The P.U.L.L || #Wattys2017

Chapter 17: Caught

Rick and Emma managed to hide themselves right before the guards came. They didn't know what happened right after they fell to the other side of the wall.  They pressed their ears against the wall, but  they were only able to hear a few scuffles coming from the other side. Suddenly, they heard a very loud sound from the wall, as if someone kicked it hard.

"What do you think happened to Joshua?" Emma asked. "Will he be alright?"

"Of course, don't worry about him. He escaped from the expert kidnappers, remember?" Rick reassured her. "I know he's going to escape one way or another."

"Yeah, let's wait for ten more minutes." Emma said.

They had been waiting for more than ten minutes already. Still, there was no sign of Joshua ever coming out of the trapdoor. They started to get impatient. Anytime now, the guards will come searching for the two of them. Still, they couldn't bear the thought of leaving Joshua behind the way they did before with the kidnappers.

They began hearing faint sounds coming from somewhere below them. Emma quickly went to the bush and lifted the trapdoor open, expecting Joshua to come out.

To their relief, Joshua appeared before their eyes, all ragged and dirty. His clothes were torn and a few bruises and cuts were visible on his arms and legs. Rick and Emma got shocked at what they saw but they felt relieved.

Joshua was able to escape from the guards after all.

The two of them sighed in relief. They began to realize that Joshua would make a fine escape artist. He already escaped from the kidnappers and now, he managed to escaped from a dozen guards of the Quillers without their aid.

"Joshua, are you okay?" Rick asked.

"Don't tell me, did you..." Emma began.

"Yes, I fell again from the stairs." Joshua replied. "I'll tell you the details later. But right now, we need to get out of here as soon as we can. The guards are probably on the lookout for us right now." He seriously said.

"Yeah, let's go." Rick agreed.

The three of them began running. It has already been late at noon and the city seemed to become a much busier place. A lot of time has passed since they broke in the Quillers' house and they didn't realize it.

Still, this surrounding is much better. The guards won't be able to notice us from crowds of people walking. Had it been at night, we would have easily gotten caught, or the guards might have caught us right before we broke in the house. Joshua thought. He winced as his body began aching. He had survived two nasty falls that no normal human beings could. And now, it's taking its toll on his body.

"I'm surprised you survived another one of those falls." Emma commented as she saw Joshua trying to suppress the pain. "If it was me, I would have died. I guess you're fortunate enough."

After slinking beside the wall around the Quiller corporation, they were able to reach the opposite side of the pentagon safely. The three of them sat down against the wall, thinking that they have already escaped the guards.

After a while, a guard or two began approaching from a distance. Joshua, Rick, and Emma continued running once again.

"We should get out of the vicinity as soon as possible!" Joshua told them.

"No problem." Rick said.

.....

The sun shone directly right above them by the time they were able to reach the highway. A few cars whizzed past them and a few people walk on the sidewalks. The three of them began to calm down at the thought that they already got out of the vicinity. Still, the clues that they found deeply troubled them. 

What does it mean? And what power plant is she talking about, exactly? Joshua asked himself.

"Now we got the clues." Rick said. "What do we do now?" He asked.

"Follow the clues and solve the mystery." Emma simply said. "So far, we know that we need to look for a wall underneath a power plant, right?"

"Yeah, easier said than done though." Joshua said.

"But still, we have to do at least that much to get another lead. As far as we know, the one behind it all could be anywhere. We need to follow all the clues that we could find." Emma continued.

Just as they were talking, they didn't notice three police cars that stopped right around them, surrounding them in a quick moment.

"Sorry kids, you're going with us." A police man shouted from his megaphone. "We won't do anything if you cooperate and get in the police car."

The three of them looked at the policemen gathered around them. They didn't succeed in escaping after all. All of them, except the one holding the megaphone, held their guns and readied to fire.

Joshua, Rick, and Emma raised their hands. There was nothing that they could do but to cooperate. They were outnumbered, and if they happen to run away, the police cars would just chase them down. Joshua began to think of a plan, but to no avail.

"Let's play along with it, guys." Emma suggested. "We cannot tackle them head on, and they are policemen." She whispered.

"Yeah, same here." Rick agreed.

"If they happen to ask questions later, we should tell them everything we know about the kidnappings." Joshua said. "That way, we could get away as quick as possible."

"We should probably tell them about our parents too, you know." Emma added.

"Anyway, let's just go. I could feel those guns are ready to fire." Rick said.

One by one, they went inside one of the police cars. The police men smiled at themselves for they were able to capture them without using force. However, the police didn't bother to handcuff them, nor inspect them of any weapons. They thought that  they could handle the three teenagers just fine. 

Just this noon, the guards guarding the Quiller house gave up their search and relayed the information to the local police department. The guards gave them a footage of three teenagers breaking in the house. The police, after receiving the report, decided to act quickly. But after receiving the guards' written report, they laughed for they couldn't believe the report the guards have written.

It was said in the report that one of the teenagers managed to jump over the high wall surrounding the house, another teenager managed to hack through the security, and the other one was able to take on all the guards and escaped by using a trapdoor that cannot be unlocked by anyone. It was too good to be true that the policemen thought that they were just exaggerating. In response, they didn't believe everything that was written in the report.

The policemen didn't read the rest of the exaggerated report, missing the part of the report that mentions about one of the teenagers having a taser in his possession.