by Katie Tsang
‘Down, girl,’ said the voice. ‘You’re bigger than this kid. Don’t want to give him a heart attack.’
The creature dropped down and barked.
A DOG? It must have been an alien dog. Although now that someone was shining a flashlight on it, it did look a lot like a normal dog. Just a HUGE one. A huge, wet dog. ‘What is going on?’ said Bernard’s dad, coming out of his tent with Bernard. ‘Oh hi, Ben! Nice to see you, even in the middle of the night.’
‘MR WILSON, YOU’RE WORKING WITH THE ALIEN?’ I shouted. I thought he was on our side!
Bernard’s dad yawned. ‘Sam, I don’t know what you are talking about, but this is my good friend, Ranger Ben. He works here in the woods as a mountain ranger. We’re going to have lunch with him tomorrow in his cabin.’
I looked up at the alien man. There were enough flashlights on now that I could get a good look at him.
He was even bigger than Bernard’s dad! And he had a HUGE beard and long hair and if he wasn’t an alien I was sure he was a wild mountain man. Definitely half-bear.
‘What is going on out here?’ said Regina’s mum, coming out of her tent in a dressing gown. ‘Ralph and Regina are talking gibberish.’ She spotted Ranger Ben. ‘Oh, hello there.’
‘I’m very confused,’ said Stanley, sitting down.
‘Look, Ralph! It’s not a zombie werewolf ! It’s just a giant man. And a giant dog!’ said Regina.
Zoe went up to pet the dog. ‘What kind of dog is this, sir?’
‘Oh, Rocky is a bit of a mix. Not quite sure. I bet she’s part wolf though.’
I took a step back, but Zoe kept on petting the wolf dog.
‘Now, what I want to know,’ said Ranger Ben, ‘is why you are all awake in the middle of the night and why you threw water at me and my dog?’
Bernard’s dad raised his eyebrows. ‘Sounds like Sam and Bernard all right.’
‘We thought you were an alien,’ I said.
‘Or maybe a bear,’ added Bernard.
‘Or a vampire,’ said Regina.
‘Or some kind of monster that lives in the dark,’ said Stanley.
‘I see,’ said Ranger Ben, stroking his beard. ‘Sorry to disappoint you all. It’s just me and Rocky. At night, we patrol to make sure the fires are out and that everything is okay.’
‘Wait!’ said Zoe. ‘Did you come by our camp last night?’
‘Sure did,’ said Ranger Ben.
It all made sense now! The sniffing! The footsteps! It was Ranger Ben and Rocky!
‘Sounds like you’ve all had quite the adventure,’ said Ranger Ben. ‘I heard a bit of commotion, so I came by to check on you guys.’ He looked up at the other grown-ups. ‘How did you sleep through all that racket?’
‘Earplugs,’ said Ralph and Regina’s mum.
‘Heavy sleeper,’ said Bernard’s dad.
‘Well, I was about to go check out the meteor shower. Since you’re all awake now, do you want to come with me?’
‘The meteor shower?’ I asked. ‘What meteor shower?’
‘Just the biggest one in over a hundred years! And it’s happening right above us. It’s been all over the news – haven’t you heard about it?’ said Ranger Ben.
Something occurred to me.
‘Ralph! That must have been what we were seeing on your phone!’ I turned to Ranger Ben. ‘We thought they were UFOs,’ I explained. ‘That’s why we thought you were an alien.’
‘A completely understandable mistake,’ said Ranger Ben with a laugh. ‘I’m a bit of a space fan myself.’
I looked up, hoping to spot a meteor, but I could only see the dark branches of the trees and an occasional glimpse of black sky. ‘I can’t see anything,’ I said.
‘The trees are blocking our view here,’ said Ranger Ben. ‘Follow me and bring your flashlights for the walk.’
Some people16 might think that walking through a dark forest at night would be scary, but I wasn’t afraid at all! Probably because I was walking next to Ranger Ben. And having a wolf dog on your side also helps. We were pretty much invincible.
We followed Ranger Ben to a clearing.
‘All right, everyone, come and sit down here. Now, I need you all to turn off your flashlights.’
‘What?’ I said. ‘But then it will be TOTALLY dark!’ Even after everything that had happened tonight, I didn’t want to turn off my flashlight.
‘Just trust me,’ said Ranger Ben. ‘Some things are best in the dark.’
So we all turned off our flashlights and looked up into the night sky.
And then the most AMAZING thing happened! It was like fireworks, but BETTER! There were shooting stars everywhere!
‘Whoa!’ said Ralph.
‘Wow!’ said Zoe.
‘This is AWESOME!’ said Stanley. ‘I’ve never seen a meteor shower before. Not even in Hong Kong!’
‘So cool!’ said Bernard.
I couldn’t say anything. It was the closest I’d ever felt to being a real spaceman. All I could do was stare at the sky above me and watch the meteor shower.
And at one point, I was sure I saw TUBS17 carrying the SPACE BLASTERS crew across the universe. I waved, just in case Captain Jane and Spaceman Jack could see me down on earth.
The next morning, it was time to pack up camp.
I never thought I’d say this, but I didn’t want to leave.
The night before seemed like a dream, but I knew it was real. Partly because Ranger Ben and Rocky the wolf dog were there helping us take down our tents.
