It was October 5th, a usual afternoon in town. Pump was staying over at Skid and Lila's house for a super special spooky sleepover. While the boys were upstairs playing Candy Land, Lila was cooking a super special spooky dinner: spaghetti with meatballs!

About 50 minutes later, Lila called Skid and Pump downstairs to eat. The boys ran over to the dinner table and thanked Lila for the meal, then dug in.

After dinner, Skid and Pump were ready for the sleepover. But while Skid was brushing his teeth, he randomly got a feeling that something bad was going to happen. Pump reassured him by saying that if he felt like his life was being threatened, he could call for help anytime.

That night, at around 4:00 in the morning, Skid and Pump were woken up by a bump. But when they examined their surroundings... they realized they weren't at home.

They were in a moving van.

The back door was chained shut and secured with a padlock.

They had been kidnapped.

Frank, the driver, looked woozy. He noticed the kids had woken up, and angrily shouted in a drunken tone, "YOU KIDS GO BACK TO SLEEP! I'M TAKING Y'ALL SOMEWHERE SECRET!!!"

Skid immediately got suspicious. He slowly got up to try and confront Frank, but another bump knocked him unconscious.

Pump tried to get Skid to wake up, but it was no use. Frank then pulled out a tranquilizer dart and chucked it at Pump. It landed right in his left forearm. Pump struggled to stay awake, but he collapsed right on top of Skid.

A longer while later, Skid woke up again, only much slower than last time. Skid also noticed the ride was getting even bumpier, and they were going faster. Frank was also asleep at the wheel, which wasn't a good sign. But when Skid peeked out through the windshield...

"PUMP, WAKE UP!!!" Skid screamed, shaking Pump as hard as he could. "FRANK'S GONNA DRIVE US OFF A CLIFF!!!"

This made Pump wake up in a jolt, and when he looked out the windshield, he was fully aware of the situation. After removing the dart from his forearm (it hurt, but this was no time to search for bandages), Pump started panicking, but Skid remembered the doors were chained closed.

Frantically, Skid searched through the van and found a box of supplies. Inside of the box was two crowbars, some tape, a medkit, and a wallet with $175 in it.

Skid realized the crowbars could be useful for helping them escape. He gave one to Pump, and the boys started attempting to open the door.

Skid had a little trouble picking the lock, but Pump, being the more reckless one, whacked the chains as hard as he could, hoping they would break.

Skid's idea worked first, though, and the lock unlocked, causing the chains to come loose. But they still needed to get the door open... and fast, because they were this close to their demises!

Skid desperately pried at the right door with his crowbar, while Pump did the left. But neither door would open, no matter how hard they pulled.

Time was running out. The van was going even faster. Tears rolled down Skid and Pump's faces. They knew that this was the end...

Or was it?

After a lot of pulling, the doors finally opened, and Skid and Pump leaped out of the door just as Frank drove right off the cliff to his death. Pump's timing wasn't as good though.

The box of supplies also made it out of the van somehow.

Skid got up and looked around. He and Pump happened to be in a forest.

Pump!

Skid couldn't find Pump anywhere. He started to cry, thinking Pump also lost his life, but Pump was heard calling for help. Skid looked over the cliff's edge, and saw Pump holding on to a branch.

Skid knew he couldn't reach Pump, because he was too far down, but he remembered there were crowbars. He grabbed one and held it down for Pump to grab on to, but it wasn't long enough.

Skid also remembered there was tape, and then he got an idea. He taped the two crowbars together, and held them down again, but Pump still couldn't reach them.

The branch was coming loose. It couldn't support Pump's weight for that long. But seeing the branch gave Skid an idea.

He found a REALLY big stick and taped it to the crowbars, and held it down in front of Pump again, and...

He grabbed it!

Skid tried to pull Pump up, but perhaps the stick was putting a little too much weight on. Skid didn't care though, all he wanted was to save Pump. He pulled and pulled, but he only managed to get Pump halfway up before getting exhausted.

"Pump... I hate to... I hate to tell you this... but," Skid said, trying to catch his breath. "You're gonna have to climb the rest of the way up."

"WHAT?!" Pump gawked in horror. "But I can't climb! I'm a terrible climber!!!"

"I already pulled you up halfway, I have faith that you can make it up the rest of the way!" Skid called down to Pump in an encouraging tone. "You can do it!"

Pump gulped, tightened his grip on the crowbar-stick thing, took a few deep breaths...

And started to slowly climb. Although he was doing a terrible job, since his feet kept slipping, Skid kept cheering him on, telling him he was doing his best.

Every few seconds, Pump stopped to regain his energy, but he still kept climbing. When he almost made it to the top, though, his feet slipped again, and he nearly lost his grip on the crowbar-stick thing. He fell about 2 feet down, but managed to get his grip back on.

Skid eventually had enough strength to pull Pump up the rest of the way, and after about 2 minutes of pulling, Pump finally made it up.

Skid and Pump were overjoyed to see each other alive and well. They shed tears of utter happiness and embraced each other tightly, but their celebration was cut short when Pump looked around.

"Where are we?" he asked as he wiped his tears. "Sorry if it took me so long to notice, I was too worried about dying to even pay attention to where we were."

Skid stared at his surroundings as well. "Looks like we're in some kind of forest," he replied. "But since there's, like, so many forests in the world, I don't know which one we're in specifically. And it's okay, I was also too worried about you dying as well."

The boys remembered the equipment that flew out of the van, and picked it all up. Skid untaped the crowbars and stick, and left the stick behind as he carried the two crowbars and the tape. Pump carried the medkit and wallet.

"Jeez, this is one huge forest," Pump mumbled. "How are we gonna find our way out?"

"Do you have cellular data on your phone?" Skid asked Pump. "You can try using Google Maps if you do."

Pump checked his phone and discovered it was very low on charge, at 3%. "Well, my phone's about to die, so what about you, Skid?"

Skid's phone was at 97% charge, but his phone lacked cellular data.

The two boys stared at each other nervously, and then at their surroundings, and then they started walking.

"This is gonna be quite a spooky journey home," Skid said.