On a dirt trail down a ridge out in the desert were six figures, five of them were chipmunks, the other was a man, all of them with one motive. To get the amount of drugs on a list given to them, in order to please two notorious dealers in the drug war that has plagued the continent.
"Funny thing about some of these drugs," Alvin said, as he was looking over the list, "I can't even pronounce some of the names..."
"There's nothing funny about this situation, Alvin!" Simon snapped.
"Oh, will you guys relax, already?" Alvin asked. "We get the drugs to these guys, and we're all free."
"This is just going to get us in even deeper trouble, Alvin..." Simon said.
"Quit worrying so much, Simon," Alvin said, "we just need to make sure we don't waste anytime."
The police, on the other hand, were already at Miss Miller's residence, where the elderly lady relayed the disappearance of her daughters, and their next door neighbor's son.
"Have the kids ever been in a situation where they've been on their own?" One officer asked.
"Well..." Miss Miller began, "there was this one time where they accepted an offer to race around the world in hot air balloons..."
"You're kidding..." another officer said, not believing the story.
"I'm not, either!" Miss Miller snapped. "As a matter of fact, they ended up discovering, and busting up an international diamond smuggling ring!"
"That's pretty impressive..." the first officer said, "have they done anything else like this before?"
"Gosh, I hate to admit it, but I usually can't ever keep up with all of their antics," Miss Miller admitted, "but the hot air balloon race is one thing I'll never forget!"
"Can you think of any reason why the kids might possibly run away from home?" The second officer asked.
"Not a one." Miss Miller said.
"Well, then, we'll state combing our jurisdiction," the first officer said, "see if we can't find any of these kids... we'll call you if we get any leads."
"Thank you." Miss Miller said.
"Is there anything else we can help you with?" The second officer asked.
"Well..." Miss Miller began, as she stepped into the hallway, and grabbed the box, "I found this in my basement earlier this afternoon..."
The first officer took the box away from Miss Miller, and peered inside. "Holy moly, how much money is in here?"
"Well, I'm not exactly sure," Miss Miller admitted, "but it seems to be just barely fifty thousand dollars."
"You don't know where it came from?" The second officer asked.
"No... but... I have a feeling my girls do..." Miss Miller said.
"You believe they stole it?" The first officer asked.
"Now, I didn't say that." Miss Miller said, in defense of her daughters. "But they have to know something about it, they're the only ones who are ever down in the basement more than I am, and I know I didn't see it when I was down in there last time."
"Well, this is puzzling," the second officer said, "we haven't had any reports of missing money from any of the banks in town, have we?"
"Not that I can remember..." the first officer said, "how many people have tampered with this box?"
"What do you mean?" Miss Miller asked.
"We could lift finger prints off of this, find out who exactly has had their hands on it..." the first officer explained, "but if several people have handled it, it could make it rather difficult... in the meantime, we'll just hold onto this, it might come in handy as evidence..."
"For what?" The second office asked.
"I'm not sure, but whatever the case, we better hold onto it." With that, the police bid Miss Miller farewell, and prepared to leave her house.
"Are you going to find the kids?" She asked.
"Ma'am," the first officer began, "we're going to do more than that."
"How are we going to do more than that?" The second officer asked.
"Huh?" The first officer asked.
"What are we going to do, find them twice?" The second officer asked.
With nothing else to say, the police left the house, leaving Miss Miller frantic, and worried. Miss Miller walked over to Dave's house, and knocked on his door.
"Miss Miller?" Dave asked. "Have you talked to the police?"
"Yes I have," Miss Miller said, "all we can do now is wait, I suppose."
"Where in the world could those kids be?" Dave asked.
"I don't know... I know one place I'd like for them to be though, I'd like to be able to walk down the hallway, open the door, and find the girls all sleeping peacefully in their beds." Miss Miller.
"It'd be nice to be able to see that the boys got in bed on time tonight, as well." Dave agreed, as he and Miss Miller watched the police drive away.
"Where ever they find them," Miss Miller said, "I hope they're not hurt."
Back at the crooks' hang out, a pimped-out, golden cadillac, with humongos wheels drove up to the side door, where the kids had left an hour ago. The driver of the cadillac stepped out, and approached the door, to which he knocked three times, paused, then knocked three more times. After a few seconds, the second of the two crooks opened the door, holding on to a tear streaked Jeanette.
"Well?" The crook asked.
"Well," the driver said, "not exactly what I had in mind, but we can work with her."
"Fine." The crook said.
"You wanted fifty grand for her, right?" The driver asked.
"Exactly." The crook said, as he was handed a plain, brown envelope.
"Pleasure doin' business with you guys again." The driver said.
The exchange was made, the crook took the brown envelope, which contained fifty thousand dollars, while the driver of the cadillac took Jeanette. Jeanette reluctantly got into the passenger seat, while the driver returned to his respective seat, and drove off for parts unknown. The crook stepped back into the building with the envelope, and caught up with his partner.
"Here it is," the second crook said, as he handed his partner the envelope, "our losses, repayed."
"Great." The first crook said, as he took the envelope, and looked inside. "Now it doesn't even matter if those little twerps and that bastard return or not."
"So, what's next on the agenda?" The second crook asked.
"First things first," the first crook began, as he lit up a joint, "we gotta find a us new middle man."
"Yeah, only this time, we do a complete background check on 'im." The second crook said.
