LAND OF THE GIANTS---

prologue

Mark Wilson, Valerie Ames Scott, Commander Alexander Fitzhugh, and fourteen year old Barry Lockridge walked up a hilly mountain of brush and trees. They were actually on a small hill but being four of the seven Earthlings trapped in the land of the giants, it was quite a climb for them. A metal wire fence blocked their way but it had long since been cut open by teenagers trying to find a quick way around. Fitzhugh puffed, "You'd think we'd find some scrap metal near this rail track."

Val gave a false hope, "Maybe on the other side."

Mark asks, "What's on the other side, anyone know?"

"A junior high school, I think," Barry said.

"Okay, we cross," Mark commanded, "But all of you keep sharp. If a train comes, we have to see it."

"I never could understand how someone could get hit by a train," Val submitted.

"Accidents do happen," Barry told her.

"So do suicides," she said.

"We'll debate on it later," Mark pulled Val's arm, "Come on." They climbed up past huge, black cinder blocks, coming onto black dirt which was more flat and supportive of their balance. Seeing the metal rail, Mark ordered, "Step over it." He put his foot over the rail, "All clear. Let's get across while it is." The others follow. "Hurry up now."

Suddenly a train whistle blew, off in the distance.

Val looked up, "Train! Run for it!"

Val, Barry, and Mark ran across a huge space between rails. Fitzhugh stepped over the first side but his foot lodged into a tiny hole just under the track! The other three ran ahead of him but were stopped by his call. "Help! I'm stuck!" Val and Barry ran back to Fitzhugh at the first rail. "My foot is jammed here! It's between the rail and the ground!"

Mark looked up to scope out how far the train was. A raging hulk of steel monster which rumbled toward them. He ran up to them, "Let's go!" Mark ran to them and tugged on Fitzhugh's foot. Val and Barry pulled his leg.

"Get me out!"

Val gasps, "Well try Fitzhugh, try!"

"I am trying!" Fitzhugh looked up at the train for the first time.

Barry twists Fitzhugh's leg, "Turn your foot!"

"I can't! It's too tight!"

Mark continued to pull, "Can you get your foot out of the boot?"

"NO! Do something, it's closer!"

"Pull!" Mark grabbed a rock and tried banging the rail upward. "I'm going to try to loosen this. If you can, pull your foot downward, not up!" Mark began hammering.

Val watched the train, "Hurry! It's almost on us!" Mark pulled the rail up some, "Now try!"

Fitzhugh moved his foot a bit, "It's not enough!"

As they were doing this, Barry eyed something on the other side of the track. He ran to it. Val yelled to him, "Barry!"

"Never mind him," Fitzhugh panicked, "Get me out!"

The rumbling increased but as it did, Barry found a large stick shift, "Mark!" The tracks before them began to shift as Barry pushed the handle with all his might. Barry saw the rushing train tower above them and it was very close. As it whisked by, the boy jumped backward. While Mark pulled up on the rail just above Fitzhugh's foot, Val pulled Fitzhugh's leg. The train was thirty seconds away from them when Fitzhugh's foot was finally free. Mark saw it coming at them fast, however, he pulled both Val and Fitzhugh with him and they all fell down a grassy hill on the side they had climbed up on. They tumbled over each other as the train chugged past, humble and unaware. The sound hurt their ears as they rolled.

Barry, on the school's side, also fell in a rolling fashion--only his drop was somewhat straighter. He landed onto a thick piece of tin foil and hit his head. He was unconscious on the discarded wrapper from some giant kid's lunch, while the sun beat down. The foil slowly became steamy from the rays and Barry soon tanned. The sun continued and the made the foil crackle and smoke! Barry, unable to move, would be cooked!

LAND OF THE GIANTS

The Danger of School

PART ONE

The foil began to burn where the boy was sprawled out. Valerie, Fitzhugh, and Mark rose up from cinder dirt and mashed leaves. Mark said to both, "You're all right." They wiped themselves off.

Val looked up at the top of the tracks, "Barry...where..oh no!"

A cloud blocked out the sun's rays and the tin foil began to cool a little while Barry lay still. Mark reached the top first and looked around the railroad. Val and Fitzhugh came up behind him. Fitzhugh began to ask, "Any signs of..?"

Mark moved his hand at them, "You stay back there." Hopping over the rail, he looked at the lever which Barry had pushed.

"What is it?" Fitzhugh asked, leaning on his hands on his knees momentarily, in a rest from the long climb.

"He was trying to push this lever."

Valerie and Fitzhugh joined Mark. Fitzhugh shrugged, "What for?"

"Trying to make the train change tracks. See, over there..."

Valerie shut her eyes, "Oh, poor Barry..."

Fitzhugh gulped, "Then he was trying to..."

"Save you," Mark put a hand to his own brow, "And there's no...no sign of him here."

Fitzhugh swallowed, "And you think he's..."

Val, sad, sat down on the rail, "He must have died instantly."

Fitzhugh ran down the other side of the hill toward the school side, "No! No! I won't accept that! He's not dead! Barry!"

Mark looked around for any giants. None. He took Val's arm, "We better get away from here."

They walk down the hill carefully where they find Fitzhugh looking around, "Barry! Barry, where are you? Barry!"

