The cold night air stung Leo’s face as he, Maya, Ben, and Zap dashed through the empty streets. Streetlights flickered, casting long shadows that made everything seem creepier.
Behind them, the mysterious agents weren’t far behind.
“Faster!” Zap squeaked from Leo’s shoulder. “These guys have way longer legs than me, and I do not want to be a science experiment again!”
“Me neither,” Ben huffed. “And I’m not even a rat!”
Maya glanced back and gasped. “They’re gaining on us!”
The taller agent sprinted effortlessly, while the shorter one aimed a strange, blinking device at them.
Ping! Ping! Ping!
The device beeped rapidly, locking onto Zap’s unique brainwaves. The shorter agent grinned under his dark helmet. “Got you.”
A sudden whoosh of blue light shot past Leo’s ear.
“What was that?!” he yelped.
Zap’s fur bristled. “That was a stun blast! They have futuristic weapons!”
Maya groaned. “Great! Because regular bad guys weren’t scary enough!”
Up ahead, the dark silhouette of the town’s junkyard loomed. Towering heaps of old cars, rusted washing machines, and broken street signs created a maze of hiding spots.
Zap pointed frantically. “In there! We can lose them!”
Leo didn’t hesitate. He veered left, leading the group through a gap in the fence just as another blue blast zipped past his shoulder.
The junkyard smelled of oil, metal, and a hint of something very rotten. Old car parts clattered under their feet as they wove through the scrapyard.
Maya skidded to a stop. “Where do we go now?”
Zap’s eyes darted around. His newly enhanced brain was already calculating their best option.
“There! The bus!” he said, pointing to an old, rusted school bus half-buried under piles of junk. “We can hide inside!”
The kids scrambled up a tilted car hood and climbed into the broken bus through a shattered window.
Leo hit the ground first, coughing from the dust. “Ugh. Smells like gym socks in here.”
Ben flopped beside him. “Better gym socks than an evil lab.”
Maya peered out the window. “Shh! I think they’re here.”
Through the gaps in the junkyard, they spotted the agents stalking through the wreckage.
The taller one tapped his helmet. “They’re close.”
The shorter agent swept his scanner across the junk piles. Ping! Ping! Ping!
Zap clenched his tiny fists. “If I had an invention kit and five minutes, I could make a signal jammer.”
Leo raised an eyebrow. “Five minutes? Dude, I barely know how to fix a toaster.”
Zap smirked. “Yeah, well, I just learned quantum physics in the last hour.”
The scanner beeped louder. The agents were getting closer.
Ben gritted his teeth. “What do we do?”
Zap’s ears perked up. “I’ve got a plan.”
Maya sighed. “This better not involve us pretending to be actual junk.”
Zap grinned. “Nope. It involves tricking them.”
He jumped off Leo’s shoulder and scurried toward the front of the bus. His little paws clanked against the rusted dashboard as he examined the controls.
Ben frowned. “Uh, what’s he—”
Before he could finish, Zap yanked on a few wires and twisted them together.
BZZT!
The bus’s ancient headlights flickered on. The horn blared, echoing through the junkyard like a battle cry.
“NOW RUN!” Zap squeaked, leaping back onto Leo’s shoulder.
The kids bolted out the emergency exit just as the agents spun toward the sound.
“There!” the taller one barked.
They rushed toward the bus—just as Zap pulled one last wire.
With a final BZZZT, the old bus’s rusted emergency brake failed, and the whole thing lurched forward, rolling downhill.
The agents barely had time to react before—
CRASH!
The bus slammed into a heap of metal, sending scraps flying everywhere.
Leo whooped. “Nice one, Zap!”
Zap dusted off his tiny paws. “Yeah, yeah, I’m a genius, I know.”
Maya grabbed Leo’s arm. “Come on! We can slip through that back fence!”
They darted toward a break in the fence and squeezed through just as the agents scrambled back to their feet.
“Find them!” the taller agent growled.
But by the time they reached the fence, the kids were gone—vanishing into the night like ghosts.
To be continued…
