“Just get me another door!” Randall said through clenched teeth.
“Waaaah!” Fungus cried as he hurried to get a door.
All across the Scare Floor, monsters were dashing in and out of doors. Lights flashed. Screams echoed. Canisters filled with screams tumbled into holders.
Waternoose walked onto the floor to check out the work. “Well, Jerry, what’s the damage so far?” he asked the manager.
“We may actually make our quota today, sir,” the manager replied.
Suddenly a monster burst through his door, screaming. He slammed the door behind him, then leaned against it, gasping for breath. He was sweating; his eyes rolled in terror. The scream canister attached to his door fell down empty.
“What happened?” his assistant asked.
“The kid almost touched me! She got this close to me!” the monster cried in a panicked voice.
The assistant looked down at his paperwork. “She wasn’t scared of you?” he asked in disbelief. “She was only six!”
The monster began to cry. “I could’ve been dead. I could’ve died—”
His assistant slapped him. “Keep it together, man.” Then he whistled. “Hey, we got a dead door over here!”
Two geeky monsters came running forward. “Look out! Out of the way! Coming through!” they called. The geeks taped a yellow X on the door. Then they loaded the door into a shredder. With a loud grinding noise, the shredder chewed up the door, spewing wood chips out the other end. When kids weren’t scare-able anymore, their doors had to be destroyed.
The floor manager watched and shook his head. “We’ve lost fifty-eight doors this week, sir,” he told his boss.
Waternoose sighed. “Kids these days—they just don’t get scared like they used to.”
At that moment, a child’s scream came from behind a door, and Randall emerged. Suddenly the tally board switched. Randall’s name replaced JAMES P. SULLIVAN in the number one spot. Sulley’s name dropped to number two.
“Attention. We have a new scare leader: Randall Boggs,” Celia announced over the loudspeaker. A group of monsters swarmed around Randall, slapping him on the back and congratulating him.
Just then a little girl’s scream escaped through Sulley’s door, followed by another, then another, and another! Mike could hardly replace the scream canisters fast enough to collect them all.
In a moment, Sulley came out the door and cracked his knuckles. “Slumber party,” he explained.
The scoreboard switched again. Sulley was back in the lead.
“Never mind,” announced Celia. The monsters crowding around Randall immediately ran over to Sulley. They slapped him on the back and cheered.
“Well, James, that was an impressive display,” Mr. Waternoose said, scuttling over to Sulley.
“Oh, just doing my job, Mr. Waternoose. Of course, I did learn from the best,” Sulley said modestly. Waternoose chuckled and patted his hardworking employee on the back. Sulley had learned his scare moves from Waternoose himself. The older monster was proud of his Number One Scarer.
Randall watched them and growled with jealousy.
An assistant in the workstation next to Mike watched the scoreboard, impressed. “Hey, Wazowski, nice job,” he said. “Those numbers are pretty sweet.”
“Are they? I hadn’t even noticed,” Mike answered, trying not to show his pride. “And how’s Georgie doing?”
“He’s doing great. I love working with that big guy,” the assistant answered.
Just then George, a huge, hairy monster with a goofy grin, emerged from his door, doing a little tap dance. “Keep the doors coming, Charlie. I’m on a roll today,” he told his assistant cheerfully. As he turned around, Mike and Charlie saw that a colorful little sock was stuck to his back.
Charlie’s eyes opened wide with horror. “Twenty-three nineteen! We have a twenty-three nineteen!” he shouted, pointing to the sock.
The panicked floor manager slammed his fist down on a button marked EMERGENCY. A siren wailed.
All the monsters on the Scare Floor turned to stare at George. “George Sanderson, please remain motionless. Prepare for decontamination,” said the computerized voice.
“Get it off! Get it off!” George cried, frantically trying to brush the sock off his back.
Helicopters swarmed over the factory. Huge trucks from the Child Detection Agency (CDA) raced up to the building and screeched to a stop. A team of CDA agents dressed in protective gear jumped out. They shoved their way through the crowd of monsters.
“Please clear the contaminated area!” they shouted.
