I dedicate this book to Olivia Pike and Loran Stagg because Loran thought of making this book and Olivia is cool and likes Vikings so I made this for them.
THE CASE OF THE CARNIVAL INVASION
THE BRAINS
"Everything was going badly wrong. The house was on fire, things were blowing up everywhere. Their was not a place that was not encased in fire. I do not know what is going to happen. Are their people in the house? Are their animals in the house and if so are they okay? Did they all get out safely.
Well first off, let me start at the beginning. Hi, I am Reb Johnson. I am fourteen and on my summer break. That dreadful day started off sunny and it was a special day because that day I got an invitation in the mail to go to the new carnival. I was so excited. The invitation was from my friend Zach. It was his birthday. Since Zach's birthday meant that, he was going to invite Wash too. Now Wash is cool. I am not saying anything against his coolness I am just saying that he takes a lot of safety measures and precautions and this was no exception. I guess his whole entire family is a safety first sort of peeps. Get this; Wash's Mom even made a watch that had a GPS tracker in it, gave it to Wash, and told him to have it on him at all time. Then his mom made Wash give all of us the safety watches just to be safe and he did. I am not complaining. There is a lot of awesome sick stuff that this watch can do. Call people, find people, call for help, you can play games on it, you can play music on it; and that is only the stuff that Wash told us. there are so many other cool stuff that this watch can do but I don't or Zach doesn't know any of them. I am holding the watch in my hand right now and looking at it and I still do not know what all it does. It is blue. Really bright blue and there are buttons all over it. Wow!! I just pressed a button and I heard a beep. A short one and then a long one and then a short one. It must be some sort of Morse code. Maybe this whole entire watch has Morse code on it. I still don't what it is I just did or what it says."
"It says SOS. It means Save Our Souls. I already told you and showed you how to do it." Rebs mom said from downstairs.
"Thanks Mom." Reb yelled down from upstairs. As I was saying this watch has many safety buttons on it and Wash told us not to push certain buttons unless we are in a real dangerous state. That means our incident that we had. His watch helped us out before. One time we were in the woods and we got lost. It started getting dark, we started hearing strange weird voices in the darkness, and we pressed the help button; in less than a minute Wash's mom followed by a whole team was by our side, and lead us out of the woods. "
"Are you talking about the watch? Reb, what are you doing?" Wash's mom asked from downstairs in the kitchen.
"Nothing." Reb answered." "Don't come up, don't come up," Reb was saying under his breath even as he heard the steps creaking.
"Seriously Reb." His mom said. "Are you talking about the incident that you Zach and Wash were caught in. I told you; just press the button on the watch you got and help would have been on its way."
"Mom, I know, and I would've but I didn't have the watch on at that time. If I did then I probably would've pressed that button."
"Sound to me like you don't like wearing the watch Wash gave you and don't like it." His mom said.
"No, that's not what I said. I said that I didn't have the watch on at that time or else I would've used it." Reb said.
"Huh, funny. You said that same exact thing before when you said you 'lost' your watch. Sound familiar." His mom said reminding him.
"Crew, mom. Mom, crew." Reb said pointing between the two.
"Reb, that is a camera. What is this for?
"My teacher wants to know what we did this summer and since summer is wrapping up I decided to start early." Reb said.
"Reb, you still have a week left."
"Oh. Well the sooner the better. Bye," He said pushing his mom out of his bedroom and closing the door and locking it. He had bought the lock.
"Okay. Do not take too long. Supper is awesome ready and your friends are coming over." His Mom said walking down the stairs.
"As I was saying, that evening Wash and I went over to Zach's house.
Right as we walked in the door Zach was like, "This is going to be an awesome time at the carnival because we'll be the only ones there. I could not have picked a better day to go. Also I get to go by myself with no parents. Were you guys that lucky?" Zach asked us.
Immediately I was like yes all the way. Wash was not that lucky. He was like, "I can go by myself but I have to carry this watch on my arm and she told me to give one to each of you. It is a tracking device in case we get lost. There is other features but in case we do get lost then just change the dial to 12:00; press the light and my mom will pick us up. The battery life is great and in case that runs out this watch is solar powered. If she does not come right away then try to stay calm and her team will come and pick us up," Wash said.
