away from them. Sue turned and ran after it.
“Okay, now run!” Steven said.
They only got three feet away when Sue came in front of them and dropped the bone again.
“We can't just stand here throwing this darn bone all night. What should we do?” Steven asked.
Josh picked it up and threw it up to the second floor. Fortunately, with Sue having a huge skeleton, she couldn't reach fit up the stairs far enough to reach the bone. She spent the rest of the night trying to get it.
Meanwhile, Josh and Steve walked away, free from having to play fetch all night.
“What's next on the instructions?”
“'Lock up the lions or they'll eat you.' Uh-oh. I don't like the sound of that.”
They ran as fast as they could toward the exhibit with all the animals. Unfortunately, they were too late. The three lions were standing right in front of the doorway.
“Oh no. Play 'My Heart Will Go On'!” said Josh.
“Why?”
“Because they hate it. Play it now!”
So Steven pulled out his phone and started playing the song. It had no effect. Rather, the lions seemed to get mad and began walking up toward them, preparing to leap. At that point, Steven started singing along. The lions immediately howled in horror and ran away. Josh stepped forward and locked up the exhibit. But not before a monkey jumped at Steven and ripped the manual from his hands.
“Hey! Give that back!” Steven yelled.
The monkey ran away, and Steven began to chase him. Josh decided to go lock up some other exhibits. Just to be safe.
“Hey! Give that back!” Steven yelled, still in pursuit of the monkey. It looked back and shook it's head, then continued running. Finally, it ran into a corner.
“End of the line cool breeze. End of the line.” Steve said.
The monkey responded by ripping the manual in half.
“Hey!” Steven jumped at him, and grabbed him around the waist. So the monkey slapped him. Steven slapped back. The monkey slapped Steven. Steven slapped back. The monkey slapped Steven. Steven slapped back. The monkey slapped Steven. Steven slapped back. The monkey slapped Steven. Steven slapped back. The monkey slapped Steven. Steven slapped back.
“Stop that!” said Balto.
“But he slapped me first!” said Steven.
“It doesn't matter. You must treat this creature with delicacy and respect.”
“He also tore up my instruction manual!”
As if to highlight this point, the monkey ripped it again.
“So? Contact whoever gave it to you and have them give you another one.”
Josh was in a room with dioramas filled with little people and animals. In the first one was a diorama of the Plains out in the 'Wild West'. All that was in that one was buffalo. In the next one was Indians. Josh looked down at them and realized they were building something.
“Hey! Little people down there! What are you doing?” he asked.
A small Indian (who appeared to be the chief) said “We are building a bridge! We have run out of food, so we must get to those bison so we can survive!”
“Who are you anyway? Chief Sitting Bull?”
“No, I am none other than Chief Running Nose, chief of the tribe of the Wannahockaloogie!”
“Running Nose? Wannahockaloogie? What, is your medicine man named Falling Pants?”
“No, that is my son.”
“Ah.”
He walked to the next one, inhabited by cowboys. They also appeared to be building a bridge.
“And what are you doing?” Josh asked.
“Shh!” said a cowboy. “We're tryin' to build a bridge over the Injuns! We're runnin' outta room in this tiny box, so we're expandin' over there!”
“How? Indians are in that one!”
“Then we move 'em or conquer 'em!”
“Now that's not a very nice thing to do.”
“Neither is you lockin' us up in here every night!”
“I'm not the one that does that! I'm new here!”
“Yer lyin'! Cavalry! Fire!”
A dozen little men in army outfits lined up on the edge of their box and fired. They hardly hand any effect on Josh. To him it just felt like they were throwing pebbles in his face.
“Wow.” he said sarcastically. “That's all the better you can do?”
“Load the cannon!” the cowboy said.
“Aw crap.”
“So, would you mind explaining what exactly is going on here?” Steven asked Balto. “I mean, aren't you supposed to be... you know...”
“Dead?” asked Balto. “Yes, we should.”
“Then why aren't you?”
Balto led him to the area where they displayed the crystals, gems, and rocks.
“See that moon rock? That got here thirty years ago. Every night since it arrived, everything in this museum has turned to life. And, in addition, I can somehow talk, too.”
“But it's just an ordinary moon rock. It's not like they're radioactive or anything like that. I've seen plenty of moon rocks, even held them, but nothings ever happened to me.”
