"Hey bro." Daniel pats Parker on the back. "Sophie." He gives said girl a high five as the three of them make their way into the amusement park.
It's almost unrecognisable; the rides look shiny and new, the slides no longer like it would collapse from a slight gust of wind, and the place looks alive once again. He's heard his mom talk about how much fun the park was when he was younger, but looking at the derelict, almost creepy-looking, building then, made him give her questioning looks.
Now though, he can imagine it. The life and excitement the park had before he was born. And now, he can't wait to maybe share some of the memories his mom had here. Maybe he'd feel closer to her as he did.
"Hey, man." A pat on his back brings him out of his thoughts and he turns to the younger Eagle.
"Hey, kid." He gives him a bro hug before looking around, noting that one of them was missing. "Where's Hayley?"
At that, the younger boy's mood sours. "She was sent to a mental relaxation facility. Mom and dad thought it would be a good idea for her to get away from everything for a while after she almost attacked a guy thinking he was Eric."
"Eric?" He asks, confused, but Alex only nods. "I think I'm going to call Hayley."
Daniel pulls out his Louie and scrolls through his contacts to find hers, but before he can press call, he hears a scream.
"Max." Jackie's exasperated voice sounds from somewhere behind him. "It's just a clown. What are you so afraid of?"
"Clowns are terrifying, Jackie." Max tells her, and Emma just nods her head. "You don't know how they look like behind their masks, and you don't know where they have been." He shivers. "They could be mass murderers for all we know."
Jackie only rolls her eyes, taking a cotton candy from one of the clowns and beginning to munch on it.
"Ok, kids. Today, you're going to learn to be brave." Max and Emma nod unsurely, turning around to see what kind of rides Jackie might make them go on just to "eliminate" their fears...
"Boo!" Jackie places a hand on each of their shoulders, causing them to jump, and everyone else to laugh.
"Hey, guys." Brooke calls out, getting everyone's attention. "I want to send a picture to Hayley. Everyone gather around."
"Say Greenhouse." She tells them once everyone is ready.
"Greenhouse!"
Her Louie beeps with a message and she opens it up to a picture of her friends with their smiling faces. She wishes she could join them, but there's no way out of here until her times up, unless...
She turns towards the window in the bathroom. Though it has no grills, it's small but she's pretty sure she could fit. Hopefully, there's no guard on the other side.
Climbing on top of the toilet, she tries her luck.
"Come and try your luck!" A clown calls from a booth. "Toss all three rings onto the cones and win a prize!"
Sophie and Parker walk arm in arm around the amusement park, looking at the various attractions and trying to decide on one to ride.
"Hey, kids." The clown tries again. "Come try your luck."
Sophie turns to the booth, a stuffed animal catching her eye. "Parker, let's go try out that booth. I want to get the stuffed elephant."
Parker, willing to do anything to please his girl, follows her. "Three rings please." He asks the man, before Sophie nudges his side.
"Six rings please." Sophie sends him a smile. "I'm going to win it for myself."
Taking the rings, they each take turns to toss them, Parker missing every one while Sophie managing to catch the sides.
Her grin is wide as she clutches the stuffed elephant close to her chest. "Told you I'd win it for myself." She laughs, before she sees Daniel approaching.
"Dude, how could you let a girl beat you like that?" He gets three rings and shoots, each one hitting the centre cone. Getting a stuffed fox, he tucks it under his arm with a reminder to give it to Hayley the next time he sees her.
So, with the fox in hand, he leaves the couple with shocked looks on their faces.
Walking around, he spots a slide a little way's ahead. It's high, possibly the highest slide he's ever been on, but he's curious. And so, he climbs.
"Are you sure about this, Jackie?" Max asks as the three of them make their way into a dark room. "This looks pretty scary."
"I already told you, Maximilian Miller, today is the day the two of you conquer your fears." Jackie shakes her head. "Now get in." She ushers the two of them in, handing them their 3D glasses, and brings down her own restraints before the ride begins.
"Leo, come on." Brooke nudges Leo, and with the help of Alex, the two of them pull him away from the railing. "Everyone's going on the bumper cars. It's going to be fun."
"Hayley would have loved this." Leo can only say.
At that, Alex's mood sours once again. "Yeah, she loves the bumper cars." A small smile graces his lips as a memory comes to him. "I remember when we were younger, we were at this fair and there were bumper cars, so we both went to ride it."
"Then one of the other riders bumped into my car so hard, that Hayley made it her personal mission to keep bumping into his. He couldn't even go two minutes without her bumping into his car, that by the end of the ride, he got so frustrated that he rushed off."
Brooke and Leo just laugh. "Sounds just like Woods." He smiles.
"Come on, then." Brooke urges each of them towards a car. "I'm sure Hayley wouldn't want both of you to sulk and miss out on her favourite ride then."
"Yeah." Alex nods, and the three of them join the other Eagles and Ravens in bumping into each other's cars until they're dizzy...
"There's a bomb!"
"Hayley?"
The ride quickly comes to an end, and their faces are splattered with foam from the simulator.
"Well, it wasn't that scary, I guess." Max says as he takes off the glasses, turning towards Jackie.
"See, I told you there's nothing to worry about." She smiles and tries to take off her restraints... except it's stuck.
"Hey, guys." She tries once more. "I'm stuck. They won't come off."
"What?" Both Max and Emma try to get it off of her, pulling as much as they could, but it wouldn't budge.
"I'll go see if I can call for help." Emma tells them as she leaves the room, only to come back a minute later. "All the clowns are gone!"
