by Gary Paulsen
GET READY. I’M ABOUT TO SEND THEM.
Tom dropped off the ruby and into a crouch, his eyes fixed on the portal as if it were an Olympic finish line. Brett braced his feet against the treasure chest, which towered above him like a skyscraper. He knew that Tom had the advantage—he had seen how fast he could steal second base—but if he could just get a good start, then he would get through, too, and if they both got through …
Then they would have to kill a giant.
START RUNNING.
Tom exploded so fast that he was diving through the portal before Brett had even begun to move. It was then that Brett realized that shrinking had made the relative distance between him and the portal greater. What had been ten feet was now a hundred yards. He swallowed loudly, or loudly for a throat a quarter inch wide. He never could run sprints.
Tom lay on the throne room floor, looking like a discarded prize out of a Cracker Jack box. Willie had been right about the force field; he’d made it. “Come on, Brett!”
Brett ran as fast as his little legs would carry him. He must have been doing well over a quarter mile an hour. He dodged a coin, hurdled a pearl, and raced for the portal, which loomed above him now like the roof of the world. It seemed a million miles away.
I’ll never make it, he thought. Not on these legs.
He dived through the portal. He had to get up and dive again; it looked twenty feet thick now. The walls glowed, then snapped and crackled. Something flashed. A tiny wisp of smoke rose into the air.
WELCOME TO THE FIFTH LEVEL OF RODOMONTE’S REVENGE: THE THRONE ROOM. YOU ARE GOING TO FIND THIS MUCH MORE DIFFICULT THAN THE ANTECHAMBER.
Brett lay on the floor beside Tom, his legs hanging down into a crack in the floor. The bottom of his left shoe was burned off.
I’M A GENIUS, Willie typed.
CHAPTER 10
The change in level had stopped their shrinking, but since Brett had spent more time in the antechamber, he was smaller than Tom. He only came up to Tom’s waist.
“If you had been just a little slower,” Tom said, “I could use you now for a G.I. Joe doll.” He grinned.
“I don’t know what you’re teasing me about,” Brett said. “A whole inch isn’t much better than a half.”
Before Tom could think of another joke, Rodomonte rose from his throne. He drew back his robe, revealing a chest any professional wrestler would have been proud of.
“To kill a king,” he boomed, “you must destroy his heart.”
“Thanks for the suggestion.” Tom sprang to his feet, ran for cover behind a diamond, and blasted Rodomonte’s chest with his laser. Though the pistols had shrunk, the laser bolts hadn’t. The bolt hit Rodomonte hard enough to drive him back onto his throne.
“Good shooting, Tom!” Brett shouted. “It’s over. We won!”
“Don’t be so sure,” Tom said.
Rodomonte stood again. He’d been twelve feet tall before—twelve hundred by Brett’s standards—and now he was thirteen. He roared in laughter and marched in football field strides toward Tom. When he reached him, he stamped his feet, as if he were trying to crush a cockroach. Tom bounced around like a pinball; not only were Rodomonte’s feet ten times wider than he was tall, but the king could move them like a tap dancer. “Brett, help me.”
“I’ll get him.” Brett sprinted away from Tom, getting position on Rodomonte, dodging coins and jewels, the tiny bits of dust on the floor cutting his bare foot like gravel. Just as Brett crouched to fire, Tom jumped back and shot again. He hit the king in the heart. The bolt did nothing but spin Rodomonte around and add another foot to his height.
The king was facing Brett now, so he fired, hitting him again. As he grew to fifteen feet, Rodomonte grinned.
“To kill a king,” he repeated, “you must destroy his heart.”
“He’s lying.” Tom fired again. The king shot up another foot.
“No,” Brett said, “it’s some kind of riddle.” The king ran toward him. He tried diving to the side, but Rodomonte corralled him into a corner. The king kicked at him. Brett cowered, expecting the worst, but luckily the corner was tight and Rodomonte’s foot was huge. His bones crunched, and toenails snapped like rifle shots as they smashed into the wall. Rodomonte howled and hopped across the room, holding his foot in both hands.
