Jill woke up and rolled to her side, feeling the familiar warm presence of Tanner still
sleeping beside her. It was still dark. Must have been early morning. She was safe here at
his place, but her scavenger driven instincts hadn't completely faded and kept her as a light
sleeper in unfamiliar environments. She checked the time on the dimly glowing clock
beside the bed. It was four thirty. She wasn't likely to fall back asleep at this point, but she
still needed to make sure she was on time for work. Staying in bed might be a little risky.
She yawned as she quietly rolled herself out of Tanner's bed, leaving him asleep as she
made her way first to the bathroom, then the kitchen. After a quick drink of juice and a few
pieces of toast, she made her way to the living room and reclined in his armchair with the
television on low volume.
After a few minutes, she felt his hands rest on her shoulders. 'Aww...' She sighed. 'Did I
wake you up?'
'No.' He replied. 'I felt the bed get colder. Couldn't sleep?'
'Blame my instincts.' Jill shrugged. Pulling his hands closer to her chest.
'You know, you'd get used to the place faster if you lived here.' He moved around and sat
on the arm of the chair, wrapping her shoulders back into his gentle grip as he did so.
'Maybe.' She sighed, leaning into him. 'Or maybe I'll just never feel safe. Not in this city.'
'As long as we're careful, we're safe.' Tanner said as reassuringly as he could manage.
'I'm gonna head back to bed. If I don't see you before you head to work, have a good day.'
Following her train ride and arrival at the mall, Jill made her way quickly to the Donny's
cafe just as the roller shutters were being lifted. Kira came into view as the shutters
revealed the cafe interior, and Jill paused in her approach for a split second.
'Kira, hi.' The mouse called, trying to mask her surprise. 'I thought Jacob was rostered to
open today?'
Kira shrugged and smiled. 'The life of a manager. He got called to the South Section
outlet. I think they're trialling him for regional manager.'
'I see.' Jill nodded, climbing to the top of the counter and taking notice of the ocelot's
smile. 'So is this your trial as manager here?'
'Not... officially?' Kira shrugged, failing to completely hide the excitement in her voice.
'But he trusted me to handle it.'
'Well, I'm sure you'll do fine.' Jill nodded curtly, hoping the conversation would end there.
Not that she actively disliked Kira, but conversing with carnivores was never a position she
was entirely comfortable with. No matter how friendly and courteous they seemed, the
mouse could never look past what they were, and could never prevent thoughts of how
many of her own kind had ended up as food for these... people. She had even learned to
spot the patterns of their hunting cycles depending on how they looked at and spoke to her
during the day. They'd keep their distance when the time was near, and be almost
uncomfortably close for the few days after. Of course that only made it worse, knowing that
the bones of mice or other small citizens were still being processed just behind the fur of
their waists. Right at Jill's eye level when she worked the counter.
'Everything alright?' Kira asked, seeming to notice that the mouse was lost in thought.
'I'm fine.' Jill replied, maybe a bit too hastily as she headed towards the opening at the
rear of the counter that led down into her own rest area. Well, the rodentia rest area, but
currently that only applied to her. She made her way down the stairs and changed into her
work uniform, her seldom if ever needed apron, then tied her hair back. When she was
ready, she took a deep breath, calmed her nerves and headed back up.
By now everyone else on the morning shift was here and a small line of customers was
forming. Andrea took the second counter beside Jill and as she started up the computer
system, the pair lifted their eyes to the first customers to begin their day. It was a steady
flow and as the morning wore on, Andrea spent less time up front and more time prepping
food in back. She and Kira were both in good moods, leading Jill to her previous dark
thoughts returning. Or maybe they were both just excited about Kira's potential promotion
being on the horizon.
Shortly before the lunch rush was due, Jill spotted another customer on approach. A felid
woman dressed in mostly blue, her fur completely white and her short cut silver hair had
pale pink stripes dyed through it. Her eyes were a deep blue and after panning across the
sign above, lowered to lock into an intense stare with Jill as she made her approach.
Jill was alone at the counter at this time, and glanced nervously at the doorway to the
back section as the white cat made the final few steps.
