[HANSON STORIES]

Times Running Out

Chapter 4 - Uh oh.



Dave approached Bob's door and rapped his knuckles against the wood panel and called, "Yo, Sheila said breakfast's ready." He waited a second for a reply. It didn't come.
"Bob? Lets go!" He knocked his fist against the door louder this time, causing Frank to look up the stairway.
"Dave! Don't bust the door down! Just go in and get him!" He yelled, his head disappearing from view.
"Bob! If you don't answer, I swear I'm gonna come in and kick your ass!" Dave gave a final warning, "That's it!"
He grabbed the handle and flung the door open, expecting to see his brother's body lying on his bed. It wasn't. A breeze ruffled his longish hair and he shuddered. Something didn't feel right. What? A breeze? Dave shot his gaze to see Bob's window open. Muddy footprints lay on the floor under the windowsill.
"Oh my God. DAD! Sheila!" Dave screamed at the top of his lungs, tearing out of the room and stumbling down the long winding stairway. He came to a halt at the landing and looked around panting.
"DAD?" He screamed again.
Frank came sprinting out of the family room, his face as pale as the white flooring. He spied the youngest triplet, shaking and close to hyperventilating.
"What? What's wrong son?" He called.
Dave opened his mouth to answer, but only a tiny squeak ensued, his knees buckled, and he finally fell to the floor.
"Oh Jesus! Sheila, Scott! Come 'ere!" He yelled through the household. Very audible footsteps could be heard crashing down the steps as Scott and Clint raced to their father, nearly tripping over him and Dave once they reached the landing. She raced in a moment later.
"Oh my God, what happened?" Sheila cried out. She dropped to her hands and knees and began smacking her step-son's cheeks.
"Dad, move him to the couch. Clint, do ya know where the smelling salt is? 'K', go get it." Scott ordered.
He put his hands under Dave's arms and lifted him into the air while Frank lifted his legs. Clumsily, they maneuvered Dave's inert body to the plush couch. Just then Clint bounced into the room, smelling salts in hand and an evil grin stuck on his face and, and handed them to Scott.
"Here. No! Wait!" Clint tried to snatch the salts back.
Scott gave him a confused look and said, "What was that?"
Clint gave a mock evil chuckle and simply said, "I wanna do it."
Scott shook his head but released his grip from the small item. Clint took a breath and ripped the top of the package off and proceeded to wave the stinky thing under Dave's nose. The teen's eyes fluttered as he lazily smacked at Clint's hands. Clint shook his head grinning and put his hand back under Dave's nose once more. Finally, the unconscious teen's eyes jumped to attention and he grabbed Clint's wrist in a vice like grip.
"Oww, Dave back off!" He whined.
Dave looked confused for a second then dropped his eyes to his hands and he gasped out:
"Sorry!" And the death grip was released. He hadn't even realized he had a hold of his brother's wrist in the first place.
"S'ok." Clint muttered, moving behind Scott.
"What's wrong?" Dave wanted to know, after all his whole family was gathered around him and he was lying on a couch.
"You tell us. You came screaming down the stairs and you conked out right over there." Frank pointed.
Dave crinkled his eyebrows together for a minute then his eyes popped open.
"They got him dad! They got Bob!" He screamed, bounding to his feet and storming up the stairs before his family could get a word in edge wise.
They all sat looking at each other; Scott at Sheila and Frank at Clint. That's when it hit. Where was Bob? They all shot up the stairs like arrows and found Dave lying on Bob's bed crying softly. A breeze brushed their faces and they saw the window open and the muddy footprints beneath it.
"Oh my ...oh my God." Clint cried.
Scott started breathing heavily and looked around feeling faint, his chest heaved as he ran across the hall and threw up the breakfast Sheila had slaved over to make. He felt small hands on his back and had only enough time to see Clint standing behind him, rubbing the small of his back. His stomach heaved a final time and Clint shut his eyes tightly to avoid joining Scott on the rim of the toilet. A loud sob erupted from the bathroom, echoing off the high ceiling of the house and announcing the disappearance of another brother.
Clint looked on with sad eyes, unable to comprehend much beyond the fact that Bob wasn't in the same room again, much less anywhere near, and he stated clearly, "Shit."

