Cats in the Crater Read online

  Now, I don’t know if you have ever climbed up a slide in the park when you were little or climbed a doorway Spider-Man style. It was kinda like that, but I made it a little bit easier with the sticky spray. Slowly, we climbed up and up, until eventually we made it to the room with the ten doors.

  Geeky Girl went to Door Six for Glenda; Fang went to Door Four, and I followed right behind her.

  Fang waited for me on a rung of the ladder, and then jumped into my pocket once I got through, and we climbed. The ladders led up to what looked like a walkway around the crater of the volcano with several bridges that led out to a room in the middle.

  There just outside the room were Igor, Boris, Dustin, Sanj, Bob and Diablo.

  “We were wondering if you were going to make it through,” Sanj said. “I had said you probably wouldn’t.”

  “Urgh, urgh, urgh, urgh,” Igor added.

  “Yeah, I know you would have my back,” I said to Igor.

  “Does anybody else think it’s weird that there’s this bird that’s following us too?” Diablo added. I made sure Fang was hidden inside my pocket out of sight.

  “Maybe it’s a spy for Madame Mako?” Bob asked. “It could be, like, reporting back on how we’re doing.” Bob started swatting at Boris, but Igor blocked his hand.

  “Urgh, urgh, urgh,” he said.

  “Yeah, good call, Igor,” I said. “You might get disqualified if you swat at the spy bird.”

  Sanj looked over at Boris. “Don’t be ridiculous. That bird belongs to—”

  Geeky Girl interrupted. “Possibly my grandmother. And she gets very protective about things that belong to her family.”

  Sanj gulped. “Yes, probably best to ignore the bird.”

  Geeky Girl smiled. “I think Grandma would like that,” she said.

  “So, I guess Goth Girl, I mean Ezmirelda, didn’t make it,” I said, changing the subject just as the wall next to me started to shake and a drill poked through from the other side. Then a foot kicked out a bigger hole where the drill came out. It was Ezmirelda’s foot.

  “I missed one of the ladders so I had to find my own way up,” she said, climbing through. “Inside the wall.”

  “Respect,” I said as the three of us went out to the center to join the others.

  “Oh great, you mean all of you made it!” Sanj whined. “Well, this is just far too easy a contest.”

  Diablo spoke. “Man, I think you’re forgetting that none of us have won yet. We have to get into the room without being sent down one of those giant slides.”

  I looked around and saw that there were giant tube slides off the central platform that we were standing on. They all had stickers from the Impenetrable Plastics ‘R’ Us Company too. The slides seemed to head so far down into the volcano that you couldn’t see where they came out.

  “And once we get in, if we get in, the box in the center of the room is guarded by the Komodo dragon,” Dustin added.

  We looked inside the glass room at the center of the volcano. Inside, Lucky paced back and forth. He looked grumpy to be stuck in a big glass room in a volcano, and worst of all, he looked hungry.

  “Urgh, urgh, urgh,” Igor agreed.

  “Yeah, a couple of big problems there,” I said.

  “So, is there a clue to figure out?” Geeky Girl said.

  Bob passed her the paper that was stuck on the door of the glass room.

  “‘Music may sooth the savage beast, but if you choose wrong, then you’ll be the feast.

  “‘A good sense of rhythm opens the door, but one false move and you’ll slide through the floor,’” Geeky Girl read aloud.

  “Have you tried anything yet?” I asked.

  “I didn’t exactly want to risk becoming a dragon feast or sliding through the floor,” Bob said. “So no.”

  “It sounds like some rhythmic pattern will unlock the door,” Geeky Girl said.

  “Like this,” Ezmirelda said, and started stomping out the dance from the luau. The door started vibrating. “It’s not enough!”

  Dustin joined in and the two of them shook the floor with their dancing.

  “What if this just shakes us off the platform and we fall all the way down into the volcano instead?” I said. “I’m assuming that is not the plan.”

  As Dustin and Ezmirelda swayed and stomped the last move of the dance the door to the room slid open.

