Alex, Adventurer at age 8

by Rocknkitten

This may say it has only two chapters, but the chapters are within the story. See chapt two for rest of it. It's about a boy who goes on a mission to save his parents. It is by far the coolest adventure!

2. PART TWO the end of the world is here

PART TWO.

"What?" She asked, frowning. "She, she, she," I couldn't finish.
And before I could finish, she began crying. I cried. I was scared and
I had been holding it in this whole time. And to think that this was
really happening made me cry even more. But then, I stopped. I took a
deep breath. "She's gone!" I yelled again, crying.
"And so am I," I added. "We were trying to find Aaron, because
someone took him. He found a jewel, and I guess the person who took
him was after the diamond, and all of the other treasures that he
possesses." I couldn't continue, because Meg's mom was heading into
the other room to call the police.
She came to the door and asked me to come in. "Where do you
think she is, Alex?" She asked me. "Well, on the tracker I found on my
watch, it says she's moving. She's somewhere around 1 to 4000 miles
away, I'm not sure, but maybe South of this state. She is being held
hostage until they tell where the treasure is," I said. "I remember
hearing a knock, and then the door opened and Aaron was completely
gone," "Anything else?" Megan's mom asked me, hoping for more info.
"Yes. The Golden treasure thing that Aaron had has a tracking system,
and that's how the man found him and took him. He tracked him down."
And I was finished. I had one more piece of info, but I didn't want to
tell her. I wasn't sure it was even true. I sat in a nice big armchair
and waited. She had headed into the other room to call some savy
people persons. I waited, wiping my eyes, which had given my a
headache because of the crying. I sat and walked in circles. She came
back into the room and I felt weird because I had nothing to do about
this. I couldn't just say, "Yah. I know. She's long gone." So I said,
"Sorry. I tried," And gave her a hug. "They're going to look for
Megan," She said through tears. I frowned. "Come here, I'll take you
to school. You should have stayed here. I was home by 9:30 last night
wondering what happened to you guys." "Okay," I said "but I didn't..."
"I know..." She said. She took a deep breath and smiled. "I know,
honey," She sniffled. Then, she went blank, staring at nothing.
"They've got to find her," She sighed. Then, she turned and headed to
the garage. "Come on, Alexander. Let's get you down to school," She
said, closing the door as she tried to yell something else. The door
closed and she was muffled in sound. I smiled a smile and then sucked
on my teeth because the braces hurt my teeth. I started to the garage,
remembering that I'm the "cool spy" 8 year old.
"Hillary. OH NO! I forgot about her!" I yelled in the car, the
1987 rusty van car that my aunt drove. "Who?" My aunt yelled in
confusion, adjusting the car mirrors. "Some punk in my class," I
mumbled. She was about to say something back, but we pulled up to the
school that second. "Here we are!" She yelled. "Yes," I said,
grimacing. "I know."
I ran down the hallway and jumped over a chair and stubbed my
toe and fell on my face, scuffing my hands. "OW!" I yelled, curling up
in pain. Hillary came walking up to me. "It's baby Alex crying. Look
at you!" she yelled, laughing. Then, she lifted her foot and stomped
on my stomach! I couldn't breath! Oh no! I was dying! I felt the pain
on the inside and couldn't breath even if I tried. "What? Going
swimming? Drowning? Oh no. Poor Alex is DYING!" She screeched. I
couldn't believe it, but She kicked me in the face!. I held my mouth
and screamed in pain as she began to lift her leg again, but I kicked
her other leg and she fell onto her back and hit her head on the
floor. I continued to moan and curl up against the wall. Hillary stood
up, about to cry, and tried to throw a punch, but she hit me with her
fist and I grabbed it. And with it, I twisted her arm and she started
crying. Then, she kicked me in the kneecap. "Ow!" I screamed, falling
to the ground. "That hurt a lot!" I screamed. "What's your problem to
hurt me like that? You hardly even know me!" "You twisted my arm!" She
cried. "We're even!" I screamed. A teacher finally came stomping down
the hallway. He grabbed us by our arms. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" He
yelled. Then, he stared at my face. "You're bleeding," He said,
looking worried. "I am?" I panicked. "It's okay! You're fine, go to
the nurse and get an ice pack," He said, trying to comfort me. Then,
he looked at Hillary and asked, "What is it with you two? Fighting? We
don't allow fighting in this school," Was all I heard him say, because
I turned a corner in the hall. I was walking my way down that very
hall that I heard a man shouting and a gun shot outside. My heart was
beating so fast! I fell to the ground in shock as I heard classes of
kids screaming in fright as they realized what had happened. The
school was in panic. I stood up and ran to the office, but the nurse
wasn't there! I rushed to the bathroom and washed my face off and
stuck toilet paper in my nose to stop it from bleeding too much. When
I looked up at myself in the mirror, I heard our principal over the
announcement speaker say, "Attention all students! Please remain calm,
it seems an insane asylum patient is loose. We are safe inside the
school, but recess will be held in students' classrooms. Thank you." I
looked at myself in the mirror and laughed, knowing that the principal
had just warned us of something terrifying and made it seem as if it
was just a happy matter, like if a butterfly got loose or something.
But no. A crazy person. A killer. I ran into the hallway and peered
out the window...Nothing. 2 police cars. No conflict. Where was he? It
hit me. In the school? IN THE SCHOOL.
I ran to class and sat at my desk. "You're 12 minutes late!
Start your morning work!" Shouted my teacher to me. "Sorry," I moaned,
looking at my HARD work I had to do. Addition and Subtraction double
digit. 4450, 2590, 3743, 88108. 108!?! ONE HUNDRED EIGHT? That's
not double digit, its googolplex digit! Too hard!

