CHAPTER 7

After a nice nap and a quick stop by the cafe for some dinner, Avery headed back to the museum. She walked briskly, being mindful of the others around her and also of the time. She wanted to get in at least 10 minutes before the museum officially closed. By her count, she had just under 7 minutes to make it happen. Jogging the rest of the way she almost collapsed against the stairs.

Phew, made it. Just…gotta…catch my…breath. Think I overdid it while running. Curse you asthma!

Being mindful of the patrons leaving, Avery slipped by and made her way down to the archives room. She had been met by the three old guards talking to Larry before they left. She waved at them and headed to the room. She shut the door for some privacy and opened her Spotify app to play some music to fill the silence as she got to work.

She had just gotten settled in the middle of a pile of files, when she heard the intercom of the museum go off.

"Check, check…I am Larry…"

Avery initially laughed at his antics…until he continued to make ridiculous noises, pretending to beatbox, and sing incredibly off key.

Ugh if he insists on doing that, this is gonna be a long night.

So she just turned up her playlist and let Katy Perry's voice drown out Larry's. He seemed to have stopped after 45 minutes.

Though Avery didn't pay him any attention as she was caught up in her intern duties. There was something off about a few of the artifacts that she had recently cataloged. She knew for a fact that she had seen them with her own two eyes, but now they were nowhere in sight. She remembered where she put them but for some reason they weren't there anymore. It's not like she had been away from them for long, it had only been a day or so since she last dealt with them.

Must make a note of that to bring it up to McPhee. Maybe he's the one who came down here and took them back to his office? Wouldn't he have told me? Maybe my brain is broken? Do I need a break? Her thoughts continued like that while she scoured the archives room from top to bottom, retracing her steps. But the missing artifacts were nowhere to be found. Little did Avery know that another situation was about to present itself.

Larry Daley did not want to admit he fell asleep on the job, but he did.

Ugh, this place is so boring! Nothing exciting is gonna happen. It's a museum for god's sake. Getting up from his post at the receptionist desk, Larry started to walk around.

May as well give this place a walkaround to relieve boredom.

As he walked around, he stopped and started to backtrack.

"Alright, very funny Cecil or Avery! Very funny hiding the skeleton to haze the new guy! You can come out now." Larry had looked around the corner and dropped his flashlight in alarm. This caused a giant t-rex skeleton to look right at him. So he did the only thing a sensible person would do and ran away screaming.

Down below in the archives, Avery felt the vibrations of something large racing up and down the hallway. Rexy must be awake. Hope he doesn't scare Larry too badly… the big ol' puppy rex, she mused. It was then that she decided to run upstairs to check on everything and plus it would give her eyes a nice break from reading over old manuscripts and files.

Larry was in a panic. He tried to escape through the front door but was trapped. By the time Avery had emerged from the staircase, she had caught Larry jumping over the reception desk with the phone in hand. While Rexy was distracted by nudging the desk, Avery swooped in right next to Larry.

"Avery! What are you doing here? Get down, this thing's gonna kill us!"

"Larry, it's alright! It's just-" She was cut off.

"Cecil! Thank god! It's Larry. Yeah, the dinosaur's alive! What do I-" Now Larry was the one who was cut off. The desk at which they were huddled under was lifted into the air and tossed aside. Larry screamed and grabbed hold of Avery, trying to protect the both of them. When suddenly Rexy dropped his bone and pushed it towards them. Avery knew what to do and threw the bone as hard as she could in the opposite direction and helped Larry stand.

"What was that? What kind of place is this? It wants to play fetch? A dinosaur wants to play fetch?" Larry was flabbergasted as he watched Avery throw the bone yet again.

"How are you so calm right now? My heart is beating a mile a minute!"

"Well Larry, I only found out about the magic of this place last week. So I've had some time to get used to it."

"What do I do now! This was not in the job description!"

"How should I know? I'm just an intern, you're the night guard! Didn't Cecil give you some papers that explained it?"

"The instructions yes! Okay now we're getting somewhere!"

Papers in hand, the duo started running down a hallway passing various exhibits. They stopped in front of the Easter Island head where he had called them both 'dum dums.' He wanted to get some gum but unfortunately neither of them had it. But all good things must come to an end, as now the duo were running from a particularly vengeful group led by Attila the Hun. Avery remembered Teddy telling her to stay away from that group, and now she could see why.

Larry felt like he was crazy. Not only did this museum come to life at night, every night; no, it also had weird people who were trying to kill him and Avery! Or maybe it was just him since he was the new night guard. Full on sprinting to the nearest elevator, Avery tried her best to keep up with Larry. They both slammed into the elevator door, horrified when Attila got his head stuck in the door. But as the elevator descended, his head was pushed out at the last second. Larry stood still in shock for a few seconds.

As they reached their level, Larry got out first to make sure the coast was clear. Giving the all clear, Avery stepped out of the elevator. They had run right into the Hall of American History or the hall where Teddy was spying on Sacagawea. While Larry was attempting to talk to Sacagawea, Avery had managed to move along the walls to the next room. Larry, having heard the Huns, tripped as he was running right into the Civil War reenactment. Larry got stuck underneath the battle as Avery watched the scene unfold. She tried to think of ways to help him but ultimately Larry was on his own as he army crawled out of the crossfires. She was waiting for him to collect himself when he just dove out of there like a seal. Avery would have laughed if he hadn't grabbed her arm and started pulling her down another hallway. Once they were a safe distance away, Larry referred to the instructions again.

