Barbie and the Spy Squad: The Start of Something New

Chapter Eight: The Plot Thickens

Ken's heart race increased as he stepped closer to his best friend, fully prepared to do whatever it took to protect her from whatever made everyone disappear.

"Barbie..."

"We need to leave", she announced with her stiffly staccato direction. Her lips tightened and she began to walk, grabbing his hand, "Don't walk too fast because we'll call attention to ourselves"

"Call attention to ourselves? No one's here!"

Although he argued his point, he walked alongside her. Ken tried to look behind him, but Barbie redirected him.

"And don't look around"

He turned back to the front view. As Ken walked, he leaned to his side and whispered to her, "Where am I supposed to look?"

Barbie smirked up at him, loving his humor in even the tensest situations.

"Don't worry... just act normal"

Ken nodded, but before he could do anything, Barbie interrupted him again, "Not your normal, but more like "normal" normal, you know?"

The blonde surfer grasped at his chest with his free hand that wasn't attached to hers and faked offense, "You cut me to the quick, Roberts..." She began to chuckle under her breath.

But the seriousness of the situation took over as they neared the end of the pier. Once they got to the main concrete platform that led to the road into downtown Avalon, Barbie side-eyed her surroundings, scoping out anything suspicious. So far, she couldn't see anything weird, but she also couldn't tell what was weird.

Right now, all they knew was that the originally bustling pier they were on suddenly voided itself of all human activity. That was weird. But as they made it back to the mainland, there were people everywhere...

In fact, too many people.

"Wow... did the crowd just get more... crowded?"

Barbie nodded, "It did..."

Ken shrugged, "Maybe it's dinner hour", he glanced at his watch, "It is 5:00pm"

She sighed and kept them both walking, "I think you're right. Come on, let's get to the cart"

"Then what?", he looked over to her. Barbie pursed her lips and frowned, "I... I don't know..."

Navigating through the streets proved to be a slight challenge, but after a few minutes they made it back to their golf cart.

Or at least they would have if the golf cart was there.

"Barbie... where's the golf cart?"

Barbie stared at the empty spot where their ride used to be... where it was supposed to be. She shook her head to herself and looked around their area, scanning for any sign of their wheels.

"It's... it's gone!"

Ken gulped and looked, as well, offering another solution to calm their nerves, "Maybe we parked it on another street", shrugging casually.

Barbie disagreed, "No, it was here", she sighed, "This isn't good."

This time, Ken led the way. He grabbed her hand again and pulled her to his right, "This way"

She looked up at him, "Where are you going?"

Ken's determined face stayed straight, "Anywhere but here. The pier just emptied... the golf cart is gone... With everything that's happening in the past couple days, I can pretty much say that moving is the best option for us"