Chapter 20 - Preparations

With fast steps, I came to the baby shelves and opened the zip of the backpack.

There were some papers and plastics in it to make it look bloated, which I immediately took out.

I started to take and shake each toy to see if it would make a noise. I put every toy in the backpack that made an annoying sound.

I intended to pick as many as the backpack could hold, so I avoided big ones.

After adding over 15 small toys, I felt like I couldn't fit any more. Even if I could, it could cause me trouble to open and close the zip or even take out the toys.

So, without wasting more time, I decided to head to the 3rd floor where I could get a good bike to escape this disaster.

I went up the stairs and went up as fast as I could since the stairs could be seen from the first floor. To my luck, none of the elephants were there.

As I arrived 3rd floor, a line of bicycles on the left and treadmills on the right greeted me. I knew they sold bicycles and some sports equipment, but I didn't know they had this many options.

What I needed was a bicycle, and I had a few of them next to me.

I didn't know anything about them, so my idea was to try them and see if they work. Of course, I have ridden one before, but I never purchased one or searched anything about them. Like cars, I think of them as a vehicle to go from point A to point B.

Without wasting any time, I put down the backpack next to the treadmills and took one of the bicycles. It was a big one, definitely not for kids, and looked pretty durable.

I needed something like this.

I wanted to try it, but there was not enough space to do it. So I just lifted it up and let it fall down to see if it was bouncy.

I didn't know what it meant, but I had seen some kids do it, so I tried, and it was bouncy enough.

I decided on this one and went ahead to see what else there is.

There was a bunch of sports equipment, from fishing rods to yoga stuff. Baseball bats, karate gis, and other weird types of equipment that I have never seen or heard of.

None of them clicked an idea for me, so I just went ahead and put the backpack on. Then I took the bicycle and went to the stairs.

I needed to go down to the second floor and escape from there somehow, but with the bicycle, so it wasn't gonna be easy.

I looked down from the stairs to see if there were any elephants. Seeing the scene empty, I took the bicycle and used all my strength to carry it to the second floor.

Luckily, I neither hurt myself nor the bicycle, and without any problem, I arrived on the second floor.

"Now, we need distraction," I said to myself as I put down the bicycle.

With this, I needed at least 15-20 seconds to go down and escape. I didn't know of any back doors here, and I didn't think I had time for it.

I continued to walk between shelves to see if there was anything I could use, and I am glad that I did. I saw a baby elephant plush, which looked realistic to me.

"Can I fool them with this?" I asked myself.

As I took it from the shelf, I remembered that they reacted to noise.

"What if…" I muttered, my brow furrowing as I grabbed my phone.

I went on MyTube and searched for baby elephant voices.

There were a lot of videos, so I lowered the volume to a minimum and played one.

"Raid Dark Warriors is the game you have to pl-"

"These ads will actually kill me one day," I said with an annoyed expression.

I waited for 5 seconds and pressed the skip button in the hope of not seeing the second ad.

MRRAHH!

"This is what I need," I said as I stopped the video.

I put the volume up as much as I can and put it back in my pocket after locking the screen.

I took a look at the elephant plush to see if there was a button or zipper to open it.

Behind, on its back, there was a small zipper that I could use.

As I opened it, I saw a small box, probably for sound. It would be useless since it wasn't for an actual elephant, but for babies. So I took it out carefully, not trying to trigger its sound by pressing on it.

Then I put the plushy on the floor and grabbed the bicycle. Slowly, I brought it next to the stairs.

After making sure it was ready, I went back, grabbed the plushy and my phone.

Came next to the window and unlocked my phone to play the audio.

As I hold the handle of the window, I start praying with closed eyes.

"I hope this works," said the last time, and opened the window fully.

I pressed the play button on my phone, and a baby elephant sound started.

MRRAHH!

I quickly put it deep in the plushy, making sure it wouldn't be damaged, and threw it out of the window as far as I could.

After throwing, I quickly closed the window and tried to hide myself and wait for the elephants to react.

A few seconds later, I looked through the window and saw all the elephants, touching and sniffing the plushy.

"This is my chance," I said as I rushed toward the bike to escape this death trap.