Broken - Isadora Quagmire

Chapter Twenty Four - POP!

The morning light eventually shone through the beak of Foul Fountain and the murder of crows arrived on top of it.

"The crows are here, the couplets should have dropped right?" I said

"If I calculated it right, do you think Baudelaire's have found them?"

"I hope so, we'll just have to wait and see"

We did, wait that is, we didn't really see anything, but we heard a great commotion outside of the Foul Fountain.

"Give me a boost" said Duncan. I helped him up and he looked out of the beak of Foul Fountain.

"What do you see?" I said

"Not much, there's a large crowd... I see Count Olaf's troupe...Esme...some people wearing ridiculous bird hats...and..." he suddenly jumped down.

"What happened?"

"Esme saw me. She turned around and saw me"

"Did anyone else see you?"

"Probably not, Esme only saw me because she was standing right beside Foul Fountain"

Hours later, we were STILL stuck in the fountain. By this time, I was getting worried.

"Are you worried?" I asked.

"Yes. Guess who I briefly saw earlier though?"

"Who?"

"Klaus"

"If you keep teasing me, I'm going to start teasing you"

"What are you talking about?"

"D.Q. + V.B."

"You saw that?"

I started laughing. Then the fountain started opening.

"Duncan!" Violet said

"Isadora!" Klaus exclaimed as Duncan helped me out of the fountain

"You found the poems" I said. I went and hugged Klaus ,and Duncan went and hugged Violet.

"Are you okay?"

"Much better now"

"How did you get here?"

"Olaf smuggled us out of the auction inside a red herring."

"We found it in the saloon."

"We knew you were close."

"You didn't happen to see anything written inside?" I quietly chucked at my brothers question.

"We didn't have time to examine it closely"

"What happened to you two?" asked Klaus

"Olaf hid us in the fountain so we'd be out of his way" I explained

"It was Isadora's idea to use the couplets as a code"

"Duncan figured out how to smuggle them out"

"The fountain was damp from the morning dew, and there were always crows on the fountain"

"We waited until one landed and wrapped a wet couplet around its leg"

"The paper dried overnight and fell from the tree"

"How did you know we were here?"

"We didn't, not really"

"We just knew you'd find us"

"It's what friends are for."

"Mob!" Sunny shouted.

"This way" said Klaus running behind a building as Count Olaf and Esme leaded an angry mob towards us. Violet, Sunny, Duncan and I all followed Klaus and we hid behind a random building.

"Where can we go?" Duncan asked

"We're in the middle of nowhere" I said

"We know a way out" Violet said

"It's a self-sustaining hot air mobile home" said Klaus "If we reach the town border, we can escape."

"We'll be safe forever, up in the air"

"Forever?" repeated my brother

"But we'll never learn about VFD" I said

"The real VFD, not this vile village" added Duncan

"Jacques Snicket said he was part of it" said Violet "That's why he and Count Olaf have the same tattoo"

"The firehouse was one of their headquarters" said Duncan "We wrote everything we learned in our commonplace books"

I was about to add that we didn't get much written down before we were kidnapped when there was a bright flash. A strange lady took a photograph of us.

"Baudelaires, what are your thoughts on your daring escape?" she said. Me and Duncan had obviously missed a lot.

"Run" said Violet. And we did. Trying to stay out of view, and running behind the buildings. Count Olaf was nearing us and we were hiding behind a gate when a man and a woman arrived on a motorcycle.

"It's Jacqueline and Larry the Waiter" said the two eldest Baudelaire's in hopes that they would help us but alas the large mob was too convinced by Count Olaf that they should burn us at the stake and again started nearing us again. Abruptly, Sunny started driving a fire engine and me, Duncan, Klaus and Violet jumped on the back.

"Your sister drives?" Duncan asked

"Apparently" said Violet

"We know that man" Duncan said.

"We do?" I asked.

"Yes! Remember, with Liam and Valerie at the café"

"Who are they?" Klaus asked.

The fire engine stopped. "No gas!" Sunny said.

Violet looked up "Hector!" she shouted

"Baudelaires! I'm so glad you made it!" Hector shouted down

"I hope you don't mind extra passengers!" Violet said

"Not at all. The self-sustaining hot air mobile home needs several people to keep it running!" Hector shouted. He let down a rope ladder while Klaus raised the fire engines ladder.

"You first" said Violet

"We'll be right behind you" said Klaus. I smiled at him and started climbing up the wooden ladder, Duncan closely behind me.

The mob neared and were chanting, shouting, screaming over and over again "burn those kids!" burn those kids!"

Violet and Klaus distracted them and I grabbed onto the rope ladder and climbed onto it when...

POP!

"Isadora!"

"No!"