********************


"Clarke Isaac Hanson! Zachery Walker Hanson get down here this minute!" Walker yelled up the steps.
Zac sat straight up in Taylor's bed and looked up at Isaac, who occupied the top bunk, and he got the same look as his older brother. What'd we do?
"Come on, lets go." Isaac said noncommittally, motioning downstairs. Zac bit his lip to try and avert the tears that stung at his eyes. It wasn't a dream like he'd hoped. His mother was still sick in the hospital and Taylor was still missing.
"Where'd Star go?" A red faced Walker asked them once they reached the kitchen.
"Huh?" Both young men voiced.
"Where-did-Star-go?" And spaced the words out as if he were talking to two year olds.
"Got me." Zac shrugged and plopped into a chair; Taylor's chair. His eyes teared up.
"Come on boys, she didn't come-." His voice was cut off by the ring of the phone, "Hold that thought. Stay here, I'm not done yet." He raced for the phone in the living room.
Isaac listlessly sank into Zac's chair, not Taylor's, and both waited in silence. The hair on Isaac's neck stood up a moment later and a shiver ran up Zac's spine at the same time.
Walker dragged his feet while walking in the room, his eyes tightly shut, and said, "Boys? They have Bob." He hung his head and swore quite colorfully.
"Wha....Star? She didn't come home last night did she?" Isaac questioned.
"I didn't hear her come in last night either." Walker rubbed his chin thoughtfully then slammed the phone into the floor, shattering the quietness of the room along with the phone.
Zac jumped fearfully; his father was never like this, ever. Isaac had the same thoughts.
"Dad, I'm gonna call The Moffatts and tell them about Star. Then we gotta call the cops again, tell em Star and Bob are gone too." Isaac grabbed his cell phone off the table and began dialing. He finished his phone call up a few minutes later and handed the phone over to his now calmer dad.
"We won't tell em about Bob, Frank and Sheila already reported him missing. Listen boys, be careful. Stay in the house at all times, do not leave. Not for anything. We can't lose you either." Walker's voice cracked as he dismissed his sons and dialed the phone.
Isaac tugged Zac upstairs and they sank into the same bed and cried their heartache out onto Taylor's pillow, the scent bringing a great deal of comfort at the moment. Their world, too, would soon be in shambles if they weren't careful.

********************


"Jamie, hurry yer ass up." Jon whispered tensely.
The twenty year old bounded out of the van, nearly tripping in the process and came to a stop next to the other three men in the out fit.
"Ok, we're gonna get the old one. The little one's always stayed by them 'member? Make em squirm a bit." Will smiled.
"Why don't we just fly em out now? Then come back for the rest?" Jon suggested.
"We're criminals dip shit. We're being looked for. We're lucky we haven't been snatched up yet. We can't take all these risks, we just keep the kids in the back till we got em all." Mac sneered at Jon.
Jamie nodded like a know it all and then said, "Ok, we wait there in those bushes. Once the guards are out on their rounds on the other side of the house, the other circuit, we hope we get one of em out here."
"That's stupid, how do we get em out here?"
"Hope we're lucky, we can't do much else." Mac stated the obvious.
"This is the best you could come up with!?" Jon screeched.
Mac's face glowed red when he said, "We had to figure a way to bust your ass outta jail. You were the idiot who got caught in the first place so don't go rantin and ravin at me."
Jon sank to his butt on the ground in defeat and decided to go along with the plan.
"Now all's we gotta do is wait." Jamie said quietly.