Beyond the grass, Val saw movement. "Mark, the school. The kids are coming out for lunch or something. We'd better hide."

Fitzhugh felt sick. "Barry...Barrrr..."

The clouds passed and the sun resumed its shine on Barry and the tin foil. Smoke started to rise up. The foil began to heat all over again.

Fitzhugh began to hit grass aside with his foot and his hands, any stalks that were too high were fair game for him. He became panic stricken.

Val saw a group of boys coming toward the area, "Oh Mark, get him will you?"

Mark put a hand on her shoulder, "Yes, sure. You okay?"

She nodded as bravely as she could and nodded for him to fetch Fitzhugh. Mark ran to the heavy set man, "Fitz...Alex...please stop."

"No! Never! We've got to find...something. Look!"

Barry rolled off the tin foil, groaning in his half conscious state. The foil crackled and then caught fire. The giant boys saw it and ran over to it. Val counted four of them. Three of them spotted the little people. Mark pulled Fitzhugh, "RUN!"

As he was pulled by Mark's hand, Fitzhugh gasped, "Barry! I saw him! He's alive!"

The fourth boy stamped out the fire, nearly hitting Barry by mistake. After he finished, he stared at the foil and it was then he saw the tiny Earth boy. He scooped Barry up and put him in a lunch box. Val, Mark, and Fitzhugh vanished into a tree hole. The three boys looked around in the high grass. "I thought I saw...did you?"

"No way."

They walked off. Mark looked out of the hole in the tree trunk. Mark saw a giant boy with a crewcut who was looking into his lunch box. The giant boy moved off. "Okay, they're moving off." He signals to the other two, "Let's get Barry." Carefully stepping out, he lead them to where the tin foil, now black, was. It was still smoking. "Gone."

Val nodded, "Are you sure it was Barry?"

"I saw it too, Val," Mark confirmed, "That blonde boy. He must have put the fire out and...and saw Barry."

Val broke the extended silence after that. "Well, what are we going to do?"

"Call the others and search every foot of that high school."

"High school?" Fitzhugh asked.

"Yes, Barry was wrong--those boys were too old to be in junior high. We've got to find him," Mark opened his walkie-talkie radio. "Come in, Spindrift."

Later, Steve Burton, Dan Erickson, and Betty Hamilton, the Spindrift ship's crew, met them at the tree hole. Dan scolded, "You shouldn't have come this far."

"Never mind," waved Steve, "What did this boy who took Barry look like?"

Mark frowned, "Well he was tall...no, no, I didn't mean that. He had a slight build, blonde hair, and a light complexion. For a giant and for a teenager, he was somewhat tall."

Betty asked, "What was he wearing?"

"One of those rock band shirts, you know like back on Earth--the Rolling Stones and such."

"Yes," Betty rolled her eyes in disrespect to such bands, "Color?"

"Black with an orange design and blue dungarees. Judging by that recess, I'd say we have about forty five minutes to the next bell between classes. We have to find that kid before the last period," Mark told them.

"If not, Barry is lost," Val said, "With no radio."

Dan stood straighter, "Let's start then."

Steve stood from his crouched position, "Yeah. Val, you come with me. The rest of you find a way in. We'll look around the outside in case he has a free period or is cutting class."

"Good idea," Dan nodded, "See ya."

Dan lead Mark, Fitzhugh, and Betty toward a brick wall, running across a huge parking lot where the only things were giant parked cars. At the brick wall, they leaned against it for support and cover. Fitzhugh puffed, "I don't understand Steve...abandoning us."

"Fitz, he and Valerie have the dangerous part," Dan fidgeted, trying to be patient with the man. He pointed, "There's an air pipe."

"Good," Fitzhugh said, "Let's get in. Right now there's no sign of giant activity anywhere."

The four inch over to the pipe. Dan pulled at a covering that was over it. "Help me get this off." They all pulled it off as fast as possible, spurred on by adrenalin. "There, that ought to do it."

Betty gasped, "Dan!" A huge red mass screeched into the parking lot, smelling of burnt rubber. "A race car!"

"Inside!" Dan pulled her arm, "The rest of you, move it!"

The car was jacked up and it sped around toward their area, past parked autos and came along the wall. It zipped straight up to the vent and turned. As they ran inside the pipe, dirt flew up at them! Inside, they watched as the car wheels backed up away from an adjacent brick wall and pulled away. The noise filled the pipe, making it impossible to talk. Once the silence returned, Dan said, "That's that."

As they turned and went into the pipe, darkness filled Fitzhugh with terror, "Where does this thing lead?"

"We'll know soon enough," Mark pointed, "Look." He saw two ways to go, two pipes springing from the one they were in. "Which way now?"

Betty shook her head toward one, "Why don't we try that way?"

"Sounds good to me," Mark shrugged.

Fitzhugh gulped, "I don't like this. I don't like it at all."

Dan frowned, "You've been in drains before."

"I know but I have a feeling of...dread..."

Betty lightly mocked, "Oh Fitzhugh..."

They started down one way but two beady, red eyes glow out at them from the dark in it. A horrible growl came from the new piping. Both Betty and Fitzhugh screamed as something crawled at them from the new drain--a gigantic rat!