... that guy with the clipboard standing next to a fire hydrant. He was busily checking off various areas on whatever form it was that was clipped to his clipboard. Yes, clipped. I mean, come on ... how ELSE would something be attached to a clipboard? Precious tried to get closer to him so she could count the number of clips holding the form in place, but Rear Admiral was intent on getting as far away as possible from that empty animal hospital and all the weird characters, and ... yes ... weird talking animals ... that he encountered there.
As Rear turned around to look at the animal hospital, he saw the big hole in the side of the building, right at street level. "That HamsterTank (tm) sure made a mess", he muttered.
"What?", said Precious?
Rear decided not to try to explain it to her, because any description would draw her attention to the destruction, and he just KNEW that she'd want to count the number of building fragments that were laying near the gaping hole.
Precious was busy counting all the people who had run out of nearby buildings, trying to escape the earthquake's effects. She calculated that 97.6% of them were headed towards the building at the end of the street.
Being the inquisitive person she is, Precious looked upwards to see if she could make out the name of that building. The sun was too bright, though, so she pulled her sunglasses out of her handbag. "One, two", counted Precious, as she made sure both lenses were in place.
Rear Admiral was running along fairly quickly, considering his bruised ribs and still-oozing neck wound. He couldn't care less where he was going, as long as he would be safe when he got there.
He looked up when something passed in front of the sun and caused a shadow. It was that black helicopter he had seen earlier hovering above the animal hospital, landing on the top of that building that everybody was running towards.
"Black Corporation", said Muffy, as she read the large letters right beneath the landing pad. She began counting the number of floors of that very tall building.
"... 46, 47 ..."
Rear noticed a gang of bikers come to a screeching halt outside that building. They all got off their bikes and headed towards the front door. He couldn't believe his eyes. There, standing in the door frame, was the one and only Bugs Pond (our hero!), directing people to various safe areas in the basement of the building.
But, Muffy was nowhere to be seen. |