"Good riddance." Max mutters before being slapped by Emma. "Ow!"
"They're the only ones who can help us, Max." Emma chastises him.
"Oh."
"Hey Max, do you have your tool kit with you?" Jackie turns to the boy in question. "Maybe you could loosen the bar."
"Good idea." He turns to the back of the seat, face paling at sight in front of him. "Uh guys, there's a bomb here."
"Not again." Jackie groans.
"Max, do you still remember that bomb defusing class we had right after the Tech Conference?" Emma asks, trying to recall as much information as she could.
"Yeah, I think so." Max nods, and begins to work on the bomb. All Jackie could do is sit tight and pray the bomb doesn't explode on all of them. Dying beside your friends might be a good way to die, but she's not quite ready to die just yet.
Finally, getting to the park, she goes to the exit where the message said the doors would be open for them. All she saw however, was a locked gate and three masked men running away. She turns to them, wanting to ask about the park but they shove her away.
Dusting herself off, she nears the gate, clearly seeing the "CLOSED" sign... and a bomb.
Shaking the gate, she realises it's firmly locked, a chain link loosely securing the two gates together placed right above the built-in lock. She looks around, taking note that there's no other way in but the front gate, which is also locked.
Trying her luck, she runs to the other side anyway. It's still locked, but at least there's the turnstile she could use as a boost to scale the gate. Climbing over, she jumps off once she's at the top.
Feeling a searing pain on her arm, she turns it over, finding a long red gash beginning to form. She grits her teeth, forcing herself to forget the pain for a moment as she promises to deal with it later. Her friends are her priority. She needs to get them out of here first.
She runs around the park, following the sound of their laughter to the bumper cars.
"There's a bomb." She shouts as soon as she's in hearing range.
Immediately, everyone stops.
"Hayley?" Alex jumps out of his car first, racing towards his sister. "What are you doing here? Do mom and dad know you're here?"
Ignoring her brother, she continues to warn them. "There's a bomb. I saw one outside the gate, and there were these people running off-"
"Woods, you're being paranoid." Leo tries to get her to look at him so he can calm her down. "We all came in through that gate and there was no bomb."
"Cruz, you have to believe me." She says breathlessly, panic seizing her with each second they refuse to listen to her. They had to believe her. They needed to leave before it's too late. She shows them her arm. "See, I got cut because I needed to climb over the front gate when I couldn't go through the back."
"Woods, let's go get the cut checked out, then I'll take you home-"
"Hayley's telling the truth." Jackie shouts as the three of them run up to everyone. "There was also a bomb on the simulator. Max managed to defuse it in time, but there could be others."
"Hey! There's one here." Everyone turns towards Parker, said boy pointing at a bomb in a covered bumper car.
"Where's Daniel?" Hayley asks, looking over everyone there and trying to make sure everyone's accounted for. When no one answers her, she takes out her Louie.
"Daniel, where are you?"
Hearing his reply, she runs in his direction, ignoring everyone else's screams to come back.
Daniel stands at the top of the slide, looking down at everyone below him. It's such a pretty view from up here and he's sure Hayley would love it if she were here-
His Louie starts to ring, and he immediately picks it up.
"Daniel, where are you?" He hears Hayley's panicked voice over the line and he can't help but feel the worry seizing his heart.
"Hayley?" He asks, confused for a second. "I'm at the park with everyone else, what's wrong?"
"Where in the park?" She grumbles out, and he unquestioningly tells her, seeing her running form below him soon after.
"Hayley, what's wrong?" He can see her climbing up the stairs towards him now. She's running faster than he's ever seen her, and he's barely able to make out the small rivulets of red trickling down her skin.
"Someone's mined the park." She tells him once she reaches him. "They planted bombs everywhere: the front gate, the bumper cars, the simulator ride..."
Her face pales. "There's one on this slide too." She points to it.
"Hayley, if there was a bomb, why did you run up here?" He asks sternly. It's one thing to know something is dangerous, but it's another thing to practically run into danger.
"Because I didn't know if you'd believe me." She says sadly. "None of them did until Jackie told them."
Daniel lifts her head up to face him. "I will always believe in you." He tells her firmly. "Now let's get down before the bomb-"
The structure rocks as the bomb on the slide goes off, detaching one of the tall platform's support beams.
"Hayley, you ok?" Daniel asks just before seeing the crowd below them.
"I'm fine." He helps her up, and the two of them look at their friends below, trying to figure out a way to get down.
"Try the stairs!" Alex yells and they nod, quickly running down just as another slide explodes while they're halfway there.
"They won't make it in time." Leo tells them, the bombs already beginning to go off all around the park. "Parker, Seth, come with me."
The three of them race off, returning with a big canopy. They spread it out, everyone taking a side.
"Hayley, Daniel, you have to jump." Leo tells them.
"No, no way." Daniel shakes his head. "We'll just try the stairs again-"
Another explosion rattles the weakening frame.
"Now, Daniel." Leo all but shouts out.
"Go, I'll jump right after you." Hayley pushes him forward.
He looks at her unsurely. "You better." He promises her. "I'll be waiting for you."
She nods, letting go of his hand just before he jumps. Releasing a sigh of relief when he makes it, she looks down again.
"Your turn, Woods." Leo reminds her. "It's ok, we got you."
"I'll catch you if you fall, Hayley." Hayley looks to the Eagle, sparing him one last glance before letting go of the railing, and allowing herself to freefall.