THE ESCAPED CONVICT

15 minutes later, another announcement from the speaker, "Please,"
principal said in a whisper. "seek shelter. Conflict has found himself
inside the school. Remain calm and seek shelter IMMEDIATELY!" I felt
my heart speed up and I began to shiver in fear. Some girls were
crying together, but we all hid in the security closet that is
secretly hidden behind a wall in the back room. It is small, and it is
padded, so it will muffle the sound inside. We all squished in there
and some kids were crying. I wasn't. I was shivering and pressing my
back against the padded wall. We shut the light off and sat there for
40 minutes, which is pretty long for a criminal to look around our
tiny school. Like any other criminal, he'd probably give up if he
thought nobody was there. "I gotta pee!" Yelled a boy nearest to the
door. 'Course I couldn't see him in the darkness.
"Well, um..." My teacher began, but stopped, because he couldn't
think of anything to say. He said in a question, "You could use that
bathroom across from here?" which didn't make sense because that isn't
a yes or no question the way he said it. "Be careful," My teacher
said, opening the door for the boy. As the boy stepped out into the
light, I saw that it was Billy, the kid who drank A LOT of water. It
was normal for him to have to go that bad. Billy said, "I will be
careful."
The door slowly shut, and my teacher took a breath in and out.
It was minutes later that Hillary said, "Guess what?" and turned
to me. I was urging to hear this secret of hers. "What?" I asked,
leaning towards her in excitement. "Chicken butt!" She yelled in my
ear, a totally in-appropriate thing to do at that moment. I rolled my
eyes as Hillary laughed at me. I mean LAUGH when I say that. She was
laughing so hard, the crazy dude could have just found us like that! I
wanted to punch her in the nose, but a part of me held me down. "You
will find a companion in this child," My other part told me. "The girl
who punched me in the face agajillian times? Nu-uh!" I told myself. I
guess I out-smarted him because he didn't say anything back to me from
then on.
Billy came back, swallowing the last bit of water he had drank.
He closed the door and sat down, wiping his mouth.
About 10 minutes later, our teacher opened up the padded door
and then shut it behind him. Then, he remembered that we were in the
security closet and opened up the door again. But, he stuck his head
in and said, "I'm going to go check everything, okay?" instead of
letting us out. "STAY HERE AT ALL TIMES, NO MATTER WHAT!" he added in
a fierce tone, and then he shut the door, leaving us alone. "Butt-
head!" Marcus Millegar giggled, punching Gilroy Dawson in the
shoulder. Gil just giggled, and pushed Marcus into the wall, making a
loud bumping sound. "Guys! Be quiet!" I whisper-yelled. "Yah, guys!"
Bobby S. yelled in agreement. "Shush!" I whispered, after Gil pushed
Marcus's head into the wall again. "Shush, crush, mush, lush, gush,
fush, rush, push, wush, nush, bush, tush!" Hillary said in an annoying
tune. "Hillary!" I yelled, hoping the lips of this girl would close.
Unfortunately, they didn't. "Pillary, Killary, Millary, Sillary,
Gillary, Shmillary! I can rhyme, you know," She admired herself.
"Uh...Yeah! Ha...Uh...You're good at it too!" I said, lying. We all
broke out into a talking fit. "If the madman still is here, I'd be
amazed if he didn't kill us all," I moaned, not talking to anyone,
really.
"Hey," said Hillary, "you're gay!"
She was talking to me...Of course. I ignored her. "YOU!" She
yelled, punching me in the side and giggling.
"What?" I yelled in frustration.
She thought for a moment, smiled, and said, "Hi."
Hi. She hurt me so she could say hi? I once again ignored her.
She sat against the wall and said, "I'm cool," and then, she giggled
her high pitched giggle that sounded like it was exactly the same as
her last giggle. It was. She repeated it exactly the same way every
time, so it sounded like it was on a tape recorder, playing over and
over every time she thought something was funny.
Gil never laughed. He was always serious. He is American, and he
has brown hair. He looks very average, like an everyday "BOY". He is
pretty tall, and I'm guessing 60 something pounds or higher. He has
nice white teeth, a mature, everyday boy face, Green eyes, and an
opened mouth. He came to school in 1st grade and was in my class, and
was sort of my friend. He was nice, too. One day, I had no lunch and
he so generously gave me something from his lunch. Then, over summer
vacation, he had become a sports fiend. All he wanted to do was talk
about football. I wanted to talk about funny things and about TV shows
I liked, and stuff like that. Everything we talked about, he always
turned it into a conversation about football. "I don't really like
football that much," I'd say, and he'd make fun of me. Anyway, I enjoy
jumping on the trampoline or playing fun things over playing a sport,
because I am not good at sports, and sports don't interest me, but at
this moment in the closet, Gil said, "Whoever likes football is cool!"
and I heard everyone scream with enjoyment. "SHUT UP!" I yelled. Then,
I whispered, "If you are too loud, the lunatic will be able to find
us! So shhh!" I had shut them up. For now. I was just waiting anytime
now for the maniac to poke his head in the closet and see us. I could
imaging if we were all a Jewish family hiding in the wall from nazis,
and they all start screaming, so we would become dead men. The nazis
would find us. That's why they would never stand a chance back then.
The teacher never did come back. We had sat there for 40 minutes
waiting, but he never came back. NEVER.
"Should we open the door and see where he went?" Gil suggested.
"Uh...Yah. That seems okay. I mean, what would a maniac do in a
small school? He would have left already," I said, opening the door
and leading everyone out. It was 1:27...1:28, and it was thundering
outside. "Go figure. A maniac and a thunderstorm together? What next,
a walking, talking skeleton in the broom closet?" Hillary said
sarcastically. Her friends giggled. We all walked out slowly and sort
of crouching down, just in case. I was leading the way. I was scared.
The school's power was out, and I laughed, "And the power's out.
Perfect."
It was scary because I kept hearing running, or noises from the
other room. I thought I saw a shadow, but no. Nobody was at the school
upstairs, and nor the 1st floor, so we checked the basement. "I'm
scared," Said someone behind me. The basement was pitch black and
cold. There were classes down here, like Music, Art, Library,
Computers, and some regular classes. Now, we couldn't see anything. I
remembered I had my watch on my wrist, and the watch could light up. I
turned on the light and shined it in front of me. I gained bravery and
yelled, "Hello? Anyone?" and my echoes were followed by the noise of
footsteps in the background. "Who are you? Where are you?" I yelled,
followed by whoever it was's cluttering footsteps. I back up into
Bobby S., and he pushed me forward. "We know you're in here!" Hillary
yelled.
Everyone started talking and complaining. That's when I heard a
groan. It sounded like a man groaning, and it sounded close, in the
library. I heard the groan again, this time it was louder! My back was
full of goose-bumps, and my body was shivering. I pushed open the
library door and heard the moan again. "Who's there?" Gilroy asked,
stepping in front of me. I shined my flashlight into the room and
looked around. I saw nothing.
I heard a terrifying sound. The girls were crying and screaming,
"Look over there!" they pointed over in the back of the Library to the
corner, and in horror, stared over at a man curled up in the corner
crying and moaning. I only saw it as a shadowy figure, until lightning
struck outside and I saw his face. We all practically fell over when
we saw him laying there, all sprawled out and twisted up. The sight
was scary and terrible, being that it was indeed the maniac. "Mr.
Maniac sir, don't kill me. My name is Toby and I come in peace," Said
Toby, a small kid with black hair. The mental patient looked up and
sneered at him, then rested his head in his hands. He looked up at us
again and I could only see his glowing eyeballs as the lightning hit
the sky. I fell back in shock, heading towards the door so we could
run away, but the lunatic said, "Wait," in a raspy, chilling voice. "I
want to see your face." He was talking to me. I shot my head in his
direction and stared at the creepy glowing eyeballs. "Um...Okay," I
said, sounding very scared. I slowly walked over to him step by step.
"Closer," He said. I kept on walking. "Closer!" He said, this time he
sort of yelled it. I kept my distance from him, afraid he may harm me.
"Dammit! Closer! Get the hell over here!" He yelled, sounding very
ignorant. I walked up to beside his feet, and he laughed a horrible
laugh. I saw his face. The face that will haunt me forever. The beaten
up, bloody, horrifying face of Alexander Corell. I shot back in fear
and in anger. "Aghh!" I choked out, stumbling over a chair and hitting
my head on the floor. My eyes grew wide at this terrifying face that
was staring madly at me. "Get over here, Alex. I have your mommy. And
your daddy. And your cousins. Now where's the jewel, boy?" He shouted,
in a deep voice. He looked dead just lying there limply and twisted in
the corner, and I didn't want him to get onto his feet.
"I don't have it," I tried to sound calm. "Don't play games with
me, Alex! I know Aaron gave it to you! HAND IT OVER, CHILD!" he
yelled, rattling the floor. I stepped up to him, staring him in the
blood-shot eyes. "I...," I began to sarcastically slow down my sentence,
"...Don't.....Have....It!" I finished, crossing my arms with pride in my
sarcasm. But, it was a mistake to do that, because I saw that madman
get to his feet and start walking towards me. "I don't have it now,
don't touch me!" I yelled, walking backwards away from him and towards
my classmates. "Give!" Alexander Corell yelled, jumping at me and
pinning me to the ground. I let out a huge gasp as he pushed his elbow
into my stomach. I couldn't breath! "NOW!" he grunted, pushing into my
stomach again. I knew I'd have to lie to him, because the only other
choice besides that would be to have him kill me right then and there.
"It's at my house in the cabinet above the dishwasher," I choked out.
It worked. He released his arm and stood over me. "You should have
thought twice about that," he laughed, running out the basement door
and up a flight of stairs outside. All of my classmates came over to
me and surrounded me as I went unconscious.
When I woke up, police cars and ambulances were outside and it
was dark outside. My vision was blurry, and it took me a while to
realize that I was still in the basement, and Policemen and doctors
were hovering over me, looking down at me. I stood up and started
breathing. "What happened?" I yelled. "Calm down! You were knocked
unconscious and you weren't breathing," Said the doctor. I sat down on
the floor and felt my stomach. It was throbbing with pain, and when I
touched it, I could feel a bruise. "So...What happened?" I said, not
remembering. "Well," said a doctor, "It seems that the escaped convict
was in the basement and you...You..." she searched her clipboard, "You
were beat in the stomach by his elbow, and you lost air...So you fell
unconscious." She paused for a second, looked up at a policeman and
then down at me again and said, "Do you remember what this person
looked like, or where he escaped to?"
"Yes I do. His name is Alexander Corell. He escaped through that
door," I pointed to the basement door, "and he was headed for my
house."
"Do you know...ANYTHING...about this man?" she asked, picking up her
clipboard and pencil. "Yes. He is a crazy person, he kidnapped my
cousins, he is after some Jewel to the Lost City which I think they
must have had," I said, pausing. Then I thought, 'Did Aaron hide the
Jewel anywhere? If so, he probably won't find it' and I smiled. "But
he's not going to find it," I added, looking at the policeman.

