One very busy day at school, Lily walked into her house and slumped onto the couch. She took out her laptop and started her homework. She was unusually bored, so she decided to catch up on some TV to pass some time. She didn’t know what to watch until she finally found something perfect for her: Romance! She started watching and got bored pretty quickly. So, she just started watching horror movies. Lily sighed. “A zombie apocalypse? So lame” She whispered.
She left the TV open and went upstairs. She collapsed on her bed. She was just about to go to sleep but then she felt a tingle and appeared in a completely different house. She heard a knock on the door “Thud thud thud”. A shiver went down her spine. “Did I travel into the movie?“She thought.
She peered out of the blinds and saw at least 100 drooling zombies outside trying to get inside. If she didn’t escape onto the roof fast she would be doomed. She got up and ran and ran around the whole house trying to find any way upstairs. She heard a loud bang! She froze. Then, she didn’t take a second to think and she jumped out the window into the backyard. Once she got down, she scanned the garage and found a ladder. “Jackpot!” Lily exclaimed.
She ran with the ladder and set it up. She got up onto the rooftop. She scanned the city, it was in ruins. “ Am I the only survivor left?“ Lily pondered. Suddenly, she felt confident, and like she was gonna do whatever it takes to get out of this place fearlessly. She sat down and looked up at the beautiful vibrant sunset.All she wanted was to go back home and relax. “Maybe I should have finished my homework” she thought. Now she stood up.“ I will do whatever it takes to make it back home alive“ She told herself. “Help! Help!“ said a tiny voice “Ruff, Ruff!“ She also heard the cries of a dog too! Lily ran to the site where she heard the voices. She went inside the house.
There, she found a lone boy with his dog. The boy saw the girl and hurried to the corner, followed by the dog. Lily slowly walked towards them “ Hey, it's okay. I mean no harm. I am also a survivor too!“
The boy walked closer “ Really? You're a survivor too?“ “Yes! Trust me.“ Lily replied. “ What is your name?“ she asked.
“ Brandon. The dog is Waffles. I was sucked into the TV and ended up here with my dog. What about you?“ Lily replied “ I also got sucked into the TV! Listen, to escape we need to work together, otherwise we’ll be stuck in here!“
“Well, I think that we should go soon. The sooner that I could get home, the better!” Lily said.
Suddenly, Lily said “w-wait! We need to make a plan or we’ll be bitten by the swarm of zombies outside in a blink of an eye!”
“Why don’t we just climb onto the roof and jump onto the roof? It’s only about a 2 foot jump and Waffles is a powerful jumper!” Brandon said.
“Uh ok! But…how did you know all of that?” Lily said questionably.
“Oh! I forgot to tell you, I bing watched this movie and the tv show at least 20 times this week! Also, I used to watch this a lot before too! Trust me, I know what I am doing!” Brandon said excitedly.
“Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you! At the next house, there is another family of survivors that are very friendly and probably more than happy to let us inside!” Brandon told Lily
“Alright! Let's go there“ Lily said So both of them and the dog ran as fast as they could to the house. They finally reached the house and pounded on the door. The family heard them and quickly opened the door “ Hurry, get inside!“ the mom said.
The mom greeted Lily and Brandon and warned them never to go outside because it is highly dangerous. She told them not to worry about food and water because it is all figured out. Lily and Brandon decided to go explore the house. They found several other survivors in the next room from them. They ran in and the mother shut the door. They sat in silence until Lily spoke up: “So what started this zombie apocalypse?”
The mom looked at Lily sadly and said “My husband was a scientist, he was trying to make a cure for cancer but the experiment failed. He accidentally spilled the prototype on him and was the first zombie. He went outside and bit everyone besides us and a few survivors”.
Lily thought for a moment. Then, she said, “I am so sorry for your loss. We will try to find a cure for your husband and everyone else. I promise!” “By the way, do you know how to find the cure? Or how to get the materials?”.
The mom replied “There is a sacred gemstone somewhere in the highest mountain in the city. It is the hardest to climb in the world and no one has ever attempted or even dared to climb it to cure the apocalypse. And if you do find the gemstone, it is guarded by a dragon. You have to either slay the dragon or befriend it and it will help you. Just so you know, the dragon is very mean and grumpy so, be careful! I recommend slaying the dragon instead; that is much easier!”
