Sunday, February 22, 2004

   Cream Filling & Nougat: Second Coating (Chapter IX)
Cream climbed up the shoddy staircase and dropped back over the wall again.
"Which way did they go?" he asked Nougat in a very serious manner between heavy breaths.
"Fire exit," Nougat said, nodding his head towards the stairway. "Dude, you don't look too hot . . ." Cream gave him a cold glare. ". . right, stupid comment . . ." Cream took another breath and walked up to his partner.
"Noug', I'm outta bullets," he said, "give me your gun." Nougat didn't let it show, but inside he was trembling a little.
"Whip', I don't think that's such a . . ."
"Give it to me!" Nougat barely had time to turn the grip towards Cream before he snatched it quickly and started running for the stairway. Nougat pressed his earpiece closer to himself.
"Yeah, guys, um . . . if might be a good idea for you to get some people along the outside of the building . . ."

Basil and Connie ran hard up the stairs until they reached the fifth level of the outer floors.
"Basil, he's still coming up!" Connie said as he tugged her by the arm across the banistered hallway. Basil swore to himself.
"Alright, come on . . . we'll get out through the patio outside," he said as he ran the plans through his head.
"You sure?" she thought as she looked back and saw Cream, slightly hunched over as he ran forward. "We are on the fifth floor . . ."
"I'll think of something . . . just run!"

As they approached the patio, Basil told Connie to shoot the nearest window; she broke it apart, and emptied her gun in the process. The two of them could hear Cream shouting for their surrender as they ran through the broken pane. Basil, however, managed to clip the corner of the glass as they jumped through and cut his arm hard, taking a bit of glass with him before slipping and colliding with a metal table, knocking it and the umbrella held through it over - it had just recently started raining, and the ground was slippery all over. Connie pulled him up as quickly as she could as they headed towards the edge of the metal and glass railing at the edge of the patio.

"Alright, Connie," Basil said, holding his right elbow a little, and motioning to the side of the glass wall, "you gotta get a hold of the drainpipe and slide down."
"Five stories?!" Connie protested. "There has to be a better way!"
"There is no other way!" Connie looked back up and saw Cream stepping through the window, weapon raised. His breathing was even more erratic than before.
"I swear to god," he said, "you move an inch and I'll make sure you never move again . . ."

Connie stood, frozen until Basil grabbed her arms and swung her hard over the railing and into the wet, plastic drainpipe on the outside of the building.
"Get down fast, don't let go," he whispered to her. She nodded her acknowledgement; it was then that Cream fired.

He missed, though the crack of the gunshot and the snap of the passing bullet was enough to spook both of them. Connie lost her grip and started falling away from the drainage pipe, screaming; Basil, however, was able to reach out with his right hand and catch her. As she swung back towards the railing, Basil grunted hard - the glass was taking its toll . . .
"Oh my god . . ." Connie said meekly as she could feel the strength leaving his arm while she dangled precariously over the railing.
"Connie," he said back, the strain obvious in his voice, "I'm not gonna let go . . . not ever . . ." Basil reached over to her hand with his left, and instantly felt his feet starting to lift off the slippery ground. He dug his feet into the glass of the banister as best he could, and continued to try to pull up; they both knew it wasn't going to happen, though . . .
"Basil . . ." she let out softly as she felt tears start to form under her eyes.

By then, Cream had walked up directly next to them, still pointing the gun at Basil - his arm was shaking heavily.
"Kruid, what the hell did I just tell you?" he said harshly through his teeth. "All you had to do was listen, and this never would have had to happen." Basil looked to his side and saw Cream, dripping in the rain, pointing the gun at him . . . it was a sight he would long since never forget. He slipped against the railing again - he could feel Connie's hands slipping away from him . . .

"Alright, I give up," Basil said to Cream, "just . . . help me get her up . . . please . . . . ." Cream let his eyes and his aim go directly into Basil's eyes - they were desparate, pleading. He then pointed down at Connie, who was looking through the glass at him - there was a fright in them he had never seen in his life, during all the years of his career . . . . .


He holstered the pistol hastily and reached over the railing to Connie's arm. He counted to three, and the two of them hoisted her clean over the railing and onto the patio where she fell into Basil, knocking them both splashing in the in the uneven tile of the flooring. Immediately, Connie crawled her way into Basil's waiting arms, shivering as the rain continued to fall around them. Cream walked back to the railing and signaled Nougat, whom he had caught a glance of earlier while pulling Connie up, to bring the rest of the men up.
"You keep an eye on them," he heard Nougat say through his crackling, forgotten earpiece, "we're on the way up."
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