'H-hello, can I help you?' Jill asked, looking up at the felid woman and doing her best to
hide her nervousness. There was an intensity to this cat that just shook her to her core and
she wanted this interaction to be over as quickly as possible.
'Oh, still deciding.' The cat replied, leaning against the counter in a way that left her
looming over where Jill stood. 'Mostly wanted to see the place again. I used to work here
you know.'
'Oh, moved on to bigger things?' Jill responded, doing her best to sound sincere.
'Kind of.' The cat shrugged. 'I left a secret on the corner of the counter. Clawed into the
underside of the wood. Have you noticed it?'
'Can't say I have.' Jill shook her head. 'Are you ready to order?'
'In a sec.' The felid replied, rounding the corner to stand at the end of the counter that
joined the wall, close to where she had indicated her secret. Jill tried to hide her frustration,
wishing that this cat would make her order and be done here. 'I wanna see if this is still
here.' She gave a sideways glance to Jill with a small bit deliberate smirk, causing the
mouse to sigh in frustration.
'What are you doing?' Jill asked as the cat began fidgeting with the outer case of the
attached rodent size facilities. She stepped across the counter to stand in front of where
the woman had crouched next to the outside. 'That was installed shortly before I started
here. Whatever you're looking for is probably gone.'
The cat lifted her blue eyed gaze to lock with Jill's own and grinned. Before the mouse
could even react, she was wrapped in the cat's hand tightly, forcing the breath from her
lungs and rendering her silent and helpless. As she stared up with pleading eyes and
bewildered thoughts, the white cat pulled her from the counter to be held in front of that
terrifying grin.
'A perfect little blind spot that none of the cameras can see.' She explained, still drawing
closer. Jill struggled uselessly as her nose felt the sting of hot, stale breath. She was almost
grateful she couldn't breathe for those few moments, but as the cat's mouth suddenly filled
her vision, all she wanted to be able to do was scream.
She felt the felid's grip release her and she plopped with a wet landing onto the barbed
and slimy surface of the pink tongue. Finally able to draw a breath, she tried to scream but
was interrupted as the woman closed her mouth, pressing the mouse harshly between the
barbs of her tongue and the hard ridges of her palate. Jill scrambled frantically, trying to
push back with her feeble strength against the powerful muscle as it began to toss her from
one side of the mouth to the other.
Jill lost all sense of equilibrium in here and though she couldn't be sure, she made a good
guess that the cat was already walking away from Donny's. Was nobody paying attention? If
someone walked out now, would they even notice she was gone or would they just assume
she was in the bathroom or something? She could be halfway to this damn cat's hips
before anybody figured out something was wrong!
Jill was in total darkness in here but her every other sense was being overwhelmed. The
odour and even the taste of the humid stale breath was impossible to ignore, the sounds of
wet slurping and smacking as the cat savoured her treat were deafening and her clothes
were no protection from the tongue as it ripped at them and coated every surface of her
flailing body with putrid drool. The sound of her own whimpering was being easily drowned
out and she became too afraid to try and take a deeper breath in case she inhaled a lungful
of the horrid slimy saliva.
Every attempt to struggle was met with failure, her drool coated body and limbs had no
purchase against the even slimier surfaces inside here. She felt her hand slip against the
sharp edge of a molar and flinched. Was the cat going to chew her? Or would she be
swallowed whole and alive as felids tended to prefer? As the thought crossed her mind she
realized she didn't know which fate would be worse. Being crushed repeatedly between
teeth didn't sound pleasant, but neither did slowly dissolving or potentially drowning in
stomach acid.
A moment later her preference wouldn't matter. The cat's mouth opened slightly,
allowing in just enough light for Jill to realize how much closer she had been drawn to the
throat. A wash of colder air came in as the felid inhaled and Jill watched in sheer horror as
the arch of the throat lifted, making the uvula bob and recoil before she was once again
plunged into darkness. A split second after that she felt an immense pressure against her
lower half, her saliva coated body slipping in the only direction she was allowed to move.