Lily thought for a moment. “Why use violence over kindness? That just mean to end the dragon's life for us. It’s selfish!” Lily yelled angrily.
The mom said “well, I’m only trying to help you. But, at the end of the day, it’s your choice because it’s your mission so whatever floats your boat!’. Lily said “Are there going to be any allies to help us?”
The mom replied “I don’t think so but you are welcome to ask some of the people staying here if they would like to come along and help! I think that one of them is a police officer and another is a professional wrestler!”
Lily replied in shock “Well, I guess that we’re almost set! Oh and by the way, do you by any chance have any climbing gear?” The mom replied “Yes, we do! You are welcome to come into the basement to get the stuff you need.” Lily looked towards Brandon and waffles. She approached them and asked“Well… Do you want to come too??“ Brandon smiled, “ Of course I want to come!“ Waffles howled with joy. They sat in the living room and talked about the plan.
“Alright, it's settled. First we will go to the blacksmiths shop to take a sword, then we will go to the mountain and find the jewel. When we find the jewel we will use the sword to slay the dragon and we return back home and cure everyone!“
Lily’s heart was broken when saying that. She really didn't want to kill the dragon. It could have an innocent soul, but everyone agreed that killing the dragon is the best choice. “Wait!“ Lily yelled. “I refuse to go on the mission if we kill the dragon! Nobody deserves to die, not even a fire- breathing dragon!“
The family sighed“ It's too much of a risk to befriend the dragon. You can get roasted in a matter of seconds and die!“ the mom said.
Everyone nodded in agreement. Lily looked down in disappointment. “But if I have to kill a dragon I won’t go! I refuse! I don’t care how hard it is! The dragon will thank us at the end for not killing him! Think about it, wouldn’t it be better if we have another ally to take on our next mission. Who knows! What if something else happens? We never know! It would come in handy to have a fire-breathing-dragon to help us! He Could fly!“ Lily roared.
The mom finally caved in“Fine. You don’t need to kill the dragon. Just finish the mission and come back.“
Lily was silent and finally jumped in Joy. She was pumped! Not having to kill the dragon meant the world to her. “You can’t even hurt a fly could you?” Brandon said.
Lily turned to look at Brandon.”No one deserves to die, not even an annoying pest like you” Lily said with a smirk.
Brandon just groaned and walked away with Waffles.
As Lily and Brandon were about to set off for their mission, the mom cried out. “WAIT!! This basket is magical, any food you say will appear.” “Wow thanks umm….” Lily struggled to finish the sentence. “Hahaha! You can just call me Primrose. Primrose Liu.” Mrs. Liu said. “ Wow thanks Mrs. Liu!” Lily said for a second time.
Lily and Brandon were off ( For the 5th time for God’s Sake!). “Ok, first stop, the blacksmith. Sigh, I don’t want to be a robber but this is for the world. Forgive me for this God.” Lily prayed. Then Lily got an idea. She would make Brandon take the sword instead.“Ok Brandon, how about you do this job?” Lily asked. Brandon gave a grin.“Sweet! Brandon the Ninja sneaking through the blacksmith. HI-YA!!!!!!” Brandon kicked the door open and saw a swarm of zombies inside. “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” Brandon screamed.
Lily walked past him and smirked”Not so tough as a ninja eh?” Brandon gave no reply just a glare hot enough to melt the bones out of Lily”
Lily got into her fighting stance. “ Luckily, I actually know how to do karate, unlike someone that pretends to know.”
Lily punched and kicked until all the zombies were dead. Brandon just stood here, open mouthed. Lily went in and got the sword. “Come on, the next stop is Dragon’s Mountain.
“Coming!” Brandon groaned.
Lily suddenly paused and remembered something. She turned to look at Brandon.“Brandon, you really think that I wouldn’t have found out by now do you? I know what you're planning to do!”
“What do you mean? I-I never did anything and have no idea what you're talking about. Please! Trust me trust me!!!!!” Brandon frantically pleaded.
