Running Out of Time Ch. 01

I should've notice that something was wrong long before I did. I picked up a six-pack of my favourite beer from the cooler and turned toward the counter. There was every indication that something was wrong but the first time I actually noticed it was when the convenience store clerk looked past the customer in front of him and directly at me; he looked terrified.

The slight man at the counter with his back to me didn't immediately set off any alarm bells but he should have. It was a warm May evening but he had his hood pulled up. The clerk looked at me and back at the customer in front of him and then suddenly reached under the counter and came up with a pistol. He started to raise it and I heard a loud, sharp crack and the clerk disappeared behind the counter.

The man in the hoodie whirled around to face me and only then did I notice that his face was concealed behind a bandana and that he held a small black, semi-automatic pistol in his hand. He raised his arm, extended it straight out toward me, pointing the pistol at my face. I was only about five or six feet away and there was no way the guy was going to miss. I was going to die.

I froze; there was another loud crack and time stopped. My ears rang from the noise but I didn't die. When I say time stopped, I mean time really stopped. I quickly realized that time hadn't actually stopped; the bullet still rushed toward my face but it did so very slowly. Instead of traveling at a thousand feet per second the tiny projectile approached me at only about one foot per second. I twitched my head to the side and let the bullet pass by me.

I lunged at the man in the hoodie and kicked him squarely in the groin as hard as I possibly could. He didn't immediately react so I kicked him twice more with just as much or more force each time.

Suddenly there was a loud cry of pain and things started moving much faster. The man with the gun doubled over in pain, practically tossing the gun on the floor at my feet as he did. I reached down, picked up the gun and turned it on him. I would've ordered him to the floor but he'd already found his way there on his own. He was curled in the fetal position and groaning loudly, with both hands between his legs.

I ran around the counter to check on the clerk. He was alive but bleeding from a wound in his upper chest. I applied a towel to the wound and told him to hold it tightly in place while I reached into my pocket for my cell phone and called 911. I didn't know the address but told the dispatcher the name of the store and the nearest cross street. I told her that the proprietor had been shot and that an ambulance was needed.

It seemed to take forever but I would learn later from the video that it was only about four minutes before the first police car slid to a stop in the parking lot. I put the gun on the counter and stood with my hands over my head as the first officer cautiously entered the store. I told him that the man on the floor had shot the proprietor and had tried to shoot me too. He immediately put handcuffs on the man and then on me too as a precaution.

The next ones through the door were paramedics who treated the clerk. They gave the robber a cursory check, pronounced him sound then loaded the clerk into an ambulance and roared away with the siren wailing. I explained to the officer what'd happened, leaving out the bit about the slow moving bullet and the exact number times I'd kicked the robber. A detective arrived a very short while later and removed my handcuffs then asked me to explain what'd happened twice more. He stopped me and asked several questions but I didn't deviate from my original narrative in the slightest. The detective reviewed the security camera footage saying that it corroborated my account of the events. He reviewed the tape again and I watched over his shoulder. The robber turned to shoot me at what appeared to be point blank range but missed. The twitch of my head wasn't apparent; nor were the first two kicks to the robber's groin. The image of me seemed to blur a little but the third and last kick was clearly captured on tape.

The detective took my address and phone number and then photographed me. He gave me a pat on the back and said, "You're lucky the guy was a crappy shot. You did a brave thing here tonight. I'm sure the state's attorney will call you as a witness for the prosecution but you're free to go."

I went home and sat in my tiny kitchen, poured a beer, drank it and poured another. My nerves finally caught up with me and I shook with nervous energy as the evening's events replayed in my head. What'd really happened? The guy shot me in the face at point blank range but I'd been able to dodge the bullet with a mere twitch of my head as it moved slowly by me. The robber had stood completely still and allowed me to kick him twice before he finally reacted to the third kick; the only one that was caught by the video camera. I tried to make sense of what had happened but ended up just opening another beer instead.

The next day I called in sick at work explaining briefly what had happened the night before. The boss said he'd seen an account of the incident on the late news. "Holy crap, Mark! That was you? You're a hero!"

