“Why didn't you tell everyone else?”

“It's not my place to. It's your responsibility, remember?”

The next morning, the first people to arrive were the five men who Steven and Josh replaced.

“We just wanted to drop by and see how things went on your first night.” said Bob.

“Oh fine,” said Josh “Except for the fact that everything comes to life! I think you overlooked that minor little point.”

“Well, if we'd told you, you wouldn't have believed us.”

“Say, you wouldn't happen to have an extra copy of that manual would you?” asked Steven “That little monster of a monkey tore it up.”

“Dexter? He tore up your manual? Ha ha!”

“Dexter, you say his name is? Yeah, him.”

“No, I don't have an extra copy. Sorry.”

“Great. Look, you can just take your jobs back.” Steven said “I don't know about Josh, but I want an ordinary job that isn't life threatening! Understand?”

“I agree,” said Josh. “This job is definitely not worth $11.50 an hour.”

“Look, that's what I thought at first. Just try reading up on your history. It helped me a lot when I first started out. Give it one more night, okay? Besides, this time you'll be expecting everything, and you can prepare, so I guarantee it will easier.”

“Well, okay. Fine. But if it isn't easier tonight, I'm quitting.”

“Okay, that's fair. Well, we've got some stuff still in our office, so we're just gonna run up there and get it.”

“Alright. Feel free.”

Bob was right. The next night, things were much easier. The had bought a remote control car that they tied the bone to. Then they taped the steering wheel down on the remote so that the car would keep doing 360's all night. Steven immediately locked up the animals exhibit, and Josh went to the diorama room with a little proposition for Running Nose, Jedidiah, and Octavius. He told them if they wouldn't fight with each other, he would let them out. They accepted. However, a few minutes later he was walking by, and noticed commotion in the diorama room. He walked in, and saw hordes of Indians, Cowboys, and Romans fighting.

“Oh great. Just great! This is worse than before!”

He walked in, kicking people and catapults out of his way. Finally, he found his targets. Running Nose, Jedidiah, and Octavius. Not surprisingly, they were fighting amongst each other. He picked them all up and carried them over to a bench.

“Put me down!” shouted Jedidiah “I don't like to be manhandled!”

“Too bad!” Josh shouted back. He put them all down on the bench.

Jedidiah was furious. “I'm gonna shoot you in the eye, right in the dad gum eye!” He pulled the trigger, but nothing happened.

“Ha ha. You're out of bullets!” said Octavius.

“Shut up Octavus.” Josh said.

“It'sOctavius, Goshua.”

“Anyway, as I was about to say, what happened to our agreement? I told you I'd let you out if you didn't fight. But guess what? You're fighting!”

“Look, we're men, of course we fight,” said Jedidiah “It's sort of how we pass the time. You're a giant, a freak. We can't expect you to understand that Gigantor.”

“Oh, and another thing, quit calling me Gigantor! It me feel like a monster or something! Would you like it if I called you Teeny? How do you like that? Teeny!”

“Well, I don't! It hurts my feelings.”

“Okay then, don't call me Gigantor.”

“I just call you Josh.” said Octavius.

“Oh, don't simper to him!” said Running Nose. “I heard you calling him Goshua!”

“Shut up!”

“Don't deny it! You sissy Roman!”

“What did you say?!”

The three of them began fighting again. Josh whistled at them as high and as loud as he could. To their little ears, it was deafening.

“Hey!” all three of them shouted.

“Look, if you don't stop fighting, it's back in your boxes! Understand?”

Aside from all that, the rest of the day went pretty good. The next morning, again, the first people there were (again) the five men who used to have the jobs.

“Well, how did it go?” Bob asked.

“I must say, last night went very well.” Steven said.

“See? What'd I tell you? So, are you gonna keep your jobs?”

“I think so.” Josh said.

“Excellent! Oh, and I thought we'd let you know, we're checking out for the last time. From the sounds of it you guys have got it under control. See ya.”

And with that, they left.

That night, Steven and Josh were setting up for when everything came to life. And that time was coming fast.

“Alright,” said Steven “Josh, get ready to get the remote control car ready. Sue's waking up in five... four... three... two... one... now!”