“Well, you were going to slay the dragon without me knowing after we weren’t going to slay the dragon aren’t you?? I heard you talking to Mrs. Liu when I was getting the essentials for our mission. WHY? The poor dragon isn’t doing anything wrong! Why are you being so selfish!!! For you to have to go through less of a struggle! I don’t care whatever you do, just don’t follow me! Leave and go back! I don’t need a murder to help me!” Lily shouted.
“No it’s not like that! Please know that I would never survive the way back to the house! I can’t even go 10 minutes through it! You said you wouldn’t hurt even an annoying pest like me right?” Brandon said. “ I swear it was someone else like a clone! Please don’t make me go to the house! Plus I had a bad feeling when we were staying there. I feel like Mrs.Liu is evil and her husband isn’t the one that started the zombie apocalypse!”
“Hold on…. Ohhh, I understand now. You're saying the boy Mrs. Liu is talking to is impersonating you? Do you think he is your evil twin?“Lily asked.
“Hold up, first of all, how do you remember exactly what the boy looked like? Also, this isn’t a Disney movie. I don't have an evil twin!” Brandon exclaimed.
“Sorry! I remembered how he looked because I have a video of it on my phone! Look!!!” Lily exclaimed.
Lily pulled out the phone and showed Brandon the video.
The Videos POV: ^ - ^
“Ok, here's the plan, you are going to pretend to be Brandon and you are going to slay the dragon and take the gem before Lily could get to it and then proceed to kill Brandon and act like him! Then, you are going to take the gem and smash it into pieces so the apocalypse continues!” Mrs. Liu said.
Back to Lily’s and Brandon’s POV: ♡´･ᴗ･`♡
‘Wait I didn’t realize that it wasn’t you the whole time…I’m sorry about that!!! But then, if we want to beat him to the gem we have to be fast and go now! You have to be particularly careful since he is going to try to kill you! I have this potion that could give us both an invisible shield surrounding us and make us invisible!We’ll both be safe.” Lily said.
Brandon added on” However, we still have to be extremely cautious that they don’t feel or hear us. If they do, they’ll blow our cover!”
“I mean….if they can’t see us, they won’t know who the invisible person is! Unless they have the reverse potion so they could see the people and the potion they are using. But, I don’t think that they have that potion . I raided their chest not too long ago and the only thing that I left was a useless potion that makes you not able to hear anymore.”
“Ok, let's get on a roll and go find the gem and beat them to it!’ Brandon whispered very carefully.
Lily and Brandon ran to the mountain. When they got there, they took no time and started to climb up the mountain in a flash. As they got higher up, it became colder. They were shivering because it was the middle of summer and they weren’t dressed for the occasion. Lily was about to pass out when Brandon whispered “Come on, let's take a break! I took a few jackets and snow pants just in case. We could throw them on”
They made a quick little stop on a stable ledge and quickly put it all on and then continued to climb up the mountain. This increased their speed by a lot. They were rushing to get to the top of the mountain until they noticed that zombies started to chase after them. They hurried to get another potion from their backpacks. Once they drank it all they continued to climb up the mountain in a hurry. They knew they had no time to waste.
It was nighttime and they were barely at the halfway point. Brandon was so cold that he was at the point of fainting because of hypothermia. Lily suddenly stopped. “I don’t feel well. I’m really lightheaded and hungry. I need to eat, my stomach has been growling for hours!”
Brandon took a quick glimpse at Lily and said “It’s ok. We should save our limited food supply for when we really need it! I know that we haven't ate in a w-w-while but it’s for the best!”
“ Plus, it isn’t the best to relax and eat while there is a group of zombies chasing us. Remember, like I said, it’s for the best, just hang on for a little while.” Brandon said.
“I guess that you kind of have a good point. It’s just that I am a big foodie and I haven’t went a day without eating” Lily chuckled
“Wait a minute, where the heck is waffles???“ Brandon said in shock.
“ Umm, he is currently fighting off a mountain goat thinking that it’s a new version of a zombie.“ Lily laughed.
“Umm… Interesting. Come on waffles!! Uh oh…..that’s not good…“ Brandon said.
“Why does he look possessed walking up here??“ Lily asked.
“ I don't know but honestly, he looks like a possessed clown.“ Brandon giggled.
Once Waffles got to Lily and Brandon, Brandon scanned Waffles to make sure that he was ok. ‘OMG!!! Waffles has a Zombie bite!” Brandon said with tears rolling down his cheeks slowly.