THE RUNAWAY ALEX

After they let me go, I ran to my house, where I found out that
he had looked in the cabinet above the dishwasher but hadn't found
anything. He had just broken some orange juice glass. I rushed into
the Living room and turned on the TV. I had watched 3 episodes of All
That in the All That marathon on Nickelodeon. I had liked to see
something funny after what had happened that day. Then, I turned it
off because it was some stupid boring adult show on, and I ran to the
window to look for...Just to check to see if any...You know, bad guys were
there. There weren't any, so I ran outside and to Megan's house, where
I waited for her mom to come back from the police station. She had
gone there twice, seeing if they could search for Megan and Aaron. I
wanted to find them. It wasn't my job, but I just wanted to do
something extraordinary one time. I remembered my watch again, the one
with the built in TV and camera so me and Megan could communicate. I
pushed the ON button, and the watch light up for a split second. I
pushed it again. "Hello?" I said into it. Static sounds from the other
end. "Hello," I heard from the other end.
"This is Alex," I said. It was Meg on the other line. She
laughed. "Hi!" She said. I heard her scream. "Where are you?" I asked.
"I don't know! He has us in a cell in the basement," She
whispered, sounding sad. I wondered what it was like. "What has he
done to you guys?" I asked. "Nothing too serious yet. He is trying
everything to have us tell him where the jewel thingy is. Did you know
anything about this?" She asked me. "Yes. I told him it was at my
house. Do you know where it really is?" I said.
"Yah hold on a sec'.....Aaron! Where did you put the jewel
thing?.......Okay......Um, Alex, HE has it," Megan said.
I felt horrible. Now what? Aaron has it with him! "Um, okay...Do
you think that you could possibly tell me where you are? That way I
could come to you guys there. Just don't let any of the people have
the jewel. HIDE it!" Megan interrupted me, "We're in a cage hanging
over the dining room table way below us. There are other rows of
cages, except they have skeletons inside them. We have nowhere to hide
it. They let us out once and a while, just so we could have to help
them dig for the lock that opens to the other world (or so they say).
That's why we can't give them the key. That key is very important to
them. If we just show them it, they would know we've been holding out
on them, and kill us!"
"What's the place you're in look like?" I asked. Megan said, "It
looks like a big moving base. It's very high-tech, and very hard to
understand. Um...We're about 30 or 40 feet above the table, and there is
a lever that they pull that makes us go down when they want us to
work. Right now, we're stopped because they think they have found the
lock, and the navigator doesn't even detect it, so I'm guessing it's
nowhere around here. I'll use MY navigator to see where we are, if
it's working now...It is! And we're in...Texas. No wonder it feels so
dry!" I heard beeping. Megan cut in, "Um, the base just started moving
again. THE NAVIGATOR HAS PICKED UP A SIGNAL OF THE LOCK! Someone's
coming! Talk to you later B...." The sound cut off. Angry, I shut my
watch off and sat down on a couch, waiting for Megan's mom to get
home. I thought I could never see them again.
I agreed to myself that I wouldn't tell Megan's mom. I just
couldn't stand up to say that to her.
It was way later that I heard the door open and shut. "Alex? You
here?" Megan's mom shouted. "Yes," I yelled back. She came into the
room holding some bags of groceries and set them on the table
uneasily. I came and leaned against the table.
She still looked teary eyed. "You're parents are coming home one
of these days," She said, putting away the fruits. "Yah," I said,
hoping it was soon enough.
It was later that I decided to start thinking harder. I had to
think SO hard, that I could try and figure out how to get to Megan. I
couldn't just walk up to my aunt and say, "Drive me to Texas," And
have her say, "Sure golly gee I will!" and hop into the van.
At dinner, which was at 9:03, because it was late, I went
straight to bed, and I had to sleep in Megan's room on a blow up
mattress. I fell asleep at 10:00, and woke up at 6:15. I didn't have a
very good sleep. I kept hearing some odd noises from outside. They
kept me awake most of the night, around twelve, and I fell asleep
finally after the noise shut off, which was at 2:00. I woke up looking
rather droopy and clumsy, and I slapped myself until I completely woke
up, then dunked my head in the sink. Then, stared up into the light,
which worked a lot.
At school, like any other day, we continued our dream houses,
and mine looked awful. I'm usually an okay artist, but when it comes
to houses, I am horrible. Everyone else's house looked pretty good,
but mine had eraser marks and smudged pencil, and scribbles that had
been barely erased. Mine had a really cool kitchen, that had buttons
that made electric arms come out and do the dishes for you. And then,
a dummy with robotic arms would come out and pour me a glass of soda
and actually PUT away the bottle at the end! And plus, the table came
with windshield wipers so you don't have to clean the table. And to
move around the house, you don't have to walk around, just ride in a
small golf cart and activate everything from there. I called this
house the blob house because that's what one would become after having
no exercise whatsoever. I also didn't color it in. At the end, we had
to present our houses to the class, and I told them about the kitchen
and Gil said it was sort of like the kitchen that Peewee had in that
Peewee movie. I said that that was what gave me the idea.
In science, we were learning about electricity. We had to make a
small light-bulb light up, and whenever I lifted the two wires up and
put them to my braces, some force of electricity would pull towards my
braces and shock my mouth. I lit the light-bulb, and that gave me an
idea to try to start my watch this way. I pulled out my watch and
pried it open so I could reach the inside. I touched the wire from the
active battery and to the watch, somewhere inside, and a small glow of
red light appeared and disappeared. The watch's battery was given a
jolt, and absorbed the energy from the battery we were experimenting
with. Then, I closed up the watch and put it back on my wrist. I
turned it on, and a sign ran across the screen saying, "Other end is
not currently on."
That meant that Megan didn't have the watch turned on. I pushed
the signal button, which is supposed to signal her to turn it on.
Nothing.
After school, I invited Steven to come over and play. We
discussed how to not tell a soul that we may have been the cause of
Julie's death. He promised, and we also decided to not tell ANYONE
that we were there to witness, but instead decided to tell Julie's
great aunt that we had heard that Julie was missing. That way, we
could get the "news" out before she finds out for herself!
We'd have to be brave and trustworthy.
We rode our scooters down to her great aunt's house and dropped
the scooters on the lawn. We ran up the stairs and onto the porch,
knocking on the door. It opened!
An old, short woman stood in the doorway, looking sort of
confused.
"You go to Julie's school?" she asked, scratching her white
hair.
"Yah," I said, "I'm Alex. I'm one of her fr..." I began to say friends,
but stopped, thinking that she might become suspicious. Instead, I
finished with, "classmates."
The old woman nodded, still looking worried. "Have you seen her
'round the school, have you now?" she said, sounding very dry. I
wanted Steven to talk now.
Steven said, "No." and then paused.
"Well then, when last did ya' last see her , now?" the old woman
spoke, looking at Steven.
"A few days ago, maybe," He said, shrugging his shoulders. I could see
inside the woman's house. It was dry and musty, and very old
fashioned, with old 40's and 30's furniture.
"Well, then she must be missin' there huh?" the woman laughed,
turning around to go back inside.
"Wait," I shouted. She turned back around, and stood in the doorway
again.
"I think she's been kidnapped," Steven said loudly. I looked at him
with a stern face.
"Go head, lay it on the poor old woman!" I whispered, clenching my
teeth. I turned to the old woman and she looked like she had seen
someone get run over by a steamroller run by a madman who had plotted
revenge on the man he had flattened. She opened her eyes wide, which
looked disturbingly creepy, and studied our faces.
