by Amelia Baker

Epilogue

I stepped into our new house. It was a lot bigger than the one in Almo but I still hated it. I felt out of place, like when I was running late for school and I had an outfit that I just whipped on that didn’t match.

I didn’t want to move to Mutterville. But I had no choice. Papa had lost his job and we couldn’t afford to live in Almo anymore. It was too expensive. So we moved to this creepy suburb in the middle of Arizona called Mutterville. In Almo my friends told me lots of stuff about creepy places you should never visit or live, one of them was Mutterville. They said that Mutterville was like a ghost town, there were underground passages everywhere with dangerous fish in the underground rivers. Plus it had the weirdest history of people disappearing, and when Mama and Papa told me we were moving to Mutterville I almost fainted. So here I am in Mutterville, praying Mama and Papa would change their minds and move back to Almo.

Chapter 1

“Auggie, let’s go!” Mama yelled. We had been living in Mutterville for a month now, and that month had gone by like a blink of an eye. 

“Why can’t you visit the school without me?” I argued.

 “Why does it matter?!,” Mama yelled, “I don’t care if you don’t want to go, you’re going whether you like it or not!”

“FINE!” I screamed. I stormed past her as I murmured, “I hate this place.”

When I saw my new school I immediately knew this was going to be the worst school year of my life. The school looked like an old rundown shack. It had rotten wood surrounding the whole building and the sign that was suppose to say ‘Mutterville Westbrook School’ said

‘Mut erv ll   Westbro k  s h ol’ instead.

“This school looks like it came from the dump.” I told mama. 

“Well I guess you’ll be going to a school from the dump for 10 months.” She told me. I groaned. 

Chapter 2

The principal greeted us at the door. He was a small man, about 5ft 4, with grey short hair and green eyes.

 “Hello! You must be Auggie, I’m Mr. Harrison. Welcome to Mutterville Westbrook School.” Mr. Harrison held out his hand to shake mine. I denied it. He put his and down and gave me a funny look. Mama glared at me. 

“Anyway,” he continued. “Your homeroom teacher is Mr. Barry, and your homeroom class is 106, it’s right down the hall.” I nodded and started walking to my homeroom. Mama yelled from behind me and told me we weren’t done talking to the Principal. The Principal told her not to worry about it so I just kept walking. When I reached room 106 Mr. Barry wasn’t there so I just decided to roam around. There was nothing interesting, just cheesy posters around the classroom that say, ‘Be the reason someone smiles today!’ Or ‘Like a Proton, Stay Positive!’ and just the same old school supplies every school has. I heard some screaming in the hallway so I walked out of the classroom to see what was going on. Nothing seemed to be happening, in fact there was nobody in the hall and there was an awkward silence, it didn’t bother me so I just ignored the awkwardness and decided to just go and find Mama. That’s until I realized there were muddy footprints all over the school. “Dang!” I said to myself. “These footprint’s are huge!” The footprint’s were 3x’s the size of my foot and I wore a 7 ½ in men’s. These weren’t human feet, they were way too big. So if they weren’t human feet, whose feet were they then?

Chapter 3

The footprints led all the way into the cafeteria. The weird thing was, the footprints stopped smack in the middle of the floor. Then all of a sudden someone yelled from behind me,

“Holy cow!” I almost peed my pants. I turned around to see who had scared the heck outta me, a kid my age was staring at me with big eyes.

“WHAT WAS THAT FOR???!!!!!” I barked at him. 

“Sorry if I scared you but how in the heck did you not get captured by that Himgrid?! They would smell you!!” 

“Ummm don’t know, I have no idea what you’re talking about but I gotta go find my mom, bye.” I started to take off when he yelled from behind me,

 “Your mom isn’t here!! The Himgrid took her, the same as everybody else who was in this school! Well except for you and me because we don’t have a human smell but how in the world do you not have a human smell, I thought I was the only one, EVER.” I stopped running and rolled my eyes.

 “Listen kid,” I told him “I’m not going to play fantasy with you right now. I’m too old for that stuff.” stopped talking for a second waiting for a response, and then continued, “and so are you, now if you excuse me I have to go find my mom.” 

“Again, you mom isn’t here, and I’m not playing a fantasy game! Look at the size of that footprint, It’s not human, It’s a Himgrids footprint! Please, please, please, believe me! Everybody’s in danger, we have to save them!” I stopped walking and thought for a moment. He started to sound desperate, and when I was in the classroom I heard screaming. The school was awkwardly empty and quiet after the screaming stopped, plus those footprint’s didn’t look human so I changed my mind and I stopped running. I turned around, and walked back towards him. “You’re sure you’re not playing a game with me?!” I asked him with narrowed eyebrows. “I’m more than 1000% sure.” He answered with confidence. 

“Well then,” I said, sticking my hand out to shake his. “Let’s go save my mom…and others, oh and I’m Auggie.”

He smiled and grabbed my hand, 

“I’m Zeek.”

