As they fled out of the cathedral, they saw Ariadne and Yusuf talking quietly at the foot of the steps. They looked up, startled, as the pair sprinted past. Arthur yelled "Scatter!" at them as the doors burst open behind them, projections pouring out in huge numbers.
They did not scatter.
"Eames! Eames! Tell me you're all right!" cried out Ariadne, dashing towards the man in question. Yusuf was elbowing his way through the crowd of projections desperately, finally breaking free and running towards them.
"I'm fine!" yelled Eames, "just keep running!"
Ariadne and Yusuf started sprinting, following the forger and point man as they fled from the mob.
"Have you two lost your minds? Stop following us and get yourselves out of here!" shouted Arthur.
The architect and chemist ignored him.
"I won't leave you!" cried Yusuf, and increased his speed to match Eames' stride. Ariadne was trailing behind, still a few steps in front of the projections.
Eames, Arthur, and Yusuf rounded a corner. It was a dead end.
Yusuf looked between Eames and the sound of the oncoming projections, squared his shoulders, and said, "They can't have you. I'll hold them off as long as I can, but first..."
Yusuf flung his arms around Eames, clearly attempting to sweep the incredulous forger into his arms, and moved in for a kiss. Eames was too stunned to move, and Arthur looked just as startled. Eames made a mental note to himself that things must be crazy if Arthur - ARTHUR - didn't know how to react. Eames came back to himself just in time to twist his face away from Yusuf's attempted wooing when there was a piercing scream. Ariadne, who had just rounded the corner, launched herself at the chemist, knocking him away from Eames.
"MINE!" she shrieked. "MINE MINE MINEMINEMINE!"
And the two were locked in combat.
Eames stared at them, stunned, until he felt a hand on his arm. He turned and looked into Arthur's serious brown eyes.
Arthur said evenly, "I don't know what's going on, but we need to keep moving. I'll give you a boost up onto the wall, then you can help me up and we'll figure out what to do next."
Eames nodded. Once they had scrambled up and over and into the alleyway on the other side of the wall, the two stopped for breath and looked at each other.
"Arthur - do you know what's going on? Why do the projections... why has EVERYBODY gone mad and started coming at me?"
Arthur shook his head.
"I don't know. I should have known something was off early on when Cobb left without telling us why."
Eames said nothing. That hadn't seemed odd at all to him. Whatever Arthur thought of his business partner, Cobb's unreliability was never any surprise to Eames.
"But whatever he was thinking," Arthur continued, "Cobb got the information. It should be fairly safe just to shoot ourselves out of here."
Eames nodded and dreamt up a gun in response, handing it to Arthur.
"If you don't mind me going first, I really want to get out of this bloody place."
Arthur raised the gun to Eames forehead calmly.
"Not going to ask me for my last words?" smiled Eames.
The corner of Arthur's mouth twitched upward. "You talk enough already, Mr. Eames. Why would I inflict more upon myself?"
Eames laughter was cut off suddenly as he glanced behind Arthur and saw the mob of projections appear at the end of the alley.
"Oh hell, not more of them!"
Arthur froze, wheeled about, and started shooting at the projections, but it was too late. The projections fell upon the pair and pulled them apart. As they closed in, they started pawing at Eames, groping at his clothing. They clearly weren't looking to kill the forger, but they were doing so nonetheless.
Eames saw Arthur break free for just a moment, aim the gun at him, and pull the trigger, just as another projection tackled him from the side.