She stifled a scream to avoid a mouthful of the cat's saliva before the pressure evened out
for a moment, then a sickeningly loud gulp was accompanied by a total shift in her
position.
'Sh-she-she swallowed?!' Jill whimpered to herself as she was pressed tight on all sides
by constricting rings of flesh. She was upside down and being pushed headfirst downwards
to only one possible destination. 'Oh gods, please! Not like this!' Her tears were lost in the
surrounding mess as the white cat's gullet did its work. Each passing moment seemed to
increase the pressure as she was pushed deeper, with her mind sinking deeper into despair
as her body sank deeper into the cat's own. Any moment now she would...
As the dark thoughts and feelings of sheer dread began to set in, it became harder to
breathe and harder still to keep a level head. She wanted to scream and claw her way free,
but her mind was just as paralysed by dread as her body was by the powerful musculature
claiming her more with each passing second.
The pressure increased around her head and shoulders as she came to a momentary
stop. She panicked even more as saliva began to pool around and cover her mouth and
nose. The worry that she would drown in this horrific slime passed as she felt the sphincter
beneath and in front of her give way. She was squeezed through and experienced herself
flailing for a moment before landing and being submerged into a caustic and foul smelling
pool of bubbling chyme.
She moved more desperately than ever before as she clawed through the thick soup to
get herself back above the surface. Her first breath was accompanied by a splash of the
horrid substance onto her own cheek and tongue, resulting in a coughing fit followed by the
loss of her own breakfast into the roiling mix around her.
There wasn't much room. With her arms and legs spread and the constant swaying
motion as the cat walked, Jill felt her hands touch the stomach walls on either side of her
one after the other with each small pulse of the fleshy prison. She could hear the feline
heartbeat faintly but it was outclassed by the deafening sound of splashing liquids and the
churning and gurgling of the stomach itself. And even with her head barely above the
digesting slop, her ears were brushing the pulsating ceiling. This air pocket, if the rank
fumes even counted for that, would not keep her alive for very long. With her ears, nose and
every other part of her body with little or no fur beginning to itch and sting, she thought
depressingly that the lack of air was probably the only blessing here. At least her suffering
would be brief. The cat hadn't even thought to remove her phone and wallet, so clearly
didn't care for hunting laws or the thought of submitting Jill's ID to mark her as consumed.
Wait, her phone. She could try to call someone! Police? Tanner? Maybe even Andrea if
she was close enough to pursue this white felid. It was a slim hope that she could hold out
long enough for it to be of any help, but it was still better than just waiting to die.
Every movement she made using her left hand to try and reach her pocket resulted in her
head dipping beneath the surface of the horrid chyme. She screamed in frustration and
determination in equal measure as she finally felt her hand wrap around the device. She
found herself praying the device would still work as she lifted it in front of her face. As the
screen lit up, she got her first look at what she was actually suspended in.
Above her the pulsating pink flesh of the stomach was visible, its creased surface
dripping gastric fluids and swallowed saliva into the mix below. Around her however was a
mix of greenish fluid mottled by patches of reddish brown, each surrounding a clump of
something not entirely solid. Jill's eyes were drawn to one such piece, the shape becoming
something horrifyingly familiar as her eyes focused and adjusted to the sudden light.
'Ohh gods...' The realization of what she was looking at drained her focus as the clump
rolled over in the bubbling goop. Now facing towards her was the half dissolved face of
another mouse, one eye reduced to a sunken milky white mess, the other a hollowed and
bloody eye socket.
Her thumb fumbled to try and unlock her screen, and she panted frantically as the slime
covered phone began to slip from her desperate grasp.
'No no nooo!' She wrapped both hands firmly around the phone to secure her grip,
resulting in her head bobbing briefly beneath the surface of the chyme. As she kicked
frantically to get herself back above, now horrifyingly aware of what she was desperately
trying not to inhale, she could feel the drifting clumps of dissolving meat brushing against
her body through the mix. She used one to prop herself back up, wincing as the feel of
melting flesh and softened bones began to give way under and between her toes.