‘We did it again, Sam,’ said Bernard as we rolled up our sleeping bags. ‘We prepared for the unpreparable, and we survived.’
‘We’re going to need certificates for this,’ said Zoe. ‘I’m thinking “Masters of the Dark”.’
‘I like it,’ I said.
‘Do I get one?’ said Regina. ‘
Of course!’ said Zoe.
‘I don’t want a stupid certificate,’ said Ralph, turning up his nose. ‘I’m ready to go home to my own bed and my real friends.’
I stuck my hand out. ‘Well, it was a pleasure having you on my crew, Commander Ralph.’
He looked at my hand for a long time.
And then he shook it. ‘I guess it wasn’t too terrible . . . Captain Sam.’
I beamed.
‘But I still don’t think you’re brave enough to take on the zombie werewolf in our basement,’ he added.
I looked at the rest of my crew. ‘I think we can take it on,’ I said. ‘I think our crew can take on anything.’
Because I’m Sam Wu, and I am NOT afraid.
ENDNOTES
1 This may not be exactly what happened, but you get the idea. I was very brave and was the hero of the birthday party. I proved that sharks don’t scare me.
2 I was pretty sure about this, but then again you can never be too careful.
3 Not a lie, but a friendly fib to make my friend feel better. Like when your mum says that getting the flu jab won’t hurt, even though you both know that it will.
4 Wu Gabo is my Chinese name and my mum only uses it when she’s being very serious.
5 Congee is my favourite breakfast food. It’s a rice porridge. And it’s delicious.
6 Although that didn’t end well. But that’s not important to this story.
7 Which, as you know, I am definitely not afraid of.
8 A typhoon is a huge storm. They can be scary if you are the type of person who is afraid of things. Which I am not.
9 Two-Wheel TUBS is the name of my bike. It’s named after The Universe’s Best Spaceship on SPACE BLASTERS, but I added the ‘Two-Wheel’ so people know it’s a bike.
10 I’m not sure if bats rampage, but Bernard didn’t need to know that.
11 Bernard loves maths way more than any other kid I’ve ever met.
12 Although one time there was an Evil Alien Bear on SPACE BLASTERS. So you never know.
13 A s’more is a gooey, delicious dessert made with a marshmallow, piece
of chocolate and graham crackers.
14 Intel is short for intelligence. It’s what the SPACE BLASTERS crew say when they have new information. Like ALIEN information.
15 Because I am NOT afraid of caves.
16 Definitely not me, because I’m never afraid.
17 The Universe’s Best Spaceship.
Katie and Kevin are definitely NOT afraid of answering some author questions
Sam’s camping trip was SO much fun! Have you guys ever been camping? And did anything super scary happen?
We love camping! We’ve camped all over the world, from beaches in Hong Kong to mountains in Peru to the Serengeti in Africa! One night camping in Africa we heard lions roaring, which was pretty scary! We stayed inside our tent.
If you could pack 5 MUST HAVE things in a backpack like Sam’s, what would you pack? (Ours might be something beginning with ‘marsh’ and ending in ‘mallows’)
1. Definitely marshmallows!
2. Flashlight
3. Bug spray to keep away mosquitoes!
4. A swimsuit in case we find a lake or river to swim in
5. A water bottle to stay hydrated
Were you ever afraid of the dark?
Kevin: I was only scared of my basement in the dark, other than that the dark never bothered me.
Katie: I always kept the hall light on at night, just in case I had to leave my room to go to the bathroom.
Sam tells Bernard that ‘books won’t save you from bears’ but have any books saved YOU from being afraid of anything?
Katie: I loved a book called Julie of the Wolves when I was younger and it taught me a lot about wolves and made me curious about them instead of afraid.
Kevin: I read a lot of books about sharks . . . but I’m still pretty afraid of them!
When you go camping, there are LOTS of creepy
spiders! Is there anything you might want to mention about our eight-legged friends . . . ?
Sam might not face any spiders while camping but he’ll have to face them in the next book . . . Sam Wu is NOT Afraid of Spiders! You’ll have to read the book to find out where he comes face to face with a giant spider!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We love writing Sam Wu – but we couldn’t have made it into a real book that you can hold in your hands without the help and support of some amazing people!
If we had our own space ship on Space Blasters, our captain would be Claire Wilson, our fearless agent who always guides us in the right direction. Thank you for believing in us and believing in Sam Wu.
We are tremendously grateful to everyone at our publisher Egmont for supporting Sam Wu. Thank you to our brilliant editors Lindsey Heaven and Ali Dougal for all their hard work on the book.
A huge thank you to our incredibly talented illustrator Nathan Reed for bringing Sam and his friends to life on the page! The illustrations are our favorite part of the book and they somehow keep getting better and better! We are very lucky authors.
Thank you as well to our wonderful designer, Lizzie Gardiner, who made the pages look so awesome. And thank you to the publicity, sales, and marketing teams for supporting the books.
We’d like to thank our families and friends for all their support and excitement. Special thank you to our grandparents: Mimi, Pop-Pop, Grandpa Bob, and Po-Po. And huge thanks and love to Katie’s siblings: Jack and Jane, Kevin’s sister, Stephanie, and our brother- and sister-in-law, Ben and Cat. And shout-out to our nephew Cooper for being the cutest Space Blaster in the whole universe!
And thank you to our parents, for everything.