Chapter 4

  “This is the school,” Zeek said pointing to a red X on a map of Mutterville he had just pulled out from his pocket. “Somewhere in this school is going to either have an X carved or painted on the building, I’ll go look for the X on the left side of the school, you go to the right.” I nodded in agreement and started looking, this was going to take forever but it was worth it. I just hope he’s telling the truth.

Chapter 5

I was looking in the bathrooms when I heard Zeek screamed from the top of his lungs, 

“I FOUND IT, I FOUND IT, AUGGIE COME HERE, I FOUND IT!!!!!”

I ran over to Zeek as fast as I could. The X was in the most unexpected place. It was painted in a thick red across the floor. “Nice find!!” I told him. 

“Thanks!” Zeek responded, “Now let’s go save everybody.” 

Chapter 6

We pulled out the tile that was the center of the red X. Not to my surprise it was a loose tile and easy to pull out, somebody had probably been here. When the tile was fully off I noticed there was a rope ladder leading down into the darkness. 

“You first.” I offered.

“Suit yourself.” Zeek said with a smile. He took off his backpack which I somehow had never noticed and held it out to me.

“Hold this.” Zeek said. I took the bag and Zeek climbed down. A few moments later Zeek yelled,

“I’m down, chuck me my bag!” I threw down his bag and started climbing. The rope ladder was old and tattered. I struggled to get down but eventually I succeeded. It was very dark in the underground passage and you couldn’t really see anything. Fortunately Zeek had a flashlight in his backpack and clicked it on. 

“Let’s go fight some Himgrids!” Zeek said enthusiastically, “Oh and I’ll explain to you who and what Himgrids are on the way.”

“Sounds like a plan to me!” I agreed.

        And just like that, our real adventure had begun.

Chapter 7

The cave looked like one of those secret passages from Indian I Jones. There were human skeletons lying on both sides of the cave, with the biggest spider webs and spiders I had ever seen, and every once in a while I saw a rat running across the cave. 

“What do you think this will lead to?” I asked

“Hopefully a lake or any body of water.” Zeek answered. 

“Why?”

“Because that’s the only way I could generate our only transportation to the Himgrids world.” Zeek answered.

I thought for a second, this cave could be our only hope. The closest body of water near Mutterville is over 5000 miles away. We couldn’t save mama and the others without a body of water, at least according to Zeek.

“And what if there’s no lake or anything down here?” I asked.

“There should be. It says on my map.”

“Oh…ok, anyway about Himgrid’s…”

“Thought you might ask.” Zeek told me with a smile,

“Himgrids are big hairy dudes about 10 ft tall. There very dumb, so it’s easy to fool them, but there strong. They live in a secret world that you can only access by a specific vehicle. Mine, like I already told you, can only be generated on a body of water, so hopefully they’ll be a river down here. Anyway, Himgrids have an evil plan to take over our world, starting with small towns and suburbs then, as they grow stronger they’ll start taking over cities, states, country’s, and continent’s. The only way to save our world and destroy theirs is to get the blue gem that holds their power and life. The gem is hidden behind a secret door in the boss’s office. You can only access it with his keycard. Once you have the jem you chant the words, ‘Defeat all Himgrids, take their power, Bury their Souls!!! And they’ll be destroyed.” 

“And…`how do you know It works?” I asked.

“When the world feels like it’s spinning really fast, and then you go right back to your home.”  Zeek answers

“Oh, that makes a lot more sense now, but how do we get the jem?” 

“I’ll think of a plan.” Zeek answered 

After minutes of silence and dodging spiderwebs. The cave began to shake. When I looked behind me I saw that there were hundreds, thousands, millions,, of rats chasing us. 

“Run!” We both screamed. 

We ran as hard as we could, the rat’s were behind, but not by too much. Then we came across a river, this is a Miracle!!! I said to myself. Rat’s were afraid of water, and even better, we could spawn the vehicle. “Yes!” Zeek cried.“There is a lake!”. 

“We have to jump!” I screamed. 

“Good idea, let me just get out th—“

“There’s no time we have to jump now!” I interrupted. 

“Ready, 3…2…1 jump!” We jumped in the lake. The rat’s stopped at the water and hissed at us. Then they ran back. 

“Yes!” We both screamed with joy! But our joy didn’t last very long because we soon realized that we were surrounded by piranha’s, 50 of them at least. 

“Quick generate the ship!!” I told him in a desperate voice. Then all of sudden Zeek screamed, “

“Ow! A piranha just Bit me!” 

Then one bit me, and another, and another, and for 5 whole minutes we screamed from all the biting Pirinhas. After those terrible 5 minutes Zeek finally had the strength to get the remote out of his backpack that generates the ship. He pushed a button and a few seconds later the ship was floating on the water. It was an oval shape with a giant window in the front and back of it. It was yellow and baby blue. It looked like a gyrosphere from Jurassic world and a submarine mixed. I’m gonna call it a gyrosub.

“Get in!” Zeek yelled. I swam to the Gyrosub and pulled myself in. A few moments later we were hovering over the water, finally safe from the piranhas.