The CDA agents tackled poor George and knocked him to the ground. One agent lifted the sock off his back with a pair of tongs and placed it on the floor.
Another team of agents moved in. They set up a bomb on top of the sock, then quickly moved away.
Sulley covered his eyes. Mike covered his eye.
BOOM! In a blinding flash, the sock blew up. A CDA agent hurried forward and vacuumed up the dust to make sure not a trace of it remained.
George sighed with relief. “Hey, thanks, guys. That was a close one,” he said.
But they weren’t done yet! Suddenly a shower curtain sprang up around George and one of the agents. Another CDA agent handed a scary-looking electric razor to the agent inside the curtain.
“Aaaaaahh!” George screamed as the agent shaved him. Fur flew in every direction.
The shower went on and disinfectant rained down on George. “Aaaaaaah!” George screamed again. The shower curtain flew open. Out stepped a skinny, pimply, furless George. He looked more like a plucked chicken than a scary monster. A bandage covered the spot where the sock had been.
An agent reached out with a gloved hand and ripped the bandage off George’s back. The big monster gulped with pain.
“Okay, people!” the floor manager shouted. “Take a break! We gotta shut down for a half hour and reset the system.”
Waternoose frowned. Shutting down the floor meant losing valuable scream-collecting time. “What else can go wrong?” he said sadly. Sulley watched with concern as Waternoose sighed and slowly scuttled out of the room.
The sun was setting over the city of Monstropolis. Inside the Monsters, Inc. factory, tired Scarers emerged from their last doors of the day. A large revolving rack returned the doors to the vault where they were kept.
“All doors must be returned,” the manager reminded everyone. “No exceptions.”
Mike whistled as he looked over the paperwork for Sulley’s scares. “Whew—you were on a roll, my man!” he told his friend.
Sulley nodded, pleased that he’d done such good work. “Another day like this and that scare record’s in the bag.”
At five o’clock, Mike and Sulley were ready to go. Mike hurried through the lobby, eager to meet Celia for their date. But just as he reached her desk, Roz blocked his path.
“Hello, Wazowski,” Roz said, peering at him through her cat’s-eye glasses. “Fun-filled evening planned for tonight?”
“Well, as a matter of fact—” Mike started.
But Roz cut him off. “I’m sure you filed your paperwork correctly—for once.”
“Eep!” Mike exclaimed. He’d forgotten to file his scare reports! In fact, he hadn’t filed his scare reports in weeks. Mike knew he was in big trouble with Roz. But he also knew that if he and Celia didn’t get to the restaurant in five minutes, they’d lose their reservation! “Oh, no!” he cried. “What am I going to tell—”
Suddenly Celia came up behind Mike. “Schmoopsie-Poo!” Mike said, panicked.
“Hey, Googly Bear! Want to get going?” Celia asked.
Mike was tongue-tied. He knew Celia would be angry if he canceled their plans. “Oh, do I ever…. It’s just that…uh…”
“It’s just that I forgot about some paperwork,” Sulley said, quickly coming to Mike’s rescue. He could file the reports for Mike. “Mike was reminding me. Thanks, buddy!”
“I was? I mean, I was!”
Mike said, relieved. “They’re on my desk,” he told Sulley as he and Celia headed out the door.
Sulley returned to the Scare Floor and went to Mike’s desk. He picked up a stack of paperwork.
Turning around, Sulley noticed a lone door in a workstation.
He looked around. Whose was it? All the doors should have been returned to the door vault. Just then Sulley realized that the red light above the door was on, which meant someone was using it.
Sulley opened the door and stuck his head inside. “Hello? Hey, is anybody scaring in here?” he asked in a loud whisper.
Hearing no answer, Sulley shut the door. He tapped the blinking red light—maybe there was something wrong with it.
Suddenly Sulley heard a sound behind him. Thump. What was that? Sulley paused. He heard the sound again. Thump. Sulley spun around and saw—a little girl!
The tiny, pigtailed tot looked up at Sulley with big brown eyes. Then she smiled and grabbed his tail.