“ I understand your upset, but it wouldn't help if both of us become zombies. Listen, it pains me to say this but… we have to leave waffles behind. We need the jewel to cure everyone, including waffles. Now stop your crying and focus on reaching the mountain peak!! If you think about it, the faster that we get up here the faster you could have waffles back ok, lets go!“ Lily said urgently
(sob sob) “ A-a-alright“ , said Brandon sadly, tears running down his cheeks faster than a wildfire spreading across the forest.
“Calm down ok? The more stressed out you are the slower pace we go up the mountain. That would decrease our chances of saving everybody. Like waffles!” Lily whispered.
“ Fine.” Brandon said, glancing at waffles, the once loyal companion of Brandon, turned into an enemy.
They continued climbing up the mountain when they reached a steep area. They pulled out their professional climbing gear and kept on climbing. Suddenly, they heard a slight tear from both of their ropes. They looked at each other in fear. “You don’t think that Mrs. Liu gave us faulty gear right?” Lily said in fear.
“I don’t know! Weren’t you supposed to check before we left?!? You are so irresponsible!!” Brandon yelled.
“Well, it’s too late now! Brace yourself, we are going to fall any minute now! Let’s try to climb down a little bit so the fall won’t be as high” Lily said.
They looked at each other in terror as they climbed down and the rope was beginning to deteriorate. The rope suddenly broke and Brandon was about to fall off of the tall, steep, ledge. Lily was on a sturdy platform and took no time to grab onto his hand and said “I hate you right now for being so annoying but not enough for me to watch you die!”
“Really? You couldn’t wait to say this after we got down safely? This is not the right time to tell me this!” Brandon yelled out to Lily.
“Ok whatever sorry! But we don’t have much time to waste so let's hurry up and think of a plan!” Lily said.
“Um Lily, you might want to look down,” Brandon yelled in fear.
“Oh no! There are a lot of Zombies over here waiting for us to fall! How are we going to get down!?!?” Lily said.
“No kidding, Sherlock! I already made that observation when I told you about it? Are you stupid or stupid?” Brandon said.
The ledge slowly crumbled into pieces while Lily and Brandon were talking. They took a hard fall but were safe.
To Be Continued….
Trapped in The Television p.2
(If you haven’t already read pt.1, read that first or else this will not make any sense. Found on Curious Times Website:D! )
Lily and Brandon fell off and had a hard fall. Only Lily was half conscious but her head throbbed with pain. Brandon was unconscious, right next to her. She looked behind her and saw waffles. Brandon was still unconscious. Although Lily knew that Waffles is adorable she knew that she had to go or she would be doomed. She ran up the stairs leading to the mountain like her life depended on it. Oh wait it did. Anyways, she thought that she had no hope of living. Being the forgetful person she is, she forgot about poor little unconscious Brandon being bitten up by the once cute dog Waffles. She knew that she had to act fast if she wanted her trusty sidekick back. All she had to do was find the dragon and befriend him( or slaughter it) not to get a quick ride. She Climbed the steep slope of Oswego Mountain (previously Dragon Mountain) and then she
looked below her and saw a Cult of zombies chanting random words that we obviously couldn’t understand because they were obviously in another language if it even was one.
Lily climbed and climbed until she couldn’t. She stopped to take a breather but she just couldn’t breathe. Lily wheezed and wheezed and realized that she didn’t have her inhaler (she has asthma). She did not know what to do. If she couldn’t breathe she wouldn’t be able to climb anymore and escape the zombies and most importantly save the city/Village. If she wasn’t successful she would let so many people down. She didn’t even know how to get out of this movie. Just as she was ready to continue and persist through the pain, she got tapped on the shoulder. Lily screamed. As she slowly turned around she saw what looked like a backpacker handing her an inhaler. “Don’t worry, I have been here before. I love this tv show! I got sucked in here too many times to count. I know how to beat this and most importantly befriend the dragon. Don’t worry, he knows me!” said the backpacker.
Lily stared at him confused and then she grabbed the inhaler as fast as she could, used it and asked “what was your name by the way?”