"Do you find this funny, gentlemen? Do you think it'll amuse me? Have
you no manners?" she said loudly, grabbing onto the door. The door
slammed shut in our faces and I nearly fell backwards. Then, Steven
and I ran quickly away from the cob-webbed old house and hid behind
the trash cans she had put out there long ago for people to take her
stuff. She had had an auction years ago, and put some of her 40's hats
up for sale. Nobody bought them, so she threw them away. She was a
very odd woman, very old, very eerie. And she talked funny.
By the time we reached my house, Steven's mom called. I answered
it, and said, "Hello?"
"Hi, is Steven there? He needs to go home, okay? We're having
dinner soon, and I don't want him to miss it," Steven's mom said. I
looked at the clock. It was 6:15. I told Steven, who was leaning
against the dishwasher, that he had to go home, and he popped out the
door. "He's coming!" I said, and hung up the phone. As it began to get
dark, I ran to Megan's mom's house and waited for her to get home.
This became a daily schedule. When she didn't come home, I slipped on
my shoes and ran outside. It was black outside, and I felt like at any
moment, a killer would pop out at me and kill me. I ran across the
street and looked around. It was cold outside, and I could hear
chirping of crickets and see stars in the night sky shimmering down on
me. I hardly recognized the surroundings at night.
Once I felt it was okay, I ran down the sidewalk and through a
dark tunnel which I had passed under earlier while walking to my
aunt's house. Now it looked scary, and I was afraid someone was
waiting for me at the end of the tunnel. Waiting. Waiting to kill me.
I ran the speed of light through the tunnel, but then stopped as I
neared the end. I stopped, took a breath or two, and leaned against
the tunnel wall. I stared up at the end of the tunnel, which was 12
feet away from me, calling for me to cross. I didn't know why I was
running, or where. I continued running, getting more anxious about the
end of the tunnel. I stopped again, 4 feet away from the end. I
panted, out of breath, and looked around at my surrounding.
It was terribly dark, very dim light peering through the exit to the
tunnel, casting eerie shadows. I ran, passing through the end of the
tunnel, but something stopped me.
A hand had grabbed by shoulder and pulled me back, off to the side of
the tunnel, and pushed me into the wall. I groaned in fear, trying to
pull away, but the figure held me up high by the shirt, and over his
head, slamming me into the outside of the tunnel. "Give me your money,
kid!" the figure said, in a deep, man's voice.
"I don't have any money!" I yelled, choking, as he held me up by
my shirt. He laughed, and let me onto the ground. I began to walk
away, but, he pulled out a knife and grasped me by the chest, putting
the knife up to my neck.
"Ow!" I cried, noticing the blade under my chin.
"Give...Me...The...MONEY!" He yelled, splitting out the words as if I hadn't
understood him the first time. "I...Don't...Have...Any...MONEY!" I yelled,
mocking his tone. "Don't play games, kid! I'm warning you! I have a
knife!" he yelled, furious.
"Think fast!" I yelled, elbowing him in the stomach. He let go of the
knife and stumbled back a few feet. I ran and did a jumping kick at
him, and kicked him in the chest.
He fell to the ground, and I jumped on his pain-filled body, punching
him in the face. I continued punching him in the face until his nose
got bloody, then punched him again, knocking him unconscious. I felt
scared that he'd wake up and kill me, so I ran so fast away from him,
the sun wouldn't even have been able to catch me!
I slowed down, knowing that I was at least a 6th of a mile away from
him, and began to walk. I didn't particularly know where I was headed
to, but I just had this voice inside that told me to keep going,
you're doing the right thing, Alexander!
I was getting tired. My eyes felt too heavy to sit in my eyelids, and
they were getting dryer by the minute. I HAD to get rest soon. But
where? There wasn't a relative or friend near me! Nor a hotel, but I
didn't have any money, so that was fine. I looked around, and spotted
a light on in a house somewhat...30 feet away from me, I guess, and I
thought that maybe I could ask them if they had a phone- or that I'm
lost. No. I couldn't say that. What if they were bad people? I
wouldn't' risk it.
I ran down the street-down the hill slanted street-towards the lighted
house.
"Hi, I'm Alex. My friend's power ran out of his house, and I need to
call my parents so they can pick me up. May I use the phone for a
minute?" I said to myself as I ran.
No. BAAAAD! Why would they ever let me in to use there phone if they
didn't even know me? Exactly. They wouldn't.
As soon as I got to the door and knocked, I came up with this,
"Hi...Um...I'm Alex. I am staying at my friends house, which is down the
street, and our power is dead. I need to call my parents so they can
pick me up, because my friend is getting really sick."
The person who answered the door was a woman, about 33 or 34, with
blond curly hair and blue eyes. She had heard my fake story, and had
said, "Well...Okay. Um, come inside and use the phone, watch out for the
dog," she began, as a cocker spaniel dog came bounding into the room,
panting. I hesitantly stepped into the house, stepping over the
excited dog and into the kitchen.
The woman watched as I dialed Megan's mom, my Aunt's number and
waited. What I heard was, "Hi, you've reached the Daniels family. We
can't come to the phone right now, because we don't like you, so leave
a message after the beep!"
It was the answering machine. I hung up the phone and looked at the
woman. Just then, a little girl about my age came sliding into the
room. She had long, blond hair, blue eyes, sparkly lip gloss, and pink
cargo flares on.
It was Hillary. THIS was HER house! "Alex! What are you doing here?"
she asked, leaning against the refrigerator. "Power went out," I
blurted, trying not to make much of it. "Well, don't come near me,"
Hillary grunted.
"You guys know each other?" Hillary's mother asked, looking at us
both. "Yah, I guess. We go to school together," I said. "He's in my
class," Hillary stated.
"Well, Alex, have a good night!" Hillary's mom said, throwing her
hands in the air. I looked at Hillary. She looked upset. And, she
seemed to follow me as I left. "Where are you going?" she scowled.
"To 'save the world', okay?" I mumbled.
"Sure," Hillary said, crossing her arms. "No, where are you really
going. I know for fact that you don't live down the street."
"Okay, okay. I'm going out to save my cousins from being killed. They
are stuck trying to find the lock because my cousin has the key to the
lock. It leads to a secret world or universe-or something. Full of
gold to the sky. My cousins have the key, and I am the only one who
knows where the lock is," I said, running out of air.
"Where?" Hillary asks.
"In my backyard," I had just realized it. They had the key, I have the
lock! The bad guys were on a completely different trail! Aaron must
have found the key when he slept over at my house last year! We were
playing in the backyard and Aaron was digging...But I never got to see
what he was digging. He brought it home, and Alexander Corell used the
Tracker to trace himself to Megan's house, and when he opened the
door, he found Aaron standing there with the key. Thinking that Aaron
was the key to succession, he took him so that Aaron could tell him
where the lock was, but he doesn't know! And Alexander Corell is
trying to kill me because he knows I'm on his back! Now, all I needed
to do was bring Aaron and Megan back to their house without Alexander
Corell following us. Then, we could hide the key and never find it
again. But if we get caught, he'll ask us where the lock is, and drag
us behind as he unlocks the other world.
"Yes," I said, "it's in my backyard. But first, I'll have to save my
cousins,"
I could tell she thought I was nuts, standing outside in the driveway
telling of some nonsense adventure. "I'll believe it when I see it.
I'm coming with," Hillary said, using that slang for "I'm coming with
you," when you just cut off the "you" part and leave it at, "I'm
coming with." I started down the street and she lagged behind,
skipping, if you may. I stared back at her with a look that said to
'hurry up'. Though, I didn't ask her to 'come with' in the first
place. The wet street shimmered in the moonlight and the soaking trees
glowed excitedly.
This was going to be practically impossible unless I had some
convenient form of travel to carry me to the Texas desert.

