Chapter 14: Feisty Cooks

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A man wearing a chef's hat yelled at the cooks, "Who left the door open!?"

From where Bash and the crew stood, ground dipped down to the giant underground kitchen. The angry chef walked up the hill and declared, "I am Chef Sherlock! Why are you here?"

Bash quipped, "We have the same question for you!"

The chef put his hands on his hips. "No, really, tell me why you are here before I dispose of you."

Bash heard a loud crash and ducked fast. Behind them, Bash and the crew stared nervously at two clowns who stood in front of the ladder they had descended.

"We just followed our noses," said Bash.

"Which reminds me," said Rainbow in her high pitch voice, "I better go home and get dinner started."

"Me, too," added Lance.

The clowns looked at the group of misfits with straight lips, but appeared to smile with their exaggerated fake smiles drawn with makeup. Their outfits were black from top to bottom, and glow-in-the-dark circles spotted their clothing with neon green, red, and blue.

"Dinner?" Shrieked the chef. "Do you leave a hotel to go to sleep? Oh, say, come with me." Chef Sherlock walked quickly ahead and out of site.

Bash and the group looked at each other.

Chef Sherlock's head reappeared from beyond the corner. He smiled at them so large it competed with the fake smiles drawn on the clowns. "Psst! Come on, Loves! Dinner awaits!"

Following, they entered an enormous room full of cooks seated at a very long dinner table. They were soon seated near Chef Sherlock, who sat at the end of the table, facing everyone.

Bash transfixed his eyes on a plate stacked with pink moist Creamys.

Chef Sherlock saw the gleam in Bash's eyes and was taken aback.

Bash felt tears running down his face and through them he watched Chef Sherlock pick up a Creamy and slowly, so slowly, bring the Creamy right up to Bash's lips. They would have collided had Bash not so readily opened his mouth where his salivating tongue awaited.

The entire table erupted in cheers. Bash closed his eyes and chewed and swallowed. "Heaven," he said.

Chef Sherlock laughed heartily and said, "Not quite."

Lance asked, "What is this place?"

"Creamys were taken off shelves because the company filed bankruptcy. We lied about how much equipment we had so we wouldn't have to sell it to pay debts. All the cooking equipment you see down here is what we didn't tell the judge about."

Bash took another bite. He moved his tongue around in the flavor and tried to spot the source of a growing feeling of uneasiness.

"And now," continued Chef Sherlock, "We're using the equipment, like ovens, refrigerators, and whatnot, to start over. The reason we had to file bankruptcy was from low sales, and that came from all the riots and protesting about the dangers of the cream filling inside Creamys."

Bash stood up, knocking his chair over, and spat out the Creamy. Bits of Creamy flew all over the table and food. "That's it!" Bash yelled. "I knew something was wrong!"

Bash wiped his face and spit out more Creamy. "You're remaking Creamys ... without the cream! Without sugar!"

Bash picked up a plate full of Creamys and yelled, "These aren't Creamys! These are imposters!" Then he threw the plate onto the table and food went everywhere.

Suddenly the chef and all the cooks began grabbing the arms of Bash and his crew. He yelled to them, "Run!"

Lance slipped away from the arms grabbing at him and zipped out the door.

Duncan tried to pry away the hands that held Rainbow, but there were too many. She yelled and screamed as the cooks began to pull her further away from Duncan.

Without warning, Bash karate chopped, kicked, and punched his way to Rainbow. The cooks slid away like boiling spaghetti.

Bash grabbed Rainbow and looked into her eyes and, holding her there, said, "Caca fuego!"

Finally outside the room, Bash, Rainbow, Buddha, Lance, and Duncan ran as fast as they could for as long as they could.

Some place deeper underground, the group caught their breaths in total darkness.

Bash held his hands in front of his face and said, "I can't even see my hands."

A hand grabbed Bash's arm and found his hand and held it. Someone said, "Everyone hold each other's hands."

Then they sat on the ground in a circle and listened to the echoes of water dripping somewhere in the pitch-black distance.

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