“Aaaaaaah!” Sulley screamed. Looking frantically around, he spied a pair of tongs. He grabbed them and used them to pick up the girl. Holding the toxic toddler at arm’s length, Sulley rushed over to her door, opened it, and placed her inside. He closed the door and spun around—only to find her on the Scare Floor again!
The little girl giggled. “Ayha!” she cried.
“Aaaaaaah!” Sulley screamed again. This time he grabbed the little girl with his bare hands, carried her all the way into the bedroom, and dropped her on the bed. As he ran toward the door, he got caught in a mobile hanging from the ceiling. Then he accidentally stepped in a laundry basket and fell down. The fall sent Sulley flying out the door. He landed on the Scare Floor, covered with human kid things!
Just then Sulley heard a creaking noise in the hallway. Someone was coming! Quickly he sprinted into the Scarers’ locker room. And not a moment too soon. Seconds later Randall wheeled a cart up to the door and entered the little girl’s bedroom.
In the locker room, Sulley began frantically stuffing the child’s clothes and toys into a toilet. He didn’t want to get caught with a bunch of kid things on him! But when he flushed the toilet, it overflowed. Everything spilled out onto the floor.
Scooping the soggy stuff up again, Sulley ran to the lockers. He opened a random locker, threw everything inside, and slammed the door shut. It was over. Breathing a sigh of relief, Sulley began to make his way out of the locker room.
But only seconds later, he was back, screaming at the top of his lungs. The little girl was clinging to his back! He managed to shake her off as he ran to a corner of the room. The giant blue monster climbed on top of a bench and stood there, shivering with fear. The little girl peered up at him. “Kitty!” she said.
“Oh, no! Stay back!” Sulley cried.
The girl giggled and babbled. She picked up a Monsters, Inc. hard hat and tried it on. Sulley saw his chance. When she wasn’t looking, the monster scooped her into a large duffel bag.
He dashed back to the Scare Floor. But just as he was about to open the little girl’s door and toss her back inside, the doorknob jiggled. Someone was coming out! Sulley was trapped!
Sulley moved to the other side of the door as it opened and Randall stepped out. He pushed a button, sending the door back to storage. The door rose into the air, exposing Sulley and his kid cargo. But Randall didn’t see them. He had already turned to go.
Suddenly Randall stopped. Did he hear something? Sulley held his breath. But just as the little girl made a noise, Randall sneezed, covering up the sound.
Whew! That was a close one! Sulley watched Randall leave. Then he picked up the duffel bag and dashed out of the Monsters, Inc. building.
Whack! A monster sushi chef chopped the head off a raw monster fish, then sliced it into a delicious monster meal. A dapper waiter picked up the sushi and whisked it off to a customer.
Mike and Celia sat in a booth in the fancy restaurant. They had just finished dinner. Snuggled together, the two lovebirds gazed into each other’s eye.
“Oh, Michael,” Celia said with a sigh. “I’ve had a lot of birthda—” She changed her mind and stopped. “Well, not a lot of birthdays…but this is the best birthday ever.”
“You know, I was just thinking about the first time I laid eye on you—how pretty you looked,” Mike told Celia.
She and her snakes blushed. “Stop it!” she cried teasingly.
“Your hair was shorter then.”
Celia nodded. “I’m thinking about getting it cut.” The snakes on Celia’s head looked up, panic-stricken. Cut?
“No, no,” Mike said. “I like it this length.” The snakes sighed with relief.
“I like everything about you,” Mike went on. “Just the other day, someone asked me who I thought was the most beautiful monster in all of Monstropolis. Do you know what I said?”
“What did you say?” Celia asked, batting her eyelashes.
“I said—” Mike suddenly looked up in surprise. “Sulley?” Behind Celia, Sulley was pressing his big blue face against the restaurant window, peering in.
“Sulley!” Celia exclaimed.
“No, no, no! That’s not what I was going to say! I mean, well, sure he’s handsome…if you like the big, rugged, hairy…” Mike babbled. Had he really just seen Sulley? He looked at the window again, but Sulley was gone.
Celia was confused. “Mike, you’re not making sense—” she began.
Suddenly Sulley appeared at the table. He was carrying a large duffel bag.
