Finally he calls me. Meow=She under here. I could hear a faint meowing so I look around, there’s no way to move that mountain of rubble. Come here Mr. Cat and let me take off your backpack and see if you can fit under here. Meow!=I fit okay to save my Muffin. In he went between all that broken wood and after a while he returned dragging Muffin out through that hole. Well done Mr. Cat! He was purring and licking Muffin. He had taken off her backpack to bring her out so I asked him to go back and get it. It didn’t take long to come out with the backpack. I had put Muffin on a cushion and Mr. Cat curled up around her. Karin was awake now but having trouble moving around. I told her to lay still for now. I had found a couple towels in the kitchen area that I wrapped around the cuts that were bleeding.

We need to get out of here, but where is here? Meow.=Big house not far away, we could go there. Hmm, this house was likely a guest cottage or maybe a place where the gardener lived. I carry Muffin on the cushion while Mr. Cat leads the way. I tell Karin to wait and I would help her to the house. I got Muffin and Mr. Cat into the house and gave instructions to Mr. Cat then I went back for Karin. She was already walking up to the house slowly, so I helped her the rest of the way. After getting Karin settled on one of the beds I took a better look at the cut on her stomach. That one is a bit deep, I said, we need to get you to a hospital somehow. No, she said, then I would end up back in prison for being part of this, I’m still on parole. You can stitch me up, she said, it isn’t hard, my mother is a nurse and she showed me how.

But we need some good disinfectant for the needle and thread, if we can find all that. I have a needle and thread, but nothing to sterilize it with. Let me look around. There was nothing here so I went back to the small cottage and picked up some food while I was there. Nothing to sterilize with though, except maybe this one bottle I found, I just couldn’t read the label. That will work okay, said Karin. I tried to do it as quickly as possible while still being careful. Soon it was finished and I told Karin to just relax, rest, and don’t move around. I went and checked on Muffin, she was awake and feeling quite a bit better, but I told her to relax and sleep for a while anyway. Mr. Cat, I need you to watch carefully and if anyone shows up, let me know right away, all you need to do is press this button. Meow.=Okay, I watch good, no one get in here and hurt my Muffin.

Off I went to see if I could find a car around here. There was a garage attached to the house and a door led into it. Hey, not bad. There was two old cars, probably from the 1950s sitting in there. It’s easy starting these old cars without a key and sure enough one of them started up right away. Looks like it was probably used not too long ago, it has nearly a full tank of fuel. As I was about to go inside I noticed the lock on the door. It’s the same brand as the key. I tried the key and it worked perfectly. Now that is interesting. Katharina was acting like she knew nothing about that key. That means the answer is in this house somewhere. But what? Karin and Muffin were awake and hungry in about an hour so I fixed something for us to eat. Just missing the most important thing, I said. What’s that?, asked Karin. Meow, meow!=Coffee! Karin laughed.

To be continued.

©2020 Steve McLeod.