The backpacker replied “ummmmmm Henry yeah Henry! And yours is…?” “Huh? Oh Lily!” Lily said.
The Backpacker nodded, but before he could say anything, Lily said something. “ Are you also here for the Jewel?”
Henry replied “ Jewel? Yeah, I am!” he said proudly. Lily found Henry strange in some way but she shook the feeling off…
They started to climb and climb until their legs felt numb. At least Lily’s legs. She glanced at Henry. He was going at the speed of light! He wasn’t even tired. Lily was in deep thought until he started talking. They started talking and Lily got that strange feeling again. She couldn’t just shake it off this time though. What was happening? She thought. All she could do was keep on climbing. Finally, they reached the top of the mountain. She saw the dragon Guarding the Jewel. Mesmerized by the glint and shine of the Jewel, she stepped closer but Henry stepped closer, closer than he should have been. Then she met eyes with the dragon. He was glaring at her, and even harder at Henry. Finally, he spoke. “Who are you and what are you doing here?!” His deep voice echoing through the temple as he said this with a growl.
Lily stammered, unable to speak. Then Henry stepped up, challenging the dragon. “ We are here to help humanity because they had to fall into the hands of a zombie apocalypse and we are the last remaining survivors.”
The dragon snorted.
“ YOU think you can save humanity?” He said. Then it was Lily’s turn to speak.
“ Yes! I believe that we can save humanity, you just need to help us. Humanity depends on you, if you don’t give the Jewel, society will crumble to ashes.” Lily pleaded. The dragon looked uncertain, then replied.
“ Fine, I will help.” Lily was ecstatic but Henry was quiet. He handed the Jewel to Lily and told the both of them,
“ Get on my back, we have to go to the peak of the lowest valley to do a recital that would reverse the effects of the zombie apocalypse.” Both of them agreed and climbed on his back. He started flying towards the valley. Then Henry asked an unsettling question.
“Can I hold the Jewel?” Lily was uncertain but she trusted him and handed him the Jewel. He stared in awe then he smirked. “You're not so bright eh? You see, whoever holds the Jewel also has its power. This Jewel can control the minds of whoever the holder wishes to possess.”
Then he said, “ See you in the afterlife!” He pushed Lily off the dragon's back and the last thing she saw was Henry possessing the mind of the dragon, telling him to go somewhere else. Then, she blacked out.
She felt the chill of cold river water. She was relieved. “ Thank goodness I landed in water, my journey would have ended far earlier.”
She pondered in her mind. She was generally confused. Henry seemed like a good guy, unless he had been disguised as someone else… That’s when Lily pieced the parts together. The “Henry” guy was really the clone of Brandon! He had controlled the dragon to go to the house of Mrs. Liu, the mastermind of the entire thing. She was frustrated because she couldn’t find out earlier. However, she knew that she had to do everything in her power to restore humanity to its right fate. She climbed up onto land.She scanned the land, just to find something that sent shivers down her bones. Thousands of zombie bodies all over the place. She walked up to one and stared. Then, the zombie in front of her jumped up. “ Hiya!” The zombie said.
Before it could say anything else, Lily slapped the zombie. “Die, Die, Die, Die, Die, Die, DIE!!!!!” Lily kept shouting until her throat hurt. The zombie took the chance to talk. “ Hey, chill! It’s ME, Brandon!? Does the word ‘Brandon’ still exist in your brain????” Lily was flabbergasted. Brandon, but in a zombie body, STILL has his human brain? A dog jumped Lily and Lily screamed in terror.
“W-W-W-W-WAFFLES?!?!?”Lily said. Waffles barked and then sat down. “ He’s also a zombie, but he kept the dog brain? What is happening? Lily thought. She couldn’t figure out if she was being tricked or if it was legit. She cautiously approached both of them. She stroked Waffle's fur and slapped Brandon across the face to see if they had the human brain. Both remained silent. Then Brandon Laughed out loud. “ Come on. You got to believe me! It’s me, I’m real! Waffles too!” Brandon pleaded.
Lily rolled her eyes. “You actually think that I would believe you?!?! I mean you seem legit but look at you, you and waffles are obviously zombies. If you were real, you would look how you used to. I am leaving. Good luck trying to fool everybody else. I am not that stupid but apparently you are.” Lily said.
