I didn't waste another moment trying to guess what plan they had in store for me, so I took off running toward the nearest conveyor belt and hopped onto it. The area in which I ran was just the beginning of a mazed framework interconnecting various building sections, and better yet I had one distinct advantage: I convinced Building Security to get a control system completely accessible via smartphone, and moreover, I'd been luckily granted authorization. Wasting no time with this ability, I fired it right up. The belt I dove on began to move quickly as I momentarily scanned the app in my phone's screen, and the noise picked up quite loudly as the structure's internal workings came to life.

Before me on the several inch screen was the general layout of the conveyors running the building. It also told me where I was, how fast they were all moving, and a general sensor system for proper function. A quick check indicated all was clear, now for at least a few seconds it was time to enjoy the ride. I peeked my head over the rails flanking the belt I was riding, and swiveled my head around; I saw no sign of the ladies, which worried me slightly. That disappeared shortly though, as I steeled my resolve and vowed to beat Angi and her ilk. I decided to hop off the belt in one of the back corners of the building and beat a hasty but quiet path atop a higher vantage point.

As I moved silently and efficiently to the nearest ladder up, I heard a building-wide dialtone; someone was using the loudspeaker. As I guessed it was Angi, who started by having some fun with this. As she first spoke, the interference cut into her dialogue a bit, causing an uncomfortable screeching, but briefly.

"Twenty-Nine minutes and seven seconds left, Clark. So you know, I'm on to your ploy with all the noise and such. Don't think this is going to make it any easier to win. I've instructed my ladies to go very rough on you if you're caught, and I know Alicia REALLY wants some payback! One more thing! Since you're probably on one of those belts right now, and not standing in order to keep out of sight, touching you in a prone position ends the game, you know, kinda like the NFL tackle rules, but I doubt you'll just be touched if that happens! Good luck champ; try not to make it too easy! Ha ha ha... "

Seriously, she didn't even wait one full minute to start talking shit, just like the baseball game. As I rode down the belt contemplating my next move, my senses were sharp; eyes and ears were heightened to discern sounds outside the normal melody of building operation. I knew I had to get off this thing and get to a higher vantage point so I could see more of the floor at once. That, however, came with its own set of perils. The catwalks that arrayed the areas above the floor weren't always connected, and often times ladders had to be descended and ascended in kind to access another. Immediately I thought to keep that kind of movement to a minimum as surely it would mean that I'd be caught.

This particular belt bent 90 degrees left down a chute and ramped up on a steady incline, high enough to see throughout the area. I could easily pick out 3 or 4 of them canvassing below, in an effort to end this thing early, as I slid down the bend and rose. I resumed the same position, sitting on the belt, senses heightened once again, looked to my left and right, and up the belt, and...uh oh.

Standing at the top of the belt, moving against it at the same speed so she stayed in relatively the same place, in her tall blond glory, was Abby. It looked like she was waiting for me; she had a knowing smirk on her face and even nodded slightly to boot. At this point I was too far off the ground to try and drop over the side without risk of landing funny or making a huge noise. I looked down at my phone; right as I did she stepped over the safety bar and charged down, hair flowing, like a hungry wolf ' chasing a meal. For a fleeting moment, she looked absolutely beautiful; very tall, very graceful, and must be a hell of a runner with her long legs and lithe body. I was shaken almost immediately from my short fascination when she began to yell.

"Over here! He's over here! On the belt! On the belt!" I hit the phone screen shutting that one off and immediately two things happened. One, Abby's all out running proved her undoing as she fell forward and stopped, stunned, on the decline. Two, like an idiot I stood up, lost my balance, and tumbled all the way down to the base of the chute; somehow I hung onto the phone and it wasn't damaged. Wasting no time, I got up and saw 3 more girls heading over to the belt in an effort to corral me. Fortunately they were all coming from the same direction, so I rolled out the other side, and tore ass down the corridor. I could hear them yelling, in various states of tone and urgency, a general instruction or two as to what happened and where I was headed. I then found a corner exit to the building, and went outside.

Again, with my subtle efforts to keep quiet totally absent, the door sprang open and shut with two very audible "click, bang" noises. I couldn't linger. Someone would know that there was movement in the area. From that door I kept moving in about the same direction I was in the corridor, all in an effort to get away as quickly as possible. While I kept going, I heard a very distinct, rhythmic, high pitched beeping noise. I looked around, and I was about halfway between two corners of the structure; more importantly, my direction of progression was toward the front of the building, and what I saw from where I stood was some kind of red glow. As I approached, the beeping got louder; again, I swiveled my head to make sure I wasn't in immediate danger, as I knew most of these girls could easily outrun me, and a few of them would probably spell the end. I had just enough time for a passing thought and a short chuckle. Most guys would be quite fine with being chased by women, but after what I saw tonight, and even the thoughts as to what was capable, the consequences for such a thing would indeed not be worth such a premise.