"Your mom is always safety first. Why won't she let kids be kids and plus we are growing and getting older so we should know how to handle ourselves?" Zach had said.
"Well in the meantime we are not adults and remember the time when we thought we were and acted tough. We got lost in the woods because of it and met those creepy people. The watch came in handy then. If I had not brought it then they looked like the people that would pick you up and cook you in their big pot that was over the fire and they had one. They were dancing around it too but we got out." Wash said reminding him.
"Yes but your mom is always safety first and those watches are bulky." Zach said trying to not make them bring the watches.
"Zach, Wash is right. If his mom weren't so smart and had never gave us those watches we would have never gotten out of those situations and we would have been those creepy Indian peoples food." I had said trying to get him on our side so we could go.
He finally gave in after some more bad situations were brought up though.
"Fine, we can bring the watches. Let's make this a birthday party we'll never forget."
"That's my boy."
"Let's crash this carnival."
"Now you're speaking my language. Monday meet at the carnival's gate."
I think the best part of that day was just having Zach agree with us to bring the watches because secretly-he does not want anyone to know this or to find out but I did- but he never wore the watches. He would run ahead of us anywhere we went and he would take it off and then role up his sleeves to make it look like he had it on but I guess you will see what happened.
Monday we all met at the carnival gate.
I think it is time to go
The sign right by the gate entrance to the carnival had said Opens at 2:30. Since it was only 2:10, we had 20 minutes to chill and wait.
"I know how to pick a lock," I had said.
I am not a bad person but that day I just wanted to play on some rides.
"We should wait," Zach had said.
"I never wait."
It was a really messed up day.
I did not even have to use my new pick lot set case because when I walked up to the gate, I just touched it and it opened.
"If that is not scary/ creepy than I don't know what is.
"Maybe somebody is just expecting us. Yah just expecting us." Zach said.
"You two babies can stay here and I'll just go in and play on everything while you two watch." I had said.
That got them going. Zach pushed me out of the way and rushed into the carnival while Wash and I walked in cautiously.
Zach must have been really fast at it because in one quick motion, he had the watch off and in his pocket and then he had his sleeves rolled up. He did it super-fast but I was able to see him put it in his pocket. I decided to not tell Wash.
We all went in and went on a couple of rides and then Zach saw the bumper cars start moving on their own. All of them.
"I think it's time to go." Zach said starting to get scared.
Who is the baby now?
Wash looked at his watch and said, "It's not even time yet. Let's go on a few more rides before the carnival officially opens at 2:30. It is only 2:18. Oh maybe you are right. Zach look over there." Wash said pointing.
Zach looked back at the bumper cars and they were moving faster. He started screaming at the top of his lungs like a baby.
Wash started laughing at Zach, which made him turn red in the face.
"Why are you laughing at me?" Zach said getting redder.
"I thought you were not scared of anything. They are not even moving themselves," Wash said still laughing.
At that moment, I walked out of the bumper cars and turned the switch off.
"That was fun. Where is everybody? It's almost time." I said coming up to Wash and giving him a high five. That was 2:25.
I do not know. Beats me." Wash said.
Zach kept on screaming at the top of his lungs. He wasn't fooling Wash or I though. We were not impressed.
"What is wrong with him? Jokes over." Wash whispered in my ear.
"If the joke is over then why are the bumper cars still moving then? I thought you turned them off." Zach asked.
I did. Is this a joke because you're not going to make me fall for it," Wash said standing his ground.
"Wash, I don't think this is a joke. Zach would have stopped by now. I said to Wash.
"Is this a joke?" Wash said to Zach.
"No. See for yourselves. I'll bet you my Xbox if I'm joking." Zach said calming down.
"Okay." Wash said, he and I looked, and we could not believe it.
The bumper cars were moving on their own and the on/off switch was still off. Then one by one all the rides started coming alive.
