The Voices of the Threateners

Chapter 12: A Remarkable Discovery

"I heard voices over here," muttered one of the men, shining his flashlight around the dark tunnel.

"Let's dig a hole in the wall," joked Merrick.

"Not funny at all, Merrick," sighed Evangeline.

"Let's all scream until we scare them all away!" suggested Merrick enthusiastically.

"Hm okay. Who can scream the loudest here?" asked Evangeline.

"Definitely you, Evangeline," said Allison. "You scream the loudest at school!" she added as Evangeline gave her a blank look.

"Micah screams louder..." Evangeline argued.

"I can scream very loud too," Shinkai chimed in.

"Okay nice, lol," Jahnavi and Iris muttered, uninterested.

"Quick, hurry," urged Allison. "We're almost there, I can see some light."

They emerged, blinking, into the pale sunlight.
"There's the car!" cried Shinkai. "Everybody get in."

After arriving back at school, everyone could hardly believe their eyes. The building caught on fire, injured children lying on the ground, and robbed rooms, and the 7th graders' Physics solar oven project was destroyed, but no sign of any thieves nearby.

Note: The 7th graders' solar ovens were demolished by some unknown people.

"OH NO! MY S'MORES!" cried Merrick, aghast.

"How dare they!" exclaimed Iris.

"Ours were the only ones that did not get damaged," remarked Evangeline, Allison, and Jahnavi.

"But this is not the point!" Jonas reminded them. "We still have work to do."

"Let's find the others first then," said Jahnavi.

Running and shouting the rest of the members of the class's names, they anxiously looked around.

"I found Johnny!" shouted Merrick in excitement. "He's tied behind the couch—oh wait, there's a note here."

"Give it to me!" demanded Allison as she snatched the paper away from Merrick. "I will read it."

" 'If you want to find the others, you must find all the clues and follow all that they say within 1 hour since there is a bomb that is scheduled to explode within 1 hour,' " said Allison as she read the note, looking terrified.

"But how do we find the clues? This is a very big building," Iris and Evangeline pointed out.

"What if it's a trick?" questioned Jonas, with his nerdy mind.

"Oh my god, will you stop already?" snapped Jahnavi. "I'm willing to take the risk," she added.

"If you are not going with us, then you can just walk back to school and play basketball by yourself alone this time I guess," derided Iris again.

Already walking ahead and going through the bushes to look for clues, Evangeline paid no attention to her friends and classmates, since she was focused on solving the mystery.

"What if it REALLY is a trick? What if they made it because they wanted us to waste time so that we could die?" questioned Jonas.

"Okay buddy, nobody cares," said Jahnavi.

"Yeah, we almost got killed anyway," agreed Allison.

"Well, that does not mean that I want to be at risk of being killed AGAIN," replied Jonas.

"Zip your mouth and deal with it," snapped Jahnavi.

"Hey, where's Evangeline?" inquired Iris, realizing that Evangeline was not with them anymore.

"I think I saw her go towards there," suggested Johnny, pointing near the bushes. Jonas, Cody, and Baxter ran towards the bushes but realized Evangeline was not anywhere close. They ran for at least five minutes until they saw her. Not her...but her body, motionless and unconscious.

"What should we do?" demanded Baxter.

"How did she become unconscious?" wondered Cody.

"Well how do we help her?" asked Jonas.

"No idea, maybe she just overdosed with cocakai," declared Cody.

Note: She was at lunch before.

"Possibly... So is mouth-to-mouth needed? We should check her pulse first," commented Jonas.

"SHUT UP JONAS! I can feel her heartbeat," said Cody, kicking Evangeline's unconscious body.

"So should we drag her back or what?" questioned Jonas.

"We can't carry her, so..." Cody sighed, dragging Evangeline by her hands.

"Nah, you should call Shinkai, Baxter," said Jonas.

"Hmm, the first time Jonas started worrying—" teased Cody, zestily.

Giving Cody a glance of confusion, they decided to go with what Jonas requested.