The small group trailed the assistant producer, drawing closer to the warehouse’s side entrance, when a British actor materialized out of nowhere and fell in step with them.
"Are they in?".
Matthew, positioned just behind Michael Fassbender and Jas McAvoy, heard Fassbender's hushed question. The British actor nodded and whispered back, "Kate’s been in there for a while. Tom just rushed in a minute ago."
"Good," Michael Fassbender said, a shark-like grin touching his lips. "Very good."
Their official reason for being there was to collect their new costus from the warehouse. Michael had already co to an arrangent with the assistant producer the previous evening.
The assistant producer reached the side door, unlocked it, and stepped inside first. Matthew followed close behind Michael Fassbender and Jas McAvoy as they entered.
An unspoken agreent settled over the group. The mont they were inside, all conversation ceased, and their footsteps softened.
Inside the armory, Kate was reclining against a massive prop weapons cabinet. Racks of M1 Garands and Thompson submachine guns stood in rows behind it.
Tom stood over her, fumbling impatiently with a condom he’d brought along. He hastily tore open the wrapper, which felt slightly sticky and gave off a faint, acrid sll.
"Co on!" Kate urged. "Hurry up!"
Tom held the condom, giving it a quick look. It felt oddly cold in his hand, but otherwise seed fine, so he put it on.
Who worries about such trivial things when you’re in the heat of the mont?
Matthew followed the others around a bend in the corridor. Michael caught Jas’s eye and gave him a subtle wink. "Go on."
Jas slipped his hands into the deep pockets of his jacket.
Just then, a high-pitched shriek erupted from up ahead, so piercing it seed to rise to the heavens, easily audible even through the closed door.
"Ah! Aaaah!" It was a woman’s scream, extraordinarily shrill and filled with a terror so profound it sounded as if she were being brutalized by a gang of n.
A muffled roar from Tom followed imdiately after.
Michael and Jas exchanged a look of pure confusion, wondering what the hell was going on.
"Tom!" Kate’s shrill voice scread again. "What did you do?! Why am I on fire?!"
Her voice climbed higher and higher, as though so unstoppable force were dragging her into an abyss.
Matthew froze. Could the effect really be that potent?
The two people inside the armory sounded like they had gone mad, letting out a stream of bizarre and unnatural noises. Everyone in the corridor was bewildered, unsure for a mont of what to do.
"Get off! Pull it out!" Kate finally managed a coherent phrase. Tom yelled back, his voice thick with panic, "I can’t! You’re clamped down on it!"
Kate shrieked, her manicured nails scraping against the rusty iron plates of the cabinet. "Where’s the phone? Call an ambulance!"
Hearing this, Michael couldn’t suppress his shark-like grin. "Who’s in there?" he called out. "Do you need help?"
With that, he winked at Jas, who then yelled to the others, "Everyone, let's help!"
The people in the armory must have heard them, because Tom roared, "Stay back! We’re fine!"
Tom was, after all, a recently discharged soldier, and even in a situation like this, he managed to keep a relatively clear head.
But Kate, having never experienced anything remotely like this, was frantic. "Hurry!" she cried out. "I need help! Call a doctor! I’m dying! Aaaah! I’m really dying! Oh my God!"
By the end, her voice had devolved into a sob, more pathetic than a dieval heretic being burned at the stake.
A flicker of concern sparked in Matthew. This wasn’t life-threatening, was it?
He had initially considered a super-concentrated pepper spray, but that would have been too easy to trace.
At this point, Michael Fassbender and Jas McAvoy couldn't care less what Tom said. Though their original plan had gone completely off the rails, Kate’s cries for help gave them the perfect excuse. They rushed the armory door and kicked it wide open.
Then, as they took in the sight of the two lovers, Michael and Jas both froze, their eyes wide and mouths agape, feigning utter shock.
"What’s going on?!" Michael Cudlitz pushed forward. "Let
see!"