THE RUNAWAY ALEX AND HILL

Hillary snuck out of the house to come with me on my journey. She
brought a backpack full of stuff. When she arrived next to me, she
seemed mad. "Let's go," she said, impatiently. We ran down the street
some more, passing 4 stop signs. I looked at my watch, which said
11:27. Hillary and I decided to camp out on the side of the road under
two, really tall pine trees. We both fell asleep at 11:48. When I woke
up the next morning, Hillary was over near the road, a few feet away
from the street. I woke her up, and she got really mad.
"So, where now?" she asked, putting the backpack over her shoulders. I
trusted my instincts on this one. "That way," I pointed.
So, we set off down the street, going in this particular direction,
and after time, got very tired. We REALLY needed some other, faster
way of travel. So, when we saw a sign up ahead that said, "Joe's
Automobiles" we ran towards it to find that it was a tiny little
beaten up building with tons of old cars and trucks.
The tiny building's side window had been boarded up and the roof was
covered with a black tarp, probably because all the shingles might
have been missing. And all of the trucks and cars were old and rusty
and sitting on the dirt beside the road. The building must have been
built over what might have been a farm. Two red balloons were tied to
the dirty old sign to attract people's attention.
Hillary and I ran to the building and opened the door.
The inside of the tiny building was one room, with crummy old junk
floor tiles that were smudged and falling apart. There was a tiny desk
at the back of the room, which was made out of wood, and worn out on
the edges. Scattered all around the room, there were papers tacked
into the big cork walls. And old calendars. There was a ceiling fan,
that was moving really slowly and the light bulb on it was broken. An
old, old fan sat on the desk at the back of the room, and behind the
desk, sat a big fat man with a beard and a cowboy hat pulled over his
face.
"Er, sir?" I called.
"Heh? Wha?" the man mumbled, gazing up at us and yawning.
"Uh yeah. Sir, we were wondering if we could um..." I thought for a
moment. I couldn't seem to put, "Can we use one of those cars?" into
more realistic words.
"Um...We were wondering if we could pick up our dad's car?" I said,
thinking fast.
"Eh? Ya wanna' pick up the ca?" the man yapped, in an accent I
couldn't figure out what it was. "Uh, yeah. We do. Do you have it?"
Hillary said, tapping on the desk. "Wats yer name be?" the man,
obviously very ignorant, spoke.
"Corlell? Is it on the list?" I asked. The man stared at the list,
stroking his beard.
"Nope. It aint on the list here," the man sighed, crossing his arms.
He was probably reading the Ds or Zs or Bs or Es or Gs or Ts or Ps
because he seemed like an idiot.
Hillary stepped back a step.
"Okay. Can we look at the cars and maybe we can tell our dad to come
and check them out?" Hillary asked.
"Sure. Go on ahead," the man said, pointing to the door, "but if you
wreck the cars, you have to be buyin' dem, 'kay?"
We ran out the front door and looked at all the cars. They were
tattered up and stained, but they were also very cheap. $400, $500,
$650 for a pickup truck that had 4 wheel drive and comfy seats. The
$400 one was a 1978 Ford or something. It had a busted tape player and
ripped up seats. There was also a big rust mark on the hood of the
car. It ran, though.
And that's when I saw it. I saw a junk car sitting next to the tiny
building with the one room. A junk car with 3 missing tire caps,
broken windows, missing headlights and no stereo at all. It didn't
even have a door on one side, and on the front, it was smashed it. The
mirrors were bent, cracked, and one was even gone. It was covered in
scratches and rust marks on various places. The hood was also dented
inwards. That's why the car was worth $255.75. It still ran though.
"That's it!" I yelled. "That crappy one ever there!"
"What?" Hillary asked, looking at a really old van.
"That junk car beside the little place over there! Let's use it! It's
not good at all, so it's okay if we just take it for a ride, right?"
"I guess so."
"No, Hillary. We're taking it and riding to Texas, or you go back
home," I said.
"No. I've come too far. Uh...Fine let's take the car," Hillary shrugged.
"On the other hand, I have no clue how to drive," I gasped.
"True."
"But, do YOU know how to drive?" I asked, leaning in.
"I've never tried. Even if I did try, I'm eight so I'd probably be a
horrible driver," Hillary sighed, thinking if one of us knew how to
drive, we could get there indeed.
"Well, best be heading on down on our journey. Do you have money?" I
asked, starting down the street as it became a hill.
"Yes I do. I packed my wallet in this backpack. $50.00 in there, and a
few pennies," Hillary sang, staring into her backpack.
We started running down the street. Down the hill of a road as it
became lunch time. I used my watch, which was working fine now.
It took a long time for us to reach decent civilization, a town, and
try to find a taxi. A lime green taxi. The man in the front seat was
all, "TAXI!" really loud. We got in, and told him to take us as far
away as he could. He took us far, indeed.
We were dropped off at a bus stop-somewhere-that was in a really scary
part of-whatever town this was. Hillary was so nervous, she started
walking back and forth. "What have I done?" she said to herself, "My
mother is going to be furious. Oh, she's probably so worried now,
sitting in our house wondering where I've been all day."
"My aunt probably too," I said. I could imagine her going crazy
looking for me.
Hillary stopped short in her path. I saw fear in her eyes. "W-where
are we?" she cried, staring around her. I looked around too.
"I-I don't know. M-maybe we're s-somewhere in Texas?" I said, my teeth
chittering.
"No w-way Al-lex. T-texas is f-f-far away from w-where we were. We're
p-prob-b-bly still in th-the same s-state," Hillary said, almost
frozen.
I could see my breath, that meant it was cold out. The night sky was
black as velvet, my teeth were chattering, and cold gushes of wind
blew into my face. Hillary paced back and forth as I lay on the bench
at the bus stop, curled up. I felt very cold. This was odd, because it
wasn't usually cold where I live, and it was summer. I just didn't
care, because I was too busy thinking about where to go next. "Aha!" I
exclaimed, sitting up straight in the bench. "Let's find a phone booth
and call help!"
"Good idea," Hillary says without shivering.
So we head down the long, black road ahead of us, which seems to be
miles away, we see a phone booth in the distance. We run for it, and
almost make it there, when suddenly I hear Hillary screaming, and I
instantly turn my head and look at this man coming out from the
bushes. Hillary and I are freaked out, and we're shaking, but not
moving, if you know what I mean. The man steps out onto the street,
and points a finger at us.
"Why are you kids out so late?" the man grunts. He's like 80 or
something, and he's got white hair and a cranky old voice that always
seems the same tone.
He stood there for a moment, raising his finger to us. "Sir," I began,
"we are lost. Where are we?"
"You're in Star Scape California. Now why are we out and about
tonight?" the old man grunted in that voice of his.
"Well, sir," I say, but before I know it, he's cutting in, "You," and
he's pointing at Hillary.
She looked surprised, and she mouthed, "me?" and the old man nodded.
"We were trying to sa-," she stopped when she saw my expression. I was
looking at her, and mouthing, "no, no, no," and shaking my head. She
looked at the old man and said, "...Save our dog. He's gone. We have
been chasing him all day, you seen him?"
"No. No I haven't. There's a phone booth down at the corner over there-
," the old man said, coughing in between his words. Then, he fell to
the ground. Was he dead? We didn't know. But if the cops found us,
they'd suspect us for murder. We had to get out of there quick!
We ran down the street and into the phone booth, where we entered a
quarter and dialed the cops.
"Hello?" I said into the phone. Hillary shivered and paced back and
forth. A policeman answered.
"Hello," he said.
"Um, we've just witnessed a man dying of a heart attack. We are right
near the 7 Eleven, on the street with the phone booth. We're in Star
Scape," I explained.
I heard silence, then his voice kicked in, "We're on our way."
We waited. Then ran away.

