Sweat dripped down Flint's face and he helplessly held on the bumper. Brent tried to get his hand again, but the car tilted downward and Brent almost fell out. Fear was spreading all over Brent's face and Flint felt his own hands get slippery. The tornado was getting closer and making the air hotter. Gears turned in Flint's mind. He remembered the last spaghetti tornado. He knew exactly what he was to do.
"BRENT!" Flint shouted over the roar of the tornado.
"WHAT!" Brent asked and leaned in to hear Flint better.
"I'M GONNA LET GO! I'LL USE MY LAB COAT TO PARACHUTE DOWN! I WANT YOU TO DRIVE THE CAR DOWN AFTER ME! I THINK THERE'S A BUIDLING BELOW ME!" Flint yelled. Gasping, Brent nodded and positioned himself at the steering wheel. Shaking his head, Flint wondered what he was doing. Brent had failed the driving test back in high school. Ah, well. This was a matter of life and death. They had to do this. Taking a deep breath; still holding on to the bumper, Flint wiggled out of his lab coat and then closing his eyes he jumped. Quickly he grabbed the lab coat with both hands, even his broken arm shrieked when he bent it at an awkward angle.
The hot air from the tornado blew Flint down and he fluttered through the air holding on desperately to his prized possession. Last time he had done this, his lab coat had escaped his grip and he lost it. Thank god his dad had found it, but his dad wasn't here to do that now. If he lost it was his fault. Right now he had to find Sam and his invention.
Behind him, he heard the loud engine of the flying car. Slowly he turned his head to see Brent piloting the car after him. A concentrated look was in Brent's eyes and he drove after Flint. The building that Flint intended to land on was below. The roof was flat. And wide too. Zooming past Flint, Brent landed the flying car on the roof and climbed out of the car. Shortly after, Flint landed beside him. Grinning from ear to ear, Flint was relieved he still had his lab coat.
xxx
"I don't think Flint Lockwood will come." The original man in the dark blue trench coat sneered and he and the other man in the dark blue trench coat circled Sam. Meanwhile, the henchmen sat on one of the couches totally horrified. Esto kept trying to catch Sam's eye to reassure her that nothing will happen, but she was frozen with fear. The other man in the dark blue trench coat twirled a dagger in his fingers. Both circled Sam with amused grins and evil eyes on their hidden faces.
"I'm sure he's dead by now." One snapped.
"The tornado must have killed him." The other chuckled.
"Or maybe he chickened out and went home." One man laughed, but the original man in the trench coat glared at him. Slowly both men stopped circling Sam and now faced each other with angered eyes. The original man in the dark blue trench coat pulled out a gun and pointed it at the other man.
"He's dead! Don't you DARE say he's alive, or I'll pull this trigger in your face!" the original man in the dark blue trench coat snarled and pressed the gun to the other man's forehead. The other man laughed and then the man pulled the trigger.
But nothing happened. The gun had no more bullets left. Now the other man in the dark blue trench coat cracked up laughing, while the other man muttered under his breath and went to refill the gun. Then the man stopped laughing, when he caught Sam staring at him. She narrowed her eyes. Where had she heard that laugh? Somewhere.
The man in the dark blue trench coat returned this time with a refilled gun. He grinned and pointed the gun to the ceiling. Then he pulled the trigger and a bullet blasted through the roof, leaving a tiny hole there. The other man stood up straighter and watched the hole in the roof.
"Just testing it." The man in the dark blue trench coat replied and pointed it at the other man. He pulled the trigger and a bullet streaked through the air toward the other man in the dark blue trench coat. Gasping, the other man ducked before the bullet could hit him.
"What's the big idea?" the man roared and stood back up. He pulled out his own gun and pointed it at the man in the dark blue trench coat. The man in the dark blue trench coat cackled.
"Are you seriously gonna shoot me?" the man in the dark blue trench coat joked. In her mind, Sam wished the other guy would just shoot already. The original man in the dark blue trench had to die. He had done so much already. But then what happened when they took off the hat and moved the collar away and it was someone she knew? Then again, no one she knew was this bloody and cold-hearted. Unless you counted… Uh… never mind. That couldn't be them. It was possible, but she doubted it.
Raising an eyebrow, the other man in the dark blue trench coat raised the gun and pulled the trigger. The bullet streamed toward the man in the dark blue trench coat. Before he could see it coming, the bullet ripped a hole through the coat and hit the man on the inside. Everyone in the room watched the man, expecting him to double over choking and dying on the spot. But he straightened up and planted his hands on his hips.
