

With all the trash pulled aside, Katie found a lump of dirty old rags, all of them soaked. Still ready to run if needed, she crouched down with one hand outstretched. As her glove touched the wet rags, whatever was wrapped in them recoiled, trying to escape toward the cement wall. Whatever it was, it was freezing to death outside and Katie couldn't bare to let the cold take it. In one swift movement, Katie scooped up the mystery creature and the rags it was hiding in into her arms, intent on taking it home. Although, the building manager didn't allow pets, so she couldn't go through the front door. But it might be late enough that none of the staff were in. She couldn't take the chance and entered through the door a little deeper into the alley, hoping it would lead into the building.

The little bundle kept shaking in Katie's arms all the way up the elevator, but didn't make any other sort of movements. She started to worry that maybe she didn't get to it in time and would have to witness the unthinkable. No, she thought, shaking her head quickly to dash the idea, I'm going to warm the shit out of you! Probably the only good thing that happened to he

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