"Wash are you doing this?" I asked knowing the answer.
"How could I be doing this? I am here right next to you.
"If it's not you then who is it because it is not funny." Zach said.
"Before Wash could answer again the ground shook and Wash fell to the ground.
"Got you" Zach said pointing at Wash.
"That was not funny." Wash said standing up slowly because the ground shook again.
"Guys, this is serious. Head for the gate.
While we were running under the stars the darn old big clock that they have at carnivals started ringing out. Two-thirty it said. The door opened to the clock and a dark black raven stuffed bird came out on a small stick and screeched loudly. Those evil weird screeches and then it went back into the clock.
All of us started racing faster and faster towards the gates. All of us had the same thought in our heads. It is 2:30. Where is everybody?
We ran so fast and then suddenly stopped. It was so sudden that we dug our heels into the dirt and fell forwards in a kneeling position as we say the gates close before our eyes and two guards with swords came out of the shadows. They started coming from everywhere and started closing in.
Wash looked up and red the sign. It said 2:30 pm.
"Piss. I thought it said 2:30 am. Time to improvise. Ready to play. On the count of three, we will throw dirt up at their faces and then we will run like hell back to the carnival and find a hiding spot to call my mom." Wash said silently to the rest of us but enough for us to hear.
"One- What are you doing here? The two guards said advancing on us. Two- Wash said, as they were getting closer with their swords drawn. Three." Wash said loudly as we all picked up a huge pile of earth each and flung it at the guard's eyes as we ran for the hills back to the rides.
"To the Dragon's Chamber. "Zach said just loud enough for us to hear. "They won't be able to find us in that big dark cave. Plus there is weapons there.
Once we all had gotten in the darkest corner of the long and big Dragon's Chamber I remember asking Zach if this was part of his birthday party."
He quickly said no and extended by saying that they were here to kill us. He told us to listen and look. He could not have been more right.
Wash and I looked and saw Viking warriors and men coming out of hiding places and grouping in the middle next to the carousel. There were so many of them that some of them even sat on the different animals. "Find them and kill them. They have to come out sometime."
'What'd they say?" Zach asked.
"I don't know. I think they are speaking Old Viking like Norse but I forgot that class-wait I know.
So with Zach and I wondering how or when Wash took a Viking class he took out the watch his mom gave him and pressed Norse in the search translation. (It was like an Apple watch.) Once he found it, he slowly inched the watch to the front of the cave using one of the weapons in the cave and then he gave us all a small earbud. Once it was close enough we all could clearly hear what they were saying after the watch translated all they said to English. We were scared.
Catch me if you can
In all there was five Warriors and men in the middle still standing. The rest spread out and that was a lot.
"There is only five of them. We can take them right?" Zach said.
"Yes Zach. Just run in there, tag them, and run. This is a big game of tag." Wash said sarcastically. Not the nice mood or tone kind either.
"This is more of a cat and mouse game and we are the cat and trapped. Wait, I may have a solution." I said pulling out the trusty dusty watch that Wash gave me.
I tried turning the dials and stuff but nothing happened. I turned it over, the batteries had died, and since we were in a cave, the darkest part solar power did not work.
"We need to get to a spot outside where there is at least some sun so we can call your mom." I said.
First, we both looked at Zach and asked if he had his watch.
"Sorry, must've lost it on a ride out there. "
I knew that he was lying and that it was in his pocket but I did not say anything.
I gave my watch to Wash and I took out two swords obviously fake out of the bin but they were still sharp. I led Wash out of the cave with my two swords drawn while Zach closed his eyes and covered his ears but could not. He kept on hearing-"What what? I kept on hearing what?" Zach said.
I turned around and I saw Zach and Wash standing in my room.
"Oh shoot." I said looking down at my watch. When did you get here? I didn't hear the door open and how long have you been in my room?"
Uhh. We have been here since you said we were kneeling down in front of the guards and then we sat silently as you kept going but it's my turn.' Wash said taking the mike.
"What are you doing?"
"This is my favorite part. We'll switch on and off."