"FOUND THE BASE"

He never did come, I guess, or I'm just judging by my perspective,
since I ran away from the area and all. We kept on running, past the
seven eleven, past 3 buildings, past some houses, and past a school
building. I wondered if we were still in Star Scape, since we had been
running for a long time. I couldn't tell. We sort of got cold out
there, in our T-shirts and shorts, and began to shiver quite rapidly.
I felt a dizzy feeling in my head, and became lightheaded, falling to
the ground, along with Hillary. I stared into the sky, and noticed a
large lightning bolt light up in the sky. Hillary and I immediately
started running through the cornfield, though we didn't know where we
were going.
I think I was thinking about a shortcut out of there, and I guess I
guessed it was through the cornfield, I guess I think I thought that.
But, it was hilarious, because we just kept running!
Rain poured on our heads as we ran. Then, I stopped running, looked
down into what looked like a huge cliff. I could see the other side,
long far away, and we were stuck on the ledge of that cliff for about
30 minutes because we didn't know how to get across. I could see Mini-
vans driving underneath us 80 something feet below on a small curvy
road at the base of the mountain we were on.
"Yeesh!" I screamed, losing my balance as I stared out towards the
other side of the cliff. I tried to balance myself, but went tripping
forwards into the drop of the mountain. I was falling, but not like
all of the other times. This time, it felt real, and I was scared
stiff! All the other times, I had just fell without making anything
out of it, not noticing my surroundings. I thought I was about to
knock on death's door and be kindly greeted in, when my shirt got
caught on a really sharp rock. The rock scraped my back a little. I
hung there whispering, "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow" and staring blankly at the
ledge on the other side of me, which was now towering over me.
"Alex!" Hillary cried.
"I'm okay, just a little hurt, that's all," I said, lying.
"How are you going to get up here?" Hillary shot back at me.
"I'm not, no, I'm not going to. I'm going to stay hanging here until a
search and rescue team finds my helpless rotten corpse here and pulls
me in to study my organs !" I cried, laughing, which really wasn't
appropriate for the moment.
"Uh uh. You gotta' get up here! What about life, Alex?"
"What about it?" I asked, looking up at her looking down at me.
"Well, don't you want to finish it?"
"Why bother? Grow up, get married, have kids, get a job, get sick,
die. Hooray! Just a waste of time. Besides, I'll probably have to live
my life feeling sorry for myself that I didn't do what I promised
Megan I'd do. Save her. Get the golden key. Why would I want to live
life when my life I live isn't a good one? Tell me that?"
Truthfully, I was just blabbing out some words, I really didn't know
what I was talking about, and by the look on Hillary's face, she
didn't either.
"What the heck are you talking about?" Hillary asked.
"Life...Can you help me?"
"No Alex. I can't. You are too far down to reach."
"Then I'm going to have to try to reach the ledge across from here!" I
screamed, reaching out for the other cliff. I missed.
"That's too dangerous."
"Right now, I'm willing to take my chances."
"Which you don't have."
"Huh?"
"Alex, you don't have a chance. It's frankly impossible!"
"How do you know?"
"I just do. You don't have enough upper body strength to pull yourself
up onto that ledge-and if you did by a mere accident-how would I get
across?"
"Hillary, I'll help you across."
"No, Alex. It's a bad idea."
"You got a better one? Go ahead! What's YOUR idea?"
Hillary paused and hit her forehead.
"I don't have one," she sighed.
"Then here I go!" I yelled, jumping up and forwards to grab the ledge.
"AHA!" I yelled as I gripped onto the ledge. I had half-way made it!
"Now climb up."
I paused. Hillary was right. I couldn't pull myself up! I struggled to
fling my leg up. Missed.
"What are you going to do now?" Hillary shouted.
I tried pulling again. Then, my foot landed on a rock sticking out of
the cliff I was hanging off. I pushed up, using the rock.
"I made it!" I yelled, standing up on the other side of the mountain.
The big gap in between me and Hillary was like 8 feet long, and it
looked impossible to help her across.
She stood there with her arms crossed. "I'm still here!" she reminded.
I stood on the edge of the ledge and reached my arm out. She was
supposed to grab it. She didn't know that, so she jumped forward,
across the gap, but missed the ledge. Instead, she hit the side of the
mountain I was on and went falling down, hitting the side. But she
grabbed a rock. And that rock saved her life, because she found
another one above it, and started climbing up to the ledge where I was
standing.
"That was a close one," she sighed, breathing hard. "Let's get out of
here."
We started walking farther on the other side of the mountain, away
from the gap, and tumbled down a hill of flowers. The flowers pricked
my arms as I landed in them. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't.
Something broke our fall. The moving base! They weren't in Texas
anymore! That meant they knew where the lock was, and that's why they
were headed back. We got up and looked at the monstrous moving base in
front of us. I pulled out some of the needles from the flowers out of
my arms. "How do we get this open?" I asked myself. I constantly
looked up at it.
"Aha!" Hillary shouted, pointing to an almost invisible door. We ran
for it, and stopped when it opened up for us. I took a step into the
huge room filled with controls and a balcony on top. Straight above
our heads, there were cages hanging from the ceiling. One cage had
Megan in it! I searched the area, but no guards were anywhere to be
seen. Megan saw me, and started freaking out.
In a second, I sprung to life, grasping Hillary's hand and dragging
her up the ragged metal stairs, closer to Megan's cage. Standing on
one side of the balcony, I climbed over the railing and stood as if I
were about to drop.
"What are you doing?" Megan yelled.
"Saving you guys," I replied, reaching out and grasping tightly at the
cage. I swung in the air, hanging from the cage, and then I tried to
climb up to open the door for Megan. It swung open! I immediately
climbed inside and turned back towards Hillary.
"Stay there!" I called to Hillary, then backing up, turned to Megan
and Aaron, who were sitting there blankly as the cage violently shook.
Then, I heard a sound. A SNAP! I peered up at the rope holding up the
cage and it was breaking! And I mean BREAKING! SNAP! SNAP! SNAP!
The cage began to fall down, down below, and we all screamed in
horror, seeing that death was just a few feet away....CRASH!!!!
We lay there sprawled out and spread across the ground, pieces of the
cage scattered on and below us. Pain shot up my back and all the blood
rushed to my head, which made me very dizzy. I rolled over onto my
back, and something that tasted like metal crept into my mouth... Blood!
It was coming from my nose, which was throbbing with pain. I heard
Megan and Aaron moan, and then shouts of men coming from down the
hallway and cluttering footsteps. That made me jump up. And obviously,
it also made Megan and Aaron jump up too, even though they were in
pain.
"Hide!" I whispered, waving my hands around the HUGE room we were in.
Hillary came running down to us, shocked.
"Are you okay?" she said, loud enough that I had to cover her mouth
with my hand, which was all scraped up.
"No," moaned Megan, "I thing my arm is broken!"
"I am okay, just my head and my back hurt," Aaron said, seeming
perfectly fine.
"I'm just really aching and my nose is bleeding a lot," I said. Then
suddenly, I yelled, "Hide!" in a loud whisper.
We began to limp away, but then a man called, "Hey!" really loudly,
and a whole group of other scary tall men came sliding into the room
screaming in anger. But, I only recognized one man, Alexander Corell,
who yelled, "Alex, so nice to see you," and then, to his men, "Lock
them up." They grabbed us by our arms and dragged us across the ground
into a jail cell, but unlike these, they were sealed to the ground,
and were made of steel instead of copper.
There we sat, in agony. My body was soar, and Aaron was completely
fine. He was so lucky. Anyway, I sat there pressing my back against
the back of the cell. I knew where we were headed. My backyard. And
they were going to wreck the town, crushing buildings, just so they
could make it to the lock in my backyard. And soon, they'd find that
that separate universe below my yard isn't quite what they thought it
would be. Not at all. I just sat there wondering how long I could
survive in here. With no food.
It had taken me and Hillary 2 days to make it past Starscape, so I was
guessing it would take about a day to go back to where I lived. And it
did.
Time passed, and I think we bumped into something really hard, could
it be a house? MY HOUSE?
"Okay, everyone out. You guys have to show us how to work this thing,"
said Alexander Corell, pointing a rifle to my head. We were now
standing in the room with the cells, and he was walking us out the
door of the moving base, which was now stopped, and into my backyard.
His guards also had guns pointed to us. They were surrounding us.
Alexander Corell made me kneel down on the ground and open the lock.
"Where's the key?" He asked, standing over me.
"The little one has it," one Arabian man growled, pushing Aaron in the
back towards Alexander.
"Hand it over," Alexander shouted, holding his hand out angrily.
Aaron shook nervously, and pulled out the diamond thing and handed it
to him.
"Now Alex, open the lock. And make it quick!" Alexander yelled in my
ear, making it throb with pain. I reached over and grabbed the key,
and as soon as my hand touched it, Alexander held the rifle to my
head.