“Hi, guys!” he said nervously. “What a coincidence, running into you here.” He squeezed into the booth, shoving up against Mike.
“Oof!” Celia grunted as Mike knocked into her. The couple looked at Sulley in surprise.
“Sulley,” Mike growled through gritted teeth.
“Uh, I’m just going to order something to go,” Sulley said. He grabbed a menu and held it up like a screen, blocking himself and Mike from Celia’s view. “I wonder what’s good here.”
Behind the menu, Mike glared at Sulley. “Get out of here. You’re ruining everything!” he whispered angrily.
“I went back to get your paperwork, and there was a door,” Sulley whispered.
“What?” Mike stopped to consider this. He peeked out from behind the menu, grinned at the furious Celia, and ducked back down. “A door?” he asked, confused.
Sulley nodded. “Randall was in it.”
“Wait a minute. Randall?” Suddenly it dawned on Mike. “That cheater! He’s trying to boost his scare numbers!”
Sulley looked worried. “There’s something else….”
“What?” Mike asked.
“Look in the bag.” Sulley motioned toward the duffel bag under the table.
Mike ducked under the table. A second later, he popped back up. “What bag?”
Sulley looked down, panicked. The bag was gone!
At that moment, a scream arose from a monster couple posing for a photo. As they were smiling for the camera, the little girl had popped up on the photographer’s shoulder. The girl turned and hung upside down in front of the photographer’s face.
“Ahhhhhh! A kid!” the photographer yelled in terror. His camera flashed as the little girl bounced off him.
“Boo!” she said. The monster diners screamed and scrambled out of her way.
A sushi chef grabbed a phone and dialed an emergency number. “There’s a kid here!” he shouted into the receiver. “A human kid!”
Panicked monsters ran this way and that. Sulley stumbled around, trying to catch the little girl, but she dodged out of the way. In the confusion, Mike ran headfirst into a pile of cardboard take-out boxes.
Grabbing one, Mike nervously scooped the girl inside, being careful not to touch a single hair on her toxic little head. With one quick motion, Sulley shut the lid of the box.
“Come on!” Sulley cried.
Gripping the box, Mike and Sulley headed for the door. Just as they got outside, vans and helicopters from the Child Detect
ion Agency arrived. CDA agents charged into the restaurant.
“Stand clear, please,” they commanded, pushing through the crowd.
In all the commotion, Celia had been separated from Mike. “Michael! Michael!” she called, chasing after him.
Mike spun around. “Oh, Celia!” he said. He’d almost forgotten about his date!
But a CDA agent blocked Celia’s path. “Come with us, please,” he said, herding her to one side.
“Stop pushing!” Celia snapped.
“Hey!” Mike shouted at the agent. “Get your hands off my Schmoopsie-Poo!”
But Sulley grabbed him. This was no time for romance! The two dashed off just as a CDA agent announced, “Number One gives the okay for decon.” A crew of agents scurried forward to set up the decontamination bombs.
Mike and Sulley sprinted down an alley. “Well,” Mike said, panting, “I don’t think that date could have gone any worse!”
Just then—BOOM!—the restaurant exploded behind them.
Later, in their apartment, Sulley and Mike watched the explosion again on the evening news.
“If witnesses are to be believed, there has been a child security breach for the first time in monster history,” the newscaster grimly announced.
The TV glowed with images of the smoldering sushi restaurant after the decontamination. A reporter interviewed one of the CDA agents. “We can neither confirm nor deny the presence of a human child here tonight,” the agent said.
Another monster being interviewed said, “Well, a kid flew right over me and blasted a car with its laser vision!”
“I tried to run from it, but it picked me up with its mind powers and shook me like a doll!” reported yet another monster.
A monster with many eyes stepped up to the camera. “It’s t-true!” he stammered. “I saw the whole thing!”
The TV report returned to the news anchor, who was in the studio interviewing cultural studies professor Dr. Frasenburger about the recent events. “It is my professional opinion that now is the time to panic!” Dr. Frasenburger said, leaping up from the desk and panicking.
Monsters, Inc. Junior Novel Page 2
