The Smartest Kids Alive (IN NEED OF REVISING)

Chapter XV

EGHOSA

Music: Colossal Circuits from Super Mario 64: Last Impact

My first impression of the store is that it's more than your everyday GameStop or whatnot. It's more of a vintage kind of store, featuring gaming consoles and video games dating all the way back to the 1980s. There are even movies and old toys, again from modern to mid 1900s dated.

"I think Sam just found his home," Luke laughs. I look at Sam and see his eyes wide open in awe, and I can't help but laugh.

"This is like VIntage Stock 2.0," Sam mumbles, amazement clearly present in his tone. Then he snaps himself out of his "trance" and says, "We're not here for shopping. Let's go find those bowler dudes."

So we split up and begin embarking around the store. I go with Jack and Heath, and we make our way into the movies section.

"This is a trap. It's gotta be," Heath mutters.

"Heath, why would someone try to kill us in a public store? I mean, seriously," I tell him.

"They could pull some sort of terror act on the entire store that's clearly meant for us," Jack shrugs, peaking through some of the movies. "I mean, anything's possible with these guys."

"We just need to get rid of them, and fast," Heath says.

"I recognize almost none of these movies," I observe after looking through a few movie titles. Then I hear Sam yell something. It sounds like, "BURN IT!"

"Must've found Atari 2600 Pac-Man. He has a major problem just seeing that game," Heath explains.

I roll my eyes.

"Well, nice to see you kids in here!"

Out of shock, I let out a small gasp. The voice behind us turns out to be that of one of the bowler dudes, who are standing right behind us, smiling.

"Get away from us," Heath growls, shaking a fist.

"Relax, dude. We're not going to kill ya," the shorter one says, even offering Heath a smile. "We got tired of the whole killing business fast. We're gonna work here now."

"That's nice," I say hesitantly, not sure if the man's telling the truth or not.

"Welp, we're gonna head to the office now. Call us if you need any assistance in your shopping," the tall one says. He even tips his hat to us before the two of them walk away. As they get farther away from us, however, I hear what sounds like snickering between them.

"They're weird," Luke mutters.

"I don't trust 'em one bit," Heath grumbles. We then go find Sam, Luke, and Mackenzie, who are browsing through some random comic books section.

"This place is lit, guys," Sam tells us once we arrive. Mackenzie and Luke nod in agreement.

"Forget about how cool this place is," Jack says sternly. "The bowler dudes claim to work here now, and that they're done with killing us."

"So? Let's leave them be," Mackenzie shrugs.

"I don't think so," Sam replies, shaking his head. "This is exactly the kind of stunt you'd expect these kinds of people to pull."

"Well? What are we waiting for? Let's go kill those bastards," Luke hisses. It's then that I take notice of a door on the wall perpendicular to the comic books shelf, labeled, "Employees Only". On the door is a small window, and from there, I can see the bowler dudes continuing to laugh among themselves.

Everyone else notices this, and Mackenzie asks, "Should we just go in there now?"

"We outnumber them three to one, at least when simplified," Jack replies. "I say yes."

So the six of us walk towards the door, and Heath slams it open for us.

HEATH

Music: Faster Than All from Mario Party

"You two are dead now," I growl as we make our way inside.

"That's what you think," the tall bowler dude sneers, having an entirely different attitude than he did a few minutes ago. That's when I feel the floor beginning to move under my feet. I look down and notice that we're now standing on a conveyor belt.

"A CONVEYER BELT!?" Mackenzie yells, as if this she was frustrated by the idea.

"Even better. Look what you encounter at the end," the shorter one laughs. Turning my head to be able to see behind me, I notice something bright at the end of the belt.

A small pit full of fire.

"Yeah, we were kinda running short on time, so we had to work with what we could," the tall bowler dude explains. "Should still be effective, though."

"We'll worry about the rest of your friends another time, don't worry," the shorter one adds. Then the two men left the room, laughing to each other about how dumb we were.

By now, the conveyer belt was beginning to speed up, forcing us to go from walking to running to avoid being dragged into the fire. A glass wall prevents us from leaving one way, and the door is too far away from us by this point.

"So, any of you got a plan?" Eghosa asks, already beginning to pant from exhaustion.

"I see the circuit board for the belt over there!" Sam yells, pointing somewhere on the other end of the belt. Then he looks at Jack. "You got a good arm?"

"Yeah."

"What about water balloons?"

"One left," Jack quickly gets out the one we have remaining.

"Hurry up, you guys!" Luke urges. He's already beginning to fall behind, slowly getting dragged closer and closer to the pit.

Jack doesn't waste a single second. He aims the balloon carefully and chucks it right at the circuit board. Similarly to the robot armadillo, the water causes the circuit to short out, and the conveyer belt begins to slow down until it reaches a complete stop.

"Let's get out of here," I tell everyone else. The door leading back to the main store is thankfully unlocked, so we're able to quickly make our way back outside, where Elle, Avery, and Skylar. They immediately take notice of our exhaustion.

"Lemme guess: Someone tried to kill you?" Avery asks, not looking surprised at all.

Mackenzie's the only one who answers verbally. "Yeah."

Avery then looks at Elle. "Cough it up."

"Fine," Elle grumbles, pulling a five dollar bill out of her pocket and handing it to Avery. I look at Jack and Luke and just shrug.

Thought this chapter was somewhat interesting and humorous.