THE GATE TO HECK....OR WORSE!

I kept looking around for anyone who could call the police. I would
take anyone. Anyone who noticed the giant silver square base which was
sticking out from behind my house so visibly. Please someone notice!
I held the key up to the lock, and a bright light shot in my face with
great power.
It blinded me, knocking me back onto the ground. I heard the henchmen
scream in amazement at the sight of the world on the other side, which
was brightly lit. I stood up, staring down into the opened door to the
other world, and grabbing Hillary's hand as the henchmen lead us down,
pointing the guns to our head still.
We stepped down the steps slowly, holding our hands up, and squinted
our eyes at the sight of the sandy, red skied deserted world we were
entering. I looked up, not to see a ceiling, which above that would be
the ground in which some henchmen were still standing, but a red,
fiery sky with a square opening in it. There were stairs coming out of
that square in the sky, and Alexander Corell was walking down them. I
was amazed at the redness of this desert world, the sand so dry, the
sky so red-why was the sky so red?
"Alex, boy, you only have the access to the Gold Mines," Alexander
Corell said, pushing me forward. Hillary and I stumbled into a wall,
and the henchmen ran over and shackled us up.
"Get us off of here!" Hillary yelled. She was tugging at the shackles
trying to free us, but they were too hard.
"Now, I have access," Alexander Corell said mockingly, holding out a
shiny card and waving it around. I was furious. "To the Gold Mines,
men!"
"Where did you get that?" I asked, tugging at the shackles.
"From your jacket, you dimwitted idiot, when I shackled you up I took
it from your jacket," Alexander scowled. Then, he and the henchmen
walked over to the door to the Gold Mines.
The sky was blood red, the sand was red, and the brick wall that
Hillary and I were shackled to was red. We were now all alone, stuck
to a wall, staring at the dark red world around us. I could still see
the door in the sky with the stairs coming down from it, and it made
me angry.
"How are we going to get out of here?" Hillary asked. I thought for a
moment and realized that the wall wasn't stuck in the ground. I guess
the henchmen are pretty stupid.
"I'll count to 3, and we both will lift this wall up and walk into the
mines!" I said, staring into the red sky. Then, I counted to 3 and we
both lifted the wall up. It broke in half! We were now walking with
two, less-heavier walls on our backs. I went hurdling towards the
Mines door and pushed it open, falling down a staircase and breaking
the brick wall off my back. Except all of the henchmen saw me falling,
so they gathered around me. I noticed that we were not in a gold mine,
we were outside, on a ledge leading to red mist below. Hillary came
rushing in through the door I broke through and stared as the henchmen
picked me up and brought me over to the cliff edge. "We now have a
sacrifice to the gods below, Sir," one of them said to Alexander
Corell, who was standing looking off the cliff.
"Good," he snarled, swerving around to see me. "The Little Corlell
kid. I don't think his parents will be too happy when they see this,"
he added, laughing menacingly.
"But sir," a henchman interrupted.
"Be quiet, and send the parents out as well. The gods think they might
like the kid, and they might want more," Alexander Corell argued.
"I have a name!" I yelled.
"What?" the villain stared blankly at me.
"I said, 'I have a name!'" I laughed.
"ALEX!" two voices shouted from behind.
I turned around to find two people being dragged up to the edge of the
cliff. My parents! I hadn't seen them in weeks! Geez, this was a great
moment, yet not.
I got dropped onto the ground by the evil henchmen.
"Mom! Dad!" I yelled, running to the area where they were.
"Alex," Mom and Dad were crying, and gave me a big hug. I closed
my eyes and wished that we were back in my house, on a warm, sunny
morning. When I opened them up again, I was still in hell.
"Now carry the Corlells to the pit," Alexander Corell explained,
walking down the ledge which went across the pit of oozing lava.
"Summon the gods first."
Mom and dad let go of me, and I ran over to the group of
henchmen, spying on their conversation.
"I say we should forget what he said and drop the family in
first," one of them said.
"No, no! We have to summon the gods! They're the only ones who
can open the gold mines up. If we summon them, and then give them the
sacrifices, they'll open it up!" one of the more intelligent ones
suggested.
I ran back to my parents and told them what they were saying.
Then I asked, "Where's my sister?" and they gave me these looks, that
I can't explain, like they were going to say, "She has been dead for
over 5 years!" but they didn't.
Alexander Corell was now standing on the highest peak of the
mountain, holding up the stone key thing. The red sky glimmered off
the key, shining in my eyes like the rays of the sun.
"Gods of the Underworld, I beg of thee to except my gift and get
in return a reward. It would honor me greatly if you could open up the
gold mines. We have found three sacrifices for you. Take their lives
and open the mines in return! We will summon you to our presence!"
Alexander Corell shouted to the gods of the fiery pits. They started
humming this chant, and bowing down to the lava pit.
I watched in horror as the lava slowly grew! It grew, and formed
into three tiki figures with spears! I was staring wide-eyed, dizzy
and confused by these giant tiki gods forming out of the red, globby,
boiling lava. Alexander Corell stared in amazement at his creations,
holding the key up high with pride.
"YES!" he shouted, the henchmen still chanting, "Oh holy Gods,
please except my sacrifices!" The henchmen came up behind me and my
parents and grabbed us.
"No!" my mom was crying. She tried to stop herself from getting
any closer to the pit, but the henchmen just picked her up and kind of
threw her towards the ledge of the pit.
"Stop! You can't!" my dad was screeching. He kicked the henchman
in the shin, and the henchmen pushed him. But this was a harder push
than his mom had. He went screaming and falling off the cliff towards
the lava. I burst out in tears.
"NOOOOO!" I cried, forcing myself to the ground. "My dad! You
jerks killed my dad!" I cried, crawling towards my mom, who was still
on the ground.
"Honey!" she was screaming, to me in sympathy and to dad in
sorrow. She grabbed me and held me, gazing at the henchmen evilly.
"You guys should rot in hell!" she yelled, letting go of me and
walking over to them. She was still crying.
"Sit down, lady!" a henchman yelled. Mom was very upset. He just
looked at her with a snarl, and she grabbed him and hurled him threw
the air. He landed next to me, and then slipped off the edge and into
the fire below.
"MOM!" I yelled, both surprised and concerned. She tried hitting
another one, but they flung her towards me. BOOM! She hit me, and we
fell off the edge, towards the fire pit and the evil Devil Gods. Mom
grabbed onto the edge and I grabbed onto mom's foot with two hands.
"Get them into the pit!" Alexander Corell yelled, pointing at
his henchmen. I turned my head to look at him, and he stared at me and
mouthed, "You will die."
Then, out from the ledge popped a hand. A man's hand. And a
warm, familiar voice said, "Hold on. I've got you."
Dad struggled to bring us up onto the ledge again, but he
finally did, before the henchmen could make it to us. We sat on the
ledge, exhausted. "One of us has got to get that key. It holds all the
power of this world. It can also terminate this place, but I don't
know how to make it do that," Dad explained, whispering at a level
that the henchmen couldn't hear.
"I'll do it!" I yelled, running across the bridge across the
fire pit.
"Alex! No! Watch out!" Mom yelled, right in time as one of the
giant, red, lava demons swung at the bridge and knocked a chunk off. I
kept on running, and I made it across.
"Alex! Honey! Be careful!" Mom and Dad yelled. And I watched in
silence as the henchmen grabbed at them, but turned around quickly and
walked up the hill. Alexander Corell was standing on the very top,
holding the key out to the gods. Henchmen were trying to catch me, but
since the bridge had been knocked down, they couldn't even get close.
I ran up the pathway to the top of the bridge, stopping for
breaths once and a while. I reached the top, and stood feet behind
Alexander Corell, holding the stone key thing.
"Hey you!" I yelled. He turned around right away, and then I ran
at him, punching him in the stomach. He reacted as any adult being
punched by a kid would. But then he hit me, and all the air got
knocked out of me. I fell to the ground, doubling over, and moaning.
Even when I was down, Alexander Corell kept kicking me in the stomach,
each time hurting more than the last. I began to fade out, and then
something inside me said, "Alex, you are a secret agent," and I jumped
up, kicking him in the side, making him fall to the ground. Then I did
a cartwheel, landing on his chest.
The stone key thing dropped to the ledge, and I grabbed it,
holding it up with triumph. I had defeated Alexander Corell!
"DAD!" I yelled, "I got it!"
"GREAT!" he and mom shouted, from way below, across the fire
pit. How was I supposed to get across the fire pit? That didn't
matter! I had to get down there! I had Hillary, mom, dad, and my
cousins down there!
I finally reached the ledge, where the bridge used to be going
across. On the ledge on the other side of the fire pit, my mom and dad
stood, being held back by henchmen.
"Mom! Dad!" I yelled. "You have to catch me! I'm going to have
to jump across!"
"Alex! No! What if we can't catch you? You'll die!" Mom yelled,
trying to wiggle free from the henchmen's grasps. I noticed their
hands were held back, so they couldn't catch me if I jumped. I'd have
to take a risk and jump, and hope that I could make it across. I ran,
and jumped, reaching my arms out to grab the opposite ledge where my
parents were. I screamed, and landed harshly on the dirt ledge,
missing a passing boulder being thrown by the Lava Gods.
"Alex!" dad cried, hugging me.
"Dad! I'm fine! You've got to fight off the henchmen! I'll use
the gold key to destroy the gods. Then we'll make a run for it!" I
explained quickly, trying to point out everything as I went along.
"Got ya', Alex," Dad nodded. He and Mom turned around and
started fighting back the henchmen. With the key, I ran up to the
ledge, near the gods.
"Look over here!" I yelled, catching their attention quickly.
They stared at me, with their red beady eyes glowing in the red sky.
"It's going to be an apocalypse!" I yelled to Mom and Dad. I'm not
sure if they could here that.
The key glowed red, sending a beam to the tiki gods' eyes. They
let out a loud, ferocious roar, flailing their arms around like
lunatics. Then, in a chain reaction of events, they exploded into a
giant fireball and several dust clouds. The sky turned even more red,
with fire and shadowy faces of demons in the smoky clouds.
"RUN!" I yelled, running away, out of the Mines entrance. Mom
and Dad were still there! The fire was spreading across the land fast,
and the heat was rising! Devils laughed from the sky above, which
burned like the ground was burning. I watched Mom and Dad fight. They
didn't seem to notice the explosion expanding across the land.
"It's the apocalypse! Guys, run!" I yelled, running backwards,
so I could see my parents. My foot hit something that made me trip and
fall backwards. I quickly got up, and turned around running towards
the stairs that came out of the sky. The stairs that lead to my
backyard! I had to hurry!
"Alex!" 3 voices called, at different times. It was Megan,
Aaron, and Hillary! They were running too! But I couldn't see my
parents! And the fire was spreading across the land, destroying it
like a bonfire destroys an army of ants.
"Honey!" Mom and Dad yelled. I couldn't look back. I had to
reach the exit! It was so close, and every step I took I got even
closer. I assumed everybody was behind me or beside me, and if we made
it out, I would be glad. Hillary took a curve in front of me, and sped
up to the stairway to the real world. We were so close! Megan went up
ahead of me, and then Aaron. I looked back, jogging backwards with
trouble, and I saw my parents running for there lives as a sand storm
built up behind them. My mom grasped my dad's hand, and they kept on
running, speeding past the fire and sand all around. I looked back,
and I had run off course from the stairway. I was down a hill, and the
stairway was far left. I turned to it then back to my parents, who
made it up the stair way. A devil laughed and emerged from the hot
sand, and I scampered across, up the hill towards the stairway.
"Alex! Come on! Hurry!" Dad yelled, looking down the stairs into
the hell I was in. I started climbing up the stairs, but something
grabbed my leg!
"No! Let go of him!" Mom yelled, hitting whatever had me with
her hand.
"Aaah!" I yelled, kicking the thing's arm with my other foot. It
grabbed that foot, and I went falling back into the hot sand. "Mom!
He's got me!" I yelled, clawing at the sand. My mom came out of the
door in the sky and down the stairs in a hurry. She was crying and
screaming bloody murder.
"Dad!" I yelled. He was coming down the stairs after he told the
girls and Aaron to stay where they were. He and mom grabbed my arms.
The thing pulled me deeper! My whole bottom half was under the ground.
I felt emptiness under my feet. My parents pulled me out of the ground
and I didn't look back. I ran straight upstairs, into the real world,
light and blue. The door was still open, revealing a horrible red
light and a glow of yellow. Mom and dad didn't come out! I thought I
was going to stay like this forever.
"Megan! My Mom and Dad are gone!" I cried. Megan grabbed me by
the shoulders and shook me.
"Alex, there's still a chance! You have to believe!" Megan
shouted, shaking me. I stopped crying and looked at Megan.
"Who will take care of me?" I asked, looking at the ground.
Megan looked behind me at the doorway to hell. A smile came apon her
face, and 4 arms grabbed me and swooped me up from behind.
"Aah!" I yelled. The arms separated into two sets of two arms,
and I looked up to see my mother's face looking down on me. "Mom! Dad!
You're alive!!! Oh my god!" I yelled, hugging my Mom. She put me on
the ground and I went to see Dad. "Dad! Dad! I thought you were dead!
How'd you get out?" I asked, hugging my Dad.
"We kicked it in the face. It fell over into the sand, and we
ran up! And now we're all okay, we're a family again! Oh guys!" my Dad
cried. But they were happy tears. My Mom came over and twirled me
around. All the happiness stopped for a moment. Something wasn't
right.
"Guys, where's my sister?" I asked, becoming very worried. They
didn't have time to answer, because then a roar came from the front of
the house, and a Station Wagon came crashing through the fence. My
sister was at the steering wheel! She pulled over and yelled out the
window, "Hurry, guys, get in the car!" she yelled, staring at us. My
Mom got in first. Then Aaron, Megan, and I got in the back of the
Station Wagon.
"Dad, are you going to stay here?" I asked. He looked around to
the front of the house.
"Yes, Alex. But I'm going to use my car. I'll take this young
lady home. She needs to get rest after all of this trauma," Dad said,
knowing what Hillary's parents would say to him if they found out what
happened to her. I waved a last goodbye to the girl. She smiled a
little. She was too creeped out to show emotions. As the car pulled
away, I realized something.
"Dad!" I yelled, "go inside that huge base over there and let
the prisoners out!" Dad just stared at me.
"Okay!" He yelled. He ran inside the huge base as the car backed
out into the front yard and out into the street. The sky was gray now,
with a red horizon. Mom sped down the street, ignoring all stop signs.
We were in a hurry. The world was going to end soon. The gates to hell
had been opened, and some escaped. Suddenly, my mom's hand shot up in
surprise. The car skidded to a stop.