The twenty or so n with him thundered into the warehouse, only to co to a collective, stunned halt.
Kate Jeffries and Tom West were on the floor, her blouse hitched up between them. She was desperately trying to roll over, but couldn't detach herself from Tom, who was writhing beneath her.
At the sight, Matthew had to stifle a laugh. He was certain Kate wasn’t in any real danger—just experiencing a bit of... discomfort.
But Kate was far beyond "a bit of discomfort." She was already sobbing, her face a ss of tears and snot.
"Help ! Please, help !" She reached out a hand toward the crowd, pleading, "Please, get
to a doctor."
Tom, struggling through the pain, grunted, "No! Get out—"
Before he could finish, a thoroughly pleased Michael Fassbender cut him off. Suppressing a gloating smirk, he commanded the others, "Don’t you worry, dear Kate, we’ll help you! Grab them!"
Michael Fassbender and Jas McAvoy stepped forward, and seven or eight other actors closed in on the entangled couple.
With a piece of lingerie dangling between them, Kate and Tom were unceremoniously lifted and carried out of the warehouse by the group.
Despite his strength, Tom was powerless to resist the grip of so many n. With his "vital parts" in a vice, any words he tried to utter were completely drowned out by the panicked, piercing screams of Kate.
As if that weren’t enough, Michael Fassbender shot a wink at Jas and, right on cue, yelled, "Get a doctor!"
Jas took the hint, letting another man take his place as he broke into a run.
"Help! A doctor!" he shouted at the top of his lungs as he ran. "Where’s the doctor! We need a doctor!"
It was the lunch break, so there were few people near the warehouse. But when Jas started yelling for help, dozens of crew mbers poured out of the nearby canteen, office building, and even the pyrotechnics departnt.
It’s a universal human instinct to gawk at a spectacle.
Tom finally fell silent. Seeing the growing crowd of onlookers, he slowly closed his eyes, his face burning with sha.
When had he ever been so utterly humiliated?
As they were carried past, a murmur rippled through the crowd.
"Is that Tom? And is that Kate underneath him?"
"What a disgrace. And he’s our instructor?"
More and more people erged, pointing at the pair. So were laughing, others shook their heads in disapproval, while still others just stared in stunned disbelief.
Tom felt the weight of their stares, feeling incredibly humiliated. Kate, however, was less concerned with the onlookers; for her, it felt as though she were being roasted over a fire, convinced she might die at any second.
Matthew watched the sobbing Kate without a shred of sympathy. In fact, he felt a profound sense of satisfaction.
A smile touched his lips. The pent-up frustration from their earlier confrontation vanished in an instant. He glanced up at the sky; even for November, he thought, it was a beautiful day in London.
After watching for another mont, he lted back into the crowd, making sure to stay out of Kate and Tom's line of sight.
Drifting along with the crowd, Matthew ended up at the on-set infirmary. The n ahead carried Kate and Tom inside, while the mob behind them refused to disperse, blocking the entrance in their eagerness to watch the drama unfold.
Sothing like this was a rare spectacle, even on a Hollywood set. It was the kind of story that would be told and retold, becoming a piece of on-set legend.
Matthew spotted Michael Cudlitz erging from the infirmary and walked over. "What’s going on in there?" he asked.
"Your guess is as good as mine," Michael Cudlitz said, shaking his head. "The doctor kicked
out as soon as I stepped inside."
The two of them stood by the infirmary door, waiting. A few minutes later, Michael Fassbender erged.
He saw Matthew, Michael Cudlitz, and the others. This wasn't the place to talk, so he motioned for them to follow him toward the canteen.
Once they were there, he clapped a hand over his mouth and started laughing so hard his entire body began to shake.
The others joined in, picturing the ridiculous state they’d left Kate and Tom in.
"So, our plan went to hell," Michael Fassbender announced to the group, a broad grin on his face. "But I have to say, I enjoyed that a hell of a lot more!"
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