The Fourteenth Cookie

7 - Run and flee

The cookie's stomach started to ache, she begun losing her balance whilst walking and had to sit-down on a nearby bench. The little boy suggested they got out in the open as the place they had lunch was inside a sort of a mall. He thought that maybe she could simply walk-it-off, whatever it was she had. In his attempt to help, he started over-simplifying everything and in his mind, a little fresh air was bound to help her anyway. She agreed reluctantly and they both tentatively started walking. Pretty soon though, the cookie felt sick once more and they decided to sit down on some stairs, in a public square very close by. They were close to each other and that did help. Both of them totally synchronized in their discomfort, suddenly started feeling a lot better. They talked a little, spent some time together and a bit later they got up and started walking back towards the lab.

Just as they were about to reach the lab's entrance, all hell broke loose. The little boy noticed a dark green van stopping hastily, a little distance to their left. The side door opened rapidly and the strange-looking man from the flat jumped out of it, followed by not one but four equally-odd-looking men. The men started running. Towards the cookie and the little boy, it seemed. It soon became absolutely certain that they were running towards them. The cookie noticed it too and froze. The two of them were just steps away from the lab's entrance but neither of them could decide whether it was preferable to get inside as soon as possible or make a run for it in the opposite direction. Who was it that these men were working for? It obviously wasn't for the company that owned and operated the lab as the two of them were about to return to the place. The cookie didn't really have much of a choice, since all of a sudden the little boy pulled hard at her arm and started running. He was virtually dragging her out of there.

They crossed the public square, thought about going towards the public square's stairs where they had sat down earlier but decided hurriedly against it. They made a left turn instead, towards the metro's entrance. They were out of breath but kept running at full speed. They rushed down the escalators, literally jumped over the ticket barriers and ended-up in the train platform furthest from the station's entrance. They looked at each other, without talking, completely out of breath. There was nothing to talk about, they both knew what was going-on. The train arrived very soon afterwards, they got into one of the carriages, the cookie sat-down on a seat near the door and the little boy was standing in front of her. A young pregnant lady got into the same compartment as them. As soon as she got in, she made a particularly nasty comment to the person sitting next to the cookie, suggesting in a very condescending tone he'd better get-up and give her the seat, as she was pregnant and had obviously sitting priority.

The cookie and the little boy looked at each other and almost laughed at this. It was more a nervous reaction, as the whole thing wasn't really that amusing. Before they could fully form a smile on their visibly anxious little faces, the -it seems not truly pregnant- lady reached inside her bag and pulled out a particularly big syringe. What on earth was she going to do with that, thought the little boy. He was going to understand what the lady's intentions were quickly indeed, as the lady made a swift move trying to stick the cookie with the needle. The cookie realized quickly what was about to happen and stood-up, ready to go. The nanosecond she was on her feet, the little boy lifted her up in the air and literally threw her out of the carriage's peculiarly-shaped window. It was very lucky the cookie didn't hit her head, as the window was only ajar at the time.

She fell with her back on the platform's rock-hard surface, got badly scratched, but got up immediately on her feet demonstrating quite an exceptional flexibility. Her move was practically acrobatic, reacting more like a gymnast than a cookie and her escape had actually worked. She then saw the little boy flying through the compartment's doors and as soon as he had landed next to her, she pulled him by the hand and this time she was the one dragging him out of there. First up the escalators, then through the main station concourse, jumping once more over the ticket barriers and at long last reaching the over ground area of the metro station.