Dairyland Amoosement Park, Muskegon, Michigan, USA 2024
The other sister's looks hardened in response to Lynn. They were determined to get their sisters back home along with consoling Lincoln. A strike of lightning came overhead as the soft patter of rain began. Lynn toke centre point.
"Alright team, if we're going to get our sisters back, we need a plan. First things first, a name. Any suggestions?" Lynn asked.
"How about Suicide Pact." Luan sarcastically answered to no one's amusement.
"Operation: Jack and Jill?" Luna recommended.
I slight silence came across the group as they looked at each other for a better name.
"Operation: Dance of the Flies." Lucy recommended to her sister's approval.
"Nice, next we need some info on what happened in there." Lynn instructed as she and the other sisters turned to Lucy.
Lucy remained silent for a short time before answering:
"Apparently, these kids have a king named Eli. His queen just so happens to be Lola and, what I presume is his guard, Lana. The kid's a bit hot-headed and bratty, but the worse part is that he has a gun."
The sisters gasped. They began to look around at each other in fear. Except for Lynn, who kept her stoic look.
"I knew this wouldn't be that simple." Lynn replied.
"Eli keeps his queen and her sister on a tight leash, he even threatened to shoot them if Lincoln and I didn't leave." Lucy continued.
"Anything else?" Lynn asked.
Lucy shook her head in response. The sisters turned their attention to Lynn as the rain started to get heavier.
"The way I see it, we have one choice. We have to quietly get Lana and Lola out of there and leave immediately." Lynn planned.
The other sister rolled their eyes in response.
"We know that dude, what we need is an actual plan for how we do that." Luna responded.
"I don't know, Lincoln was always the planning one of the family, I was always the player." Lynn angrily responded.
The other sisters sighed in response as Luna spoke up.
"Alright, so we need to distract the kids guarding the place, we also need to distract the king kid and get Lana and Lola out of there quietly and quickly." Luna deduced.
"Maybe I could try my old clowning routine to distract the kids." Luan suggested.
"Great, let's get the out of practice, drunkard to entertain the kids." Lynn mocked.
"Actually, that might work." Luna responded with a hint of excitement, "Meanwhile, I can get over to the kid's tent and make some noise to get him out of there."
"And if he sends someone else?" Lynn questioned.
"Lucy mentioned that the only ones with him are Lana and Lola, if one of them come out then it just makes out job easier." Luna responded.
"I could try and sneak inside and get them for you?" Lucy suggested.
"You'll need someone to run them out of there… fast." Lynn also suggested as she pointed to herself.
"Then that's our plan. Let's get our sisters back dudes!" Luna riled up her family.
Meanwhile
The drops of rain became even heavier on the roof of Vanzilla as Lincoln leaned against it. He leaned against it. He kept replaying the memory of what he saw in his head. He violently began rummaging through his jacket.
"Where is it, where is it?" Lincoln muttered to himself.
He eventually found what he was looking for, A pack of cigarettes. He brought out his Holo-droid and flicked on a lighter hidden inside the holographic device. He lit a cigarette and took a drag. He kept his hand close to the cigarette to shield it from the incoming rain. He began to relax and lean further against the van. He turned his head to see his reflection in one of the van's side mirrors. He gained a look of shame as he took another drag from his cigarette.
Luan snuck around the amusement park towards a decayed stage. She looked over at her sister's and nodded. In response, they moved behind one of the rides ready to sneak past. Luan took a hardy breath and a mouthful of alcohol from her flask as she moved onto the stage.
"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls under the ages of twenty. If you could kindly grant me your undivided attention as I wipe those frowns and replace them with joy-filled smiles!" Luan yelled in an upbeat voice, attracting the attention of the kids.
The children began to move towards the stage, some had looks of curiosity while others retained their angry looks from before. As if on cue, the Loud siblings quietly began moving toward the king's tent.
"What are you doing back here, I thought we made it clear that no adults are allowed!" The same tall boy from before shouted from the crowd.
Luan looked nervously at the crowd of kids.
'Don't be nervous Luan, it's only the biggest audience you've ever had.' Luan thought.
"Coming from someone who's younger than me, I would suspect you of being the adult here." Luan declared to the tall boy.
"If I wanted to hear some guy tell me about the rules all day, I would have just gone back to school!" Luan joked with a slight chuckle from the crowd.
"I mean, you must be a music teacher cause looking at how tall you are compared to everyone else, I can see you really hit the high notes." Luan directed at the tall boy to a couple of laughs from the crowd.
The tall boy began to back away in embarrassment.
"Why did the toilet paper roll down the hill? To get to the bottom!" Luan said to a much louder crowd of laughter.
"How do you make a tissue dance? You give it some boogie!" The crowd laughed even more.
