Danielle's+Group

__ Year 2999  __ “Oh my goodness, should we be doing this?” a whisper came from Gertrude’s mouth.

“Shhh, we can’t turn back now.”

That’s all you could hear in the empty room. As four friends tiptoed across the Sistine Chapel, they kept getting closer and closer. All the clues had led up to this exact moment. Nothing had gone wrong, at least so far. They were hoping nothing would come up to cause concern. As minutes passed, the suspense grew stronger.

Andre followed the directions exactly as it was shown on the map, he led Bob, Sebastian, and Gertrude to the last place the map indicated. Sebastian was holding the shovel. Since he was the strongest out of all four friends, he volunteered to dig when needed. Gertrude had calculated the math that was given on the directions. With her glasses and pig-tails, she was the nerd of the group and was automatically given the math. She felt this was very unfair, but she knew she was the only one that could get the job done. “Knock on the wall, making sure it is hollow,” Andre read out loud. “Then turn the knob three times to the left, two times to the right, and three times to the left again.” As they unlocked the code, they all were thinking back to the day they had been changed forever. A few months back, Bob was asked by his parents to take out the tree stump that was in their backyard. He asked Sebastian to help him. On the afternoon that they dug up the tree trunk, they heard a thud. “What was that,” Bob asked with a confused look on his face. “I’m not sure. Let’s get this tree trunk up and find out,” Sebastian replied. They kept on digging and realized that they had come across some sort of a box. Quickly Sebastian called Gertrude and Andre to hurry and come over. Once they arrived, they pulled out the box. Opening it up was a problem because the box was rusty. Sebastian pried the box open and there was a moment of silence. Everyone stared in astonishment. That day had changed everything. They had finally finished entering the code and the room suddenly went black. Nobody moved, but instead stood close to each other in fear and curiosity. "What's going on?" asked Gertrude nervously, everyone stood in disbelief; nobody could give her an answer. "Should we leave? I can't see anything," Sebastian whispered. "No we can't leave, we have to figure this out," replied Bob. The room suddenly shone with a bright blue light, about a million different buttons lit up and began beeping. The four seniors were amazed. "What is it?" Andre stuttered. "I'm not quite sure; even I’ve never seen anything like this!" answered Gertrude. "Let's figure it out!" Sebastian screamed with excitement. They all ran into the small machine, pushing every button within reach until the machine began to shake and then began bursting with music.