“Are you all right?” Tom called. He’d been putting a steady stream of laser bolts into Rodomonte’s back. The king was more than twenty feet tall.
“Yeah.” Brett tried to fire his laser, but Rodomonte’s foot had pinned it against the wall, and a toe had bent the barrel. “But he destroyed my pistol.”
“Then it’s up to me to finish him off.” Tom fired again. Rodomonte grew another foot. “Nothing is working. What do we do?”
“Let me think.” Brett scanned the room. He was still in shock over the amount of treasure. How could one person be so greedy? Of course, in a body that big there was a lot of room for greed.
And then it came to him. The answer to the riddle had to do with greed.
Rodomonte had said that to kill a king, they had to destroy his heart, but he wasn’t talking about his physical heart, he was talking about what was most important to him. A greedy king’s heart was in his treasure.
“Forget the king,” he shouted. “Destroy the treasure!”
“Got it.” Tom turned his laser on a coin. He fired at it until it was a molten lump. “Now what?”
“Keep firing. We have to destroy it all.”
“All of it? Do you have any idea how long that will take? You’re wrong on this one, Brett.”
“I’m never wrong when it comes to video games.” Brett sprinted around as much of the room as possible, hacking at everything his tiny sword could reach. The game should have been ending, but it wasn’t. Rodomonte’s laughter boomed.
“To kill a king,” he said again, “you must destroy his heart.”
“We are destroying your heart,” Brett shouted. “Can’t you see that?”
But it didn’t work. Try as he might, hack as he could, it just didn’t work. “I can’t be wrong,” he cried. “How are we supposed to destroy all the treasure?”
Tom aimed at the throne, but before he could fire, he had to jump to avoid being stomped. He landed on his belly just as Rodomonte stomped again. Tom rolled fast to the side, but not fast enough. Rodomonte’s heel obliterated his pistol.
“Tom, are you all right?”
“Yeah, but my gun will never be the same.” He looked toward the throne, looked beyond the throne. “I was about to shoot—” The expression on his face changed suddenly. “Brett, I’ve figured it out. You are wrong.”
“How can I be? It has to be the treasure.”
“It is the treasure, but it’s the whole treasure. To destroy the whole treasure, you have to break the mirror.”
“What?”
“Look at the mirror!”
Brett did. It reflected the room, reflected the treasure. The whole treasure.
“Keep him distracted.” Brett sprinted for the mirror, his sword out in front of him.
“How? I don’t have any weapons.”
“Think of something.”
“I’ll try.” Tom sneered up into Rodomonte’s face. “Hey, you computer-generated pituitary case, I heard your father was a VCR and your mother was a Game Boy.” Rodomonte ignored him as he watched Brett. Tom leaped onto the giant’s ankle and sank his teeth into the skin. Rodomonte howled and danced in a circle. He kicked Tom off, sending him crashing into a wall. But Tom had bought Brett time.
Brett was ten feet from the throne when Rodomonte began chasing him, covering in one stride what it took Brett a hundred to cover. Brett saw him in the mirror, closing in fast, his feet growing larger and larger. Suddenly everything around him was in shadow, and he looked up to see a foot descending like an elephant sky diver. Brett screamed, then ducked between two rubies, waiting to be squashed into a very tiny pancake. The sole of Rodomonte’s shoe draped over him like a canopy. The rub
ies groaned but held. When the foot went up again, Brett scampered out, straight for the mirror. He had just five more strides to go, maybe two inches.
Rodomonte roared and stomped again. The foot came down fast and hard, but Brett was too close now, too close to dodge. If he could just run straight another half inch, if he could just stretch his sword out a little farther …
The foot came down on his head like a thirty-ton slab of concrete. It knocked him off his feet, slamming him forward, driving his sword into the mirror. At the instant Brett felt his ribs crunch to dust the mirror came tumbling down. His head felt as if it were in a vise, and a blinding white flash seared his eyes. The throne room rose in the air and shattered just as the mirror did. Brett’s back, his body, his arms and legs ruptured under the unbelievable pressure. Then the whole world went black.