She unlocked her phone screen and squinted as much to focus as to avoid anything
splashing her eyes. She tried to open her contacts list but her slime covered hands
wouldn't cohesively register her touch on the screen. A slew of useless apps opened and
defied her attempts to close them, frustrating her to no short degree. This was already such
a slim hope, why did it have to be so agonisingly difficult?!
'Oh come on, please!' Jill tried again and again to gain control of the device, sobbing as
her efforts amounted to nothing. A sharp jolt rocked the cat's whole body, jostling the
stomach contents to one side and causing the phone to slip from her grasp. The dim light
from beneath the roiling chyme flickered for a few moments before dying out, leaving the
mouse once more in turbulent, noisy darkness.
Another jolt and it sounded faintly like the cat was talking, maybe shouting? By the time
Jill had recovered enough to even give the matter a thought, everything shifted again and
she felt herself enveloped by the caustic acids. This time she had no way of telling up from
down, her fading strength and burning lungs struggling to keep going. As she kept her eyes
and lips squeezed shut, her skin began to itch and burn all over. Her nose was particularly
irritated, making her want to sneeze but also unwilling to let herself inhale even slightly. It
was only a matter of time now. Her lungs would burn to the point she'd reflexively inhale
and the gastric acids would begin to dissolve her tiny body inside and out. What worse fate
could there be?
Her vision behind her stinging eyelids began to be nothing but blurry stars and bright
colours. Maybe she should just do it. Get it over with. But no matter how tempting the
thought, her treacherous instincts refused to let her let go. Survive, it insisted. That was the
last word through her mind before the stars faded and the burning darkness took over...
Survive...
* * *
Jill inhaled sharply, feeling her arms and legs flail desperately. Something was
constricting her, holding her in place against a warm and strangely soft surface. Something
was wrapped around her face, covering her eyes. The air she was breathing had a strange,
almost pleasant scent to it and there was some sort of strap like the ones around her wrists
and ankles also affixed to her neck.
'H-help!' She shouted, feeling a panic set in as she tried to make sense of this new
development. What had happened? Where was she? She was about to die. Was this... was
this some strange afterlife or were her synapses firing in her final moments? And if they
were, what kind of dream or memory was this?
'HELP!' She shouted again, more forcefully this time. Through her tumultuous thoughts,
she began to hear sounds. Beeping, a steady repetitive drone and a din of distant voices.
Footsteps. Large footsteps close by. She twitched in trepidation, unsure of whether to
call again or keep silent.
'You're awake?' A woman's voice asked. By the volume and proximity, this voice definitely
belonged to someone the size of a cat, or at least close to one. Jill kept quiet, unsure of
what to do but unable to keep her lip from quivering.
'Miss Hazeleye, you're safe.' The voice assured her. 'You're in a hospital. We restrained
you because we thought you might panic when you woke up. I can take them off if you'd
like? And I can let... Tanner, know that you're awake. Does that sound okay?'
Jill took a deep breath and nodded slowly. In a hospital? How? Had she really been saved
from the brink of being digested alive at some point after she passed out? That was... that
was a development beyond mere luck. It was almost as if there was some sort of guardian
spirit looking after her.
After a few more moments, she felt something press down on her legs. 'Just hold still.'
The woman repeated. Jill felt the straps around her ankles tighten for a moment before
coming loose. Following this, the process repeated on each arm in turn before the final
strap was released from her neck. The woman kept two of her large fingers pressed gently
on the mouse's chest once the strap was gone. 'Move slowly. That mask is giving you a high
dose of painkiller inhalant. You are gonna feel real woozy once you sit up.'
Jill nodded and waited for the woman to lift her fingers off of her chest. She moved
slowly, using her arms to carefully prop herself into a sitting position. The other was right,
this was far more difficult than it should have been. 'W-what's on my head? What's...?' She
lifted her hand to feel and felt the touch of fabric under her fingertips. Bandages.
'A salve.' The other voice replied. 'Your skin suffered some damage. Nothing too serious,
but we decided that it was worth giving you a hand to recover. We can take that off now if
you want. You remember what happened, right?'