Luan couldn't help but get a little teary-eyed at having this many kids laugh at her jokes. It brought a smile to her face.
Seeing all the kids distracted, Lynn, Lucy and Luna made their way over to the tent where Lana and Lola were being held.
"There it is." Lucy told the 2 other siblings.
"Alright, Lynn and Lucy make your way around the side of the tent, meanwhile I'll get some trash can and other shit. Once you're ready, give me the signal." Luna instructed her younger sisters.
Lynn and Lucy nodded in agreement and made their way over to the tent. Once on the other side of the entrance, Lynn peeked around the corner to check on Luna's progress whilst Lucy peeked her head into the tent. She couldn't see much past the 2 thrones, but she could hear a rather loud conversation.
"Come on babe, don't be like that." She heard Eli plea.
"You didn't even let me speak to my brother, my long-lost brother, then you put a gun to my sister's head!" Lola's voice angrily boomed.
"You know the rules of this place, no adults, this is our paradise, not theirs." Eli explained.
"And what about when we get to that age huh? What happens when we are thrown out and left to the wind?" Lola questioned Eli.
"For you and me my queen, there is no growing old." Eli said seductively.
"Maybe in your own delusional world." Lola blurted out.
This was followed by a swift motion followed by a loud noise of impact.
"I know I must never strike you in anger, but I'll make this an exception." Eli spoke calmly as slight sounds of sobbing were heard from Lola's direction.
'Where's Lana?' Lucy thought until she heard the tent open.
"Here's your drinks your majesties." Lana said as she walked closer to the throne.
Her footsteps ceased for a moment.
"What happened to your face Lola?" Lana asked, a suspenseful silence covered the room as Lana put the pieces together. "You son of a bitch!"
Lana's footsteps picked up before halting at the sound of a gun cocking back.
"Don't be too hasty… she simply fell off her chair." Eli said calmly.
Lucy's listening session was interrupted, however, when she was pulled out from under the tent by Lynn.
"What are you doing, we're supposed to wait until everything's ready and I give the signal." Lynn angrily whispered.
Lucy chose to remain silent and wait.
Lincoln was close to finishing his cigarette as his Holo-droid began ringing. He took it out of his pocket and saw that the caller id was Lori. In response, he quickly threw his cigarette on the ground and recomposed himself before answering.
"Hey Lori, how goes it?" Lincoln asked as an annoyed looking Lori came on screen.
"I should be asking you that question, I just saw on the news about a pair of people breaking into a home and one of them was reported to have a red, robotic arm." Lori accused Lincoln.
"Hey, lots of people have prosthetic limbs nowadays, you can't seriously point to me as the culprit." Lincoln defended himself.
"So it was just a coincidence then. I guess it was also a coincidence that Leni told me you and Lynn went out around the same time as when that happened?" Lori continued accusing him.
"Fine, you caught me. What do you wanna' do, arrest me?" Lincoln confessed.
"No, I don't want to see my little brother behind bars after many years of him being gone." Lori told him, "I just want to know, what were you doing?"
Lincoln stood silent for a moment, pondering whether to tell her the truth or not.
"Lucy managed to get herself in trouble with some cultists, Lynn and I sorted it out, it was no big deal." Lincoln explained, leaving out some other details.
"Is she ok? What about you and Lynn?" Lori asked with worry in her voice.
"Everyone made it out ok, don't worry." Lincoln responded.
"Good… Listen, I don't' know what Lynn or any of the other sisters have been telling you but… I care for all of them. I want them to live their dreams as I want to but, they're all stuck in the past. At least you're trying to move and help where you can but them…" Lori told Lincoln.
"I've looked after you and the other sisters for years. I just want to see them happy." Lori confessed.
Lincoln's look turned from cocky to sad. A wave of guilt rushed over him as he realised what he had left his sisters with. He ran away from the very mess he created. His look hardened.
"Me too sis… me too."
Luan finished her makeshift drum set. She turned over to Lynn who gave the signal to start playing. Much like the good old days, Luna tried to make as much noise as possible while still sounding somewhat musical.
Lucy, hearing Luna's distraction, crawled back under the tent and awaited Eli's response.
"What is that awful sound?" she heard Eli say with annoyance.
"I'll go check." Lana responded to the boy king.
Outside, Luna was still playing away as Lana approached her.
"Luna…" Lana asked to no response, "LUNA!"
Luna came to and looked at her sister.
"Lana! Listen, you need to get out of here quickly while we've got everyone distracted." Luna instructed Lana.
"I should say the same for you, if Eli catches you out here you're dead." Lana told her.
"I ain't afraid of no kid." Luna responded.
"Well, this is one you should be afraid of… I've met a lot of assholes in my life, but Eli is the one asshole who scares me." Lana tried to reason, "Please, I don't want to lose another family member."
