# The Run

Author: Rivercoon
Tags: Clean, Female, SciFiSummer 2013, Underage

I shiver.&nbsp; Not from the temperature.&nbsp; It is cool in the room, but not cold.&nbsp; I usually like it that way.&nbsp; My fur keeps me warm.

If all the water hadn't been taken out of the pure oxygen I'd probably be sweating.&nbsp; They do that so there won't be any frost.&nbsp; It's making my nose sore.&nbsp; That's quite something with this muzzle.&nbsp; I twitch it as I look out the small window.

A dust devil is slowly moving up the bare ground between buildings.&nbsp; Down where they are farther apart. I glance at the clock again.&nbsp; Two minutes.&nbsp; If it turns this way the opening will be delayed so it won't blow too much sand inside.&nbsp; My attention moves to the footprints in that sand.&nbsp; There are plenty of booted prints of course.&nbsp; But I'm only interested in the bare ones leading from my door to the one across the gap.&nbsp; There are a bunch of those too.&nbsp; Most are much larger than mine.

I flex my toes.&nbsp; My claws poke down into the Sand-Grid.&nbsp; Mom let me paint them green for the run.&nbsp; Nice contrast.&nbsp;&nbsp; Kids tease me more about having digitigrade legs than fur.&nbsp; I guess because more kids have fur.&nbsp; Some adults don't understand why Dr. Milner gave us either.&nbsp; I think my claws will dig into the dirt and make running easier.&nbsp; I hope I'm right.&nbsp; I'm still nervous.&nbsp;&nbsp; Locked in here alone for the last hour hasn't helped.

I don't want to look now, but I can't keep my eyes from wandering a couple meters to the right.&nbsp; At the blackened lump half buried in sand.&nbsp; At the body.&nbsp; It hardly looks human any more.&nbsp; But some ribs are showing where the sand has scoured away the skin.&nbsp; I know who it is of course.&nbsp;&nbsp; Everybody knows John Carter.&nbsp; And how he just lost it out there.&nbsp; I wonder if he read that same book I just finished.&nbsp; Did he really think he could run around forever outside naked or something just because of his name?&nbsp; Earther!

I make myself look up.&nbsp; There are faces filling the windows across from me.&nbsp; I know all of them.&nbsp; Gretchen.&nbsp; Millie.&nbsp; The Tamera's.&nbsp; Dr. Milner is just to the left of the door.&nbsp; My design father.&nbsp; I grin and hope he can see me.&nbsp; I can't imagine him without that beard.&nbsp; My folks say it is about as old as me.&nbsp; Maybe he wanted to feel what fur was like?&nbsp;

"Thirty seconds."

I nod at the announcement and step back.&nbsp; I was sitting on a bench earlier and it is still folded out from the wall.&nbsp; I slip off my robe and lay it on the bench.&nbsp; I start breathing as hard as I can.&nbsp; Trying to time breaths with the countdown clock, and getting as much oxygen in my blood as possible.&nbsp; As I've been told.&nbsp; I brace one foot against the back wall and take what I think is a runner's stance.

My nipples feel hard.&nbsp;&nbsp; What a thing to notice at a time like this.&nbsp; I wonder if anyone will be able to see them sticking out of my chest fur.&nbsp; At thirteen my breasts are starting to grow after all.

"Fifteen.&nbsp; Fourteen.&nbsp; Thirteen...."&nbsp; I recognize the voice of Mrs. Ohna.&nbsp; My favorite teacher.

I can hear the safeties on the door click open.&nbsp; "Three.&nbsp; Two.&nbsp; One."

The rushing air blows my fur before I can even see daylight around the opening crack.&nbsp; I shout, sending my last breath out with it.&nbsp; And then the door is swinging up fast.&nbsp; The cold hits me and the sunlight almost blinds me but the oxygen is drawing me outside with it.&nbsp; I let it, and run for my life.&nbsp;

The sand is loose and cold but my toes are well insulated.&nbsp; My claws dig in just like I'd hoped.&nbsp; And at full speed I can really use my tail for balance.&nbsp; So quiet.&nbsp; It is strange to barely feel the thin air against my ear whiskers.&nbsp;&nbsp; I wonder if my black sox will come out the same color as the rest of my fur from all the red sand.&nbsp; Actually I'm not really thinking about that too hard.&nbsp; My skin and eyes hurt.&nbsp; No time to waste. The far door is standing open a couple meters away now.&nbsp; Inside I can see the back window and the only thing I want to concentrate on at the moment besides running.&nbsp; My parents.

My lungs are burning hard when I slam into the airlock wall right below the window.&nbsp; I'm getting dizzy and almost trip.&nbsp; But I don't.&nbsp; The emergency handle is right in front of me.&nbsp; I grab it with both hands and pull down with all my weight.&nbsp; I feel the door slam shut behind me through the floor just before I fall back.&nbsp;

I'm trying to suck air back into my lungs even faster than it is filling the room.&nbsp;&nbsp; My hair is blowing in my eyes so I lose sight of my folks for a couple seconds.&nbsp; Then it clears.&nbsp; I lay there hurting, naked, on one elbow.&nbsp; But I grin up at them and give a thumb-up sign.

It's official.&nbsp; They know who I am now.&nbsp; Karen Gibson.&nbsp; Martian.

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Source: https://sofurry.com/s/znJ9Evdm