"Nah. I'm just lucky I'm not dead. Is it OK if I take the day off to kind of collect myself? I didn't sleep very well last night."

"Sure! Hell, take the rest of the week if you think you need it."

"No, I'll be in tomorrow. I just need to chill out a little today."

"Take as much time as you need, Mark."

"Thanks." I hung up and lay back in bed going over the incident in my head for the nine hundredth time. I came to the only conclusion that made sense even though it made no sense at all. It seemed to me that time had either slowed down without me or I'd somehow sped up and been moving much faster than regular time. Either way it didn't bode well for my mental state. I was certain I was losing my mind.

I wondered if it was the result of the life-threatening situation or if I could intentionally replicate the effect without having to put my life in jeopardy. It would be awesome if it turned out to be something I could harness and control. I decided to try and went out to walk the foot paths in the park for a while. As I encountered walkers, joggers and cyclists I concentrated on trying to speed myself up or to slow them down. I wasn't having any luck at all until a middle-aged woman and her dog approached me on the paved path. I didn't focus on them but was instead focused the concept of relative speed and my own place in time when I felt an odd twinge as if I'd nudged something or been nudged at the base of my skull. The woman and her dog stopped on the trail in front of me.

Things became eerily quiet but not completely silent. The sound is hard to describe; instead of traffic noise, people talking and dogs barking there was a low hum of sorts but nothing appeared to move. The birds hovered, falling leaves hung in the air and the woman stared straight ahead while her dog's tongue lolled unmoving from his mouth.

I walked past them and turned back to look again but they still weren't moving. I walked along the path until I encountered a beautiful blond woman in a tight spandex outfit and running shoes. Both of her feet hovered above the ground as she had stopped in mid-stride of her run. I sat on a nearby bench and observed for a long while but nothing happened; she never moved.

Finally, I chucked a small stone at the woman. The stone carried through the air normally and struck her on the butt cheek but she didn't react at all. I waited to see if things would resolve themselves as they had seemed to do in the convenience store last night but after an hour nothing had changed.

I focused on my position in time and gave a little mental nudge to things and the sound of the world returned to normal and the woman started running again. She reached back and touched her butt where the pebble had bounced off her but didn't look back as she ran down the path away from me.

"Holy shit! I think I can control this thing!" I thought.

I waited until the next runner came by. It turned out to be a young couple dressed in matching spandex running clothes. They were jogging together but both wore earbud headphones. I focused and gave the same mental nudge and they stopped dead in their tracks as I heard the now familiar hum of a very quiet world.

I stood from the bench and walked around the couple. They didn't move or shift their gaze; they took absolutely no notice of me. I called out and patted the guy on the shoulder and got no response. I gave the woman's ponytail a tug but still go no response. I couldn't resist; I patted the woman's butt but she still didn't react. I gave both cheeks a firm squeeze and stepped back half expecting her to round on me and scream. She gave no reaction at all.

I walked about twenty yards up the trail ahead of then turned toward them, nudging time again and they started to run toward me. The woman turned abruptly to look over both shoulders but then just kept running next to her partner.

"Oh, this is just too cool." I thought.

I stopped time again and walked back to my apartment building. I walked across the busiest streets, in front of busses and trucks without worry. I took my time and even went into a shop and helped myself to a soda from the cooler. I stopped on my way out but rather than paying, I lifted the skirt of the young woman behind the counter and noted that she was wearing bright pink thong panties that disappeared into the crack of her plump, dimpled ass.

When I got back to my apartment I hit the elevator button just to see what would happen. I waited five minutes before the elevator button even started to brighten. It was a long walk up the stairs to the eighth floor but I entered my apartment and walked out onto my balcony to observe that nothing, as far as I could see, was moving. I gave time a little nudge and everything immediately leapt into motion.

I grinned. "This is going to be fun."

* * * * *

I slept fitfully that night and awoke tired with only an hour before I had to be at work. I thought, "I'll just stop the world and sleep in for a while longer." I concentrated on speed and time and things went very quiet save for the familiar low hum that the slow moving world still generated. I rolled over and went back to sleep.