THE EXPLOSIVE CONCLUSION

"Look out there! Oh my god!" My Mom cried. Her trembling finger
pointed out the window. I stared at what she was pointing at. 17
bloody creatures where slowly traveling down the street in front of
the sun set. I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out.
"Alex, let's go!" Megan cried, opening the door and pulling me
out after her.
"No! Absolutely no! Get back here! Get away from them!" my Mom
was yelling.
I looked back at Aaron. "Come on, Aaron," I said, waving. He
hopped out of the car and we ran down the wet paved road towards the
hideous hell creatures.
"We split up. Alex, do you have any of our gadgets?" Megan
asked, looking at me as if I were the keeper of all objects. I reached
into my pocket.
"I have this thing," I said, handing her the little multi-tasked
gadget. She took it, and pushed a switch. A small piercing laser
beamed out of the gadget, blowing up some of the demons.
Me and Aaron said in unison, "Awesome!" and both ran for it. I
went running towards the wall. Instead of hitting it, though, suction
powers at the bottom of my shoes stuck me to the wall.
"This would have helped very early on!" I yelled, walking up the
wall. I got to the roof, and ran over to the skylight. It was made of
glass. Glass thin enough that I could break through. I already had
scars from my previous attempts, but I had no other choice. I went
plummeting through the glass and landed on the floor. Pain shot
through my arm I landed on, and I scrambled to my two pain filled
legs. The little room was filled with old, dusty tools. I searched and
searched, until my hand brushed against a light. I flipped it on, and
the light shined down on this map of a nuclear power plant. I looked
out the back window, and sure enough, there was a nuclear power plant.
The map showed a button that was labeled, "Dump waste". I shrugged,
and being the curious kid that I was, I started looking for that
button in the room. There were many, but onlt one said, "Dump waste".
I pushed it down hard, and in a series of events, the nuclear power
plant exploded in the distance!
I ran screaming off the top of the roof. Megan and Aaron were
already back in the car, and Mom was crying, beeping the horn. I ran
towards the car, and Megan opened up the door.
"What did you do?" Mom yelled, driving away from the explosion.
It was gaining non us! The mushroom of an explosion spread closer
towards us, ripping off the back of the car!
"SPEED UP!" Megan screamed, moving to the front of the car. Mom
kept driving, but I noticed that we were missing one passenger. At the
back of the car, Aaron was grabbing onto the seat, with her legs
flinging out in back of the car. The whole back of the car was
missing, and the explosion was almost ripping at her legs.
"Grab on to my hand!" I yelled, reaching my hand out of the
missing back of the car. He let go, and went flying out of the car
entirely, but I held on to her hand. My mom sped the car down the
street, faster than the explosion could spread. Aaron almost touched
the spreading explosion with her black sneakers, but I forced her back
into the car and into the front area of the car.
"Mom! Mom! It's gaining up on the car!" I yelled, staring out
the back of the car that was missing. The fire of the nuclear
explosion burned at the edge of the car, ripping pieces off and
shortening the length of the car. We moved up closer to the front. I
felt guilty for pushing that button, but now we knew that all of the
criminals were dead, as well as the devils. But my thoughts ended as I
saw a melting body of a creature fly towards the back of the car in
the explosion. It missed, but went in front of the car and we ran it
over. My mom was screaming like she was being murdered, and I was
feeling nauseous because of the heat and the incredible speed we were
going at. I noticed that the empty cars and houses were getting burned
through, and I felt sorrow for whoever lived there.
"Alex!" Megan yelled, "Your dad!" and I realized her point. Dad
was dead! And Hillary! And Steven!
"Nooooooooooooo!" I yelled, clutching my head and falling to the
floor of the car.
"My mom and dad! In that car! There's your dad!" Megan screamed
happily, pointing to the speeding car aside ours. The explosion was
nipping at the back of their car, and they were giving us scared
looks, but I could see love behind them. With a quick wave, they went
swerving ahead of us, and the explosion kept burning closer to us.
Soon, we were all bunched up screaming in the front of the car,
dragging the back end of the car along, but soon, the fire hit the gas
tank!
The car screeched off to the side, and then the back of the car
burst into flames, and the back of the car exploded entirely, leaving
the two front seats and the rusted front of the car. My mom kept
riding on, dragging the wheel-less car across the ground, away from
the fire. Aaron peeked over the front seat out into the outer world,
revealed to him by the missing side panels and entire back of the car.
Sparks were shooting from the ground as the broken car kept sliding
across the street. But then, the explosion sort of died down, started
fading away, leaving a billowing cloud of dust to blow our car out of
the way. We held on tight as the car flipped over and skid across the
ground 40 feet before stopping. I fell out of the front door onto the
burning hot ground, scraped and bleeding. Everyone in the car was
badly injured. Aaron was lying sprawled on the upside-down ceiling of
the car. My mom was knocked out, so she looked dead. She was knocked
out from all the trauma and jostling of the car. The crashed station
wagon sat steaming as I stood on the street in shock. My mouth hung
open, I dragged my feet across the road to the other torn up car where
my dad lay on the ground with his legs still caught in the seat.
2 minutes later, the fire department and emergency vehicles
pulled up to the scene. The world looked like the hell world now,
because the sky was red as fire, and everything was gone. There were
fire trucks and ambulances everywhere. In the far distance, they were
hosing off the houses that weren't there.
"Young man?" a fireman shouted at me, "Are you okay? We got to
rush you to the hospital!" And then he noticed everyone else. "Oh
lord!" he cried, staring at my injured family members and friends,
"We've got to get the entire military over here! It's as if the world
has ended again! Look! There are more down there!" he pointed in front
of us. Every car on the street was toppled and burning. The doctors
and nurses were all over the place, running, policemen and firemen,
and I just stood there, all alone and in the middle of an empty world.
It was so empty, I could see clear across the entire city. The
firemen, policemen, and emergency room people were the only to
survive. Or that's what I thought!
Later that day I found myself at the hospital in the waiting
room. I was surprised to see that there was still a hospital after the
explosion. They called me into the room, and I stood in a panic in
front of my dad, sister, and mom. They were in hospital beds. They had
I.V. tubes. Other than that, thank god, they were okay aside from a
couple of scars and scrapes.
"Mom, dad, sis, are you okay?" I asked, rushing up to the
hospital beds and resting my head on them gently.
"I'm okay," said mom, who had bandages over her head. I began to
cry looking at them in this state. Dad had scrapes everywhere, and my
sister was just covered with scars!
"Why didn't anything happen to me? Why?" I asked in mid-tears.
My parents looked at each other and smiled.
"Something did. You saved the world, hun," Dad said. I froze.
Huh? Could he be telling the truth?
"But dad, the whole city is gone!" I cried, about to gesture out
the window. I turned my head and my eyes stuck out. The entire town we
were in was perfectly fine, and the sky was blue.
"Honey, that was just our neighborhood. If you hadn't done
anything, the whole world could have gone down. You did it. You saved
the world. That man had the key. He had control over the world. He was
going to send hell's fiery depths onto our land and that would have
destroyed everything. You made a few mistakes, but you also did
something in return. Look out onto the parking lot. Those are living
people. You helped make those people live. That explosion wiped out
armies of demons that would have destroyed earth," dad explained.
"But that explosion killed everyone!" I yelled, jumping back.
"Nobody was there to kill, Alex. They were all gone. Every one
of them."
"What about their cars and houses?"
"They have insurance that will cover it."
"What about the plant life and streets and everything?"
"They're starting the town over again. It's a long process, but
it will happen. When you're my age, the town will be back to normal."
I stared out the window at the beautiful sky. "Where's Megan and
her family? Where's Hillary?"
"In other rooms of the hospital. Hillary's family nearly died.
But they missed the flames by this much," dad said, pinching his
fingers to show me how much.
"So why isn't anyone mad at me for blowing up the power plant?"
I asked.
"Because you didn't do it. The demons did."
"Then why are you saying that I saved the world?"
"Because you went on that whole journey just to rescue your
family, and you burned that key to destroying the earth. That was the
bravest thing anyone could ever do," mom said, patting me on the back.
"When will you guys be out of here?" I asked.
"In three to four weeks. We are injured pretty badly. Your
mother's got a few scars on her head," dad said. I gasped. Then I
remembered the burning car and I saw why she had all those scars.
"Mommy!" I said, walking up to her, "Don't ever leave me. I
can't live without you guys. Take my journey as a token of my love for
you."
"We will," mom and dad said.
"I love you, Alex. I may have bugged you before, but now I can't
move so you won't have to worry about that. I love you. You're my
brother, and I will always love you no matter what I say," my sister
said so softly that I had to walk up to her. I stopped for a moment,
bent over, and hugged her.
"Where will I go?" I asked, walking back to the middle of the
room.
"You can stay with your aunt for a few weeks," dad said. I began
to turn away and walk out the door, but then dad said, "I'll miss you.
Don't get into any trouble, honey."
I just couldn't stop crying as I exited the hospital. People
were cheering me on, but I kept on thinking about everyone who got
hurt in the explosion.
That's my story, folks. The story of me, Alexander Corlell as an
adventurer at age 8.

THE END!