CHAPTER 29: INFILTRATING THE CAMP
Hidden way deep in the forests of France was an old and abandoned train yard that was nothing short of an absolute mess visually since there were numerous train cars that were either displaced onto the wrong tracks or straight up lying on the ground,and in the middle of a medium sized shack by a small lake,the kids along with the beagles and Woodstock appeared to be sitting on the floor and were still knocked out from their tranquilizer darts,and they also seemed to have their arms and legs tied up together with rope,completely preventing them from escaping.
The kids continued to sit there completely motionless until Charlie Brown felt his eyes start to open along with himself feeling extremely woozy and tired,only for those feelings to quickly wash away and turn into fear when he realized that he was tied up as he frantically tried to undo the ropes to no avail before he noticed that everyone else was in there with him aside from Ed to which he nervously called out in an attempt to wake them up "Hey guys? Guys? Y'all better wake up!" which prompted Peppermint Patty to slowly open her eyes before she too realized that she was tied up.
"What the?! Hey wake up everyone,we're tied up!" Peppermint Patty gasped and angrily questioned in shock when she saw what was going on which caused everyone else that was asleep to instantly awaken like a megaphone was just blown right into their eardrums,and it didn't take them too long to realize that they were all tied up before they all started panicking at the seems.
"What's going on?! Why are we tied up?!" Freida fearfully whimpered on the verge of tears to which Linus promptly tried to remember what had happened before he fell unconscious "I don't know Freida,I remember that we were all sitting in the hotel room and then all of a sudden this person burst in and shot something at Lucy!" before the boy's sister furiously lamented while she tried endlessly to loosen her ropes to no avail "I think that must have been a tranquilizer or something,I swear when I get out of here I'm gonna slug the no good cretin that did this!" which prompted Peppermint Patty to fiercely agree in response "You better save some room for me Lucy! This is messed up!"
"I'm scared big brother! What are we gonna do?!" Sally nervously choked out as tears began to well up in her eyes while her stomach violently churned before Skylar added equally as fearful on the verge of hyperventilating "You can say that again Sally! We're trapped here!" to which Claudia tightly closed her eyes and timidly whimpered to herself "Its only a dream Claudia,it's only a dream,please wake up,please wake up." only for Charlie Brown to try and remain rational during the whole situation "Gang,I honestly think the best thing we can do right now is to remain calm-"
"How in the world are we supposed to do that? We have no idea where we are and why we're all tied up like this!" Franklin scoffed and bitterly interrupted Charlie Brown's attempt to calm everyone down to which Franco and Eudora frantically nodded their heads in agreement before Rebecca angrily lamented while she hung her head down low "Great,just great! First Ed doesn't bother to answer any of my calls,and now we're all trapped in a dark and dusty shack in the middle of nowhere! What else could go wrong for us?" only for Marcie to suddenly perk up and try to suggest a potential way out "Wait! I think I may have thought of a way out! Let's see if-"
*CREAK*
However it was then and there that Marcie's attempt to offer up an escape plan would suddenly be interrupted when the door to the shack slowly opened and let in a massive barrage of light from the outside while a hooded figure slowly walked inside along with another man as Snoopy, Woodstock, Andy, Olaf, Gracie and Roger started violently shaking out of fear while Peppermint Patty gritted her teeth and angrily scolded "Hey you! What's the big idea knocking us out like that huh?!" only for the figure and the man to not answer to which Lucy fiercely growled and demanded "ANSWER HER YOU BLOCKHEADS!"
"Hmph,what cocky little shits." The hooded figure lightly chuckled and retorted with a clear sense of enjoyment in her voice before Rebecca suddenly perked up and nervously stated in response "Wait a second….that voice." to which the cloaked figure chuckled once again while she lifted up her hood to reveal none other than Mrs Hampton to the kids which caused Rebecca to gasp and exclaim in shock "You?! What are you doing here?!"
"What is it Rebecca? D-do you know this person?" Eudora raised an eyebrow and nervously wondered out of curiosity to which the blonde nodded her head and fearfully confirmed that she did "Y-Yeah,I know her all too well,that's the person who kept me in that orphanage for all those years." which caused the rest of the kids aside from Lucy to gasp at the revelation before Mrs Hampton devilishly greeted her former prisoner "Hello Rebecca,it's a wonderful pleasure to see you again after all these years,and it's also great to be able to meet all your other friends too." only for Rebecca to scoff and fiercely ask in response "What are you doing over here? You should still be carrying out your prison sentence,they wouldn't let someone like you out so early."