Josh started the car, but Sue did nothing.

“Um, you must have the time wrong.” Josh said.

“Okay, get ready.... now!”

Still nothing.

“I don't understand this. Did the moon rock quit working?” Steven said.

“Whoa, wait a minute. What moon rock?”

“Balto never told you that did he?”

“Tell me what?”

“The reason everything comes to life is because of this moon rock here. I'll show you.”

They headed for the room with the rocks. The moon rock was gone!

“It's gone! Someone must've stolen it!” Steven said.

“Who? All the doors are locked, and we've been here all day. Who could possibly have stolen it?”

“Us, naturally.” someone said.

Josh and Steven turned to see who had said it. It was the three previous night guards and the two janitors!

“You see,” said Bob “We discovered that at night, we got a new life too. Working here at night, keeping things under control, it kept up our exercise, and unlike other older men, we don't have arthritis or back pain, or anything like that. So you see, when we were fired, we decided we just weren't gonna stand for it. So we stole the moon rock, and now we're gonna steal a lot of other stuff too. Remember when we told you we were going back to our office to get some stuff? Well, what we really did was steal your key, made copies, and returned your key. Thanks.” With that he jumped and kicked both Josh and Steven in the face. They dragged them into a closet and locked the door.

“WELL, LET'S GET LOOTING. WE'RE BURNIN' DAYLIGHT.” said Dick Basler. Then the five men ran off and started looting.

“Now what do we do?” asked Steven.

“Find the moon rock. How did they keep it from bringing everything to life anyway?”

It took a while, but they finally unlocked the door from the inside and got out.

“Let's check in the warehouse.”

They searched for a while, and eventually found the moon rock. It was wrapped very thick in cloth.

“Aha.The cloth must dampen it or something.” said Steven.

Josh picked it up and unraveled all the cloth from off of it. Instantly they heard the noises of animals and various other things coming alive.

“Alright. Let's go save the museum.”

Steven and Josh rushed out into the main lobby. They stood on the top of the stairs and tried to get every bodiesattention. Again, a maelstrom of fighting was going on between everybody. Josh got their attention finally and explained things to everybody.

“Look, five just stole a moon rock, the one that brings you people... uh, and animals... and other things to life every night! So if you want to keep living, you're all going to just put aside your conflicts that you have among each other, and we'll all have to work together! Okay?”

The crowd below nodded their heads.

Steven stepped forward and began arranging groups. You people here, you people there, etc. After going through everybody, he leaned against the railing. Then, he felt something on his elbow. He looked down at it saw Jedidiah, Octavius, and Running Nose.

“And what are we to do?” Octavius asked.

“Take care of their getaway car.” Josh said.

Out in the snow covered parking lot,three tiny figures followed by a select few from their armies, crawled through the deep snow out to a purple van. When they reached the tire, Octavius lifted his spear and stuck it in the tire.

WHOOOOOSH

went the air out the tire.

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSHHHHHH

First an Indian flew away, then a cowboy, then two romans, then Running Nose, and they kept flying away in the powerful wind, until all that was left was Jedidiah and Octavius.

“Save yourself!” shouted Octavius, barely audible over the powerful blast of the wind.

Bob walked out to his van. The four other members of his team had been captured and tied up, but he had an armful of valuable loot and was getting out of here. As he approached his van, he thought he heard a very, very faint whoosh but he could've been mistaken.

Josh and Steven ran ran out into the parking lot. They saw tracks going through the snow, obviously left from Bob's van leaving.

“Crap,” said Josh “We're too late.”

“We might be able to figure out where he went.”

“How? I stink at stuff like that. Do you know someone who can navigate through a near blizzard?”

“I think I do.”

Five minutes later, Balto was in the parking lot, looking at the tracks.

“He drove twenty feet away, but then lost control and crashed.”

“Wow,” said Steven “How can you tell all that from tire tracks?”

Balto pointed toward a wrecked van in the parking lot.

“Wait. After he crashed,” said Balto “He turned around... and went back inside!”

“Why would he go back inside?” Josh asked.

That instant, the door to the loading dock burst open, and a stagecoach came running out, with Bob driving.

“Dang! We

Previous Page

1 2 3 4

Next page