Chapter 1

Eight year old Samantha Witwicky sat staring out the window of the back seat of her parents' car. She was very excited to get to her Nana's house, but still very much confused when they told her that Nana wouldn't be there because she had gone to heaven.

"Mommy, why can't we go see Nana if she's in heaven?" Sam finally spoke up.

"Well sweet heart, heaven is a place where all people go someday, but we can't go there because it is very far away." Her mother Judy Witwicky answered

"Will we still be able to go see Nana soon?"

"Yes, someday. But for now, we're going to Nana's and clean up her house so she can have a clean home when she comes back."

"Okay. Will I still get to play in my room?"

"Sure. Just make sure you stay out of the way and don't get into trouble or anything your Nana wouldn't want you getting into." Her father Ronald Witwicky answered from the driver's seat.

After what seemed like another hour, they finally pulled up to the familiar drive way and Sam raced up stairs to her room. Looking around she saw that everything was still a mess and that it really needed to be cleaned up. She looked over and saw her favorite stuffed dog Fraline on her bed. She grabbed Fraline and hugged her as tight as she could.

"I missed you Fraline. Nana took care of you though right?" Imagining that she heard an answer, Sam went on talking. "Good. Now I need to clean up my room, you just wait here and when I'm done we can play." She said setting Fraline back on the bed and went about getting her room back in order.

She went about picking up all her toys and putting them in the toy box, cleaning up all the crayons she and her Nana had brought out the last time she came to visit and placing them back in their boxes and then picking up the coloring books and putting all the games back together and up on the shelf and then moved to the closet and put her clothes in the drawers and hung up her clothes that she couldn't fit in the drawers. She then moved to her bed and set the blankets straight and finally sat down and hugged Fraline and then went on to talk to the doll as she always had.

Her girl to doll conversation was interrupted when she heard an engine roar outside down stairs. She looked outside and saw the same big black and yellow car she had been seeing around her home for the past few weeks. She was nervous about it and told her parents about it but they had told her before that it was nothing to worry about and to not talk to whoever was inside because she was not to talk to strangers. She hugged Fraline even tighter and could feel herself shaking.

"Fraline, who do you think that is?" she asked the doll.

Imagining an answer she replied, "You're right, if Mommy and Daddy aren't worried, then we shouldn't be either. Why don't we go exploring the house?"

Sam grabbed her kiddie backpack and then went about the house exploring all the rooms she had never been in before. Her Nana had told her before that there were some places in the house that she could go in, but that there were some places that she couldn't because they were not safe. Sam found it hard to believe because every room she went in, there were new 'toys' and things to 'play' with. After going about the entire house for a good thirty minutes or so, Sam was going through the halls again when she saw a ladder coming from the ceiling.

Shoving Fraline into her backpack, she climbed up the steps and found her parents going through some old boxes.

"What are you looking at?" Sam asked sitting next to her mother.

"We're just going through some of Nana's old things. We're just trying to decide what we should sell and what we can keep." Judy explained looking at some old photos.

Sam looked in the box her father was going through and saw the name Archibald Witwicky written on the side. Recognizing the name as her grandfather's she looked up at her father.

"Was this Papa's box, Daddy?"

"No sweetie."

"But it has his name on it." Sam asked confused.

"Your Papa was named after his grandfather, your great-great-grandfather. His name was Archibald too. He was an explorer." Her father explained laying some of the stuff to the side.

"Like me?" Sam said picking up a telescope too big for her to hold up to her eye.

"Sort of." Ron giggled taking the telescope from her and setting down. "Your great-great-grandfather was one of the first men to explore the Arctic Circle." Ron continued to explain showing Sam a picture of her grandfather with all his crew mates and their ship just behind them. "When he came home, he was very sick and ended up spending the rest of his life in the hospital, but he left all his stuff to his family and it has been passed down from his son to your grandfather and now to us. And right now, your mother and I are going through some it to decide what we can keep and what we are going to sell to the museum."

"Can I look too?" Sam asked looking up at her father with her bright blue eyes shining in that adorable way that she knew her father couldn't resist.

"Oh, alright, but be careful, this stuff is very old." Ron said giving in.

Sam went through and found some stuff she thought that she could keep as explorer stuff for her adventures back home. They included a tube that her father called a quadrant, a sextant, a compass, and then a pair of glasses that Ron said was the pair that Archibald had worn on all of his adventures. Sam anxiously put all this in her backpack and asked if she could keep it.

Ron looked at his wife who gave him the 'she'll out grow them eventually' look and he gave her permission to keep them.

"Now sweetheart I want you to go downstairs and play. Your mother and I have some sorting to do up here. We'll be down when it's time to go." Ron said

"But Daddy," Sam tried to protest.

"Your father's right Sam. We'll be down soon. Besides, we'll be back here tomorrow, there's a lot more stuff we need to go through and we'll have to go through the rest tomorrow. So don't worry, you'll find more explorer stuff later." Judy said guiding her daughter to the stairs.

