Prologue
“Here comes the airplane,” my mom whispered as she gave me some mashed bamboo. I opened my mouth wide and used the only tooth I have to suck the food into my mouth.
“How’s my little panda,” my dad asked me as he walked in. I looked over at him and I started to giggle and my food came flying out of my mouth and onto the table.
“Awww that was so cute, right Ella, he has an awesome smile just like yours,” Dad gushed.
“Micheal yours is awesome too, don’t be so humble,” Mom smiled.
“Hey dad, hey mom,” my brother groaned as he made some breakfast.
“Danny, remember to walk with a good posture. We don’t wanna set a bad example for cute little Samuel,” My dad scolded.
“Ugh whatever dad,” my brother moaned as the leaves rustled and a branch cracked.
“Hunters. You guys better leave before they get here. Danny hold your brother and run as fast as you can,” My dad asked. Danny picked me up and looked behind him, but what he saw was scarier than anything imaginable, mom and dad laying on the ground. Dead.
“No, please no, why did this have to happen?” My brother cried as he picked a scared crying Samuel and ran with me in his arms as fast as he could.
He ran, and ran, and ran not paying attention to what was happening he couldn’t see anything but the picture of his parents laying on the ground. Dead.
He didn’t make it that far before we were picked up by a helicopter and that was when I woke up.
Chapter 1
I jumped out of bed, put my clothes on and jumped into bed again and started to cry. I thought about what was happening and why in my head I thought. “My name is Samuel, I am 10 years old, I am trapped in a zoo, I want my parents back, I don’t know how I’ll do that yet, I need friends to help me, and I want a less protective brother. I looked up at the sky and saw the most beautiful creature ever, a unicorn, but when I looked down and back it was gone.
After a few minutes of crying my over protective, chubby, and almost never growing brother walked in (it was 5am so he was pretty tired and annoyed).
“What’s going on, why are you crying?” He asked.
“I remembered what happened, I remember it every single year and It’s horrible every single year. I want it to stop, please help me.”
“I can’t bring people back to life only the unicorns can do that, oops sorry pretend I didn’t say that it’s just an old wives tale you’re only 10, so don’t go off looking for them, I doubt they would help you anyway, so just promise me you’ll stay at the zoo where it’s safe”.
“Wait, you’re telling me you knew how to save Ella and Michael but you didn’t, do you even care about them anymore?”
I sobbed as I ran away and I’m pretty sure he mumbled something but I didn’t look back. I ran to the far side of the zoo and cried and cried and cried. I saw a glimmer of hope in the air it wasn’t just a glimmer of hope though it was a glimmer, a clue that they’re up there and I will find them either with my brother’s help or without it
After a few hours of crying I heard a branch break and I saw a shadow of what looked to be a penguin. Soon the penguin came out of the bushes and started walking towards me. I started to walk away, but part of me thought maybe he could help me break out of the zoo so I stayed put while he walked over to me.
“Psst, I can help you,” the penguin whispered. I turned around and saw a cute, fluffy, and tiny penguin (he was smaller than me so that’s pretty small).
“I overheard your conversation and I wanted to help you, the hunters killed my friend’s parents, and I believe the unicorns can bring them back to life, he doesn’t but he’s super smart so he said he’ll get us outta here, and just so you know my name’s Alex,”Alex told me as he gave a secret hand signal to a lion wearing glasses.
“Hey, my name’s Charlie, and I’m gonna break you out of this zoo,” Charlie grinned as he read a book (that I’ve never heard of) called Moby Dick.
Chapter 2
“Everyone listening? Cuz’ I’m not repeating my plan,” Charlie asked as he bit into a donut. I wanted to ask him where he got it but I didn’t want to interrupt him (he’s very intimidating). “First step: knock 1 guard from the opposite side of the zoo out so the other guards get distracted. Second step: make a hay staircase using the hay from the farm animals area. Third step: sneak past the guards because they will shoot you with a tranquilizer gun if they see you and then we’ll have to start over. Step four: hide in the trees in Central Park and brainstorm what to do next,” Charlie explained. “Any questions?” He asked. No one said anything “ok good, so I guess we should start. Panda you go get the bamboo and knock any guard on that side of the zoo out, but only knock out one,”
“My name’s Samuel,” I mumbled.
“What?” Charlie asked.