I had no idea how long I'd been asleep but I awoke refreshed to the same low hum. Only about a minute and a half had passed on my analog clock. I guess that falling asleep doesn't have any effect. That's good to know. I didn't bother dressing before I stepped completely nude onto my balcony to survey things. Nothing was moving as I relieved myself through the railing of the balcony.

I stepped back into my apartment, started the world turning again and stepped into my shower. I dressed for work and arrived ten minutes early. The building's receptionist, Samantha, was a disagreeable woman of about thirty five who always seemed unhappy or annoyed and sneered at everyone including me. I looked down and memorized the floor tile I was standing on and gave the world a little nudge so that she and everything else stopped. I stepped up to her desk and leaned over to get a good look at her.

She was dressed in very conservative white blouse, gray jacket and matching skirt that fell to just above her knees. I walked behind the desk, turned her swivel chair to face me and spread her knees with both hands. The skirt didn't allow for as much movement as I desired so I pushed it way up her thighs and spread her knees even further. Samantha wore plain white cotton bloomers under her skirt. I reached between her thighs and vigorously rubbed her pussy through her underwear for a few seconds.

I spun her chair back around to face the desk again but didn't bother to set her skirt right. I stepped back around the other side of the desk and back to the precise floor tile on which I'd been standing and nudged the world and Samantha back into action. Samantha let out a yelp and jumped, looking down at her lap. She tried to discreetly pull her skirt back down her legs but was obviously very flustered.

"Good morning Samantha. You look very nice this morning." I smiled as I walked by but Samantha didn't give me her normal sneer. She sat hunched over her desk shifting in her chair.

I spent the day busily catching up on the work I'd missed the day before. I didn't mind, I liked my work and I was having a great day. I spun my chair around so I could look across the hall and into the boss's outer office where Jennifer sat. I'd always been curious about the boss's secretary; Jennifer wasn't really my type but she was fascinating to look at. She was a beautiful, busty woman with a slim waist and wide, womanly hips and a rump so round it was hard to imagine she could sit in a flat chair. She wore a lot of makeup and always smelled sweetly of some kind of flowery perfume. I was almost certain the boss, a married man, was shagging her on the side but that was really none of my business.

I knew that the workplace wasn't really the place to do it but I was anxious to test this thing out. I stopped the world, got up from my desk and walked into the boss's outer office where Jennifer sat at her desk. Curious to see what effect it might have, I stepped up behind her and found that I was able to easily lift both her arms straight over her head and that when I let go, her arms remained in that position.

I returned to my desk and started the world again. Jennifer didn't seem to take notice, she merely lowered her arms and continued what she'd been doing. I decided to try something else and brought things to a halt again. I pulled Jennifer's wheeled chair back a bit and spun it so that she was facing my desk. She was wearing a flared black skirt that ended only half way to her knees so I spread her knees wide and went back to my desk. I now had a view up Jennifer's skirt to her skimpy black panties. I started things moving again and watched.

Jennifer just closed her knees and pulled her chair back to her desk to continue what she'd been doing. Maybe everyone was different but it appeared that I could pose her and she would take no notice when things began moving again. I decided to try something a bit more daring; I stopped things and went back into her office. Without too much effort I lifted her out of her chair to a standing position where she stayed. I then moved her into my office and placed her in front of my desk. Sitting behind my desk, and starting things up again, I looked up and said, "Hi Jennifer." She said, "Hi, Mark," and just looked around for a moment as if she'd forgotten what she came into my office for. She walked back to her office, sat and returned to her work.

"OK. That was fun. Let's try something really fun." I thought.

I stopped everything and walked back into Jennifer's office again. I pulled her chair back, raised her to a standing position and then bent her at the waist over the edge of her desk. I sat behind her in her chair, flipped her skirt up and laid it on her rump. I admired her black lycra panties for a moment and then pulled them down to mid-thigh exposing her backside and her pussy to me.

