I did make it to the hotel grounds, but that didn’t help, the man stood there, gun pointed at my head. My head. Like it was on fire! Burning so much I can’t stand it! Katharina came and stood next to the man. “Let me do it,” said the man. “Pull that trigger and you’re a dead man yourself,” said Katharina pointing her gun at him. He looks at her, puzzled, “you wanted to kill him and those flea infested rats,” he said. “Not like this,” said Katharina, “he’s already dead, I told the doc he gave Steve too much of that junk. Stupid experiment.” Then she called out, “hey you cats, I know you are out there somewhere, you wouldn’t leave your human. Come on out, I promise not to hurt you or Steve, he needs help, only you can do that and it needs to be done quickly or he’ll lose his mind totally!”

There was silence. Then Muffin came out of the bushes to their left and sat on the grass. Mr. Cat came out on the trail behind them. The guy that wanted to shoot me pointed his gun at Muffin and said, “such an easy shot.” “Thwock!” And down he went. Mr. Cat got him. “You deserved that,” said Katharina, “hold it you two, I didn’t want him to do that, I made a promise and I’ll stick with it. We’re leaving, but get help for Steve fast, it might already be too late.” Muffin watched her, tilting her head a little. She saw tears on Katharina’s cheeks. Then Katharina and her remaining 3 men ran to their boat and left.

Muffin came running to me and started purring as loud as she could. Mr. Cat called Baldwin. Meow!=Need boat fast, human Steve in bad trouble, that nowhere thing, it back real bad! A bad storm had begun and unfortunately Baldwin’s boat had to move farther from the island to get out of the storms path. Now they can’t get to the island until the storm is over. Meow,meow?=What we do now Mr. Cat? Meow.=Not know, need to get human Steve inside hotel before storm hit, but I don’t think we can do it. Just then Katharina came speeding in on a bike.

“Is the storm stopping the boat?”, she asked. Muffin shook her head up and down. “Wish I could understand your cat language,” she said with a smile, “we need to get Steve in the hotel then.” So Katharina dragged me back to the hotel and into the suite we were using. She got me up on the bed and Muffin lay down beside me purring loudly again. “That’s it Muffin,” said Katharina, “he needs to know you are here, that will help him fight.” By that time I was out completely, not knowing anything that was going on. But I heard the purring and knew Muffin was there which helped to calm me a bit.

Mr. Cat was watching Katharina very closely, he wasn’t sure if they should trust her or not. Katharina noticed that Mr. Cat was watching. “Honestly, you two,” she said, “I’m not here to hurt Steve, I want to try and help him. My boat has gone already, they wanted to get away from the storm too. I stayed behind to try and help. So right now all of us are trapped on this island, and when your boat arrives I’m sure they will arrest me and I’ll be off to prison.” She starts to cry again.

“I feel like it’s my fault for letting that so-called doctor experiment with Steve like that,” she continued, “but I have something here that might help, it’s something doc said would bring Steve back to normal, although he wasn’t sure if it would work or not. But if Steve doesn’t get help soon, nothing will help him.” Meow=I call Baldwin Muffin, see what he say. So he did. Baldwin was hesitant to trust Katharina even after talking with her. But he said it was for Muffin and Mr. Cat to decide, then he added that if it were him he would say yes to it. Meow,meow=I say we give it a try, otherwise we lose my human for good, not want that. Meow.=Me agree. Then Muffin turned to Katharina and meowed, we say yes, use new drug.

To Be Continued.

Previous chapters of this story can be found on my home page under “The Investigators, Inc.”

©2021 Steve McLeod.