Operation M.I.A: Missing in Action (IN NEED OF REVISING)

Chapter XVII

"Hey, guys, maybe we should get a picture of these for later?" I call out. Nobody replies. It's then that I realize I'm now in the cabin by myself.

"They must've gotten so caught up they forgot about me," I mutter to myself as I walk toward the door. The door is locked, however. I'm confused by this, since the door was unlocked on the outside when we entered.

I try all of the windows, and all of them are locked as well. There's nothing for me to use to smash open a window. I walk back to the door and pound on it a few times, shouting, "Hello? Anybody? I'm kinda locked in here!"

Then I look down and notice a small dog door near the bottom of the door. At first, I'm unsure if this is a good idea. I don't exactly have the best luck with fitting through small spaces like this.

Plus, if the dog decides it wants to go outside for some reason, that's bad news for me.

Nevertheless, I take a deep breath, mutter, "Screw it," to myself, and decide to go for it. I lean down and lie on my stomach, then curve my body sideways to give myself a better angle to go through, since the door is wider vertically. I stick my arms through, followed by my head. My chest is barely able to fit through, which I already take as a bad sign.

So it isn't really a surprise to me when I get to my butt and immediately lose my ability to move forward. I barely try to scoot backward, and that doesn't work either.

"I should've seen this one coming," I sigh to myself. Even though I might wake up the dog, I do the only thing left for me to do at this point.

Call for help.

SKYLAR

Music: Whale on a Sub from Pac-Man World 2

We're right about to send Kylie home when we hear a voice cry out for help. Sam's the first one to determine who it is. "Oh crap, Elle... we left her behind..." He then turns to Mia, Mackenzie, Sean, and Shanna, and tells them, "You guys, stay here with Kylie. Everyone else, come with me."

Heath, Luke, Avery, and I run back to the cabin with Sam, calling out Elle's name. By the time we return, it doesn't take long for us to spot the front half of Elle sticking out of a dog door.

"You have got to be kidding me," Heath grumbles, facepalming. Elle doesn't say anything.

Sam grumbles something under his breath and runs to Elle's assistance. He grabs one of her arms and begins pulling. Heath grabs the other arm, and I wrap my arms around Heath's waist. Avery wraps her arms around Sam's waist. Luke grabs ahold of Elle's midsection. We all start taking steps backward, making a grand total of zero progress.

"Ow! Stop! Stop! Let go, guys! Let go!" Elle hisses. We all do as we're told.

"God damn it, Elle!" Avery sighs.

"We're going to have to be clever about this... come on guys, think..." Sam urges, pounding his forehead as if trying to come to a decision.

The urgency shoots to an all time high when we hear the sound of a dog growling, then barking. Elle takes a fearful look backward (even though she can't see anything on the other side), then turns back to us and whispers, "Um, you might wanna be quick about this one!"

"Let me handle this," Luke says, pulling out his Rock of Doom and using it to create his sword arm. He walks closer to the door and swings it right above Elle. The sword knocks off the side of the door without breaking it, flies right back at him, and knocks him in the head, similar to when he tried throwing the rock back at Avery's second dance competition.

"That worked," Avery snorts sarcastically.

"Well, what would you do, if you're so smart?" Luke growls, standing up.

A lightbulb goes off in my head. I turn to Heath and tell him, "Give me a rock."

Heath does so, and I throw the rock right at the glass window, shattering it. I carefully step through, avoiding all of the glass now lying on the floor. The large bulldog quickly takes notice of me, barking at me and lunging for me. I regrab the rock and throw it at the dog's head, which knocks it unconscious.

"Somebody, open the door," I instruct. As the door slides open, I grab ahold of it and tell everyone to stand back.

"Skylar, what are you doing?" Elle asks, nervous.

"Don't worry, Elle. This is going to hurt me a lot more than it's going to hurt you," I say.

"What!?"

Music: Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Bowser Victory Theme from Super Smash Bros. Brawl

With that, I pull the door back and slam it shut as hard as I can. The force from the door shutting, combined with the momentum I gave it, is enough to send Elle flying back through the dog door, essentially freeing her. Somehow.

That surprisingly wasn't that difficult.

LUKE

Music: Apollon from Gradius IV

It comes as a bit of a shock to the rest of us when Skylar's idea manages to send Elle flying back inside the house. After taking a couple of seconds to process the information, I reopen the door and Sam, Heath, Avery, and I run back inside.

Elle's lying on her side, either in pain or in a slight shock. It's hard to tell which. Skylar is standing next to her triumphantly.

"How'd you know that would work!?" Avery exclaims, surprised.

"I didn't. I just decided to give it a whirl and it was actually effective," Skylar smirks. "And you guys say I'm useless to the team."

"None of us ever said that," I reply. Skylar doesn't acknowledge this statement.

Elle now stands up, brushing herself off and stretching her limbs out. "Well, Skylar, I guess I have to thank you for that one," she says. Skylar does a sassy hair flip in reply.

"I do wonder why you didn't just open the door when we were already outside," Heath ponders.

"Look, let's just stop talking about it and head back," Elle sighs, shaking her head in frustration. "Also, if Mia asks, this didn't happen."

The rest of us nod our agreement on that one. Mia has a bit of beef with Elle for some reason, and if she finds out about this event, she'll never let Elle hear the end of it.

We spend the walk back to the others chatting about various nonsense. Apparently, Mia, Mackenzie, Sean, and Shanna have been doing the same thing this entire time, because when we meet back up with them, they're laughing and hollering like a playful little bunch of children.

"What's got you guys cracking up so hard?" I ask.

"Long story," Mia replies, pausing to recollect herself.

Shanna turns to face us and asks us, "What happened back at the cabin?"

"Longer story," Elle answers. "Did you guys send Kylie home?"

"We sure did," Mackenzie responds.

"Okay, then let's get the hell out of here," Avery suggests.

don't judge me pls