  “We’re in!” I shouted, just as Lucky turned and noticed that the door was open too.

  “Yeah, we’re in and he’s out!” Bob shouted.

  12

  Lucky took a step toward us.

  “Don’t worry,” I said, “I’ve got my Insta-Sticky Anti-Animal-Attack Spray.”

  I took out the can, aimed at Lucky and sprayed, but it just spat out a few strands of raspberry goo.

  “We used it all climbing up the slide,” Geeky Girl said.

  “So, you climbed up the slides? That’s cheating,” Ezmirelda added.

  “Right, and climbing up through the walls is totally in the rules, right?” Geeky Girl replied.

  “It doesn’t matter. It’s an evil contest. So what do we do now?” Diablo shouted.

  “Lucky! Eat him first!” Sanj said to the lizard, pointing to Igor. “He’ll fill you up, and you won’t need to eat skinny little me.”

  “Music may sooth the savage beast,” Geeky Girl repeated. “Music may sooth the savage beast.”

  “I know some heavy metal that I can sing to it. I find it kinda soothing,” Bob said.

  “I could sing ‘O Canada,’” Dustin offered.

  “Wait! Geeky Girl, is there a song that your grandma ever sang to you? You know, the whole Chutes and Ladders thing was a memory about you and her—maybe the music is too,” I said.

  “I hardly knew her. I was a little kid,” she said. “I don’t remember.”

  Lucky crept closer and closer. He was swinging his head side to side and using his tongue to taste the air.

  “He’s trying to figure out who’s the best one to start the feast,” Diablo said.

  “Maybe we could sing Lucky a lullaby,” Ezmirelda suggested. “Ya know, like ‘Rock-A-Bye Dragon’ or ‘Twinkle, Twinkle…’”

  “‘Evil Star,’” Geeky Girl mumbled.

  “What?” I said.

  “‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Evil Star’!” she said. “I remember hearing it somewhere. It must have been her. Who else would sing that to a toddler?”

  “My mom?” Bob said.

  “And mine,” Ezmirelda said.

  “Urgh, urgh,” Igor added.

  “OK, yeah, non-evil mom here so regular non-evil lullabies in my house,” Geeky Girl said. “But I remember.”

  “Sing it!” I shouted as Lucky turned and faced me.

  Then Geeky Girl started.

  “Twinkle, twinkle, evil star,

  You’re the evilest by far.

  Up above my lair so high,

  Like a laser in the sky.

  Twinkle, twinkle, evil star,

  You’re the evilest by far.”

  When she finished, we looked down and Lucky was curled up fast asleep on the floor. And Fang was curled up, snoozing in my pocket. Aha. Now I know how to calm an attacking Komodo dragon or an angry vampire kitten. Even Boris gave a little budgie yawn from Geeky Girl’s shoulder.

  “Result!” I shouted.

  “Shhhhhhhhhh!” everyone whispered. Well, except Igor, who whispered, “Urgh.”

  “We did it,” I whispered. “Yaaaaay,” I cheered very, very quietly.

  “Well, she mostly did it,” Ezmirelda said, pointing to Geeky Girl.

  “But now we have to figure out how to finally get out of here,” Sanj said.

  “There must be something important about the box at the center that Lucky was guarding,” Geeky Girl said.

  We all gathered around the box.

  “Oh great. Another note,” Bob said. “Doesn’t she get sick of these rhyming notes?”

  “‘Who’ll do the deed that must be don
e? You’ve finished now, the race is run. If many choose, then there will be none. For in the end there’s only one,’” I read aloud.

  Then I read it again because I really didn’t get it.

  When I read it the third time, Igor took the piece of paper away from me.

  “I still don’t get it,” I said.

  “I’m pretty sure it means that there is a task that only one of us can do. Without help. The person has to make the decision and take action on their own,” Geeky Girl said.

  “I can do that,” Ezmirelda said. “What’s the task?”

  “Hang on, I can do that too.” Sanj pushed forward.

  “Me too,” Diablo said.

  “And me.” Bob pushed them aside.

  “It should be me,” Dustin said.