She hesitated at first and then left. She felt her tears glide down her cheeks. She just wanted to leave and go back home as soon as she could. She missed her dad, her friends and most importantly her life. She hasn’t been home in days. The sooner that she could get home, the better. She could already imagine plopping onto her bed, going to sleep for the night and then waking up to the amazing smell of waffles, bacon, toast with a glop of her dads delicious homemade strawberry jam on it, eggs and her nice cold glass of orange juice with exactly 8 ice cubes in it.
“Anyways” Lily pondered, “ It’s time to save humanity and get out of here.”
She climbed the deep slope with her bare hands and made it to the top. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her, and then… she made it. The cozy cottage that once kept her safe from zombies didn’t feel like home anymore. She sneaked around the corner, trying not to get caught. She finally saw a vent that she could climb through. She climbed and climbed until something caught her eye. She saw a conversation with Mrs. Liu and the clone of Brandon, otherwise known as “Henry”. “ Yes! You succeeded! Let me guess, Brandon is gone and that Lily girl is also gone?” Mrs. Liu asked.
“ Um, yes. Brandon is gone, but Lily? She’s still here, I rode her with the dragon then pushed her off.” He smirked then devilishly laughed.
Mrs. Liu frowned. “ You imbecile! How could you not be successful?! She’s going to catch up to our plans soon. ” She left the room with the Jewel, mumbling to herself about how he was a failure.
Henry felt uncomfortable. He got the Jewel and successfully eliminated Brandon. Why wasn’t she proud of him?
Henry’s heart dropped. He didn’t want to do this anymore. He worked so hard and all he got as a reward was to be lectured and yelled at. He has been stuck here for years. He just wants to go home. If he wanted to take the hero route, he would have to gain the trust of Lily and Brandon. That wouldn’t be possible though. How could he do that when he just abolished the whole mission. They will think that he is just trying to trick them again.
He couldn’t help but miss his mom. He has aged in this fake world. He just wanted the grasp and love of his mom. He never imagined how much he would miss the big slobbery kisses that left a red lipstick mark on his cheek that got him bullied. Now, he would do anything for one of those kisses. And the love of that single mom and the little boy he was. It was just unbreakable. The bond. All this became rolling like a tornado in Henry’s head. Slowly, his hands began to gasp on his shirt and for the first time in years, millions of tears came rolling down his cheek. He slouched onto the floor and held onto his legs. It was as his feelings got control of him. He didn’t feel like the strong big boy he was. He felt like a weak, pathetic, baby. Maybe that was him. He pondered. “ I should escape at night.” He didn’t want to stay anymore. For once he thought about home. “ I never really realized how much I thought about home.” His chest grew heavy. He couldn’t bear it anymore. The decision was final. He was going to escape from here and return home, where he belonged.
Lily was silent. She didn’t know what to do. The humidity of the vent was driving her crazy. She silently crawled out of the vent and into the coolness of the night. She shedded some tears and ran away, leaving Henry to escape on his own.
Meanwhile, inside the house, Henry was constructing a plan to escape. You know the vent Lily was hiding in? Yeah, he was going to use that. First, he needed a ladder. Luckily, since her was stuck here for ages, he knew that the ladder was in the basement. He struggled to carry the ladder, but he made it. He set the ladder below the vent and waited until Mrs. Liu fell asleep. He knew Mrs. Liu didn’t like to sleep, so he took some sleeping pills and put them into her water. Mrs. Liu came in, took the water and went back to work. Minutes later, she was knocked out cold. He climbed up the ladder and into the vent. “ Dang, it’s hot here,” he thought. He finally reached the outside and ran off to find Lily.
Brandon was sitting on the ground crying. He has been in this movie a lot of times, and yet he got a different fate. Waffles barked, and layed down. Brandon was sad. How could Lily not believe him? It was clear that he and waffles had the human and dog brain, so why would she deny him so harshly? That was what Brandon wanted to figure out. He tried to cross the river, but the water burned him. He yelped and jumped back. “ Hmm, water and fire have different properties now. Water is fire, and fire is water.” To test this theory, he threw a stick. The stick burned to ashes. So it was true.
