The Tale of Ezra: Book 1

Chapter 15: Rush to find the keys

We were really lucky that for the past few days we weren't found by the national guard. Scott drove us to the airport, and we were just in time to catch our flight to New York. 
"I can't believe we actually spent two days in that Casino" Jay said. "Me neither, it was thanks to Scott that we were able to get out before time ran out" I said. 
The flight to New York was only 4 hours and by the time we arrived at New York City it was 12 am. We took a taxi to Midtown Manhattan where we would sneak into the Empire State Building. The building was already closed and it was all locked up. 
"How are we supposed to enter the building now?" Finn said. 
"We do have grapple hooks, why don't we use them" Jay suggested. Suddenly a wild idea came to mind. 

"Why don't we use the grapple hooks to get to the top of the building and break one of the windows and enter the building from the outside." "Yeah, but how would we know which floor the keys are on?" Anna asked. "Well, we would just search each floor" I sounded stupid, but it was the only thing that came to mind. 
"Uhm I'm a little bit afraid of heights" Ariana said. "I'll stay with you down here." Finn said. He probably just wanted to flirt with Ariana or something. Me, Anna, and Jay took out our grapple hooks and grappled onto the top part of the building. As we were pulled in onto the top I spotted the keys on the long pole that was on top of the tower. "Look, the keys are there" I said as I pointed to it. We landed on the top part of the building but suddenly a white light came on us. It was a national guard helicopter.
"Regalia refugees! Surrender now and return the classified documents you hold in your possession." I quickly grabbed the two keys from the pole. 
I saw some snipers that were on the helicopter aiming for us. "I guess this is where we go inside of the tower." I said as I punched the window open. 
We slid into the tower, we were at the 102nd floor and had a 101 more floors to go down. The guys on the helicopter started shooting. Pieces of glass flew everywhere. Anna was grazed on the arm by one of the bullets. "Anna!" I shouted. "I'm okay. Let's go down." 
We went down on the elevator. I was thinking about Finn and Ariana. Would they be safe down there. "Ezra, call the guy." Jay said. I took out my phone and called him, he answered. 
"Your next location is Washington DC." After he told us the location, he immediately ended the call. "Washington DC shouldn't be far, we can drive there." Anna said. "But where are we gonna get a car from?" I asked. "Let's hotwire a car." Jay suggested. 
The elevator suddenly stopped working. Bullets flew down the elevator. We tried to dodge as much as we could. I took out my pommel and activated my lightsaber. I cut a hole through the side. We went out and ended up in the elevator shaft. "Let's just jump down" Jay said. There was a 90% chance we would die but there wasn't time to think about it. We jumped down but Anna quickly grabbed her grapple hook and grappled onto the top. She grabbed me by the hand and Jay grabbed my foot. We were a couple feet off the ground. So, Jay jumped off and was able to land successfully. Then me and Anna jumped down as well. We ran out of the bottom elevator shaft. We spotted armed soldiers outside waiting for us to come so that they would corner us, so we hid behind a pillar. 
"Did they catch Ariana and Finn?" I asked. "I'm not sure" Anna replied. I saw a text on my phone, it was Finn and he typed in all caps "COME OUTSIDE" I wanted to text him that there were armed guys outside waiting to ambush us but I saw a black car that drove and stopped right outside the exit. The window rolled down and I saw Ariana pop out and shoot multiple guys. 
"Come on, let's go." I signaled the others. The door was locked from the inside but Anna just punched it and the glass door broke into many pieces. The guys were down but the helicopter was still up. Me, Anna and Jay quickly got into the backseats of the car.

"Did you get the keys?" Finn asked. "Yeah we did" I said as I held them up to show them. 
"Hit it Finn!" Ariana shouted. There were police vehicles that came and started chasing us. Finn speeded and ran multiple red lights.
"The next place we're going to is Washington DC." I said. The helicopter was also following us. Finn took a turn and we lost the police. 
"Good, we lost them" Jay said as he turned back. "Only two more keys left" Anna said. 
It was now 1 am and it would take approximately 3 hours to get to Washington DC. 
"That Casino was weird though. How come two days went by so fast but in there it only felt like a couple hours." Finn asked. 
"They probably changed the oxygen levels in there" Anna said to answer Finn's question. 
"Well that doesn't matter anymore, we need to focus on getting these two keys and getting the ring and the documents safely returned." Ariana said
The helicopter was still following us from above, as long as the helicopter was up there the national guard could still track us." 
As we drove there was a bridge up ahead. "I have an idea" Anna said. 
We stopped at the bridge. There we saw a parked grey Mercades Benz. The owner of the vehicle had come from a shop nearby with ice cream in his hand. Who the hell is buying ice cream at 1 in the morning? 
Anna pointed her handgun at the guy and demanded for the keys to the car. The guy was so scared that he dropped his ice cream on the ground and held his hands up in the air. He gave his car keys to Anna and we all got in the car. Anna got in the driver's seat, and we drove off. I sorta felt bad for the guy, he just dropped his perfectly good vanilla ice cream with sprinkles on top and got his nice car stolen by a bunch of nation-wide teenage criminals. 
Traffic wasn't so bad, and we arrived in Washington DC. This place was the capital of America and where the president lived, so I'm sure security was tight throughout the whole city. 
I saw a text come from the guy and it said that the key was in the White House.
This guy was expecting too much from us, he wanted us to invade the president's home all for just one key. I let the others know of what he texted me. We had no choice but to do it. But how were we supposed to enter the White House. 
We parked at a street near the White House and got out of the car. There was no police or national guard looking for us. They were probably still in New York searching for us. 
We entered through the backside and eventually ended up in the building. I received another text from the guy and it said "You might want to consider checking the Oval Office" We went to the oval office where the president's work would take place. I was surprised that there was no security, it's like the whole place was completely empty. We went inside the oval office. We started rummaging through the papers and documents trying to find the key. It was no where to be found. Finn accidentally bumped into a painting, and it dropped. There it was, the key. It was behind the painting the whole time. "There it is" I said as I grabbed the key. Only one more key to go. I saw a text come from the guy, it said "The final key is located in Denver Colorado." 
We left the oval office but as we went outside of the White House we were surrounded. Military tanks everywhere. The helicopter flying on top of us shined a light on us. "How did they find us?" I said surprised. 
The President came out of the White House. "We've finally got you fugitives, hand over the documents" We all held our hands up in the air. We couldn't do anything. There were only five of us and hundreds of them ready to shoot at us if we made any sudden movement. "We don't have your documents" Finn said. "That's a lie" he said back. "Arrest them, check their clothes and everything" The armed soldiers apprehended us and checked out pockets. They found the five keys that were in my pocket and took them away, they also took away all our phones. 
"They must have hidden it somewhere." One of the soldiers said. "Search the whole country for it. Let the whole country go on lockdown. If the documents aren't found by dusk tomorrow, then war will declared on Regalia." 
There was nothing we could do about this. We had failed. We got the keys taken away from us and we got arrested by the US government. We were taken into their vehicle where we were taken into custody.