“My name is Samuel,” I half yelled, half mumbled.
“Ok Samuel do what I just told you to do if you wanna get your family back,” Charlie growled. I quickly ran back to the panda area though I wasn’t excited to see my brother. Our morning got off to a rocky start and I haven’t forgiven him just yet.
“Ok, Alex head to the farm animal area to get the hay and then call me using our signal, by the time you have all the hay Samuel should be back, if not we’re leaving without him. I want my family back, but if the unicorns you tell me about aren’t real, then at least we get an adventure, I haven’t had one since the school field trip, that day my parents died when we came here on the school field and ironically enough now I’m trapped here.”
“Ok Charlie, but if we leave without Samuel the unicorns won’t help us, because if you want the unicorns to help you, you have to have never done anything unkind,”
“Ok fine,” Charlie groaned. Alex quickly left to get the hay before Charlie changed his mind about bringing Samuel, “to be totally honest I kinda like Samuel, not as much as I like Charlie (we’ve been friends since preschool), but he’s definitely kinder than Charlie,” Alex thought.
I finally got to the bamboo, Alex probably already has the hay so I better knock the guard out quickly. I grabbed a piece of bamboo and hit the closest guard and then quickly ran away but someone was chasing me (they looked like a panda).
“Samuel stop now!” I recognize that voice that’s my brother’s voice I jolted to a stop so he could catch up to me.
“Why did you knock that guard out?” He asked. I wanted to tell the truth but then he wouldn’t let me escape so I made up a lie.
“He was pointing the gun at me, and I thought he would pull the trigger.”
“Oh, ok but don’t go looking for those dang unicorns ok,” He grunted.
“Ok,” I lied again as I ran back to Charlie and Alex.
We quickly escaped our cages, snuck past some guards, ran out the zoo, and regrouped on a tree at Central Park.
Chapter 3
“What should we do next?” I asked Alex as I climbed up a bushy tree so no one could see me.
“I don’t know, ask Charlie,” Alex replied.
“Don’t talk to me I’m brainstorming,” Charlie growled, while me and Alex walked away so Charlie could brainstorm in peace. While we were walking we overheard the zookeeper talking to some guards.
“How the heck did they escape? I paid billions of dollars for that panda and I want him dead, find him and kill him. Also the penguin and lion escaped I reckon they were helping each other so kill them too. Don’t just stand there, find them already; they’ll probably be in Central Park,”
After we heard what the zookeeper said we ran back to Charlie.
“We have to leave now, the guards are after us, and they are not afraid to kill us,” I explained to Charlie.
“Well that’s the best news I’ve heard all day, that means that they think we’re here so they won’t be guarding the only route to the unicorns, the Cloud Route, but to get to that you have to go up the Empire State Building, which will be infested with people,” Charlie warned.
“Well what are we waiting for, let’s head there right now, I may even see it,” I squinted.
“Well then let’s go,” Alex cheered.
We all ran to a building that looked like it took years to make. When we got there we ran behind it and talked about how’d we get in undetected.
“So how are we going to get in?” I asked.
“Two words, fire alarm,” Charlie grinned his sneaky grin as he explained his plan.
Chapter 4
I heard screams in the distance as people ran out the building screaming the word fire over, and over again. I felt bad but I knew I had to do this because if I didn’t what would I do? Get shot definitely not, live by myself all alone, no thank you, sneak back into the zoo and face my brother, I couldn’t.
When I thought about him it made me think, once mom and dad are back when would he meet them? It’s not like I can just waltz into the zoo, they’ll kill me in an instant. I’ll figure that out later, right now I need to listen to Charlie.
“Now that everyone’s out of the building, we should head inside,” Wheeeoo, Wheeeoo, we all turned around and saw a bright red fire truck two times the size of a limo.
“Everyone check the perimeter, make sure it wasn’t a false alarm,” The chief yelled.
As soon as we heard check the perimeter we jumped into the dumpster and hid.
A few hours later we heard a firefighter tell the chief that there was no sign of fire, probably just a false alarm. After the chief heard what the other guy said, he packed up shop and drove away in his shiny truck grumbling things like waste of time, and stupid alarm.
As soon as he left we ran into the building, hopped into the elevator, and pressed the button saying roof. As soon as we got to the top we saw a cloud staircase marked The Cloud Route, we looked around to make sure no one was there, we didn’t see anyone so we walked forward until we heard a voice from behind us.
