Time Runs Out !

Debbi felt a lurch in the pit of her stomach. She was perched naked on all fours on top of a table with a thermometer sticking out of her bum and now the door was opening to partially expose her to the outside world ! "What do you think you're doing ?" cried the doctor. "Didn't you see the notice on the door ?" "What notice ?" replied a woman belligerently. It was Karen, the HR manager. "And what to you think you are doing ? I've got this room booked for a meeting with this party of students I'm showing round" she continued. These students were all trying to peer around Karen at what seemed to be a very interesting and unexpected spectacle within !

The doctor was in no mood to take this confusion lightly. She was already irritated having been dragged here for this trivial task and then being confronted with inadequate facilities. She confronted Karen. "The notice that says no admittance because of an examination." "There's no notice on the door at all" was Karen's riposte as she opened the door even wider to demonstrate. "Will somebody please close the door ?" cried Debbi pitifully, only serving to bring more attention to her from a growing crowd of curious onlookers wondering what all the fuss was about. At least she was partially shielded by the bodies of the two alpha females who were locking horns in the doorway, neither willing to back down !

"Well there was a notice" the doctor claimed. "Carol" she called " What happened to the notice ?" Carol had decided to make herself scarce and watch from around the corner in the corridor. "Notice or no notice, I still have the room booked anyway" asserted Karen. "Nonsense, Jeff specifically called me in this afternoon on this fool's errand and allocated this room between three and four thirty." "But it was Jeff's department I made the booking with, from three thirty to five." The women continued to bicker.

"Will somebody please close the door ?" Debbi was frozen in place. She wasn't confident of prising the thermometer free herself and didn't want to risk the wrath of the clearly infuriated doctor by doing so. Plus, the room offered precious little shelter where she could hide herself in any case. Once again, her plea was ignored as the women argued. "Let's get Jeff here then, he can sort out the mess his department's made" said Karen. "Fine" agreed the doctor. "Though there's no way I'm giving up this room until I'm finished." Suddenly behind Debbi, there was the ominous sound of gears crunching, metal scraping and machinery bursting into life. Slowly and inexorably, the blinds shielding the full length windows began their unstoppable ascent towards the ceiling !