Brandon had to find a way to cross the river. He could build a boat… but then, he had an idea. He started to build his boat completely oblivious to the fact that it would burn the minute that he put it in the “water”. Once he finally finished, he put waffles on the boat, put it in the water and it burned leaving waffles to die. Brandon didn’t think twice and jumped in the water. He saw a glimpse of waffles passed out and then passed out himself.
Brandon blinked 2 times and found himself back at his house on his bed with waffles looking like an idiot sleeping on him. Brandon was dumbfounded at what just happened. He looked at himself in the mirror and he was back to normal. In his cloud pj’s and with messy hair and morning breath. He felt so tired. He walked downstairs to his mom cooking breakfast. She looked at him and smiled. “Did you sleep well sweetie? I made your favorite, a bacon egg and cheese on a plain bagel!” Brandon’s mom said.
Brandon stared at her for a second and said “o-o-ok thanks mom!”
Brandon proceeded to take the bagel and took a big bite. He didn’t remember the last time that he has eaten anything but the same old, bland energy bars that he found at Ms. Liu’s house in the zombie world. Brandon paused. “OMG! I need to go get Lily! She can’t find the gem all alone! She needs me!” Brandon screamed.
Brandon’s mom looked at him weirdly and then said “Who is this Lily girl? DO you have a girlfriend? Ohhhh! Looks like you just had a bad dream! It’s ok Brandon don’t be embarrassed”
Brandon paused. If that was only a dream, why would he feel the pain in his body when he fell off of Oswego mountain and then got bitten and turned into a zombie which hurt too. He didn’t really care at this point. If he and waffles “died” in the zombie world and came back to his house in one piece somehow Lily would be fine. He didn’t have to worry anymore. There was this soft feeling that he felt that told him that everything was going to be okay. He finished eating his bagel and slumped onto the couch, grabbed Waffles and then turned on the TV. Suddenly, the zombie tv show popped up. He saw a glimpse of him and Lily together and then turned the tv off in a flash. He knew that he could not risk going back into that world and suffering like he did already. He pondered and then came to his senses. This was all fake! He thought. If Lily and him were in the episode it must have been fake. He wanted to forget about it and pretend it never happened. At the same time, he felt this big urge to just find out more about it because if it was really like that he would have to warn other people about it. He needed to find a way to stop whoever was doing it. The creator of the show.
Lily found herself stranded in a zombie wasteland. She pondered for a long time. Was what Brandon was saying really true? A tear slipped down her cheek. She was instantly hit by a wave of grief. She didn’t know what to do. Lily crumbled onto the ground, head between her legs. Suddenly, she heard movement coming. She rose and hit behind a tree. Henry arose from the shadows. She snarled, and confronted him. “ What are you doing here you bastard? Are you coming back for more?”
Henry took a step back. “ No! Wait, stop! I want to make a peace treaty.”
Lily was taken back. “ A peace treaty?!” She thought about it for a moment and decided that she will give it a second chance. “Fine, but… some special conditions. 1. You can't run off by yourself. 2. Leave all the ideas, plans to me. 3. NEVER try to attack me, or else you will find out what pain is, ok?!
Henry was now trembling in fear. Before he was the one in control, now a kid was his boss. “O-oo- ok Ms.”
“ Just call me Lily, not that big of a deal.”
Henry felt his cheeks turn bright red in embarrassment. “Ok Lily.” Henry said quietly.
Brandon sat in bed for a long time. He was thinking about a plan, a plan to stop the director of the movie. However, he also needed to save Lily. He then thought of a plan. He got the remote controller and turned on the tv. He stared at the TV for a long time. He shut his eyes and whispered to himself. “ Teleport, teleport, Teleport!”
He felt a gust of wind blow into his face. He slowly opened his eyes to find Lily and Henry. His eyes flared with anger when he saw Henry. He ran as fast as lightning and tackled Henry into the ground. “What are you doing here!? Don’t hurt Lily anymore!”
Henry was gasping for air. “I..I am not here to… hurt her. I’m.. trying to get… help.”
Brandon was taken aback. “Help? What kind of help?”
“Help that you obviously really need!” Henry paused “S-s-sorry I was just startled” Henry said.
Lily was just staring off in the sky and then she looked over to the boys fighting and rolled her eyes. “Why are you guys fighting!?! Henry is somebody that we can trust so let's just get this over with!”