“Well, well, well if it isn’t Samuel the panda, I’m going to make your death so painful you’ll wish I shot you,” He laughed.
I started to run away, but he shot a sleepy dart into my back (he did the same thing with Charlie, and Alex).
I woke up in a cell a few hours later. It was pitch black so I was guessing it was around 1 am I wonder what my brother would think of me now a few words popped into my head, like liar, rotten, selfish. I wanted to believe that they weren’t true but if I look at all the things I’ve done in the past day they don’t really seem like the most selfless things I’ve ever done. I wanted to go back to sleep but my body wouldn’t let me, so I just rested for the next few hours and thought.
At 4am I heard the guard shooting his machine gun so fast, it woke Alex and Charlie up instantly. “Alright slackers wake up it’s time for our first torcher of the day it’s call-BONK bamboo just hit the guard in the head.
“Hey lil’ bro nice to see you again.”
Chapter 5
“How did you know we were here?” I asked Danny.
“Charlie told me, we’ve been in contact ever since you left the zoo,” Danny replied.
“But how did you know who Charlie is?” I asked him.
“Before you were born we met up with their family, and when we were there Charlie’s sister and I became good friends, before she and her parents were shot,” Danny responded.
“Danny’s right, the only reason I was helping you in the first place, was to get my family back, but now that we were actually kinda friends I was doing this to be kind and to get my family back,” Charlie explained.
“Now that we’re out of those claustrophobic cages, let’s get a move on, I bet more hunters are on the way because they definitely haven’t heard back from the hunter Samuel’s brother knocked out,” Alex stated.
As soon as we heard what Alex told us we started to walk up the Cloud Route. After a lot of walking I looked up and saw the most beautiful animal I’ve ever seen, a unicorn, she had a silver body, a rainbow main, pink eyes, a gold horn, and bronze hooves, she was so flawless and she made it look so easy just like the one I saw yesterday morning.
After we stared at her for a while we started to walk again and we eventually got to Kloud Kingdom (this is where the unicorns live).
“Well, hello there, my name is Lily, I am the queen of Kloud Kingdom, you are here because you want something, and you think I can give it to you, I can but you shall have to do a deed so kind, it will erase every single bad deed you’ve ever done, just to name a few, knocking people out, lying, faking fires, and helping people for your own selfish needs,” Lily explained.
“So, what do we have to do?” I asked.
“All you have to do is read my daughter a bedtime story,” She replied.
“Ok, where is she?” Danny asked.
“I don’t have one, this is a test and you passed, most people just walk out of here and say I don’t care about your stupid daughter, but you didn’t, so may Charlie and Samuel follow me,” Lily smiled.
“Ok, Lily” I grinned back as we started walking forward to a room called the Resurrection Room.
“Ok, guys a few things about this room are, you can only bring back people you love, so no friends, you can’t go into this room if you’re not bringing back a family member, and you have to have a kind heart and use your manners,” she explained.
“I’m pretty sure we meet all of those requirements,” I joked.
“Ok then head on in,” Ella responded.
When she said that, me and Charlie walked into a giant room, with a huge mirror.
“This is awesome I get to see my parents again,” I grinned.
“So do I,” Charlie grinned back.
I let Charlie go first so he stepped up to the mirror and said.
“My name is Charlie Alexander Jackson, may I please bring back my mom, dad, and sister,”
We waited a few minutes and eventually his parents and sister walked out of the mirror and hugged him. Soon he and his family gave me some space to bring my parents back.
I waited a few minutes before stepping up to the mirror and saying.
“My name is Samuel Roberts Bailey, may I please bring back my parents,”
After a few minutes of waiting all alone I saw a shadow in the mirror that looked like a panda, I looked closer and saw 2 shadows that looked like pandas, and then they came out. My parents. I squeezed them so hard they couldn’t breath. Eventually we walked out of the room hugging each other.
“Where are we going next,” I asked.
“Home,” they replied.
I smiled to myself as we walked over to my brother.
“Thank you so much for everything,” we thanked.
As we walked back I looked around at all the places we went to yesterday and then I looked back at my parents feeling thankful that I have them back and I’ll never lose them again I thought as we walked all the way back to our small cottage hidden in Central Park.
The End