CHAPTER 11
Brett’s back ached. His whole body ached. He felt as if after Rodomonte had squashed him, he’d piled all the treasure on him, too. But when he opened his eyes, he saw that there wasn’t any treasure. There wasn’t any throne room. He was lying on a white padded floor, the white padded floor of the game room.
“Never again. Never, ever again.”
He looked up. Tom was leaning against the wall as if someone had mounted him there. He looked as if he’d just finished running a marathon. “If I ever play another video game, it will be too soon.”
Brett rolled onto his back. “Me, too. Have you ever played chess?”
“Chess is a game where you sit in chairs and move pieces on a board, right? Nothing moves on its own, nothing tries to bite you, suck you dry, or stomp you into the ground, right?”
“Right.”
“I think,” Tom said, “I’ll learn to play chess.”
Through the viewing window Brett saw Willie slumped in his chair beside the computer; he must have run the same marathon Tom had. Willie grinned, struggled up from the chair, and said something Brett couldn’t hear. Brett motioned toward the door. Willie opened it.
“You made it,” he said.
“Yeah, we made it.”
“The computer is asking if you want to play again.”
Tom grunted. “Give me an ax, and I’ll show that computer what I want.” He opened and closed his pistol hand, without the pistol, as if he were surprised it was still there. “How long did the game take?”
Willie checked his watch. “Nine hours.”
“Nine hours?” Brett asked. “It’s two in the morning?”
“Yes.”
“Your mom is going to kill you, Brett,” Tom said.
Brett rose, groaning, to his feet. If a mountain had fallen on him, he couldn’t have felt worse. “Don’t worry about my mom. After Rodomonte’s Revenge I can handle anything.” He stumbled to the door. “Let’s go home.”
“I’ll drive you,” Willie said.
The night was clear and icy cold. The ground frost sparkled under the streetlights like a million fallen stars. The moon was so bright Willie hardly needed to use his headlights. For a second it darkened, and when Brett looked up, he thought he saw a buzz-bug flit across its surface.
He rubbed his eyes. The buzz-bug was gone, and the moon was just the moon again: a big, friendly face smiling down.
He looked at the moon again. A tiny spot on it was there and gone. He thought he heard a hum, but it could have been a truck in the distance.
Brett shook his head. No, he thought, it couldn’t be. He went into his house. Buzz-bugs weren’t real. It must have just been in his head.…
VIDEO GAME VICTORY
Take tips from the game guide. Even though it may seem stuffy, you can pick up great moves and clues if you take the time to read the manual. After all, who knows more about the secrets of the game than the video whizzes who created it?
Practice a game again and again to familiarize yourself with the different patterns that occur. Soon you will recognize them faster, and your reaction time will be quicker.
Don’t take crazy chances. It’s better in most cases not to lose lives trying for those hard-to-hit items or near-impossible moves. Let some of them go, and you might live long enough to get your high score—or make it to the end of the game.
Take time out when you’re tired. You know when you’ve had enough. You start making stupid mistakes and your reflexes are way off. Get away from the game for a while. Try playing basketball or another sport or hobby. You’ll be thinking more clearly when you play the game again.
Never give up. Losing can be frustrating, but keep going. Remember to look for patterns. Try new methods or moves. Each game is different. Stay with it until you learn how it works.
Don’t miss all the exciting action!
Read another action-packed book in Gary Paulsen’s
WORLD OF ADVENTURE!
The Legend of Red Horse Cavern
Will Little Bear Tucker and his friend Sarah Thompson have heard the eerie Apache legend many times. Will’s grandfather especially loves to tell them about Red Horse—an Indian brave who betrayed his people, was beheaded, and now haunts the Sacramento Mountain range, searching for his head. To Will and Sarah it was just a story—until they decide to explore a newfound mountain cave, a cave filled with dangerous treasures.