Both turned beet red. “ Sorry…” Brandon mumbled. “ Sorry too..” Henry said.
“Oh yeah! When I went back to the regular world I realized that the whole zombie apocalypse thing is fake! We are just in a movie! I went back to the real world and I saw us on the show! There has to be somebody behind this and we need to find out who it is before we leave so we can stop this from happening to anybody else!” Brandon explained.
“Ok! So what are we going to do to find out who is behind all of this because I want to go home so badly!” Lily said.
So, the three of them walked up to the one part of this world that they could never get to. There was a huge brick wall that was too tall to walk past. So, they gathered a bunch of ladders and tried to stack them to get to the top. Sadly, that didn’t work out very well because after Henry started climbing for a little, all of the ladders started to topple over. And Henry fell over with a big “THUD”. So, they decided to try to use a rope as a harness and climb up the wall using the tiny grooves at their advantage.
Slowly and painfully, they finally got up. They got up to the wall and looked over. “Finally! I was about to pass out! That was a pretty hefty wall that we had to climb and I am tired!” Brandon said.
“Umm did you forget why we are here!?! We need to confront the director now!” Lily exclaimed. m=li
“Oh right! Sorry Lily. I forgot. Ok! What’s the game plan here? Are we going to go down the wall and find where the director is?” Brandon said.
“Yeah sure that sounds like a pretty good plan. Although, if the director of this show is putting people in real danger for a tv show, wouldn’t they be dangerous?” Henry questioned.
“That’s a good point. Well, what can we really do about it? Just let this happen to a bunch of other people like us? That’s not right!” Lily responded.
They kept on walking down the narrow hallway that they entered through when they started finding rooms. They figured that one of them would contain the director. Room #1- nothing, room #2- some sort of storage area, room #3- another empty room and then they got to the end of the hallway and they found room #7 they opened the door. The door was creaky, once they finally opened it they found Mrs. Liu. But that was just an actor in reality. They made eye contact and her face went pale as she started to run away screaming into the mic
“Mike, we have a code red!”
Soon, they heard people yelling and they heard faint footsteps. “Wait guys, if this is what they call a code red, shouldn’t we hide? What if we are in trouble!” Lily whispered.
They quickly ran and hid in a really big box on the bottom of a stack of boxes. They made sure that the box wouldn’t open randomly by tapping themselves in from the inside. They knew that they could not risk getting caught and something happening to them. Lily felt something wet on her shoulder and she looked over. “Brandon, now is not the time to sweat and become a living swamp. It’s going to make this a living nightmare and we might get caught because of your reek!”
Brandon didn’t say anything in response because he was focused on not getting caught because he didn’t want to get in trouble or something. He had a clean slate. He couldn’t chance anything to go wrong. They heard loud footsteps coming toward the box. Henry was shaking in fear and Lily’s mouth was quivering. Brandon was just sitting there not moving, not crying, no emotion on his face. The door creaked open. The person didn’t wait a second and opened the box.
“Hello! My name is Derrick Smith. The director of the show. I am so glad that I get to talk to you guys. This is actually a social experiment to see how kids would react if they were in a situation like this. Your parents signed you up for this. Would you like to go home? I could drive you guys!”
Lily looked at Brandon and Henry in shock. “W-what!?! You put us in a life threatening situation! We were put into this show scared to death with no food or water provided and climbing heavy mountains and everything! H-how are you expecting us to just be ok with this!?!”
They all walked onto the golf cart hesitantly just following Derrick-who they just met. They all just sat in silence as one by one he dropped them off at their houses. First it was Lily, then Brandon and then Henry. One by one, they all walked into their houses like nothing happened. Besides Lily. She couldn’t shake the feeling and the emptiness in her stomach. She felt sick. But she just walked into her house, waved back at the golf cart and went inside. When she went inside of her house, it was the same as it was before she was enrolled in that realm of a place. All she wanted to do was eat and take a nap. She didn’t even know how long that lasted. A day? A week? A month? A year? She did not know. She just grabbed a snack and ran to her room. She flopped onto her bed like there was nothing to care about anymore. She closed her eyes and one by one, her muscles began to relax and she fell asleep.