"If you guys think this is a joke, then laugh at this! You are grounded to stay in your room for a year! No leaving the house unless it is mandatory, and I will hand you your food at specific times, understood?!" This stopped the crippled laughter in an instant. John, Alice, and Maria all got back up in a fraction of a second and quit their laughing with a serious look on their faces. "Finally, the hyenas from The Lion King left the house," President Boris states in a nonchalant tone as he casually walks out of the room.
The group gets back to laughing as Alice limps over to the door with a sharp pain in her gut from laughing too much. They all get back on to the floor to keep laughing and slowly recover for barely any time intervals for a breather. They were having the time of their lives, whether there was an inordinate amount of painful cramps or not. "We should...stop laughing...sometime soon..., right guys?" John manages to gasp out between laughs.
"Yeah, but...do we...want to?" Alice wheezes out between undistinguishable coughs and laughs. For some reason, not even Alice could tell which was which. They kept laughing for what felt like an eternity. Finally, once Blyke somehow kicked the door so hard that the lock broke but the door was still attached to the wall.
"It is time for you to suffer for your wrongdoings!" Blyke yells at the now serious Alice, John, and Maria.
The group now stands back up and chuckles a little. "You and what army, little bro?" She scoffed.
As the group fully stands up, they see the uniformed and weaponized group of kids barely older than Blyke. Their weapons are plastic, yet sharp knives. "This army, that's what!"
"Uh oh." The group gulps as they slowly back up in fear. Alice gasped, Maria's mouth was wide open, and John spoke up with a shaky voice. "Back off." He gets into a martial arts stance. Don't mess with me."
His voice turns from shaky to brave and threatening. "I am warning you. Don't do anything." He gives a quick signal to Alice and Maria to jump out of the window. They understand, walk over to it and open it. For some unknown reason, the so-called 'army' apparently chooses to ignore it. Instead, their focus is glued onto John as they slowly but steadily approach him, giving sight to more soldiers than previously thought.
"Do you very scary and very brave soldiers want to know what my mom taught me?" The kids nod curiously, but still having a threatening look on their faces. "She always told me one thing. It was her motto even!" John exclaims as he slowly backs up to the moment. "She always told me to do one thing: keep living in the moment!" As quickly as possible, John, Maria, and Alice jump out of the window and onto the grass.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
When the landed, they were all slightly hurt from the glass and whatnot, but they didn't regret it. Paintballs were racing out of the window and at them; however, only one paintball actually landed. Alice felt it and checked her hair. She then proceeded to mutter under her breath, "Blyke, that took an entire day! I swear I'll get back at you for that."
They ran and ran as fast as they could, giving themselves as much as a headstart as they needed to getaway. Maria was the first person to gasp out a full sentence. "Don't you guys think that...we should take a quick break? Ya know, just to...relax a bit?" Alice and John, knowing that the slightest break would allow the kids to eventually catch up, ignored her and kept running.
"Look...behind you!" Alice screamed. She started looking for hiding spots while keeping her fast pace. Maria, dumbfounded, looked behind her, only to see the kids gaining on them with their electric bikes. The bikes had one person driving it with two sidecars attached. The kids pulled out paintball guns and started their spree of destruction with rapid-fire shots. John started running backward to evade all of the paintballs. Alice and Maria looked behind them and saw John dodging the paint bullets like a boss. Their faces, starstruck with awe and jealousy, reflected their stamina and how little there was left. The group, nonetheless, kept running.
John remembered a closed shop about a block away, so he went faster and lead the group to the abandoned shop. "Guys! Over here!" John bolted into the shop as Maria and Alice followed. He remembered that the shop was closed down for having secret exits, hidden by the products on sale. A murderer had found an unlocked secret entrance and went in. Luckily, no one was hurt, but the shop was closed down due to the very high risk of the same event occurring once more.
John found one behind some clothes and signaled the group to come with. "Alice! Maria! Northeast of the statue!" Alice and Maria pulled out their phones, went to the Compass app, and found John shortly after. "Okay, guys, here's the plan. First, we loot this place for anything we could use to disguise ourselves. Then, we look for the food we can eat. Next, we-"
"Hold up!" Maria exclaimed. "I'm not exactly on board with this plan!"
"Shhhh!" Alice whispered as she had one finger over her mouth vertically. "Be quiet. We could get caught!"
"So? That won't matter when we can just leave!"
"But we're tired!"
"This break is long enough! Let's go!"
"Shhh! You're gonna get us caught!"
"Both of you, shut up!" John quietly ordered as he pulled Alice's and Maria's hair. "We need to agree on a plan and do it!"
"Then let's go!" Maria laughed as she ran out through the secret exit. "C' mon guys! No time to think!" John sighed as Alice stood there shocked. They both got up and yelled, "Wait up!"