Deep underground, Will and Sarah uncover an old chest stuffed with a million dollars. But now armed bandits are after them. When they find a gold Apache statue hidden in a skull, it seems Red Horse is hunting them, too. Then they lose their way, and each step they take in the damp dark cavern could be their last.
And look for more adventure coming soon!
Escape from Fire Mountain
“… please anybody … fire … need help.”
That’s the urgent cry thirteen-year-old Nikki Roberts hears over the CB radio the weekend she’s left alone in her family’s hunting lodge. The message also says that the sender is trapped near a bend in the river. Nikki knows it’s dangerous, but she has to try to help. She paddles her canoe downriver, coming closer to the thick black smoke of the forest fire with each stroke. When she reaches the bend, Nikki climbs onshore. There, covered with soot and huddled on a rock ledge, sit two small children.
Nikki struggles to get the children to safety. Flames roar around them. Trees splinter to the ground. But as Nikki tries to escape the fire, she doesn’t know that two poachers are also hot on her trail. They fear that she and the children have seen too much of their illegal operation—and they’ll do anything to keep the kids from making it back to the lodge alive.
The Rock Jockeys
Devil’s Wall.
Rick Williams and his friends J.D. and Spud—die Rock Jockeys—are attempting to become the first and youngest climbers to ascend the north face of their area’s most treacherous mountain. They’re also out to discover if a B-17 bomber rumored to have crashed into the mountain years ago is really there.
As the Rock Jockeys explore Devil’s Wall, they stumble upon the plane’s battered shell. Inside, they find items that seem to have belonged to the crew, including a diary written by the navigator. Spud later falls into a deep hole and finds something even more frightening: a human skull and bones. To find out where they might have come from, the boys read the navigator’s story in the diary. It reveals a gruesome secret that heightens the dangers the mountain might hold for the Rock Jockeys.
Hook ’Em, Snotty
Bobbie Walker loves working on her grandfather’s ranch. She hates the fact that her cousin Alex is coming up from Los Angeles to visit and will probably ruin her summer. Alex can barely ride a horse and doesn’t know the first thing about roping. There is no way Alex can survive a ride into the flats to round up wild cattle. But Bobbie is going to have to let her tag along anyway.
Out in the flats the weather turns bad. Even worse, Bobbie knows that she’ll have to watch out for the Bledsoe boys, two mischievous brothers who are usually up to no good. When the boys rustle the girls’ cattle, Bobbie and Alex team up to teach the Bledsoes a lesson. But with the wild
bull Diablo on the loose, the fun and games may soon turn deadly serious.
Danger on Midnight River
Daniel Martin doesn’t want to go to Camp Eagle Nest. He wants to spend the summer as he always does: with his Uncle Smitty in the Rocky Mountains. Daniel is a slow learner, but most kids call him retarded. Daniel knows that at camp things are only going to get worse. His nightmare comes true when he and three bullies must ride the camp van together.
On the trip to camp Daniel is the butt of the bullies’ jokes. He ignores them and concentrates on the roads outside. He thinks they may be lost. As the van crosses a wooden bridge, the planks suddenly give way. The van plunges into the raging river below. Daniel struggles to shore, but the driver and the other boys are nowhere to be found. It’s freezing, and night is setting in. Daniel faces a difficult decision. He could save himself … or risk everything to try to rescue the others, too.
The Gorgon Slayer
Eleven-year-old Warren Trumbull has a strange job. He works for Prince Charming’s Damsel in Distress Rescue Agency, saving people from hideous monsters, evil warlocks, and wicked witches. Then one day Warren gets the most dangerous assignment of all: He must exterminate a Gorgon.
Gorgons are horrible creatures. They have green scales, clawed fingers, and snakes for hair. They also have the power to turn people to stone. Warren doesn’t want to be a stone statue for the rest of his fife. He’ll need all his courage and skill—and his secret plan—to become a true Gorgon slayer.
The Gorgon howls as Warren enters the dark basement to do battle. Warren lowers his eyes, raises his sword and shield, and leaps into action. But will his plan work?