"Bulletproof vest. It came with this helicopter." He cackled and the other man dropped his gun with a pale look on his face. Sam widened her eyes in horror.
xxx
The rooftop of the building wasn't the best place to end up on, but it also wasn't the worst. Flint and Brent wondered how they were supposed to get down. The tornado was still heading their way, but it was becoming weaker. It was leaving spaghetti everywhere. So the tornado was becoming smaller and smaller as it reached them. Flint hoped the food didn't spread across the world yet. It was bad enough that they had to clean up ChewandSwallow from the rotting food. Now to do it a second time didn't sound like much fun. They had used the food for compost. Flint had to build a giant compost bin, where the food was crushed and then over a year, would turn into earthly soil. Except he wondered how cheeseburgers and hot dogs were to turn into soil, but that was another story.
"Flint, look." Brent pointed his finger at the sky to a rope ladder that was dangling over the building. The rope ladder swayed in the wind and looked as if it were to snap any moment.
"Where do you suppose it leads?" Flint came up to the ladder and touched it. Then he looked up. It led to something in the sky. Did this have anything to do with the FLDSMDFR? He hoped so. But this could also be something else. Then he glanced up at the clouds surrounding the ladder. They were all clumped together and didn't move. More clouds were flying over to that spot and clumped to the others. Instantly Flint understood. The FLDSMDFR was there. It was sucking the water out of the clouds to create the food. Whatever it was, it was gonna be big. Right now it wasn't raining anything, but something was coming along.
"We have to climb it. The FLDSMDFR is up there." Flint turned to Brent.
"How do you know?" Brent demanded and looked up at the clouds too.
"I just know." Flint began to climb carefully. His shoulder was starting to hurt again and he hoped the stitches didn't snap open. If they did… he didn't want to know. It was too painful to think about. He never wanted to enter a hospital ever again.
"If we die, I'll blame you."Brent said coldly and followed Flint up the ladder. Smirking, Flint knew Brent wasn't angry, he was just scared.
"Well, you can't blame me if I'm dead. I won't be there to hear your words." Flint joked and they climbed up the ladder. At one point, Flint actually looked down and saw that he couldn't see the ground anymore. They had probably entered the area around the clouds. Now they were closer to the FLDSMDFR, which meant they could get hit with food at any point.
The ladder seemed to stretch on forever, until Flint and Brent saw a giant black thing floating in mid-air up ahead. They couldn't see what it was because of the clouds, but looked dangerous. Now they climbed faster. The thing turned out to be a government helicopter. They reached the end of the rope ladder and Flint saw the door to the helicopter was open. He motioned for Brent to stop climbing, and then quietly peeked into the helicopter.
He saw two men pacing around someone sitting in a chair. Narrowing his eyes, he realized who it was. The person in the chair was Sam! He widened his eyes when he saw that the two men were the men in the dark blue trench coats. Both argued about something, while Sam sat there with horrified eyes. Then he had an idea.
"Brent, Sam is in there with the two men in the trench coats!" Flint climbed down the ladder a bit and looked down at Brent.
"What?" Brent exclaimed.
"Yeah. I want you to go back down to the flying car and fly it up to one of the helicopter windows. I'm gonna climb into the helicopter and hide under the table closest to the door. At one point I'll free Sam and then I'll throw something at one of the windows. When you see the window break, fly up to the window and Sam and I will get into the flying car. From there, we'll deal with the FLDSMDFR." Flint instructed.
Brent nodded, "Sure thing." And then began to climb back down the ladder to the flying car. Meanwhile, Flint made sure when the two men in the dark blue trench coats weren't looking and quickly scrambled into the helicopter and ducked under a table. The table had a chair at it, so the chair blocked Flint. He peeked around it.
"Lockwood won't come, I tell you!" the original man in the dark blue trench coat snapped to the other one.
"Fine! Then what do we do with Miss Sparks?" the other man in the dark blue trench coat demanded and motioned at Sam; who raised her head at her name. Flint stared at Sam; he was hoping she would catch his eye. He wanted her to know that she was safe.
"I dunno yet." The man in the dark blue trench coat looked over at Sam; who now shrunk in her seat.
"Kill her?" the other man suggested and Flint gasped.
"No. She might be useful." The man thought out loud.
Flint watched as Sam glanced around the room then she finally saw Flint and her eyes widened. She furrowed her eyebrows and shook her head as if to tell him to go away. He shook his head and ripped his gaze away from her. Here's my chance. Flint thought and climbed out from under the table. The room grew quiet, when both men saw Flint. Sam looked like she was crying. Or about to. The men meanwhile blinked in confusion at Flint.
"He's alive." The other man in the dark blue trench coat grinned. The original man in the dark blue trench coat whacked him on the head for saying that.
"You're alive, Lockwood?" the man in the dark blue trench coat took a step forward. Puffing out his chest, Flint straightened up and the man gazed at his cast on his arm.
"Yes, I am. Problem with that?" Flint growled. The man raised an eyebrow Flint watched his eyes. They were brown. They were familiar.
Out of the corner of his eye, Flint saw Brent out the window in the flying car. The plan was going well. Except how was he to get Sam?