(Plays in background) //"If you like Pina Coladas// And getting caught in the rain If you're not into yoga If you have half a brain If you'd like making love at //midnight..."// As they were singing along they made an abrupt stop and went flying forward and out of the machine. They all looked up speechless. As they looked up, they saw trees everywhere around them, and no exit. There were exotic birds flying around everywhere. Then they saw a cheetah zoom by them. They all jumped back and screamed. "I think we should go see what happened because this does not seem normal,” said Sebastian nervously. It began to rain as the four seniors ran back to the machine. They saw a sign blinking on top of the door; they couldn't believe what they saw; a sign that read "Year 2999." They all let out a loud scream. "How could this have happened?!" yelled Bob. "Where are we?" "There's no way of telling where we are Bob, I’m not quite sure what happened but we’re far away from home. I think we might have traveled into the future!" Gertrude said quietly, afraid of her friends’ reactions. "Well, we're, here so we might as well find some shelter and then figure out what we are going to do." Andre insisted. The four of them wandered around the jungle which they soon realized was a small island in the middle of the ocean. The place was a mess; there were vines, tree roots, and overgrown plants everywhere. After about an hour of struggling to get through all the brush, they finally found a big dark cave. They silently turned to one another with the same look of panic. "Here I have a lighter we can use to see, let’s go in," Sebastian suggested. "Alright, you lead the way," answered Bob. As Sebastian lit the lighter, they slowly entered the dark gave. They heard a high pitch squeal and wings flapping; as they looked back, they were freaked out as a bunch of bats flew out of the cave. "I'm not so sure we should be staying in here,” whispered Andre. "Why not?" replied Gertrude, seeming to be a little bit scared. "Because we never know what type of animals could be creeping around in this cave!" Andre said in a mysterious voice. "I think maybe we should just go make a shelter on the beach by the water.” suggested Sebastian. They all decided that maybe Sebastian's suggestion was a good idea. So as they walked towards the beach, they gathered big logs and huge leaves for a shelter. "Ok guys lets stack the logs on top of each other and tie them together with these vines to make the walls." Gertrude said. "Yeah and we can use the big leaves as a roof and floor!" Andre barked out. They worked together trying to put their new home together. Who knew how long they would be stranded. Once their hut was built, they were faced with a new problem. "I'm getting hungry guys," announced Bob. "Hmmm, I wonder what to do?" questioned Gertrude. "Okay I have a plan!" announced Andre. "Sebastian and I will go into the jungle to look for berries and fruits. Gertrude and Bob, you guys go see if you can catch some fish in the ocean." So the two groups went their separate ways. Gertrude and Bob created a spear out of a rock and some sticks. They splashed into the water. Then, Sebastian and Andre walked off into the jungle, curious as to what jungle they were entering. They found tons of berries and some bananas. As they walked farther in to the woods, they started to hear chatter that sounded somewhat like humans but like animals as well. "Should we go check it out?" asked Sebastian in a suspicious voice. "Sure, why not?" answered Andre. Eventually they found a group of half lemur, half people mammals. Andre began to ask where they were located on this island. The lemur people began trying to describe where they were. Thirty, long minutes later, Andre and Sebastian were still trying to figure out where they were. Finally, Andre figured it out. Andre shouted, "I figured it out! We are in Madagascar!" The lemurs began jumping around and screaming wildly. Andre and Sebastian took off running to find Bob and Gertrude. They wanted to bring them to meet the lemur people. They were extremely happy to have figured out where they were. They finally reached the beach to find Bob and Gertrude swimming around in the ocean after the fish. Andre and Sebastian, along with the lemur people, started laughing hysterically. Once Bob realized his two friends were being followed by a bunch of mysterious creatures, he began to scream and went to throw his spear. " Watch out guys! Duck!" Bob screamed. "No, wait, they aren't going to hurt you. They've helped us figure out where we are!" Sebastian frantically yelled back. " Well where are we?" Gertrude immediately asked. "Madagascar!" Andre hollered. They were all happy to finally know where they were, but how would they get back? They were in no rush to figure it out, although the lemur people were a great help to them. The next morning they woke up to the peaceful sound of the ocean and the birds chirping. This seemed like a vacation, if only they weren't over nine hundred years ahead of time. They decided to go back to the machine and attempt to figure out how they could get home. They tried to figure out how to get the time machine to take them back to the year 2008. They were completely oblivious to the fact that the time machine was only good for one round trip. So as they all stepped in to the time machine they waved goodbye to the lemurs. Bob tried putting in a code to get back to the correct year. So they all held their breath and gasped. As they walked out the door they saw the lemurs still standing there. All the lemurs started laughing. The four seniors decided to give the machine a nights rest and try again in the morning. As the night grew darker and the kids finished eating their dinner they decided to go to bed, thinking that tomorrow might be a long day. They went to bed. They were in a deep sleep until about six o' clock in the morning, when the lemurs came around and began screaming and jumping on top of them. Bob and Andre did not find much humor in this however Gertrude and Sebastian found it quite funny. So the girls decided to get up and go find breakfast and let the boys sleep. When the boys woke up they had breakfast made for them. By eleven o' clock they were ready to try to get the time machine to work again. Once again the four seniors said good bye to the helpful lemurs. Gertrude said, "Okay let me try putting the code in this time." So she began hitting buttons and everything began to light up and noises were made. As they landed, it made a loud crash and then Andre slowly opened the door. "Uhh-ooo!" he whispered, and shut the door not wanting to believe what he saw. It was pitch black in this new place they ended up. "Where are we?!" Everyone said all at once. Nobody could answer. They all slowly and cautiously stepped out of the machine. This place was stranger than the first. It was very dark and there was nothing around. With every step they took, they would start bouncing around. They were in space! This freaked them all out. What were they supposed to do here? There wasn't anything or anyone to help them and the time machine had no battery left at all. There was nothing they could do. They wandered around the planet for a while, nobody said a word. They had no idea what time it was because it was always dark. They were all tired and felt hopeless so they decided to go back to the machine to sleep. They woke up to what they assumed to be very early in the morning. It was freezing cold and they were all shivering. "What are we supposed to do guys? We won’t last very long here," said Bob losing hope. "I don't know what to do, but we have to stick together," said Gertrude trying to raise their hopes. "Yeah guys! We can figure this out!" Sebastian encouraged. The four of them decided to take another walk around the planet to see if anything had changed. This time they had some unexpected guests. "Whoa what is that?!" screamed Andre. Everyone was speechless, nobody could utter a word. There were about five giant mosquitoes hovering around them. The big black creatures flew around staring at them with their big red eyes. Nobody could move. It was as if they were frozen. Then the largest of all the mosquitoes landed on the hard packed soil, just as it seemed that they were all going to be eaten, the mosquito thrust out his first set of legs. Shaking all of their hands at the same time he introduced himself and his family. “ Well howdy!! My name is Phillip. This is my family. This lovely lady over here is my wife Hilda. Then we got my oldest, Billy. Then yah got Billy Bob over there. And last but not least this lil sucker over here is Texas Walker Ranger. We are the friendly mosquitoes of Planet X. Not to be confused with the blood suckers of Planet Uranus.” The four kid’s jaws dropped to the floor. They couldn’t breathe, let alone speak. They didn’t know whether to laugh or faint in terror.