  They started pushing one another to get closest to the box. Igor was trying to hold people back.

  While the other campers were distracted, Geeky Girl climbed on top of the table and looked inside the box. I climbed up after her. There was a big red button in the box. No explanation. No sign to say what it did. Just a big red button.

  “I guess the test is—are you willing to risk everything to press it?” I said.

  “Well, it might get us out of here,” she said.

  “And it might blow up the volcano,” I said.

  “Ask yourself, WWMMD?” I added.

  “What?”

  “What Would Madame Mako Do?” I said. “She has a whole section in her words of wisdom book about that. I looked it up. And I think you can even get a key chain with that on it. Anyway, maybe you should think what she would do.

  “I can see a lot of you in your grandmother,” I said. “See, you’re not down there fighting about who is gonna be the leader. You’re up here being a leader.”

  “Then what are you doing?” she asked.

  “Ummm, I’m, like, leading the leader toward their leaderness,” I said. “And being kinda cool in my own leader-leading leadering.”

  She stared at me blankly. “OK,” I explained, “the clue says that only one of us can do this. I figure your grandmother already thinks you can do this, but I have to prove I should do it. So maybe I should be the one to push the button and win the contest, and then we can run the volcano together, because your grandma will totally want you involved in it no matter if you win or not. Then we can get Igor in on it too…”

  “Wait, so you’re saying I shouldn’t win and I should let you win?” she said.

  “No. I mean, yes … I mean … maybe,” I said.

  “You said, WWMMD, right? So what do you think my grandma would do?” she said.

  “She would press the button!” I said.

  Just as both of us were reaching for the button, Fang leaped out of my pocket and pounced on the button herself.

  “Lava sequence initiated.” A computerized voice came out from a speaker above the box. Fang’s fur stood on end as she sat on the red button still hidden from the others’ view by the sides of the box.

  The room went eerily quiet. Everyone stopped fighting and stared up at the two of us standing on the table with the box on it.

  “That’s not what I expected to happen,” I said.

  13

  Immediately, a circular plastic shield started to slide up around the table, sealing Geeky Girl and me off from the rest of the group. Boris took off Geeky Girl’s shoulder and pecked the plastic but there was nothing he could do.

  He landed back on Geeky Girl’s shoulder as everyone started pounding on the shield.

  “Lava sequence initiated,” the voice said again.

  “What did you do!” Bob shouted through the glass.

  Geeky Girl and I looked at each other, then down at a rigid Fang still frozen on the spot, then back up at each other.

  “She did it!” “He did it!” we both shouted at the same time.

  Ezmirelda looked over the side. “There is lava filling up the volcano crater, people. Actual lava.”

  “We have to get out of here,” Sanj said.

  “Urgh, urgh,” Igor said.

  I tried to break the plastic sealing us in. Boris pecked with his beak. I lifted Fang out of the box and held her up to the side of the plastic tube that was facing away from the others so they couldn’t see her.

  “Come on, Fang, your claws must be able to cut through this,” I said. Fang clawed at it with her super sharp claws, but it hardly scratched. “Wow, this Impenetrable Plastic ‘R’ Us stuff is really impenetrable,” I said, dropping Fang into my pocket again.

  Igor even tried to smash the plastic with all his strength, but it wouldn’t budge.

  “You guys try to escape. We’ll figure something out!” I shouted. “Right?” I turned to Geeky Girl.

  She was still staring at the button.

  Then I heard a snapping and a scratching of claws in the floor. And they weren’t kitten claws.

  “The dragon is awake,” Diablo shouted.

  “So, we are trapped in a room with rising lava and a dragon. Thanks, guys. Really, thanks,” Bob said.

  “The singing worked before. Just keep singing to him, and he’ll go back to sleep,” I shouted through the glass.

  I could hear strains of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Evil Star” in harmony coming through the wall. It didn’t sound bad. I yawned.

  I could hear Ezmirelda saying, “Aw, he is a cute evil dragon when he’s sleeping, isn’t he?”

  “So, what happens now?” I said to Geeky Girl.