"Make sure has a solid rep." The first crook said, as he blew out smoke.
The night grew on, as the six still trekked down the ridge, into the small town down below.
"How far have we gone?" Brittany asked, growing tired, and wanting to take a break.
"By my calculations," Simon began, we've travelled just a little over three miles down this ridge."
"That means we have less than seven more to go." The hostage said, also growing a little weery.
"At this rate, we'll never get down to any pharmacy in time," Simon said, "the sun will rise before we get there, the pharmacy will be open, people will see us, we won't get away with it."
"What we need is to gain a little speed," Alvin said, "something that'll get us there with time to spare... something that'll save alot of walking... something like that..."
Alvin spotted an abandoned four wheeler off to the side in the brushes.
"How convenient..." Brittany said.
Moments later, the hostage was in the seat of the four wheeler, holding onto the handle bars, while the others held on tightly.
"You're right Alvin," Simon said, "this is giving us a little speed!"
"This will give us time to spare!" Brittany said.
"And it sure does save alot of walking..." Eleanor said.
"Well, I sure am glad you guys are having a good time..." Alvin moaned, as he pushed the gasless four wheeler down the ridge, running as he did.
Down the hill they went, much faster than they were originally going, in spite of the fact that Alvin struggled to push them all the way. He was thankful that at least he was pushing down hill, pushing them up hill is going to be much more difficult. Within a matter of minutes, it looked as if light was slowly shining on the road beside them.
"The sun can't be coming up already..." Simon said, looking at his watch.
A blarring horn, and muffled hip hop music suddenly killed the silence, as the golden cadillac raced passed them down the ridge.
"What's his hurry?" Alvin asked, still pushing everyone down hill.
"If he were going slower, maybe we would've had the chance to hitch a ride into town." The hostage said.
The four wheeler began slowing down.
"Mind your pace, Alvin!" Brittany demanded. "Chop-chop!"
"Look, I'm getting tired..." Alvin moaned, "why can't someone else do the pushing for a change?"
"Not a chance!" The others said.
"You're the one who got us into this mess, Alvin," Eleanor reminded him, "you might as well do all you can to help us out."
"Well, can I at least take a five minute break?" Alvin asked.
"Make it two," Simon said, "we have to stick to the time limit."
Alvin pushed the four wheeler a few more feet, before he stopped, falling to the ground, and panting for air. Unfortunately, the four wheeler ended up resting at the top of a steeper part of the ridge. One sudden shift in weight, and the four wheeler would take off again, on its own, down the steep drop off.
"Boy, I can't wait to get this over with, so we can all go home..." Theodore said, as he began stretching.
"You said it." Brittany said, as she leaned forward to see how much further they had to go.
At that moment, the four wheeler slowly inched forward, then suddenly started picking up a bit of speed.
"Take it easy, Alvin," Simon said, "this is a bumpy path."
No answer.
"Alvin?" Simon asked again.
Still, no answer. Simon turned around. "Alvin?"
Simon saw Alvin behind them, on the ground, still exhausted from all the running, and pushing he did.
"We're moving on our own!" Simon said.
"We're out of control!" Brittany shrieked, as she began freaking out.
"Alllllllllllvinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!" Everyone cried, as Alvin shot up.
"Huh?! What?!" Alvin said, as he looked around, seeing he was now all alone. "Hey, where'd everybody go?!"
Alvin heard the faint calling yet again, further down the path.
"Hey, wait for me!" Alvin called out, as he chased the rest, on foot.
Down the ridge they went, picking up more speed as they went, as the ridge became steeper, and steeper.
"Somebody do something!" Brittany shrieked.
"How do you stop this thing?!" The hostage asked, as he pulled back on the handle bars, and stomped on the running boards, looking for a break pedal.
Down they went, still, bouncing along the way, as the path became rockier. At that moment, they saw half the path in front of them was blocked off by a fallen tree trunk, and as fate would have it, they were heading straight for it.
"Turn! Turn!" Simon shrieked.
It was a little too late, the rammed into the tree trunk, which sent the kids flying through the air, and landing on the path in front, as the hostage jumped off the four wheeler, and ran over to them.
"Are you kids alright?!" He asked them.
"I got dirt in my hair!" Brittany shrieked.
"I think we're alright..." Simon groaned.
"Sorry about that..." the hostage said, while the kids picked themselves up, and dusted themselves off.
At that moment, Alvin came running up to the rest of the group.
"What's the big idea?" Alvin asked. "Trying to just dump me in the middle of nowhere?"
"Oh, Alvin..." Simon groaned.
"Hey, check it out," the hostage pointed out the street lights a few yards further down the path, "we're almost there."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Alvin asked.
Onward they continued, on foot, until finally, they made it to the foot of the ridge, and saw a very small, rural town.
"What is this," Brittany asked, "Lower Slovovia?"
"There's the pharmacy, across the street." The hostage pointed off to the side.
"Let's get shoppin'!" Alvin said, as he led the way, across the street.
"Wait a minute, Alvin," Simon began, "suppose there's cameras inside? We could be caught lifting these drugs, and could have charges pressed against us!"
"Well, Simon," Alvin responded, "you're the smart one, I'd figure you'd know a way to disconnect the cameras while we're in there!"
Simon sighed. "Why do I feel like I'm going to hate myself in the morning?"