Monday, April 25, 2005

   Nougat: Origins (Chapter VII)
[Just to remind everyone in case you came to read chapter 6 on its 2nd day in the sun, I'm writing this chapter a day early. If it seems like the story's out of place for you, head back a chapter and all will be well. Anyway, this chapter's notes are actually pretty short, so I'm curious as to how long this'll turn out . . . . . should be fun . . .]


"Hey, slow down a bit, will ya?!" Henry shouted as he bounced in his seat from Nougat's driving. Nougat laughed malevolently as he took another fast turn. "I knew it was a bad idea to let you drive . . ."
"You keep saying that," Nougat said, "and every time I remind you that you already did, so you might as well just hang on until it's over . . . . . 'sides, where's your sense of adventure?"
"Yeah, I think I dropped it on that hard right you took on East Tenth!"

Nougat continued to laugh with staged malice as they neared the warehouses on Cambie Street. For the most part the traffic was light considering it was in the dead middle of night, save the odd car or night bus service going through the busy commercial areas of the city. As commerical shifted to industrial, almost no other vehicles seemed present on the roads; as well, even the street lights seemed fewer and further in between.

"Well, warehouse district's coming up," Henry commented, conceding to his present situation. "I don't see any ERT guys, though . . ."
"They've gotta be around," Nougat said as he slowed the cruiser down and quietly drove down the dark, cracked roads.
"Well, in any case things are definitely looking quiet." Nougat sighed a little before answering back.
"Yeah, a little too quiet . . ."
"You did not just say that, did you?" Henry asked, his eyebrows twisted up in a sort of mocking disbelief.
"Hey, you just look for the ERT guys or something, I'll worry about my choice of dramatic cliches . . ." Henry shrugged and went back to scanning along the streets.
"Hey," he said, "you don't suppose they're all camped up in one of these alleys, huh?" Nougat looked down a few alleys as he drove by them.
"Nah, it's too cramped for ERT wagons," he deduced. "Besides, there'd be no good way for them to get from the alley into the warehouses unless they were in one of the ones next to . . . . ."

Nougat slammed the brakes hard once he realised what his words were leading to.
"Holy mother of friggin' hell," he said, his eyes opened wide.
"What?" his partner asked.
"Henry, we've been driving for a long time towards the warehouses," he answered while rubbing his chin and cheeks with one hand. "We're already right next to them right now . . ."

Henry slapped his palms down into his lap.
"Oh sh- . . ." he got out before biting down on his lip to silence his shouts. He composed himself quickly and spoke in a quieter tone. "We don't see ERT guys because they aren't supposed to be this close to the warehouse!" The younger constable nodded furiously.
"We messed up big," he said gravely.
"Hell no! You messed up big!" Henry retorted, his breath getting faster. "Park this damn thing around the corner or something already, man!"

Nougat was quick to comply, and hastily put the cruiser around the corner of an adjacent paint store. Inside the cruiser, the two officers sat quietly, staring forward; as well, Nougat had begun tapping the panel on his door with his fingers.
"Alright, so how do we make sure we didn't screw anything up?" Nougat asked.
"Well," Henry slowly answered, "first of all, we need to take the car and move it back out into the open streets . . . . . then, we will drive it up to eighty-eight miles an hour and go back in time to stop our retarded selves from doing . . ."
"Alright, you can stop." The two of them took another breath in unison and quietly thought for another few moments; Nougat's tapping quickened.

"I suppose we could always just stay here and wait it out," Henry suggested. "I mean, we were scanning the area pretty hard and we didn't see anyone that could've seen us . . . maybe they didn't."
"Yeah, but what if they did?" Nougat questioned.
"Well, that's the thing, isn't it?" Henry answered back. Another quiet moment went on, with Nougat's steadily increasing taps being the only audible sound in the car. With one final tap Nougat unbuckled his seatbelt and opened his door.
"I need to go search the area for myself," he said before exiting the car.
"Whoa! Noug', don't be an idiot!" Henry whispered out harshly, though to no avail. Swearing once again, the more experienced officer got out of the car and followed.

Against all better judgement, the two constables slowly made their way towards the warehouses once again, though this time on foot and with their hands over their sidearms.
"Two questions," Henry said softly, "why are we going back towards the place we shouldn't be near, and why are you leading us?" Nougat shrugged.
"Damned if I know . . ." he gave. "It's good teamwork to have people watching your back, how 'bout?" Henry groaned.
"I knew we drilled that teamwork junk into ya too hard . . ."

They were about across the street from the main block of warehouses; again, the area seemed clear enough though what was visible was easily the least of their worries.
"Hey," Nougat said to the other officer, "why are you breathing so hard?" Henry punched him back in the arm in response.
"The hell do you think?! I've got the worst feeling about this whole thing!" If not for the intensity of the situation, Nougat would have been ready to grin once again.
"So what, you're psychic too?" he asked sarcastically.
"That's right," Henry shot back, "you wanna make somethin' of it, you . . ."

"Shh!" Nougat hissed through his teeth, cutting off the other officer. "Keep walking," he ordered while pointing forward. "Did you notice the guy behind us? Don't look at him! Alright . . ." Henry began breathing even harder and felt his heart pounding.
"Alright, turn around and just act like we were chasing a cat or something," he said to Nougat. With that, they both slowly turned around and kept their eyes down.

The man in the distance quickly turned and walked around the corner casually.
"I think we're hooped," Henry added before they both increased their walking paces. Once they rounded the corner, they saw the man break into a run towards the far warehouse. Again, the constables swore - they broke into a run in turn.

"Damn, another friggin' foot chase," Nougat muttered before concentrating on controlling his breathing . . .


[Heh . . . one of these days I'm gonna just hafta write a thing of dialogue. It's what I enjoy, y'know? Anyway, I guess I'll see ya after my Latin exam with Chapter VIII . . . oh, by the way, "gibbus, -i, m." is Latin for "hump". Could be useful, huh? Hehe . . . alright, have a good one, everyone.]
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