  Then a large package zoomed down the tube toward Geeky Girl and me. It stopped just above our heads and unwrapped itself.

  “Congratulations,” said a voice that sounded like a recording of Madame Mako. “You have made the choice and pressed the button. Now you and only you have the ability to rise triumphantly out of the crater whereas the others must descend. ‘Some are born ruthless, some achieve ruthlessness and some have ruthlessness thrust upon them.’ That has now happened to you. Embrace the ruthlessness and use these wings to fly out of the crater and off to start your new life as my evil successor. Happy flying.”

  The package contained a pair of jet wings that would carry one person. One person could fly away. Geeky Girl or me. That’s why only one person could push the button.

  “But what about the others?” I said.

  “The voice said that they have to descend. That’s how they escape. They have to go down to get out from the lava,” Geeky Girl said.

  “But that doesn’t make sense. The lava is coming up,” I said.

  “Maybe you could fly off and get help. And take Fang?”

  “I wouldn’t be able to get help in time,” she said. “We have to figure out how to get everyone out of here. How can we get them up to the surface?”

  “Well, there is lava rising fast and there are no ladders up from here or out there,” I said.

  “That’s it—ladders. Chutes and ladders. There are no ladders but there are chutes,” she said.

  “The chutes that take you down into the volcano? But that’s down into the lava,” I said.

  “They are the tubular slides that go down to that floor with the room with the Lose/ Exit sign. They are the way out if you lose. We just have to make everybody lose,” she said.

  “The only problem is that they are still heading into the lava. That’s not good,” she added.

  “It’s OK. The slides are made out of the same impenetrable stuff that this plastic shield is. They have the same sticker on them. I saw it,” I said. “It should be safe. They can slide down and get out.”

  Geeky Girl nodded.

  “OK, guys,” I shouted through the plastic wall. “We have a plan. So, you kinda have to make the slides appear and then go down into the lava.”

  “That is a terrible plan,” Sanj said.

  “The worst plan ever,” Ezmirelda added.

  “Urgh, urgh, urgh,” Igor said.

  “OK, I know it doesn’t make sense, Igor, but there is no way to get up, so the only way to escape is to go d
own. The slides are completely encased in that impenetrable plastic, so they should take you down to the very bottom basement of the volcano where Geeky Girl and I saw an exit.”

  “OK, so even if we did believe your go-down- into-the-lava plan. How do we make the slides open up so we can use them?” Ezmirelda said.

  “The rhyme,” Geeky Girl shouted. “The rhyme said one false move and you fall through the floor. You and Dustin have to dance well to get the doors to open. Then go outside the door and everybody has to dance badly so the slides are activated.”

  Dustin looked over the side toward the rising lava. “We either try their plan or just wait to be consumed by the lava.”

  “Urgh, urgh, urgh, urgh, urgh?” Igor asked.

  “No, the room isn’t made of the same impenetrable plastic as this tube around us or the slides. It doesn’t have the same sticker. I don’t think the room you’re in is gonna be lavaproof. You guys have to try,” I said.

  “Urgh, urgh, urgh?” Igor added.

  “What about us?” I said. “Ummm … we’re still figuring that one out. We’ll see you back at camp. Now go.”

  Dustin and Ezmirelda started the dance and the doors opened just as before. Once out on the landing, they all got ready to dance badly.

  “I don’t know if I can dance badly,” Dustin said.

  “I could stomp on your feet and then you would have to dance badly,” Ezmirelda said.

  “I think I’ll try.” Dustin gulped.

  Then Ezmirelda spotted Lucky still curled up on the floor. “Hey, what about the dragon?” she said.

  14

  “The dragon is sound asleep. He won’t try and follow us. We’ll be safe,” Bob said.

  “No, I mean we’re not leaving him here to become a dragon-lava fritter. He’s coming.” Ezmirelda tried to lift the sleeping dragon, but he wouldn’t budge.

  Igor shrugged and walked over to Lucky, gently hoisted him into a fireman’s carry over his shoulder and started to stomp.