“Dang, that was quite a horrifying experience.” I said

Zeek nodded in agreement. 

“Where are we off to next, captain.” I asked Zeek.

“To save our world!” Zeek answered, 

“Oh and I came up with a plan on how we could get the jem, and destroy the Himgrids.”

“Great, tell me.”

Zeek told me his plan, it was genius.

Chapter 8

Zeek parked the Gyrosub behind a line of big bushy trees so the Himgrids wouldn’t see us or the Gyrosub, but it was close enough to the building just in case the plan didn’t work. There was a vent on the side of the building, big enough for us to slide into one at a time. I opened the vent and started climbing up the ladder that led us to the ceiling vent. When I first saw Himgrid I realized how horrifying they looked, they had brown bushy fur, red eyes, and their whole bottom row of teeth stuck out. Before we reached the boss’s office we passed fighting Himgrids, working Himgrids, and other Himgrid things. I stopped crawling when Zeek whispered,

“This below us is the boss’s office, The Himgrid sitting at the desk is the boss behind him is the hidden door. Now are you ready to defeat the Himgrid’s once and for all?” 

“I was born ready.” I said with a thumbs up.

“All right then,” Zeek started, “Let’s do this.” We quietly high fived and wished each other good luck. Then Zeek took the knife he was keeping in his backpack and cut a circle in the vent. Zeek made it look really easy. He sliced his knife through the aluminum like he was cutting a tomato, it made no sound. Then Zeek pushed me thru the hole. (Don’t worry it’s part of the plan.) I fell on the floor and faked a loud groaning noise.

“Take that you dumb Himgrid!” Zeek pretends to say to us, “That’s what you get when your parents try to attack me!!” The real Himgrids look at Zeek, their probably security guards. I can tell from their outfits. The security guards faces go from the usual terrifying Himgrid look, to a monstrous, I-want-to-kill-you look. Then one of them shouts to Zeek.

“Hey, I remember you! Get him!” Zeek starts fast crawling through the vent, and the security guards chase after Zeeks loud banging noises, step 1 worked, thank god. Then the Boss walks over to me. 

“Who are you!” The boss says in a booming voice. 

“Please help me!” I fake begged him, “That terrible human shaved my fur to skin and he knotted my parents in ropes at the creek.

 “Oh I’m so sorry for yelling at you fella.” The boss says in a kind but still deep voice. He turns around and mumbles words on how to save my fake parent’s and capture Zeek. This gave me a chance to steal his keycard. It was hanging on the back of his pant’s. So I quietly uncliped his keycard and stuck it in my pocket. A few seconds later he turns back around and says to me, 

“Ok little fella stay here and make yourself comfortable while I hunt that human down and save you parents.” 

I smiled and thanked him. The boss left the room and made an announcement through the speakers about saving my fake parent’s and then hunting down Zeek. I heard a whole bunch of “RAWRS” And “Grrrrrrr’s” for about a minute, once it stopped I took the keycard out of my pocket and held it on the wall. The secret door opened. I had to be quick, so I immediately snatched the jem. An alarm blared. I tucked the jem tight in my arm and started running as fast as I could through the holes in the walls the Himgrids made when chasing Zeek. 

ZEEK:

The Himgrids chased my loud crawling noise. They smashed through any wall as long as they could hear me. I stopped when I knew I was in the prisoners room. The Himgrids stopped right under me. Then I threw my knife as far and as hard as I could, the himgrids went chasing after it, my plan was going pretty smoothly so far. There was a clear vent you could open that led down into the prisoners room. I opened it and climbed down the ladder that was attached to the wall. I looked at all the prisoners, there were at least 50, that was a lot of doors to open, so I needed to go quickly. I looked around the room to see if there was a key anywhere. Sure enough there was a key hanging up near the door. I grabbed it and started unlocking everyone’s door. Once I was done I peeked through the walls. I could see the Himgrids only a couple of rooms away, they were all stuck in the vent. I laughed a little. But then I saw Auggie running to me. He had the JEM!

AUGGIE:

I arrived at the prison room and held up the Jem. Mama came over and hugged me. I high fived Zeek and then he put his hand on the Jem. We told everyone else to put their hand on the jem too. Once we got everybody together, I could hear the Himgrids running at us and shouting. We screamed louder, “Defeat all Himgrids, kill their power, bury their souls!” 

Then all of a sudden the world spun and everybody was back to their houses, we had defeated the Himgrids, and it was all because of Zeek. After that big adventure Zeek and I became best friends. I learned he actually lived across the street from me, so we were also neighbors! I still wonder why Zeek knew all that stuff about Himgrids and how the Himgrids knew him. But every time I ask him about that, he always changes the subject or says “I don’t know.” I guess he doesn’t like to talk about it but that’s ok. 

We never moved back to Almo. But I don’t care, I love it here.

Characters:

AUGGIE:

Mama:

Zeek:

Mr. Harrison:

Himgrids: