Inky's Collection of Shorts

Cops and Robbers

Blinky rubbed his hands together nervously and frowned. He checked everything over again for what seemed like the seventeenth time. Honestly, he could probably rattle the plan off from the top of his head if he wanted to.

"Don't you think it should be three-on-three instead of two-on-two?" Clyde asked. "Or maybe a four-on-two while we're at it?"

He glanced over at him. If anything, the younger guy looked even more nervous than himself. His light orange hair was even more all over the place than before. Sometimes Blinky just wanted to tug a brush through his locks and force his hair into submission.

"Nah, we'll be fine," Blinky said reassuringly. "I mean, it's only Pinky and Inky we're talking about here. We can take them on easy."

Clyde looked at Blinky as if he had spouted a third eye. "Right, easy. Sure. This won't be hard at all."

He tugged on the sleeve of his sweater and shoved his hands into the pockets of his black pants. Blinky shrugged.

"What can go wrong?" Blinky asked with a grin. "We're the cops, remember? We're the good guys. Everything always works out for the good guys."

Cops and Robbers. A simple game with so many possible outcomes and surprises waiting in store. The objective was for the cops, Blinky and Clyde, to find and capture the robbers, Pinky and Inky, before they could locate all five golden apples scattered around the field.

It was a large playing area. Blinky's family was pretty wealthy with a large estate and an even larger backyard. The entire forest, with all its hills and caves, was open for their game.

Blinky glanced down at his watch. "Okay, it's started."

He started sprinting in the direction of the largest tree in the distance that he could see. He didn't know exactly where to start, but he figured that if he kept moving for long enough, he'd find something.

"Pinky's going to try to be tactical," Clyde mumbled as he followed close behind. "She's probably going to be headed for the tree as well, but climb up to look from high up. That'll also give her the high ground."

"Inky's more unpredictable," Blinky continued. "There's no use trying to figure out what he'll do because he'll probably end up doing exactly the opposite of that.

He ducked under a low-hanging branch and glanced around him. No sign of the robbers. No sign of the apples, either. He had gotten one of his other friends to hide the treasure so that the cops wouldn't get an unfair advantage, but if he managed to find one before Pinky and Inky did, then they would've basically won.

Come on. Think like Pinky. What would she do?

Clyde had already picked apart her possible actions. Pinky would want to have the upperhand for as long as possible. She'd want to have a lot of tricks up her sleeve and know that she'd be able to take Blinky or Clyde on easily if it came to that.

"Ow," Clyde muttered as he stumbled over a tree root. "Why do you have to have a backyard that has its own forest?"

Blinky laughed. "It's funner this way, Clyde."

"It would be easier the other way," Clyde shot back.

They stopped at the trunk of the tree and gazed up at it. Before the game had started, they had already decided that the apples could be hidden anywhere. If an apple was tucked up among those leafy branches at the very top of the tree, then it'd be extremely difficult to get it, much less try to go up to check if it was even there to begin with.

Blinky ran a hand through his hair and sighed. Half-conciously, he pushed the red strands towards the right, away from the shaved side. Five apples seemed like a lot until you really took in the sheer size of the playing field. They could be anywhere.