After a long awkward minute, Phillip shifted from one leg to another. “Sssoo… Where are you funny lookin’ creatures from??” Still there was silence. “ HELLO????” Phillip poked Bob and he screamed in terror hiding behind Gertrude.

She finally found the courage to say “We are from the planet Earth. We traveled here by mistake in this time machine we found. Unfortunately we used up all of the energy we had left getting here.” Bob started wailing and screaming as he slumped to the ground. “PLEASE MR. MOSQUITO!!! DON’T EAT US, SPARE US THE PAIN AND SUFFERING!!!!” They all turned around to look at him for a couple seconds. Then when they figured it was just Bob being, Bob, they all returned to their conversation. “Well that is just terrible mess. I honestly don’t know what to tell you.” Phillip stood there for a long time and while he was thinking he grabbed up a bug off the ground and started munching on it. The kids watched in disgust. Then as if out of nowhere Phillip exclaimed, “Wait one tootin’ second! You could try to talk to the great and mighty Mr. Snufflupagus!! He might be able to help you out.”

"Mr. Snuffulgus?" Gretchen repeated.

"Yes, he is the dumbest person around, but sometimes actually makes sense," Phil explained. "It’s worth a try."

The mosquitoes led the four kids to a huge spaceship, as they entered; they saw a huge elephant with puffy orange hair lounging around. He was very fat and didn't even get up to greet them. The mosquitoes introduced the kids and explained the problem to Mr. Snuffulgus. He was very eager to help. He sat in his chair for a while pondering over what to do, the kids had no hope what so ever. They thought there was no way this creature could possibly come up with something to help them, but to their surprise he did.

"Why I will take you back home on my ship?" he asked.

The seniors all agreed that this was a great idea. They made themselves at home, getting comfy before their long ride home. They said goodbye to the mosquito family, thanking them for their help, and began to make their way home. This was still unbelievable and crazy to the kids. Nobody ever believed their story, everyone thought they were psycho. After all who would believe that they encountered lemur people, huge mosquitoes, and a giant fluffy elephant? The four teenagers were admitted to a psychiatric facility and placed in solitary confinement for years to come.