Luna's drum beat slowed down as she looked to the sad tomboy in front of her. She had never seen Lana this low before.
"Alright, we'll-" Luna said before being interrupted.
"I believe this belongs to you!" Eli shouted as he came out of the tent with his pistol pointed at Lucy's head.
Luna and Lana gasped as Eli, Lucy and Lola approached them.
"Eli, let's not do anything too hasty." Lana tried to reason with him.
"Enough is enough, I gave you and your siblings a chance to leave, I showed them mercy. Yet they continue to annoy me." Eli told her.
"This isn't their fault little dude, it's mine. I thought that after years of neglect and sitting in a room, getting high, that I could just swoop in and get them back. If anyone should be shot… it's me." Luna pleaded.
"WAIT!" Luan's voice boomed as she ran over to her sisters, "If anyone deserves to be shot, it's me. I thought that drowning yourself in alcohol was a good alternative for not knowing what the hell to do with your life. Instead, I just ignored my sisters and roped them into this."
Luan ran over and joined by Luna's side. Just then, another Loud sibling joins in.
"If you wanna shot them, then you gotta shoot through me first." Lynn said as she took centre point of the group.
"Fucking swell, how about I just throw the other three in here and we can have a family suicide!" Eli complained as he directed Lucy, Lana and Lola into the same group.
"Please Eli, I promise they'll leave this time, you don't have to kill anyone!" Lola pleaded with the boy she called king.
"Can't talk your way out of this one babe, I give the orders here, I am the one with the gun, I am the king of all these losers, THEY LISTEN TO ME!" Eli ranted.
The kids from Luan's crowd approached. Some shocked, others scared. Most of them staying away.
"Everyone, huddle in." Lynn told her sisters who did as instructed, "If we die, we die as a family."
Some of the sisters began crying, others held a stoic face. Ready to meet their end.
"How noble, but it won't save you from-"
"HEY!"
A voice interrupted Eli's speech. The sisters broke away from their huddle to see who it was.
"LINCOLN!"
The sisters shouted in unison.
The aforementioned brother immerged from the crowd. Standing tall in front of the boy king.
"Did you come here to join your sisters. Or do you still think you can save them?" Eli mocked Lincoln.
Lincoln gained a cocky look as he winked at his sisters. He turned back to Eli and began approaching him. Eli pointed his gun at him.
"I don't even have to save them really." Lincoln smirked.
Eli and the sisters gave a look of confusion as Lincoln got closer to the boy. Being fed up with the Louds, Eli pulled the trigger.
*click*
Eli, confused, looked at his gun and back at Lincoln.
"Safety's on dipshit." Lincoln commented.
Just as Eli was about to adjust his gun, Lincoln rushed over to him and stole the gun out of his hands. At the same time, Lincoln pushed the boy to the ground.
"You see kid," Lincoln knelt down, "You should never play with weapons, especially if you don't know how to use them."
Lincoln but the pistol in his back pocket and stood up to see his family rush over and hug him. After a while of calm silence, Eli stood up and turned to the crowd of kids.
"Don't just stand around, get them!" Eli ordered to no avail.
The kids simply gave him an angry look. Lana and Lola came around behind him and tapped on his shoulder. He turned around and found 2 fists rush into his face, knocking him out cold.
"Looks like we laid out your boyfriend sis." Lana pointed out.
"Eh, he had it coming." Lola responded.
Luna and Luan rushed over and embraced the twins in a hug.
"I'm so sorry!" The 2 older siblings kept repeating to the twins.
Lincoln and the other 2 sisters couldn't help but chuckle. Lucy turned around to the crowd of kids still staring at them before asking:
"What about them?"
An hour later, in the parking lot.
Police were seen escorting kids out of the amusement park. Most of them came along quietly while others were more of a hassle. Lincoln walked up to one of the police officers overseeing the operation.
"What's going to happen with them?" Lincoln asked the officer.
"We'll see about getting them back to their homes or into new ones if they don't have any." The police officer answer.
Lincoln pulled the pistol that Eli had and handed it over to the officer.
"I found this on a kid named Eli." Lincoln told him.
"Eli huh, well we'll certainly see what he knows about this. Until then, we might have to call you folks in for questioning soon. Try to get as much information as possible." The officer instructed.
Lincoln nodded as he turned around to face his family.
"Mind if we do it some other day, I think we'd like to just go home for now." Lincoln told the officer who nodded in approval.
Lincoln moved away from the officer and towards his family.
"Come on guys, let's head home." Lincoln told them as they hopped into Vanzilla and took off back to royal woods.
And that's chapter 5. Sorry for not uploading last week but I was rather busy with work. Anyway, next week (hopefully) we'll be seeing the final Loud sibling... or will we? Just teasing. Be sure to join me next time, until then,
Peace!