********************


"Iiiiiiiike, I'm booooooooored." Zac complained. Seven hours locked in a tiny room with a goofball brother would do that to anyone.
"Well you think of something then. Everything I say you shoot down." Isaac said, a little offended.
"I know."
"Huh?"
"Lets play hackie." Zac stood up and stretched with a smile.
"Oh my gawd, no Zac." Isaac groaned. Hanson was world famous for not knowing how to play hackie sack.
"Come on poopy pants. It'll make for some good home video footage for a tape or something. Like LFA maybe. Pleeeeeeease?" Zac put his big caramel colored eyes to good use as he pleaded.
"FINE!" Isaac exploded, exasperated.
Zac grinned triumphantly and tossed the little beanbag in the air and kicked it in Isaac's direction. Zac stifled a laugh when it knocked his brother upside the head.
"HaHA!" Isaac said, kicking the hackie in Zac's direction quickly.
This caused Zac to squeal and duck and he turned around in time to see it fly out the window and land on the ground with a soft 'thud'.
"I ain't goin after it." Zac voiced speedily.
"I'm not either!"
"You have to, you kicked it out there in the first place!" Zac pointed out.
"But-."
"No. Go get it!"
"Zac-!"
"Quit it and get the dang thing!"
"But-!"
"NOW!" Zac pointed out side with emphasis.
Isaac hung his head in defeat and shook it as he walked out the room. He peered around the front of the house quickly to make sure nobody was around as he made a mad dash for the back door. He grinned when he landed on the stoop unnoticed.
"Weird.....no security." He suddenly felt uneasy and nearly went back inside but something stopped him. That something was a little brother peeking out the window.
"Uh uh Ikey, get it or I'll tell dad you went outside." Zac taunted.
"But...that's so not cool." He stated as he made his way over to the hackie, still uneasy.
"IKE! RUN!" He heard his second youngest brother scream.
He lifted his head up in time to see the all too familiar faces of Jon and Jamie running at him full speed. Without a second thought he turned and ran for the door when his feet were knocked out from underneath him. He landed with and "Oof!" and stayed down. A big man was sitting on his back as the slightly smaller one injected into his arm the dreaded sedative. His captors stayed where they were to make sure he was feeling the effects. He heard one of them curse and he looked up in time to see an unthinking Zac on his way to tackle and/or cause some seriously painful bodily harm to the men who held him down. He just jumped in the air to connect with Jon, who was on Ike's back, when Mac sailed into the picture, in the air also, and rammed into Zac. The fifteen year old's eyes shot open and his face glazed over in surprise. Will ran out from his hiding spot and brought along some more tranquilizers and put it to good use.
Isaac finally succumbed to the drug and was drug into the surrounding woods, the hackie had resumed it's previous spot under the window. Zac was taken, kicking and attempting to scream, in the woods after his older brother when the tranq finally kicked in and knocked him out.

********************


In the Van

Bob's eyes remained free of any obstruction so he was able to see everything going on. He was courteous enough to shut his eyes when Star was being changed. Then she was changed back into her more covering clothes when Will reminded them of the cold weather they'd be experiencing soon. He'd been confused then as he was now when the door to the van was suddenly opened.
He tried to gasp when he saw Zac and Isaac being tossed into the back along with him and Taylor and Star.
"Oh my god, they're going after all of us!" He watched Mac and Will attend the job that Jamie usually had and grimaced when they flung one of Zac's feet into his groin. Taylor started stirring from his forced slumber. Bob couldn't see him, but he could feel his feet starting to wiggle around and bump into his back occasionally. He wished he could yell at him to stop, but he was gagged so that was out of the question. A muffled gasp and crying could be heard and that announced that Taylor was awake.
"Y'all are a bunch of pansies. Quit crying. You got your brothers now Taylor so zip it." Mac barked.
"Mmmpphhhh!" Distorted sobbing and mutters could be heard coming from the blond pop star when he heard the news.
Jamie clapped his hands together and said, "Five down, three to go!"
This was when Bob started sobbing.
"I thought this was done and over with…I wanna go home!" His mind wailed.


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