chap9pg2

We arrived at Greg's house in a couple of minutes. Fabian jumped over the side fence and had a look around in the backyard, while Rachel and I tried to find an open window or something. Finally, we found an open window. It was the one Taylor and I had jumped out of. Unfortunately, it was about 2 and a half metres above ground, out of our reach. "My turn," Rachel said. "See if you can find Taylor," I said, about to help her up. Suddenly, we heard the door slam, and we ducked. Then we heard Greg and Taylor in the room, yelling about me and him. Then Greg went out and slammed the door again. I looked at Rachel. "At least we know where he is," I said. We stood up, and I helped her up to the window. "Just get him out of there," I told her. Soon, she was in. I crawled under the house to wait for them. Then someone bumped me. I panicked at first, but settled down when I relaized it was only Fabian. "Find anything?" I asked. "His backyard's full of cages and ropes and chains and bombs and stuff," he replied. "Bombs?" I asked. "Big ones," he replied. "I've seen one he's made before, nearly killed us," I explained. "Where's Rachel?" he asked. "Getting Taylor," I replied. "Just then, we heard them jump out of the window, and pulled them under the house. "I think Greg heard us," Taylor said. Someone stepped out the front door. "He did," Fabian said.

I saw the person was Greg. He stood still, probably looking around, then walked off the porch and stood still again. Then he turned around and walked back inside. "Uh, Taylor? You can let go of my ankle now," Fabian said a while later. "I'm not touching your ankle," Taylor said. "Rachel?" Fabian asked, doubtfully. "Not me," she said. Then he was gone. "Where'd he go?" Rachel asked. Taylor started crawling towards the backyard. Five minutes later, he hadn't returned. "Listen," I said to Rachel, "if I'm not back in five minutes, go to the police station. What am I talking about? Taylor and I are the only ones who know where it is." I hit myself on the forehead. But then I also remembered that Taylor had said not to go to the police. "I'll go," Rachel said, and before I could stop her, she was gone. Thinking frantically, I began to crawl towards the front of the house. When I stood up, I bumped right into Greg!

He was quick, and grabbed me by the arms. He took me around to the backyard, where I saw Taylor in a cage, and Rachel and Fabian hanging upside down by their ankles to a metal bar that ran all the way across the yard. "Trust you to have a yard like this," I said to Greg. He ignored me, and put me in a cage next to Taylor's. "I'll deal with you later," he said to me and Taylor, then took a quick look at Rachel and Fabian, and went inside the house. We had to get out of this quick, before Rachel and Fabian lost consciousness. Rachel looked like she was going to already. Taylor and I started fiddling about with the cages to see if we could get out. Then I realized something. The door wasmade of chicken wire! I said so. Taylor looked up. "It's chicken wire," I told him. "So?" he asked. I bent the wire back. "You were right," I said to Fabian. "What about?" he asked. "Greg's an idiot," I replied with a giggle. I crawled out of the cage, and helped Taylor out of his. Then we went to get Fabian and Rachel. We told them to hang on to the bar as we untied their ankles. Rachel hel don tight, but Fabian slipped! He landed on his back, and stayed there for a couple of seconds. "Ow," he said. Taylor helped him up. "Now what?" I asked. We looked up at the house, and decided to definately not go in there. We made our way around the house, and began to move down the street, careful not to let Greg see us. Somehow, we found our way over to Mike's house. We crouched down behind some bushes in one of his neighbour's yards.

"Anyone got a plan?" I asked. No one said a word. A while later, we saw Mike and some men leave Mike's house, and drive off in Mike's car. No sign of Zac or Amy. "Why don't we just leave them?" Fabian asked. I hit him over the head. Not as hard as I would have liked to, but I thought that we mihgt need him for what we were about to do. If we ever thought of anything. "What was that for?" he asked. "You know," I replied. Taylor told us to be quiet, and stop fooling around. Just then, the neighbour's lights came on. Quickly, we jumped over the small fence into Mike's yard. We didn't think we'd have to hide from anyone, as Mike had just gone out. But the security light came on, and we heard someone opening the front door. We'd forgotten about his wife! Well, it was either the neighbour, or Mike's wife, so we ran back into the neighbour's yard, trying to keep out of sight. It didn't exactly work. The porch light came on. Frantically, we ran into the next neighbour's yard, then when their security light came on, we ran across the road.

Suddenly, Rachel was on the ground. Taylor, Fabian and I looked up, alert for further trouble. To our surprise, we saw Jacky standing there. Rachel stood up. "Hi," Jacky said, looking more surprised to see us than we were to see her. Then we heard shouting from behind us, and ran down the street again. Suddenly, Jacky turned into someone's yard. We didn't know where we were going, but we followed her. We went through an open gate, into a backyard that looked like a jungle. Jacky led us through it, obviously knowing the way. We came out on Haffner Court. She just lived around the corner.

"No! Don't!" Taylor grabbed her arm, as she was about to go to her house. "What?" she asked. Rachel, Fabian and I caught up. "If you tell your parent's you're OK, they'll notify the police that you're safe," he explained. "So?" Jacky asked. "Greg told me not to tell you, but the police are on his side," Taylor explained. The rest of us were silent as the news settled in. Jacky didn't look surprised at all. "Well, I don't know you very well, but I doubt that the police are on Greg's side. I believe that some of these guys think exactly the same as me. Let's have a show of hands to see who does think the same as me," Jacky said. (<--- she told me to put that part! Author.) Everyone was shocked at her response, but Rachel and Fabian raised their hands. "The majority has spoken," Jacky said.

"Well I think you're wrong," I said, before they could make their way down the street. "I don't know about you, but I have known Taylor, for about six months, (he was standing behind me quietly listening), and I know he wouldn't lie about something as bad as this," I said. "But come on, really, how cant he whole police force be on Greg's side?" Jacky asked. "It's possible," Taylor spoke up, "last time Greg got paid a million dollars to kill the six of us." I could see that Rachel and Fabian were thinking about this. Everyone was quiet for a while. "You can go and get caught again if you want to," I said. Rachel, Fabian and Jacky looked at each other, thinking this through. Then Taylor and I started walking in the opposite direction, leaving the three of them behind.