She was completely devoid of hair; there wasn't a single strand of hair nor any stubble. She had either recently been waxed or had subjected herself to laser hair removal. Either way, the view was breathtaking. I reached for her cheeks and found them to be quite firm but still pliable under my touch. I spread them a bit and inspected her asshole too; she even smelled of perfume back here. The inner lips of her pussy were dark and protruded just a little beyond her outer labia. I spread them with my fingers, found her clitoris and gave it a couple of strokes with my index finger. I then inserted my finger into her pussy; she was a little moist but not very. I might've had trouble entering her without lube but that wasn't my goal here.

I pulled her panties back up but not quite all the way; I left them slightly askew and flipped her skirt back down. I sat her back in her chair and returned to my desk to watch. When the world started up at my behest Jennifer casually stopped what she was doing and reached under her desk. The corner of her mouth came up in a half smile and she took on a sort of dreamy look. While I couldn't see from my angle, I thought she was trying to rearrange her panties but her hand stayed in her lap for longer than was necessary and it occurred to me that she was probably touching herself. I turned back to my work but couldn't really concentrate for the rest of the day.

I drove downtown after work and parked in a rather seedy part of town a couple of blocks from where I knew there were several adult book stores. I stopped the world before getting out of the car and walking into the first adult novelty shop I came to. I browsed the store and picked out a dildo and a butt plug. I also found a couple of different brands of anal lube and water soluble sexual lubricants. I thanked the motionless clerk as I stuffed the items into a bag and walked back to my car.

Once I was seated in my car I started the world whirring again and headed for the gym. I wasn't really in the mood to work out but it didn't matter; I had other goals in mind. I went into the locker room and changed into my shorts and a nylon t-shirt. I wasn't 'ripped' but nor was I flabby; my chest was well defined and my belly was relatively flat but I didn't have washboard abs. My arms and legs were also in good shape but my legs were, I thought, my best feature. I bicycled a lot so my thighs and calf muscles were very well toned and quite pronounced even when I wasn't flexing.

I left the locker room and took possession of a vacant recumbent trainer and started pedaling. There were mirrors on every wall so watching everything from anywhere seemed possible; as I pedaled I looked around the gym at the other patrons. People watching had always been my favourite part of the gym; there were at least a half dozen beautiful, fit, strong young women working out on all sorts of equipment. A woman in motion is far more fun to watch than one who is completely static but then if she'd been in motion she probably wouldn't have allowed me to remove her sports bra.

She was riding an upright stationary bike and working up quite a sweat. She looked to be about twenty years old with dark straight hair that was pulled back into a tight ponytail. Her shoulders were muscular and she had both slender waist and hips. Her ramrod straight posture accentuated her firm tits that seemed to jut straight out in defiance of gravity; I thought they had to be fake.

As I raised her sports bra and exposed her tits giving each one a good squeeze I changed my assessment; they seemed one hundred percent natural. They were probably C-cups with small, perfectly round areolas and very small, pale nipples. There were pronounce tan lines that made it apparent that this lovely woman normally wore the tiniest of bikinis while tanning.

I left her bra pulled up over her tits and reach for her bum lifting her off the seat of the stationary bike. She stood perfectly still, standing on the pedals as I pulled her lycra bicycling shorts down over her ass to about mid-thigh. She wasn't wearing any underwear inside the padded cycling shorts and I was surprised to see a very thick, dark bush of pubic hair that thoroughly concealed her pussy from view. There were tan lines here too but the bottom of her bikini had covered substantially more real estate than did the top.

I petted her lush pubic hair locating her pussy lips and spread them. She was very pink inside and a not just a little wet. I smelled sweat and the tangy fragrance of her as I leaned in close for a quick taste. I dug between her pussy lips with my tongue and gave her a quick lick and then pressed the tip of my tongue onto her clit and gave it a few flicks. I pressed my finger inside her and curled it toward me against the roof of her tunnel and gently rubbed the soft, uneven surface I found there. I spent a minute or two sucking her clit and rubbing my finger inside her but without a reaction from her I quickly lost interest. My cock needed attention but it would have to wait a bit.