“I don't know why it happens, I just know that moon rock is what brings us to life every night. If there's something special about it, I don't know.”
“Hey! Did you hear me? I said don't fire the cannon!”
“Too bad Gigantor! Fire!”
“Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. What's your name?”
“Jedidiah. What's it to you?”
“Okay, look Jedidiah, I don't know why you're so mad at me, but I can assure you, I didn't do it!”
“Fire!”
This time it felt like Josh had been punched in the stomach. He fell forward and had to brace himself against the box in order to remain standing. In response, hordes of the little cowboys ran onto his arm and crawled down him until they got to the floor. Josh was having too much pain in his belly to do anything about it. The cowboys started tying his feet up, wrapping them in rope. Finally, Josh noticed what they were doing. He turned around, and at that moment the little cowboys around his feet grabbed his toes and lifted. Eventually the exerted enough force to knock him over. He fell backward and landed in the box, with his head on the railroad tracks. Little cowboys ran over to him and tied him down.
“Fire up the Iron Horse boys!” shouted Jedidiah.
“Hey, stop the train!” Josh shouted.
“No can do Gigantor.”
“Stop the train! Now!”
“Alright, stop the train.”
“Thank you.”
“Now full speed ahead and ram him! Split his head like a watermelon!”
The train came bearing down on him faster and faster, steam shooting out, until.................................... Thunk
The train just hit Josh in the side of the head and fell over on it's side.
“Fer cryin' out loud!” Jedidiah shouted angrily.
“Okay, I've had enough of this.” Josh ripped all the ropes off of him, and stood up. The little cowboys both on the ground and in the box pulled out their guns and started firing little pellets at him. He picked up all the cowboys on the ground up and put them back in the box.
“Reload the cannon! It brought him down once, it can do it again!” Jedidiah shouted.
“You know, all I need to do is squeeze the end of the barrel and it'll scrunch down on itself. It'll jam the gun.” Then Josh felt a quick, sharp pain on his back. He turned around and saw four Phalanxes of Roman soldiers behind him (a phalanx is a square formation of soldiers, eight wide, eight deep).
“Hey, what are you doing?” asked Josh.
“We must expel you from our land!” shouted a Roman soldier. He looked like their leader.
“How are you going to expel me? I'm five foot nine, and all you are smaller than my thumb.”
“We may be small, but our hearts are large! Uh, metaphorically speaking.”
“Okay, who are you supposed to be? Julius Caesar?”
“I am Roman General Octavius!”
“He's an idiot, that's who he is.” whispered Jedidiah.
“I heard that! You will pay for that remark! With your life!” He pulled his sword.
“Oh yeah?” Jedidiah shouted. He pulled out his gun and took a shot at Octavius (he missed) who then ordered his men and catapults to fire. Jedidiah ordered his men to fire. When the cannon was loaded, they angled it down toward the two phalanxes in the middle and fired. It took out about twenty of the men.
Octavius was furious. “Prepare the ladders! Climb into their box! Chaaaaaaaarrrrrrge!”
The entire Roman charged up the ladders into the the cowboys box. Jedidiah ran forward and pushed one of the ladders backward. It leaned back and fell to the ground. Soon the whole box was a maelstrom of cowboys and Romans, arrows and bullets flying everywhere, catapults still firing, cannons going off, and swords and spears being twirled and thrown every which way.
“Well, at least the Indians aren't in on it.” Josh thought.
Except, he realized, they were. The cowboys had gotten far enough on the bridge that the Indians could lay ladders across and reach the bridge. Then they started flooding over into the battle.
“Great,” Josh thought “Just great.”
“Well Steven,” said Balto “it's almost dawn. I'll help you restore order this time, but after that it's your own responsibility.”
“Why? What's the big deal with you helping me?”
“You've had greatness thrust upon you. Do you realize that our life is in your hands?”
“How's that?”
“The moon rock only keeps us alive when we're inside. If we're outside when the sun rises, we turn to dust.”
“So then why is your life in my hands? Just stay inside.”
“Because I'm the only one that knows. You see, a little while after we started coming to life, one of us ventured outside, right when the sun was rising. I saw him turn to dust. I was the only one who saw as well.”
“Why didn't
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overcondensed the plot a bit, but you did an awesome job all
the same!