"Okay." Sam said heading back down toward her room.

She set her bag full of explorer stuff on the bed and sat down with Fraline to read one of the books she had loved to read with her Nana. After reading all her books and filling up her coloring books with colors, another few hours had passed and she saw it was getting dark out and she was starting to feel tired. So she laid down on the bed and hugged Fraline close and fell asleep.

A short while later, she felt some one shaking her awake. "Sammy, come on sweetheart, we're leaving now." She could hear her mother whispering through her groggy haze.

"I'm tired Mommy." She groaned.

"I know. Here, I'll carry you." Judy said scooping up the tired little eight year old and carried her and the dog and backpack down stairs to the car.

She strapped Sam in the back seat and got in the car and Ron started the long drive back to their house a few hours away. Sam started to fall asleep again when she felt the car jolt and heard a loud bang come from the back of the car. Her head flew forward and hit the passenger side seat.

"Oww!" She whined rubbing her head. "What happened?"

"Sammy stay down." Judy said facing her daughter with panic in her voice.

"Mommy what's going on?" Sam asked starting to feel scared.

"Just listen to your mother, and hang on." Ron said speeding up the car and driving off the interstate to an open road with little to no traffic.

Sam could hear another car close behind but dare not lift up her head to see what was chasing them. All she could do was keep her head down and softly cry into her knees as her parents kept softly talking and trying to lose their pursuers. After what seemed like forever, Ron pulled off the road and into the woods where the one chasing them couldn't follow. Buying them some time, he stopped the car and told Judy and Sam to get out. Judy got Sam out of the backseat and held her tight.

"Now, Judy I want you to take Sam and I want you to run. You don't stop, you don't hide, you run, do you understand?"

"What about you Daddy?" Sam asked with fear and tears in her eyes.

"I'm going to lead them away so you and Mommy can get away."

"No, Daddy, no,"

"Listen to your father."

"Daddy I want you to come too."

"This isn't up for discussion Samantha. You're my daughter and you are going to go with your mother and you're going to run. I'll come and find you when I can when it's safe."

"Daddy," Sam pleaded as her father sped off and her mother turned and ran deeper into the woods.

Sam buried her face into her mother's shoulder as she and Judy went farther and farther in. But soon they started to hear something coming after them. Judy just kept going until they came to a clearing. Seeing nowhere else to go, she spotted a large hollow log and ran for it. She and Sam crawled inside and hoped that whatever was coming wouldn't see them. Judy kept Sam behind her and looked out of the hollow pushing some overhanging moss out of the way just enough she could see but not be seen. Sam peeked around her mother's shoulder and saw a giant metal monster walking through the clear.

Judy turned to Sam and spoke very quietly so as not to be heard from outside. "Now listen Sammy, no matter what happens, you do not leave this log, do you understand? You have to stay here and do not make any noise, just like hide and seek okay? Can you hide real well for Mommy?"

"Don't go Mommy." Sam began to cry.

"I'll be back baby, I'll come back when it's safe." Judy said hugging her daughter close knowing well that this would be the last time she would ever held her. "Sammy, just remember that no matter what happens, your father and I will always love you." Judy said wiping away one of her own tears.

Sam could feel herself shaking as she watched her mother slowly climb out of the log and quietly make her way across the field like she was trying to get away. She pushed some of the moss out of the way and watched as the monster chased her mother and caught her. Sam gasped putting her small hand over her mouth to keep quiet. She was terrified but remembered her promise to hide until her mother came back, but even as young as she was, she knew her mother wasn't going to come back.

Sam could feel her body shaking as she listened to the monster yell at her mother and her mother screaming in fear. Eventually the screams to ones of pain and Sam could see the monster's grip on her mother tightening, he was crushing her. Sam wanted to so badly run out and help her, but what could she do against a monster the size of a house? Soon, the screaming stopped, and the monster dropped her mother's limp body to the ground. Sam ran from the log toward her mother, no longer concerned about hiding, she just wanted to save her mother, but it was too late. Even she knew that her mother was gone, she just wanted to be with her.

The monster turned to her and started toward her. Sam screamed and ran toward the forest as fast as she could. The monster was about to grab her when from out of nowhere a yellow car, the same one Sam had seen lately, sped out of the trees and knocked the monster to the ground and rushed toward her scooping her in and strapping her in the back seat.

Sam kept on screaming and anxiously trying to get out, but the car wasn't slowing down or letting her go. Sam was terrified and kept crying and screaming for her mother and father to come back, to help her. But somewhere inside she knew they weren't coming. Finally the car started to slow down and drove under a bridge on the freeway. It cut its engine and turned off the lights. Sam tried again to get out but the doors were locked. Suddenly the radio started playing and Sam recognized the song as the one her mother sang to her every night before bed. She started to feel tired and slowly began to fall asleep.