'Please.' Jill nodded again. She held still as the giant hands carefully held her in place and
started the unravelling. Once the bandages were gone, she tentatively opened her eyes.
What she saw was a small box-like structure that held her bed and several support
apparatuses, the whole setup contained within a wall that likely had others like it built in.
Standing beside with her chest at roughly the height of her bed was a polecat woman
wearing nurse fatigues. Not a cat as Jill had assumed. The woman was wearing a nurse's
cap to hold back her hair, but Jill could still see that there were strands of dyed pink
beneath it. A pair of green eyes looked down at her, and though there was a measure of
compassion there, they were still undoubtedly the eyes of a predator.
'Are you alright?' The woman asked. 'I'm Alexia, the nurse attending this area.' Despite
her smile, Jill could only focus on the mouth, the teeth, the barest glimpse of the throat
beyond and it was enough to send shivers up her spine.
'How did I get here?' Jill asked, lowering her gaze so as not to see that sight again when
Alexia replied.
'Your co-workers noticed your... uh, assailant, leaving the Donny's after you were taken.
Apparently they recognised her and immediately figured out what happened.' Alexia
explained. 'One of them pursued and the other called the police. They were able to get you
out, and you were brought straight here. That was... yesterday.'
Jill noticed Alexia look off to one side, and a moment later Tanner climbed into the box
from a ladder outside. 'Tanner!' She wanted to shuffle off the bed and stand, but her
strength gave out almost immediately.
'Hey hey. Don't try to move.' Tanner rushed over and embraced her.
'How did this happen?' Jill sobbed, wrapping her weak arms around him. 'I thought I was
gonna die inside... that cat.'
'Andrea and Kira recognised her.' Tanner explained. 'Apparently her name was Therese.
Used to work at Donny's and got fired for trying to eat another employee. So they got the
police after her as soon as they saw you were gone and saw her walking away. They had this
mask they put over a predator's face, it induces severe nausea and makes them throw up.
Then there's this filter that catches anything solid. You uh... you weren't the only mouse
that came back up. But you were the only one that was alive. The worst one was... Well.
They estimate the cat had been hunting half the morning. Well outside legal hours.'
'Oh gods.' Jill felt fresh tears welling up as she remembered what she had seen inside the
stomach of that monstrous woman. 'There are people like that out there... We aren't safe at
all. They don't-'
'Hey, shh.' Tanner interrupted her comfortingly. 'She was just one out of hundreds. Kira
and Andrea both did everything they could to save your life. When the police got you out, it
looked like you weren't gonna make it. Andrea will hate that I told you this, but she cried.'
'Wha... really?' Jill was perplexed.
Alexia raised her hand to gain the attention of both mice. 'Speaking of Andrea, when
you're up for it Jill? You really ought to visit her. I can take you there whenever you're ready.'
It had been close to an hour when Tanner had finally convinced Jill that she should
indeed go and visit Andrea. The bed was transferred to a trolley and Alexia carted the pair to
another ward where Andrea was lying in a bed, staring out a nearby window.
'Andrea?' Alexia called. 'She's here.'
Andrea turned towards them, revealing a patch and bandages over her left eye. 'Hey, Jill.
Good to see you woke up. I'm so glad you made it.'
'Y-yea, they tell me I have you and Kira to thank.' Jill nodded nervously, using Tanner's
help to remain in a seated position. 'I-is your eye going to be alright?'
Andrea smiled awkwardly. 'Uhh, no. I got out of surgery a couple hours ago. Therese got
me good, she really wasn't willing to let you go. They had to take my eye out.'
'W-what?' Jill stammered. Had Andrea really fought that hard to save her? Most people
would have just given up and accepted that she was gone. Wouldn't they? All the words
about rodent citizens being entitled to the full protection of the law was nice and all, but it
was just words to make murids and the like feel welcome. Wasn't it?
'It's alright.' Andrea shrugged and sat up. 'My dad was pretty pissed when he found out,
but don't worry about him. It's worth it to save a friend's life.'
'R-right...' Jill nodded, feeling faint as more tears formed. She could never have expected
this. 'Thank you so much...'