"And you'd be right my dear,I left the place myself and took twenty other inmates with me so we could have a little…..vacation in France." Mrs Hampton nodded her head and smugly agreed with Rebecca's suspicions to which Charlie Brown gasped and nervously stammered at the revelation "So you're saying that you busted out of prison with that many inmates and came all the way over here with them? You're really crossing the line here-" only for the boy to be rudely interrupted when Mrs Hampton suddenly smacked him in the face which caused the other kids to gasp in shock before Freida very much unlike her snapped at the lady "Hey! Don't you lay a finger on him!"
"Yeah only we can do that!" Peppermint Patty nodded her head and fiercely added in agreement to which Sally balled up her tied up fists to the best of her ability and angrily threatened "You're so lucky that our dogs are tied up,if they weren't,you'd be mincemeat right now!" only for the beagles to nervously show off a smile that said "She's lying." while Mrs Hampton glanced over at them before Rebecca gulped and tried to threaten with a shaky voice "Oh yeah,well when Ed finds out that we're gone and that you're here,he's gonna slug you to kingdom come like he did before!"
"Oh I don't think he will,I already made sure of that." Mrs Hampton evilly chuckled and frankly downplayed Rebecca's threat which caused the blonde's body to tense up at the implication before she nervously asked "Wh…..what did you do?" only for the lady to keep herself silent to which Charlie Brown angrily demanded to know "What did you do to him?!" which resulted in the woman grinning menacingly before she told the kids everything.
Meanwhile outside in the empty train yard,Tyrone appeared to be sneaking around in a field of tall grass as he slowly tried to make his way over to the shack where the kids and beagles were held up,for he suspected that was the most likely place they would be locked up in compared to everywhere else. The man continued to cautiously tread through the grass and study the area around him until he suddenly stopped in his tracks when he had heard something else lurking behind him and getting ever closer,and once it seemed like whatever was stalking him was just about to attack,Tyrone quickly sprung into action and grabbed the creature by the leg and threw it right in front of him,only for him to be shocked yet relieved when he laid eyes on what appeared to be a very bruised and messy boy with two missing front teeth,a missing eye,torn clothes and ruffled black hair looking up at him and breathing heavily.
"What the hell?" Tyrone raised an eyebrow and quietly questioned to himself before Ed suddenly punched him in the face and tried to escape only for the man to hold him down and firmly scold "Hey,hey,hey,hold on a minute here. What are you doing out here all by yourself?" to which the boy nonchalantly asked in return instead of answering "Well I could ask the same to you mister,what are you doing out here in this trainyard? You working for the lady out here and keeping watch?"
"What? Hell no." Tyrone scoffed and sternly confirmed that he wasn't working for Mrs Hampton before he pulled out his detective badge and calmly continued "I'm Tyrone Watson,I'm a private detective from Minnesota,I'm here on a special assignment to bring in Mrs Hampton and twenty other escaped inmates. I learned about them from a thumb drive the prison warden gave me. Now what about you kid?" which prompted Ed to cautiously give out his identity and explain his motives while he picked himself off the ground "I'm...Edward Fitzherbet sir,but you can just call me Ed because if flows off the tongue better. I'm out here because I need to stop this crazy witch of a lady from fleeing the country. She lured me and some of my friends to a chateau out here so she could kill me,but as you can see that didn't exactly work out…..well in turns of me I guess."
"Hmph,well it looks like you're one of the kids that one fella told me about,and it also seems that we have a common enemy and goal." Tyrone lightly chuckled and playfully remarked with an ever so slight grin on his face before Ed couldn't help but agree with the man "Yeah I guess so,I'm hunting her down because she…..she killed my best friend in the caves under the chateau,and she's probably already killed the others too." only for Tyrone to sigh and try to lift up the boy's spirit "Actually that may not be entirely true,you see I went over to the hotel where they were staying at and took a look at some of the security footage. It turns out Mrs Hampton and some of her men stormed the place and merely knocked them out with tranquilizers and took them here." to which Ed perked up and happily cheered at the possibility of the others still being alive "Wait,they're still alive?!"
"It is a possibility,and they're more than likely being kept in that shack over there." Tyrone nodded his head and calmly replied while he pointed over at the shack up ahead before Ed pounded his fists together and heroically stated "Alrighty then,let's head over there and bust them out!" to which the older man smirked and couldn't help but humor the enthusiastic kid "Let's do that indeed kid,if my calculations are correct,then this part of the train yard should be empty due to her men loading up their getaway train a little ways from here. If it should happen to leave before we're able to bust your friends out,all we have to do is follow the tracker I placed on it and slug them on board,why I already took one of them out at a marketplace and brought them to the nearest police station for safe keeping."
"Wow,you're good mister." A frankly impressed Ed chuckled and happily complimented Tyrone's detective skills to which the man egotistically stated in response "I'm a detective kid,it's what I do,now let's get your friends out." which caused Ed to heroically chant in agreement before they made their way towards the shack "Right!"
NEXT CHAPTER: ESCAPE