21 Day 362 (Pt 6): The Chase

While Blyke was in Alice's room before Alice had woken up, one thing also caught his eye when he had entered: from the window, Blyke saw a rope. For now, he decided to ignore it, but he made a mental note of it in the back of his head. After reading both notes, Blyke then decided to revisit the rope from the window. He walked over to the window and opened it. He pulled on the rope and even jumped onto it to check for structural integrity. The rope was safe to climb up and down, so he left the window open and returned to the dresser.

Blyke lunged for the rope just outside of the window, hoping to make it. Alice, Maria, and John had all screamed like third-graders when he had burst into the room, and they continued to scream until he had gotten through the window and onto the rope. Boris came right after, staring at where Blyke was before he had dropped down to the floor: "Blyke, no!"

Blyke, due to inertia and his speed, had slid down the rope and landed on the ground on his butt. "Ow." He stood up, dusted himself off, and looked up at the window. He saw Boris, Alice, Maria, and John looking down on him. "Blyke," John had yelled. "Are you okay?"

Alice had muttered under her breath, "He better be."

Before Blyke could answer, Boris yelled at him from the second floor as he wagged his fist angrily: "Blyke, that was a very reckless thing to do! You better get yourself over here and apologize for this! There's no excuse for your unacceptable behavior, young man!"

Blyke knew that he couldn't go back without first knowing what the vision was. He opened his backpack and pulled out rollerskating gear and put it on quickly as Alice whispered a plan on how to get Blyke to John, Maria, and her father. John climbed down the rope while Alice, Boris, and Maria went down to the garage. When they got to the garage, Alice grabbed her bike and got onto it; Maria sat down and put on a random pair of roller skates. "So how does this work again?"

Boris opened up the garage and walked over to his motorcycle: "Yeah, the plan is a little half-baked if you ask me."

Alice groaned as she got ready to ride: "The plan is so simple though. Maria, you go with John and chase him down. Dad, you will go to his friend's house because that's the only place he'd go to."

"But, Alice, what about you?" Boris questioned as he put on his helmet. "Where are you going on your bike then?"

"Yeah, he's right, you know. There's no point in being on your bike if you aren't part of the plan."

"And that is where you are wrong. You see, it's about a mile from here to his friend's house, and I know that there is no way he intends on running the entire way. He and his friend are most likely going to meet up somewhere and I know exactly where. Shortstack is not getting out of this one." Alice rode her bike out of the garage and went onto the open road.

Left in awkward silence, Maria rolled out of the garage on Alice's colorful, elegant roller skates and followed John as he ran at full speed towards Blyke. "Watch out over here, girl on wheels going speedy!" she yelled as she caught up to John.

Boris muttered under his breath as he backed out and drove to Blyke's friend's house: "Time to put the pedal to the metal." And he drove off with his helmet and leather jacket and gloves on.

"Blyke!" John yelled. "Get over here! We just want to talk to you!" John knew that he wasn't fast enough to catch Blyke at the speed he was going. He glanced behind him and noticed Maria on roller skates. She was quickly catching up to John and wasn't even at her top speed yet. "Maria, You need to keep following him."

"Duh, obviously," She sarcastically waved her hands. "Why else would I be here?"

"No, I mean stay right behind him. Don't lose sight of him. I'm going to try to cut him off, so I need you to keep him on the run."

"Oh, I see what you mean! Yeah, totally, I can do that." She turned back to see Blyke missing. "What? Where did he go?" She came to a gradual stop and looked around. "I mean, he couldn't have gotten far, but how did he manage to get away?"

"I don't know, but remember, he's trying to get to his friend's house as quickly and safely as possible, so there are only a couple of ways he could've gone. Split up and go that way. I'll go over here and hopefully one of us will find him."

"Got it. But what do we do when we catch up to him?"

"Good question. Take this walkie talkie. Whenever you find him, tell me so I know where to go. I'll do the same."

"Okay. Good luck!" She takes off, going left. As planned, John goes right and wishes her luck too. However, John has a faint idea of why Blyke is skating across town to get to his friend's house.

When John and Maria split up, Maria had gone left to search for Blyke. She stopped in her tracks. Maria couldn't think of a way for Blyke to suddenly speed up enough to get away from them. John didn't slow down at all and she continued to accelerate. So unless Blyke had something on him at the time that had enabled him to boost ahead, Blyke couldn't get away from them without-

Maria gasped from her revelation. She knew how Blyke got away. She looked around frantically, but John was nowhere in sight. Unfortunately, he had kept going at his sprinting pace, leaving Maria behind without her noticing.