I reached the front of the building, and I was greeted by more swirling fog and the noticeable decrease in temperature, which all glowed reddish. I also found the source to it emanating from the building front. A giant digital clock had somehow been hung on the front face, counting, currently, 24:14...24:13...24:12... and then I thought, that's it?! I shook my head in disbelief at the sight of both the clock, and the apparent time left, and hightailed it further over to the dumpster area. I wasn't too concerned with noise at this point; I did look around and thought nobody saw me; I didn't see anyone either, but I wasn't about to take that for granted. Obviously the ability to perceive is reduced when one tends to be in a hurry.

I crouched behind the dumpsters and waited... the vantage point I had was against the corner of the fence, there were 2 ways to move from where I was, and it was far enough away from everything else that I could see any approaching company. 23:50...23:49...23:48... and I began to wait. With any luck I could run out the clock, and they'd never think to look over this way. A couple minutes later, I saw all the garage doors on the front side open again, dispersing the chilly fog. Out stepped 1, then 2, then 4 then before I knew it, all the girls were standing there, looking about, from the same side. They appeared to be formulating some sort of plan; curious though, I could make them out, but...there were only 8, not 9, and the one who seemed to be missing...was Angi. They lingered for a few minutes more, and dispersed, fanning out once again to cover all of the angles. I couldn't believe my luck; they had wasted quite a bit of time planning...something... and when I looked up, the clock had ticked to just below 15 minutes. Nobody even so much as looked over this way. I played with my smartphone a bit and stopped and restarted the belts, hoping to draw some of them back inside the doors. Then, off in the distance behind me outside the fence, a twig snapped. I whirled around and in the process...fumbled my phone, which clattered to the ground in a horrible display of dexterity.

It ended up being a horrible break. The phone's screen was shattered, and it was a brick, and useless at this point. Worse yet, in a failsafe crash of the application, I had it set to immediately stop the belts, and now the area was incredibly quiet. That snapped twig, which was most likely some kind of woodland animal, just indirectly caused me to blow my cover. I waited some more time, tensely; over on the opposite side, I could hear some of them combing the property; at least a few of them had to believe that I was still outside.

More time passed. They seemed to be edging closer to my side, or maybe that was just my paranoia kicking in. As the minutes ticked my, the uncertainty was nothing short of torture. I watched the clock like a hawk, dismissing all of the stereotypical quotes about patience, like a watched pot never boils, etc. It was ticking down to 10 minutes; as it closed under 9:59...9:58...9:57... an audible clang and crash came from over that way. I adjusted my vantage point and I could hardly believe what I saw; the gate connecting the walkway to the building and the parking lot fell off its hinges! There was a way out! I paused to think that this could have somehow been a setup, but I didn't care; I cautiously stepped away from behind the dumpsters and walked, first timidly, looking around, then picking up speed, looking some more, and finally breaking into an all out sprint heading for the opening. I got there, just in time to see Alicia and Tabby standing in the garage door threshold overlooking the open gate.

I looked back at them, and I stood right in front of the entrance. When I saw the clock there was a little over 8 minutes left. I looked back at them once again.

Alicia smiles, looking right at me and says, "You got some time left there buddy. You know if you step through there, it's over, right?"

Tabby chimes in. "Come on, Clark, we barely saw you; come play with us for a little bit more." They both start walking quickly and menacingly over to where I was standing.

I was faced with a hard choice now; end the game, take my chances and try to outrun them. Or play by the rules and hope to find a way to outlast these women for...I looked again, 7 and a half minutes.

In my mind I was convinced I'd never last. I gave them both one last look and stepped through the gate and took off running. In the distance, I saw them run toward the gate, but I was already down the walkway and had turned the corner tearing across the parking lot. I heard Alicia's voice yell something about how I'd be sorry, but I didn't care; I was going to be free from this, and I would figure out how to handle the crazy part of trying to protect myself later. It crossed my mind that I bailed on Angi once again, but again, I didn't care. It wasn't fair that she set this up for her to win, and I rationalized in my mind that it served her right. Let her deal with the fallout with whomever she answered to. I took one last look back at Alicia and Tabby to make sure they weren't coming after me, right as I hit the apron at the base of the parking lot and started to cross the street.

Unfortunately, while I looked back, I wasn't looking ahead, and I never saw it coming. The impact to my right side was beyond painful, and everything that followed happened like it was in slow motion. I was hit so hard I went horizontal, and I could feel a grip around my back and waist and hair all over the front of my torso. Two things went through my head at that point; one, I had such a shortness of breath because I think some my ribs were broken, and two, the impact from the slight decline of the road surface was going to chew me up and hurt like hell.

When I impacted, it didn't disappoint. I could feel the cinders of the loose gravel digging into any available surface of my left side; I also jarred my head and impacted the asphalt pretty soundly which scrambled my circuits pretty badly. When we finally came to a stop, I was rolled over by my assailant, as my vision faded from blurry to black. I could barely breathe, and my clothing and body were very much mangled. Standing over me, was Angi, with a triumphant grin on her face; she looked quite a bit taller, but it was hard for me to hold a gaze, or remain coherent for that matter, so I couldn't be sure.

The last thing I remember before fading to black was hearing the two simple words... "You Lose"