Countdown

Chapter Eight

        Philip was on his way to his friend's house to have a little fun with the snow. But, despite that, he was really, really, really worried. Were the bad guys still after him? Did they know where he lived? Were they gonna kidnap him? Or hypnotize him? Or worse, were they gonna kill him?

When he approached Sam's house, he decided to, for now, clear his mind, and have some fun.

"Phil! Bro!" Sam exclaimed, slapping Philip's hand.

"Hey, Sam," Philip said, grinning.

"So, how's life without school?" Sam asked, enthusiastically.

Philip smiled. "Eh, it's okay. Where's George?" Philip asked, changing the subject.

"He should be here any min-" He was cut off by two snowballs that hit both of them from the back. They turned around to see George, who was smiling mischieviously.

"Sup?" He asked, throwing another two at their faces.

"Oh, it's on!" Philip and Sam each packed a snowball and smacked George on his face.

They all laughed and started an epic snowball fight.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Barry and Justin were driving around looking for the boy, a.k.a, Philip Easton.

"He has to be around here somewhere," Barry said, veering onto a small street.

"How can you be so sure?" Justin asked. Well, he was stuffing caramel popcorn into his mouth, so it sounded a little something like,

"Howph an you e o ure?"

"Spit out your popcorn and speak English," Barry said, annoyed.

Justin quickly swallowed his popcorn and repeated his question.

"Because, he walked to the park, so he has to be close by the park," Barry said.

"Well, he can be inside the house too," Justin said.

"True, true. But it doesn't hurt to look around." Barry said.

"Hey, look, three little boys playing in the snow. Aw, I remember having fun with the snow when I was their age," Justin reminisced.

Barry immediately slowed the car down.

"What are you-"

"Justin, look at the boys! Does one look familar?" Barry asked.

Justin squinted.

"Oh. Ohhh. That one! That's the boy!" Justin exclaimed.

"Yes. Now, take a good look at the other two." Barry said, pulling the car to the shoulder.

"Why?" Justin inquired, puzzled.

"In fact, lemme take a picture." Barry pulled out his Galaxy and snapped a picture.

"Ah. Perfect." He complimeted himself.

"Uh, they noticed us, Barry...and are running inside. Should we be concerned?" Justin asked.

"Of course not. They're probably just scared," Barry said, snapping a few more pictures.

"Uh, someone's coming out from the house with the three kids. Looks like a grown man. Now should we be concerned?" Justin asked.

"YES!" Barry hightailed it out of there.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Sam, Philip, and George saw a blue sedan slow down in front of the house, they panicked. I mean, of course they did. Wouldn't you, if you saw a blue car with two men inside staring at you and snapping pictures, and the two men inside looked exactly like those two guys who were hunting you down?

Philip quickly told them that those two creeps looked suspiciously familar, and they all ran inside to grab Sam's dad, Mr. Ridgley.

When Sam's dad came out, the sedan stepped on the gas pedal and sped out of there.

"Did you guys recognize who they were?" Mr. Ridgley asked.

"Uh, no," Philip and Sam quickly replied, and at the same time, George replied,

"Uh, yea."

Mr. Ridgley had a puzzled look on his face.

"Time for you guys to come inside and explain everything to me."