chap5

After school, Fabian and I went out the front gate to meet with the men. We found the van and went over to it. Just before the men shoved us in the back, I heard Jacky and Rachel running towards us. Quickly, the men shoved us in, just as they reached the van. When they saw four big men in the back with me and Fabian, Rachel nearly screamed, and Jacky was too scared to move. Besides, they could see their guns! Quickly, some men grabbed them, and threw them in the back with us. "Where is he?" one of the men growled at me and Fabian, ignoring Jacky and Rachel's scared looks. "He got out early," Fabian said quickly. "We didn't have time to get him," I added. Just then, we saw Brenden walking past. We didn't say anything though. The men seemed to believe us. Some other men were busy tying up and gagging Jacky and Rachel. Then they shoved them to the back of the van. Soon, Brenden was out of sight. Fabian and I could see that he was trying to ignore the van. When the van started moving, Fabian and I were shoved to the back with Jacky and Rachel. We looked at them, but didn't dare to untie them.

We arrived at the house again soon after. When we were taken into the house, Fabian and I were locked into the first room, and Rachel and Jacky were taken somewhere else. In the room, were Zac and Taylor. "Where is he?" Zac asked. "We tricked them into thinking he got out early," Fabian replied. "Is he alright?" Taylor asked. "So far," I replied. "Where's Amy?" Fabian asked. "Somewhere," Zac replied, Taylor shrugged. Just then, the door unlocked, and some men came in and grabbed Fabian. Then we were locked in again. "I guess we're the ones in trouble again," I said, remembering that Zac, Taylor and I were the ones that gave Greg the most trouble. Zac sat down against the back wall, I stood up leaning against the wall next to him, and Taylor sat down next to the door, waiting for them to come back. It took about twenty minutes for some men to come. They unlocked the door, came in, grabbed us, and took us into the loungeroom. There were only three chairs there now, and we were put in them. Then the men walked off. "Now what?" Taylor grumbled. In about five minutes, Mike came out of a room. "With Greg's help, we've found out where Brenden lives, and I've got some men on their way over to get him and his brother," he informed us, "meanwhile, here's someone you might remember..."

"They should remember me," came a familiar voice, as a familiar person walked into the room. "Hello again," he said. It was Greg. We were too scared to move. All we could do was look at him. He walked over to Taylor. "In trouble again?" he asked, with his hand on Taylor's shoulder. I thought he was going to go for the back of his neck, but he didn't. Then Greg went over to Mike and nodded. "They're the trouble makers," he whispered, but we just managed to hear. "So where's your friends?" Greg asked, coming back toward us. We looked at Mike. Greg turned to him. "Where's the others?" he asked. Mike clicked his fingers, and four waiting men went down the hallway. "Coming up," he said. We kept an eye on the doorway the men had gone through. Meanwhile, Greg walked over to Taylor and had a talk to him about 'behaving', or he'd kill him himself, and gladly do it.

Suddenly, the front door burst open. Greg looked up to see four men walk in. "Where are they?" Mike growled, walking over to them. "They weren't there," a man replied. "Who?" Greg asked. Taylor, Zac and I knew who. "The two brothers," Mike replied. I noticed Zac was fiddling with the ropes on his wrists again. Then the five men that had gone down the hallway came back, with Amy and Fabian. Greg's eyes fell on Fabian. "You're new to this, aren't you?" he asked, walking towards him, "oh well, lose a few, gain a few." "Greg?" Amy sounded like she had a lump in her throat. "That's my name, don't wear it out," Greg replied. Fabian's eyes widened, (wider than they already were). "And what would your name be?" Greg asked, turning back to Fabian. "Fabian," Mike said. Fabian looked over at him. Mike smiled. "You wouldn't happen to know where Brenden is, would you?" Greg asked. "He wouldn't of had time to find out," Mike replied for him. Greg motioned for him to take him away. He was locked in a closet that was hidden in the wall of the room we were in. "Ah, Amy. One of the first ones I met," he smiled to her. Then the men put her in the closet as well. Then Zac, Taylor and I were untied and taken to the closet. Greg grabbed Taylor's shoulder. "We'll have a little, 'talk' later," he said, then shoved Taylor in the closet. Then the men locked the door. "Sounds like you're in more trouble than us," I said to him. "Yeah," he replied, "Greg's going for me." Zac smiled, "At least you know he won't throw you out the window. He'd know you'd get away from a one-story house!" Taylor, Amy and I smiled. We hadn't told Fabian that Greg had thrown Taylor out of a second-story window twice before, in an effort to kill him. When Zac saw the confused look on his face, he told him. Amy was listening through the door.

A while later, she stepped back. "They 'aint talking about much, but they said something about a maze," she said "A maze?" Taylor asked, thoroughly confused. The rest of us were too, including Amy. She shrugged. Zac looked around. There wasn't much to see though; a light bulb on the roof, and dust from the bricks that made the walls. It was about twenty minutes until we heard the door unlock. Some men came in one at a time to get us. We were taken out the front of the house. There was a truck in the driveway. It had a tarp over the back, which looked like it covered a big cage. We soon found out that it did, because we were shoved into it. We sat in a corner and waited. It wasn't really dark, the sun lit up the tarp, causing a blue light inside. We heard the men yelling outside. "Are you getting in or what?" we heard Mike yell. "I'll ride in the back," Greg called to him, and came to the door of the cage. A man unlocked it, and Greg climbed in. Then it was locked after him, and covered with the tarp. Greg began to walk over to us. "Good luck," I whispered to Taylor, then Fabian, Amy, Zac and I moved away. We knew Greg wanted to have a 'talk' with him. Greg sat down next to him. Zac, Amy, Fabian and I couldn't hear what they were saying, not that we wanted to. Taylor wasn't looking at Greg, and was fiddling around with something. Taylor looked over at us every now and then, but mostly just looked to the sides of the cage.

"And why should I help you?!" Taylor suddenly shouted. "Because I can easily make life very hard on your brother," Greg replied. "Too late," Taylor murmured. A couple of hours later, we arrived somewhere. WHen the men unlocked the cage, Greg was the first out. We followed him. We were in a sort of paddock. There was a hedge that went straight across one side of it, with an opening in the middle. Mike appeared from around the front of the truck. "We're going to play a little game," greg said, rubbing his hands together. "I don't like the sound of that," I said. I could see the others agreed. "If you complete the maze, we'll get Isaac out," Greg began. That sounded OK. "If you don't, we can say goodbye to someone in this group," he explained. We looked at each other. That didn't. "And, probably like any other maze, there are booby-traps," Mike dawned on us. Then we were taken to the start of the maze, and locked in.