"This is for my class report."
"We can help and we can combing all of ours in one."
"Okay."
"Hi. Wash here. As he was saying we went in all quiet like and then he hollered and took out a few guys with his swords killing them instantly but then we were caught. The leader asked us who we were and of course, we did not say anything.
"Boss. These boys look familiar. Where have we seen them before?" One of the warriors asked the one holding us.
Wash took the watch from me, hid it behind his back, and aimed the lens at the fire while slowly turning the dial.
The boss saw the slightest blue of the watch and instantly he knew.
"You boys were in the woods. We met and you escaped using that. We were the creepy people." The boss said throwing Reb and I on the ground and grabbing the watch. I had the watch at 12:00 and before he took it, I pressed the light button.
"Bring the pot over. Let us teach these boys how to really cook meat and make sure it is well done," The boss said laughing and then having the other four start beating us up.
"The first thing everybody should know with preparing meats is you have to first pound it out." He said laughing.
"I couldn't take it anymore. I had to do something." Zach said, taking the mike from Wash.
"I saw more beatings and kicking and then they took them away while they brought over the big pot. I had to act fast."
"The boss gave the war cry and all of the others started coming back to the middle. I opened my eyes and saw huge bulky strong tall men in sackcloth's. Nothing more nothing less. Well they did have a rag over their chests and shoulder. I started creeping out of the cave to see more but then a warrior walked right past the Dragon's Chamber and I had to hustle back to my spot. He looked in and heard scuffling but saw no one so he kept going. I got lucky. Wash finally was at his last straw. He saw me and blurted out, "He's in the Dragon's Chamber."
'What did you say?" The boss said pointing his sword at him. "Where is he punk?"
"I didn't say anything,' I heard him say.
Yes, you did. What did you say?" One of the warriors said.
"I said nothing. You must be hearing the wind because I didn't say anything."
"Fine then. I'm hungry anyway." The boss said taking out a whip and whipping him painfully and harshly.
Wash didn't say or do anything." Zach said looking at him with a smile on his face.
"Punk, if you knew what was coming to you then you would yell out. Take him away. I heard shuffling by my chamber again and I hurriedly tried to find a weapon to kill these monsters. It was a Dragon's Chamber so swords were easy to find. They were everywhere. In bins; on the floor and hanging on the wall. I even found some cloths that they used to put weapons in in the old days. I put it in and it was a little big but that was okay. I stuffed in all the swords that I could carry and that it could carry.
Fight like a man
The warriors heard lots and lots of movement in the Dragon's Chamber and they all drew their swords.
"Remember. Take him alive. The more the meat the better. The pot is almost boiling so hurry up," One of the warriors said.
"He hid so that means he wants to be dead." The other said as he entered the chamber.
He took a few other guys and they all formed a line.
"I looked down at my watch and remembered that it was out. This is fair I said.
The guys turned on the lights and of course, they did not see me. Then I jumped out of the shadows, took down one of their guys with a sword, and hid on the other side. One by one they looked around and saw all of their guys going down. Sitting in their own pool of blood. Finally, they hunched together in a nice nit ball and turned around with swords drawn. To their surprise, they saw me. A small fourteen-year-old boy with two swords in hand that were dripping with blood. One of the warriors asked me to put it down and of course, I was like no, man. He was like I will not hurt you and do not want you to get hurt. I was like seriously man. You do not think I am good with a sword? After I said that, I went to town on them. I was jumping from wall to wall. Back flipping over their heads after I killed them. I killed a good 30/40+ in that one small chamber. I came out and had to blink a few times and shield my eyes from the light. When I did focus and open my eyes I saw thousands upon thousands of other warriors sitting dead in their own pool of blood and people standing over them triumphant. Then Wash's mom came up to me and asked if I was okay. Of course, I almost passed out from all the blood and stuff so she picked me up and led me Wash and Reb to the car and we drove him. The first thing I did when I did recover was look at the watch. It was blinking a red dot. It showed my position. The batteries were working fine. Humph. Maybe I was wrong. Then I passed out.