"Lock up the lions or they'll eat you. Okay where are the lions?" His voice was frantic.

"The Hall is this way!" After countless trips around the museum, Avery was confident in her directions. But just to be sure, they did stop to check in with a… metallic statue of some famous explorer?

One thing at a time, Avery.

As soon as they entered the room, all the heads of the animals turned towards them. Just as they were about to back out of the room, a wooly mammoth appeared and started to push its way in, knocking both humans over. Larry was quick to get back on his feet and close and lock the gates. The only problem…

"Larry! You locked us in with the lions! We're on the wrong side of the gate! We're locked in!" Avery's voice increased in pitch as she watched the lions stalk them.

"Damn it! Okay just stay calm. I can handle this. Heey guys, you wouldn't hurt a new guy on his first night…right?" At that moment Avery would have facepalmed.

"I just need those very important papers right there. No, no! Don't step on them Mr Elephant-."

As Larry was talking he was motioning with his head a way out. But of course it was on the opposite side of the hall. Meaning that they would have to potentially cross paths with some very territorial animals. With a few tense minutes passing by, Larry had pushed Avery to the side in a bid to get her running towards the exit, while he swooped in and grabbed the instructions. Both of them ran through the jungle foliage as fast as they could til they made it to the exit but not without a monkey jumping across their backs. They each took one side of the gate and pulled it closed just in the nick of time too. The male lion jumped at the closed gate and when it realized that the humans were no longer prey, turned its back and walked away.

"Oh thank god. That was intense. Please make sure you lock it tight!" Avery had slid down a wall and was trying to calm her racing heart.

"Uh oh…"

"What 'uh oh'? Where are your keys!"

"Gimme the instructions… Let's see here. The monkey probably stole your keys. What monkey? Oh you, hey little fella! I really need those keys back. What's your name? Dewey? No. Dex-Dexter! Your name is Dexter? I would love it if you gave me those keys back!"

Avery watched from the corner as an adorable little monkey came down onto the gate, proudly showing his shiny prize; the keys. But like all mischievous children, as soon as Larry reached for them, Dexter pulled back. Avery had to admit it was pretty cute. But then it got dangerous…and gross. The naughty monkey had bitten Larry right on the bridge of his nose. And as he scampered away to a tall branch, he let out a steady stream of pee right onto poor Larry. As Larry was thoroughly disgusted by his actions, Avery could have sworn that Dexter winked at her. As Larry began to scold Dexter, he carelessly put his hand which contained the instructions into the gate. To which Dexter swung down on a vine and grabbed them. He went back up to his other buddies and started to rip the papers, much to Larry and Avery's dismay. Avery was more worried about Larry. How was he going to finish the job if he didn't know what he was doing? At this moment, she was glad she was just an intern. She followed Larry to a bench in the adjacent hallway. He had his hands over his face, slumped over his knees.

"Avery, you don't suppose there's another copy of those instructions do you?"

"Afraid not Larry. Like I said, I'm only an intern, not a night guard."

As Larry continued to rant on about how this was crazy and not listed in the job description, movement caught Avery's eye.

"Um Larry, look over your shoulder, but very slowly." Miniature warriors had appeared with weapons in hand. One brought it up to his mouth and bang! A tiny dart had attached itself to Larry's cheek.

"Larry, I think we better move- Ah!" She plucked a dart out of her cheek in the same manner as Larry had. Who knew something so small could cause so much hurt? And before the hand time to react a barrage of arrows were fired at them. Larry was the closest so he was hit with the most. Avery had caught a few strays herself. As they recovered from their initial shock, they stopped to marvel at the miniature worlds around them. The Hall of Miniatures, aptly named.

Unbeknownst to either of them, the sneaky warriors had set a trap and bound their legs with tiny rope. Avery was quick to recover and managed to kick her way out of it as she ran to the exit. Larry was not so lucky as he had fallen onto an old western display. Avery didn't stick around to find out what would happen next. She took off and ran to the safest spot she could think of; the nearest restroom. Once inside, she closed and locked the door and made sure that there weren't any other unwanted visitors. Once she was sure there wasn't, she took the time to look at her reflection in the mirror. From where the darts of the warriors landed, little red bumps appeared. They looked like pimples or at the least mosquito bites. But they hurt like hell and were swollen. So she ran her face under some cold water which relieved some of the initial pain.

Well, I certainly didn't expect to be attacked by tiny people. The lions I get, but not tiny people. God I hope Larry's okay. I did just desert him.

Stepping out of the restroom, she glanced around to make sure nothing else would surprise her. But she didn't know where to look for Larry, so she figured she would meet him in the lobby. Sitting on a bench, she was delighted when she saw Teddy ride up to her, with Larry riding behind him.

"Teddy!"

"Good to see you, Miss Avery!"

"Wait, you two know each other?"

"Like I said Larry, I only found out about this magic last month. And Teddy here is the one who gave me a tour."

"President Theodore Rosevelt at your service. Pleasure to meet you Lawrence!"

"While you two get acquainted, I'm gonna get back to the archives and pack up. Larry, would you meet me by the loading dock to unlock the door for me? I'm sure Cecil has a spare set of keys around the security office. The monkey Dexter took his keys." She explained to Teddy. With that, she was off. She waited about 45 minutes before Larry came back and was able to let her out. She carried herself to her dorm room and promptly collapsed on her bed, still in her day's clothes.

(okay I don't know what the room is called but with Lewis and Clark and the Civil war, i can only assume that that is what it is and i'm gonna stick with it).

This was a fun chapter to write out!